I Published a Third Book This Year!

It's true!  My third new release for 2024 is here at last!  A Noble Companion retells Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling," but by focusing on side characters from the original fairy tale, not the ugly duckling himself.  

A Noble Companion is part of a multi-author project called The Cornerstone Series, sixteen fairy tale retellings from an unusual angle by sixteen different authors.  All of the books in the series are non-magical fantasy novellas, which means that, yes, I have written something other than historical fiction!  

Well, sort of ;-)  I set A Noble Companion in a fantasy world based on Spanish California of the very early 1800s, in a place I call Costa Nueva.  This book has talking animals and dragons, but it is definitely low fantasy, or historical-esque fantasy.  I am a historical fiction author at heart, so this has a lot of similarities to my Once Upon a Western series, in that I did lots of research into the time and place I was basing my fantasy world on.  But it has little fantasy elements, too.

If you buy a copy of A Noble Companion before the end of November, you can receive some book swag related to it!  All you have to do to claim your swag is fill out this form and wait for me to email you to request proof of purchase and an address to send the swag to.  The swag includes:

• 1 double-sided bookmark
• 1 piece of dragon treasure
• 3 vinyl stickers

Here's what they look like:

This swag bundle is available worldwide!  And you can buy either the paperback or the e-book.  Or, if you are a Kindle Unlimited reader, you can also get this swag if you read the entire book on KU before the end of the month.

If you want to know more, here's the official synopsis:

Raid a dragon's hoard for her dowry? It seemed like a good idea at the time... 

Madelena isn't in love with her friend Armando, but his marriage proposal offers the security she needs. She sympathizes with him—his father insists Armando must either find a bride or join the army. Armando would rather become a husband than a soldier, but his ugly face has scared away all other eligible ladies despite his family's wealth. Although she harbors only friendship for Armando, Madelena agrees to marry him on one condition: she insists on acquiring a dowry worthy of his family's noble standing in the land of Costa Nueva. But as a humble stablemaid, Madelena has no idea how to find such wealth. That's when the talking burro Terco mentions he's heard how to find a dragon’s treasure. 

Javier, Armando’s younger brother, has loved Madelena in silence for years. When he learns of their impending marriage, he offers to help her find the treasure, even though succeeding may cost him the chance to spend his future with her. Together, they face a dangerous wilderness, a charming bandit, and a dragon’s lair, forcing Javier to confront his feelings and Madelena to re-evaluate her heart.

I promise that's the last book I'm releasing this year ;-)  I'm tired and need a little break!

Soon, Soon to Faithful Warriors Comes Their Rest

Today, the Christian church traditionally celebrates All Saint's Day.  The hymn "For All the Saints, Who From Their Labors Rest" by William Walsham How is a pretty traditional choice to sing in church services on or around this day.

Three weeks ago yesterday, my dad joined the throng of saints who from their labors rest.

It was the phone call you don't want to get, the one from a neighbor of your loved one saying there's been an accident, we aren't sure what happened, the ambulance is on its way, and we'll update you when we know anything definite.

And then you wait, and you put your kids to bed after letting them know their grandpa has had an accident, and you wait some more.  The neighbor calls you back, you talk to your mom, and you learn that your dad is gone.  

Somehow, your heart keeps beating, your thoughts keep progressing, your lungs keep inflating and deflating.  You call your brother to let him know.  You put on your pajamas and go to bed and cry and sleep and cry and sleep.

And you pray.  Pray for courage, for comfort, for the ability to continue.  For the right words to say to your kids, your brother, your mom.  To your best friend since high school who thought of your parents as basically hers too.  To your church family that your dad pastored for 26 years.  To your dad's last surviving sibling.

And God in His mercy grants you all that you need, just like He always has and always will.  HIs grace is sufficient.

