Theodora Goss's Blog, page 40

Hitting the Wall

On Friday, I hit the wall. I actually had to research that phrase: I thought it was the one I wanted to use, but I just wasn't sure. Sometimes I'm not sure about colloquial American phrases, despite the fact that I've grown up here.

Hitting the wall is what happens when you've been running and running, and suddenly you can't run anymore. That's what I've been doing, I think: all that running. And suddenly, I was completely out of energy. When I got home on Friday, I fell asleep, and I ended up sleeping much of the weekend.

I'm not going to try to write very much tonight. I do want to post about a few things that I haven't posted about yet, and that I wrote or read or watched over the weekend.

First, I wrote a guest blog post for The Bookaholic called "What Are We Mything?" Here's the first paragraph:

"When I teach classes on fantasy literature, I often start by having my students read Sigmund Freud's essay "The Uncanny." In that essay, Freud tries to figure out why we respond to certain events with a sort of creepy, uncomfortable fear, the sort of fear you feel when you see a ghost. (Each time I teach his essay, I think of Scooby Doo, shivering and whining until Velma reveals that the ghost is really the caretaker of the dilapidated old estate.) Freud says we feel the uncanny when we experience something that challenges our sense of reality, that makes us think our rational, scientific view of the world is inaccurate. Suddenly, we encounter the supernatural, and we start wondering if we really live in a world that can be explained by the laws of physics. Maybe ghosts do exist after all?"

To read the rest, you have to go look at the post! It's all about why we need myth in our lives.

And I wanted to think about a quotation from a blog post by Terri Winding:

"A question today: What gets you to your writing desk or drawing board or rehearsal room or where ever else it is that you create your art? I don't mean on those magical days when everything is flowing so well that a herd of elephants couldn't keep you away . . . but on all the rest. What gets you into the studio, what overcomes distraction and procrastination, what helps you to put brush to canvas and pencil to page – even on those days when you're tired, or stale, or fearful, or worried about a dozen other things?"

I was thinking about this particularly because I'm not writing right now – or I am writing, but it's all Q&As and guest blog posts. Which I love doing, don't get me wrong, but I'm not working on the story I'm supposed to be writing. I've gotten Ivan and Blanchefleur to Professor Owl's tower and just left them there. What gets me writing is that when I write, I get to escape to my own magical countries, and you know what? I like living in my own magical countries. They can be so much more interesting than this one. I actually like what's inside my head. I wish I could go back there – maybe once I finish a few more things.

There's a final thing I wanted to say. Over the weekend, when I was so tired, I watched the movie The Secret of Moonacre. I realized afterward that it has very low ratings – the reviews were not good. Well, you know what? All those reviewers are wrong. I loved it! I could see where the negative reviews were coming from. The movie does not have a linear plot, and it cuts abruptly from scene to scene. But the director is Hungarian, and I've seen those techniques used before in Hungarian movies. They are not flaws but choices the director made. And it's visually beautiful – stunningly so. And the story is strange, unusual. I think we like what we're used to. We feel comfortable when a movie goes the way we expect, when we can actually anticipate what's going to happen. Anything strange, anything unexpected, throws us off. But my task, as someone who is a sensitive reader and viewer, is to understand the strange, to appreciate it. (I'm not saying it's everyone's task. But it's my task. This is the way I was made, and what I was made for.)

The movie teaches me something: that when you have an unusual vision, you have to follow it. No matter what anyone tells you.

Having a Genius

I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't write a blog post! Instead, I fell asleep. And then of course I woke up late and still had a lot of work to do . . .

I have some more interviews and reviews to post here, and then, yes, there will be an actual (if short) thought on having a genius at the end of this post.

First, I recently did an interview with Library Thing.

