The Duchess of Devonshire deigns….

As you can tell from my post title, I couldn’t resist the alliteration. But seriously now….

The Duchess of Devonshire’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century has just posted a nice review of DOOMED QUEENS. On top of that, they’re doing a DOOMED QUEENS giveaway: ” I am so sure that you will like Doomed Queens that if you leave a comment before Monday 24 November you will qualify to be the one lucky reader to win a copy of the book.”

Enter the Duchess of Devonshire’s giveaway here.

Oh, and here’s an interesting tidbit for those of you who might not be in the know: the Duchess of Devonshire refers to Georgiana, the scandalous subject of the bio pic THE DUCHESS (which I recently saw and would give a mixed review. I loved the book it was based on, though). Georgiana’s descendants include Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana is included in DOOMED QUEENS, though she’s technically not a queen (though she did describe herself as a “queen of hearts” in that infamous telly interview).

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Upcoming events at the gallery

We’ve been hard at work planning some new and exciting winter events at Kris Waldherr Art and Words, my studio-gallery. If you live in the NYC area, I hope you will attend!

Regular Gallery hours:
Friday night salon, 5-8 pm
Saturday art viewing, 1-5 pm

Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, 1 - 7 pm: Artisan Holiday Fair. Original art, autographed books, handmade dolls, prints, jewelry, photographs, children’s clothing and more will be available for purchase at Ditmas Park’s premier art gallery. The eclectic collection of items in all price ranges are created by talented local artists including Amy Saidens, Carisa Swenson, Jennifer Johnson, Magdalen Sarris, Raquel Irizarry, Deborah Fisher, and Kris Waldherr. Children are especially welcome.

Saturday, December 13, 4:30 pm: Lucia (known in Scandinavia as the Bringer of Light and a winter tradition beloved by children) will visit the fair to share information about her origins and celebrations. Free hot cider and cookies. Santa Lucia drawing © by Joanna Powell Colbert.

Friday, December 19, 6:30-9 pm: Our famous Tarot and Psychic Salon! As featured on CNN.com, Yelp’s “On the Radar”, and internationally in La Libération. Get a sneak peak about what lies ahead in 2009: Kris Waldherr, Diane Saarinen, Elizabeth Genco and Christina Ambrosino will be on hand to give 15-minute readings on the question of your choice at various prices. Gift certificates for future readings make for great last minute gift-giving. Free admission and refreshments.

Learn more about these events here.

• Filed under art and words, events, friends and colleagues, studio and gallery, tarot and oracles, the art world, the world around me | 2 Responses

Doomed Queens book raffle — and in the media

Short update: The five winners of the DOOMED QUEENS book raffle have been notified by e-mail. Once I hear back from you, your autographed copies will be popped in the mail to you. Congrats!

In the media: on Friday, November 14 at 10:45am, I’ll be discussing DOOMED QUEENS on “Live with Lisa” on WSTC-AM / WNLK-AM in Connecticut. If you live in the area, I hope you’ll listen in.

Also, DOOMED QUEENS was recently reviewed in a “Books on the Nightstand” podcast. “Books on the Nightstand” is a wonderful find for those of us who are obsessed with books and publishing. Hosted by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, their podcasts make you feel as though you’re chatting about books with a good friend while drinking a latte in your favorite coffeehouse. Highly recommended.

And big thanks to my friends and colleagues Diane Saarinen and Elizabeth Genco for featuring DQ on their blogs. I especially liked that Elizabeth called my book “wickedly written.” High praise, indeed!

ETA: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a top twenty newspaper, just lauded DOOMED QUEENS as their Quirky Book of the Week. “If you need an antidote to the Disney-fied princess culture popular among young girls today, this dishy, irreverent book is it.” Read the full review here.

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more photos of Doomed Queens

I feel like I’ve been very Doomed Queens-y of late. I guess it’s hard to avoid, with its publication so close at hand. Anyway, I just got these photos, which give a good sense of the final published book. I can’t resist posting them….

Exterior of book. You can see a hint of the French flaps and full color endpapers….

Interior, French flaps and full color endpapers. Also a view of the Doomed Queens through history timeline. (It’s very Art Through the Ages!)

Interior spread, Boudicca. Lisa Hunt, my soon-to-be Black Belt friend, posed for the warrior queen.

Interior spread, showing a genealogy chart. The book is printed in sepia ink.

