Requiem, Finalist for Book of the Year Award!

Well, hello out there.

I’ve been utterly silent for the last, what, four months. But today I received news that necessitates me blogging. Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein is a finalist for the 2008 Book of the Year Award for Historical Fiction. The award is sponsored by ForeWords Magazine and, according their PR, the finalists “represent some of the best work coming from today’s independent press community.”

The winners will be announced at BookExpo America in New York City on May 29. So, it’s not over yet. Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein could win a Gold, Silver or Bronze. There’s even a cash award. Very exciting. Worth writing about, yes?

I do have more news: I’ll be talking about Requiem and Mary Shelley in Ukiah at the Mendocino Book Company next Thursday evening. It’s a celebration of National Women’s month and starts at 6 pm. I’ll also be at the Gallery Book Store in Mendocino on March 29th. It’s a day-long event featuring local authors. I’ll be there at 1 pm.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Washington State for the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. It was great fun and very rewarding. I taught two workshops and gave a “fireside chat” presentation on researching historical fiction, so I they kept me busy. I truly enjoyed myself. My morning workshop was on Dialogue, the other, in the evening was called “Apprenticing the Masters.” It was a fifteen hour drive up there and another one back. Fortunately, for me, a writer friend, who is in my writing group was going up to the conference as a participant and he not only ‘gave me a ride,’ he did all the driving. What a gift! Thank you Doug Fortier.

So, here I am. I’ve broken the ice. I actually have even more news. I’ve just been hired as an editor by Story Circle Network. That’s a new online site that’s being put together by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett. I’ll have more on that in the next week or so.

On top of all that, and in some ways, best of all, I’ve been writing a lot lately. I’m about half way through the original draft of my second novel, The Appassionata. My last entry, last fall was actually about The Appassionata. I’ll have more to say about that, but the big news is that Mary Shelley and Claire Claremont (her step-sister) made it onto the page and once they arrived, the book just opened up in front of me. It’s been very exciting.