Buy a Signed Copy of The Mangrove Legacy

Available now! Let me know if you want it signed and/or personalised. In case you need a refresher on the subject matter:

A gothic novel of mystery, romance, and pockets. Follow cousins Alice and Lizzie as they are kidnapped from Lord Mangrove's funeral cortege, spirited away by highwaymen, then sold to nefarious seamen until they're captured by pirates without so much as an improving book to read!

From the US + media mail

From abroad + surface mail

They're Here

A nice surprise awaited me when I got home tonight, thanks to my neighbour who must have met the FedEx deliverer. Usually they just ring the doorbell that doesn't work and then leave.

It's always a lovely feeling to open a box full of your books. Stella's lovely cover looks good in print, too. I will put up links for you to buy signed author copies. I should do that with Unikirja as well, as I've got a couple copies of that as well. I don't know if Tease will be selling copies or making them available at a third party site.

This makes up for the wretched day I wasted trying to have a yard sale in 100° weather (no, it was not a success). But it did motivate me to clear out more -- or at least prepare it for clearing. Baby steps, perhaps, but making progress.

The Mangrove Legacy ON SALE NOW!

Kit Marlowe's novel The Mangrove Legacy is out!

For sale now at All Romance eBooks -- just $5.99.

Two English girls, pirates, kidnappers, orphans, disguises, a ghost, interesting facts about insects, cheese, the King of Naples and at least one improving book:


This ain't your mama's Gothic!

Yes, very pleased to have this out. Thanks for everyone who was there for the rather prolonged composition process. Give yourselves a pat on the back for helping me. Cheers!

You can win a copy over at Kit's Facebook page.

UPDATE: I'm also the featured Wednesday writer over at UnBound. Thanks, Adele. Join me to talk about zombies!

Purposeful

I started out the day purposefully: I got a needed oil change, ran to the store and then came to campus. There things began to bog down a bit, not only because there was a lot of email to get to and a call from the Dean but then there was the printer not working. I haven't bought new ink for my printer at home, so I've generally relied on the printer here on campus. When we got new printers and a whole new print admin system, I was the only one who never had a problem printing. Everyone else was screaming for blood because of course they decided to change the system at the beginning of the semester. So I've taken advantage of the one colleague in the building to have him print a couple of emergency things and will hope the Mac guy gets around to me soon.

Yes, we have one person in IT who's competent in Macs. We have (last I knew) over 200 Macs on campus. And you wonder why our last Mac person quit to go to Skidmore where she has fewer headaches and more pay... oh, that's right. No wonder at all.

You can catch up with the latest episode in La Ronde, the round robin story started by Patti Abbot. Today's installment (#10 already!) is "It's Raining Down in Texas" by Graham Powell. Amazing turns this narrative has taken: now in Texas.

Kit Marlowe's The Mangrove Legacy will be available from All Romance Ebooks on December 15th! You can get The Big Splash there now (as well as at Noble Romance and Amazon).

21st Century Gothic will be printed on my birthday :-) though it won't be available until 2011.

I just got word that my presentation "Bringing a Medieval Woman to Life" (about writing a play on the life of Christina of Markyate) got accepted for the Great Writing Conference in London next June. Looking forward to that. I'm also considering a conference in Akureyri, Iceland as well. We shall see. Yeah, don't remind me of that note which says "Just say no!" I am (on the whole) doing less. Well, less of some things. Combining things, too, seems helpful (work that does double duty). But yeah, it remains the case that there is so little time, and so much to do!

Publications: "Touched by an Angel" & 21st Century Gothic

I just received a copy of the cover of the new collection 21st Century Gothic which features my essay on Graham Joyce's [AKA William Heaney's] Memoirs of a Master Forger. It was one of those projects that comes out of the blue and then -- typical for me anyway -- I forget all about it and am pleasantly surprised to be reminded again. I had actually overlooked the deadline in the midst of all the tenure folderol and was tempted to beg off the project, but Danel convinced me to give it a go and I have to say I'm very glad I did. I look forward to reading the rest of the collection.

Speaking of forgetting: most of you know how I hate to let anything go to waste, writing-wise. Ages ago (yes, years) I wrote a gruesomely funny little short story called "Touched by an Angel" that I had accepted for publication and then promptly forgot. Yes, the vintage is clear from the title; I'm hoping somewhere the show is still living on in syndication. Anyhoo, eventually I realised that it had not appeared, so I looked into it and found that the magazine had folded, so off it went elsewhere.

Lather, rinse, repeat. That's the nature of publishing. Almost everything can find a home eventually, I suppose. You just have to find the editor who wants it. It's always a tricky thing for me as I have an annoying habit of mixing together things that don't belong together according to conventional wisdom. So at last "Touched by an Angel" appears in Kalkion, an on-line publication. Do drop by and read it or at least tweet or Facebook it (even if you don't read it, it helps). If you like funny and gruesome, you'll enjoy it.

I need to write up the WONDERFUL backstage tour I had of the National Theatre and the production of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance I saw there afterward, but I have a matinée of Women Beware Women there this afternoon, so it will probably have to wait. I did finally get to the British Library to renew my card and do a little work, so more of that likely to happen as well -- it's not all idleness!

Serially Yours

Have you checked out The Mangrove Legacy recently? I only ask because I am thinking about the end of it. It will take some weeks yet, of course, but I can see the resolution now and I am also contemplating polishing it up to send off to one or two places. Like everything I do (apparently) it doesn't quite fit into a neat marketing niche. But who knows? The lazy way of novel writing -- for those of you who say you want to write but just can't find the time -- this story is up over 90,000 words now.

