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HERE COMES THE BAOBAB

11/9/2018

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I've already blogged about African baboonery, and we're still in Africa. Now we're off to meet the baobab!
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No, it's not another kind of wild animal. It's a tree...but a very unique one. Among the millions of species of trees on the planet, there is nothing quite like the baobab. And my heroine, Harriet Ruby, has to spend the night in one with a baboon.

Okay. So a tree is a tree is a tree. I know you didn't drop in for a botany lesson, but hear me out. It's not just a tree, but a sacred link to the past and an essential part of the cultures where it grows, a symbol of strength, wisdom, health, long life, and beauty.

THE AFRICAN UPSIDE-DOWN TREE
Of the eight species of the genus Adansonia -- You really needed to know that, right? -- six are native to Madagascar, one to the African and Arab peninsulas, and one to Australia. They can live to be thousands of years old, some say as long as 3,000 years or more, and have a peculiar, massive, bottle-shaped trunk and sparse foliage. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree."
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  •                                                                                          Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor www.tripadvisor.com
                                                                                                        Baobab in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Of the eight species of the genus Adansonia -- You really needed to know that, right? -- six are native to Madagascar, one to the African and Arab peninsulas, and one to Australia. They can live to be thousands of years old, some say as long as 3,000 years or more, and have a peculiar, massive, bottle-shaped trunk and sparse foliage. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree."
 ▼Photo source: www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/ibn-battuta

A famous traveler and writer, Iban Battuta (born 1304 in Tangiers), was the first to record a description of a baobab tree.

The African baobab begins as a single stem without branches and produces roots resembling giant sausages. During its lifetime, the roots of the tree send more stems in a ring which eventually fused, forming a cavity inside. Unlike most trees, the baobab doesn’t sprout more branches but grows new trunks, ultimately creating a large hollow tree.
​                                                                            The Lembo Baobab - Roxana Patrut/A. Patrut Et Al/Plos One 2015
                                                                                             photo source: article by Sarah Zielinski, February 4, 2015 ▼ www.sciencenews.org/hollow-baobab-trees
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The Lembo baobab is composed of five fused stems, and there is evidence that a sixth had also once existed. The oldest part of the tree is 1,355 years old, and the youngest stem is only 900 years old. In the hundred or so years after the youngest stem began growing, the stems fused together, forming the false cavity, which itself reached its current size and stopped growing about 500 years ago.

The Sunland Baobab in Limpopo, South Africa, stands 72-feet tall, and is estimated to be as old as 6,000 years old, one of the oldest trees on Earth. Measuring at 155 feet around the base of the trunk, it is hallow and the owners built a pub inside that held fifteen people.
Sunland Baobab Limpopo, South Africa (2013)                                                                                                                  Recent photo of Sunland Baobab (2018)
Photo from: www.lostateminor.com  by Low Lai Chow                                                                                       Photo source: Van Heerdens (owners), Facebook Page
also: www.tripadvisor.com                                                                                                                                  www.traveller24.com  
 
Sadly, this ancient tree succumbed to age. On 13 April, 2018, the owners, the Van Heerdens, posted this message. "We are sad to announce that our upside-down tree has toppled over this morning at 04:00. Never in our lives could we have imagined that this great giant that has stood sturdy all these years could break so tragically." They also wrote they felt "blessed to have been part of the process."
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Scientists who study the Baobab tree have indicated that “seven out of ten of the ancient Baobabs in Africa have collapsed in the last couple of years. The scientists who have studied this tree for over 10 years say there is nothing we could have done."
 
THE TREE OF LIFE
The peoples who have been fortunate enough to live in proximity to the baobab, call it “The Tree of Life.” And rightfully so. Every part of the tree can be used, which is the primary reason for the name. Its fruit, bark, roots, and wood provide innumerable products used by the natives of Africa and Madagascar for thousands of years.
​          Flower                      Seed pod                      open pod                  various food products              rope
​            
Uses include food, red dye, Vitamin C, medicine, rope and strings for musical instruments. Canoes are carved from the wood. The trunks themselves provide shelter for people and animals, and they serve as water cisterns. The list goes on and on.

The shell of the fruit, about the size of a coconut, feels velvety to the touch and weighs about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lbs). It has an acidic, tart flavor described as "somewhere between grapefruit, pear, and vanilla."

The dried fruit powder contains about 12% water and various nutrients, including carbohydrates, dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, B vitamins, potassium and iron.

MYTHS AND LEGENDS
The Baobabs are strange and somewhat mysterious in Africa, and tales about them–many about why they are “upside down”–have been handed down verbally from generation to generation.

The Griot
Griot are the Senegalese keepers of the oral tradition. They are singers who chant praises to families in times of celebration. The trade is one passed on from father to father, from generation to generation since as long as people can remember. In the past, each family had its own griot who they supported in exchange for recounting the family stories going back generations.
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Traditions hold that griot, because they had never worked the earth, couldn’t be buried in the ground. If they were, a severe drought would occur. Therefore, they were "buried" within the baobab. The first president of Senegal, President Senghor (1960-1980), passed a law outlawing burials within Baobab trees. The same year the law was passed, there was a severe drought.
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▲Drawing from: baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com                                     The Hyena and the Baobab▲
                                                                                                                    Photo from: africablogs.wordpress.com
Legend One – The First Baobab
Adapted from post by Wild Harvest Pharma on baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com

A very long time ago, when the earth was first created, the first baobab sprouted beside a small lake. As it grew taller it saw other trees, noting their colorful flowers, straight and handsome trunks, and large leaves. One day the wind died. leaving the water smooth as a mirror, and the tree finally got to see itself. The reflected image shocked it to its root hairs. Its own flowers lacked bright color, its leaves were tiny, it was grossly fat, and its bark resembled the wrinkled hide of an old elephant.

In a strongly worded invocation to the creator, the baobab complained about the bad deal it had been given. This impertinence had no effect: Following a hasty reconsideration, the deity felt fully satisfied. Relishing the fact that some organisms were purposefully less than perfect, the creator demanded to know whether the baobab found the hippopotamus beautiful, or the hyena’s cry pleasant, and then retired in a huff behind the clouds.

Back on earth the barrel-chested whiner neither stopped peering at its reflection nor raising its voice in protest. Finally, an exasperated creator returned from the sky, seized the ingrate by the trunk, yanked it from the ground, turned it over, and replanted it upside down. From that day forward, the baobab has been unable to see its reflection or make complaint. Instead, for thousands of years it has worked in silence, paying off its ancient transgression by doing good deeds for people.

