Forever Amber Read-a-Long...starts today!

Don't forget to start reading today for the Forever Amber Read-a-Long.  Our first discussion will be posted here on the blog next Saturday, March 24.  Your first time hearing of this?  Check out all the details and the reading schedule by clicking the image above or HERE.

Looking forward to reading along with you!

Michelle and Marie

Guest Post: EXTRATERRESTRIALS IN RENAISSANCE ART: THE CONTROVERSY OF THE KING’S AGENT

Please welcome to HF-Connection author Donna Russo Morin, as she celebrates her newest release, The King's Agent.

EXTRATERRESTRIALS IN RENAISSANCE ART: THE CONTROVERSY OF THE KING’S AGENT


Battista della Palla, the lead character in The King’s Agent, was a real man, born in Florence in 1489. During his full and prodigious life, he spent many years at the French court, forming an unbreakable bond with King Francois I and his sister Marguerite, one predicated, in part, on their mutual love of art. What became of that friendship is a role Battista would accept as his own for the rest of his life, that of Francois’ art agent, instructed to procure work by the Italian masters that Francois craved at any cost. In exchange, Francois promised Battista his sword—his military might—should Battista’s homeland of Florence ever require it. Battista fulfilled Francois’ requests, most every one of them, most often by nimble pilfering when legal acquisition failed him. In consequence, Francois I and his art agent Battista della Palla could easily be touted as the men directly responsible for what we now call one of the greatest museums in the world, the Louvre. Therefore, with a valid logical syllogism, it can be said that this astounding collection, visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year, began with stolen art.

All of the above is true, but it is not the greatest controversy proposed in The King’s Agent. Not by a long shot.

In The King’s Agent, Battista is commissioned with yet another acquisition by the King of France, but this one is like no other. Even the directive itself—the message of instruction—is couched in vague language and dictates that Battista find him an ancient relic, one crafted in the age of the Greek gods, before the time of Jesus, a relic which, “is said to possess the power I need to reign victorious.” This is but the beginning of the most bizarre quest Battista and his banda (band of men) have ever endured.

The trouble begins with the path to the relic, one whose stepping stones are laid with clues in the great art of the age. The quest itself is many layered, one painting must be found, which will lead to a triptych—a grouping of three paintings that create a single image—that will then lead to the relic. The discussion and search for these paintings, leads the art connoisseurs (for thieves they may be, but art experts they were first) to an exposure of paintings unlike any others they have seen; paintings which include symbolism of unearthly life. As outlandish as the notion may seem, it is not one of my imagination’s device, but one revealed to me during my research.

For the information in the remainder of this blog, I ask not belief, only the belief in possibility. I will not make a thesis on the support of ancient astronauts, but have chosen merely to accentuate works that may be used in evidence of such.

In an effort to stray from any spoilers, I will discuss the paintings highlighted in The King’s Agent out of context. To see how they affect the story, will take a reading of the work itself.

The painting that has, more than any other, sparked discussion among ufologists—and one of the first to make an appearance in The King’s Agent is Madonna col Bambino e San Giovannino (The Madonna with Child and Saint John). The painting hangs in the government palace in Florence—the Palazzo Vecchio—and is most often attributed to Sebastiano Mainardi. It is the image in the top left corner that is the most intriguing…the hardest to explain, an image that one might call an ‘air ship’.

Impressions to note when studying this painting include the man and the dog on the far hill, both with eyes attentively pointed upward toward the apparition. In an article written in 1996 by Daniele Bedini (an expert in Design Space and Space Technology, an instructor at The Royal College of Art (London), ISU (Strasbourg), and the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome) and published in Notiziario UFO, Bedini wrote, “we clearly see the presence of an airborne object leaden in color and inclined to port, sporting a "dome" or "turret", apparently identifiable as an oval-shaped moving flying device.”

In other journals, it is also theorized that the placement of Mary in relation to the two babies and the unidentifiable object is as a protector, to keep each from seeing and the other.

Carlo Crivelli; Annunciation

The next work is my personal favorite, not for its connection to the subject matter but for its composition and color. The Annunciation was painted by Carlo Crivelli in 1486. Unlike the hundreds, actually thousands, of other paintings dealing with the same theme, one of the most popular in all of religious art, Crivelli’s annunciation—by definition, the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of her conception of Christ—is committed not by an angel, but by a disc shaped object in the sky casting a beam of light down upon Mary on Earth. There is a great deal more activity taking place in this painting, people pointing at the main activity, and more cryptic symbolism whose meaning seems to have been lost. Crivelli’s Annunciation hangs in the National Gallery in London.

