Musings from a L.O.O.N.

A new blog on Paris and website update on the Ozark Medieval Fortress

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:50:00 +0000

I have been extremely busy this last month and have not had much time for blogging.

I hope to remedy that soon by continuing my long drawn out travelogue series on my trip to France.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with my readers a blog by my friend Molly Dwyer who is doing research for her second historical novel and is living in Paris for three months.

She has far more energy than I did when I was in Paris for a week, because she has blogged every day. Molly gives her insights about the historical places she has visited as well as what it is like to be An American in Paris.

Check it out, I think you will be delighted.

I also wanted to let my readers know that the website for the O zark Medieval Fortress has recently been updated. It looks wonderful. I am looking forward to when I can visit the site in person.

One Large and Ugly Garden Gnome

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:06:00 +0000

I wanted to wish my readers in the United States a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

During my weekend plans, I will be traveling past what I consider to be the largest and ugliest lawn ornament I have ever seen.

I finally took a snapshot of it, so I thought I would share this monstrosity with others.

It is huge. Probably about ten feet tall, although I have never measured it. Click on the image so that you can see it blown up real big to get a true picture of how truly ugly it is.

I call it the BFGG. Similar to Roald Dahl's BFG, but while the letter B stands for Big, the letter F does not stand for Friendly.

Must Not Sleep. Garden Gnome will eat me.

Artistic Drawings of the Ozark Medieval Fortress

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Here is my first update in regard to the planned Ozark Medieval Fortress that will be opening to the general public in the spring of 2010. My first post on this amazing project with pictures of the construction which started in June of this year can be found here.

Noémi Brunet shared with me the following drawings and gave me permission to post them on my blog.

This is what the Ozark Medieval Fortress should look like in the year 2010.

In the year 2020

And what it should look like when it is finished, projected to be in the year 2030.

May we all live long enough to see it completed!

Kreativ Blogger Award

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I have been overdue in making this announcement, but I was given my first ever blogging award last month. It is the Kreativ Blogger Award and it was given to me by Nicole Krueger of Books and Bards. Nicole has a recent post showing a list of some "lesser-known editing and proof-reading marks"which I found amusing. She also won a "flash fiction" contest that my friend and fellow Redwood Writer s club member Ann Wilkes posted on her blog.

Nicole discovered my blog through a post I made regarding my thoughts on the Twilight series.

The rules of this award are that the recipient is to list seven things that they love and choose seven other bloggers to honor.

Here are seven things I love:

1. Chocolate. I prefer really good chocolate. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate covered almonds, chocolate covered strawberries, raspberries with chocolate. Mmmmm.

2. Wine. Especially wine that pairs well with chocolate. I also love big, bold red wines that taste of fruit and not filled with tannins. Zinfandel is my favorite varietal and Fred Scherrer is my favorite winemaker.

3. Sunshine and warm weather. I grew up in Michigan which was cold and overcast most of the year, so I appreciate living in the wine country of Northern California and not having to worry about shoveling snow or wondering about wind chill factors.

4. The ocean. I live about a 45 minute drive from the gorgeous Sonoma Coast. I enjoy watching the waves crash on the shore and am reminded of the transitory nature of human existence. Mother Nature is far more powerful than Man's shelters.

5. Traveling. I love seeing new sites as well as taking friends to see some of my favorite places.

6. History. Pair that with my love of traveling and you have a research based trip to historical sites.

7. Entertaining. I love sharing good food and wine with my friends. Especially if it is food that my husband has created. He has earned quite the reputation for his cooking skills.

Now onto sharing the blog award with others. I will admit that I follow a lot of blogs. When I take the time to read blogs, I will come across links to other blogs that look intriguing and then subscribe to them. Subsequently I have approximately over 100 blogs in my Google reader. They are an eclectic mix of agent and author blogs, writing and marketing blogs, medievalist blogs, and well - miscellaneous blogs - to boot.

I am regularly overwhelmed by the number of unread blog posts waiting for me to read and so I wind up scanning the titles of the blog posts before reading or ruthlessly clicking "mark all as read" in my attempt to streamline the process. I dislike unsubscribing thinking that I will miss out on something really cool.

The bloggers that I have chosen to give this award to are bloggers whose work I admire.

1. One of the first Medievalist blogs I came across was Richard Scott Nokes' Unlocked Wordhoard. He is a professor of Medieval Literature at Troy University in Troy Alabama and his blog serves as a clearinghouse for medievalist blogs with his regular feature Morning Medieval Miscellany which provides links to posts he thinks are worthy of attention.

It is due to his blog that I have discovered many other Medievalist blogs, including

2. Jeff Sypeck's Quid Plura? blog. Jeff wrote the book Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad and the Empires of A.D. 800 which I found helpful in my research about the historical Charlemagne for my novel. Jeff's blog also includes helpful links, but his original posts about the nexus of Medievalism and pop culture are quirky and entertaining.

3. Erika Mailman. Erika wrote a wonderful novel The Witch's Trinity set in 16th century Germany focusing on one community's shared hysteria surrounding witch trials. Many of her blog posts deal with the historical aspects of superstition regarding witchcraft (including fabulous woodcuts), but many posts also concern current day persecution of people accused of being witches.

It is not just a horrible nightmare of our past.

4. C.W. Gortner is another historical novelist blogger. Christopher had a recent post "Don't Defame the Dead" where he passionately defended the medium of historical novels against criticism by some historians. I found that post to be thought provoking for me since I had taken some historical methods classes when I was in graduate school. I understand both perspectives, and recognize my own struggles with trying to adhere as closely to historical reality as possible while also having an eye to the needs of storytelling without boring the reader.

His book The Last Queen is about Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood.

Some late breaking good news for Christopher. His next novel The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is scheduled to be released on May 25, 2010.

5. Lee Lofland's The Graveyard Shift blog covers a wide range of topics related to law enforcement and regularly has guest posts from experts. His blog should be required reading for anyone writing mysteries, using any law enforcement characters or is interested in a career in law enforcement. Lee is a retired police officer/homicide detective, author of the Writer's Digest book Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers and is an all around good guy.

Speaking of law enforcement and mysteries...

6. Tess Gerritsen is the New York Times bestselling author of the Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles series. She writes spine tingling and multi-layered thrillers which resonate with her attentiveness to detail and a knack for taut storytelling. Tess is a warm individual and a generous author willing to "pay it forward" for other writers. Her blog is one aspect of her generosity because she provides insight about what it is like to be a full time author.

I do my best to follow the trades by reading Publisher's Lunch and PW Daily as well as agent blogs, but they cannot provide the same perspective that Tess does on her blog. In particular, she alerted me to the downside of what might be a trend by publishers to cut costs in regard to phasing out printed galleys.

I was astonished to read the tone used in an email from a publisher to her when they were hoping she would provide a blurb for a forthcoming book for one of their authors. They seemed ignorant of concepts put forth by Dale Carnegie years ago in trying to win friends and influence people. I hope that most publishers who are seeking blurbs from famous authors would adopt a "pro-choice" attitude and offer options as to how galleys would be submitted to them: paper or PDF. Eliminating printed versions might lower the publisher's printing and postage costs, but it might also prevent their forthcoming books from getting some coveted blurbs which could help boost sales.

It would be well worth the tine and effort for aspiring writers to poke around through Tess' archives to discover other gems about the publishing industry. By the way, her latest book The Keepsake is due out in paperback August 25th!

7. And lastly is my friend John Granger's The Hogwarts Professor blog.

John takes literary criticism to heart. His analyses of the Harry Potter series is among the best I have read. He looks deeply into the text and recognizes symbols of literary alchemy that I had never known before. I have garnered a new appreciation for the series due to his scholarship.

He has several books exploring many different aspects of the Harry Potter series. One of his most influential books was Looking for God in Harry Potter which rebuts the criticism in some circles that J.K. Rowling's books are promoting witchcraft and are therefore worthy of being banned or burned.

John's most recent book is Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books behind the Hogwarts Adventures.

John has now turned his attention to another series to analyze. It is the Twilight series and his blogging on that subject can be found at the Forks High School Professor blog.

Hopefully these links will help my readers discover and enjoy a few of my favorite blogs.

Ozark Medieval Fortress - Opening May 2010

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Workers in the quarry

Ground has been broken to build a medieval castle in the United States of America.

Stone by stone it is being built.

Each stone is cut by workers using hammers and chisels, then the stones are hewn by hand to the exact shape wanted by masons.

The masons carefully lay the stones down with mortar hand mixed on the site.

Workers in front of a partially constructed wall

The castle walls will be six feet thick and will stand forty-five feet high. The fortress will also have a drawbridge and a moat.

Close-up of the wall

This building project will be done year round and it is projected that the fortress will be completed in twenty years.

It is the Ozark Medieval Fortress being built in Arkansas, not far from Branson, Missouri.

Construction started in June 2009 and will be open for visitors in May 2010. Visitors will be able to see an active construction site and ask questions of the craftsmen. It is a wonderful opportunity to see how things were done before the advent of power tools.

I learned of this project via an email the other day. The creative forces behind the Ozark Medieval Fortress are the same ones who created Guédelon in France.

They discovered the blog post I had written about Guédelon and sent me an email telling me about their new project in Arkansas.

I had the wonderful experience of speaking with Michel Guyot's wife Noémi Brunet by phone the other day about Guédelon and the Ozark Medieval Fortress projects.

Noémi gave me permission to use these photographs to help illustrate my post.

An aerial view of the site.
On the left is the quarry, on the right is where the fortress will be built.

According to their website they are hiring right now.

They are in need of master stonemasons but this kind of project will need carpenters, blacksmiths, tile makers, rope makers, basket weavers and more. It is a veritable community of craftspeople whose skills are needed in the construction of castles.

The first of many workshops to be built.

They are also looking for people who would like to volunteer.

At Guédelon they have many volunteers who spend a portion of their holiday time helping in the construction. Some work as blacksmiths, while others cut down trees for scaffolding. They have some volunteers who enjoy the work so much that they come back year after year during their breaks from their regular jobs to spend time at Guédelon.

We used to have good old fashioned barn-raisings where a community would come together and help build a barn. Well if the idea of helping to build a castle intrigues you, even if it is only for a week or so, they would like your help.

You would not have to permanently move to Arkansas or change your career, but you can go and volunteer when you have some spare time.

Architectural drawing of the plans for the fortress.

A maquette of the future fortress.

Noémi was very interested in reaching out to the Medievalist communities in the United States and to tap into a potential volunteer pool. I am going to do my part to contact those who I think will share an interest in this living history project.

For more information about the project or how you can volunteer you can contact them via their website.

Another aerial view, this time showing the broad outlines of the future fortress.

I will be posting more on this subject in the future. I am certain of that.

In the meantime, please spread the word.

Edited to add: here is a link to my first update on this project which includes architectural drawings of what the finished fortress should look like in three different phases.

Review: Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde by Anna Elliott

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Here is a review (without spoilers!) written by a friend of mine about a debut novel recently published in trade paperback. It is the first installment of a planned trilogy by Anna Elliott and published by Touchstone (Simon and Schuster.)

Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde by Anna Elliott

A new version of the fabled legend of Trystan and Isolde, Twilight of Avalon is a hearty brew of goddess magic and ancient text, told from the point of view of the surprisingly wise and adept Isolde. Elliott’s debut novel, first in a trilogy, relies on the earliest written verses of the legend, yet brings us vivid characters, witty and wry, with modern complexities and motivations. Written in the tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Mary Renault, Elliott’s Twilight of Avalon humanizes the legendary characters of Trystan and Isolde, translating them from the iconic, bigger than life, tragic figures to clever conspirators on a dangerous, breathtaking adventure. The characters’ real courage and skill, coupled with the magical heritage of Avalon, weaves a new bright texture to the tapestry of this medieval lore.

Review by Kate Farrell, Author, Girl in the Mirror.

Anna Elliott is willing to talk via speakerphone to book groups about her novel. I enjoy meeting authors at books signings and being able to ask them about aspects of their book or the writing process. However, it is not possible that every author I am interested in will be able to visit my local bookstore. So I appreciate it when authors are willing to make themselves available using our modern communiation technology to "virtually" meet their readers.

Speaking of the legend of Tristan and Iseult...a few years ago my friend Kate Farrell and I attended the West Coast premiere of Patrick Ball and the Medieval Beast's The Flame of Love: The Legend of Tristan and Iseult.

It was a mixture of spoken word and medieval musical accompaniment. It was beautiful. Patrick Ball is a world renowned harpist and his website now has audio clips from that show. Patrick has many CDs of his shows including some dedicated to the music of the famous Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan. He has a busy touring schedule and you should check it to see if he is coming to a venue near you.

Happy Summer Solstice everyone,

Linda

Contest to help launch new edition of Pope Joan

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Today June 9th is the launch date of a new revised version of Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel Pope Joan. I met Donna ten years ago when she visited Sonoma County and was kind enough to offer to do a benefit signing for an organization I headed at the time.

I am happy that she has had such wonderful success with her novel and wish her well on the launch of the new edition and with the forthcoming movie adapted from her novel.

From her email updates comes this information:

Pope Joan Updates
from Donna Woolfolk Cross

Hello Pope Joan Readers!

Ready to walk the red carpet with me? See below!

Has any author has ever owed so much to her readers as I do? I doubt it. Abandoned by its previous publisher, Pope Joan, labor of my heart, the product of seven years of research and writing, should by all rights have had a shelf life somewhere between lettuce and yogurt!

The fact that it's still in print is testimony to the power of grass-roots promotion--to the kindness of readers who passed the word (not the book! never the book!) along. Heartfelt thanks to all who have supported my poor orphaned novel over the years.

At long last, Pope Joan may have her day. As I mentioned in the
March Update, I now have a wonderful new publisher, Three Rivers
Press. Together, we have created a whole new edition of Pope Joan.

