Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always trying to be warmth and light, focuses on parenting, and the unique struggles of raising a large Catholic family in the modern age. Updates on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday...and sometimes more!
Showing posts with label The Book of Helen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Book of Helen. Show all posts
Yesterday was Thursday, all day. I didn't get to cross posting Small Success. It's okay. It was a collection of SST's greatest hits, or rather, pulled quotes from past pieces. That being said, here's a link to yesterday's Small Success Thursday!
On to today's news...If you don't know it, I have an author page on Amazon. In addition to The Book of Helen, it has the other three books I've contributed to over the course of my writing career. Here's the link. I'm especially proud to be part of the Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion.
It's being released on August 29th, but you can pre-order. It is the collaboration of over 80 Catholic writers, to give you something to enjoy each day, 365 days a year. :)
In the meantime, I'm researching how to put together a book tour for The Book of Helen starting in September when it becomes available in print as opposed to e-book. It's currently on sale for 2.99 if you want to grab a late summer read, and if you do, reviews are something every author needs. It makes the Amazon algorithms happy.
I am in shock. I
just heard from my publisher, MUSE IT UP! that The Book of Helen will be out in
paperback this September.
For those who don’t know, I wrote a historical fiction about Helen of Troy at
the age of sixty-five starting over. I
tried to weave the myriad of contradictory myths about the most beautiful woman
in the world (with the face that launched 1000 ships) into a plausible narrative. In so doing, I sought to answer a few
questions that get explained away by the gods interference in most cases in the
original epic poems and plays.
1) Why did Helen leave Sparta? Those
who know the story of the golden apple, know the goddess Eris (strife), was not
invited to the wedding of Thetis and Peleus.
She left a wedding gift anyway, with the note, “To the fairest goddess.” Paris, the son of Priam and Hecuba, prince of
Troy was chosen to make the decision as to who should receive the apple, Hera,
Athena or Aphrodite.
Each of the goddesses offered gifts, Hera offered the power to rule of all of Europe
and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and the capacity to be the greatest warrior
that ever lived. Aphrodite offered the
hand and heart of the most beautiful woman in the world; Helen of Troy.
Paris chose beauty, Paris chose Aphrodite’s gift of Helen.
Married already, Aphrodite instructed her son to shoot an arrow into Helen’s
heart so she would leave with Paris.
However this version of the story renders Helen a pawn with no free will of her
own. So I tried to craft a plausible
reason for the woman with the true power of the throne (it was through Helen,
not Menelaus that the kingship came), to leave a place where she ruled, had a
daughter, and knew if she left, there would be consequences for all of Greece,
but went anyway. What would make her
leave everyone she ever knew and loved?
2) Helen arrives with Paris in Troy, but in addition to the treasures/dowry she
brings a lot of baggage; like 1000 ships stocked with armed to the teeth Greeks
from all over the Mediterranean. I could
see the Trojans waiting it out at first, but eventually as the Greeks tore up
the beaches and countryside, raiding local farms and hunting grounds, I can’t help
but think the Trojans would say, “You know, you’re really pretty but this many
in-laws is way too much. Thanks, go
home.”
I could get Paris wanting to keep her, I could understand Priam wanting to out
of honor, keep her around, but the rest of Troy would have been soured as
things got harder. So the second
question is why did the Trojans let her stay?
3) Troy is burned to the ground. (Sorry to any who haven’t
read the Iliad, Odyssey and accompanying Greek literature for the
spoilers). It’s been over ten
years. Countless lives have been
lost. If you just use the count from the
Iliad text alone, 272 men are killed (where we know their names), not to
mention the gutting of the kingdom. Yet
if you read the Odyssey, Helen and Menelaus are reconciled, everything is
peaceful and she’s returned to rule the land she left.
What made her people, or for that matter, her husband, take her back?
Whatever she had, it had to be more than skin deep.
If you can’t wait until September, it’s available as an e-book at Muse it up Publishing! I’ll even electronically
sign it for you if you click the authorgraph site on my blog. J
Hey, if you haven't "Liked" my facebook page, The Book of Helen, I could use a few more likes. Also, I posted there for the first time in ages, so there's a new piece to read there. Additionally, if you've read The Book of Helen, it would mean a lot if you left a review. Finally, if you haven't read my first foray into Historical Fiction, you're missing a treat and I hope you'll consider, if you like my renditions of non fiction, what I can do with an icon of beauty and flaws like Helen of Troy.
I wrote it late Wednesday,which is past the deadline so I thought the piece would be DOA.
It wasn't, but I didn't know until late last night. So if you'd like to stop, smell the roses, count your blessings and take stock of the past week, here's your chance over at Catholic Mom!
Hint: Road Trip!
2. Eat Sleep Write:
I post a lot of humor pieces over at Eat Sleep Write. In return, there's a bit of extra exposure. I hope all of you go take a look at the work and maybe leave a comment. Same humor, same voice, same chaos fighting against the possibility of order, same Sherry, just a different web address. Here's my latest: Ask a Stupid Question.
