Posts Tagged ‘women’s ficion’
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
IF I SHOW YOU MINE, WILL YOU SHOW ME YOURS?
New Year’s Resolutions
It’s that time of year, again. I’m taking stock of my accomplishments. 2009 was a great year, filled with milestones in my writing life. My short story, Lessons from a Squirrel appeared in the Pisgah Review, and my debut novel is out from Red Rose Publishing. I completed my second novel and I’m currently seeking agent representation. I’m busy revising a middle grade high fantasy that I wrote in between my more serious projects as an escape – it’s pure fun! And I have started to put pen to paper on a new, adult novel that has been percolating in my imagination for a few years.
In 2009, I started this blog, and my group blog: The Roses of Prose, launched a website, found a community of writers and readers on various yahoo and ning groups, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, and more. But I feel as if I have only climbed an inch up the learning curve when it comes to book promotion.
It should come as no surprise that along with taking stock in past accomplishments, the New Year prompts me to set new goals. I’m going to share my New Year’s Resolutions with you—both writing-related and personal. As 2010 progresses, I’ll check in on Fodder for Fiction to share my progress.
Resolutions 2010:
1. Revamp Author Website
2. Punch-up Blog Lisa Leibow’s Fodder for Fiction and plan programming for the year
3. Finish my Fictional Slave Narrative by June and have it ready for a critique group.
4. Finish the rewrite of my middle grade high-fantasy by incorporating feedback from my new critique group.
5. Actively seek agent representation and a publishing home for my completed second novel.
6. Write four short stories
7. Donate blood at least 6 times
8. Exercise at least three times per week
9. Read at least 50 books (i.e. read all of the books I have purchased and are in my to-read pile)
I hope that my goals inspire you to set some of your own. Comment and leave your resolutions here, too. We can encourage one another on throughout the year. Wish me luck!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
http://www.llleibow.com/
Hanukkah Gifts: It’s the Thought That Counts…
When I’m not reading or writing, I try to choose active recreational activities to counteract the impact of the many hours of sitting the work I love requires. I take walks, jog, spin classes, ski, swim, yoga, tennis lessons. I like to mix it up so I don’t get bored. And it’s fun to try new things and challenge myself.I suppose honing in on this quest for an active lifestyle in the midst of an obsession with a creative process that is sedentary in nature, is what drove my family to buy me a very thoughtful Hanukkah gift – Wii Fit, Personal Trainer. I received the gift on the fourth night of Hanukkah, opened the disk and popped it into the machine. The virtual trainer put me through a surprisingly tough workout filled with simulated track running, squats, lunges, and even some cardio-boxing.
While the trainer demonstrated the exercises with a cartoon-version of me on the screen, I followed along, taking note of the calories I’m incinerating as I move my body. What a nice way to get in some activity on a cold, wintry, or rainy day when I don’t want to get outside for a run.
My husband and sons found me a beautiful, thoughtful, gift. So, why do I have this nagging suspicion that it is also a hint, somehow? As I contemplate this gift, I can’t seem to shake the image of a beer-bellied, scruffy man getting a gut-buster as a gift, or a woman with saddlebags the size of Oklahoma receiving a thigh-master. I have always thought I had a healthy body image, but maybe I’m wrong. Is the Wii Fit Personal Trainer, my family’s way of telling me I need a gut-buster?
There, I did it. I admitted my silly insecurities. I’m not an ingrate. I love the gift and I’ll bust my gut using it!
Happy Hanukkah everyone! May this Festival of light bring joy and laughter to you!