Jessica Knauss, Famous Writer

Arizona Centennial Celebration VII

2012-02-15T03:19:00.000-08:00

I had no idea this amazing monument existed before we passed it on the highway. Casa Grande (looking less than grand in the pic because of a roof meant to halt deterioration of the adobe) was constructed by the Hohokam people. They are believed to be the ancestors of Arizona's native tribes.

Arizona Centennial Celebration VI

2012-02-13T03:12:00.000-08:00

More natural wonder: as well as valleys, Arizona has mountains. When you go up Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, you can pass though four or five climates/ecosystems in the space of an hour.

Yes, these two pictures are from the same mountain!

SSS: The Party's Over

2012-02-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

The bank of the Arlanzón River in 2005, more than 1000 years after the events in this novel.

Thanks so much for the comments and visits last week! I enjoyed your snippets, too!

Although the wedding celebrations were expected to continue for several more weeks, the tragic events in Chapter 5 of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara have called everything to a halt. This segment comes a few sentences after last week's.

* * *

When doña Lambra was ready, they left the tent. Justa went to fetch the other maidens and her lady looked down the riverbank. For five weeks it had been festooned with tents and banners and people in all manner of occupations. Now, the multitudes that had arrived in Burgos with such pomp for the wedding festivities had quietly dispersed over the last three days, returning to their own lands. Each morning a few more of the man-made features had disappeared, until finally the entire bank was plucked bald. All that remained as evidence of the merriment was a lamentable groove in the dust where men and horses had proven their worth against a wooden castle.

* * *

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful sentences at Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks so much for stopping by and helping inspire me as I try to finish this novel.

Arizona Centennial Celebration V

2012-02-10T00:49:00.000-08:00

The most famous thing about Arizona is cactus. One of the most wonderful things about it is that these scrappy plants, built to survive under the harshest heat conditions, defending themselves with painful swords all along their skins, also blossom at least once a year into a thing of ineffable beauty.

Prickly pear (nopal) with red bloom.

See this and many other wonders in the original post.

Arizona Centennial Celebration IV

2012-02-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

A spectacular Arizona resident: Harris's hawk. These pictures were taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Arizona Centennial Celebration III

2012-02-06T00:31:00.000-08:00

Another wonderful, underappreciated thing about Arizona: the javelina. Javelinas are sensible creatures who know the value of a nap in the shade. There are at least three in this pile -- try to sort them out.

SSS: Eternity without Teeth

2012-02-05T00:27:00.000-08:00

Doña Lambra is having trouble relating to her new husband and has sent him after her maid and close ally, Justa. This segment follows right after last week's:

* * *

She licked her chapped lips and coughed, wondering if she could ever bring balance to her bodily humors after such a day. She had wailed and beat her chest for hours after they laid Álvar Sánchez’s body into the ground wrapped in linen, so close to other knights who had died defending Castile. With Justa’s help, she had collected all of Álvar’s teeth in a leather pouch and drawn the string tightly closed. After the blessings, she had set the pouch on his chest, so that it almost looked like he was holding them in his folded hands through the cloth.

“It isn’t right that someone so handsome should have to meet eternity without his teeth,” Lambra whispered aloud.

“We did our best for him, my lady.”

* * *

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments so much! I'm glad to see many of you remember the story, too! I'll definitely be by to visit your blogs!

Arizona Centennial Celebration II

2012-02-03T00:24:00.000-08:00

Another great thing about Arizona: fossils! At various times in the past, the Sonoran Desert was a grassland and a sea, creating exciting layers of fossil-laden geology.

Arizona Centennial Celebration

2012-02-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

This February marks 100 years since Arizona became a state. Since I've come to appreciate the natural beauty of this place where I've so serendipitously found a home, I'll post pictures I've taken in the year I've been here to celebrate not only its 100 years of statehood but also millions of years of existence.

You almost* can't beat an Arizona sunset, so it's a great place to start.

"Red sky at night -- sailor's delight." It's nearly always smooth sailing here in the desert.

* I can beat it with a Spanish sunrise most days -- but I digress.

SSS: Emotional Aftermath of the Bloody Wedding

2012-01-29T00:52:00.000-08:00

The Seven Noble Knights of Lara is back! You may remember Chapter 5, in which male egos got out of hand and caused the death of Álvar Sánchez. (Check out almost all the excerpts in this link.) A legal compromise has apparently satisfied all concerned parties, but now it's the opening of Chapter 6, and we focus in on doña Lambra -- the bride as well as the cousin of the dead man.

* * *

Doña Lambra woke to the brightness of the tent with a bitter taste in her mouth and dried tears crusting her eyes. She rolled over and saw a figure moving about in silence.

“Justa?” she croaked.

Ruy Blásquez moved next to the bedstead, nearly thrusting his bandaged nose in her face. “It is I, my dear wife.”

“Bring Justa.”

* * *

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments hugely, especially as I get back into writing this novel after a hiatus. I'll visit you all in return! Check us all out at Six Sentence Sunday.

Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman

2012-01-27T00:35:00.000-08:00

I'm not exaggerating or falling back on platitudes when I say that this book is unforgettable. I got to read Three Weeks in December in an advanced proof with no cover design, so I couldn't be influenced by the blue lion on the cover of the for-sale version. The lion is mysterious, but fails to capture the essence of the book for me, probably because it is such an amazing book, simple and complex at the same time.

As all the other reviews will mention, it tells the story of two social misfits separated by 100 years. One traces the historical incident treated as an adventure in the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, but with richer characters and much more emotional resonance. The other tells of a botanical quest by a woman who can relate to plants -- and, it turns out, to gorillas -- more easily than to humans. The stories told in alternating chapters have thematic similarities throughout, but are truly tied together at the end. For me, the end was a surprise in every way, and it's only after getting over the initial shock that I realize it's not contrived, but true to the artistic vision and truly thought-provoking.

The entire book is consistently rich in detail and gorgeously written. Every reader should be able to sympathize deeply with the social outcast characters because their take on the world is so vividly portrayed and makes so much sense within their context. This novel is a triumph of limited third person point-of-view narration.

Three Weeks in December is incredibly well-researched, the kind of book that will make you feel smarter and more engaged with the world. I plan to check out Schulman's previous novels to see what other gems I've missed so far.

Check Out My New Guest Blog!

2012-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

As you know, Mera's YA Book List is giving away some gorgeous Tree/House bookmarks at this time. Today I have contributed a short essay about the most important theme in Tree/House that I hope my readers will enjoy.

Check it out here! Thanks for stopping by!

Winner of the Transcendent Giveaway!

2012-01-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

Christine Bails is the happy recipient of a free ebook of Transcendent! Congratulations and let us know how you like it!

Se the original post here.

SSS: Did You Find Me?

2012-01-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

The server was down when I first tried to sign up for Six Sentence Sunday this week, and by the time I could get there, I ended up much father down the list than I usually am. So if you found me, congrats! Visit all the great writers you can. We all appreciate it more than even words can say!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to excise the kidnapping element from this story, so please enjoy it while it's still there. Continuing from last week:

* * *

“Only pretty girls without degrees have been disappearing.”

So now he thought he was a profiler. It was like something from a formulaic TV show. But he was right in that, although my sister had applied to all the good drama schools in the country, nothing had worked out for her in the end. She was living with our parents because the money a person can earn from acting in commercials and student films is small and unstable. I chalked up the cops’ surrender to the fact that none of them were twins and accessed my twinly intuition – or just some solid logic – and I thought she must have gone to New York to increase her chances.

* * *

Thanks for reading! I return the favor! In the coming weeks, I'll present more medieval madness...

And please don't forget! This is the last day to throw your name into the hat for the Transcendent giveaway!

My Famous Appearance on Mera's YA Booklist

2012-01-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been in the blogosphere much lately because of work commitments, but there's something pretty special going on! Check out Mera's YA book list this week for free bookmarks of Tree/House! Visit this link.

These bookmarks are shiny and beautiful with extremely high quality printing and that lovely butterfly. Trust me, you want one! Mera has a great page, anyway. You won't be sorry.

Thanks for your support!

SSS: Six More from New Story

2012-01-15T00:09:00.000-08:00

Halfway through January already! Thanks for the encouragement about this new story. Here are the next six sentences.

* * *

One earnest officer took me into confidence and whispered, “Pretty girls have been disappearing lately and we haven’t found any of them.”

“Am I at risk?” I had asked, figuring that if my identical twin had disappeared, I too would be the kidnapper’s type.

“No,” he said, too quickly. “You graduated from Harvard.”

Like most twentysomethings in Boston, I had more university degrees than life experience. “So?”

* * *

The missing twin's name, Dulcy, is short for Dulcinea, so I guess I don't have the monopoly on it, although I wish I did. These sentences look as though they're leading to a police drama, but the story is really going to be about what happens after they get Dulcy home. Thanks so much for visiting and leaving comments, remembering that this is unedited so far. I'll be sure to return the favor!

And if you like YA paranormal, definitely check out my last post!

Transcendent Giveaway!

2012-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

Today I'm pleased to present Transcendent: Tales of the Paranormal. Every one of the stories in this new anthology by up-and-coming YA paranormal authors is original and memorable. If you like Twilight, you'll love these short adventures! Perhaps the most sensitively written is "Pumpkin Thief" by Evan Joseph, in which we get to see the Headless Horseman's romantic side. I have two personal favorites: "Seduction of a Siren" by Lani Woodland and Melonie Piper, for the way it turns a neglected part of Greek folklore on its head in funny and romantic ways, and "Feather" by Rita Webb, which combines breathtaking encounters with nature and mysterious romance to create a truly unique Native American perspective. None of the stories disappoint and all will inspire the reader to see his or her life in a more magical way.

Transcendent can be yours for an economical price at the outlets listed below, or you can win a copy right here! Leave a comment with your name and email address (written out to avoid bots if you desire) and which e-book format you prefer to be entered into a drawing for one free digital copy! Drawing takes place the morning of January 23 (Happy Chinese New Year!) and the winner will receive the prize that same day. Good luck!

Purchase Information:
o Paperback on Amazon: Purchase for $10.99!
o Paperback on Barnes and Noble: Coming Soon!
o eBook on Kindle: Purchase today for 99c!
o eBook on Nook: Purchase today for 99c!

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SSS: New Year, New Story

2012-01-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

After the enforced holiday for Christmas, I sort of skipped New Year's, too. Glad to be back! Here are the first six lines from a brand new, mysterious story. It's so new, it's still raw, so please be kind!

* * *

After months of searching, I followed my instinct to Manhattan. I didn’t find my twin sister Dulcy so much by her presence as by the void she created in the commotion surrounding her. On my second morning there, she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue, surrounded by a wave of powerwalking natives and gawk-walking tourists and endless shouts to “Get out of the *ing way!” or to “Shove over!”

The cops in Boston had been singularly unhelpful and told me they were going to close the case. “It’s policy, ma’am. If we have no leads on a case for a certain amount of time, we have to move on,” said the stern leader.

* * *

I apprecite all your comments sooooooo much! I will definitely visit you back! Happy 2012!

A Seaworthy Tale: Astreya II, The Men of the Sea

2012-01-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned before how I might be biased because I ushered the Astreya Trilogy through the entire publication process. I've changed my mind. These are objectively enjoyable tales, each one with its own enchanting personality.

If you're skeptical of sequels, I should point out that Astreya, Book II: The Men of the Sea is in reality a continuation of the story and Book I is not complete without Books II and III. The story picks up minutes after where The Voyage South leaves off, when Astreya is faced with a decision to resist his kidnappers, who turn out to be his only blood relatives, or to willingly learn about them, their astounding technology and skills, and the legacy of the Wanderer's Curse. Astreya's burgeoning romance with Lindey seems to hang in the balance, as he is never sure whether she can forgive him, no matter what decision he makes. Or whether he will ever see her again.

In The Men of the Sea, we meet an entire cast of new characters even while we keep pace with our old friends from Book I. The new characters are nearly all pirates, but not the type gleaned from certain theme park rides. These pirates have real motivations and fears. The leader is an intriguing psychological study in frustration, while the likes of Adramin, Mirak, and Mufrid you'll love to hate. The story moves through water and time at a swift pace, bringing unpredictable adventures at every turn. No matter what you look for in a good story, you can't help being thrilled at the battle at sea. That would seem to be the climax -- but no! Even more secrets are revealed and quests undertaken! You'll dread the end of this book, but you can still take comfort in the knowledge that Book III, The Wanderer's Curse, is coming soon.

The Men of the Sea is perfect for readers who already have their sea legs and love the Age of Sail, but the lubbers out there will love this book at least as much as Astreya I, possibly more.

History Monday: On This Day in 1492

2012-01-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you thought only one event happened in 1492, but on January 2 of that year a different part of history was playing out, making Columbus's voyage financially possible.

Today is the 520th anniversary of the capitulation or surrender of the great city of Granada by the last Muslim king, Boabdil, to the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel. Unlike what is depicted in this famous and romanticized painting by Padilla, the Muslim leader met with the Christian commanders in secret, in the dead of night inside the Alhambra palace in order to avoid the immediate rebellion of his subjects, who in general, still preferred death to surrender. Under the circumstances, Boabdil made a reasonable decision in order to preserve his family and his own life, and has been reviled for it ever since. In another probably romanticized anecdote from history, as the king rode away from his breathtakingly beautiful city, a tear came to his eye. His mother reportedly told him to "Weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man."

The Christian monarchs of the kingdoms of Iberia had been trying, with varying levels of earnestness, to eject the Muslims from the peninsula for nearly 780 years. The surrender of Granada was the last step in the unification of what is now Spain under Fernando and Isabel, who'd started out as the king of Aragón and the queen of Castile respectively. But the cultural revolution (some might say "apocalypse") was far from over. With the relatively small Muslim population now theoretically under control, Isabel could turn her religious zeal against the Jews, whom she expelled from her kingdom by royal edict later in 1492. The new geographical unity helped make the following century all about Spain, all over the world. With the expensive "reconquest" of the Iberian peninsula complete, Fernando and Isabel could finally devote funds to other projects, such as granting the wishes of that loony Genoan sailor-scholar who wanted so badly to be Admiral of the Ocean Sea on Spain's behalf.

The Knauss Awards for Excellence in Publishing: My Best Books of 2011

2011-12-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

My reading is pretty erratic and eclectic, dictated not so much by my own preferences as what books I win and what comes across my desk at Fireship. (Got a Spanish topic? Send it across my desk at Açedrex!) But this year I've been impressed enough with my tiny random sampling of the enormous number of books being published that I decided to single out the best ones here.

Best Book I Edited. This category isn't meant to disparage the other fine books I edited this year. When Astreya came "over the transom," as the new Fireship boss likes to say, it was kismet. I'm convinced I became an editor at Fireship just so I could work with this author. It's a trilogy, and we're trying to get the installments out within a month of each other, so the involvement has been much more intense than with any other. Add to that the fact that I was just finishing the editing of Book I when the founder passed away and you'll get some idea of the powerful emotions I can't separate from Astreya. I'm glad I got to go through all that with a book that so tickled my fancy and an author who's a genuine human being. Original review

Best Non-Fiction. Hands-down winner is The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. This book arrived in the mail and I devoured it in two days. It's an adventure I wish I'd thought of having myself, engagingly written and informative. Absolutely wonderful. Original review

Best Fiction. This is was the most difficult category to narrow down. In the end, it came to which book had a Spanish theme, an epic feel, struggles against the Nazis, and nascent feminism. In spite of its large size, I devoured The Time In Between almost as quickly as I did The Wilder Life, so it's the winner. The hardback is so beautifully designed, I almost need to add a design category here. But I'll refrain. Original review

So, that's all, folks! Happy holidays one and all! See you in the new year!

SSS: A Disastrous Marriage

2011-12-18T00:33:00.000-08:00

This week, I'm presenting the first six sentences from my now freshly published ode to love, "A Disastrous Marriage." You may remember when I was terribly worried I would never find a publisher for it. I'm sure some of that karma helped speed the piece along. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments so very much.

