Summary Sunday

A good friend once gave me a doll with frazzled hair holding a sign that said: "Some days are better

than others." That was certainly true for my writing this week, especially on Friday. I barely eked out a handful of new sentences in an evening otherwise mostly devoted to editing a pivotal scene from an earlier draft. (The editing session felt more like a wrestling match!) In spite of that, I did manage to write six days this week. Here is a sampling from what I accomplished this week with The Lady and the Minstrel.

Monday: She could barely eat or sleep for wondering where Robert was and what he was thinking and whether this time apart would cool the simmering heat in his eyes and replace it with a cold, sober assessment that the dangers of her inheritance outweighed the desire she knew he felt for her.

Tuesday: Holly, along with mistletoe and ivy, had always been hung in her grandfather’s hall during Advent, but her father held to the belief that it was unlucky to gather holly before Christmas Eve.

Wednesday: Strode even let her win twice at chess. He praised her cleverness, again conspicuously before the servants, when he forced her to take advantage of careless moves she knew a man shrewd enough to rise in power next to the king could only have made deliberately.

Thursday: His voice did not slur, but she recoiled, the aromatic mix of cloves and cinnamon and apples of the wassail soured with the wine on his breath.

Friday: The inexplicable sense of safety she had felt with Robert in the glade had become a promise fulfilled.

Saturday: “That glint in yer eye, that mulish set to yer lips— I’ve known ye too long not to recognize the signs that ye’re about to do somethin’ insanely foolish.”

Hug a Medievalist Day: Giveaway

I  should have posted this sooner, but it's not too late! I'm holding a giveaway to celebrate Hug a Medievalist Day over on my Medieval Research with Joyce blog. If you'd like a chance to win a copy of Medieval Women, by Eileen Power, hop on over (no Easter pun intended) to my research blog and enter by midnight tomorrow night (March 31)!

Click here to go to the giveaway!

Book Review: "The Winter Sea," by Susanna Kearsley

As I've mentioned here before, I don't often do full-fledged book reviews, but I've made an exception The Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley. Actually, it's not a review so much as an analysis of my reaction to the book, and my curiosity about whether my analogy below might apply to other readers as well. So here is a copy of the review I posted on Goodreads. If you've read The Winter Sea or a book like it and would like to chime in with your thoughts in a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Goodreads review:

Okay, so here is my take on "Winter Sea." I loved the two romances in this story. I loved learning about the early Jacobites, since probably like most readers, I was more familiar with the stories of Bonnie Prince Charlie than I was with those of his father, James. I loved the beautiful writing, which I fully confess made me envious and wishing that I could write beautiful scenes like some of these. :::sigh::: On the other hand, just for me personally, I struggled with the structure of the book, the flipping back and forth between the present and the past. Although I understand why the author wrote the book this way and realize the "flipping" was a necessary part of her plot, I still found it jarring. I would become fully immersed in the characters in the present and just as I was thoroughly enjoying their scenes, I would find myself wrenched away to the characters in the past. Then just as I found myself happily immersed in these characters' scenes, I would be wrenched back to the present. I found it somewhat difficult emotionally because I could have loved reading an entire book (or two separate books) about just one set of characters or the other without interruption. It is certainly a credit to the author's writing abilities that she was able to make me care so much about both sets of couples. (Loved, loved, loved the humor in the contemporary scenes. A few times I literally laughed out loud.)

Now, in one of my status updates I promised a food analogy that occurred to me while I was reading this book. My emotional reaction to the structure of this book made me reflect on why I found the switching back and forth so difficult when someone like my sister would have read a book like this through seamlessly without any of the jarring sensations that I felt. And then I remembered how we like to eat our food. Let's take Thanksgiving dinner as an example. Say my sister and I each have a plate containing turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and dressing. My sister will smoosh all of these foods together and eat them all mixed up, while I confess that I prefer to eat all my turkey, then all my green beans, then all my mashed potatoes, etc, one by one. My sister loves to mix all the flavors up together, while I prefer to savor each one individually before moving on to the next. (This works for chocolate, too. Give me 10 Hershey Kisses, 5 caramel and 5 with almonds, and I will eat all the caramel ones first, then all the almonds one. That's just the way my taste buds work.)

This analogy got me to wondering if the reactions of other readers of a book like "Winter Sea" might also reflect their eating habits. I am tempted to do a poll of readers to see if there is, indeed, a correlation between the two, but I confess, I am too lazy to put one together. However, if any of you read this review and would like to share your opinion on my analogy, I'd be fascinated to hear it!

(And if you've actually read this far, then you deserve to buy yourself some Hershey Kisses and eat them in whichever order you prefer!)

Arizona Renaissance Festival 2013

Another wonderful year at the Arizona Renaissance Festival! This was their 25 year anniversary and I'm happy to say, I haven't missed a single year!

(Yes, I snapped this on the way out of the festival because the lighting wasn't good going in)

Here is a picture of the royal family, with the Princess on the left, the Queen in the middle, and the King on the right. Maybe next year I'll get some snapshots of those handsome young princes!

If you go hungry at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, you'll have only yourself to blame. Just look at all your choices!

After all of that, you'll need something to drink, of course. Keep your eye out for this booth whenever you get thirsty!

Sometimes you need a snack.