Interior spread, Athaliah. This was posed for by Annmaria Mazzini.

The art can be viewed in greater detail by clicking on the thumbnails. Learn more about Doomed Queens here.

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Sarah Palin: a Doomed Queen?

Here in NYC, we’re basking in the aftermath of an Obama win. No offense to McCain supporters, but the past eight years have proven that the politics of fear and violence only compound global disharmony. McCain’s resounding loss was accompanied by the defeat of Sarah Palin, his running mate. Like her or loathe her, one can’t help but wonder whether Palin is a Doomed Queen.

My answer: Yes, yes, and yes. And I knew Palin was one from the start — though of course, it’s easy to say so in retrospect. Even when Palin’s approval rating was through the roof (ie: pre-Katie Couric interview or Tina Fey’s devastating SNL impersonations), the signs were all there. While women aren’t forced nowadays into dynastic marriages or trapped in the Tower of London as they once were, the cautionary example of the Doomed Queen still lives and thrives, despite Hillary Clinton’s “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.”

Here are five ways Sarah Palin is a Doomed Queen:

1. Palin is the product of an arranged political marriage; she met only once with John McCain before he popped the question. Many Doomed Queens’ dynastic marriages ended unhappily due to inbreeding, incompatibility, even murder. In the case of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s starter wife, the demise of their union signaled the start of a new religion in England — one way to dump an unwanted alliance.

2. McCain was in love with someone else. It’s rumored that McCain desired Joe Lieberman as his running mate, but was pushed to accept Palin to protect his claim for the “throne.” McCain’s situation reminds me of Regency England’s George IV, who ruled England after his father George III lost the colonies along with his mind. George Junior was pushed to marry Caroline of Brunswick, his eccentric first cousin, though he was in love with another woman. When George met Caroline just before the wedding, he called for a stiff brandy and stumbled through the ceremony falling-down drunk. I don’t know if John McCain drinks, but one can imagine him in a similar choleric snit after learning that Sarah’s daughter Bristol was five months pregnant (though he claims to have been aware of it).

3. That written, McCain initially embraced his running mate despite the scandale. At first, Palin was more popular than him—just as Princess Diana proved to be after her glittery public wedding to Prince Charles. For Charles and Diana, jealousy became a destructive force in their royal alliance. But now that McCain has lost, the gloves have come off and Palin is being used as a scapegoat. As an unnamed source from his campaign leaked to the press that Palin is a whack job and was the one responsible for burning up the credit cards in Neiman Marcus a la Marie Antoinette.

4. It’s an old story. Like other Doomed Queens through history, Palin was used as a chess piece on another’s game board to woo a target demographic. Only this time, the powers-that-be got more than they bargained for. Palin wasn’t fully vetted, allowing for scandals to surface like poisoned fish in a pond. Federal funds for the Bridge to Nowhere were never refunded. Her friends were rewarded with cushy inappropriate appointments while her enemies were stonewalled. Rumors of book banning, anyone?

5. Biology is destiny. For many Doomed Queens, childbirth and infertility led to their loss of the throne. In the case of Palin, she’s used the fertility of herself and unwed pregnant Bristol to present herself as a pro-life candidate, appealing to the religious right. However in doing so, Palin has thrown her teenage daughter to the media wolves to further her political ambitions — not a sympathetic move. After all, even hard-core conservatives like to see mothers nurture their children, instead of hung out to dry in People magazine.

So is Sarah Palin’s story over? We won’t know for some time, but even if she does run in 2012, I’m sure she won’t be marched like other Doomed Queens to the guillotine. After all, the guillotine was last used by the French in 1977.

Instead, Palin might instead want to follow the path of another powerful Alaskan woman, Sinrock Mary, better known as the Reindeer Queen.

During the Alaskan Gold Rush, Sinrock Mary was an Eskimo who became the richest person in Alaska by raising reindeer for food and pack animals; Sinrock was an outpost of Nome. Gold miners were dependent on Mary for their very survival — and grew covetous of her power. To undermine her, they tried to seduce her with liquor and promises of marriage. When that didn’t work, they threatened violence. Though Mary could have used them to further expand her empire, she was no Doomed Queen.

To avoid the miners, the Reindeer Queen moved from Nome into the wilds of Alaska. She spent the rest of her life there in royal comfort — though no one knows if she owned a tanning bed, like Wasilla Sarah.

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