D.K. Marley's Blog, page 168

How Lewis Carroll Inspired Me

When I think back to my childhood, I think, “I am Alice.” Creating stories in my mind and traveling the path into Wonderland helped my days of loneliness. For a great part of my life, I was an only child (my sibling did not enter my life until I was well into my teen years), so my early childhood I spent alone. Alone, but not lonely, for the characters in my head filled my days. I still recall many of the stories I created in my mind.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was just a book to me when I was small, but as I grew up I realized the impact those words had on me.

Every creature had their own story and Carroll based his creatures on people in his life. At least, even if he denies that truth, I believe it to be so. How could they not? So many of my characters, if they are not based on actual historical personages, are based or have similarities to people in my life. This is the way of writers and I think is a way to reveal or deal with things going on in their life; things absent and things present.

When you are missing love, you write about the love you want. When you are dealing with pain or hateful people, your MC says the things you wish you could say in real life. For me, Alice is the girl I wanted to be. She fell down a rabbit hole (falling away from the realities of her life) and dealt with each character in the way she wanted to do in real life. I relate!

Alice develops during her time in Wonderland and when she returns through the Looking Glass, she is stronger and is able to slay her fears. This is how Carroll inspires me as a writer.

Writing is my therapy, creating stories is my Wonderland, and fighting the fear of rejection, loneliness, frowns and overall dismissal is the goal as I traverse through the looking glass of my life. I see my reflection in my writing as I see my reflection in that little girl following a white rabbit into a dark hole.

My advice to other new writers? Keep going, don’t give up. Don’t let fear of failure, or a terrible first draft, or rejection by family or agents or publishing houses keep you from slaying your own Jabberwocky. You will succeed if you are courageous. Alice used a sword to smite the monster’s head – what a metaphor for life! What do we writers have? Remember, the pen is mightier than the sword!!

Keep falling and keep slaying…

D. K. Marley[image error]

Book Trailer for “Prince of Sorrows”!

View the book trailer here on YouTube, now available to view before the release on June 1st! Still looking for more ARC readers, so please comment below if you are interested.

Cover reveal for “Prince of Sorrows”

Short synopsis:

Amleth, Prince of Denmark, wallowing in grief after his father’s death, is spurred to revenge by a ghost within the walls of Elsinore Castle. He takes solace in the arms of his dearest love, Pernillia, but the momentary happiness is overshadowed by more blood. Amid the blood, Pernillia loses her grip on sanity and her life. Amleth is forced to peruse the vanity of his own mortality, shamed by his stilted revenge upon the instigators of the tragedy, he traverses into the depths of words, his heart and an empty future.

Here is the link: “Prince of Sorrow” book trailer – D. K. Marley

One more week until the contest for the book bundle of “Blood and Ink” and “Prince of Sorrows” SIGNED COPIES!! To sign up for the contest, click here: Contest

Why I Chose Self-Publishing Over Traditional Publishing

So this is a question many writers have, to self-publish or to go the traditional route of looking for a mainstream or small publishing house to accept your manuscript?

Here is the reason I chose self-publishing over the traditional way: Many of you may have read my post about grief (and if not, here is the link) and you may have read about my interaction with my once-in-a-lifetime meeting with the literary agent of my dreams in my post about “other Shakespeare authors,” but if you have not read either of those posts, here is a summary of why I chose self-publishing.

First and foremost, I love the idea of going the traditional route. I have many friends who I met during the writer’s retreat I attended who are published authors and secured their book deals from publishing houses. I say, more power to them!

I attended the Writer’s Retreat Workshop in Erlanger Kentucky in 2006 and found myself completely inspired and on fire to finish my first novel and find an agent and trudge through the mire of the publishing industry. Honestly, I was excited and very naive. Two years after that I attended the Writer’s Conference in Myrtle Beach South Carolina where, as I mentioned before, I had the chance to sit down with the literary agent of my dreams. I found her online and researched her background before I went, so I knew what kind of books she took on, but I never in a million years would have thought she might pick me out of the thousands of people at the conference to sit down and have lunch with. But, she did!

What I learned from the talk with her? I have to be honest, I left the conference very dejected and disillusioned because I learned that sometimes you have to learn to be commercial to be accepted rather than rely on your heart, which is hard to take as an artist and writer. I know this isn’t always the case because there are numerous writers out there still making a living on their art and some are far from commercialized.