Legend Two - Yahweh and the Walking Baobab
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/

“A second creation legend explaining why the baobab tree grows “upside down” is that when God (Jehovah or Yahweh) created the world and then planted the baobab tree, the tree kept moving, walking across the earth. So the created pulled it up and turned it upside down, then replanted it, all so the baobab tree would stop moving.”

Legend Three - The Loving Baobabs
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

An interesting legend from Madagascar addresses one of the six species of baobab tree that can be found on the island. The Baobab Amoureux is a species where two Adansonia trees have twisted around each other as they have grown.
▼ ​Photo source: https://www.routard.com/photos_de_voyage.asp   
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“It is believed that the Baobab Amoureux came into being because of a tragic love story. Centuries ago a young man and a young woman lived in villages that were close to each other and, over time, the two fell in love and wanted to be together forever.

However, both the young man and young woman were already betrothed to people from their own villages. Both refused to give up their dream of marrying and having a child, so they secretly asked the creator for help.
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Though their creator did not allow them to marry, he brought the two baobab trees into existence that grew together over the centuries, together as a single entity for all eternity as the young man and young woman had wished to be.”

Legend Four - The Hyena and the Baobab
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

​“In this story, the creator is planting the trees on the earth and decides to get each of the animals to help him. So the creator gave every animal a different tree to plant, and they all went about their tasks quite happily, all except for the hyena. Now everyone knows how stupid the hyena is. When he went out, he planted the baobab tree upside down. That is why the roots look like they are growing in the air, and the leaves are buried out of sight in the ground.”

Legend Five - Baobab Tree Flowers
Adapted from post on http://www.baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree

“As the baobab tree flowers bloom during the night, the Bushmen believe that whoever plucks the flowers from the tree will be torn apart by lions because the flowers are not simply flowers; they are flowers that are inhabited by spirits.”

THE AFRICAN BAOBAB​
This baobab above (Zimbabwe) shows the shape that generated the name upside-down tree. Most are small to moderate sized, but they can get huge around the trunks, which are mostly hollow, big enough to use for housing, chapels, barns, shops, bus shelters, post boxes, burial sites, wells, flush lavatories, and prisons. In Queensland, Australia, one served as the town prison.
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Most of the trunks I saw weren't anywhere near the girth of the tree in the photo, and some of the African baobab don't get very tall. Below is a photo I took a photo of a baobab near Victoria Falls.
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Using this as an example, it would be feasible for an athletic person like my heroine to be able to throw her backpack around a lower branch, "walk" up the trunk, and climb onto the branch.

Hopefully, on the off chance anyone from Madagascar might read my novel, I apologize for my flight of fancy and ask that person to cut me some slack. I hadn't seen the ninety-foot–high baobab which grows in Madagascar.

IT'S DIFFERENT IN MADAGASCAR
There are six different species of baobab tree, some of which are very different from their African neighbors. Take a look at the photos of the below of the Giant Madagascar Baobab, and you'll understand my apology. This is where the 90 to 100 feet in height kicks in. Below are Giant Madagascar Baobab and another variety called a bottle tree.
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hotos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia
All species have trunks which are mostly hollow and rely on a system of hydraulic pressure to stay upright. The wood is porous and retains water, the extensive root system remains close to the surface for better water absorption. Some of the shorter species account for the name "bottle tree" because of the shape and appearance of the trunk but, in fact, it is called that because the trunk is hollowed and serves as a water reservoir during dry spells. They can store up to 32,000 gallons.               Photo:www.powbab.com ►

They look otherworldly, don't they? One article likened them to something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Maybe Madagascar is going on my bucket list.

ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR
Watch for the release of All For A Blast Of Hot Air in November. Travel with Harriet Ruby, Tour Director Extraordinaire, and her fiancé, Europol spy Will Talbot, as they travel in Zimbabwe and Botswana pursued by and in pursuit of – How'd you guess? – international terrorists. Find out if they finally get their HEA.

Sources - 2010 References
http://amazinglist.net/2013/03/baobab-tree-adansonia-gregorii/http://baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com/2010/04/antioxidant-baobab.html
http://baobab-tree-of-life.blogspot.com/2010/04/legends-of-baobab-tree.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8219711_baobab-tree.html
http://www.baobab.com/baobab-fruit-pulp/legends-of-the-baobab-tree/
http://www.baobab.com/baobab-fruit-pulp/the-baobab-tree-in-african-landscape/
http://www.baobabppc.org.za/home/item/1-myths-legends
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977821078
Sources - 2018 References
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2018/06/todays-planet-earth-report-one-of-earths-oldest-and-strangest-trees-are-dying-mysteriously.html
https://aduna.com/blogs/learn/the-baobab-tree
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-baobab-trees-deaths-20180611-story.html
https://thebaobabway.com/baobab-myths-and-stories/
http://ecoproducts.co.za/the-legend-of-the-upside-down-tree/
http://baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/    or      baobabfood.co.uk/baobab-tree/
https://www.powbab.com/blogs/news/11483813-how-tall-are-baobab-trees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia
https://thomsonsafaris.com/blog/baobab-tree-life/
https://inhabitat.com/grab-a-drink-inside-a-6000-year-old-baobab-tree-at-south-africas-sunland-bar/
https://africablogs.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-mythical-baobab/
https://baobabstories.com/en/about-me-baobabs/
https://www.masterfile.com/search/en/african+tree+bark+images
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/huge-hollow-baobab-trees-are-actually-multiple-fused-stems
https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/tourism/activities/lebombotrail.php
http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/ibn-battuta-or-muhammad-ibn-battuta?page=2
https://reacho.in/discover/6000-year-old-baobab-tree-that-serving-as-sunland-bar-south-africa
https://www.tanzania-experience.com/blog/elephants-and-baobabs/
 
                                                                                                                                                                        


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tHIS IS AFRICA: The Setting Of A Novel

11/2/2018

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SETTING OF A NOVEL
In the simplest terms, the setting of a novel is the time and place in which the action of the narrative takes place. Without place, the characters are just there without reason to act or care. Setting is not only the time, location, and circumstance of where the story takes place, but the social milieu which shapes values and the characters. Not only the mood and texture of the place, but also attitudes, values, and issues of that point in time.
 
You can set a novel in a place you've never been and pull it off, but it's better to have been there. Physical presence gives you a sense of how the location feels, tastes, and smells. You hear the background sounds, feel the rhythm and pace. These things are often hard to research. Even if you've never been to the location where your novel is set, thinks about those characteristics of place.