* * *

It rained so hard, the wicker baskets were overflowing. Water poured through the ceiling, carrying nails, unrecognizable timbers, and sloppy pink insulation. It was a relief to go outside.

“This isn’t as bad as the time our house burned down in the middle of Death Valley,” said Herbert, standing under the useless awning.

“Why?” I shouted, skeptically, through the pounding roar.

* * *

You can read the whole thing here! The story of the origin of this piece is here.

Check out all the other great sixes at www.sixsunday.com!

Kvetch Enough and...

2011-12-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

Just last month, I was bemoaning my inability to find a publisher for my flash fiction, "A Disastrous Marriage." It celebrates my marriage, gives a little insight into how I met my husband, and grossly exaggerates the difficulties we've been through.

This week, I found out that there is indeed a publisher who "gets" the story, and they have published it today! Check it out here!

"A Disastrous Marriage" came about when my husband and I were living in Pennsylvania. We were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves because we'd had to abandon the beautiful Boston where we met for an economically depressed area, and then the job we'd moved there for didn't work out, so our income fell to zero only a month and a half after we bought a new house. After some painful job search months, my husband landed a job at a retailer. It was a job he loved, but it only provided 12% of what he had been making. It was not enough to keep the house, much less stay in the house and eat. So we did what we could with the house and made the wrenching decision to come to Arizona to live with my sister-in-law. It was under that kind of strain that I came up with all the exaggerations in "A Disastrous Marriage," wanting to graphically illustrate that although nothing had gone very well since we'd gotten married, I still believed in us and knew we could be happy as long as we had each other.

And that's how it's turned out. We didn't actively choose to come to Arizona, but this weird place has blessed us over and over again. And we're happy.

The first image from the story, of there being so much water that wicker baskets are overflowing (imagine how much rain it would take!), has been morphed from a line in a Manolo García song, "Malva." It's about love gone wrong, so I wanted to redeem it.

MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche

2011-12-14T01:10:00.000-08:00

Rachel Bertsche moved to Chicago by choice, but it was not by choice that she left her lifelong friends in New York behind. She finds that her husband cannot provide her the kind of support she knows she could get from good local female friends. She finds herself in the fix that so many of us do today: we know we want more friends, but without the kind of structure provided by school or summer camp, we're puzzled as to how to go about it. Unlike most of us, she takes a forward-thinking approach and resolves to go on one "friend date" a week for a whole year, in the hope of getting to the end of the year with at least one Best Friend. The result is a funny and poignant memoir.

Along the way, Rachel discovers the latest research and theories on both how social contacts are made and their effects on our health, and she spreads the information out masterfully. Most people she's talked to assume that friendships "just happen," but Rachel does the digging and finds out better details about what really makes them happen. Then she does her best to make those things work for her. Her biggest first assumption is that people will react badly to her advances, thinking she's a freak. It's a huge relief to find that the women she approaches are in the same boat and open to new friendship.

By the end of the book, she's "tried everything," so if you've been wondering how to make more friends, read MWF Seeking BFF to give every idea you're considered a vicarious test run. Rachel's writing gives you a very clear picture of who she is and what she expects and gives in a friendship, so through her experiences, it's easy to weed out the best suggestions for you.

This book shows that the world is full of people who'd like to escape the isolation of today's techno-world and, more simply, to meet new people, including you! It's an active, optimistic antidote to the depression and loneliness forecast by sociologists and social commentators. Thanks so much, Rachel, for letting us know we aren't nearly as alone as we thought!

MWF Seeking BFF is on sale everywhere December 20. Pick it up if making new friends is one of your resolutions. Check out a lot more research and connection possibilities at http://mwfseekingbff.com/.

Harvesting Between the Lines: On Researching Historical Novels

2011-12-12T00:12:00.000-08:00

Evan Ostryzniuk is the author of the English Free Company series, the first book of which, Of Faith and Fidelity, has just been released by Knox Robinson Publishing and is available wherever fine books are sold.

I've been reading Of Faith and Fidelity and admired the way Evan is able to put the reader immediately into the sensory experience of his chosen time period. I recently had the opportunity to ask him how he achieves such a wonderful effect and what his historical research methods are like. This is his response.

Solid research is the foundation of any respectable historical fiction. That much is obvious, but the blessing and curse of the digital age is the sheer enormity of material easily available for review. It is a blessing because the author can delve far deeper into the period milieu than his predecessors, and therefore is given the opportunity to produce a historically rich text larded with myriad detail; it is a curse not only because of the time required to go through the thousands of pages and hundreds of images related to the topic at hand, but also because with the greater information at the author’s fingertips come higher expectations from the readership. Convenient anachronisms or inventions are much harder to get away with now. Therefore, as an author I have to strike a balance between extensive research and pedantry, or archival tourism. The novel has to be written some time! So, I have developed a number of strategies to cope with this challenge, which at heart means that I have to be picky. To use a fishing analogy: I cast wide into the vast ocean of information, but my net is woven to catch specific species of fish.

One research strategy I employ is to define my approach from the central theme I want to develop in my novel. While the English Free Company series has a set stable of characters and takes place within a restricted period (usually less than a year), each novel has as a uniting thread a specific idea built within the context of the time. For example, Of Faith and Fidelity considers the meanings and challenges of… well, you get the point. Therefore, I direct my research towards drawing out aspects of that theme from my study of the more concrete and banal needs of the plot. Not surprisingly, I use Chaucer as a primary source, and so when I study the "Knight’s Tale," for example, I look for direct and indirect references to notions of faith and fidelity, whether in his conversation with the other pilgrims, in his gestures, or in the tale he tells. Of course, I have to be convinced that Chaucer was employing contemporary cultural norms in his writing, however exaggerated, otherwise I might embarrass myself in my own writing, but subsequent research confirms his sincerity. When I take the theme for my next novel, I will read the "Knight’s Tale" again, bit with a view to a different set of needs.

My novels are character-driven above all, since because the events depicted in the narrative are historically true, there is a degree of inevitability about how some of the plot plays out. Therefore, my intention is not to offer a textbook discussion of the era, which Wikipedia handles just fine, but to draw the reader in through more personal details, including dialog, gestures, movements, carriage and disposition, acts of violence or courtesy, that are specific to the time and place of my novels. This leads me to a second research strategy. While some aspects of human intercourse and custom remain universal – everybody eats, for example – time and place are evoked by describing how and what they ate, and no less importantly the social, political and symbolic meanings of the meal. I am not interested in writing long-winded passages about medieval fortification or crofters’ huts for the sake of placing the reader in the novel’s time and place. For me, the reader can simply download a photo of one or the other and glance at it when need be as they read my novel. Above all, I want to bring the people to life and encourage the reader to engage with them, and to do that I need to develop many angles of the characters and lard the text with precise but flowing interactions. That requires an immense volume of research because it requires me to pick up on the small almost trivial aspects of primary sources, which is every writer’s dream resource. I will read Chaucer, Gower, Froissart, Langland, or Boccaccio as much for their casual deployment of everyday customs as for their deeper abstract themes and language.

The pretentious response to the reason why I am attracted to the late-14^th and early 15^th centuries is to claim “the Renaissance” and let that word speak for itself. However, the truth is that below and beyond the earliest murmurings of Humanism and innovations in literature and business are other events so historically important, diverse and fascinating yet bunched together chronologically that it arouses the curiosity about how this could be. This period offers the Great Schism in the Church, Black Death, Hundred Years War, Turkish expansion, final flowering of chivalry and courtly love, commercialization of warfare, all of which throw up their own diverse stories. Even more attractive to me, as someone who lavishes most of his attention on characters, is that this period is intensely personal. What I mean by that is that this was a time when personalities on many levels were paramount, and their interaction extremely sophisticated. And I don’t just mean kings and queens and nobility, whose personalities are key in every age. The period 1350-1450, especially in northern Italy, saw the rise of famous captains, famous merchants, famous bankers, famous artists, famous lords… In other words men and some women of all but the humblest classes became individuals, as opposed to simply serving as members of a well-defined order. That is one important aspect that I develop in the English Free Company series. Another attraction of the period is the paucity of historical fiction related to those years. Much has appeared about the era of Machiavelli and the Borgias, on the one side of the divide, and the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine on the other, but not a whole lot of stories have appeared on the years in between. This neglect surprises me, as well as offers me an opportunity to show my fellow authors and readers what they have been missing!

Family History into Historical Fiction: Karen Charlton

2011-12-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, December eighth, is the debut of Karen Charlton's Catching the Eagle, a regency mystery and adventure made all the more thrilling because it's based on a true story.

Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows. When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. The owner sends for Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in London, to investigate the crime. Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley. Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless. As the case grows against him, it seems that only his young brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice. But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie’s wife. Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, Catching the Eagle, the first novel in the Regency Reivers Series, is a fictionalized account of a trial that devastated a family and divided a community.

Today I'm thrilled to have Karen Charlton with me to talk about her new book. As some of you know, I spent a year in Leeds, England, so today it's a couple of Yorkshire lasses sharing a cuppa. Karen Charlton was born in Sheffield and grew up in Leeds. She completed an English degree at Hull University. After a few years of roaming between various jobs in Harrogate, Ripon and Scarborough she finally settled in Teesside. She completed a post graduate teaching certificate at Durham University. Since then, she has combined a teaching job at Grangefield Secondary School in Stockton, with her writing and raising her own pair of "little villains."

JK: What drew you to the Regency era?

KC: Quite simply, I didn’t: it chose me. Catching the Eagle is based on the true story of my husband’s ancestor, Jamie (James) Charlton, who managed to get himself convicted for Northumberland’s biggest robbery back in 1809. On Easter Monday of that year, over £1,157 of rent money collected from the estate was stolen from the steward’s office at Kirkley Hall in Ponteland, England. The thief had left no visible trace of himself and the furious owner of Kirkley Hall sought help from Detective Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street magistrate’s court in London. However, when Jamie was eventually arrested and charged with the crime, the main evidence against him came from a fellow prisoner in Morpeth gaol, William Taylerson. This treacherous cad claimed that Jamie had confessed to him that he had "done it" while they shared a cell together. Taylerson (who had previously been sentenced to hang) was granted a pardon the week before the trial and freed.

JK: How did this saga come to light?

KC: We stumbled across this fascinating tale while researching our family history. When we shook our family tree – a convict fell out. Not only that, but Jamie was a convict with a very dodgy conviction. There was a public outcry after he was found guilty and a subscription was set up to help him and his family. It did not take me long to realize that the perfect plot for a historical novel had just landed in my lap.

JK: Did you have to do much work to fill in the gaps?

KC: Genealogical research – which had previously been a hobby - now became a quest. We took several trips down to The National Archives in London and found the transcripts and statements from the original court case notes. We also discovered that the robbery and subsequent court case had been well reported in the local newspaper of the time: The Newcastle Courant. Every copy of this newspaper was available to read in Gateshead Library in its original form. The Ponteland Local History Society was also able to provide me a very informative pamphlet written about the robbery in 1890.

JK: Did all this fact-finding change your perception of the era?

KC: I had always wanted to write historical novels and I particularly loved the Regency era. There is something very attractive about this time period with its white muslin dresses, highwaymen, dashing scarlet uniforms and an intriguing whiff of decadence and scandal. However, Catching the Eagle turned out to be a very different kind of Regency novel. My main characters are the ordinary, everyday folks of rural England. They are the agricultural laborers, tailors and toll gate keepers of the working class and probably have more in common with Catherine Cookson’s characters than Georgette Heyer’s or Jane Austen’s.

JK: After you finished your research, did the novel come along quickly?

KC: It was not easy and I found it a mammoth undertaking. Catching the Eagle covers events from April 1809 until June 1811. It contains over seventy characters and involved recreating the lost world of rural Northern England.

JK: How did you keep it all straight?

KC: Fortunately, I had a wealth of original documents which gave me tantalizing glimpses about how the characters lived their lives. From the court case notes, I discovered what agricultural laborers actually did for a living, how much they were paid, and what they did in their spare time. I learnt about the brandy they drank in the taverns, what they talked about amongst themselves while they were there and the gambling and dice games they enjoyed in the public houses. I discovered the extent of the debts they ran up during the hardship of a bad winter and the kind of shops they had. I know how much they were prepared to pay for a new cow, or a new coat, and how much reward they were prepared to offer if one of their highly-prized sheep dogs went missing. All of this detail I have tried to include in Catching the Eagle because I believe that it is detail like this which brings the period and the setting to life for the reader. I always want a novel to take me somewhere different, somewhere I have not traveled before either geographically, socially or historically.

JK: Did you find it difficult to create convincing historical dialogue?

KC: Much of the dialogue in the novel is also lifted directly out of the archives – those conversations really happened; those words were actually spoken. This is especially true of the three chapters set in the court room and many of the scenes set in local taverns. Jamie’s drunkenness and foolishness in the Seven Stars public house in Ponteland on the night after the robbery was reported by several witnesses in the court case notes. Everything he said that night was reported verbatim – and is recreated in Chapter Two in the novel. All the statements given by the witnesses at both trials are recreated virtually word for word in later parts of the book.

JK: Do you think you'll continue writing novels?

KC: It has taken me years to realize my ambition and become a published novelist. Catching the Eagle was a labor of love which took five years to research and another twenty-six months to write and revise. Fortunately, our research uncovered enough material for two more novels and Catching the Eagle is the first in The Regency Reivers Series.

JK: Thank you for being here today. Do you have a message for my readers?

KC: If I have one piece of advice for would-be novelists it is this: don’t give up – hold onto your dream.

Catching the Eagle is available from Knox Robinson Publishing and from booksellers everywhere December 8.

The Long Road to Astreya: An Interview with Seymour Hamilton

2011-12-05T00:09:00.000-08:00

JK: Today I'm lucky to have with me Seymour Hamilton, author of the new Astreya Trilogy. My review of the first book is available here, and the second and third books will be released by Fireship Press this month and in January. The books are held together by some of the most original and authentic personalities I've ever read, so my first question is: how did you create the characters?

SH: They showed up and demanded to get into the book. Once in, they often extended their initial role in unpremeditated and completely unauthorized directions, changed their names, had adventures and misadventures that showed that they were much more than mere plotting devices, and on occasion got left behind and had to be rescued.

JK: Were they hard to keep track of?

SH: Through most of the writing process, I had to call the roll chapter by chapter from a separate sheet of paper on which I kept track of who was where in order to preserve them from the literary oblivion of the man who got into the ship/boat/inn/burning building etc., and never got out again. Sometimes they explained themselves to each other, which was very helpful to me in that I was able to listen in. These revelations also helped me figure out what they were doing before, during and after their appearances in Astreya's story. A few of them kept secrets from me and everyone else, some of which were revealed later when another character unexpectedly spilled the beans. More than one remained inscrutable to the end of the third book.

JK: So they really took on a life of their own. Are any of them based on people you know?

SH: Sarah [a character from Astreya, Book III: The Wanderer's Curse], to my surprise, physically resembles my maternal grandmother, perhaps because they share the same name.
Mirak's [from Book II and Book III] origin is two or three instructor petty officers who taught me how to march, do arms drill, and steer a whaler. I was 16, and was spending a year in London, attending a school called Haberdasher's Aske's Hampstead School, where the school uniform was black three-button jacket, black pin-stripe trousers, black waistcoat, white shirt, diagonally striped tie, and black cricket cap with school crest. One of the petty officers, the one who taught sailing, said the wonderful words that I put in Gar's mouth: "Great smoking rope-ends!" I couldn't make this up. Any similarities to other family members, friends or characters in other people's books exist solely in the mind of the reader. If it were not so, I'm sure they would have told me.

JK: Did the Astreya books require a lot of research?

SH: Not really. I just made it up as I went along, based on having lived to 70.

JK: How long have you wanted to write this story?

SH: In 1946, when I was five, my father read Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner to me out loud. At the time, I thought it was autobiographical. My father was a bearded master mariner who had spent the six years of World War II in the British Navy. I was conceived during the brief shore leave between his first command, a corvette in the Mediterranean and his second, a frigate in The Battle of the Atlantic. Before he died at 99 and three months, he read a first version of Astreya, and called it, "A good yarn, once you get rid of the bit where your hero biffs someone over the head with that novelist's weapon, a belaying pin."

