Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Science Fiction Additions

Currently I'm still reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Following that are Queen of Swords by Judith Tarr and Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott. I must say that at the rate I'm going, getting through A Game of Thrones will take a while but thankfully I renewed my library books for a few more weeks. (^_^)

After noting that I've been reading mostly fantasy and historical fiction lately, I've decided to add some science fiction to my reading list. A few fantasy authors I hadn't heard of before or hadn't had the chance to read yet also made the cut. I've compiled these authors from several websites, including those recommended by my public library. Most likely I won't be able to read all of them but I like having variety. and there are many subgenres within SF. Science fiction is a new genre for me, both in terms of reading and writing so this will be a bit of an adventure! This list is as follows (alphabetically):

  1. Douglas Adams
  2. Isaac Asimov
  3. Iain Banks
  4. Alfred Bester
  5. Ray Bradbury
  6. David Brin
  7. Lous Master Bujold
  8. Jim Butcher
  9. Orson Scott Card
  10. Arthur C. Clarke
  11. Philip K. Dick
  12. Gordon R. Dickson
  13. Stephen Donaldson
  14. David Eddings
  15. Harlan Ellison
  16. Steven Eriksen
  17. Philip Jose Farmer
  18. David Gerrold
  19. William Gibson
  20. Terry Goodkind
  21. Peter Hamilton
  22. Harry Harrison
  23. Robert A. Heinlein
  24. Frank Herbert
  25. Robert Jordan
  26. Guy Gavriel Kay
  27. Gregory Keyes
  28. Ursula K. Le Guin
  29. Stanislaw Lem
  30. Laurie Marks
  31. Elizabeth Moon
  32. Larry Niven
  33. Frederick Pohl
  34. Terry Pratchett
  35. Karl Schroeder
  36. Robert Silverberg
  37. Dan Simmons
  38. E.E. "Doc" Smith
  39. Neal Stephenson
  40. Theodore Sturgeon
  41. Harry Turtledove
  42. Jack Vance
  43. Jules Verne
  44. David Weber
  45. H.G. Wells
  46. Tad Williams
  47. Jack Williamson
  48. Connie Willis
  49. Gene Wolfe
  50. Roger Zelanzy
Oi, that's a lot of authors! When I started searching, I really wanted about 10-15 but obviously I found a lot more! In any case, I have lot of material now and hopefully I'll learn more about the SF genre.

Now how about some appropriate mood music to go along with this science fiction collection? Personally when in a SF writing mood I tend to listen to/be inspired by: Juno Reactor, The Prodigy, KMFDM, early Powerman 5000 (not the recent punk stuff), Vapor Transmission by Orgy (although several songs from Candyass and Punk Statik Paranoia work well too), Amphibious Assault, Linkin Park, Razed in Black, and electronica-influenced Japanese musicians such as Takuya Angel, DJ SiSeN, Schwarz Stein, and GPKISM. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! I love mood music!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Three Books of Interest

Egads, I have been very busy lately! I've been preoccupied with various teaching commitments and a generally busy summer so please bear with me. Unfortunately I haven't been able to read as much as I would like, but I still endeavor to read as often as I can.

Currently, I have three books of interest checked out from the library:
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott, and Queen of Swords by Judith Tarr.

At present, I am reading
A Game of Thrones. I must admit that while I am only a few chapters into the novel, (and consequently the series), I'm thoroughly confused due to the steady onslaught of names and references to wars, political factions, and geographical locations in addition to the wildly shifting point of view characters. From these first impressions, this will be a challenging read. I'm already resorting to Wikipedia articles on the series in order to clarify relationships between characters and historical events. I'm hoping that as I become more familiar with the world and its denizens (as well as Martin's style of writing) that I'll be able to keep track of everything better. I'll blog about my progress with the novel and other issues I encounter.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Updated Reading List

I have returned! The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy because I've been studying for certification exams and starting my teaching assistantship. Lately I haven't been working on my novel much due to work commitments and various projects, and accordingly, I haven't been able to read for pleasure or update this blog as much as I would have liked. Things have calmed down for a bit, for now at least.

Since I've read several books from my original reading list, I've had to modify it. Here's the original list:

1. Arrows of the Queen (The Heralds of Valdemar, Book One) by Mercedes Lackey
2. The Borgia Bride: A Novel by Jeanne Kalogridis
3. Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle (Book One) by M.C. Scott
4. Bridget Jones' Diary: A Novel by Helen Fielding
5. Colman by Monica Furlong
6. Dealing With Dragons: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book One by Patricia C. Wrede
7. The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici by Jeanne Kalogridis
8. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
9. Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening by Stephen Kuusisto
10. The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
11. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book One) by George R. R. Martin
12. Homer's Daughter by Robert Graves
13. Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg
14. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
15. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
16. My Lady of Cleves: A Novel of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
17. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicles, Day One) by Patrick Rothfuss
18. The Nanny Diaries: A Novel by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin
19. Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
20. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

So far, I've read (or reread in some cases) #6, #7, #8, #16, #17, and #18. I checked out #14 but had to return it before I had a chance to read much of it. So far, I have not been able to locate #12 at any library so I think I might have to take it off the list due to unavailability.