The new version has:

larger print (no need to squint to read it anymore!)
corrections and additions to the text
revised and updated Author's Note which includes new information in support of Joan's historical existence
a new list of "Best of the Best" reading group questions, gleaned from my many years of chatting by speakerphone with reading and school groups all over the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The new edition will arrive in bookstores tomorrow, June 9th. And it's important that it "hit the ground running." The more briskly books sell right on/after June 9th, the more likely Pope Joan will finally "make her mark" on a U.S. bestseller list.

To help encourage summer sales, I've come up with a fun and unusual idea, which should appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of walking a red carpet.

Join me and my family as we walk the red carpet on the night of the Pope Joan movie premiere!

... Includes two tickets to the movie premiere,
plus round trip airfare for two from any location in the continental United States or Canada, and one night hotel accommodation for you and your guest to share.

Want to participate? Simply buy the new Three Rivers Press edition of Pope Joan during the months of June or July 2009 and send me the original receipt. In August, I'll pick randomly from the pile of receipts to select someone and their guest to join me at the U.S. movie premiere in the fall (exact date still to be determined).

And... a special bonus for anyone who purchases the new edition of Pope Joan on its release date, Tuesday, June 9th.
Learn more at the link below.

*****************************

Link to the official Pope Joan Red Carpet entry information here.

*****************************

It's an innovative--even somewhat quirky-- idea, which is why I believe Joan herself would have liked it. It's also a very small gesture of appreciation to my wonderful readers who have done so much for Pope Joan. With your continued support, perhaps this inspirational woman, long forgotten to history, can finally get the recognition she deserves!

Donna Woolfolk Cross

June 2009

My thoughts on the Twilight series

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:40:00 +0000

This essay has been in the works for some time. I was inspired to read the series when my friend John Granger was challenged to compare the Twilight phenomenon to the Harry Potter series. Many have asked if Twilight is the new Harry Potter because both are fantasy series whose popularity increased over time and had crazed fans at bookstores' midnight release parties. Both John Granger and Travis Prinzi have weighed in on their thoughts on the Twilight series, but it has taken me longer to chime in with my response.

In my own humble opinion I see little similarity between the two series. The Harry Potter series is intricately plotted and layered with all kinds of obscure symbolism and rich meaning. The Twilight series appears far more straightforward with its strength on the romantic love story between the lead characters rather than having a complex plot structure with intricate mythological subtext and alchemical symbolism as the Harry Potter series does.

I have read the entire Twilight series as well as the online partial manuscript of Midnight Sun that was abandoned by Stephenie Meyer after it was leaked onto the internet.

I have also watched the movie a few times.

This analysis is a broad overview of the series and contains some spoilers. So those who have not read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and were considering either reading it or watching the movie adaptations are forewarned.

Some of the questions I see posed most often is "why is it so popular?" and "why is it less likely for men to like this series as well as women?" That last observation alone makes the Twilight series different from the Harry Potter series, because in my own experience I know many men who are just as obsessed as women with the series (as well as children.)

I believe the answers to the gender gap and the popularity of the series can be discerned by understanding the character of Edward Cullen and his impact on readers.

The other day I overheard a work colleague talking with one of her friends. They were discussing the Twilight series and this woman I didn't know proclaimed that Edward Cullen was her boyfriend. I suppressed a laugh because she would have no idea how much I have over-analyzed this series. If I discussed my thoughts with her, I might have lessened her ardor for him and the series, but then again, maybe nothing would.

That is because Edward Cullen is not only Drop Dead Gorgeous, he is perfect. He is so perfect that no mere mortal man could ever measure up to Edward's perfection as the ultimate fantasy male.

Edward has perfect hair, the perfect smile, perfect chiseled features, perfect six pack abs, and a perfect musical sounding voice.

Did I mention he was perfect? Stephenie Meyers wants to make sure her readers know how perfect Edward Cullen is by using the words perfect and perfection to describe him multiple times throughout the story.

Here are a few descriptions of him:

His hair was dripping wet, disheveled – even so, he looked like he’d just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. Page 43

He smiled widely, flashing a set of perfect, ultrawhite teeth. Page 50.

I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel…He paused and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly vulnerable. page 65

There's more. Much more. Bella Swan as the narrator is quite redundant about her adoration of Edward's physical features.

It is a wonder the filmmakers were able to cast any actor to play the part onscreen. Few living men would feel comfortable trying to measure up to that kind of advance billing. Even Robert Pattinson was insecure about showing his chest for the film because he did not think he could live up to the perfect Adonis-like physique described in the text.

But, there is more than just his good looks which makes him attractive. He is also aloof to the point of being unobtainable. The rare earth element unobtainium makes him even more desirable.

But wait - there's more. Edward is also a virgin.

Not your average run-of-the-mill, "I just haven't slept with anyone yet" virgin. Noooo. He is a Virgin in every way. Not only has he never had sex before, he has never even had sexual thoughts before.

He is pure.

Poor gorgeous Edward has the blessing/curse of being able to hear other people's thoughts. Every vengeful, spiteful, prideful, lustful, deceitful, inane thought someone has is easily discerned by Edward. He can try and ignore the thoughts of others as if it were merely background noise, but no one's mind was ever a mystery to him.

This changes when he meets Bella Swan and discovers he cannot read her thoughts. Even though she has is likely to have similar thoughts to other teenaged girls who are drooling over him, he cannot sense them. This makes her an enigma and she therefore fascinates him. She also has a scent that drives him wild.

Wild to the point of madness. Which makes him all the more dangerous. And Edward is a bad boy. In fiction, and sometimes in Real Life, bad boys = Dead!Sexy.

Bella and Edward clash, but Bella detects mixed signals on his part. This confuses her and makes Edward seem all the more alluring.

She becomes so enamored by his beauty that even after she discovers his Dark Secret, she does not care.

For those unaware, Edward Cullen's Deep Dark Secret is that he is a vampire. However he is not in the Bela Legosi/Christopher Lee/Jonathon Frid/Frank Langella vein of vampires. Nope. Edward is basically a "defanged" vampire and has been rendered almost harmless.

This is the aspect of the series that I find the most problematic. If Meyer didn't like vampire lore, I feel she should have chosen another mythological creature or tried creating a new fantastical creature.

Instead, Stephenie Meyer made her "good vampires" so tame that they lack most of the trademark markers of the cursed Undead.

It is as if she went through a checklist to deep-six anything that made her squeamish. The italics denote my imagining Meyer's thought processes as she determined the rules of her Twilight universe vampires.

Drinking human blood? That is for the bad vampires, but ewww. Not for my hero. I'll make him a "vegetarian" subsisting on the blood of animals. Oh and allow him and his "family" to gorge themselves so they do not have to feed on a daily basis. A few times a month should do it - otherwise it might interfere with plotting. Edward will just have to suffer from thirst because he cannot leave Bella's side when her safety is threatened by the bad vamps.

Sleeping in coffins? Ugh. Creeeeepy. How about vampires never sleep? Yeah, imagine all the things you could get accomplished if you never slept.

Have them be driven away by crucifixes? Nah. That might imply they were demonic. Can't have that with my hero. Instead, I'll feature a gigantic crucifix in the vampire household as a religious relic.

Unable to walk about during daylight hours? Er, no. He just has to avoid the rays of the sun. I shall choose a setting that is overcast most of the time. Edward has to be able to be outside during daylight because otherwise the set up of my romantic couple meeting in high school would not work. And I have to make Bella be a high school student because I want her to be a virgin as well. It would be less likely for an attractive young woman to believably be a virgin by college age. I know, I'll come up with something no one would expect as to why vampires cannot go be seen in the daytime. Vampire skin is iridescent in sunlight like cut diamonds. Sunlight will make their skin all sparkly. :swoons at the thought: Sparkly vampires. Mmmmmm.

The sparkly vampires aspect is something that gave me the most difficulty in the series.

I normally avoid reading urban fantasy novels which have vampires in them. That is because of my tendency to nitpick to death aspects of vampire legend. I grew up watching "Dark Shadows" on tv as well as many vampire movies until I knew the Hollywood vampire lore by heart.

This was best exemplified by the George Hamilton spoof, “Love at First Bite.”

Vampires can’t see their images in mirrors, they sleep during daylight hours, they cannot not stand garlic or crosses, they have to be invited inside someone's home, can turn into bats, and it takes three bites to turn someone into a vampire. Three bites. If a woman who was bitten by a vampire did not receive three bites, she was safe.

At least that was the state of vampire mythology “Hollywood style” when I was growing up.

In high school, I had to write a ten page research paper. We could choose any topic under the sun. I chose vampire lore. Why? I thought it would be fun. I discovered that the Hollywood treatment of vampires does not necessarily follow the legends. You did not need three bites to become a vampire. You could be bitten once, survive the encounter and then when you died eventually you would then become a vampire. Or you could be bled slowly, survive multiple bites over the magic number of three and when you finally died you would become a vampire. I learned lots of weird vampire trivia that I dust off occasionally like parlor tricks to spice up conversations with people. I no longer have the citations, but many of them came from renowned vampirologist Reverend Montague Summers and his books The Vampire in Europe and The Vampire his Kith and Kin.

For instance once werewolves are killed, they will rise up to become vampires.

Frankly, once I discovered that particular bit of lore, I wondered why no one in Hollywood has used it. Come on, we are talking about a built-in sequel here.

You could become a vampire if a cat jumped over your coffin. So be sure to keep the kitties away from Aunt Martha when she is laid out to rest in the front parlor.

Other methods of becoming a vampire included excommunication and weirdly even the gaze of a vampire can sometimes transmit vampirism. Should a vampire gaze upon a pregnant woman, that cursed child is doomed to becoming a vampire after death even if they life a long full life.

Vampires also had an uncontrollable urge to count things, such as thorns or poppy seeds. So rather than making your room smell like a garlic factory, you could just throw a handful of poppy seeds outside your bedroom window rendering the potential night time visitor into the comical sight of a creature picking up individual seeds and saying, "one poppy seed, two poppy seeds, three poppy seeds, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhh."

After learning the strange beliefs surrounding vampire legends, and after having watched Frank Langella as Dracula, I felt that I had no further need to see another vampire movie. To me, no one could ever out do Langella in his prime and I was afraid that I would simply nitpick over a Hollywood screenwriter twisting the legends into directions I would not care for.

Hence my reluctance to read urban fantasy and why some of Meyer's changes to vampire lore bugged me more than it would your average reader and/or movie goer. I dislike it when certain aspects are altered too far from what I consider to be the core vampire lore.

The biggest difference in Meyer’s character of Edward Cullen from traditional Dracula-like vampires is that Edward does not accept and/or revel in his status as a vampire. This ups the angst quotient. He is a vampire who deliberately goes against his own nature.

He is immortal and has been a vampire since his death at age seventeen from the Spanish influenza in 1918. The age difference between Edward and Bella disturbs some of the commenters on the Hogwarts Professor boards. I understood Meyer’s age choice due to the constructs of wanting a believable reason for Edward being a virgin. Impending death by flu was a convenient choice for Meyer since Edward would have died without trauma and it is a time period where we romanticize that men were more gentlemanly toward women and that women were more protective of their virtue. It is doubtful that a really good looking guy like Edward would be a virgin at age seventeen if he lived in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, etc. Then making him live without love for nearly a century increases the angst and Edward Cullen’s character is all about angst.

Edward lived with three other vampire couples for nearly one hundred years while he was alone. He did not realize that he was waiting for his soul mate Bella to be born. Once he discovered that his strange feelings toward this human were due to love, he began doting on her. Edward loved Bella completely, wholly, even obsessively. He loved the blush in her cheeks and the sound of her heart fluttering. If she were to become a vampire, those mortal things would disappear.

Edward loathed his own inhuman existence (oh, the angst!) and did not wish that upon the woman he loves. Instead his preference was to have his own version of courtly love with her. He kissed her and cuddled with her, but refused to go any farther lest he might lose control and possibly crush her skull, pelvis, etc., in the heat of passion.

This is a far different kind of relationship from the Classic vampire/human relationship typified by Hollywood movies. Generally we see a predator seeking to quench his thirst amongst humans and he discovers a woman he finds attractive. He wants her to satisfy more than just one appetite. He stalks, attacks and claims dominion over said prey. Then someone near and dear to the victim tries to rescue her from the fate worse than death. Stalking of the vampire begins and the end of the story is the destruction of the undead.

Not in this story. Because Edward Cullen is not Dracula. He has a conscience and actively denies his own true nature, which again drives up the angst quotient. He is a tortured soul. (That is if vampires have souls.) Because Edward is protective of Bella’s status as a living, breathing human he becomes the antithesis to “normal” vampires. This conflict of normal/abnormal vampire behavior drives the storyline in each of the four volumes and leads to showdowns with “bad” vampires in each book.

Another source of conflict in the story is the differences between what Bella wants and what Edward wants. Edward wants to simply love Bella and watch her grow old, die a normal death and then he would want to have his own existence end so that he did not continue on without her. Bella does not like that scenario. Because Edward not only has immortal life he has eternal youth.

He will always be gorgeous.

He will never get older, fatter and balder.

Being human and alive, Bella will grow older. Her body will start to sag. Her face will become lined. Her hair will thin and grow gray.

In Edward’s preferred future, someone will one day make reference to Edward and assume that he is Bella’s son or grandson.

To Bella, that is a nightmare.

She would rather die and become a vampire so that she can also have eternal youth and eternal beauty. Bella does not have a death wish, nor does she have a fascination with death as I have heard some people contemplate. It is simply Bella wanting to be Edward’s partner in every way and for eternity.

Edward in his sacrificial denial of self, resists Bella’s entreaties. He not only refuses to “turn her” into a vampire, but he continually refuses to satisfy her sexually. This aspect of the book is also a source of great discussion.

I have seen some parents think that Bella and Edward not having sex is something that is good for teenaged girls to read.

:Ahem: I think that this is a perfect situation for parents to read the books and then lead a discussion with their teenaged daughters as to what are realistic expectations from their teenaged boyfriends.