He Didn't Expect to Change the World: Martin Luther

Five hundred years ago, a monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, wanted to discuss some theological questions with other learned Christians. So he wrote them all down and, since the internet was a few centuries from being invented yet, he posted them to the door of the church instead of to his blog or Facebook wall. He wasn’t trying to cause trouble, he wasn’t trying to start a new church body, and he definitely wasn’t trying to change the world. He just had questions about some church practices that troubled him, like charging money to get souls out of purgatory. 

His name, of course, was Martin Luther. And, whether he meant to or not, he most certainly caused trouble, started a new church body, and eventually changed the world. But what he’d meant to do is reflected in the name we now have for the movement he started: the Protestant Reformation. He was protesting that some of the church’s activities went against what was taught in the Bible, and he wanted to reform the church, to fix things that had gone wrong. Not overthrow it, not replace it, just reform it. 

The trouble was, he attacked the selling of indulgences. Indulgences were like “get out of jail free” cards for purgatory, which the church taught was a sort of limbo world between earth and heaven. They said that if you believed in Jesus as your Savior, but you’d committed more sins than the good works you’d done would atone for, you had to hang out in purgatory for a while until, as the Ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it, your foul crimes were “burnt and purged away” in “sulfurous and tormenting flames” (I,5). 

If you or someone you loved was probably going to have to stay in purgatory for a while, the church said you could lessen their sentence, or even forgo it entirely, by buying an indulgence. That was a piece of paper that entitled you to some of the extra good works done by various saints who had done so many good things in their lives that not only would they go straight to heaven, but they had leftover goodness you could get credited to yourself or a loved one. Why worry that your mother or father or child who died recently was languishing in torment when you could pay the church to get them released? Or, as a popular rhyme about indulgences went, “As soon as the coin clinks in the chest, the soul flies up to heavenly rest.” 

Selling these indulgences was a really big moneymaker for the church at that time, which made church officials happy. Why? Because they were building a gigantic cathedral in Rome called St. Peter’s Basilica. This was an expensive and lengthy project, and selling indulgences was a super-successful fundraising idea. So when some upstart monk had the audacity to question whether or not selling indulgences was a scriptural practice, the church authorities couldn’t ignore him. 

But wait — what was one unknown professor at some German university going to do against the power of the church, which had the support of the entire Holy Roman Empire? What did it matter if he posted ninety-five discussion questions on the door of some church? How many people were going to attend his little theological debate, anyway? The internet didn’t exist, TV didn’t exist, radio didn’t even exist — nobody except some musty old professors were going to care about this, right? 

A century earlier, that would have been true. But, by 1517, the world had Gutenberg’s printing press, which allowed pamphlets and books to be printed cheaply and quickly. Ideas spread swiftly and accurately now, not passed by word of mouth or by people copying out what someone else had written, but by being printed and distributed in massive quantities. And that’s what happened with Luther’s 95 Theses — someone printed them up and started passing them around. People got excited about this debate. Word spread that some professor in Wittenberg was daring to question the church’s practice of selling indulgences. Shocking! Exciting! News-worthy! 

Suddenly, Dr. Martin Luther was the center of all kinds of attention and controversy. Simply by wanting to discuss church practices and whether or not they were based in Scripture, he’d caused trouble, he was on his way to starting a new church body, and the Reformation he began would end up changing the world.

(This post originally appeared in Femnista magazine on April 27, 2017.)

My Tag Answers for My 2024 Tolkien Blog Party

My twelfth Tolkien Blog Party is winding down.  But it's not over -- you can still enter the giveaway through midnight (EDT) tonight, and still play the games!  And still take a few minutes to fill out the tag, like I'm doing.

1. The Shire: What place in Middle-earth do you think you would feel the most like home for you? 

Probably the Shire, actually.  I spent my childhood in the rural Midwest, in farming country, and then spent my teen years in western North Carolina (which, yes, is experiencing a lot of distress right now -- pray for the flooding to ease up!).  I think the Shire is the closest place in Middle-earth to both of those.