In addition to the books on this list, I've found others: Dragonsbane by Barbara Hamly, Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier, The Widow of Jerusalem by Alan Gordon, and The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.

For now, the modified reading list will look something like this:
  1. Arrows of the Queen (The Heralds of Valdemar, Book One) by Mercedes Lackey
  2. The Borgia Bride: A Novel by Jeanne Kalogridis
  3. Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle (Book One) by M.C. Scott
  4. Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening by Stephen Kuusisto
  5. The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
  6. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book One) by George R. R. Martin
  7. Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
  8. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
At present, I put a hold on #1 and #6 and #3 is apparently available at the local library, so I will be picking that up as soon as possible. With that said, the list may expand to include subsequent series titles (i.e. Lackey, Scott, Martin) if they catch and hold my interest. Due to my recent boredom (and perhaps saturation) with the chick lit and historical fiction genres, I have decreased the selections from these two areas to one each.

I will remain rather busy this summer with various projects and commitments, but I will do my best to update this blog as often as I can and continue to work toward my reading goal. Once I read the eight books from my new reading list, I'll have to find new ones! Won't that be exciting?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Showing vs Telling

Note: This post was written and intended to go up on May 21. However, due to a coding error, I was unable to post it. With help, I was able to fix it. Hooray! In any case, I apologize for the delay in new posts. With that said, read on to the rest of my original post...

Show, don't tell! (If you've never heard of this phrase, check out http://foremostpress.com/authors/articles/show_not_tell.html for explanation through exercises.)


This classic fiction writing issue came up when I started reading Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. Every good writer knows to hook the reader immediately—if you start off slow, you may very well lose your reader's interest in the process. Unfortunately, Hambly did more telling than showing. I understand that exposition has its time and place in writing—in fact it's necessary—but a good writer can still execute exposition via showing rather than telling. As Anton Chekov said, "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

If you read the back of the novel, you think to yourself, "Oh, this books is about heroic characters, magic, and battles with dragons! Cool!" Take a look at the book's cover, where the menacing black dragon Morkeleb cradles a young woman (presumably the female protagonist Jenny) in his claw. What's the situation there? How did these characters get there? Is there going to be a fight? Will the dragon win? As a reader, I'm interested!

The first chapter, however, showed a much slower pace and repeated descriptions. The book starts off set in the northern wilds of the Winterlands, but Hambly seems to take this setting for granted because she fails to show how dangerous this place is and what adaptive skills its denizens must acquire in order to survive there. Rather than saying Jenny Waynest was "tough as the roots of moorland heather" (page 2), I think there were other ways of demonstrating that toughness. Courage, specific magic talents, scouting skills, and battle prowess immediately comes to mind. These traits could be illustrated easily through action so that one never has to say the heroine was tough; the reader clearly understands that she is by what she does.

Furthermore, Hambly failed to show me why I, as the reader, should care why Jenny, a witch, is riding about alone in the Winterlands and fighting three bandits by herself. Why are these bandits considered legitimate threats? They seemed rather stupid and easily dispatched with magic and a halberd so they weren't particularly intimidating antagonists. They didn't appear to be stealing anything or doing anything of notice except lacking hygiene. A team of bandits (or better yet, some kind of militia or mercenaries) attacking a fort or village would have been better. A heroine squaring off against a dragon would have been cooler too. After all, I was promised dragons, right?!

On another note, I found it somewhat odd that Hambly chose to name her main characters Jenny Waynest and John Aversin but confusingly refers to the latter alternatively by his surname or Dragonsbane rather arbitrarily. Personally, I though Aversin would have been fine for a hero's name, but Jenny? It doesn't seem to fit the mood of high fantasy, at least to me. I would have chosen something else to better fit a thirty-seven-year-old witch who is also the mistress to the famous dragon-slayer. Of course, then again, I'm a complete name geek who studies onomastics for fun...

Ultimately, I was disappointed when I finished Dragonsbane. The two male characters, which previously were introduced as main characters, faded to erratic appearances. I was skeptical about the presence and necessity of the gnomes in the story. Why call them gnomes when they were clearly thinly disguised Tolkienesque dwarves? Additionally, I felt there were far too few dragons. The dragon Morkeleb, while described in interesting ways every now and then, was an apathetic character since he didn't appear until more than half-way through the book and the promised battle was simply glossed over. By then I had lost considerable interest since I was growing bored and frustrated since I found the antagonist melodramatic and the plot muddled. Magic, although pervasive, was not clearly defined, leaving room for confusing metaphysical passages that detracted from the storyline. I wasn't really rooting for the characters because I was left wondering, "Why should I care about them? What do they want? What do they get if they succeed? Why does that matter?"

Meh. With all that said, I learned a bit about varying levels of success with showing vs telling in a novel and tropes of high fantasy. It's certainly something to consider for my own writing. Also, when an author promises the reader that dragons will appear, the author should not disappoint!!

After finishing Dragonsbane, I think I'll read either Julie & Julia or Eat, Pray, Love for a change of topic.
Let's see how that goes.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Books Happened!

Hooray! My requested books from the library came in today, and while I was there I picked up an additional two. It seems that finishing The Boleyn Inheritance last night was opportune. I admit I probably could have read it a little faster but I wasn't sure when the requested books would come in, and I didn't want to be bored in the interim.

