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Post by Treasuredude on Jan 3, 2006 12:53:33 GMT -6
(Aaargh, Diane -- my first attempt at italics -- what am I doing wrong??!!!!?) You need to use [] instead of ().
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Post by fred on Jan 3, 2006 16:17:33 GMT -6
Crzhrs--
Nah! You gotta want to get published in order to do so, & I'm just not that interested. But thanks.
Billy--
Here's one for you: "A Distant Trumpet" by Paul Horgan (?). I believe they may have even made a movie of it. Unfortunately, another divorce loss.
Fred.
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Post by Tricia on Jan 3, 2006 16:34:57 GMT -6
Fred--
I have to agree with Markland. Historical fiction can often provide a great segue into further research into a specific subject. Granted, it was mostly "docudramas" that inspired me: PBS' The Six Wives of Henry VIII--the old one, mind you--Elizabeth R, and of course, Son of the Morning Star. They all got me into the library and not only that--well, at least the PBS shows--into that History degree! I was also a huge Upstairs, Downstairs freak.
I do have to admit a complete and total reluctance to take any US History whilst an undergrad. I took what I had to take to graduate, and nothing more! I bet you can guess my speciality, huh? If anyone would have told me four years ago I'd be attending this forum, I would have rolled over and passed out, graveyard dead.
Okay, I am totally fascinated by your tale. Tell all of us a bit more, will ya?
Leyton McLean
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Post by crzhrs on Jan 3, 2006 17:12:39 GMT -6
As a young person I got all my "history" from TV, movies, and school books. How did I know that what I saw/read was only one side of the story or completely false (THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON). Then I read BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE and said: "What the F _ _ K! How come I never heard about this?!
Then my long journey into finding out the facts began, not just about Native American culture, history, and philosophy, but US/Native relations, plus other history. The more non-fiction I read the more I get involved.
So, yes, I got my start from non-fiction or one side's "version" but that evolved into wanting to more of the truth. Because in the end it is the truth that will tell all . . . not someone's made up story (no insult to those who enjoy fiction)
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Post by alfuso on Jan 3, 2006 17:38:44 GMT -6
I love historical fiction, especially Elizabethen and Napoleonic. Then CW and anything with Custer.
"What if?" stories are especially fun. I enjoy those involving Custer, and Rommel.
After that, I like good old fashioned clank Science Fiction.
alfuso
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Post by alfuso on Jan 3, 2006 17:40:50 GMT -6
All
it's TV and movies that got me inteersted in history. I'd see the movie or show then go get a book on the subject.
Been in love with Mosby and CW ever since the TV series THE GRAY GHOST in 1957.
alfuso
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Post by fred on Jan 3, 2006 19:34:57 GMT -6
Crzhrs--
You know what I like about you? Your curiosity seems to be boundless. I like that in a person. It shows intelligence, understanding, empathy, & decency. Those things show in your posts & you're a person who can always be relied on to give solid, learned, straight-forward answers, with no prejudice & an understanding for everyone's point of view. There are several people on this site who share those traits.
My only point w/ fiction-- historical fiction-- is that it is something of a diversion. I'm older than virtually anybody on this site (or anywhere else for THAT matter), so time interests me more now than it used to. There is nothing that I am more interested in than this Custer business & I find myself pushing 'til I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll push until I can no longer take it, then I have to put things aside for a while. I am tremendously interested in WWII, especially the German army. My fascination w/ that is simple: how could such an honorable organization, steeped in so much brilliance, so much history, find itself so corrupted? I think the answer lies in the military's leaders & w/ that in mind, I do research on those generals. I have put together short bios of almost 1,000 German flag-grade officers of WWII & the diversity is shocking; in some cases appalling. It's probably the same fascination that has made me try to dig up the names of the Indians who faught at the LBH-- & I have almost 900 of them! The Europe of the 1920's & early '30's-- before Numbnuts took over-- also fascinates me: Vienna, Berlin, Paris. I collect & read anything I can scrounge about that period. With all of this, I burn myself out. Custer will disappear for 6 months at a time while something else consumes me.
And what do I do to relax my mind? I read HISTORICAL fiction or Ian Fleming or Patrick O'Brian or Alan Furst or Eric Ambler or Bartle Bull. Fleming is probably the only one who's not mired in history & after four or five trips for each book, I need another diversion. BUT THE DIVERSION'S MUST BE REAL-LIKE!
