The Oldest Memorials

Talking about the battle memorials our Regency Folks would have known.

The oldest ones . . .

We don't know what sort of memorials were raised to fallen soldiers in Britain in the very earliest days.  I like to think Silbury Hill might be one of them.  Silbury Hill is a huge mound of earth -- chalk and clay -- built on the Salisbury plain near Stonehenge four thousand years ago.  I've always wondered if it was homage and memory of some prehistoric leader.


Monuments we can date with some certainty go back to the 800s.
Here to the right is the back of a Pictish Stone at Aberlemno Churchyard in Angus, Scotland.  We see men wearing helmets, carrying spears, shields and swords battle on foot and on horseback.  

Another stone, on the left here, is the Suenos Stone, in Forres, Scotland.  It was one of a pair of obelisks described on maps as late as 1789 as "two curiously carved pillars". This to the left is a drawing made in 1861 of the surviving stone.  Below is a close view of the side.  We see the sinuous vine patterns similar to those found in the Book of Kells.

Panels on the back, so much worn the detail is all but gone,  show battle scenes of horsemen and foot soldiers and, possibly, men playing long straight musical pipes.
What battles do the stone tell of?  Who fought?  Viking, Pict, Gael, or  Northumbrians?  We can't be sure. But the Suenos Stone and the Aberlemno stones were carved with all the art of their time and raised in the honor of those long ago warriors.


Read the rest at Word Wenches  here

Brenda Novak's auction

Every year, Brenda Novak runs an auction to raise money for diabetes research.   It's a good cause.  This year I contributed a gift basket.

Go to here.  for the Brenda Novak Auction.



The  Joanna Bourne basket (My Basket!!  See.  My basket!!!)
is item 2116660.  

So many lovely things to bid on. 

Jewels!!

 See 2154315 2174878   2156649 
2125526  2078380  2152053
2157817
That's a vintage silver necklace.  1920.
2095303  -- I like this because it is a set of three earrings.  So few sets for those of us who have three ears. 


Or consider the random joy of a crocheted tissue box 2152030. 
A box of a bazzilion boxes  2157798
Funky keyboard stickers  2195979 
Or an e-reader  2160553 and  216055





  We got manuscript critiques.  There are wonderful author crits out there -- Julia Quinn, Madeline Hunter ..  just search 'critique'

But every one of these below is less than $100 (right now.)

Christine Wells, Anna Campbell, Courtney Milan, Candace Hern.


 2069562, 2170745 , 2059148 , 2069564



What are you waiting for???

Technical Topic: Finding an Agent for Romance

Someone writes:
"I've finished my Romance manuscript.  Now I'm looking for an agent.  How do I find one? 




Congratulations on finishing the manuscript.  You are now part of the 'finished your manuscript' fraternity.  Only one person in a hundred who says, "I'm going to write a book" makes it this far.  I am so glad you picked Romance.  The world needs more great Romance stories.

As to finding an agent . . . 

There are a couple of books that list agents.  Writer's Market and Jeff Herman's Guide are the two standard.  Most libraries carry them, but it's probably worthwhile owning one or the other. 

I used my own copy of one of those books to make marginal notes of information I found in many sources.  It was my 'central file", as it were. 

I could cross through agents who flat-out didn't handle Romance.  When I tracked down the agents of my favorite writers, I could add this information right in the Guide.  When I googled agents and read interviews they'd given, I wrote my impression of their outlook and personality in the guide. 

It kept everything nicely in one spot.

Another source of agent information is Agent Query here , which will give you a quick, partial list of Romance agents.  Between the two books and the online source, you'll find more agent names than you can shake a stick at.

The trick is finding the right one for you.  You and your agent are going to be together for many years.  You don't just want 'an agent'.  You want an agent who is both good and right for you.

Preditors and Editors here is a good spot to 'vet' your candidates, as is the Absolute Write Bewares and Background Checks Forum here.   This will help you eliminate the outright frauds and the incompetents.  Remember, being listed in the Guides or Agent Query and having a website is not a guarantee of quality or honesty.