And here are some more reviews:

Dialect Magazine: Destined, unstoppable true love is a theme I tend to avoid in my reading, but Goss expertly blends the all-encompassing passion, and the literary love story, with the history and myth of Arthurian legend, layered like the accordion folds of the novella. The beautiful craftsmanship and slightly awkward form of this novel is a perfect format for the love story within. It is just inconvenient and fragile enough to prohibit one-handed subway reading, making reading The Thorn and The Blossom into a more mindful activity. In Goss' The Thorn And The Blossom, fairies and witches' curses and true love are real, but so is catching the bus and marking papers. This is magical realism at its best, a blend of epic love story and subtle affection. This story is for readers who believe in magic and true love, but not in lovers pining away, blandly waiting for a match to turn up and transform life.

The Charlotte Geeks: Goss has written a complete tragic love story and done so in 82 pages, the amount for each character to tell his and her tale. [ . . . ] If you are a book collector this is a great buy for your collection. It is unique in its design and construction. If you enjoy a tragic romance, then this is an excellent novel to buy. It is a quick read, and well worth reading twice in order to better piece their stories together.

The Bookaholic: I did not hesitate to review The Thorn and the Blossom after reading the premise and seeing the unusual binding of the novella, and in the end I was not disappointed. While it was a quick read, short and sweet, I adored the accordion style binding and romantic backdrop for the characters. [ . . . ] Sometimes whenever I finish a novel, I'll wonder what the story would be like in the other character's POV. I loved how The Thorn and the Blossom gives you this vision.

Daemon's Books: I had a lot of fun reading The Thorn and the Blossom, it's really well crafted and it was a different reading experience not just in the story, but also physically in holding the book, which is like an accordion. So if you're looking for something new and exciting and quick to read (did I mention each side is only about 40 pages long), you should definitely get yourself a copy of The Thorn and the Blossom.

Beneath the Bracken: The bookbinder in me, was taken by the book itself. It's constructed in accordion style with a slipcase and gorgeous illustrations. The reader in me, was taken by the story. Two stories, actually. It's a love story which weaves the lives of Evelyn and Brendan, their past and their present; with a tale of wonder and enchantment. It's a quietly beautiful story that, with its clarity and charm, stayed with me in the days after I'd read it. One to read again.

Journey of a Bookseller: One of the most fascinating things about this book is that it is accordion paged and comes in a slipcase. His story on one side of the pages, hers on the other. There is no right or wrong way to read it. Read her story first, or his if you prefer. And it's a tantalizing tale. [ . . . ] Why not get a copy of this book for yourself and read about the secrets these two lovers hold? Happy reading.

Now, to what I was saying about having a genius. This comes from a talk given by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love.

I recommend this video for anyone who does creative work. I very much like the idea of having a genius (rather than trying to be one, which seems like an exhausting sort of task). And you know, it helps when I face the fact that not all reviews are as positive as the ones I've posted above. Anytime you create a work of art, some people won't like it. That's simply a fact of the creative life (and one Gilbert herself learned, I'm sure, when Eat, Pray, Love was published, despite the fact that it was a best-seller.)

So what do you do then? Well, what I've done is looked back at The Thorn and the Blossom, which I wrote more than six months before its publication date, and thought about what I would change now, if I could. And you know what? There is one thing I would change: I would add a particular paragraph. But that's it. I know that the story is what it was meant to be – that in a sense, I wasn't simply sitting down and writing it. I was also channeling the story. And whatever happens to it, however people respond to it, I'm confident that I wrote the story I was supposed to.

I like the idea of having a genius, a spirit that tells the story through you, so that in a sense you become a conduit for it. An educated and trained conduit, of course. But a conduit nevertheless.

And now, you know what? It's time to move on to the next project, tell the next story.

Reading and Writing News

I can't write tonight: I had my yearly eye exam, and the doctor put something in my eyes to dilate them, and I can't look at the screen without the letters going all blurry. All that blurriness makes me dizzy, gives me nausea. So what to do?

I'm just going to tell you a couple of writing things, and then I'm going to rest my eyes. For those of you in the Boston area, I'm going to be doing a reading at the Boston University Barnes and Noble in Kenmore Square, on February 7th at 7:00 p.m. You can find the official poster for the reading below. I'm also going to be chatting with people and signing books at the Concord Bookshop, on February 9th at 2:00 p.m.

