Award-winning author
Unusual times, remarkable places

The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

The "Standard of Ur" from ancient Mesopotamia

28 November 2012

Update on fall 2012


I've neglected my blog lately, but not because anything is wrong. My life has been really busy!

I will have a real post up on Friday, 30 November. Check back then to read a great guest post by author Karin Gastreich on crafting spells for your fantasy story or novel.

In other news, all Hadley Rille Books ebooks will be on sale for a week starting tomorrow (Thursday, 29 November) for 99¢. Some new novels have come out this fall, so you may want to see what's new at http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/titles.html. Ebooks make great holiday gifts.

Here's some of what's been keeping me so busy.

1. I've been a guest at other people's blogs.

In October, I did a Halloween-themed post at Star-Crossed Romance on how to create fear in your reader:
http://star-crossedromance.blogspot.com/2012/10/guest-shauna-roberts.html

Also in October, I blogged at Nicole Galloway-Miller's blog about whether one should research historical fiction before or after writing it:
http://nrgalloway24.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/guest-blog-how-circumcision-taught-me-to-always-research-first-write-second/

In today's guest post at Karin Gastreich's "Eolyn Chronicles" blog, I talk about how preconceptions kept archaeologists from realizing that at least some of the women buried in the Royal Cemetery of Ur (in ancient Sumer) were probably ruling queens:
http://eolynchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/11/women-and-archeology-queens-of-ancient.html

2. I am having a great—but exhausting—time teaching a University of California at Riverside–Osher Institute extension course on the "Epic of Gilgamesh." The Osher Institute here is one of several in the United States; as I understand it, all serve only people over 50. No homework, no tests, and no one is there because they have to be. My students are incredibly enthusiastic, making it a joy to teach them.

3. I also have received the edits for my summer 2013 fantasy novel, Ice Magic, Fire Magic. A new manuscript is due back to Hadley Rille Books by the end of the year, so I won't have much time to breathe until 2013.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Indeed sounds busy. Teaching, especially a new course, can be exhausting for sure.

Shauna Roberts said...

CHARLES, I hope I can teach the class again. I've enjoyed it, and it would be a shame to have spent so much time preparing lectures, slide shows, and handouts and then never use them again.