Archival research, the people.

I know of no one, and I mean no one, who is better at it than my husband, known to you as The Historian, whose book is now a real thing, printed on paper and bound in cloth, with a dust jacket and dedications, historical photographs and captions, fat chapter titles, footnotes galore, and an index that his co-author did himself.

Did I mention the archival research? This meant looking at microfilms of newspapers and minutes, then searching newspapers online, not to mention looking at all manner of other dusty documents with their relevant secrets well hidden. It meant trips to Special Collections and the LDS Church History library. It meant reading more socialist writing than you can shake a stick at.

It required patience and diligence and persistence and invention. It is the completion of a many years' long task, and it tells a story that almost no one knows about.

And it is a damn book, the people, and that--that is something to celebrate.

Find out more about it here. And the authors will be at the Book Festival on Oct. 22 (more information here).

Reason #11275 I am glad to be married to the historian.

When there was a moth the size of a small bird in my study tonight, and after I shrieked like this: "aaahaaahaaah!," he came in, steadily drew his hand close and then closer to where the moth had alighted, then picked it up and put it outside. Where it belongs.

I praise the name of the man, the historian, the moth-catcher, the allayer of fears.

In other news about scary things: I saw that trailer for the super scary scary movie The Strangers again on television (in my house! the nerve of the scary movie purveyors). I muted it and closed my eyes. It didn't look quite as scary, but then, I haven't yet gone to the kitchen to get ibuprofen in the dark, or walked past the windows.

Not scary: I worked for a long time on my new poem today. I decided I wasn't going to rush it into being. I started with some lines, but then decided that rather than write the poem to go with the lines, I was going to try to write around all the elements I thought might have a place in the poem, to see what connections there were that I might not be seeing right off the bat. It was great, because I did find a connection that I didn't have in mind when I started. It was a sustained act of invention, and I highly recommend it.