I continued on after the conference, another two years went by and I finally secured an agent in New York. Again, the naivety on my part blasted me full in the face. Although my agent loved my work and claimed to have sent out my manuscript to numerous publishing houses, every time I asked for verification, well, needless to say, I never got a letter, an email, nothing to confirm what he told me he was doing. All his emails ever said is “St. Martin’s” said no, “Doubleday” said no, and on and on and on…

By that time, I already started work on research for my second and third novel, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I shelved everything from 2011 to 2015 and took up another of one of my favorite hobbies – photography – and my husband and I moved to the Georgia coast. We became wedding photographers and within three years we were voted #2 best wedding photographers in Jacksonville Florida on Thumbtack.com! I also took my artistic and love for storytelling into my photography and started delving into conceptual work. One of my photographs was accepted into an outdoor exhibition in Lithuania, two of my pieces were mounted in a gallery in Houston Texas, an another in Orlando Florida.

And the bottom fell out of my life. February 2, 2015; the most horrible day of my life. The day I lost my daughter and her husband by the hands of a drunk and drugged driver running from the police. They were only one mile from their home. The 20-year-old idiot traveled at 85 miles an hour down the wrong side of a four-lane highway and took them in an instant. He walked away with a scratch on his leg and is now serving 30 years in prison. But my life changed forever. My life, my husband’s life, my son’s life, forever snatched away and we now serve a life sentence of pain and sorrow.

Now it is 2018 and I am slowly climbing out of the despair and depression hole. I don’t think I will ever fully recover, of course, and I acknowledge this fact. I acknowledge that no matter what I do from this point on, nothing will ever return to normal. I am a part of “that group” now. I am now a mother who peruses the MADD website and who will forever carry a hollowness in my heart.

This brings me to the final reason I chose to self-publish. Disillusionment with the whole publishing industry to begin with, and now, grief overtakes me. We are not promised tomorrow. None of us know from one second to the next if we will get that horrible phone call or have a police officer walk up and knock on your door at five o’clock in the morning with a box of your child’s belongings.

I am content to write for my health and sanity and artistry and love. Whether I ever sell one book or a million matters less to me now. Death brings things into perspective in the most tragic way. I choose to do what makes me happy for I have so very few happy days now. Writing makes me happy, or rather a distracted peace I should say. Anything which distracts me from this hole in my heart and life I soak up like a sponge.

And why am I sharing this? Because as writers we often look for acceptance through our writing. We look for another person to connect with, someone who sees the world as we do through our words, and when another person does that there is a measure of joy and happiness which links our art to the world. My advice now to my younger self and to any other young (or old) writers out there looking to plunge into the mad mad mad world of traditional publishing? Let me first say that I am not against it and if you are one of the fortunate ones to hook a deal from a major or small publishing house, yay for you, but for the vast majority of writers who will never see a book deal I say: write for you. Write for your own heart and write what you love.

That literary agent told me no one reads anything having to do with Shakespeare and to a major publishing house, oftentimes, Shakespeare is taboo, but this is what I love. Writers should write what they know and what they are passionate about. I love all things Shakespeare, so this is what I write. I am not a commercial writer and I never will be, for I refuse to become a lemming writer who runs headlong into the ocean of erotica, or gore, or horror, or vampires, or werewolves, or whatever trend moves the reading nation.

My daughter would have loved my novels, and for me, that is enough.

Thanks for reading!

D. K. Marley

 

Advanced Reader Copies Now Available for “Prince of Sorrows”

I know many of you commented and entered the contest for the signed two-book bundle of “Blood and Ink” and “Prince of Sorrows”, but here is another chance to get your hands on my new novel before the official release date of June 15th!

Comment below or sign up for my newsletter and you will receive an advanced reader copy of the book. Reviews are appreciated after the read! (Limited availability so first come, first served)

Thanks,

D. K. Marley

How People Viewed Shakespeare in His Generation Versus Today

I am finding as I post more and more thoughts on Shakespeare, and as a rule in general, people are very skeptical when it comes to reading or talking about Shakespeare. This, in truth, is a shame, and I find myself scratching my head and wondering if I am just bashing my head against a wall in wanting people to stretch into his plays and words. What am I missing? Or is it that people are doing themselves an injustice in reading the first ‘thou’ or ‘whence’, shaking their head in intimidation and shutting the book?

Curiouser and curiouser, I find.