And don't forget about dessert!

(And I've barely scratched the surface of your options!)

The Arizona Renaissance Festival had a brand new feature this year called Pan's Oasis. In this next sequence of pictures, you'll see the satyr Pan cavorting in a fountain before the fountain comes to life! This is definitely going to become one of my favorite stops at the RenFest every year.

Until next year...huzzah!

Summary Sunday

I only got five days in again this week because last week when I went to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, I forgot to take the discount ticket I had pre-bought, so I had to buy a full price ticket at the gate. Not wanting to let the discount ticket go to waste, I decided to go back to the RenFest today to get my money's worth out of it. (Even at a discount, it wasn't cheap!) So once again, I got home too late and tired to write on Saturday night. But here is a sampling of new sentences from the rest of my week. Huzzah!

Monday: His chin jutted slightly up, as though she had dealt him some blow.

Tuesday: Would he still look at her thus, with that simmering heat behind his steady gaze, when she told him?

Wednesday: She could not even read his eyes, now, he guarded his thoughts so closely.

Thursday: “He will keep you warm and safe from a world more harsh and bitter than you can comprehend.”

Friday: How could any man, even one with a heart of ice, fail to thaw at last before so merry a laugh as hers, such sparkling eyes, such grace and loveliness, her charms all the more powerful because her very essence was so pure.

Lucky Leprechaun Hop: Winner!

Congratulations to Annah S, winner of the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop on JDP NEWS! Annah has won her choice of a $15.22 gift certificate to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the Book Depository. 

Thank you to all of you who entered!

Summary Sunday

I went to the Arizona Renaissance Festival again this week, this time for a "play day", so I only got five writing days in again. Here's a sampling from The Lady and the Minstrel this week. Rob (my hero) is giving Marguerite (my heroine) a flute lesson in the scene from Friday. :-)

Monday: William had never understood him—none of them had—but Robert saw the gulf between them widen further than ever at his answer.

Tuesday: “But ye wanted to,” William repeated roughly, “and once ye take a notion into yer head, it’s hell to pay with ye, Rob.”

Wednesday: But last night . . . last night, after the feast had ended, while she had waited for Maida to come and help her dress for bed, he had all unbeknownst to himself, become her hero.

Thursday: The way Robert spoke in the same refined accents as she, the easy assurance in his stride, the proud way he tilted his chin when he sang before her father’s hall . . . surely these all betrayed his noble blood?

Friday: In spite of her determined attempts to will it otherwise, air had begun to leak out of the corners of her mouth until notes that she had finally learned to produce with aplomb gradually began to wobble.

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop

Happy Almost St. Patrick's Day! What better way to celebrate than with a giveaway hop. Thank you to I Am a Reader, Not a Writer, Books Complete Me, and Author Cindy Thomas, for sponsoring this blog hop.

Here at JDP NEWS I am giving away a gift certificate for $15.22 (USD) for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or for international entries, a book of your choice up to that amount at the Book Depository. All you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter form below. Then hop along the list of links to find more great giveaways!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


The winner will be announced March 23. This giveaway is open to International entries.

OFFICIAL RULES: NO PURCHASE NECESSSARY. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Winners will be selected on March 23 and have 48 hours to respond to an email notifying them of their win. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Questions? Contact me at jdipastena@yahoo.com.

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 read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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 a teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book from me. Here's my third teaser from The Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley. (There may be several more. This book is over 500 pp long. I'm enjoying it, but as I said, I'm slow!)

The horse, still standing warm against her back, became a living wall that blocked her view of everything except John Moray's shoulders, and his face as he looked down at her. 'If ever ye do find my pace too slow,' he told her, quietly, 'ye only have to tell me.'

She knew he was not speaking of their ride.

(From The Winter Sea, 41% Kindle)

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.

Summary Sunday

I had an equal number of great writing days and slow revising days this week, but I still managed to crank out a few new sentences on even the slowest days. Here is a sampling of this week’s work from The Lady and the Minstrel.

Monday: Having naught to offer her, it was not his place to try to ease a heart she had willingly given Strode to break.

Tuesday: Robert did not hear any more, for a drubbing rage pounded between his ears.

Wednesday: The squire would be shamed, and the earl more so, that a man both considered beneath their notice, a mere musician, had defeated a man of warrior blood.

Thursday: “But I’d left the door open a bit for some light, an’ one minute we were talkin’ and holdin’ hands and the next I was on the ground and my head was swimmin’ an’ Maida was screamin’ and that devil was laughin’, an’ if I’d had a knife on me I would have sliced out his guts.”

Friday: “I hate it as much as you, but sometimes no matter how hard we try to stop them, they still win.”

Saturday: ’Twas no trick of the shadows. Will had definitely been brooding.

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 read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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 a teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book from me. Here's my second teaser from The Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley:

'My father always says I like the sea so much because it's in my blood, because our ancestors were shipbuilders from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He doesn't mean it literally, but given what's been happening to me I wondered if you knew if there was such a thing,' I asked him, 'as genetic memory?'

His eyes, behind the spectacles, grew thoughtful. 'Could you have Sophia's memories, do you mean?'

(From The Winter Sea, 28% Kindle - this book has 500+ pages and I missed 2 nights of reading)

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.