Bruce Taylor and I went to see BRAVEHEART last weekend.

Needless to say, this has to be one of the nost exciting, visually stunning motion pictures I've ever had the plesure to watch. Mel Gibson had done an outstanding job in bringing the life and times of Willian Wallace to the silver screen. Though not for the squeamish...there are eviscerations, decapitations and amputations galore, the battle scenes are incredible--and plentiful as well.

It is impossible to watch this movie without feeling a variety of emotions, from pride, to hate, to a great sadness as Willian faces death. Yet, at the same tine, there is a very powerful beauty underlying the picture which makes it possible to accept the very graphic violence, after all, the wars were brutal, harsh and unforgiving, but the land had (and still has) an extraordinary allure, as does the period involved.

The Pre-Feudal Scots are once again out of their boxes and on the table, ready for HISTORICON 95. Somehow the powers that be have qualified me for the NICTs again this year, so we will see how the lads do this tine around. What with the effect of BRAVEHEART, I am sorely tempted to bring music along as well to "inspire' the troops, but probably not, too much of a distraction.

My book is now in the hands of Praeger publishers. I sent off the finished copy with all the editing changes last week and will only have some minor corrections to do before it is prepared for publication. The publication date is tentatively set for November 30 of this year. Since it is being marketed as a college text, the publishers have placed a pretty stiff price on it, such as Boydell Press does for their works. I will try to get sone marketing materials out to SAGA subscribers and perhaps can manage sone sort of discount schedule, but I don't know what it will be just yet.

Basically, the book is a little over 200 pages in length, with black and white plates, extensive bibliography, notes and an appendix listing seventy battles from 1000-1213 A.D., numbers of participants, leaders, losses, outcomes, reasons for victory or defeat, and the magnitude of the effect of the battle on the region in uhich it was fought. In all, a lot of research and I o glad it is over. In conjunction with Neglected Heroes, MILITARY HISTORY magazine will be publishing an article I sent then a couple of years ago dealing with Simon de Montfort and the Battle of Muret; look for that in the October issue.

At the moment, I am in the process of establishing DBM and ARHATI scenarios for my PALLAS ARMATA series of scenario books. Hopefully, these will be ready for HISTORICON. For those of you who already have the booklets, I will be able to provide the new sheets for a small charge. After that, I still have to finish up the 100 Years War booklet (sorry for the long delay, Gareth!), and then go to work on a new endeavor I wrote of before, an historical novel of the Norman Conquest. See you at the convention!