Recently, three interviews with me were posted: on SF Signal (with the wonderful Charles Tan); on Daemon's Books, which posted a lovely review of the book; and on The Qwillery, which  also posted a lovely review and is doing a book giveaway.

Also, believe it or not, I do still have other things going on, other writing projects. A short story of mine called "Beautiful Boys" will be in Asimov's Science Fiction, and I have another short story coming out, but I can't tell you about that one yet. Also, my article "A Brief History of Monsters" will be in Weird Fiction Review, sometime in February.

I'm sorry, I know, this post is all about the writing. But I can't think clearly enough to write about anything that would be more interesting, right now. I'll be back in better form tomorrow, I promise.

And here is the poster:

True Love

That's it, folks! All the book giveaways I'm going to have, because I have no more books to give away. (I have to keep a few copies for myself.) I loved all of the descriptions of true love. They were beautiful and heartfelt, and once again I had a difficult time deciding what to include here, both as winners and as honorable mentions.

Here are the two I finally chose as winners, after much debate. Jennifer and Matt, I'll email you about the books!  I wish I could send books to everyone who participated in these giveaways. Thank you all – your writing totally made my Mondays!

From Jennifer O. @ Lit Endeavors:

True love is watching Grease two times a day for a week because it's her favorite musical and you get a kick out of watching her sing "Totally Devoted to You." Love is drinking two pots of coffee to stay up all night because it's a Sunday, the Dr.'s office isn't open, and she has a fever of 102. Love is walking around in one piece and shattering into a thousand when she saunters into a room. It is reading twenty Mercer Mayer books in a row because instead of falling asleep, her laughter is filling the room like coins being poured into a glass jar. Love is calling her 6 year old classmate a turdbucket because he called her haircut ugly and "boy-looking."

Love is being reborn every morning, when she calls you Mom and asks you to make her pancakes with extra syrup.

From Matt:

I've read so many stories involving love, heard aphorisms about it, and seen it represented visually so often, I feel like I should be able to say something eloquent about love – romantic love in particular, but of course other kinds exist and should be celebrated as well. But the more I've experienced love in its various permutations, the more I realized it's tremendously difficult to pin it down even in the most abstract terms.

When I think about love that is true, I find myself turning to examples from my own life. First and foremost, I love reading, writing, language, words. That isn't to say I sit down every day – if only! – to write with a feeling of complete enthusiasm and unbridled possibility. Sometimes, I dread it. But as many difficulties as writing brings, life goes worse for me if I don't do it for any extended period of time. Words and stories, they comfort me. They challenge me. They give me everything and demand everything of me. We work together through the prosaic and the ineffable. It's a partnership of sorts, one that encompasses the greatest highs and some truly awful lows. But that aspect is such a part of me, I can't see myself not writing or reading. I can't remember who said that acts of creation are also acts of love. I think it's absolutely true. Okay, so maybe one aphorism.

The other example is my parents. My mom had me at what was certainly too young of an age. Instead of putting me up for adoption, or taking any other alternative, she dropped out of high school and raised me – and the six siblings that followed. Meanwhile, my dad has worked two, occasionally three or four, jobs to provide for us and especially for me, to give me a good education through elementary and high school. His days off are few, and the hours he's not devoting to the family are equally sparse. Same for my mom. Because of the time, attention, and opportunity they've given me, I have the mind, the talent, and the determination to make something of myself, to pay forward (and pay back, as much as possible) the tremendous debt of gratitude I owe them for making me who I am.

That's love in my eyes, pure, simple, and true.

And here were the honorable mentions, which are also wonderful.  These were especially difficult to choose, because once again I limited myself to four, just like in the last giveaway.  But there were many more I could have chosen!