JK: Ah, a father's approval! What other influences led to Astreya?

SH: When I was fifteen, I thought that the best thing a person could do would be to write a book that would be enjoyed by people who had read what I had read. At that time, my list of authors included Arthur Ransome, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, C.S. Forester, Captain Marryatt, and Captain Joshua Slocum -- all of them men who wrote about the sea and sailing ships.

When I was 30, I wrote a PhD thesis on science fiction. My then-current list of authors included Ursula Le Guin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. The degree essentially made me unemployable at any university where I could imagine myself teaching. So I became a contract writer and part time civil servant for a decade, after which I reinvented myself as a professor of communication studies for a few years. Then I went back to editing/writing. In twenty years, I had written for more than 25 government departments and agencies, plus a few private sector companies.

The best moment of my writing-on-contract years was the day a bureaucrat looked over the first draft of a document I had prepared for him about the inconsequential doings of his small section of a government department. He looked at me with a worried frown and said, "This is indeed what we do. You have made it clear, very clear. Could you take it away and... er... fuzzy it up?"

JK: That's funny, in a just-shoot-me-now kind of way. How did you escape that environment?

SH: In the 1970s, I escaped the daily grind for a few days and sailed as mate on a traditional 50-foot wooden schooner from Nova Scotia to Grey River on the south coast of Newfoundland. The coastline is a wall of cliffs that fall hundreds of feet into the sea. Had it not been for a flashing light on a navigation buoy, the entrance to our destination would have been invisible. Inside the narrow passage between the cliffs was a fjord that widened into several high-sided bays and inlets, on the least steep of which was a tiny community. We met with children picking cloudberries, which are like big, white blueberries, and found that we could barely communicate, so strong were their accents. Apart from the one or two summer visits from a supply ship, we were their first visitors in longer than the children knew. From this experience grew the opening lines of Astreya.

JK: I can see exactly how that place would inspire Astreya's Village. Did the rest of the book follow as quickly?

SH: The first version won an unpublished novel award in a competition sponsored by the Nova Scotia government. I never asked how many competitors there were, out of fear that I was the only one. The prize was to have my hand shaken by Farley Mowatt, who was wearing his kilt. A short-lived literary magazine published the first chapter, and then reality emerged in the form of rejection letters telling me that the story needed work.

JK: But you didn't give up.

SH: The vicissitudes of life forced Astreya into a cardboard box in the basement, from which it emerged in the 80's to be painstakingly transcribed from typescript to electronic copy. Over the next decade or so, the story only saw the light when it was being converted from Mac Classic to Word Perfect 5, to Word 2.0, and finally to Pages. Nonetheless, it grew fitfully, taking twists and turns into places it should never have gone. These short returns to Astreya's world were escapist moments as I plied the trade of writer/editor and sometime teacher of first year Business English.

JK: How did it finally get out of the drawer? When did it become a trilogy?

SH: In 2005, I retired, and while my wife Katherine soldiered on, I went back to Astreya. This time, I seemed to know where I was going at least day by day, and sometimes even chapter by chapter. A total rewrite of Book I led me on into Book II, and then a third book became necessary to bring the story to a conclusion. Then there was tweaking: making the hints and nudges in Book I a bit clearer, attending to consistencies of time, place, distance and characters who perversely refused to accept their original names.

JK: That's another sign of strong characters. At least they let you finish the story eventually. How did Astreya come to be published?

SH: Five years later, I was pretty much done, so I went in search of an agent, because all the writers' help-and-advice books, articles and web sites told me that this step is essential. Many emails later, an agent showed interest, talked Astreya up to a couple of Canadian publishers, one of which wanted to see more than a sample chapter. However, after a few weeks, they passed on the story, commended me with some polite and encouraging words, and then rabbited on about the state of the publishing industry and the international economy, as if I hadn't noticed.

A week later, the agent quit on me. Since we had never signed a contract, I had to accept a pat on the head and wishes of good luck. Apparently, the agent gave up on Astreya because of the pressure involved in cleaning up the mess left after a publishing house had succumbed to the aforesaid economic winds of change. So I was back to square one.

I read somewhere that Christopher Little, J.K. Rowling's agent, was a keen sailor and yachtsman, so I crafted an appropriate email, attached the first chapter of Astreya, and sent it off into the trackless electronic cloud. I imagined that I might get a curt note from a flunky who was helping manage somewhat more money than the Gross Domestic Product of a medium sized country. (I later discovered that Little was no longer Rowling's agent.) Nonetheless, I received a polite reply, referring me to Astrodene's Historic Naval Fiction, a compendium of information and books related to the British enthusiasm for books about the days of sail in the Royal Navy -- a literary industry best known for C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels.

Probably noticing that I am Canadian, not British, and that Astreya is neither because he inhabits an alternate 18th century world that has similarities to Newfoundland, these splendid people promptly wrote back to refer me to Fireship Press, located in Tucson, Arizona, which is a long, dry distance from the sea, but which nonetheless publishes books about the days of sail, many books dealing with American themes and figures.

I went to www.fireshippress.com, where I read Tom Grundner's straight-talking statement of how he works, together with the following: "Fireship Press does almost everything electronically so, if you need to reach us, first try: info@FireshipPress.com. If all else fails, try: [the phone]." When I discovered this forward-looking fact, I took hope, since I had just been reading the website of a publisher of fantasy and science fiction which, amazingly, requires paper submissions via snail mail, demands that any material be sent to them alone, and advises that their turnaround time is six months.

The senior editor of Fireship, Tom Grundner, himself the author of three nautical novels about Sir Sidney Smith, a real person who lived at the time of the American Revolution, read the first chapter of Astreya and replied in a couple of weeks. He liked it so much that he predicted good things as soon as he had a second opinion from someone who had read all of Book I. Two further of weeks of waiting later, Astreya was welcomed aboard Fireship, and the task of a final edit began. With your invaluable editorial help, we made the deadline of only two months necessary for the first book of The Astreya Trilogy to be published in time for Christmas.

Tragically, I never met my new friend, because Tom died only three months after he had chosen to publish Astreya. His colleagues at Fireship nonetheless decided to continue the project, for which I will always be grateful.

JK: Talk about vicissitudes. I find your story very inspiring, a "Never Give Up!" for writers who hear the call to write and have been working at it (and probably a lot of other things) for a long time.
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. Would you like to leave my readers with any of the wisdom you've gathered along the way?

SH: Here are thirteen things of which I am sure, because most of them I learned the hard way.

Don't let anyone tell what to write -- unless they have a stake in what you're writing. I have encountered people who thought that they had great ideas for a story that they wanted me to write for them. They were just too busy to do the boring simple part, I guess.
Avoid people who offer to jump start your creative imagination if you purchase their course, workshop or personal coaching that features a special secret blend of psychobabble snake oil.
Never read anything that contains the words "writer's block."
Do not go near groups or websites or chat rooms populated by unpublished writers, where you will find eager folk swapping ignorance and undermining each other with sycophantic faint praise.
Don't waste time with people who say things like, "Why don't you write like Elmore Leonard, or Stephen King? It can't be all that hard, because they write in short sentences and make a lot of money."
Do listen to your son or daughter when they tell you that you put six people on a boat, and then took seven off, or that your hero's eyes were green in chapter one, and blue in chapter six.
Do listen to an editor who is receiving money from a publisher who is investing money in making your manuscript into a book.
Do learn the craft of storytelling by reading and re-reading and studying books that you admire, but not when you're actually on a writing roll, or you may find that you have unconsciously plagiarized. (I spent happy hours writing a wonderful sequence which I later realized was a distorted echo of a chapter by Rudyard Kipling.)
Marry someone who can put up with a very selfish person who likes to scamper around in his or her own obsessive little mind, alternately chuckling with glee and moaning in despair, and calling this anti-social behavior "working."
Don't get three degrees in English Literature, because you will start to put the critical cart in front of the creative horse. My mistake. It took me far too long to discover that most academics and many critics have the highest regard for writing that they can talk about. Accordingly, they value hard-to-read books like Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, or James Joyce's Ulysses, both of which I never finished. Most readers value writing that they understand and enjoy. Consequently, they are people like me, who like to revisit Middle Earth, or fly with Harry in a game of Quidditch, or listen to the salty words of Long John Silver.
Corollary to 10. If you want to tell stories, avoid professors in departments of English who write slim, sensitive novels that scuba-dive into the salty seas of self-analysis, self-discovery and self-justification, and who use the word "empower" a lot. Such people usually aren't interested in plot, which to a story-teller sounds a bit like a musician who doesn't like tunes.
Blogging, website maintenance and corresponding with fans all get in the way of real writing, which is finishing your book. Choose carefully what you do with your time.
Write now. Don't wait until you're 70 to finish your book. You may not find a publisher like Tom Grundner in time. Who needs posthumous publication?

SSS: Method in the Madness?

2011-12-04T00:13:00.000-08:00

Continuing in Tree/House where we left off last week...

* * *

“Viola, I’ve given up that life. Take your dirty games to some cesspool.”

“My dirty games? ‘False face must hide what false heart doth know’!”

The two were mere centimeters away from each other now, each more insistent on standing his or her ground than the other, and Emma watched, her eyes wide, as Franklin towered threateningly a full foot above Viola, and while she kept her eyes fixed on his, craning her neck. She said steadily, “Though this be madness, Emma, yet there is method in it.”

* * *

Who is this Viola? Who, indeed?

Tree/House is available here, here, and here. Request it for your library!

Thank you very much for your comments. If I can find your blog, I always reciprocate. Please see all the great excerpts at www.sixsunday.com.

An Imaginative Tale: Astreya, Book I, The Voyage South

2011-12-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

When I first started reading Astreya, it drew me into its world in a way no other book ever has. Astreya is a fantasy, but its world is much closer to us in the US and Canada than the typical fantasy fare of European-folklore-inspired vampires or werewolves, or princesses and fairies. Author Seymour Hamilton has achieved a tale that is simultaneously magical and convincingly real.

The only evidence Astreya has of his father are a puzzling notebook and an upper-arm bracelet that begins to glow only when he puts it on. He leaves his isolated fishing village in hopes of finding out more about his father, and finds evidence of horror, people who betray and enslave him, and, finally, the best friends he's ever had. The chapters Astreya spends learning how to paint with Gar and Lindey are especially delicious for readers who feast on the feeling that they know the fictional characters they're reading about even better than their own friends. The book ends on a masterful cliffhanger. Warning: If you read this book, you will not be able to avoid Book II: The Men of the Sea.

What I most loved about the story was that it didn't follow a preconceived plot outline we've all read hundreds of times, but flowed naturally from the motives of down-to-earth, psychologically complex characters even as universal themes like the journey and the apprenticeship develop. Astreya's adventures are only as far-fetched as real life. Real life with magical glowing stones, that is.

Lindey is the best female heroine I've read over this past decade. She's tough, capable, and beautiful, but also full of secrets. She has a refreshing pragmatism and logic rules almost everything she does. These are two valuable traits for a heroine that we still don't see very often. She takes girl power to a highly attractive place for both male and female readers.

Additionally, Astreya has plenty of characters you'll love to hate: spoiled bully Yan, slavedriver Jeb, and stab-happy academic thug Carl. With sea voyages, artistic leanings, fist and knife fights, fence building, adolescent confusion, wisdom, danger, and love, Astreya I: The Voyage South is going on my list of the best books of the year.

Astreya, Book I: The Voyage South is now available in Kindle, Nook and other ebooks, iTunes, and your customary fine paperback booksellers.

Tune in Monday for a fascinating interview with the author.

NaNoWriMo Update: Where I am with The Seven Noble Knights of Lara

2011-12-01T00:08:00.000-08:00

As I learned after making a goal of 25,000 new words on a novel I'd already more than started, I was a NaNo Rebel this year. The only time I tried to do NaNoWriMo officially, I failed miserably. But being a rebel seems to help: a few days ago, I met my goal of where I wanted to be in the story! (It turned out to be the end of Chapter 12.) Yesterday, the very last allowable day, I finished Chapter 13 and started Chapter 14 and surpassed my word count goal (just barely).

The first draft (maybe technically second, since this is the same book I started for the official first NaNo) of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara now stands at 50,960 words, 25,061 of which emerged out of my laptop during the month of November 2011. I'd say I'm three quarters of the way through the plot, and since I'm not prolix, especially in the first draft, a lot of details need to be added, so it may end up in the 100,000 word range, which is pretty astounding.

It's also been happening astoundingly slow. I started this draft in February 2011, so my average is only 5,000 a month. I've always believed I was a low-output writer, but only recently has that become less than acceptable to me. A few months ago, I wrote 9,000 words of my other project, "Middle Awash in Talent," over the course of two or three days (hard to remember specifics when so much creativity is coursing through you!), so I know it's possible. If I want anyone to read my completed SNKL before the end of the world next December, I had better get serious.

Here are some things I think will help me finish before the Mayan apocalypse:

1. Write every day. (This is tough when my job has become unbelievably demanding... but no excuses!)
2. Write a consistent amount every day.
3. When I run out of the plot I have sketched out, take the time to sketch out the end of the book in some detail.
4. Keep enjoying the writing as much as I did in November. Yep, even though I had work and holidays and ten million things to think about other than the psychology of Gonzalo González, sitting down to immerse myself in his (and his aunt and uncle's) world was pure pleasure.

Roni Loren, Rachel Aaron, Susan Kaye Quinn, and Zoe Winters seem to have had success with similar notions. This bodes very well, indeed!

SSS: Excellent Wretch

2011-11-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for the great feedback last week! To keep you excited for the big news I can't yet reveal about my Tree/House, these lines come just after last week's:

* * *

The young woman laughed out loud. “What lines?”

Franklin’s grey face faded even further to white. “Viola!” he gasped. “‘Excellent wretch!’”

“Also Othello, three: three, line 98,” said Viola.

* * *

Six sentences is not a lot in this case! I hope you enjoy them, and all these other great sentences: www.sixsunday.com.

SAVE A TURKEY: GOBBLE A BOOK BLOG HOP Winners

2011-11-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this last yummy hop! Winners have been notified and the printed books will be in the mail Friday (sorry for the terrible timing on that!).

Loyal follower Felicidad Dulcinea won first, and chose the amazing hardcover of The Time in Between by María Dueñas.

Awesome new follower Laura Henderson was drawn second, and she chose the engrossing paperback of Amy Hatvany's Best Kept Secret.

Supercool follower Mary Preston won third, and of all her choices, she got a Kindle version of Threads Woven by yours truly.

I hope you all enjoy your prizes as much as I enjoyed giving them. Stay tuned for more chances to win prizes in later blog hops. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Review: The Jinx by D. F. Lamont

2011-11-21T01:17:00.000-08:00

New author D. F. Lamont has a talent for action scenes that drew me right in to his science fiction YA tale, The Jinx. Stephen knows the exact moment his luck started turning bad because his bicycle is totaled in the first few pages. The accidents keep escalating in spectacular fashion until Stephen is in an auto accident in which his family members are seriously injured. Because he's come through with barely a scratch, Steven realizes all these bad things are happening because of him, so he runs away to protect his family. That's when things get really strange. When strange creatures stalk and attack the bus he's on, he knows he was right. Apparently rescued, Stephen awakes in a group of uniformed cult members who load him down with chaos theory with no regard to his science grade level. They clearly intend to use him in their sinister experiments, so he escapes with the help of Dedalus, a former cult member who teaches Stephen about his role in restoring balance to the universe with interesting machines and examples. The book culminates in a scene worthy of the biggest Hollywood blockbuster.

I was a little thrown off by the abrupt change between Stephen's basically normal though accident-prone world and the strange mountain he gets to by bus where the nasty creatures called Chaons pursue him with a mechanical relentlessness. But by the end of the story, I had read enough of the science to understand that even more random-seeming events are perfectly possible, even in our "normal" world. Stephen is a pleasant, everyboy character who leads us through a world in which anyone could believably become a hero.