2. Bree: If you could create a Middle-earth-themed restaurant, what would you serve there? 

Oooooooh, lots of yummy things!  Rabbit stew and roasted vegetables and hearty meat-and-potato dishes.  Fruit pies and tea cakes and delicate little pastries that look like they were created by elves.  And lembas, but only on the to-go menu.  I actually have several Middle-earth-inspired cookbooks, and made several things from them last weekend!

(Mine from my Instagram)

3. Rivendell: Where in Middle-earth would you like to hang out with your friends for a week or so? 

Rivendell.  I'd love to visit there, peruse the library, listen to the songs and stories, enjoy the food... but I think once I was well-rested, I would get bored and want to go elsewhere again.

4. Moria: Have you ever delved into the history of Middle-earth (or the history of Tolkien's creative process)? If so, did you learn anything cool you'd like to share? 

I have, somewhat!  I have learned that Tolkien was absolutely a pantser -- he did not plan out his plots.  When he was writing the first draft of The Lord of the Rings, he had no idea who Strider really was when he showed up in a dark corner of the Prancing Pony.  I find that funny, relatable, and awesome.

5. Lothlorien: Would you like to sleep in a tree? 

Yes, if the elves were there to ensure I wouldn't roll over and fall out while asleep.  I do enjoy climbing trees.

6. Edoras: Do you like horses? 

I love them :-)

7. Minas Tirith: Have you ever dressed as a Tolkien character, whether for a convention or Halloween or anything else? (Bonus fake internet points if you share a photo!) 

I dressed as Goldberry for Halloween last year, and my husband dressed as Tom Bombadil!

8. Erebor: Do you have any Middle-earth merchandise you particularly treasure? 

I have a copy of The Lord of the Rings all in one volume that I bought in a bookstore a week or so after the first movie came out in 2021.  I'm reading that copy for the tenth time right now, and my husband has also read it multiple times, as well as one of my kids.  It has a host of memories for me, and I have used a different color of pen to make notes in it each time I read it, so it's really fun to see what I was particularly noticing during different reads!

(Also mine from my Instagram)

I also love my Boromir mug that Carrie at A Fine Quotation designed especially with me in mind a few years ago.

(Also mine from my Instagram)

9. Mordor: Have you ever read anything by Tolkien that wasn't about Middle-earth? 

Yes!  I've read Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, and Letters from Father Christmas.  All are charming, but that last one is my favorite.

10. The Grey Havens: How long has it been since you last ventured into Middle-earth via book or film?

About seven hours?  I'm reading The Return of the King right now, and was deeply involved in it while my daughter was at her physical therapy session this morning.  In fact, I was crying because Sam woke up and saw Gandalf was alive, and I was wishing I had brought in some tissues, and also hoping everyone there assumed it was just the day's high pollen count making me sniffle...

The Slumming Angel: Raymond Chandler

In his essay “The Simple Art of Murder,” Raymond Chandler explores detective fiction in general, but especially the hard-boiled kind he perfected. It includes my favorite bit of writing advice: “When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” By which he meant, if you’re not sure what should happen next, make things worse in the most exciting way you can. Which is exactly how his books and stories work—everything goes from bad to worse to the worst imaginable… and then somehow turns out all right in the end. 

Novelist Ross MacDonald said Raymond Chandler “wrote like a slumming angel.” He set his books in the seedy underbelly of 1930s, ’40s, and '50s Los Angeles and its surrounding cities, showing the grime and moral decay that Hollywood glossed over with its movies. The California sun beat down on ugliness and beauty alike, and Chandler strove to capture that combination in his writing. 

I was probably sixteen when I read my first Raymond Chandler mystery, The Big Sleep. It entranced me, and the power of his writing impressed me so much, I fell in love with hard-boiled detective stories and their cousin, film noir, all on the strength of that one novel. 

