I always read the Afterwords in books. I like knowing what bit of stray inspiration sparked a novel, or what random collision of events spawned a tale. (I remember reading Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box and thinking he'd read the same eBay listing I had, a listing where a woman was offering her father-in-law's suit for sale because her kid was afraid of his ghost. I've never seen an interview where he talks about it, but I'd bet that's where he got the idea.)
In school we always get the bare bones explanation for where Shakespeare got his plots but they never explained that King Lear is actually related to Cinderella, as Shakespeare's Storybook does. I read that in the book blurb and now I HAVE to get this book.
Over at Shakespeare & Beyond today, there's a little background and a link to a podcast interview with Caroline Bicks and Michelle Ephraim who have put together Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dreams, a whimsically illustrated collection of drink recipes "inspired" by Shakespeare. (The drinks have names like "Caliban's Wrong Island iced Tea.") You'll find a couple of the drink recipes there as well. (If you enjoy this sort of literary/liquor match up, you should check out Tim Federle's books, Tequila Mockingbird, Gone With the Gin, and Hickory Daiquiri Dock.)
This smart book about a
young protagonist taking on dark forces owes a lot to the Harry Potter series.She’s an orphan
whose father and mother perished under peculiar circumstances and she now lives
with a woman who may or may not be her aunt, but who is certainly rather
abusive.Mrs. Rokaby is bad enough but
her evil rabbit Bigamist is a real villain!
The characters are rooted in the real world, which makes the
time tornados and time traps really work.They’re more magical fantastical than science fiction, and we are very
interested in how things are going to play out.(That opening is really tasty and very visual.)
In some ways, we can see the derivation of a lot of the
ideas here.In particular, the story
reminds us of John Bellairs’ trilogy of books that begins with The House with the Clock in its Walls.The young
protagonist of that book (a chubby ten year old) has to track down the clock by
solving a mystery, and saves the world thereby.This book is just as complex and just as satisfying, and young Silver
(named after her father’s favorite pirate, Long John Silver) is a kid we can
really sympathize with and really like.She is just little (sort of like a hobbit) but she has to do a brave
thing because it’s the thing to do.
They say that two
wrongs do not make a right. That is a concept that was unknown to me until the
Duke and his daughter came to the island and took it for their own. My mother
offered the duke friendship and welcomed the girl, but he saw her as an enemy
and with his magic imprisoned her.
He
took my birthright and in return, he taught me language, which I welcomed, for
it allowed me to curse and I often had need to curse.
Yes, #ShakespeareWeek continues with another fabulous YouTube find, the 1978 Royal Shakespeare Company's version of Macbeth starring Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench. Yes, Shakespeare royalty. You can see it here. The production is stripped down, minimalist and intimate, with semi-modern dress. McKellen was 39, when he played Macbeth, Judi Dench, 44. McKellen, at 5'11" is nearly a foot taller than Dench, and that physical disparity makes her seem almost fragile at times. But watching her face as she gives voice to her ambition--bemoaning that Macbeth is so full of the milk of human kindness--and the way she seduces her husband into regicide, you have no doubt that this is one DANGEROUS lady. It's a terrific production.
I've been wanting to see this forever but somehow never did. But now that it's #ShakespeareWeek, I went looking for Shakespeare on YouTube to see what sort of Shakespeare goodness I could find. Imagine my delight when I discovered the full movie is up. Directed by Julie Taymor, who conceived he fabulous stage version of The Lion King, the movie is a visual treat and stars Helen Mirren in the role of Prospera. Shakespeare productions are always fiddling around with the sex of their protagonists, much in the way the playwright himself played with it, but here the sex-change works beautifully in a way that female Hamlets never have for me. If you love the play--and I do, I've seen around seven productions of it--check it out here.
so it's #ShakespeareWeek and I was Googling around looking for Shakespeare silliness and I discovered that there's a Shakespeare brand of fishing equipment. I know Shakespeare isn't the first name that comes to my mind when I think "fishing" so I went looking for something he might have said about the sport. (Was fishing a sport back then? Or was it just another way to catch dinner?) Turns out there is a famous quote from Hamlet:
“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm”
I've seen a lot of productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest. I've seen a Comnedia dell'arte production iperformed solely n Italian during the a cultural "Olympics" that accompanied the 1984 L.A. Summer Olympics, I've seen a production in San Diego with three oversized seashells as the only set (Ellis Rabb played Prospero) and I've seen two more traditional versions, one with Anthony Hopkins and Stephanie Zimbalist and one with Christopher Plummer as the vengeful mage.
