Pope Joan: the legend, the novel and the mini-series from REELZ channel

I started this post a year ago, and its drafting suffered from a case of analysis paralysis. It was thus confined to the oubliette known as the drafts folder. However, with the recent news that the movie Pope Joan, based on the internationally bestselling novel of the same name by Donna Woolfolk Cross, is going to be televised in the United States by REELZ Channel, I became inspired to finish this post.

The movie will be broadcast as a miniseries on December 18th and 19th starting at 8pm EST.

It will be the director's cut and include 25 more minutes than was included in the theatrical release as well as an interview with author Donna Woolfolk Cross.

Theatrical release is kind of a misnomer for the US market as it was never released here. The movie was released in Europe, but was only shown in a few premieres and film festivals in the United States. Why? I can only speculate. Other movies of merit have also had difficulty in being distributed while numerous clunkers open every week to thousands of screens nationwide.

That's the risk of getting excited when talking about "show business." Many times there isn't any logic applied.

Marquee from the Castro Theatre for the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival. Yes, I am aware of the irony provided by the film title above that of Pope Joan.

I am one of the one of the few privileged people in the U.S who has seen this film because I attended a film festival in San Francisco in October 2010. I wanted to share with the medievalist blogosphere my feedback on this movie as there is now an opportunity for others to see it now that it will be televised.

I loved the movie and am eager to watch the miniseries, burn it onto my private DVR at home so that I can watch it again whenever I like, since it is still not available yet on DVD in the U.S.

The Legend

Before I discuss the merits of the movie, I would like to first address the legend.

Pope Joan is a legendary figure whose very existence is debated by historians and theologians.

According to legend, a woman disguised herself as a man using the name John Anglicus and rose in the ranks of the Catholic Church to become Pope John VIII during the ninth century.

The official position of the Catholic Church is that this is a falsehood and that there has never been a female pope.

I feel that just because the Catholic Church denies her existence and there is no consensus by historians, this should not dissuade people from enjoying the novel or the movie.

Historians argue over whether or not there was an historical figure that the legendary King Arthur was based upon, and - if he existed - the time period of his reign and where Camelot was sited.

I believe that Medievalists who enjoy Arthurian legend, should also enjoy the legend of Pope Joan.

There is circumstantial evidence to support the conclusion that such a woman existed, but rather than attempt to persuade anyone by listing it here I will use a different appeal. I want my fellow medievalists and lovers of mythic fiction to forget about evaluating the historical evidence on this particular legendary figure, and allow yourself to explore the what ifs provided by such a legend.

Imagine what it would have been like to be a woman of the Middle Ages who yearns for a life beyond her station, but have such avenues as entering a monastery denied to you because of the accident of being born a woman. The only way to subvert that blockade would be to use subterfuge. Then imagine how difficult it would be knowing that every day you had to be on guard lest your true sex become revealed, and with that possible torture and death as punishment.

As a woman, I want to believe Pope Joan existed. Much more than I care whether or not Guinevere existed.

Because I want more positive historical role models of women. Compared to men, there are few women in the historical record and most of them are known because of who their fathers were, who their husbands were, or who they slept with.

Women in the historical record are usually born into a position of power or rose to it due to their beauty and sexuality.

The legend of Pope Joan is of a woman of humble origins who rose to a position of power due to her intellect.

I Love That.

Really. Beauty fades, but knowledge grows over a lifetime. To have a woman become successful due to her reason and wits is inspirational to me.

This is similar to my preference of the archetype of Athena over Aphrodite.

To have a woman hide the most basic aspect of her personhood so that she might aspire to be literate and live a life of scholarly theological pursuit is a testament to her own desire for learning.

Then to have her dedication for knowledge be recognized by her peers and have her advance within the hierarchy is even more impressive.

Knowing the sordid history of discrimination against educating women and the necessity of lawsuits to allow for their entry into schools and universities, it is understandable how it would have been far easier centuries ago for a smart female to avoid denial by passing herself off as a male.

