COMING SOON!!

While I am a sorry excuse for a blogger, this time I have at least an excuse! …sort of.

An idea has been formulating in my mind since about October, and the last several weeks I’ve been preparing it for public consumption.

No, it’s not a cook book, fortunately for you all.

I’ve been working closely with a remarkable young lady for the last month or so, and with her help — and the help of a few close friends — we’ve decided to create a blog.

Whoop-dee-doo, you might say. You already have a blog. So what?

The what, my dear sceptic, is that this isn’t going to be my blog. This blog is going to belong to Storm Rose Bennett-Clark, a seventeen-year-old future journalist, yogurt-fanatic, and heavy tea-drinker. And it’s going to be awesome. Storm is writing all the content, but I’ll be helping her out with web designs, tech support, and promoting. Really, it’s her blog, but it is my deepest wish that you all join her on her blogging journey as you have joined me this last year.

I can’t give too much away just yet, but Storm will blog about personal aspects of her life, what it’s like to be the granddaughter of four 1960s hippies, and things she’s interested in (i.e., tea, writing, crafting, garden gnomes, witty musings, old books, and societal issues). She will be sharing some of her favourite recipes, organic versions, and debating with her twin brother Mica and best friend Hanna. Mica and Hanna don’t really know about this yet, but Storm has all confidence that they’ll be on board once she brings them in on the know.

Storm, aside from having the blog, will have a Facebook page and, eventually, a Twitter account. We agreed that it would be amazing and fantastic if we managed to get a vlog (video blog) up and running for her, but right now we’re trying to focus just on the blog.

We’re just trying to nail a few things down before we launch the blog on Tuesday, March 11. Until then, enjoy and share these cute little promo pics we cooked up! Feel free to post them on your own blog, Facebook page, Twitter, whatnot. Storm wants as many people, especially young women, to be a part of this experience as possible, so spread the word! Of course, she’ll gladly do a ‘promo for promo!’ Your support will be paid in kind.

Her Facebook is already up and running SO MAKE SURE YOU LIKE IT.

Shameless promotion. I won’t apologize.

By the way, Happy International Women’s Day!

 

10 (rather outrageous) New Year’s Resolutions

Every year millions of people begin the New Year with a list of things they would like to accomplish. Lose a little weight. Go rock climbing. Write a book. We all know what it’s like to have a firm grip on your post-Christmas feasting resolution. And we all know what it’s like to lose interest or motivation by the time February or March rolls around.

fireworks!

On the doorstep between 2012 and 2013 (hey, we all survived the apocalypse!), on behalf of people everywhere, I’m going to take a moment to look at some rather outrageous resolutions we as a species stubbornly dream of (and some of them are just my dreams). Because I know I’ll likely never complete them, this year I’m making the list a little longer and a little more ridiculous. So sit back with some chocolate (and we all know how much I believe in the healing power of chocolate) and enjoy the post.

1. Read the entire Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin.

I was pleased to receive the first four books in the popular fantasy series for Christmas, and a little dismayed at the size of them. I’m a quick reader, but I like reading things quickly so I can move onto the next one. You can’t read these damn things quickly. You just can’t. I began Game of Thrones on Christmas Day, and only finished it yesterday. And once the holidays are over my reading speed will melt into something of a turtle pace. It very well might take all year to finish reading them. And Martin’s not even done writing the bloody things, is he?

Let’s look at the bright side, shall we? 1000 pages down, 4000 more to go!

2. Write a book, sell the rights, and watch it become another disturbing cinematic teen fettish.

Is there really anymore to say here? You all know it’s true. As likely as me suddenly having a stunning singing voice, perhaps, but true.

3. Become the godmother of Will and Kate’s baby.

I have no actual plan here. It’s just something I would like to happen.

4. Meet Prince Charming, fall in love, get married, and move to a historic castle in the Scottish highlands where I can write novels until I run out of ideas.

I even have the castle picked out. It comes complete with an antique library, stables, and secret passageways to other realms. There’s a particular wardrobe I would like to try, one full of old fur coats. It looks promising, in my opinion.

5. Install floor-to-ceiling bookshelves throughout the house and fill them with books.

Fantasy, historical, science fiction, poetry, classics, plays, biographies, original historic texts, signed special editions, the tea bags that JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter on… Ahh, wouldn’t it be beautiful? With antique side tables stacked with my favourites, and centuries-old paintings of poets and historical figures on the walls, and overstuffed armchairs by the hearth, and a butler to bring me tea with honey while I’m in the midst of battling dragons and crying over the deaths of my friends. Yes, yes, I can see it now. So beautiful!

