Project Catch Up: Now available for your iPad and Kindle….

Also over the summer: Apple approved four of my books for the iPad—THE BOOK OF GODDESSES, SACRED ANIMALS, RAPUNZEL, and PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE. On top of that, THE BOOK OF GODDESSES was also made available for Kindle. All of these books have currently sold out their print runs, so I’m thrilled to see them back in (virtual) print.

The best-selling anniversary edition of THE BOOK OF GODDESSES offers over 130 illustrations and 100 goddesses. Purchase on iBooks. Purchase for Kindle.

SACRED ANIMALS was intended as a counterpart to THE BOOK OF GODDESSES. It explores the roles of animals in mythology and folklore. These sixteen illustrated examples range from Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, to the eternal Phoenix (as depicted on the cover). Purchase on iBooks.

RAPUNZEL was the first book I illustrated. I created the paintings for it while living in a tiny cottage on the bucolic moors of Devon, England. Its design and art were greatly inspired by my love of the Pre-Raphaelites and the books of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press. Purchase on iBooks.

PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE is very special to me. Besides being my first goddess-themed book, it was also the first book I authored as well as illustrated. PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE is a picture book retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. It was even praised by the New York Times Book Review. Purchase on iBooks.

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As I had with iPhone app creation, I’m finding e-book production to be quite addictive though I’ll be honest: Much as I love my iPad, the pleasures of reading on it aren’t quite the same as those of paper and ink. I love the physicality of printed books, their weight and heft—the book as object, rather than a collection of words only waiting to be read.

On the other hand, I love curling up with my iPad before bedtime. The back-lit screen lets me read as I like in a dark room, bringing back fond memories of transgressive reading under the covers with a flashlight. What could be better than that? I also love having instant access to so many books—I’m a big Project Guttenberg fan. This has been a boon for researching The Novel, but that’s a subject for another time.

As a designer, author, and artist, I’m finding the instant gratification of making e-books intoxicating. I love knowing that they’re available to anyone in the world for download. I also like not having to deal with printers or distribution—just text, design, and art. Frankly, I’m finding e-book production so enthralling that I’ve decided to start my own e-publishing imprint, featuring books of beauty and inspiration.

This is a fairly major development—one certainly worthy of a separate blog post. More news about this soon!

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Creativity Friday: FOR THE KING giveaway winner!

Drumroll please! Congratulations to DAKOTA—I’ll be sending you an e-mail shortly with information on how to claim your copy of Catherine Delors’ historical fiction book FOR THE KING.I hope you will enjoy it!

More posts coming soon! There is just so much going on here that I haven’t had a moment to spare:

1. The first draft of my novel THE LILY MAID has been turned in. I’m awaiting feedback from my agent any moment now….. (gnaws knuckles). in the meantime, I’m immersing myself in research for the next go ’round. My reading material includes biographies of two famous Pre-Raphaelite muses, Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris—my main character in THE LILY MAID becomes a muse to an influential artist during 1880s’ England.

2. We’re in the midst of designing and hanging a new show at the gallery which is being curated by my husband, anthropologist Thomas Ross Miller. It’s entitled ON THE ROAD OF BONES. This haunting art exhibit will feature native Siberian and American photographers documenting Russia’s Old Kolyma Highway, built by prisoners of Stalin’s infamous gulag.

3. I’m finalizing several e-books for the iPad. These include SACRED ANIMALS and an old picture book favorite, RAPUNZEL.

4. And so much more—and all before we leave on vacation in mid-August.

And how is your summer shaping up?

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, creativity, new projects, publications, publishing, studio and gallery, the art world | 2 Responses

Creativity Friday: School’s out….

… and Thea is now officially a kindergartener. The above photo was taken right after her preschool graduation celebration — look how pleased she looks! And now she is home until she begins summer camp in about two weeks. As for myself, my hours in the studio have been limited in the meantime. I’ve had to tie up a number of projects now that summer is upon me.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s what at this moment:

~ The first draft of The Novel (aka THE LILY MAID) is officially set aside for the next few weeks until my schedule frees up. The first draft is complete at 105,000 words — whew! That written, I still have a number of plot points and character arcs that require refining. I’m hoping that the time away will help me clarify my thinking as well as better judge what I have so far. Right now, I am careening between enthrallment and despair over all I’ve written. C’est normale, so I’ve been told. This is the longest manscript I’ve ever worked on — and fiction to boot! — so THE LILY MAID is brave new world territory for me.

