Hey Al - you should be able to get in to the US under the Visa Waiver programme if you have a fairly recent passport (i.e machine readable).  Failing that you will need a tourist visa.  But I think almost all UK passports issued in the last seven or eight years are OK.

See:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/vwp.html
(and a few further links)

BUT it is always at the discretion of the immigration officer.  The frontline immigration and border staff have authority if they are suspicious to turn people away and decide to demand visas or other documents or further proof of travel intentions etc... (as they do in most countries).  For example, if I was going to travel to the US, I would use my Irish passport and not my UK passport, as the UK one has entry stamps and visas from all over Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East, whereas the Irish one is pretty clean.  Smiles and good manners are as (more) useful as visas when crossing borders I have found.  

ATOM wrote:It also helps if you do not have a moustache or joined eyebrows!

Or a pubic hair beard.

Just thought I'd use this space instead of starting a thread..anyway Al (killjoy) you have not been reading your PMs I take it? or is your inbox to full?

Any way back to the regular scheduled off topic post

ShaneG.

Winterwords wrote:- On a similar note though, does anyone know about bank accounts over there?  :-/

Sorry about your grandmother.  I don't know if it will work for you, but I recently opened an account at http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/3/personal
via the web.  I transfer Paypal money into it, and the savings earns about 5%, which is pretty sweet.  They sent me an ATM card, too.  Hope this helps.

Has anyone purchased and/or read Children of Hurin yet?  The standard edition is in the bookstores now, but I'm "patiently" waiting for the deluxe edition which is evidently to be released next month in the US (already out in UK/CA).  Thoughts, reviews?

Yeah, I'm kinda foolish that way myself, which is why I posted about it...  I'm very tempted to go out and buy the regular edition today so I can start reading it.  I don't read my deluxe editions or 1sts anyway, so I might as well..<sigh> so much for the budget this month.  Have you checked out the map yet?  Sounds like it's a bit more detailed than the one in the Silmarillion.

Great news for anyone attending the Live Earth concert at Webley Stadium:

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx ... 3&GT1=7702

I wonder if Stonehenge will be one of the songs in their set?

Kingofpain89 wrote:
It's a nice map but it centers on the southwestern portion of Beleriand instead of encompassing the whole like The Silmarillion did.  And it does seem to have more detail than the previous maps I have seen for the region.

I broke down and bought it today at Atlantic Books (possibly the counterpart to the HPB some of you seem to frequent, don't have those here on the east coast).  I'm already on page 43; starts out a little slow, but seems promising.  Yeah, the map is more detailed but I haven't really scrutinized it yet.

Since I'm on the new fiction kick, and on the off chance someone else here cares about things Lovecraftian, I received an e-mail from John Pelan at Darkside Press today, who says that Cthulhuian Singularity is back on track and moving forward (original release estimate was December '06)--pricetag is steep at $75 for the signed LE and $150 for the deluxe, but should be worth it.

I'll more than likely finish it within a couple of days (or at least by Monday), so I'll post my first impressions.  I'll probably re-read the other versions of the Narn i Chin Hurin in Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion right afterwards, to refresh my memory.  

From the first chapter of Hurin, which I'm not quite through, about the first three or four pages were VERY familiar, and if I remember correctly are very similar to the version in the S.  However, from there on I'm definitely getting the sense I'm reading something I never have before.  The style is much more narrative (if that's the right word) than the S, less "biblical".  It's been longer since I last read the Tales, but as I recall most of that is fairly dry too.  The new one is definitely a novel in a way that the other two are not.  I can't recommend it yet based on 43 pages, but nothing so far has put me off in the slightest.