Susan Signe Morrison's Blog, page 7
April 21, 2016
Sarton Literary Award Finalist for Historical Fiction: Story Circle Event
Finalist: Sarton Women’s Literary Award for Historical Fiction
The Story Circle Network Conference for women writers takes place ever other year. I look forward to it the moment the previous one ends! I’m with supportive, sassy, and spirited women for 3 days. All the while I’m making new friends, learning craft, and sharing wisdom. This year was especially sweet, because Grendel’s Mother: The Saga of the Wyrd-Wife was a finalist for the 2014-2015 Sarton Literary Award for Historical Fiction. I got to meet my fellow finalists and winners, hobnob with brilliant speakers and writers, and–oh yes–wrote!
First, a lovely time have a drink on the first evening with my fellow honorees.
Susan S. Morrison, Jill Kandel, Barbara A Stark-Nemon, and Tammy Hetrick. Photo by Cindy Eastman
Susan S. Morrison, Jill Kandel, Tammy Hetrick, and Barbara A Stark-Nemon.
We had a roundtable chaired by the generous dynamo, Susan Wittig Albert, about the process of writing our honored books, the process of publication, and a discussion of our next projects.
Tammy Hetrick, Susan S. Morrison, Jill Kandel, Barbara A Stark-Nemon and the ever generous Susan Wittig Albert who chaired our panel of the Sarton Award Finalists and Winners.
We all read from our books at the luncheon on Saturday.
Me reading at the Story Circle Luncheon.
Me reading at the luncheon–getting dramatic here!
In addition to making friends, I also loved how we ladies took over the men’s restroom at the hotel!
Why I love Story Circle. Over 100 women–taking over the men’s restroom!
Mums for Moms and sisters in the urinals of the men’s room!
Can’t wait until the next conference–in 2018. Now…I’d better get writing!
Filed under: Blog
April 1, 2016
How do you identify with characters from the past?
Visit this page to find out more: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/grendelsmotherblogtour/
Guest Blog Post at Just One More Chapter
Why historical fiction and not history? Why fiction and not non-fiction? How do you identify with characters from the past?
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March 29, 2016
Enter Giveaway of “Grendel’s Mother”
Visit this page to find out more: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/grendelsmotherblogtour/
It’s early in the Blog Tour of Grendel’s Mother. She has all her tickets and visas ready. Now you can join her by entering a giveaway of the book! To enter, just go to Passages to the Past. You have until April 15th to enter–which just happens to be my birthday! Coincidence? I think not…..
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March 28, 2016
Virtual Blog Tour of “Grendel’s Mother”: March 28-April 15
March 27, 2016
Humble and Grateful
Grendel’s Mother is a Finalist: Foreward Reviews’ 2015 Indiefab Book of the Year Award: Historical (Adult Fiction)
Grendel’s Mother was also shortlisted for the 2014-15 Sarton Literary Award for Historical Fiction.
I’m honored to have been shortlisted among many other amazing writers!
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March 4, 2016
Kids and Runes
Have you ever read the opening eleven lines of Beowulf to 1st graders? In Old English? Sound crazy? Well, I have done it. The response? Mesmerized, one child uttered, “Do it again.”
Kids love Old and Middle English. It sounds weird! And fun. Children make up languages and stories–so the slant sound of medieval tongues can only resonate with youngsters.
One child was flipping through a medieval picture book I had brought in. “Someone wrote in here!” O dear! Who could have done that? None other than my own dear daughter, Sarah, many years ago….
I teach 3rd-5rd graders at a local elementary school which has an annual Young Writers Workshop.
Me in teaching mode: Time for Old and Middle English!
Folks from cartoonists to songwriters, picture book writers to –yes–medievalists teach 45 minute classes to groups of kids.
My fellow teachers and me
I bring in medieval picture books, tell about the history of the language, read aloud a bit in Old and Middle English, and have them write stories using my story elements handout.
This child’s story: IN RUNES!
Students teach me. One 10 year old wrote his story in runes–he had discovered the alphabet in one of the books I had brought in. Then everyone else wanted to do it.
They read their stories to the class at the end of our time…. 
…ready to enter a Time Machine and go back to the Middle Ages.
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February 5, 2016
The Mother of Anglo-Saxon Studies
Yvonne Seale writes about the first female Anglo-Saxon scholar, Elizabeth Elstob, an 18th-century “pioneer” in a recent History Today article.
Engraving from a self-portrait, published in two of her works. – See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/yvonne-seale/first-female-anglo-saxonist#sthash.sJI8NdRP.dpuf
In one of her publications, Elstob asks, ‘If Women may be said to have Souls, and if good Learning be one of the Soul’s greatest Improvements; we must retort the Question. Where is the Fault in Women seeking after Learning?”
Frontispiece for Elstob’s An Anglo-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of Saint Gregory (1709). – See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/yvonne-seale/first-female-anglo-saxonist#sthash.sJI8NdRP.dpuf
Even Thomas Jefferson was a devotee of her book on Old English grammar, called The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue (1715).
