The Girdle of Melian

ello, Mark! Mark Koopmans is on a blog tour to celebrate the release of Revival -- The Donald Braswell Story . Scroll down for his guest post, and further down for the giveaway! REVIVAL - The Donald Braswell Story How a Tenor Lost his Voice, but Found his Calling by Donald Braswell with Mark Koopmans From Juilliard to jumper cables; from wasting all the talent in the world to America's Got Talent, this is the story of the Texas opera singer who lost his voice -- but found his calling. Pen-L Publishing Also available on Amazon Five years removed from his 1990 Juilliard graduation, Donald Braswell is set to be "the next Pavarotti." Braswell's successful career ends, however, not with a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall, but alone, lying in a dirty ditch. Following the hit-and-run accident that steals his voice and future, the "Texas Tenor" struggles with depression and despair—until the night his daughter, Aria, is born. Understand...

he first two weeks of National Novel Writing Month have gone by and I'm... halfway there but starting to lag behind. If I lose even one day of writing, all momentum falls by the wayside. I had a really good first couple of days, and those have kept me afloat on drier days (I shouldn't obsess over stats, but I can't help but feel better if my daily average is higher than the bare minimum). I've had fun tweeting some inspirational moments -- and had fun again just now putting them into Storify , which is wonderfully easy to use. Please scroll down if you'd like to start chronologically (and I see it's been divided into two pages as well -- skip to the photos if you'd prefer!). [ View the story "Deniz Does NaNoWriMo2015" on Storify ] Hope everyone's having a good week! We just got back from a short vacation, so I hope to share more photos as soon as I get them organized, and have some book blog tour items coming up. Also, it's my ...

or the final installment of the village photos (scroll down to visit Tolochenaz, Rolle, and Morges), I'm featuring St Cergue, up in the Jura mountains, and the descent of the cows! The yearly desalpe is the descent of the cows from their summer pastures to their winter pastures. The cows are decorated for the event, and there are also lots and lots of very loud bells...   Off to see the cows!   Hmm, these loud bells are less than impressive...   Pretty!   Flags of Switzerland and the canton of Vaud   View from a hill   Haze over Lac Leman The event is very evocative, as it's a tradition that goes back many hundreds of years. It's lovely to imagine the fathers and grandfathers and many times great-grandfathers of the farmers bringing down the cows every year, from one year to the next. And the grandmothers too! Both men and women farmers were present. I'd love to sit around a farmhouse kitchen, helping to create ...

hird installment of the villages in Vaud photos (scroll down for the first two installments). Today's feature is the tiny hamlet of Tolochenaz, where Audrey Hepburn lived for 30 years!   Place Audrey Hepburn   With the lady   Looking up the road to...   ...Audrey Hepburn's house   The front of the house   The road leading back to the square   The church where her funeral was held   View from the cemetery   Reading about Audrey Hepburn's life in the village NaNoWriMo has started! I'm drafting a new story, because that's the easiest to fit in with my current schedules. But I'm trying something new -- drafting directly onto the screen, instead of using pen and paper. It makes marginal notes and scribbles difficult, but will save me having to type it up later (I used to edit as I typed up a story but haven't had time for that lately, and typing without adding to the story or making changes becomes...