Reading

Happy Thanksgiving to my dear friends. I hope you enjoy this little Lord of the Rings story I wrote years ago.

Title: Giving Thanks
Summary: A Bywater farmer and his wife tell their children how they know the Shire has been healed.
Word Count: 794

( Giving Thanks )

Current Mood: thankful

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The Real Thanksgiving, More Or Less

Thanksgiving in America continues to be one of the most traditional holidays. It still features the original four hundred year old activities of overeating, football, and complaining about Black Friday.

In the Hunter household, as in all of Indiana and much of the world that’s not outside this country, we battle the overeating. How?

By serving food that, the rest of the year, we hate.

Stuffing stuff. Cranberry things. Pumpkin anything. It was good enough for the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians, who the Pilgrims politely invited to share a meal in the new home they’d just stolen from the Wampanoag. The Indians brought a housewarming gift of deer, mostly because they didn’t want to eat cranberries or pumpkin.

But what was actually served at that original celebration? And did they really all sit down at long tables outside, in New England, in November? That’s a recipe for a nice heaping helping of frostbite.

The first Thanksgiving was a three day event, leaving one day each for the meal, football, and shopping. The Pilgrims were naturally dismayed to discover no mall or Wal-Mart in sight. Rumor had it there was a Target down the road, but both the trip and the name were a bit more dangerous at the time. They compensated by throwing another feast that third day, during which they discussed the football.

Governor William Bradford sent four men on a fowling mission beforehand. We don’t know for sure what they brought back, but it might have been turkey. It also might have been ducks, geese, or swans, which explains the song they invented about the meal and the entertainment. If it hadn’t taken so much time to memorize it, the song would have been “The Twelve Days of Thanksgiving”. That would have turned our holiday world upside down.

Why are game birds called “fowl”? Because they had no refrigeration. It was a warning: “Eat it fast, before it’s fowl!”

On a related note, this has carried over into football, which during the first Thanksgiving was so primitive it was watched on a black and white TV, with no remote control, or blimp. Whenever a player gets caught doing something that stinks, it’s called a foul. The spelling was changed during the Great Depression, when a letter shortage caused double U’s to be singled.

There was indeed an abundance of cranberries at the First Thanksgiving, mostly because the Natives used them as dye. (Good dye, although it tended to run in the washing machine.) By then the Pilgrims had run out of sugar, so there was no cranberry sauce or relish, or anything cranberry. That’s one of the things they were thankful for.

Potatoes were … absent. The Spanish had discovered them in South America, but they weren’t popular with the English yet. Instead they probably had seafood—lobster, clams, oysters, all that stuff you find on the Thanksgiving menu today. Actually, these days the closest we get to that is either oyster dressing, or “see? Food!”

Pumpkin? Absolutely: in their pie, their coffee, donuts, milkshakes … kidding—Starbucks didn’t deliver. They did have pumpkins, but no butter or flour for any kind of crust. They may have hollowed out the pumpkins, filled the shell with milk, honey, and spices, and roasted them in hot ashes.

I’m not making this up. I get paid to do this research.

A Fall photo taken from the office of my chiropractor, who I probably wouldn't need as much if I stopped overeating over the holidays.

I’m sure you’re all wondering what kind of beer they washed all this down with. I mean, Sam Adams, right? That’s the state beverage of Massachusetts. But no, it turns out they hadn’t had time to make beer, and didn’t yet have apples for cider, so they drank water. This helps explain all those Pilgrim paintings with dour expressions.

Add this to native foods like plums, grapes, leeks, and squash, and you get … *gasp* … a meal that’s good for you! It turns out health food nuts aren’t a new thing; it’s just that back then it was involuntary.

Interestingly, I found no reference in historical records about stuffing being served at the first Thanksgiving. I suspect the Pilgrims planned it, until the Wampanoag heard about the idea:

“So, once we get the birds ready, we’ll mix old bread crumbs and tasteless vegetables together, throw a bunch of spices on them, and stuff them up the fowl butt. Instant side dish!”

“Um … we’ll just take our smallpox blankets and go.”