6. Enter a jalapeno-eating contest.

No, nevermind. I didn’t quite think that through. Becoming a fire-breathing dragon was never in my plans, only meeting one.

7. Finally discover if the fridge light is off when the door is closed.

Or maybe how they get the little people inside the TV. Either one.

8. I’m gonna lose 15 pounds!

What do you mean I have to give up chocolate? I thought your commercial said I didn’t have to change my diet. No, no thank you. I’ll stick with my chocolate. At least it loves me for who I am and not what I look like — unlike some people, Weight-Loss-Company-Who-Lied-About-Not-Having-To-Change-My-Diet, I’m looking at you.

9. Sky-diving.

On second thought, I’d rather live to see 2014, thank you very much. There’s nothing wrong with sitting in planes to get to the UK rather than jumping out of them.

10. Blog more.

Yes, yes, that’s why it’s on my “rather outrageous list”, not my actual one.

 ~*~

Do you have any outrageous (or not) resolutions for 2013? All the best this New Year to you and yours!  

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.

J.K. Rowling: the dictator she could be

Dan Radcliffe [on the last Harry Potter premiere]: …there is this one moment where I looked over one side and there these hundreds… this sort of tumult of people just surging forward… and all drenched.  And if there’s ever been a moment where I could have absolutely just formed a dictatorship…  I could have just said, “We’ll march on the palace!”  (Rowling: Exactly right!) And they all would have joined me at that moment.

Jo Rowling: But, yeah, you get these moments where you think, “Right! Rise Harry Potter fans! Let us march!”  (laughs)  And you think some of them would.  It’s lucky that I don’t have any of those dictatorial impulses, no. [¹]

The moment they could have declared Rowling’s dictatorship.

Odds are you’ve heard of J.K. Rowling’s brainchild, the bespectacled wizard-boy Harry Potter. If you haven’t, quietly turn around and hope no one tries to hex you on the way out.

Since the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997 and its subsequent six installments, Harry Potter has become a household name. At each release of the next novel, its sales broke the previous record: the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sold over eight million copies on the day it was released in the U.S. [²]

Over the past fifteen years, J.K. Rowling has become one of the most recognizable names on the planet. Forbes ranked her as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007; she was also the runner-up for Time magazine’s 2007 Person of the Year and named in October 2010 The Most Influential Woman in Britain. [³] Her website summarizes her numerous high-ranking awards:

As well as an OBE for services to children’s literature, J.K. Rowling is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, and she has been a Commencement Speaker at Harvard University USA. She supports a wide number of charitable causes through her charitable trust Volant, and is the founder of Lumos, a charity working to transform the lives of disadvantaged children. [†] 

Never could a writer hope for more success than that. But the Potter-craze did not end.

Eight highly fruitful films by Warner Bros. allowed Potterheads eight times where it was acceptable to dress up as a wizard in public while it wasn’t Halloween. Rowling was rich and powerful enough by the last film installment to stay on as a producer. Her boy Harry and his friends have, well, created such a fanbase that you ought not to walk in there alone, and never lay a word against Mr. Potter. You will never return.

Facebook is where “Potterheads” most abundantly thrive, with ajoining Tumblr, Twitter, and podcast acounts. The book series page has nearly 30 000 000  ’likes’ and the movie series page has nearly 50 000 000. There are hundreds of pages with names depicting characters, quotes, ‘ship’ pairings* (characters that should have ended up together but didn’t), and even worshipping titles. The latter, and most disturbing, include Harry Potter is my oxygen, JK Rowling made my life magical, If i die today, tell J.K Rowling i love her, J.K Rowling Is Our Queen, Harry Potter is my life, and I Cried when the Harry Potter Series Came to an End.

The magical sport of Quidditch has taken flight with the inception of the International Quidditch Association in 2005. Since, there have been five world cups, over 700 teams all over the world, and a four-team tournament in Oxford, England as part of a pre-Olympic demo. Countless injuries, a radio station, podcasts, TV spotlights, celebrity support, and insane amounts of dedication are given from high school and college students all over the world to the sport their friend Harry played during his own school years. [‡]

There are a plethora of wizarding recipes online for Butterbeer, Firewhiskey, Cauldron Cakes, Nosebleed Nougat, and Fever Fudge. Craft instructions for Sorting Hats, broomsticks, potions ingredients, robes, and even pet owls are spread over the Internet.

