Sandra Gulland's Blog, page 18
April 8, 2014
Publication day!
A friend just emailed: Is it as exciting as the first time?
Although there is nothing quite like the first time, I woke up this morning and thought, with a big grin, PUB DAY!
{Image Christart.com}
It’s such a miraculous thing!
I’m still in Mexico, so I can’t see it in bookstores in Canada and the U.S. If you see it, send me a photo (sgulland AT sandragulland DOT com) and I’ll post it here.
Here is the link to the newsletter I sent out yesterday: http://bit.ly/NewsletterApr72014
I’ve emailed the winner of THE SHADOW QUEEN (always fun).
Reviews—even brief ones—on Goodreads, Amazon.com or Amazon.ca are so very much appreciated now. If you’re not ready to review, give a “thumbs up” to a review you like.
And, as well, all that usual Social Media stuff: thumbs up, likes, re-tweets and tweets! It’s a noisy type of day.
But most of all, I hope you buy THE SHADOW QUEEN, or get it out of the library. I hope you read it. And if you love Claudette and her eccentric tribe, chat it up. Word-of-mouth is still the most powerful promotion there is.
April 5, 2014
Curtain about to go up on The Shadow Queen
Perhaps one of the most heartening things for an author is when one’s work is understood. This review (see the link in @leaflette’s Tweet below) brought tears to my eyes.
At last! My review of THE SHADOW QUEEN by @Sandra_Gulland. I loved it a lot, guys. A LOT: http://t.co/FYmP8yTFS0 @doubledaypub— leeanna @ leeanna.me (@leaflette) April 3, 2014
I especially liked this from Leeanna’s review:
THE SHADOW QUEEN had just the right amount of historical detail to for me to perfectly imagine Claudette’s world, from the theatre to court. I’ve never had an interest in French plays or the history of them, but now I do, thanks to reading this book. Claudette’s parents are both actors, and so the beginning “acts” of the book take place in the theatre world. It was pretty cool to find out how plays were staged back then. Also, when Claudette moves to court, to be Athénaïs’ maid and companion, it was easy to draw allusions between both false worlds.
Thank you so much, Leeanna, whoever and wherever you are.
From the This ‘n That Department:
Have you noticed my new website design? I am very pleased.
Why I’ve been silent: so much to do. I am 4 days from pub date (OMG) and 6 days from heading north to Canada. (Yikes!)
My first event will be at the North Shore Writers Festival on Saturday, April 12, 2:30-3:30pm: Enlivening the Past, historical fiction writers’ panel featuring authors Sandra Gulland, Daniel Kalla, Mary Novik, and Roberta Rich is moderated by Jen Sookfong Lee. I am stoked to be seeing Roberta again, and am very much looking forward to meeting Daniel, Jen, and—especially, Mary, who I’ve long admired from afar.
If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, be sure to do so now. (http://www.sandragulland.com/contacts/) With every newsletter, a subscriber wins a book. (I’m loving doing this.)
I was a bit over the moon that Flipboard mentioned my magazine in a Tweet:
“On Writing & Publishing, & Everything In-Between” is author @Sandra_Gulland‘s mag about literary life: http://t.co/n4g6bRgcjU #MagsWeLove — Flipboard Magazines (@FlipboardMag) April 1, 2014
The subscription has increased by over 500 already.
And last, another Tweet I loved:
My #FridayReads is THE SHADOW QUEEN by @Sandra_Gulland; am just racing through it & can’t put it down, to detriment of work. Whoops…— Suzanne McGee (@SuzMcGeeNYC) April 3, 2014
March 27, 2014
My latest newsletter: All Hail!
March 24, 2014
All Hail: The Shadow Queen! The book trailer is launched …
Dramatic!
Clicking takes you to YouTube. Feel free to “Like” it!
If you click “Share this video” you will be able to share it on any of your Social Media sites, which I’d love for you to do. For the tech-minded among you, clicking “embed” gives you the code you need to put the video on your own blog.
I’m going to be getting out a newsletter in a few days, so if you’re not subscribed, you might want to get on the list. (Click here to sign up.) With each newsletter, a subscriber wins a book.
Another big change will be the redesign of this website … stay tuned!
And, for those of us who do not have access to the New York Times Book Review, here is the ad that will be in the April 13 issue. (Yes, I am thrilled.)
March 12, 2014
Confessions of a #MacAddict
I love this 1995 interview with Steve Jobs. I hope you can watch it too. I’ve been a #MacAddict from day one, and still am.