From Sara:

True love is not just taking out the trash and making the lunches and cleaning up the blood and poop and mud. It is not just the flowers and whispers and the shivering static sparks in your fingertips. It lives somewhere on the borders of these, braver and darker and gentler and fiercer. It smells of sulfur and fur and new bread and new babies' soft hair. It tastes like dust and chocolate and wine and salt. It laughs and moans and weeps and rages. And it is very quiet. Shh. It is sleeping. And never sleeping, sitting awake at your bedside to keep away monsters.

From Liv DelGiudice:

I've always been attracted to found family stories. That's the reason tales like Star Trek or the stories about Sherlock and Watson have always appealed to me. Of course as humans we love our families, and that love is pure and true. I love my mom! She's absolutely my best friend, but there's something about the idea of a found family story that really resonates with me.

I love the idea that Jim Kirk picked up the ashes of a life and blew away with them, to somehow end up on the Enterprise, with friends who could take him down a peg. I love the idea that in their own ways, in all their incarnations, Sherlock and Watson both bared their scars and let something other than salt into the wound. I love the idea that at the end of everything, Guinevere might have seen Arthur and Lancelot clasp hands and wondered if it was all worth it.

Because family is big, and it's love, and despite what some people might argue, it is so much more than blood. It's running to catch a Streetcar in New Orleans, hands clasped, trying to remember how to breathe because your best friend stayed too long with the author and now you might have to walk home. It's staring down some Klingons with a sarcastic doctor and a logical Vulcan and a beautiful woman whose name means freedom, and winging it because you can trust them. It's waiting three years to punch a missing part of your life in the face, because at the end of the world–he comes back after all. It's the question mark. It's forgetting to end your story.

True love is where you find it, however you find it, and however you want to make it. It's got nothing to do with age or knowledge or wisdom, just the feeling of falling into nothing with a hand clasped in your own, and knowing that even if you smash to bits on the ground, you'll have that palm pressed against your own, for infinity plus one.

From Michelle M.:

True love ripples like a stirring cadence, the ballad that breaks you out of sleep and clamors to be heard through the quiet. It's the world opening up to beauty once again, the fates knitting their ruby threads through your heart and combing ribbons into your hair, their hands washing you in rosewater and Venus' myrrh. It's the fluttering forth of secrets once suspended inside, melodies once wan now stitching a gossamer rhythm you're not quite sure of, but yet you listen, marking each delicate strain.

It's finding a scent of flowers crowning you in the cold, and the smallest shiver of joy beating a steadfast song. Of stringing pearls through the salt of wounds and dressing the body in precious stones, a mosaic of crystal and sun softening the skin. A gorgeous salvaging of dreams, the lips aflame with seeds.

From Keith Glaeske:

True Love is a Force of Nature. As such it can be resisted or accepted, but it cannot be tamed or overcome. Eros was one of the few things that even the Gods could not gainsay (the other being the Moriae, or Fate) – they were as powerless before it as humanity. And, if story is to be believed, even Time and Death are not proof against True Love.

Just as no human-made structure can last indefinitely against the fury of Nature, no human-made convention, taboo, or boundary can long withstand True Love. Like water, it can drown you or sustain you; like fire, which can melt butter and/or temper steel, it can shatter you or strengthen you beyond breaking.

Publicity and the Introvert

Reminder: Book Giveaway #3 ends tonight, so make sure you get in your entries before midnight! If you need to look at the rules again, they're in the post titled Book Giveaway #3, which is also where you can post your entries (in the comments section).

I've been doing what feels like a lot of publicity lately, although I know some writers do a lot more. But I thought I would describe what it's like, for anyone out there who's interested – particularly other writers. Because the truth is, most writers don't do a lot of publicity. The ones who do the most are also the most successful, although I don't know which came first. When you're successful, you have to do publicity. There's really no getting around it, unless you're J.D. Salinger. And trust me, you're not.

The problem, of course, is that most writers are introverts. Publicity does not come naturally to us. It takes precious energy, which we need to replenish by doing things that do not involve other people. Like sleeping, or sitting under a tree.