Now I have Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes, The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis, and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert along with The Widow of Jerusalem by Alan Gordon and Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. That means I have a gothic novel, two historical fiction novels, a memoir, a historical mystery, and a fantasy novel. I think that's a decent mix in terms of variety. Plus I have until June to read them all.

I chose The Widow of Jerusalem firstly because it involves Isabella of Jerusalem (the titular widow). She was the Queen Regnant of Jerusalem from 1190/92-1205 and the daughter of King Amalric I and his second wife Maria Comnena; this made her the younger half-sister of King Baldwin IV and Queen Sibylla. (This Sibylla is perhaps better remembered as depicted by Eva Green in Ridley Scott's film The Kingdom of Heaven, albeit historically inaccurate with regards to her life in some respects i.e. notably her marriage to Guy de Lusignan and a highly romanticized relationship with a fictionalized Balian of Ibelin.).

Isabella attracted my attention because she contested her half-sister's rule of Jerusalem and eventually succeeded her, married four times (producing seven children in total from her cumulative marriages), and lived during the tumultuous Third Crusade. Secondly, The Widow of Jerusalem is classified as a historical mystery rather than simply a historical novel set during the Third Crusade. This intrigued me and I wanted to see where the author would take the plot, given historical events flavored by mystery. Thirdly, the novel takes place during the Crusades, a time period I've read little about in fiction, and I felt that it would balance Tudor heavy novels I've been reading along with a selection on Catherine de Medici.

Having investigated the royal house of Jerusalem, I must admit I'm interested in reading about Sibylla and her grandmother Queen Melisende in addition to Isabella. To do so, I'll be looking into Queen of Swords by Judith Tarr, The Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell, and Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland. While I'm aware of the various inaccuracies depicted in The Kingdom of Heaven, I found the extended edition of the film to be quite engaging (and making better sense than the trimmed theatrical version), largely due to the portrayals of Sibylla (Eva Green) and Saladin (Ghassan Massoud).

My second new selection, Dragonsbane, was selected for three reasons. Firstly, I thought a fantasy novel would bring variety to my current reading. I've been a fan of the genre for many years and would love to find a book I can't put down (which I haven't been able to find with the genre since I read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss in 2007). Secondly, I'd seen the book years ago and wanted to read it, but for some reason, never got around to doing so. Thirdly, the book is about dragons. This is of great interest to me since my own novel involves dragons (hence why I read Dealing with Dragons), and I felt that reading other books about dragons would give me a taste of what's out there. I'm familiar with the dragons depicted by Patricia C. Wrede, J.R.R. Tolkien (what fan of fantasy isn't?), Christopher Paolini, Jane Yolen (through her Dragon's Blood series), J.K. Rowling, Patricia A. McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld), and Michael Ende (The Neverending Story). Let's see what Barbara Hambly does with dragons and medieval fantasy.

All in all, I think my trip to the library was quite successful, and I'm very excited about reading the books I currently have. I'm not sure which to read first, though, because I could go a variety of ways. For example, I could stay in the Tudor vein and read My Lady of Cleves since I just read about Anne in The Boleyn Inheritance. Or I could stay in the general historical fiction genre with The Devil's Queen but have a different protagonist, time period, and setting. Dabbling in mystery with The Widow of Jerusalem would also be a change, along with the shift of time period and place. Moreover, I could read one of three unrelated genres: gothic, fantasy, or memoir with Rebecca, Dragonsbane, or Eat, Pray, Love, respectively.

Decisions, decisions! Let's see what happens...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Historical Background on the Tudor Series by Philippa Gregory

Recently, I've become fascinated by certain periods of European history, especially the Tudor era in England (and contemporary time periods in France, Spain, and Italy). Various individuals, famous and overlooked alike, have particularly attracted my attention and these range from rulers to assorted members of the royal courts (ladies-in-waiting, spies, court fools). The lives of important women interest me greatly as well (an influence of my leanings toward Women Studies).

For example, examining the stream of women in King Henry VIII's life is quite telling of the period. He was the second son born to Elizabeth of York, the only English queen to have been a daughter, sister, niece, wife, mother, and grandmother of English kings; her marriage to Henry VII united the rival Houses of Lancaster and York, creating the House of Tudor. Henry VIII was the younger brother of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (the mother of James V and grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots as well as Mary's consort Lord Darnley through her second marriage) and older brother to Mary Tudor, Queen of France (the widow of King Louis XII and later the second wife of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and consequently the grandmother of Lady Jane Grey).

In addition to infamously having six wives (remember the rhyme "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"?), Henry had several notable mistresses. The most famous of these included Anne Hastings, Elizabeth Blount (the mother of his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy), Mary Boleyn, and either Margaret or Mary Shelton (cousins to the Boleyn sisters). Through his wives (Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard, and Catherine Parr) and the aforementioned mistresses, Henry cut a swath through some of the premier noble families in England and Europe alike. (Keep in mind that the Boleyn sisters, the Shelton sisters, Katheryn Howard, Jane Seymour, and Mary Howard, the widow of Henry Fitzroy and candidate to be King Henry's seventh wife, were all related in some way or another, and Anne Hastings had Henry's mother Elizabeth among her first cousins. And I thought the family trees in Greek mythology were confusing!)