I use international travel for the settings in my novels. The uniqueness of each location is my inspiration. When I travel, I look for locations, attitudes, and customs that result in a story that couldn't happen anywhere else and be the same story.

The setting for my latest novel in the romantic suspense series "Tour Director Extraordinaire" is southern Africa. I traveled to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia in 2008, and that trip inspired the novel, All For A Blast of Hot Air. This is the fifth and last of the series.
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Everything in Africa moves at its own pace, which tends to be slower and more laid back than the urban parts of the US. When tourists get frustrated about this, the response is a shrug and the words, "This is Africa." The phrase is delivered as more of an explanation rather than an excuse, and they don't understand why we have our panties in a wad.

While I was there, someone we met spoke of having taken a hot air balloon safari. About all I heard was how wonderful the experience had been — I'm not even sure where in Africa she'd been — but the comment struck a chord, and set the stage for the novel.

I was intrigued by Author MaryLu Tyndall's list of six ways the setting can help or hinder the protagonist in achieving his/her goals in general and in a scene. It's worth the time to read her article. http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/using-setting-as-a-character-a-tip-for-novelists/
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Here's a recap of her points.

● The setting as a friend / a comfortable, relaxing place where protagonist can reflect, or a safe place to hide from enemies.

● The setting as an antagonist / introduces conflict, trouble, thwarts protagonist's plans.

● The setting as a mentor / a place to learn or make discoveries, a place to prepare to take something on.

● The setting as a shadow for protagonist / a shadow reflects the deepest flaws of the character / a setting that opens the character's eyes to his/her own flaws.

● The setting as a model of what the protagonist wants to be / a setting that fosters qualities to which the protagonist aspires.

​● The setting as an example / a setting that either assists or hinders the character in the particular scene.

WHAT DID WE DO IN AFRICA?
So, how does a trip to Africa translate into a unique setting?

We didn't take a hot air balloon safari, but we did go on ground safaris. Unfortunately, there were so many amazing locations and activities in those four countries that just didn't fit into my book. I wanted to write about all of it.

I find that unless I have a rough outline already when I visit the setting, I may or may not pay attention to the details which end up enriching the story. I've learned to be more astute about things which potentially could be woven into a story.

The following experiences are only mentioned in passing in my novel, if at all, but they added to my sense of what southern Africa is like. Think about them and see if these minimal descriptions bring any ideas about settings to your mind. In what kind of book would any one of these setting be appropriate?

WE RODE "RESCUE" ELEPHANTS
These are sick or starving elephants that have been abandoned by the herd. This is unusual because elephants are very social and protective of their own. It has to be a severe situation for them to abandon one. When found, the elephants are brought back to health and used for tourist rides. The money earned goes into the upkeep of the animals. Young elephants might get reintroduced into a herd, but after spending so much time around humans, it's not often the herd will accept the outsider. After the ride you could buy a footprint of the elephant you rode.
WE WALKED WITH LIONS
​Walking with the Lions is part of the "ALERT" program which is intended to reintroduce lions into parts of Africa where the population has been reduced due to farmers killing them to protect their farms and livestock. A century ago, the lion population in all of Africa numbered about 200,000. Now the population is between 20,000 and 30,000. Again, the money earned for these tourists walks (which are actually part of training the lions) helps to fund the program.

​WE SAW SMOKE THAT THUNDERS
Victoria Falls (The smoke that thunders) is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World
These falls are not the highest or widest in the world, but during the wet season it is the largest falling sheet of water in the world. The full width of the Zambezi River (5,604 feet – over one mile wide) plummets straight down for 354 feet in a single sheet.

​Part of the uniqueness of the falls is that there aren't any mountains or deep valleys as you would expect. Just flat land with a wide river…and then you see a billowy column of what looks like white smoke. It's actually the spray from the river plummeting into a deep vertical chasm caused by water erosion over thousands of years in the fracture zones. In the third photo, you can see the other eroded channels that zig-zag across the terrain where the Zambezi continues.
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                                    Photo source:www.madbookings.com/victoria_falls

My trip was during the dry season so the falls, impressive as they were, were sparse.  The photo to the left shows the flow of water during a really wet season.
Photo source: http://charukesi.com/itchyfeet/2017/06/05/flight-of-the-angels/

WE WATCHED BABOONS
A baboon actually made it into the novel as a secondary character. In person, they are bigger than I expected and can be very scary. 
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This is Manny Balzac, a "character" in the novel All For A Blast of Hot Air. Actually, he's a Mandrill.
 
In southern Africa, baboons run free like squirrels and coyotes. They're incredibly smart, can open most locks, and harass the tourists by breaking into cars and homes looking for food. The one below is in a golf cart at a golf course. They also steal the golf balls. The other photo is in a national park. We were warned at the lodge to be sure our balcony doors were locked with a special lock if we left the room. Baboons will come inside looking for food, and they don't mind breaking things.
  ▼ Photo source: https://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/do-not-monkey-around-baboon
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 Photo Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-co7vpMXq_s
◄ Photo: Cavendish Press i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/20/
This photo is used by one of the African National Parks Services to warn tourists and campers about leaving food around.

WE PHOTOGRAPHED BAOBAB TREES
These are unusual trees that grow only in Africa and Madagascar. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree".
Every part of the tree can be used, which the primary reason it is called the tree of life. It's fruit, bark, roots, and wood provide innumerable products used by the native African peoples for thousands of years. Food, red dye, Vitamin C, medicine, rope and strings for musical instruments. Canoes are carved from the wood. The list goes on and on.
My heroine ends up spending the night in one of these trees with the Manny.
WE ATE WORMS
Zebra pate, Mopani worms, and soup with crickets. Oops! That wasn't the way the soup was prepared. The cricket flew into the open-air restaurant at our very nice hotel in Zimbabwe and landed in my friend's soup...but it didn't have anywhere to land in the book.
The Mopani worms, which are actually caterpillars, don't look like this when you eat them...well, not exactly. These are the staple protein for much of Africa.​
WE SLEPT UNDER MOSQUITO NETTING
In some cases, with disastrous results. This part of the African trip definitely made it into the book with some interesting consequences when the hero and heroine make love. The example below shows the most predominant styles of hanging netting.
BACK TO THE SETTING
Can you see why these features which don't exist everywhere can bring the flavor and uniqueness to the novel? Unless you have a reason to use a mosquito netting, you can't pull it out of the ceiling on top of you making love.
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P.S. Put a safari on your bucket list.
□ 