Since I've been doing so much publicity lately, I'm going to give you my personal thoughts on it. But of course everyone does publicity differently, just as everyone writes differently. These are things I've discovered that work for me. And they work for me as an introvert, although as I've mentioned, I'm pretty tired right now. I need to sit under that tree or something. Except that right now the ground is covered with snow . . .

Some time ago, a writer friend told me that he was working on a novel, and that once the novel was finished, he would begin to publicize it. He would update his website, go on Facebook. Maybe even tweet. And I thought, how do I tell him that he's leaving it way too late? That you should start doing publicity at least a year before you have anything coming out? If you start doing it when you have a novel coming out, no one will know who you are. If you start at least a year before, it's just about making connections, about having a presence of some sort. But it was incredibly useful, when this book came out, that I'd been blogging steadily for a year, that I had been on Facebook and Twitter for a while. For one thing, I was easy to find. I'll be doing a signing at the Concord Bookshop on February 9th, and the bookstore contacted me through Twitter. People contacted me for review copies through Facebook. So just being out there mattered. It also mattered that when people interviewed me, they could find information on me. Journalists generally like to find background information before doing interviews. My website helped with that.

So I guess the first thing I would say is, you should already have been making connections, so that when something like a book comes out, you have a way to publicize it. You already have ways to connect with people.

Once you have a book, you're probably not going to be the only one doing publicity, of course. I know that copies of The Thorn and the Blossom went to all sorts of places: newspapers and magazines and bloggers. All of that was coordinated by the publicity department. Your responsibility is to respond to anything: answer Q&As, do interviews, write guest posts. That's tiring, by the way. Even if you're doing a telephone interview, it's as tiring as meeting someone and talking intensely for an hour. (Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, and I learn so much from the questions people ask me. But we're talking about publicity and the introvert, and it's tiring to do those sorts of things.)

That's the phase I'm in now, just trying to respond to everything. But I'm grateful, at this point, that I had so much in place before this book came out: that I had an updated website, with a press page on which I had a bio and photo. That I had Facebook and Twitter accounts so I could announce things and people could contact me. That I'd already been going to conventions, so I knew people who were reviewers and bloggers. I could ask them personally if I could send them copies of the book. There was no guarantee they were going to like it, of course, and I would never have expected them to like it simply because they knew me. If they disliked it, I would have expected them to say so, honestly. But at least I knew people to send it to. I could coordinate with and supplement the efforts of the publicity department.

So now I'm going to use this forum I've created to ask you, would you like to help with publicity? Because there are things I can't do, but that anyone else who likes the book can do. If you do like the book and you want to help spread the word, here's what you can do:

1. Go to the Amazon page for The Thorn and the Blossom (notice that I conveniently provided a link!) and "like" it. Or if you have something you'd like to say about it, consider writing a review. Anyone can review on Amazon.

2. If you're a member of Goodreads, consider also rating the book on Goodreads, or posting a review. Here's the Goodreads page (again, there's the link!). You can post the same review on both Amazon and Goodreads, if you want to.

3. If you're ambitious, you can also write a review on your blog, and thn link to it on Facebook or Twitter if you have those accounts. If you send me the URL, I'll also link to it in some way, whether through this blog, or on Facebook or Twitter. (Assuming it's positive and doesn't give too much of the book away. Of course, if you didn't like the book, you should feel perfectly free to write a negative review! It's important to be honest. But I probably won't link to it, because, you know, I'd rather publicize the good stuff.)

4. And if you're really ambitious, you can spread the word to actual live people. Relatives, your book group, etc. And how you do that is of course up to you! (By the way, if you want your book group to read the book and you want me to talk to your book group about it, I would be happy to do that.)

Of course, what I want most of all is simply for people to enjoy the book. But if you do want to help out, that's how to do it. And for writers: if you want to use or copy any of this blog post for your own publicity efforts, please feel free to do so. I'm learning a lot, and I want to share it with all of you.

Thinking about Fear

Reminder: Book Giveaway #3 ends tomorrow night at midnight! If you want to win copies of The Thorn and the Blossom and In the Forest of Forgetting, look at Book Giveaway #3 below for the rules, and post your answer in the comments section of the post!