And history is rife with examples of women who cross-dressed to survive and even to thrive in a male dominated world. I came across an example today of a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania whose dissertation is entitled: “Legendary Effects: Women Saints of the Legenda Aurea in England 1260-1563.”

Therefore, please do not let the controversy of a female pope dissuade you from enjoying the novel and the movie. I have my doubts about the historicity of King Arthur, I but still enjoy watching the movie Excalibur regardless of its historical inaccuracies.

The Novel

Donna Woolfolk Cross stumbled upon a mention of Pope Jeanne one day while doing research. She dismissed it at first as being a misspelling of Pope Jean. Later, she pulled down a reference tome and looked up a listing of popes and discovered that there was a mention of Pope Joan who was dismissed as being nothing more than legend.

Intrigued, Donna began to investigate and soon found herself immersed in ninth century European lore and intrigue. She spent seven years researching this novel and traveled to Europe several times.

Donna chose to write the story of Pope Joan as a novel rather than a non-fiction book because there were too many gaps in the storyline. Using her imagination, she filled in those gaps and wanted to tell the story of a brave woman who defied the expectations of females of the middle ages and strove to become educated.

The novel is told through multiple points of view and provides insight into the varying perspectives different people in society would view the subject of educating women and girls.

The Movie

For my friends in the medievalist communities, I want to assure you that this movie shows the medieval period in all of its gritty glory. There is not the high glossed shine of some movies set in medieval times with a romanticized look and women appearing to have mascara, lipstick, and wearing silken finery. Not in this movie. Thankfully the smells of the farm animals and the unwashed masses are not transmitted through the screen to the audiences.

Nor does this movie portray idealized righteous kings. Charlemagne's grandson Lothar is shown feuding with the papacy. I was happy to recognize that the crown worn by Lothar appears to be the one that once belonged to his grandfather.

A replica of Charlemagne's crown from the Rathaus in Aachen, Germany

Similarly, the armor worn by the knights in this movie is scale armor and is not the brightly polished plate armor depicted in medieval fantasies such as Excalibur.

There is also not the problem of modern sensibilities being injected into the past as if the only difference between life then and now was wardrobe and hygiene.

Instead, it is clearly shown as a time when women had little power of their own.

Overview of movie with minimalist spoilers

Here is the theatrical trailer:



Johanna (Joan) is born the same day that Charlemagne dies (January 28, 814), and is the beginning reference point for the story. There are also mentions of the Saxons having been forcibly converted to Christianity by Charlemagne and those who refused having been put to death.

Johanna's father is a village canon and is a cruel man with a violent temper.

Naturally curious, Johanna pays attentions to the lessons her father gives to her two brothers and discovers that she comprehends and remembers more than the younger son. She begs her oldest brother to teach her to read and write. He does so, but only in secret.

Later her father is horrified to learn that his daughter has become literate. An opportunity presents itself for Johanna to leave her abusive father and attend a school. She begins a new life where she is once again ridiculed for being female and seeking to be a part of the male world.

The local bishop allows Johanna to enter the schola in Dorstadt. He is shown as a man who enjoys wine, women and song. He finds the prospect of a girl in the school to be an amusing novelty and calls for her admission over the objections of the schoolmaster.

Violence in the movie is unflinching, but is merciful in its brevity. A finger is chopped off to remove a ring with ease, a head lopped off with a single stroke of a sword, as well as the aftermath of a Viking raid where dozens of corpses are lined up to help with identification of the dead.

Johanna reaches a crossroads in her life and finds that her best chance of survival is to assume her brother's identity and enter a monastery. There, for the first time in her life, she is given the recognition she deserves for her piety and her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, but only because she is believed to be a man. She is called Johannes Anglicus (or John Anglicus). Anglicus in reference to her father being English.

During her time in the monastery she works as a healer and translates books by Hippocrates from Greek to Latin. Her knowledge of medicine is what brings her acclaim, but also possibly her downfall. At one point after working with the sick, she develops a fever and is almost forced by her fellow monks to disrobe for treatment. It is the fear of being discovered as a woman that forces her to flee the monastery.