Sources
Cavendish Press i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/20/
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/using-setting-as-a-character-a-tip-for-novelists/
https://www.trailfinders.com/hotels/africa/zimbabwe/victoria-falls-town/victoria-falls-safari-lodge
https://yellowzebrasafaris.com/inspiration/all-trips/zimbabwe-honeymoon-safari-value/
https://www.swaindestinations.com/africa/lodging-details/474/victoria-falls-safari-lodge
http://www.madbookings.com/victoria_falls/victoria_falls_francais.htm
https://www.go2africa.com/tours-safaris/romantic-pretoria-vic-falls-delta
http://charukesi.com/itchyfeet/2017/06/05/flight-of-the-angels/
 

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HALLOWEEN, STINGY JACK and the HISTORY OF THE JACK-O'- LANTERN

10/26/2018

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Six more days until the big event.  To all you humans, ghouls, elves, werewolves, vampires, demons, gods and goddesses, and everyone, whoever and whatever you are, Happy Halloween. You all know the origins of Halloween, right? You do? That’s too bad, because I'm going to tell you again.
◄ Carved by American Artist Ray Villafane; Photo source:
​                                                                                     http://designcollector.net/likes/pumpkin-carving-by-ray-villafane

THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN
The ancient Celtic harvest festival Samhain, enriched by the Roman festivals of Feralia [commemorating deceased ancestors], Pomona [Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards], and Lemuria [exorcising malevolent ghosts of the dead and evil spirits -- lemurs -- from their homes], is recognized as the origin of our modern Halloween.
      Roman Funeral Photo source:                          ▲ Danza macabra, detail Clusone, Bergamo, Italy                           ▲ The Celtic Empire
  romae.org/blog/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/        http://romae.org/blog/2008/10/22/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/                                                                                                                                                               Image by Paolo da Reggio via wikimedia commons, used under a CC BY SA 2.5 license.

[Don't forget, at the time of Christ, the Celtic Empire encompassed most of what we know as Europe. So the Celts are not only from the British Isles.]

Samhain (pronounced "sow-in" or "sah-van") is Irish-Gaelic for "the summer's end" and represented the death of Lugh, the summer sun god. It was the third day of a Druid festival and began at dusk on October 31, marking the change of the seasons and the beginning of the Celtic new year.

In the Middle Ages, after Christianity had taken hold, the festival was renamed All Saints Day and All Souls Day when Pope Gregory IV confirmed celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2, coinciding with the festival of Samhain.

LET THERE BE LIGHT
One of the practices of the ancient Celtic festival was casting the bones of slaughtered cattle into a large bonfire. Samhain, as the point in the year ushering in the "dark season", was believed to be the night when a kind of door opened to the Otherworld, allowing the dead to return to where they had lived and letting spirits roam the earth. Part of the ceremony of Samhain was providing hospitality for the dead ancestors.
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It was also a period of supernatural intensity, when the forces of darkness were thought to be abroad, To combat the threat, ancient Celts often held raging bonfires – fire being the usual means of warding off evil spirits. The practice continued throughout the region even after Christianity became the primary religion in the Middle Ages.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH JACK-O'-LANTERNS?
There is a connection, I promise, but I lack the ”pithy gene” and it takes me a while to get to the point.

During the Middle Ages, the festival remained, but the bonfires got smaller and smaller until they were replaced by lanterns carved out of turnips and gourds, which were plentiful and inexpensive. These vegetables were hollowed out and pierced to allow the light of hot embers to shine through. They were still intended to ward off evil spirits.                                  
​​The practice of carving the gourds grew in Europe, and scary faces carved in the vegetables began to look like the evil spirits they were supposed to scare away.
                                                                        Turnip photo by Rannphairti Anaithnid 
             Wikipedia Commons                                                   https://www.annieandre.com/  
  • Photo Source:  http://www.globeslcc.com/           The National Museum of Ireland- Country life.           Photo Source:  https://munchies.vice.com
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​The immigrants from Europe brought their festivals and practices to America with them, along with the tradition of vegetable carving. Irish immigrants had a strong influence on how Halloween developed in America.​
But alas, they soon discovered turnips weren't in abundance in the new world, but pumpkins were. Voilá. Here we are today. 
STINGY JACK
One of the myths the Irish brought to America was about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." The story goes that Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him, then didn't want to pay for the drinks. So he persuaded the Devil to take the form of a coin Jack could use it to buy their drinks.

When the Devil turned himself into a coin, Jack decided to keep the money and put it in his pocket where he kept a silver cross, which supposedly kept the Devil from turning into his original form.

Finally, Jack bargained with the Devil and agreed to free him on the condition he wouldn't bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, the Devil wouldn't claim his soul.

After a year, Jack again coerced the Devil into climbing a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the Devil was in the tree, Jack carved the sign of the cross into the tree's bark, preventing the Devil from coming down. Jack agreed to let him down if the Devil didn't bother him for ten years.

Unfortunately, not long after, Jack died, but God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him, kept his word not to claim Jack's soul, so he couldn't take Jack into hell. Instead, he sent Jack packing on a dark night with only a burning coal to light his way.

Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has roamed the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack- O’-Lantern.”
[Reworded slightly from History of the Jack 0' Lantern. http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/jack-olantern-history]

THE FINE ART OF PUMPKIN HUMOR
But we are not finished. Oh, no. Americans may have inherited the art of pumpkin carving from the Europeans, but we have taken it to new heights with our imagination and spirit of adventure.
     Minion Halloween                                                                                                                                                                  Eye on a plate   
​         https://weheartit.com                                                                                                                                                              ​https://www.pinterest.com
​Everything you never wanted to know about pumpkins and are going to read anyway.

●Pumpkins are native to the western hemisphere.
●Pumpkins are not a vegetable - they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family, which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.  http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_history.html
●The United States' major pumpkin states produce over one billion pounds of the vegetable/ fruit annually, worth over $100 million. Illinois produces more pumpkins than any other American state.
● In 2016 Steve Connolly from Sharon, MA managed to grow a giant pumpkin weighing 2,075.5 pounds, setting a new record in the state of Massachusetts.

HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN. 

