Janine Ashbless's Blog, page 139
January 13, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 11
Elihu Vedder (1836-1923) : The Roc's Egg[click to enlarge]
Whee - I found an Orientalist picture with a fantasy theme! (Orientalists are usually staunch realists. Although, technically, Vedder is counted as a Symbolist rather than an Orientalist. *sigh* Don'tcha love these neat genre boxes we have to put people in?)
Today I'm over at Reader Girls talking about the allure of fantasy :-)
January 12, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 10
Jean-Leon Gerome: Arnaut Blowing Smoke at the Nose of his Dog (1882)Look - a greyhound! :-D
What would you ask for, if a djinni gave you three wishes? My answers are over at Basia's Bookshelf today. And - surprisingly - they don't actually include "another greyhound."
January 11, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 9
Dudley Hardy (1867-1922) : The Caravan Today I'm over at Asian Cocoa's Secret Garden, talking about the setting for Heart of Flame . Which, coincidentally, I'm returning to as I write a short story today...
January 10, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 8
Charles Bargue (1825-1883): An Eastern Coffee HouseToday I'm over at Anita Philmar's blog. She asked me "Where did you get the idea for Heart of Flame ?" and I tried desperately to remember. Man, I need more coffee in my life!
January 9, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 7
Antonio Garguillo (C19th - no dates listed) : The Message
I chose a picture of someone saying something that causes terrible trouble, because today I'm over at We Fancy Books ... and they asked me to write about the not entirely uncontentious topic of negative reviews. I did my best not to come across as a bunny-boiler, I swear!
But I probably failed.
*sigh*
January 7, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 6 - COMPETITION!
Gustav Bauernfeind: The Gate of the Great Umayyad Mosque, Damascus (1890)The Red Letter Blog Tour draws to a close, with a BIG interview over at the blog of Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the gripping Shadows of the Apt fantasy series. He dared ask me about the politics of setting Heart of Flame in the Middle East!
Okay - competition time!
Do you want to win a book? Not one of my books! This one in fact:
Beautifully illustrated by Jan Pienkowski, this is contains 6 of the Arabian Nights tales and the framing story of clever Shahrazade. It is suitable for children! (In as far as the 1001 Nights can be - there's a certain amount of adultery and murder in the stories.) And it can be yours for free!
Okay ... to win it, you need to check out each of the posts in the Red Letter Blog Tour in order and find the red letter in the text.
Jeremy EdwardsJustine ElyotKate Pearce's blog is still down - I'm sure she's even more frustrated than I am - so the letter is this one.Shanna GermainCharlotte SteinAdrian Tchaikovsky (Sorry, you'll need to look in the comments for the answer to that one)
Got the 6 letters? They spell the first name of the librarian who asks my hero and heroine a fiendish riddle, in Heart of Flame .
E-mail me at janine [dot] ashbless [at] yahoo [dot] com with this name. I'll draw the winner randomly.
You've got until Friday 13th - good luck!
And me? I'm going to finish my next novel and send it off today.
January 6, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 5
Rudolf Ernst (1854-1932): The ManicureI'm late ... I was up until 2.15am spell-checking, and slept through my alarm! So ZOOOOOM to -
Charlotte Stein's blog for the Red Letter Tour - and try a lurid but lovely drink. Why is a ba-na'na' not a banana?Books Read 'n' Makeup Done - and discover my New Years Resolutions. My sanity does not appear to be bearing up well, it must be said...
January 5, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 4
Jean Leon Gerome: Harem Women Feeding Pigeons in a Courtyard (1894)[click to enlarge] Oh, I just love Gerome's work! His paintings make me feel like I could walk straight into them and be there.
Today ...
I tell a very bad genie joke over at Shanna Germain's blog.I answer some difficult questions over at Novel Reflections.
January 4, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 3
Rudolph Swoboda: The Carpet Seller (1885) *sigh* We have hacker problems, I'm afraid. There have been a slew of hits on romance sites this week (WHY?!), including some I'm due to be guest blogging on. But we soldier on!Today the Heart of Flame blog tour has me guesting at Words of Wisdom from the Scarf Princess. She asked me to say what I thought made for a good erotic read. Well, maybe it's not the answer anyone was expecting! Again, leave a comment over there if you want to be included in a prize draw for an e-copy of The King's Viper . The Red Letter Blog tour should see me over at Kate Pearce's blog, but she's been having website problems. I'll link to this once everything's sorted.And backing up my own website has suddenly shot to the top of the insane list of Things To Do This Week...
January 3, 2012
Heart of Flame blog tour - Day 2
Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902): Arabian NightsLook - I can do magic ;-) Today I'm in two places at once!
I'm over at Justine Elyot's blog for the Red Letter Blog Tour, talking about writer's serendipity and a spooky coincidence.I'm also guesting at Shelley Munro's blog for a short interview ... Leave a comment there to be put in for a prize draw.And Shelley's reviewed Heart of Flame. Yay - She likes it! She says:
"For those aspiring writers who want to learn about escalating tension, definitely check out this book. With each passing chapter, the situation seems to become more dire for our hero and heroine. Will they succeed or will they give up, accepting failure?
Heart of Flame is a story of bravery, of djinni, gods, ghosts and magic and the search for love. I enjoyed this book, and if you're a fan of fantasy with a good dose of romance then I think you'll like it too."
