womens blog header small “You, a feminist?” I can hear all of your mock shock and horror. I can also hear some of you saying, “You don’t need another project. Just write.” While that’s true, I have to follow my heart in all that I do, and it was telling me the time had come for this blog.

Those of you who have been around here a while know I’m all about the strong female characters. Well, that extends to other areas of my life, too. So I decided a few months ago to start a blog to talk about issues around feminism, women’s equality, female rights, whatever you want to call it. (Check out my “why I’m here” post for more about why I created this blog.) I gathered up nine of my closest friends and several people who wanted to be guest bloggers, we did some planning via email and voila: Femina Aequalitas was born.

Femina Aequalitas is Latin for Female Equality. (Thanks to Liv for the name!) It was an easy way to show what we’re all about. It just so happens that it was ready for prime time right around the time that Emma Watson gave her groundbreaking speech on the role men play in the fight for gender equality. (If you haven’t seen, go watch it. You won’t regret it.) I’m grateful she broke the ice on the subject; we intend our blog to be a place where it can continue.

We’re not like a lot of other feminist blogs out there. You won’t find any man-hating or hard-line rhetoric. As our “About” page will tell you, we’re a group of men (yes, we have male contributors, too) and women who are searching for equality among the sexes in our lives and in our world – in pop culture (movies, music, books, TV, etc.), world news, politics and in our own lives. We’re want share those thoughts in order to foster healthy discussion and grow a community of like-minded individuals. We are desirous of change, but aren’t necessarily traditional activists.

We’re also taking a different approach to blogging. For now at least, we don’t have a regular posting schedule; we just post when something moves us so that the content is fresh and heartfelt, rather than required by a schedule. (We’ll see how that works.) We also have a Twitter account that all of us tweet from to spread the word about women’s issues that way. Feel free to follow us at @feminaaequalita.

We’re open to contributions, so if any of you would like to get involved, please either subscribe or check out our submission guidelines, or both! We’d love for you to stop by and say hi. While we’re still in our infancy, we hope you’ll join us as we build our community.

They say to practice what you preach, and this is the best way (online) I knew how to do that.

What do you think about the site? Are you interested in joining? Or at least following the conversation? What do you think about the recent discussions about feminism on social media and in the news? How do you define feminism? Do you consider yourself a feminist?

September 22, 201419th Century America, Books

A Hint of What’s to Come…

Nicole Evelina19th century, politics, suffrage, Wall Street 4 Comments

Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy: http://thegraphicsfairy.com/category/women/page/10/

Short post today since I’m pressed for time, so I thought I’d give you a little teaser of my next book, the one I’m almost done researching. I’m still not saying who my subject is (hint: her birthday is tomorrow), but I’ll tell you this…

Those who disliked her saw her as a dangerous force who was too willing to speak out in an age when women were expected to be quiet. To many, she was a charlatan, con-artist, prostitute, and puppet for powerful men whose ideas about love, sex and married life would corrupt the sanctity of marriage. She was publicly lampooned in political cartoons as associated with Satan and her name became a by-word for the type of behavior no respectable woman would abide.

But those who supported her saw her as a gifted spiritualist medium and healer, a talented financial mind, a fresh voice on women’s rights, the suffragist who just might get women the vote, and the radical idealist needed to move the nation forward.

By the age of 33, this woman who started out dirt poor had been married twice, bore two children, worked on Wall Street, became a self-made millionaire, testified before Congress, gave controversial speeches on women’s equality to packed halls across the country, and began one of only a handful of women-run newspapers in the United States. She rubbed elbows (and later made enemies) with the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe (and her whole family) and even President Grant.

By the end of her life, she ran for political office twice (unsuccessfully), caused a nationwide scandal that riveted the country for years – much like the OJ Simpson trial did in our own time – and eventually fled the country, still dogged by her controversial reputation.

And yet, she’s been largely written out of history. I didn’t know about her until I “randomly” (I don’t believe in chance) came across a pin about her on Pinterest and there’s been no historical fiction written about her in more than 30 years (a book in the ’60s and one in the ’80s, are all that’s been done). She’s one of the most important voices in the women’s suffrage movement and an important late 19th century figure in US politics and business, yet only a handful of people have ever heard of her.

That’s going to change. Look for more information on this fascinating woman over the next six months or so. Hopefully by March I’ll be able to reveal who she is. You can guess if you’d like, but right now I can’t confirm if you’re right.

September 15, 2014About the Author, Guinevere, Guinevere trilogy

15 Years of Guinevere

Nicole Evelinaguinevere, Guinevere of Northgallis, inspiration 2 Comments

Warrior

Today is a very special day for me. It’s the 15^th anniversary of when I wrote the first words to the Guinevere trilogy. It’s interesting to me that in the 57 million revisions it’s gone through since then (including at least one almost total rewrite and several partial rewrites), the opening line and most of the prologue haven’t changed. I think that’s because when Guinevere came to me, she told me exactly how the series was to be set up, in words that resonate with meaning even over time.

I’m planning to recount the tale of how the book came to be in the author’s notes of the first novel, but wanted to share it with you here first. (Chances are good this is a longer version than what will end up in the notes, anyway.)

Guinevere came into my head in September 1999, when I was a junior in college. I had read Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon the winter before and, really disliking her portrayal of Guinevere, sought out other books that portrayed her as a main character. I read Parke Godwin’s Beloved Exile, which deals with her life after Arthur’s death. Though I didn’t think this storyline probable, it got me wondering happened to Guinevere before and after her life with Arthur – usually you only read about the stuff in between.

Priestess

I can still remember the moment Guinevere first took up residence in my head. I was sitting in a quiet stone walkway on an otherwise unremarkable morning of the fall semester when she told me she had a story to tell, one different from anything anyone else has said. It was in that moment we struck a bargain and I decided to write my own version. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. This never really was my story; it’s always been Guinevere’s. She’s been calling the shots from the very first word.

