Here Be Dragons!

I'm spending this evening with rereading Tolkien's essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". I really like his style of essay writing -- you can just imagine him sitting at his desk with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. E.g., when he argues that BEOWULF should be read as a poem and not as a historical document, he writes: ". . . it is of their nature that the jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research burble in the tulgy wood of conjecture, flitting from one tum-tum tree to another. Noble animals, whose burbling is on occasion good to hear; but though their eyes of flame may sometimes prove searchlights, their range is short."

Ahh, yes, "[beware] the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" But, oh, "[t]he Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, /Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, /And burbled as it came!"

Let's just hope that the Jabberwocks of historical and antiquarian research don't get bitten by the vorpal sword! :O)

Researching Flowers

I have to admit I'm totally clueless when it comes to flowers and to which flowers bloom when. So, obviously, I need help when I write gardens. And what is the ultimate source to research flowers?

Cicely Mary Barker's THE COMPLETE BOOK OF THE FLOWERS FAIRIES! :O)

Musings on a Saturday Afternoon

It's quite surprising what a change a few days of enforced idleness make! Even though I'm still coughing like a mad thing (which is why there won't be a new podcast episode today), I feel so much more relaxed and optimistic about things. I've decided I'm going to make a few changes in my life -- let's see how this is going to work out! Oh, and of course, since we're only two months away from RWA National, it's that time of year again to start losing some weight. *g*

The first excerpt from "Betrayal" is now online!

Tuscany -- where the summers are dry and hot and taste of herbs and olives and the heavy sweetness of dark wine; where the most famous artists of Europe have left their traces in old palaces and in churches striped like zebras. In the midst of the Val d'Arno, amidst rich green fields and hills clothed with the silver olive and vine, lies Florence, the City of Lilies, where once the powerful Medicis ruled. Lavish palaces stud the city and the surrounding countryside, almost as if the soil itself had produced them, and above the sea of red roofs, the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore rides like a giant bubble....

To read more go to

http://www.sandraschwab.com/Excerpt_BETRAYAL.htm

When Real Life Is Weirder Than Fiction

Have you ever thought those smouldering, uber-Alpha Italian M&B-heroes (You dumped me seven years ago so now I'm going to ruin your father's business and the only way to help him is to let me have my wicked way with you and bear me a child) a bit gaga, then think again. This guy isn't just weird, he's seriously sick.

3 Reasons Why It's Nice to Have a Cold

(well, bear with me: I'm trying to cheer myself up here!)

No 3: Your Mum cleans the litter tray for you (very important: you all know how much I hate cleaning the litter trays!)

No 2: You get to sit ... er ... recline on the couch and watch funny films without feeling bad about not working (as to my lesson tomorrow -- what do you think about Beowulf re-enactments? Hm?)

And the No 1 reason why it's nice to have a cold: You can stuff yourself with these extremely yummy chocolate-covered oat cookies and for once don't worry about getting fat! Yay!

(We won't mention painful coughs -- the kind during which your eyes pop out --, painful throats or painful heads, oh no. That's called "Always look at the bright side of life!")

Gotta go and snatch another cookie....

Pics from the reading

Elke was kind enough to send me the pics she took on Friday. Thank you, Elke! :O)

moi

(holding on to a cup of tea)

the audience, rapt in contemplation :)

GOODIES!

(and my arm -- the arm, though, was not part of the goodies)

Scottish Romances

I found this on Maili's blog at mcvane.com and just couldn't stop grinning (even though, or probably because, I truly love Scottish romances): Everything we know about Scotland, we learned from romance books.

No new podcast episode this weekend

... since my voice is now well and truly gone. If you like too, I could cough into the mic for a while, though. *ggg*

Have a lovely Sunday, everybody!

Back home from the reading

The voice came back -- thank heavens! -- and stayed for the reading. Who cares that now my throat hurts like hell and that I'll probably pay dearly for this evening (i.e. no voice on the weekend)? I had a simply wonderful evening! And it seemed that the audience was enjoying the reading, too. So, happy face everywhere!

Will tell more tomorrow. Now, I'll just fall into bed.

Good night! :O)

Major Whine

My voice is gone.

Tomorrow I've got my first big solo reading, the reading I've been looking forward to for weeks and months now, and my fricking voice is gone.

I don't know what to do. What if I'm not able to read tomorrow? I'm almost thirty years old and never in my life did I have a cold that drastically affected my voice. Why now???

Please send good vibes my way that I'll have my voice back tomorrow.

P.S.

Now isn't it ironic: the whole winter I was as healthy as a horse and now, three days before my first big reading, I've got a seriously sore throat. Argh!!!

Romancelandia is a Village

When on one end of the village a cow (metaphorically speaking!) keels over, you can be sure it'll be talked about in at least four more corners of the village. Which is a real advantage for naive little village girls like me 'cause with all the bouncing to and fro, even I am bound to catch the latest on-dit at some time.

Yet with some on-dits, the anthropological researcher-side of me seems to kick in. Hmm... Perhaps I should just go and feed the cats.