With that said, it's not surprising that historical novelists like Philippa Gregory and Margaret Campbell Barnes chose this era for narrative material. There's more than plenty available, and historians continue to debate whether or not certain events happened (such as the consummation of the marriage of Prince Arthur, Henry's older brother, with Katherine of Aragon) and the parentage of children (i.e. the paternity of Mary Boleyn's children). Also considering Henry's powerful personality, infamy, and womanizing, it's only fair that HBO developed "The Tudors" and created a historical drama mixed with smut. (While it may irritate critics, smut certainly makes history entertaining.) Of course the tricky part in dealing with either historical novels or dramas is to sort out the historical truth from the narrative fiction and that can be both daunting and confusing.

Philippa Gregory became known for her Tudor series thanks to the success of The Other Boleyn Girl. Although published first, The Other Boleyn Girl (which focuses on Mary Boleyn's affair with Henry prior to the rise of her sister Anne as Queen of England) is second in the series' chronology. The book follows The Constant Princess (which details the marriages of Katherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur and King Henry). Third comes The Boleyn Inheritance (Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard, and Jane Boleyn). The Queen's Fool covers the courts of Henry's three children King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I as seen through the eyes of a fictional Jewish girl named Hannah Green (the titular fool). The Virgin's Lover focuses on the love triangle between Queen Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, and Amy Robsart but also includes the perspective of William Cecil, Elizabeth's main adviser. The Other Queen deals with Elizabeth's contemporary and rival Mary, Queen of Scots along with her guardians George Talbot and his wife Bess of Hardwick.

I must note that somewhat disappointingly, Gregory failed to include two of Henry's wives: Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr. Queen Jane, although never crowned, gave Henry what he longed for most: a son, the future King Edward VI.; she also pushed to restore Henry's daughter Mary to the line of succession. Catherine Parr was the only wife to outlive the notorious king and during her reign she was known as the beloved stepmother of Henry's children (and helped reconcile them with their father and convinced the king to restore his children to the line of succession), a progressive religious reformer, an effective regent, who ruled during Henry's French campaign, and a positive role model for her stepdaughter Elizabeth.


I give Gregory credit for writing about less known historical figures (e.g. the character of Mary Boleyn and her personal life, for example, are still debated by historians). She uses multiple view points in her novels (such as The Boleyn Inheritance) to allow her characters to speak in their own voices, although simultaneously this can be confusing and choppy at times; for the sake of clarity, I think it would have served her better if she had decided on one narrator, even if she focused on more than one protagonist. It also appears that with each book, Gregory's writing style seems to improve in some ways but also becomes more complicated. Since I'm currently reading The Boleyn Inheritance, I'm going to discuss the characters and review the preceding book in the Tudor series, since this gives a historical context and introduces some characters (and events) that contribute to and appear later in The Boleyn Inheritance.

In The Other Boleyn Girl, I found Gregory's portrayal of Anne Boleyn to be a bit one-dimensional and tending towards vilification while Mary was described as an innocent, sentimental, and idealistic romantic pushed around by her scheming family. Successfully incorporating the effects of the actions of multiple political characters seems to be a struggle for Gregory, since she heavily emphasizes the emotional lives of her protagonists rather than balancing their personal lives with political events and the court at large. As a consequence, some pivotal characters and significant events are overlooked while the roles of other characters are heavily dramatized, causing the narrative to appear somewhat lopsided. Some characters appear briefly with little introduction and promptly disappear, although their roles and actions affect the story greatly. While HBO's "The Tudors" also fails to be wholly historically accurate and also dramatizes events to a certain extent, the ensemble of characters is handled more deftly and both political events and personal dramas are on a more even keel.

Somewhat dissatisfied with The Other Boleyn Girl, I nevertheless found the history of the Boleyn family quite fascinating and wondered why Gregory left out or glossed over various facts. For this reason, I like the portrayal of the Boleyn family as seen in "The Tudors". Most notably, Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn is superb--she showed that Anne was a complex individual with a powerful personality living in a turbulent time. (Unfortunately, I was less than impressed by the show's portrayal of Mary Boleyn and the film version of The Other Boleyn Girl. With the former, Mary seems childish and appears to have little intelligence, ambition, goals, or clear motivation other than sleeping with handsome men; because of this, she is immediately eclipsed by her more deliberate and self-possessed sister Anne. In the latter case, this is largely due to the sloppy script and several weak male characters, including Eric Bana's Henry VII, rather than specific qualms with Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson's interpretations of the Boleyn sisters.)

As previously mentioned, Gregory has an occasional problem with one-dimensional characters. In both The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, she quickly casts several members of the Boleyn and Howard families as unscrupulous, conniving courtiers who pimp out female relatives in exchange for titles, land, and other swag. I find this a bit trite; certainly they were ambitious and powerful but there is more to the story than that. It is too easy to have a bevy of seemingly evil, heartless, and needlessly spiteful family members when the plot hinges on intrigues. In The Boleyn Inheritance, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Anne of Cleves' mother and brother are made out to be the villains but I wasn't entirely convinced that the motivations for their cruelty were actually realistic, whether or not they were based on historical fact.

