Creature Feature: Wyvern

What is a wyvern? Looks like a dragon, right? But it’s not.

A wyvern has two limbs and two wings. Note that many Western dragons have four limbs and two wings, while Eastern dragons often have no wings, and four limbs. Wyverns also seem a bit more reptilian than dragons to me. Sometimes they have fish tails or barbed tails, and their limbs are more bird-like than a dragon’s.

They figure prominently in heraldry, as do dragons and unicorns. Sometimes they are described as having the head of a dragon and the tail of a snake. Personally, I may have plans for some fictional wyverns I can’t divulge just yet. For sure I’ve got dragons of all kinds in my books, but no wyverns… yet.

Happy 4th!

July 4th & Fantasy

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and so I feel the need to go just a little off-topic and wander through some of the mythology that has arisen around the founding of the United States. One of the ideas made popular by recent works of fiction is that Freemasonry played a pivotal role in the birth of the United States. I have an interest in this because my own dear ol’ dad is a Master Mason and we’ve always talked about the various Masonic symbols that crop up in everyday life - like the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill, for example. I also saw a really interesting engraving of George Washington on exhibit during a visit to the New York Public Library where our first President was shown surrounded by Masonic symbols, wearing his apron. Fascinating stuff! 

But it’s really hard for us to know in this day and age just how much of an impact Masonry had on the founders of our country. Like the mythology surrounding the Knights Templar, it’s intriguing for those of us who write fiction, but it’s a fine line between fiction and fact.

One interesting site I found stated: “Benjamin Franklin was a Freemason whose unique socializing skills included attending gatherings of the English Hell Fire Club, a secret society focused on sex, pornography and politics.” (Darn, talk of the Hell Fire Club gives me ideas! But I digress.) So, according to legend, one of our best-known founding fathers was not only a pious Freemason and serious student of the sciences, but also a bit of a bad boy. Interesting. (Thanks to the Unencyclopedia for the hilarious image.)

Now I have to admit to not having read the Da Vinci Code. Mea culpa. I figure I’ll catch the movie someday on cable. (LOL) But I did read Two Crowns for America by Katherine Kurtz a long time ago. She’s not the first, nor the last I’m sure, to intermix real history with interesting ideas that came from the writer’s imagination. I think some of the best fantasy mixes real history - or ideas from it - with fantastical ideas straight out of the imagination. Hence the success of things like the Da Vinci Code, Kurtz’s Adept series (which I love) and so many other works of fiction including the popular National Treasure movies with Nicholas Cage.

So in that spirit of mysticism and adventure, Happy Birthday America!

Guest: Gia Dawn’s Newest

My friend, Gia Dawn, has a new release! She’s feeling under the weather right now, so I thought I’d give her a hand letting people know about it. Here are the details:

“Dunmore Rising” by Gia Dawn

Buy from MBaM!
Read An Excerpt Online
Genre: Historical Romance, Fantasy Romance

ISBN: 978-1-60504-052-3
Length: Novel
Price: 5.50
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Cover art by Anne Cain

Love is mightier than the sword…

Sir Graham Dunmore is looking forward to competing in his first summer tournament—until he gets saddled with babysitting a prince in disguise, three fairy-godmothers he would much rather see fly back to where they came from, and a woman for a squire. Gone for years, Jiliana is now back in Westmyre, older, colder, with a lethal fighting skill that leaves him both impressed and intrigued.

Jili doesn’t recognize this sleek, well-trained man as the awkward friend from her youth. But seeing Graham again brings back painful memories of a brutal past. One that forces her to live a life of tight control, lest one slip unleash a deadly monster capable of hurting everyone in her path.

Yet as Graham patiently teaches her the arts of love, Jili has a glimmer of hope that she can finally control the killer that lurks inside her—until a ninja assassin begins to stalk the tournament.

With a heavy heart, she realizes Graham is going to need every skill she possesses to protect the prince—the very skills that could tear them apart forever.

Warning: This title contains cranky fairies, a gorgeous hero, and a heroine who just about kicks his ass… plus really sizzling sex told in naughty language.

Read An Excerpt Online

Things That Make You Go “What?”

Italy’s Carabinieri - a paramilitary police supposed to be elite - have now had to be told by a court to not have extramarital affairs. “What?”

According to Reuters:

Italy’s highest court has ruled that the nation’s paramilitary police, the Carabinieri, must not have extra-marital affairs to avoid sullying the force’s name.

The ruling stemmed from one Carabiniere’s appeal against a lower court ruling sentencing him to four months in jail for insulting and threatening to throw a desk at his boss, who had asked the policeman to break off an affair with a married woman.

Italy’s Court of Cassation agreed that any affair is a private matter, but noted that the military police were called to “exemplary conduct and could not bring discredit to the armed forces with extra-marital relationships.”

The Carabinieri, Italy’s gendarmerie, are the most prominent of several national police forces. Their motto is “Faithful through the centuries.”

(Reporting by Deepa Babington; Editing by Giles Elgood)http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080617/od_nm/lovers_dc_1

Excuse me — “faithful through the centuries?” Apparently not to their spouses. Sheesh!