3. Check out the flyer!!!
To those who bought my book, thank you. It makes a writer's day to know someone else enjoyed it. To those of you thinking about it, here's your chance for a fun summer read.
4. Didn't I tell you lots of linky love this week?
Have write a book on your bucket list?
Have a book you need to polish for publication?
Have a desire to write but don't know how?
Here's your answer.
Writer's World is a critique community I've been a member of for over a year. You can only self teach so much; sometimes what you need is an extra set of eyes pointing out the flaws.
Randall Andrews is the editor/creator of Writers World and the Writers World Boot Camp. I am currently in the first boot camp, though I owe about 12,000 words. (The equivalent of a twenty mile march with a backpack all night and then 1000 push ups). So as part of my penance for my negligence of poor Penelope, I'm suggesting you consider (whether you're a fiction, fan fiction or non-fiction writer) enlisting in his next camp.
Writers World Boot Camp 2 July 1st, 2015 - January 1st, 2016
Hosted by Randall Andrews, the Writers World Boot Camp is a six-month course designed to polish writers of any skill level. Whether you are just beginning or have been writing for years, this boot camp will provide valuable lessons, experiences, and instructions to help you develop your book.
By the end of Boot Camp, you will have a finished novel ready for publishing. If the novel is of high enough quality, Randall may extend the offer of a contract through JaCol Publishing at the end of the six month period. Boot camp is broken up into three sections:
• Lessons and Exercises
• Writing
• Rewrites
During each segment, you will work with your peers in the camp to develop your ideas and stories as well as working with Randall and his staff, who will guide you as you write your novel.
$50.00/month
For more information, questions, or sign-ups contact Randall Andrews at randalla3@yahoo.com
Oh and here's the link. Tell Randall, Sherry sent you. ;)
5. We normally do a bucket list for the summer. I normally post it. I haven't yet. So in honor of the official start of Summer (tomorrow):
1) Berry picking
2) swimming
3) barbecue
4) library
5) movies
6) date nights
7) baseball
8) capture the flag
9) water balloons
10) go to the park
11) go to a water park
12) enter a art piece in the fair
13) learn to juggle
14) learn a new song on the piano or guitar
15) attend a circus
16) painting (for fun)
17) painting (a room).
18) go to a museum
19) kite flying
20) firefly catching
21) fishing
22) canoeing
23) ice cream from the truck
24) reading 100 books
25) go to plays
26) chalk drawing
27) all day magic tournament
28) going to a new restaurant
29) listening to an outdoor concert
30) fireworks
31) beach
32) walk local civil war battle fields
33) sing-along
34) go to the zoo
35) go to watch horse races
36) walk or run in a 5K unless you're Peter, in which case, a 10 K or more.
37) volunteer work
38) pick flowers.
39) pass drivers tests (Bonnie and Marta)
40) blow bubbles
41) trying a new food (not at the fair. No matter how tempting, whatever they've fried, it will make you sick so no. No fried candy. No fried oreos. No).
42) going to a farmer's market
43) riding a horse
44) hiking a trail
45) take kids to the aquarium
46) Explore local caves (it's been a few years).
47) going to a swimming hole
48) finish book (Sherry)
49) Visit colleges for Marta
50) throw a party.
I know there are 73 days until school starts and I only listed 50 things, but some of these will take more than one day to enjoy.
7. Lastly, if you've not started reading but plan to delve into Pope Francis' Encyclical, it's available free online. Here you go. Yes, it counts toward the 100 books for the summer. Enjoy!
Catholic Fiction hosts writers and somewhere they ran the interview they did with me, but it was lost in cybersapce until now. They ask interesting questions. I hope you enjoy it.
I'd like to get her into the top 100 best sellers in honor of the occasion. So tell your friends. Click on the link and share share share!
2) It's also anniversary month, because thirty years ago this month, I met my husband for the first time. First conversation started with a question. "Who are you?" We've been answering ever since.
3) Finally, we married 24 years ago. So August is Anniversary month. Think I may have to make something special for dinner tonight. Have a great week, hope it's full of small successes. The column will return to Catholic Mom next week.
I subscribe to several e-magazines that give tips on writing, publishing, and the issues of being a writer in the electronic world. One of them is Be a Best Seller! Today, I'm profiled in the e-magazine, so go give a looksee for yourself and thanks for continuing to help me spread the word about my book and writing.
10) Helen and the Sparkly Vampires. She doesn't like to be outshone by anyone.
9) Helen vs. Sharknado. "It's really more Odysseus's kind of thing." she said.
8) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Mediterranean, by Nobody. Working title, I had trouble getting to Ithaca too.
7) He Had it Coming --Clytemnestra's Story.
6) Over 399 ways to Kill Your Enemies, a Practical Guide. --By Hector, Achilles and Several Other Heroes who killed more but get virtually no press.
5) "1000 tips to launch your First Ship, Extreme Makeovers" Pitched it to Helen, but she said, "If you're not going to bother to move at least an armada, it's not worth the trouble."
