Ordinary Time

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In other words, it was ordinary time! Which means lots of ongoing projects which I would love to tell you about!

First—and most important for those of you who follow me only here on the blog, particularly by email—feedburner is discontinuing its email service as of July 2021, which means you are going to need to sign up to follow me on social media if you want nudges about when I have posted on the blog. 

Don’t worry! I am easy to find! Amazingly, I am still on Facebook, both under my personal and professional accounts, but I am also out there in the wild on a variety of other platforms, and I promise to let you know when new blog posts go up! 

My Facebook Author Page, Twitter, and Gab are best if you just want notices about my blog posts and videos (see below). My Facebook Profile is best for ongoing social, cultural, and political commentary. Telegram is best for those who want to go out on the edge—and write poetry (see below). Plus memes. 

😇Where to find me on social media👀😎💖

1. Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.fultonbrown

2. Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/RFultonBrown/

3. Gab: @fencingbear https://gab.com/fencingbear

4. Twitter: @RFultonBrown https://twitter.com/RFultonBrown

5. Telegram Channel: https://t.me/fencingbearatprayer

6. Telegram Chat: https://t.me/joinchat/UVCczOWoJR7o_q4O



Second, I am more than just a blogger! I make videos! Lots and lots of videos! I make videos about medieval history and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for Unauthorized.tv (with subscription), and I appear regularly as a guest on podcasts, YouTube channels, and even edgier places that you will only know about if you are a tradCath or stalwart follower of Milo. 

To make it easier to keep track of my lectures and interviews, I maintain a list here on the blog (Bear On Air), as well as an episode guide for my ongoing Tolkien series at Unauthorized.tv, where I have two channels: Logos and History, and Forge of Tolkien. Subscribers to Unauthorized.tv can also find me on SocialGalactic as @fencingbear.

🎥Where to watch my videos🌟🐾🌹

1. Bear On Air: 

https://fencingbearatprayer.blogspot.com/p/bear-on-air.html

2. Unauthorized.tv: Logos and History

Study guides at Medieval History 101: The Unauthorized Version: 

https://unauthorizedmedievalhistory.blogspot.com

3. Unauthorized.tv: The Forge of Tolkien

Episode guide with instructions how to subscribe: 

https://fencingbearatprayer.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-forge-of-tolkien.html


Third, and much to my own surprise, I write poetry. I say “I,” but in truth I have a whole team of poets over in Telegram. 

My fellow poets and I have been practicing our iambic pentameter this past year, and we published our first epic poem this spring—a satire on the model of Alexander Pope’s Dunciad. You can buy it on Amazon, but it is also available from Barnes & Noble as well as your favorite e-book platforms. 

For our second major work, we have moved on from satire to adventure. Our current poem is a Grail quest in ottava rima taking a group of bears to Antarctica in search of the Southern Light. We even have an illustrator for this one! Coming this year from DCR Books!

🐲Where to read our poetry🐻✨🐳

1. Centrism Games: A Modern Dunciad, by the Dragon Common Room (DCR Books, 2021).

In which the Goddess Fama sends a band of very different Knights on a quest to prove themselves her devoted servants. A cautionary tale in heroic couplets modeled on Alexander Pope’s scathing 18th-century Dunciad. 

Review by Joe Long, “Dunces in the Center,” American Greatness (April 2, 2021). 

2. Aurora Bearialis: A Quest, by the Dragon Common Room with Illustrations by Handdrawn Bear (forthcoming from DCR Books)

Once upon a time, there was a polar bear who loved watching the Northern Lights. Every day, he dreamed of capturing their beauty in a glass. One day, an albatross flew by and told him about an even more beautiful light that shone over Antarctica. Because of that, the polar bear convinced three bear friends to go in search of the Light of Antarctica. Because of that, they found themselves on a journey that tested their courage, friendship, and faith. Until finally, they learned the true source of the Light.


Fourth, I play with blocks—but not just any blocks! Ankerstein blocks! You can see them in my social media profiles and on my academic homepage. I am building now with Großkaliber Neue Folge 20—sneak peak at the Anker-Material Archiv, if you want to see the plans. 

It requires a full weekend to take down the previous building and put up a new one, and the plans are getting harder as I add further sets. One day maybe I will make it to GK-NF 34! But for now I am proud of myself for making it through sets 16 and 18 this past year. 

🏰Where to see my buildings🌃⛪🌇


1. Rachel’s Ankerstein Buildings

Gallery of builds from GK-NF 6, 14, 16, 18, and 20, with links to plans and where to buy your own blocks.

2. My academic homepage

Here you can also find links to my academic publications and syllabi for my courses at the University of Chicago, as well as a directory for my public pages (like this blog!). Url: http://home.uchicago.edu/~rfulton


And that—if you’ve been wondering—is just a little bit of what I’ve been up to when I have not been posting on the blog! Watch this space—more adventures to come!

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