Volunteers for doing litter trays? Anybody?

A to Z of Favourite Heroes

(uberfavourite heroes' names are bold)

A -- Adron (Sherrilyn Kenyon, "Fire and Ice" in Man of My Dreams
B -- Bernard MacCullough (Teresa Medeiros, The Bride and the Beast)
C -- Carrot (Pratchett, Discworld novels: you just gotta love a guy who arrests a dragon!)
D -- "Dove", Robert Sinclair Dovenby (Julia Ross, The Wicked Lover)
E --
F -- Francis Crawford of Lymond (Dunnett)
G -- Ganth Doranth (Janet Miller, "The Girl in the Box" in Dream Quest)
H --
I --
J -- Jamie Fraser (Gabaldon)
K -- Kevin Tucker (Phillips, This Heart of Mine)
L -- Lucien Knight (Foley, Lord of Fire) & Lestat de Lioncourt (Anne Rice, vampire books)
M --
N --
O --
P -- Paris Mulholland (Margaret Moore, The Wastrel)
Q --
R -- Raine (Penelope Williamson, Keeper of the Heart)
S -- Seth O'Connor (Janelle Denison, Bride Included)
T -- Troy, of course *g* (okay, okay, his real name is Murgatroyd, but sometimes partial amnesia isn't a bad thing!) (unless it involves a secret baby! *ggg*)
U --
V -- Vanyel Ashkevron (Mercedes Lackey, Last Herald Mage trilogy)
W -- Ward Hunter (Penny Jordan, Lover by Deception)
X --
Y --
Z --

Sandy's Podchatter #9 -- The Midnight Episode!

This week's podcast episode is finally online! Yay! (Yet for some reason I've got the sneaky suspicion that my podcast is getting stranger with each episode ...)

I'm talking about the preparations for the reading and about another one of my favourite authors: Rosemary Sutcliff!

Feel free to leave comments on my podcast website or here.

Enjoy!

After Midnight Post

Gosh, I'm such a daftie: I completely forgot to record a new podcast episode today ... or rather, yesterday, so I did it now, in the past two hours. (Due to vast amounts of tiredness-induced ehms and inability to form proper English words or sentences.) Still haven't quite finished putting it together, but am just tooooooo tired now.

So, new podcast episode will be uploaded later today. Much later! After-severa-hours-of-sleep later!

Good night!

Ooooooh .... He will so suffer!

"ENOUGH!" Ash stormed into the room, towards the grand piano. "Enough!" And slammed the lid shut, not caring that he almost trapped the boy's fingers.

The bang of wood on wood clashed with the housekeeper's shriek.

Breathing heavily, Ash leaned in on the boy and thrust his face into his. "You will never touch this again," he hissed through clenched teeth. "Is that understood?"

All color had fled St. Asaph's face, so his eyes seemed unnaturally dark.

"Understood?" Ash snapped.

Very slowly the boy nodded.

The Muse Hit!

But, luckily, this time time no window was involved! *g*

Last night I wrote this whole outline of yet another story -- which currently bears three working titles: "Behind the Masks" / "To Catch a Dream" / "Playing with Fire". I'm not quite sure which one I like best. "Behind the Masks" is so Phantom-of-the-Operaish -- and this is no Phantom-of-the-Operaish story! "To Catch a Dream" is sweet -- if a little cheesy. "Playing with Fire" -- hmm, I really like this one, but it just occurred to me it makes the story sound like erotica. Which it isn't. Hmmm ...

Anyway, so I had this great wonderful idea -- Muse created whole scenes for me, including a very, very sweet and touching morning-after-scene. Gosh, it's such a lovely story, it's totally driving me crazy that I just don't have enough time for the creative writing! Or not enough time to catch up with all the stories Muse is throwing at me. :-/ I work so long on each story that at the end I really don't like it any longer. :-///

[NOTE TO SELF: Learn to write faster!]

But it's not just that at the end of each book/story, I don't like it any longer, it's also that I think my writing is crap. Well, that usually happens around Chapter 3. With "Betrayal" it happened two days ago when I sat there and thought, "Gosh, who-ever would want to listen to this?" I believe this is part of the general mid-book blues. Only in my case, it's mid-Chapter3-blues. Hmph.

Towards the Maturity of 30

Question: How does a girl notice she's getting older (well, apart from the problem-with-gravity bit) (oh yes, and apart from the bit where her hips get broader if she so much as takes a peek at chocolate)?

Answer: Easy -- you look at guys in their 20s and think, "Oh gosh, babies." And then you go and look at a guy in his 40s and all you can think is, "Oh YUM!" *lol*

No really, I've lately noticed I just can't help grinning when reading about the dangerous, compelling, smouldering, sulking, horribly tormented hero, age 27. I either feel like patting his head and telling him, "It's not that bad, sweetie," or like giving him a good kick in the butt and hoping it'll help him to get his act together.