The digital edition I received is bare-bones, with no cover, a small formatting error and a few type-o's. I'm willing to overlook that when I read for pleasure. If you're just looking for an exciting story with real science woven in expertly, then I highly recommend The Jinx.

The Jinx is available here in Kindle and paperback.

A reminder: The drawing for the Save a Turkey, Gobble a Book Blog Hop is tomorrow! Get those entries in for some truly amazing book prizes!

SSS: Shakespearean Drama

2011-11-20T00:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the encouragement last week. That's a piece I believe in and won't give up on. Hooray for love!

I have some big news about my magnum opus, Tree/House, to announce at a later date. In preparation, take a look at this emotional scene in which a seemingly random young lady has come to the door to accuse and recriminate the master of the house.

* * *

The young woman stepped inside and looked as quickly around as her furtiveness would allow, then she took Emma by both shoulders and said firmly, “You’re Professor Andrews’ new wife, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Emma, shaken.

“I have to say to you, then: “‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man: they are all but stomachs and we all but food. They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, they belch us!’”

She released Emma just as suddenly as she had taken hold of her, and Franklin suddenly lurched out of the Shakespeare library. “Othello, act three, scene four!”

* * *

Nothing like Shakespeare to add drama to your story! Thanks for visiting. I appreciate your comments immensely and if you have a blog, I will return the favor. The other exciting samples are here.

Tree/House, as always, is available here and here. And here.

New Review of the Sailing Italy Series and More Free Stuff

2011-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

If you look at my books on Goodreads, you'll see a new review of my silly little Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy:

I was lucky to get an advanced reader's copy of this book and I'm likewise lucky to be very familiar with Knauss' work. Even though I was off the radar and left this up as a current read for a while, the truth was I blazed through it in a few days. Like many of her short stories, this longer Sail to Italy and Sail from Italy is a whimsical and magical tale that will remind you of your childhood fairy tales--but with empowered and intelligent female protagonists, instead of passive princesses.

The lighthearted nature of the story also makes it totally appropriate for a younger audience, so don't hesitate to share it with the teenagers in your life. After all, youth today deserve better fairy tales than we were told.

As you might have gathered from the text, I know the reviewer personally. She is an incredibly talented writer and I'm tremendously flattered by her words. What's with the star rating, though? They're not Michelin stars, honey! ;) But really, thank you very much.

I've also recently learned that my target audience for this book is actually women over 75 years of age. They have seemed to enjoy it more than any of the younger readers I've tested. That presents a problem, as the only marketing capabilities I currently have are internet-based, and, well, I really don't know that many septuagenarians who go online regularly. If you see this post and have an idea, please share it with me!

In the meantime, anyone who promises to write a review can receive a free copy of this book through the end of the year. Just write to acedrexpublishing at yahoo dot com. Wow! Free stuff!

SAVE A TURKEY: GOBBLE A BOOK BLOG HOP TOUR (NOV 14-21)

2011-11-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hooray! The next hop is here!

I've been gobbling up some really great books in spite of everything else, and I'd like to share with you.

All prizes are a choice of three amazing items:

1. A beautifully-designed hardback copy of the new historical novel The Time in Between by María Dueñas. See my review of this treasure here. OR,

2. A new paperback copy of the amazing contemporary novel Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany. See my review of this heart-wrencher here. OR,

3. The choice of any digital book in mobi or epub formats from the incomparable Açedrex Publishing. Choices in English are available here, y en español aquí. This option includes all of my published work -- not to sway your choice.

First prize winner gets to pick first, and so on. I expect to choose four winners.

Don't forget to vist all the other great blogs in this hop! The official link is here.

HOW TO WIN

Join the site if you haven't already (and become a Truly Awesome Person!), like my author page, like Açedrex Publishing, or become my fan (not friend, sorry) on Goodreads.com (search for Jessica Knauss). Most importantly, comment on this post indicating whether you have done any of these other things. Each action counts as one entry. Good luck!

OFFICIAL RULES

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, November 14, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, November 21, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
Winners will be drawn and posted November 22nd! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS & BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR & BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!
***Authors & Book Pages have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

Six Sentence Sunday: Terse Romance

2011-11-13T00:36:00.000-08:00

Image courtesy The Daily Green, 2007

Today -- two years, two months since I got married -- I'm hoping for some feedback on a piece of microfiction. It honors the tribulations of a couple who never lose sight of the importance of being together (in honor of my husband, of course). Are you convinced of the love in these six? This is the most effusive passage, because to me, real love is so sacred, it's hard to put words to it, especially without sounding trite. The man is rowing a boat through the couple's flooded town while it's still raining, and the woman is using a pail to lessen the bilge.

* * *

We progressed down the river-like street past rooftops that appeared to be sinking. My shoulders developed a grinding pain, as if they were on fire. I couldn’t stand the thought that Herbert might feel the same pain, so I set my jaw against it, abandoned the bailout and sat on the bench next to him.

“If I stop rowing, my love,” he said, “it will be too hard to start again.”

I put my hands over his on the oars. I loved the way the incessant droplets scuttled straight down his nose and lingered at the tip for a full second before releasing their grip.

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate your comments more than you'll ever know and I'm sure to vist your six in return. Visit all the amazing excerpts here.

New Today: The Time in Between by María Dueñas

2011-11-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, a long novel takes me on an emotional roller coaster, and I enjoy every minute. The Time in Between by María Dueñas is one of those novels. On only page 142, the main character can summarize her life thus: "I'd stopped being a humble dressmaker and transformed myself successively into a whole heap of different women. A civil service candidate, heiress of a major industrialist, globe-trotting lover to a scoundrel, hopeful aspirant to run an Argentine company, frustrated mother of an unborn child, a woman suspected of fraud and theft in debt up to her eyebrows, and a gunrunner camouflaged as an innocent local woman." As I progressed through the years and extraordinary events in the main character Sira's timeline, I would blithely update anyone who would listen about what kind of mess or adventure she'd stumbled into now.

Sira is an ordinary girl with whom the reader can sympathize strongly, but she comes of age in a turbulent time and place: Spain in the 1930's. From her humble perspective, her only talent is sewing. She is distracted from her calling by a man who unwittingly sets the stage for her to regain her financial security and self esteem by becoming the most fashionable seamstress in Tetouan in Spanish Morocco. There, she meets rich and posh clientele and becomes friends with the lover of the most important man in the Spanish Protectorate, Colonel Beigbeder. Through plausible vicissitudes, her friends rescue her mother from war-torn Madrid, only to send Sira back there in the guise of a Moroccan seamstress who encodes messages about her Nazi customers to British Secret Intelligence in her dress patterns. Surprise visits from her past launch her into her most dangerous mission yet, where she can prove her abilities as a spy. The mission reunites her with the Englishman she loves, but can't allow herself to trust with her secret life.

Sira's naivete throughout most of the first part is not only accurate for her historical context, but also allowed Dueñas to insert just the right balance of that historical context for the reader without ever being dry or overbearing. Overall, it's a balanced, factual approach while still showing the way the events may have impacted the lives of real people. The one place it goes wrong is around Chapter 35, when the narrative gets away from Sira to detail the anguish of Beigbeder when he returns to a not-so-friendly Madrid. This could have been handled differently or taken out all together without taking away from information necessary to understand the story.

I would have liked to read this in the original Spanish, but the translation is well done. Only occasionally did it seem a little too literal, and with so much going on, that sin was easy to overlook. The character Rosalinda Fox's multilingual mishmash presents a special challenge to the translator and Daniel Hahn does a decent job scrambling languages while making her dialogue intelligible to the reader.

The original title, El tiempo entre costuras (literally, "The Time Between Stitches") is more relatable to the story. The reader in English doesn't find out what The Time in Between refers to until the very last line. While the end of the book is a relevant reflection of what has gone before, I can't help thinking there must be a more catchy title to go with this amazing journey.

This is the cover from the Advanced Reader's Copy I received, which I believe was created especially for the book. It beautifully captures Sira in one of those quiet but life-changing moments she has so often throughout the narrative, complete with her antique scissors and a view of Spanish Morocco in the 1930's out her window. (The rainbow on the fabric is an unintended effect from my camera flash.) The new, official cover is based on a painting done long before the book was published. Overall, the book is gorgeously designed, with Moroccan postcards on the endpapers and photos of emblematic monuments from the most important city in each part at the beginning of the section. It's a great investment in an object that is both history and literature embodied.

Six Sentence Sunday: Post Halloween Chills

2011-11-06T00:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for all the encouragement last week for the final snippet from my work-in-progress, The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. I'm working on it very hard for NaNoWriMo, so the dream of finishing it some day is getting that much closer to reality.

Today, still imbued with Halloween spirit, I thought I'd remind everyone about the first paranormal story I ever published. You can read the whole thing here.

* * *

We were at the gates of the cemetery. The moon was shining down on us, illuminating our fear and superstition. I peered past the tall monuments to important families, looking for the place where Edelmira had been laid to rest that morning. “It’s that way,” I said. “Let’s go.” But none of us moved.

* * *

Thanks for stopping by and don't miss the other great excerpts at Six Sentence Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday: The End of Chapter 5

2011-10-30T00:53:00.000-07:00

These are the last six I'm posting from Chapter 5 of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. I hope you've enjoyed the extended excerpt! This takes place soon after where we left off, with just a few words in between showing that both parties have agreed to the Count's arbitration.

* * *

With dutiful nods, six brothers each knelt at Ruy Blásquez’s feet and kissed his hand. Doña Sancha said, “Gonzalo will do it some other time since if he kneels now, he may not be able to get back up.” She dabbed at his head wounds with her maid’s handkerchief, although they were beginning to stop bleeding at last.

And with this, the men seemed well pleased. Sancha looked at Lambra, who refused to look back at her, but crouched down and began collecting Álvar Sánchez’s gore-covered teeth in an improvised pouch of her skirt. The blood and soil seeped through the yellow silk, spattered sinister flowerlets on Álvar’s tunic and sank deep into the earth.

* * *

I expect that's sufficiently creepy or gory for Halloween tomorrow. Thanks so much for stopping by. I so appreciate your comments! Don't miss out on the other excerpts here.

Historical Wednesdays Halloween Countdown - Witch Hunts

2011-10-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

For the last Wednesday of the month, we remember the scariest incidents in history for women and the men who loved them: witch hunts.

Although some men were also persecuted from about 1450 to 1700, when witch hunts were at their height, the overwhelming majority of people accused, prosecuted, and executed were female. "Witch hunt" has become a general term for any mass hysteria resulting in metaphorical and literal lynching of perceived enemies, because now we recognize the original 250-year craze as a last gasp of panic in the face of the unknown and uncontrolled before a (supposed) Enlightenment through reason. Whenever something went wrong during this time, women, especially women with certain knowledge or abilities, became the scapegoat through which misguided people attempted to expiate society. The possibility that anyone might accuse you at any time and put you through a legal system in which it was nearly impossible to prove your innocence is a much scarier prospect than meeting a green-faced lady with a conical hat and a broomstick.

The witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 -- a legacy that now brings the town most of its tourism revenue -- made up the last big witch scare in the Western world. Even scarier is the thought that this kind of thing still happens in some parts of the world.

This concludes our scary countdown. Happy Halloween, everybody!

NaNoWriMo and Things To Do

2011-10-24T00:45:00.001-07:00

NaNoWriMo is about to come roaring down the highway at us. At least it doesn't sneak up.

These are the items I need to get done in November, in no particular order:

1. Write 1,667 words per day of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara as an unofficial NaNoWriMo. If I don't make a really big push now, the project could languish for a few more years, and no one wants that. 1,667 words a day is a lot for me, and I'll probably have to rigidly schedule a time to sit down and do it until it's done. I've resisted rigid schedules because I now have so many demands on my time, with priorities that change more often than I'm used to.

2. Fireship Press: Acquisition work. At a meeting this week, the new COO said we needed to shift acquisitions to someone with fewer qualifications than me so I could get back to higher-level editing. The thing is, I love acquisition work! Deciding whether a piece has what it takes to make us request a full MS, and then deciding how much editing the full MS would require before it was ready for publication can be the most thrilling part of the entire publishing process. So far, if I've had a hand in approving a book, it's then been assigned to me for the aforementioned high-level editing, and it's tremendously satisfying to take a book all the way through, from MS to the exit gate. Acquisitions is probably the least time-consuming of all the tasks here, but it does mean that much less time to do everything else.

3. Fireship Press: Editing work. Currently, I have four books I need to pay huge amounts of attention to in order to ensure their overall quality. I prefer to do them one at a time or I'll become distracted and irritable, because I typically have intense consultations with the author in order to better understand his or her vision and shape it as changes come through. I also love this part of the process because it's where the real metamorphosis takes place. Needless to say, it's the most time-consuming aspect of my Fireship work.

4. Fireship Press: Copyediting. Exciting, higher quality standards and a severe dearth of staff mean I have to take on a lot of the tasks Tom taught me how to do, although they aren't officially in my job description. We already have a new copyediting system in place that should eliminate misuse and mistakes, but if I see a mistake myself, I can't help but correct it. Hopefully, that instinct will lessen the work load of the official copyeditors.

5. Fireship Press: Production. This includes all aspects of formatting. I don't mind this at all and would gladly keep doing if it weren't so time-consuming. Again, the company is working on offloading these tasks, but for now I either have to do it myself for the books I'm editing or work closely with the other staff members to get it done right. One important task this month is to "teach" everyone how to upload the book for the printer. Which brings me to:

6. Fireship Press: Admin. We're working most of the time from our own home bases, but meeting once a week to update each other and teach each other about all the little details no single one of us has complete control over. Yet. At these meetings I also tend to be assigned more tasks.

7. Blog. In November, I will have to reduce the blog to excerpt days on Saturdays and Sundays and the occasional book review I'm already preparing. I'd love to provide much more exciting content for you, but as you can see, I'm stretched a bit thin at the moment.

8. Açedrex Publishing. My company isn't the cash cow I was promised, but my theory is that hard work will pay off eventually. My strategy is to keep increasing the catalog with irresistibly fascinating titles. Of course, the timing is perfect (not!) and I'm now working on a couple of especially intensive projects, which I will unveil when the time is right. In the meantime, you can always help by purchasing inexpensive but high quality titles! Acedrex.com

9. Publicity. In a perfect world, I would have the financial and time budget to promote my writing and my company. I don't need to point out that this is no perfect world.

10. Keep reading good books in order to keep gaining exposure to good writing for my own uses. I also enjoy being of some help to talented writers by putting my reviews out there.

11. Taking care of my husband. He doesn't literally need taking care of, but mainly emotional support as he works just as hard as I do, but at a job he doesn't feel drawn to, just to keep a roof over our heads. And save to get our stuff in storage back to us some day. He's easy to please: he's thrilled just to spend time with me. For that reason, I can't be working on any of these other items at the same time I'm taking care of him. No, all that other stuff has to be done when he's at work. Such "rules" help to keep me grounded. I love my work, but it's important to work to live, not live to work. Also during November is my husband's birthday. I wish I could seize the moment to show him how much he means to me, but a card and a restaurant visit will have to do.

12. Thanksgiving. We'll probably be pretty pathetic. We can't travel to be with loved ones, but at least I assume my husband will have some time off to cook a turkey breast and give thanks for all our blessings. It's a great opportunity for calm and attention.

13. Staying sane. Under this umbrella fall eight hours of sleep per night, going to my writers' group meeting, keeping a private journal, and taking a moment to cook a nice meal once in a while. Some kind of contact with my actual friends would help, too, but I guess I'll put that off until December.

If we could assign a universal effort unit to each of these tasks and total them up, I think we would be looking at several months of work. The effort I put into each task is pretty intense, with the result that I'm a slow writer and a pretty slow editor. I always want to get it right the first time, which obviously doesn't apply to the writing process. Oh, the incessant push and pull of my different instincts!

So, November will be an experiment in quantity/quality balance. Wish me luck!

No Six Sentence Sunday

2011-10-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

I didn't have more sweet material for Saturday, and this week there is no Six Sentence Sunday, so that means no excerpt this week.

