Vicky Alvear Shecter's Blog, page 8

Adventures in Alabama

Talking to all the eight-graders at Beulah High.

It was SUCH an honor to present a workshop at the Auburn Writer’s Conference this past weekend. The founder of the conference, Chantel Acevedo, and her team put on one powerful event!

Thursday morning, thanks to conference organizers, I spoke to the entire 8th grade class at Beulah High School. They’d provided a copy of Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii to every single 8th grader. Every single student!

How I imagined Tag might look. I hadn’t expected this shot to almost bring the house down!

During my presentation, I showed students a clip of a real pyroclastic surge (what killed everyone in Pompeii) and then talked about some of my influences, including the plaster casts of the poor souls who were insta-fried in the disaster.

My “pretend” Lucia was also well-liked.

I shouldn’t have been surprised (yet somehow I was) when the crowd went NUTS at a photo of whom I pictured as Tag.

Seriously, I almost lost control of the room! They seemed to like the shot of whom I pictured as Lucia as well. Oh, hormones.

Anyway, the kids asked great questions. Several kids asked why I ended it the way I did and I always began my answer with, “Because you weren’t expecting it.”

Which was true. But I also wanted to explore the awesome weirdness of curse tablets and the way that they could unconsciously become self-fulfilling prophecies. Afterwards, I met with the reading club where I was hosted to an “Inside the Actors Studio“-type interview.  It was creative and fun. Afterward, one student asked for a picture taken with me. I heard him tell a friend, “I did that in case she ever becomes famous.”  Ha! Love it!

Lucinda’s in-depth lessons plans for my book were impressive!

Sample pages…a whole binder of goodness!

After school, we feasted on delicious brownies baked by English and Language Arts teacher extraordinaire, Stacey Guyton. She and her students made me feel so welcome!

During our choc-fest, 8th grade, fellow English and Language Arts teacher Lucinda McGinnis showed me the binder she had created for teaching Curses and Smoke. I was gobsmacked! I was deeply impressed with the variety of lesson plans, tests, and projects she’d come up with. Lucinda and Stacey also told me that they’re encouraging other classes across the curriculum to integrate what they’ve learned about history, volcanoes, and mythology from the book. How cool is that?

On Friday, I presented my workshop  on the importance of having both a hook AND a heart in a story. There are all kinds of ‘hooky’ stories but they are often instantly forgettable because they have no heart. I offered several techniques or questions I’ve used in the process of trying to get to the heart of a story (if you would like a copy of the handouts, let me know in the comments and I’ll email them to you).

At the author’s party, I also met a couple of fans of my midgrade mythology books. One was Jacob Jordan who, according to his mother Angela, was particularly excited to learn that I too wear an insulin pump because I am also a Type 1 diabetic. We talked briefly about our pumps and about mythology and had this photo snapped. It was a highlight for me!

Being a T1 diabetic adds an extra layer to planning for events. I always check my blood sugar before any  presentation, of course, but sometimes things go wonky anyway.

Moments before my workshop, I could feel my blood sugar drop and I knew I would not get through the hour-and-a-half workshop unless I treated it. I had glucose tablets with me (always!) but I didn’t want to be chomping on them as I introduced myself. So I went to the awesome Maiben Beard for help and she quickly brought me a soda. Thank you, Maiben! I only needed a few sips to stabilize so all was well. It was nice to meet a kid like Jacob and (hopefully) show him that having T1 isn’t a barrier to doing what you want in life.

It was also fun to see one of my close buds, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, at the conference. She also visited schools and presented at the conference. Check out her recap here.

With Ash and Chantel at the author’s party.

The beauty of the Auburn Writer’s Conference is that it doesn’t just support regional writers–it also reaches out to schools that would not ordinarily have the opportunity to host an author at their school. And the powerhouse behind the conference is Chantel, a beautiful and powerful writer in her own right.

Writer friends are wonderful because they never hesitate to help with creative blocks. Both Chantel and Ash Parsons (her debut novel, Still Waters, comes out in April!) took some time during the conference to talk me through some plotting issues for my current project. Thanks, you guys!

