Rosina Lippi's Blog, page 20
May 20, 2015
The Gilded Hour unabridged audio with Blackstone
Blackstone Audio at the BEA
I am addicted to audiobooks. I always have at least two going. In the car, while I’m cooking or (cough) cleaning or just sitting staring into space, I love to have somebody read to me.
Blackstone Audio competed with a couple other audiobook producers and finally came out on top. They will be producing the unabridged audio of The Gilded Hour. I’m very excited about this, and especially excited because in June they’ll decide on a reader.
It’s a matter of some anxiety for me, because there are not only MANY characters with distinctive voices, there are also bits in five different dialects of Italian, in French and Swiss German and German. Oh, and Hungarian. I know there are readers out there who can handle all this, and I’m looking forward to learning which one of them will be bringing The Gilded Hour to life.
And then there’s this reception/dinner thing at BEA15 to go to.
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BookExpo America & Things to Give Away
Next week Tuesday I leave for New York and BEA. If you follow blogs and tweets about @BEA15 it sounds like a giant race, everybody jockeying for position to get as many ARCs and signed books as possible. You know what crosses my mind when I think of that? The pain of getting them home. And to be completely honest, I so much prefer reading on a Kindle that I avoid book-books wherever possible. Nostalgia for the printed page? Somehow I’m missing that.
So I’m thinking, why bother standing in line for books I won’t want? And it comes to me: you may want them. And there’s the bigger drawing coming up for the signed ARC of The Gilded Hour.
Here’s the new plan: More stuff for you.
I’ll see if I can grab a copy of Hoffman’s newest, not out until the fall.
I’m going to get as many interesting books as I can while I’m at BEA, and whoever wins The Gilded Hour ARC will get a bigger pile o’ books, too. Now, if you’re DownUnder or someplace else far away, I’m going to send them by boat. But I will send them.
And wait, there’s more. Whatever swag I pick up, I’ll include. So how’s that for an offer? While I’m at BEA I will tweet when I nab a book or something else to include in the Big Box. And if anything interesting happens. So keep an eye on me @rosinalippi @BEA15 and be sure
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story prompt: Beanie Babies
This is one of my favorite prompts of all times. It’s worth revisiting. 
Beanie Kangaroo Baby
At the border between United States and Canada, an irate father slugged a customs officer who was trying to pry excess Beanie Babies from his daughter.
The Economist 12/5/98
Is this the beginning of the story, or the end?
Is this guy a divorced father trying to win his daughter’s approval? Is his name George, Newman, Claude, Muhammed?
Is the customs officer an old girlfriend?
Is the kid manipulating her father or is she a pawn? Is her name Tiffany, Harriet, Meg, Susie?
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May 15, 2015
scroll bars?
I had a comment from someone who says that the vertical and horizontal scroll bars have stopped working for her. Is anybody else experiencing this? And if so, what kind of screen are you reading from?
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May 13, 2015
Writing Prompt: Anxiety
You are in a foreign city, and you don’t speak the language. For two weeks you’ve been traveling with someone you love, but who has irritated you to distraction on this last day of the trip. You agree to spend the afternoon apart, and will meet back at the hotel at five. In case of a natural or political disaster, you agree on places to meet if you can’t get back to the hotel: the cafe where you had breakfast, the main post office, or as a last resort, the American Embassy.
You are now standing outside the American Embassy.
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May 12, 2015
French speakers: I need your input
You have helped me many times before with language questions. Here I am again. You’ve got a character sitting in a hotel in France writing a telegram to the U.S. The year is 1884.
What would the telegraph office in the hotel be called (because hotels did have telegraph offices)?
How would the person write out the date and time? For example, an American at that time could write
2 June 1884 8:00 a.m.
2nd June 1884 8 a.m.
June 2, 1884 8 am
but I’m pretty sure the time especially would be handled in a different way.
Any help much appreciated.
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This is a story looking for a title.
The original caption on this is “Watching the fireworks …in Leicester Square during the Chinese New Year celebrations.” Can’t find the origin of this photo, but it makes a great story prompt anyway.
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May 11, 2015
Poor burrito. Disrespected by everybody.
Write this story from the POV of (1) a rookie police officer; (2) a homeless woman standing near by; (3) the burrito itself.
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May 10, 2015
Story prompt: countdown.
image prompt: newly enlisted soldier
Worth looking at again:
If you click on this image, a new window will open and take you to its Flickr page. Once you get there (if you care to go) click on “all sizes” above the photo, and you’ll come to a place where you can look at it in very large and detailed format.
I found this photograph (and a lot of other very interesting images) in a book at the (online) Harvard library. If you care to have a look, here’s the info:
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 1872-1906.
Candle-lightin’ time / by Paul Laurence Dunbar ; illustrated with photographs by the Hampton Institute Camera Club and decorations by Margaret Armstrong.
New York : Dodd, Mead, 1908.
access to page images of entire work
It’s an odd and somewhat disturbing book. I’d have to spend a lot of time with it to come to any conclusions, but for the moment, let’s just look at this photograph.
There are a lot of historical works (fiction and non-fiction) about African-Americans who enlisted in the Civil War, that I’m not very familiar with. I only have vague memories from the film Glory (which I believe was pretty accurate) so for now I’m just trying to imagine myself standing near by as this young man posed.
Was his mother standing there? His whole extended family? I wonder if he lived in the house behind him, what his name was and what kind of work he did before he enlisted. I don’t know anything about uniforms of the time, but a little research would probably provide a lot of information.
Most of all I wonder what is going through his head.
It would take a lot of research (given how little I know about his place and time) to write about him, but it strikes me as an interesting project.