Absolute Write also has sections for asking questions about agents and query letters and is just a generally excellent spot for a writer to hang out. 

moving right along . . .
It's worth subscribing to Publishers Marketplace here for a few months.  PM lists many of the sales agents make to publishing houses.  It will tell you which agents have sold and the sort of books they're selling.  It is by no means exhaustive -- many excellent agents don't supply information there -- but it's another source of information.

Another useful line of approach in your agent search is to look at folks who represent writers whose work has something of the flavor of your own.  This is good to do with long established midlist writers, of course, but you might look especially at debut writers whose work you admire.  They'll have agents who are taking on new clients. 
To get the name of an author's agent, check the acks page of their books, or google "author name + agent + literary".

I'd suggest a Romance writer with a completed manuscript join Romance Writers of America for a year.  Join your local chapter.  Join some of the online, special-interest groups.  You will meet other authors, which is reassuring in the sense that we are all in the same boat.  You will meet published authors who can give you advice.  And, with luck, you will make friends.  

For information on query letters, see Miss Snark's Blog here and Evil Editor here.   

Finally, if you plan to submit to some publishing houses -- Harlequin, for instance, and all of the e-pubs, you do not necessarily need an agent right now.  You can submit directly to HQN, e-pubs, Avon and Tor.

I wish you the very best of luck.

The Dutch Cover

Excellent Reader Danielle, tells me the Dutch version of Forbidden Rose is out.   That's a bright and pretty cover, isn't it?

Find it all in Dutch, here.  I think it can't be delivered yet, but that may lie in the future.  I am so delighted to be in Dutch, not least because Holland is such a wonderful place.

Babelfish is surprising little help in translating the blurb at the site.  I do not think I have ever been so confused.

The title means, 'Treason Me Not' which I rather like.

ETA:  Wonderful Dutch reader, Saskia, writes to tell me the title should be translated 'Don't Betray Me'.  Isn't that cool?

Historical Trivia

Just as butchers doubtless have interesting bits left over from cutting up the good meat and bakers have the odd candied fruit or eggwhites they can't use in the day's batch of pastries, Historical Romance writers pick up lovely bits of trivia they can never use in the books.

Today at Word Wenches --

The Bizarre Byways of Research
 

A goodly while ago, Pat Punt asked the Wenches to 
 
. . . share some of the strangest trivia they have come across in their research.  Having done my share of surfing the 'net, I have encountered many a fact stranger than fiction.   Their experience must be even more bizarre.

Bizarre does seem an appropriate description for what we come across.

  From Pat Rice:

The only trivia I remember is from my childhood. I play a mean game of 60's Trivial Pursuit.

But I just recently wrote about the poisonous green paint that might have killed Napoleon (Kill Your Hero with Regency Wallpaper)  and given a whole lot of other people pneumonia, asthma, and the winter blues.

But the one bit of history that sticks clearly in my mind—probably because it affected the area where I lived for twenty years—is the Mississippi flowing backward during the 1811 New Madrid earthquake. Can you imagine how powerful an earthquake would have to be to send the mighty Mississippi backward? And weirder yet, Shawnee tribe leader Tecumseh and his brother predicted the earthquake before it arrived. For some other weird stories about the period: see here.


From Mary Jo Putney:

Lord Uxbridge’s Leg

For the rest . . . head here

Cover Cafe Contest

The 2010 Cover Contest is on!  Here.

This is always fun.

Every year I go there and sigh over all the beautiful and excellent covers. 
Alternate Reality is always breathtaking.  I get envious.  The paranormal folks get the best covers.  Why?  Why?  Why?

Then I head straight for the Worst Covers of the Year.  Because there is great snark involved.
I sympathize with the authors, but I can't help myself.

Anyhow.  Forbidden Rose is in the 'Two Cover' category which delights me because I think that is a beautiful cover.


The information given about artist is limited to --  Artist: Cover Art by Lott Reps; (They are here.)  Cover photo by Shutterstock; Cover design by Springe Design Concepts LLC (Penguin Group, USA)  

I love that stepback cover on TSL.

Stepback by Judy York

mass market cover by Judy York

 I do not know exactly which artist at Lott Reps did the Forbidden Rose cover.


Alan Ayers, here,  did the trade Spymaster's Lady cover.  Judy York, here, did the mass market Spymaster's Lady.

The Alan Ayers trade cover