Revalations

Most of you may not know it, but I have an intense desire to write and publish a book. Not some run-of-the-mill coffee-house novel, no. A book that sells; a book like Eragon. Oh, damn.

Yep, you got me. I'd like to be the next Christopher Paolini. I'd like nothing more than to be rich and famous because of a book I wrote.

That being said, I have tried to write several books. Very rarely do I make it past the first page. Why? Because I sit down with a mere scrap of a plot and say to myself "This is it. This is gonna be great." 15 minutes later, I'm back to square one. The reason? When you want to write a book, or perhaps a trilogy, or a cycle, you have to look at the big picture. I looked at one character, picked one detail of that character, and attempted to craft a masterpiece around it. Very rarely does that work. You have to look at the work as a whole, and not in small pieces.

The first challenge is creating, mapping out, and refining a plot. My research has taught me that if you want to be able to write a book, a good plot is essential. It's like the foundation of a house: poor foundation will yield a poor house, whereas a strong foundation will yield a strong house. The same goes for stories.

It's a long road, writing a book. But, perhaps it's not about the destination as much as it is the journey?

Only time will tell.

With the new season only two weeks away, everyone is starting to break out the gear and garb they didn't use over the winter. Folks who stopped during the winter are starting back up again, and those who continued through the winter welcome Spring's warm dawning.

What's interesting is how much Anvard grew over the winter. By the end of last season, Anvard had accumulated a fair number of folks throughout the duration of the same. Over the winter, though, our numbers grew dramatically. After the Brotherhood of the Broken Skull, the Brotherhood of Northshire, and the Myrmidons were set as 'inactive', they were replaced with several units for whom we have high hopes.

Sir Jack III and his Green-Hilted Swords not only bring several more people to the ranks of Anvard, but Sir Jack III brings over ten years of Western Martial Arts and combat experience.

Up in Billerica comes Allana, and Ex Tumulous Nos Venit, a band of young fighers whom we hope will blossom into hardy warriors.

The Mountain Blades, a subunit of Northern Blades, adds even more to roster of Anvard.

With the influx the new members, we look forward to regularly fielding anywhere from 15-30 warriors. We are however, a bit jaded about the whole affair; many is the time we've seen people join up and come to the first few battles only to drop out at the end of the season when winter rolls around.

We're being optimistic, though: we hope these new units will stay active and grow. The biggest issue with everyone staying active in Anvard is due to the unique nature of the realm itself: we're spread out over 5 states. That is unusually widespread and large for a realm.

Take care everyone!

Humbly,

Turgon

Music

Music is becoming an increasingly large part of my life, and in turn, an increasingly large portion of my Dagorhir life. I've been a "late bloomer" in a lot of things, and music is no exception. I never really had a set genre of music that I liked the most, however since about 2007 I'd been listening to a lot of rock from the 60s 70s and 80s.

It wasn't till May/June is this year that I discovered my true musical passion: Celtic folk and folk rock. There is just something alluring about the stories told by the songs.

*Will finish later, first period bell is about to ring*

Archery

I have recently take a strong liking to archery. It really seems to fit my persona, and I enjoy it. I was never really talented with sword 'n board, so I took my interests elsehwere.

I have been arching since I could pick up a bow. My father is a bow hunter, and so are most of his friends. I grew up 2 minutes from the Easton Rod and Gun club. Some of my best outdoor memories were at the 3-D Archery Shoots there. (3-D targets.) As you may have already deduced, I had A LOT of exposure to bows and guns. I have many memories of target practice there. When I first discovered Dagorhir I was thrilled. When I found out about archery, I was even more enthralled. I can remember attempting to makes sets of arrows; never succeeding. In past months I decided to pick it up again.

My first few times arching with *legal* arrows was qutie enjoyable. However, I was greatly distressed to learn that many people abuse and cheese the archery rules; people's honor virtually disappeared when they picked up the bow.

So I've made it my goal to try to become an honorable archer. Make fair calls, and make ammends if I make a mistake. I think it would be great to help give archery a better name.

One thing I noticed, is that some are ignorant/ignore the archery rules. Some people think that a glancing arrow hit does not count? Wrong. It it clearly written in the rules that a deflecting (glancing) hit counts.

4.5.3.6 - If an arrow is deflected, even minutely, it is considered to have hit.

It's amazing how even after being told the rules some folks don't follow them. Alas, that is a different story.

Conclusion: I hope that I can help to give archery a better name by acting honorable and being fair with my calls.

Thanks for reading!

...and so it begins.

Today I created this blog. I created it during my B Block Poetry of Song class while we were creating other blogs. After I finshed, I decided to create this one.

I have high hopes about this blog. I want a place for me to share my thoughts and opinions, and encourage others to do the same. Here I will review practices, battles, events, discuss present issues, and share my insights into several different areas of Dagorhir.

So here's to a great start. Hopefully I will inspire otheres to do the same.