I've been thinking about fear recently. There's always fear involved when you're attempting to do something new, and writing a book is always something new, something that is at least a little fearsome. You're afraid that once you write the book, people won't like it, or won't buy it, or will buy it but won't like it afterward, or any of the various combinations of things that can make you wonder why in the world you bothered writing a book in the first place. Rather than, you know, watching television and eating chocolate.

(Yesterday, I had dinner with friends who are writers, and one of them said to me, you never learn how to write a story. You learn how to write that story, that book. You have to learn all over again how to write the next one. So the experience is always different, always new.)

I should point out here that despite my fears, The Thorn and the Blossom is doing so much better than I could ever have anticipated. Some people will like it, some people won't, and that's always the way things are. But it's selling!

Today, I saw three things other people had said about fear. The first one is something I see every day, because it's tacked to the bulletin board above my desk. I originally took it from Terri Windling's blog:

"What would you do if you weren't afraid"?

It's on a post-it note, but I should probably have it typed up, or even tattooed on me somewhere, because it's quickly becoming my motto. I ask myself that question often: what would I do in this situation if I weren't afraid? There are several projects I'm working on at the moment. One is a poetry collection, which I think I've mentioned, and that's attended with all the fears one always has about a book: what if no one likes it? What if my poetry is terrible? And there's a secret project of sorts that will accompany the poetry collection, which I'll tell you about soon. And then there's a super secret project that I'm just starting to work on, and that one I really had to think about. But I thought, what would I do if I weren't afraid? And the answer was, I would do it. So there.

The second thing I saw today came from Twitter:

"A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom." – Aung San Suu Kyi

Yup. Especially common sense. We think it doesn't make sense to do something, or do it in a particular way, and so we don't do it. Well, common sense is just shorthand for what other people would say. And what do you care about what other people would say? You are you, you have your vision, and you have to follow it. Despite common sense. You have to do it sensibly, in that you need to make sure you can eat and have a roof over your head while you're following that dream. But there's also such a thing as uncommon sense. Your uncommon sense is that small voice inside you that tells you which way to go. If you don't think you have one, that's because you haven't been listening to it. Listen, and it will be telling you all the time where you should go next.

And then, I saw this on Jeff Vandermeer's blog, in a post called "Things I Know?":

"Fear and taking the short-term view will harm not just your career but your creativity. Conversely, taking chances while keeping the long-term in mind will often reward you. But the important thing here is beating the fear. Even writing itself is often about beating the fear – evading the fear that comes with the editorial mind-set, which can rob you of the confidence to write. In the broader sense, it's fear that makes us not push outside of our comfort zones. It's fear that tells us we're not worthy of an opportunity. It's fear that tells us this new thing isn't something we can actually accomplish. Jumping in with both feet while being aware of the long-term effects of what you're doing is so important. Saying yes is so important. As important? Don't fall into patterns of paranoia and bitterness. Something is always going to go wrong in your career. There's no getting around that. You can lose yourself in circles of why that turn your world into a place where you only see the negative. This just feeds the fear more, and gives you more excuses to not do something."

I can't add anything to that – it says what it needs to so perfectly. Oh, and that question about why I bother to write books in the first place? It's because I look at the world around me, and there are things about it I don't like. And so I want to change it. Changing the world: that's why I do what I do. Despite the fear, following my uncommon sense.

(Do you think we'd still be talking about Joan of Arc if she hadn't followed her uncommon sense?)

Three Women

It's been such a busy day, filled with teaching, and then a faculty meeting, and then dinner with friends. I've had no time to sit down and write a blog post. And now I'm too tired to write anything coherent. So instead, I'm going to give you three poems by one of my favorite poets, H.D. When I'm tired, I go to H.D., the way I go to the ocean. These are poems about three women. The second one, "Helen," is one of my favorite poems in the whole wide world. But I very much like the other ones as well.

Leda

Where the slow river

meets the tide,

a red swan lifts red wings

and darker beak,

and underneath the purple down

of his soft breast

uncurls his coral feet.

