Here are a couple of things that might interest you:
Global e-book awards needs judges. If you have a little extra time and would like to get some exciting new e-books to read for free, then please contact Dan Poynter and his team at http://globalebookawards.com/judging/
Poets and Writers has a great database of contests for every kind of medium, from poetry and short stories to novels. To sign up for free e-mail alerts, go to http://www.pw.org/
Have a wonderful week!
Filed under How to Publish Your Novel, Promoting Yourself
The oddest thing happened to me recently.
I heard about the Best Books Award and so I wrote an email to USABookNews@earthlink.com verifying that they accepted e-books, and asking how I should send the file of THWARTED QUEEN.
I got a reply from someone called Jeffrey Keen, of JPX Media Group, USA Book News and International Book Awards, telling me to email the pdf of the novel along with the entry form to that email address. I paid my entry fee online ($69) via Paypal, and replied to the email with my docs. A day went by, then the message bounced back.
So I re-sent it back to Jeffrey, with a brief note explaining that it hadn’t worked out the first time, so I was trying again.
It bounced back again. That was odd, because my first message got through, so why wasn’t this working? I decided that the site had gone down, but surely it would be back up now. I re-sent it.
Yes, you guessed it. It bounced back again. So I did a Google search on JPX media and acquired the following email: jpxmedia@earthlink.net. I resubmitted.
Guess what? It bounced back again a day later. So I poked around on the website http://www.internationalbookawards.com/aboutuscontactus.html and clicked on the “email us” link and got iba2012@earthlink.net.
I resubmitted.
What do you think happened just now? That’s right. It bounced back. I checked my Paypal account, and naturally the money is gone. I would contact them by phone, but try as I might I can’t find a phone number for their address, which is JPX Media Group, Attn: IBA 2012, P.O. Box 69408, Los Angeles, CA 90069 OR JPX Media Group, Attn: IBA 2012
9663 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 187, Beverly Hills, California 90210.
If any of you have heard about IBA, Jeff Keen, JPX media or Best Books Award, please drop a comment in the comments box. I’ve just contacted my local NWU office to let them know about this possible scam.
You may want to add this to your list of folks you DON’T do business with.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Filed under About Cynthia
This is a magical book. Author Charles Stein takes us on a journey into the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a spiritually transformative process that culminated in a rite at temple in Eleusis, a village near Athens after a week-long festival dedicated to Persephone and her mother Demeter.
The Mysteries were famous in the ancient world and mentioned by many people. However, the initiates who went through this process were sworn to secrecy as to the exact nature of the experience, so it has been hard to reconstruct what may have happened. Using ancient sources and modern scholarship, Stein has attempted to penetrate the veil of secrecy.
The mysteries were popular because they promised relief from the terrors of the afterlife, pictured in the ancient Greek mind as the terrors of Hades. Each initiate had to undergo an eighteen-month process of preparation, which culminated at the festival dedicated to Persephone and Demeter, which was held every year for thousands of years. In this festival, the initiates participated in dietary restrictions. On the last day of the week-long festival they marched the 14 miles from Athens to Eleusis. Along the way, they were each given a potion to drink which may have contained chemicals similar to LSD. On arriving at the temple there, they engaged in sacred dancing and were then ushered into the temple to witness the rite, which took place at night by the light of torches. It is not know exactly what happened then, but the whole experience ended with the “appearance” of Persephone.
To those of you who view the world primarily in scientific and rationalistic terms, this book may make your eyes roll. But if you are looking for something else, such as an evocation of what it may actually have been like to be there, then this book contains some wonderful descriptions to help you picture it in your mind’s eye. Five stars.
Filed under Book Review
Here are some chats you might be interested in. To use, you have to download Tweetdeck at www.tweetdeck.com.
From Two Nerdy History Girls: An unpublished MSS by Charlotte Bronte is worth at least two hundred thousand pounds, according to Sotheby’s. To read more, as well as to see a wonderful photo of the miniature MSS, click here. For Two Nerdy History Girls blog, go to: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2011/11/breakfast-links-week-of-november-7-2011. It has all kinds of wonderful historical tidbits.
Filed under How to Publish Your Novel, Promoting Yourself
It is heartbreaking to read about the destruction of an attractive and lively personality. Yet that is what Brigitte Hamann’s biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria does. Titled THE RELUCTANT EMPRESS, Ms. Hamann’s book charts the downfall of Elisabeth (more commonly known by her nickname “Sisi”) from a carefree 15-year-old who caught the heart of the Emperor Franz-Joseph, to a teenager whose children were taken from her by her jealous mother-in-law, to a twenty-two year old who fled the Viennese court and her marriage because after six years of marriage, she became so ill, that people feared for her life.
Unable to live with a husband who was dominated by his mother, and kowtowed to a stifling regimented Spanish etiquette, Sisi tried to find something to do with her life.
In the 1860s, she agitated for the parity of the Hungarian crown with the Austrian. In 1867, her efforts were crowned with a coronation ceremony in Budapest.
In the 1870s, she dropped politics and moved onto horse-racing, becoming one of the most outstanding equestrians in the world.
In the 1880s, she focused on poetry, writing several hundred poems, most of which were not published until after her death (they were too subversive). She stopped writing poetry when her only son, the Archduke Rudolf, committed suicide in 1889.