In The Bible and Flying Saucers (Avon Books, 1978) author Barry H. Downing wrote, “Where did this UFO come from, according to the Biblical account? The heavens were ‘opened' and the Spirit seems to have descended from this 'opening.' This idea of an 'opening' represents an example of the 'mythological' expression...The 'opening' represents an example of the Bible cosmology...The 'opening' suggests that in our 'three-decker universe' a 'door' leads from our world below to the world above where the angels live in heaven.”

Miracle of the Snow

Rows of round, hovering objects fill the sky in The Miracle of the Snow: Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore by Masolino da Panicale, which hangs in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy. The work was originally part of the altar painting for the Church of Saint Mary in Rome. It reminds me of nothing so much as an early Renaissance rendition of Orwell’s War of the Worlds. The painting depicts Jesus and Mary hovering above the Earth on a very solid type of cloud, lenticular clouds in fact, those that are flat and circular, and accompanied by an armada of the same type of saucer-like objects stretching back beyond the horizon.

The original legend of this painting reads that in Rome sometime in the 4th century, during the reign of Pope Liberius (352-366), both the Pope and the Patrician Giovanni Patrizio were visited by an apparition of the Virgin Mary during which she entreated them to build a church in her honor and that they would know the location of where the church should be when they awoke the next morning.

The next morning—a hot summer morning—on Esquino Hill, the outline of the church lay on the ground in snow. Despite the heat, the snow lines remained until the church was staked, when it quickly melted.

To reiterate, I did not want to reveal what part these very real works of art play in The King’s Agent in order to maintain the integrity of the unique story.

The amount of information on extraterrestrials, more prodigiously known as ancient astronauts, is overwhelming (and not just from those society might label as ‘quacks’, but from some of the greatest, most educated, intelligent, and reputed minds of our time). And though it plays a minor part of a complex story, the particular notion that evidence of alien existence can be found in profusion throughout the art of man throughout time, is but one of the inspirations in my writing of The King’s Agent, but without question, the most controversial of them all.

Donna Russo Morin



THE KING'S AGENT Available March 2012

Kensington Books

 Also by Donna Russo Morin (visit her Amazon page):
TO SERVE A KING Feb. 2011
THE SECRET OF THE GLASS March 2010
THE COURTIER'S SECRET Feb. 2009

The Lieutenant's Whistle: Guest Post & Book Giveaway from Fred Stemme

Please welcome Fred Stemme, author of a new novel just released on February 12, 2012: The Lieutenant's Whistle in which he writes of "duty, romance, bravery, tragedy and fate all intermingling in the hell of war."

Fred is working on a trilogy that began with Beguiling Dreams, and is eager to share with readers his second installment, The Lieutenant's Whistle. You can read Chapter one of Beguiling Dreams on his site.

Today he has the following to share with you, to whet your own whistle!


In September of 1915, young Hank Braddock laid on his bed in Calvin, Indiana reading an article in The Outlook. Hank read the descriptions written by an American volunteer ambulance driver with rapt attention. It was as if he himself was behind the wheel and could even hear the ping of artillery shrapnel ding his Model T’s hood and chassis while driving to the hospital with a load of wounded soldiers. An introduction written by Teddy Roosevelt prefaced the article, giving it credence.




He gazed across the room at his small bookshelf. King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable stared back at him. That’s what the article reminded him of, knights, this time driving ambulances, in pursuit of service to the realm. And would that include fair damsels in the form of nurses?



A few months later Hank stood in the town’s newspaper office, where he worked as a reporter. Suddenly the ticker tape machine began to spit out a long paper thread. Hank routinely picked up the thread. His nonchalance quickly changed. The American Field Service was looking for volunteers to drive ambulances. His gut tightened, remembering the article he had read and knew that this bell rang for him. He had to go.

In February of 1916, Hank rode in a rocking railroad car as cigarette smoke and bits of conversation, some in English, some in French, drifted back to him. He turned and gazed out the window and saw that the morning mist had cleared a bit, revealing a snow covered, rolling terrain that reminded him of Indiana. Yet the steep roofs, beige-and buff-colored stucco houses, as well as the Fiats at the crossroads, told him he was in a foreign land.

A hint of homesickness tugged at him as the train passed a company of French soldiers dressed in their horizon blue greatcoats. The soldiers were gathered around a field kitchen, tin plates in hand. Their foggy breath joined the steam rising from the stoves before the mixture dissipated into the cold air. Most of the men were unshaven or had some form of facial hair. That trait had earned them the nickname poilu, meaning “hairy one.”

Hank retrieved a copy of The London Times, already folded to an article about the Great War. The article included a picture that showed a poised lieutenant holding a whistle in one hand and a stopwatch in the other. Two enlisted men, with their helmets on, stood on either side of the lieutenant. The camera caught one man kissing a picture, perhaps his sweetheart or his mother, and the other one seemed to be finishing a prayer. In the background, a ladder leaned against the parapet. At zero hour, when the whistles sounded up and down the line, each man would dutifully climb the ladder in his sector.