The apparent reason the organizers cancelled this Six Sentence Sunday is because people have been having trouble following the simple rules. See the admirably civil reasoning here. Try a little harder, folks, so everyone can play.

Historical Wednesdays Halloween Countdown - The Black Death

2011-10-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

Don't look up "black death" in an image search unless you have a strong stomach.

What could be scarier than the plague that overran the entire known world, attacking with bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic strains, and obliterating one quarter to one half the population?

These victims were lucky to get coffins.

No satisfactory explanation and no useful advice about avoidance or treatment were available. It struck you, or it didn't. Some people refused to have anything to do with the sick, sometimes saving themselves but creating chaos in the social order that had lasting effects into the modern age.

Some people today make predictions about super-diseases that will be spread even faster by transportation technology, and it's a great premise for horror/thriller movies. The Black Death is one reason I prefer to study the European Middle Ages before 1348. Before, optimism, color, and a sense that all was right with the world abounded. Afterward, things got truly scary.

Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie

2011-10-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

I haven't read Massie's other books about his obsession, Russia under the tsars, but if the others are anything like Catherine, then I have no doubt about why he's received a Pulitzer and why this book was so highly anticipated. Compulsively readable, Catherine takes a giant, intimidating subject and makes her accessible. From the first few pages, the reader sees into Catherine's most intimate thoughts through the invaluable resource of her childhood diary. The focus remains sympathetic even while the research provides an overall view of Catherine's time with verifiable facts.

The reader will come away with a deep understanding of Catherine's problems and decisions. On a more personal note, as a woman reader I appreciated the way Catherine learned to wield power in a man's world and have a significant impact while maintaining a traditionally feminine personality, demonstrated by her appreciation of the arts and fine things and love of pets.

This book is packed with enough relationship drama and court intrigue to be a novel, while the reader can impress the people he knows with his new knowledge. With Catherine, Massie has made a valuable contribution not only to women's and Russian history, but also to literature. It should be considered a must-read by any student of world culture.

This book releases on November 8, 2011.

Six Sentence Sunday: The Bloody Wedding Gets Legal

2011-10-16T00:55:00.000-07:00

This week, we start up where we left off, with the highest secular authority in the land taking control.

* * *

The count raised his voice in announcement. “Let it be known to all present that I, García Fernández, Count of Castile, hereby pardon Gonzalo González for the unintentional slaughter of Álvar Sánchez.” Doña Lambra let out a strangled cry and, in what looked to Sancha like an exaggerated gesture, toppled into the arms of her poor serving girl. The count ignored her. “I further pardon Ruy Blásquez for his offense against Gonzalo González’s person and consider that any debt incurred for such wounding has been paid with the breaking of Ruy Blásquez’s nose.”

Ruy Blásquez emitted a loud snort and then winced in pain, but don Gonzalo Gustioz nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

* * *

Don't forget to look at the family tree if you're wondering who's who. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate comments ever so much. The other great sixes are here.

Historical Wednesdays Halloween Countdown - Columbus Day

2011-10-12T00:49:00.000-07:00

Columbus monument in Phildelphia.
"Naturalist" = student of nature.

Many Americans get confused because the official holiday always falls on a Monday, but true Columbus Day commemorates October 12, 1492 (Julian calendar), the day of first landfall somewhere in the modern Bahamas. I just love this holiday because it brings into current dialogue the period in history that signifies for me the dawning of the modern age, and the results are so controversial. People can get het up about the mysterious figure of Christopher Columbus the way they can about no other.

There are a lot of scary elements to Columbus Day, not least of which is the unprecedented way the world changed after that meeting of cultures. Today I'd like to focus on the fear of the unknown that must have plagued most of the crew members.

Imagine yourself as a regular seaman aboard one of the caravels. Many had been conscripted to take this wild journey against their will. While most European sailors of the day stayed within sight of the coast, on October tenth, no one had seen a lick of land for three months since leaving the Canary Islands in August. If they were unsure about Columbus's experience and calculations when they left Spain, imagine the growing terror after so many days of endless water. While no one really feared sailing off the edge of the world, they might have dreaded sailing so far south, into areas long theorized as so hot they were uninhabitable. Columbus had to play psychological games, fudging distances and times and making up reward systems like the CEO of a failing company, and still had problems managing the reluctance of his crew.

There might have been less fear aboard the Pinta and the Niña, which were captained by the trusted Pinzón brothers, who could have turned back and abandon the Santa María to certain death if obliged by their crews and their better judgment. No one aboard the cramped ships had a very clear idea of who Columbus was or what his intentions were, so they couldn't quell their fears by focusing on a charismatic leader. I haven't read any fiction based on the first voyage of Columbus, but the passage itself has the makings of a thrilling psychological horror story.

Replica of the Pinta in Philadelphia. Living on the caravels was not
for the faint-hearted -- or the claustrophobic.

Please also see the Top Five Misconceptions about Columbus.

Jan Holmes Frost's Eight Things You Need to Know to Write a Novel

2011-10-10T00:32:00.001-07:00

A lot of potential writers never end up with anything written, either because they don't know where to start or because they read too many complicated, over-detailed how-to books. This slim volume could be the unexpected, ultimate answer to that two-pronged dilemma.

The author introduces (or refreshes our memories) about the essentials: concept; plot; setting; characterization; dialogue, voice and point of view; resolution and research; editing and revising; and publishers and publishing. Each chapter is short and to the point, using popular examples everyone can identify and understand. My least favorite aspect of writing advice books is when they get too prescriptive -- write it like this or you're doing it wrong! While Jan tells it like it is, there is no sense of being pulled along on her agenda, since she recognizes that every writer is different and that there are many ways to arrive at a completed novel. The suggestions are just that: suggestions. The reader feels free to use them, to elaborate on them, transform them so they work for her/him, or discard them, which helps to jumpstart the creative process.

Because the author keeps the advice structured and simple, this book is also a solid reference for those of us with more experience, both in writing and in publishing. Jan's experience leading workshops and publishing her own novels results in a reliable, inspiring, and easy to read resource for writers at every stage and level.

Six Sentence Sunday: I'm Back!

2011-10-09T00:49:00.000-07:00

September had its fun and its horrifying disasters, and I'm finally back! Don't miss the family tree for The Seven Noble Knights of Lara and an explanation of the names here. It's time to go back to your favorite tenth-century wedding, picking up where we left off:

* * *

Count García arrived at the site of the commotion, parting the soldiers like the Red Sea. He made a regal, sweeping gesture at Ruy Blasquez's soldiers. "Stand down."

Ruy Blásquez looked at doña Lambra, who still flickered with rage. Holding his nose with one hand and holding up the other as evidence, he said, "Look at all this blood, my lord, at my own wedding. You really should allow such a justified feud to take place."

* * *

Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate your comments. I can't wait to get back to reading all of your wonderful sentences, too.

Historical (Not Too Hysterical) Wednesdays, Halloween Countdown

2011-10-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

In honor of Halloween at the end of the month, for Wednesdays in October I've decided to post about some of the scarier aspects and anecdotes in history.

Today: deals with the devil. These stories were some of the bestsellers of medieval Europe, and still have influence on popular culture today.

What could be scarier than owing your soul to the embodiment of evil? And in exchange for what? Riches? Love? Fame? One important moral of all stories of deals with the devil is that no earthly thing you could desire is worth making such a bargain, because all earthly things fade while the soul is eternal.

The earliest versions of this story involve a man perhaps ironically named "Theophilus" -- lover of God. In spite of his devout nature, Theophilus needs more material wealth in order to help a friend, save a relative, or just to get on in the world. He makes the ultimate sacrifice, conjuring up the devil and selling his soul to him. But because Theophilus has been so devoted, God considers it a simple lapse in judgment and doesn't allow the exchange to be completed.

Indeed, most of these stories have happy endings. Once the dealmaker has been sufficiently frightened and sees the error of his ways, either a loophole is found in the contract or a trusted saint arrives to cast the devil away. Sometimes, the trusted saint is the one who finds the loophole. In these stories, we find that the devil is actually not a very good lawyer. This is in direct contrast to the saints, who spend a lot of time practicing their advocacy skills in the heavenly court for the sake of the poor souls who pass through the gates with torts and misdemeanors.

Maybe the really scary thing here is how deeply entrenched legal procedure already was into the lives of the people who first came up with this basic story. It depends on whether you think lawyers are good Halloween characters. Tune in next Wednesday for an even scarier tidbit.

Discontinued Journals

2011-10-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

The demise of This Mutant Life, which I mentioned a while back, prompted me to systematically check on the status of all the wonderful journals that have published my stories and poems.

This Mutant Life, which had made my dearest wish come true in September 2010 by publishing my first rhinoceros story, "Rhinoceros Dreams," is gone without a trace, with no warning or communications in that regard.

On the other hand, The Shine Journal's editor wrote a nice farewell message earlier this year, explaining the end of the magazine without overjustifying. In contrast to other sites that simply shut down, this little goodbye was reassuring. It appears that the site will remain active for some time, so my poem is still available here.

The best news is that none of the other journals seem threatened. They're all flourishing, which is gratifying and shows that literary journals are a great use of the internet.

I'm still deciding what to do with "Rhinoceros Dreams." How can they best run wild: in a journal that takes reprints, in a collection, or just roaming my imagination?

Sweet Sample of My Accidental Novel

2011-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

This story, "Middle Awash in Talent," which I've excerpted before, has asserted itself as possibly a novel as I've been working on it in the hours when I should be doing something else.

This is an unusual excerpt, because I'm putting it out here knowing that it has to be utterly changed. When I write magical realism, I frequently don't know when I've pushed the limits of belief too far, and my writing group has reigned me in for this scene. Emily is in the back of a police cruiser with her sister Beth, who's lost control of her telekinetic powers for a moment and seriously hurt Carlos (who happens to be Emily's love interest). I have to get Beth to the hospital to save Carlos with her healing powers, and in this version, the officers very reasonably agree. I love the police officers with their Rhode Island accents being so accommodating. Are they believable? Nope. They're going back through the mill.

The whole story is pretty sweet, but the instance of random violence makes it at least PG-13.

* * *

“I thought the deal was, you wouldn’t talk about Carlos and I wouldn’t mention your powers.”

“Emily, I think it’d be great if you talked about my powers now. I’m so sorry about what I did to Carlos! I think if they let me go to the hospital, I can help him.”

I considered the strength of her telekinesis and thought about the surgical gash across her stomach, which she’d made a non-issue so quickly. “You can heal others as easily as yourself?”

“I think so. Otherwise, he might die, Emily. Die. I know you don’t want that.”

She was right. A dead true love would be far too melodramatic for someone like me. Keeping my eye always on her, I rapped gently against the mesh. “Officer?”

The one who wasn’t driving turned his head toward me skeptically.

“Remember how I said she had healing abilities? She says she can help the man she unintentionally harmed. Surely, that would lessen her guilt, and otherwise, I’m afraid he might be a goner.” I smiled, pleading, but wasn’t sure if he could see me at all through the mesh and with the unstable light as we passed under street lamps, north and south on College Hill according to the colonial street plan.

They conferred in low Rhode Island tones. All I heard was something about “a wicked good tetanus shot.” And quite a bit of chuckling. I’d known it was a shot in the dark, but just as I was opening my mouth to tell Beth it hadn’t worked, the driver said, “So I guess you want a ride to Rhode Island Hospital?”

Beth’s mouth gaped open and then clamped shut as she nodded her head vigorously.

“Yes, please,” I said.

“We figure extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures,” said the passenger-side cop as we sped past the police station and over the river.

“Indeed,” I said.

Apparently that was too much encouragement, as he kept talking about how much he knew about telekinesis and the history of the Providence Police Department with telekinetics ever since their kind had been revealed in the 1870’s. “Providence has a really good school for them, did you know? Is that why your sister’s here?”

“Mmm, yes, sure.” It was a relief to stop thinking about those concentration camps for talented people as we arrived at the hospital’s emergency entrance.

* * *

Do you think I should work on this for NaNoWriMo, or my historical novel? Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate it and I will stop by all your sweet samples.

Decisions...

2011-09-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

September, which I had intended as a full month of concentrating on my writing (with a refreshing trip to San Diego on the side), got derailed. I wrote a lot, but I didn't finish SNKL Chapter 8, and a lot of things happened that were beyond my control. So I look forward to the pledge I made to do NaNoWriMo in November as a way of asserting structure back into my professional life.

The question is, what to work on?

I could do NaNo unofficially and just pledge to write 1,667 words a day on the Seven Noble Knights of Lara.

Or, I could spend any free moments in October separating the 12,000 words I have of "Middle Awash in Talent" into chapters and sketch out the plot structure a little a more firmly, so as to prepare to do NaNo officially.

SNKL is my official project and I won't be satisfied until I bring it to some kind of conclusion. "Middle Awash" has brought pleasure to my beta readers and has gained undeniable momentum and I wonder if I should just go with its flow.

How do I decide? What do you recommend?

Reading is Fundamental

2011-09-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

You guessed it: I love reading! I read National Geographic cover to cover every month. I read novels, the crazier the better, and I read history and even historical (not usually hysterical) fiction. What do you read?

Rest in peace, Borders.

Check out Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy on eTLC

2011-09-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

My cute little adventure stories now rank among the honorable works at eTLC. Seriously, check this site out if you're interested in finding new independent authors. Many of my writer friends are there, so you know it's got to be good.

There's an entire sample chapter of Sail To Italy for your enjoyment available at its eTLC page. Thank you for your support!

New Flash Fiction - A Peek at the Paranormal

2011-09-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

My fifty-word story "Buyer Beware" is now appearing in the journal 50-to-1. It wasn't always fifty words long, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to demonstrate its evolution by trimming. You can judge for yourself which version is most effective.

1. I started with inspiration and a lot of random fleshed-out parts:

Our first night in the house, the great grandfather of the previous owners sat down to dinner with us. After grace, he just sort of floated into one of the empty chairs, between Sylvia and Reynold, and patiently awaited his portion of store-bought roast beef. I watched him closely while the others tried to ignore his wafting essence and cold emanations. Although he seemed miffed that no one set a plate in front of him, he never made a sound. He didn’t move until we had Indian takeout for lunch a week later. He expressed like steam up to the high ceiling and into a corner, where he distinctly resembled an ancient cobweb. Mother extended the mop handle, stood on a stepladder, and pushed at him until he dissipated into those blobs that look so much like spider egg sacs. So don’t worry, the house is definitely not infested with spiders.

2. I cut it to six sentences for the journal of that name, which rejected it:

Our first night in the house, the great grandfather of the previous owners sat down to dinner with us. After grace, he just sort of floated into one of the empty chairs, all wafting essence and cold emanations, and seemed miffed that no one set a plate in front of him. He didn’t move until we had Indian takeout for lunch a week later. He expressed like steam up to the high ceiling and into a corner, where he distinctly resembled an ancient cobweb. Mother extended the mop handle, stood on a stepladder, and pushed at him until he dissipated into those blobs that look so much like spider egg sacs. So don’t worry, the house is definitely not infested with spiders.

3. Shopping around for a journal, and finally with the goal of making it conform to 50-to-1's requirements, I kept shaving:

Our first night in the house, the previous owners’ grandfather sat down to dinner with us. He floated into one of the empty chairs and awaited his portion. I watched him while the others ignored his wafting essence and cold emanations. Afterwards, he expressed like steam up to the high ceiling and into a corner, where he resembled a cobweb. Mother extended the mop handle, stood on a stepladder, and pushed at him until he dissipated into those blobs that look so much like spider egg sacs. So don’t worry, the house is not infested with spiders.

4. And you can read the latest, trimmest, published, version here.

It took me about a year to make these changes. Cutting is probably the toughest way to edit.

As you can see, it was a long and winding road for this little piece, which couldn't seem to find a home until the road was short and straight. Which version do you prefer?

Thanks for celebrating with me!

New Interview Today!

2011-09-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

The generous and thoughtful Ryan Brock of liloQuy has done me the honor of interviewing me. See it here.

In this interview, I have the chance to talk about my recently developed double-track writing (i. e., weird, non-genre stuff and historical fiction).