Through the deep purple

of the dying heat

of sun and mist,

the level ray of sun-beam

has caressed

the lily with dark breast,

and flecked with richer gold

its golden crest.

Where the slow lifting

of the tide,

floats into the river

and slowly drifts

among the reeds,

and lifts the yellow flags,

he floats

where tide and river meet.

Ah kingly kiss –

no more regret

nor old deep memories

to mar the bliss;

where the low sedge is thick,

the gold day-lily

outspreads and rests

beneath soft fluttering

of red swan wings

and the warm quivering

of the red swan's breast.

Helen

All Greece hates

the still eyes in the white face,

the lustre as of olives

where she stands,

and the white hands.

All Greece reviles

the wan face when she smiles,

hating it deeper still

when it grows wan and white,

remembering past enchantments

and past ills.

Greece sees, unmoved,

God's daughter, born of love,

the beauty of cool feet

and slenderest knees,

could love indeed the maid,

only if she were laid,

white ash amid funereal cypresses.

Evadne

I first tasted under Apollo's lips,

love and love sweetness,

I, Evadne;

my hair is made of crisp violets

or hyacinth which the wind combs back

across some rock shelf;

I, Evadne,

was made of the god of light.

His hair was crisp to my mouth,

as the flower of the crocus,

across my cheek,

cool as the silver-cress

on Erotos bank;

between my chin and throat,

his mouth slipped over and over.

Still between my arm and shoulder,

I feel the brush of his hair,

and my hands keep the gold they took,

as they wandered over and over,

that great arm-full of yellow flowers.

And I thought this would illustrate them well. It's a study for the head of Leda by Leonardo da Vinci.

More Reviews

Reminder: Book Giveway #3 is going on right now! This is the last one, so consider entering to win one of the last two copies of The Thorn and the Blossom that I can give away (and a copy of In the Forest of Forgetting). If you want to enter, answer the following question in a paragraph or a couple of paragraphs in the comments section to Book Giveaway #3 below:

How would you describe true love? It doesn't have to be romantic love. There are many kinds of love: for a romantic partner, a parent or child, a friend, an animal, a house, a place, even the planet. But it should, in some sense, be "true."

(I was thinking about that question myself, and realized that my true loves include all sorts of things. Like the city of Budapest and my grandparents' apartment, where I spent the first few years of my life; and my love for the stories of Isak Dinesen, which taught me so much about who I am; and my deep and abiding love for the ocean.)

I'm afraid you're going to get sick of hearing about The Thorn and the Blossom, but I have to write about it today, because the book came out on Tuesday! It's out there in the world, and people are getting their copies, and I very much hope they like them. When you write a book, you know that you're never going to please everyone, and that you shouldn't even try. If you try, you're not being true to yourself. But what you hope is that the book will please some people – will mean something to them, be special to them. That it will give them pleasure, comfort, solace, a little magic.

I'm going to post links to some more reviews here, because there have been many lovely ones (although I can't include them all), and then I'm going to stop talking about the book for a while and go back to blogging about other things. But first, here is an interview with me that came out in the last few days with Westword, a paper in Denver: "The Thorn and the Blossom's Theodora Goss on Creating a Double-Layered Story."

The book received a lovely review from the School Library Journal: Evelyn and Brendan's story is told twice, once from each perspective, in this intriguing production. [ . . . ] Teens who enjoy a romantic tale will be enchanted by the clever packaging and the fanciful, touching story of young people thwarted in love.

And here are some of the reviews on book blogs:

Unabridged Chick: This is a romance with academics, sort of A.S. Byatt-lite (in a good way!): Oxford scholars turned medieval professors, a kiss, a misunderstanding, some magic. [ . . . ] I read Evelyn's story first, and let out a serious sigh upon finishing, then quickly flipped the book to gobble up Brendan's story. (Who, by the way, needs to be my boyfriend. Hello, Mr. Dreamy.)

