In the midst of all the anthology announcements yesterday, I forgot to mention I have an article up at Medievalists.net. Please enjoy “Y Gododdin, the Votadini and Arthurian Legend.”
Tag Archives: articles
New Historical Novel Society Article
Just popping in to say that I have a new article up in the Historical Novel Society website:
Joanna Goodman’s Home for Unwanted Girls Exposes Human Rights Abuses in 1950s Canada
I’ll warn you that this book is a tough read, but an important one. I had no idea anything like this ever happened and it is something everyone should know about. You can probably tell I’m in research mode from the type of article it is. I love learning new things, even when they make me mad and sad like this did.
If you ever want to see other articles, here’s my full archive.
I’m in the July/August Issue of Ind’tale Magazine
Just wanted to let everyone know I’m all over the July/August issue of Ind’tale Magazine.
- I have an article on how to do your own writing retreat. (p. 38-40)
- Daughter of Destiny (p. 132) and Been Searching for You‘s (p. 133) audiobooks are reviewed.
- I have an ad in there as well. (p. 41)
Happy reading!
Huffington Post Article on the Women of Camelot
I’ve known for months that when Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie came out (as it does tomorrow in the US) I wanted to share some of the many books that have been written about Arthurian women. What I didn’t expect is to go on about the lack of movies about female Arthurian characters. Well, I’ve done both in this article in the Huffington Post! Happy reading! (And I hope you find another book you’d like to add to your list!)
Another Huffington Post Article & Some Updates
I have another article in The Huffington Post today. This one is called “Writing a Tame Romance in The Age of 50 Shades” and it’s about why I decided to make Been Searching for You a sweet romance vs. the traditional steamy. (The formatting is crazy; totally not what the preview looked like when I submitted it. I have no idea what they did to it!)
Also, I’ve been doing some updates to the site. The book club questions for Been Searching for You are finally up, as are deleted scenes and IfList casting for Camelot’s Queen and Been Searching for You. Oh and the iTunes link for the audio book of Been Searching for You is up, too.
Guinevere on the Home Page of Huffington Post Books!
I am so proud to be able to say my article Why Guinevere Matters Now, is on the homepage of Huffington Post Books today! It’s the top story on the upper left.
As you can probably tell from the title of the article, my aim is to show why the character of Guinevere is relevant to a modern audience, especially women, and how looking at her story from a new perspective (as I do in my book) provides context to enable her to stand side by side with her famous husband, rather than in the shadow of scandal.
I’m going to go pet my computer screen now…
Publishing Updates and More Contest Awards
As you can imagine things are progressing fast and furious on the publishing front. I’ve filed papers for my imprint and hired a cover artist, as well as a map illustrator. The map should be ready in a few weeks. I should see a first cover design for Daughter of Destiny at the end of October. That means a cover reveal will probably happen in early- to mid-November. I should be able to put the book up for pre-sale around the beginning of November as well.
I’m also delighted to announce that Been Searching For You (formerly He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not), won the Golden Rose contest in the Contemporary Single Title category (sponsored by the Portland chapter of RWA).
It is also a finalist in the Molly contest (sponsored by the Heart of Denver chapter of RWA) in the Contemporary Single Title category. Placement will be announced in October.
In case you’re interested, I also have two new articles up:
- Historical Honey – Vowesses: The Medieval Vocation You’ve Probably Never Heard of
- Historical Novel Society – Alex Rosenberg’s The Girl from Krakow Highlights World War II Secrets and Lies
I think that’s it for now. Will keep you updated.
A Few Quick Updates
A few quick updates for all of you this morning:
- My Historical Novel Society article about the roles available to women in Tudor England is up: City of Ladies by Sarah Kennedy Prompts Look at Women’s Roles in Tudor England. The story behind this article is that I was asked to read Sarah Kennedy’s City of Ladies (which I loved; waiting for Historical Honey to post my review and then will link to it) and then I was to write an article based on a theme in the book.
- I’ll be attending the Historical Novel Society conference in Denver June 26-28, 2015. Be sure to say hi if you’re there.
- I’m 15,000 words into the new book.
That’s all for now. Real blog post tomorrow.
R is for Resources and Recommendations
I don’t usually post roundups of links, but I’ve been finding a lot of really interesting and informative stuff lately on the web, so I thought I’d share. To me, that’s one of the coolest things about the blogging community – you find people of like mind and, through them, resources you’d never be able to dig up on your own. So thank you to everyone who has helped me so far. I’ll try to give credit where I can remember where I got this information from. (Those who follow me on Twitter may have seen some of these links already.)
Resources
ORBIS The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World (via Lora Geneva) – Ever wonder how long it would have taken to get from place to place in the Roman world? Or how much of a factor the time of year is? Well, look no further than this amazing system that lets you pick your departure location, destination, route, mode of transportation and time of year. I’ve found the results on par with the mathematical formula recommended by Leslie Alcock and this is so much more fun!
Creating Better Fantasy World Maps – This is for all my fantasy writing friends out there. I’ve hand drawn my own fantasy maps in the past (which is actually kind of fun, even when you are artistically challenged like me), but from the examples given, this software makes maps look so much more sophisticated. If a later version of this exists when I write a fantasy in the future, you can bet I’ll be using it.
Articles/Blog Posts
Random House Explains What Publishers Do – The PR pro in me says Random House’s PR department did a great job with this video because the writer in me actually thought, “wow, I hope I get picked up by Random House someday,” when I finished watching this. My professional issues aside, it’s an interesting look inside the publishing world, especially for those of us not under contract yet.
Story Lessons from Pixar (via Lora Geneva) – Some great tips. You never know where that perfect bit of advice may come from.
What if Grammarians Had Their Own Magazine? – This is just funny.
12 Ways to Research a Historical Novel (via Historical Fiction Daily) – Some of these may be obvious, but a reminder never hurts.
Books
Food in Roman Britain by Joan Alcock – You’d be surprised how much is known about what the Celts and Romans in Britain ate and where it came from. Amazing amount of detail in this book.
Daily Life of the Pagan Celts by Joan Alcock – How have I written 1.5 books without this resource? Seriously.
Celtic Daily Life by Victor Walkley – I haven’t actually started this one yet. That’s what I’m going to do after I hit “publish” on this post. But it looks very promising.
And if you want an odd take on Arthurian legend that places Arthur, Avalon and whole kit and caboodle in Lothian, northwest England (now Scotland), try Land of the Gods by Philip Coppens. I can’t say I agree with his theories, but I did learn a lot about Traprian Law and Caledon Wood (two locations in my second book).
What articles, blogs, books, etc. have you found useful lately? Do you like these roundups? Would you like to see them more often?