Know that once Bella and Edward openly profess their undying love for one another that they do not want to be apart from each other. This leads to Edward being a regular visitor to Bella’s bedroom. This is done without her father’s knowledge, let alone permission. Edward cannot sleep, but Bella sleeps in his ice-cold arms. She continually tests his resolve to not give into desire and consummate their relationship.

She is the sexual aggressor and he is the one holding out.

Again, this type of thing makes Edward Cullen into the perfect romantic hero. At least for virgins who would like to retain their virtue and “good girl” reputation.

Normal teenaged males with raging hormones will not be interested in simply cuddling if they are invited into a teenaged girl’s bed.

There’s the romantic fantasy of having someone like Edward Cullen proclaiming his undying and unconditional love, being protective, generous, and not taking sexual advantage of a vulnerable girl and then there is the reality of real live boys/men who cannot measure up to such idealized standards.

The strength of the Twilight series lies not in complicated plots, but in showing the depth of feeling between two characters who love each other unconditionally. It is the raw emotion between Edward and Bella that drives this series and created so many dedicated fans. Because there is a desire to love someone in a similar unswerving manner and have that kind of depth of passion returned.

But no human man can ever live up to the romantic ideal of Edward Cullen, which in my opinion is a bigger reason to classify this series as romantic fantasy more than the vampirism.

Your thoughts on this series are welcomed, as well as your questions.

Review of Mother of the Believers

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:07:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I saw a guest post by Kamran Pasha on Christopher Gortner's blog. He discussed why he thought his debut novel Mother of the Believers would stir up controversy with Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

After reading Pasha's essay, I knew I had to read the book.

Here is the review I posted on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com as well as Good Reads. Please note that I do not include any plot spoilers.

Good historical fiction transports readers to a different time and place. Wonderful novels immerse their readership in worlds so realistic that it is disorienting to stop reading and re-enter day-to-day life. Kamran Pasha takes his readers to the seventh century in the Arabian peninsula. It is an uncommon time and place for novels, but one that provides rich dramatic material.

The subtitle accurately describes this as “a novel of the birth of Islam.” Pasha tells his tale through the eyes of Aisha, one of Muhammad’s wives, who had been born into a family of believers. The followers of Muhammad and his faith were still quite small at the beginning of the story, but they were being watched closely by the powerful families in Mecca.

This small band of followers were viewed first as an amusement, later as an annoyance, and finally as a threat by the power elite. There were assassination attempts, plots to isolate and oppress them economically, and later outright declarations of war against the Companions of Muhammad.

Pasha wove a beautiful tale showing the humanity of these historical figures. This novel is designed to be enjoyed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as the customs of Islam are subtly explained in the text. It is a wonderful story detailing the history and culture of one of the great religions of the world.

In these troubled times, it is important to remember that what unites us is greater than that which divides us.

I recommend this book highly.

Review of The Last Queen - the story of Juana la Loca

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:41:00 +0000

This is a long overdue review of a novel that I loved.

C.W. Gortner's debut novel The Last Queen will be released in trade paperback on May 5th.

So in trying to help in his book launch, here is my review:

Good historical fiction not only entertains readers by transporting them to another time and place, but also informs. Often you can learn more through fiction than you can through dusty tomes written by historians.

Such is the case in Gortner’s brilliant novel The Last Queen. I was ignorant of the lifestory of Juana of Castile until I read this book, and I wonder why her story isn’t more popular. It is filled with passion, intrigue and betrayal by those who should have supported and defended her.

Juana was the daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, who I knew growing up as the patrons of Christopher Columbus. She was the sister of Catherine of Aragon, the queen of England and first wife to King Henry VIII. She was married to Philip, the Archduke of the Hapsburg Empire and mother to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

And because of deaths in her family, she inherited the title of Queen of Castile.

Her story is well known in Spain and Europe, but is relatively unknown in the United States. Gortner brings to life a woman who history has marginalized as being “mad.” This is Juana’s side of the story and it leads me to think that the official historical record may have been propaganda covering the truth of “Juana la Loca.”

I highly recommend this book.

For those in book clubs who would like to schedule a chat with Christopher, you can contact him via his website. He also has a wonderful blog that I follow.

Happy reading!

Review of Disney Earth

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Last night we saw Disney's Earth.

It was a feast for the senses.

The movie showed the Arctic, the Antarctic, forests, rain forests, mountains, deserts, savannahs rivers, waterfalls, and the ocean.

There were gorgeous shots that panned over vast expanses of land.

James Earl Jones provided the narration. He has such a wonderful voice and the narrative lines were at times very light and humorous. Other times the reality of the effects of climate change on the lives of animals caused a more serious tone to be adopted.

It was beautiful. Well worth the cost of admission to see areas of our world that unless you had aerial transportation and an unlimited personal budget you might not otherwise ever see.

One of my favorite parts was seeing various exotic birds of paradise in the equatorial rain forest and their mating dances.

It was spectacular to see slow motion photography of a great white shark jumping out of the ocean water and consuming a seal in one snap of his jaws.

There is also a slow motion chase by a cheetah and a night vision scene where a pride of lions goes up against a herd of elephants. I did not realize that lions working together could take down a full grown elephant.

Yikes. It serves as a reminder of just how powerful the Queen of the Jungle can be. (I say this because lionesses are the ones who actually do the killing. Ye Olde King of the Jungle is waiting until the food is brought to him and then he eats first.)

One more thing, be sure to stay and watch the credits. You will be rewarded by seeing some of the camera crews getting various shots. Some are in the Arctic, others in the ocean and one has a close encounter with his helium balloon and a baobab tree.

The movie is suitable for all ages. Even little ones.

And a quick announcement before I end this post. I am guest blogging on my friend Lee Lofland's blog again. Today's topic is gardens and art in Paris. Please feel free to stop by there, take a look at some beautiful travel photos and say hi!

Guest blogging on The Midnight Shift

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:24:00 +0000

My friend Lee Lofland asked me to share some of my France photos for his blog's regular feature "Weekend Road Trip." Today I have a few photos from my trip in Paris, including some from Notre Dame Cathedrale and the Louvre.

You can find that post here.

Montauban, A City of Art and legends

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:08:00 +0000

Memorial to the 1870 war by Antoine Bourdelle

In my trip to France there were a couple places that I had to visit. One was Paris and another was Montauban.

I could find plenty of Americans who had been to Paris and were willing to offer advice about places to see and things to do, but I could not find anyone who had been to Montauban.

And that is a shame.

Montauban is a beautiful city in a gorgeous part of France and it deserves more tourists.

I needed to visit Montauban because one of the heroes in the legends of Charlemagne is Renaud de Montauban. Renaud is the eldest son in the famous French poem Les Quatre Fils Aymon or The Four Sons of Aymon.

Renaud's sister Bradamante is the heroine of my story. Therefore I found it necessary to for me to set my novel in the area surrounding Montauban.

Even though it is not historically accurate to the time period of my story. Blame it on the poets who wrote the Matters of France. They were fabulous dramatists, but not well versed on history.

The city of Montauban was founded in 1144 and Charlemagne died in 814.

However, trying to divorce Renaud from Montauban would be like trying to take Robin Hood out of Sherwood Forest.

Or using another Italian city other than Venice when refering to Leonardo. Perhaps Leonardo de Firenze.

It wouldn't work.

By my accepting the idea that dramatic necessity required my using Montauban, it mentally freed me to include similar historical inaccuracies when I deemed it a plot necessity.

That also meant my visit to Montauban was less demanding when it came to fact finding. I needed a sense of the surrounding area, but there would not be any buildings dating back to the time period of my story.

I also wanted to find examples of the legends of Charlemagne influencing their art and heritage.

Unfortunately, that was the most disappointing aspect about Montauban. I had tried via email to connect with any historians, professional or amateur, who were fans of the Matters of France. The Tourism Office sent me a lead, but I did not receive any reply.

It was not the first, nor shall it be the last time an email query receives no response.

My disappointment increased during our visit to the tourist office. I asked if there was anything such as a statue, a mural, streets, etc. in honor of Renaud de Montauban.

The only thing they knew of was a stone face on the side of the Ingres Museum thought to be of Renaud de Montauban. You can see it if you stand on the Pont Vieux and look at a certain angle.

Here is the Pont Vieux or "Old Bridge" over the Tarn River. This bridge dates back to the 14th century.

And here is the stone face that reportedly belongs to Renaud de Montauban.

While having found this face in order to take a picture seems worthy of earning points in a scavenger hunt, I was expecting more for this literary hero by the city of Montauban.

I had hoped to find statues, sculptures, paintings, or possibly a mural. I would not have been surprised to find streets being named after Renaud, Aymon, Guichard, Alard, Richardet and Bradamante. Maybe even a restaurant or two.

Les Quatre Fils Aymon Café.

As far as I know, that name is still available.

Something to demonstrate pride and ownership of this legend by the city of Montauban.

No other city or town can lay claim to being the home of Renaud.

In Chantilly I saw this painting depicting Renaud's magical horse Bayard who could expand to accommodate all four sons of Aymon on his back.

I asked the people working at the Tourism Office why there was not anything else celebrating their literary heroes. I wound up annoying them since they are not in control of artworks for the city or naming streets.

Their only answer to me was that this was only a story.

Only a story.

Rocamadour claims they have the sword Durindal embedded in the side of a rock (similar to Excalibur.) This was the sword of Roland made famous in the epic poem Chanson de Roland. I do not know how they claim it came to their town, but if Roland were to have thrown it as he lay dying in the Roncesvalle Pass and it flew through the air to Rocamadour he would have to have made one helluva toss.

That sword would have to go about 190 miles or 308 kilmeters by my quick and dirty measurment on Google Earth from Roncesvalles to Rocamadour.

Yet Rocamadour uses that bit of legendary lore to lure tourists. It is based on a story.

Carcassonne uses a legend to describe how their town was named. The legend involves successfully withstanding a siege by the Emperor Charlemagne.

They made up their own legend of Charlemagne. It's not true, but it makes a good story.

Portland, Oregon has bronze statues in a park dedicated to characters written by children's author Beverly Cleary. Statues based on stories.

I remember a restaurant on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit named Friar Tuck's. There is no legitimate claim to the legend of Robin Hood by a college town restaurant/bar in Michigan, yet they proudly used a name they thought would be inviting to patrons.

A name based on a story.

I love the vibrancy of the city of Montauban. I love its history and its surrounding beauty, but I think the city is missing out on tourist dollars. Tourist dollars that are waiting to be claimed.

My plea to the city of Montauban is for them to honor Renaud de Montauban and his fair sister Bradamante through artwork.

Carve it and they will come.

Paint it and they will come.

If nothing else, do this because I want to come back and take pictures of that artwork. I also want my picture taken standing near them.

Okay, enough babbling about what I did not find in Montauban.

Here are some photos I took of a city known for its beautiful brick architecture. Montauban is sometimes called Toulouse's "little pink sister" due to the color of the bricks. The vibrant color is due to the rich color of the soil.

This next picture is from the Place Nationale in the heart of downtown Montauban.

Our visit was on a bright sunny day and unfortunately the carved inscription is washed out in this photo.

Here is a closer look.

On the left is the Occitan Cross which was the standard of the Counts of Toulouse and on the right is the standard of the city of Montauban.

Here is a nice colorized version of Montauban's standard taken from the pages of Wikipedia.

Next comes tables for the lunch crowd on the Place Nationale.

We chose to eat at a restaurant whose tables were underneath beautiful arches.

Our first stop of the day before we went to the Tourist Office was actually the Farmer's market held on the other side of the Tarn River.

We were unsure where the market was, but was told it was near the Pont Vieux. We parked near the Ingres Museum but did not see any sign of the market. Then we saw women carrying bags laden with fresh produce. We set off trying to find where they had come from and after crossing the bridge soon discovered a large open air market teeming with people and the bounty of the land.

The fruits and vegetables were wonderful. Chasselas grapes are a specialty of the region and were bursting with flavor.

Yummmmm.

I sampled brioche for the first time in my life and we bought a marvelous apple tart for dessert.

We had the best bruschetta of our lives using heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil we bought at that market.

After our lunch we visited the Musée Ingres named after Montauban's most famous artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).

The building at one point was an episcopal palace, later it was a town hall and finally became a museum. It houses paintings by Ingres, sculptures by another famous Montauban artist Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), as well as other artwork and Gallo-Roman artifacts. The basement of the building is called the Black Prince room another reminder of the longreaching impact of the Hundred Years' War.

One of the most famous paintings by Ingres was inspired by the Matters of France. It is Roger délivrant Angélique. (1841)

The original hangs in the Louvre.

Here is a better version I found on the web.

Ingres was so fascinated by Angelica that he has another painting without Ruggiero. I apologize, but the lighting was not ideal at this point in the day and this was the best photo I could manage.

I do not care for the character of Angelica in either Orlando Innamorato or Orlando Furioso. She is more in the archetype of Aphrodite and I prefer the character of Bradamante who follows the archetype of Athena.

Too bad Ingres did not depict Ruggiero and Bradamante together. Or Renaud de Montauban.

Enough pounding on what I want versus what they have.

Here's a painting that impressed me. It is Le Songe d' Ossiane by Ingres.

A Gallo-Roman mosaic dating back to the fourth century.

There was also a few display cases with Greek pottery.

On the way downstairs there is a wood carving showing the patron saint of Toulouse, Saint Saturnin being martyred by being tied to the back of a bull.

Downstairs are more mosaics. You can tell by the color of the tiles next to the bricks that the materials were made in the nearby area.

A close up on the fine detail of the mosaic.

I would love to have something that intricate and beautiful in my house.

Then the room of the Black Prince. Check out the vaults on the ceiling.

Some stone sarcaphagi.

An old stone fireplace.

The close up is of a bear and a dog holding the crest.

On the left side of the mantle is the Wild Man of the Woods.

And on the right side is the lesser seen Wild Woman of the Woods.

Yay for equal representation!

One of the most disturbing things we saw in our travels in France was le banc de question.

Otherwise known as The Rack.