After her recovery from illness, she decides on a pilgrimage to Rome. It is there that she achieves her life's destiny.

Pope Sergius is near death. The physicians have bled him repeatedly and he looks doomed.
John Goodman plays the part of gluttonous Pope Sergius. Goodman was made for the role. Not only the body type, but he shows the range of behavior similar to a pendulum swing from violent excess when drunk to having a keen intellect when sober.

Anatole Taubman is the conniving Anastasius who plots his own ascension for the papal throne. He is afraid that if Sergius dies too soon that he will passed over in consideration. He needs time to consolidate his power and in desperation, he seeks an outside healer, John Anglicus, whose good works have come to be renowned since his arrival in Rome.

Taubman played the part of Remigius in the mini series Pillars of the Earth (being rebroadcast starting December 3rd also on REELZ channel). After Pope Joan and Pillars, he may get typecast as wily, untrustworthy, utterly ambitious villains. The good news for him is that there are many of those roles in movies so he could have a long film career.

Other familiar faces on the screen include David Wenham, Faramir of Lord of the Rings fame. He plays Count Gerold, a kind man who took pity on Johanna when she first came to the schola in Dorstadt and offered lodging in his family's home for her. They develop a strong bond as Johanna grows from a child to a young woman.

Johanna Wokalek plays the title role from late teens to Johanna's death in her forties. She does a marvelous job of playing a character who has mastered patience in the face of adversity. Many actors are called to gain or lose weight for parts, but not many actresses are asked to be tonsured. Part of my brain while watching the movie was paying attention to the length of hair stubble appearing on the crown of her head.

I fully recognize that stories told in movies are different than they are books. They are two different mediums and you must recognize that what works in one format must change in order to work in another. Several plot points of historical relevance were omitted from the movie for time considerations. This includes leaving out the sacking of St. Peter's, a fire in the Borgo that destroyed much of the Vatican, the reign of Pope Leo IV, and flooding of the Tiber River.

Those are all in the novel, but not in the movie. At least those were not included in the theatrical release of the movie. Perhaps some of those exciting historical events will be a part of the restored 25 minutes of the director's cut.

The version I saw worked as a dramatic vehicle even if it was streamlined from the events of the novel. It has all the foreshadowing and plot points necessary to tell a story that holds together. The acting is wonderful.

There are some historical inaccuracies, but those are explained by Donna Woolfolk Cross in her detailed author's notes at the end of her novel. She admits that she made some adjustments "in the interest of telling a good story." This includes changing the timing of a Viking raid in Dorstadt to coincide with a major plot point.

All in all, the novel and the movie represent good historical fiction of a legendary character.


I urge my medievalist friends to watch the miniseries and discuss it amongst your friends, classrooms and colleagues. If nothing else, as an example of a what a good medievalist movie looks like.

Full disclosure:

I first met Donna Woolfolk Cross in 1997 when she came to Sonoma County and did a benefit book signing for an organization I was president of at the time. My husband and I spent an enjoyable day with Donna and her husband Richard prior to the evening's event.

We have corresponded periodically ever since.

At the time when we met, the trade paperback version was a new release and she was just beginning her major method of promoting her novel by doing author chats via speaker phone to book groups. She has done that several times each week since then. There is a set of questions at the back of her book to stimulate discussion in book clubs and then she calls and joins the conversation in progress.

The clubs arrange a time for Donna to call by sending a message to her website www.popejoan.com . She has talked to thousands and thousands of book clubs this way over the last thirteen years and speaks with classrooms as well.

Her persistence in championing her novel served as an inspiration of my first ever blog post where I highlighted those efforts as well as those of Richard Zimler's in getting his first novel published. That post is titled Never Give Up.

Each time Donna speaks with a book group, she has the hope that the participants will tell others about their positive experience of speaking with an author and having the ability to ask questions about their novel. This positive word of mouth (WOM) campaign has led to her trade paperback being in its eighteenth printing in the U.S. alone.

Pope Joan has been translated into thirty-one languages, was ranked #1 for three years on Germany's bestseller list and is number one on the list of longtime bestselling novels in Germany.