At the top, upon entering No Man’s Land, the men would be met with a hail of bullets – delivering each man into the hands of fate. The dead, as much as possible, would be brought back at night. The wounded, too, would be carried back, if they had not been able to crawl back to the trench on their own. From the first-aid stations, to the clearing stations, to the hospitals, a procession of wounded would flow to the rear involving medics, doctors, nurses, orderlies and ambulance drivers, some of whom, like Hank, were volunteer Americans. So, in a sense, the lieutenant’s whistle blew for all of them.






The adventure had begun.

Synopsis of The Lieutenant's Whistle:

The sequel to Beguiling Dreams......Before America's entry into World War I, The American Field Service organized to help bleeding France. In thankfulness for France's aid during the Revolutionary War, young American males volunteered as ambulance drivers to repay their country's debt. Henry 'Hoop' Braddock is one such man. He and the boys of Section Two drive Model T ambulances, and are 'En Repos,' a unit awaiting assignment. One day, in a crowded, smoke-filled canteen in Bar-le-Duc, Hoop meets Kyla Laurens, a Scottish nurse. Her violet-colored eyes burn into his heart, branding him. As fate would have it, Hoop and Kyla end up serving at the same chateau-turned-hospital while the bloody battle to save Verdun ensues. At first, Hoop has precious little time to spend with Kyla due to the German attack. Instead, his time is spent driving his ambulance, all the while hearing the gruesome and touching detailed accounts of the fighting from injured soldiers riding in his cab. But later, once the pressure is off, a romance between Hoop and Kyla begins to flourish. Yet will experiences from Kyla's past prove fatal to their relationship?

The author has generously offered followers of HF-Connection.com a chance to win a copy of his new book!
If you would like to enter to win The Lieutenant's Whistle, please comment here with your email address. You may also enter by commenting on the post on our Facebook page.
Extra entries go out to those who share on their own Facebook pages, twitter, or google plus share.

Offer open in the USA and ends March 17th!

Join Us for the Forever Amber Read-a-Long

*Revised reading schedule...see below

Announcing the Forever Amber Read-a-Long.
Marie and I have been wanting to read this famous historical novel by Kathleen Winsor for years and when Marie mentioned that she was finally going to read it this year, I told her I would join her.  And so, the read-a-long was born!

About the book (from Goodreads):
Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England—that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary—and extraordinary—men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have. Frequently compared to Gone with the Wind, Forever Amber is the other great historical romance, outselling every other American novel of the 1940s—despite being banned in Boston for its sheer sexiness. A book to read and reread, this edition brings back to print an unforgettable romance and a timeless masterpiece.

Dates:  Sunday, March 18, 2012 - Saturday, April 14, 2012

Details:

• Start reading on Sundays, discussion post will be posted on Saturdays.
• You can do a post and leave your link in the comments, or you can just post your thoughts in the comments of the week's discussion post.
• The last week, April 8 -14,  will be for catch-up readers and final thoughts.

*Reading schedule has been slightly revised.  I didn't realize that the book had parts, which would probably make for more natural breaks in the reading.  If you have read a bit ahead of the new stopping points because of the previous schedule, don't worry.  It's only a couple chapters difference.  I hope you will forgive me the mishap.  ~Michelle


Reading schedule:

• Week One (March 18 - 24)--Prologue through Part III, which starts at Ch. 22 (stop reading at end of Ch. 21) 
• Week Two (March 25 - 31)--Part III through Part V, which starts at Ch. 46 (stop reading at end of Ch. 45)
• Week Three (April 1 - 7)--Part V through Chapter 69 (end)
• Week Four (April 8 - 14)--A week for catch-up and final thoughts

If you would like to join us, please leave a comment below.  We certainly would love to have you with us in the reading of this classic historical novel.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or email us at hfconnection@yahoo.com.

{Give@way!} Guest Post: Tina Boscha, author of River in the Sea

WINNERS of River in the Sea:

Print copy--author Christa Polkinhorn

eBook--hitchcockbe44

CONGRATS! I have sent you emails.  Please respond within 48 hours.  Thanks!

RIVER IN THE SEA
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Giveaway details at the end of this post.

Please welcome the author of River in the Sea, Tina Boscha:

I have bad news for my mom: readers want a sequel.

Of course, this isn’t bad news at all, for either her or me. But when your daughter writes a novel based on your life, as I did for my mother, it may be a bit surprising, even shocking, to think that readers want to know more. It took my mom a few months to crack the book open and read it. My dad had to read it first and let her know it was okay, and in the meantime I tried not to pressure her. Still, it was difficult for me until I put myself in her shoes. If my early life was shaped into fiction and displayed for all to read and see and perhaps judge, I’d be nervous too.