Frankly, I’m not sure I would have become a novelist were it not for the Mac. Crazy to say, but true. (For starters, it could spell, and I could not.) I’d been a typewriter-writer, but the Mac became the singular tool with which I could create a large work, research and revise and all the rest of it.
In 1984, I first read about the Mac and was curious. My husband Richard saw it at a trade show. What’s it like?! “Kind of an ugly little thing,” he said—and I knew then it was for me. It’s a sharp memory, standing at the stove in our log-cabin house.
I also clearly remember taking it out of the box and in a fever of excitement editing a children’s book on it that night. (I was a book editor at that time.)
Miraculous! I wish I had kept that wee little 128K computer.
I loved each and every one of my typewriters too, and did hold onto my Underwood, which, at 5, grand-daughter Ellie thought a simply marvellous thing, especially the clatter it made and how you could make the keys stick. I do miss that, but I wouldn’t trade—not for the world.
March 1, 2014
My latest newsletter
Here’s my latest newsletter:
http://bit.ly/newsletterFeb2014
With every issue, a subscriber wins an autographed book. Sally Petrunia from Penticton, BC, won for the last one, and I’ve just emailed the winner from this one. So subscribe! (Click here.)
There is more and more happening now as THE SHADOW QUEEN publication date approaches. April 8 is the day.
Here’s the wrap-around cover for the hardcover, showing the front and back covers, the flaps and spine (so cool):
I’m eager to see this book! I think it’s going to be gorgeous.
February 27, 2014
For book club members: questions for discussion about The Shadow Queen
In case your book club is interested in reading The Shadow Queen, here are some questions for discussion. (Enlarge page to read or download.)
Just so you know, it will be published April 8, and the pre-publication price is great value.
Just saying!
February 24, 2014
What I didn’t know about Candlemas, the taste of urine, and what kind of “friends” to stay clear of
I subscribe to the wonderful Medievalists.net newsletter, The Medievalverse. Invariably, I find their posts fascinating, even though their historical focus is many hundred of years before “mine.” Here are some recent posts to give you an idea:
On Amicitia, a 1205 guide to friendship — or rather, a guide to 23 types of friends to stay away from: The Powerful, the Vocal, the Here & There, the Conditional, the Imaginary, the Shadowy, the Counterfeit, the Haughty, the Hunter … etc.
On this last, Amicitia advises: “Nearly all women are hunter friends since they do not cease to set up nets and lay snares in order to catch the souls, and the money, of the unwary.”
On what can be gleaned from urine: lots! By look, by taste, by smell.
On birthing rituals: “The postnatal ‘churching’ of a woman occurred forty days after the birth, when she attended mass … this time bringing a candle with her. The unclean nature of childbirth even applied to the Virgin Mary herself … and Mary’s churching was celebrated with a widespread holiday, called “Candlemas” in England, which occurred forty days after Christmas.”
If you are interested in history, I highly recommend The Medievalverse.
February 19, 2014
In the works …website reno, book launch fever, and the revelations of my 14-year-old self
I’ve so much in the works, right now. For one thing, this website, which is being redesigned (long overdue!). Here’s a sample of how it is going to look:
The main change, however, is that the site will be simplified and weeded, to make it easier for you (all) to navigate. For example, I won’t have two blogs (one on writing and one on research), but one—this one. You will begin to see research topics covered here now and then.
The visual design is thanks to Kris Waldherr and the overall plan is thanks to Nancy MacDonald, who has a great deal of experience with author websites. My thanks to them both for their patience! (I tend to be resistant to change.)
Promotion plans for THE SHADOW QUEEN are coming together. (For those of you in the Vancouver and Toronto areas, see my Events page.) Doubleday has created a powerful book trailer which I won’t reveal until close to publication … so you will just have to wait!
I will soon get an email newsletter out. If you haven’t subscribed, do so here. With each newsletter, someone from the subscriber list wins one of my novels. (It’s such a pleasure to do this—giving is truly as rewarding as it is said to be.)
And, speaking of winners, Angela Guyton just won 20 novels (!!!) from various authors on a Goodreads promotion, including a copy of THE SHADOW QUEEN.
And, of course, I am writing/revising/researching GAME OF HOPE, my Young Adult novel about Josephine’s daughter Hortense. I recently was part of a panel of women writers at the San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference. Each of us read from our work for 5 minutes. I read from a diary I kept when I was 14—such an eye-opener! I definitely must revise the novel to include a fairly constant mention of Hortense’s love interest!
This ‘n that …
A Picture Says It All … or Does It? Judging an Author by their Photograph (poor Milton)
4 Easy Steps To An Irresistible Book Blurb (however, it’s never easy!)
Pixar’s 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling (excellent)
