Scarring My Daughter for Life

A long time ago (February 22, 2010, to be exact), I posted about my experience watching The Incredible Journey when I was six years old. I had to laugh (and groan and almost cry) this weekend when I showed it to my five-year-old monkey. 

To be honest, I zoned out after about the first 30 minutes. (I have an excuse--I was working on a first draft. Honest!) Then the sounds of monkey-sobs penetrated my brain. 

I looked up to see... the exact same scene that made me bawl when I was little. Sassy (the cat) plunging over the waterfall. 

(Yes, I realize I'm no longer in the running for Mom-of-the-Year. There's always next year, right?)

There's really no moral here, except don't show your cat-loving-and-very-impressionable daughter movies about cats almost-dying. (I tried to explain before the movie that it was all pretend, but obviously that didn't do any good. Seriously--the little monkey can handle Voldemort and the trolls in The Chamber of Secrets, but not The Incredible Journey. Ugh.)

On a completely unrelated side note, I also managed to read two phenomenal historical novels in the last week. If you're looking for a good read, I highly recommend Michelle Moran's The Second Empress (about Napoleon's court) and Erika Robuck's Hemingway's Girl (about Hemingway during his Key West days).  

What about you? Any scarred children or book recommendations you'd like to tell about?

Dancing in the Rain

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass,

it's about learning to dance in the rain."

--Vivian Greene

 This is my motto for the new school year, especially as I'm teaching a brand-new AP European History class (and I have a newly minted kindergardener!). Life's a little busy, to say the least. 

But this made me smile--THE SECRET HISTORY is on Goodreads! The cover should be coming soon--life is busy, but super exciting!

How are things going in your neck of the woods? Any exciting news or great quotes to share? Or perhaps some chocolate you'd care to send my way?

You've Got Another Think Coming

Yes, you read that right.

You've got another think coming.

In THE SECRET HISTORY, I had a line that said, "He had another thing coming."

Sounds right, yes? Wrong.

My wonderful editor gave me a new wrinkle for my brain (is that actually backed up by science?) when she pointed out that the saying is actually "another think." Apparently the phrase came from the expression, "If that's what you think, you've got another think coming."

That makes sense to my ear, but "He had another think coming" looks terribly wrong to my eyes. It's also apparently an Americanism which means it probably shouldn't be in a book about the Byzantine Empire.

So I changed it, but now I feel a little smarter knowing the "real" phrase.

Yay!

Hagia Sophia

 I love the Hagia Sophia. I might have cried both times I've seen it.

The Hagia Sophia (also known as the Church of Holy Wisdom or the Aya Sophia) is one of the most breathtaking structures in the entire world. However, the current building is actually the third incarnation of the church-turned-mosque-turned-museum as the first two were both destroyed during ancient riots.

A lonely remnant of the second church. The sheep represent the 12 Apostles.

The Nika riot of 532 A.D. burned down much of the city of Constantinople (including the Hagia Sophia, Senate, and part of the imperial palace) and resulted in the deaths of 30,000 rebels who wanted to replace Justinian as emperor. After a rousing speech by Theodora (more on that later), Justinian's side won, but his capital was left in ruins. On the bright side, the destruction allowed Justinian and Theodora to rebuild the Hagia Sophia on a much grander scale. 

The central part of the massive interior. Those are people at the bottom, not ants.

Justinian managed to finish his new church in only five years, including the massive dome that was the envy of the world. (Never mind that it collapsed 21 years later and had to be rebuilt). He also filled the interior with marble pillars gathered from the corners of the ancient world and a treasury worth of glittering mosaics.

 A pillar with Theodora or Justinian's monogram. In keeping with their religious beliefs, the Muslims later covered the face of the seraphim in the background, but one has recently been uncovered. 

 Justinian offering the Hagia Sophia and Constantine giving the city of Constantinople to the Virgin and Child.

Standing in the Empress' loge. (Where Theodora would have stood! *swoon*) Notice the beautiful Islamic calligraphy in the background.

The Hagia Sophia remained the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years, and while Justinian and Theodora built several churches, this is the crown jewel of their reign together.

Mile 6, How I Loathe Thee

Today I tried to kill myself. Again.

In a moment of utter foolishness, I signed up to run a HALF-marathon over Labor Day weekend. (I specify HALF-marathon because training this summer has convinced me of one thing regarding full marathon runners: they are bat-sh*t crazy.)

Today I ran 11 miles. The first five were easy.

Then came Mile 6.

It's a little more than halfway through. The lovely Julie Dao suggested on Twitter that at this point I should have been joined by unicorns and candy. But no...

Instead, Mile 6 ushered in aching hips, sore feet, and the dreaded ankle pain that felt like someone was stabbing through the top of my foot with a butter knife. (I garnered this lovely injury by stepping in a pothole in Greece this summer. And falling very gracefully while teaching any Greek children on the road how to curse colorfully in English.)

So I hobbled along until just before Mile 10 when I was bombarded by a crazy swarm of bees. (No, I'm not making this up.) Then I ran like... well, like there was a swarm of angry bees on my tail.

So, yeah, the middle of long runs sucks. Here's where you can feel free to insert some great analogy for writing the middle of a novel. (Something I'm also quickly approaching that also tends to suck.)

However, I ran 11 miles today so I'm going to go eat a big bowl of peanut-butter chocolate ice cream that's calling my name. It's not candy and a unicorn, but it'll do.

I Love Canada!

So I was procrastinating writing doing serious research tonight and thought I'd check to see what came up when I Googled "Stephanie Thornton." 

Pretty basic stuff. 

My blog. Pinterest account. And so on. 

Then, just for kicks, I searched "Stephanie Thornton The Secret History." 

My blog. Blog entries. The success stories on Querytracker and Gary Corby's Blog. 

And this. 

My book, on Amazon for Canada. With the real title. 

*swoons* 

Can I just say, I love Canada right now? 

And a big Happy Almost-Canada Day to my new favorite country!

Bazaar Leeches

So I'm back from my trip, having eaten far too much pizza, baklava, and gelato. (And doing my penance now by training for a half-marathon. Ugh.) It was pretty fun to visit Europe this time and just soak up the city without have to run helter-skelter doing a ton of research. I did pick up some local Istanbul color for The Secret History, as well as seeing some things that made me chuckle.


Here's a bit of a paraphrase from the current draft of Theodora's story:


I learned to follow suit, spending my afternoons roaming the markets and imagining I had the coins to buy gems from Asia, Persian silks and spices, and Baltic amber. More in our price range were the jars of leeches and senna and licorice root for constipation, both of which Mother sent me to fetch for Vitus.


So imagine my surprise when we came upon this in the Spice Bazaar!

  Leeches for sale!

In case you're wondering, we didn't buy any. Too hard to get through Customs. 

A kaleidoscope of spices and tea. I love their little tea glasses!

I searched high and low for a cherry juice vendor last year and never found one. But I found one this year!

A litter of kittens snoozing in a carpet shop. I think Istanbul might have more cats than people.

This little guy found a nice place to nap in the Book Bazaar. 

People watching in the Bazaars. I swear you could spend a month there are not see everything. 

So that was our Bazaar extravaganza. More to come from Turkey, Greece, and Italy soon!