Tagged: masq2

The Portrayal of Cleopatra in Historical Fiction

Cleopatra has been a favourite subject of many artists.

Cleopatra is a cultural phenomenon; you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who has not at least heard her name.  There are movies, plays, songs and (of course) books about her life, but I’m only focusing on one of these mediums: books.  How is Cleopatra portrayed in historical fiction and just how accurate are these portrayals?

First, we have to take a look at the basics of her life.  Cleopatra VII Philopator (Father-Lover) was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt in most people’s eyes.  She was, however, part of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty and the last Egyptian pharaohs had been long dead by her time.  It is said she was fluent in nine languages, including Egyptian, which endeared her to the native Egyptian population the typically Greek-speaking Ptolemies ruled over.

Cleopatra, as was Egyptian tradition, ruled jointly with her father and later her two brothers in the typical brother-sister marriages.  Why?  According to Egyptian tradition, it was the royal women that held the power to legitimize the males.  In addition to that, nearly all of the gods were married to their siblings.  Isis and Osiris, Set and Nepthys, Nut and Geb.  And were the pharaohs not the sons of gods?  Well, that was the theory anyway. Continue reading →

5 Things I Would Do Differently: Blogging

Every blogger, when they look back at how they started out, has things they would do differently.  I am no different!  So what would I change if I could go back in time?

1.  I would learn more about the technical aspects of blogging.

Sure, I actually planned out my blog, but to be perfectly honest, I had no idea what the heck I was doing.  I had read some blogging articles, but I was absolutely clueless about all of the blogging terms and still decided to have a go at it.  Patience has never been one of my virtues.

Looking back, I was pretty pathetic.  I’m ridiculously grateful to everyone in the forums for helping me when I asked dumb questions like “What’s a pingback?” and “Is this a spam comment?”  Now, with a lot more experience, I know what these things are.  However, I should have done a lot more research beforehand. Continue reading →

Books that Should be Taught in School: Feed by Mira Grant

You’re probably thinking I’ve gone insane right now, aren’t you?  At least, literary snobs, those of you that have read Feed and those of you that have seen my review are.  I mean, a zombie novel in school.  How crazy can you get?  Well, it’s actually not that crazy.  So please hear me out before you pass judgment:
1.  It will engage high school students.

Yes, Feed has violence and coarse language.  Yes, it’s a zombie novel.  But I know for a fact that ‘worse’ books (content-wise) have been studied in school.  Does anyone here remember reading Catch-22 in high school English?  When I first read it, I was shocked that anyone ever studied this in school, yet it was still studied because it was a good novel.  Feed is an excellent novel and in my honest opinion, it’s no worse than Joseph Heller’s classic novel.  In some aspects, it is less ‘offensive’.

In most people’s minds zombies=awesome.  By high school, most people (especially boys in my experience) hate reading passionately.  Educators are always asking themselves how to improve reading scores and get kids interested in reading again.

Do you see where I’m going here?

Feed has all of the themes, messages and three dimensional characters that educators love to analyze to death while having all of the zombies, weapons and gross science that teenagers love.  It has bad language and violence (obviously), but for kids in grade 11 and 12…they’re going to see and hear a lot worse on television on an ordinary day. Continue reading →

The True Confessions of a Book Reviewer

I’m approaching my ninth month as a book reviewer, even though it doesn’t feel like it and I’ve been reflecting a lot on my blog and book reviewing in general.  It wasn’t until I saw this article on The Perpetual Page-Turner that I realized a lot of other reviewers experience the same things.  Well, here are my confessions:

1.  There are times when I don’t want to get out of bed, let alone write a review.

I love writing reviews and when I really love a book, writing a review is easy.  However, when there are mixed elements in a book it’s hard to write a review.  You have to balance out the good and the bad and say why certain aspects were bad.  Writing-wise, it’s much more difficult than to gush, but it needs to be done.  I owe it to my readers and the author to write a fair review, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write when I have writer’s block.  There are some days when I don’t even want to get out of bed to go to work and make money, let alone write a review for fun.

I go through the occasional period of writing trouble and feel under-appreciated; I’m not ashamed to admit that.  But then I get that one comment that makes my day and gives me new motivation to write through the good and bad times.  It’s comments that expand upon the article, promote discussion and show that someone appreciates what I’m doing that give me the motivation to keep writing every day.  To some it may seem pathetic, but it’s that occasional thoughtful comment that makes my day, especially when I’ve had a long day at work. Continue reading →

3 Pieces of Advice Authors (Should) Ignore

There is a lot of advice for authors out there and, as such, there is a lot of advice out there that is mediocre or just plain bad.  Here are some examples of wretched advice I’ve found on writing sites and why authors should just plain ignore it.

You don’t want to be this guy, do you?

1.  Never read reviews.

This lovely little piece of advice has been around a long time and is in practically every book and blog about writing ever.  9 times out of 10, it makes me burst out into hysterical laughter.  Why?

Because no one follows it.

Well, I shouldn’t say that.  I mean: 99 out of 100 authors who have access to the internet never follow it.  We humans are curious by nature, especially when it comes to the opinions of our fellow humans on something we’ve worked hard at.  The internet makes this curiosity pretty much unbearable because book reviews are so accessible, therefore at one time or another, an author is going to read someone’s review of their book.

How do I know this?  I’m a book reviewer, of course.  My reviews have been read by Matt Myklusch, Krystal Wade, Michelle Hansen and Mira Grant, just to name a few.  The first three I mention contacted me via my blog or email and Mira Grant mentioned me on her blog in a round-up of reviews of her books.  Keep in mind that these are just the authors I know for certain have read my reviews.  I’m pretty sure more have stumbled across my blog.

I do have to add one caveat to my derision of this advice: you shouldn’t read reviews if you’re sensitive.  No matter how amazing your book is, you will get a bad review and it will hurt.  Now, if you’ve already developed thick skin, this will be a minor hurt you can just brush off or even laugh about.  However, if you haven’t developed that thick skin that’s necessary in the publishing industry, you really shouldn’t ignore this advice. Continue reading →