My Participation in the Æthelmearc Gazette Project

In November of last year I was asked to participate in an editorial project in the SCA.   Mistress Tiercelin was starting a new blog, patterned after the East Kingdom Gazette, for our Kingdom of Æthelmearc. This was in response to declining readership numbers for the Kingdom newsletters and the reluctance of the corporate structure to open access to these newsletters. She, and others, felt that this limited the usefulness of the newsletters in providing information to the Society's membership as well as lost opportunities to advertise our organization and recruit new members. I was asked to be a contributing editor with a specialty for equestrian related articles.  In addition to regular news-worthy postings, I would write and solicit articles on the equestrian activities of the SCA.

To date, the Gazette was been - well- wildly successful. Posts are being read, shared, and talked about across the Internet. During the last few weeks, there have been some controversial topics covered and the Æthelmearc Gazette has been seen as a bastion of freedom of information and editorial excellence.

It has been my honor and pleasure to be a part of this project. The Gazette is an excellent vehicle to disseminate information about the SCA and its activities. I used to write equestrian-related articles for the Kingdom's newsletter, the Æstel frequently. While I appreciate the editors including my material, I was disheartened to discover that the number of people who actually were accessing and reading the newsletters, and my articles, was very low. The Gazette has proven to be a much more superior method of sharing tis information.

On a more personal level, my participation in this project has aided me in my own blog. I started this blog about a month before the Gazette project and was quite intimidated by the whole blog experience. Learning to use the WordPress system and posting to the Gazette has given me more experience and confidence which I believe has benefited this blog.

To this point, I have posted five articles which I authored (an additional article which I edited was submitted and written by THL Meadhbh, a few equestrian of the Kingdom).  These include the articles noted below:

A Message from the Kingdom Equestrian Officer
Posted December 17, 2014  (The article can be found here)

"Greetings unto the wondrous populace of Æthelmearc,
As the winds of winter blow across the land, the war steeds of Æthelmearc stand with thick-grown coats, tails turned to the weather. They and their riders are waiting for the warmer days of spring and the call to ride to the Tournament....."




The Taking of an Equerry
Posted January 16, 2015 (The article can be found here)
This article has also been posted here on this blog in its entirety.

"While not part of any Kingdom law, it is customary for Peers to assume a mentoring relationship with a student who aspires to follow the example of their Peer in achieving a level of excellence in their chosen discipline within the SCA. Knights take Squires; Laurels take Apprentices and Pelicans take Protégés.....Within the equestrian community of the Known World, there is a special type of student —known as an Equerry....."


Equestrian Events for Autocrats and Event Organizers
Posted January 23, 2015 (The article can be found here)

"This article is specifically tailored towards those persons interested in adding equestrian activities to their event, focusing on the important steps that should be followed....."

Æthelmearc Signs the Treaty of the Golden Lance
Posted January 25, 2015 (The article can be found here)

"On the 27th day of July Anno Societatis XLVIII, Æthelmearc joined with the Kingdoms of Ansteorra, Caid, Trimaris and Atlantia in recognizing equestrians within their kingdoms with a Grant level award by signing the Treaty of the Golden Lance......"


The Diversity of Equestrian Activities
Posted February 11, 2015 (The article can be found here)

"As an active equestrian, and marshal, in the SCA, I have often been asked: What types of activities do you do with your horses in the SCA? I have written articles about the various equestrian activities practiced in the SCA. But what people often want to know is: What type of weapons do you use and what level of skill is required to be an excellent SCA equestrian? ......."

This article details the various diverse activities of SCA equestrian and focuses on the numerous skills which equestrians must develop in order to be successful in this sport.

Æthelmearc’s Kingdom Equestrian Champions
Posted February 25, 2015 (The article can be found here.)

"In Æthelmearc, the Kingdom Equestrian Champions are chosen once a year instead of every reign.....The first Æthelmearc Equestrian Championship was held ....."  This article is about the equestrian champions of the Kingdom, providing a list of past and present champions, the date and location for the event where the championship was held, and which monarchs sat the throne at the time.


I am looking forward to sharing more articles and my passion for SCA equestrian activities through this incredible new venue in the future! The Æthelmearc Gazette has a Facebook page associated with it as well which can be accessed here.

SCA Articles and Projects

One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to share some of the articles I have written.  These articles cover a variety of topics that I have researched since becoming involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA).  I also wanted a place to post my projects based on some of this research.  Some of these articles have been published in my Kingdom's newsletter, the Æstel.  Others have been used as documentation for the various Arts and Sciences (A&S) projects I have entered in competitions, the primary one being the annual Ice Dragon Pentathlon.   Many of these projects focus on the equestrian arts and sciences as that is my primary focus of research, but there are also projects and articles on painting, clothing, illumination, leatherwork, etc.  It is my hope that this information will help someone else in their own scholarly pursuits.

Blogs as a Learning Experience

I have never had any experience with Blogs or blogging before I created this page.  I have read a few blogs but only a few, so I have very little understanding of how they are structured or set up.  But I am fairly good at learning new computer programs, so I figured - "How hard can it be?"  Yeah, right! 

This has certainly been a learning experience!  Fortunately, I am also involved in a blog project for my Kingdom in the SCA.  (A Kingdom is similar to a regional branch of a organization; we just use medieval sounding names for things.)  This project is an attempt to spread information about our organization, its activities and news.  Its also a way to advertise the organization and recruit members.  Its called the Æthelmearc Gazette and can be found here.   So as a contributing and daily editor, I have gotten a crash course in blog creation and I am hoping it helps me with my own blog (which I started working on before being invited to help with the project...... good timing there!)

I started by going to the Internet and searching for things such as "best blogs" and "how to start a blog" as well as various other topics.  I try to use the wealth of information available on the Web to my advantage.  There is an incredible amount of information out there.  It is amazing, really, when you think about how quickly the information age has come upon us and how quickly the Internet has grown.  Its equally amazing how we used to be limited to finding all this great information by going to the library.  (I also appreciate how the Internet has aided my research into my family roots.)

After searching the Web and reading several sites' advice, I decided on Blogger because I came to understand it was fairly easy and commonly used by first-time bloggers.  Additionally, I discovered that, as I gain experience with blogs, I can "upgrade" and convert my blog to a WordPress blog at a later time.

So as I am trying to learn how to format the pages, set up the blog's appearance and post.....it has been a trial and error sort of thing.  I guess the best advice I can give to others....Don't be afraid to try it.  If you don't like what you post, you can delete it.  And you just have to try different things and look at other examples from the Web.