4) Looking Gift Horses in the Mouth and Other Truths from Beyond the Ilium Wall --by Paris.
3) She Came with Baggage, We should Have sent her packing --penned by Queen Hecuba before the sacking of Troy and the gods turned her into a canine. "Even before that happened, she was like a dog with a bone, she just wouldn't let this go." --Helen.
2) The Bachelorette: Ithaca Season. 104 Suitors, One throne, One Woman. This was nixed due to concerns it was rigged and that the main contestant didn't have any interest in any of the potential men vying for her hand.
1) A new version of the Iliad, three times longer than the original text, with more women in it so as to have parity, and maybe a new villain, like some necromancer type orc and a romance that isn't in the original sources.
If you're wondering, The Book of Penelope, 71K and growing. But I wanted to be silly for a change.
Welcome to 7 Quick Takes Friday, the linked edition...
1. This was a big week for The Book of Helen! She got two good reviews and I hope she'll receive a third from a friend over at Shelfari known as Nighthawk who runs a reading group called Paging All Bookworms.
2. Here's the first link, to a review over at Catholicfiction.net! It felt nice to get a review, there is a sense in which the book becomes less real the further away from publication date it falls, and so having someone read it and enjoy it, brings me back to that moment when it first launched. There will be a posted interview at some point in the future, I'll let you know.
3. The second review came from an editor over at Eat Sleep Write! You may remember I did a podcast there last September. Here's the link to that discussion as here.
4. This makes me beyond sad. There is a prediction of Barnes and Noble closing. There is something dying in a culture where there are no book stores, and it's not just the economy, it's the culture of reading, it's the culture of browsing to discover, it's a community that we will mourn as a phantom limb of life, long after the stores are exchanged for other places.
I still look at where the Border's was, and grieve that the Big Lots is there instead. I don't need Big and Lots, I need books, thoughts, words and the quiet joy of discovering something in the pages of another person's mind. I think it symbolizes what is replacing what we are losing. Boo.
6. I have a few friends I need to pray for, so I'm linking to this Novena site. I invite all of you to participate, because I don't know anyone who doesn't need prayers.
7. And the last of the 7 Quick Takes involves plugging a long time friend of this blog, the Ironic Catholic, also know in her alter-ego as writer/professor/theologian extraordinare, Susan Windley-Daoust has written a book: Theology of the Body Extended: Signs of Birth, Impairment and Dying, and it looks really good!
1. We got to Friday and somehow, I'm surprised. I also didn't link up to Small Success Thursday --because yesterday was so very busy. So here's the link to go count your blessings over at Catholicmom.com!
2. Helen news! I got a review over at Catholic Fiction.com! I submitted her back in September. You can go read it here.
3. Next week is the Gaithersburg Book Festival. I wish I were presenting, but I'll be volunteering for my kids' school at a booth, which will probably (but not assuredly) prevent me from spending too much money on books!
4. This weekend, my daughter is receiving her first communion. I've been through now six of these with my children, and they are always special, but this one, she already has such a love of Jesus, it is breath taking and heart squeezing. So offer a prayer for her as she prepares.
5. My son is confirmed next week. Confirmation is my very favorite sacrament. Keep him in your prayers as well.
6. Next week, we also gear into high exams for my two teens, followed by graduation the following week for one, and exams for my younger adolescents. We will exhale in June.
7. Penelope is doing well, I've been writing on her every day this week, or reading about her, or researching. I'm taking an online course on Scrivener and it's really helping me to understand this writer's software, it's also making me look at my WIP --work in progress, more often, so it has the double effect of generating more words.
Here's a sniff:
“Are you going to chose one of them my queen?” Erika noted the pearl pendant and emerald and gold earrings on her night stand.
“Eurydamas and Peisander at least make a pretense of courting me and not the throne.” Penelope answered. Her face reddened. Erika, seeing her mistress’s embarrassment left the room.
Looking at the jewelry, Penelope sighed. For three years, she’d kept all 108 men dancing, and not one of her servants understood her reasons. She reminded herself they had to be equally unsure of her intent, in order to maintain the facade. Was she perpetually faithful, or perpetually fickle? The men had to believe both, in order to pursue her, and think they had the slightest chance. Her life, like the jewels in the earrings, held many facets, not all of which could be seen at once, only the ones she let catch light.
She put on the pendant for a moment to consider it, and then took it off, wearing such a thing would be too much of a signal of favoritism. She placed both gifts back in her box of trinkets, polished her favorite blue stone silver ring, and placing it on her ring finger, steadied herself for another day of holding all of the court, all of Ithaca, all the world she knew, together, all while hoping somehow, the next day, things would be better.
She walked into the dining room, Men were asleep in their chairs, some drunk on the floor, others missing from the room were probably stealing a few hours with servants willing to serve more than wine and bread. She took the moment to work tiny mischief, and threw open the curtains from the walls, revealing the cutaways her husband created to allow for more light. She rang a bell to signal to the morning staff to assemble and begin clean up, part of which included sweeping out those left over from the evenings repast.