And thank you, Auburn Writer’s Conference, for a terrific event!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Pyroclastic Surges

At the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, I gave a presentation with fellow historical fiction author (and new friend!) Kim Teter. During my talk, a video of a real pyroclastic surge I wanted to play for the audience wouldn’t cooperate, so I told everyone that I would put it on my blog. So here it is!

This, my friends, is what killed everyone in Pompeii. However, our Pompeii pyroclastic party wasn’t just a dome collapse–it was also the collapse of part of the ash column that had climbed nearly twenty miles into the sky!

Here’s another one (warning: a glimpse of modern victims):

Friday Funnies–Ancient Style!

This is in honor of Starz’s “Outlander,” Episode 7 (y’all know what I’m talking about).

Just because “Hades Speaks!” is out and I love Grumpy.

Can I put this in my will?

Even Gladiators Would’ve Changed the Redskins Name

Figurine of the secutor gladiator type, which replaced the Samnite because it insulted Samnite Roman citizens.

The Daily Show‘s bit on the meeting of die-hard Redskins fans with Native Americans who oppose the use of the epithet as a football team’s name was disappointingly tame. Where were the high emotions, the tears, and the outrage of those poor beleaguered fans who found themselves “ambushed” by those who find the name deeply hurtful and insulting? Where was the woman who called the police on the show, as reported by The Washington Post?

Even so, as I watched, I couldn’t help but be amazed at intransigence of the team’s fans. Especially knowing that even blood-thirsty ancient Romans showed more sensitivity to naming conventions in similar situations.

Turns out, ancient Romans had no qualms about changing the names of gladiator types if some of their own citizens found the names insulting or demeaning. In other words, guys who disemboweled men for kicks and giggles were more respectful than the clueless “Caesar” (Dan Snyder) of today’s Washington football team.

I discovered this surprising Roman “sensitivity” while researching my novel set in a struggling gladiatorial school. There used to be a gladiator-fighter type called “Samnite.” Rome defeated Samnium in central Italy in the fourth century BCE. Soon after, Romans mocked the vanquished Samnites by having gladiators dress up like their defeated warriors. The “Samnite” became an official gladiator type. In other words, it became the Washington Redskins of the ancient world — a deeply offensive, derogatory epithet to a certain portion of the population.

…Go here to finish reading this on The Huffington Post…

How Deep is Your Geek?

You know you’re a total geek when you actual tear-up in the face of ancient artifacts. This happened twice to me in the past week.

The first time occurred while I was at SIBA, the trade show for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance in Norfolk, VA. I was there to moderate a historical fiction panel with authors, Tosca Lee (The Legend of Sheba), Bruce Holsinger (A Burnable Book), and Julia Elliott (The Wilds). My geek self loved that I “had to” read their books (I mean really, twist my arm) in preparation for the panel. But that wasn’t what got me all choked up.

Natalie Lloyd and I at SIBA.

At SIBA while chatting with Scholastic rep, Charlie Young–one of the warmest and nicest people ON THE PLANET–he mentioned that he had visited the Chrysler museum earlier in the day and that they had a nice Egyptian collection. Did I want to go later? (The museum was open until 10 that night.)

Um, Yeah!

So, after a lovely dinner with fellow Scholastic author Natalie Lloyd (A Snicker of Magic), publicist Saraceia and sales rep, Barb, Charlie and I headed to the museum. We tried to ignore the fact that in the atrium people salsa-ed their way through very loud Latin music. Strangely a Latin dance party was in full swing. Whatever. We were there to see the goods!

You cannot get a sense of this statue’s majesty and grace with this little picture…just sayin’.

The Greek and Roman gallery was on the way to the Egyptian section. My first stop was this large first century Roman stone sculpture of a gladiator. After working on two projects (Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii and A Day of Fire: Stories of Pompeii)  that included gladiators, it was very cool to stand before at a piece that may have been sculpted when my characters were alive.

The flying bee hieroglyphic became the symbol for the king of Lower Egypt.

