Just finished reading The Shakespeare Riots; Revenge, Drama and Death in Nineteeth-Century America by Nigel Cliff. May I say...WONDERFUL!!!?!!

In brief, the book explores the Astor Place Riot of 1849. The riot took place in New York City ostensibly over two different approaches to Shakespeare's plays. On one side, American Tragedian Edwin Forrest; on the other the English Tragedian William Charles Macready. Note the nationalities -- one of the real reasons the riots took place.

I know several of you are rolling your eyes at what you percieve to be a non-fiction history book. Yes, it is that...and so much more. Nigel Cliff has crafted a story out of all the diverse motivations that went into that culminating event. His knowledge of not only nineteenth-century theater but of the everyday lives of all the participants makes you forget you're not reading a novel. By the end of the book, you care about the two great actors and get genuinely angry at the mob and the nobility-wannabees that push events to the brink of disaster and then over it.

The only negative comment I have has to do with the actual riots themselves. After so many chapters, so many pages dedicated to the rising action and the events that lead to that fateful night, I wanted more description, more time dwelling on the riot itself. While Cliff does a good job, the rest of the book made me want a great job. As a result, the climax was...well...anticlimactic in my eyes.

Love, revenge, national pride, friendship and politics all get their due in this book. I heartily recommend
The Shakespeare Riots!
Hey...you can't say my tastes in reading aren't eclectic!

Play safe,
Diana

I spent yesterday at the cabin, normally a great place for peace and quiet. Over the past two years I've gotten a lot of writing done there. Not so yesterday. My husband and a friend of the family spent the day finishing the last of the bedrooms. Remember, when we bought this place not a single room was finished. Now three of the four bedrooms upstairs are completed and the fourth nearly so. The kitchen and the dining rooms were first done, but the plank floor went in this past spring, so those rooms are complete as well. The downstairs bedroom needed the least fixing, so that one was done first, followed by the bathroom. I think this bedroom is the first room he's done that he didn't need to buy a new tool for! :)

Anyway, they made it far too noisy to write -- so I read instead! Started and finished Judith McNaught's Remember When in one day, which should tell you something about the depth of thought needed to read it. Have to admit, I'm a sucker for books I can read all in one sitting. Not only are they entertaining, but I feel like I accomplished something at the end of the day!

Remember When is set in the contemporary world of corporate America, specifically, corporate Houston, Texas. She drew her characters well and even though I figured out some of the motivations before the hero and heroine did, the reveals were all well-done. I never felt cheated; the characters were true to themselves all throughout the book.

Play safe!
Diana (who needs to stop and do a count-up of the number of books she's read this year!)

BLOG IS UP AT THE SIZZLIN' SCRIBES!

Was my turn this week and I wrote about RENT, inspiration and other philosophical ideologies! :)

Play safe,
Diana

I couldn't resist playing with this. I typed in a selection from Submission Revealed and, voila! One of my favorite authors popped up. Don't see it myself, but can't say I'm displeased! :) 

I write like
Jane Austen

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Although the prologue to Stress Relief gets me this:

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

And a page from Cabin Fever compares me to:

I write like
Ray Bradbury

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

 
All authors I love. Can you see the influences?

I've been asked to give a series of writing workshops at Book Island in Second Life. These are really just a chance for writers to set aside an hour of time to devote to working on a particular skill. I give a few tips, turn them loose to write for a while, then we share what we've written and the hour is up too fast! But it's fun and a great way to meet others.

Below is the blurb and the schedule (I know, I should've posted it last week. Sorry. I keep saying I need a secretary/publicist/peon/gopher. Know anyone who would work for free books?) I sent out to my group in SL:

Sun block is expected in the summertime, writer’s block isn’t so welcome. Join author Diana Allendale (Diana Hunter in RL) for a series of writing workshops throughout the month of July designed to get your Muse out of the sun and back to work.


NOTE: All workshops are held at the Beach Area of Book Island (why should our Muses be the only ones getting a tan?) at 2:30 pm SLT.


You'll be writing and sharing at each workshop, although no formal critique will be given. This is really an opportunity to get some new ideas, play with some ideas and just have fun writing!

July 6th -- Developing strong characters

July 13th -- Doing more than just seeing the scene

July 20th -- Writing like we speak -- or -- Authenticity in dialogue -- or -- Say what?

July 27th -- Playing with characters

The above dates are scheduled but if something unforeseen should arise, a note will go out to both Diana’s Passionate Books group and to the Book Island events and discussion group, so be sure you're a member of one or both of those!

