It’s all how you frame it—and CLAUDE AND CAMILLE giveaway

I’m back from my writer’s retreat, which was semi-successful in that I made healthy inroads into what I planned for it. My intent was to write and complete a novel “bible”* for THE LILY MAID. My agent set this task for me during our last meeting, thinking it would help clear up some character motivation issues. As usual, she was right. But little did I realize that such a project requires more than three days’ concentrated labor—I managed to set up the document formatting and begin writing the first third. Even as such, the document came to well over 25,000 words!

As usual, I was too ambitious in thinking that I’d work 24/7 since I’d be without distractions and interruptions. The reality is that writing a novel bible is hard. So distractions were needed to clear my head.

The top photograph is the view from my hotel room from where I spent my writer’s retreat. Below is what I saw on a walk outside my hotel—daffodils everywhere surrounded by wildness stung by sea water. Beautiful!

And yet, if I turned my head toward another direction, here was my view.

Monster uber-resort. Atlantic City, baby. It’s all how you frame it.

For the record, I didn’t play even a single slot machine. Gambling makes me feel queasy—publishing is high stakes enough for me. But the hotel had an amazing spa, which helped to stoke the creative muses. After all, inspiration likes fire and water and heat.

As for finishing my novel bible, I’ve set up a schedule for the rest of it. It’s going to take me probably another week or so—maybe longer. Yikes!

On a totally unrelated note, congratulations to those who won copies of Stephanie Cowell’s CLAUDE AND CAMILLE! I’ve sent each winner an e-mail with instructions on how to claim your prize. I hope you enjoy it! This generous giveaway was courtesy of Crown Books.

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*I’ll write more about what’s involved in creating a novel bible next week.

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, giveaways and raffles, travels | 2 Responses

Publishing Monday: Good news—and AC, baby

Above are most of the research books I’m bringing with me on my latest novel writing retreat, which begins tomorrow morning. Hello, Umberto Eco and Oscar Wilde and 1880s’ Baedeckers! This time, I’m off to Atlantic City. Not that I like gambling—far from it!—but I do like cheap, luxurious mid-week hotel rooms where I can hunker down and stare at the ocean while ordering room service. Upon my return, I plan to write a guide entitled The Introvert’s Guide to Atlantic City, Or How I Went to AC and Avoided Slot Machines and Snookie.

My plan for these next three days: to finish writing the book “bible” for THE LILY MAID. My agent had given me this task when we last discussed my novel two months ago—she felt it would help me with this new draft—so time’s a-wasting. Another goal: to revise my first fifty pages anew, now that I’m armed with a new set of notes from said agent, her lovely and perceptive assistant, and two generous beta readers.

Meanwhile, I fear I’m starting to come down with laryngitis yet again. And I’m stretched out from trying to tie up all the various errands that need to be done before my departure, such as cleaning the hamster cage. (Don’t worry, Nibbles! I won’t let you down.)

But in the midst of this, I’ve had some wonderful news. My novel query for THE LILY MAID won the Backspace Query Contest for a scholarship to the Backspace Writers Conference. As part of my entry, I had to include my novel’s first two pages, so this feels like a lovely validation of where I’m going with this book. I’m really surprised—I never expected to win though, of course, one hopes to. I mainly entered the contest thinking it was a good spur for rewriting my novel synopsis, which has proved very helpful during the revision process. Anything else was icing on the cake.

So thank you, Backspace Writers Conference! I’m so pleased to be attending you.

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, travels | 3 Responses

Publishing Monday: Back from England—and more

Ack, how could almost a month pass since my last blog post? And that one was right before my trip to England at the end of November. Quelle scandale! Well, the truth is that since my return I’ve been so inspired that I’ve been working nonstop on my novel THE LILY MAID and other projects (more about those below). So the objective of my trip was more than met. And Nana’s ashes were brought home to the church where she was baptized and married.

I have several hundred photos from my trip, many of them research-oriented. One highlight was a visit to Highgate Cemetery’s West Cemetery to visit the grave of Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s model, muse, and wife. Below is Rossetti’s Beata Beatrice, an oil painting he completed of Lizzie (which is how her many knew her) several years after her death from a laudanum overdose. Though her passing was ruled death by misadventure, she may have left a suicide note which her husband destroyed. However, Lizzie was a gifted poet and painter in her own right, a fact often overshadowed by the Sturm und Drang particulars of her association with Rossetti.

The fragile condition of Highgate’s West Cemetery leaves it closed to visitors except by advance arrangement. I feel very fortunate to have had such a special experience. I am grateful to Justin, my guide at Highgate, who was both knowledgeable and tolerant as I paid my respects.

I was pleased to see that someone else had recently visited Lizzie’s grave—I added my offering of a peach-colored rose to the red flowers already there. Lizzie’s plot in the Rossetti family enclave is located down a hidden, isolated and ivy-strewn pathway slick with autumn leaves. Justin said that she’s visited by more men than women–and the men tend to weep. One even became visibly angry and ranted about how she was abused by Rossetti. “I think the women who visit are made of sterner stuff,” my guide concluded.

Lizzie’s tragic life is included in THE LILY MAID as a cautionary tale. In this excerpt from my novel, my protagonist Elizabeth is warned about the dangers of being a muse from her ex-fiance:

Charles began, “Elizabeth Siddal was the muse for Dante Rossetti, the most famous Pre-Raphaelite of them all—”

“—Don’t bore me. I know who Rossetti is,“ I interrupted. “And I told you, Mr. Dulac is not a Pre-Raphaelite.”

“Doesn’t matter. All artists seek inspiration—a muse, if you will.”

“Indeed.”

“Everyone should have a muse. But nobody should have to be one.”

