Well, Happy 3rd Week of February! I must announce we only have two more days of the book giveaway contest for Madame Tussaud as sponsore by the author Michelle Moran. Hurry and post a comment about any of her books or writing at the contest link at the top of Fictionally Yours or here after this post.
And now...here is Michelle with her guest post over Madame Tussaud! Yea!
MADAME TUSSAUD: The Woman by Michelle Moran
When most people hear the name Madame Tussaud, the first thing that comes to mind are the eerily lifelike waxworks which crowd her museums throughout the world. But who was the woman behind the name, and what was she like in the flesh?
Madame Tussaud’s story actually began in 18th century Paris. While most people know her from her famous museum in London, it was in France, on the humble Boulevard du Temple, where Marie first got her start as an apprentice in her uncle’s wax museum, the Salon de Cire. At the time, the Boulevard du Temple was crowded with exhibits of every kind. For just a few sous a passerby might attend the opera, watch a puppet show, or visit Henri Charles’ mystifying exhibition The Invisible Girl. The Boulevard was a difficult place to distinguish yourself as an artist, but as Marie’s talent grew for both sculpting and public relations, the Salon de Cire became one of the most popular attractions around. Suddenly, no one could compete with Marie or her uncle for ingenious publicity stunts, and when the royal family supposedly visited their museum, this only solidified what most showmen in Paris already knew — the Salon was an exhibition to watch out for.
But as the Salon’s popularity grew, so did the unusual requests. Noblemen came asking for wax sculptures of their mistresses, women wanted models of their newborn infants, and – most importantly – the king’s sister herself wanted Marie to come to Versailles to be her wax tutor. While this was, in many ways, a dream come true for Marie, it was also a dangerous time to be associated with the royal family. Men like Robespierre, Marat, and Desmoulins were meeting at Marie’s house to discuss the future of the monarchy, and when the Revolution began, Marie found herself in a precarious position. Ultimately, she was given a choice by France’s new leaders: to preserve the famous victims of Madame Guillotine in wax, or be guillotined herself.
Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution is the story of Marie’s life during one of the most tumultuous times in human history. Her survival was nothing less than astonishing, and how she survived makes for what I hope is a compelling read.
Sincerely, Michelle Moran
Thank-you so much Michelle! So glad you could visit Fictionally Yours!
Showing posts with label michelle moran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label michelle moran. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
New Contest@Fictionally Yours! Madame Tussaud!
FEBRUARY CONTEST
As I mentioned in my last post I declare February as the month for Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran! Who doesn't love historical fiction with a bit of romance mixed in....I mean think about it...art, the French Revolution, death by guillotine, and love. The perfect mix for a great film, and in this case, a great book which is sometimes better than a movie. In celebration of Madame Tussaud's release date on February 15, Michelle is hosting a contest here at Fictionally Yours!
WHAT TO DO...make a comment on this post about one of your favorite lines in any of Michelle Moran's books (Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra's Daughter, Madame Tussaud). Also leave your mailing address.PRIZE...One lucky winner will receive a pair of Marie Antoinette cupcake earings and a signed hard-cover copy of Madame Tussaud! Straight from Michelle!
(also, I'd really like for you to become a follower if you like what you see on my blog...)
Madame Tussaud and Michelle Moran info coming later this month!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Cupcakes, New YA Historical Fiction, and Thursday Trailer!
One of the authors I really love is Michelle Moran. If you haven't read any of her historical fiction, you are missing out! I recently went looking for her books at a local Barnes an Nobles and as you would know it there is a whole wall devoted to paranormal titles and not one single space reserved for Michelle in the rest of the YA section. But...you can find her at Target! Of course, you can always order online, as well. But I've read so much paranormal stuff that is totally unappealing and unsophisticated in writing style. Us readers are smart. We want quality. We want sweeping romance. We want characters with depth--not just some girl named Calliope with a flaming mane of hair who is entranced by a druid lord with a plan to snatch her soul, but nonetheless, she follows him to the spirit world where vampires reign and dictate the whims of all soulless creatures.
We want good writing with well-written characters that can provide a lasting "ahhh" effect after we put the book down for the night. Well, that's Michelle Moran, and I'm excited to say I just recieved a galley for her latest--Madame Tussaud
Madame Tussaud has an official release date of Feb. 15 and you can definitely find it Target on that day!
In celebration I am declaring February as Michelle Moran and Madame Tussaud month!
More good news! I am hosting a contest and the winner will recieve a cute pair of Marie Antoinette cupcake earings and a signed book straight from Michelle! Without me as the "middlewoman" to mess up all the shipping details.
So what is this contest? Hmmm... write a comment either on this post or my official upcoming contest post. The comment should be about your favorite passage in one of Michelle's books. Never read any of her books? Get yourself to Target or your local library and track her books down...The Heretic Queen, Nefertiti, Cleopatra's Daughter, or Madame Tussaud (available Feb. 15). The contest will run from now up through the week after the book's release.
Good luck.