I started doing some research on what people of Shakespeare’s generation thought about him, and while I do acknowledge that his generation already used (to a certain extent) his wordage and they were familiar with the Elizabethan stage, I started wondering about the ordinary person; or what about later generations who read his plays? What did they think?

Here is what I came across in Craig’s editorial: “A powerful impulse came to the study and appreciation of Shakespeare with the generation who lived during the epoch of the French Revolution. A new Shakespeare criticism was part of that revival of art and letters which we ordinarily call the Romantic Movement. The thinkers of that day were interested in a wider variety of ideas about life than were the pseudo-classicists. They found in Shakespeare such a marvelously significant and consistent picture of life that they came to think of him as endowed with the insight of a seer and the power of a poet, as greater and more significant than life itself. Each of his plays became a microcosm capable of yielding to the student, if he came with love and admiration in his heart, finer truth than science could yield. Science, they argued, bounds itself by fact; poetry has no such limits, but is a mode of revelation of the philosophy of life, presenting in concrete and constructive form what life means and what life might be. Shakespeare, the poet, was thus metamorphosed into a philosopher and teacher so that his works became a hunting ground where one might find the greatest thoughts about existence.”

Wow! What a boost into immortality for this small town actor and writer from Stratford-upon-Avon!!

But what about today? Where is this thinking on Shakespeare in the ordinary modern world of today? Will a movie need to be made, will a game for the new gaming system need to be created, will an app for our cell phones have to be developed to reach the millions of modern tech seekers in this generation for Shakespeare to find a voice in this world of microchip and internet flood? Will his ancient words and his creation of the 17th-century human even make a ripple in this ocean?

My hopeful heart says yes, that somehow his plays still matter and his works will continue to be a hunting ground where one might find the greatest thoughts about existence. Craig continues later saying, “Human nature remains the same from age to age,” so we must continue to see Shakespeare, the poet, as that philosopher and teacher for this modern generation for when we read his plays, we see ourselves. We are Hamlet in his cowardice, in his pain; We are Iago in our jealousy and hate; We are Juliet in our teenage rebelliousness and first love; We are Prince Harry in his stirring ambition and victory, and on and on and on…

These are my thoughts for today about the man, the genius and the poet. I would love to hear your thoughts on how his works influence you or how one might encourage this modern generation to delve into his words…. please comment below!

Thanks for reading!

D. K. Marley

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Other Shakespeare Fiction Authors

I thought I would take a moment to post some other author books who use Shakespearean themes for their novels (and would love some suggestions in the comments for more!)

I had the opportunity to meet A. J. Hartley at a Writer’s Conference in Myrtle Beach S.C. some years ago. To attend the Writer’s Conference as an aspiring writer with a manuscript in hand, to be honest, was quite intimidating. And then, when I went to check the roster to find my name and the person who would be sitting down with me to review my manuscript and give me pointers and advice, well, in truth I almost left the conference for fear and nervousness when I saw Mr. Hartley’s name. He is a college professor teaching Shakespeare, so the intimidation factor shadowed over me the entire day before my interview.

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But, I have to say, he was so gracious and encouraging and so helpful. After leaving the conference, I put my manuscript aside for a while so I could soak in a lot of what he said to me. I even felt like I would never measure up, especially after talking to him I ate lunch with the very agent I came to talk to at the Conference. She casually selected my table, since I was all by myself, sat down next to me and as we were eating, she looked over and said, “So tell me about your novel.” She listened politely, then nodded and replied, “Sounds intriguing, but I tell you what, after reading your first few pages in class this morning, I would love to represent you if you do one thing for me.”

Excitedly, I asked, “What?”

She answered, “If you go home, rewrite your entire novel with a woman protagonist and give me lots of sex scenes.”

My heart sank. Just that morning, I felt hopeful after talking with Mr. Hartley, and then this. My view of the writing and publishing industry diminished a great deal after that Conference.

Well, I am still a huge A. J. Hartley fan, so I am going to post a link to his Goodreads page. I read “What Time Devours” which is a Dan-Brownish kind of Shakespearean novel. An intriguing read about the search for a lost Shakespeare play. Here is the link: A. J. Hartley

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Next:

I came across a writer this morning on Facebook who writes a twist with Shakespearean themes. A cross between Shakespeare and J. M. Barrie, which is very interesting, as her novel includes a love interest between Tinkerbell and Puck!