Here is a nice picture of colored glass to cleanse your palate.

And to leave you, here is the marvelous spread of food that my husband lovingly prepared for our dinner including the fresh fruit and baked bread we bought at Montauban's farmer's market.

It was a good day. The next day on our travels brought us to the town of Peyrusse le Roc. A town reportedly that was once conquered by Charlemagne's father Pepin le Bref.

I shall be sharing some of my pictures of my travels with my friend Lee Lofland on his blog this Saturday. Feel free to stop by.

Reflections on a Magical Game and its legacy, 30 years later

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:50:00 +0000

My son said yesterday, "Mom, I didn't think you liked basketball."

Well, I do not play basketball. This white chick cannot jump or shoot hoops.

I also do not watch random televised basketball games just to pass the time.

Nope. I only watch basketball when there a team that I care about is playing. And there are only two teams I care about:

The Detroit Pistons and Michigan State Spartans.

Thirty one years ago I heard after the fact, that Michigan State University (MSU) had almost won the NCAA championship in basketball. They lost to Kentucky who went on to win the title game.

MSU had this phenomenal freshmen who great things were expected from in the future. He led his high school team to win the state championship and many thought it inevitable he would lead MSU to the national championship as well.

His name was Earvin Johnson. The nickname that he picked up in high school was "Magic." This was because of his uncanny ability to know exactly where his teammates were on the court and pass the ball without looking at them.

I was still in high school at the time, but I was looking forward a few years down the line to when I would be in college. Many in my family were MSU alumni, and it offered my chosen field of study as well. MSU was my first choice.

I started thinking of myself as a Spartan. I decided if MSU was fated to win the NCAA basketball tournament in 1979 that I should pay attention to the entire season.

So I did.

I watched every televised game that season. The games that weren't televised, I listened to on the radio.

Every game. Even the heartbreaker where MSU lost to Northwestern.

I followed the stats of all the Big Ten schools.

I still remember the names of the starting players.

Earvin Johnson.

Greg Kelser.

Jay Vincent.

Terry Donnelly.

and

Mike Brkovich.

I happened to like Brkovich because I thought he was cute. Not dreamy, just cute.

Jay Vincent and Earvin Johnson had been cross town rivals in high school. Then they were teammates in college. T-shirts were made bearing the slogan "All the Way with Earvin and Jay" proclaiming the aspirations of Spartan fans to win it all.

Knowing how important Jay Vincent was for the team, I agonized when he was sidelined for awhile because of an injured foot.

I remember during one game a second (or third) stringer play with the last name of Huffman played for a few minutes. He stopped in the middle of the court to tie his shoe. An announcer was so taken aback by that unusual sight that he proclaimed from henceforth that player shall be referred to as "Shoes" Huffman.

There weren't many people in my high school who shared my interest, or obsession, in Spartan basketball. I remember my friend Debbie also wanted to go to MSU. She was about the only person I compared notes with during that fateful season. Except for my MSU alumni relatives who I met sporadically at family functions.

Otherwise, I spent an inordinate amount of time and energy without really sharing it with anyone else.

That is, until the NCAA Tournament began.

The announcers began playing up their expectations for Michigan State. Preferential treatment toward my favored team? It was fine by me.

Then there was talk about another team which was thus far, undefeated. It was a little known team out of the basketball crazy state of Indiana. It was not the Big Ten conference Indiana University home of the lunatic coach Bobby Knight. No, it was Indiana State University. Their leading player was named Larry Bird.

The general public in a short period of time became fascinated by the match up of "Magic" and Bird.

I cannot say why this struck a chord in the general public.

I was going to watch the game because the school I wanted to attend was playing for the national title. If they had lost an earlier round, I would not have watched.

The game was fabulous, although what I remember best are the images after the game was over. Earvin Johnson helping to cut down the winning net and Larry Bird crying in his towel.

Both images were captured in photographs the next day in the Detroit Free Press.

I was deliriously happy the night we won.

The game was the most watched game in NCAA history. To this day.

A few weeks afterward, a teacher stuck his head into our classroom to pass on the news that "Magic" Johnson was the very first player picked in the NBA Draft.

I had mixed emotions at the news.

I had hoped he wouldn't go pro just yet. He was still a sophomore at State and I selfishly wanted him to stay and win two more years of NCAA titles. Before the term was coined I wanted a Threepeat. I was greedy.

I also knew that a single injury could end an athlete's career.

So I understood that it would be better for him to turn pro while all eyes were upon him and he was in demand.

Getting past my own selfishness, I was thrilled that a player from MY team was the number one draft pick. I took it as an affirmation of my beloved Spartans.

That 1979 game between Michigan State and Indiana State is heralded as a turning point in NCAA tournament history. It also helped reinvigorate the NBA once Magic and Bird transferred their magic to the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Thirty years later and the NCAA wanted to mark the anniversary of that landmark game. They are having Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird give out the game ball to the winning team.

And thirty years later Michigan State University is once again in the NCAA Finals.

This time, the game is being held in Downtown Detroit.

Detroit.

Or as they say in Detroit: Deeeeeeetroit.

Or sometimes: Day - Twah.

(I know there's no "s" in Detroit, but when Detroiters want to sound like they're pronouncing their town in French, they say Day - Twah.)

Detroit is only an hour and a half drive from East Lansing, home of Michigan State University.

Ford Field will be filled with Spartan fans. Look for a sea of rabid green supporters making a lot of noise.

With this tough economy, there's not a lot to cheer about in Michigan. The MSU Spartans right now have captured the hearts and imagination of Michiganders.

And Michiganders are not known for showing passive approval. They are known for raucous crowds at rock concerts and boisterous cheering at sporting events.

There will be no golf claps.

I will be watching and screaming myself hoarse in the comfort of my living room while wishing I were in the nosebleed seats in Detroit with my friends.

The University of North Carolina will have their supporters cheering for them.

They even have the blessing (or burden) of being picked by President Obama as the team predicted to win it all.

But I do not think the Tar Heels can win.

They will be in a hostile arena, surrounded by crazed Spartan fans.

And the Spartans will have an X Factor in play.

They want that game ball from Magic Johnson.

It is their legacy.

And it is their time to shine.

Go Green! Go White!

Edited to add:

My heart was broken. I saw the basketball rim the hoop and refuse to fall into the basket many times for the Spartans. As if the basketball gods simply did not want my favored team to win.

Sigh.

I remember being in high school and attending a home football game in Spartan stadium with my mother. It was a non conference game against Miami of Ohio. It was at the beginning of the season and did not mean much. However, do not tell that to the fans of MSU.

At one point the visiting team was close to getting a touchdown. The fans in the stands did not want that to happen. We cheered.

Loudly.

So much so that the officials had to call a time out because the opposing team could not hear their quarterback giving his signals.

Then they tried a second time.

We cheered louder.

The announcer gave us a warning from the officials that if the team couldn't hear the signals for a third time that our beloved Spartans would be penalized due to the interference by the crowd.

So we quieted down. Someone then decided to wave their arms over their heads. It spread like wildfire. Soon the entire stadium (save for the bloc of seats reserved for visitors) were waving their arms. Capacity of Spartan stadium is 75,000. Imagine 120,000 arms being waved at once. There was this eerie sound like a massive flock of birds flying overhead.

Our opponents did not score.

Because the fans would not allow it to happen.

That is the type of home court advantage that I expected in Ford Field. I expected the massive green and white fan contingent to lift the spirits of the Spartan players to a level where they could not lose.

Except they did.

A varied topic mixture of writing opportunities, insights, and changes in publishing

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:40:00 +0000

There are a few things that have either come into my inbox or across my proverbial radar screen that I think others would benefit from and hence this post.

My friends Jordan Rosenfeld and Becca Lawton are sponsoring "playshops" to help inspire the creative spark in writers. It is a philosophy where enjoyment of the writing process with a sense of play is emphasized over the traditional terminology of "workshops." Plus you do not have to turn anything in, it is simply to help inspire your innate creative energy.

Here is their description:

Month-Long Write Free Playshops: Playing toward Publication
Join us each month for Write Free Month-Long Playshops in which you exercise your creative chops and aim for your publishing dreams. These month-long, self-paced Write Free Playshops begin on the first Monday of every month. Every weekday for four weeks (20 days) the following activities will be sent to you in a daily e-mail (except for the Weekly Message, which will come once a week):

Write Free Writing Prompt to jumpstart your own personal freewrite for the day
Quote on Attraction to inspire and align you with your best creative life
Word of the Day to spark your imagination
Exercises to work new writing muscles
Weekly Message from Jordan and Becca on writing craft, practice, and community.

All this for $19.95-less than $1/day for the whole month!

There was a nice write up about the program in a column recently in my local paper.

To sign up for the playshop, click here.

For those who live in Northern California, the San Francisco chapter of the Women's National Book Association is sponsoring a "Meet the Agents and Publishers" event this Saturday, March 28th. There are eight publishing professionals who are confirmed to be there ready to hear your pitches. Both fiction and nonfiction are covered.

My friend Lee Lofland has an incredibly useful blog for those who have any aspect of police procedurals in their writing. It is not my genre, but I still find the posts fascinating.

Yesterday, Lee's post showed that he can be just as nitpicky as I am. He dissected a television episode into ten separate segments for analysis. He judged the veracity of various details à la American Idol style. Simon Cowell features prominently.

I have never watched the show in question, but I found Lee's take (and/or spit take) on the show to be highly entertaining.

On the same day, Lee showed a different side when he did a guest post "It's Not All Donuts and Paperwork" on Terry Odell's blog. Lee starts out calmly describing how he started in law enforcement, but his story gets harrowing when he describes how he handled a crisis situation which could have easily gone horribly wrong.

I hadn't known that story before, and it increased my admiration of him.

I haven't seen much discussion about this recent publishing news and was wondering if any academics reading this blog might chime in with their thoughts.

According to the online Publisher's Weekly:

The University of Michigan Press sent shock waves through the academic publishing field Monday when it announced it is switching to a primarily digital format to publish scholarly monographs. The press expects that within two years, most of the 60 monographs it publishes each year out of a total 140 new releases will be published only in digital editions. A POD option, however, will be made available for all digital books, said University of Michigan Press director Phil Pochoda. He said the press’s regional titles and its ESL list will continue to be released primarily in print editions, though select frontlist, as well as backlist, will be made available in digital formats as well as print. Print runs consequently will be more conservative, to cut down on returns. “We’re going to try to keep [initial] print runs close to orders,” Pochoda said, with more of a reliance on offset printing for smaller print runs.

My question is: How will this impact university libraries? Will they start purchasing PDF files of those academic monographs and will they be easily accessed by professors and students?

Or will the libraries wind up using the print-on-demand (POD) option?

These types of cost cutting changes can have far ranging consequences and I wonder if everything has been thought through prior to "going digital" and abandoning the printed page.

--

And that brings me to a recent blog post by Tess Gerritsen.

She wrote about what might be a similar trend by publishers in regard to galleys.

Tess is a New York Times bestselling author who will write blurbs to help up and coming writers. (Lee Lofland is one of her grateful recipients of her Karmic generosity.)

However, there is a limit to anyone's generosity. Recently she received an email from a publisher who announced they were no longer going to produce printed galleys.

She understands that it is cheaper and greener, but she doesn't want to read a novel at her computer nor does she want a handheld reader.

Tess loves being able to read galleys in bed, on a beach, on vacation, etc.

She feels so strongly about this that she wrote:

I think that printed galleys are part of the cost of doing business as a publisher. If you don’t print galleys, you shouldn’t expect to get any cover blurbs.

Wow.

And this email came after a novelist had approached Tess and she agreed she would consider giving him a blurb. No promises, but she would try. She never guarantees blurbs because she has a lot of demands on her time and has to find some kind of work/life balance.

Now because of the change of policy by the publisher, that author's forthcoming book will absolutely not have a blurb by Tess Gerritsen.

That makes me wonder how much discussion was generated in the board rooms as to what side-effects they would have by this change in their business practices. Did they think about how it might deter their ability to generate blurbs from established authors. And subsequently how that might impact future book sales?

Did those considerations of the "human element" even factor into their debates or was this a decision based solely on the bottom line of postage and printing costs?

What makes matters worse is that email message went on to suggest recipients of printed galleys attempt to profit by the sale of ARCs on Ebay and other such sites. As if recouping a few bucks on Ebay would be worth Tess Gerritsen's time.

They also wanted her guarantee she would read the PDF galley before they would send her the file.

In one impolitic email message they not only insulted her integrity and professionalism, but they made it unlikely that she would ever provide their authors blurbs in the future.

Nice job!

It would have been far better if they had asked her if she preferred a printed galley or a digital copy because there are many people who love their Kindles and Sony Readers. She doesn't happen to be one of them.

What does the future of publishing hold if choice is not an option?

Orlando Furioso, the Louvre, Pope Joan, memoirs, literacy and

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:35:00 +0000

I discovered through the virtues of Google alerts that the Louvre has a special exhibit running now through May 19th called The Imaginative World of Ariosto.

There are lectures, showing of operas based on the epic poem Orlando Furioso, woodcuts from Gustave Doré, sculptures and paintings.

One of the most famous paintings inspired by Ariosto's masterpiece is Roger délivrant Angélique, 1819 by Montauban's native son Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres housed in the Louvre.

A copy is in the Ingres Museum in Montauban.

It is a beautiful painting reflecting a famous scene from the epic poem, but the Ruggiero/Angelica pairing however brief does not capture my imagination like it has artists over the years.

I much prefer Ruggiero/Bradamante.

Here is a link to a PDF file from the Louvre explaining the exhibition in detail. It would be nice to travel to Paris and see the exhibition before it closes, but alas I do not see that in the cards or in my budget. Not between now and May 18th.

I am pleased to know that there is a resurgence in interest in the Matters of France. Hopefully that will be beneficial to me in the future.

