Celebrating Lots of Things

It's celebration time again--and I am two days late! For good reason, though. I'm celebrating several things this week. 

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. )





What am I celebrating?

First, Goodreads is having a book giveaway for Beyond Watson from August 26th to September 3rd, 2016. So jump in and win your copy
HERE: I'll be updating with my thumbnail reviews of four more stories in a couple of days. 

Second, I finished one of those two big projects I mentioned a few posts ago: The finished project was a rewrite of a cozy mystery that I'm going to be pitching to a couple of agents at a workshop in a week and a half. 

(The second project--a mystery project until I finish--will tie me up for all of September, but when I finish, you can bet I'll be celebrating here!)
                      

Third, my copy of Mark Noce's Between Two Fires came yesterday. Yay! I was getting a little concerned, because he's signing books in Sacramento this coming Saturday, and I want to him to sign my copy. So I'm celebrating his signing as well.  







And Fourth -- a bit more personal -- my god brother had heart surgery a couple of weeks ago and came through it like a champ! He's doing great. So happy for this very special person and his very special wife!

How about you? I hope good things are happening in your life and that you are having a week of celebrating the small and large things that make life so meaningful. Have a great week. 

New Book Review -- Rodin's Lover

It's celebration time again--time for the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. )

Today I'm celebrating the discovery of another fabulous read, a novel about Rodin, the French sculptor, and his tempestuous relationship with Camille Claude, his muse and the love of his life.

Rodin's Lover is set in Belle Epoque Paris -- the Paris of the French Impressionist painters. The author, Heather Webb, captures the era beautifully: cobblestone streets, cafés, ateliers (artists' studios), gaslit street lamps and the new electrical lights, church spires, horse-drawn carriages, the elite art critiques who held artists' destinies in their hands. To that mix, Webb brings the texture and reality of sculpting in clay, chiseling and polishing marble, and the thrill of the artist coaxing life out of stone and mud and creating something to last beyond his or her own life. 

The story itself is heart-breaking. The author thoroughly researched the lives of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. Camille began studying with the famous sculptor in her late teens, but it soon became evident her genius was on a par with his own. As their relationship evolved, and August trusted her artistic judgement, they became peers critiquing each other's work. Powerfully attracted to each other, it was inevitable that they would become lovers.

In French society, young girls were expected to get married, not have careers. Camille's mother wanted nothing better than to find a suitable suitor for her (though she was a cold and critical mother in every other respect). Camille was strong-willed and independent, determined to become famous and not let herself be broken. She was also suspicious and obsessive. Auguste still lived (unmarried) with the mother of his son and didn't feel he could abandon her. He, too, was strong-willed and obsessive. They were the perfect mix for an affair filled with passion and despair, and the author makes you ache for these two star-crossed artists from the first page until the last.

You can find out more about the book and the author HERE. She's a historical fiction writer and has written another book I would like to get -- Becoming Josephine. 

BTW: Please go next door to my Fourth Wish blog  to read my review of Mark Noce's debut historical novel that will be published next week -- Between Two Fires It's both historical romance and a mystery set in Celtic Britain in the year AD 597. A really gripping read.

And next week I'll be back to report on four more stories from Beyond Watson, so please come back then.

Meanwhile, do you have a favorite period of history you like to read about? Are you a fan of historical fiction? Or are mysteries more your cup of tea? And what are you celebrating this week? Please share.

Celebrate the Small Things

It's nice to return to the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. )

I'm celebrating the continued good news about my eyes: The pressure has come down a great deal in both eyes. 

It looks like I won't need glaucoma surgery in my left eye, although in a couple of years I will need cataract surgery, and I will need to take eye drops for the rest of my life.

At present I still take an eye drop every two hours for my right eye (the operative eye). But my opthamologist says it is healing nicely and looks very good. She gave my husband and I the go ahead to travel in October to our beloved Galicia. We would have liked to go for two months (September and October), but she's still monitoring it. I have another eye appointment next week, and then I'm assuming the check-ups will fade to every two weeks, then monthly, then every two months. Once she's sure it's stabilized, then the check-ups will be every 6 months.  (So hopefully next spring we can stay longer.)

What are you celebrating today? I'm looking forward to your good news. Have a great day, and have a great week-end. 

More Stories from Beyond Watson

Political conventions, doctor appointments, and working on query letters have delayed my continued reviews of Beyond Watson stories, but now I'm back to share four more tales in this collection with you.

Perhaps what I'm enjoying most about the stories is how different they are from one another. They all capture the "Victorian" tone of storytelling, but each author has a distinct voice. A second factor is the contrast between a short story and a novel. For quite a few years, I've been mainly reading novels. I had forgotten how pleasurable it is to dip into something you can finish in one sitting, compared to the commitment a novel takes and the vexation you feel when you have to put it down because of unfinished tasks hovering in the wings.

So: to the four stories I'm highlighting today:

Don Everett Smith, Jr.'s "The Curse of Cairgannham" weaves back and forth in time and location. It's narrated during "the second year of the Second World War." An 85-year old retired American newsman, Larkin Cobb, looks back on the time he was sent by his editor in New Jersey to interview Sherlock Holmes in England. Cobb ended up assisting Holmes to catch a mysterious figure terrorizing the farming community of Cairgannham. For reasons I can't tell you, Cobb is inspired by this memory as WWII rages on.

Luke Benjamin Kuhns's "The Tiger's Master" is narrated by a minister's wife, Violet Thane, who is  none other than Violet Hunter, the governess Holmes rescued in Doyle's "The Copper Beeches." (It's always fun to meet a character in one story who is a character in another story.) As the minister's wife, Violet has won the confidence of wives in the parish. Thus, Daisy Jones confides in her that thugs assaulted Mr. Jones, leaving him for dead—this some days after he discovered a stranger their back garden. Remembering the way Holmes approached her dilemma when she was a governess, Violet soon discovers nefarious plans afoot and helps Holmes unravel a case full of surprises.

Kieran Lyne's "The Adventure of the White Cedar Hotel" is narrated by Percival Tremayne, a loyal if perplexed employee who functions as butler and jack of all trades for the mysterious hotel owner, William Walberswick. Walberswick has created a sense of privilege to stay at the White Cedar, despite his truly odd rules—one of which is that hotel guests must enter and exit from the back entrance. Recently a new arrival, Monsieur Todd, has started making up his own rules, offending other guests. He seems to have Mr. Walberswick at some disadvantage, which is why Tremayne asks Holmes to investigate. And quite an interesting game is "afoot" here.

And then there is Derrick Belanger's delightful story, "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Sherlock Holmes." Bert Provencher, a mailman, stops by his favorite speakeasy, and notices again a father drowning his sorrows in beer, his sad, young daughter (Virginia) at his side. Today Virginia has a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Hoping to cheer the father and daughter up, Bert launches into the story of how he actually met the real Sherlock Holmes. Amid scoffing remarks of friends in the bar, Bert persists in recounting that fateful day when Sherlock Holmes changed his life forever. A brilliant gem of a tale that left me smiling at the end.

You can get your copy of Beyond Watson at:

AMAZON        and         BARNES&NOBLE      (among other sites) 

Question for you: If you were going to write a story about Sherlock Holmes, who would you choose for a narrator?