History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

STORY is all about how to write a screenplay. But it’s also useful to those in the novel-writing business. I have A Writer Friend who doesn’t much care for STORY, but I think that’s because she never really got past the first part about structure and genre. (She didn’t feel she really needed help trying to decide between writing a mockumentary or a social drama.) It contains so much information that I think it can be intimidating, perhaps, to someone who has never actually been through the writing process before. It might seem like a lot of theory, but it’s actually the result of a lot of practice, practice, practice.

FINGERSMITH, by Sarah Waters.

A brilliant piece of historical fiction.

The term meme, coined thirty years ago by the scientist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) refers to “a unit of cultural information.” I was surfing the web one evening and came across such a unit of cultural information on Carla Nayland’s Historical Fiction blog. I couldn’t resist. Carla chose to stick with strictly fictional characters instead of historical ones, but since I write historical fiction, I get to cheat.

Three historical or fictional characters I’d like to meet:

1. Nostradamus, aka Michel de Notredame. Yup, the guy with all the predictions. He’s a pivotal character in the book I’m writing about Catherine de’ Medici, THE BLOODIEST QUEEN. I figure he must have been a rather odd sort, but when he wasn’t off having visions, he was a phenomenal physician (for the time). He was famed for saving many from the plague (although, alas, he lost his wife and children to the disease).
2. Maude Lilly, the clever schemer from Sarah Waters’ beautifully Dickensian FINGERSMITH. Maude is smooth and witty and educated, especially in terms of Victorian erotica; she’d make an elegant and interesting dinner guest.

I've had the honor of chatting with a number of readers' groups across the country. I've enjoyed every single conversation -- especially the part where I get to shut up and hear what other folks are reading.

Kathy and her reading group (Yvonne, Amanda, Linda and Elisa -- betcha thought I wasn't paying attention) in New Jersey recommended YEAR OF WONDERS, by Geraldine Brooks, to me. The story is set in an isolated English village in 1662, and the plot hinges on the characters' decisions whether or not to flee an outbreak of plague.

It's a beautiful novel. I find myself re-reading pages just to admire how sparely and elegantly Brooks puts together a sentence; but my pleasure isn't limited to just the language. The story is very sensitive and moving.

Next, I'm going to read her novel MARCH, about the father of all those LITTLE WOMEN.

I'm so excited! THE BLOODY CHAMBER has been re-issued in paperback. My twenty-five-year-old copy is falling apart, so I'm pleased to be able to get a fresh one. I read and re-read and re-re-read this book while I was working on THE DIARIES OF THE FAMILY DRACUL in hopes that its brilliant, rich Victorian prose would inspire my paler efforts.

THE BLOODY CHAMBER, a feminist re-working of The Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales, is the work of the late, dazzlingly talented Angela Carter. Carter dabbles with language the way da Vinci dabbled with paint. The story "The Bloody Chamber," for which the collection is named (and which is my favorite), is Carter's version of the tale of Bluebeard.

I recommend anything by Carter, whose writing tends toward the fantastic. THE INFERNAL DESIRE MACHINES OF DOCTOR HOFFMAN and NIGHTS AT THE CIRCUS are two of my favorites.

Despite its name, Bookslut isn't slutty at all, but I suppose "bibliophile" and "book lover" have been taken. I stumbled onto this blog last week and have enjoyed keeping up with it. The blogger, Jessa Crispin, writes knowledgeably about books and publishing, and gives constant industry news updates. She's also suggested some interesting titles to read. Besides, she works in a bookstore -- isn't that reason enough to love her? Highly recommended.

Next Wednesday marks Independence Day, the Fourth of July, here in the States. It's only Friday afternoon, but the festive spirit is already in the air and has wafted clear up to the window of my ivory tower. The fragrance was so intoxicating I was forced to set down my manuscript and head to the fishmonger's for a hefty filet. Add a fired-up charcoal grill, limes, cilantro, garlic, onions, tomatoes, avocado, some serrano chiles and corn tortillas and yes, folks, it's Fish Taco Friday here at the Palazzo Kalogridis.

In honor of the looming holiday, I'd like to give a shout out to some of my favorite people in all the world: librarians. Yes, I know I recently shared some Hot Library Smut with you, but it isn't just the buildings that set my heart aflame; it's the women and men who so love and respect recorded knowledge that they safeguard it for us.

In their honor, I submit the American Library Association's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. Please make it a point to read at least one of these books this holiday -- or if not one of these, one you think is a likely candidate for the 2000-2010 list.

Hershey was the canine love of my life. He came to me back-yard bred and sickly, stubborn and independent, terrified of loud noises but certainly nothing or no one else.

