/ en-US Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:08:21 -0700 60 / 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg /author_blog_posts/21519244-well-fooey-lj-is-now-not-letting-me-reply-to-comments-m Thu, 15 Jul 2021 05:22:38 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21519244-well-fooey-lj-is-now-not-letting-me-reply-to-comments-m My error - the heroine of Les Mis is Cosette. It's been years since I read the book.

posted by Barbara Hambly on July, 16 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21515522-adventures-in-research-in-honor-of-bastille-day-i-looked Wed, 14 Jul 2021 13:09:09 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21515522-adventures-in-research-in-honor-of-bastille-day-i-looked

Because of the close connections of the Catholic establishment in France with the kings and nobility, the Revolution was strongly anti-Church, and children were no longer given saints' names. But they had to call the poor little guys SOMETHING, with the result that reminds me a lot of baby names in the 1960s, like Moon Unit, Rain, and River. (This is why the heroine of Les Miserables gets named Fleurette, by the way).

Because so many days, before the Revolution, were saints' days (today was St. Justus of Rome, by the way), the Revolutionary Government decreed that every day in the New Calendar (1793 - the year of the Terror - was the Year One) was named for something "natural", so you had things like Carrot Day, Broccoli Day, Rabbit Day, and Shovel Day (Shovel Day was the 20th of December. 25 December was Dog Day.)

I don't know why this entertains me the way it does, but of course, since Benjamin January belongs to the immediate post-Revolution generation, I amuse myself by giving some characters what are clearly names from well-meaning parents wanting to celebrate the 14th of July or Civilization, or whose kids were born on Wild Ginger Day. The lucky ones just got named after Greek or Roman heroes, like Brutus or Lycurgus. (And probably changed their names to Pierre the minute they could.)

posted by Barbara Hambly on July, 15 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21481117-as-quiet-a-holiday-weekend-as-i-can-manage-a-couple-of-s Sun, 04 Jul 2021 13:40:02 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21481117-as-quiet-a-holiday-weekend-as-i-can-manage-a-couple-of-s
Everybody have a safe and peaceful evening. Keep your pets safe, indoors, and where possible give them some little refuge to hide in. They don't know what's going on.

In other news, George's Budayeen series will be downpriced Wednesday, July 7 (Ringo Starr's birthday!), digital, US and Canada, $3.99 for the series (When Gravity Fails, Fire in the Sun, and Exile Kiss); or, if you want to purchase only When Gravity Fails, by itself it's $1.99 - all from Open Road Media.

posted by Barbara Hambly on July, 05 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21450078-one-of-the-problems-i-ve-had-in-writing-historicals---par Fri, 25 Jun 2021 11:41:08 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21450078-one-of-the-problems-i-ve-had-in-writing-historicals---par
On the other hand, it's always gratifying when a book comes out confirming that I got something right. Fact-checking about some tiny detail in the new Ben January, I ran across another example of what were called "County Seat Wars," something you'd mostly find in the West but in this case was in Alabama: where there was competition between two towns to be the administrative center of a new county, and gangs of men from Town A would literally go raid Town B, steal all the county records, load them in a wagon and carry them bodily back to Town A. (Which is a major plot element in the Ben January book "Lady of Perdition" - only on a much larger scale). Some of these raids ended in bloodshed and deaths. I'm glad I got it right - that it evidently wasn't as unheard-of as I'd thought - but it's pretty horrifying all the same.

