Historical Novels Review: SEPULCHRE

Here's the second of my two reviews from the Historical Novels Review May 2008 issue.

The goal of HNR reviews: Reviews are geared toward our fellow readers. In 150-300 words, our incisive, insightful reviews provide an overview of the book’s plot and setting as well as critical commentary.


SEPULCHRE
Kate Mosse, Putnam, $29.95 (NCR), pb, 560pp, 978-0-399-15467-6

SEPULCHRE is a tale of double crosses, murder, and the occult set in the 19th and 21st centuries, the interwoven story of Léonie Vernier in France in 1891, and American Meredith Martin in 2007. Meredith is visiting France for research on her biography of Claude Debussy – and to learn the truth about her mysterious French ancestors. A chance encounter leads Meredith to a piece of nineteenth century music known as "The Sepulchre", and a pack of Tarot cards painted by Léonie Vernier more than a century earlier.

Léonie and Meredith's paths cross – in time and place – again at the Domain de la Cade, outside the town of Rennes-les-Bains, in the Pyrenees of southwest France. The Domain was home to Léonie in the nineteenth century, and an eerily familiar grand hotel for Meredith in 2007. The site of a series of tragedies for Léonie, the Domain also houses an ancient sepulchre which Meredith must find and open – to learn the truth of Léonie's story, and Meredith's past.

Mosse does an excellent job with pacing – the story, though complex, moves quickly and well. The mystery is unique and the historical detail excellent; she has successfully combined historical and speculative fiction elements into a cohesive whole. And while the language and phrasing can be simplistic, even trite, and the characters somewhat lacking in depth, the concept is unique and story itself is still strong. Overall a very enjoyable read.

Historical Novels Review: SOUL

Here's the first of my two reviews from the Historical Novels Review May 2008 issue.

The goal of HNR reviews: Reviews are geared toward our fellow readers. In 150-300 words, our incisive, insightful reviews provide an overview of the book’s plot and setting as well as critical commentary.

SOUL
Tobsha Learner, Forge, 2008, $14.95/C$16.95, pb, 425pp, 978-0-7653-2010-0


SOUL is the story of Professor Julia Huntington, and that of her great-grandmother Lavinia Huntington. Julia, a renowned geneticist living in Los Angeles in 2002, is commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense to research the genetically linked propensity to kill without remorse. She comes to realize that she is linked more closely to Lavinia, a spirited intellectual Irishwoman suffering under the unjust standards of Victorian society, more than anyone could have imagined.

The book started off rather jagged and confusing, but finally settled into a strong pace about one-third of the way in. The weaving together – and juxtaposition – of Julia and Lavinia's stories was engaging, and I found that Lavinia and her doomed husband James jumped off the page.

The writing, in places, was maddeningly uneven – strangely shifting point of view within chapters and lovely description; stilted dialog in the modern-day sections and unique and thoughtful metaphors in the Victorian London sections. There were distracting Britishisms in the mouths of American characters, and odd descriptions of modern life (a firefighter walking into a bar for a drink dressed in full turnout gear?). The bottom line is Learner seemed to be more comfortable with the Victorian characters and settings, which ultimately is good news for historical fiction fans.

Overall, however, it was an engaging book and I would recommend it for fans of murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and those with an interest in the society and sociology of Victorian London.

Author Interview: Catherine Schaff-Stump

The latest podcast is now live over at Writers & Soundtracks, with author Catherine Schaff-Stump.

The Word-Hoard: pantoffle, porraceous, and prothalamion

This week's word-hoard feature: pantoffle, porraceous, and prothalamion.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Wiscon 32!

Well, everything's ready to go for my first Wiscon. I'm so excited!

I'm going to try to record our reading on Saturday, so hopefully next week we'll have it up as a podcast at our Las Habladoras blog (http://lashabladoras.blogspot.com).

Catch ya on the flipside!

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"In Germanic countries this structure is called St. Hans' cross or the cross of St John. In Scandinavia it is a magic ideogram from the Viking era, or even older. It seems also to have been used in Cabbalistic mysticism."

