Writer's Grove

On Druids and more

Dudes. I’ve just received this book by Graham Robb called The Discovery of Middle Earth. It’s already blowing my mind and I’m just 22 pages into it. I should probably say up front it has nothing to do with Tolkien. What he appears to have done is discovered that the Druids knew some serious math two thousand years ago, and the Romans kind of wiped all that knowledge out along with the Druids, and the evidence is only able to be seen now with the aid of satellite imagery and mapping software. It’s a nonfiction book, not my normal fare, but it has Druids and maps in it so I am ON BOARD.

I’m curious, of course, to see if there are any revelations inside that will directly contradict something in my series, but also hopeful that I can incorporate some of it into the last couple of books. He’s combining what he’s found in the modern day—archaeology and aerial images—with historical accounts and putting together a stunning new look at the old world.

So far he’s been talking about the Heraklean Way, this road that spanned Spain and France and into the Alps, and showing that Hannibal probably used it. I remember my high school history teacher talking about what an ungodly feat it was for Hannibal to cross the Pyrenees and all that, but dude, it’s easier if there was a road there already made by the Druids and traveled for a few generations before he brought his elephants to Iberia.

So yeah, if you’re into history—especially the Celts—and want to read something awesome, I recommend it. It just came out. Get in on the ground floor here. :)

Other revelations: I’m not terribly fast when I write. More of a tortoise than a hare, just kinda keep going. But I didn’t realize how distracting the Internet was until I turned that sucker off. I mean, I knew it was a distraction, sure, but wasn’t able to nail down precisely how badly it was harming my productivity until this week. I bought a program called Mac Freedom; it basically restricts access to the Internet for however long you tell it, so you can get some work done. I’ve tried it a few times now and each time I do I get lots more done than normal.

Numbers: Every so often I would  do these 1K1HR thingies with other authors—that’s one thousand words in one hour. See, we all get distracted easily HEY IS THAT A SQUIRREL and we know it, so we try to encourage each other by saying DUDES ONE HOUR OF AWESOME PRODUCTIVITY. GO. Except it doesn’t always work out so well for me. I’d get 400-600 done, which wasn’t bad, but making 1,000 seemed like an unrealistic goal. Well, I finally did it today. 1,005 words in an hour. I had the Internet shut down and some awesome instrumental metal playing by Scale the Summit. So I’m going to go do that again. If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or, as Chuck Wendig says, NaWriEvMoMoFo (National Write Every Month, Motherfucker), you might want to try some kinda software that shuts the shiny siren song of the Internet off for a while. Works for me, anyway. :) Going to get back to it!