Tracy Cooper-Posey's Blog, page 201
March 22, 2011
Intriguing Heroes: Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green)
Someone in our family got Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 1 and 2 for Christmas. I can't remember who (it wasn't me), but we all ended up watching the show, sucked in like dust bunnies with no escape. We still can't believe the show got cancelled.
One of the characters introduced a few episodes into the first season, that made the show required and compulsive viewing for me, was Derek Reese, played by Brian Austin Green. I don't think there's too many people left on the planet that aren't familiar with the Terminator series, but I'll be careful with my phrasing anyway, just so I don't spoil things. Derek is Kyle's brother, and also comes back from the future and ends up helping Sarah in her struggle to protect John.
When Derek first arrives back in contemporary L.A., though, he's ignorant of Sarah's personal history. He has a real and passionate hatred of the Terminator machines. 
And things get even more complicated when the woman he thinks he loves, who — in the story — just happens to come from Perth, Western Australia (my home town), arrives back in contemporary L.A. as well.
I vaguely knew of Brian Austin Green from his Beverly Hills 90210 days. He was a pretty boy then. But in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as Derek Reese, he's lost all the prettiness. He's rough, hard and has a dark edge. And my, he's delicious! He's carrying secrets and he has a past. He's also dangerous. He tends to break out into violence as a first resort, because that was the way he was raised, yet there is a softer side to him that emerges slowly over several episodes. There's one scene when he shares a birthday present with John that just melts your knees.
The series has been cancelled, as I mentioned, but you can pick it up on DVD and it's worth a look-see just to absorb Derek Reese/Green as hero material. I hope he gets another crack at playing a dark dangerous character like Reese in a show that really takes off because he did it very well indeed.
Related posts:Really Smart Heroes — Brains Over Brawn Is Better.
Really Smart Heroes — Brains Over Brawn Is Better.
March 21, 2011
I'm at Love Romance Passion Today
The blog tour for my erotic urban fantasy romance, Blood Knot, continues today. I'm guest blogging at Love Romance Passion, and talking about slavery. I'll also be giving away a copy of Kiss Across Swords to a visitor.
Stop in and say hello and catch up with the next installment of the excerpts.
See you there!
Cheers,
Tracy
Related posts:I'm at Tina Donahue's Today.
I'm Back! And Boy Do I Have News!
TIME-CROSSED LOVE
March 17, 2011
Really Cool Historical Vacation Spots: Constantinople
Constantinople from the Sea of Marmara, with the dome of the world famous Hagia Sophia in the background. It was the largest single domed structure built in the western world at the time. It would be rebuilt twice because of riots and fire.
It was probably inevitable I end up writing time travel romances. I've never been able to write anything else but romances, even when I was supposedly writing mysteries. Add in the fact that a) I'm a history nut, b) the historical romance market is all but dead in the water and c) time travel romances, on the other hand…well, I managed to sell mine, so they're apparently not quite dead, and d), (very important!) I combined my time travel with erotic urban fantasy/paranormal and those — The Time Crossed Love series – are selling very well indeed, thank you very much.
As an author and history nut, I get the best of both worlds. I get to research all sorts of interesting pockets of history, but I don't have to research very heavily. I don't have a thesis to defend, and I don't have to bog down into original source documents written in original languages. I can skip across the surface of history, and dive deeper when I find something interesting. As long as my research is accurate, and the worlds I build inside my fiction authentic, then my research is adequate. Bliss, in other words.
Except for one flaw: I don't get to actually go to those places I research. And that sad fact has impacted rather heavily on me recently. I've been researching for Kiss Across Chains, the third book in the Time Crossed Love series. Brody's story, for those of you who are following the series.
My research brought me to new territory for a change. 6th Century Constantinople.
What a fascinating city!
The fall of Constantinople in 1453. The double-wall system withstood all attacks up until then. It took the invention of gunpowder for them to fall.
I've known a bit about Constantinople for years. If you read or research much in and around the ancient times in western/eastern Europe, t's hard to avoid hearing about the city state and its influence over politics, religion and economics from about the fifth century onwards.
When Rome fell to the barbarians around that time, the new Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine, moved the seat of the empire to Byzantium, an ancient city sitting on a promontory of land jutting into the Golden Horn — a strategic location for shipping and land routes between Europe and the East. Constantine renamed the city New Rome, and formally consecrated it on 11 May, 330. But as the city grew in influence and importance, it became known as his city, as "Constantinople," and that has been the name for the city right up until the 20th Century.