This is borne out by my finding a copy of her novel in the train station in Aachen, Germany this summer.

Here is the wall of historical fiction:

And if you look closely you can see the word "Papstin" on a red paperback cover. That is Donna's novel.

After the movie, I was able to grab Donna for a quick photo. It was nice to see her again, and I wish her continued success with her novel of a legendary woman.

To further help out a friend, I am going to list her new social media sites to help promote the miniseries and the novel.

Pope Joan the blog
Pope Joan the Book Facebook page
Donna Woolfolk Cross on Twitter


Please spread the word about the upcoming miniseries. I also want to read reviews about it across the medievalist blogosphere after it airs.



http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2011/12/pope-joan-legend-novel-and-mini-series.html

Contest to help launch new edition of Pope Joan

Today June 9th is the launch date of a new revised version of Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel Pope Joan. I met Donna ten years ago when she visited Sonoma County and was kind enough to offer to do a benefit signing for an organization I headed at the time.

I am happy that she has had such wonderful success with her novel and wish her well on the launch of the new edition and with the forthcoming movie adapted from her novel.


From her email updates comes this information:

Pope Joan Updates
from Donna Woolfolk Cross

Hello Pope Joan Readers!

Ready to walk the red carpet with me? See below!

Has any author has ever owed so much to her readers as I do? I doubt it. Abandoned by its previous publisher, Pope Joan, labor of my heart, the product of seven years of research and writing, should by all rights have had a shelf life somewhere between lettuce and yogurt!

The fact that it's still in print is testimony to the power of grass-roots promotion--to the kindness of readers who passed the word (not the book! never the book!) along. Heartfelt thanks to all who have supported my poor orphaned novel over the years.

At long last, Pope Joan may have her day. As I mentioned in the
March Update, I now have a wonderful new publisher, Three Rivers
Press. Together, we have created a whole new edition of Pope Joan.

The new version has:

• larger print (no need to squint to read it anymore!)

• corrections and additions to the text

• revised and updated Author's Note which includes new information in support of Joan's historical existence

• a new list of "Best of the Best" reading group questions, gleaned from my many years of chatting by speakerphone with reading and school groups all over the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The new edition will arrive in bookstores tomorrow, June 9th. And it's important that it "hit the ground running." The more briskly books sell right on/after June 9th, the more likely Pope Joan will finally "make her mark" on a U.S. bestseller list.

To help encourage summer sales, I've come up with a fun and unusual idea, which should appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of walking a red carpet.

Join me and my family as we walk the red carpet on the night of the Pope Joan movie premiere!

... Includes two tickets to the movie premiere,
plus round trip airfare for two from any location in the continental United States or Canada, and one night hotel accommodation for you and your guest to share.

Want to participate? Simply buy the new Three Rivers Press edition of Pope Joan during the months of June or July 2009 and send me the original receipt. In August, I'll pick randomly from the pile of receipts to select someone and their guest to join me at the U.S. movie premiere in the fall (exact date still to be determined).

And... a special bonus for anyone who purchases the new edition of Pope Joan on its release date, Tuesday, June 9th.
Learn more at the link below.

*****************************

Link to the official Pope Joan Red Carpet entry information here.

*****************************

It's an innovative--even somewhat quirky-- idea, which is why I believe Joan herself would have liked it. It's also a very small gesture of appreciation to my wonderful readers who have done so much for Pope Joan. With your continued support, perhaps this inspirational woman, long forgotten to history, can finally get the recognition she deserves!

Donna Woolfolk Cross

June 2009

Orlando Furioso, the Louvre, Pope Joan, memoirs, literacy and

I discovered through the virtues of Google alerts that the Louvre has a special exhibit running now through May 19th called The Imaginative World of Ariosto.

There are lectures, showing of operas based on the epic poem Orlando Furioso, woodcuts from Gustave Doré, sculptures and paintings.


One of the most famous paintings inspired by Ariosto's masterpiece is Roger délivrant Angélique, 1819 by Montauban's native son Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres housed in the Louvre.




A copy is in the Ingres Museum in Montauban.