She saw these men for who they were. She scrolled through each of their faces. Agelaus, weak in mind and heart but not body, Amphimedon, ambitious with no prospects and no loyalty either, Amphinomus, decent but dull, Antinous, malicious in every way, rather like keeping a poisonous serpent as a pet. You couldn’t release it, it might return out of habit, and it might bite you just the same if you didn’t. Ctesippus, crude and cruel. Demoptolemus covetous and envious, Elatus, too young and stupid, clinging to where all the men were, not realizing so few of them acted as actual men, Euryades, lazy but desiring a life of luxury. Euryachus, like oil, she didn’t trust him. Eurynomus, the ignoble brother of Antiphus, he lacked his brother’s courage to go serve Ithaca in the fight. She went through them all, she knew them all, it was a tedious business all of these men, none of them moved her mind, body and heart, none of them touched all. Odysseus had. Odysseus still did.
Wrote this for my Facebook page, but since more people read the blog, I'm posting it here.
What have I been up to? Well, writing took a back seat in the month of March and April. I am listening to the Iliad on CD and it's very well done. Additionally, hearing it, you get something of the experience of the early Greeks and how the poem was intended, and thus those vivid descriptions stay with you in a way they don't when you're... going through the marathon equivalent of words. You hear more of the side stories, they pop.
I'm also slowly reading the Odyssey. My tendency in reading, as in writing, is to race through words. Being deliberate feels very Penelope to me, hers is a pensive reflective intellect as opposed to Odysseus's crafty and often impulsive mind. They are complimentary but not entirely opposite, as both she and he enjoy riddles, games of the mind, and strategies. He just loves the accolades of revealing his brilliance to the world --hubris, whereas she finds satisfaction in trying to get the right answer.
The Problem with Penelope...
Penelope's hubris is more subtle, a conviction she can find the right answer in all situations, and that hers is the right answer. She errs toward being self satisfied by her efforts, knowing she's exhausted the options. That doesn't seem bad, and it isn't necessarily, but relying solely on one's own mind, can mean one doesn't see the options others might think of, and having full faith and credit in one's own decisions, does not mean other choices are not valid if they disagree. She's like a writer, who has to learn to hear edits and suggestions if she would make her work better than it is. (Not me you understand, but every other writer in the world--sorry, channeling Helen there for a moment).
Additionally, drawing Penelope out in words remains a challenge, as she is an introvert. She reluctantly takes the center stage, but knows what is expected of her and will perform to her utmost, whereas Helen was and remains the ultimate extroverted celebrity who wouldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want the stage in the first place, but gets that if anyone should get the stage, it should be her. Even when I'm writing about Penelope, Helen is there poking my shoulder, "Hey, what about me?" I need a character exorcism, but in the meantime, she's useful in that I just think, what would Helen do, then how would Penelope do that in contrast, it helps sharpen the story.
Last bit of writing business...
The Book of Helen is up for a critical review at Catholicfiction.net on May 9th, and being reviewed by Eat Sleep Write some time in the next few weeks. I need to start looking for conventions where I can plug Helen and introduce her to others. I need to create some physical drawings from the book for display, for physical events. I'm sifting through the book to determine what scenes would convey best.
Here, we run into a little problem, as one reviewer noted, we don't know specifically what Helen looks like. That decision was deliberate on my part, as she is an archetype, and whatever we paint, will fall short, so rendering her becomes more difficult as that would stamp her for all the world. But I did have a vision of how she looked, so I'm going with that image when I draw. I'll post when Helen is satisfied with my work. I've also been told by others who do book promotions to create a short film/trailer, (except I don't know how to do that). Maybe I'll ask my teens over the summer to take this on for me.
So...you better watch out...I suddenly find new amusement in that song.
2. Planning to make my great grandmother's cookies but with a Christmas twist, dipping them in melted white chocolate for frosting and dusting with peppermint chips. They're chocolate cookies so this will be a lovely combination.
This image looks pretty much like what they look like when they haven't been frosted.
Here's the recipe. Why? Because these sorts of cookies aren't made anymore, they're becoming lost as we get used to slice and bake and forget there were all these sort of old fashioned tastes that had seasonal qualities and harkened to how baking itself, is both a joy and a gift. The goal isn't just the sweet but the giving/sharing of the sweet.
1/4 cup solid shortening (Crisco)
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 squares Baker's unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans work great)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Combine the first four ingredients. Add the dry ingredients together separately. Combine all the ingredients and stir until the mixture is well blended. Drop the cookies with a teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. After the cookies cool, frost with a light chocolate frosting. It can be one cup of confectioner's sugar, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 melted square of Baker's semi-sweet, mixed and then used to dip.
Or you can use ready made if you're like me and somehow those glazes never turn out quite right.
3. Doing a little Christmas each day is working (so far, but then it's only been 5 days). We set up the Nativity set one day, another day, we wrote a few Christmas cards. The day before that, we put up some lights indoors, and the day before that, lights outdoors. (Just a few). We're just adding a bit by bit each day. Theme of Advent: Blessed Waiting, Deliberate Willful Beauty.