Sources
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/jack-olantern-history
http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_history.html
http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-health/history-of-carving-pumpkins
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/facts.htm
http://www.livescience.com/5831-carve-pumpkins-turnips.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/10/31/how-the-ancient-romans-gave-us-bones-of-the-dead-cookies-for-halloween/#49c61a0f438a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSvb2o5wyEI
https://topsfieldfair.org/giantpumpkins.php
http://romae.org/blog/2008/10/22/the-roman-origins-of-halloween/
https://alphamom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CreeperPumpkins21.jpg
https://www.instructables.com/id/Spooky-Edible-Eyeballs/
https://www.pinterest.com/1inspiredwoman/fruit-vegetable-carvings/?lp=true
http://www.globeslcc.com/2014/10/30/halloween-facts-origins/
https://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2015/10/the-halloween-turnip-an-american-history/
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/pgx58g/evil-irish-turnips-were-the-original-jack-o-lanterns
https://www.annieandre.com/carve-scary-turnip-jack-olantern-halloween-not-pumpkin/
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I aTE THE WORM!

10/19/2018

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I did! And not just any old worm. An African Mopane worm.

​Oh, yuck!

Actually, the Mopane [or Mopani] is a caterpillar, not a worm, the larvae of the Emperor Moth. It didn't look like the one in the photo, but no matter how you cook, you can still see what it is.
▲ Photo: NY Daily News - Amalinda Ndlovu                     ▲  Photo:  Oxford University Museum of Natural History  harvesting mopane worms, Zimbabwe
(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)                 

​THE QUESTION IS … WHY?
Why not? I draw inspiration for my novels from my world travels. While I never know what information I'm going to need in the next novel, I've learned to pay better attention to the details that can't be researched. When I travel, I look for unique locations, attitudes, and customs which result in a story that couldn't happen anywhere else and be the same story. And I take advantage of new experiences and strange food.

Besides, Africans eat many types of insects [at least 40 types are traditional foods], but the most widespread and popular is the Mopani worm. It is considered healthy because of the crude protein content of 61% [three times the protein found in beef], plus they have crude fat of 17% and 11% of mineral content, on a dry matter basis. The worms are cheap and the main source of protein for much of the population of southern Africa. In some places they are considered a delicacy; in others, bush food. Still, yuck!
​
THE BOMA RESTAURANT
The momentous worm-eating event took place in 2008 at the well-know Boma restaurant, a class tourist venue near the Victoria Safari lodge in Zimbabwe. One visitor described it as an "over the top, traditional dining experience that is nothing short of memorable and exciting" and another "an out-of-body experience." The buffet is huge, with such dishes as grilled warthogs [tastes like good pork], kudu and impala stews, vegetarian dishes and, of course, the worm.
​These photos courtesy of Trip Advisor  ▲▲                                                                         ▲Three diners in chitenges

Diners are dressed in chitenges and invited to take part in a hand washing ceremony. The entertainment includes Amakwezi traditional dancers and singers, a local story teller, face painting, a Sangoma (a witchdoctor/fortune teller), and drummers. It's very interactive entertainment.
▼ Some of my photos didn’t come out well because of the lighting in parts of the restaurant.

​WHAT DO MOPANI WORMS TASTE LIKE?
Do you really want to know? I remember the one I ate [and I do mean "one"] as being kind of crunchy, but I think I gulped it down without tasting it.

One blogger who ate hers at the Boma in a stew, puts it this way. "The initial taste of the Mopane worm wasn't so bad, hidden by the garlic and onions. But as I continued to chew, the real flavor became unmasked and I detected a blend of earth, salt and drywall. It wasn't very good." Others say they taste like leaves. Still another person described them as having the flavor and texture of gritty prawns. I guess it depends on how you cook them.

 These photos courtesy of Trip Advisor                                                                                     Except for MY worm
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​ONE LAST ANECDOTE
My traveling companion, Shirley Wilder, and I stayed at the Victoria Fall Safari Lodge. Without describing the architecture, our room opened onto an covered but open walkway. Beyond, a landscaped hillside sloped upward.
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When we came back from dinner at the Boma, there were live mopanie worms crawling all over the walkway. We danced around them and hurried into the room. When we woke up in the morning, I got out of bed and there, near the bathroom door, was one of the worms against the wall.

We had been invaded. Neither of us wanted to go past it to the bathroom, so we waited for it to move.
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Finally, I couldn’t wait any longer and made a mad dash. When I came out, I was within a couple of feet from the creature, actually close enough to see it. I started to laugh and couldn’t stop. It was a black doorstop.

OKAY, PEOPLE. WOULD YOU EAT THE WORM?
 
Sources
http://vivekananda.hubpages.com/hub/taste_them_once_mopani_worms
http://hughpaxton.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/some-things-taste-like-prawns-mopani-worms/
http://theculinarylinguist.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/mopani-or-mopane-worms-caterpillars-taste-like-dried-leaves/
http://www.thegreenmechanics.com/2013/01/whats-for-dinner-zimbabwes-mopane-worms.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/zimbabwe-favorite-snack-mopane-worms-article-1.1247669
http://www.victoriafalls-guide.net/the-boma.html
http://goafrica.about.com/od/botswana/ss/Mopane-Worm.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/zimbabwe-favorite-snack-mopane-worms-article-1.1247669
http://unvegan.com/strange-eats/strange-meats-mopani-worm/
https://www.edibleinsects.com/entomophagy/edible-mopane-worms/
http://www.africanmoths.com/pages/SATURNIIDAE/SATURNIINAE/gonimbrasia%20zambesina.htm
https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g293761-d780177-i115892925-The_Boma_Dinner_Drum_Show-Victoria_Falls_Matabeleland_North_Province.html
https://notesontraveling.com/daily-special-food-and-drink-in-africa-pt-5/
https://tehastravels.com/2018/05/
 
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THE WINNERS WRITE THE HISTORY BOOKS

10/12/2018

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This blog started out as an update of my article about Columbus Day, but also to debunk the often-taught concept that Christopher Columbus discovered America. But, alas, that was not to be – at least in terms of the total picture.

Since the time I last updated the information, it appears that good old Chris has fallen into disrepute, and there is a major effort to reinvent the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day.

COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA ... RIGHT?
Well, not exactly -- even though it may be what you learned in grammar school.

● Point one: It depends on what is meant by the word discover.
Christopher Columbus was not the first of human kind to set foot on the North American Continent. There were already indigenous peoples living there when he arrived, both on the islands where he did set foot, and on the North American continent, upon which he did not set foot.

