Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Notes from the Writer Cave (II)

I finished the drafting, and now I'm fighting to reread the whole thing before I send it off for the next stage of the manuscript life cycle. It's the point where I really can't stand the sight of the book, even the beginning which I haven't been over 234565432 times. (Just like 10, because I edit while I write, so I'm constantly going back and revisiting chapters even while I'm writing forward.)

I'm really, really looking forward to sending this off and having a little bit of time away from this period and these characters. Much as I love them, it's time for a break! I'm considering putting some casual words into a contemporary romance idea that I didn't at all plan for when I planned my writing for the year. We'll see! I've been writing non-stop for four months now, between Hippodamia and this new book, so I've definitely earned some non-writing days -- which I'll need while we pack up the whole house for some (big) renovation work that's being done this month.

Word-wise, New Book hit 110K, which ended up being about 99,500 after I trimmed all the extra words off the bottom of the document! It means I've got some room to expand things as needed, and I can't be unhappy about that, because I ALWAYS need to add more description as I revise.

Busy Busy Busy!


Forged by Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1) Tempting Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1.5) Fate Forgotten (Fate of the Gods, #2) Taming Fate (Fate of the Gods, #2.5) Beyond Fate (Fate of the Gods, #3)
Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga, #1) * Postcards from Asgard * Helen of Sparta
Buy Now:
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Notes From the Writer Cave

Sometimes drafting is a real pain in my neck, I'm not going to lie. I'm making progress on this New Book, but I spend a LOT of time second-guessing myself. This is normal for me. It's normal for me to hate my manuscript, starting somewhere in the middle, and continuing through to the end -- I just get to a point where I feel like all I'm doing is flailing around uselessly and for every one step forward it's five steps back, and all my words are wasted.

It's not generally true. My words are fine. My manuscript is moving along and in pretty solid form. But it's a real fight to convince myself that's the case and keep writing forward instead of going back and cursing myself for being a crappy writer who writes crap.

This is the textbook case for an Alpha reader. Someone to look at the book as I'm writing it and say "No, you're being ridiculous, this book looks great, keep going, you're fine!"

There are definitely books that would not have been finished if it hadn't been for my Alphas.

This is one of them.

(98K and counting. 10 days left to finish.)


Forged by Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1) Tempting Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1.5) Fate Forgotten (Fate of the Gods, #2) Taming Fate (Fate of the Gods, #2.5) Beyond Fate (Fate of the Gods, #3)
Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga, #1) * Postcards from Asgard * Helen of Sparta
Buy Now:
Amazon | Barnes&Noble

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Helen of Sparta's Blog Tour is Happening Now!

For those of you who might be interested in following along with the adventures of HELEN OF SPARTA in the wild, here's the run down of the blogtour, happening now! So far we've had some really great interviews and reviews, and there are more to come, so check it out!



Wednesday, April 1
Review at Unshelfish
Review at Let Them Read Books
 
Thursday, April 2
Review at Flashlight Commentary

Friday, April 3
Interview at Flashlight Commentary

Saturday, April 4
Review at History From a Woman’s Perspective

Monday, April 6
Review at Curling Up By the Fire
Spotlight at A Literary Vacation

Tuesday, April 7
Spotlight at www.leeanna.me

Wednesday, April 8
Review at Historical Reads and Views

Thursday, April 9
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book!

Friday, April 10
Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book

Monday, April 13
Interview at Book Babe
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Obsession
 
Tuesday, April 14
Review at Forever Ashley

Wednesday, April 15
Review at Just One More Chapter
Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews

Thursday, April 16
Review at 100 Pages a Day

Friday, April 17
Review at Impressions in Ink

Saturday, April 18
Spotlight at Passages to the Past

Monday, April 20
Review at Book Lovers Paradise
 
Tuesday, April 21
Review at Broken Teepee

Wednesday, April 22
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews

HELEN OF SPARTA is now up to a rockin' 450+ reviews on Amazon, too, for which I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who read and reviewed and posted! Keep on being awesome! And if you haven't grabbed your copy of Helen of Sparta yet, it's available to order in paperback wherever books are sold, and the you can find the ebook on Amazon.com!