Notice where I talk about my respect for my readers. I appreciate you very much!

It's World Rhino Day!

2011-09-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

The five species of rhinoceros are all amazing animals. People have interfered with their growth out of a fabled fascination with their horns. Now we need human intervention to make sure no more species of rhino go extinct. This year, the theme of World Rhino Day gets at the root of the problem. Spread the word: rhino horn is not medicine.

I thought my pictures and videos from San Diego would be amusing for you on this auspicious day.

At the San Diego Zoo, two Indian rhino brothers share an enclosure. They like to snooze in the water:

And when they wake up, they like to splash and groom each other with brotherly nips and shoves:

The shoves escalate into a power struggle most days, the keeper informed us, but that day it was especially spectacular:

After too much roughhousing, the keeper separated them and tended to their wounds (note the bottle of spray disinfectant in her left hand):

I had never seen an Indian rhino in person before, so it was thrilling that these young men were so active.

If you're interested in learning more about the Indian rhino, The Soul of the Rhino is a great book. Check out these links to have a great World Rhino Day!

https://www.facebook.com/WorldRhinoDay2011

http://www.rhinoconservation.org/

http://www.savingrhinos.org/

http://www.fossilrim.org/index.php

Twitter: #worldrhinoday

My rhino publications: A Business Venture in Glue | Crash of Rhinoceros | "Rhinoceros Dreams" appeared in This Mutant Life, which appears to have expired -- more on that later, assuredly.

National Alzheimer's Day (World Alzheimer's Month)

2011-09-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

Before the economic disaster, I used to make yearly donations to the Alzheimer's Association for research. I started doing it in honor of my paternal grandmother, who had a long, sad, and expensive bout with the disease before she passed away. I'm in no position to fund research at any level now, so for now my one contribution to defeating this illness is raising awareness of it.

I envy anyone who's never had to consider what it must be like to lose control of your moods, abilities, language, personality, and most engrained memories on an inexorable decline. Once it's diagnosed, it never gets better. With an aging population, Alzheimer's disease may overwhelm the medical system in addition to affected people's loved ones, so it's important even for people so far untouched by it to be aware of the threat it poses and to try to do something about it.

Medical professionals now use the term "cognitive impairment" to describe the progression of the disease as a reminder that Alzheimer's is not strictly memory loss. My father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's when he was only 57 years old after years of increasingly strange behavior that nearly drove my mother to her wits' end. Historically, it has been a lot more difficult to get a proper diagnosis when the patient is younger than 65, but the Alzheimer's Association's awareness-raising among the medical profession is helping to make diagnosis easier and more accurate.

World Alzheimer's Month comes at an especially emotional time for my family. At age 64, my father is still active with friends and with woodworking and automotive projects, but his driver's license has been revoked after a series of accidents in which no one was injured. Although I think it might be useful to provide some details about how this happened and its complex emotional toll, I'll respect my family's privacy and just say that we are saddened in every imaginable way.

It hasn't escaped my notice that early-onset Alzheimer's has made a hereditary path through my family straight to me and my brother. There is now a genetic test that can accurately predict the likelihood of developing the disease. My lack of medical insurance is keeping me from taking that step for now, but I haven't decided whether I want to know at this point. In the meantime, it can't hurt to load up on the antioxidants!

To learn more about the symptoms of Alzheimer's versus normal aging, studies being conducted in your area, preventative measures, and caregiver support, visit the Alzheimer's Association's wonderful website: www.alz.org.

World Alzheimer's Month Site

The End of the World by Andrew Biss

2011-09-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Andrew Biss's The Impressionists, a collection of vignettes, all told in the first person, of normal people with sometimes extraordinary challenges. I recognized a fun authorial voice, so when The Impressionists left me wanting more, I went ahead and invested in The End of the World.

Intentionally absurd from the first word, The End of the World tells the story of what happens to a truly unremarkable man between his drollery-filled, circumscribed life with his parents and his next incarnation. The narrator isn't quite self-aware enough to know that the result of a barely registered mugging is his own death. Suddenly, a sort of halfway house hotel called The End of the World becomes visible amidst the grimy cityscape, and he walks right in.

The characters he meets at this hostel for souls in limbo or, to use the Tibetan term, Bardo, (most of whom emerge from kitchen appliances or have body parts missing) all impart a point of view of their universal situation that the narrator had never considered before, which is all the more interesting because in the end, it is revealed that they're mere figments of his imagination. In this eerily detailed place, the narrator learns to accept and maybe even enjoy the lack of control. Philosophical arguments are hidden in strangely beautiful nuggets that the reader will enjoy swallowing and perhaps even wish, again, that there was a bit more to the story.

I didn't even realize The End of the World was pushing a message until the very last line, which felt so deliciously appropriate that I couldn't help loving the whole short, lopsided, cheeky book.

A Tribute to Tom Grundner (Rest in Peace)

2011-09-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

When I first arrived in Arizona, I had been searching for a "real" job for about two years. I knew that I wanted to get into publishing, that I needed to get a start on my childhood dream of having my own publishing company. I admit that Arizona seemed an unlikely place to accomplish this, but luck seemed to be on my side when I met Tom Grundner, founder of Fireship Press, at a writers' function during the first month I was here. I had an unusually strong feeling that he was a person I ought to get to know better, and -- this is a really big deal for me -- I punched through the barriers of my shyness and queried whether he would like any help with Fireship.

Tom has had a direct, strong influence on every one of my days in Arizona since. He quickly gained confidence in me, and after he bore witness to my editorial skills and we had a truly heart-to-heart conversation, he agreed to supply me the startup costs for my own Açedrex Publishing as well as the training I needed in the technical aspects. What an astounding gesture! I'm still speechless when I think of it.

My husband and I came to this state penniless, unwilling, and we were pretty unhappy, but because I met Tom, I can never say that my time in Arizona has been a washout.

I didn't know Tom for very long. I can't really speak about the facts of his life, but I know that he continues to be dearly loved by his family and friends and that he is a kind and true soul. I considered him to be my guardian angel in Arizona. We're trying to sort out how to continue Fireship as a noble legacy, and I hope we do. I know that any future success I have in publishing will owe a profound debt to a writer, a savvy businessman, and a friend.

See a thorough recounting of Tom's life at Historic Naval Fiction.

Our Second Wedding Anniversary

2011-09-13T00:33:00.000-07:00

Two years. What a couple of years! In this photo, taken minutes before we said our vows, my husband is showing a tooth he recently lost to the aftereffects of a cracked crown. (I love him no matter how many teeth he has or doesn't have.)

I could describe the delirious feeling that led to the laughter captured here, but the photo says it all. Happy Anniversary, sweet love!

Non-Judgment Day

2011-09-11T00:57:00.000-07:00

We were all affected by September 11, 2001 in some way. I was living and working in the most beautiful place there is to work, a library in Boston. As the official Hub of the Universe, we felt vulnerable that day, and as the news became clear that the planes that took down the World Trade Center flew from Logan Airport, I felt somehow guilty by association. Beyond all the images from TV and the internet, what I remember with the most sorrow is how deadly quiet the morning bus was on September 12. The silent, downturned mouths and searching, chastised eyes looked to me like a broken America.

On the eleventh, our boss sent us non-essential workers home. I went to my studio apartment, all alone, and started filling out applications for my PhD, even though it seemed like none of my chosen universities would even exist by the autumn of the following year. When it seemed as though the world were truly ending, my applications were a defiant gesture of optimism.

Those of us who are old enough to remember it, know that the world of September tenth is gone forever. But we've made it through September twelfth, and now I live in the world of September thirteenth, which is, for me and my husband, a day to symbolize boundless love.

We were all affected differently, and so on this tenth anniversary, it is right that we should all commemorate differently. The most appropriate group activity I've found that applies to the country at large is Non-Judgment Day. There's a Facebook event for it, but we can all participate simply by considering what we as humans have in common.

Probably the best thing we all share is hope.

Vacation for Sweet Saturday Sample

2011-09-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

My husband has managed to wrangle a vacation out of his slave-driving place of work (for which we are eternally grateful in this economy). We're escaping Arizona for the least expensive hotel we could find near the ocean. The Pacific, the ocean that saw me grow up! I will get back to all of you on Sweet Saturday when I get back (which will be far too soon).

Here's a sample from a WIP, about a self-centered young lady who grew up in California, went to college in Rhode Island, and has a really special sister. I don't know if this is going to come to a conclusion soon, or if it will become a novella or an accidental novel. Most of it is as sweet as can be, but there is one disturbing image, which could push the whole thing to PG-13.

Here, Emily, the narrator, meets her love interest for the first time.

* * *

I was leaving a final paper in my professor’s department mail box on the last day of December reading period when I saw one of the graduate students pinning up a flier with a picture of mounds of dirt and happy people smiling amid the muck.

“Hey, what’s that?” I said even as he was turning to leave, a stack of papers crammed into his backpack.

“What’s what?” he replied, wearily.

“That.” I pointed, as if I couldn’t go up and read it myself. It was my right as an undergrad to be taught by these people.

He put his arm against the wall to balance the weight of his backpack as well as underline what the flier said. “Field Studies in Africa. Make the most of your summer. Study archaeology in the field with respected experts while earning course credit!”

“Ooh,” I said, mirroring his half-sarcastic tone. He looked familiar. “Hey, didn’t you TA one of the archaeology classes?”

“Intro to Prehistory, section 4, and Field Arch, section 5.”

I looked into his exhausted green eyes and wanted to drown. I hadn’t taken either of those courses myself, but if I’d known he was the TA, I would’ve signed up.

“Are you going to do the field study?” I asked.

He nodded with as little effort as possible. “Herding all the undergrads, probably getting Professor Marsden his coffee.”

“See you next semester,” I called to him as he trudged away down the hall. No one else was in the room, so I took the tacks out of the flier and folded it carefully into my own backpack.

I hauled my bag downstairs from my dorm room all by myself. As I waited for the taxi to the airport, I clutched the folded flier with gloved fingers. It started the way he’d said:

Field Studies in Africa. Make the most of your summer. Study archaeology in the field with respected experts while earning course credit.

The Middle Awash of Ethiopia is the most persistently occupied place on Earth. Join some of the most important scholars in a unique field study where you can make a real contribution to the newest science being done right now. The fossils are eroding right out of the ground. You could discover an important six-million-year-old specimen yourself!

The photographic collage, arranged around the dustily happy people digging in the ground that had caught my eye at first, showed carefully reconstructed skeletons of Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus, and Homo erectus as well as a scenic view of what, strangely, looked to be Victoria Falls, and for good measure a tribesman of the Afar Desert complete with red, black and white woven clothing and Adidas sneakers.

* * *

Thanks for taking a look. Let me know what you think. I appreciate all constructive comments, so very much!

New Place to See Tree/House and Great New Writers

2011-09-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

The Electronic Text and Literature Cloud is the place to go to find out about independent authors you might never have otherwise heard of. Each title is showcased on an understated, tasteful page full of links to more information and, of course, where to buy it. I've had the honor of Tree/House being the first featured text in the "Literary" genre. Check it out here!

And check back with eTLC often for buried treasure that deserves more attention!

Out Now: A Crazy Weird Anthology for Animal Lovers!

2011-09-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Housefire Press, the press that only solicits from authors they like and never reads slush piles, has just released their anthology Nouns of Assemblage. It's full of animals, although I haven't received my contributor copy yet, so I can't guarantee they're all sweet. More specifically, it's all about the names for animals in their natural groups, such as the famous "murder of crows."

There are over 60 stories in here, and one is mine! Guess which group noun I chose. Yep, a "Crash of Rhinoceroses." It's an even more micro version of my microfiction "A Business Venture in Glue," published this year by Stanley the Whale. But don't that deter you, as there are more than 59 other stories by "The Best Authors in Small Press Fiction." Who could resist plunking down a paltry sum for something with so much potential?

See the stop-motion trailer here. Look for me at :42!

More information (including purchasing) is here.

Thanks for taking a look and celebrating with me!

The Family Tree for the Seven Noble Knights of Lara

2011-09-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

So you see, it's all very simple. These are the relationships between the characters who have been introduced so far.

I admit I've worried that the two most important male characters in the González family, the father and the youngest son, are both named Gonzalo, but for the first draft I'm hoping titles, diminutives, and nicknames will clarify who's doing what. If names persist as a problem, I will reconsider them for the second draft.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

2011-08-31T00:54:00.000-07:00

I received a handsome hardback copy of Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier (translated by Anthea Bell) from the German Book Office in New York City. It's always a very happy occasion to get a book in the mail.

Gwen Shepherd has never felt special compared to her cousin Charlotte, who is being specially groomed and inducted into a secret society that will help her manage her time travel gene. But it turns out that the gene landed on Gwen, who is completely unprepared, never having paid much attention in history class. Now Gwen is caught in the middle of esoteric lore and a feud she had no idea was taking place. She can't figure it all out during the course of this book, so stay tuned for the next installments.

Gwen's naivete is refreshing, but I find it bizarre that she isn't more interested in history (her friend has to Google everything for her), because not only is she a time traveler, but she can also see and speak with ghosts. In this book at least, her attitude seems to open up only when presented with the interesting fashions, so she seems almost as superficial as her travel partner thinks she is.

The most frustrating thing about the plot, which made it seem slow for me, was the lack of communication between Gwen and the adults in her life, inside the secret society and out. She seems to feel she isn't important to them, even when she realizes that they've been wasting their attention on Charlotte all this time. I was shouting at her through the page when she couldn't find a moment to tell her mother that she was in imminent danger of disappearing. Come on, girl! This is more important than any other concern your mother might have! Then, the adults and her similar-aged travel companion (and love interest) who are members of the secret society, continue to be secretive. It's supposed to add to the mystery, but all the hush-hush made me feel that there actually wasn't a lot happening.

There are a few very exciting scenes and I especially enjoyed scenes in which Gwen speaks with ghosts. This books is really well translated, transmitting a childlike relish to the story that's a thrill to read. I think I would like Ruby Red even better if it hadn't stopped where it did, but continued with whatever adventures and mysteries are to come in the next books, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green. This first book wasn't very long, and will be much more satisfying when the reader can enjoy the entire trilogy all at once.

The Winners Have Been Notified

2011-08-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

The winners of the blog hop have been contacted, and some have already received their prizes! Enjoy!

Congratulations to the winners and thanks so much to everyone who dropped by to enter. I appreciate all my readers and followers.

Readers!! Last Chance for Great Prizes!!

2011-08-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

To be entered to win your choice of an astonishing panoply of e-books, go to this post and enjoy. This is the last day -- winners are drawn tomorrow. Good luck!

Note: I'm really looking for FANS on Goodreads. Friends are nice, too, but it's FANS I lack.

SSS: Will Young Gonzalo See Reason?

2011-08-28T00:19:00.001-07:00

A pageant of Los Siete Infantes in Castrillo de la Reina, Spain.

In such a situation as I've been posting these several weeks, nobody's in the right. But Gonzalo isn't quite ready to admit any wrongdoing (following from last week):

* * *

“Gonzalico, you’re half dead and there must be a hundred of them!” his oldest brother Diego tried to reason with him.

Crouching close to his ear, Fernando González, told his youngest brother, “Don’t you think it’s unpardonable to have caused such a scene at our uncle’s wedding?”

But even as he was unable to keep his own feet under him, Gonzalo shook his head and tried to wield a sword. Doña Sancha threw her hands up in despair. The clattering soldiers crushing in upon them, she looked to her husband. With a nod toward her, don Gonzalo Gustioz took his youngest son into his arms and kept him from falling, from grasping at weapons, or even from speaking.

* * *

UPDATE: Yes, father and son have the same name. "-ico" is a diminutive for the younger one. All the brothers have the last name "González" because it's a patronymic. The elder (don) Gonzalo's father was Gustio, hence his patronymic "Gustioz." I'll put together a family chart and post it next week for anyone who's interested to come and see!

Thanks so much for the encouragement last week! This week I'm not sure about (what's new?), so as always, I appreciate comments.