The Boleyn family were not simply power-hungry social climbers. It is seldom mentioned that Thomas Boleyn was a very influential and adept ambassador, and his posts in the Netherlands and France enabled him to give his daughters a rather progressive education and opportunities to travel abroad. Historically, Mary and Anne spent time abroad (Mary in France and Anne in both France and the Netherlands) as ladies in waiting to the French queens Margaret Tudor (Henry's older sister) and Claude, the wife of King Francis I. Anne had previously attended Archduchess Margaret of Austria in the Habsburg Netherlands, was a dear companion to Claude's sister Renee, and acted as the official English translator for Claude at court. Another of Claude's ladies-in-waiting was Diane de Poitiers, who became the famous mistress of Henry II, Claude's son. While in France, Mary was believed to be promiscuous and became the mistress of King Francis I from 1515 until 1519. She was legendarily called "the English Mare" and "una grandissima ribalda, infame sopra tutti" ("a great prostitute, infamous above all") by Francis. So she was not the ingenue as depicted by Gregory and I think the author missed out on great material, smutty and otherwise, by not going into Mary's colorful history in France.

Upon returning to England, she became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine and married William Carey. At some point, she became Henry's mistress but was not one of his famous, acknowledged lovers. She gave birth to two children, Catherine and Henry Carey, although in the book these children were fathered by the king rather than her husband; historically her affair with the king had ended prior to the birth of her children. (Interestingly, the king later needed a papal dispensation in order to marry Anne due to the affinity created when he slept with Mary; this mirrored what happened to Katherine, who had been married first to Henry's brother Arthur.) In the book, Mary idolizes Katherine yet betrays her by falling in love with the king and allows her family to capitalize on her feelings (but later whimpers and whines about it). Although Mary and Anne were involved with the same man, historically they were not believed to be close and moved in different circles; to contrast, the book depicts a complex relationship alternating between affection and rivalry between the sisters. When Mary's husband died, Anne ensured her nephew's education and secured for her sister a small pension; later Mary accompanied Anne to Calais on a state visit. Later Anne became Queen of England and completely eclipsed her sister.

In 1534, Mary secretly married the soldier William Stafford out of love, although because she married without royal permission and beneath her station, she was disowned by her family and banished from court. Ironically, this seemed to serve Mary well since, like her uncle Thomas Howard (3rd Duke of Norfolk), she sufficiently distanced herself from her disgraced relatives when Anne and their brother George were imprisoned in the Tower of London and later executed. It is unknown whether Mary visited or had any correspondence with her siblings between 1534-36 as it appears that she was quite estranged from the entire Boleyn family. There is no historical evidence to support what Mary thought of Jane Boleyn (George's wife) or vice versa, although Gregory makes a point to have Jane be clearly opinionated about her sister-in-law's habit of steering clear of court intrigues and keeping her daughter safe when tensions erupted. While Mary and her second husband were court outcasts, they did not fall prey to the scandals and intrigues involving the Howard family and in fact, Mary outlived her parents and siblings. Her daughter Catherine Carey was a lady-in-waiting to both Anne of Cleves and Katheryn Howard as a young woman, and later, she became the Chief Lady of the Bedchamber to her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. (Interestingly, Elizabeth likely never met her aunt Mary.) Henry Carey was ennobled by Elizabeth and made a Knight of the Garter. It seems that despite everything, Mary and her children were clearly survivors.

I found Gregory's sentimentalized version of Mary and her revised past to be less interesting than the emotionally mysterious and evasive historical figure. While Anne was believed to be the ambitious one by historians, I have my own questions: what motivated Mary to become the mistress to two kings and later marry a commoner, knowing how her family would react? Making her a romantic idealist (in terms of her affair with Henry) seems to be a paltry and contrived excuse for a motivation. At the same time, looking at her life from a historical perspective, Mary wasn't exactly a femme fatale either. She was more complex than that, and more mysterious than her infamous sister. I find that more intriguing than Gregory's end result with The Other Boleyn Girl. However, it set the stage for The Boleyn Inheritance, and I'll review that book as well when I finish reading it.


Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Boleyn Inheritance vs "The Tudors"

Due to the wild success of The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory embarked on creating an entire Tudor series. Although published fifth, The Boleyn Inheritance is chronologically third in the series, following The Constant Princess and The Other Boleyn Girl. Unlike the two previous books, it centers on three female protagonists (Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard, and Jane Boleyn) and shifts between these three perspectives in alternating chapters throughout the novel.

As I mentioned in the last post, Gregory did not write a novel focusing on the story of the rise and subsequent death (in childbirth) of Queen Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife and mother of the future King Edward VI. I must admit I wonder why she skipped over Jane when she has previously stated she likes to tell the stories of women overlooked in history. I find the oversight hypocritical as well as leaving a gap in Tudor history. Jane married Henry only eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn in May,1536 and died in October 1537. During the interim he formally removed Mary and Elizabeth from the line of succession and declared them both illegitimate. It wasn't until January 1540 that Henry married Anne of Cleves.