Charles’ eyes met mine, daring me to ignore him…. His voice became low. “Elizabeth Siddal posed for some of Rossetti’s most famous paintings—Beata Beatrice, Paolo and Francesca. His poems are about her. You know this one:

‘At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:
And as the last slow sudden drops are shed
From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,
So singly flagged the pulses of each heart….’

I flushed, remembering.

Charles continued, “Anyway, Rossetti claimed to be in love with Miss Siddal—that she was the only one who could inspire his art. But he soon tired of her, beautiful as she was, and replaced her with another muse, Jane Morris. Miss Siddal did not take it well. Sure, Rossetti did the right thing and married her, but she never recovered from losing that influence over him. It was like a drug to her. So she replaced it with another drug, laudanum. She died at the age of thirty-one from an overdose.”

I was disturbed, but determined not to show it.

“When she died, Rossetti tucked his only copy of his poems in her coffin next to her long copper hair. He regretted it, so he had the coffin exhumed from Highgate seven years later.”

THE LILY MAID is about a young woman who becomes a model to a charismatic artist and his wife and, in the process, uncovers a mysterious tragedy. It’s set during the Aesthetics art movement in 1880s London. You can learn more about Elizabeth Siddal and her work at LizzieSiddal.com and PreRaphaeliteSisterhood.com—both wonderful sites. I also highly recommend Lucinda Hawksley’s biography, Lizzie Siddal: Face of the Pre-Raphaelites.

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It wouldn’t be a Publishing Monday post without some mention of publishing. As I posted last month, my new e-book imprint Art and Words Editions is officially launched! I’m especially pleased that all of our Fall books have been approved and released by Amazon, BN.com, and Apple.

Our newest addition—and one which I’m especially proud of—is Lisa Hunt’s Soul Drawings. Thie e-book original is a stunning look at the fine art of this much-loved illustrator whose many publications include the Fairy Tale Tarot, Animals Divine Tarot, and Celestial Goddesses.

Soul Drawings is available for $9.99 in iBooks, Kindle, Nook, and PDF formats; the PDF will work on any computer. View excerpts from the book here. In addition, you can download a free chapter and art here from Apple, BN.com, and Amazon.

In January, we’ll be posting an exclusive and candid Q&A with Lisa about the creation of Soul Drawings as well as a video detailing what goes into creating a “soul drawing.” Not to be missed!

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, be-mused, creativity, e-books, friends and colleagues, new projects, the art world, the world around me, travels | 3 Responses

Creativity Friday: Creative Women’s Networking Salon tonight—and other news

Live in NYC? Looking to meet with kindred creative women? Tonight is your night:

Friday, November 19, 7-9:30 pm
Creative Women’s Networking Salon

Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation, inspiration, and wine. At previous salons, we were joined by photographers, crafters, publishing people, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. Suggested donation: $5 for refreshments.

This event takes place at:
Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue
entrance on Marlborough Road across from Rite Aid
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811

Hope to see you there!

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In other news, I’m off to London on Tuesday (yes, this coming Tuesday!) for just under a week. Though the primary purpose of my trip is to research THE LILY MAID and the long-aborning DOOMED QUEENS follow up, I have another important task to take care of: I’m bringing my grandmother’s ashes “home.”

My grandmother, Doris Ivy Prince, was born in Kent, England but migrated to the United States as a young woman with my mother. Nana passed away two years ago at the very ripe age of 92—I know she always wanted to return back to noble Albion.

I plan to scatter her ashes in a lovely field outside the Anglican church where she worshiped so many years ago. Here’s hoping for a lovely day, or at the least, one without a heavy downfall. Having lived in the UK for a year, I’m too aware of the capricious quality of English weather.

On the research side, I have a very full plate! I plan to visit:

The V & A (research and inspiration)

The Tate Gallery (to visit Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott and Rossetti’s Beata Beatrice)

Primrose Hill (an important character in THE LILY MAID lives there)

Royal Academy of Art (a scene takes place during a Royal Academy vernissage)

The Museum of the City of London (to research Victorian London)

Oxford (another key scene in my novel takes place there)

Highgate Cemetery (to visit the grave of Elizabeth Siddal, Rossetti’s tragic muse)

Liberty of London’s (inspiration and retail therapy)

and much more. My hotel (in South Kensington, natch!) has wifi—will do my best to update while I’m there.

• Filed under The Novel, creativity, events, studio and gallery, the world around me, travels | One Response

On the Road of Bones open house

We hope you’ll join us for an open house reception for our new exhibition at the gallery. Here are the details:

Friday, October 15, 6–10 pm
ON THE ROAD OF BONES: Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway
Art Exhibition Open House and Reception

An evening of celebrating Russian and Siberian cultures with champagne, northern cuisine, native arts and crafts, and live “chat” with the photographers in Yakutsk. Children welcome. Suggested donation of $5.

Through photography and mixed media, this exhibition reveals the secret history and natural beauty of Kolyma, formerly the land of Soviet labor camps and the coldest inhabited region in the world. Stunning new works by young native Siberian photographers Bolot Bochkarev, Nastya Borisova, and Ajar Varlamov trace the remains of the vast highway built across the taiga, tundra, and permafrost of North Asia by Stalin’s prisoners. “On the Road of Bones” juxtaposes the events of the hidden past with the power of the frozen landscape and the contemporary lives of people in the far north. Learn more

Visit the official website at OntheRoadofBones.com.

Read more about this exhibit on the Ditmas Park Blog:
http://ditmasparkblog.com/news/siberia-the-beauty-and-the-beast#more-7195

We hope to see you there! For directions to the gallery, click here.

• Filed under events, studio and gallery, the art world, the world around me, travels | One Response