Imaging how they reacted to fruitcake.

I would be personally grateful if you made my black Friday green.

The best thing to do on good Friday is stay home and check out our books:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember to be thankful for good books.

Two Shadowrun 5E Bundles - One Repeat, One All-New

These are two bundles for the Shadowrun RPG, which mixes cyberpunk and magic. One is a repeat of the core material for the game, the other is all new:

SHADOWRUN 5E ESSENTIALS (from Feb 2019)

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025SR5Essentials

SR5 UNIVERSE MEGA (new)

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SR5EUniverseMega

When the essentials bundle was first on offer I said "Shadowrun has never been one of my favourite games, I'm not convinced the genres mesh wonderfully, but it's an OK system with a big user base. I think that there have been previous offers for earlier releases, but this is the first for 5th edition, which updates things a lot. I think it's a pretty good deal if you want to give the system a try, or are only familiar with the earlier releases." If I'm reading things correctly this re-release adds more material - but if you bought the bundle previously you will get them added to your account without having to buy the bundle again.

The new bundle looks interesting, but I'm frantically trying to get ready for a lot of things happening at the weekend, most notably Dragonmeet on Saturday, and don't have time to look at them right now.

There's going to be another repeat bundle for this system soon, but I'm not allowed to give details.

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Another Mixed Bundle - Cornucopia 2025

This is the annual Bundle of Holding mixed bag of games from an assortment of companies to celebrate the USA's Thanksgiving Day.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Cornucopia2025

For some reason a lot of this year's choices deal with apocalypses, giant sea monsters, and various sorts of prejudice.

I'm never quite sure what to say about these mixed bundles since they don't fit into neat categories. Basically, you've got seven different RPGs ranging from horror to extreme silliness - I'm looking at you, Sentai and Sensibility - and if only one or two appeal to you, or you already have some of them, it may be a good idea to look at cherrypicking the ones you want. If you want more buying the bundle will probably be cheaper.

Current Mood: silly

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doctor who

🥳

Happy Birthday Doctor Who! (And Clara Oswald.)

I wasn't sure what to post, so you get a random collection of... stuff. (Ie things I have downloaded from Tumblr 💙) Just a couple outside the cut. ^_^

( Read more... )

Current Mood: angry

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:(

Petition from Avaaz for people in the UK.

The Home Secretary proposed shocking asylum reforms that could seize the possessions and jewellery of people seeking safety, cut off their support and tear apart families who have built their lives here. Sign and share this urgent letter to stop the UK to punish innocent families fleeing war.

Click here to sign.

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'Tis a trip about pirates, me hearties!

On Thursday, we went to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to see their Pirates exhibition.

The exhibition covered the myths, legends and reality of pirates from the 'golden age' of piracy in the late 17th and early 18th century, right up to piracy in the present day. It looked at the images and the modern interpretations of pirates as well as how they have been portrayed on stage, screen, in novels and have even influenced fashion.

It was a large exhibition, and I took a LOT of photos, but I've tried to pare it down to the most interesting things that caught my eye under the cut (FYI - it was all very interesting!).

( Read more... )
We learned a lot of pirate language on our way through the exhibition
Maroon - abandon a victim on a deserted island
The black spot - A piece of paper with a black mark used as a death threat
Jolly Roger - a pirate flag
Fire in the hole - a warning that a shot is going to be fired
Barking Iron - a large pistol
Give no quarter - show no mercy in a fight
A spyglass - a telescope
Sail ho! - a ship has been spotted
Prize - a captured ship
Freebooter - Dutch word for a pirate
Filibuster - Spanish word for a pirate
Corsair - French word for a pirate, especially one from North Africa

There is a lot of extra information on the website for the exhibition, including the pirate myths here.

It was a really in-depth exhibition and we learned a lot. Well worth a visit - it's on until 4th January next year.

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Fanfic - Harry Potter / Buffy / Bedazzled - Harry Potter: Undazzled - VI

This is a crossover between the Harry Potter books, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series, and the film Bedazzled (1967, not the 2000 remake), with some other crossovers and Easter eggs, so far including Dogma (1999) and Time Bandits (1981). All characters belong to their respective creators / owners / megacorporations of doom and not to me, please don't sue...