Kids, teens, and young adults have sorted themselves into one of four Hogwarts Houses: Gryffindor (the brave), Slytherin (the cunning), Ravenclaw (the wise), and Hufflepuff (the loyal). They’ve taken quizzes to figure out what length, wood, and core their wand would be made of or which Harry Potter boy/girl they would be best matched with. Harry Potter themed parties, proms, probably even weddings have been held in the name of Rowling, and parodies abound, most famously A Very Potter Musical and its sequels. The music movement has risen, with bands such as ‘Harry and the Potters’ and ‘Olliver Boyd and the Remembralls’ making guest performances at Quidditch and Potter conventions across the globe.

The recent birth of Pottermore, written by Rowling herself, an interactive, online way of reading the books (along with being sorted into a house, buying school supplies, earning house points, dueling, and making potions) has only again spiked the interest of Potterheads.

A slightly creepy phenomenon has occurred online, where instead of people saying ‘OMG’ they type ‘OMR,’ replacing God’s name with Rowling’s.

So while newspapers and magazines ramble on about how Harry Potter has gotten kids to read, they’ve also sparked some pretty deep and obsessive behaviour. While I know that many of these super-fans are perfectly functional without their Potter fix and are likely exaggerating for the Internet’s sake, J.K. Rowling’s impact on society has reached far further than anyone expected.

As one of the most successful authors of all time (still earning the 11th spot on Forbes’ Top-Earning Authors list, despite not having published since 2008 [Δ] ), Rowling is one of those fantasy-esque stories that makes readers and writers of all ages think about the possibilities they could achieve. Best-selling books, top-earning movies, a theme park, rabid fans…

I would never want to be J.K. Rowling, nor have the immense fan base and aura of celebrity that she has. Harry is, essentially, no longer hers. She as no control over him anymore. He’s been taken into the hands of hungry readers and moulded by them daily; fanfiction and fanart runs amok, twisting the story to their own likening and changing the characters she created. Worshippers would be frightening.

Who would want that?

All hail the queen!

Rowling, sitting on her throne of literary success, is powerless, and probably would have been better off choosing to lead the dictatorship. Because now she has followers, but without her guidance (through blogging or more Potter books) her own people are running wild with her creation, leaving her with nothing but massive amounts of money, numerous awards, and a castle she can’t leave without a personal guard… I guess that’s not so bad, depending on how you look at it.

Would you want to be this successful? Do you pity Rowling, or envy her, or both?

From bulldozing to interior decorating: beta readers are your friend

Having a dozen or so characters hollering over each other at the top of their lungs, can, believe or not (of course you believe me!), be a wee bit disconcerting.

Not to mention confusing, perplexing, irritating, and noisy.

There are main characters voicing their own opinions on how their story should go, would-be lovers screeching that they don’t belong together, evil doers shouting at the awful plans I make them complete, and drunk soldiers (who happen to be brothers) trying to hit on me.

Loving and knowing them while maintaining sanity is the easy part.

Turning their life into a story is something entirely different.

Basically, after I wrote my first draft and let it sit for a couple months I demolished the whole thing. Rented a bulldozer, destroyed it, then set the ruins on the fire and scattered the ashes into the gaping opening of an active volcano. I’m waiting for it to erupt any day now so I can sweep up those ashes and dispose of them in an underwater cave, which I will then blow up with dynamite.

I can’t start rebuilding right away. Planning, measurements, and permits are needed before construction can begin. Instead, I’m planning on the interior decorating, the types of flowers that will sit in the flower vases on the coffee table in my library. You can’t build a house that way, and you certainly shouldn’t be trying to write a book that way.

It’s good to have an image in your head of what the details are going to be, but focus on the overall structure and safety first.

So I need to stop focusing on the personal lives of my characters, step back, and look at the bigger picture. It doesn’t matter if it’s gorgeously painted and adorned on the inside if the outside is a crooked, leaky, lopsided mess.

Setting aside the decorating utensils is hard, but finding the bigger purpose requires more immediate attention. Make sure the walls are straight and the angles square.

At times like this it’s good to have a second brain. Or even a third one. Odds are that someone — a relative or friend — is reading the nasty, raw, unedited gibberish that your fingers are hammering out. They are the unfortunate beta testers that dominate your physical world (the non-physical one being dominated by dragons, sorcerers, and such).

