August 18th, 2015 → 5:57 am
“That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood.” – Richard III
I read an article recently about anxiety in the 21st century and, astoundingly, it said that Shakespeare only used the word “worry” once in his entire collection of works (see quote above, and he used it to mean “choke,” not be stressful). Through my own research I discovered that Shakespeare actually uses worry twice, if you allow both “worry” and “worrying,” but still, that isn’t much use of the word, and not even in the way we use it today. The article suggested that people simply didn’t worry back in the 16th century; that doing so is a modern malady, invented really in the 20th century when we finally had the time to navel-gaze and let anxiety about things grow. Personally, I can not imagine my life without worrying. What would I do for 75% of every day? How many novel mathematical theorems would I be able to come up with if 98% of my brain weren’t allocated to worrying? What kind of conversations would I have with my son if half of them weren’t motivated by worry of him harming himself? Would I enjoy eating more if I didn’t always worry about becoming fat? I…can’t…imagine…
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Self/My Life
August 14th, 2015 → 8:56 am
“A hit, a very palpable hit.” – Hamlet
I took my son to his first baseball game last night. And every time the St. Louis Cardinals had a hit I wanted to yell, “A hit, a very palpable hit!” Am I the only Shakespeare fan whose gone to a baseball game and wanted to do this??
(Note: My husband’s answer is – yes.)
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
July 19th, 2015 → 6:10 am
“Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you!” – Tempest
We’re off to the West Coast for a family wedding. Newlyweds…they’re always so cute, and so naive…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
July 8th, 2015 → 5:42 am
“Unarm, Eros. The long day’s task is done
And we must sleep.” – Antony and Cleopatra
So we moved to a new house this week. And it has been exhausting. I’ve come to liken the process of moving to the process of childbirth. You forget how bad it is until you’re actually in the middle of it, and then you think, why did I do this?? Both were for, in the end, my son. The things we do for our kids, right?
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
June 16th, 2015 → 5:19 am
“A gallant child…makes old hearts fresh.” – The Winter’s Tale
We’re in the middle of family visiting season – relatives are either coming to see us in St. Louis, or we’re off visiting them. And it is remarkable how a child’s laughter can reform a room. When my son does one of his pure joy belly laughs, even cranky aunts and uncles uncross their legs and crack a smile. I wish we could bottle up his laughter and keep it forever…
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
June 12th, 2015 → 5:00 am
“Thou painted maypole.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
My four year old African American child was standing naked in front of a mirror before his bath the other night, when he started dancing and singing about his custom “brown suit.” After the bath, he continued to sing and dance about his brown suit. I eventually asked him what color my suit was (I’m white), and he said “plain.” I then asked him what daddy’s suit was and he thought for a second and then said, “hairy.” LOL!!!!!!!!!
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
March 4th, 2015 → 9:46 pm
Had a great half an hour live radio interview with Cyrus Webb on #ConversationsLIVE earlier this evening. We talked about The Other Shakespeare, women’s history month, family, relationships, love, life, and so much more. Not to ruin it for the cities its coming to in the next few days (North Carolina this weekend, Atlanta on Monday…), but you can check it out now as a podcast. And thank you again for the wonderful conversation Cyrus Webb!
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Self/My Life
February 27th, 2015 → 6:15 am
The Other Shakespeare has just been announced as a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards. What an honor! Thank you so much to all those independent judges and panelists who took the time to read it, and obviously, appreciate it.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Self/My Life
February 25th, 2015 → 5:04 am
“I do perceive here a divided duty.” – Othello
I’m headed to New York this weekend for a work conference. But I will also be visiting with friends and family while there. Which one should I spend more time doing – business or pleasure? That will be the question…
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
January 26th, 2015 → 5:53 am
“That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, [‘ok’] is a vile phrase.” – Hamlet
I am happy to report that the reviews coming in of The Other Shakespeare are mostly positive! It’s really been heart-warming, in fact, to see all the nice things readers have written about the book, and it’s even given me incentive to think about a next novel… The few criticisms I’ve gotten have generally been about the dialogue in the book. That it messes up and sometimes sounds too modern. First, let me say that I agree I should have never used the word “ok” in the book. My bad. But let me add that criticism of dialogue in historical novels is rife, and often quite unsubstantiated. My favorite response on this came from Philippa Gregory, who said that, let’s be honest, no one knows how people actually spoke hundreds of years ago. There were no recordings! And obviously people don’t talk in casual conversation like they write in formal documents, so formal writing from that time period tells us nothing. So anyone who claims definitively that a historical novel’s dialogue is wrong, is basing that opinion on, frankly, personal opinion. Like most historical novels I had to wing the dialogue, and I may have messed up in a few places, but I’ve learned. Watch out – my next novel is going to be even better!!
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Self/My Life