For All You Elizabethan Fans Out There

One of the advantages of living near Washington DC is being able to enjoy the cultural events here. (I am hunkering down and allowing the masses of people coming in for Inauguration to swarm outside while I happily watch TV with the PS3, my dogs and cats and bask in the indoor warmth.) The Smithonsonian has a Resident Associates Program where classes, seminars, speeches and events are held. Topics cover the arts, history, performance and film and other assorted good stuff.

I signed up for Alison Weir's seminar on Elizabeth I and Katherine Swynford: Scandal, Survival, and Succession. Alison Weir is British author who wrote a bunch of biographies on Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII's wives and children, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Queen Isabella. She recently began writing fiction taking place in the same era: The Lady Elizabeth and Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey are her first fiction novels. The seminar is February 7 all day, and I bought my ticket already. Good thing I'm a Resident Associates Member; I saved myself $35.