The double walls still stand today -- even the sea-front walls are still intact.
Very early on in the city's life, a series of double walls were built to completely surround it, including right along the seafront and many harbours. These walls were miracles of engineering at that time. They were so strongly built that Constantinople withstood all sieges and attacks for centuries, right up until the 15th century, when invading Turks defeating the city with gunpowder. It took the invention of explosives to overcome the city walls. But even today, the walls still stand, mostly intact, throughout Istanbul, which the Turks renamed their conquered city.
The cultural life of Constantinople was eye-popping. If all roads led to Rome a century or two before, all wealth and beauty poured into Constantinople. The population of Constantinople alone was staggering. During periods when the rest of Europe was struggling with plague, famine and generally poor economic times, Constantinople never had less than one million inhabitants behind its walls. The second biggest city in size anywhere in Europe estimated its population at around twenty thousand people. Constantinople simply worked on a different scale than the rest of the world.
Historians have estimated that Constantinople also controlled a lion's share of Europe's wealth, too. There have been reports suggesting that Constantinople contained as much as a third of the western world's gold, coinage and valuables, all behind those walls, while the rest of the world shared the rest.
Interior of the Hagia Sophia, looking up into the dome
The clothes, houses and decorations of Byzantines reflected this abundance. Rich textiles, and beautiful, intricate patterns adorned everything, and clothing was layered, ornamented, colourful and expensive. The interior of the Hagia Sophia shows the incredibly rich detail and colour that Byzantines added to everything around them.
But as a citizen of Constantinople, there could be drawbacks. There was a strict layering of have's and have-not's. A class system controlled by economics ensured that many people were locked into their roles for life, as slaves, poor working class, or fabulously wealthy citizens with spectacularly privileged lives. There was no social insurance or social systems to help the needy or sick or poor.
Land was incredibly valuable and in high demand. The city was contained inside the walls for centuries, unable to expand, yet the population continued to grow. It was too risky to live outside the walls in perilous times, but for the poorer people, finding somewhere to live inside the walls could be difficult indeed.
Women were still considered a man's property, and kept behind veils and closed doors, even though the city was nominally Christian. But they were treated gently as the Christian principles suggested.
Chariot racing was the city's favourite past time, as a spectator sport. Even the emperor himself was a fan. Chariot races were held at the Hippodrome, which was connected to the Imperial Palace by a tunnel, which allowed the emperor to attend the races. These races were bloody and ruthless and Byzantines loved them with a passion. They bet on their favourite factions (Blue, Green, Red or White), and the superiority of the factions and who would win the races overshadowed Byzantine politics, religion and economics, as the factions and those who wanted them to win would scheme and plot to ensure their faction gained an advantage, come race day. It sounds oddly like modern sports entertainment, with their drug scandals and game rigging exposures, doesn't it? Think of the soccer hooliganism in Britain, for instance…believe it or not, but Constantinople got there first. In 493, chariot racing fans rioted for three days, burning down the Hagia Sophia and the Emperor's palace, and threatening the emperor himself. They became known as the Nika Riots, and spelled the end of chariot racing for the city.
Market day in Constantinople
Constantinople was a colourful city in more ways than just the clothing and decorations they used. The cultural life must have been amazing to see. I would love to be able to flip back in time for a day or two and check the city out. It sounds like New York with a ticker tape parade thrown in. Only everyone would be speaking ancient Greek.
Cool.
Related posts:The Difficulties of Writing Really Old Erotic Historical Romances.
Historical Cheat Sheet: 5th & 6th Century Britain — Arthurian/The Dark Ages
Historical Research…Aarrgh!!!
March 16, 2011
I'm at Tina Donahue's Today.
The blog tour for my new erotic urban fantasy romance, Blood Knot, kicks off today. I'm guest blogging at romance author Tina Donahue's place, where I'll be talking about luxury air travel, and coincidentally giving away a copy of Kiss Across Swords to a visitor…which could be you if you stop in and say hi!
As per my usual practice with blog tours, I'm also doing consecutive excerpts. So if you follow along from guest spot to guest spot and read each excerpt, you'll end up with a nice big sample of the book. Start with the excerpt on the Blood Knot page here on the site, then flip over to Tina's site for my post there, where the excerpt picks up.
See you there!
Cheers,
Tracy
Related posts:I'm Back! And Boy Do I Have News!