Onto some of the other topics in my title. I received an update on Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel Pope Joan. I knew that the movie based on her novel was due out this fall, but I did not know that a different version of her book was also coming out. From her update:

Hurray! A brand-new edition of the Pope Joan book by Three Rivers Press will be released in June. This is not just a re-print; I've made corrections and additions to the text and also written a new "Author's Note" to explain/expand upon these changes. I've also included a list of "Best-Ever Reading Group Questions", gleaned from my many years of chatting by speakerphone with reading and school groups all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Speaking of which, I'd like to ask book group members a big favor: could you fill out this survey? (If this link doesn't work for you, then go to readinggroupchoices.com and click on "survey".) It will take only a couple of minutes. Surveys must be completed by March 27th.

Of course I'm hoping that you'll vote for Pope Joan as one of your favorite book group reads! (doesn't strictly have to be a book you discussed in 2008; what the survey is mostly looking for are good recommendations for other reading groups). If Pope Joan makes the list of top ten book group favorites of 2008, , it would be wonderful and much-needed publicity for the new edition by Three Rivers Press.

The advantage to book group members: the survey enters you in a lottery to win $75 toward your next book group meeting. Also, you get access to the list of Reading Group Choices (RGC) authors who, like me, are willing to chat by speakerphone with book groups.

I was also alerted by my friend Matilda Butler that she and Kendra Bonnett will be holding an online memoir writing class entitled "The Craft of Memoir Writing: Using the Five Senses to Bring Your Story to Life." It runs from April 13th to June 8th and is at a reasonable cost.

Onto the topic of literacy which is my father's raison d’être. He founded the non-profit AVKO Educational Research Foundation which has an updated website, a new blog, a Facebook Page and even a Twitter account.

If you are interested in homeschooling, dyslexia or just plain old literacy, please check it out.

You can even see in online videos how in using "word families" my dad is able to get a young man, who thought he could never learn to read or spell, to correctly read the word malicious.

I am woefully behind in finishing up my travelogue of France, but know that I have not given up on doing it. My next post in that series will be about the city of Montauban, home of Ingres and my heroine Bradamante.

Critique Groups and Self-Editing

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Becky Levine and Linda C. McCabe

It has been over a month since I last posted.

I have not been hospitalized, abducted by space aliens or any such dramatic excuses. Nor is it due to me running out of blog topics. Nope, I have just been busy writing. And editing. Again.

The biggest part of writing is the re-writing process.

One of the most difficult aspects of re-writing is recognizing what works, what isn't working and what needs to be changed.

My writing club held a series of editing workshops this year and we were fortunate enough to have a roster of wonderful speakers. One of which was my friend Becky Levine who spoke on a topic near and dear to her heart: critique groups.

She was able to use her workshop as a "testing ground" for her forthcoming book by Writers Digest books on the very subject of critique groups and how to critique other people's writing.

How to offer constructive criticism that will help others to know what works and how things can be improved. It is in the process of using your analytical eye on another person's work that you can then recognize things in your own writing that had heretofore been invisible.

Because the writer is always too close to their own work to really see it objectively.

Becky has been a member of various critique groups for about twenty years and she stresses that the purpose is to help writers improve their work, but never to get them to write a different book. It is the individual's work and the writer determines what advice is taken and what is rejected.

Her preferred critique group structure is one where pages for review are submitted a few days before the meeting. This allows for thoughtful consideration of the work rather than immediate response to the text.

Becky gave handouts which included a form for a written critique. She includes questions for the reviewer to answer such as:

Character: can you identify the hero (main character) in this scene? Has the author written a hero that a reader can sympathize or identify with? Does the hero's personality show complex, even conflicting, traits? What would you do to strengthen this character as the hero?

She also includes spaces to discuss Plot, Description (settings and people), Dialogue, Point of View & Voice, as well as Scene Structure.

Becky insists that when writing a critique that you always start with something good. We are dealing with people's creative sides and their egos, so find an area to praise. Becky did not allow for the possibility that there would be nothing worth praising. She adopted her "stern mother voice" if someone wanted to skip that part and directed them to find something to admire.

After starting with praise, then move to areas where you see weaknesses. Identify areas where you were bored, confused, or taken "out of the story." If you had a negative response to the text and try to identify why it did not work for you. Offer suggestions such as "what would happen if...." or "Have you tried..." Then end on another note of encouragement.

Face to face interactions are important, but it is the written critiques which can sometimes provide the most lasting help. They might be filed away for months at a time and then the tangible bits of advice are used later during revisions.

In regard to the in person critique group meetings, Becky suggests that only one person speak at a time with the writer being critiqued remaining silent. That is unless there is some confusion and questions for clarification. However, one should remember that most readers will never have the writer there in person to answer a question so if there is confusion in the text, it may need to be addressed in the revision process. (Unless that is a deliberate aspect of the story such as a clue or red herring designed to make the reader guess the solution.)

If while another person is giving their critique you think of something you wish to add, jot that down in a note rather than interrupt. You will have your turn to speak.

Overall, Becky did a wonderful job presenting how best to conduct yourself in a critique group and it reinforced many of my thoughts on the subject. I look forward to buying a copy of her book The Critiquer’s Survival Guide, due out in Fall 2009.

I had meant to do this write up about Becky's workshop shortly after it happened, except I ran out of time. I was busily preparing myself for a week-long plot intensive workshop sponsored by Free Expressions. It was the Breakout Novel Intensive known by its participants as BONI.

The classes were taught by literary agent Donald Maass, author of Writing the Breakout Novel and its companion Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.

Donald Maass

Mornings were filled with lectures, but they were more like motivational seminars fused with writing challenges. Donald Maass is an excellent public speaker who has great passion for the subject of writing and drama as well as a quick wit.

During his talks we were barraged with questions about our characters, plot points and challenged to make things worse.

One of the first exercises was to consider the main character or hero of the story, identify defining characteristics about them and then consider what the opposite qualities would be. Then find a way to show both the ideal and its opposite in the first five pages.

Here is the notes he wrote on the easel for that day:

I realized while listening to that lecture that I had those elements built into my first chapter, but they had not been brought out sufficiently. In challenging myself to find a way for my hero to show a negative quality, in this case to be disrespectful, I had to make him hurl an insult.

A nasty insult to a superior officer.

That afternoon I worked on implementing the homework assignment. My first attempts were a bit lame, but it was a break through for me to allow my hero to do something against his nature so soon in the story.

I was excited to print out my new revision to show to the critique group that night. We were assigned groups according to our genres and I was fortunate to be a part of an incredibly lively (and bawdy) group of writers.

One of the reasons I signed up for the BONI workshop was to discover what was wrong with my first few chapters. I had good luck in getting agents interested in seeing my work, so I knew that my premise and pitch were working. However, none had ever asked to see more pages.

I had received some feedback that the beginning seem "too distant." I had been polishing the chapter for so long that I could not understand what was being asked of me to change.

I brought those comments to the fresh eyes of my BONI critique group members and it was as if I had given a sock to bloodhounds in a fox hunt. One person mentioned that when I used the term "ominous" that they wanted more. Another thought I should cut it, but then I began challenging myself to give more personal stakes for my hero in that first scene.

It was as fireworks were going off in my brain. Later that night I stayed up late re-writing the first chapter and including the new insights. I fell in love with the story again.

I also want to personally thank one of my critique group members who helped me tremendously in how to increase the insult to the ego of my antagonist. By changing the dialogue slightly, without changing any plot events, he showed me how to increase the size of my hero's cojones.

And, the insult that I am now using to end my chapter wound up flowing from my lips as the group brainstormed. Thank you, Lucien.

Lucien Nanton

The afternoons were designed for you to have time to work on your writing as well as the time set aside for one on one consultations with faculty members who read portions of your work and synopsis.

Here is one more snapshot of a morning workshop's notes which is in honor of my friend Terri Thayer. During the discussion, there was mention of some designer quilts going for as much as $100,000 to collectors. Donald Maass showing his quick wit decided to change gears and switch topics from scenes to quilts.

Not really, but it was funny and led to several rounds of puns tossed out by people throughout the room.

I have found after going to my writers club meetings that I feel energized. As if simply being around other creative people releases endorphins into my bloodstream.

Interacting with the other BONI students was fantastic. Many were veterans of other Maass workshops, but all were serious writers committed to bettering their craft. So even when I wasn't at class or in a consultation, I was networking with other writers.

The week spent at BONI took my natural post-meeting high and amplified it tenfold. I felt as if I was on mental steroids.

Seriously. I had trouble sleeping, because my mind was so fired up. I rested, but could not really get into deep sleep because of the intense mental stimulation wouldn't allow me to shut my mind off.

It took me several days at home before I was able to revert to my normal sleeping patterns.

One of the last bits of advice Donald Maass gave to us was to take 20-30 pages of our manuscript and throw them off a staircase so that the pages are in disarray. Then take another 20-30 pages and repeat the process. Do this until the entire manuscript is out of sequence. Then edit page by page for microtension.

Ye Olde Grading by Gravity trick.

The rationale was to force yourself to look at each page in isolation to identify weaknesses and avoid getting "caught up" in your own narrative by doing it in sequence.

I have begun that process and am about a quarter of the way through this round of edits, but have not yet entered any into my computer. Because I am fearful of potentially introducing continuity errors by editing out of sequence.

So I shall wait until I have finished this round of edits and then enter them sequentially. I am finding areas in my manuscript that were a bit heavy on exposition that can be tightened and/or changed to dialogue.

But I now have a new focus and energy toward making this manuscript as strong as I can make it.

Write on!

Cover Snark: Ariosto

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:41:00 +0000

I really enjoy the strange things that can be found with the internet. Case in point, due to a Google Alert for the term "Ariosto" I discovered an out of print paperback published in 1988.

Knowing Ariosto's masterpiece Orlando Furioso as I do, I believe that winged creature on the cover is supposed to be a hippogriff.

At first I thought it was merely a winged horse like Pegasus, but after a second look I realized that it had a beak.

Wha?

Perhaps the artist had no idea what a hippogriff was supposed to look like and just winged it.

This mythical creature is the cross between mortal enemies griffins and horses, and the front portion is to be that of an eagle.

Excuse me, but that is no eagle. That is a horse with a snap-on beak. And look at the legs! Those are horse's legs, but rather than hooves there are talons at the ends.

And must I add that eagles do not have manes?

Puhleeze. Magna morphs have more realism of mixing species together than that illustration.

It reminded me of what my Humanities professor said about why Michaelangelo's female nudes look a bit strange. The artist was not too familiar with the feminine physique and so he basically carved a male's body and then superimposed breasts on the figure.

For example here's a crypt Michaelangelo made depicting Dawn and Dusk.

I see the figure on the left and think of coconuts. Look at the musculature on the arms, legs and six pack abdominals. It certainly lacks the qualities of Paul Rubens' nudes.

I do not know if I shall try to read that out of print book, but if I do I will probably have to find or create a book cover otherwise I will fixate on all its equine weirdness.

Setting, Scenes and Book Signings

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Jean Hegland

I have mentioned before on this blog how much I enjoy belonging to a writers club. It is the process of interacting with others who share my obsession with the written word that inspires the creative flame within me.

This past weekend my club sponsored the second of three editing workshops and had its monthly meeting.

So I saw writing friends and colleagues on both Saturday and Sunday. On the drive home Sunday night I felt euphoric.

Things had gone fabulously and I had some incredible new insights that will inform my future writing and that I wanted to share with my blog readers.

Jean Hegland, author of Into the Forest, led a workshop regarding the importance of setting. She began with the situation of a person waking up from a coma and that the first thing they would ask is, "Where am I?"

That is the question that a writer needs to answer when they begin a story or a scene so that the reader will know whether it is day or night, what season, what year, whether it is indoors or outdoors and where this scene takes place geographically. Because each choice has an impact on the overall story.

Setting gives a story verisimilitude when it takes readers to a place they have not been before or if it is to a place in which they are familiar. It is vitally important to get the details right for if you choose a real location and say you put a grocery store on the wrong side of the road, those who know the area will complain.

Jean then gave an example of how important it is choosing settings for individual scenes and how by playing with your choices you can change the tone and meaning of a scene.

She referenced Jordan Rosenfeld's earlier workshop about scenes and Jordan's insistence that a scene not be comprised of "talking heads in space" and that each scene involve some action. Then Jean gave an example of an action such as a couple having sex where the setting chosen would reveal character.

The actions by the characters could be written the same, but depending on the setting the meaning and the tone of the scene would be different.

The following were the three different settings she used to illustrate her point:

1) a cemetery (ewwww)
2) a bedroom
3) a boardroom

During that discussion I could not help but blurt out my "ewwww" comment in the class, which led to a nice round of laughter from the group. Camaraderie among writers is a wonderful thing.

Jordan Rosenfeld

Now onto the subject of scenes which was Jordan Rosenfeld's topic. She described scenes as the building blocks of a story similar to beads on a wire. Meaning that each scene needs to be complete in and of itself and it is the stringing together of the scenes that create the overall story.

Each scene should be comprised of:

action
character
POV (point of view) in which the scene is communicated
new information revealed
conflict and drama
and it must take place in a tangible setting

In other words: No talking heads in space!

She also stressed that not only is the first scene in your book important to hook your readers, but that as each character of any relevance is introduced that you must take the time to recognize that this is their first scene. Writers must reveal something compelling about each important new character without resorting to a data dump summary.

Jordan feels that it is better to give such information via dialogue and action than by summary. Ye olde "show don't tell" maxim.

She described dramatic tension as a sense of danger, complexity, mystery and a sense of discovery. Each scene should have some dramatic tension. She also stressed the need for variety in the style of scenes so that there are peaks and valleys in the tempo or else the reader will become either fatigued or bored.

Plot is created in relationship to the scenes. She gave a list of 4 D's for plot revelation that each scene must include at least one of these:

Dialogue
Discovery
Demonstration (such as a flash of unexpected anger)
Devices - e.g. letters or memorabilia

She described a well balanced scene as one where the reader is:

not confused
knows the setting
knows the characters
there is tension and drama

The time to change a scene is denote a break with time, place or POV. That can be done with a full chapter break or by using a blank space within a chapter to signify the change.