And here...for your visual pleasure is a Thursday book trailer for Madame Tussaud. It's not the usual book-trailer-as-a-movie experience, but rather a very interesting presentation by Michelle.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Happy Labor Day and Michelle Moran
Happy Labor Day to all you who actually do not have to labor today...I'm one of them. Well, I am completely alone at home today. I plan to visit my mom, meet my husband at Taco Bell, take a nap, and pick up my son from school. Then it's dinner, homework, and all kinds of sports. But, somehow, through all this I have to get myself together and do some major damage in my own homework schedule. Tommorrow I have to "pitch" my story idea for a feature film to my screenwriting professor and classmates.
Amazingly, I got a brainstorm Saturday morning. The picture above has got something to do with...a coming of age screenplay dealing with South Padre Island. It seems like too much to put here on my review blog...so go check out my live journal if you want to know more. I'm really gonna try hard to put anything to do with my aspiring career as a writer over on livejournal and not fill up Athena's YA Reviews with that, eventhough I have been doing a little of this. I'll still give tidbits here every now and then, but I don't want to lose the focus of this blog.
On to Michelle Moran...I have only read a piece of Cleopatra's Daughter, but so far I love it. How can I not, especially since I teach world history?
I don't have a review yet, but I do have a blog post by the author herself! Just keep reading...
Amazingly, I got a brainstorm Saturday morning. The picture above has got something to do with...a coming of age screenplay dealing with South Padre Island. It seems like too much to put here on my review blog...so go check out my live journal if you want to know more. I'm really gonna try hard to put anything to do with my aspiring career as a writer over on livejournal and not fill up Athena's YA Reviews with that, eventhough I have been doing a little of this. I'll still give tidbits here every now and then, but I don't want to lose the focus of this blog.
On to Michelle Moran...I have only read a piece of Cleopatra's Daughter, but so far I love it. How can I not, especially since I teach world history?
I don't have a review yet, but I do have a blog post by the author herself! Just keep reading...
Michelle Moran on Why Cleopatra's daughter?
It began with a dive. Not the kind of dive that people take into swimming pools, but the kind where you squeeze yourself into a wetsuit and wonder just how tasty your rump must appear to passing sharks now that it looks exactly like an elephant seal. My husband and I had taken a trip to Egypt, and at the suggestion of a friend, we decided to go to Alexandria and do a dive to see the remains of Cleopatra’s underwater city. Let it be known that I had never done an underwater dive before, so after four days with an instructor (and countless questions like, Will there be sharks? How about jellyfish? If there is an earthquake, what happens underwater?) we were ready for the real thing.
We drove to the Eastern Harbor in Alexandria. Dozens of other divers were already there, waiting to see what sort of magic lay beneath the waves. I wondered if the real thing could possibly live up to all of the guides and brochures selling this underwater city, lost for thousands of years until now. Then we did the dive, and it was every bit as magical as everyone had promised. You can see the rocks which once formed Marc Antony’s summer palace, come face to face with Cleopatra’s towering sphinx, and take your time floating above ten thousand ancient artifacts, including obelisks, statues, and countless amphorae. By the time we had surfaced, I was Cleopatra-obsessed. I wanted to know what had happened to her city once she and Marc Antony had committed suicide. Where did all of its people go? Were they allowed to remain or were they killed by the Romans? What about her four children?
It was this last question which surprised me the most. I had always believed that all of Cleopatra’s children had been murdered. But the Roman conqueror Octavian had actually spared the three she bore to Marc Antony: her six-year-old son, Ptolemy, and her ten-year-old twins, Alexander and Selene. As soon as I learned that Octavian had taken the three of them for his Triumph in Rome, I knew at once I had my next book. This is how all of my novels seem to begin – with a journey, then an adventure, and finally, enormous amounts of research for what I hope is an exciting story.
It began with a dive. Not the kind of dive that people take into swimming pools, but the kind where you squeeze yourself into a wetsuit and wonder just how tasty your rump must appear to passing sharks now that it looks exactly like an elephant seal. My husband and I had taken a trip to Egypt, and at the suggestion of a friend, we decided to go to Alexandria and do a dive to see the remains of Cleopatra’s underwater city. Let it be known that I had never done an underwater dive before, so after four days with an instructor (and countless questions like, Will there be sharks? How about jellyfish? If there is an earthquake, what happens underwater?) we were ready for the real thing.
We drove to the Eastern Harbor in Alexandria. Dozens of other divers were already there, waiting to see what sort of magic lay beneath the waves. I wondered if the real thing could possibly live up to all of the guides and brochures selling this underwater city, lost for thousands of years until now. Then we did the dive, and it was every bit as magical as everyone had promised. You can see the rocks which once formed Marc Antony’s summer palace, come face to face with Cleopatra’s towering sphinx, and take your time floating above ten thousand ancient artifacts, including obelisks, statues, and countless amphorae. By the time we had surfaced, I was Cleopatra-obsessed. I wanted to know what had happened to her city once she and Marc Antony had committed suicide. Where did all of its people go? Were they allowed to remain or were they killed by the Romans? What about her four children?