I love Raymond Chandler’s books more for how he writes them than what he writes about. Yes, I love mysteries, but find his plots often convoluted. They don’t always resolve the way I’d like them to. He himself admitted that he didn’t know who killed one particular character in The Big Sleep. But the way he writes? I am continually in awe. Here are a few quotations from his books to show you what I mean:

Montmar Vista was a few dozen houses of various sizes and shapes hanging by their teeth and eyebrows to a spur of mountain and looking as if a good sneeze would drop them down among the box lunches on the beach. —Farewell, My Lovely 

There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream. —The Long Goodbye 

The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips. — The Lady in the Lake 

It was a nice face, a face you get to like. Pretty, but not so pretty that you would have to wear brass knuckles every time you took it out. — Farewell, My Lovely 

I was as empty of life as a scarecrow’s pockets. — The Big Sleep 

 I went out to the kitchen to make coffee—yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. The life-blood of tired men. — The Long Goodbye 

As you’ve probably gathered, Chandler’s books don’t shy away from subjects that might be shocking, or even taboo. Murder, greed, lust, drug use, blackmail, alcoholism, deviant behavior, and theft all make appearances, some regularly. What’s remarkable about his writing is that he can include subjects like these without making his books dirty. 

My sixteen-year-old self didn’t really get some of the things alluded to in The Big Sleep. I figured out that someone was being blackmailed with a photo of them naked, but I missed the other hints about even seedier subjects. This is because Chandler writes about these things obliquely, not glorifying them by dwelling on them. Instead, he glosses over them so they don’t gain importance from his attention. They exist, but he will not dwell on them. 

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he strikes that balance. And I think something else he wrote in “The Simple Art of Murder” goes a long way to explain it. When discussing the sort of detectives he wrote, Chandler said, “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” His fictional hero, Philip Marlowe, is such a man. He’s innately honorable, moral, unflinching, and even kind. Though he touches dirt in his cases, he doesn’t become dirty himself. Therefore, neither do his readers. 

I know I’m practically turning this whole article into one long string of quotations, but I want to include one more. Why? Because it so perfectly encapsulates why I love to read detective fiction. When he addressed that question in “The Simple Art of Murder,” he said that it all boils down to the fact that everyone “must escape at times from the deadly rhythm of their private thoughts.” Reading fiction, especially mysteries, is my favorite way to do that. And Raymond Chandler’s books delight me most of all.

(This post originally appeared in Femnista magazine on October 20, 2018.)

"Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" (2023)

This movie surprised me over and over and over.

I first watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) about a year ago on an airplane.  My kids all play D&D, and my son is even in a teen D&D group at our local library.  Most of the other teens in that group saw this movie and praised it, so he really wanted to see it too.  But I'm pretty cautious about letting my kids, even my teens, watch movies I haven't seen before, so I told him I'd need to see it first.  I meant to get it out of the library sometime, but then we flew out to visit my parents last fall, and this was one of the in-flight movie options, so I figured, why not?

This movie made me laugh out loud.  Repeatedly.  On an airplane.  It was so smart, so funny, so delightful, that I just couldn't help laughing with glee over it!  I tried to be quiet, but I'm pretty sure I startled my seatmates more than once.  (My kids were all in a row ahead of me, where I could keep an eye on them, but I was sitting by strangers).

D&D: HAT centers on Edgin (Chris Pine), a wryly charming thief who escapes from prison with his best friend, the potato-obsessed warrior, Holga (Michelle Rodriguez).  They set off to rescue Edgin's daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman), who was left alone when Edgin and Holga were imprisoned after a heist gone wrong.  They discover that Kira is being raised by their erstwhile pal Forge (Hugh Grant), who has somehow managed to become lord of the land.  Forge has been lying to Kira, saying that Edgin doesn't love her, abandoned her on purpose, and so on, because he wants to raise her as his own daughter.  He tries to have Edgin and Holga killed, but Holga is not the sort of person who is killed easily.