You must pick their brain. Ask opinions, point out your own weaknesses, and wonder aloud how they might be fixable. It helps if they’re an aspiring writer as well as reader. Just rambling on about plot and character relationships might assist in de-tangling of tangled thoughts, and the other person can jump in with a “What if…” or “It would be cool if…”

Ifs are your friend. Ifs make the day brighter, the night less hazy, the marshes less boggy.

I’m fortunate enough to have two extra brains to pick, to muse with. I recently spent the majority of a day with one of my beta readers, swapping ideas and wonderments about the other’s work-in-progress. It was insightful, productive, and I can now set aside the cloth I had been saving for curtain colour-choosing.

My two  beta readers are very different. One is an avid fantasy-reader, dreamer, writer, and tree-lover. Like me. When we brainstorm together everything seems more fantastical, and my story, which began more of a historical fiction rather than fantasy, takes a lean towards the magical side of life.

Bubbly now that I have a loose purpose, I confront the my other beta reader with the developments to the plot. She reads fantasy, but it’s not her favourite genre, and she is stubbornly hoping that I can rebuild with the remnants of that blown-up underwater cave. She disagrees with the new structure but acknowledges her bias and ascents that it is, after all, my story.

So I take both readers’ offerings into account, with my own preference (of course) within clear sight. Essentially I’m writing this story for me and no one else, but I love hearing feedback from my b-readers, I love debating with them on aspects of this world, the needs and wants of the population, the secret motives of characters, and the overall flavour of the story.

The foundation has been re-laid, and construction can finally begin.

This isn’t 100% accurate…Or maybe it is. It might change my structure, in which you’ll  probably just be a nameless soldier who is slaughtered. No worries on your part, then.

Launch of ‘Interviews with Indie Authors’ by Claire & Tim Ridgway

With interviews from 34 of the hottest names in self-publishing, “Interviews with Indie Authors” contains a unique view into the world of the indie writer. Each bestselling author shares how they ensure their books are a hit, and what led them to indie publishing in the first place. You will also find out what they think the future of indie publishing will bring. Their first hand experience is invaluable for anyone planning to succeed with their own books.

That is a blurb from the website for Claire and Tim Ridgway’s new book, Interviews with Indie Authors: Top Tips from Successful Self-Published Authors. When  Claire, perhaps best known as the creator of The Anne Boleyn Files, self-published her first book The Anne Boleyn Collection (which sold over 1 000 copies in 3 weeks!) in February 2012, I was honoured to be the second stop of her virtual book tour. Her second book, The Fall of Anne Boleyn: a Countdown is on my urgent to-be-read list. Both soon hit the bestseller lists and she quickly found her way to the top 100 Indie Authors list. 

With her husband Tim, they were inspired by Claire’s own self-publishing journey to create Interviews with Indie Authors: Top Tips from Successful Self-Published Authors. Thirty-four of the most successful self-published authors of all genres shared their stories with Claire and Tim, giving their thoughts on indie publishing and its future, and what brought them to self-publishing in the first place. They’re also having a competition to celebrate the launch, and 50% of royalties from the book are going to charity.

Because I know some you are indie authors or aspiring authors, as well as avid readers, I thought this might be of interest. Self-publishing might be in the future for me someday, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth in this book. Congratulations, Claire and Tim!

Matthew Shardlake: a Lawyer You’ll Love

I stumbled across C.J. Sansom’s Tudor mystery novels quite by accident. Books 2, 3, and 4 were sitting innocently on the shelf of the cottage I was staying at in Prince Edward Island last week — and suddenly I was whiling away my spare time reading (reading is what vacation is for, isn’t it?). Over the week I chomped my way through Dark Fire and most of Sovereign, both of which are 500+ pages.

I was delighted with the concept of the novels (I hadn’t heard of them before,

Book 4, Revelation

though the reason escapes me). Most of the historical fiction I’ve read — which frankly isn’t much to brag about. I generally try to avoid it unless it has a good rep — directly concerned one or more of Henry VIII’s wives. It was all glitz and glam, gorgeous dresses and unrequited love, and the occasional beheading of a queen.

Not the Shardlake novels, no sir. They take the romanticist’s idea of Tudor London, turn it on its head, and grind it into a pile of horse manure. They’re gritty, grimy, but in a delightful way. They take the reader down to the poorest of London’s beggars, the filth lining the streets, the monster Henry became in his older years…It’s disgusting, but extremely real and utterly believable. 

The real star is not the realism, however. It’s poor Matthew Shardlake, the hunchback lawyer of Lincoln Inn. While I haven’t read the first of the series, Dissolution, (on my to-read list) what I have read about Shardlake endears me to him. He’s not a young, pompous lover of adventure; he’s middle-aged, has suffered a life time of mockery, and only has a desperate wish to live a quiet life in court.