With that said, I found The Boleyn Inheritance more satisfying than The Other Boleyn Girl. In some ways, I think Gregory improved in developing characters, especially when considering that The Boleyn Inheritance was published five years (and four books) after the debut of The Other Boleyn Girl.

Gregory manages to create sympathetic depictions of the eager-to-please and goodhearted Anne of Cleves and shows the complicated feelings and motivations driving Jane Boleyn's sometimes amoral behavior (rather than simply being a villain motivated by spite and jealousy). Jane is also depicted as still being in love with and missing her late husband, remembers her sister-in-law Anne fondly, and is immensely proud of her successful family, but nevertheless has a very complicated relationship with the manipulative Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She is his most loyal servant but he cold-heartedly strings her along, knowing her value of "the Boleyn inheritance" (her title and lands), and does not lift a finger to save her or Katheryn. Although more competent in running a royal household because of her years of service, she becomes increasingly jaded and weary of court life, spying, and bringing about the downfall of Henry's queens. Despite this, she acts as the double agent--confidant to the queen and spy for the Howard family--and she does her job chillingly well. When she eventually must pay for her accumulated sins, she fakes madness, thinking she won't be killed, but it was evident that she was mentally unhinged--but sound enough to know what she was doing--well before this. The punishment for the guilty is swift and terrifying, cementing Henry's volatile wrath and ruthlessness.

I
t is interesting to see how some characters write off Anne of Cleves as stupid (due to her knowing little English) and a foolish spectacle (due to her frumpy clothes and lack of worldly sophistication). Her ladies-in-waiting do not take her seriously, the king immediately dislikes her, and her few friends disappear (i.e. imprisoned) or are otherwise unavailable. Her family life doesn't fare any better. In the novel, her brother is depicted as a spiteful, obsessively controlling, and petty individual, and their mother is hyper-critical, abusive, and equally controlling, yet the two send Anne incompetent ambassadors and very little preparation for her role as queen. Her sisters Sybilla and Amelia are colorless, fading quickly from the narrative and offering little to no help for their sister's plight in England when her marriage fails. Despite all of this, Anne is depicted as a sincere, thoughtful, and gracious person who is eager to please but more astute than many give her credit for, comes to love England, wishes to develop genuine relationships with her stepchildren, and is ultimately a survivor.

The maturity of these two women is starkly contrasted with Katheryn Howard (spelled Katherine in the novel, although she spelled it Katheryn in real life), and the language Gregory uses brilliantly illustrates Kitty's youthful selfishness and vivaciousness. She is a great foil because she is very young, sometimes outlandishly immature, capricious, flirtatious, and determinedly self-involved, primarily motivated to get as much attention and swag as possible. At the same time, since she is not motivated by political ambition or the desire to gain power for her family, she also disdainfully thought of as a slut and idiot by her manipulative relatives who use her for their own gain.While ill-suited to the position of queen, Katheryn manages to turn the palace upside down through her wild ways. Her adulterous affairs doom her, and to her terror, she realizes too late what a dangerous game she had been playing and how her relatives exploited her.

HBO's "The Tudors" also brilliantly displays these women, especially Joss Stone's interpretation of Anne of Cleves and Tamzin Merchant as Katheryn Howard. Keep in mind that Jonathan Rhys Meyers' Henry VIII is not obese like the historical king, but his festering leg wound still pains him and his mood swings wide and volatile. His charismatic screen presence makes him a lot more likable than his historical counterpart and less comical (but more dangerous and politically ruthless) than the king was depicted in the novel. Additionally, Thomas Cromwell's role in arranging the political marriage between England and Cleves is given more prominence, giving a balanced narrative.

The show first presents Anne living with her brother, who is brusque and uncooperative when Henry's ill-suited ambassadors try to see the potential bride and stumbled all over themselves during the negotiation process. Unveiled at Calais, she is a shy, self-conscious young woman who tries very hard to learn both the English language and English manners in order to please her new husband and his court. Unlike Henry's previous queens, Anne of Cleves' education was primarily domestic; she was not a witty, worldly, widely read, philosophical beauty like Anne Boleyn, a dignified, magnanimous lady raised from an early age to be a ruler like Katherine of Aragon, nor a sweetly diplomatic peacemaker like Jane Seymour. Anne of Cleves, being from a foreign court, lacked these skills and authority in the court. Due to her unfamiliarity with English and its customs, along with general nervousness, her first meeting with Henry is awkward and hampered. Henry quickly decides that he doesn't like her and doesn't find her attractive at all, despite having a willing, if sheltered, bride. Trying to improve herself in the eyes of the king, Anne endeavors to act as a mother to Henry's children, considering that all three of them have lost their own mothers and rarely see their father. She introduces a charming duke to Mary with the hope of arranging a marriage for her, but Henry sends him back to his country. Joss Stone accurately conveys Anne's increasing concern that Henry may kill her if she fails to please him. Shocked by the abrupt dissolution of her marriage, Anne still maintains a sense of graciousness and keeps in contact with her former stepdaughters.