( VI - Summer of '99 )

Now posted with a few edits to archives:

On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-34251/MarcusRowland+Harry+Potter+Undazzled.htm
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14336114/1/Harry-Potter-Undazzled
On Archive of Our Own - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54407350

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Googling Yourself Is Strange

Yeah, I Google myself ... what's your point? And I found out things I, the Googled, um, Google-ee, never knew.

Okay, so, Haunted Noble County is available in the Netherlands. No, seriously:

https://www.bruna.nl/engelse-boeken/haunted-noble-county-indiana-9781467156066

You can read it to yourself, if you can read it. Which I can't.

If one of you can't afford the book, go Dutch.

I haven't gotten around to contacting local libraries about getting copies of our newer books (I know, my fault), but somebody has. Somebody, specifically, in the Plainfield-Guilford Twp Public Library in Plainfield, where Haunted Noble County, Indiana, Images of America: Albion and Noble County, and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights are shelved in new local history & genealogy. Or so I'm told. It turns out all of our books are evergreens, or more specifically available through the Evergreen library system:

https://catalog.evergreenindiana.org/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=Mark+R.+Hunter&searchIndex=Author&searchSource=local

I found our 21Alive TV interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdh8YfU6JiU

Which makes us a YouTube sensation? No? But we're there, anyway.

"Missed it by THAT much."

Our publisher posted about us on Twitter ... I mean X ... nah, it's Twitter:

https://x.com/HistoryBoooks/status/1957025429329514775

Which, I guess there's really no reason for me to know.

This is also how I discovered I'm now a top 10 Amazon author. Well, sort of: I did make it to number 8, but it was in a subcategory. But the good news is, I can just leave out that small detail.

None of this really bothers me--they're just fun surprises. It reminds me of when I did an interview at the WAWK studio in Kendallville, and right after we stopped at the nearby Walgreens to discover Images of America: Albion and Noble County on a book display. I knew the publisher was going to try to get the word out: I just didn't know when or where.

The Netherlands thing was a shock, though.

It’s really not hard to find us, even without Google:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Other than sales, an author’s favorite things are reviews and library reads.

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Another Bundle - The Magical Land of Yeld

This is a new bundle of the second edition of The Magical Land of Yeld, a fantasy RPG intended as a good introduction to the genre for children, from Atarashi Games

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Yeld2E

When I originally got the details of this I didn't realise that it is a stand-alone system, not yet another D&D spinoff. This is a much simpler system, and ought to be much more usable by kids, while still fun to play. It's not a genre I expect to use, but if you have kids or spend much time with them it may be worth a look. There's quite a lot of material, and it's pretty cheap.

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Another Bundle - Salvage Union

This is an all-new bundle of Salvage Union, a game about post-apocalytic mech warriors trying to keep their machines running, from Leyline Press

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SalvageUnion

This is a genre I'm not incredibly fond of, but it's made more interesting by there not being apparently limitless supplies of shiny new guns, missiles and mechs. Instead everything is collapsing, and a good set of tools and the knowledge of how to use them is probably worth more than any weapon. It might be good as a change of pace for mech fans, a "this is what's really going on as a background to the battles" dystopia. It's reasonably priced and I think it's worth a look.

Entry tags:

ramblings,
shopping

In which I went shopping at actual brick-and-mortars...

