Toward the end of last month, my young home computer, barely out of puberty, died unexpectedly. Coincidently, my long-awaited new computer at my day job arrived, requiring IT Dept. set-up and the reinstallation of all my software.

What this meant was that, for a brief period, I was almost completely cut off from that online connection with the world that we take for granted. ( Read more... )

All there is at Çatalhöyük are houses and middens and [animal] pens. …no plazas or courtyards, alleyways or streets, have been found…. People entered their homes via doors on their roofs, and neighbors clambered over each other's roofs to their own homes. ( Read more... )

I arrived at this silly title after reading Daniel Mendelsohn's review of Madeline Miller's debut novel, "The Song of Achilles," in Sunday's NY Times book review and filtering it through a recent conversation with a friend about Mary Renault's novels. ( Read more... )

My six Eclipsis e-books (Lady Amalie's memoirs) are free or discounted on Smashwords for the week beginning Sunday, March 4.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AnnHerendeen

Here are the coupon codes:

Recognition: a novella (free): AK45Y
Choices (free): ZN28W
Wedding: $1.12 (25% off): UT79Y
Birth: a novella (free): JX46S
Captivity: $1.12 (25% off): QR58D
Retribution: $1.12 (25% off): TC94C

It's not as if these e-books are expensive to begin with. But this promotion is a fun way for people to check out this series without paying anything. I've made the first two installments free (Recognition, a novella, and Choices). The other three novels: Wedding, Captivity and Retribution, are 25% off; and the fourth story, Birth, a novella, is free, as its regular price is already as low as it can go.

I recently watched an old television play, "I Remember Nelson," about the naval hero of the Napoleonic era. The story moved me so much I gave it five stars on Netflix, and was shocked to see how many viewers had given it only one or two. "Boooooring," was the common verdict; too talky. ( Read more... )

Recently, a friend who is persistent to the point of being called "dogged" achieved a long-term goal: she found a publisher for an anthology called "Best Bi Short Stories." This anthology has been in publishing limbo for so long that my contribution, the first chapter from Pride/Prejudice (released in January of 2010), was a work-in-progress when I submitted it.
( Read more... )

Actress Cynthia Nixon has been generating a lot of discussion with her interview(s) in which she said being "gay" is, for her, a "choice." Lady Gaga, of course, went all-out for the opposite point of view in her "Born This Way." Most of the arguments over this concept aren't very edifying, as biographer Sir Charles James Napier said of the Duke of Wellington's sex life. ( Read more... )

To at least try to write a real, third, not-genre novel.

Well, it's not exactly a problem...

But when I was writing the introduction to my Eclipsis series of "Lady Amalie's memoirs," I used the phrase to describe my version of Fitzwilliam Darcy, making a comparison with the HHoBM who is the hero of these new stories. Perhaps not surprisingly, the friend who was encouraging me to edit and publish these books advised me to change it. Sets the wrong tone, she felt. ( Read more... )

Comedy, stand-up and written.