Here is the synopsis for her book:

Dark new series that reimagines the Neverland saga…

Ebony & Pan: Capitan Ebony Hook has been sailing the high seas of Neverland for her entire life. When her father, Capitan James Bartholomew Hook tasks her with chasing down Peter Pan in human world Ebony is told to kill Pan or bring him back to Neverland. A ruthless club owner, Peter has grown up and is no longer interested in playing in Neverland. Until he meets the beautiful Ebony. Hidden secrets come to light and he joins the crew of the Jolly Roger with one mission in mind. Protect Ebony at all costs.

Tiger Lily & Alex: Captain Hook’s bastard, Alex has never been claimed by his father and was raised by first mate Smeed. Sent to protect his childhood friend, Alex finds himself off course as the lovely Princess Tiger Lily invades his thoughts and haunts his dreams aboard the Jolly Roger.

Tinkerbell & Puck: Tinkerbell is known for her sassy attitude and ridiculous antics. Always the life of the party until Puck comes along and shatters the facade she has been hiding behind all these years. Lovers from another time, can these two work out their tangled pasts in time to save Neverland and rekindle the flame that never truly burned out?

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Here is the link to S. Cinder’s novel, “Chasing Pan” on Amazon: Chasing Pan by S. Cinders

I will be posting my other favorite picks for Shakespearean theme books during the next few weeks, so keep those comments coming on some of your fav books.

Thanks for reading!

D. K. Marley

Cover Reveal for “Prince of Sorrows”

The cover is here and I love it! Simple, striking and amazing! Hope to generate some buzz!!

And for those wishing an ARC (advanced reader copy), please message me and we can discuss the details. Also, don’t forget to go to my previous post and enter to win a bundle of my first novel “Blood and Ink” and an ARC of “Prince of Sorrows”.

Here it is:

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Giveaway Contest for Historical Fiction Fans! (You Must Comment to Enter)

GIVEAWAY CONTEST FOR HISTORICAL FICTION FANS – TUDOR ERA and SHAKESPEARE

(You MUST comment your name below this post to enter NOT just “like” the post)

I am giving away two signed copies of my current novel “Blood and Ink” each bundled with an ARC (advanced reader copy) of my new novel “Prince of Sorrows” on May 14, 2018 and I will be posting the video of the drawing here on my blog and on my Facebook page.

If you are interested in entering the contest, please comment your name below and I will add you to the list. You will be notified within two days of the drawing to get your shipping address.

Thanks to all who enter and I wish you well!

Here is a synopsis of each of the novels:

“Blood and Ink” – Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, the dark and brooding playwright of Queen Elizabeth’s court, becomes his own character, Faustus, and sells his soul to gain the one thing he desires: his name immortalized.

Inspired at an early age on the banks of the Stour River, his passion for a goose quill and ink thrusts him into the labyrinth of England’s underworld – a secret spy ring created by the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Frances Walsingham.

He suffers the whips and scorns of time as he witnesses the massacre of Paris, the hypocrisy of the church, the rejection from his ‘dark lady’, the ripping of his identity as a playwright, and wrenching loss that will breathe life into some of his unforgettable characters.

As he sinks further into blood and murder, a masque is written by his own hand to save his life from shadowing betrayers, from the Queen’s own Star Chamber headed by the blood-thirsty Archbishop of Canterbury, and from the Jesuit assassins of Rome; thus sending him into exile and allowing an unknown actor from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, to step into his shoes.

And so begins he lie; and yet, what will a man not do to regain his name?

“Prince of Sorrows” – In the tradition of A. J. Hartley’s “Macbeth”, this historical fiction novel adapts the traditional play from William Shakespeare into a winding tale of greed, betrayal, cowardice, and love set in Denmark in the 12th century. Hamlet, the only son and heir to the Danish throne, is cast aside by his ambitious uncle who snatches the inheritance away from him. He fights with his own stilted ambition, his love for the beautiful Ophelia, and the spurring toward revenge from his ghostly father against the knaves of the Kingdom. “Prince of Sorrows” adds more to the tale of Shakespeare with a historical background of the characters and an unexpected twist in his father’s death as well as Lady Ophelia’s suicide.

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How to Enjoy Shakespeare

I found this passage while rereading Hardin Craig’s The Complete Works of Shakespeare and found the words immensely agreeable to anyone who might wonder how on earth to completely enjoy reading or watching the plays of Shakespeare.

There are so many I have heard through the years who roll their eyes and sigh with disgust at the very thought of attempting to read or watch anything Shakespearean. I am not of that opinion, nor have I ever been, but I can see if one is intimidated by the wordage or form or style of his plays and sonnets, how they might shrug off any attempt to give them a try.