Tamzin Merchant presents Katheryn Howard as a poorly educated but flirtatious and naive girl farmed out to live in the lax household of her step-grandmother. Her beauty and youth are her best assets according to those who arrange her meeting with the king (Charles Brandon and Thomas Seymour in the show). When she finally meets Henry, her flirting is girlish, full of giggling and whispers, but also awkward--she is not the refined, cosmopolitan Anne Boleyn who was educated in a French court and inflamed Henry's desires by refusing to be intimate for years. Initially, Henry doesn't seem to care beyond the fact that she's pretty and good in bed; who was he to ask questions? Clearly, Katheryn's young age and inexperience in courtly wiles make her a very different bride for Henry, and he fails to see Thomas Culpepper's fierce blue-eyed leers and near stalking behavior and remains ignorant of her dubious sexual past at first. It is a mistake that has devastating consequences later in the fourth season.

I must note that I haven't seen many episodes of the last season of the show. The Anne of Cleves character arc is fully contained in season three, although Anne makes brief appearances in the fourth season. Katheryn Howard is introduced at the end of the third season. Her rise and fall as queen, along with Henry's sixth and final marriage to Catherine Parr, dominates the last season. Apparently there will be a dream sequence where all of Henry's past queen appear to their former husband. I'm curious to see how that plays out. In any case, I'll probably make observations when I see the whole fourth season on DVD and compare what I've seen to what I've read.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Rainy Day Reading Material

Due to a bout of boredom, I ended up reading both The Nanny Diaries and Dealing with Dragons last night. Of course, when I awoke this morning, it was pouring outside--perfect reading weather. I have one library book left (The Boleyn Inheritance) which I hope will get me through the weekend and until the books I placed on hold arrive. I must admit I was surprised by how fast I ended up reading. I wonder if the pace will continue or if it varies according to the genre.

The Nanny Diaries is just over 300 pages but I found it to be an easy read. After all, it satirizes the self-absorbed, neurotic mega-wealthy Manhattanites who don't work but still require nannies to essentially raise their children on their behalf (to make jetting off to hair appointments and spas easier). While I saw the point of the book--tongue-in-cheek satire--I had difficulties really rooting for the protagonist (conveniently named Nan/Nanny) who seemed to have a masochistic need to work for people who treated her badly. The kid she cared for, Grayer, was only four, but he was also a whiny, violent, moody, irritating brat. His mother (called Mrs. X) was a great antagonist because she was so selfish, arrogant, and capricious--indeed, quite a horrible boss. However, midway through the book, it seemed to get rather repetitive and my interest began to wane. Nan kept visiting her family who only said the same thing to her every time ("Quit your job!") and this detracted from colorful appearances of Mrs. X and her friends. Maybe it was because I haven't read much in the chick lit genre, but I could take or leave this book, and am content with the fact that I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it from a bookstore. I'll have to see how I feel about subsequent reads in this genre.

Dealing with Dragons was also an easy read but for other reasons. First of all, it's a young adult book that just passes the 200-page mark. Second, it's a satire (turning traditional fairy tale tropes on their heads) and lightweight by the generous helping of humor lacing every page. That's not to say it lacks substance. Quite the contrary, I found the book to be just as enjoyable to read as an adult as I did when I read it when I was younger. Wrede's creativity shines with the character Cimorene, a stubborn, intelligent, "improper", and proto-feminist princess who is thoroughly likable because rather than being a vapid ditz who embroiders all day and can scream on cue when carried off by a giant, she's interested in fencing, Latin, magic, cooking, and absolutely not marrying an idiot prince she does not love, like, or even respect all that much. And Wrede conveys this strong, feminist slant with a light touch and doesn't end up bashing the male gender and becoming preachy (as say, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley does frequently); the stone prince character is quite important to the story and quite amusing with his own array of quirks. Additionally, Cimorene's relationships with other females, ranging from the dragon Kazul to the princess Alianora, do not remain static nor does the protagonist champion her friendships with women over men. But she does have a tendency to avoid male company if they're overly persistent knights trying to rescue and marry her because they're "supposed" to do so. Using wit and holding her ground when she knows she's right, Cimorene doesn't take crap from anyone and it doesn't matter if that person is a prince/princess, wizard, or dragon. Really, she's an admirable character while she entertains. What's not to like about that?

I must admit that Wrede's book influenced me as a lover of fantasy and as a writer. The idea of my current novel certainly shows some lasting effects of her work on my imagination--both in terms of creating dragons and a strong-willed but likable protagonist. Of course, the original influence by Wrede became adulterated by simultaneous exposures to historical fiction and Greek mythology...At least I'm eclectic.

I'm going to stop that tangent where it lies before I go considerable off-topic. So, as I stated earlier, it's perfect reading weather (thunderstorms now) and I have one thick historical novel left. The Boleyn Inheritance is just over 500 pages (and thankfully not in a minuscule font). I hope it's a good read. I was mildly disappointed by Gregory's obvious bias against Anne Boleyn (as portrayed in The Other Boleyn Girl); even if sisters are competing for the same man (King Henry VIII notwithstanding), they should be equally three-dimensional characters. I found Mary Boleyn to be a bit simpering and sentimental while Anne was just bitchy because she could be. I hope that Gregory fleshes out her characters (Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard, and Jane Rochford) a bit better, although I probably guess the direction she's going to take with the infamous Jane (Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law). I'll see what Gregory does and promptly report my findings here!