Get the full story at symbols.com.

Fetish

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Fetish: Particularly in West Africa, objects such as wood or clay figures, but also parts of animals, etc., that were venerated as magical, beneficial, and protective power sources. Occasionally the object of ritual actions, they were, for example, penetrated with nails, an action that was symbolically supposed to transfer illness to the particular fetish. (Herder)

The full interview with Paul Jessup is now posted over at Writers & Soundtracks. Check it out!

The Word-Hoard: anagogical, anaclypsis, and miribilist

This week's word-hoard feature: anagogical, anaclypsis, and miribilist.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Amethyst

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Amethyst It is a precious stone that was thought in antiquity to be a remedy for poison and drunkenness (from Greek amethystos, remedy for drunkenness). In Christian symbolic usage, it is an image of humility because it has the color of the modest violet as well as the symbolic reference to Christ's passion. In addition, amethyst was said to be one of the foundation stones of the Heavenly Jerusalem. (Herder)

This week's Booking Through Thursday meme is a funny one:

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

In terms of complicated gadgets, like I said last week, I'm a button pusher. I like to learn by doing (and by my mistakes). Once I've hit a roadblock, I'll try to troubleshoot using the manual (or preferably online searchable help).

I don't read how-to books, or self-help guides. I do read books about creativity and spirituality, but those are generally theoretical or narrative, and not "Take step 1, and now step 2, etc..." Again, I like to jump in and try.

It's how I wrote my first long piece of fiction, a novella, a few years ago. I came late to fiction - I was 31 - and had no idea what I was doing, so I just sat down and winged it. Same with my first novel. And it seems that approach worked out fine.

Myths, folklore, and symbolism



"A rune from the Nordic runic alphabet with the name bjarkan, meaning birch. It is associated with new life and growth."

Learn more at symbols.com.

The Word-Hoard: nepimnemic, eidetic, and scarrow

Note: Because I am a dork, I published this post without checking the date ... and it ended up somewhere back in January. Oops! Here's the word-hoard for this week, a day late.

This week's word-hoard feature: nepimnemic, eidetic, and scarrow.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Writers & Soundtracks - Paul Jessup

The latest Writers & Soundtracks podcast, featuring Paul Jessup, is live over at my Writers & Soundtracks blog.

Paper Cities review

So, I just finished reading Paper Cities, which is an anthology of urban fantasy. I enjoyed it overall - I think in general it gave a good taste of what urban fantasy can be, beyond the YA vampire and werewolf tales that seem to what people often first think of in terms of urban fantasy.

I have a personal preference for fantasy that is based on/in the "real" world, rather than completely new worlds, and there was a good mix of both in this anthology. In terms of favorites, I really enjoyed Paul Meloy's "Alex and the Toyceivers", Michael Jasper's "Painting Haiti", and Cat Sparks' "Sammarynda Deep".

With 21 stories, there were bound to be hits and misses. Some were just too clever for their own good: "Hey! Look at me! I'm experimenting!" while others were able to experiment while still telling a good story (Mark Teppo's "The One that Got Away" and Darin Bradley's "They Would Only Be Roads" come to mind). I think there's a broad enough range of styles and approaches in this anthology, however, to appeal to a lot of different kinds of fantasy readers.

Definitely check it out. Well worth it!

Sun

"This sign is a common theme in folk art all over the earth, especially in the Nordic countries. It is likely that one of the earliest structures of this type was Phoenician."

Learn more at symbols.com.

Booking Through Thursday meme

Interesting question today from Booking Through Thursday:

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

At work, I've got the company style guide, and that's about it. At home, I don't have any of that stuff. I've got a dictionary and thesaurus, but more often than not I'll look up a word in an online dictionary (since I do my writing on my laptop, and not by hand).

In terms of writing books, I've got Robert McKee's Story (which is alternately quite good and throw-across-the-room maddening), a copy of The Artist's Way which I got about halfway through, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, which I loved.

