Shakespeare and Politics

A surprising number of Shakespeare's plays are about politics. The history plays, of course, and Julius Caesar, the first play every kid in high school has to read, thus turning them off to Shakespeare for the rest of their lives. Coriolanus is a play that has a lot to say about today's political climate. But the polotical play everyone forgets about is Antony and Cleopatra. This is what Antony has to say when Cleopatra brings up his wife back in Rome:  Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch of the rang'd empire fall! 

We've all encountered politicians like that, politicians who are ready to throw everything under the bus in order to follow their own hearts. It did not end well for Cleopatra and Antony.

Finders Keepers by Mark Bowden...a review

I was talking about non-fiction writers I admire the other day and I somehow left Mark Bowden (Killing Pablo, Blackhawk Down) off my list. This is the review I did of his book Finders Keepers back in 2002.

In Mark Bowden’s FINDERS KEEPERS, a South Philly loser becomes a folk hero when he finds $1.2 million that fell off an armored car. In 1981, the economy in Philadelphia was like a Bruce Springsteen song—jobs that have sustained families for years have disappeared and they aren’t coming back.  That puts people like 28-year-old JOEY COYLE on the streets without too many options.  Joey never finished high school, but on the docks, he was respected for his almost supernatural knowledge of machinery.  Unemployed, he just another speed freak.  And he’s getting into a downward spiral—using all his money to buy meth and then borrowing from his dealers.

This story really is kind of irresistible.  Joey is a natural born loser, although he has charm to burn.  (There’s literally no one with a bad word for him, even when he’s at his most “hopped up” from the drug he calls ‘blow.”)  There are moments in this strange saga where we’re almost doubled over laughing—from his manic search to find a suitable hiding place for the money to his attempts to shove money into his clothes at the airport before resorting to donning panty hose.

Enjoy a good Cinderella story? Fashionista is Free this week!

Last year I kicked off a series of bite-size, modern retellings of fairy tales. Eventually there will be ten, including Hunter's Kiss (due out in two weeks), a retelling of Snow White, Hero's Kiss (a retelling of Beauty and the Beast), and The Unknown Road (East of the Sun, West of the Moon).

I have a soft spot for this book. Like Bride of the Midnight King, the heroine has an intriguing relationship with her youngest sister, one of the stepsisters. When I write little sisters, I tend to think of my own who was a complicated person I loved dearly, even when she drove me crazy. I miss her and she often shows up in my fiction in various guises.

Fashionista takes place in Chicago, a city one of my best friends now calls home. I had a good time playing around with the fairy tale and if you like that sort of thing, you might like this book. (Did I mention it's free for the next five days?) And if you like the book, would you say a few nice words about it?  Thanks.

History Has Been Made

I think that even if Hillary Clinton is not the nominee of your party or of your heart, you must still recognize what a momentous, hinge of history moment this is. Women have had the right to vote in this country since 1919. It's taken nearly a hundred years to have a woman run for president as the nominee of a major party.

Golda Meier became Prime Minister of Israel in 1969. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India in 1966 (and is to date the only female Prime Minister the country has ever had.) Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979. Isabel Martinez de Peron became President of Peru in 1974. Vigdis Finnbogadottir became President of Iceland in 1980. Corazon Aquino became President of the Philippines in 1986. Park Geun-hye became President of South Korea in 2013. Angela Merkel became Germany's first woman Chancellor in 2009.

If you want to be stunned by just how far behind the U.S. is in giving women a voice in politics, just check out this Wikipedia listing of all the places who have elected or appointed a woman to lead.

Where are the Mer?

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“O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note, to drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.” --William Shakespeare, A Comedy of Errors

I have a fondness for mermaids.  I've written a couple of mermaid stories and I would love to do a series of epic fantasies set in a fabulous underwater kingdom. (The Dark Mer series.)  Everyone I know is telling me not to do it.  (The smart money right now is on Gargoyles being the next big paranormal "creature" and that's fine. I think there are a lot of possibilities in gargoyles. And also, if it means an end to the endless procession of "shifter" stories, I'm there. But mermaids...There need to be more mermaid stories. Chinese filmmaker Stephen Chow (whose hilarious The God of Cookery is must-viewing for any foodie) wrote and directed made half a billion dollars with his movie The Mermaid. there's also a lovely movie about a mermaid and France's Sun King that's stuck in development hell. I read it for a film market a few years ago and there was even a star attached, but it seems to have fallen off the grid. Maybe it's time to reboot Splash!

 

A message from the King--Stephen King, that is

Shakespeare's famous Butterfly Line

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Since we were speaking of butterflies, I went looking for a Shakespeare quote about butterflies. I found this from King Lear:  "We will laugh at gilded butterflies." I don't know King Lear as well as I should--I've only ever seen adaptations of it, like Uli Edel's King of Texas (with Patrick Stewart)--but the play is crammed full of gorgeous lines. "Come not between the dragon and his wrath!!"  Love that one.