Classics Week: Last Day--"Stepping Through The Wardrobe"

Happy Friday All,

Wow! It’s been such a fun week with learning more about different Classic novels, and other authors’ work. If you haven’t checked out yesterday’s post with TinaBausinger, please do. I think it’s fascinating.

To close out Classics Week, you get yours truly (me) for today.

There are many authors I could have chosen to talk about today, however, CS Lewis is an author I've particularly enjoyed. So I’m going to go ahead and focus on him and his Chronicles Of Narnia.

You could say in some sense, Aslan from the series influenced All’s Fair In Love & Lion a bit—given Monroe , like Aslan, (when Monroe was in his lion form) could speak

My Monroe Christmas ornament, given to me
by one of my sisters

and be understood, was majestic. In the stories, Aslan sacrifices himself, and sacrifice comes into play in my story, as well.

However, the thing about Narnia that appealed to me was how each adventure was full of imagination, wonder, and magic. As a lover of fairy-tales and fantasy, what better devices to ignite my passions?

How can anyone forget meeting Mr. Tumnus at the lamppost? Or hitting the high seas on the Dawn Treader? Or the curiosity and tying everything together in The Last Battle?

An intellectual or English teacher would find all the various points of allegory, allusion, and metaphor to point out. For me, it was just plain fun.

The other thing we have with CS Lewis is the re-imaging of mythology and a different way of telling a story (at least different for his time).

I believe there’s room among writers and readers for all kinds of stories, which is one of the best things about Narnia. There was room for all believers and those who really wanted what Narnia had to offer. And years after Lewis’s death, there’s still room for new readers to partake of each story’s charm and adventure.

For a writer such as myself, it warms my heart to see people willing

to invite new fairy-tales and stories, but to still love the old ones, too. I hope this will always be the case.

I remember a song we had on a cassette tape that went: “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other’s gold.” I feel this way about books. I make new friends with new novels and stories, but I keep the old ones in my heart. My wish for readers, is to have that experience, so they can enjoy all kinds of glorious tales.

As you know, my Romance Novel, All’s Fair In Love & Lion is

available on Amazon Kindle (hopefully to be in paperback, soon).  I don’t have the cover art (nor is it out, yet) for my New Adult Paranormal Romance, Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love, yet, but that’s coming soon (and definitely fits the idea of re-imagining stories!)

Also, you can check out more about me and my writing on my official website.

In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed Classics Week. I know I did!

Have A Fabulously Fantastical Friday!

Classics Week Guest Post: Tina Bausinger "Love, Death, And Madness"

Happy Thursday Everybody,

I can't tell you how excited I am that you all have been enjoying Classics Week. When I got this idea I wasn't sure what would happen, but it's turned into a lot of fun. Yesterday's posts by Mina Khan got many comments (thank you for supporting Mina!) Which is great. It's always nice when readers support an author.

Today I welcome an author who is on one of the email loops I'm on. Like Mina, when I sent out the call for certain authors, (mostly Paranormal and Fantasy, but I welcomed a couple of other genres, too) author Tina Bausinger answered the call and I was delighted to have her come aboard for this blog series.

So please join me in welcoming Tina Bausinger as she talks about Emily Brontë:

The windy heights—a horrifying thunderstorm and a choice between a love-crazed, revenge-seeking rogue or a beautiful aristocratic pretty boy. Who can resist the world of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë? I know I can’t.

 

Love that transcends all boundaries, even those set by sanity--Cathy Earnshaw is the original Bella Swan. She’s indecisive, whiny, spoiled—and yet, brooding, handsome, mentally unstable Heathcliff and gorgeous, wealthy and wussy Linton are ready to fight to the death for her. Well, sort of—Linton is ready to pay someone to fight in his place, but still.

 

When Cathy thinks about Heathcliff, she says, “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” When Heathcliff speaks to Cathy, he says, “Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life!”

 

Wuthering Heights is so much more than just a love story—it’s a revenge story as well, and we see Heathcliff as the antihero. We can’t help rooting for him to win Cathy, but he’s sort of a weird obsessive bad boy whose mental instability keeps us guessing till the end. Gotta love a good, dark Gothic tale.

        

If you like dark and twisty tales like Wuthering Heights, you’re gonna love my book, War Eagle Women. It’s considered a Southern Gothic romance. Like Cathy, Eden is torn between

beautiful, moody, talented artist Craig and Mike, a handsome, dedicated trauma surgeon. Elizabeth, Eden’s grandmother, tells her own story about her choice between dark Italian hottie Antonio, who hides a questionable past and rough and handsome boy-next-door Henry. In the tiny town of War Eagle where secrets lie as deep as the river, four women whose lives are inextricably linked by blood and destiny must share their long buried stories to help their youngest, Samantha, to disclose her own secret that, left untold, threatens to steal her very life. Dark and gritty, War Eagle Women is part romance, part mystery, part ghost story, and part Indian legend. I promise that Eden is a more likable heroine than either Cathy or Bella. Give War Eagle Women a try!

Note From Bethany:  You can find War Eagle Women on Amazon Kindle. 

