This past week I returned to Gettysburg and spent four days there and at Antietam taking tours, talking to historians, guides and rangers, and doing general research.  I stayed at my usual hotel on the site of General Lee’s headquarters during the battle.  Its proximity to the first day’s field on the west of town is very convenient since that’s the focus of my research.  To be within walking distance on a battlefield that is approximately 25 square miles is a huge bonus. This was my first real summer visit to the area, and I highly recommend it even though it was hot and humid.  The various summer programs going on throughout Gettysburg will keep anyone busy.  I was there four days and there were at least another four days worth of activities I wish I could have stayed around for. The tour guides and rangers were of great help while I was there, especially Joanne Lewis, who came in on her day off to give me a tour of the Gettysburg Day 1 field, Gerry Eak, who gave me a great tour of the town of Gettysburg itself, and Mannie Gentile, who gives a wonderful no-nonsense tour of the Antietam field.

I’ve posted some photos here.  Yeah, more sunset photos.  No matter where I go in the world it seems my camera ends up focusing on sunsets and clouds.

Cory Doctorow posted about former Altered Fluidian Lauren McLaughlin’s upcoming novel Cycler in an excerpt here on boingboing. As part of his post he linked to my interview with Lauren on the Senses Five website.

Kristen and I took our first walk across the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday.  You get a whole new appreciation for the structure walking it, much more so than seeing it from the shore or even driving over it.

The New York City Waterfalls exhibit is currently running. The most striking aspect of it, to me, is how insignificant the falls look in their setting.  I do not mean that in a bad way, they are quite impressive, and when you stand on the eastern side of the Brooklyn Bridge over the falls you get a real sense of their scale.  But what really struck me is that you have these four man-made, 90-100 foot tall structures cycling over 2 million gallons of East River water every hour, and still the structures are dwarfed by their surroundings.

I read that the artist wanted the exhibit to be as much about the negative space as the structures themselves, and on that he truly succeeded.  The Brooklyn Bridge fall is impressive, but completely dwarfed by the Brooklyn Bridge column that it sits adjacent to.  It’s very fitting that a massive exhibit built by man to mimic nature is lost among a massive city built by man.

A year ago I posted how I was quitting my full time job to work on my writing.  I did that, but as with most things in life, it didn’t turn out quite as I expected. No dramatic change to the life of a writer, starting a new life of art and such pursuits, leaving what was far behind.  The truth is, honestly, over that past year I’ve spent approximately half of that time working.  Working at my old place of employment, to be exact.  It turns out that short term project work is something they need, and something I much prefer to a 9-5 with no end in sight.  Take some time off, write, go back, earn some money, repeat as often as I can for as long as I can.

Yesterday was the first day “off” after a 3 month project. I have 8-10 weeks ahead of me to get some writing done. I’ve settled on a novel that will take place during the American Civil War, because the era and people fascinate me, and I want to test my theory that you can write any type of story in any type of setting/period and if the story is told well, the setting and genre should not matter.  I hope to get a good chunk of this project done over the next 10 weeks, but since I’ve decided to keep it historically accurate (in line with David McCullough’s statement that he “always strives to tell the truth”, which I completely agree with), I might spend the bulk of this time doing research for this project and a few others. Regardless, I’m spending the summer paying myself to write – not recommended for those who like to actually earn money – and I hope to keep to my daily regime a bit better than I have in the past.