What a way to begin my first HNS conference – a 3 hour broadsword workshop with writer/actor/swordsman David Blixt and his associate Brandon St. Clair Saunders.
These two gentlemen were superb swordsmen and were incredibly patient with some of us who were a bit uncoordinated, i.e., me!
Sparks flew. (Yeah, right.) We had a blast. And no humans were maimed in the process.
Even better, I met authors Sharon Kay Penman (Lionheart;and, A King’s Ransom; and many more) and Patricia Bracewell (Shadow on the Crown; and, The Price of Blood) in the workshop.
Sharon is such a lovely woman. I’d ‘met’ her through social media a couple of years back. She emailed me about 2 weeks before the conference and invited me to have lunch with her.
Novelist Priscilla Royal joined us. This was the best conference moment ever! We talked of our love of the Angevins, of writing, deadlines, and marketing, of our favorite medieval fiction writers, and of the books we were working on and had already written.
And if that wasn’t enough, I met Geri & Bob Clouston and Stephanie Moore Hopkins of indieBRAG, who are extremely supportive of indie-published writers and made me feel so much at home. Stephanie also writes and hosts LayeredPages.
I’ll save the description of sessions I attended for another post – and there were many I enjoyed. It was surreal stepping into an elevator with two of my favorite authors: Diana Gabaldon and Patricia Bracewell. But the absolute highlight – beyond lunch with Sharon – was spending time with two individuals I’ve come to know through Twitter and Facebook: Anna Belfrage and Alison Morton. Both are indieBRAG Medallion honorees (multiple times!) and were such fun. Two of the warmest people I know.
Post-conference blues hit when you have to say goodbye to friends, but I headed north to Rocky Mountain Park to enjoy some time with family and great scenery.
What a wonderful event to go to, Char. I can well understand why you had such a good time.
It was a great opportunity to participate.
Sounds like a great conference!
And I really did attend many sessions! 🙂
Lovely to meet you in person. Great photos and recap. And kudos for discovering Brandon’s last name!!!!
After seeing many tweets about David & Brandon, Debbie from EHFA noticed that no one mentioned Brandon’s last name. David was happy to reply! http://twitter.com/David_Blixt/status/615922362454831104
I wish I had taken the broadsword one too even just to see Macbeth.
Thanks for stopping by, Cryssa! Did David & Brandon re-enact a scene from another play for the rapier/dagger session?
No, they didn’t. Maybe next time they’ll take requests. The Mercurio/Tybalt fight would have been a good rapier fight.
I was thinking the same thing. You’ll need to suggest that on the survey!
I sooo wish I could have been there, but glad that everyone who was had a great time. Looking forward to hearing / seeing lots more about it and especially to Oxford 2016!
I hope I get to Oxford next and have the opportunity to meet you!
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High Flying Stories and Swords!
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