Posts Tagged ‘book clubs’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHILIPPA GREGORY!
This is the start of a new feature on Fodder For Fiction. Each week, on Wednesdays, we’ll honor the birthday of an author whose birthday falls during the current week. I’ll kick off the celebration by sharing an excerpt from the author’s work portraying a celebration, party, or festive occasion. I figure we should celebrate each of these great writers’ birthdays with a bash they created!
Our first honored author birthday of 2010, is Philippa Gregory, author so many great works of historical fiction, including The Virgin’s Lover, and The Other Boleyn Girl. I love Philippa Gregory’s ability to bring new readers into the historical fiction genre. What I mean by that is, she uses a delightful prose style and bawdy scenes to make her novels page turners – and the kind of historical fiction that even readers who don’t normally read historical fiction will enjoy.
Happy Birthday, Philippa Gregory! Enjoy the excerpt from a masquerade ball scene she wrote.
It was a great romp in the end, far more fun than I had expected, much more of a play-fight than a dance. George flung rose petals at me and I drenched him with a shower of rosewater. The choristers were just little boys and they got overexcited and attacked the knights and were swing off their feet and spun around and dumped, dizzy and giggly, on the ground. When we ladies came out from the castle and danced with the mystery knights it was the tallest knight who came to dance with me, the king himself, and I, still breathless from my battle with George, and with rose petals in my headdress and my hair, and sugared fruit tumbling out of the folds of my gown, found that I was laughing and giving my hand to him, and dancing with him as if he were an ordinary man and I little more than a kitchen maid at a country romp.
When the signal for the unmasking should have come the king cried out: “Play on! Let’s dance some more!” and instead of turning and taking another partner he led me out again, a country dance when we went had to hand and I could see his eyes gleaming at me through the slits in his golden mask. Reckless and laughing, I smiled back up at him and let that sunny approbation sink into my skin.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Feel free to post your own warm wishes to Philippa on her special day.
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
FODDER FOR FICTION ANNOUNCES NEW LINE-UP!
I’m turning over a new leaf! In 2010, instead of posting whenever I feel a whim, my readers should be prepared for a fantastic new line-up of programming at Fodder for Fiction! Look for new features, great guests, monthly writing contests, and chances to win prizes!
Mondays
Fodder For Fiction Feature: I’ll share some of the strange and quirky things I notice around me that contribute to my craft.
Tuesdays
Author Guest Spots: If you are a published author and would like to be a guest on Lisa Leibow’s Fodder for Fiction, please contact Lisa@LLLeibow.com
Wednesdays
Celebrate Author Birthdays with me!
Thursdays
Author Guest Spots: If you are a published author and would like to be a guest on Lisa Leibow’s Fodder for Fiction, please contact Lisa@LLLeibow.com
First Friday
Monthly Writing Exercise – I’m going to post a writing prompt or exercise on the first Friday of every month. Anyone who completes the assignment and sends it to me by midnight EST, the 3rd Friday of the month has a chance to win a prize. With the author’s permission, I’ll choose my favorite entries to post on the blog the following month.
Second Friday
What I’m Reading: I have set a goal to read at least 50 books in 2010. I hope you’ll enjoy following my progress and share what you’re reading, too.
Third Friday
Monthly Rant: Sometimes I think if people couldn’t complain, people would have nothing to talk about! I’ll share some of my venting with you. I hope it will make you laugh and make me feel better, too!
Fourth Friday
Update on Goals for the Year: Many of you may have read my New Year’s Resolutions for 2010. I hope you’ll help me stay on track by indulging me once a month in sharing what action I’ve taken toward achieving my goals. I hope you’ll comment, too, and share your progress. We can be a New Year’s Resolution support group.
Fifth Fridays
Contest – Every month that has five Fridays is extra special! Why, you ask? It’s extra special because during those months, every comment at Fodder For Fiction is a chance to win a goodie bag full of great prizes! Don’t worry. I won’t make you check the calendar. Watch for the Fifth Friday Contests during April, July, October, and December
Weekends
Special Announcement, News & Appearances
I’m looking forward to a great year!
EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PREVIEW BEFORE IT HITS THE BOOK STORES
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Be among the first to read it!
Not every woman who rides the fertility treatment roller coaster winds up like Octomom.
Who will find friends, family, and fertility?
Three women’s lives are intricately intertwined, as Amelia Schwartz and Summer Curtis struggle with the complex dynamics of intrafamily embryo adoption, and Chandy Markum strives to make her patients’ dreams a reality.
After more than a decade, of mourning her parents’ deaths, anal-retentive Amelia Schwartz decides to take control of her life, pursuing single motherhood via embryo adoption. While her fertility doctor, Chandy, is preoccupied with the destruction of the cosmopolitan Cape Town of her youth and her first love in apartheid-torn South Africa, believing all is lost, her niece, a young, married, overachieving attorney Summer Curtis, juggles zealous career ambitions, demanding bosses, and friction with her husband over family and fertility issues. They must confront the painful reality that, no matter what technology humans devise to manipulate reproduction, prolong life, and construct family units, they have not yet mastered control over their beginnings and endings.
Thrown all into this is one story that can make or break. Are you up to it?