Final Tad Williams’ Shadowrise Excerpt
Posted by admin in Literature on February 5, 2010
Tad Williams' Shadowrise
One final thanks (this week, at least) to Deborah for these excerpts. This is the third and final excerpt from Tad Williams‘ upcoming release–Volume 3 in the Shadowmarch series, Shadowrise. The book will be released in March.
Today’s excerpt is from Chapter 11 (Cut and Thrust):
“Princess Briony,” said Lady Ananka as the servitors cleared away the most recent course, “can you tell me how children are raised in the north?”
A few whispers and quiet anticipatory laughter ran the length of the royal table. Briony wished her friend was beside her, but Ivgenia had been assigned to one of the lesser tables at the other end of the hall and she might as well have been in another country.
“I’m sorry, Baroness, but I did not hear your question.”
“How are children raised in the north?” the king’s mistress asked. “Are they allowed to run wild there, as the Marchfolk allow their sheep and other animals to do?”
Briony smiled carefully. “Not all our animals run wild, Lady, but for those who live in areas where grass grows freely it only makes sense to take advantage of the bounty the gods provide.”
Deanna Caswell on First Ballet
Posted by admin in Literature on February 3, 2010
First Ballet
Sometimes I walk into an interview situation. Such was the case a few months back when I walked into a bookstore where Deanna Caswell was promoting her storybook/picture book for children, First Ballet (Disney-Hyperion). After chatting with Caswell for a bit, she told me about her children’s book (written by Caswell, illustrated by Elizabeth Matthews), which captures a child’s first trip to the theater. Before starting the email interview, a bit of Caswell’s bio:
“…she is privileged to share her diverse experiences and love of learning through children’s books, newspaper and book articles, and posts for Little House in the Suburbs (under the pseudonym Ivory) while caring for three kids, four red-headed chickens and two miniature goats.
Deanna’s first book, FIRST BALLET (Hyperion) arrived October 6, 2009. Her second book, TRAIN TRIP (Hyperion) arrives Fall 2010. She can also be found in the 2009 and 2010 Children’s Writers Market.” It was a pleasure to discuss the challenges of getting published and her work in general.
Tim O’Shea: Along the road to writing First Ballet, you had several attempts at other manuscripts. To be exact, as you detail: “From February 2005 (when I started writing) to April 2007 (when I got my first sale), I wrote 30 manuscripts and had 150 rejections.”
Did you ever feel like losing track of the number of rejections to ease the sting?
Deanna Caswell: Over 100 submissions in two years is a lot to keep track of, but my crit partner and I were submitting as precisely and as often as possible. We didn’t want to send the same manuscript to the same publisher twice! That meant that we had to have spreadsheets (or handwritten notebook paper lists in her case. HA!) We had a record whether we really wanted to know the count or not.
Second Excerpt from Tad Williams’ Shadowrise
Posted by admin in Literature on February 2, 2010
Tad Williams' Shadowrise
Thanks again to Deborah Beale’s kindness, here is the second excerpt from Tad Williams‘ upcoming release–Volume 3 in the Shadowmarch series, Shadowrise. The book will be released in March.
In this second installment, we get a look at a snippet of Chapter Six (Broken Teeth):
Barrick had often criticized his sister Briony for her slovenly habits. She let dogs sleep in her bed even on warm nights, dropped her shoes wherever she took them off, and would cradle the muddiest, most disgusting creature in the world to her breast as long as it was a baby — whether puppy, foal, kitten, lamb, or chick. However, despite all the times Briony had driven her more fastidious brother into a rage, his strongest wish now was that he could speak to her again and apologize for saying that she was the most untidy thing that had ever lived…because now he knew better. No creature, not even some blind worm living in the very privies of Kernios, could be more disgusting than the raven Skurn, with his meals of frogspawn and festering mouse carcasses, his verminous, patchy feathers, and his constant smell of blood, rot and ordure.
First Excerpt from Tad Williams’ Shadowrise
Posted by admin in Literature on January 31, 2010
Tad Williams' Shadowrise
Last week, I covered Deborah Beale’s use of Twitter to market (husband and business partner) Tad Williams‘ upcoming release–Volume 3 in the Shadowmarch series, Shadowrise. In a follow-up to the interview, Beale was kind enough to provide compilations of her tweets. Here is the first of three excerpts. Over the next few days I will post two more excerpts.
In this first installment, enjoy an excerpt from Chapter Three (Silky Wood):
“I have a plan, bird.” Barrick Eddon unwound another strand of prickly creeper from his arm, hook by barbed, painful hook. “A very clever plan. You find me a path that doesn’t take me through every single thorn bush in Fairyland…and I won’t flatten your nasty little skull with a rock.”
Skurn hopped down to a lower branch, but prudently remained out of Barrick’s reach. He fluffed his blotched feathers. “It all do look different from up in sky, don’t it?” The raven’s tone was sullen. Neither of them had eaten since the middle of the day before. “Us can’t always tell.”
“Well, fly lower.” Barrick stood up and rubbed at the line of small, bleeding holes, then pulled his ragged shirtsleeve back down.
Claire Small on How Do You Like Love?
Claire Small (Photo: Valerie Fremin)
In researching an upcoming Peter Bradley Adams interview, I learned about the music of Claire Small, and found myself drawn almost immediately to her songwriting and voice (the latter of which reminds me of Shawn Colvin). I love Small’s succinct and effective bio: “Claire Small is living out her musical adventure that includes leaving, losing, loving and moving to Texas to sing her heart out.” This spring (May 18, 2010 to be exact) will see the launch of her third release, How Do You Like Love?, for Freedom Records. But in the runup to the May release, Small will be offering folks the chance to buy pre-release packages very soon. Also to whet listeners’ appetites, Small recently revealed that the album’s title track (“How Do You Like Love?”) will be available to download for free sometime in February. She also will be opening for Asleep At The Wheel for a few shows in Arizona, and then returns to Austin to play the Cactus Cafe on Feb. 13, 2010, with Terri Hendrix. My thanks to Small for her time and thoughts.