Elizabeth received early support for her learning and education from her brother. Brothers can be key actors in their sisters’ education, especially at time when women’s learning was not especially encouraged. The nineteenth-century writer and activist Harriet Martineau wrote under a pseudonym, a mere initial, to hide her identity and gender. When her brother learned of her authorship, he fully endorsed her vocation, saying, “’Now, dear, leave it to other women to make shirts and darn stockings; and do you devote yourself to this.’ I went home in a sort of dream, so that the squares of the pavement seemed to float before my eyes. That evening made me an authoress.”
How many other women pursued their dreams thanks to men who supported their yearnings? We know that Christine de Pizan (late fourteen- and early fifteenth centuries) was granted a full education due to her father’s intervention. Thomas supported Christine’s desire to study and learn. Not every girl was given this opportunity.
British Library, Ms. Harley 4431, f° 4. Christine writes with her puppy by her side.
While a noble family might hire a tutor to teach girls in the family, the only other way a young female could become proficient in Latin, rhetoric, and other subjects was to enter a convent as a child or young teenager. Thereafter, she might take a vow to be a nun or simply leave the convent once a marriage had been arranged for her. Thanks to her father, Christine did not have to leave home for her high-powered education.
It is in the interest of both men and women that women be education. Some far-thinking men realized that in centuries long in the past. I hope that men around the world come to understand that as well.
One wonders about Grendel’s Mother’s life if she had had a supportive brother or father.
Harriet Martineau, Autobiography, excerpted in Gilbert and Gubar 108-9 [106-9].
See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/yvonne-seale/first-female-anglo-saxonist#sthash.sJI8NdRP.dpuf
@medievalwomen
Filed under: Blog
January 29, 2016
Abridged Classics: Beowulf
My dear college buddy, Judy Downer, suggested in a FB post that I come up with an abridged classics version of Beowulf at her friend’s request.
abridged classics. Where’s Beowulf?
Here’s mine: “Warrior attacks monsters. They get fed up. He dies. They do too.”
“Fed up”. Get it? Grendel cannibalizes the ones he kills. Ha ha.
Maybe you can come up with a better one. Let me know!
@medievalwomen
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January 24, 2016
“I was Bigfoot’s Love Slave” and Esquire’s “Beowulf”
When I was in graduate school in the 1980s, my housemates and I couldn’t resist buying a National Enquirer with the cover story “I was Bigfoot’s Love Slave.” We kept it on our coffee table all through graduate school to regale our fellow students with the craziness of life while we graded undergraduate papers, devoured Spenser, and poured over Middle High German. I felt a similar daft joy today on seeing the first episode of the Esquire channel’s Beowulf (ITV in England). Delicious silliness.
My husband and I enjoyed the Justin Bieber haircuts (in the 5th century!).
What product does Slean use?
What really got me thinking about Bigfoot and his love slave, was the plot about Grendel and Elvina, an Anne Hathaway lookalike. Just check it out here:
![This photograph is (C) ITV Plc and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned above, or ITV plc. Once made available by ITV plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the transmission [TX] date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be manipulated [excluding basic cropping] in a manner which alters the visual appearance of the person photographed deemed detrimental or inappropriate by ITV plc Picture Desk. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other company, publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Plc Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itvpictures.com](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1453751672i/17867723.jpg)
Can you tell which one is Anne Hathaway and which is Laura Donnelly as Elvina?
Grendel gently grunts over Elvina after he has captured her.
Touching galoot of a Grendel
Sadly, Elvina is no longer Grendel’s love slave after Beowulf rescues her with his pal, Breca (Beowulf fans know who he is!).
The ads are also indicative: dating apps/services; Hair Club for Men; cologne; Jim Beam; and Pizza. What audience could possibly be targeted?
I need to go get me some Jim Beam and pizza. Can’t wait for the next deliciously silly installment!
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January 9, 2016
Uphill Climb on the Anglo-Saxon Mountain
I cannot read my student evaluations until classes are over. I always ask them to give specific suggestions for improvements the next time I teach a course. While I got a few solid ideas (“no more pop quizzes”), students basically just loved Beowulf and all the material surrounding it.
They liked A Gentle Introduction to Old English, our textbook with grammar exercises. A shout-out to Murray McGillivray for his great book! He even has videos on YouTube of himself pronouncing Old English that you can integrate into the classroom.
My favorites are always the drawings. One student wrote, “While everything was challenging, it all felt necessary and like we were on an epic climb that was well paced.” Then she or he drew an illustration that I think says so much about the Beowulf experience:
An evaluation question asks the student to comment on this sentence: “This course improved my skills and increased my knowledge.”
One student answered, “I mean, I can now write in Old English, so yeah.”
Oh yeah!
Be sure to pack your Gentle Introduction before you make that steep climb up the Anglo-Saxon! And do carry some mead and ale as a refreshment along the way….
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