Check out the new excerpt page for this WIP in the upper left!

I'll be taking a break from SSS in September to celebrate my anniversary and to devote more time to writing and my editing job. We'll see how long I can stay away. Please look for me in October!

And the other wonderful sixes are here.

It's Getting Closer: World Rhino Day for Sweet Saturday Sample

2011-08-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

World Rhino Day is September 22. Show your support by spreading the word: Rhino Horn is Not Medicine.

Here's another sweet excerpt from my story, "Not Extinct Yet." It shows some of the horrors of poaching, but nothing's on-screen, so the whole story merits a PG at worst. It will be published someday! Two important things for this snippet: 1. Winifred and Jenna are both white rhinoceroses, while Suzanne is human. 2. The classification of rhinos actually has nothing to do with color.

All babies love their mamas.

* * *

Winifred cleared her throat again. “Well, I’ve heard that your sound man is starting to get bored with us. I wondered if it would help your research to know that black rhinos wouldn’t be so fierce if you announced your presence verbally before you got too close.”

Suzanne’s jaw dropped. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do about them!” Suzanne made a mental note to ask a rhinoceros the next time she needed to figure out something about a rhinoceros.

The sound guy poked his head out of the Jeep. “I’ve got a megaphone right here. We’re tracking a black rhino about ten miles away.”

“I’ll help!” exclaimed Jenna. She ran alongside the Jeep as they rumbled across the countryside, slowing and stopping as soon as Suzanne could see the black rhino through binoculars.

She hopped out and looked at Jenna. “I’m not sure what to say,” she admitted.

“Hold that in front of my mouth,” said Jenna. She took a deep breath and shouted into the megaphone. “Hey! Black rhino! We’re a white rhinoceros and a few humans. We don’t want to hurt you! We want to talk to you!”

* * *

And don't forget, my collection Threads Woven is available for Kindle and Nook. Nice stuff, so little money!

Check out the other sweet samples here.

New Blog "Schedule"

2011-08-24T01:08:00.000-07:00

The most requested new subjects for posts when I did my reader survey last month were "things I like," and "history."

Good thing I like history!

So, for this new year of blogging, I plan to keep to the following schedule except in cases of special events:

Mondays will feature something I like or love. When I have new book reviews, they'll appear on Mondays.

Wednesdays will be "history," broadly interpreted. If anyone has suggestions for Wednesday history topics, lob them this way! When I have new author interviews, they'll also go up on Wednesdays.

Fridays will be open. This is meant to be the time for any news about my writing and/or publishing. If I don't post anything on a Friday, it doesn't mean I'm not thinking of you.

Saturdays will feature the sweet excerpts for Sweet Saturday Samples, unless I can't find anything sweet enough. I really support them! Way to go, gals!

Sunday is the territory of Six Sentence Sunday, which has hooked me like a fish. I'm going to see if I can skip it in September to devote more time to the actual writing process. Wish me luck!

Oh, yes, they have catwalk fashion shows for flamenco style, oh yes.

So, even though it's Wednesday, I'd like to catch up with Monday by saying that I love polka dots. Especially red ones. Hence the new look for the blog.

I first enjoyed the polka dot glamour of the trajes de gitana in Andalusia, and then, when they finally came back in style in American fashion, I bought every piece of clothing I saw that had them. Not always to my own benefit. But the polka dots were the higher cause. The Spanish call them "lunares," or "moon-shapes," so that may explain why I'm loony for them.

SSS: The Wedding Really Blows Up

2011-08-21T00:27:00.000-07:00

You thought the wedding was in trouble before? Don't look now, but the cavalry's here!

Some of you were dissatisfied with where the snippet cut off last week. I'm keeping very strictly to six sentences. Lambra's been looking around her, and now we see why:

* * *

"Justa, what can I use for a weapon?" she said, but Ruy Blásquez, holding his nose with both hands, mustered the strength to call into the crowd.

"My warriors! Will you abide this affront to your lord? To arms, to arms!"

The onlookers made way as all the knights under Ruy Blásquez's fealty came from their posts on the riverbank, pulling out their shields and unsheathing their swords. Gonzalo, nearly swooning, tipped and landed in the supportive arms of his brothers, but his arms reached around him in search of a weapon.

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by. I truly appreciate your comments, encouragement, constructive criticism, whatever you'd like to offer.

Enjoy the other sets of six here!

Sweet Saturday Sample in Anticipation of World Rhino Day

2011-08-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

A white rhinoceros enjoys the grooming skills of an avian friend.

Call me crazy, but I think rhinoceroses are the sweetest animals!

This excerpt is from my short story "Not Extinct Yet," which is still looking for a home. Any takers?

In this story, it has been Discovered that most animals can speak human languages. See another six sentences from it here. The main character, Suzanne, has been talking with the rhinos on the preserves in South Africa and has to convince her husband to leave New York and come with her.

* * *

After these initial successes, Suzanne managed to be transferred from her post in the Twin Towers to a local branch of her company in Pretoria. Derek had hesitantly left his assistant professorship in human linguistics at CUNY in order to stay with her. It had not been a simple conversation in the kitchenette.

“I have to say, I never pictured myself in South Africa,” Derek said.

Suzanne had. Her childhood bedroom’s walls had filled up with Johannesburg and Cape Town tourism posters as soon as the interest in rhinoceroses had dropped into her head.

Derek continued, “Haven’t I been providing for us?”

“Of course!” Suzanne had sat in on some of his linguistics classes, pre-Discovery, when they were often nothing more than one-on-one tutoring sessions. After the Discovery, Derek had tripled his income by teaching three times the classes to what seemed like hundreds of times the number of students. When Suzanne tried to sit in now, it was standing room only. The financial boost had given Suzanne exactly the freedom she needed to travel and, eventually, make first contact with her favorite creatures. “But maybe it’s my turn to provide for us now.”

“Did you know this was going to happen when you got this job as a rhino expert?”

“Now, that’s not fair. Nobody knew the Discovery was going to happen, and I’ve loved rhinos for much longer than five years. Just remember the couch I had when we met.”

Derek grunted, picturing the grey monstrosity, complete with face, horns, and tail, dominating her living room. “We’ve come so far.”

Suzanne opened the kitchen window and looked into the Manhattan street below. “See that dog? I bet he could tell you how much the world has changed.”

“He’s too far down there to talk with us,” said Derek.

“Yes!” cried Suzanne. “But six years ago, that wouldn’t have been the only thing keeping him quiet! Don’t you see? The zoologists’ time has come. This is my wildest, most ludicrous dream come true. Come and live it with me, darling.”

* * *

The other sweet excerpts are here! Enjoy!

World Rhinoceros Day is September 22, 2011! savingrhinos.org

SULTRY SUMMER NIGHTS: IGNITE YOUR PASSIONS BLOG HOP (AUGUST 22-29)

2011-08-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

I can't say I have ever truly enjoyed summer weather, especially when it can be described as "sultry." This year is the worst summer weather I've ever lived through. I mean, it's scary to step outside, folks! Killer heat, wildfires, bacteria-filled dust storms, random lightning strikes!

I'm pretty passionate about good air conditioning.

I'm also passionate about reading, writing, running my publishing company Açedrex (acedrex.com) and providing a blog that satisfies my readers.

Today is my blogoversary! One year ago I timidly began this adventure.

To celebrate, 1. I'm changing the entire look of the blog. Keep your eye out for the changes some time today. They may evolve according to reader input.

2. The suggestions from the reader survey last month will be implemented in the coming weeks: more information to follow.

3. I'm also participating in this huge hop! Look around at my excerpt pages, see if there are posts you like, and then, if you'd like to win prizes --

Comment on the new look. Do you like it? Do you have suggestions for a different look?

You can receive an additional entries into the sweepstakes by following this blog, liking my Facebook author page, liking Açedrex Publishing on Facebook, and/or becoming a fan on Goodreads. I'll try to keep track of what you do, but the easiest thing would be for you to tell me in the comments whether you completed any of the extra entries.

PRIZES: Choose anything from Açedrex's list in English. The English list includes all my purchasable work (Tree/House, Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, Threads Woven, Dusk Before Dawn), translations of two Spanish classics, and the novelized memoirs of Marie Danielle Frankson. More options will be explained to the winners directly.
PREMIOS: Escoger lo que quieras de los títulos en español de Açedrex Publishing. La lista de títulos en español presenta una rica variedad de libros digitales de la más alta calidad de autores clásicos -- ¡las novelas que siempre has querido leer!

There will be three winners. First prize will choose three books, second prize will choose two books, and third prize will choose one book.
Habrá tres ganadores. El gran premio es el derecho de escoger tres libros gratis, otro ganador escogerá dos, y otro ganará un libro gratis, a escoger.

Please visit the other blogs in the hop, starting here! Many more wonderful excerpts and prizes!

Rules for the hop as a whole:

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, August 22, Midnight (Arizona Time)

THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, August 29, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

Winners will be drawn and posted August 30th! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW PARTY DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERY AUTHOR SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

Six Sentence Sunday: What a Disaster of a Wedding

2011-08-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

We're starting again right where we left off in my WIP The Seven Noble Knights of Lara, in the middle of Gonzalo's sassy speech after he's been severely wounded by his uncle, the groom at this ill-fated wedding:

* * *

Swiveling once again, tottering precariously, he continued, "But Uncle, for the sake of your love for me, I beg you not to hit me again, because you couldn't suffer the consequences."

Ruy Blásquez raised his lance once again, over doña Sancha's protests, but this time Gonzalo was able to dodge the blow so that it hit his shoulder and did not cut him, but broke in two. Taking advantage of Ruy Blásquez's surprise, Gonzalo seized the goshawk from his brother Suero's arm and, screaming with the bird at the slicing of its talons into his arm, forced it into his uncle's face. The bird struck out with its beak in indignation. Sancha cried, "Stop!" but before Suero intervened to coax the agitated hawk back onto his protected hand, Ruy Blásquez's nose had begun to bleed copiously.

At the sight of her husband's blood, doña Lambra began to look around her.

* * *

Thank you for coming by and for commenting! I appreciate what you have to say very much, as these snippets have a lot more editing to go through. The other amazing snippets are to be found here.

Third Sweet Saturday

2011-08-13T00:37:00.000-07:00

The thirteenth of any month is the sweetest for me, since I met my husband on a February thirteenth and we married on September 13, 2009. Whenever the thirteenth rolls around, it's some kind of anniversary for us!

How to come up with a snippet that's as sweet as that? Not easy, but here's the loving couple from the anchor story of my collection, Threads Woven. (All but one of the stories are G to PG, and even the nastier one is light and humorous!)

* * *

Miriam stopped running the water. “I’m sorry, George. You know I’m the jealous type.”

George rose from the counter and held Miriam close, where he could smell her hair and kiss her neck. “I really can’t blame you, with that foxy husband you’ve got!”

Miriam sighed. “He’s so understanding, too, I know he won’t mind Leila staying here.”

George escorted Miriam to the living room couch and adopted the same serious tone as Miriam. “What are your plans for Leila? How long will she stay?”

“Well, she’s nineteen, so it’s probably kind of late to adopt her...”

“Adopt her!”

“But I thought we could take her in unofficially until she’s ready to make her own way in the world.”

George looked for traces of sanity in Miriam’s face. He grasped her hands in her lap. “Dear, does this have anything to do with your not having seen Elizabeth for a few months? You do know, don’t you, that eventually even a mother’s work is finished?”

* * *

Threads Woven is available for hardly any money at all through this ad link. Also in Nook! Enjoy the new, reader-approved cover!

Please see all the sweet excerpts here. I 100% guarantee that I will visit the sites and leave comments for those who comment here once I send my sweeting back into the wide world of work.

Birthday Facts About Jessica K

2011-08-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

Fact 1: Today is my birthday!

2: I am the product of a scheduled C-section, since I refused to come out of breech position. A lot of that stubbornness and choosing to be different at any cost has accompanied me during my time on earth.

3: My husband, whose voice is so deep and resonant that the first thing anyone says to him is usually, "You should be on the radio!" sings me the birthday song for many days on either end of the actual day, with lyrics adjusted to fit ("...Happy two days before your birthday, happy birthday to you!").

4: It's good that I appreciate little things like item 3, since we won't be able to afford anything more elaborate this year.

5: I've never been in a desert environment for my birthday before. Even the summer I spent in Andalucía, by the time my birthday rolled around I was in green, rainy Galicia (Northwest Spain) listening to bagpipes, utterly blissed out.

6: Summer birthdays were hard when I was growing up because you didn't see your friends to invite them to your party, so if there was a party, it was a pretty quiet affair.

7: I think my favorite birthday ever was my 25th, because I was in England for the year with a bunch of other people who loved the Middle Ages enough to get a degree in their study. I invited everyone I knew to a good Spanish restaurant and had a very fine time. My beau even brought out a surprise chocolate cake that wasn't as dry as all the other British chocolate cake I'd tasted. :)

8: That isn't to knock my more recent birthdays, when my true love has done everything in his power to make me happy. But he does that every day of the year, so who's keeping track on one silly day?

Cover Contest Winner!

2011-08-08T01:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to everyone who voted.

It was so close! The winner is "Vanity," by a nose. The new version of the book will be available by tomorrow.

And one lucky winner gets free copy!

For everyone's information, the artist of the "Quilt" cover is Erin McGuire. She makes a living creating gorgeous artwork and covers for all kinds of books. Check her out!

More Blood and Guts for Six Sentence Sunday

2011-08-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

I got major clamors to keep posting six sentences at a time from this sequence following the death of Álvar Sánchez, so here we are, continuing from last week (when Gonzalo the younger was smacked in the face with a sharp lance tip by his own uncle!).

* * *

At the sight of her son's blood, Sancha lunged toward the wound with a handkerchief grabbed unconsciously from the serving girl Luz's hands. But Gonzalo pushed her away, staining her sleeves with garish red-brown smears. He got back to his feet, wobbling, refusing his brothers' and mother's help with great bravado.

"For God's sake, Uncle," he said almost merrily, "as your nephew, I never deserved such a blow from you." He turned to his brothers. "I beg you not to sue my uncle over my death if I die here."

* * *

Next week: the sassy end of the speech and more blood spilled. Thanks for tuning in and leaving comments. I appreciate constructive criticism for this key scene so very much!

Please visit the other great excerpts here.

Second Sweet Saturday

2011-08-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Sweet Saturday Samples is the best idea I've seen in a long time and I thank the organizer very much. I'm doing something very not sweet on Sundays, so I appreciate the chance to balance my karma on the webs.

This sweet snippet is from "Club Love," one of the stories making their published debut in Threads Woven and Other Stories for Women (see here for cover voting and contest, ends Monday!). The entire book is PG-13, with only one story ("Justine") dropping a well-earned f-bomb and containing a comedy murder. All the other stories are safe G to PG content. Enjoy!

* * *

“Club Ai,” the sign said. The letters were much more modest than the other tacky billboards in that part of town. Even though it almost looked tasteful, Meredith was bewildered.

“Another club? That’s all I need to make me happy?”

“Try it, you’ll like it,” said Verity, and this time she was telling the truth.

The cover was fifty dollars, which made Meredith hesitate. Verity was so self-assured that she paid for them both, and Meredith’s curiosity became uncontrollable.

“What is this place!” she gasped when they walked into a large ballroom with red wallpaper and lights all along the ceiling. In the center of the room was a huge chandelier of sparkling crystals, and in the corners were tasteful statues of Greek gods and goddesses. Most strange, however, was the row of fifty men standing at attention, waiting for something.

They bowed and smiled widely, and most of them said, “Good evening, madam,” or “You’re looking lovely tonight,” or something similar. They all wore suits or tuxedoes in various colors as though this were the most important night of their lives.

Verity squealed with excitement and grabbed the man on the front end of the line by the arm. “Have fun!” she said to Meredith, and her man gently led her by the arm to a table isolated from the other couples already there. Meredith did not see her again that night.

Meredith looked up and down the long row of undeniably attractive men, nervously. She felt odd. She felt like she was taking advantage. She felt like those men who came to her for someone to talk at. She shuddered, and suddenly one of the men in particular caught her eye.