Until later...



Thursday, May 13, 2010

Athenaeum Field Trip Results

After finishing Howl's Moving Castle, I started itching for something else to read. I browsed through the beginning of Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen last night, but the book about dragons that I really wanted to read was Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. I must give Yolen credit for putting a fantasy trope (dragons) against a science fiction setting and having the dragons' role in the story be based on blood sports like cock fighting. It's certainly an original idea.

Armed with a list of twenty books, I figured that I'd be able to bring home a few books I wanted. In the end, I had mixed results. While I did find some of the books I was looking for, some of them were either checked out or at other library branches. Five holds later, I'll be expecting Eat, Pray, Love, Julie & Julia, The Devil's Queen, My Lady of Cleves, and one that wasn't on my original list, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, by the middle of next week.

I did, however, bring home three books, including one that wasn't on my list. After finding Dealing with Dragons and The Nanny Diaries (the latter after some searching and the help of a librarian because we both were convinced that book imps had hidden the book from us), I decided on a historical fiction book called The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.

For those unfamiliar with Gregory's work, she is the author of the Tudor series of which The Boleyn Inheritance is the third. I chose this particular volume because (a) my original choices (The Devil's Queen and My Lady of Cleves) wouldn't arrive until next week, (b) I had read Gregory's more famous book (now a film) The Other Boleyn Girl, and (c) I'm interested in reading portrayals of both Anne of Cleves and Katheryn Howard. Anne of Cleves is often overlooked because her marriage was brief and her personality dwarfed by more charismatic (and at times, notorious) figures like Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She hadn't been Henry's mistress, she did not bear him children, and she didn't cause a scandal to merit her beheading. Katheryn Howard is somewhat a tragic figure considering her age and her ill-fated mistakes, but at the same time, her marriage with Henry was the product of his midlife crisis--she made him feel young again. With that said, from both a historical and narrative perspective, all six of Henry VIII's queens are incredibly interesting and remarkable as individuals and as women of the Tudor era.

I have until the beginning of June to finish the three books I checked out today, and next week I'll have five additional books to keep myself occupied. I think I might have to stock up on tea to accompany my reading routine. (^_~)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Reading List

In order to be a good writer, one must read. A LOT. It makes sense, really. How can one be a writer but not a reader as well?

Since I graduated from college, I got out of the habit of reading regularly (for fun). because I was busy doing so many other things (i.e. grad school, being depressed about being in grad school, being a complete fangirl for certain musical genres). I'm not talking about anything I read for research (i.e. nonfiction, Greek mythology, world history, etc.). I mean good old fashioned pleasure fiction reading that requires curling up, a blanket, a mug of tea, and possibly a rainstorm outside.

I used to read voraciously in high school, and somehow I managed to read at least a half hour before bed. Now I'm trying to get back into the habit of doing just that. Also, being a regular patron of my public library is also good, karmically speaking. Libraries rock.

This evening, I've made a reading list of 20 books that I plan to get from the library over the next few weeks. Right now I'm slightly more than halfway through Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Given that at my current rate, I'll most likely finish the book this week, and I'd like to have another book ready to go. Hence the list-making...Fantasy, historical fiction, chick lit, and poetry is a good mix, right?

  1. Arrows of the Queen (The Heralds of Valdemar, Book One) by Mercedes Lackey
  2. The Borgia Bride: A Novel by Jeanne Kalogridis
  3. Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle (Book One) by M.C. Scott
  4. Bridget Jones' Diary: A Novel by Helen Fielding
  5. Colman by Monica Furlong
  6. Dealing With Dragons: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book One by Patricia C. Wrede
  7. The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici by Jeanne Kalogridis
  8. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
  9. Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening by Stephen Kuusisto
  10. The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
  11. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book One) by George R. R. Martin
  12. Homer's Daughter by Robert Graves
  13. Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg
  14. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
  15. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
  16. My Lady of Cleves: A Novel of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
  17. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicles, Day One) by Patrick Rothfuss
  18. The Nanny Diaries: A Novel by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin
  19. Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
  20. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Hopefully those should keep me busy for several weeks. My ultimate goal is to read one book a week like I used to, but since my teaching classes won't be done until the beginning of June, I might end up reading at a slower pace due to other commitments. In any case, I hope my library has all of these books. It's so much cheaper to borrow than buy!

To the athenaeum I will go, questing for brain candy!

Salutations!

Greetings all! Here is the first post of my second blog. (Please feel free to check out my music blog at jrockgoddess.wordpress.com).

As the title would suggest, the content of this blog will primarily be the ramblings, musings, and opinions of a Mad Writer. And when I say "Mad Writer," I mean a fun, slightly geeky, literary version of the classic Mad Scientist, archetype or perhaps more aptly, the Mad Hatter. Occasionally though, a Mad Writer can be angry (at a muse, stubborn manuscript, writer's block, etc.), but more often the "mad" part refers to being slightly mental. After all, "writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia" (according to E.L. Doctorow).

In addition to talking about creative writing, I may end up going on tangents e.g. teaching, kitchen adventures, or whatever seems to attract my attention at the time.

With that said, enjoy!