Techli and me . . .

Now, not many of you would think of me as a techie, but, believe it or not, I was a guest blogger yesterday on Techli, a wonderful technology blog.  My post?  CEO Sundays: Why Communication Needs to Be a Part of the Science.  So, all of you whiz-brained geniuses out there, give this little missive a gander, and let me know what you think.

To read my Techli guest post, click here:  Science and Communication

 

 

 

 

Grammar Gaffes

Holy Cow!  I got to be a guest blogger on the blog, Writing Forward.  Check out my article, "Don't Let the Decline of Spoken English Ruin Your Writing," running today on their terrific creative writing website.  And while you're at it, be sure to catch up on all of the amazing posts and links Writing Forward offers.  It's truly a one stop shop for writers.  (And, don't let the hyperactive pencil animation drive you nuts.  I think I gave him too much cyber coffee.)

Click here to read the article:  Writing Forward

Unusual Historicals Guest Blog

Today I am honored to be featured as a guest blogger on the very cool blog, "Unusual Historicals." 

Of course I waxed enthusiastically about Fanny Fern and Shame the Devil, but the editors of the blog asked interesting questions about writing and the writing process, too.

Take a peek at my recent interview, if you please.  And while you're at it, check out the extensive listing of great books, interesting authors and terrific takes on history.

Click here for fun and adventure:  Unusual Historicals




Inspiration

Today, I am lucky to be the featured guest blogger on famed Smoky Zeidel's "Inspiration Series."  Click below for my musings about one way I get inspired as a writer . . . by being with and experiencing the wonderful works of other writers.  Then, explore the rest of Smoky's blog!

Click here to read my guest post and to explore Smoky's amazing blog:  Inspiration

Highlighted Author

I'm happy and honored, today, to be the featured author, on esteemed Charlene A. Wilson's "Highlighted Author" blog.  Stop by Wilson's blog to read up on Shame the Devil, sure, but don't stop there.  You can also explore a virtual bookshelf of other literary delights, indulge in loads of book trailers and scan little known facts about countless authors and their missives.  Enjoy finding your next great read!  


Click here to visit the website:  Highlighted Author

Take a gander at my Book Trailer:  Shame the Devil  (It's got a great song!)



The "Outting" of Fanny Fern

William U. Moulton

Today I was honored to write a guest post for Rob Velella's fabulous blog, The American Literary Blog.  Of course, I wanted want to write about Fanny Fern, and Rob asked me to write about a very specific point in Fern's life, the date and circumstances when her nom de plume was no longer cloaked in anonymity and her true identity was revealed.  That date was Dec. 30, 1854.  Her nemesis?  The best guess of many scholars is that it was one of her former Boston editors, William U. Moulton, editor of Boston's True Flag.  His motive?  Check out the blog to see.  And, while you're at it, read Rob Velella's other thoughtful and informative posts about Fanny Fern and a host of other 19th-century American authors.

Click here to read more:  American Literary Blog 

*Special thanks to Rob Velella for finding the picture of Moulton.

"Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells" Blog Hop

Are you ready to hop?  Take this tour of 12 blogs -- some you may already know and some new ones.  It's easy.  It's fun.  It's a good Friday diversion.

*******

‘Tis the season, you know, for giving and receiving – mostly for giving, though, right?  But, what is the nature of true giving?  How does one define generosity?  Philanthropy?

As is often the case, my idol, Fanny Fern, has already written the perfect seasonal column about this very topic.  Who is Fanny Fern?  Fanny Fern (the pen name of Sara Payson Willis), was one of the most successful, influential, and popular writers of the nineteenth century. A novelist, journalist, and feminist, Fern (1811-1872) outsold Harriet Beecher Stowe, won the respect of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and served as literary mentor to Walt Whitman. Scrabbling in the depths of poverty before her meteoric rise to fame and fortune, she was widowed, escaped an abusive second marriage, penned one of the country's first prenuptial agreements, married a man eleven years her junior, and served as a nineteenth-century Oprah to her hundreds of thousands of fans. Her weekly editorials in the pages of the New York Ledger and other periodicals over a period of about twenty years chronicled the myriad controversies of her era and demonstrated her firm belief in the motto, "Speak the truth, and shame the devil."  

As part of the “Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” Blog Hop, my blog will introduce you to the real-life writing of the heroine of my historical novel Shame the Devil.  Her typically-sarcastic June 5, 1852 article, published in Boston’s The Olive Branch, follows:

Mistaken Philanthropy

“Don’t moralize to a man who is on his back;—help him up, set him firmly on his feet, and then give him advice and means.”

There’s an old-fashioned, verdant, piece of wisdom, altogether unsuited for the enlightened age we live in; fished up, probably, from some musty old newspaper, edited by some eccentric man troubled with than inconvenient appendage called a heart!  Don’t pay any attention to it.  If a poor wretch—male or female—comes to you for charity, whether allied to you by your own mother, or mother Eve, put on the most stoical, “get thee behind me,” expression you can muster.  Listen to him with the air of a man who “thanks God he is not as other men are.”  If the story carry conviction with it, and truth and sorrow go hand in hand, button your coat up tighter over your pocket book, and give him a piece of—good advice!  If you know anything about him, try to rake up some imprudence or mistake he may have made in the course of his life, and bring that up as a reason why you can’t give him anything more substantial, and tell him that his present condition is probably a salutary discipline for those same peccadilloes!  Ask him more questions than there are in the Assembly’s Catechism, about his private history, and when you’ve pumped him high and dry, try to teach him—on an empty stomach—the “duty of submission.”  If a tear of the wounded sensibility begins to flood the eye, and a hopeless look of discouragement settles down upon the face, “wish him well,” and turn your back upon him as quick as possible.