For those interested in knowing more about Jordan's thoughts on scenes, you can buy her excellent book Make a Scene

by Writers Digest Books at your local bookstore or available online.

Then on Sunday at the monthly meeting of my writers club we had Stephanie Deignan the events coordinator of Copperfield's Books come and speak.

Stephanie Deignan

For several years now I had wanted to schedule a speaker who could give the bookstore's point of view in regard to author appearances. I had approached two other events coordinators in the past to give such a talk, but they declined. So I was excited when last summer I spoke with Stephanie on the phone and she accepted.

I wanted our members to know how to go about getting an event scheduled, what to expect in regard to publicizing from the bookstore, and what their responsibilities are in order to have a successful event.

Stephanie started by saying that we should all be aware that bookstores are understaffed and underpaid and so when you approach a bookseller in the hopes of arranging a signing, you need to be understanding and patient. The information that you need is to discover the name of the events coordinator, their phone number and email address. Do not bother the harried bookseller with the information about you or your book as it will probably get lost in the shuffle.

In your initial contact via phone (most likely a voice mail message) and email you should include your name, your contact information, the title of your book, the publisher information, give a brief synopsis about what the book is about, any publicity information such as radio interviews scheduled, any published reviews, as well as book distribution information. Mention if it is carried by Ingram, Baker and Taylor or a smaller independent publishing distributor or if it is a POD title (print on demand) which would necessitate being on consignment.

Then be patient and wait for a few days or so to hear back. Be professional and be willing to call back if necessary. Again, they are short staffed and bookstore employees are trying their best.

Stephanie at some point discussed the difficulty bookstores have with PODs titles because generally they are non-returnable. Bookstores will order POD titles for customers if it is paid at the time of ordering, but they do not want to be stuck with books they cannot return and might never be able to sell.

The different kinds of author events were described as "traditional author talks" where an author talks about their book, does a short reading, a question and answer session and then signs books versus "meet and greets" where a table is set up and an author can interact with customers in a more informal setting and talk one on one instead of to a group.

She said that for authors who are not yet established would find it easier to have a "meet and greet" scheduled than an "author talk." If for no other reason than it causes less havoc for booksellers since they do not have to rearrange the bookshelves in the store to make room for chairs for people who may or may not show up to the signing.

She admitted that the emphasis that bookstores give to publicizing their author events is tiered depending on the name recognition of the authors. Those who are big named authors are given "A list" treatment and more time is spent on trying to generate crowds. Then publicizing for "B list" and "C list" authors are by necessity given less time and energy. This comes back to the reality of being understaffed.

That means that a large onus of publicizing the events rests on the shoulders of authors. Once you have a scheduled event, you must do as much to publicize as you can by utilizing the old tried and true methods of fliers, posters, and postcards, as well as newer media such as online events calendars, keeping an up-to-date website with your events listings, and social media such as Facebook and blogs.

She also stressed the influence that radio interviews can have in making the events a success. If you should be lucky enough to score a radio interview with someone like Michael Krasny of KQED Radio - who has an audience known for being book buying fiends - be sure to let a bookstore know so that they can buy adequate stock. Recently an author returned for a signing and after having been interviewed on Krasny's show and he drew a significantly larger crowd than the had the year before with a previous title. The problem was that the publicist did not alert the store and there were not enough books on hand to meet demand.

Which is why authors should always carry at least a box of books with them to signings...just in case. You never know when a bookstore's order might not come through on time due to blizzards in the midwest or strikes by UPS, etc.

(A few side notes: if you are lucky enough to score a radio interview prior to a book signing, do not forget to mention your scheduled book store event including the date, time and location. That is what will bring people into the store and get their butts in the seats for your signing! And if you want to know more about what to expect with talk radio and radio interviews you can read an old post of mine on the subject of the Do's and Don'ts of Talk Radio.)

On the day of your event you should call the store early in the day to confirm, arrive early and check in with a bookseller. You should bring a sign up sheet for those who would like to be on your mailing list as well as fliers to any upcoming events such as workshops or conferences. You should also bring postcards with the cover of your book, business cards and even book marks with your website and blog addresses. Make it easy for people who are interested in you to follow your career.

Stephanie suggested an event drawing between five to ten people for small authors is doing good. She also said that if there is a ratio of 30%-50% of books sold to the number of attendees present than it is a successful signing.

During the discussion with our members, Persia Woolley mentioned another reason for authors to always be prepared. One time she went to a signing and the author never showed. The audience was getting restless and being a trooper - she offered to pitch in and give a talk about her book. The events coordinator was thrilled to have someone save the day and she had the opportunity to talk to an audience she otherwise would not have had.

Stephanie thought that was great of Persia to help out in that manner.

Persia then said that the favor wound up being returned by another author when she got lost trying to find a small venue. She arrived late after finally getting directions from someone at a gas station and discovered that another author had warmed up the crowd in the interim. (Another reason for authors to keep a box of books in the trunk of your car. You just never know when you will get a chance to sign and sell them!)

Stephanie was asked about timing of when to start trying to schedule events at bookstores and she thought that two months before publication would be a good time to start. Then on the other end is how long you have before the books start getting returned. That happens at about three months post publication for hardcovers and six months for everything else. So after about a year of publication unless your book has really taken off, it will be hard to interest a bookstore in doing an event.

Her last words of wisdom on the subject was to enjoy yourself and make it fun.

Joan Price: What I've Learned About Book Publicity Since Wasting $1,000

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:01:00 +0000

My friend Joan Price shared with me an article she wrote for the American Society of Journalists and Authors about online marketing. She thought that members of my writers club might benefit from this and she allowed me to share this with others as long as I kept her words and her links intact.

The only changes I made was to make some of her links into hyperlinks for this blog post.

Enjoy!

-Linda

What I've Learned About Book Publicity Since Wasting $1,000

By Joan Price

When Seal Press published my book, Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty, at the beginning of 2006, the small publisher could only allot $1,000 for a publicity budget. I had been invited to speak at woman-friendly sex shops in the Midwest and Canada -- I live in California -- and I thought, what a perfect way to get my publicity and book sales rolling!

It wasn't. Although I got some good newspaper publicity at several of the cities I visited, attendance at my events was pitiful, and sales were underwhelming. I returned home knowing I had wasted Seal's $1,000 publicity budget.

Seal’s publicist continued to assist me with her admirable skill and a portion of her time for the first few months after the book’s release. The Seal team explained that our goal was to position me as an expert on senior sexuality rather than just promote the book itself. The book would only be “new” for three months, but my credibility as an interview source would make me the go-to “senior sexpert” for months or years. This proved to be true, and I think it applies to all of us who write nonfiction. At three years post-publication, I’m still interviewed regularly on a variety of aging and/or sexuality topics, and each time my Amazon sales and blog traffic spike.

I've become an eager student of book publicity and author self-promotion, reading the most recent books (because they give full attention to online opportunities) and attending conference sessions. I'm convinced that self-promotion in this new world has to be targeted at the Internet first. That’s the fastest, easiest, and most efficient and far-reaching way to get in front of readers, and it doesn’t cost a thing… except, of course, time, at least a few hours a week.

Here are some tips from my experience and that of other ASJA authors that can help you jumpstart your own book publicity and keep it alive for years.

1. Aim your efforts at pumping up your online presence. Have an attractive, professional looking website for the important information about you, your book, and particularly how readers can benefit from your expertise. Also create a dynamic blog filled with compelling information on your topic. Don’t fall into the seductive trap of using it for random ramblings about this and that – stay on topic, and make your blog the place your readers will want to keep visiting because the quality of information drives them there.

2. Be sure your blog is topical to attract media, and make it easy for media to find and contact you. When ABC Nightline was seeking an expert on senior sexual health, they Googled the topic and found a blog entry where my readers and I discussed this controversial topic in detail. This led to my appearance on the show and in fact I was shown blogging and reading readers’ comments, my book strategically placed by my computer.

3. Find the other experts in your field and treat them as your valued colleagues and allies, not your competition. When I find an expert in an area of senior sexuality that would interest my blog readers, I ask for an interview, include a photo and bio, and link to the person’s website or blog.

4. Review other books on your topic on your blog. When I hear about a book that might interest my readers, I request a review copy (publicists are eager to provide review copies for active, on-topic bloggers, I’ve discovered), blog about the book, send a friendly note to the author with a link. Frequently this leads to a link to my blog from the author’s website, or a reciprocal review. Even when it doesn’t, my blog becomes a better and more credible resource for my readers because I’m not just promoting my own book.

5. Read other blogs and websites on your topic, and contribute thoughtful comments. I find most bloggers welcome comments and don’t mind that I identify myself with my book title and blog URL, as long as my comments are specific to their topic and beneficial to readers.

6. Increase readership of your blog by finding major sites that already attract your potential readers (in my case, http://www.SuddenlySenior.com and http://www.ELDR.com) and offer them a column or the opportunity to co-publish your blog. Be sure they agree that you retain all rights to your content, and each entry they publish will carry your bio and byline and link back to you.

7. Subscribe to HARO (Help a Reporter Out, http://www.helpareporter.com ), a free service that emails summaries of reporter needs to publicists and experts.

8. Subscribe to several Google Alerts : your own name, your book title, and your topic and its variations. You’ll get emails with links to any online mention of whatever words you selected. You’ll find out, for example, when an interview with you was syndicated in another newspaper, or when your book was reviewed by a freelancer, or when someone blogged about your topic (when that happens, do #5 above).

9. Even if your book release was long ago, let your publisher’s publicists know whenever you score any publicity. They’ll be grateful, and might be open to small requests from you, like continuing to fill review copy requests so these don’t have to come out of the books you’ve purchased.

10. Read books about book promotion, particularly those written or updated in the last few years so that they cover online strategies adequately. Here are some that have helped me particularly and are filled with Post-Its for future use:

a. Penny C. Sansevieri http://www.amarketingexpert.com , Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider’s Guide to Marketing Your Book on the Internet. Indispensable guide to making your website and blog work most effectively to attract customers and sell your book.

b. Patrice-Anne Rutledge, http://www.websavvywriter.com , The Web-Savvy Writer: Book Promotion with a High-Tech Twist . Whether you’re just starting with Web promotion or you think you know it all, you’ll find suggestions you can put into action immediately.

c. Sandra Beckwith http://www.buildbookbuzz.com, Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates workbook. This eBook gives you templates for do-it-yourself publicity: press releases, tip sheets, virtual book tour, and much more.

d. John Kremer http://www.bookmarket.com, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, 6^th ed. Although this 700-page book has only 80 pages specifically about online marketing, it is so full of helpful information that you’ll find plenty of tips that apply to your book.

e. M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy, How to Publish and Promote Online . Although the authors both insist that this 2001 book is outdated, I found plenty of marvelous strategies that I hadn’t seen elsewhere.

More tips for online publicity from ASJA authors:

· Tina Tessina (http://www.tinatessina.com) gets good results by listing with PRleads ($100/month) and ProfNet, which have led to “a whole lot of press,” several paid columns, and free PR by answering questions on Yahoo!Personals dating site, and being a Redbook Love Network Expert. Tina has a huge online presence, including her blog, website, advice columns, psychotherapy and author listings, Amazon Connect, Facebook, and LinkedIn. She recommends several books that have helped her develop her promotion strategy: Author 101 by Rick Fishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman; The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson; and Blogwild! by Andy Wibbels.

· Jean Fain (http://www.jeanfain.com ) reports that her YouTube videos, especially her "Why A Twinkie?" video and a press release about it to her favorite editors got her coverage in her local newspapers, including the The Boston Globe , which then got syndicated nationwide. “From that, my audio CD sales increased, and I had to start a waiting list for my private psychotherapy practice,” says Jean. “And The Twinkie video keeps on giving. The Globe is making a video about my very interesting job as a hypnotherapist and including footage from the Twinkie video, which I expect will do more of the same to my burgeoning business.”

----------

Joan Price (http://www.joanprice.com/, email joan@joanprice.com) is the author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty and The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book: 300+ quick and easy exercises you can do whenever you want! Joan would be really happy if you’d visit her blog at http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com and comment on any topic that interests you. (Yes, of course you may mention your book title and link back to your own blog or website.)

Light a candle to your favorite saint

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I came across a nifty little website which allows you to light a candle on behalf of the Catholic saint of your choice.

They even have my favorite obscure hermetic saint associated with Charlemagne, namely Saint Namphaise (or Namphasius) as well as Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs and pestilence.

Simply fill out an online form, an email will be sent to your chosen recipient and a virtual candle will be lit on their behalf for sixty days.

Some saints have but a scant number of candles lit, but others such as Saint Genevieve have multiple pages of candles. I expected to find dozens of candles lit for Joan of Arc, but alas there was none.

Until I lit one.

Enjoy lighting virtual candles to your favorite saints.

And may everyone have a wonderful new year filled with joy, good health, and prosperity!

Linda

Bruniquel and the tragic story of Queen Brunehaut

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Time for another massively long travel post filled with photography and anecdotes.

One of my favorite stories about my trip to France deals with our visit to the village of Bruniquel.

While plotting out locations for my novel I had a keen eye for those areas that were historically credible sites, but I had to make a few exceptions out of plot necessities. As I scanned the towns near Montauban in the Michelin Green Guide for the Languedoc Roussillon Tarn Gorges area, I noticed the listing for Bruniquel where Gregory of Tours mentioned this village in his History of the Franks regarding Queen Brunhilda. (The French name is Brunehaut, and in deference to townspeople of Bruniquel I shall use their preferred spelling unless I am quoting from a source that uses a different spelling.)

Brunehaut was a Visigothic princess (the daughter of King Athanagild) and married Sigebert, king of Austrasia and a grandson of Clovis.

The town of Bruniquel is named after Brunehaut who is credited for the town's founding.