Columbus wasn't even the first European to set foot there, either. In 1960, undeniable proof of Vikings in North America came to light at L'Anse aux Meadows near Newfoundland, Canada. Islandic-style house foundations gave proof that the Vikings briefly settled there around 1100 (five hundred years before Columbus arrived), and artifacts including a needle whetstone, a soapstone spindle whorl, and bronze ring-pins of the Norsemen were also convincing evidence.
Hall at L'Anse aux Meadows by Eric Titcombe       Needle whetstone & soapstone spindal whorl – Photo by:           Leif Ericson – Photo:
Source: www.flicker.com                                           R.Chan for Parks Canada https://www.pinterest.com/                  http://www.timetoast.com
Leif (The Lucky) Ericson (970-1020) the Norse explorer and first son of Erik the Red, is regarded by many historians as the first European to land in North America. There are a myriad of other claims of others reaching the North American continent before Columbus and even before Ericson.

• 530 AD - St. Brendan
The story of St. Brendan, from Ireland, sailing to America certainly falls within the myth category.

• 1170 AD - Prince Madoc of Wales
Madoc (Madog or Madawg) ap Owain Gwynedd was a Welsh prince who, according to legend, discovered America in 1170. The story is unconfirmed, but there is a growing belief among many Welsh in the US that Wales has a claim on the discovery of the continent.

The first written account of Madoc's story is in George Peckham's A True Report of the late Discoveries of the Newfound Landes (1583). There exists disputed archaeological evidence, three hill fort sites similar to Celtic hill forts, along the river in the area they are supposed to have "colonized". The Mandan Indians are reportedly the descendants of these early Welsh explorers. Unfortunately, there are no Mandan Indians left of pure blood to confirm this through DNA testing.

• 1398 AD - Henry Sinclair
Also in the myth category is Henry I Sinclair (sometimes written St. Clair), Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin, and Lord of Shetland (c.1345-c.1400). A Scottish explorer/nobleman and the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel, Henry is also noted for being the subject of legend that he undertook early explorations of Greenland and North America in about the year 1398.

How about the Jewish, the Chinese, the Egyptians, Scott Wolter, and everyone else suggested on the History Channel? Every year there are new discoveries with the potential of rewriting the history we're taught in school, and the ability to DNA test certain ancient finds may eventually be able to put to rest old myths and word of mouth stories and establish real evidence.

● Point two: It depends on what is meant by the word America in this context.
While it’s true that Columbus never set foot on what U.S. citizens consider “America,” he never claimed he had. At that time, explorers who discovered things they didn’t recognize, fell back on the writings of the ancients, assuming they had wider experience than those who came after.

Columbus must have believed the same thing. He is often accused of being confused, of not knowing where he had been or what he had discovered, but the problem then was less a matter of “naming” things as finding the original local names … which no one in Europe would have understood anyway. In all, he made four voyages to the Americas and explored a rather large area, but it wasn’t until the fourth trip that he determined he hadn’t located Asia but another continent heretofore unknown to the Europeans.
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Routes of Columbus’ Four Voyages
Source: Wikipedia
​The name “America” (bestowed on the New World) was derived from the name of explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Florence, 1454-1512), although even this is in contention.
​
Through another ironic quirk of history, Vespucci didn’t name it, either. In fact, both Columbus and Vespucci believed what they discovered to be parts of Asia that, at that point, had not been explored by Europeans. Historians tell us that neither man had any concept of a new continent.

Amerigo Vespucci and his charts                                                                                           Photo of drawing:
Photos from: https://www.landofthebrave.info/amerigo-vespucci-facts.htm       https://www.exploration-and-piracy.org

One source indicates Amerigo Vespucci was a merchant from Venice who owned a business in Spain outfitting ships for mercantile expeditions. Another claims he worked for Lorenzo de' Medici and was sent, in 1492, to work at the Seville, Spain branch of the Medici bank. According to that source, King Manual I of Portugal invited Vespucci to participate as observer in several exploratory voyages to the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. And, in fact, both versions might be correct.

However he got there, Vespucci accompanied those expeditions to South America and, as a result, wrote letters with glowing descriptions of the newly discovered countries which he called the lands of a "New World."

Vespucci’s letters were read by Martin Waldseemuller, a noted geographer, and Mathias Ringmann, who were preparing a reproduction of Ptolemy's treatise on geography. They decided to incorporate Vespucci's voyage into the treatise. Ringmann, acting as editor, was apparently unaware of Columbus’ discoveries fifteen years earlier and wrote the following in his introduction: “There is a fourth quarter of the world which Amerigo Vespucci has discovered and which for this reason we can call 'America' or the land of Americo."

Their work (entitled Cosmographiae Introductio) was published in April, 1507, and marked the first time the word America appeared in print.

And this is sooo not what I learned in high school history. Do we really know anything for sure?

According to Toby Lester, a contributing editor to The Atlantic and the author of The Fourth Part of the World, “History hasn’t served poor Matthias Ringmann nearly as well [as Martin Waldseemuller]. That doesn’t seem quite fair. So tonight let’s send up a few of our fireworks in honor of the man who had the audacity to declare, before anybody else, that the world had a fourth part—and to imagine that he might be the one who could give it a name.”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/04/where_america_really_came_from/

Is nothing sacred? There is also a claim that the name America came from Richard Amerike, a Welsh-descended English merchant, Royal customs officer and Sheriff who had sponsored John Cabot's voyage to America in 1497.

DOES COLUMBUS GET THE CREDIT? A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Stories have it that Columbus died broke and in jail, but for the most part, the history books still give Christopher Columbus the credit for “discovering” the new world and opening up the Americas to European colonization. They also lay the blame for the negative impacts of his arrival in the Western Hemisphere. A double-edged sword.

He is also blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of the islands he explored, and he is labeled a racist, as were most of the aristocracy of that period. People have expended many words on extolling his successes and virtues and criticizing his faults and failures. There is plenty to read, if you want to explore those avenues.
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Photo: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/columbus-confusion-about-the-new-world-140132422/
The Gallery Collection / Corbis
WORLDWIDE CELEBRATIONS
This date is celebrated not only in the United States but also as DÃa de ;a Raza (Day of the Race) in Latin America. In the late twentieth century it became a controversial holiday in  some countries and has been re-named in others.

Día de la Raza (Discovery Day) is celebrated in the Bahamas, Spain, Argentina, Belize, and Uruguay using different names. In the United States, many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, rather than the arrival of the Europeans in the Western Hermisphere.

CONTROVERSAY OVER THE HOLIDAY
Although celebrated in some locations since the 1800s, Columbus Day as a national holiday was not declared until in 1937. Over the decades, as civil rights came into focus, it has become more and more controversial.
​
According to Nadra Kareen Nittle’s article in www.thoughtco.com, March, 2017, “Native American groups argue that the Italian explorer’s arrival in the New World ushered in genocide against indigenous peoples as well as the transatlantic slave trade.” Much like Thanksgiving, it highlights Western imperialism and the conquest of people of color.
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The American Indian Movement (AIM) “likened Columbus Day celebrations in the U.S. to the German people establishing a holiday to celebrate Adolf Hitler with parades and festivals in Jewish communities,” and asked the federal government to stop observances on Columbus Day.