It is a beautiful painting reflecting a famous scene from the epic poem, but the Ruggiero/Angelica pairing however brief does not capture my imagination like it has artists over the years.


I much prefer Ruggiero/Bradamante.

Here is a link to a PDF file from the Louvre explaining the exhibition in detail. It would be nice to travel to Paris and see the exhibition before it closes, but alas I do not see that in the cards or in my budget. Not between now and May 18th.

I am pleased to know that there is a resurgence in interest in the Matters of France. Hopefully that will be beneficial to me in the future.

Onto some of the other topics in my title. I received an update on Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel Pope Joan. I knew that the movie based on her novel was due out this fall, but I did not know that a different version of her book was also coming out. From her update:

Hurray! A brand-new edition of the Pope Joan book by Three Rivers Press will be released in June. This is not just a re-print; I've made corrections and additions to the text and also written a new "Author's Note" to explain/expand upon these changes. I've also included a list of "Best-Ever Reading Group Questions", gleaned from my many years of chatting by speakerphone with reading and school groups all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Speaking of which, I'd like to ask book group members a big favor: could you fill out this survey? (If this link doesn't work for you, then go to readinggroupchoices.com and click on "survey".) It will take only a couple of minutes. Surveys must be completed by March 27th.

Of course I'm hoping that you'll vote for Pope Joan as one of your favorite book group reads! (doesn't strictly have to be a book you discussed in 2008; what the survey is mostly looking for are good recommendations for other reading groups). If Pope Joan makes the list of top ten book group favorites of 2008, , it would be wonderful and much-needed publicity for the new edition by Three Rivers Press.

The advantage to book group members: the survey enters you in a lottery to win $75 toward your next book group meeting. Also, you get access to the list of Reading Group Choices (RGC) authors who, like me, are willing to chat by speakerphone with book groups.

I was also alerted by my friend Matilda Butler that she and Kendra Bonnett will be holding an online memoir writing class entitled "The Craft of Memoir Writing: Using the Five Senses to Bring Your Story to Life." It runs from April 13th to June 8th and is at a reasonable cost.

Onto the topic of literacy which is my father's raison d’être. He founded the non-profit AVKO Educational Research Foundation which has an updated website, a new blog, a Facebook Page and even a Twitter account.

If you are interested in homeschooling, dyslexia or just plain old literacy, please check it out.

You can even see in online videos how in using "word families" my dad is able to get a young man, who thought he could never learn to read or spell, to correctly read the word malicious.


I am woefully behind in finishing up my travelogue of France, but know that I have not given up on doing it. My next post in that series will be about the city of Montauban, home of Ingres and my heroine Bradamante.

Demon Sex, Mummies, Literary Alchemy and more...

Yes, I am experimenting with catchy titles, but I will cover all those topics in the headline I promise.

First off: Demon Sex.

Erika Mailman updated her blog with a post discussing the sexual demons known as Incubi and Succubi and includes passages from the Malleus Maleficarum.

Her book The Witch's Trinity will be out in paperback in October, so if you have not read it yet - be sure to pre-order a copy today while you are thinking about it. Her novel was a Bram Stoker Award finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Book of Note of 2007.



Tess Gerritsen has a forthcoming novel The Keepsake that deals with murder and mummies. I had the pleasure of talking with Tess at the San Francisco Writers Conference this past February along with my friend Cindy Pavlinac. We chatted about her fascination with Egypt and archaeology as well as the process of mummification.

Tess decided to commission a book trailer to be made for The Keepsake and it is fabulous. Check it out:



She discusses some hidden benefits of book trailers on a guest post at the blog Murderati as well as how she went about commissioning the trailer to be made. Tess mentions that as a consequence of this filming she now has shrunken heads and rubber corpses occupying space in her garage. Hey, she will be all set for Halloween this year.

Onto a forthcoming book from another big time author is Katherine Neville's long awaited sequel to her classic novel The Eight. If you have never read that book first published in 1988, then you are in for a treat.

As described on her website:

Katherine Neville’s groundbreaking novel, The Eight, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville’s long anticipated sequel: The Fire.