I had read some about Bruniquel before our trip and had viewed the town's website, but I was unsure of whether or not there was anything still standing that dated back to the time period of Charlemagne (8th and 9th centuries) or even Brunehaut (6th and 7th centuries.)

Upon arriving at this hilltop village we went directly to the Tourist Office. I wanted to know whether or not there was any buildings or fortifications or anything that I could view that dated back to the time of Brunehaut. The office was staffed with one employee and as I entered I saw there were several other tourists.

I waited my turn to ask questions.

Then there was an elderly gentleman who began a conversation with the official. I did not understand much of what was being said, but I recognized that this was not going to be over quickly. The only way that I was going to be able to talk with the employee would be to interrupt and that would not go over well.

I also was unsure if the employee spoke any English.

I did not want to interrupt a conversation and speak in halting French to ask my questions. I thought that would have been the height of rudeness, and so rather than wait for what might have been fifteen minutes or so, I left the office and decided to just make my way to the top of the village to the castles.

Yes, the plural is correct. Castles.

There was a family dispute and this brought about competing castles built on the same site. And you think you have "issues" with your family or next door neighbors!

At the entrance to the village is a sign depicting an aerial view of those castles. Here is a photograph of that sign. It looks as though the town is on the river, but it is deceiving because this is another strategic hilltop town that overlooks a river.

The next photograph is of the history of the town written in three languages.

Pardon the shadow of the camera hand, but these pictures were taken in the afternoon and nothing could be done to eliminate some shadows appearing.

Here is a monument found at the base of the town across the road from the Tourist office. It is in commemoration of those who gave their lives in World War I and II and stands in front of the church.

We made our way up the narrow streets and continued to marvel at the beauty of the stone used in the town to create buildings that have lasted for centuries.

Once we were at the top of the hill we had to walk around the fortifications surrounding the castles until we could find the entrance. I was struck by the drama of a tree and other foliage growing over these walls as if Nature was trying to reclaim the area from Man.

Here is another view from outside the walls where vegetation has been allowed to grow without being cut down.

Here is a wall with arrow slits and the outside of one of the castles.

Here is a view of the Aveyron River from outside the village, but outside the castles.

Once inside the castle, we paid our entrance fee and were asked if we wanted a guided tour.

I then said, "Anglais, s'il vous plaît?"

The woman shook her head sadly and replied, "No, because my English is not that good."

I told her (in my best French) that I was writing a novel based on the legends of Charlemagne and was interested in anything before that time. I also mentioned that I wanted to know if anything stood that dated back to the time of Brunehaut.

As I mentioned Brunehaut's name, the woman's smile grew broader. The town is proud of this notorious woman from history.

She brought out an English language map of the site as well as a paper detailing its history, and suggested that after our tour that we should visit the town's museum the Maison Payrol.

I had not planned on going there because the description in the Michelin guide did not make it seem as if there would be much of interest to my time period. I thanked her, and then left to explore the castles.

After having been in Paris and Carcassonne where most of the historical sites were renovated, as well as Guédelon where a castle was under construction, I was a bit unprepared to see a site that had not been renovated. There were places that looked in dire need of repair.

Let us start with an ancient bread oven.

The glow is actually sunlight and not due to any red hot embers.

As we stepped outside we saw the remains of old domestic buildings.

Inside the shed is something for my fellow wine lovers: an old wine press. The better to squeeze you with my dear.

Here we get closer to what was labelled as the Salle des Chevaliers (or Knights Room) from the 13th Century.

Inside was a ruined fireplace and hearth.

Here is a view into the courtyard and you can see one of the castles in the background. If you notice, the pillars are decorated with fantastic animals.

Here is a close up of one pillar.

I think it might be depicting a griffin due to the wings, but the facial features look more like that of a donkey than a bird, however the legs look distinctly avian-like. Even the hind legs.

Has anyone ever heard of a four legged bird? Even the fantastical beasts?

Either way, when I zoom in and analyze the picture it appears that the creature depicted is male.

Here's a view of another pillar with animals.

I think it is of a monkey standing on the back of something with legs bent in unnatural angles.

I do not know what the creature on the left is, but it appears to have four legs, feathers and male.

Any medieval bestiary experts out there who can tell me what kind of beasts they think are depicted on these pillars?

Moving along, here is a sign showing the outlines of the various structures within the confines of the fortified walls as well as a brief history.

There is a square in the center which is identified as the Keep or the Donjon.

Here is the sign outside of that structure denoting that it was named after Queen Brunehaut even though it was constructed centuries after her death.

From the inside of the Donjon looking up.

The Keep is on the left hand side of this picture and on the right is the outside of the New castle and in the center is a tower from the old castle.

Here is a better picture of the old castle. It appears to be in pretty good shape from the outside.

Ah, but the inside is not as pretty. I am not altogether sure what this thing was used for, but it is rusty and looks decrepit.

Here is another area that does not look inviting to me.

The castles in Bruniquel are used by the community to showcase artwork. Here you can see photographs displayed that were part of an exhibit of "ghost photography."

If you look closely you might be able to see spirits.

Into another portion of the castle there was a mural on crumbling plaster.

From the vantage point of an upstairs window you can look down upon the Salle des Chevaliers and the roof of the shed that held the wine press.
From another window facing a different direction you can look down upon the Aveyron River.

I believe that the following pictures were taken from the "new castle." You can see that the floor for the second story has been removed. Otherwise why else would there be a fireplace in mid air?

Here is another floating fireplace and the post holes from the missing flooring are evident. You can also see artwork hung by a pipe and chains under the hearth with care.

After touring the castles I wanted to ask a few more questions of the woman who I had spoken with earlier. I was disappointed when I saw someone else at her window.

We then walked through the streets of Bruniquel to find La Maison Payrol and saw this beautiful house along the way.

I was surprised when we arrived at the museum to find that the woman I had wanted to ask a few more questions was there. She was waiting for us.

She took me upstairs and showed some handwritten notes about Queen Brunehaut.

I was told about the road outside Bruniquel was known as "La Voie Romaine et le Chemin de la Reine" and she thought it might be from Cahors to possibly Albi.

For those who are unaware of the history of Queen Brunehaut, it is one of revenge, violence, fratricide, repeated assassination attempts and ultimately a tragic death.

Brunehaut as mentioned previously was the daughter of King Athanagild of the Visigoths and married Sigebert who was king of Austrasia. Gregory of Tours described her as "a maiden beautiful in her person, lovely to look at, virtuous and wellbehaved, with good sense and a pleasant address."

She was so impressive that Sigebert's brother Chilperic, king of Nuestria, wanted to know if Brunehaut had a sister. He wanted someone just as beautiful and refined to be his queen. King Athanagild then sent his daughter Galsuenda to be married to Chilperic.

The problem was that in order for Chilperic to wed Galsuenda, he had to put away his previous wives. One of which was a woman named Fredegunde.

The marriage of Chilperic and Galsuenda did not last very long. It appears that she did not like his dalliances with other women and she wanted to go back to her father. That did not happen. Instead, she was found strangled and Chilperic was soon remarried to Fredegunde.

This led to a decades long feud between Brunehaut and Fredegunde.

Brunehaut was later awarded her sister's dowry since Galsuenda died an unnatural death.

And as to the cities, namely, Bordeaux, Limoges, Cahors, Lescar, and Cieutat, which it is well known that Galsuntha, lady Brunhilda's sister, acquired as dowry or morganegyba, that is, morning gift, when she came into Francia, and which lady Brunhilda is known to have acquired by the decision of the glorious lord king Gunthram (a third brother and king of Burgundy) and of the Franks when Chilperic and king Sigibert were still alive, it is agreed that the lady Brunhilda shall have as her property from today the city of Cahors with its lands and all its people, but the other cities named lord Gunthram shall hold while he lives... Gregory of Tours History of the Franks, Book Nine in the Twelfth year of King Childebert: 20

And this is where Bruniquel comes from because of the proximity to Cahors which is approximately 55 kilometers away.

A war was fought between the brothers Sigebert and Chilperic, and Sigebert died at the hands of assassins sent by his brother.

The widowed Brunehaut became regent for her son Childebert II who was only four at the time of his father's death. According to Gregory of Tours, King Chilperic kept Brunehaut in exile in Rouen at this time.

Chilperic was betrayed by his son Merovech who left his military detail to go to Brunehaut, who he then secretly married. The nephew marrying his uncle's widow was considered to be incestuous and Chilperic put an end to the marriage and forced his wayward son into a monestary and then a series of intrigues which resulted in Merovech asking someone to kill him lest he fall into his enemies' hands. Gregory of Tours wrote, "There were some at the time who said that Merovech's words, which we have just reported, were an invention of the queen (Fredegunda), and that Merovech had been secretly killed at her command."

Gregory of Tours documented plots and counterplots between Brunehaut and Fredegunde as well as plots and counterplots with other Frankish nobles, but alas Gregory died before he could chronicle the end of Queen Brunehaut's life.

She wound up being regent of Austrasia three times: first for her son Childebert II, second for her grandson Théodebert II, and later for her great-grandson Sigebert II.

Brunehaut is reputed to have built many churches over the years and fixed old Roman roads, but she also crossed many nobles and created enemies.

Even after Fredegunde's death, Brunehaut's archenemy still had a role to play. Fredegunde's son Clotaire exacted the downfall of his mother's nemesis.

Fearing Brunehaut's coming to power once again as regent on behalf of her great-grandson Sigebert II, Clotaire brought together a meeting of the nobles and he accused his aunt of heinous crimes. They sided with him and she was tortured and then put to death.

She died at the age of seventy nine.

Seventy nine.

Just when you think that no one lived all that long in the middle ages, you find examples such as Charlemagne and Brunehaut living long and full lives.

I asked the grande dame who was showing us the museum how Queen Brunehaut died because I had seen conflicting reports. I wanted to know if she had been drawn and quartered.

The lady shook her head vigorously. "No. She was dragged to her death on the back of a horse."

Which was the other version I had seen.

I then wanted to know where she was put to death.

Bruniquel.

And Normandy, as well as Brussels.

She laughed and I realized that Brunehaut's body had not been transported from one site to another and dragged again, it was that this story was so dramatic that multiple places wanted to claim the distinction of having been the site of her death.

Look again at this image from the top of the page and read the bottom lines if you can understand French.

En 613, CLOTAIRE II, le fils de FREDEGONDE, condamne BRUNEHAUT à périr attachée à la queue d’un cheval indompte.

La légende veut que ce supplice eut lieu à BRUNIQUEL, sur la <>, à l’ouest du village.

--
My own translation:

In 613, Clotaire II, the son of Fredegonde, condemned Brunehaut to die by attaching her to the tail of a horse.

The legend is that the torture took place in Bruniquel on the red road west of the village.

--

I then suggested that there was another legend of the death happening in Paris, but she shook her head.

Upon arriving back home and I had time to referred to some of my notes that I realized why I thought Brunehaut might have died in Paris. I had read that in Robert Cole's A Traveler's History of Paris.

The chronicles relate that she was taken prisoner, 'reproached' with responsibility for the death of ten kings. She was then set on a camel for three days to be mocked and insulted by the army, after which she was tied to the tail of a horse 'which was lashed into a fury.' Soon all that remained of Brunhild was 'a shapeless mass of carrion,' as Thomas Okey described it with something less than delicacy. Tradition places the execution at the corner where Rue Saint-Honoré meets Rue de l'Arbre Sec. page 18

Here are two different depictions of Brunehaut being executed. The first makes her appear as if starch were applied quite liberally throughout her body.

Talk about stiff.

And the legs are disporportionately long as well. (Did she get put on the Rack first?)

Grandes Chroniques de France, XIV°, Bibliothèque Nationale.

This next one shows more realism as well as drama. However, the body does not seem like it belongs to a seventy-nine year old woman.

Histoire de France, by François GUIZOT 1875

This tragic story of power, assassinations, and assassination plots as well as a brutal execution demonstrated to me the stark difference between historical reality of being in a royal family over the "prince and princess stories" fed to children as an idyllic life.

Think of the story of Brunehaut the former Visigothic princess the next time you see a little girl dressed up in a pink frilly Disney princess dress. Although I do not suggest you tell the girl the story of Brunehaut and Fredegonde, just keep that as your own inner monologue.

In retrospect, I wish I had asked to take a picture of the woman who was so kind to me.

Her grasp of English was better than my grasp of French and we communicated by talking as much as we could in each other's language. It is when either of us could not come up with words we needed that we resorted to using our own own tongues. Somehow in the middle we were able to have a meaningful conversation.

She had finished her day working at the castles and waited for me at the museum so that she could share the history of her village. That is a kindness that I shall remember for years.

The time spent in Bruniquel is one of my fondest memories of my trip to France and it is one that I mention when asked about the hospitality we received by the French people.

C.W. Gortner, An overnight literary sensation 13 years in the making

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:00:00 +0000

The Redwood Writers branch of the California Writers Club

I started this post a week ago, but have not had much chance to finish it due to visits from relatives and - ahem - home improvement projects.

On Sunday, December 7th my writers club was fortunate to have Christopher Gortner as our guest speaker. The title of his talk was: "Thirteen Years in the Making: C.W. Gortner's Personal Journey to Publication."

Before the meeting started I was chatting with Christopher and happened to mention an anecdote about one of the members of my club. As he heard her name, Christopher's eyes grew large.

"You know Persia Woolley?"

"Yes." I looked around the room, saw her and said, "and she's here today."

He told me how much he loves her book How to Write and Sell Historical Fiction and how he refers to it frequently during his writing process and that he has bought replacement copies of it over the years.

I beckoned Persia over and made introductions.

Persia Woolley and Christopher Gortner

Christopher is also a fan of her Guinevere trilogy and expressed regret that he did not have his copies with him to be signed.

Persia's books may be classified as out of print, but they continue to have an impact on readers and writers. Hopefully her trilogy will be reprinted for new audiences to discover and she should update the How-to book to incorporate the internet age and how to sift through information found by online searches.

Now onto the meat of Christopher's talk. He loves historical fiction. He loves reading it and writing it.