4. How are book sales doing?
Well, believe it or not, people don't know I' wrote a book, or that it is published. I got asked today.
Having spent six years writing The Book of Helen, I know it has moments which will stay with you, and that the story itself has some real beauty to offer.
Here's a link. If you have bought The Book of Helen and enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review over at Amazon, it helps with ranking, it helps with promotion.
5. How is The Book of Penelope Coming?
Still reading, still writing, still taking the 30 day novel writing workshop. I'm starting to see patterns and threads of thought so to speak. I also miss my laptop. It has been in the shop since November 13th. It is very frustrating. But, I have the story, I have an outline (shocker). I have the ending. I have the template for what I want to have happen, and I have 15K on it without having the actual work I did before, so I'm very pleased.
6. I want more variety in my Christmas songs. Honestly, if you're going to tout yourself as the Christmas station, have enough guts to play something other than The Little Drummer Boy,White Christmas, and I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. So in a fit of wanting more, I provide you with the following, it's old, but it doesn't matter. It's still good.
7. What am I doing this year spiritually? Well, I'm trying to get beyond the surface of my prayer life, to navigate the interior life that I spend so much time avoiding by keeping very busy. In an attempt to jump start myself into this deeper form of prayer, I'm hoping to schedule a weekly visit to adoration, to demand I quiet my mind and heart before the Lord, something I'm notoriously bad at doing. In the meantime, I also found this site, worthy of note for those like me who can't get to adoration as often as they should. It's a substitute, but a substantive substitute. Here is the link to view live adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
I'd begun to think I was stuck in one of those Dr. Who episodes where you get to the 2 minute from over mark and find out it didn't happen. But it did. It did!
I didn't wake up this morning and find my computer had turned into a puddle of milky goo left over from the explosion of what I thought was my book.
At last...
I now unleash my beautiful creation on an unsuspecting public. Go forth! Read it! Enjoy it! Share with friends!
Oh, and if you enjoy it, leave a review on Amazon or where ever it is that you purchase/read the book. E-books thrive via reviews so thank you in advance. I now return you to this regular blog post as the party continues.
Most followers know that my book was originally slated to debut in May of this year. I will tell you, I cried when the day came and went and we were still deep in the editing process. No book. It was okay I told myself. I wanted the Book of Helen to be as good as possible, so this was necessary.
Waiting for something good is always an opportunity for grace. Because we had to wait, my mother will be here the day the book is available to the public. I get to share the experience of this book with my mom. It is a gift my heart would have asked for, but never dreamed would come true.
These sort of unexpected moments, like tomatoes you didn't plant that bring forth fruit just the same, these are the stuff of heaven, a letter in the mail, a compliment, found quarters, falling into a book you didn't expect to like, the ice cream truck driving down your street, running into a friend at the pool, and children deciding to pick up their instrument and play their hearts out, these are glimpses of heaven.
What do I mean?
Heaven is not harps and clouds and static.
Heaven is an endless reunion, where you are delighted and delightful. Heaven is coming home to a clean house, to a cooked meal, finding the garden in bloom, seeing a meteor shower because you happen to be outside. It isn't constant stimulation, it is constant joy. We can't grasp it because our joy comes in moments and try as we might, and there are some committed to trying, we cannot hold such feeling, it ebbs away like an exhale or the tide pulling back. It will come again, but not because we will it. We may orchestrate moments to try and conscript and create the sentiment, but it is a seizing when we feel joy. It does not come on command, nor does it stay confined. It is a quiet flood of happiness that often leaves us speechless. "Oh!" I said it when I saw the ocean for the first time. It has been uttered when children were born, when snow fell overnight, and when I tried tres leches cake for the first time. The first response to joy is to reach to tell someone, anyone, to share the moment, joy shared is multiplied, like the loaves and the fishes.
So I'm happy. My mom is coming to town and we'll get to share this moment. It would have been special before this, but this makes it more special. More joy. My daughter asked, "What are we doing to celebrate?" and I truthfully don't know, because the celebration has in a sense already started for me. But I get it, she wants to share in the moment and a party seems the most appropriate way to make it happen.
I'd tell you we're eating Greek food and the like, but I think we'll feast with steak fajitas and sangria, and maybe some obnoxious chocolate dessert! Then I'm posting a note to myself with the Book of Penelope...it is the motto for the purpose of the Book of Penelope. Worth the wait.
Thanks for sharing in this moment. August 9th is just three days away!
I don't want this blog to become simply a "Hey! I wrote a book! Buy it NOW SHAM WOW!" type of experience.
However, I must give credit and acknowledgement to those bloggers who take the time to read and review The Book of Helen. Yesterday, I had company visit, a friend I hadn't seen in 15 years, who spent the summer with her husband and two of her five children, biking across country to raise money for Mercy Housing. I am in awe of her family's faith and the way they are living it out. It was good to see her and it made Sunday a day of refreshment, as I always find seeing friends to be a source of great strengthening and joy.
