Back from Cross Plains

Insert your own Samwise Gamgee reference here. Given the intense heat of Cross Plains (which was actually very pleasant and cool for that time of year, and the very idea that the place could so easily have been even hotter fills me with horror) the comparisons of that brave little country lad traveling far from home to the fiery lands of the deep south are fairly easy to note.

It's a bit bittersweet: I didn't win the 2010 Venarium, and since you can only be nominated once, I never will.  I'd long convinced myself that Barbara was going to win, seeing as she was entirely deserving for The Wordbook and her many published essays, so I wasn't disappointed at all. However, The Cimmerian blog won the 2010 Stygian for best website, and I'm included on the list of names, along with Leo, Deuce, Brian, Steve Trout, Barbara, and Jeffrey.  I'm really pleased with this, especially for Deuce: he put a huge amount of effort into the site after Steve Tompkins' death, and it's great for The Cimmerian blog - and Deuce's current time in Howard fandom - to go out with a bang.

Once I get a few day's sleep I'll gather ye all round, to tell the tale of a Scottish invasion.  A tale of auspicious first meetings and fond farewells, of perils lurking in the grass and dangers round the winding roads, of surprising discoveries within and without...