He has always wanted to be a novelist writing historical fiction, even when the market for the genre was considered to be "dead."

His first agent was from New York City and his first novel about Anne Boleyn made the publishing rounds. During the waiting period of hearing back from publishers, Christopher busied himself by writing another book. This one was on Juana of Castile also known as "Juana la Loca."

After his novel got some glowing rejection letters and the novel The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell was published it was suggested there would not be much interest in the market for another Anne Boleyn book at the time.

Disillusioned with New York, Christopher signed with a different agent, one who was from another part of the country.

She sent his book on Juana of Castile around, but did not have any better luck. The publishers liked his style and his voice, but no one was buying.

At one point she told him that the difficulty might be in his name. Because most buyers of historical fiction are women and it was thought that female book buyers preferred books about women written by women.

She suggested he adopt a pen name like Caryn Gortner. Or Catherine Gortner.

He did not want to do it.

For one thing, he would be hiding behind a persona and for another, how are you supposed to publicize your book if you are a man pretending to be a woman? Dress in drag to signings?

His agent was not amused.

He received one offer for his book on Juana, but there were some matters that needed to be agreed to before any contract could be signed.

The biggest sticking point concerned the ending.

They wanted it to be changed, because they wanted a happy ending.

Juana of Castile is an historical figure with a tragic life story and it is not in any form a Happily Ever After Ending.

Yet that is what this publisher wanted to have happen. They wanted this story to be a category romance with those genre expectations which are antithetical to the historical reality of the person depicted in the story.

His agent was pushing for him to accept the deal and make the changes.

Christopher was torn because he really wanted to be published and he had been through the publishing merry-go-round for several years at this point in time. He consulted a trusted friend and she told him that if he did what the publisher wanted that he would live to regret it.

He would be savaged by the critics for changing history and he might get steered into becoming a category romance author. He prefers writing about complicated historical figures with tragic fates. That is not the formula for category romance success.

Christopher declined to change the ending. His agent then dropped him from her list of clients.

He tried again with a third book, this time about Catherine de Medici. He signed with an agent at the Jean V. Nagar Literary Agency and once again he had a book making the rounds.

Christopher said that each book seemed to take about 2 1/2 years of submissions and received about 45-55 rejections. Many of the rejections described how much they loved his work, but mentioned all the difficulties in the marketplace, including the perception that historical fiction was a dying genre and the tremendous challenges in launching an unknown author in the genre.

During this time, his agent left the agency and wanted to take him with her. There were some contract unraveling that needed to be done, but he chose to stay with her rather than try to have his book "adopted" by another agent.

He decided at one point to chase writing trends and he spent countless hours in a book store studying the market. It was because of that experience that he wrote a short "thriller" set in the Tudor Court and with a male protagonist. Christopher said that he would not recommend anyone trying to follow trends because by the time you finish writing your book and if it makes the publishing rounds and gets picked up, you are talking a couple years from when you did your initial research. By that time, that trend may no longer be in vogue.

The situation with his third agent deteriorated and after a final round of submissions for his Tudor thriller, they parted ways.

For years he had been excited when he talked with his literary friends because he had an agent and his work was "making the rounds." He was anticipating good news. The years of repeated rejection had begun taking its toll on his psyche.

He avoided the literary community, because he did not want to admit he had given up.

He stopped writing for eight months and went through a period of depression, until his partner gave him a swift kick in the backside and instructed him to start writing again.

Christopher decided that his writing deserved an audience and if New York publishers could not find their way to publish his works, then he would himself. He started researching various POD publishers such as iUniverse and AuthorHouse when he met someone who was planning on starting a small publishing house. This guy knew of Christopher's writing reputation and offered to publish a book without charging him any fees.

He chose the short Tudor court thriller as his first test case. The Secret Lion was all set to print and he received a call saying that there was trouble with the cover. His name was giving them fits because of its length.

It was "the name thing" again.

Christopher asked them to try his initials of C.W. and see how it looked.

That worked.

And so, due to cover art considerations, he adopted the pen name of C.W. Gortner.

Using the strength of the internet and his own networking of friends and associates, he wound up selling around six thousand copies of The Secret Lion online.

He followed up that success by self publishing The Last Queen and had sold about a thousand copies of that title within a month when he received a phone call from Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Nagar Literary Agency. He had talked with her during the process of leaving the agency to follow his previous agent and she remembered him when she came across his name while looking at The Secret Lion at Amazon.com. She asked about his sales record as well as wanting to see his manuscripts. Christopher sent her everything she requested and signed with her, but he did not allow himself to get his hopes up.

He had been through this dance three times before.

Then in a few months, Jennifer called with good news. She had an offer, but other houses were considering the manuscript and she wanted to notify them that an offer was on the table. To everyone's surprise, the book ended up going into auction.

In the end, he had a two book deal for six figures with Ballantine.

Huzzah!

Christopher Gortner and Linda McCabe

The Last Queen is a wonderful book. I loved it.

I knew from the book trailer that Juana suffered a tragic fate, but I was unfamiliar with her life story and did not know how it would end.

Christopher has painted a vivid picture of how limits felt by women of the time and the motives of those surrounding her were predicated upon political power.

If you are looking for a Christmas present for someone who loves historical fiction, I heartily recommend C.W. Gortner's The Last Queen.

By the way, he has a great blog as well.

Thanksgiving greetings from the Wine Country

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

I love the idea of taking stock of your blessings and being thankful for them. Spending the day with family and friends without having the pressure of exchanging gifts is an added benefit.

Living in the Wine Country adds to the charm of the holiday season because we have spectacular autumn colors here. The deciduous trees are not the only source of color as it was when I grew up in the Midwest.

In Sonoma County our hills are covered with rows grape leaves whose colors turned from green to yellows, oranges, and brilliant scarlet. Our days can be chilly or warm while the evenings and nights are cold, but not bitterly so.

Last week I took advantage of a warm sunny day and ate lunch outdoors. I am grateful for that opportunity because my mother cannot do the same back in Michigan, for this time of year there means overcast skies, drizzling rain or a few snow flurries.

For those wondering what kind of wine to serve with their Thanksgiving meals, here a a few links that might help. My favorite wine writer Dan Berger recommends Beaujolais Nouveau and a blog I just discovered called Good Wine Under $20 has a post dedicated to inexpensive wines appropriate for your average Thanksgiving Day menus.

I am a fierce Sonoma County partisan when it comes to wine to the point where I consider wine from the Napa Valley as being an import, but I would like to share recommendations for dessert wines and my favorites do not come from Northern California at all, but rather from the hot Central Valley.

The two dessert wines that I adore are made by Quady Winery in Madera, California. These two wines are designed for pairings with different foods and if done correctly are incredibly sinful. These wines should also be widely available nationwide at any good wine shop, so I will not tease you with describing wines that you cannot obtain easily.

Essensia is an orange muscat and is the perfect accompaniment for a light cheesecake or peach cobbler or pear tart. You will taste oranges, peaches, and the fuzz on an apricot when you sip this luscious orange colored elixir.

And then there is my favorite dessert wine made from black muscat named Elysium.

The color is a deep purple and the nose of the wines smells of roses.

Pair it with anything that has raspberry and dark chocolate. That combination is to die for.

Quady has other dessert wines which you may enjoy as well.

Have a safe and delicious Thanksgiving and may you be surrounded by those who love and appreciate you whether that be family or friends.

Linda

Katherine Neville, Saint Namphaise, and Chain Mail

pallas.athena3@gmail.com (Linda McCabe) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Katherine Neville speaking at Readers Books in Sonoma, California.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favorite authors, Katherine Neville. Her debut novel The Eight has the distinction of being the first hardcover book published by Ballantine Books twenty years ago.

Ballantine wanted something special to have that honor and The Eight certainly fulfilled their wildest aspirations as it has been translated into thirty six languages and is a reliable back-list title. It is a book that was difficult to pigeonhole into a single genre when it appeared on the literary scene in 1988 and to this day still flummoxes people wanting to slap a convenient label on its cover.

The Eight is a complex novel set in two different parallel time frames; one is during the French Revolution and the other in the 1970s in New York and Algeria. The extensive cast of characters - some historical figures and some purely fictional - are obsessed by a mythical chess set that once belonged to Charlemagne and is reputed to bear a secret formula for power.

Chess also serves as a powerful metaphor to describe the intricate moves and counter-moves in the plot.

The long awaited sequel The Fire has a similar structure of two parallel plot threads set in different times. The contemporary time frame is at the beginning of the Iraq War and set in Colorado and Washington, D.C. and the historical time frame is set at the brink of the Greek war of independence and set in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Once again Neville has created a novel filled with intrigue, puzzles, mystery and betrayal.

Here's the book trailer:

Neville regaled us with discussing her books as well as her time spent as an employee of Bank of American in San Francisco and lived in nearby Sausalito. She fantasized about using their computer system to steal billions of dollars from her employer and did that through fiction. There were several retired BofA employees in the audience who had shared some stories with her before her talk.

I was interested to know how much chess she played since both novels are drenched in chess as well as literary alchemy. She said that she learned to play chess when she was eighteen and admitted that she gets "chess blindness." That strategic weakness wound up appearing in her sequel as her heroine became so wrapped up in a game that she did not realize she had beaten her opponent.

Neville then discussed how she has heard from many chess grandmasters including Susan Polgar the first woman to break the grandmaster gender barrier. After Katherine had turned in her manuscript, she read Polgar's memoir and wanted to change one small detail of changing the final move in a chess game. Instead of something good, she wanted the perfect move that would echo a move Polgar made in order to earn her status as grandmaster.

The bad news was that the book already had the Advanced Reader Copies printed. However, Katherine later read the ARC and discovered that three and a half pages were missing.

Missing.

This time they had to stop the presses to add in the accidentally excluded three and a half pages. And since they were doing that...she was able to get them to change the text to reflect her preferred chess move.

She said they had to include an addendum to the reviewers who received the ARCs so that they had the missing pages.

At least the printers did not spell her name wrong on the spine of the book. A few months ago Kristin Nelson had a post on her blog written anonymously by an editor that realized after a book was printed and sitting on the bookshelf in her office that an author's name was misspelled.

Oops.

That mistake brought about the pulping of 40,000 paperbacks, but thankfully they had not been shipped to any stores when the error was discovered.

Kristen Nelson had also blogged about clients of hers who discovered by checking early copies of that an uncorrected proof copy had mistakenly had gone to print and another client discovered an editorial question embedded in page 110 of the ARC that had somehow not been deleted.

Double yikes.

The good thing to take away from those stories was that the publishers were willing to make things right.

Anyway, back to discussing the books signing. It was my pleasure to meet Katherine and schmooze with her about writing, historical fiction and Charlemagne.

Her website has been retooled and it is filled with lovely extras such as podcasts where she discusses various aspects of the books and research methods. There is also a contest to win signed first editions of The Eight and The Fire. You can also check out her events schedule to see if she will be coming to a bookstore near you.

Unfortunately it only lists those signings in the United States at this time. She mentioned she will be traveling to Spain where The Eight has been listed as one its top ten books of all times - and that includes books by Cervantes!

One thing that she mentioned in her talk (and is also in the podcast about research) is how she would discover serendipitous facts that influenced her writing. These things happened so frequently that she came to expect them.

My friend Molly Dwyer spoke about this same phenomenon at the most recent meeting of my writers club.

Rob Koslowsky's write up of Molly's talk included this:

One technique (Molly) employs is to find a historical legend to resolve problems in developing the narrative and “make the writing work.” Solutions to problems will appear as you write, especially if you believe in meaningful coincidence – synchronicity. “Allow coincidences to inform your writing,” she insists, and “as you open up your writing, an upwelling of the collective consciousness occurs.” She gave an example of researching Sainte Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, and discovering that January 3rd is her feast day and that is the date of her lead character's death. It was a significance she could not plan, but worked perfectly for her story's needs.

In fact, that kind of synchronicity is how I discovered Saint Namphaise. There was a hermit used in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso that was not given a name. During the writing of my adaptation, I felt uncomfortable having a character on the page for so long without a name. I decided to find a name for him and went to an online Catholic directory of saints hoping to find something with some symbolic significance.

After plugging in the term "hermit" in the search function for saints I was surprised to find there were over 500 listed. I started reading them in alphabetical order and thought finding a name would only take a few minutes. That is until I realized they had brief biographies I kept reading. And reading.

Some would call it procrastination, but I could not just settle on a name without searching for the "perfect one." Then I came across the listing for Saint Namphaise.

Today is also Saint Namphaise's feast day so I am frantically trying to finish this blog post while it is still November 12th.

According to legend, this obscure saint was once a soldier serving Charlemagne before dedicating his life to serving God. I am trying my level best to rescue this saint from obscurity and would like to re-post some of my favorite pictures associated with Saint Namphaise in honor of his feast day.

First is the marker denoting the site where he once helped build a monastery.

Here is my favorite photo taken during our trip to France which shows the mystical waters of the Gouffre de Lantouy near Cajarc.

Gouffre de Lantouy

This is the first real vision we had of the abbey in ruins showing arches and more than just a pile of rocks.

I hope that others will join me in celebrating this largely forgotten hermit saint associated with Charlemagne.

And for my medievalist readers, I wanted to mention that there is a contest to win chain mail by Orbit Books to promote the release of the book The Company by K.J. Parker. The contest ends on the morning of November 24th, so enter today. Hat tip to Andrew Wheeler.

There is also a post about a successful book launch for Geri Westerson's Veil of Lies which included two men in armor from Imperial Knights of Norco, California performing a bit of swordplay. I like that kind of creative ideas for book promotions.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that this is my 100th blog post and is nearing the second anniversary of when I started this literary blog.

I know many bloggers update far more frequently than I do, but I have chosen the path of having more substance to my posts over frequency. For those interested in following my blog I hope you will take advantage of the RSS feeds to be alerted for updates.

Cheers to Saint Namphaise - my favorite obscure French saint.