All it takes is patience and 500 words or so a week. It's really not so much: just persistence and commitment.

So many things require the same; we worry about the big issues and agonize over decisions, but much of our life results from the simple steps -- and continuing to make them. I am always reminding myself of this. It's worth doing.

Between Work and Wit

That it is National Poetry Month has not escaped me, but I will not bother to mention it as 1) I am not a poet and 2) poets get far too much attention as it is and 3) there are far too many bad poets who would only find this encouragement to go on. They make me think of the incredibly overwrought poet O'Bannion from Auntie Mame. Bad poetry can be found around most any corner, even in an economic downturn. It multiplies like cockroaches. Cockroaches, however, don't get open mic nights.

Oh, sure -- there are good poets, and I've quoted from many of them. In fact I've had Philip Larkin on my mind today [er, yesterday, as I wrote this ahead of time, shhhh]. I blame Lucky Him, which I've gone back to reading since I had to return The Talented Miss Highsmith to the library yesterday, lamentably unfinished. Its 700+ pages daunted, especially as I went gallivanting off on a trip and decided not to lug the doorstop-sized hardcover along with me, accustomed as I am to traveling light. Larkin, who often served as an audience and confidante for his friend Kingsley Amis, seemed to feel the weight of the disparity between their experiences, which he wrote about in "Letter to a Friend about Girls" with some tartness and not a little envy.

The magic of good poetry is that it is precise. Every word needed, no word extraneous. No wonder I prefer prose -- there's wiggle room there. While every word should have its job and no other in prose, too, it seems that there are on occasion a few layabouts who serve no earthly purpose in a sentence, but hang tightly around the ones that are doing the work, so the careless supervisor assumes they're all busy and passes on by. When I unpack the taut efficiency of Donne's "Flea" I know I have a lot of calisthenics ahead of me before I could run in that kind of race.

BitchBuzz: Mashing Jane

My latest column for BitchBuzz is actually a book review. I must say I had fun writing it. More fun than the book. Even better, BitchBuzz is now part of the Glam Media network, so there's hope this leads to bigger and better things for the whole BB crew:

There's something to be said for injecting new life into a mouldering corpse, as both Mary Shelley and Herbert West knew. However, it is usually best to wait until the body actually dies. While Jane Austen may not be dancing a hornpipe these days, her legacy is as sprightly as ever.

I know this book, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters -- and the one that preceded it and the ones that will inevitably follow it like mutant spawn or enchanted brooms -- is really at heart just a mash note of fondness for everyone's favourite Regency babe, but like the tentacled Colonel Brandon the Dashwoods first meet in its pages, it is difficult not to look away with a grimace.

Remember when mash-ups first hit? Wasn't it cool to hear "Paperback Believer" and "Smells Like Booty" or um, that one with Cher? Well, for about five minutes or so, it was cool. Video mash-ups, too -- they were popular for a while....

As always, peruse the rest over at BBHQ.

I should also mention my other publication this week, also a review, of Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World by E. A. Bucchianeri in the Journal of Folklore Research. It's a two volume set all about Faust (for those of you who can't get enough of the mad necromancer).

I've got more guest bloggers coming up; hope you're enjoying the special Women's History Month celebration. It's wonderful to be able to celebrate the multi-talented women I know -- and the women they admire and find inspiring. Men like 'em, too!

Gothic Monday

Have you been keeping up with my serial novel blog, The Mangrove Legacy? As I contemplate ways to regularise my weekly schedule here, it strikes me that I don't always remember to draw folks' attention to the serial novel, which I update every Sunday night. If you like comic gothic shenanigans, you will probably enjoy its silly nature. It does have adventure and suspense, too -- as well as the occasional pirate or other brigands.

Ghosts, too! Are they real or are they Scooby-ed? Only Mrs. Radcliffe knows... or does she?! Mysteries, romance -- and pockets!

At present, the schedule seems to be this: Monday, serial; Tuesday, WLoAD; Thursday, BitchBuzz; Friday, podcasts. In between there will always be random thoughts and reviews as well as announcements. Of course it's not set in stone. I'm really not too inclined to follow rules, even of my own making. I do have an exciting new project for the blog in the new year, but that will be unveiled anon.

As always, I thank the faithful readers of this blog and welcome others who drop by (unless you're leaving spam links, which I cheerfully remove [okay, not that cheerfully]). Despite the fun I have on Facebook and Twitter, I have no plans to abandon the blogs any time soon.

Last day of classes today!

The Next Big Thing

Perhaps -- it's big in Japan, anyway and may well be big here soon: text novels. Yep, that's right: a novel that's sent bit by bit to your phone or mobile device.

Charles Dickens, eat your heart out!

My pal, Saranna DeWylde, has a couple of novels begun there, and told me I really need to get on board with this. She's right, so I have started putting my serial The Mangrove Legacy up there. Even better, Dorchester Publishing is holding a contest between now and November so if you drop by, you can vote for my novel in the competition. I've listed it as Romance: Historical, but I added enough information to make sure people knew it had my surreal sense of humour, too. If they're expecting a serious gothic, I don't want them to be led astray.

Today I'm off to Shakespeare & Co for a behind the scenes tour and a matinee of Measure for Measure. Then it's off to Robert's to relax a little before I come back and yes, work some more.

Effortless

In slow increments of about 500 words at a time, my serial novel The Mangrove Legacy, has passed over the 70,000 word threshold. My, my. Break a task into tiny steps and it gets done (eventually, but fairly effortlessly).