The passage reads like this and after meditating on the idea Craig offers, maybe if you are not a Shakespearean fan, maybe this will give you the impetus to give him another chance.

Craig says, “All of this repeats from another point of view an age-old criticism of Shakespeare; namely, that he is an exuberant artist, that he is not restrained and classical. But this exuberance has been his chief source of power; we merely cite the facts in order to control, in the interest of a true and vivid appreciation of Shakespeare, idel and unintelligent speculation on the interpretation of Shakespearean characters and plots. We should learn to surrender ourselves so completely and so intelligently to Shakespeare’s artistic appeal that we, like the audiences for whom he wrote, can enjoy his art in spite of its conventions. In doing this we shall not need commentators who insist forever on doing the work over in needless paraphrases of plot and endless discussions of characters. We should put ourselves, if we can, into a sufficiently receptive mood to enjoy Shakespeare’s appeal to simple emotions,, though in doing so it may be necessary for us to suspend our demand for naturalism and philosophy. We should recognize that what we have is a story, told usually marvelously well, with the somewhat crude device of the Elizabethan stage; and that it is a story which, however replete with originality, was usually already familiar to the audience for which it was written.”

Here, here, I say… bravo!! Shakespeare was the Lin Manuel-Miranda of his day. For those Hamilton fans of the Broadway stage, Shakespeare used the devices common to his day to tell the audiences stories of history, of love, of hate, of violence, of jealousy, of joy, of lust, of betrayal, of innocence, of arrogance, of passion, of the travails of the ordinary man as well as noble. The invention of the human, as we all know is still happening on the Broadway stage and lesser stages around the world. The genius of Shakespeare is seen clearly today in our modern versions of Manuel-Miranda and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Craig also points out: “…the more nearly we can see as Shakespeare meant us to see, the more adequate will be our vision and the keener our enjoyment. Neither the Elizabethan writer nor the Elizabethan audience had a body of ideas like ours, knew what we know or in the way we know it, wanted the same things from life that we want, or thought of drama or life as we think of them… Since Shakespeare did not and could not think and talk in terms of such ideas, he should not be made to do so.”

Shakespeare was and is an artist, a writer, and for most of us who aspire to write even one percent of a tenth as Shakespeare wrote, we can understand the significance of allowing Shakespeare to simply be Shakespeare, the artist, and writer. As writers, we all make allowances for artistic expression and for the most part, seek to align ourselves with our audiences for the sake of commercialization. Five hundred years from now will audiences of that future look back on George R. R. Martin’s book series of Game of Thrones or Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth and think, “No, I will pass because the wordage and the style are just too complex or too hard for me to tackle.”

The thought should give us a moment to reflect. Shakespearean plays and sonnets are well worth the time and effort anyone might take to sit back and enjoy, whether by reading or watching. We have enough adaptations on BBC and movies to fill our bellies full of quality Shakespearean meat for any who wish to delve into the buffet without actually sitting down with a book. I have to admit, sitting down with an entire folio of his plays and sonnets is rather daunting, so I have listed a few of my favorite movies, and the links to buy, based on his plays for any who wish to give them him a try (in order from my favorite to least favorite):

Henry V – Kenneth Branaugh
Hamlet – Mel Gibson, Helena Bonham-Carter
Hamlet – Kenneth Branaugh, Kate Winslet
Romeo and Juliet – Olivia Hussey
Romeo and Juliet – Leonardo di Caprio
The Taming of the Shrew – Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton
The Merchant of Venice – Al Pacino
Richard III – Lawrence Olivier
Richard III – Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hollow Crown, The War of the Roses)
Henry VI, part 1 and 2 – Hugh Bonneville (The Hollow Crown, The War of the Roses)
Richard II – Ben Whishaw (The Hollow Crown)
Henry IV – Jeremy Irons (The Hollow Crown)
Henry V – Tom Hiddleston (The Hollow Crown)
Othello – Kenneth Branaugh, Lawrence Fishburne
Much Ado About Nothing – Kenneth Branaugh, Emma Thompson
Twelfth Night – Helena Bonham-Carter
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfieffer
Titus Andronicus – Anthony Hopkins

I have yet to see an adaptation of Macbeth that I truly enjoyed, save for the possible one made years ago by Roman Polanski, but since it has been awhile since I saw that one, I left it off the list. These are my favorites.