But C.J. Sansom has him chasing crazed serial killers, being tortured, facing rejection from the few women he dared to hope for, killing villains, and doing all he can to make his protagonist lose his faith, his physical well-being, and (seemingly) his mind. This might make Shardlake seem like a hard rock of a man, but he’s a gentle soul, unsure of himself, high in his morals, and rightly wary of the deadly politics of Henry VIII’s dangerous court.

And what’s a detective without his side kick? Enter Jack Barak. We first meet him in Book 2, Dark Fire, when his master Cromwell forces him to assist Shardlake in finding a rare weapon of mass destruction. The two clash at first, for Barak is rough and ill-mannered, but in such a way that he immediately became my favourite character. By the time they close the case, Cromwell has fallen from favour — headless – and Barak agrees to stay on as Shardlake’s clerk. Their rather strange friendship is perhaps the greatest theme over the novels.

For some reason or another, I pictured Barak as Madmartigan (Val Kilmer)

Jack Barak, is that you? (via amazon.com)

  from the 1988 movie Willow. Devilishly handsome and rough all over, but with a good heart, Jack Barak easily made up for slow pieces of the Dark Fire and Sovereign, and I felt fondly frustrated at his prideful refusal to patch up his problems with his spirited wife Tamasin in Revelation. Their love story in Sovereign was a subplot, but a golden one.

I’m of the opinion that these books aren’t for everyone. They deal quite heavily with the religious changes of the day (the power ping-ponging back and forth between conservatives and radicals) and have characters that might require background knowledge on to completely comprehend or appreciate. Little scenes are also thrown in, seemingly for my own pleasure, such as an episode in Sovereign where the Lady Rochford is demanding the keys for another exit for Queen Catherine Howard in case there would ever be a fire. This scene does play a larger role later, but if you don’t know your history this might seem like an annoying distraction from the person Shardlake is actually trying to find.

Aside from the limiting of target audience, there were a dreadful number of editing errors, mainly in Sovereign, that caught my attention. Missing periods, commas, quotation marks… This isn’t unusual, but there was a sentence where a British ‘pound’ sign was plopped in the middle of a word. Also, the author changed Archbishop Cranmer’s eye colour between books. Oops! Despite these errors, my interest in the plot was not hindered, though I’m sure others might find it infuriating and impossible to read.

If you’re a Tudor junkie, like me, then the other thing you’ll notice is the names. You know as well as I how common names were. Look at how many Thomases there were (Wyatt, Cranmer, Cromwell, Wolsey, Seymour…you get my point). In the Shardlake novels there is scarce a repeat name, aside from the ones the author couldn’t change (Cromwell, Cranmer, Seymour). Only one Joan, one Ellen, one Margaret, one Dorothy, one Abigail. I see what the author was trying to do, but for me it was a little obvious — especially as I doubt Tamasin is a Tudor name — and sucked a smidgen of the realism away.

Out of the three books I’ve read over the last two weeks, I don’t think I could choose a favourite. Dark Fire was gruesome with a sick-minded killer, which held intrigue for me, but was thick and slow in parts. Sovereign was lacking a sadistic flare, but Shardlake can only take so much, right? I enjoyed a slightly more domestic flavour as Barak meets the flighty and wilful Tamasin and Shardlake begins his friendship with the elderly Master Wrenne. Revelation was definitely eery, but it was only until page 486 that I began to panic because I had no idea who the killer was and what he might do next. All three books each had similar plots — a murderer on the loose, a client of Shardlake’s that had to do with a mental illness, and an order from a high-standing Tudor figure.

So you see how Shardlake has wormed his way into my heart. I think part of it is the fact that he’s not a good-looking twentysomething with a love interest. He’s a minority with an interest in law and an awful habit of becoming mixed with dangerous court politics (despite his pleas at the end of each novel to live a quiet life).

I need to get my hands on Book 1 and 5 (Dissolution and Heartstone) now…

Happy reading!

How Important are Fantasy Names?

As I begin planning out my major revision for my fantasy-esque novel, I’m being forced to crack down on my characters, and their names. I blogged once before on naming characters, and it looks like I’m going to have to follow my own advice.

The issue I’m having is that my story takes place in a fantasy world (or rather, post-fantasy, since no one has seen or heard of anything magical for over 500 years). Do I give my characters fantasy names?