Hope to see you there! And if you're not in Second Life...why not? You know I do readings from my books there, don't you?

Play safe,
Diana

I've been trying to write this post for a week and for some reason Blogger and my computer don't like each other. Today I managed to get the darn window to accept a cursor by saving the blank document, then going back and editing it. I love technology -- except when I don't!

I've read four books in the past week. Being at the cabin with no Internet or TV helps. All of them romances, none of them really noteworthy. Fair warning: these are easy reads. I read one a day for four days straight!

Kat Martin's The Handmaiden's Necklace is really misnamed. All throughout the book the jewelry in question is referred to as "The Bride's Necklace" -- and it isn't even the handmaiden that wears it! In fact, the necklace doesn't come to play an important role till the very end, and then it's pretty predictable. An okay story, but the plot wasn't particularly gripping, nor were the characters really memorable.

Shannon Drake's Reckless was next. Book made me want to throw it across the room more than once. Typos, plot jumps...and I swear there were missing sentences throughout the entire thing. Don't know if it was bad editing or bad writing -- or both. I'd re-read whole pages trying to figure out where a response came from. Person A would make a comment; Person B would make a response that had nothing to do with what Person A said. Drove me nuts. And it's too bad, because the storyline was actually pretty good. I had no idea, btw, that Shannon Drake is Heather Graham's pen name. I've never read Ms. Graham, but based on Reckless, I'm not inclined to now.

Next up came Donna Fletcher's The Irish Devil. I liked the storyline with this one, but found her repetitive use of several descriptive phrases to be tiresome. The hero "growled" a lot (what is he, a dog?) and was referred to far too often as "the Irish devil". Okay, I got the point. He's rough, tough, and not always a nice guy. Please stop beating me over the head with this phrase!

And finally, just finished yesterday, Josie Litton's Dream Island. This was the best of the bunch, even though it threw me for a loop when it started as a Regency and introduced a fantastical island that "everybody" knew about -- except this reader who spent the first third of the book trying to figure out what kind of book I was reading. Once I accepted it as fantasy, it moved right along. Good characters, steady plot...a day well spent!

Now it's back to the real world...and my own writing! I'll post about that tomorrow...because, yes, I do have some new stories for you!

Play safe,
Diana

Did you all know my books are all available on the Kindle now? While EC offers ebooks in several formats, the Kindle is gaining in popularity. Check out the list of my titles to see what you don't have yet and add to your collection today!

Quick poll...what format do you like best for your ebook reading? Those of you reading this via a reader will need to click through to vote.

What format do you prefer for your ebook reading?
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pollcode.com free polls

As always, play safe!

Diana

Two weeks, two more books. Seems that's all I do lately, but really, I do a LOT of other stuff besides read. Honest! I have a new Quick Quickie coming out at EC probably at the end of summer or early fall, I've not one, but TWO other novels started (writing them, not reading this time!). Plus my son just graduated from high school, my daughter's home for the summer and I hear a cabin in the woods just a' callin' my name...

So really it's amazing that I get ANY reading done. Of course, these two books were both easy reads (at least for me). Both are in the Young Adult category and both are older books. In fact, the first one seems to be currently out of print, although I did manage to find some used copies available online.

Crossroads for Chela by Dorothy Witton is the first of the two. It tells the story of Chela, a Terascan Indian living in the high Sierras of South America. Chela chafes at the life her family and traditions have laid out for her and when "outsiders" come to her village, the new ideas they bring threaten her way of life.

The story was first published in the 1950's, but the events of the story are timely even today. I truly enjoyed this book and would love it if some publisher picked it up again to make available. In fact, I might even teach this book with a class of 9th or 10th graders!

The second book, Jackaroo by Cynthia Voight, is the first in her Kingdom series of books. While the plot was interesting and the characters intriguing, I have to say I didn't much care for this book. I love the fantasy genre and this would fall into that category. But when writing fantasy, the author has to spend time building up the world so it's understandable to the reader. Too often I found myself going, "What? Where did that come from? Did I miss something?" because either the action skipped ahead or the characters referenced something that hadn't yet come into play...and not in a good way that would pique one's interest, but rather in a way that had this reader, anyway, shaking her head and feeling lost.

So, two young adult novels, one no longer available and I wish it were; one still around and I'm not planning to read any more of the series.

Hmmm...I really should be putting all these books in at Library Thing...