According to AIM, “Columbus was the beginning of the American holocaust, ethnic cleansing characterized by murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removals of Indian people from their homelands … We say that to celebrate the legacy of this murderer is an affront to all Indian peoples, and others who truly understand this history.”
Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration  Seattle 2017 Photo: Elaine Thompson/AP     https://me.me/t/columbus-day
​Eduardo Muñnos-Reuters Randalls     Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch
​Island NY 2017
To address this, the idea of substituting an Indigenous People’s Day was born in 1977 to commemorate and respect, instead, the traditions and customs of North America’s great tribes.

THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATES THE EVENT, NOT THE PERSON
First, in my opinion, it’s ridiculous to imagine the US government, or the people of the United States, intend to celebrate or condone murder, torture, slavery, and everything else AIM mentions or to purposely affront native Americans by having Columbus Day as a national holiday.

Second, regardless of who got to the Americas/New World first, until Columbus' voyages, the historical truth is that the two hemispheres of the world lived in isolation, each unaware of the existence of the other. Christopher Columbus' voyages changed that.

Third, Columbus Day marks the first encounter that brought together the original indigenous Americans and the future Americans and changed the history of the world.

Columbus Day does not commemorate the person nor does it celebrate the ultimate outcome of the voyages. It is the historical event Columbus Day honors and is neither a positive or negative comment on the value of the event or what happened subsequently. Remember, nearly all events commemorated by any culture, have their positive and negative impacts.

Personally, I believe an Indigenous People's Day would be a good thing, but not as a substitute for the remembering the event of the two separate parts of the world coming together. Perhaps the name of the holiday should be changes to "Discovery Day", the name given to the event by many other countries which celebrate it.
 
Sources: 2018
https://www.summitlighthouse.org/master-saint-germain-columbus/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/columbus-confusion-about-the-new-world-140132422/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/columbus-day-2017-indigenous-peoples-day-cities-native-americans-christopher-columbus-a7990211.html
https://thehumanist.com/commentary/dont-celebrate-columbus-honor-native-people
https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0325/25202.html
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/1013/Is-Indigenous-Peoples-Day-a-long-overdue-change-or-political-correctness-run-amok
https://www.thoughtco.com/case-against-celebrating-columbus-day-2834598
https://theamericanscholar.org/what-columbus-day-really-means/#.WvM1kYgvzcc
http://ucbhssp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/hssplessons/Columbus%20and%20Native%20Peoples%20Lesson.pdf
http://www.aish.com/shraga_blog/Columbus_the_Jew.html
https://www.factretriever.com/christopher-columbus-facts
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/153569
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/10/12/354274630/seattle-swaps-columbus-day-for-indigenous-peoples-day
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/the-naming-of-america/
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/10/12/354274630/seattle-swaps-columbus-day-for-indigenous-peoples-day
 
Sources prior to 2018:
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/c-Columbus/columbus.html
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/bookmarks/americas_name/
http://www.answers.com/topic/columbus-day
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/04/where_america_really_came_from/
http://columbus-day.123holiday.net/christopher_columbus.html
http://blogs.tennessean.com/opinion/2010/10/05/why-is-columbus-day-celebrated/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Amerigo_Vespucci.aspx
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Amerigo_Vespucci
http://www.theholidayzone.com/columbus/history.html
http://aglobalworld.com/holidays-around-the-world/discovery-puerto-rico-day-puerto-rico/
http://aglobalworld.com/holidays-around-the-world/bahamas-discovery-day/
https://www.landofthebrave.info/amerigo-vespucci-facts.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Columbus_Day
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FINDING YOUR AUDIENCE

10/5/2018

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Nowadays, most of the marketing of a novel falls to the author, and that consumes a large part of our working time when we should be writing instead.

A crucial part of marketing is assuring your message is being seen and heard by the people most likely to purchase your book -- your Target Audience. Target marketing is one of the important keys to success. By targeting your message, you're more likely to maximize the return on your time and marketing dollar.

RULES OF THUMB
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Market yourself as an author and a person, not just your book.
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 Know the thematic statement of your novel.
 Every book needs a thematic statement—the lesson to be learned, the impact on the reader, the reason the author wrote the book. That is the key to who will want to read it. Part of your marketing strategy is connecting your audience with the main theme of the book.
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 Write to your audience.
 Think about who will want to read your book, preferably before you start writing it. Keep your audience in mind while you write it. One of the biggest mistakes authors make, particularly fiction authors, is failing to identify their target audience before writing the book.
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 Begin marketing well before your book comes out.
That means selling yourself as a person and making your audience aware of you before your book is available.  But wait! To whom are you going to market your book?
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FINDING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Who is your target audience?

Think about why would someone want to read your book? What segment of the population were you thinking about when you conceived the idea for this book? Who did you want to help, educate, inform or entertain? And most important of all, what does your book offer that others in the same genre do not. How is your book unique?
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Regarding the question of who your audience is, Patricia Fry writes "And please do not say, 'Everyone.' Say this to a publisher and you will definitely receive a rejection letter. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all book. Even the world’s best-selling book, the Bible, isn’t embraced by all of humanity. Tell a publisher that your audience is everyone and you’ve just blown your professional cover."
https://www.matilijapress.com/articles/DetermineTargetAudience.htm
​
Kimberley Grabas writes, "Trying to appeal to the masses instead of understanding the needs, wants and desires of a select few–the ‘right’ few–is the recipe for a book launch flop.
Easier said than done, but it is essential. The article Finding a Target Audience for Your Book in 3 Steps indicates that authors must learn to see things from the perspective of the reader in order to find the 'right' audience and discover  the most effective channels for reaching them.
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Self-examine yourself and your message
​   Self-examination is essential first before you can find your audience. In addition to knowing who you are and how to project that to your audience, you must know the thematic statement of your novel and what you want the reader to feel and think about once they have read your book.
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 Don't Assume you already know your audience
 Don’t assume you already know your audience, or that they are just like you. It’s possible, but not always the case that your audience will think like you. So do the work to confirm what your readers actually want; not what you think they need. They are not just a faceless group of people
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 Find who wants to read your book.
You’re looking for the people who already want to buy your book. It's tied to the thematic statement and the style of book. There are people out there who are interested in the theme, style, what is unique about it.