When Charlie ran back to his car for his camera, I took in everything from the Attic black-figure amphorae to the sumptuously delicate pieces of Roman glass and actually teared up. How beautiful the pieces were! At least I was alone in my moment of uber-geek happiness.

The Egyptian gallery, while also small, had a number of impressive pieces. I took great interest in the carved tomb lintel that contained imagery I’ve only ever seen in books, including the bee above. The full body statue  Sakhmet was also  impressive (at the Carlos Museum, we have  a bust of the lion-headed goddess, but not a full body statue).

Anyway, the second time I geeked-out was yesterday at the Michael C. Carlos Museum. I was there to interview the curator of the Greek and Roman galleries, Jasper Gaunt, about the many pieces the museum keeps in storage. Why don’t they make it into the galleries? Do they sit down there gathering dust or are the artifacts used in different ways?

The shard of black-figure pottery I looked at (I wasn’t allowed to take pics) contained a similar image of a siren. Being that close to its exquisite artistry was breath-taking.

We went down into the catacombs…er, I mean, the locked chamber of secrets…I mean, the collection of un-exhibited artifacts. Jasper gallantly showed me the pieces that will never see the light of museum glass, but are used in the classroom for study purposes.  (Oh yeah…Emory is a UNIVERSITY, not just the museum! ;-)).

Then he pulled out several drawers filled with ancient carved gemstones. I was shocked at the number of exquisite pieces in carnelian and other colored stones. Eventually, the thousand-plus collection of pieces will have its own exhibit.

But when he pulled out a pottery shard of a black figure cup with the image of a siren on it…I kind of teared up again (I don’t think he noticed. Or if he did, he was too polite to say anything about it).  But seriously, I’d never been that close to an artifact before. I could’ve touched it! I could see, up close, the handiwork of a genius craftsman that lived and worked more than 2,000 years ago!

My geek-nature always comes to the surface when I am around ancient art and artifacts. How lucky am I that I get to introduce children to these ancient marvels AND that I get to write books about the cultures that created them?

Seriously, my geek-cup runneth over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Educator’s Guide for HADES SPEAKS! and ANUBIS SPEAKS!

 

It’s a poster! And on the back, is an educator’s guide for using these booksin the classroom (Core Curriculum standards too).

Want one? Leave a comment!

And We Have a Winner!

Because of my travels to the Southeastern Independent Bookseller’s Association conference, I failed to announce the winner of Hades Speaks! A Guide to the Underworld by the Greek God of the Dead.  Congrats to Donna! Thank you all for participating and for spreading the word about “H-man.”

Six Authors…One Amazing Book

Imagine six different historical fiction writers getting together and deciding to “play” with story-telling. What if we all focused on a single famous event? What if characters from each others’ stories wove in and out of everyone’s tales? What if we each took a period before, during and after an explosive event, but kept them connected to the very end? What if we inspired each other and HAD FUN?

A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii is the result. And I am proud to show you the cover of this amazing project!

Ta da! Do you believe this amazing line-up?  Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot,  Kate Quinn and moi.  Plus an introduction by the incomparable, Michelle Moran! How I ended up playing with these masters of the craft, I do not know, but I am extremely grateful to have been a part of it.

I should mention, of course, that this book is not for my typical audience–teens–but for adult readers (you can guess why).

The official release date is November 4, 2014, but you can get a jump on it by pre-ordering now. If, like me, you prefer a book in hand, rest assured–you will be able to order a paper copy of it as well.

Here’s the official book description:

Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories: 

A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii’s flourishing streets. 
An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire. 
An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished. 
A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue. 
A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls. 
A priestess and a whore seek redemption and resurrection as the town is buried. 

Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each others’ path during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

 

Friday Funnies–Ancient Style!

Excellent New Video on Life as a Gladiator

My novel of Pompeii is set in a gladiatorial school, so I was excited to see this short documentary-like video about what life was really like for gladiators. I’ll admit I gave a little squee when the medicus showed up, given that Tag, one of the main characters in Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii, is a medical slave in a struggling gladiatorial school of his own. The film was made in the Netherlands and was recently re-released in English.

Check it out. And if you’re a teacher, share it with your students!