Archive for October, 2009

Richard the Lionhearted on Alais and Philippe Auguste

Monday, October 26th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

When asked why he held Princess Alais of France for years in Rouen without sending her back to her brother, King Philippe Auguste, Richard the Lionhearted said:
 
“I would not give a dog into his keeping, much less a defenseless woman.”
This quote is not from real life, but will be in a future CE novel…

The Cave

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | The Writing Life | No Comments

I am not sure if all writers experience The Cave, though I suspect a lot of us do. I have heard Karen Essex mention it in passing online, so I am not the only one. My time in The Cave is when I get deeply involved in my work, when I hit about the 1/4 point in my novel’s first draft. I have hit that point with my latest work, TO BE QUEEN, and I find myself disappearing from the rest of the world, becoming more and more drawn into the world Eleanor inhabits, the world she and I are creating together.

Quote of the Week

Friday, October 16th, 2009 | The Writing Life | 2 Comments

“I like living. Sometimes I have been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all, I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

Agatha Christie

Richard the Lionhearted

Monday, October 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments

“If once you sell your honor, at what price can you buy it back again?”

Quote from Richard the Lionhearted, not from real life, but to be used in a CE novel in the future.

Bright Star and Art

Friday, October 9th, 2009 | Reviews, The Writing Life | 4 Comments

Art: film, poetry, story-telling, acting, if done well, teach us to know ourselves. BRIGHT STAR, Jane Campion’s latest film, did that for me. To show love, spring, winter, loss, beauty, poetry and grief so clearly, so honestly in the space of two hours, when reams of paper are spent and burned without achieving even a shadow of all those things. Thank you, Jane Campion, for reminding me of what I am striving for.