I would live here! (via Harper Collins Canada Facebook Page)

Right now I feel like I’m an even half-and-half. Half of them bear either unusual or made-up names (Ilex, Tamsin, and Pharecles), while the others have fairly common names (Tristan, Teddy, and Derrin).

Books like Lord of the Rings, Graceling, and Eragon consist mainly of ‘fantasy’ names (Frodo, Raffin, and Ajihad), but do they take away from the story? My mother, to whom I recommended the Eragon books, couldn’t get past the first chapter, and handed it back over with complaints that the complex pronunciation of character and place names took away from the story. I can see her point, but the flipside is that it authenticates this new, alien, and unknown world. You can’t create a novel about a dragon rider called Kevin (which was what Christopher Paolini originally called Eragon in his earliest drafts), no matter how great a name Kevin is.

I thought it’d be great to have your extremely educated and valued opinions on this matter. Which of the following applies to you when you’re reading a fantasy-esque novel?

A) Fantasy names authenticate the reading experience — the stranger the better!

B) I enjoy fantasy names as long as they are easy to pronounce.

C) It doesn’t matter — all that matters is that the characters are memorable.

D) Other. Please elaborate.

~

Also remember that tonight the Queen will  be declaring the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games officially open! I’ll be watching events over the Games, with my pen poised, ready to snatch up any interesting athlete names!

No. 1 Hotspot for History Junkies

“I’m something of an antiquarian,” says Matthew Shardlake of C.J. Sansom’s Shardlake Tudor-era mystery novels (which I will review once I’ve finished Book 4).

If you’re of the same human variety as myself, then you must experience the same symptoms. They include, but are not limited to:

• increased heart rate at the smell of old books (though this could just mean you like treasures)
• increased awareness of balance, should you trip over your own feet and smash into a shelf of vintage Coke bottles
• asking your host how old a piece of furniture is before sitting on it
• crying when you’re told a neighbour has thrown away an old item (even if everyone insists it was junk)
• sneaking around the neighbourhood on garbage day, looking for old coffee tables, books, and maybe a hat box that might be sitting, ownerless, on the curb
• hauling your family members into the woods because you found a dump from the fifties — nevermind broken glass and lead toys; you might find something good!
•  the impulse to pull out the pair of cotton gloves you always carry with you when you approach a book published before the sixties

Well, I’m not the one looking though dumps in the middle of the woods, but I love old things. Mainly books and accessories (especially hats!), but I enjoy a nice old 7Up bottle and worn rocking chair once in a while.

So, it may not come as a surprise to you when I say that I’m slightly addicted to antique stores. Not only for the great opportunity to pick up some of Shakespeare’s plays and maybe find an older edition of Pride and Prejudice, but antique stores are full of royal history.

Newspapers and magazines are, generally, slapped hastily against a china dish or stacked sloppily behind a vase. You must search for them. They usually date from the time of Diana’s ‘wedding of the century’ and its aftermath, but I did once come across a number of papers covering the Queen’s 1959 tour of Canada (I regret not buying it now). 

While in Prince Edward Island last week (the reason for my lack of blogging), I had the opportunity to visit about half a dozen antique shops. Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, and the Bronte sisters adorned the shelves in both new and old editions of their classics. I also foundered across magazines featuring pre-married and married Princess Di, and in one of them, was startled to find a handsome four-page article on our very own Anne Boleyn (wife No.2 of Henry VIII, and easily the most controversial).

I thought it was interesting that Anne Boleyn should be featured in the same gossip magazine as Diana, who is said to be a direct descendant of Anne’s sister Mary (read Claire Ridgway’s guest article on Mary). All three women have been slandered, anglicized, and generally torn apart by both lovers, haters, sympathizers, and indifferent folks. The article itself appeared to be well-researched and pro-Anne, though I noticed the author went with the “Anne had four pregnancies” versus the more plausible “Anne had three pregnancies” (the letter, referencing what some believe to be a fourth child, also referenced a man who had been dead for some time, rendering it, basically, moot). 

It’s fascinating how Anne has survived the centuries and decades, and is still one of the most talked-about and debated Tudor figures. Will someone pick up Eric Ives’ account of her life in twenty, thirty, or a hundred years and be as pleasantly surprised as I was that people are still in love with this thoroughly engrossing woman?