So it wasn't until the evening that I had time to really take in the review by Larry D of Acts of the Apostasy, or Karina Fabian's splash page on Fabian Space. Larry D gave an honest appraisal of a rookie season book and I agree, I could have delved into the details of the historical period more. They weren't what interested me but I am willing to be more deliberate in my next book, to make sure I anchor more of the story of the book in the gravel and bronze and wood of the place, and let less of it be monopolized by a single character's point of view.
Historical fiction must deal with the details, and not merely story, otherwise it is simply period stylized fantasy fiction. Because the characters I lived with were mythic in origin, I did not in the creation of the world around them, focus too intensively on the sinew of the time, but I never want to pull the reader out of the story. I want them to feast on the experience, and that means serving up the whole meal of the arc of the tale, so I'm hitting the books harder for the Book of Penelope and hoping Larry D will be a beta reader for the next tale so his eagle eye can catch any momentary time slips in language. I also love his phrase, Greek chick lit, as well as his exposition about some of the deeper themes touched on in the course of the book. I hoped The Book of Helen would be about more than Helen stories, and based on his review, I succeeded.
Karina Fabian is an accomplished prolific writer of fantasy, sci-fi and humor/horror. She is a writing machine with a quick wit and powerful Catholic imagination. I have read her novella Greater Treasures, and enjoyed it immensely. Vern the dragon detective caught between two worlds is a very enjoyable creature as the narrator. She used my profile and synopsis to give a fellow Museitup author a push before publication. Thank you.
Both writers have lives outside of the internet (shocking I know), and I am grateful to each for giving of their time and space on the internet, to provide my book a little push in publicity and some thoughtful analysis before its slated publishing date of August 9th. SHAM WOW SHERRY signing off.
I am still in limbo about the final edits of Helen. That doesn't mean I'm being idle though, I've started reading The Odyssey again and outlining. Having written a book without the benefit of an outline but with the resources of multiple myths detailing Helen's story, I will now try writing a book using an outline to make up for the fact that Penelope has far fewer stories about her life than Helen.
2. What I've been up to...
This past weekend, I had the luxury of journeying to Saint Mary's College for my 25th year reunion. I'd been a bit down as no one from my key core of five friends would be there. Two are deceased. One has deliberately withdrawn from all contact, and the other two for various reasons did not come. But not having the people I would have naturally clung to, allowed me to rediscover all the wonderful women I didn't quite know while I was at SMC, as I was busy being the age that I was. One fellow classmate summed it up as she lamented she had lost out on something of the experience by not going to football games. Another thought she had missed it by living off campus. A third worried about what she missed in going abroad and another, what she did not experience by not travelling to other countries.
What we all sensed was glow of each other's college education, and how theirs was somehow fuller than our own, but the reality, was each of us had a limited experience of the school based on our own hang ups and need to grow up, and that none of us could have "the Saint Mary's experience." Collectively, we were the Saint Mary's experience. It's as if each of us as the bricks of the building were lamenting that we were not the whole building, because we loved the whole building and could not quite see how we fit into the structure, integrity and strength of the school itself.
3. What I'm Reading...
I just finished Elizabeth Scalia's Strange Gods while on the plane back from Southbend, Indiana. I have to say, if you buy this book, don't use a high lighter, or you will find your book is soggy from yellow underlining before you get to the last page. I had to pace myself because my natural tendency is to gallop through reading, as if the finish line is the goal, rather than absorbing what is said. That being said, I found the whole experience delicious. There were wonderful passages and lines that revealed how we perpetually engage in the creation of idols in our everyday life and stories that made me laugh aloud while pondering my own ability to put many things in front of those I love including God. I also love the cover!
4. Understanding Face
It is a gift I've never fully understood but always been very grateful to have. Despite being a lousy listener who can't remember names to faces, total strangers tell me their stories. Getting a hotdog in the Terminal C in Chicago in between flights, a lovely woman named Lolita served me. She also told me how she'd lost 70 pounds on weight watchers but couldn't get her sister to do it, her sister opted for a surgical method of reduction. I told her that was inspiring and she should go on the website and send a testimonial. She showed me a before picture. It was an impressive transformation. Then she served another customer but before I left, she called me over and whispered how she dreamed of one day helping children between 13 and 17 who had been written off. I told her I hoped she would.
5. Favorite Moments
I wish I wish I wish I'd brought a camera to the weekend. But there is a photo in my head of my two favorite teachers, Sister Jeanne and Jean Rodes talking to each other, beaming smiles and arms open across the table from me. Friday I'd squeezed in eating with them and we took three hours which felt like nothing, I could have listened to their lives all day. It was a feast in so many ways to just be in their company.
6. Other Favorite Moment
Walking to the Grotto at Notre Dame to light a candle, to pray for a family, for all those I carry in the rosary, for all I met that weekend, for all those at home. It was a walk I'd made so many times but it never grows old. I love those old trees that cradle the road and the quiet beauty of that prayerful replication of the vision of the Blessed Mother by Saint Bernadette at Lourdes.