Classics Week Guest Post: Marie Hall "Why I Love Regency Period Romance"

Happy Tuesday All,

Did you all enjoy yesterday's post? If you haven't checked it out, please do so by clicking here.

Today I welcome author Marie Hall to Write By Bethany. Marie is

an author I came across while browsing E-book options. I read Her Mad Hatter and was hooked. Now several more titles later, and having interviewed her, plus chit-chatting on Facebook (she's a Once Upon A Time show fan, too). I'm delighted to be able to welcome her once again to my blog as she discusses her love of Jane Austen, and other period romances.

Take away, Marie Hall...

I guess it’s no surprise that I as a romance writer would love romances. And I hardly doubt I’m in the minority when it comes to loving Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters. I’m also very partial to Dickens, but he didn’t write the traditional romances. So for the sake of this piece I’ll stick with romance period writers.

I first picked up Pride and Prejudice in high school. It was a school assignment and I wasn’t too keen on the idea. My idea of a period romance was going to be a book full of big words I couldn’t understand, completely unrelatable characters, the ultimate snooze fest. Four hours after opening the book I was done and my world was forever changed. How could a woman who lived so long ago perfectly capture the spirit of love, desire, jealousy, and betrayal?

Realizing I may have just stumbled across a new genre of books never before read to me I picked up Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility. Though none of them quite captured my attention the way Mr. Darcy had, they were all very good. On a quest now to search out new authors I picked up the Bronte’s. I’ll be the first to say that I hated Wuthering Heights. To me that was most definitely not a romance, but a tragedy. As I’ve grown older I’ve come to appreciate the complexities and psychology of the story but I would still hesitate to call it a romance. That said, Jane Eyre stole my breath away. Mr. Rochester specifically. Wow, what an anti-hero. He was brusque, MARRIED, and just downright nasty. But I loved him. Loved everything about him. I loved the dark edge to him, how he could put on a show for others, but how with Jane he dared to be his true self.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Rochester shaped my idea of what a wonderful hero could actually be. Someone who on the surface seemed so wrong and just horrid, but who in the end, you couldn’t help but root for. It is that archetype, more than any other that I love writing to this day. In a lot of ways Rumpelstiltskin is an amalgam of the two. Haughty, disdainful, and yet there’s something in him that calls to the heroine because she can see beyond the mask to the wounded man beneath. Thanks to two ladies who lived centuries ago I feel like I’ve found my true calling in life and I could not be happier. After all, isn’t that what romance is all about? Happily ever after.

Marie didn't mention it, but she has a brand-new release out in the Alphas After Dark anthology. Her story is entitled Rumpel's Prize (which I reviewed in this post) and is a part of her Kingdom series.  You can get your copy of Alphas After Dark on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Kickin' Off Classics Week With Guest Patti Korbet...

Happy Monday Everybody,

Welcome to the first ever Classics Week on Write By Bethany. Each day I will feature a different author. The author for the day will talk about which classic author and book they enjoyed and why, plus whether or not it influenced them. At the end of the post, they will feature one of their own publications for your reading pleasure.

To kick off Classics Week, I've got author Patti Korbet. I met Patti through author Marie Hall's Facebook page. As it turns out, we're both avid Once Upon A Time fans (as well as fans of Marie Hall's work) and started chatting. She's got some interesting things to say about JRR Tolkein, so I'll hush up and let Patti take over...

My childhood memories are filled with moments of fantasy and science fiction, from the cartoons that started our Saturday mornings to the films we saw in the movie theater. Many of those stories were classics of childhood for kids of the 70's and 80's – E.T., The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, Legend, Labyrinth, Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, Willow and of course, Star Wars, to name a few. The ritual of watching sci-fi and fantasy together binds my family even now.

Of all those movies, the one animated film of the two genres that always stayed with me was The Hobbit (1977). Before special effects and Peter Jackson could do justice to Middle Earth, the animator's hand gave life to this fantastical world. It stuck with me more than any Disney movie I had ever seen at that point.

Note from Bethany:  I think these were the Ozark Mountains
in Arkansas, but look a little Tolkein-ish!

Years later, a college friend gave me his extra copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. I didn't read them immediately, but knew I would – I had loved that little Hobbit Bilbo from my childhood cartoon. Then a coworker loaned me his copy of the original BBC broadcast teleplay of LOTR, and let me tell you, if you've never heard it, you should. What Peter Jackson did for the films, that production did for audio. When I played the last CD, I felt compelled to read all four books. I devoured them.

I knew the story of The Hobbit, of course. But I could not have been prepared for the wonder that enveloped me when my eyes directly consumed J.R.R. Tolkien's words. He wove this fantastical tale of dragons, of demons with names like 'goblin' and 'orc', of elves the size of men, dwarves more complex than Snow White's pals, wise wizards and the small, gentle, half-men known as hobbits. It changed forever how I read fantasy and laid the foundation for the amazing series that followed.

In many ways, The Hobbit was not just the pre-quel to the LOTR saga, it was also the pre-quel to all the fantasy stories that came later. Some, like Harry Potter, nod very directly to Tolkien. But many writers and stories – even those outside fantasy and sci-fi – owe The Hobbit for paving the way to creating worlds that do not exist.