In other news, George's collection of short stories - Budayeen Nights - will be downpriced to $1.99, digital, US and Canada, on Monday, June 28. The Budayeen books were his most popular series, partly I think because of the setting, the Budayeen itself - essentially an s-f version of the French Quarter. In a novel, you have to stick with the main plot-line. This is what's going on in the background, day-to-day.

posted by Barbara Hambly on June, 26 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21442464-on-sale-saturday-june-26-through-open-road-media---dra Wed, 23 Jun 2021 10:29:09 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21442464-on-sale-saturday-june-26-through-open-road-media---dra
Still one of my favorites. The new cover is nice, but I've always had a soft spot for the original Michael Whelan cover, since he used my sketch of Morkeleb as scrap for the dragon.

posted by Barbara Hambly on June, 24 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21409585-and-yet-two-more-of-george-s-books-offered-at-a-downprice Mon, 14 Jun 2021 10:18:26 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21409585-and-yet-two-more-of-george-s-books-offered-at-a-downprice
Progress towards the web-page... progresses. In the words of my favorite haiku:

Little snail
climbs Mt. Fuji
slowly.

posted by Barbara Hambly on June, 15 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21406360-tuesday-june-16-open-road-will-downprice-george-effinge Sun, 13 Jun 2021 14:04:55 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21406360-tuesday-june-16-open-road-will-downprice-george-effinge
Be that as it may, I am slowly inching up onto the whole issue of The Web Page. I have a phone appointment with the EXTREMELY helpful fellow at Network Solutions, and once that's done, I should be able to go ahead. (Or, rather, the dear friend who has agreed to do the actual web-siting portion of the program should be able to go ahead. I tried the simpler drag-and-drop version and it did not work for me.)

Today I am indulging myself in a major case of the screw-its and spending the afternoon painting pictures.

posted by Barbara Hambly on June, 14 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21393067-whoo-hoo-while-putting-together-links-for-my-upcoming-ne Wed, 09 Jun 2021 11:02:13 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21393067-whoo-hoo-while-putting-together-links-for-my-upcoming-ne
(I'd post the cover here but it's really unclear how to do so...)

posted by Barbara Hambly on June, 10 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21343869-wow-facebook-s-new-method-of-letting-me-post-here-is-way Wed, 26 May 2021 08:56:40 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21343869-wow-facebook-s-new-method-of-letting-me-post-here-is-way
First piece of news - and, my apologies for being a bit late with it - is that George's book "When Gravity Fails" will be downpriced TODAY, May 26, digitally, US and Canada, to $1.99.

Second piece of news being that for the moment, at least, it looks like I'm unravelling the mess of getting my website of barbarahambly.com AT LAST into my own control... after literally hours on the phone with the server (which was refusing to recognize either my passwords or username despite changing them...).

Fingers crossed on this one. I really need a more reliable way of communicating with the world at large.

Today is the last lecture for the Spring semester - and a busy, busy summer ahead (especially if we DO get the website viable again). Thank you all!

posted by Barbara Hambly on May, 27 ]]> /author_blog_posts/21307637-open-road-bless-them-have-put-some-of-my-very-favorites Sun, 16 May 2021 10:54:46 -0700 /author_blog_posts/21307637-open-road-bless-them-have-put-some-of-my-very-favorites
1) Bride of the Rat-God - probably my all-time favorite, my 1920s Hollywood fantasy about magical Pekinese and learning to love (and evading giant Manchurian rat-demons...). (And please note, my 1920s Hollywood murder mystery, Scandal in Babylon, will be out later this year. Same setting, different - though perhaps not terribly different - characters, straight murder mystery with no fantasy. The Pekes are just ordinary squish-faced fur-balls.)

2) The duology The Silent Tower/ The Silicon Mage, another of my favorites, the first of the Antryg-and-Joanna stories.

3) And the third of the Darwath trilogy (like many fantasy trilogies in the '80s and '90s, it actually ended up containing five books...), The Armies of Daylight.

And, just finished my first fantasy novel in many years (and will send it off as soon as I spell-check it this afternoon). I started it 7 years ago, wrote 75,000 words, and sent it to my agent with an outline... and then heard pretty much nothing until last month. What I heard last month was, "How soon can you finish this we need it soon." Just signed the contract, and will post more information when I'm able to... but I'm very tired and haven't swept my floors since I got that phone call.

Everyone have a lovely week!

posted by Barbara Hambly on May, 17 ]]>