Joyce DiPastena's Blog, page 68

I'm all at 3s and 4s! Oh, my!

Some people are all at sixes and sevens. Tonight, I'm all at threes and fours. To be specific:
Medieval Threes:
The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy SpiritThree days Christ spent in the tombThree Epochs: Before the Law (Adam to Moses); Under the Law (Moses to Jesus); Under Grace: (Christ to Judgment Day)Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity
Medieval Fours:
Four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, JohnFour creatures of Revelation: first like a lion; second like a calf; third had a face like a man; fourth like an eagle (Revelation 4:6-8)Four horsemen of the Apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, death (Revelation 6:1-8)Four humors: phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, melancholicFour points of the cross
What do the threes and fours have to do with my WIP? You'll find out if it ever turns into a book! (If I don't edit them out first, that is.)

Book Blog Hops, coming up soon!

So what, you wonder, is this all about?

This is a fantasically spooktacular chance to win a gazillion books, Amazon gift cards, or other book related prizes! Okay, so maybe not really a gazillion. But still...lots! On October 25, I'll be listing a string of book related blogs (review sites, author sites, etc), each of which will be giving away a prize. All you'll have to do is "hop" from blog to blog and follow each blogger's directions to enter their giveaway. So far, there are 36 blogs lined up to participate, but there may be many more by October 25th! Fortunately, you'll have until October 31 (Halloween!) to check out all the blogs and enter all the contests. Doesn't that sound fun?
And just because we love you, on the chance that you don't win anything at the Spooktacular Book Blog Giveaway Hop, we'll be following up with a second blog hop in November that looks like this:

This one will be running from November 17-27, and there are (as of 10:30 PM EST on Oct 5, 2010) 84 BLOGGERS participating in this one! Again, I suspect there will be even more by the time November rolls around.
So check back often. I'll share more details as I receive them from the inspired genius behind these two blog hops at I'm A Reader, Not a Writer. (She has some cool book giveaways going on right now. You might want to check her blog out!)

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with "cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I've borrowed it from LDS Women's Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare at least two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post of teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book. Here's my second teaser from  These Old Shades :
"Hey, hey, here's a pretty coil, to be sure, for, faith, I don't know where I am, and I don't know where Léonie is, nor she where I am, and at Avon they don't know where any of us are!"
From  These Old Shades , by Georgette Heyer, p 143
If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading, too.

Abandoned Houses

I was doing more sorting in the house today and came across a collection of writing essays/exercises that I did with a writing friend way back in 2003. Not all of them are worth sharing, but maybe a few of them are. Here's one that I still like. Hope you enjoy!
The writing prompt was: abandoned houses
*************
Abandoned! The house on the moon where the Old Man lived. Where has he gone? Off into the stardust. Why did he go? No one believed anymore.
In the far away past, before the hollow age of Science, those with illuminated hearts saw the Old Man's world in all its magical beauty. His soaring mountains, his plunging valleys, his wide, wide plains. And the seas. His wonderful, disparate seas! Frigid seas. Foaming seas. Serene and Tranquil seas. Seas of Showers. Clever Seas. Storm, Wave-beaten seas. Seas that teemed with Serpents. Misty, Cloudy seas. Seas that hovered on the Edge of forever.
But then Science sent probes, followed by human footsteps, and men returned to the earth and pronounced with their limited, human vision: "There are no seas. Only cold, hard rock and dust."
That's all they said the moon really was.
The Old Man stayed long. He tried to whisper the truth. He tried to sing it for the world to hear.
"I am here. I am real. I watch over you in the night, chasing away your nightmares when I send a beam of my light through your window shades in the still, dark hours. I sing you sweet lullabies to hush you softly, sweetly into sleep."
But then they stopped believing. "There is no Man in the Moon," the said, "only rock and dust, cold, cold nothingness.
Until it broke the Old Man's heart. And he faded away in the stardust.
(c. Joyce DiPastena, May 19, 2003. See Lunar Seas and Oceans for names of the lunar seas quoted above.)

Coming soon!

Stay tuned for more information!

Changes are coming!

Changes are coming soon to JDP NEWS! Okay, so the changes will only be superficial. (Although I know I need to clean up my sidebars. I'll get to that eventually!) I've decided that this bookshelf template is more appropriate to my medieval research with joyce blog, since my research preference (with occasional exceptions) continues to be for books over the internet. In fact, I've just posted a blog on this subject: Google Isn't the Answer to Everything! if you'd like to read it.

So, I'll be playing with various new templates over the next few days or weeks for JDP NEWS. If this site temporarily begins to look like a horse of many colors, that's why!

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with "cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I've borrowed it from LDS Women's Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare at least two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post of teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book. Here's my first teaser from These Old Shades :
"My dear Hugh, if you imagine that the lust for vengeance has been my dominating emotion for twenty years, permit me to correct the illusion."
"Has it not grown cold?" Hugh asked, disregarding.
"Very cold, my dear, but none the less dangerous."
From These Old Shades , by Georgette Heyer, p 27
If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading, too.

What Am I Reading for My 2010 New/Old Reading Challenge?

I finished Georgette Heyer's The Black Moth last night, and in spite of my new/old book challenge, chose to immediately dive into another "old" GH title: These Old Shades , while I had all the characters from The Black Moth still fresh in my mind. (I promise I'll make up for it with two "new" reads next!) Although the names are changed between The Black Moth and These Old Shades and a few relationships are altered (the brothers in The Black Moth are no longer related in These Old Shades ), it i...

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with "cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I've borrowed it from LDS Women's Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare at least two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post of teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book. Here's my second teaser from  The Black Moth :
"No, no--of course not! I was only surprised. But I am thankfully glad he did not ask you for all that!"
"Glad? How can you be so cruel?"
"My dear girl, you could not possibly marry a--a--"
"Common felon!" sobbed Diana. "I can--I can!"
From  The Black Moth , by Georgette Heyer, p 152
If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading, too.
The Black Moth

Guest Blogging at LDS Writers Blogck

I was a guest blogger today over at LDS Writers Blogck. Click here to read my reflections on the relationship between writing and faith.