He started out as dog-dog aggressive; when he was eighteen months old and I brought Sweetie Pie home as a puppy, he tore her face off when she went near one of his toys. I immediately recruited a local trainer. We set up a little sting: The trainer sat next to Hershey, her hand on his leash; I sat on his other side, my hand on the innocent ten-week-old Sweetie Pie's leash. Enter the jealously-guarded toy. We set it in front of the ninety-pound Hershey's nose, then coaxed Sweetie over to it. Of course he went for her, fangs slavering -- but Bethany, the marvelous trainer, took him down in the blink of an eye. He yelped, not because it hurt, but to signal his submission.

We set the trap up again. This time, when Sweetie wandered over to Hershey's favorite toy and began to play with it, Hersh looked up at the trainer, looked up at me, and buried his face in my lap while Sweetie played happily. From that instant on, he was a perfect gentleman with her. He had just needed to be informed of our pack's rules. And I was in love.

Hersh learned to heel off-leash and walk past barking dogs without blinking an eye; he retrieved the newspaper and the mail like a pro, whispered on command, and in the end, wasn't quite able to perfect his ability to turn lights on and off, because his crippling arthritis made it difficult to reach the switch. And as for being terrified of loud noises -- well, because I always praised him to the skies every time I turned the vacuum cleaner on (no food bribes, just praise), he eventually decided he got a blast out of walking up to the vacuum cleaner and lying down in front of it until I pushed the vacuum up against him. I guess he enjoyed watching me laugh.

He died in January at the age of 13. I grieve him as I would a person.

I thought perhaps that I was the only person to love a dog so deeply, and feel that love returned. That's until I began to read Patricia McConnell's beautiful, amazing books about her relationships with her dogs -- specifically, a border collie named Luke (who also died at 13).

McConnell is an ethologist (student of animal behavior), and her books are fascinating, educational, and poignant -- not to mention elegantly written. Please, pick up copies of THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH and FOR THE LOVE OF A DOG. And if you have an interest in dog training (or like me, a passion for it), please visit her website, www.patriciamcconnell.com.

Bartleby.com is a must, only the coolest site ever invented for readers and writers. It features a mind-boggling slew of reference titles (we're talking hundreds), poetry anthologies, novels (the classics), and nonfiction titles. You can read anything from Roget's Thesaurus to Bartlett's Quotations to the King James Bible to Gray's Anatomy. Need some free Shakespeare fast? Bartleby.com has it. In fact, it probably has every reference title or classic work you can think of.

So bookmark it already!

Want to visit a website that:

1. offers 75 free university courses, and
2. offers hundreds o free foreign language courses in Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian... (shall I continue with the rest of the alphabet?) and
3. offers hundreds of free jazz and classical music (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven), and
4. offers hundreds of free audiobooks, and
5. offers hundreds of free videos (including all eight seasons of THE DAILY SHOW), and
6. offers a bazillion other really cool free educational/fun brainbits?

Welcome to Open Culture. As the FAQ explains,

Open Culture explores cultural and educational media (podcasts, videos, online courses, etc.) that’s freely available on the web, and that makes learning dynamic, productive, and fun. We sift through all the media, highlight the good and jettison the bad, and centralize it in one place. Trust us, you’ll find engaging content here that will keep you learning and sharp. And you will find it much more efficiently than if you spend your time searching with Google, Yahoo or iTunes.

If you love learning, go. Check it out, because this site is so dazzlingly comprehensive, I can't begin to tell you all the neat stuff it contains. I stumbled onto it by accident, and could easily spend the rest of my life here without scratching the surface.

Recently, I had the pleasure of stumbling onto Dan Simmon’s website. It includes the usual list of the author’s works, as well as a forum and a series of essays called Writing Well. The latter are so well-written and entertaining that I’ve linked to them for you here.

One of my favorite passages from Simmon’s essays includes the theory of developing a story (I think it’s a perfect description of what occurs when I write a novel):

Speaking of Dan Simmons, I just finished his novel, THE TERROR. The title suggests a horror novel – and the story is indeed very dark. But it is wrapped in an elegant historical novel, titled after the name of a nineteenth-century British ship which became trapped in frozen polar waters. Simmons’ ability to capture the sights, sounds and smells of the Arctic and the ships and crews that braved its seas is breath-taking. I was completely absorbed by the story, the setting, the characters, and the precise, stunning details.
His next novel, DROOD, focuses on Charles Dickens’ friendship with Wilkie Collins, the nineteenth-century author whose mystery THE WOMAN IN WHITE is considered a classic. His website states DROOD will be published in January 2009, although publication dates sometimes shift. I’ll be waiting…

When my agent, Russ, first suggested that I try my hand at a historical, he mentioned that I ought to study an author who happened to be represented by my foreign agent, Danny. That author was Noah Gordon, who wrote a fine novel which became a bestseller in Europe, though not so much here: THE PHYSICIAN, set in the 11th century. THE PHYSICIAN is the story of young Rob Cole, a Londoner who is determined – after the loss of his mother – to learn all he can about healing. It’s a richly detailed look at the healing arts in the early middle ages. I highly recommend Gordon’s books.