Play safe!
Diana

Okay, trying out some code I just installed on the blog. But nothing can be easy, so I'm not sure it works. If it did, when you hover over the title for Secret Submission, an Amazon link should pop up. Did it?

edited: Whee! It did! I am such an HTML illiterate, I'm always surprised when it works like it's supposed to.

Now, next question. Do you find the pop-up helpful or annoying?

BecauseI haven't posted any reviews of the books I've been reading, you might be tempted to think I haven't been reading. Sorry, but nothing keeps me from reading! The book that took me all of May to read was Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and the first half of June was dedicated to The Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.

I picked up Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell at Borders in early May. Let me warn you now, the print in the paperback is exceedingly small and even with my glasses on I had trouble at times. The book is 1006 pages long and there are a lot of words the publisher has tried to cram onto the pages to keep it to that length. If you can find it in hardcover, it might be an easier read on the eyes. In fact, the small print size is one of the reasons it took so long to finish. I kept putting it down because my eyes hurt after an hour or so.

The book reads like a non-fiction, telling the story of these two men from viewpoint of a never-named narrator. This device is furthered by the use of footnotes that, ostensibly, explain the references to other (fictional) works. While I found some of the footnotes entertaining in their own right (many read like little short stories), after a while, they became tiresome. Especially when they ran for several pages and I lost track of the story proper. Still, an interesting way to tell the little side-stories that often crop up when one is writing a novel of this length.

Overall I found the story mildly entertaining -- I did, after all, keep coming back after resting my eyes. But the non-fiction approach to the storytelling made it quite dry reading at times. For instance, it seemed that the beginning stretched forever before the story got out of the exposition and the main conflict was introduced. And if you're looking for a lot of action, this book is not it. If you like scholarly discussions of magic and power struggles between two opposing magicians, then this is definitely up your alley.

The second book, The Yellow Raft in Blue Water, has been taught in high schools for years so I figured it was high time I actually read it as well. I had no introduction to it, I just picked it up off the shelf and started. I didn't mind it too much, although, again, I found the storytelling a little to dry for my tastes. Raymona's story moved along and I found myself just sort of skimming along the story much as she skimmed through telling it.

But then the book shift's point of view and I found that unsettling, if not surprising. I figured it had to as Ray's story didn't have too many more places to go and there was a whole lot of book left. I found Christine's story even less compelling that Ray's and it sat on my desk gathering dust for several days before I was bored enough to pick it up again.

One of the English teachers told me she loved the book because it was like peeling an onion. That each person's story peeled away another layer until you got to the last point of view (I won't reveal the spoiler, although you'll probably figure it out halfway through the book). Only when you reached the core story did you find the truth. Of course, that assumes I'm still interested in finding out the truth when I finally get there. Overall, I'd give this one a bye unless you're a fan of the Contemporary American Novel. Which, apparently, I ain't.

So two more books to add to my list for this year's tally! Till later, Play safe,
Diana

This week was my turn on the Scribblin' Scribes blog. Come on over and take a gander!

With this story I'm officially out of stories for a while. Tales from the Ramayana: Homecoming follows Ram and Laksman back home to Ayodhya with their brides-to-be, only for them to find their father is none too pleased at their extended absence!

Okay, readers...what's next? Should I get back to work on a full-length novel for you? Write a few more adventures of Ram, Sita and Laksman? Stop writing altogether? I will tell you EC just accepting a Quick Quickie I wrote called "Love in the Afternoon." It's currently in edits, but you know I'll post here as soon as I have a release date.

In the meantime, enjoy Homecoming!

(removed. Now in Tales from the Ramayana, a collection of four short stories from The Ramayana as told by Diana Hunter)

Free story finally posted. This one is not part of the Tales from the Ramayana (although a new episode is coming soon). Gorilla Love was written as a part of the Love's Stories collection. Since it's very short (less than 600 words) it really should be classified as flash fiction. But it's a cute piece I had fun with. And because its so short, I'm offering this one for free.

(removed. Now a part of TIMELESS LOVE, a collection of short, romantic stories by Diana Hunter)

Didn't post new story yesterday because of neice's wedding rehearsal. Today is the wedding. New story coming soon...I promise!

Just bringing my log of books read so far this year up to date.

To April's list I need to add Last Words by George Carlin and 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal. Two bios by two very different comedians. Carlin's book is more a retrospective of his life and the things he's learned along the way. Sprinkled in among the memories are some great stories of the people he met and worked with as well as excerpts from some of his more famous routines (remember the Hippy Dippy Weatherman? With your hippy dippy weather, man!). Crystal's book is more a tribute to his dad and to other family members. He tells tales about his aunts and uncles and, of course, his love of baseball comes through as well (I'd include a link to his website, but it appears he doesn't have one).

