Author Archives: Janna G. Noelle

Replaying Xena: Season 2 – I’m in love with a Warrior Princess

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Xena, stern and steely-eyed after her bath.

Xena looking stern and steely-eyed after a bath.

It was with season 2 of Xena Warrior Princess, I now recall, that I fell in love with the show.

Thinking back on it, season 2 may well have been the first season I actually saw.  My memory of  it all is rather cloudy.  While watching season 1, I remembered every episode, but for some reason don’t recall having viewed them on TV, at least not from the beginning.

In any case, I do remember that it was also season 2 that made me want to be an adventurer – to roam far and wide meeting people, solving problems, battling evil, and having fun.

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Even More Thoughts on Nearing the End

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No, I’m still not finished my WIP.

But honest to goodness, this last novel in my historical fiction trilogy is truly almost done.  I know I’ve written about being close before, but now I’m really close. Like, a two-digit number of pages remaining that starts with 2 (or maybe even one!) close.

When last I wrote about my WIP’s impending end, I discussed various insights that had occurred to me as I continued along this process.

Well, a new level of nearness to the end has engendered an all new set of realizations:

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What My Phone’s Autocorrect Entries Say About Me as a Person

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Texting

Have you ever looked up the words your phone has added to the autocorrect list it draws from when you’re texting?

I’ve now owned a smartphone for a little over a year.  Many people, I realize, have been smartphone users since the first Blackberrys and iPhones hit the market in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

But for me, getting a smartphone last year was a huge step.  I was already worried I spent too much time on the computer without carrying one around in my pocket as well.

However, when the opportunity to acquire a smartphone cheaply presented itself, I decided to finally join the twenty-first century and embrace all the convenience the technology has to offer.

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Character Study: Cookie Lyon from TV’s Empire (it’s the bad that makes her so good!)

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Like 17 million other people, I’ve been watching Empire.

And in keeping with the prevailing opinion, I think it’s a great show.

When I told my sister I was watching it, she expressed surprise.  Not an unexpected reaction given most of what I watch is either fantasy, sci-fi, historical, or about science and nature.

However, Empire, at its core over the first season, is a succession drama, which I always love and happen to be writing myself in a historical setting.  As well, I have a prior history with stories about record companies thanks to the 1985 movie Krush Groove, which my sister and I watched together and both enjoyed.

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What’s On the Menu in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2a)

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Kitchen scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-40)

Kitchen scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

If you were magically transported back to early 13th century England and invited to dinner in a noble household, what sort of experience would await you?

An experience so different, it will be the subject of three separate posts in this blog series, the first of which (today’s) focuses on the raw ingredients of medieval cuisine.

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Diverse Characters Don’t Have to Earn Their Keep

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Glenn from TVs The Walking Dead

Glenn from TV’s The Walking Dead

Although I’ve never watched the show The Walking Dead, it recently became the subject of lengthy conversation in my writers’ group.

The discussion had to do with two specific characters: Michonne (whom I’m told I should consider cosplaying for Halloween) and Glenn, who is Korean-American.

That is to say, the discussion had to do with diverse characters.

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Day or Nighttime: When Do You Write? (or, How Much Does the Writing World Love You?)

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Working late

I have, at one time or another, both stayed up until and gotten up at every small hour of the morning.

The former of the two – the staying up late – seems to happen, or has happened, mostly in relation to a deadline of some sort, be it one of school or a self-imposed project with a time constraint (e.g. a homemade birthday gift for an out-of-town friend).

(I also recall, during university, having stayed up and out way late at some club, party, or other manner of social gathering, but those days, alas, are largely over now.)

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On Moving, Adapting, and the Impermanent Nature of Everything

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The last little bit to move at my old place.

The last little bit to move at my old place.

In life, there are moves and there are good moves.

A “move” is often the term used for a given course of action, particularly one involving bravery or bravado and occurring after a prolonged period of inaction.

Similarly, one’s approach with a romantic interest may be referred to as his/her “move”.

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Clothing Made the Medieval Man, Woman & Child (Medieval Mondays #1)

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Three versions of Maid Marion (a 13th century character), of which the fox's outfit comes closest.

Three versions of Maid Marian (a 13th century character associated with Robin Hood), of which the more authentic outfit is that of the fox.

If there’s one aspect of medieval history I love most, it’s the clothing, especially women’s clothing.

The clothing, incidentally, is one of the aspects Hollywood most often get wrong.

Typically, this occurs through clothing styles from one century being mis-attributing to another.  This despite what author Mary G. Houston writes in Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries:

What can be more diverse than the noble simplicity of construction and natural silhouette of the thirteenth century, compared with the slender elegance of the fourteenth, and the riot of variety and exaggeration in the fifteenth century. (pp. v-vi)

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My Ode to Ontario’s Highway 401

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Sunset at a Highway 401 rest stop

Sunset at a Highway 401 rest stop

Unlike a lot Canadians, particularly those living in Ontario, I love that highway.  The thought of going for a drive upon it fills me with excitement.

Highway “four-oh-one”, as its most commonly referred to – or to use its official name, the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway – spans about 828 km across southern Ontario from the Quebec border in the east to Windsor in the west, and in parts is one of busiest highways in the world.

At its widest where it crosses the populous city of Toronto and its suburban hinterlands, the highway’s girth stretches to an imposing 16 lanes, which, according to Wikipedia, makes it one of the widest highways in the world.

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