Gosh, I love antique stores. You never know what you’re going to find! It’s like a treasure hunt, a delightful-smelling, educational, endorphin-stimulating treasure hunt! I get lost wondering the magnificent scented rooms, studying old paintings, and wishing I had more money to buy them! However, if I did buy every beautiful thing, I’d quickly have a house full of mathoms (the Hobbit word for something you have no immediate need for, but are unwilling to throw away)!!

The thing(s) I’d most like to find in an antique store are  first (or at least older) editions of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. They would be placed in a glass box on my mantle (though I’d need to build a mantle first!) and treated with utmost care and love. If you ever come across such a find, please let me know!

Sorry, but I must post and run. I need to finish that Shardlake novel (I discovered them at the cottage we borrowed in PEI, and I borrowed them from the owner. Stay tuned for my review. I’m sure it’ll be glowing!) and finish Season 3 of The Tudors!

Blonde vs. Brunette Heroines

For some undefinable reason, blondes and brunettes have been rivals for well over 500 years. Generally, blondes had the upper hand. Fairness was beautiful, a sign of purity and grace, whereas dark complexions were not favoured and darker toned women often tried re-colouring their hair. 

Isolde the Fair

Blondes dominated society and literature, and soon legend became that all heroines were of honey-coloured hair. We have Cinderella, Rapunzel, Isolde (of Tristan & Isolde), Guinevere, the Valkyries (Norse myth), and other iconic, blonde women. Tradition dictates blondes are the most gorgeous — because, ya know, they’re the only ones we know of. Yes, there are exceptions like Snow White and Jo March (one of my favourite characters of all time), but there is an image in our heads that golden locks are attached to the scalps of the girls who get the princes.

I don’t know about you, but even despite the recent amount of rather insulting blonde jokes, I still automatically picture classical women in literature with flaxen hair. Example: whilst reading Romeo & Juliet, Juliet was most definitely blonde. It was only until I watched 1968′s Romeo & Juliet that it even occurred to me that she could be anything other than fair-haired. Rosalind was brunette in my mind — and Juliet wasn’t. Huh. How brainwashed am I?

When I began the earliest drafts of brainstorming for my manuscript on the margins of grocery lists, I knew right away that my heroine was not going to be blonde. She was going to be brunette. Part of it was that I am brunette, and I love it. The more major influence for her hair colour, however, was avoiding that traditional stereotype. Having a female protagonist, blonde? Geez, cliché much, Libby? So she had brown hair. Simple. Easy. Familiar.

A friend and I discussed this yesterday. She mentioned that she made her heroine blonde to escape the stereotype of female main characters with dark hair. At first I didn’t understand what she was saying. What are you talking about? Blonde heroines are the stereotype.

But I thought about it.

In YA novels, especially in recent years, the leading woman is brunette. Hermione Granger of Harry Potter, Arya of The Inheritance Cycle, Katsa of Graceling, Katniss of The Hunger Games, Calwyn of The Singer of All Songs, Bella Swan of Twilight (I only include her to prove my point), Aislinn, Leslie, and Ani of Wicked Lovely, Bitterblue of, er, Bitterblue…Need I continue?* It’d be fascinating to ask these

Leslie, dark-haired heroine of Ink Exchange

 authors if the hair colour of these women was to avoid the blonde stereotype. If so, then it seems that in avoiding the golden stereotype, we’ve only created a new one.

 Fascinating.

And, I really have to say this (my body isn’t allowing me another choice): Anne Boleyn, while famous for her beautiful eyes and elegance, was not considered traditionally attractive by the standards of her time. Dark-haired with darker toned skin, her predecessor, Catherine of Aragon, was generally acknowledged to be more beautiful with her fair hair and blue eyes (or, more conventionally beautiful.), and her successor, Jane Seymour, was a more traditional English Rose with her almost-extreme paleness. The ways of the world are strange. The Victorians, the romanticists they were, often portrayed Anne in art as a blonde, trying to add conventional beauty to enhance her already-tragic end. There. I said it. 

Do you think, that in ten years or so, writers will be making their protagonists blonde to escape the brunette stereotype? Have you contributed to this new stereotype? Have you noticed this before?

*I realize that these are all fantasy or urban fantasy characters. As I generally only read fantasy and historical nonfiction, my variety of dark-haired ladies from other genres is lacking.

The Delicious Horrors of Dorian Gray

*WP has been formatting my blog oddly lately. Please excuse this.*

To him, as to many others, Dorian Gray was the type
of everything that is wonderful and fascinating in life.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) , the lone novel by Irish playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is certainly wonderful and fascinating. Though I’ve never really read this horrific genre before, it’s a stunning introduction to the style and I wish that Wilde had written more novels in his time.