Edgin and Holga escape and put together a small group of people willing to help them rescue Kira, including a magician with confidence issues named Simon (Justice Smith) and a shapeshifting rebel named Doric (Sophia Lillis).  They try to figure out how to steal Kira away from Forge, but end up uncovering Forge's sinister plot to destroy the whole kingdom.  In order to save Kira, they have to save the kingdom too.

And, lest my kids yell at me, I need to also mention Xenk (Regé-Jean Page), a mystical former warrior who dispenses gifts and advice in the most literal and hilariously dead-pan way possible.  I probably laugh more over Xenk's scenes than all the rest.

I have seen this movie at least five times now, and it delights me every time.  The storytelling is incredibly smart, one of those stories where every piece slots right in where it needs to.  Things that seem random at the beginning are shown to be important later.  It's like one of those pretty 3-D crystal puzzles where you slowly see the whole story take shape and appreciate it more and more as you get to see how things fit together.  

And yet!  The movie also feels like this could be a D&D campaign with a bunch of people making the story up as it goes along.  The dialog is simultaneously witty and sharp and funny, yet also feels like things people would say because they think their character will sound cool saying them.  That is an incredibly tricky balance, but they pull it off.  

Also, although I laugh a lot over this movie, there is a part at the end that always makes me cry, too.  It's not just all funny hijinks.  This movie centers around relatable, individual relationships.  Parents and children.  Friends.  Husbands and wives.  That's what forms the core for the film, which is really what elevates it above the usual slash-and-bash sort of fantasy films, for me.

The whole film totally works for someone like me, who hasn't played D&D (though I do have a general sense of how it works).  But my kids, who do play D&D, love it on a whole different level.  They're always explaining to me how most of what's in the movie comes straight from the game, like owlbears, gelatinous cubes that dissolve people, a coin that lets you talk to dead people, and so many other things.  I love that this movie is able to stand on its own, work for dedicated fans of the game, and ALSO gently spoof fantasy movies, all at once!  Wow.

Oh, and one other thing I love?  The unabashedly platonic friendship between Edgin and Holga.  They are a wonderful team, but they've never been in love, nor do they fall in love during this adventure, nor are they likely to ever fall in love in the future, and they are both totally happy with that.

Is this movie family friendly?  Well, it has quite a bit of bad language.  There's a bit of rude humor (mostly from the reanimated corpses in one very funny section, which are a bit gross) and some very, very subtle innuendo here and there.  But there's no smut, there's only a hint of possible romance between two side characters, and the violence is all quite stylized and fantastical and unrealistic.  All three of my kids have seen this repeatedly, and they are ages 12+.  It's a great movie for teens and more mature tweens.

This has been my contribution to this weekend's Barbarians at the Gates blogathon co-hosted by myself here at Hamlette's Soliloquy and by Quiggy over at The Midnite Drive-In.  

The Barbarians at the Gates Blogathon is Here!

Welcome to the Barbarians at the Gates blogathon, hosted by myself and Quiggy over at The Midnite Drive-In!  We're here to celebrate "sword-and-sorcery" stories in all their unique glory.  

Once again, the blogathon rules:

1. Anything that fits the idea of "sword-and-sorcery" will be allowed. 

2. Only one person/post per film or idea (but you can get around that a little bit).  

3. We would like to limit the entries per person to 3 (if you are that ambitious). 

When your blogathon post is live, simply leave a link to it in the comments on either this post or the similar one over at The Midnite Drive-In, and we'll add you to the official roster.  And then take a few minutes to enjoy each others' posts!

The Roster

Review of The Beastmaster (1982)

at Realweegiemidget Reviews

Review of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

at Hamlette's Soliloquy

Review of Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

at Speakeasy

A Conan double feature 

at The Midnite Drive-In

Review of Willow (1988)

at 18 Cinema Lane

Review of The Scorpion King (2002)

at Taking Up Room

Review of Sleeping Beauty (1959)

at Whimsically Classic