It is more than that, The Eight is a novel about the complex game of chess and she weaves in the historical figures of Charlemagne, Talleyrand, Robespierre, David, Sarat, Napoleon, and Moammar Qaddafi. There are two parallel stories being told. One takes place in the 1970s in New York City and later in Algeria, the other timeline is during the French Revolution. In both time periods, there is a deadly game being played in order to secure the pieces of a chess set that once belonged to Charlemagne. The novel combines murder, chess, Charlemagne, the French Revolution, literary alchemy, and Fibonacci Numbers. I mean, what's not to like?

Katherine has updated her website and it looks all bright and shiny. I am excited to see the list of signings to promote her forthcoming novel The Fire due out in October because she will be coming to my area. I look forward to meeting her and getting a signed copy.

Now to go from the sublime to the absurd.

John Goodman has returned to filming the adaptation of the novel Pope Joan. It took a lawsuit to accomplish this feat. You see, he decided that a supporting role in the movie Speed Racer might be better for his career than playing Pope Sergius in an epic historical move.

Speed Racer.

He chose to be in Speed Racer. Over Pope Joan.

Wow.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 and Speed Racer was a clunker, so I cannot help but think he made a boneheaded choice to back out of a signed contractual agreement to be involved in what turned out to be a lousy movie.

(I am grateful that my father-in-law sacrificed a few hours time to take my son to see Speed Racer because I did not want to suffer in the movie theater like I did a few years ago when I endured having to watch Home on the Range. Things you do for a child or a grandchild.)

Back to discussing Pope Joan the movie. I met Donna Woolfolk Cross, the author of Pope Joan, ten years ago when she was gracious enough to do a benefit book signing for an organization I headed at the time. She told me then that there were plans of a movie being made and she was given the opportunity to adapt her novel into a screenplay and she had just started working on the script. I gave a few suggestions of condensing early events into montages to get to the heart of the story, then I told her to be prepared that it might take longer than she expected. I had previously been interested in writing screenplays and so I had learned a lot about the movie industry and knew that it was a fickle business. I warned her that it could be a long drawn out process, and unfortunately for her, I was right.

I hope that the project is completed before long and that the film lives up to all her expectations.

Speaking of film delays...I am wondering about the status of the movie Love and Virtue. The production company's website has not been updated in a long time, and my Google Alert on the subject does not turn up much new information. I have seen some mention in regard to articles written about various actors associated with the production and it seems as if they had filmed the movie, however, I do not see any specific date as to when it will be released.

I did find an ominous posting on a message board for IMDb which does not seem all that hopeful to see the release of this movie anytime soon. That's a shame, because there are not many movies based on the legends of Charlemagne and even though in my humble opinion I think some of the actors are too old to play the part of specific characters...I still would like the movie be a success if only to spur interest in the epic poems of Orlando Furioso and Orlando Innamorato which inspired the storyline.

There are a few operas based on this luxurious source material and at least one play, but the legends of Charlemagne are woefully underserved in comparison to the legends of King Arthur.

For the record those operas are:

Alcina by Handel
Ariodante by Handel
Orlando Furioso by Vivaldi

and the play is Bradamante by Robert Garnier.

In other news, several of my friends have done interviews recently. Here are some links to those:

Agent Nathan Bransford was interviewed for a podcast by Bleak House as was as retired homicide detective Lee Lofland. Here is a link to Lee's interview.

Jeff Sypeck was interviewed by Julie K. Rose about songs he listened to which inspired his writing the book Becoming Charlemagne. The transcript of the interview is here and a podcast of Julie discussing the interview is here.

Then in somewhat old news, there is the controversy about Random House canceling the publication of the novel The Jewel of Medina. For those interested in reading a sample of the book for yourself, the blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books contacted the author Sherry Jones and has posted the Prologue online.

For those interested in reading a Muslim's perspective on the controversy, here is a post by blogger Mike Ghouse entitled Self-Censoring Muslims in which he responds to an editorial published in the Washington Post on the subject.

