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The Devil’s Due Has Been Released into the Wild!
The Devil’s Due is now available on Kindle. Paperback and NOOK versions will be available shortly.
The Lowdown on the Phoenix
Alice Leiper has posted a introduction to the phoenix of Greek mythology over at Mythic Scribes. Hurray!
The rebirth from the ashes has become a fundamental part of the modern perception of the phoenix. It is the reason that cities like Chicago – which suffered from several large destructive fires in the 19th century and most famously in 1906 – and Coventry – which was bombed heavily in World War Two – use the phoenix as an emblem; these cities and many others were literally turned to ash, and the people of them then rebuilt, were reborn into a modern era. The rebirth from ashes has become central to the phoenix myth, while elements which were fundamental to the ancients were left behind – the nest filled the spices, the dedication of the parent’s body on the altar of the sun god. Even the phoenix’s uniqueness is discarded by some, making it a species instead of a singular bird that is eternally alone.
This is one of my favourite things about mythology: the way it changes. In the ancient world, the phoenix was about the sun, about dealing with the body of a parent appropriately, and about cycles that repeat. It came from the sun (or at least, from the east) and returned its parent body to the sun god at his altar, every five hundred years. Pope Clement I brought two elements mentioned in different accounts, frankincense and myrrh, to draw a parallel to Jesus, who had received these spices as gifts upon his birth and who had risen from his grave. The idea of the phoenix being reborn not merely from its parent’s body, but from ashes, was added at a time when the Roman empire was tearing itself apart with civil wars, coups, assassination attempts on successive emperors, and was repeated as the Roman empire continued to decline. This imagery was also used in the modern world by cities which had quite literally burned to the ground as a result of wars and natural disasters.
What Should You Read Next?
There is a website that can tell you, as Erin McCarthy of mental_floss explains:
If you, like me, have ever finished a book and thought, “What should I read next?” then the aptly-titled website WhatShouldIReadNext.com is for you. Enter in a title, author, or ISBN number, and the site analyzes reviews and ratings from other readers and recommends books.
Sunday Inspiration: Leadership
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
—John Quincy Adams
The Devil’s (Over)Due
My design guy and I have both had a pretty hellacious couple of weeks related to various and sundry real-life issues. Unfortunately, that means The Devil’s Due is not likely to be ready to debut early next week as planned.
I’m sorry to disappoint those who may have been itching to find out what happens next to Taylor Smart. I promise, you won’t have to wait too much longer.
In the meantime, however, I thought I’d give you a free sneak preview of The Devil’s Due. Here, then, are just a few of the 86,000 or so words you’ll soon be reading:
- hiking
- zombies
- reality
- bragging
- froze
- kittens
- weekend
- animatronic
- Hebrew
- naked
- chocolate
- bounded
- flailing
- maelstrom
- exasperated
- toothy
- farted
- crypt
- trouble
And there’s plenty more where those came from! Stay tuned!
Sunday Inspiration: Holding Evil in Check
Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
—Gandalf (via J. R. R. Tolkien)
Hillel and Shammai Animation
Here’s a brief summary not so much of the substance of the disagreements between these two great religious scholars, but how those disagreements were depicted in the Mishnah. The point of the video is to find some wisdom about how people can disagree today without becoming disagreeable.
Resolutions to Help Out Indie Authors
Via Coffintree Hill:
I’m sure that many of you made resolutions and goals for the year; to finish that novel, to make more time to read, to update your blog more regularly. But how about setting some time aside to help out some fellow indie authors? There are heaps of different ways that you can support your peers, to pay it forward.
- Follow their blog. Read, comment and share their posts.
- Follow their social networking profiles. Again, read, comment, share, retweet, reblog.
- Run word sprints/word wars. Find other writers online and write together. Set a time limit, and see who gets the most words out. They’re great fun and great motivation.
- Join the Insecure Writers Support Group. Once a month, writers all over the world write blog posts about their own insecurities, and offer advice and support to other writers. You’ll find new friends, new followers, and they’re all there to cheer each other on. Sign up here: insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html
- Host them on your own blog. If they have some news or a book coming out, you could let them have a space on your blog. You could run interviews with other writers, or let them guest blog. It’s win-win: they get exposure and your followers, you get great blog content and their followers.
- Offer to beta read. Writers always need beta readers to give their opinions on their work. You get to read upcoming books before anyone else, and they are likely to return to favour when you need beta readers for your work.
- Buy their books. Kind of obvious, right? But why not set a goal for the number of indie writers you’ll read this year? You might discover your next favourite writer.
- Review their books. Whether on Amazon, Goodreads or your own blog, reviews mean so much to indie writers.
- Recommend their books. If you enjoyed it, let other people know. Recommend their books on social media, to your friends, to your family. Recommendations really do sell books.
- Give their books as gifts. Enjoyed it? Why not buy a copy for a friend or family member?
And there are loads of other ways you can help. Writers are often looking for cover critiques, or advice on marketing, formatting, character names etc etc. Just network, keep an eye out, and use your strengths to help someone out.
Cutting The Hobbit Down to Size
It was only a matter of time. Someone has created a fan-edit of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy that slices the runtime roughly in half. As Rob Bricken suggests, this is a good first step in getting the material down to the length of a single movie!
Sunday Inspiration: Happiness
Happiness is not a goal; it’s a by-product of a life well lived.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Darrell J. Pursiful 