In Arkansas

So, internet access spots few (Country Library, MacDonalds) and far between (opposite sides of town) here in Magnolia, Arkansas. Plus v. busy with family visits. More postings soon, once back to the chilly Pacific Midwest.
--John R.

So Far Today . . .

So far today I've

--gotten a car assessed

--gotten car tabs (one day ahead of the deadline)

--gotten a local Newspaper subscription re-started

--paid rent

--visited a slightly odd gift shop on the courthouse square

--gone to the post office

--gone to the bank

--eaten out for lunch

--and finally gotten online again, for the first time since returning to Magnolia (two days ago).

Now we'll see how many things off an expensive 'to-do' list for the week I get through in the afternoon. Replacing my ailing, failing cell-phone wd be good, but it's not even near the top of the remaining list, alas.

--John R.

current book: POETS & MURDER by Rbt van Gulik (third reading: 1990, 1993, 2012)

I Am Interviewed . . .

. . . by my hometown newspaper.

Yesterday, out of the blue I got an e-mail, followed up by a phone call today, from a reporter on the MAGNOLIA DAILY BANNER-NEWS.* They were contacting me for a quote about THE CHILDREN OF HURIN and also to ask about the forthcoming book. It's been a long time since I left Magnolia (August 11th 1979, the day after my college graduation), though I still go back home to visit family at least once a year, so I don't know how they heard about me. Still, it was nice to be asked. I only hope I managed to give her some appropriate quote expressing how impressed I am with THE CHILDREN OF HURIN; I'm not at my best when speaking off the cuff.

Sometimes people forget how widely dispersed Tolk folk are: I know I was not the only Tolkien fan living in Magnolia back in the '70s: I actually petitioned the English Department at Southern Arkansas University to offer a Tolkien class one semester, which I naturally took. There just aren't that many of us, proportionally speaking, who want to read (and re-read) EVERYTHING -- but even so, there are more than you'd think, and more widely dispersed. And the numbers are only going to grow in the years ahead, as some of the people who discovered Tolkien through the films evolve into the next generation of Tolkien scholars. It's going to be an interesting ride.

--JDR



*which has been publishing since 1878, my the way: longer than the Seattle Times (1891) but not the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, made up from the merger of the Weekly Intelligencer (1867) with the Seattle Post (founding date unknown) in 1881.