LAST POST

I have not posted on the blog in a while, because I have started a new blog: ALotOGaul.wordpress.com.

THAT blog is linked to my book's website, DeathSpeaker.com.  I may recycle and update some of my old posts there, and of course there will be new material on Gaul, the Celts, and Death Speaker.

And what is Death Speaker?

A novel of Ancient Gaul, set at the beginning of Caesar's Conquest.

You can read the first five chapters for free at DeathSpeaker.com.

You can buy the book at Amazon or (print only) CreateSpace.com. It's also available to borrow through Amazon Prime, if you are a member.

About the book:

In ancient Gaul, Emyn, a Celtic peasant, hears the dead and lets them plunge her into visions. Using her voice, ghosts advise druids and kings, warning them of danger from Caesar and his Roman troops. But can the spirits be trusted any more than the living?

Emyn suffers loss, kidnapping and betrayal. Ultimately, she must rely on her own stubborn courage to face her destiny.

Death Speaker evokes a forgotten world of spirits and heroes. The story, with elements of magical realism, will appeal to fans of Celtic lore and anyone who appreciates a richly-told tale with a unique voice.

Reviews:

"Reminiscent of Game of Thrones. An exotic and well-written mix of ghost stories, history, and romance played out on an epic stage."

Stephen Smoke,
Author of Cathedral of the Senses and I, Walt Whitman

"Death Speaker is an epic saga about Emyn's life, and her search for happiness.

"It is a spellbinding story about love and loss, betrayal and honor. . . . makes for a read that pulls at one's heartstrings. A life so gripping, it becomes impossible to tear oneself away. A truly amazing story!"

Ana Smith, for InD'Tale Ezine

"This was one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Miss Kall takes a possibly bland story and turns it into this adventure that kept me hooked until the very ending! She brings interesting characters and ideas and thoughts together and combines them to make a thrilling tale of love, survival and trust. . . . it's five ghosts out of five for this brilliant tale"

Sammy the Bookworm, Review Site for Teens

Enjoy the first chapters here!

Indies Choice Winners

Just in case you want to stock up on books for Easter vacation, the ABA announced these favorites, voted on by independent booksellers/bookstores. (Full article here)

With links to Amazon, the winners are:

• Adult Fiction: Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot: A Novel.Gotta be great. Eugenides doesn't write anything less than great, right? And this is about a love triangle in the 1980s, part erotic, part classic.
  
• Adult Nonfiction: Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. A memoir about an acclaimed chef.
  
• Adult Debut of the Year: The Tiger's Wife: A Novel by Tea Obreht. The author is ridiculously young and talented, and the book sounds so intriguing, a mix of mythical history and brutal reality, my favorite combination.
• Young Adult: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, about a 15-year-old girl sent to Siberia during WW2.

Going to a Trade Show?

Midland Display Products is your one-stop shop. I love that their 800 number is right there, at the top of the main page--in fact, on every page, so you don't have to go searching for it.
The choices are clear, even though there are many. Search along a side menu for the display size you need, or let pictures guide you to the visual statement you want to make with your trade show displays.
Some folks like to shop, and there is plenty to look at here. But I especially like the top buttons for Chat, Design, and Show that let you skip the browsing and go immediately to a chat room, or to directions for sending in your rough designs and ideas, or to selecting an industry/product so that Midland can send you ideas. It couldn't be any faster.
I have to admit, though, that the Design and Show pages don't have the polished, professional look of the other pages. The contrasting red paragraph-black paragraph pattern, large default font, and the wide borders make me think of an aggressive sales letter.

Books of 2011

Here is a list of the most overlooked books of 2011, from the Galley-Cat site of MediaBistro, which I don't think you can get to without being a member.  The links go to the Amazon page of each book. I've already found a few to put on my wish list (a little late, but you never know...)

You can also hear these discussed on NPR by going here.