Should you at any time be seized with an unexpected spasm of generosity, and make up your mind to bestow some worn-out old garment, that will hardly hold together till the recipient gets it home, you’ve bought him, body and soul; of course, you are entitled to gratitude of a life-time!  If he ever presumes to think differently from you after that, he is an “ungrateful wretch,” and “ought to suffer.”  As to the “golden rule,” that was made in old times; everything is changed now; it is not suited to our meridian.

People shouldn’t get poor; if they do, you don’t want to be bothered with it.  It is disagreeable; it hinders your digestion.  You would rather see Dives than Lazarus; and, it is my opinion, your taste will be gratified in that particular,—in the other world, if not in this!

--Fanny Fern


Ha!  You said it Fanny!  To learn more about Fanny Fern and my historical novel about her, click here: Shame the Devil.

To continue onto the next “Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” blogger, the amazing Malcolm R. Campbell, click here: Malcolm’s Round Table.  From Malcolm’s site, you’ll be directed to hop to the next blog until you finish the whole short, wonderful tour of twelve blogs.  Enjoy! 

“Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” blog hop participants are authors of small press/university press books that are eliciting discussion and notice.  Blog hoppers include:

Smoky Zeidel @ Smoky Talks

Patricia Damery @ Patricia Damery

Debra Brenegan @ Debra Brenegan, author

Malcolm R. Campbell @ Malcolm’s Round Table

T.K. Thorne @ T.K.’s Tales

Anne K. Albert @ Anne K. Albert

Elizabeth Clark-Stern @ Elizabeth Clark-Stern’s Blog

Collin Kelley @ Modern Confessional

Sharon Heath @ Sharon Heath

Melinda Clayton @ Author Melinda Clayton

Ramey Channell @ Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge

Leah Shelleda @ After the Jug was Broken

Coming to you: Friday, Dec. 16th

You're Invited to a

"Blog Hop"

Read about new books

Read about new authors

Get ideas for your holiday gift list

Visit some new, quality blogs

Enjoy!!



Scandalous Women

Wow – Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, self-professed “history geek” and noted blogger of the popular website about scandalous women in history has me as guest blogger!  Click here to read my latest about Fanny Fern and to check out other amazing books recommended by Mahon.  Find out more, too, about Mahon’s well-received book, “Scandalous Women – The Lives and Loves of History’s Most Notorious Women.” 

Click on the link below to go to this site named one of the 100 Most Awesome Blogs for History Junkies by Best Colleges.com: 

Scandalous Women Blog

Interview!

Sketch of Fanny Fern

Today, I am honored to be interviewed on Smoky Talks Authors, a blog dedicated to showcasing emerging and small press authors. Blogger Smoky Zeidel is the author of two novels, On the Choptank Shores (formerly titled Redeeming Grace) and The Cabin, and two nonfiction books on writing. She is also the author of Observations of an Earth Mage, a collection of prose, poetry, and photographs celebrating the natural world. Smoky did an impressive job with my interview, as she does with all of her interviews. Her website provides a lovely space for “chats with small press authors about writing and books.”

To see what Smoky asked me about Fanny Fern and Shame the Devil, click this link: Smoky Talks Authors

I've been tagged!

Global Blog Tag: 10 Random Facts about Debra Brenegan

Have you ever played a GLOBAL game of tag?
Well, I'm It.
I've been tagged by children's author Anne E. Johnson. http://anneejohnson.blogspot.com/2011/09/global-blog-tag-10-random-facts-about.html

Rules (if you're tagged): You must be tagged by someone; list 10 random facts about yourself; tag four more people. 

I have tagged: 

Kelly O'Connor McNees http://kellyoconnormcnees.com/

Rochelle Melander http://www.writenowcoach.com/blog/

Bookish Dame http://abookishlibraria.blogspot.com/

Dorothy Thompson http://www.pumpupyourbook.com

Ready or not, here I go!

1.      I am the only sister of four brothers.

2.      I am pretty good at swing dancing.

3.      My other creative passion is baking.

4.      I worked in business for 5 years as a sales representative.

5.      My calico cat is 20 years old!

6.      I have a terrible sense of direction; do not follow me if we are lost in the woods.

7.      I adore gardenias.

8.      Chocolate cannot be too dark for me.

9.      I know how to write backwards (in cursive!).

10. Given a choice, I almost always pick blue.

Do you have a random fact you want to share about yourself? 

Beyond the Books

Sure, writing historical fiction requires a good deal of research.  But, truthfully, that's a lot of fun.  Sitting in libraries digging through archival boxes – oh, look a glove, a lock of hair, a letter.  Not to mention the vast amount of reading involved – books, articles, chapters.  But, research involves more than just reading (although nobody can underrate the necessity of that).  It involves immersion in the era to understand language, dress, and cultural habits.  Today I got to write a guest blog for writer Anne Johnson.  The topic?  You guessed it - researching historical fiction.  Check it out:

http://www.anneejohnson.blogspot.com/

Words of Wisdom 150 Years Old

I'm so excited that Vision 2020, the tremendous national organization dedicated to working for gender equality by the year 2020, has asked me to be its guest blogger today.  Since my dear Fanny Fern had a mouthful to say about gender inequality, I found it easy to liberally quote her.  Read how things were for women interested in earning their livings 150 years ago, in Fern's time.  Then read how things have (or haven't) changed . . .

http://equalityinsight.wordpress.com/

Practice Makes Perfect . . . Guest Blog with WriteNowCoach

Hey, folks, I got to write a guest blog for WriteNowCoach.  It's like taking a very short creative writing class with me.  I won't even grade you, I promise.  Check out my thoughts about the top requirement for successful writers -- practice!

Click here:
http://www.writenowcoach.com/blog/