When I found out Helen Mirren was going to do a female version of the play with Julie (The Lion King) Taymor directing, I was intrigued but somehow I never managed to catch the 2010 production. But now, thanks to YouTube, I can see the whole movie for free! It was worth the wait. Djimon Hounsou plays Caliban, who has the best line in the play (and one of my favorite lines in all of Shakespeare) when he says, "You taught me language and my profit on't is I know how to curse."
This was Shakespeare's last play, the culmination of a career, a master at the top of his game.
Enjoy it here.
I found myself wondering if there were any fantasy romances out there involving leprechauns and as it turns out, there's a really good one, Kathy Bryson's Feeling Lucky. The book won all kinds of awards when it was published in 2014, and earned a ton of praise from reviewers for being sweet as well as sexy and also for being something different.
Kathy Bryson has written several more books and I wish she lived in the PNW instead of Florida, because her author profile says she's a Shakespeare geek too and I'm looking for someone to go to plays with. You can follow her here.
Continuing with the theme of Shakespeare. This is one of my favorite historical mashup books. I remember reading an interview where the author talks about how she cooked up the idea when all those ABRAHAM LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER/PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIE books were out. I loved the idea of an undead Shakespeare (also used in ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE) and I really lked this book. I haven't read the sequel, ZOMBIE ISLAND, but I like the cover.
I'm a membe rof the Lori Handeland's FULL MOON CLUB--you get all sorts of nifty swag when you join--and a fan of her Night Creatures, Phoenix Chronicles, and Sisters of the Craft series. She's written more than 30 novels and they run the gamut from paranormal stand-alones to the series, to straight-out romances. I like it when an author I like is prolific. Go Lori!
You know how people always say that if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be writing for television? Well, GalleyCat jusr published this great infographic that shows how network execs would break down each play. Check it out here.
Because this is the year I get everything out there, I collected my three Shakespeare Noir stories, a drabble (100-word story) and a Shakespeare rant into one volume. I'm pleased with the stories, only two of which have been published before. Eventually, I'd like to add more to the volume, but I've promised my writing mentor that I'll concentrate on longer works for a while. ("But I love writing short stories," I whined to her. And she suggested I take a look at my monthly royalties for my other collections and make the choice.)
If you like noir and you like Shakespeare, you might enjoy this collection. Shakespeare Noir will be free for five the next five days.
Shakespeare was a parent. And he also was the author of the famous line, "How sharper than a serpent is an ungrateful child." (King Lear). This book looks like a lot of fun.
This book caught my attention because the book blurb mentioned ROMEO & JULIET and I'm always on the lookout for things Shakespearean. It doesn't really have that much of a connection, but one of the things the reviewers really liked is that the writer got the details of the medieval world right. Since writers who fake it make me crazy, I look forward to reading this. If you're interested too, it's free today for the Kindle.
That lines comes form Act 5, Scene 5, Line 13-15 - Macbeth. I know it's upposed to be bad luck to quote "the Scottish play" but I always felt like that was an actor's superstition, not a writer's one. I always thought that if high schools had students read Macbeth instead of Julius Caesar, there would be more Shakespeare enthusiasts in the world. But no one asked my opinion. (It's Julius Caesar and Romeo & Juliet, which has a higher body count than Hamlet and I honestly don't think those are the best plays to start with.)
If you haven't supped on any horror lately but would like to, check out my longish short story Unsanctified, which is free on Kindle this week. I did a lot of spider research for that story--yet another example of getting lost in research. I so love Google.)
They say that two
wrongs do not make a right. That is a concept that was unknown to me until the
Duke and his daughter came to the island and took it for their own. My mother
offered the duke friendship and welcomed the girl, but he saw her as an enemy
and with his magic imprisoned her.
This book caught my attention because the book blurb mentioned ROMEO & JULIET and I'm always on the lookout for things Shakespearean. It doesn't really have that much of a connection, but one of the things the reviewers really liked is that the writer got the details of the medieval world right. Since writers who fake it make me crazy, I look forward to reading this. If you're interested too, it's free today for the Kindle.