Free Samples of the Most Overlooked Books of 2011

The Curfew by Jesse Ball

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Say Her Name: A Novel by Francisco Goldman

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale

Pym: A Novel by Mat Johnson

Widow: Stories by Michelle Latiolais

The Farmer’s Cookbook: A Back to Basics Guide to Making Cheese, Curing Meat, Preserving Produce, Baking Bread, Fermenting, and More by Marie W. Lawrence

World Enough & Time, On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwen

Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War by Deb Olin Unferth

The Long Goodbye: A memoir by Meghan O’Rourke

The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis (no sample available)

There But For The: A Novel by Ali Smith

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

Habibi by Craig Thompson (no sample available)

If You Knew Then What I Know Now by Ryan Van Meter

The Isle of

Signal Hill Library event

Wednesday, October 19, 6 pm- "Nite At The Library"
1770 E. Hill St., Signal Hill, CA 90755.
Posted by: "dianajamespublicity" djlitmgmt@sbcglobal.net

featuring Joel Fox, Tammy Kaehler and Molly Lewis
They'll address the topic of getting a publishing contract.
Kaehler and Fox both have debut novels in the market and Molly Lewis, the CEO at Zova Books will
interview them about their experiences in getting that first book deal.
Molly Lewis has spent many years in the business of selling books and publishing fiction.
Join us for an exciting evening of Q&A, and please, share this message with friends who are learning the ropes of the book world!

Tammy Kaehler established a career writing marketing materials, feature articles, executive speeches, and technical documentation. A fateful stint in corporate hospitality introduced her to the racing world, which inspired the first Kate Reilly racing mystery. Tammy works as a
technical writer in the Los Angeles area, where she lives with her husband and many cars.

Joel Fox is the author of Lincoln's Hand, a Zane Rigby novel. Fox has authored hundreds of opinion articles, which have been published in the national papers such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today; also in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other papers across the country. Fox had an essay published in a Time Warner-Baseball Hall
of Fame sponsored book, What Baseball Means to Me.
Library Site: http://www.cityofsi gnalhill. org/index. aspx?NID= 325
Presented by Diana James Publicity and the Signal Hill
Librarywww.prmeinc. com

Comma or no?

There are some amusing articles about the premature announcement of the death of the serial comma--you know, the one that precedes "and" in a list. The AP Stylebook (for journalists) says discard it. Oxford, Harvard, MLA, APA, Strunk & White, and the Chicago Manual of Style support it. Such a controversy.

Jacket Copy wants to insert a new comma style: the Shatner comma. As in, "I'm, still, the, captain, of, this, ship, mister!"

Wizzley says there is no controversy; every authority but one supports the serial comma, and even AP says to use it when clarity is needed..

To prove their point, supporters cite this Merle Haggard photo caption, which is even mentioned in Wikipedia: "The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall."

This pictures was on the Making Light blog, and on other blogs. Making light labeled this "via Bruce Baugh."

As Wizzley mentions, you can even buy tees and hats proclaiming your support for the serial comma--under the name of the Chicago comma (for Chicago Manual of Style, of course). Go to Zazzle and poke around. There are all styles of shirts, not just the first four you see.

Aerial Archaeology and New Pyramids

The BBC says infrared imaging from satellites has located 17 new pyramids in Egypt, along with thousands of tomb/home/town sites. The Week has a concise summation and video here.

Two of the new pyramids are near Saqqara, and excavations are underway to prove/disprove their existance. (that's Giza--not Saqqara--in the pretty picture.)

Dr. Hawass is not happy and is very critical of the new documentary based on the satellite research. Here are quotes from him, along with more details about the discoveries.

It's all led to a 90-minute BBC special called "Egypt's Lost Cities." (Bummer! I don't get the BBC station anymore.)

Aerial archaeology is almost as interesting as underwater archaeology, huh?

All this seems a very natural outgrowth of aerial photography--the kind that discovered many ancient sites in the Picardie region of France, forty or fifty years ago.

Roger Agache plotted out hundreds of Roman and Celtic homes and farms by taking pictures from a plane. Those photos revealed the patterns of buried ruins. That's one of his photographs at left, showing a Bronze Age funerary site at Noyelles-sur-Mer.

Sometimes a dusting of snow made the outlines of old fences or walls clear; sometimes it was the patterns or color in the grain.

Just in the last couple of years, the research is available online and in English, describing not only the pictures, but the on-the-ground excavations. Here's the site.

Many other researchers carry on aerial archaeology, but I'm more into Gaul than Stonehenge. So Agache's work and the excavations it inspired interests me more.