About

How I got started:
While I grew up surrounded by an extended reenacting circle, going to events with my family for almost 30 years, I’ve been actively ‘doing’ history for about the last eleven years, thanks to the unlikely combination of Mark A. Baker and Peter Jackson. Let me explain.

At the end of 2012, after spending a summer working a BSA 18th/19th-century living history camp, I was marinating in Baker’s Pilgrim’s Journey, at the same time the first installment of Jackson’s bloated and misguided ‘Hobbit’ trilogy came out. I was far from impressed with his ridiculous padding of a beloved children’s novel, but I was very impressed with the lived-in details of WETA’s props and costumes (this was also true of his LotR adaptation, of course, but I’d long ago internalized those and this was fresh). I looked at WETA’s artifacts and thought, ‘I’d love to get ahold of Bilbo’s linen and leather camping gear and actually use it to go camping!’, and then I read Mark Baker, who apparently had done exactly that, just in an 18th century context! A bit of websearching led me to J.Book’s old hobbit-hiking blog, which led me to the Middle-earth Ranger Forum, where I found a scant handful of folks who were interested in more than just reading Tolkien, or cosplaying as Jackson’s interpretations of characters, but who wanted to actually get out and Do It!

Fast-forward to early 2016, when J. invited me to a facebook group he put together, devoted to ‘historical re-creation’ in a Star Wars setting. Since I’d been a diehard fan for over 20 years, and I’d just spent the previous three years proving that this was possible using Tolkien’s works as a primary source ‘text’, I gladly accepted the challenge. This blog is the result. Since then, I’ve also taken over moderation of Jake’s group, and am happy to say that we have an active and growing community.

Join the conversation at the Star Wars Living History facebook group!

You can learn more about my journey to galactic reenacting from my appearance on the Into a Larger World podcast!