In Non-Helen news -- did you see Honor Among Orcs on BuzzFeed's list of 21 Types of Romance Novels You Have To See To Believe?

And now I'm diving back into the writer cave -- 30K more words to write before the month is out!

Forged by Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1) Tempting Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1.5) Fate Forgotten (Fate of the Gods, #2) Taming Fate (Fate of the Gods, #2.5) Beyond Fate (Fate of the Gods, #3)
Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga, #1) * Postcards from Asgard * Helen of Sparta
Buy Now:
Amazon | Barnes&Noble

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Mycenaean Women and the Megaron

In researching the Mycenaean Palaces of the Greek Bronze Age, I came across a paper discussing the purpose of the megaron (by Jarrett Farmer), primarily arguing that it was less a throne room, and more a center of ritual -- in spite of evidence suggesting a throne -- and only an occasional space, rather than one in every day use as a political audience chamber. His theory is based on a number of things, from the wear of the floor tiles to the limited access to the physical space itself, but one part of the argument is the real dearth of imagery of MEN sitting upon thrones of any kind:
Rehak compared images of seated figures from frescos (Fig12), sealings (Figs 13, 14), rings (Fig 15), and sealstones to the fresco motifs in the megaron, and put forward the startling observation that almost all seated figures of identifiable sex in Aegean art are female.
Hm.

Mycenaean Ring with a Seated Goddess
By Zde (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wiki Commons
In particular there's discussion of a few processional images, in which men are carrying cups toward a seated woman on a throne, and how these images are most often interpreted as goddesses receiving honors or offerings. But, Farmer says, why couldn't they be reflective of just the standard operating procedures of ritual at the time? Why COULDN'T the throne in the megaron have been meant for a woman? Especially if the space was NOT in fact a throne room for the king, but rather, a ritual/cult/religious space?

Well, for that matter, why couldn't women, as priestesses, have been running the place -- but okay, maybe there isn't a lot of support for that in the linear b tablets, so I can see why no one would want to make that claim.

BUT.

It does, perhaps, put a slightly different spin on the whole "Helen's husband would become King of Sparta" element of the mythology, doesn't it? Because what if Helen weren't just a princess -- what if her role was something greater than that? Something related to the megaron as a ritual and religious space? What if that throne in the megaron was going to be hers?

And not just the myths involving Helen, either, but also the story of Ariadne and Theseus -- Ariadne, the princess of Crete, daughter of Minos. The woman who helped Theseus escape, only to be abandoned on Naxos and made a goddess by Dionysus. Dionysus, who himself may or may not have been related, at that time, to the hearth and the fire and the ritual drinking taking place in the megaron. A priestess Ariadne as the consort of such a god makes an incredible amount of sense.

I'm not sure we'll ever really know one way or the other what the roles of women were in Mycenaean Greece, but theories and discussions like these definitely provide some food for thought.



Available Now! 
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Long before she ran away with Paris to Troy, Helen of Sparta was haunted by nightmares of a burning city under siege. These dreams foretold impending war—a war that only Helen has the power to avert. To do so, she must defy her family and betray her betrothed by fleeing the palace in the dead of night. In need of protection, she finds shelter and comfort in the arms of Theseus, son of Poseidon. With Theseus at her side, she believes she can escape her destiny. But at every turn, new dangers—violence, betrayal, extortion, threat of war—thwart Helen’s plans and bar her path. Still, she refuses to bend to the will of the gods.

A new take on an ancient myth, Helen of Sparta is the story of one woman determined to decide her own fate.





Forged by Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1) Tempting Fate (Fate of the Gods, #1.5) Fate Forgotten (Fate of the Gods, #2) Taming Fate (Fate of the Gods, #2.5) Beyond Fate (Fate of the Gods, #3)
Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga, #1) * Postcards from Asgard * Helen of Sparta
Buy Now:
Amazon | Barnes&Noble