Tutor Girl Reads: This book was a really magical experience for me. I always have an intense interest in how academics do things, and there were just enough details about the researching, publishing, etc. process to keep me interested, but not enough that others not interested in such processes would get bogged down. That aside, this book was really a love letter to the stories that bring us together and the stories that last for generations.

The Introverted Reader: I got it in the mail, ripped it open, and fell in love. It is just a gorgeous book. There are a few illustrations and I loved those. The covers (Evelyn's, Brendan's, and the box that holds the book together) are well-matched and elegant. [ . . . ] Highly recommended, primarily because of the unique format of the book, but also for an enjoyable story of star-crossed lovers.

The Quillery: The Thorn and the Blossom is a very quick read weighing in at only 82 pages, but it really is amazing how much Theodora Goss packs into those pages. [ . . . ] The Thorn and the Blossom is beautifully written, enchanting and gorgeous inside and out. I suggest that you pick up the printed copy of this book to appreciate how special it is.

Misfit Salon: The Thorn and The Blossom has Goss's trademark style: subtle, layered writing with unexpected fantastical touches. Goss expands upon the Arthurian legend of Gawain and the Green Knight and the Green Man folklore to tell the star-crossed love story of modern day Evelyn and Brendan. The parallels between the myths and the present day are not broad or obvious; I love the depth of Goss's literary interpretation.

Wordsmithonia: This is one of those books that you need to read for the experience of reading it alone. It's a two sided book without a spine. There are two covers and the pages are done like an accordion between then. When you finish one story, you flip it over and read the other. It's a fairly short book either way you count the pages, but what's inside was a pure joy to read.

I Just Want to Sit Here and Read (and you can also read an interview I did with this blog): The Thorn and the Blossom, by Theodora Goss, is a unique book with a lovely romance.  The book is accordion style in which you can start reading Brendan or Evelyn's side of the story first then when you are finished, flip it over and read the other. [ . . . ] There is no actual spine but I found myself really digging the layout. Overall, the story is very romantic with some magical elements sprinkled in.

Sophistitakied Reviews: Overall, The Thorn and the Blossom was definitely a unique reading experience. I enjoyed Brendan and Evelyn's relationship and I loved that so much of the book was based around Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And getting into the heads of both characters as they tell the same story was an unfamiliar feeling, but it was really insightful and cool. I can only hope that more authors/publishers take notice of this creative way to bind a book and jump on the bandwagon; I'd love to read more novels like this!

On Strike

Book Giveaway #3

I'm still very tired – I've had some sort of cold or other virus for days now, and while I'm eating again, I'm still not sleeping very well. And this is a particularly busy week. So I'm writing today just to announce the third, and final, book giveaway.

The rules are the same as for the first two giveaways. The third giveaway will go until midnight on Sunday night. You can enter by answering the question I pose, in a paragraph or a couple of paragraphs, in the comments section to this post. Once again, there will be two winners, who will each get a signed copy of The Thorn and the Blossom and In the Forest of Forgetting. Here is the third and final question:

The Thorn and the Blossom is a love story, between two people who experience what they believe to be true love. How would you describe true love? It doesn't have to be romantic love.  There are many kinds of love: for a romantic partner, a parent or child, a friend, an animal, a house, a place, even the planet. But it should, in some sense, be "true."

That's it! This is the most challenging of the three questions, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say. Once again, past winners can't win again, but can certainly answer the question I posed. Good luck to all, and as always, I look forward to reading what you write!

Please note that I will not be blogging tomorrow to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). If you want to know why so many internet sites will be protesting these acts, there are many sources for that information, too many for me to link to here. Suffice it to say that as a former intellectual property lawyer, and as a writer and scholar, I believe these acts are badly written and misguided. I'll be blogging again on Thursday.

And a final announcement that I may not have made yet, in all the excitement of the book coming out: I just received author copies of Under the Moons of Mars, which contains my story "Woola's Song." Here's what it looks like:

Even though I had a book come out today, the writing life goes on. In fact, I'll have some exciting news to announce in the next few weeks! I hope you'll like it . . .