And lastly for now...the blog War and Game posted a review of the book The Moral Treatment of Returning Warriors in Early Medieval and Modern Times. I had never heard of this book before, has anyone else read this book?

Go ahead and leave your thoughts about any of these disparate subjects. Hopefully you found something intriguing.

Linda

Good news from some of my writing friends

I've mentioned before that I love being in a community of writers, because it helps to inspire my own writing. So much has happened recently (or will be happening) for friends of mine that I thought I should take the time to recognize them in one post.

Starting with...Ms. Joan Price who spoke in January at a meeting of my writer's club. She was named "Best and Mightiest Aphrodite" AKA "mature and wrinkly sex kitten" by the Bohemian newspaper. Hopefully it'll help bring more people to read her blog and buy her lively and engaging book, Better than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty.

Ari Siletz, another guest who spoke at a meeting of our club, will be back in print soon. His wonderful book The Mullah with No Legs and Other Stories is being reprinted and should be available for purchase again soon. You should also check out his blog, he recently wrote a thoughtful review of the movie "300" and showed just how inaccurate it was from an historical perspective. I'll post again on this subject once the book is available.

My friend John Granger will be a featured presenter at a conference in June in Lancaster, California. I am hopeful that I will be able to attend, and be able to finally meet someone that I've corresponded with by email for the last four years. I recently received an autographed copy of his latest book which is Unlocking Harry Potter: Keys for the Serious Reader. I haven't had the chance to read it from cover to cover yet, but as always it is thought provoking because John provides insights regarding literary alchemy of which I am unfamiliar. Please check it out along with his other recent book, Who Killed Albus Dumbledore which is a collection of essays analyzing clues from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If nothing else, please stop by his blog, Hogwarts Professor and check out some of his entries which allow for reader interaction with your thoughts and theories about the series.

Erika Mailman has a novel that has launched named A Woman of Ill Fame. It is through the eyes of a prostitute in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. She talks about the difficulties of researching and writing historical fiction in this posting on her blog. She has one more reading scheduled for her book which is next Wednesday, April 4th at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. After that, I think she'll be just waiting for her latest addition: a baby!

Then next September Erika has another book coming out in September titled The Witch's Trinity by Crown/Random House. It is about a medieval German woman accused of witchcraft. Another historical novel about a strong woman. Huzzah!

Now I'd like to share a funny story about both my friend Erika and another friend Lee Lofland. Erika and I first met at a writers conference in 2000 when we shared a room, and had asked the conference organizers to find us a roommate. We got along wonderfully. So much so that in 2004 we decided to room again together at the East of Eden Writers Conference. We hadn't seen each other in a long time, and were enjoying our chat trying to catch up with each other. I had wanted to go to a "night owls" session on Friday night because one sounded interesting. It was a police procedural question and answers session given by a retired homicide detective. Neither Erika nor I wrote mysteries, but you never know when a piece of information gleaned might come in handy.

Erika and I arrived late to the session because of our gabfest. I thought we could just sneak into the back of the room and not disturb anyone. WRONG. The room was set up so that the door was at the front. We walked in and saw a crowded room with no chairs and everyone facing us.

We slunk onto the floor at the front and tried not to be too embarrassed for arriving late and disrupting the proceedings. There were many questions Lee fielded with aplomb and then he was asked what he thought of "reality shows" such as "Cops." Lee grew disgusted and said that it was all fake, a pack of lies, etc. I was feeling a bit facetious, raised my hand and tried to sound as innocent as possible and asked:

"What about Reno 911?" (For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a comedy that spoofs shows like "Cops.")

Lee looked me directly in the eye and said, "That one's true. It's just like my old squad back in Virginia."

Then he laughed and began regaling tales about some of their personalities.

The next night I ran into Lee again, we chatted and laughed, exchanged cards and have corresponded ever since.

Lee's first book Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers is due out in July from Writers Digest Books.

Another writer friend, and former guest speaker to my club is Jordan Rosenfeld also has a forthcoming book from Writers Digest. It is Make a Scene: Creating a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, due out in November.