Her basic command was this: Her reputation has been ruined by generations of storytellers who have reduced her to a wanton temptress, taking away her agency as a woman and a queen. My duty was to restore her to her former glory. (No pressure.) But it’s a challenge I happily accepted.

I thought it was only going to be one book. I outlined it that way, with three parts. But by the time I got to the end of the first “part,” I realized it was as long as an average novel. That was my wakeup call – the moment I realized this could be something real, something more than a hobby. I started researching publishing, querying, and started this blog. The rest, as they say, is history.

Lover

So many years later, with two of the books finished (at least until an editor gets a hold of them) and the third with a solid first draft complete, it’s hard to believe it all started out so simply. I guess most dreams do.

While I still can’t share the book with you, I can promise that you will see it eventually. It may be later than we all desire, and may come about in a way that no one expects, but it will happen. All I ask is that you hang in there with me, or should I say, us. Guinevere is still here and she’s just as adamant that her story be told today as she was 15 years ago. It’s a story the world needs to hear.

What are you most interested in reading about when the Guinevere books finally are published?

September 11, 2014Everything else

Finding Hope in Tragedy

Nicole Evelina

My September posting at Spellbound Scribes.

September 8, 2014Everything else

Researching Historical Fiction: Dark Ages vs. Victorian America

Nicole Evelina 4 Comments

Image from http://juanydavidadoratrices.weebly.com/history.html

I’m in the middle of Mount Researchmore again (this time for a histfic I hope to have ready to sell by spring). This is my first one that’s near to modern history (set in the mid-late 1800s in the U.S.) and I’m noticing what a different experience it is to be researching history that would have been in living memory of my great-grandmother (too bad I didn’t know her).

I got my start researching British Celtic history and myth around the years 400-550 AD for my Guinevere series. There really isn’t a lot of history for that time. We have some archaeological evidence, a few written records that may or may not be accurate, and mythology to rely on. That’s about it. The rest of my research came from traditional sources of Arthurian legend and modern theories, which no matter how good they are, are at their best still educated guesses. Which is all a fancy way of saying I had to make up a lot.

Contrast that with the new book I’m researching, for which I have a biography (fanciful as it is) written during the main character’s life, a biography (vengeful as it is) written after her death by a woman with a grudge and around eight or so modern biographies. Plus, this woman was a sensation for her time, so there are countless newspaper clippings, records of trials she was involved in, plus her own writings and speeches. So there is no dearth of material here. I’m just shocked that she’s been all but written out of the history books (the reasons for that are interesting and I intend to talk about them here once I can reveal who I’m writing about.)

Writers have an instinctual connection to our characters; we somehow know them – their motivations, their tendencies, their proclivities – as soon as they become real for us. (Maybe it’s because they live in our heads and become part of us.) But to get to know a character through her own words is an incredible thing, so much more satisfying, both for me as a writer, and I strongly believe, for her as a person who wishes to have her story told. (I’m a big believer that characters chose their writers.) Getting to add to that the perceptions of those who knew her and those who tried to sensationalize or vilify her brings her to life all the more. Plus, this time there are actual photos of all the people involved. (Yes, I’m still playing casting director and matching actors to the actual people.) In many ways, this feels more like I’m really bringing history to life, even though my Celtic stories are just as much history as this tale of Victorian America.

So far I feel like this book is almost plotting itself as her life was crazier than any soap opera I could create.In fact, I could easily write a trilogy on her, but I’m choosing to focus on the apex of her career, leaving her early days as back story and her later life to those who want to research it. As I’m researching, I’m thinking “yes, that’s a definite scene” or “I have to make sure to include this.” I think once I type up my notes into a sort of “bible” on her life, I’ll ready to write. That’s not to say I won’t have to use my imagination to fill in the blanks, but knowing I can use her actual words, actions and bring to life the places she really inhabited is such a gratifying feeling.

My heart is still most in ancient history (I have no idea why – maybe it’s because it feels like magic was real back then), but I can see possibly finding the more modern stuff easier to write. I’ll be curious to see how I feel once I complete my two more modern tales. (I actually have a third idea in mind, but that one may wait a bit.)

I always thought I was only going to cover ancient history, but I’m finding that modernity holds just as many mysteries, just as many heroines that may otherwise be muted by the passage of time. I’ve always seen my role as a historical fiction writer to rescue people from being lost to history by telling their stories and now I know there are many, many more centuries of endangered stories out there to tell than I previously thought. Well, I won’t be bored!

What do you prefer in your historical fiction – when the writer has to use more imagination or when events are drawn from well-documented history? Why? If you’re a history buff, what do you prefer to study, the mysterious parts of history or what is better known? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

September 7, 2014Books, Giveaways

Book Giveaway Winners

Nicole Evelinagiveaway, winners 3 Comments

giveaway-winners Thank you so much to everyone who entered and/or promoted by 35th birthday book giveaway contest. And thank you for the birthday wishes. You are all wonderful!

I used rafflecopter to pick the winners and here they are (Each of you got your first choice. I’m so glad it worked out that way!):

Emma (Words and Peace) won Group 5 (the second historical fiction pack)
Susan won Group 6 (the third historical fiction pack)
Lyra won Group 1 (the fantasy pack)
Nikola won Group 4 (the first historical fiction pack)
Christina won Group 3 (the chick lit/romance pack)
Petra won Group 2 (the mystery pack)
Dominka won Group 7 (the non-fiction pack)

Thank you all again for entering. I’ll be contacting you shortly about shipping. And even if you didn’t win, stay tuned because you never know when I’ll decide to give away something else. (I’ve already got another one in mind when a future book of mine comes out…)