Katharine Beutner's Blog, page 14

An Ashland update

Thursday night's reading was great fun — many friends in Ashland came to listen and asked some good questions. Bloomsbury Books is a lovely place to read, as you'll see in the picture below. The bookstore itself was pretty quiet that evening, but we packed the upstairs balcony.

I read from the Prologue (which you can read here), Chapter 5, and Chapter 7, and talked a bit about historical fiction and about my next project, Killingly. I hope I'll have the chance to come back and read from that b...

Outer Alliance Spotlight

The reading last night was great — I'll put up pictures this weekend. I'm currently getting ready for my first book group gathering, but first: Julia Rios from the Outer Alliance has just posted a Spotlight interview with me on the Outer Alliance blog. I talk about queerness in the Mycenaean world, managing multiple projects, and my favorite college novel ever, A Sweet Girl Graduate (which Julia actually tracked down on Project Gutenberg, even though I forgot to mention that I'd found it...

Reading today!

Today at 7 pm I'm reading at Bloomsbury Books downtown in Ashland, Oregon! I'll also be talking about historical fiction and why I write it. I'll try to get a few pictures posted here in the next day or two — I've also got my first book group meeting tomorrow afternoon, and will be filming an interview with a local book TV show on Saturday. (The interview will eventually be up on YouTube; I'll post a link when it's available.)

More soon!

Elizabeth Scott's 'The Unwritten Rule' released

Today is the official publication date of The Unwritten Rule, my friend Elizabeth Scott's newest YA novel. Like all of her books, this one is wonderful — realistic and touching, and very sweet in the way that real life can be sweet, imperfections and all. Here's a representative bit of advance praise:

"Trust Elizabeth Scott to create an exquisite portrait of longing so palpable, I yearned for the Forbidden Boy, too. Trust her to look unflinchingly at the undercurrents beneath the 'cracked...

A great reader reaction

From SonomaLass on Twitter, a smart essay response to reading Alcestis that touches on one of the central problems of the myth:

Alcestis is one of those really problematic figures for a feminist — she's SUCH a creature of the patriarchy, and yet she's obviously a strong and brave woman.  If you don't know the myth, here it is in a nutshell:  she volunteers to go to Hades in her husband's place when it is his time to die, and then Heracles (a friend of her husband's) invades Hades and...

Miscellany

My brain is full of dissertation at the moment; well, dissertation, the sunny-seventies weather Austin's been having this week, and a million little administrative things that I have to keep track of and sort out in the new few months. But next week I get to do more Alcestis stuff: I'll be reading at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, OR, on Thursday night, meeting with a book group Friday afternoon, and filming an interview with a local book TV show in Ashland on Saturday. And then Monday, I'll...

Favorite firsts

I mentioned recently that the Chronicle had included the first line of Alcestis in their ongoing feature of "grabbers." On Twitter a little while ago, someone (I forget who, argh) linked to this list at Flavorwire of their thirty favorite opening lines in literature. As usual, I liked some of them and boggled at others, and there are few lines I'd add to any list of that sort.

For example…

From Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, which I taught for the first time in the fall:

I planned my death...

Signed copy still available for bids

Don't forget that a signed copy of Alcestis is available for bidding in the Con or Bust auction — proceeds will help fans of color who need assistance getting to Wiscon. Bidding ends March 13.

Also, speaking of queens, check out this article about the mysterious snake image that has appeared in a portrait of Elizabeth I as the painting has aged. Somebody needs to write a book about that.

Quick update

Today's my birthday! I'm officially 28 — I say officially because my brain decided I was 28 about four months ago, and I kept having to remind myself that I was, in fact, still 27. But no longer! So far it's been a nice relaxing morning, though now I really need to get back to work on dissertation-writing. Eliza Haywood's early poetry waits for no woman.

Nice things:

Last weekend the SF Chronicle mentioned the first line of Alcestis in its ongoing series of "Grabbers." That post also features...

Another lovely review from Open Letters Monthly

This is apparently the week of great in-depth reviews of Alcestis! (Not that I would object if it became, say, the month of in-depth great reviews. Or, hey, the year would work, too.) Finch Bronstein-Rasmussen at Open Letters Monthly wrote a beautiful review essay that ties the novel to Edith Hamilton's version of the Persephone story and focuses on the primacy of the Alcestis/Persephone relationship in the book. I was particularly touched by this paragraph, which addresses the end of the...