Gary Devore's Blog, page 8

Eurovision 2012 Post Mortem

We all know the Eurovision contest is not a contest. It’s an international variety show where acts perform and countries vote for their neighbors, unfortunately forcing great performances and songs to languish at the bottom of the ranking. This year we had the added bonus of glorifying an oppressive regime with the host country of Azerbaijan.

There were some good entries this year. I particularly liked France‘s Anggun singing “Echo (You And I)”, Cyprus‘ Ivi Adamou singing “La La Love”, and esp...

Textbook Writing: Sacred Chickens

I’m writing a Roman textbook and came across a ridiculous but amusing story from Livy last night. I wrote it up this way:

The Dancing Corn

Livy tells a pithy, probably legendary, story from the last years of the Third Samnite War that illustrates how closely religion and warfare were tied in Roman culture. Republican culture was incredibly superstitious. Omens and divine signs were routinely sought, especially during important military campaigns. In 293, a consul by the name of Lucius Papirius...

Pantheon Locations in Rome

Rome is my favorite city in the world, so I knew a lot of my novel Pantheon would take place there. Here is a short guide to the locations used and how to locate them if you find yourself in that fantastic city.

→ Link to annotated Google map of Pantheon locations in Rome

The Pantheon (Piazza della Rotonda). This amazing temple was built by the emperor Hadrian in the second century, replacing an earlier, more traditional temple on the site. It was dedicated to all the Roman gods, and Hadrian us...

Pantheon Stickers and Postcards

I’ve just ordered some postcards and stickers advertising Pantheon based on the following designs (click for a larger version). My hope is to make them available to anyone who wants to help promote the novel. I’m eager to see how they turn out!

Filed under: Pantheon, Website Tagged: pantheon

Pantheon Soundtrack: Aphrodite’s Party

Pantheon Soundtrack, track 6

“Pretty (Pret A Porter Mix)” by the Cranberries

I was introduced to this song during a brilliant moment in a non-brilliant Robert Altman movie called Pret a Porter. In the film, the superficial fashion industry gets its comeuppance in a totally nude runway show.

I felt the song applied to the Aphrodite’s party for several reasons. Its rhythmic building spoke to the building tension and emotion in the story. Also the common ground that each of the characters possess i...

The Pantheon Kickstarter Project is Now Active!

I’m hoping to create a trailer for Pantheon and six 5-minute “webisodes” with a professional voice actor reading excerpts from the novel. They will be like mini audiobook recordings. When posted to YouTube etc., they will give potential readers an idea of what the book is like.

If you are a fan of the novel and would like to donate, or even if you would just like to support independent authors, you can navigate to the Pantheon Kickstarter Project page and contribute. There are several personal...

Pompeii Conference Recap

This past weekend I had the honor of presenting at the Humanities West conference “Pompeii & Herculaneum: Rediscovering Roman Art & Culture“. I gave a talk on the re-discovery and excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and got to work with some dear friends and colleagues who also work in those ancient cities.

The entire conference was a tremendous success, and many Humanities West regulars claimed it was one of the best events they had ever had. The audience reviews and rankings agreed. I fou...

“Pantheon” on sale this week

My already discounted novel “Pantheon” is on sale until Friday at the publisher’s website.

Use the discount code “EARTH” and this link.

Filed under: Pantheon

Pantheon Soundtrack Playlist

Here is the link for the YouTube playlist that collects together all of the Pantheon soundtrack videos:

Pantheon Soundtrack YouTube Playlist

I will add to it as the soundtrack posts grow.

To see the commentary for each track, use this tag archive link: garydevore.wordpress.com/tag/soundtrack/

Filed under: Pantheon, Pantheon Soundtrack Tagged: pantheon, soundtrack

Kickstarter Kickstarted

I’ve just submitted a project on kickstarter to fund a trailer and six short webisodes featuring a professional voice actor reading excerpts from Pantheon. It has gone to the ‘review’ status, and I’ll let you all know when I hear back that it has gone live.

Through the great site voices.com, I can hire a professional voice actor for around $300 for an hour of recording time. I am asking for $600 on kickstarter to hire one male and one female voice actor to read at least six short excerpts from...