I sound like a lot of fun, don't I? Well... my wife thinks so... er, one minute, Honey! I'm working on my Custer stuff! Coming...!
Gotta go... Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by fred on Jan 3, 2006 19:37:54 GMT -6
By the way, alfuso, I agree w/ you. It's usually been the movie, then I run out for the book. But, sweetheart, I'll tell you... if you did that w/ every book, you've certainly spent a lot of time in front of the silver screen!
And Leyton-- let me think about it.
Fred.
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Post by elisabeth on Jan 3, 2006 23:54:04 GMT -6
Thanks, Treasuredude -- is this how it's done?
Fred, have you read "The Riddle of the Sands", by Erskine Childers? I'm sure you have, but if not, you'd love it: the wrong war for you (pre-WW1), but the right flavour -- and definitely "real-like'! (British sailing party strays upon evidence of German invasion plans. Adventure and skulduggery on the high seas. Great stuff.)
I think you've put your finger on it with the time question. Certainly for me! As well as being, ahem, no longer young, I've come late to this party and am still playing catch-up -- so maybe that's why the facts bewitch me more than the fiction at the moment ... To lower the tone completely: I've always loved detective stories. And LBH is the ultimate -- a detective story with the last pages missing! Every so often I break off and read a Reginald Hill or Nicci French or whatever; but even they can't compete with The Custer Mysteries!
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Post by fred on Jan 4, 2006 5:24:21 GMT -6
Elisabeth, you're scaring me! Do I have a female clone in the U.K.? I too have been playing catch-up, but the best detective stuff I've ever read is Dorothy Sayers. So much so, that I bought the 2 BBC series they did-- 8 of the 14 Peter Whimsey stories. Oh!, gawd-- great stuff! Then I bought "Foyle's War"-- the first set-- & am going to buy the remainder. The next is "Campion," which sounds like a Whimsey-continuum.
I have to run, but I'll continue this thought in a few hours.
Fred.
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Post by elisabeth on Jan 4, 2006 5:59:42 GMT -6
Fred, now you're scaring me! It was Dorothy Sayers who got me hooked!
"Foyle's War" is bliss, isn't it. And have you tried the "Poirot" series, starring David Suchet? OK, it's Agatha Christie, but it's so well and stylishly done ...
Now -- what nobody's tried yet, as far as I know, is a detective story/series set in and around the 7th Cavalry. That could really be fun. Any takers???
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Post by alfuso on Jan 4, 2006 8:27:10 GMT -6
I enjoy penny dreadfuls.
alfuso
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Post by Tricia on Jan 4, 2006 8:45:53 GMT -6
I think you've put your finger on it with the time question. Certainly for me! As well as being, ahem, no longer young, I've come late to this party and am still playing catch-up -- so maybe that's why the facts bewitch me more than the fiction at the moment ... To lower the tone completely: I've always loved detective stories. And LBH is the ultimate -- a detective story with the last pages missing! Every so often I break off and read a Reginald Hill or Nicci French or whatever; but even they can't compete with The Custer Mysteries! Elisabeth-- Naah, I'm easily the lastest visitor to this party. Just to think, I lived the first forty years of my life in Anglophile heaven and a blessed Custer-ignorance! However, you are certainly on to something. I do have to admit that when one, as a writer, thinks they're making something up (a plot complication, etc.,) when it comes to a story about LBH, something else comes to light through research that is even stranger! Still, it is rather fun to play around those factual elements--fill in the blanks, you might call it. Like Fred, I am a big, big believer in fleshing out within the record, but as Alfuso once said, GAC could disappear from sight if he so choosed ... As for the Custer-inspired detective novel, a friend of mine, Marc Rolland, recently sold one to a French publisher. I think it starts when a young waiter meets GAC at the Willard Hotel in the spring of 1866 and is so impressed he joins the Seventh ... I haven't received a publication date, so I hope we use the time to brush up on our French! Regards, Leyton McLean
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Post by crzhrs on Jan 4, 2006 9:02:15 GMT -6
Has anyone ever come across LBH computer software. I think I've heard of at least one that you can select different scenarios and all the what ifs we discuss. For the life of my I can't remember where I saw it (on-line or somewhere else).
Anyway, I think that would be quite the game!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jan 4, 2006 10:18:33 GMT -6
crzhrs - I remember something about that software as well, but I can't place it.
One of our new members has a board game about LBH (see Other Media) and another in the works about the Rosebud. My LBH game has been on order for a couple of months, and I'm looking forward to getting it. I believe it should be out any day now.
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