I originally set out to write River in the Sea as a stand-alone book, and my motivations to write it were many. There is the most selfish one, and that is because I have always, always wanted to write and publish. It was never enough for me to say, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, that I wanted to be a writer. I always said author. To me, even as young as six or seven, that was a crucial difference.

I also wanted to write my parents’ story, most notably my mother’s, as they grew up during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WWII.  During my childhood, I silently collected the stories my mom and dad told my siblings and me about what they experienced as kids during the war. They talked of hiding out in hollowed out potato heaps, surprise raids where soldiers took everything from jewelry to milk, throwing their bikes into the canal to avoid giving them to German soldiers, downed pilots ferried out to England by the Frisian and Dutch resistance.

It was mind-boggling that these events were something my parents lived through, and in particular, my mother's father and brothers experienced events that most modern kids and adults just can't fathom. Openly defying the orders of the German army and going into hiding? It's amazing, dramatic, thrilling, and sobering. Studying World War II is one thing, knowing those who lived through it is another. (The actual research for the book was easy; I interviewed my parents and took notes of our conversations. If I ever had a question, another phone call or an email was all it took.)

Furthermore, I often think the domestic side of war gets overlooked, and I wanted to show it from the viewpoint of a 15-year-old girl. And not just any 15-year-old. My mom openly defied orders of her own, unspoken but ironclad rules about what girls must be like. She was not demure, quiet, and resigned to become what everyone else expected of her – which back then was a homemaker and mother. She did eventually become those things, but at 15, she smoked (publicly!), drove her father’s truck and tractors (illegally, I might add, beginning when she was just 12), and worked outside in the fields alongside her brothers. All the while wearing very bold red lipstick. Later, at age 19, she decided to forge a new path and immigrated by herself to America.

It took me a long time to understand the significance of that sentence I just wrote; River in the Sea focuses mostly on the events that transpired the last six months of the war. I wanted to end the book with a satisfying resolution to those events, but to leave what happens to Leen afterwards open, because after all, there is much more life after 19! (Hint: the book does not end with a “Reader, I married him” moment.) Today’s readers are too smart to accept pat endings, where everything ties neatly in a bow.

But what surprised me was that readers wanted to continue following Leen’s adventures. One of my early reviews said, “I was actually thinking I would love for the author to continue her mother’s story of her life in Amerika. Did I really just ask for a sequel. Yep! I guess I did.” I recently spoke at a book club and the wonderful women there said the same thing, even starting to chant, “Sequel! Sequel!”

My mom – who was actually born Leen De Graaf, as in the book – considers herself just a regular person. Normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. But anyone who has ever known her, or knows her history, speaks differently. While the Leen in the book is my version of her, and therefore fictionalized, I tried to capture my mom’s essential characteristics – of trepidation falling before courage, of willingness to flout convention, of taking on big responsibilities because that’s what you do. Of her humor and warmth and sometimes need to be impetuous.

I’ll be honest – the idea of writing a sequel is a bit mystifying. And scary. From a pure plot point of view, how do you top WWII? But yet I feel more and more compelled to consider it. Maybe not a full-length novel, maybe a novella…. Who knows? I don’t have to figure it out right now. I’m still trying to get this book off the ground and my mom is still getting used to the idea that a book with her face on the cover is out in the world!

Ultimately, though, no matter what happens next in my own saga of writing and publishing a book about my very much alive mom, I have come to understand that this reader reaction is perhaps the highest compliment I can receive as a writer. Readers love Leen and want to follow her journey. She is a character that sticks with you. And in turn, this becomes the compliment I wish to pay to my mother:

Leen De Graaf, it really isn’t bad news, not bad news at all, to learn that you are anything but ordinary.

About the book:
"At fifteen, Leen De Graaf likes everything she shouldn't: smoking cigarettes, wearing red lipstick, driving illegally, and working in the fields. It seems the only thing she shares with her fellow Dutchmen is a fear of the German soldiers stationed nearby and a frantic wish for the war to end. When a soldier's dog runs in front of Leen's truck, her split-second reaction sets off a storm of events that pitches her family against the German forces when they are most desperate - and fierce. Leen tries to hold her family together, but despite her efforts, bit by bit everything falls apart, and just when Leen experiences a horrific loss, she must make a decision that could forever brand her a traitor, yet finally allow her to live as her heart desires. Inspired by the life of the author's mother, River in the Sea is a powerful and moving account of one girl reaching adulthood when everything she believes about family, friendship, and loyalty is questioned by war."

Review from Portland Book Review


We would like to thank the author for offering a two copy giveaway of River in the Sea.  Up for grabs for two lucky followers of HF-Connection are a print copy (US/Canada) and an eBook copy (International)!

Interested? Please leave your email address in the comments as well as sharing this post with your twitter or facebook friends! Please leave the link to your shared link (required!) in your comment. Good luck!

Giveaway ends on February 10, 2012 at 11:59pm CST.