Of the two, Carlin's was a much better read. Although Crystal's book is shorter (by nearly a hundred pages), Carlin's is more insightful about the human condition. As always, he has wonderful plays on words and a cutting cynicism of pomposity. Crystal's is a book of stories. Period. If you're looking to read one or the other, I'd definitely recommend George Carlin's last book. In pace requiscat.

I also read a biography of William Shakespeare (okay, so I'm a closet bio fan. Sue me!). Written by Bill Bryson and entitled Shakespeare; The World as Stage, this is as unpretentious and delightful biographer of the English language's best writer (yes, I said best and I'm sticking with it!). Bryson's incredible research exposes many of the wilder theories regarding our old friend Will while giving fun explanations of the big holes we have in the playwright's life. It's a short read (less than 200 pages) filled with humor and an obvious love and respect for the man who gave so much to English literature.

I think that catches me up! Look for another short story this Thursday. Till then,

Play safe!
Diana

It's Thursday, so it must mean a new story from Diana! This one is available for a small fee ($1.25). I'm still looking for input regarding the price.

Today's short story is called "One Last Dance". It's one of my favorite short pieces and tells the story of an elderly couple's last dance together. Get your hankies ready!

(removed. Story now available in TIMELESS LOVE, an anthology of four short, romantic stories from Diana)

As you may have guessed, I've started publishing some short stories to Scribd. The Tales from the Ramayana are free stories, the others cost a nominal fee (I had to charge $1.25 in order to cover the cost that goes to Scribd for each purchase. Do you think that's too much? Not enough? Leave me some feedback so I can adjust as needed!). I have enough of these written to publish a new work each Thursday for the next four weeks. And since today is Thursday...

Below you'll find "Laksman Falls in Love" and it's free. Since this is going to be part of a series of stories, I actually gave it a cover. I hope you enjoy it!

(Removed. This story is now a part of the Tales from the Ramayana, a series of short stories from the ancient epic as retold by Diana)

Play safe,
Diana

You can vote now for the Bondage Awards. Please cast your vote for me for Best Writer!


You can vote once a day till the voting ends...so you know I'll be pestering! The person with the most votes wins. :)

Play safe,

Diana

The Diana Hunter Scribd store is now open with the launch of Love at Third Sight -- a personal tale of love and romance. I will be publishing several of these short stories over the next few months and am charging a nominal fee ($1.25) for them. Rest assured, the episodes of Tales from the Ramayana will remain free, however.


(removed. This story is now part of TIMELESS LOVE, a collection of short, romantic stories from Diana)

I've been laid up the past few days, recovering from arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday. While I'm getting around much better than I thought I would, I still spend HUGE amounts of time sitting still. And what better activity to do when sitting still but reading and writing books?

To that end, I've begun writing a Quick Quickie. I'm stuck with this enforced non-activity for a week and I'm thinking I can write one hot, short, sexy story in that time. Aiming for 8-10K in length...and 2K are already done.

I also read an entire book yesterday. Well, that's not fair. I started it the day before but only ready about 40 pages before the drugs knocked me out and I slept through the night. So yesterday I finished Laurie R. King's book, Locked Rooms. Mary Russell is the protagonist of the book, helped along by her husband, Sherlock Holmes. Yes, that Sherlock Holmes.

This book is obviously part of a series of Mary Russell novels and refers back to those other adventures several times, much the same way A.C. Doyle did with the Holmes mysteries. In fact, she employs several of Doyle's techniques in telling the story, sometimes to great effect. Although I found the start of the story somewhat long to get through, once the hunt was on the story sped right along.

That said, I doubt I'll read any of the others in her series. I really like Sherlock Holmes and all his oddities. Messing around with a beloved character just isn't my cup of tea. He's a perennial bachelor in my head and will remain that way. Ms. King's stories would work just as well without the Holmes connection.

Oh! I forgot to mention I read Dangerously Funny 'way back in January. Written by David Biancully of NPR fame, it's a great look at how the Smothers Brothers changed, and were changed by, television. WONDERFUL book! A must-read if you care about censorship...and if you think it's not still going on today, you definitely need to read this book!

That's all...be sure to check here for a free read from me in the post below. Just something fun :)

Play safe,
Diana