Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    Hi!     No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I promise. :) I have, however, been taking an English 2010 class this semester, and as a result I've used most of my writing brain cells working on boring, academic papers instead of interesting blog posts and stories. Let's just say that my writing productivity overall has dropped a lot, and it's taken me a while to figure out what to say around here.     This is the first post in a series that I'll refer to as the LTUE Report--or, in other words, a bunch of blog posts about what I learned at LTUE 42 this year. To start, I want to talk about Medieval weapons, because that was probably my favorite presentation of the entire symposium. The presentation itself was called "Medieval Weapons 101", and it was done by C. David Belt (just to make sure I attribute my sources like my English professor would want).     First, I don't have a lot of specific notes in my notebook about what I learned....

    Call me crazy, but I am in love with cayenne pepper. It's brutal, but when it comes to herbal efficiency, it's fantastic.     How do I know?     Yesterday, whilst cutting vegetables with a mandolin slicer to make a salad, I chopped the tip of my thumb partially off. Now, to be fair, the wound isn't as bad as that makes it sound--the injury is a flap of skin less than half the size of a dime that would threaten to wobble around on the tip of my thumb if it hadn't sealed itself very nicely after a night's sleep.     What does this have to do with cayenne pepper, you may ask?     In traditional, historical herbal knowledge, cayenne is a useful herb to use to stop bleeding--sources I've read and heard about claim that ingesting it or dumping it on a wound can stop the bleeding from a bad cut in ten seconds flat. If you think to question these sources, let me tell you that my experience with this spicy mouth-punisher fits the anecdotes I'...

     Welcome back, everyone! It's good to see you again!     So, on my "Meet The Author" page I promised a blog post about the cloak shown in the first picture of me. I am here to tell you that today, that promise is going to be fulfilled, because we're thoroughly in winter and it's cold outside, and so I get to wear cloaks almost every day, if I want to!     As a disclaimer, I'm not discussing every kind of cloak, cape, or medieval garment there is. That's not where my interest lies, and I'm a big fan of taking historical clothing and adapting it to suit my fantasy needs, not  trying to document all the historical styles in all the time periods. If you want a more in-depth analysis of a bunch of different kinds of cloaks, visit this video . Further links will be provided as I mention different types of clothing and how they can be used in fantasy.     All right!     My favorite kind of cloak is the ruana cloak, otherwise known...