Want to Guest Blog Here?
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March 14, 2011
It's Just A Job – High Elves
This is a continuation of the It's just a Job series, that has survived the loss of the blog, transition to the newsletter, newsletter/blog hybrid and back to this blog again.
Some of the series can be found on my articles pages, including the most recent installment, Dark Elves, and those such as the Demon Hunter post.
Wikipedia defines High Elves as:
…a tall, slim and regal built race. They are seen as a noble race, and tend to be beautiful or handsome in appearance. Elves are a paled skinned race. Elves are strong and agile in comparison with humans and are often seen as more intelligent and wiser. Elves have a longer life span than humans do. Elves build refined weapons that are seen as master craftsmanship by other races. They use swords, bows and lances mainly they don't like using crossbows or gunpowder weapons.
High Elves should be instantly familiar to mass audiences nearly everywhere in the world now thanks to Peter Jackson, who made them famous through his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkein stole High Elves from Nordic mythology almost unchanged. He even gave them an undying land to escape to when they were weary of Middle Earth, Tolkein's version of Midgard, the Nordic mythological name for Earth. In Nordic mythology, the High Elves live in Álfheimr, apart from humans, but they interact from time to time.
Elves in modern, popular fiction have grown beyond this sketchy cultural framework into staple race of high fantasy. They're sometimes seen in fantasy romance, urban fantasy romance (including mine).
Ellora's Cave novels that feature elves:
Elf Song by Samantha Winston
Merlin's Song by Samantha Winston
Llewellyn's Song by Samantha Winston
Destiny's Trinities series by Teal Ceagh
Trace's Psychic by Jory Strong
Three For All by Cindy Spencer Pape
Masquerade of the Cursed King by Vanessa N. Gilfoy
Guardian of the Onyx Empire by Vanessa N. Gilfoy
Related posts:It's Just A Job – Dark Elves
I'm Back! And Boy Do I Have News!
March 13, 2011
March 11, 2011
I'm Back! And Boy Do I Have News!
I think the title probably says a mouthful all by itself, so I'll roll right over to the good stuff. :)
I have to finish this post then go rebuild my site to accommodate the blog once more. Which pleases me no end, because I have so missed blogging it's not funny.
And there's so much to tell!
Rather than overwhelm you with all the news in an info dump of one post, I'll just contain myself to the big one.
My latest book came out three days ago. Blood Knot is:
1) Erotic urban fantasy romance. (MFF, vampires, paranormal, contemporary)
2) The cover is gorgeous (see below?)
3) It's up on Amazon already.
4) It's only $2.99 (gasp!)
5) And…it's self-published.
Yep, I've joined the ranks of the indie authors.
There'll be more about future titles I have planned and the huge book tour (free books!) I've got booked for BLOOD KNOT, later. For now, I have to go rearrange my site.
Please drop in and say hi! I've missed you all!
Related posts:Home
Tracy's New Releases
Events
August 30, 2010
DESTINY'S TRINITY at Amazon, B&N, and Denise Agnew Here on Friday
The print anthology Destiny's Trinity, which is the collection of Teal's erotic urban fantasy romance series, Destiny's Trinities, has now popped up on Amazon in paperback. When I was there, the page didn't have a cover image. But you can see the cover to the left there, see? Very pretty. I'm working on the PTB getting a cover put up on the Amazon page as soon as possible.
It's also at Barnes & Noble on-line, and also without a cover image, blurb, etc. But it's there.
_________
Fellow...
August 29, 2010
BLUE KNIGHT To Be Released October 1
Courtesy of ScaarAT, Flickr
The release date for Blue Knight, my erotic romantic suspense from Ellora's Cave, has been announced: Friday October 1, 2010.
I've adjusted the Blue Knight book page to show the release date, and I've already sent the book out for reviews. I admit I'm really curious to know what people think, as my editor's feedback was very positive. So was some of the reader feedback to the excerpts I ran here on the site.
All that remains now is to see how I fare with the...
August 28, 2010
Now Barnes & Noble Are Clearing Their Throat
First we had Dorchester moving over to the "dark side" and going 100% digital. Now Barnes & Noble is for sale. They have reported that the declining price of their shares have forced them to hold the equivalent of a bargain book bin sale in order to raise cash to keep operating, which puts a desparate note in the voice of the United State's largest brick and mortar bookstore chain.
What's next?