It was this last question which surprised me the most. I had always believed that all of Cleopatra’s children had been murdered. But the Roman conqueror Octavian had actually spared the three she bore to Marc Antony: her six-year-old son, Ptolemy, and her ten-year-old twins, Alexander and Selene. As soon as I learned that Octavian had taken the three of them for his Triumph in Rome, I knew at once I had my next book. This is how all of my novels seem to begin – with a journey, then an adventure, and finally, enormous amounts of research for what I hope is an exciting story.
Monday, August 31, 2009
In My Mail Today...Cleopatra's Daughter
Exciting YA news for me...today I recieved an advanced reader's copy of Cleopatra's Daughter! Thanks goes out to Michelle Moran, author of Cleopatra's Daughter, for having one sent to me through her publisher. I seriously can not wait to sink my hair into it. But...I've got quite some work to do this semester at graduate school. I have 4 fiction pieces to write (and I hope I can write them as chapters towards my YA novel/ thesis manuscript) in my Fiction Workshop. That's challenging, but totally do-able. Now, the Screenwriting Workshop. All I can say is wow. I basically have a 70 page feature length screenplay to write. On top of that, I have film analysis and 2 formal papers with bibliographies on book to film adaptation (hmmm...how about Twilight-I'm probably the only one brave enough to do it for grad school) and on previous forms developed in my chosen film genre. Like I said, wow. When will I blog? When will I reveiw? When will I read? But, I'll keep my promise of 1 to 2 posts a week (not neccessarily book reviews).
Tonight, I want to focus more on Cleopatra's Daughter as September 16 is coming on us pretty fast. Heck, Septemeber 1st and The Hollow nearly passed me by, and I didn't even have time to go anywhere near a book store today (but I definitely will).
If you haven't yet seen the book trailer on Michelle's website, well, here it is. It'll pretty much get you to read it.
1
Who can resist the intrigue of Rome? And for all you world history students reading this...it's so perfect how we are going to be covering ancient Rome very soon.
Happy reading! (And wish me some luck!)
Tonight, I want to focus more on Cleopatra's Daughter as September 16 is coming on us pretty fast. Heck, Septemeber 1st and The Hollow nearly passed me by, and I didn't even have time to go anywhere near a book store today (but I definitely will).
If you haven't yet seen the book trailer on Michelle's website, well, here it is. It'll pretty much get you to read it.
1
Who can resist the intrigue of Rome? And for all you world history students reading this...it's so perfect how we are going to be covering ancient Rome very soon.
Happy reading! (And wish me some luck!)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Cleopatra's Daughter... Alive and Well
So, you guys know I love teaching world history and that I am a new fan of historical fiction. Well, it's no surprise I am anxious to get my hands on Cleopatra's Daughter, a soon to be released novel by Michelle Moran. Read the summary I posted below from the author's website and tell me you don't just want to read it! I believe you won't be able to!
The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony’s vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome, but only two—the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander—survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian’s sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.
The fateful tale of Selene and Alexander is brought brilliantly to life in Cleopatra’s Daughter. Recounted in Selene’s youthful and engaging voice, it introduces a compelling cast of historical characters:
Octavia: the emperor Octavian’s kind and compassionate sister, abandoned by Marc Antony for Cleopatra
Livia: Octavian’s bitter and jealous wife
Marcellus: Octavian’s handsome, flirtatious nephew and heir-apparent
Tiberius: Livia’s sardonic son and Marcellus’s great rival for power
Juba: Octavian’s ever-watchful aide, whose honored position at court has far-reaching effects on the lives of the young Egyptian royals
Selene’s narrative is animated by the concerns of a young girl in any time and place —the possibility of finding love, the pull of friendship and family, and the pursuit of her unique interests and talents. While coping with the loss of both her family and her ancestral kingdom, Selene must find a path around the dangers of a foreign land. Her accounts of life in Rome are filled with historical details that vividly capture both the glories and horrors of the time. She dines with the empire’s most illustrious poets and politicians, witnesses the creation of the Pantheon, and navigates the colorful, crowded marketplaces of the city where Roman-style justice is meted out with merciless authority.
Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of Imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of history, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart.
I'll be promoting this novel the rest of the week...the author has several contests, an awesome book trailer, and a Q & A. Plus, she is providing a guest post for Athena's YA Book Reviews!
COMING SEPTEMBER 15!
CONTEST! FOR TEENS ONLY A chance to win a $250 gift certificate for Hollister. See details here - http://michellemoran.com/teencontest.htm STARTS SEPT 15
CONTEST! FOR ALL Win a box of Cleopatra's goodies (signed novel, earrings, fun stuff) by participating in a literary treasure hunt hosted by the author and independent book stores across the nation. See details here - http://michellemoran.com/treasurehunt.htm STARTS SEPT 15
MONTHLY CONTESTS! Win a signed copy of the novel and an authentic Roman coin by answering a question based on Roman history.
See details here - http://michellemoran.com/contests.htm Come on all you history buffs... this contest is for you!
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