~ I’m excited about e-books for the iPad. Toward that end, I’m moving forward on designing and producing THE BOOK OF GODDESSES e-book as well a a number of others: PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE, SACRED ANIMALS, and more. So far, I’ve set up my publishing imprint with Apple’s iBooks, purchased my isbns, and am slowly mastering the finer points of the ePub digital format. (Apple’s iBooks only distributes ePubs, unlike Amazon’s Kindle which uses a proprietary format.) I’m finding ePub design to be a strange, slippery amalgam between website programming and book design. Much of what I’m learning as an e-book designer feels counterintuitive to me. But then again, it’s all new.

~ Related to above: I have a blog post on my experiences incubating about my discoveries and challenges designing for the ePub format so far. I hope to have that up once I have a chance to catch up in the studio, in a week or so. The short version is that my intention is to create the most beautiful, inspiring, and user-friendly e-books available despite the constraints of the medium. Here’s a peek at my e-book imprint logo, which will go within the front matter for each digital publication.

~ I’m considering making some of my more text-heavy books available for Kindle, such as THE BOOK OF GODDESSES. It seems as though people are wedded to one format or the other, based on what e-book device they own. For example, I’m amazed at how many people downloaded DOOMED QUEENS on their Kindles. However, I’m wondering if this is worth my effort, since the Kindle only handles black and white books at this time. I’d include all the art from my books, but obviously they’d be reproduced in black and white. Opinions? Thoughts?

~ We also have a new exhibit planned for next month at the gallery. I’m very excited about it since it will be curated by my husband, anthropologist Thomas Ross Miller. ON THE ROAD OF BONES will feature native Siberian and American photographers documenting Russia’s Old Kolyma Highway, built by prisoners of Stalin’s infamous gulag.

~ Next Friday (June 25) is our monthly tarot salon. Live in the NYC area? I hope you’ll stop by for a glass of wine, some chocolate and a reading. More information here.

And how is your summer shaping up so far?

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, creativity, goddesses, new projects, publishing, the world around me | 2 Responses

Creativity Friday: Inspiring a Novel*, part 2 ~ and book giveaway winner!

First off, congratulations to Jana! You’ve won the DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL book giveaway. I know you’ll enjoy this wonderful novel by Mary Sharratt — I adored it. I’ve contacted you by e-mail with instructions on how to claim it. If you don’t receive the e-mail, please leave me a comment on this post.

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It’s been about a month since my last The Novel update. Right now, I’m up to just past 90,000 words. That sounds like a lot, but only about 65,000 of them are “set”, meaning that they actually make sense within the context of the book; the other 25,000 are akin to loose sketches for scenes that may or may not end up included. To be honest, I’m not sure how The Novel may end — I ratchet back and forth between two endings, uncertain which fate feels more satisfying or appropriate for my heroine. It’s also become complicated since my characters have taken on a mind of their own. But, on a more definitive note, I finally have a title that I’m happy with which I’ll reveal in my next newsletter.

Previously I had written about two inspirations which have found their way into The Novel. The first was the paintings of John William Waterhouse— one character is based very loosely on Waterhouse and Whistler. My second inspiration post was about Schubert’s last string quintet, D. 956 which is performed during an important scene.

Here’s a third inspiration:

This drawing of the Lady of Shalott is a woodcut from the Moxon Tennyson, which featured the work of several prominent PreRaphaelite artists including Holman Hunt (above), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Millais. The history of the Moxon Tennyson is an interesting one. Tennyson was reluctant to allow his poems to be published with illustrations. However, publisher Edward Moxon won the poet over by enlisting the talents of the PreRaphaelites for this uber-deluxe and expensive edition. He also arranged for the book’s illustrations to be prepared for publication by the Dalziel Brothers, perhaps the best engravers of their day.

Regardless, the book was a financial failure, though it’s now considered one of the most important illustrated books of the Victorian era. An English friend informed me that sometimes you can find illustrated pages from the Moxon Tennyson for sale in used book and print stores. He was kind enough to gift me with two of them, one which is of Rossetti’s version of the Lady of Shalott. I treasure them both.

