I have engaged Justin Allen to chat with us next Wednesday for the Return of Writer Wednesday! I’m kind of nervous about this. The web traffic is bouncing back up nicely, but it’s hard to tell if it’s fully back to its former levels because I did not have hard numbers at Fantasy Debut like I have here. However, the traffic I have here confirms some guesses I made at Fantasy Debut. I indeed get over 10,000 visits a month – including feed views and site visits — which is a number that simply thrills me.
Anyway, I hope a few of you come and help me make Justin welcome. We have not figured out what the subject will be yet, but I hope to make it fun. The Year of the Horse is a historical fantasy – got any good subject ideas?
Also – and I mentioned this in the comments thread of my review of Slaves of the Shinar – but you can now get both hardcover versions of Justin’s novels – Slaves and Year of the Horse – for just pennies over 15 dollars at Amazon. Here’s the link.
(Oh dear. I just realized that I’ve been doing my Amazon links wrong for about a week now. Note to self: test links. Sorry about the dead links.)
Thanks so much for turning out to read my article at Blogcritics, and for linking, commenting and tweeting. It generated a lot of interest. It didn’t generate a lot of visits here at this site, but that’s ok. The gig at Blogcritics is a way for me to build my bio, which is why the content I’m writing over there is exclusive for Blogcritics.
I’ve been sampling a few books. Among them are Ken Scholes Canticle, Jennifer Estep’s Spider’s Bite (which I’m not in any hurry to finish because the release date is in February, but I’ve been reading a few pages every day), and a mystery by John Maddox Roberts called The King’s Gambit, which is the first book in his SPQR series. Roman history addicts will recognize those initials. I only had to learn that these books exist before I developed a burning desire to own them. Also, Overlook Press is sending me The Year of the Horse.
What are you guys reading? Got any recommendations?
I’m reading The Nibelungenlied, an epic poem written by an unknown author at the turn of the 12th and 13th century. It’s pretty good so far. I’ve always loved epics. I think I was the only person in my high school World Lit class who actually liked The Oddessy.
Ooh, I want to read that. I love epic poems too. Such a different way of telling stories.
I have Robert Fagles’ translation of The Oddessy and The Illiad, and I need to complete the set with The Anaeid.
It just occurred to me . . . this is NaNoWriMo. Might not be a good time of the year to have a writing discussion. Will bring this up with my guest author.
Speaking of epic poems, I’ll never forget reading the Chanson de Roland in a college French class. At one point during the main battle Roland was about to blow his horn for help, but since the structure of the poem called for a lot of repetition, we got three stanzas of Roland proclaiming, “I shall blow the horn!” in various ways. Good thing his enemies didn’t creep up on him while he was making these proclamations. 🙂
{Burst of Laughter} Oh Raven, that’s great! I haven’t read that particular story, but I’ve read others that had the same problem! {BIG GRIN, REALLY BIG GRIN}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
I read the condensed version in Bulfinch’s Mythology. But I did read Beowulf and The Wayfarer in high school. I read The Odyssey on my own. Still need to get through The Iliad.