Sara Donati's Blog, page 17

Pig in a Poke, revisited: Amazon Shenanigans

The firstversion of this post went up in January 2013. I’m revising and reposting it because Amazon is bungling editions, in a rather deceptive and (to me) infuriating way.The update is followed by the original post.

Amazon has a newish feature I actually like, called Kindle Match. If you bought a hard copy of a book from them in the past — and it can be way, way past, fifteen years ago even, you may be able to get the Kindle edition for anywhere between nothing and ten bucks. Most of the ti...

Gesture & Facial Expression

In the past I’ve posted quite a lot about how challenging it is to describe both expressions on the human face and body language. Here’s a website that makes it somewhat easier to capture what it is you’re trying to describe.

What’s especially useful here is the ability to use the sliders to get gradual shifts. There is also quite a lot of information about the research that went into writing the program. I’m afraid I’ll bespending a lot of time here.

Tweet

Not quite all my worldly goods: Giveaways

Things were easier when I could concentrate on this weblog alone. Now I’ve got Facebook and Twitter to juggle as well, and I am not so flexible with juggling these days. So in case you are as confused as I am, this summary:

Here on the weblog I am running a big contest (the biggest ever, by the way)– go have a look On theSara Donati Facebook page there’s a contest going to win a signed manuscript page from The Gilded Hour Next week on Twitter therewill bea giveaway/contest for a copy of the...

Review: Thieving Forest by Martha Conway

Novels set in the eastern U.S. in the early 19th century always interest me, in part, of course, because I have written a couple of them myself. I’m curious to seehow other authors cope with the challenges of historical research in this period, Native American characterizations (especially difficult and important), andspecifically the portrayal the lives of women who survived in tremendously difficult circumstances.

My personal test of a great novel is one in which I forget to pay attention...

Try your hand at snappy dialogue

This is an exercise I use when I’m teaching creative writing. I always get a kick out of it, and the students do, too. I’m thinking it might engage the interest of some of the people who stop by here — and who need another opportunity to comment and thus get entered into the giveaway.

To start, Iprovide a question. For example: Do you live around here?

Goal: Write a one sentence reply that gets the whole story going at a gallop.

Example answers:

What kind of question is that? I look like a bu...

Elmore Leonard: A Pitch-Perfect Scene

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series In Praise of Prose

I’ve got this idea about a series of posts in which I adore somebody else’s writing. I’m starting with Elmore Leonard, who died in 2013 at 87 years old with something like fifty-five novels under his belt. At the time of his death hewas still involved withthe television series Justified, based on his Raylan Jennings short story“Fire in the Hole.” The cast and producers recorded a wonderful short tribute to him that you’ll find after t...

We have a winner … and well done, everybody

Cynthia Valero’s name jumped out of the hat, and so she will receive my last ARC of The Gilded Hour. Cynthia, please email me (you can use the contact form link) with your mailing address.

To everybody who was courageous and submitted a paragraph: good on you. It’s not an easy thing to put yourself out there. Keep writing.

Tweet

Booklist Review of The Gilded Hour, with a Star

Here’s good news: an excellent (starred) review of The Gilded Hour from Booklist — the review arm of the American Library Association (have I mentioned that I love librarians?) Here it is:

Donati became an internationally best-selling author with her Wilderness series and now presents a novelabout the descendants of her earlier characters. As she illuminates life in America in 1883, she tells acompelling tale that dramatizes aspects of race, ethnicity, class, family, societal roles, and gende...