* * *

I can't read the samples on Saturday itself because that day is sacred spend-time-with-the-hubby day, but I promise to catch up when he goes back to work! Thanks for dropping by here!
Also in Nook!

Alternate Covers for Threads Woven

2011-08-01T01:44:00.000-07:00

I've just released a short story collection with this cover. The cover wasn't easy to arrive at, but as I mentioned, it was my husband's favorite of the designs I could get rights to. I thought the picture of the women doing something entirely inexplicable communicated both the power of the women in my stories and the sometimes strange things that happen in them.

But after looking at bizarre pictures of women for several hours, I was also enamored of this one. What do you think? Too far?

Then there's this, using "Vanity" by Auguste Toulmouche. I like the idea of women appreciating themselves, but again, it might go too far.

I fell in love with this picture for its beauty as well as its appropriate content. In "Threads Woven," Leila uses an old quilt both to warm herself and to reach out to Miriam. The black-haired beauty looks a lot like the way I pictured Leila! So lovely. So off limits because I can't seem to contact the artist. Sigh. I can keep trying if you like this one best.

Which one's your favorite? I'll change the cover according to which one gets the most votes! If you leave your email address, I'll enter you in a drawing for a free copy of the book with the cover of your choice! Wooohooo! Drawing takes place on Monday.

Don't forget to get your free sample and inexpensive entire book through this ad. :)

Six Sentences More on the Ill-Fated Wedding

2011-07-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU to those of you who enjoyed my clippings the previous two weeks. Your comments are tremendously flattering, and it's nice to know I'm reaching readers, which is my greatest hope. I do my very best to comment on all of your wonderful sentences, too. I hope you'll enjoy this snippet, which comes right after last week's. Here I'm trying to achieve a balance between specificity and speed...

* * *

Ruy Blásquez took Lambra's shaking hands in his and looked into her wild eyes. She wrenched her hands away from him and shouted, pointing at Gonzalo, "Do something! Are you my husband by these nuptials or not?"

Doña Sancha shouted, "Brother! He's your nephew!"

While Gonzalo was looking at his mother, Ruy Blásquez struck him across the face with the sharp end of the lance. He fell onto his seat and blood streamed from a single streak that started on his cheek and went diagonally up the bridge of his nose to the opposite eyebrow.

* * *

More from The Seven Noble Knights of Lara next Sunday, but only if the comments demand it. I've been distracted from it lately, so I'm starting to run out of story!

Check out the other participants here! And have fun!

If you like my writing, and you like stories about women, please consider checking out my new short story collection Threads Woven. Thanks!

Sweet Saturday Samples First Week!

2011-07-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

What better way to end the month than with two -- count 'em, two! -- days of excerpts. Today is the first time around for Sweet Saturday Samples, a concept I truly appreciate. See the other non-violent, non-sexual excerpts here. As I wind down my promotions for Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, I can think of no sweeter book ever written. :)

This silly scene is from the beginning of the first book, when Princess Noreena needs Pirate Pierre to find the fugitive Giovanni Redicci.

Pierre had come with an offer. “I know where your Giovanni Redicci is. I can get him for you, but it’s going to cost you dearly.”

“How much?” was all Noreena said, though she was taken aback. It was all she could do to keep herself from jumping up and down.

“How much are you willing to pay?” he asked.

“How much are you asking?” she insisted. Though she was willing to hock her new silverware, she was a bargainer at heart.

“Sixty five. French francs, please.”

“Oh? I suppose that means I have to go to France, then.”

“Correct.”

“And that will cost me a fortune in itself.”

“Correct.”

“Monsieur Pierre, I’m afraid you’ll have to take down your offer. I do not have adequate funds at the present.” Noreena was annoyed.

Does he think I’ve got French money growing on my courtyard trees?she thought.

Pierre was silent a moment, then said, “I’ll make another offer, but you may turn this down, too. If you sail to Ireland with me, I will detour to France where you can get fifty five, and I will then get this Redicci for you, then you give me the money and do whatever you wish with him.”

“Fifty five, hmm?”

“I won’t go any lower, so accept or find someone else who can find him. Your search parties weren’t doing so well, and only I know where he is. Weigh all this carefully, your highness.”

“Oh, but I do know where he is. You told me yourself just now. He’s in Ireland.”

“Drat!”

See this and other excerpts here. I'll keep future excerpts shorter.

In Kindle, Nook, or paperback, this saga is not expensive, long, or serious. Enjoy!

New Release: Threads Woven (Stories)

2011-07-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Now available by popular demand! Readers have been asking for a collection of my short stories, and I've responded by coming out with Threads Woven, a collection that includes only my most woman-centered tales. This is not because I don't think men are worth writing about or that men shouldn't read my writing. It just seemed like the most solid theme upon which to base a collection.

Included stories (click on live links to read the whole story -- the best preview ever!):

1. "Threads Woven" (never previously published). In this charming longer story, Miriam seeks artistic inspiration in a writing class. Feeling ever more alone, with her husband busy in a career and with a beautiful new running partner, her daughter unavailable and her classmates thirty years younger than she is, Miriam finds communion and inspiration in another drifting soul, in Chinese food, and in an old quilt.

2. "Justine"

3. "Job Fair"

4. "Calcium-Rich"

5. "Slippers"

6. "Club Love"(not previously published). Meredith works at a club where she must cater to her male clients' every whim, so her best friend thinks it's a good idea to take her to a club where the roles are reversed. It seems like a very good idea, for a while...

7. "Green Hot" (never published before). Sheila knows she deserves the promotion that her coworker gets. Her strong conviction literally burns her up from the inside out.

The cover is very blue. It was my husband's favorite of the ones I could get artwork rights for. We both really loved one painting, but I've had trouble contacting the artist. I'll show you the other possibilities and maybe ask you to vote on them in Monday's post!

Here's the buy link to get a free sample of the title story. Also available in Nook! For now, these stories are only in e-book, but one day a paperback will exist that somehow combines all the amazing stories I want to share with my readers.

Treasure Quest: Discovery Lies Between The Covers: Mega Author Blog Hop Tour WINNERS

2011-07-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

The winners have been chosen!

Grand Prize Winner of a signed paperback: Barbara (Babs) Hightower

First Prize Winners of digital copies: Avid book reviewer Saph of saphsbookblog and voracious reader Robin D

Congratulations! Enjoy your copies of Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy!

These are my two favorites out of all the wonderful suggestions I got for the coming year of my blog. (Thanks for the compliments! They make me feel like I have some idea what I'm doing!)

1. "I want to continue following your writing adventures!" Kay Springsteen. iluvkimi220 and Krystal Larson expressed similar (flattering!) desires.

2. "It's cool to put up stuff you like... what makes you you... whether it's hot guys or chocolate fantasy painting" Nikki. Robin D made a similar comment. Sorry to say, my interests outside of writing aren't that inherently exciting! But we'll see what we can do.

I'll address all the ideas I received either in an individual post in the coming weeks, or as a general modus operandi in the coming year. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm so glad I asked!

Happy blogoversary to me....

Six Sentence Sunday: Death at the Wedding and Its Consequences

2011-07-24T00:18:00.000-07:00

These six come directly after the six from last week. Doña Lambra's about to hold forth at her nephew Gonzalo:

* * *

Through her tears, she exclaimed, “He was my cousin. He won the prize. Never before has a bride been so dishonored at her own wedding! Ruy Blásquez will repay this betrayal!”

Doña Sancha let go of Gonzalo’s arm to wipe at the tears coming down her own cheeks and plead with Lambra. “Oh, dear sister-in-law, he didn’t mean to do it.”

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by and for whatever insight you wish to share here. I really appreciated the encouragement last week! What an amazing boost that was! The other six sentences for this amazing Sunday jaunt are here.

You Know You Want To

2011-07-22T01:38:00.000-07:00

He's really upset about leaving the cabinet because he was in the middle of a great book: Tree/House!

Go ahead, read it. Some strange urge deep within your psyche is telling you... you know you want to.

You are feeling sleepy, very sleepy...
Wake up with a good read! Really inexpensive, too.

Photos from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

Expectations in Flash Fiction

2011-07-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

I've been shopping around a piece that is dear to my heart because it's an ode to my marriage, both its misfortunes and its strength. At less than one thousand words, it's officially considered a flash fiction piece. I want so much to share it with the world! I think it's a funny little glimmer of joy in a sad world. But it seems not enough people "get" it. It's admittedly pretty unusual to want to celebrate marriage and love in an exaggerated, absurdist style, but if I'm not striving to write things no one's written before, am I not wasting everyone's time? (It's not a rhetorical question. Feel free to weigh in.)

I sent it for consideration for publication to Everyday Fiction, and wonderfully, helpfully, and unusually, they included the evaluations with the rejection letter. There were no less than four different reviewers (showing the quality of the venue!) Two readers seemed to really get it, which was heartening. A third called it "unique" (hooray!) but seemed overwhelmed by the tightly-woven sequence of action -- s/he used the word "packed," which I would have thought meant the reader gets a lot for their money/time investment. I always think flash fiction is short enough that the reader can look it over many times instead of just the once, so it's okay to really jam it full because they'll pick up on more details the second and third time, but I respect a differing opinion.

The fourth reviewer, in my humble opinion, was completely misguided. I think I made the exaggerated, absurdist style apparent in the first sentence: "It rained so hard, the wicker baskets were overflowing." How much would it have to rain to fill a wicker basket, much less to make it overflow? Pretty exaggerated and expressed in an absurd manner. Yet the reviewer seemed to think I was trying to be true-to-life when I talked about 200-mile-per-hour winds in Nebraska. Sorry, I was trying to exaggerate, which is not easy when you're talking about wind in Nebraska. So that was utterly puzzling, but perhaps his attitude can be explained by another comment, in which he worried about a flash flood coming through the ceiling. That's not what happens in the story, so I can only assume he wasn't paying attention. Totally misapprehended the entire plot at a basic level because he was expecting something else. It grieves my heart when that happens, but there's nothing to be done about it.

The other major flaw in his critique seems to be widespread among critiquers, so I'd like to take this opportunity to explain why I think it doesn't work for flash fiction. He wanted more of a "basis/description of the actual love between them." I just don't see how I could ever do that with the word count limitations of flash fiction. If I were to start really getting into what holds this couple together, it would become a novel, and I already have too many big projects on my plate. For me, flash fiction is all about small details to suggest a whole, so it relies on the reader to activate his/her imagination. If anyone can clue me in on how to achieve a balance between suggestion and explanation within one thousand words, please do so.

I've come up with this mental framework for flash fiction after years of reading the best of it and years of crafting some of my own, so it's not like I'm whinging like a baby over my first attempt here. And I want to express my sincere gratitude to Everyday Fiction for providing the readers' comments. It's the most basically useful thing a writer can see, yet we hardly ever get to see it.

In the end, the story is a love letter I wrote for my husband as we were packing up to move to Arizona with most of our belongings in storage, to show him we could make it though anything. I may not ever find a magazine that's willing to celebrate perfect love between imperfect humans in a vastly imperfect world. But I'll keep looking.

Six Sentence Sunday: Death at the Wedding Aftermath

2011-07-17T00:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was thrilled with the response to my anxiety-driven question to you all last week! Thanks so much for all the comments! I've filed them with the chapter draft and will work with them during editing. I have ideas for all the observations -- yes, even the ones that are diametrically opposed.

These six take place right after the six from last week. Again, this is a first draft. Thank you for reading.

* * *

Doña Sancha reached for her son's arm and held on tightly. "Gonzalico, what have you done?" she whispered into his ear. He opened his mouth and shook his head in disbelief.

Doña Lambra began tearing at her fine silks, sending crisp ripping sounds through the thick air along with her grating sobs. Her whole body shook so violently that her hair flowed out of her headdress, which tumbled to the ground. She strode between the crush of people, wading through the blood and over the teeth, to face Gonzalo González.

* * *

What will she tell her nephew-by-marriage who's the same age as she is and gorgeous as well? Tune in next week!

In the meantime, check out all the other wonderful sets of six sentences here.

Treasure Quest: Discovery Lies Between The Covers: Mega Author Blog Hop Tour July 18-25

2011-07-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

In Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, Pirate Pierre is always on the move, on an unending quest for treasure. If you happen to see him while you're about your princess business, it's probably a lucky fluke.

Of course, the real treasure can be found between the covers of a book, but that's not where he's looking in this imagination of how he ends up getting in touch with his tender side:

Pirate Pierre and his crew were skirting the coast of Iceland. While they were in Greenland dropping off Victor Viterbo, one of the crewmen had heard a rumor about enormous treasure buried under the tundra in Norway. They had to stop in Iceland and stock up on provisions before sallying forth onto the frozen desert. They weren't sure what to expect, but Pierre had visions of wooden chests, perfectly preserved in the permafrost and overflowing with diamonds and rubies as cold as his heart.

Courtesy ancerstryimages.com

Suddenly the pirate in the crow's nest started ringing the alert bell. "Princess off the starboard bow!" Pierre looked down, and extraordinarily, a woman glittering with jewels was floating on a rickety raft accompanied only by a lap dog. She waved her hand at him regally.

They got her on board and she handed the dog to Pierre when he put out his hand in greeting.

"I'm Princess Christina of Norway," she said. "The Swedes tried to abandon me on Greenland all by myself, except for Muffy here, and probably hoped I would stay there. I put together that raft but had nothing to steer with, and the currents made it impossible to land on Iceland, which is what I assume that island is. I was hoping the Icelanders would help me against the Swedes. But I really can't rely on anyone, anymore, can I?"

"I'm not familiar with Nordic politics," said Pierre. The princess was wearing a tangle of necklaces with every gem imaginable, at least one gold ring on each finger, and bracelets and bangles that stacked up her arm and disappeared under her silken sleeves. If Pierre was staring, though, he wasn't staring at the jewels. Her eyes shone brighter than any gem, her hair glittered more than gold. Could she be the treasure he'd been looking for all his life? "My name is Pierre, and we'll be happy to take you back to your loyal subjects."

* * *

Ah, blooming love!

The treasures on offer at this blog will go to two lucky first prize winners and one grand prize winner.
GRAND PRIZE: A copy of the gorgeous paperback of Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, signed by the author.
FIRST PRIZE: A digital copy of Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy in pdf, epub, or mobi (Kindle) format (winner's choice).

HOW TO WIN: Take a look at this post. Please take a moment to let me know in the comments in that post or in this post (both will be considered valid) what you would like to see in the second year of this blog. Leave your email for full consideration. (I will only contact you to notify you of your winnings and ask for a mailing address for the paperback copies.) The best suggestions will appear on this blog. Thanks for stopping by and for commenting!

This book is also participating in giveaways on Goodreads and Librarything, but your best bet for winning is right here!

To continue to the next blog in this hop for chances to win more prizes, join author Tricia Schneider on a well-read treasure hunt!
TOUR RULES:

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, July 18, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, July 25, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

Winners will be drawn and posted June 21st! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW PARTY DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERY AUTHOR SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

Blogoversary Approaching

2011-07-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it: I've been blogging for nearly a year. My first post as a Famous Writer appeared August 20, 2010. I set up the site so that I would have a central location to log all the stories I published and to let readers know about my current projects so they could get as excited about them as I was. Barely knowing what I was doing, I shared a little about the way the economic turmoil has affected my family, about the trials of publishing, and about my dream of starting a publishing company coming true. Through unexpected and wonderful connections, this blog has grown into something much bigger than I could have dreamed. I've had the privilege of interviewing some wonderful authors and even participating in blog hops and the incomparable Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks to everyone for making this such a positive experience!

I think the anniversary is a great opportunity to reconsider the blog's purpose and execution, and so I'm turning to you, my readers. Please let me know what you would like this blog to become for the next year. More interviews? More reviews? More musings on geography or money? Fewer? More excerpts? More literature and history lessons? Something else entirely? I'd love to hear any of your ideas. Thank you for your important contribution. Please leave a comment here and leave an email address if you'd like to be entered into the next blog hop drawing for a gorgeous signed paperback of Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, further explained tomorrow.