7. When I came back....
Anna decided I should be a chair. Paul voted for pillow. Either way, both have determined Mom isn't going anywhere without them. It's good to be home.
1. I'm going to a reunion at the end of this week at Saint Mary's College in Southbend, so I need to get things ready around here.
2. My book is due out soon so last minute editing/line by line is taking place. Also my editor got injured last week so she is having to take a break from things to recover. Keep her in your prayers.
3. I've been spending too much time on the internet playground and it is starting to injure my spirit so I'm taking a break.
All three are good reasons. #3 the most so. So I've got a few things lined up to keep you amused and yes I'll still put up a post over on Facebook for Helen on Wednesday, maybe I'll cross post something I did there here.
Here's today's link to a current piece at The Catholic Stand. Have a great week!
Suzanne di Montigny, (a fellow writer at Museitup with her own series!) has graciously offered her blog as a platform to interview other writers. Today, she interviewed me. Please click on the link below and leave a comment on her blog. You could win a copy of The Book of Helen when it debuts! Thank her for me, she's lovely to have done this, and check out her series, The Shadow of the Unicorn.
1. One week until Helen is due and I am a nervous wreck. I don't know if we'll make it on time. Editing and formatting take time. I am hopeful. But I tend to always feel like Charlie Brown about to kick the football, except I just KNOW that she's going to swipe the thing away when I get to the point of actually kicking. I am excited. I'm proud. I'm also working on Penelope and so I'm ready to see people enjoying Helen. I also want to see how she all comes together. I've been editing her in pieces so I want to see the whole thing, to read it from cover to cover and experience her as if I'd discovered this book instead of written it.
2. There are so many movies I want to see. I've seen Iron Man 3 before, we're going to Into the Darkness tonight (Can't wait can't wait can't wait!) and then there's Now You See Me. That one looks slick and cool.
3. I am also considering three new viewing addictions that currently are popular. Downtown Abby, Game of Thrones...and Dr. Who. Yes. I'm aware that they are cult phenomena, every one of them. Yes I'm aware I'm late to the party. What I'd like to know is which one should I sink my teeth into next and why. Sell me. Give me the pitch of why I should watch whichever one you think worth watching.
4. Next week, I go to the reunion at Saint Mary's. I hope to walk to Notre Dame and light a candle at the grotto. I'll get to see two of my favorite teachers for lunch on Friday. It stuns me that this was my life, my whole life only 25 years ago. The passage of time seems like nothing, and yet there is so much that has been crammed into these past many years. It leaves me winded.
5. Does anyone else feel like the razor of the world is cutting deeper these days? For me, the news has become a daily assault on my peace and sensibilities. I think it is why the Church gave us Pope Francis, because his exhortations to be more than a museum piece Catholic, to go out and be salt and light to the world, well we knew this, but it is so heartening, so warming to be invited.
6. Two kids are done with school, one has exams next week. Then we have two weeks before everyone gets out! SUMMER!!!!!!!!I believe I love it even more than they....and I hate their summer math books more too. I was going to equivocate on that last bit but it's true. I hate those books. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate them. I don't care that they are good for boosting math skills. They are evil and ruin summer that should be spent grilling, swimming, reading book after book after book, catching frogs and fireflies (not at the same time) and playing cards with your parents. You know what's not on that list? Math books. There. I said it. Bleah.
7. There's a new post over on Facebook page for The Book of Helen. It is an open page so anyone on Facebook can go over and read it. I would ask if you haven't yet, to please please please like the page. My goal this week is to break 100 likes. Next week, we'll work on getting to 200.
The question was posed, “Do you have to know Greek Myth to
understand this book?” No.
But I hope reading it will spark your interest in
discovering the richness of these ancient treasures whose influence is still
felt today. Want a modern Odyssey? Try Finding Nemo. It’s all there. The one eyed monster, the sirens, the
underworld, the monster who tries to eat him, or if you want a more mature version,
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Both those stories stood without the working knowledge of
one of their original sources, but the enjoyment of both films is enhanced by
having a grasp of the original texts. I’m
going to have to go find the DVD in a minute just because they’re both such
fun.
A bit of help if you want to have more familiar footing
before reading The Book of Helen.
The Iliad (the older story) is more about how the Greeks
made sense of their lives lacking belief that their souls did anything worth
noting after death. Immortality was
something that could be earned, but it was hard fought (literally). Honor and glory through battle was a means of
immortality. Hence the long lists of whom
one has slain before battle commences. Recalling the names of the dead kept
their memory alive, ergo if you were going to fight to the death, you told the
other person you were trying to kill why you were worthy of remembering.
Today, Startrek uses this concept as part of
the background of Klingon culture. This
is why I am honorable. Now we fight. Today
is a good day to die because now you know my name and thus my name will be
remembered. Killing an honorable
opponent enhanced your honor and kept theirs for entering into Stovokor.
Ajax and Achilles would get this guy.