I came to fiction writing quite late, comparatively (after I turned 30), and I tend to be the type of person who wants to try something first rather than read about it (I'm the classic push a lot of buttons and click a lot of windows rather than read the instruction manual) so I like to try to figure it out myself.

I've always had a good instinct for grammar and punctuation, and I want to continue to improve my craft by reading other fiction and actually writing, so I just don't have a lot of these kinds of books (save the Lamott, which was about a lot more than writing).

Eye of fire

"An ancient Germanic sign with the name eye of fire..."

Learn more at symbols.com.

Wiscon

So, just a few weeks until my first Wiscon. I'm getting ridiculously excited.

A group of us - Las Habladoras - are doing a reading at Wiscon on Saturday at 4 p.m. Yolanda Joosten, Jenn Racek, Catherine Schaff-Stump and I will be reading short selections, accompanied by some very cool music I selected (I can't help mixing writing and music, as you know!).

What's even cooler is the stories and music will be accompanied by gorgeous original artwork by Catrina Horsfield (see the graphic in the sidebar -->). Of course, I had a dream the other night that we were doing our reading, but I was doing my part buck-nekkid in a glass shower. Performance anxiety much?

The whole weekend should be a hoot. Unless something amazing happens with American Airlines, I'm going to get in too late for The Gathering (woe!) but the parties and programming should be great.

If you're going to be there, do comment here or e-mail me!

And next year? Historical Novel Society in Chicago in June and World Fantasy here in San Jose in November. I think I'll have to do Wiscon every other year, so I can do HNS, which I really enjoyed the hell out of last year

(x-posted to my LJ)

My full interview with Lauren Dane is now posted over at the Writers & Soundtracks blog!

Peeps! Super neat jewelry auction over at the Interstitial Arts Foundation: jewelry based on stories in the Interfictions anthology!

According to the e-mail:

April 30, 2008 marked the one year anniversary of the Interfictions anthology release. This groundbreaking anthology showcasing nineteen writers from four countries gave a glimpse into what interstitial fiction might look like (without drawing any clear borders).

To celebrate the anniversary, the Interstitial Arts Foundation (IAF) invited jewelry makers to further blur the borders by creating pieces based on the stories in Interfictions, which will be auctioned off to benefit IAF beginning May 5th.

Interstitial artists and admirers of Interfictions have come forward with some truly stunning pieces based on Interfictions stories by Matthew Cheney, Catherynne M. Valente, Jon Singer, Veronica Schanoes, and Colin Greenland. Participants include artists Elise Matthesen, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Mia Nutick, Kris McDermott, and many more.

Looks like they'll be putting up a few pieces every week...the Prester John necklace is absolutely gorgeous.

(x-posted to my LJ)

The Word-Hoard: fordolked, alveolate, and alphonsin

This week's word-hoard feature: fordolked, alveolate, and alphonsin.

I invite you to listen in and leave me a comment with your creative use of each week's word-hoard featured words! You can subscribe to this podcast (and this whole blog for that matter) by clicking on the RSS icon in the right-sidebar. Or, you can add the feed to your LiveJournal Friends page.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Search for "Julie K. Rose" or "Word-Hoard" in the iTunes store; the podcast will show up in the search results, and you can simply click the "subscribe button"; or

2. Choose the Advanced menu, and then Subscribe to Podcast. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can paste this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YULh.

Threshold

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Threshold: Like the door, it is a symbol of transition from one place or condition to another, and of the separation between places, conditions, etc. Not letting a person cross the threshold means not wanting to have anything to do with that person, whereas "camping on someone's doorstep" (or threshold) means persistently seeking contact with that person. The threshold of the temple is regarded in many cultures as holy, and thus a special sort of cleaning or purification is often required before crossing it (e.g., removal of the shoes at the threshold of the mosque). Among various peoples the threshold itself must not be stepped on. (Herder)

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"This ideogram is carved into a rock face near Tanum on Sweden's west coast."

Get the full story at symbols.com.