Heading into the world of Dorian Gray — Victorian London — I expected the same sort of lengthy, dreary narration as other classical novels of that era. I didn’t expect to finish it, just as I never finished Jane Eyre or became interested in the original Sherlock Holmes stories.

I did more than finish it. I devoured it in two sittings.

The characters are marvelous. Hardly have I read a book where the protagonist is not a dashing, romantic hero with good morals. And, that’s how teenage Dorian Gray starts out, but after he accidentally links his soul to a portrait his near-worshipping friend Basil Hallward paints of him, he takes advantage of his eternal youth and descends into a secret world of corruption. Now his portrait will age and take on the visible signs of sin and corruption of his soul, while Dorian remains young, wrinkle-free, and takes with him an aura of innocence that dispels any dark rumour his peers might have heard.

Dorian’s initial horror at this revelation quickly dissipates as he realized what sort of things he can do without tarnishing his physical appearance. Both women and men idolize him, but as years pass and Dorian’s secret, twisted life create unsettling rumours, old friends stay away and new friends come seeking for a taste of the young man with the unreal beauty. Eventually, after the main events of the novel occur, Dorian realizes the monster he’s become, but has little idea how to save his soul. Drugs are not a long-term solution, but I appreciate the turn he took to blot out the memory of his awful wrongdoings. I never expected opium to pop up in a Victorian horror novel! It added to the genuine remorse and disgust the readers feels for the boy who only wanted to retain his beauty.

Lord Henry Wotton, or Harry, is the amoral and rather ridiculous man who takes Dorian under his wing, influencing him for the worst. This is the only character I have a bone to pick with. His flamboyance and long-winded speeches are wearisome, but are charming enough that I can see how Dorian looks up to him. Harry is a man of many words, but the way he manipulates them to control others irks me. He’s an amazing character, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not a person I would wish to cross paths with.

Dorian’s own influence grows he ages — and his body remains a boy of seventeen. Those around him both fear and love him, but many of the people associated in his life take a turn for the worst, adding to the temptation and scandal surrounding the boy, and heightening the interest of the reader. What sort of things did Dorian do? How did such an innocent boy at the beginning of the novel turn into such a horrific figure a few chapters later? Surely Harry was a negative impact on his protegé, but I doubt that the older man had anything to do with the darker, more twisted hobbies of Dorian.

Wilde uses his experience in poetry to paint an eloquent image of romance and scandal. While hardly scandalous by today’s standards, I can imagine the hushed, shocked gasps of Victorian readers. The thought of the imagined reactions in Wilde’s time only intensified my interest in the story, and while he doesn’t go into great detail of the actions that marked Dorian Gray’s descent into corruption, the lack of information here adds to the intrigue. It gives the reader rein to conjure what they think Dorian did that destroyed his soul. The missing pieces give the illusion that his deeds were so awful that they couldn’t be put into words, let alone print.

Adding to the fact that there are several hints at homosexual encounters — at the very least, sex appeal  and attraction between the same gender — Wilde has certainly leapt out the bounds of his time and into ours. Gasp! In today’s views, it’s hardly shocking, but it makes me want to pat Wilde on the back for making such bold literary movements.

I honestly had no idea how it was going to end. The romanticist in me idealized that Dorian would amend his ways, fall in love, and live happily ever after. Remember that I rarely read such novels as this one.

This may not be the novel for you. It focuses on the vanity, physical beauty, and selfishness of Dorian Gray, a boy who is tied to his own youth. Some might perceive his childish notions with annoyance, but I can appreciate Dorian’s mistakes as a message to cherish more beautiful things than physical appearance.  

In 2009, Dorian Gray hit theatres, with the lovely Ben Barnes as the leading role (who cares that Dorian had blond hair, anyway?) and Colin Firth as Harry. I haven’t seen the film, rated R for high sexual content and violence, and can imagine the field day the writers and directors had in filling in the holes Oscar Wilde left for the readers’ imagination. I am also aware that the movie has a slightly different element to it, with the true love that the 21st-century movie-makers can’t seem to get enough.

The story of Dorian Gray is, simply put, stunning in a dark, twisted way. This ain’t no stuffy, dry, boring Victorian novel. The words are delicious, the story intriguing, and the characters horrific and lovely. I had to resist the urge to write down every mouth-watering quote I came across — and there were lots! I heartily recommend it, and luckily for us all, you can read it online!

Are there any books that surpassed your expectations recently?