Now, as to the 40-something yummies: I watched the film WEDDING DATE today, with Dermot Mulroney, who is seriously yummy indeed! :O) Apart from that, the film was really sweet and the plot will be familiar to everybody who loves romance: Kat hires call boy Nick to accompany her to her sister's wedding and pretend to be her boyfriend. Okay, so the call-boy bit is maybe not that usual for romance, but the hiring-guy-to-play-boyfriend/husband/whatever bit certainly is. Does anybody remember Kate Walker's HERS FOR A NIGHT? And all the pretend-engagement plots as in Leigh Michael's TEMPORARY MEASURES?

As I said, the film is rather sweet -- and it's certainly no disadvantage that you get to see a lot of Dermot Mulroney's general and over-all yumminess. Oh, but I've already mentioned that he is yummy, haven't it? *ggg*

Booohooo!

Today I've learnt that one of my favourite bookshops in Frankfurt, Sussman's, will be closing at the end of the month. It's so sad because it was a lovely shop, with a great selection of books. Furthermore, they had a romance section, a fantasy & SF section as well as a crime fiction section -- so all genres I like reading were there.

When they're gone, bookshopping in Frankfurt just won't be the same anymore. :-(

Nothing Interesting to Tell ...

... so here's something cute ...

... something hot ...

... & something to play

Enjoy! :O)

Sandy's Podchatter is "New & Noteworthy"

... at least according to podcasts.yahoo.com! At the moment my podcast is featured on their opening page. Very cool! :O)

Today I'm reading some more on BEOWULF and try to put together my lesson for Wednesday. But I hope I'll also get some writing done in the afternoon.

Can you believe this?

I've just read on a romance readers board about this poor woman who had to go overseas, stored her romance collection at a relative's -- and said relative gave the books away!!! WITHOUT ASKING HER BEFOREHAND!!!!!! Can you imagine? She returns home and all her books are just gone? How awful is that? Gosh, I feel so bad for her! I would give this relative of hers hell! And I mean HELL! Argh!

Sandy's Podchatter #8 is now online!

I'm talking about the meaning of the name "Beowulf" (well, what can you expect after a whole day of reading BEOWULF?) and about the Holland House Circle.

This episode includes:

• kitty purring
• several words I can't pronounce
• an explanation of how meals were served during the Regency
• all together too many "ehms" (but what's new?)

Sandy's Podchatter

Hmph ... MEN!

I really don't know what to make of my hero. Worked on "Betrayal" this morning and now have the sneaky suspicion that Ash will come across as something of a jerk. Hmph. And I'm not quite sure whether I want that. Hmph. Hmph.

Dinner was a quiet affair. For the sake of the Dowager Countess, St. Asaph told of some of the places he had seen, yet quietly and with a new restraint.

Craddling his wine glass in his hands, Ash leaned back in his chair. "And how did you like Venice?"

"Venice?" A hint of color stole into the boy's cheeks.

"Yes. Venice." With studied nonchalance, Ash looked down at his glass and swirled the wine around with gentle movements. "The city of a hundred waterways, with gondoliers and old palaces and --" He glanced up. What kind of contrariness had led him to needle the boy? Was it the sudden new restraint and discipline, so remarkably different from what he was used from his heir? "-- so much other wondrous sights." He raised his brows.

St. Asaph's face shone crimson.

[Note: Among other things, Venice was renowned for its courtesans ...]

Sandy's Podchatter #7 -- The Improvised Episode!

I've finally managed to put the next podcast episode online. It's the one I recorded in my office at uni yesterday. Since this was just before my class, I'm mostly talking about stuff to do with Old English, namely about kennings and about OE riddles (the translations of the riddles are my own).

It's different, but I hope you'll enjoyed it nevertheless! :O)

Letting the Muse Take Over

Today I continued working on "Betrayal", namely on the hero's first scene. I hadn't quite known what to expect; I just knew that said scene described the homecoming of his heir after a tour on the continent. Curiously enough, the hero turned out to be an emotionally frigid control freak. Wooha! How did that happen? Imagine me sitting at my desk and watching in growing astonisment what was flowing into the keyboard. (I don't argue with my Muse. There's no point in arguing with one's Muse. She might stomp off to sulk.) (Besides, she's a good Muse and always right.) (Well, almost always, anyway.)

*rubbing my hands*

Ooooh, it's going to be so much fun to put Ash through the wringer! *big evil grin*

BLC Highlights

• my first mini-reading as published author :O)
  
• readers wanting to take a picture of me (I felt like a celebrity!)
• readers who brought their copy of TLB all the way from the Netherlands so I could sign it for them!
• having dinner with Kathleen Givens & hubby, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Diana Love-Snell (during said dinner I found out that they don't have white asparagus in the US -- a very strange concept for a German! *g*)
  

May Musings

Please note the alliteration -- so very becoming for somebody teaching Old English lit! *g* I spent the day preparing my course and trying to figure out what kind of transparencies I'll have to prepare tomorrow. Am still tired. Need holidays. Grmph.

Due to course preparations podcast episode will be even more late.

Or I could I just read you the first umpteen lines of BEOWULF. In Old English, of course. *GGG*