Hey, you know what tomorrow is?  The fifth anniversary of this site!  I knew it was coming sometime in June, but that certainly snuck up on me fast.  I wish I could say I had something special planned, but real life’s been getting hectic lately – a frickin tornado nearly hit my house this weekend – so it looks like the day’s going to come and go with more whimper than bang.

Ah well, I’m not going anywhere.  We’ll do something special for the 10 year 😉

Anybody want to see some ancient history?  Check the links to my original posts:

• Shakespeare ala Wikipedia, June 8, 2005: http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2005/06/shakespeare-ala-wikipedia.html
• Thou odiferous rude-growing harpy! June 8, 2005 http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2005/06/thou-odiferous-rude-growing-harpy.html  (Man, that insult generator has been around longer than I have!)
• Understanding Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet  June 12, 2005 http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2005/06/understanding-shakespeare-romeo-and.html  (My first post of original content.)
• What was Prospero’s original plan?  June 26, 2005  http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2005/06/tempest-what-was-prosperos-original.html  (Funny how important that question must have been to me, it was one of the first things I put out to my audience. Of course back then I had no audience!

Ah, memories. 🙂

With a mixture of sadness and relieve, David Blixt has posted Liberation, where he informs us that the publishing rights to his second Shakespeare novel  Voice of the Falconer have returned to him after a long and arduous journey.

Two years ago I reviewed Blixt’s original Shakespeare novel, The Master of Verona. Looking at it now, I’ll snip a bit that seems most relevant:

But I can say that I enjoyed this book, very much.  I have reviewed books that I felt were a chore, and looked at the end with relief that I could move on.  With this one I anxiously returned to my reading each morning and evening (train to work, don’cha know), honestly curious about how it would end.  As it seems set up for a sequel, I can honestly
say that I’d like to read the sequel.  The politics and the prophecy don’t mean much to me, but I can appreciate well developed characters and want to see how their lives turn out.

Well it’s a few years later, and we never did get that sequel.  Now we know why.  Well, sort of.  David confirms for us that it’s not coming (at least, not any time soon), but even he really has no idea why the publisher just sat on it and never moved forward.  “Falconer will go into a drawer,” he tells us, to “remain my secret for years to come.”

Mr. Blixt’s next project (not counting the Michigan Shakespeare Festival) is apparently In The Shadow of Colossus, a “Roman novel.”  Since I know he’s a regular reader and contributor, maybe this post will catch his eye and he’ll give us a more detailed update on what to expect (and when)?

I misunderstood this site when AbbyWilde first pointed it out to me via Twitter.  Sonnet Challenge is not one man making videos of himself doing all the sonnets (something that Madeline did a couple years back). 

No, this guy wants other people to send him video of themselves doing a sonnet.    That’s much more interesting.

Surely we’ve got some geeks in the audience who want a quick 15 seconds of Shakespeare fame? There is of course Will Sutton’s project over at Sonnet.ILoveShakespeare.com but that’s just audio.  Who’s got the guts to jump in front of the camera?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37466438/ns/today-entertainment/

I was going to call this old news, since the announcement of Patrick Stewart’s knighthood went out some time ago (and many of us Shakespeare geeks have been referring to him as Sir Patrick since then).  Apparently it’s now official, ceremony complete – the article even has a picture.

No word on whether Queen Elizabeth asked him WTF was up with the shrug.