Tim O’Shea: What was the big attraction to move from Nashville to Austin, Texas a few years ago?
Claire Small: I actually moved to Houston first to be with someone I was in a relationship with but only stayed there about 5 months. When things started to not go so well I knew I had to leave but I didn’t want to go back to Nashville. In 2006 I had been to Austin to play ACL Fest and really liked the city. It seemed so laid back and the people were really nice and very into live music. So, I thought I would go and check it out on my own and stay a week to see if I liked it enough to live there permanently. I haven’t left since.
History: Paul Harvey and J. Edgar Hoover
Posted by admin in media industries, radio on January 27, 2010
I’m grateful to Robert Feder for pointing out the Washington Post’s January 23 article on the 20-year friendship between Paul Harvey and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Understandably, after gaining access to more than 1,400 pages of documents through a Freedom of Information request, many details are brought to light about the friendship. As noted in the article:
Previously confidential files show that Harvey, whodied last February at 90, enjoyed a 20-year friendship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, often submitting advance copies of his radio script for comment and approval. Harvey wrote Hoover and his deputies regularly. Hoover, in turn, helped Harvey with research, suggested changes in scripts and showered the broadcaster with effusive praise.
The article is a fascinating read. But what most amazed me was the revelation that Paul Harvey, at one point back in the early 1950s, attempted to become the original Geraldo Rivera.
…He routinely hammered officials for being lax on security, in particular those in charge of the Argonne National Laboratory, which conducted nuclear testing 20 miles west of Chicago.
After wrapping up his television broadcast on the evening of Feb. 5, 1951, Harvey set out to prove his case — and make some career-enhancing headlines for himself.
Harvey guided his black Cadillac Fleetwood toward Argonne, arriving sometime past midnight. He parked in a secluded spot, tossed his overcoat onto the barbed wire topping a fence, then scampered over.
I would love to know if, in the 1980s/1990s when the biographies of Hoover started coming out, did Harvey ever report on them–or did he just steer clear of them. I’ll do a little digging and should I find something, I’ll be sure to post. In the meantime, be sure to read the Washington Post article. And by all means, bookmark Feder’s blog, as it’s a great resource for interesting items like this.
YouTube: The Criterion Collection Now Has a Channel
Posted by admin in Film, streaming video on January 26, 2010
The Criterion Collection–the folks that as they so succinctly put it: “Since 1984 . . . has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements”–now has a YouTube channel. I assume it will be mostly populated with trailers, nothing full run. But, of course, with YouTube trying to compete with television, I could be proved wrong in a few months. Check it out.
As a Wim Wenders fan myself, I was pleased to find this trailer from PARIS, TEXAS–Wenders’ 1984 film.
I wish I could embed the video here, but YouTube apparently does not allow that on the channels. How odd.
Deborah Beale on Using Twitter to Preview Tad Williams’ Shadowrise
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on January 24, 2010
Tad Williams' Shadowrise
As damn fine a writer and editor that Deborah Beale is, I consider her equally great as a marketing genius. I’ve written before about some of her and husband/business partner/writer Tad Williams marketing ventures before in this post from last October. I recently joined Twitter (find me here as Talkingwithtim) and have started observing how folks that I respect utilize it to their advantage. This March, Volume 3 in Williams’ Shadowmarch series, Shadowrise, will be released. To whet the appetite of fans anticipating the book’s release, Beale is twittering (as MrsTad) excerpts from the book. The most recent series of tweets started on January 23. I had to ask Beale a few questions about the effort, and she was more than happy to oblige me in this mini email interview. My thanks to Beale for her time and efforts, as always.
Tim O’Shea: How did you come up with the idea to start sharing excerpts from Tad’s new novel, Shadowrise via Twitter?
Deborah Beale: It wasn’t a flash-bang moment; it just occurred to me sometime back that it would be a cool thing to do. I was waiting for a finished manuscript from Tad, and I wanted to fit in with the publishers wishes too, which means streaming something close to publication date. Now, of course, I’m wondering who else might be doing something like this. There was one fiction-experiment last year, I can’t remember the details but it didn’t end well. I’m just throwing stuff out there for our followers and mailing list (who got a free short story for Xmas.) And I’m having fun with it.
Interviews Delayed
Most of the time I have an inventory of interviews to run, but in recent weeks, I’ve been making it week to week. This past week, it just did not time out well. I hope to get back on schedule this week, but can make no promises. In the good news department, I was able to score a quick mini-interview that I will be posting later today.
Over at Robot 6, last week I had the pleasure of taking part in one of the best interviews I’ve gotten to do–with Joe the Barbarian artist Sean Murphy. Murphy gets the credit for the interview’s greatness.
Hulu: John Huston
Posted by admin in Film, streaming video on January 21, 2010
So I was knocking around hulu tonight and stumbled across John Huston’s 1956 film, Moby Dick (starring Gregory Peck). This got me curious as to whatever Huston films that might be sitting on hulu.
And that’s how I found 1977’s Tentacles. This film is a product of its times, clearly trying to capitalize upon the popularity of 1975’s Jaws (and apparently only a few months before Orca was released)–it was supposed to be a horror film. But appropriately enough, hulu has it listed as a comedy.
Huston does not direct this gem, but rather he acts in it, alongside other folks that leaves me asking “Was money that tight in the 1970s for these folks): Claude Akins (as a sheriff [pre-1979 BJ and the Bear no less]), Henry Fonda and Shelley Winters