Jordan had created a radio show on KRCB our local public radio station entitled "Word by Word"where she interviewed authors. She moved away and there has not been a new show in quite a while. However, there will be a new host starting in April, and he is a member of my writers club the Redwood Writers Branch. As soon as more details are available to the general public, I will share them.

Shelley Singer, who will be our guest speaker in April, has a new novel Black Jack due out in June under the pseudonym of Lee Singer.

And last, but certainly not least, I stumbled across this the other day as I was surfing the internet. Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel Pope Joan had been selected as the Book of the Month for discussion by the Historical Fiction forums. I'll have to join that website, if for no other reason than to post my thoughts on her engaging and provocative historical novel.

I had the good fortune to meet Donna back in 1998 when she offered to do a reading and book signing. Due to her own tenacity for marketing her novel, her book is now in its seventeenth printing. Utterly amazing. I talked about the method she used in my first ever blog post which can be read here.

Once again, congrats to all my friends!

Linda

Never Give Up

Never give up. That’s a mantra my good friend Rob Loughran uses to remind himself and others that you need tenacity when it comes to your writing. He also has the book Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections edited by Bill Henderson and André Bernard that lists some of the rejection letters and horrible reviews received by authors such as the infamous Jack London. Rob leafs through that book whenever he needs a good literary kick in the pants to stop moping when someone else doesn’t appreciate what he has to offer.

William Goldman in his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade is credited for saying no one knows anything in Hollywood. They certainly don’t know what will be a hit movie or which one will flop. They think they do, but really they don’t. So in other words don’t be discouraged when you get rejected, because your passion might be right but the person saying “no” might be the wrong one to work on your project.

The same thing goes for publishing. A friend of mine recently recommended a novel I had never heard of before: Richard Zimler’s The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon. As I looked at the author’s website I came across an article he had written for Poets and Writers magazine detailing the difficulties he had in getting that novel published. He was a journalist, an established writer of short stories and had a literary agent. He spent about two years writing the novel and then the real fun began. Over the next two years his story was turned down by 24 major American publishers. Some were complimentary about his writing, but said their marketing department was pessimistic about a book set in 16^th century Portugal thinking that it might as well have been set on the planet Mars. One even went so far as to tell him that they had already purchased their “Jewish book” for the year. He became depressed, developed insomnia, and began doubting his own writing ability. It was suggested to him to give up and move on, except he couldn’t. He still believed in the strength of the story. He did decide to give up approaching American publishers and decided to approach Portuguese publishers instead.

Zimler asked several of his friends in the writing community in Portugal for advice and contacted a publisher they recommended. The head of the publishing house read his manuscript and bought it. The story was translated into Portuguese, received wonderful reviews and within a short time of its publication was ranked as number one on Portugal’s best sellers list. He is now the author of six published novels and has a seventh on the way and his work has been published in at least fourteen languages. Moral of the story? Never give up.

Another anecdote about persistence is Donna Woolfolk Cross and her successful marketing of the novel Pope Joan. Originally it was published in hardcover in 1996 by Crown Books, but they did very little to promote it and subsequently it had only a modest print run of 13,000 that quickly went “out of print.”

Cross vowed the paperback by Ballantine would have a different fate. In the back of that version was a set of discussion questions as well as a the address of her website and an invitation to speak with reading groups by telephone. People send requests via the website and arrange to have her call their book clubs and answer questions via speakerphone. She has spoken to over 1500 groups; each one being a potential source of word-of-mouth recommendations and future sales. This has been far more lucrative to the continued success of her novel than traditional signings at bookstores. This successful marketing strategy has caused the paperback version of her book to be in its seventeenth printing. She spent seven long years of writing and researching and did not want her story passing quickly into oblivion by entrusting things to the standard marketing treatment by publishers. This demonstrates that if you must be dedicated and passionate about your work. Moral of the story: never give up.

Never give up when you have difficulty finding an agent or publisher. And never give up when the publisher’s marketing department does not give your work the emphasis and attention that you feel it deserves. If your work is important and you feel passionate enough about it, you can find an audience for it. That is if you never give up.

Linda