This is the 237th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and the official end of the Riskies’ Jane Austen celebration….’til next time!
But it’s not the end of our giveaways. You have until midnight tonight to comment on each of our blogs for a chance to win each of our prizes, and for a chance to win the grand prize– a $50 Amazon gift certificate.
So work your way back and make sure you leave a comment on each blog!
The winners will be announced tomorrow (Monday).
The Riskies
I’m thinking that the Scots know how to do New Year’s. Their celebration of Hogmanay may have roots in early Viking celebrations of winter solstice or other pre-Christian winter customs. Or maybe Hogmanay became the popular celebration because celebrating Christmas was forbidden in Scotland for 400 years. Blame the Protestant Reformation for that.
Lots of the celebrations include fire.
In Stonewall, each New Year’s Eve men parade down the streets swinging huge fireballs over their heads by wire or chains. Any fireballs left burning are flung into the harbor.
Burghead has the Burning of the Clavie, albeit taking place Jan 11.
The clavie is a half-cask is filled with wood shavings and tar that is set on fire. A Clavie king and his helpers parade the burning barrel around town and the charcoal from the fire is collected and placed in fireplaces to ward off evil spirits.
A Viking longship is burned in Edinburgh harbor as part of that city’s days long celebration. And Edinburgh has a big fireworks display as well.
Lerwick has an actual fire festival the last Tuesday in January. Paraders carry torches in procession and a galley is burned.
Me, I’m probably going to sit by my own fireplace and bring in the New Year quietly. I like the end of the old year and beginning of the new one to be quiet and peaceful after all the busyness of November and December.
How about you?
What other way can I wish you a Happy New Year without including Auld Lang Syne. In Scotland, revelers only link hands during the last verse:
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie’s a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.
A writing post today and just my opinion, as well.
I do not pretend to be an expert on True Blood, the hit HBO Series based on the books by Charlaine Harris, but I have become a fan of the TV series. A romance with a vampire hero is not exactly my cup of tea, and I rarely read a paranormal (but I love that friends like Carolyn write them!), so why am I tuning in every week?
I think it has to do with the characters. I love complex characters, those who are not wholly good or wholly bad but a mixture of the two. They experience pain, make mistakes, have flaws, but also are courageous, heroic, loving, loyal. Almost every character in True Blood is complex (except maybe Sookie, the primary heroine, although she is brave, loyal, and interesting in her own right).
The male characters are especially compelling.
Bill, of course, has all kinds of dark secrets. He is a vampire, after all. What I find most compelling of him is his single-minded love of Sookie. Even though external events and their differences (one being human, the other vampire) drive them apart, he is always there for her when she needs him. If he cannot reach her, you see his pain for not being able to save her. The hero who is unwavering in his love for the heroine is one readers can love.
Sam seems to be the Beta hero of the series. He is the perennial good-guy, but also has the dark secret of being a shape-shifter. In season two he is battling the mysterious Maryann, with whom he has a “past.” As a hero, a Beta with secrets and private suffering is also a great addition to any story. We want him to find love, because he so clearly deserves a good woman to love.
Eric is the darkest, most Alpha of the True Blood heroes. A vampire leader, he is dark and dangerous and powerful, but he also leaves the impression (to me, at least) that he has a secret good side. It keeps us guessing on whether he will be proved good or bad in the end.
We know Bill will protect Sookie at all costs; we know Sam will behave with decency; we don’t know about Eric. In the right story any one of these heroes would make the reader fall in love with him.
One more thing I want to say about True Blood. Each episode ends with a strong hook, one that makes you want to tune in to the next episode. This is the way to end a chapter! Keep them turning the pages.
What do you think of the heroes and characters of True Blood? If you don’t watch the series, what do you think makes for complex characters. Who is your favorite complex character (in the series or not) and why?
(Note: Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie, and Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill, just got engaged in real life!) Photos by Creative Commons
I’m almost done with my second “soldiers” book! Stay tuned to my website for the latest news about my books.
Jane Austen was born Dec 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England, a day for us all to celebrate; however, we Riskies are celebrating Jane Austen ALL week.
We want you to celebrate with us. There will be prizes. We’ve managed to scrape up Jane Austen-related prizes to send to one lucky commenter chosen at random next Sunday after Amanda’s Saturday blog finishes our week.
What was your first introduction to Jane Austen?
I first read Pride and Prejudice in college, but I cannot say my love of Austen hit me then. At the time, I loved everything about English Literature, enough to focus on English Lit as an English major. The real impact of Jane Austen came later for me and not through her books but through a movie.
Shortly after I’d first started writing, my critique group went to see Persuasion in the movie theatre, the Amanda Root-Ciaran Hinds version. There on the big screen the world of the Regency came alive in front of my very eyes. I’d just started reading traditional Regencies at the time and the beautiful houses, the clothing, the lush countryside, the sea coast, Bath, were all before me to experience as if I were really there. I loved the performances in the movie. I loved how Amanda Root as Anne began the movie looking like a dowdy spinster and ended up beautiful when the love she’d lost came back to her. I loved how Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth was not movie-star handsome, but seemed like a real man from that era. All the characters in the movie seemed perfectly cast and the scenery was unsurpassed. Look here for the movie trailer and you will see what I mean.
I still didn’t return to reading Austen at that time. That came later when I decided to try writing a Regency Historical. To help me develop a “Regency Voice” I listened to Jane Austen’s novels in audio book form over and over. Persuasion was still my favorite. I loved the “second chance” aspect of it.
You can hear a sample of that audio recording here.
Through the audio versions of Jane Austen’s novels, I truly began to appreciate her storytelling mastery. It is no wonder that librarians chose Pride and Prejudice as their number one favorite novel of all time…and Persuasion as number 82.
For more about Persuasion look here
For Cara’s Jane Austen Movie Club discussion of the 1995 movie Persuasion look here.
Tell us, did you love Jane Austen at your first exposure or did it happen later? Did you start with a movie or a book?
Don’t forget, we’re giving away Jane Austen-related prizes in honor of her birthday, so make a comment today and all week.
Come visit my website and enter my contest by Dec 20 for a chance to win Mistletoe Kisses.
Oh, by the way, here’s a photo of my son’s graduation. He really did it!!
The little arrow is pointing to him. If you can see a bearded face, my son is right behind him.
Happy Halloween!
The Rev. Mr Thomas Baddy, who lived in Denbigh town, and was a dissenting minister in that place, went into his study one night, and while he was reading or writing, he heard some one behind him laughing and grinning at him, which made him stop a little. It came again, and there he wrote on a piece of paper, that devil wounding scripture, 1 John iii. ‘ For this was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,’ and held it backwards towards him, and the laughing ceased for ever; for it was a melancholy word to a scoffing devil, and enough.
Clever fellow, Reverend Tom. Nerves of steel, as well. I believe I would have screamed and run from the room.
The remarkable circumstance of Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton, prophesying his own death within a few minutes, upon the information of an apparition, has been always quoted as a true story. But of late it has been said and published, that the unfortunate nobleman had previously determined to take poison, and of course had it in his own power to ascertain the execution of the prediction. It was no doubt singular that a man, who meditated his exit from the world, should have chosen to play such a trick on his friends. But it is still more credible that a whimsical man should do so wild a thing than that a messenger should be sent from the dead, to tell a libertine at what precise hour he should expire.
Sir Walter is clearly a skeptic. Too bad he didn’t have access to Celebrity Ghost Stories on the Bio Channel.