Here’s my description of the Moxon Tennyson from The Novel:

I picked up the Moxon, opened to the Holman Hunt — a slice of paper fell out to indicate the illustration, annotated in pencil. “Note the supernatural elements,” he wrote.

The woodcut was a strange fey thing… Imagine, if you will, a tall woman standing as bent over as a Celtic tree, with huge piles of her dark hair floating above her, as if her tresses were held aloft by a hurricane force wind. Though she could be called beautiful, the gaze on her determined face was both intense and frightening. She stood inside a circle-shaped loom, which was set ankle-height — even I knew it was impractically close to the floor for any real weaver to use. The loom looked as though it had been transformed into a web, within which the Lady of Shalott was trapped like a fly.”

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* This is part of an ongoing occasional series of posts about inspiration for the two books I’m working on right now. The first is a novel set in Victorian England during the Aesthetics Movement. The second book is a follow up to DOOMED QUEENS.

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Creativity Friday: Inspiring a Novel*

As I work on The Novel these days (which is just about up to 71,000 words, hooray!), I’m finding inspiration in more places than I can keep track of. I know I’ve mentioned my semi-recent trip to Montreal to view the Waterhouse exhibit, which has several paintings that figure prominently within it. While art seems an obvious inspiration to someone such as myself, I’ve also been finding inspiration in music. In particular, Schubert’s last string quintet, D. 956.

Never heard of it? Even for hard core classical music fans, it’s wouldn’t be surprising if you hadn’t. It’s not one of the composer’s heavy hitters, like his oft-performed Trout quintet or Death and the Maiden quartet (which also makes a cameo appearance in the novel). But there’s something so transcendent about this quintet that I decided that it had to play a part during an important scene for my main character, which takes place at a concert.

Aside from the gorgeous music, the history of this quintet is touching. First off, it was one of the last compositions Franz Schubert wrote before he died in 1828 at the age of 31. Maybe I’m reading into it, but while listening to this quintet I get a sense of the composer railing against the limitations of life, especially in the exquisite second movement adagio — there’s a slightly schizophrenic quality in the way the music ricochets between sweet melody and over-the-top all hell breaking loose. Another interesting fact about this quintet: Instead of the usual two violas and one cello, this string quintet features one viola and two cellos, which gives the music a dark verocity. Also, the quintet wasn’t performed in public until 1884 — just three years before when my novel is placed. This made me consider how my fictional characters might respond to hearing it for the first time.

The quintet is such an intense piece of music that it reminds me of a scene from E. M. Foster’s ROOM WITH A VIEW (the book, though it’s also referenced in the Helena Bonham Carter movie). I’m paraphrasing here, but someone comments that playing Beethoven stirs the heroine Lucy Honeychurch up too much — ie: bad Victorian lady.

You can listen to a recording of Schubert’s string quintet, D. 956 here, courtesy of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (another radiant place of inspiration). Warning: the quintet is a good 45 minutes long, but you download it to listen at your convenience.

Here’s an excerpt describing it from The Novel:

The quintet began with several chords which promised tranquility. Alas, this was not to be — the instruments lurched into a passionate declaration of purpose that took my breath away. The double cellos offered a primal roughness. As soon as I’d girded myself for more of the same, the violins emerged from this chaos with a Viennese waltz-like song that suggested pure water burbling along a twisting stream. This theme continued for some time, interrupted periodically by chords that teased with the intensity of the opening, before dissolving back into a sharp fugue…. The fugue now built to such a climax of such intensity and speed that I could hardly stand it….

Next up was a plaintively slow adagio, to contrast against the previous movement. This music spoke of regret, of lost opportunities. Yet there was acceptance within it; as if it affirmed, Yes, life is finite. But it is worthy. This musical theme was reinforced by slow pizzacato plucking against long, low somber tones. It sounded like someone being comforted as they wept.”

I hope this music carries you away, dear reader!

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* This is part of an ongoing occasional series of posts about inspiration for the two books I’m working on right now. The first is a novel set in Victorian England during the Aesthetics Movement. The second book is a follow up to DOOMED QUEENS.

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, creativity, events, new projects | 3 Responses