What Tolkien teaches us through The Hobbit is that you can create a wholly fictional universe, and as long as you believe in it, your audience will, too. When that world comes directly from your own imagination, however many words you need to carry the reader into the varied and vivid landscapes and to illuminate the characters, those are the words you must use. I don't write fantasy or sci-fi – not yet – but if I do, I know I'll strive to meet the standard set by The Hobbit and Tolkien.

Until then, you can catch my contemporary romance series, Ward Sisters, about an interconnected group of people. The third book, Right Here Waiting, featuring a strong woman and the soldier who steals her heart, is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, where you can also find the first two books.

Interview A Villain

Happy Thursday All,

Tuesday I talked about spending time with your favorite heroes and heroines, in keeping with the theme of spending time with favorite novel characters, I thought we'd shake things up and go with villains.

Villains come in all shapes and sizes. From not completely evil to downright scary.

Some of them have short attention spans, like Idris, in Shanna Swendson's fantasy series (starts with Enchanted, Inc.). Idris is trying shady things with magic that are frowned upon. He'd be a bigger threat if his attention span wasn't so short...which means when people who concentrate longer than 5 minutes join up with him he becomes a formidable foe. I think I could handle meeting Idris...as long as he was by himself.

I wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley facing some of the monsters found in YA author, Tera Lynn Childs' Sweet Venom.

Ever get the shivers over the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings? The people who rally behind Sauron and the ring are rather ghoulish! (I REALLY would NOT want to meet them or see the ring...just saying...too scary for me).

In Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange trilogy you're never quite sure if the fae kings and queens are truly good or truly evil. They are such shades of gray, that you're not sure if you can trust them, or if you're better off remaining wary.

However, you ever wondered what it would be like if you could sit down and ask them why? Was it only world domination? Power? Wealth? Boredom?

Or perhaps the villain/villainess you thought was most well written is too scary to even say hi to them.

Either way...what villain/villainess would you want to sit down and talk with if you could?

Have A Thrilling Thursday!

Getting On Pointe

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

How do you feel about ballet? Growing up, I took ballet lessons (on my demi pointes) for a few years. I wasn't great at it, but at the time I could pirouette pretty well. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted--first time in my life I felt truly graceful.

I've also seen a number of professional ballets over the years:  Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Romeo & Juliet and one where there was different kinds of ballets.

So, do you like ballet? If you've watched/enjoyed ballet, which ones have you seen?

Have A Thrilling Tuesday!

Quite The Quotable

Happy Monday All,

I was watching one of the cable channels and it was saying Saturday they were going to show the movie Pretty In Pink. I love that movie. I had the VHS version of it, then my VCR broke and I haven't replaced the VHS version with the DVD yet.

There's just some movies that you hold onto, even twenty or so years later, you still love 'em. And can quote them.

A good example is The Princess Bride. I think my family can recite almost (if not the entire) movie. ("Chocolate helps it go down easier."--Valerie from The Princess Bride).

When I was growing up all it took to set me and my whole family quoting lines/songs from the musical 1776 was to say one line. ("Simple! Johnny here's obnoxious and disliked."--Richard Henry Lee, 1776).

Of course you can't forget Casablanca and "Here's looking at you, kid." (Humphrey Bogart's mannerisms help define the word "suave").

So what movies do you think are quite quotable?

Have A Memorable Monday!

The Classics Never Die

Happy Monday All,

The Sy-Fy (that's how they spell it) Channel was doing a showing of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, so, of course, my husband, being a Star Wars fan sat and watched (I was in and out, because part of the time I was napping and the other part I was doing other things). But it occurred to me: we [my husband and I] don't always watch those 3 movies that came out in the 70's/80's (even though we own them on DVD) but anytime they are on, we'll watch. We can quote them almost word for word, we know exactly what's going to happen, but it doesn't change the fact it's a great story.

What is it about movies and books like Star Wars that invokes that starry-eyed "I LOVED THAT!" response in us? Sometimes we can say "Oh, great story, great characters." Other times it's something intangible.

When a person says ,"'Tis a far, far better thing I do..." immediately (anyone who's either seen the movies or read the book) will say "Sydney!" Sydney Carlton didn't start off the hero, but ended up being one. The name Charles Dickens is synonymous with characters like Sydney and Scrooge. We know the names, we can quote passages, and we can read them more than once and still think, "Wow!"

Another example...if I was to say the name Darcy you'd know right away I was talking about Pride & Prejudice. Some of you might even run and get your worn out copy of the book by Jane Austen. Others might start arguing over whether or not Colin Firth embodied the role of Darcy like no other actor. 

Either way, there's something about certain books and movies that invoke feelings in us. Three notes make us think of the famous shark from the Jaws movies. The word 'phantom' draws up the image of a man in a black cape and a mask. These things have transcended time and still thrill us to our very bones.

So my question to you today is, what books/movies of the last 10 years do you think will go on to transcend time and become a classic?

Have A Momentous Monday!