I’m spending the weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books–my first year as an author. In past years I’ve organized the Desert Sleuths booth there and I’ll certainly be spending time there this year also, but I’m going to be moderating two panels which promise to be very fun and I’ll be signing Hand of Fire at two different locations. If you’re in AZ and have some time this weekend, I highly recommend a trip to Tucson for the festival. Here’s the Tucson Festival of Books website.
And here’s my schedule in case you want to catch up with me:
Signings:
Saturday 11:50-2:00 in the Arizona Authors Association booth 158
Sunday 1-2 in the Desert Sleuths Sisters in Crime booth 122
Panels:
Saturday 2:30-3:30 “Strong Female Protagonist” UA Bookstore, with authors Alex Kava, Becky Masterman and Susan Cummins Miller
Sunday 10:00-11:00 “Distinctly Different Voices” UA Bookstore, with authors Elizabeth Gunn, J.M. “Mike” Hayes and Thomas Perry
Here are the posts I enjoyed around the web this week:
38 statues, statuettes & other exceptional religious artifacts excavated from a pit near a temple of the god Ptah at Karnak. Even more interesting, a new recording method was used that allows the virtual reconstruction of the process of discovery and excavation with millimeter accuracy. This is particularly important because the dig had to be done very quickly to protect the valuable objects. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Karnak Excavation Yields 38 Artefacts”
A detailed, perceptive review by Kate Atherton of Kate Quinn’s latest Roman book, Lady of the Eternal City. Definitely on my to be read list. I love the Roman women Kate creates. Click here for review of Lady of the Eternal City on For Winter Nights Blog
Documenting and saving Syrian antiquities. This is an article about the new generation of “monument men” trying to protect archaeology from ISIS and cut off this illegal source of funding for the terrorists (from selling looted antiquities). They are brave souls. It’s a good cause. With each segment of our collective human history lost forever, we lose part of our ability to understand and relate to each other intelligently. Click here for Mother Jones “Meet the ‘Monuments Men’ Risking Everything to Save Syria’s Ancient Treasures from ISIS”
Shortlist of Historical Novel Society’s 2015 Indie Award for Historical Novel. Mine this list for some great reading! Click here for Historical Novel Society Announcements “Finalists for the HNS Indie Award 2015”
My friend and archaeology guide, Sevil Çonka, in Turkey has featured my research on her blog, Turkey: Istanbul and Beyond. Click here for Sevil Çonka’s “Looking into the Lives of Anatolian Women, Judith Starkston, a Historical Novelist and Researcher”
Cavers in Israel found silver jewelry and coins dating to Alexander the Great’s time. The hoard seems to have been stashed at the end of the war following Alexander’s death. The men who made the find reacted exactly as they should have. No random pillaging and destruction here! Proper preservation and context-based archaeology. Nice for some good news in the world of archaeology. Click here for CNN “Cavers Find Treasure from Era of Alexander the Great in Israel”
March Madness historical fiction style. A great overview post by Nancy Bilyeau about some of the best historical novels coming out this March including authors Kate Quinn, Michelle Moran, C.W. Gortner, M.J. Rose and Nancy Bilyeau. Click here for Nancy Bilyeau “A March Madness of Historical Fiction”
A rushed rescue dig in London to make way for a train station: 20,000 skeletons from a 16th C graveyard that served as overflow in time of plague or other catastrophes that overwhelmed local parish graveyards. Also a Roman layer beneath. The finds are fascinating but one hopes that the 4-week window they’ve been given is somewhere close to enough. I suspect a lot is being done in excess haste and a lot won’t get done. Context is everything in archaeology. Then they’ll be putting train tunnels through this space, so that’ll be the end of reading history here. But meanwhile, some chatty bones are telling tales. Click here for KSTV story “Archaeologists to Bring Out Thousands of London’s Dead”
The great debate about Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Buried Giant. Is it “fantasy” and is this an insult or a compliment? I’ll point out with Ursula Le Guin that such literary giants as the Odyssey are fantasy and that just because some people use fantasy elements in silly, shallow ways doesn’t mean fantasy should be treated like a smelly fish. I’ve enjoyed listening to the totally conflicting reviews of this book. Those who adore it usually describe themselves as huge fans of his earlier fiction and make excuses for the dragons, etc. Others, like Le Guin, find a flatness to the novel, an unwillingness to embrace the dragons and ogres in a fully developed vivid way, as if afraid of being cursed with the label “Fantasy.” An interesting split and revelatory attitudes. I haven’t read it yet, but I find this discussion worth contemplating. In my case, I couldn’t imagine writing my novel Hand of Fire without the fantasy elements. It would have been historically false not to embrace them fully in the particular context of the Trojan War, a mythic as well as historic event. And quite aside from that, what’s wrong with creating a detailed, vivid world of escape in which to tell a great story, just for the sake of the great story? Isn’t getting lost in a compelling tale a valuable process all in itself? Here are the links to two of the key articles in the debate, Le Guin on Book View Cafe and David Barnett in The Guardian. What do you think about all this pro and con fantasy genre?
Click here for Ursula Le Guin’s post on Book View Cafe.
Click here for David Barnett’s post in the Guardian.