Creature Feature: Shapeshifters in Romance Fiction

Picking up where I left off when I last talked about cat shifters, today I’m contemplating the current popularity of shapeshifters in romance fiction. While werewolves are probably the most common and popular in romance fiction right now, there’s a lot of interest in other kinds of shifters as well. I, myself, have written dragon shifters (in The Ice Dragon and Prince of Spies) and a cougar shifter (Sweeter Than Wine).Here’s what Wiki says about shapeshifters: “Shapeshifting is a common theme in folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a change in the physical form or shape of a person or animal…shapeshifting involves physical changes such as alterations of age, gender, race, or general appearance or changes between human form and that of an animal, plant, or inanimate object…Shapeshifting may be used as a plot device, as when Puss In Boots tricks the ogre into changing into a mouse so he may eat him; it may also include a symbolic significance, as when the Beast’s transformation at the end of Beauty and the Beast indicates Beauty’s ability to accept him despite his appearance.”

I don’t think I’ve ever gone quite that far, though Lana’s discovery of Roland’s ability to shift from dragon to human form in The Ice Dragon does come as a bit of a surprise to her. I think it’s intriguing to find out there’s more to the person or animal one meets at the beginning of a novel. And the way those new revelations play into the story make it interesting and fantastical. Of late, I’ve really been enjoying writing a series of cat shifters in an urban fantasy setting that I hope to find a home for soon.

For some reason, cat shifters fire the imagination and make one think immediately of the pleasures of the flesh. Cats are sinuous, slinky and sexy, where wolves seem tough, mighty and all alpha. Cats on the other hand, have cunning, stealth, soft fur and a very sexy way of moving. Seems natural we romance writers would take them to our hearts and turn them into heroes and heroines in our flights of fantasy.

So out of curiosity, what’s your favorite form of shapeshifter, other than wolves? Dragons? Cats? Snakes? Sea creatures? What’s your take? Enquiring minds want to know!

Words of Wisdom from JK Rowling

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out JK Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard here: http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

She speaks about failure and imagination and it quite a good speaker. She also speaks of her early job at Amnesty International with heartwrenching power. I didn’t know that about her background. She talks about her college days with humor and eloquence as well. Take a listen. I think you’ll find it interesting. Especially if you’re a Harry Potter fan.

WW: Gonna Eat You!

Art by Daio

GLAST - Exploring the Universe

Gamma Rays aren’t just for The Incredible Hulk anymore. No, now we’re using them to explore the universe with this great monstrosity:

Here’s what NASA says about it:

GLAST: Exploring the Extreme Universe

NASA’s Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is a powerful space observatory that will open a wide window on the universe. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light, and the gamma-ray sky is spectacularly different from the one we perceive with our own eyes. With a huge leap in all key capabilities, GLAST data will enable scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics.

The mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed by NASA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what this baby can do. Some of you know I used to make my living as a chemist. I worked with gamma radiation (one of the reasons I wanted to get out of that field - plus the fact that chemists have a generally shorter life expectancy than most other professions) in biological assays. Vastly different from what this GLAST will be doing, of course, but in order to do that job, I had to study up on radiation and the physics of the different kinds of particles I’d be working with. My first few weeks “on the job” were spent in an empty office — reading. No joke. I got the job fresh out of college, reported to duty for my first day, and was parked in an empty office right next to the PhD who was to be my boss with a stack of books on radiation.

The only thing that saved me was the fact that before swithing my major to chemistry, I’d spent two years as a physics major. The reson I left that program had more to do with the faculty at my college than anything else. The entire physics department had heavy accents from all different places and although I’m very good with accents (I’m the daughter of a European immigrant), I couldn’t understand half these people! LOL. The chemistry department was much more intelligible. And at that point in my life, I was fascinated by the molecular workings of biological systems.

But enough of that… watch for more info on the GLAST launch. I’ll try to post any news I stumble accross here on the blog (for those of you who care). Geeks of the world - unite!

Great Weekend!

Some great things happened this past weekend, in addition to the beautiful launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. For one thing, FireDrake finally topped the MBAM Best Seller List! It had been stuck at #2 since the day after it came out and I wasn’t quite sure it would make it to #1, but it did and for that I am very, very grateful. Thank you to all who helped put it there!

Second, I got a great review for FireDrake from Joyfully Reviewed. Vivian actually named FireDrake a RECOMMENDED READ!!! Thank you, Vivian! I’m thrilled and humbled.

Also, I made a new video for FireDrake using some of the images I’ve rendered (using my DAZ|Studio software) over the past few months. Since I don’t know how to imbed vids in this blog (it never works when I try), try this link. I’ll also be putting it up on my website next week sometime, so let me know if something doesn’t work quite right – I’m still kind of new at this video-making program.

Now I’m just waiting for the cover for Jaci’s Experiment to be approved so I can show it off to you all. I got a peek at it late last week and it’s spectacular! I can’t wait to see what you all think once it’s official and I can post it. Stay tuned… shouldn’t be long now!