So, my advice is to give Shakespeare a try again; who knows, perhaps with these words in your mind, the beauty of his verse may find its way into your mind and heart.

Thanks for reading! Please share and comment if you wish!!

D. K. Marley

Hardin Craig’s Shakespeare

I decided to do some research on the editor of my grandmother’s college book “The Complete Works of Shakespeare”, and get an idea of the man behind the research done in the preface and introductory analysis of each play, and I have to say, I am astounded.

Wikipedia describes him as the foremost authority on Shakespeare and Milton of his time.

Here is the Wikipedia description of him: Hardin Craig (29 June 1875 – 13 October 1968) was an American Renaissance scholar and professor of English. In his 65-year academic career, he served on the faculties of eight different colleges and universities, published more than 20 books as either author or editor, and was one of the few Americans to be elected to the Royal Society of Literature in Britain.

I thought how interesting it would be to continue posting direct quotes of his from the book while adding my own annotations in parentheses since it seems my blog is becoming more and more Shakespearean by the day. Or at least it is starting that way since I have the intention of delving more into Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, as well as some of my other favorite authors: C. S. Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ken Follett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Rosalind Miles, Daphne Du Maurier, The Bronte Sisters, and Jane Austen.

Shakespeare seems to be a good start to this blog, so I hope you enjoy the journey through Shakespeare, to feel the intensity my own heart feels for the plays and the passion that the words of the Bard can portray in these modern times.

(I love these words of Craig’s): “One does not approach Shakespeare as one approaches authors less well known, authors to whom the track has been opened mainly by historical scholars. The road to Shakespeare is a well-traveled highway. Every modern person who has any pretense to culture knows something about Shakespeare and considers himself in some sense an authority in the interpretation of such characters as Hamlet and Shylock, and usually has a firm rooted opinion that Shakespeare was a self-made man with a proclivity for deer-stealing. To ask a person if he knows anything about Shakespeare is to ask him if he belongs to a respectable family and has had any care in his upbringing. No author ingrained in popular thought as Shakespeare is, no author whose words are proverbs for daily use, can be properly studied without some attention to such questions as how he got into print and how his fame grew and thrived through the centuries.”

(Ah, so true…. opinions about Shakespeare are as common as the noses on people’s faces… and those of wanting to debate whether or not he indeed wrote the plays is becoming more and more common. There was a time when I believed he did not write the plays, but as the time passes, I have come to realize that my belief came simply from my in-depth research into my own novel “Blood and Ink” which delves into the possibility of Marlowe being the actual writer of the plays of the First Folio. When Craig says ‘Every modern person who has any pretense to culture knows something about Shakespeare and considers himself in some sense an authority in the interpretation of such characters as Hamlet and Shylock, and usually has a firm rooted opinion that Shakespeare was a self-made man with a proclivity for deer stealing,’ a smile came to my face. There is such a sacredness for those of us who love Shakespeare, especially those of us passionate about the man and the works, and after immersing into learning the beauty of his words and genius, we indeed feel like we have a firm rooted opinion and consider ourselves in some sense an authority in the interpretation of much of his characters and words.

But, in reality, none of us lived during the 1600s. None of us have had the opportunity to interview the very man, so all the authority and opinions any of us feel like we have, they are indeed just opinion and our own interpretation of our idea of what he may have meant in certain passages, what provoked his thoughts to write quips or scenes or develop certain characters, and what in his background added to his ability to create the incredible blank verse we are so fortunate to have before our eyes in this 21st century.

I have found that as an author myself, experience adds much to writing. My thoughts as to Shakespeare’s experience sometimes wavers and tick-tocks back and forth like the movements of a cuckoo clock. Sometimes I believe, sometimes I don’t, that he is the actual writer. But again, I remind myself on a daily basis, I am just a historical fiction writer, not a historian. I am content to remain an avid Shakespearean geek and leave the philosophizing of his authorship, his education, and background to those who, in reality, cannot, and will not, ever truly know.

I am content to revel and relish his words, no matter if they are Shakespeare’s or not. They inspire me… they make me feel happy when the words filter across my tongue. I think Shakespeare would smile at this thought because after all, isn’t that what all of us as authors wish? To one day, five hundred years from now, for our characters and our words to dance through a stranger’s mind and still, after all those passing years, years after we have passed off this mortal coil, for them to inspire another soul and to bring happiness to another human being. That is what Shakespeare is to me.)

Thanks for reading!

D. K. Marley