Jan M. Hill

Tag: Jan M Hill

Dance Like A Chicken

Happy Dance Like A Chicken Day! 

   Everyone loves holidays.  Well, Most people love holidays.  On average, there is at least one recognized holiday per month.   Think about it.  Check your calendar.  

   Somewhere along the line, a bunch of folks put their heads together and came up with holidays for every day of the year!  

   For example, tomorrow – May 15th – is National Chocolate Chip Day (among others).  I love chocolate chips.  Semi-sweet are my favorites.  I bypass the cookie and just eat them by the handful.  Yum!  

   You can find a complete list of unrecognized national holidays at these sites: 

National Day Calendar

Fun Holidays

Daily Calendar Holidays

Chocolate Chips

    So check them out and decide which ones you want to celebrate!  Turn up the music, add the food, bring in your friends, and Dance like a Chicken!  

 

 

   Every medieval fantasy book or table top game (ie: Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, etc.) has swords involved.  In ancient times, they were a means of defense, competition, and status.  Only those wealthy enough could own them, and only master blacksmiths could make the best kind.  After all, you don’t want your sword falling apart as you battle your enemy, right?  

     When most people think of swords, their mind immediately goes to the knights of old England or the warriors of ancient Rome.  In both cases, the wielder of the sword worked for a ruler, who in turn provided the sword.  

     In medieval times (400 – 1400 AD), it would take a blacksmith days, possibly weeks, to make a long sword.  Short swords didn’t take a much time.  Blacksmiths used hot coals and heavy hammers to pound out the metal they worked with.  It was hot and tiring work, but great for upper body strength.  Still, it required heating the metal, pounding it out, heating the metal, pounding it out, and sometimes cooling it in between.  Leather and wood were sometimes used to decorate the handle.  Other times, the handles were left polished metal.  Etchings and decorations were especially difficult during that period.

     I found a couple of good youtube videos that show how swords were made, although both use modern tools now; which shortens the process just a bit. Check out How do Blacksmiths Make Swords and Forging a Sword out of a Rusted Iron Chain.  Neither video is very long, but it will give you a good idea of what goes into building a sword.  Just remember, medieval blacksmiths did it all by hand, not power tools.

  Asteria: The Discovery 

 Asteria came to mind way back in 2014.  My middle son was having issues reading.  I sat down and wrote an adventure for him.  It evolved into Asteria: The Discovery.

     What is it all about?  Jordon and Jeremy are your typical early teen best friends.  They enjoy the same things, finish each other’s thoughts, and think along the same lines.  While they have a few individual hobbies, they do almost everything together.  Easy to do when you live next door to each other.

     Jordon hadn’t been in the area long.  One rainy afternoon, he and Jeremy find a hidden laboratory in his basement.  In it, along with books, chemicals, test tubes, and the like, is a large journal telling them about a portal in some local caves.  Jeremy immediately recognizes the caves, but the one in question is blocked off with a saw horse and a warning.  The boys immediately plan to check it out.  Unfortunately, Jeremy’s little sister hears their plans and ends up joining them (either that or she tattles about where they’re really going to her mom).    The trio jump, slide and dodge their way down the washed out path to the cave the journal mentioned.  In the back of the cave, Annese accidentally finds the portal they were looking for.

     While checking out this new cave, Annese runs ahead while the boys are amazed at the rock formations and coloring built into the walls.  Annese’s scream brings them around in time to see Annese being carried off by a gigantic bird.  Oh, no!

     As they delve into this strange land, they find their faces in a book of prophecies.  These people were expecting them to save their land.  What the heck?  Join Jordon and Jeremy as they traverse the islands, make new friends and enemies, run for their lives, develop new talents, break a few laws, and try to figure out how to rescue Annese and get home.

Asteria: The Discovery

 


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