In 1890, her youngest child married, giving her even less reason to stay in Vienna. And so she wandered, from place to place, never finding a home of her own.
For those of us who remember the trials and tribulations of Princess Diana this makes chilling reading. Like Diana, Elisabeth suffered from anorexia. Like Diana, she was a perfectionist who cultivated a cult based on her own extraordinary beauty. LIke Diana, she became an unhappy woman who never seemed to find her footing in the world. So when Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898, her death was a relief. Birgitte Hamann writes:
“This sensational act of violence in Geneva was a deliverance for a deeply unhappy, emotionally disturbed and physically debilitated woman whose parting hardly left a gap.”
What a tragedy for such a deeply gifted, and sensitive personality. Five stars.
Filed under Book Review
Please join me in congratulating Jessica James for winning the Historical Novel Blog’s People’s Choice contest for the Best Blog of 2011. Many members voted and the winner was…LIFE IN THE PAST LANE!
Filed under Blogs and websites to watch
It is so easy to overlook the minor characters in your fiction. But you miss a great opportunity to make your work more interesting if you just use them as placeholders. Compare the following two excerpts to see what I mean:
- After a minute, the door opened and Mrs. Celia Stephenson stood there. “Good morning, Miss Violet,” she said. “Your mother is not up yet. Would you like to wait, while I knock on her door?”
- Mrs. Celia Stephenson, Mother’s landlady, opened the door a chink, revealing one well-shaped blue eye surrounded by mascara. “Your mother isn’t up yet,” she remarked, swinging the door open while her lips curved into a smile. “Would you like me to knock?”
Which seems more vivid to you?
Here is another example. One of my minor characters is a priest. Originally, I had decided to make him homely, prayerful and totally supportive of his brother, the major character. Then I went looking for images for my main characters, faces that I could pin their names onto. (I went online and searched Google images). I had a brainwave. Suppose I made the priest even more handsome than his dishy brother (the love interest in the novel), suppose I gave him a faint scar that ran down his cheek, and suppose I gave him a faint connection to the Chicago Outfit (the precursor to the mob).
What do you think? Which version of the priest would you rather read about? What do you think of the image of Raoul Bova, the Italian actor? Too handsome for a priest??
Do you have any craft tips you’d like to share? If so, drop a message in the comment box.
Have a wonderful week!
Filed under Craft
Mary Sharratt’s novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL, is about an infamous witch trial held in 1612, in Lancaster England, in which seven women and two men were hanged for witchcraft.
Early seventeenth-century England was still reeling from the religious upheavals of the previous century in which Catholic and Protestant martyrs had been burned at stake. Now, the Puritans were in the ascendancy, and they were not kind to people who either were closet catholics, or engaged in practices that could be viewed as pagan. This was especially true of the King, James I, who believed that witches were ubiquitous and needed to be routed out.
Thus this tragedy, which centers on three women from the same family who, to greater or lesser degrees, could have been regarded as witches.
The grandmother, known as “Mother Demdike” was a so-called “cunning woman” who mostly provided medical care to her neighbors. Occasionally, she was prevailed upon to cast spells and even curses. Though nominally Protestant, she was part of an ancient tradition that reached back into the past well beyond the Catholic Christianity of the century before.
Her daughter Liza, also had powers, but became disinclined to use them.
The grand-daughter, seventeen-year-old Alizon, was fearful of using her powers.
A dear friend of this family was a well-born closet Catholic, who preferred to go to her death claiming that she was a witch, rather than have her son punished for her secret adherence to the Old Faith.
None of these nuances mattered to the authorities, however. Especially an ambitious local sheriff, who wanted to make his name and fortune by putting to death witches. Just as the King had commanded.
What makes this novel so wonderful is the way in which Ms. Sharratt manages to get into the head of her seventeenth-century characters, making us feel as superstitious, fearful and hungry as they. Five stars.
Filed under Book Review
My tip for this month is to take a break in the middle of the day.
Lunchtime is the perfect excuse to get away from your desk. If you work in an office, use it as an excuse to get to know your co-workers by inviting them out to lunch. If you work by yourself, use lunchtime as an excuse to do something else.
I like to bake, so I’ll often use that time to cook. When everything is in the oven, I sit down and have a quick bite. Whatever you do DON’T eat lunch at your desk. Yes, it’s very tempting to do so. But here’s one thing to consider. The brain gets tired after doing the same old thing over and over. It needs a break. Forcing yourself to take that hour break will mean that you return to your desk refreshed and ready to get on with your afternoon.
Filed under How to Publish Your Novel
This book is full of useful tips and resources that any traveler might want to know, especially is you are a woman traveling alone. For some reason, common-sense tips are things we need to be reminded of. Like always registering at a hotel under your last name and initial, thus avoiding advertising the fact you are a woman. Like taking the hotel card when you register, so that if you get lost you can get someone to help you find it. Like covering guidebooks with covers made out of local newspapers, making it less obvious you are just passing through.
This book is a veritable gold mine of valuable advice, the sort that you could write on a 3 by 5 and keep with you when traveling. The best recommendation I can make is that my copy is bristling with stickies. Five stars.
Filed under Book Review
1 member
2619 membersWelcome to Spun Stories, where I review books for new authors, give advice on the craft of writing, share tips on self-publishing and spin stories from threads of the past
1125 members
...
