The Great Warming (Book #51)

The Medieval Warm Period (~800-1300) isn't quite as well known as the Little Ice Age that immediately followed it (~1300-1850). But those who have heard of it typically view it from the European perspective as a Good Thing--a time of prosperity and population growth fed by bountiful crops. Beautiful cathedrals sprang up across the continent, wine grapes grew in England, and the Vikings settled Iceland and Greenland and explored the edges of North America.

The Great Warming (Brian Fagan, 2008) presents the European idyll (though not without reminding us that peasants still lived on the edge), but then goes on to prove that warmer temperatures were bad for almost everyone else, because for much of the world, more warmth means more drought. The Classical Maya and the Anasazi cultures both collapsed during this period, and many areas of Asia suffered famine, just to name a few examples. It got a little repetitive, but it's a sobering reminder that we have more to fear from global warming than a few feet of rising sea level.

Sovereign Ladies (Book #50)

Over the past five centuries, England has as often as not had a queen rather than a king as head of state, thanks especially to the long reigns of both Elizabeths and Victoria. Sovereign Ladies: Sex, Sacrifice and Power--the Six Reigning Queens of England (Maureen Waller, 2007) traces their lives, along with Mary Tudor and Mary and Anne Stuart. Space doesn't allow Waller to go into great detail about any of her subjects, and she isn't completely linear, but since the only one of the queens I'd studied in any depth was Elizabeth I, I still found it readable and informative. And it certainly illustrates the gradual, inexorable loss of royal power as England transitioned from a near-absolute monarchy to a democracy with a royal figurehead.

Feasting on Asphalt (Book #49)

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown, and I've enjoyed the vicarious travel experience of watching both series of Feasting on Asphalt. He really needs to do both coasts soon, but I digress.

The second series has a companion book, Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run (Alton Brown, 2008). It's a combination travelogue and cookbook, and I want to visit most of the barbecue places and try some of the recipes (though most of them are far too labor-intensive for everyday use).

The Terror Dream (Book #48)

The Terror Dream (Susan Faludi, 2007) takes the sort of disconnect I and many of my friends felt about America's response to 9/11 and weaves a cultural study around it, tying the stories we told ourselves about 9/11 to earlier national myths created for the frontier. I don't completely buy that the frontier/Indian captivity narratives she brings up are so uniquely American. What I've read of 18th and 19th century British tales of cross-cultural interaction and gender relations strikes the exact same tone. But the longer section about life in post-9/11 America--with special focus on the mythic role of firefighters, the athletic men on Flight 93 (funny how we don't remember the names of the flight attendants who boiled water to use as a weapon against the hijackers like we do Beamer, Bingham, Glick, etc.), pregnant 9/11 widows, and Jessica Lynch--struck me as truth-packed. The nation felt powerless and rudderless, so it dug back into old cultural myths and pulled out some of the more sexist and simplistic ones to try to make sense of the world. Really, WHY did Jessica Lynch get portrayed as a cute, vulnerable little girl who somehow accidentally stumbled into the army rather than as a woman, a rational human being, who chose to serve her country? And WHY don't we honor those flight attendants with their boiling water or the female EMT's who died trying to rescue people at the WTC?

300!

Crossposted pretty much everywhere I talk writing because I'm feeling so gloaty...

Guess who just reached 300 pages on her WIP? ME, that's who!

That's 300 pages in Courier New, because I like the old-school typewriter look of the font. Makes me feel part of the great continuum of storytellers extending back in time, somehow. Actually, I'm at 302 pages, 66,875 words by MS Word's counter, to be exact.

I'm shooting for a 500 page draft, give or take, something between 100K and 125K for a word count. (One of the reasons I'm happy to be writing historical fantasy instead of romance is that writing short doesn't come naturally to me, and AFAICT you're actually allowed to go over 100K!) And...you know, the end is in sight. Finally. I've got some thorny plot hurdles to overcome still, but I do know where I'm going. I just have to figure out how to get there. I can do that. The hope is to have the rough draft finished by August 15, which should be doable. Then maybe a week off, and a month or so of hardcore editing to try to whip this thing into marketable shape.

And then, unless my agent asks for major revisions...I may actually have a book on editors' desks seeking its fortune by the end of 2008! Woo! I'm so ready to get my work back in the market!

Private Arrangements (Book #47)

I've tried to read any number of books the past few years that are billed as the hottest, the freshest new voice in historical romance. Unlike many such books, Private Arrangements (Sherry Thomas, 2008) lives up to the hype. It's not a perfect book, but it's well-written, with characters and a setting that feel three-dimensional. (And for those of you who are tired of nothing but Regencies, this one is set in the 1890's.) To my especial delight, the hero and heroine aren't straight from Central Casting. The heroine, in particular, is delightfully ruthless and practical, not your usual romance saint.

American Creation (Book #46)

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (Joseph Ellis, 2007) is a series of snapshots of events from the first quarter century or so of the American experience--from the time the Revolution became irrevocable through the Louisiana Purchase. It's thought-provoking and well-written, and I think I'll seek out Ellis's other work.