The other two means to immortality for the
Greeks were children, and works –buildings, civilizations, art, and poetry. The important thing was to have your name
echoed, remembered. Helen in my book
longs for the same thing. She wants a
history of her story, that doesn’t just focus on what everyone already thinks
they know.
Also good for summer reading, Rick Ridoran’s Percy Jackson
series tells you the plot line for the Iliad in his finale, (The
Last Olympian) and there’s always Spark notes because iambic decameter grows
old after about three pages. Having read the Iliad twice in college and twice
since, I recommend Fagles' translations
of both epics, both present very readable prose for anyone wanting to read
these two great works of Western civilization.
No need to slog through ten foot seems like a thousand pages poetry
where your mind slides off the page when they start listing where all the ships
came from.
That's 1000 ships! 1000! Ah!Ha! Ha!
If you are more interested in the myths…i.e. the stories of
the gods themselves, it depends upon your desire for intensity as to where to
go. Now I have “The Oxford Companion to
Classical Literature” by Harvey which gives (this is before Wikipedia) overlays
of every single god, goddess, muse, satyr, hero, heroine, named person, named
object, site, shrine, concept in the world of Greek Myth that one can
find. It is a dazzling if overwhelming
source of information, sort of like reading a dictionary. On the other side is D’Aulaires, which gives
the stories in formats perfect for kids. My third and fifth grader devoured
this book. It’s been replaced twice in our library from overuse over the years
by different children. Admittedly, I
must have checked it out myself at least six times during my grade school
years, pouring over the pictures and stories, practically drooling to have
found such a treasure trove of stuff.
Imagine my shock when I got to high school and got the grown up versions
which were full of rape and violence. It
took me a while to adjust.
One place I wouldn’t go to understand the Greek Myths, is to
those films that tried to tell the Greek epic. They seemed to somehow
always miss something crucial about the reality of these stories, the thing
that made them timeless. Clash of the
Titans both in the 70’s and now, zzzzzzzzzzz.
Memo to tinsel town: There were no skeletal zombies in Greek Myth. Not one. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Wrong.
Dead is dead. You can summon shades to speak
to you maybe or go down and hope you don’t get tricked into staying in the
underworld but that’s it. If you die,
you become a shade. A shade means no
body. Dead body means no soul. That’s what the Greeks understood; it’s what
they said in their myths. It’s why the name, the memory mattered so much.
On to other films that do not quite convey the richness of the original materials. Troy the movie is faithful pretty and graspable but rather dull rendition and smushing together of the Iliad and beginning of the Odyssey. (Sorry Brad and Orlando, it just is).
Admit it. They just wanted you so you could recreate that sliding down the stairway on a shield while shooting a bow sequence that made you the coolest elf ever.
The film gets Hector and in my opinion, Agamemnon, but everyone else,
they just aren’t that interested and thus, it is not that interesting to
watch. I won't even mention the very stupid Helen in that film.
The Disney Percy Jackson film stunk, which goes to show even
given an easy version of the story with modern settings, Hollywood can still
mess it up. Jason and the
Argonauts? Forgetaboutit! Hercules the
movie (1984) and all other versions (aside from having a great song in the
Disney version and a very cool Hades), do not get at the real struggle and
drama of his myth, which was not his strength, but his succumbing to madness. Most interpretations just gloss over that
part, opting for the demi-god to be sort of a Greek version of Superman. And we won’t even discuss the treatment of
the muses as they have to cope with
the stupid rendition of them as showgirls in Xanadu –which I admit, I saw….twice….and
loved. (I was a stupid teenager and had
no clue).
Because it's my blog...and I can.
But I apologize.
Greeks treated their heroes and gods as being like them,
suffering, struggling, making stupid and inconsistent decisions and messing up
and fighting often. Somehow, the modern
treatment of these very real creations gets run through a bleach cycle of
thought, and thus the charm and realness of their tempers and actions gets
stiffened. One notable exception in the
Hercules with real people series, Anthony Quinn as Zeus. But that may be because it’s Anthony
Quinn.
You made a cool God of Thunder in an otherwise dull
movie.
And as for Helen herself, I have to thank Bettany
Hughes. Her book is invaluable. It’s also incredibly interesting to trace the
history of Helen in art, literature, and all of her various roles for various
cultures. Bettany digs into every version of Helen and the whys, the roles that a
woman of that culture, in that rank required. It is very thorough. If you want
to know how Helen walked into my brain and where I learned where I needed to go
next to find out what happened next, this is the book that revealed where else
to go.
One last bit of music for you. Because the Greek Gods and their world were designed to be able to explain/explore the harder realities we often don’t want
to directly discus. It’s wonderful and resonates whenever it’s done
right. The one bit of Hercules the cartoon movie that shows 1) the animators having fun and 2) getting how to merge the psychology behind the character with the mayhem and magic of animation.
Now, back to writing new book, The Book of Penelope. (Edited from prior statement) Back to editing. Helen is 22 days from publishing and wants everything to be perfect, so she gets annoyed when I spend too much time doing anything not focused on her.