Y'all, it's been AGES since I went on a shopping afternoon with Dink, but my feet are finally improving enough and my Hoka shoes are comfy enough that she and I hit up Marshall's and TJ Maxx yesterday afternoon. I was able to find three very nice sweaters and hair clips for my sister for Christmas, and I treated myself to a new coffee mug just because it reminded me of Colorado and was only $5. Before that, we wandered through Costco (I was ostensibly only there to pick up hubby's prescription, but... there were samples). Dink doesn't have a Costco membership, so she enjoys wandering through with me when schedules allow (she has Friday afternoons off). I ate far too much junk, but hey, it was a treat day. *g*

The mug:

(Ignore the crumbs on the table XD)

After what was probably about three hours of walking and shopping, my heels hurt a little bit, but otherwise my plantar fasciitis behaved itself. I hope this means I'm turning a corner after months of stretching and strengthening. *crossing fingers*

The weather has turned into spring, humid and warm. The birds are singing, but they sound a bit confused. "It's warm, do we mate?? Is this a false spring??? What do we dooooo????" *flies into a window*

Hubby is at his office/hangar this morning because he has two big roll-around tool boxes that for years he's had connected to each other on a wheeled platform, but to bring them home upon retirement he wants them separated. So he told me he's off to be a surgeon separating conjoined twins. LOL He's a bit giddy about retirement. He even has a countdown app on his phone. I'm excited for him, mind you, but I'm also a wee bit stressed, both with the whole insurance situation where we have to switch all our doctors, plus... well, he'll always be *here*. I'm used to my long, quiet days. Not that I won't have alone time, though. He has Projects Planned that will keep him outside or in the garage and out from under my feet. I'll just have to mentally adjust to doing my own thing without worrying that I should be Doing Something Constructive just because he likes to fill every hour of his day (slight exaggeration) with Doing Things. But he knows I like slow mornings, so I'm sure we'll work it all out. The good thing is that we really enjoy each other's company and don't get on each other's nerves. That will stand us in good stead in this new season of life.

Have any of you started/in the process of/finished Christmas shopping? I'm about eighty percent done, but if Christmas were tomorrow, everyone would have a nice selection of gifts to open. I like it when I reach that point in shopping, when I can take a breath and say, "Okay, Christmas will not be a complete bust even if I don't buy another gift." XD

Happy Saturday, all.

More Ludlow castle pics

Another old and battered gatehouse:

( More pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ereabouts

Ludlow castle

One of the many castles in the Welsh Marches and an impressive one!

Making our way in:

( More pics! )

Current Mood: contemplative

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We Need a Little Christmas ... Again

(Writer's note: I'm posting this from last year, which I posted from the year before, again. The whole decade has continued to suck, so my sentiments are still the same.)

So ... we need a little Christmas.

I've always had this thing about putting up Christmas decorations, or in any way mentioning Christmas, before Thanksgiving. By "thing" I mean that seeing anything Christmas related before November would send me into a murderous rage. That's how I got banned from Wal-Mart one August.

Starting Christmas while people are going down with heat exhaustion cheapens the holiday, and makes it overstay its welcome. I was okay with putting outside lights up early, mind you--as long as they weren't turned on until Thanksgiving weekend.

So I asked my State and Federal representatives to open a new hunting season: Any lit (or inflated) Christmas decorations seen before Thanksgiving would be open season. Shoot to darken!

That's how I used to feel.

Not this year. This year I'm a happy little friggin' elf.

Why? Because 2023 has been crap. (And now 2024.) (And now 2025.) In fact, it's been the crappiest of the 2020s, which has been the crappiest decade of the century. I know we're not that far in, but let's face it: A stream of horrible years doesn't make the least horrible less horrible. Someone get me that on a t-shirt.

Deaths, health scares, politics, extremists, the Kardashians are still around ... our dog died and our car broke down. That's a country song, man.

So, as the song goes: We need a little Christmas, today. Get started. Brighten up everything--make those electric meters spin. We need the color, the lights, the cheer, even the songs.

Yes, I know Christmas is too commercial these days.

But so what? You don't have to be commercial. I mean, yeah, you should buy books to give out as Christmas presents, but otherwise don't worry about it: Just kick back and relax some between now and the 25th (of next month). Make the time. Watch a Christmas movie, curl up on the couch listening to Christmas music (ahem--while reading a good book, or one of mine). Do whatever it takes to bring down your stress level. There's no law against it.

I know, because my Representatives wouldn't return my calls.

Merry Christmas! Party early, and keep those lights on after the holidays, right up until the Santa Mafia shows up to get you committed.