Marc Comtois

Another Fall Recreational soccer season is over (just about). Maybe it's time to get some writing in.

Men, women, kids, the USA v. Brazil woman's world cup game was one of the best, most entertaining I've ever seen.

Maybe I'm late to the party, but the way that the newish website Grantland utilizes the right sidebar as a home for footnotes ( example ) strikes me as both effective and elegant.  I propose that it become the "web standard".

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. ~ Steven Wright

I'm happy to announce that Burgundians in the Mist is now available in a variety of e-book formats --including Kindle , Epub (supports Nook, Sony, etc.) and even PDF --for only $2.99! The neat thing about the Kindle version is that the footnotes are hypertext, so you can select a note, read the supporting sources and notes and then return to the main text. You can still purchase a dead-tree version for $8.99 via the publisher (more $ for me!) or Amazon.com . Thanks to those of you who have purchased BitM already and please let me know what you think!

The book is now available at Amazon.com and will be available at other online retailers soon.  Next up: getting it into e-book form.

DONE! Buy a copy today!

3rd and hopefully last proof on the way.  Formatting issues, particularly pagination, vex me.  Mostly having to do with MS Word's method of doing page numbers. There has to be a more straightforward method, Microsoft.  By trying to be an uber-publishing software, you made what should be a simple requirement too confusing with your different page breaks, odd/even page numbering, etc.  I didn't have these problems in the 1990's.

As the first season of the HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series 1st book ( A Game of Thrones ) reaches it's climax, I've been re-reading the series in anticipation of the of the 5th book, A Dance with Dragons , set to be released in July. I just started the 4th book, A Feast for Crows , and, because I've read them one after another, have been struck--well, "jarred" is more like it--by the way Martin chose to open the 4th book with completely new POV characters in locales either only briefly visited (the Iron Islands) or never visited (Dorne).  It was an interesting gamble and, so far, I have to agree with this blogger : I don't think it works. But in AFFC George has got us going on a sight-seeing trip all over the goshdanged place, from one "exotic" locale to another. We're reading stories about characters we've only just met and don't give a fig about, and the whole thing has gone from the tal...

Proofed the first proof.  Changed formatting of footnotes, added, some blank pages, re-did Index, re-worked the Intro. Re-submitted, approved and now...another proof is on the way. Hopefully this will be OK.

I recently discovered that my Great-great Grandfather Israel Hebert was quite an upstanding member of his community, Racine, Quebec. July 16th (my birthday, coincidentally) will be "Israel Hebert Day" and the town is naming a street after him. More can be found at www.israelhebert.com .  Cool!

Got the proof yesterday. Kind of weird to see your work in book form. Looks like the footnote formatting is good. I'll be checking it for the next couple days.

Proof is on the way, be 5-7 days. Hoping not too much revising to be done. Worried a bit about the way the footnote formatting came out.

I'm pleased to announce that, thanks to Createspace , I'm publishing my first (and probably only!) historical monograph, Burgundians in the Mist .  If you're interested, check out the preview chapter .

Luckily, HBO offered a free preview weekend for the unveiling of their new series "A Game of Thrones", based on the series by George R.R. Martin.  As a reader of the series, I have to say that the first installment was pretty good.  Entertaining, pretty faithful to the book and good "look and feel".  I'm not alone in this, particularly amongst medievalists, but fantasy actually led me to history.  Tolkien and a few others (notably the seemingly forgotten Horseclans series) turned me onto medievalish times and I eventually scratched that itch at Providence College.  Even though I majored in U.S. History, I was given the opportunity to produce a thesis in a Medieval topic and ran with it. (That's how the Burgundians in the Mist came about).  Anyway, back to "Game." It's appeal is the sense of realness to it.  All the people are, well, people, with very believable motivations and everyone has shades of gray. (Yes, some have more black or white...

Two of my writing "heroes", the historian Bernard Bailyn and the harder to classify Jacques Barzun, both received National Humanities Medals last week. Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution was an eye-opener for me and changed the way I view history by turning me onto the role that ideas play (instead of just "players"). My first introduction to Barzun was his work on writing and researching ( The Modern Researcher ) that was required reading for my history courses at Providence College.  I then ran across a collection of his essays and another book on writing, which I keep handy. A well-deserved honor for both men.

See the girls With bouncy curls See the boys Serious, poised Pointed toes Arms pinned close Ghillies tied tight (We hope!) Fiddle plays the tune Music fills the room Dancers spring Clasp hands in a ring Twirling, whirling Weave through a maze Heads unfazed Leap apart Hit the mark Stillness Take a bow Then take two Go offstage Change those shoes (Quickly!) Now move the feet To the bodrhan's beat Legs fly up Feet come down Hard shoes smack Clackity-clack Stomp! Stillness Whether Hornpipe, Or reel Or a jig That is up Smiles erupt Because of the joy That is damhsa

A leaf long fallen Flew again Lifted by a familiar breeze. It floated up, then down Twirled 'round and with a bound Danced with seeming glee. Yet its airy parade Was but a charade. As the animating wind Faded again, The leaf rocked down Floated to ground Lifeless and brown as before.

As I was driving to my soccer game last night, the snow was coming down, the roads were a mess and the Beastie Boys "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" came on the radio. This confluence of events called to mind the winter I spent working the T-bar at Hermon Mountain ('86-'87). Weekends and late week nights spent in the cold, earning some $ and screwing off with a bunch of Hermon and Bangor guys were a blast. A bunch of college-bound kids tasked with keeping a diesel-engine driven ski lift running? Yeah, that worked out well! Then there was the T-bar rocket seating method, where we would put the smart-ass little kids on the lift, but hold the bar long enough to get the spring inside the bar full of tension. Then RELEASE and aaaaahhhhh! Hey, we thought it was funny. Snowball fights, sliding down Cloud Nine on snow shovels, working in the rental shop and setting bindings without having a CLUE as to what the hell I was doing...good times! *Originally written...

Oh! little mover of teenagers long ago. You suffered indignity sliding to and fro' along wintry paths hitting telephone poles and snowbanks. And rolling rolling rolling. You took your charges safely from home and back again. Running on gas or fumes. And hope. Yet rarely did you fail of your own volition. Always faithful. Always true whether parked or idling or on the move. 'Til you could move no more. *Originally written 1/30/2009  

The end of the year calls to mind All the days left behind People newly met and those we've lost Mistakes that were made and what they cost Happily the year-end also inspires A rekindling of coals that fire desires For wishes born out, more laughter and love More kindness and hope and blessings from above Every year-end is another's begin A time to start ...

It's a scattered existence, blogging and commenting, tweeting and facebooking - who did I say what to whom and when?  I'm not sure there really is a way to capture it all, but this simple page is meant to be a place to aggregate my web presence. If anyone cares.