Author Marcia James’ Ten Tips to Niche Marketing gives excellent advice on how to identify those people who may want to read your book. Think about genre and:
   ● Who might connect with your characters, your thematic statement, your setting, the circumstances of the novel, etc.  Who did you want to help, educate, inform or entertain? You may have several audiences. That’s great. List them.
   ● Who might connect with you as an author and/or a person and what is important to you.
   ● What your audience needs? What do they want? What do they value?
   ● What is most important to them?
   ● What are they least likely to care about?
   ● What you have to say that might surprise your audience?
   ● What you want your audience to think, learn, or assume about you? What impression do you want your writing to convey?
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Research The Demographics
​Once you have a good handle on why you write, your message, and who needs or wants to hear that message, you need to consider the demographics related to those groups you believe might be your target audiences.
Most businesses depend on market research and demographics to plan their marketing. Writing is a business, and authors should approach finding their audience and marketing in the same manner.

Demographics describe the profile of a particular market segment. Psychographics are the attitudinal traits people exhibit in their approach to life. Because both sets of traits have an impact on buying behavior, both have an impact on how you should package, price, and communicate your book to your target audiences.

There are a number of polls and surveys prepared by others that authors can use. In most cases, those are not necessarily focused on your target audience, and they are not necessarily done every year. However, they’re useful in deducing who is most likely to be interested in what you’re selling—you as an author and your books.
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While you may think that there is nothing available on romance readers or any other particular genre, there are actually polls being taken all the time for various reasons. In particular, if you write romance, RWA has polls on readership that are very valuable. Put some faces on that crowd of people.
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Think Like Your Reader
 Social media is an ideal tool for understanding potential readers and connecting with them. Successful social media marketing takes time and patience, dedication and consistency, and a sincere commitment to making your interactions personal.

You don't want to harass your readers. It is essential to be transparent, friendly and personable. Who knows? You might just find that making friends online is just as fun as meeting people face-to-face!
   ● One of your strongest strategies should focus on engagement, and being present, with your audience. Trying to plan every last detail of your marketing efforts will only undermine them.
   ● Most readers aren’t going on social media to buy a book. They’re using social media to engage with other readers, authors, and friends. Don't bombard them with ads and sales pitches.
   ● Be authentic and real with your followers, and they will be sincere with you. It’s all about being sociable without being annoying, just like in real life.
  ● Hashtags are your #friend. They categorize the plethora of content being posted, by working as searchable tags and keywords. They assist in developing an online presence and reaching out to your audience. If used correctly, hashtags can connect you with readers all over the internet. If used incorrectly, they just clutter all of your wonderful content. Don't use too many.
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Facebook Audience Insights can give you incredibly detailed data on audience demographics and interests. By searching for people whose interests include Stephen King, we know their age and gender split, geographical location, as well as other pages they’ve liked. The same applies to other social networks like Twitter and Google+. If you want to find out who is talking about a book (or an author, an interest, pretty much anything), you can use Twitter Advanced Search.
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Know The Competition
Find out which books on the market are closest to your in theme and style. If you were to compare your book to other titles that are already out there, which ones would they be? What kind of readers comprise the readership of these books? A little bitr of analysis will help you further refine your proto-persona.
 
Studying demographics sounds onerous to those who haven't done it before. There are other ways to find out your audience by comparing the works of other authors in your genre. Find out which books on the market are closest to yours in theme and style. If you were to compare your book to other titles that are already out there, which ones would they be? What kind of people comprises the readership of these books? A little bit of analysis will help you further refine your proto-persona.

Find out which authors are published in the same genre, who writes in a similar style or about the same or similar topics. Find out which authors are successful and popular. Read their books and look for similarities and differences.

In other words, identify your competition. Be able to make the comparison off the top of your head. Always think about what makes your work similar to, but unique from, the best sellers. Use #hashtags to browse your genre community.

Also, you need to follow (and read, read, read) your competition in order to know what makes your work different from theirs and, of course, why those novels are selling. That's something you need to be able to articulate to editors, agents, and to your audience.
   ● Connect With Your Competition
Follow these authors on FaceBook, Twitter and other Social Media. Engage them and communicate. If you’ve read their work, you can make specific comments. Put reviews on Amazon and GoodReads and other sites. Go to their book signings if you have the opportunity, or meet them at conferences.​
   ●Their Audiences May Be Your Audiences
By following successful authors and reading their works, you also get to know their audiences. See if you can deduce from comments and followers, who their audiences are and what they are interested it.

Are they the same from one author to the next, or different? Can you tell why? Get to know others who follow these authors. What techniques do these authors use to market to this audience?  You might even be able to ask the authors questions about their audiences and get some pointers. However you use the various social networking opportunities, you have to give something to those you follow and follow you. And that something needs to be of value to them, something they want. Substance is critical. Since a large part of capturing your audience’s attention depends on how you engage with them, notice how your favorite authors interact with their fans.
   ● Learn From The Best
The bestselling books and/or bestselling authors dominate a lot of the readers’ market, and your competition is vast (four million books), but don’t see this as a roadblock.  Bestsellers will always exist, and there will always mid-list authors.  But there will also be new authors moving in alongside the established ones.  It takes new blood to keep readers interested in the same genres.
   ● See How Other Authors Engage Their Audiences
Since a large part of capturing your audience’s attention depends on how you engage with them, notice how your favorite authors interact with their fans. What topics do they Tweet about? What does their audience respond to? Emulate people who are already where you want to be, but do it with your own unique voice. Just don't copy.

PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE
Once you've identified your audience, and you know where they hang out and what interests them, use #hashtags to browse your genre community.

   ● Engage in Social networking and self-promotion
However you use the various social networking opportunities, you have to give something to those you follow and follow you. And that something needs to be of value to them, something they want. Substance is critical. Since a large part of capturing your audience’s attention depends on how you engage with them, notice how your favorite authors interact with their fans. There are many classes and training opportunities to give you good information about using the various social media.

StumbleUpon is one I hadn’t heard of before. http://www.stumbleupon.com/about/.  StumbleUpon, a form of web search engine, has actually been around since 2001, but has only become popular in the past several years. A lot of this is due to the site becoming available on mobile platforms as well as on the web outside of a browser extension.

I've never used it, but supposedly it helps businesses market to their ideal audiences through targeted content. I've read what's really amazing is that, despite a membership of about 25 million compared to Facebook's 900 million or Twitter's 140 million, it's already driving more than 50 percent of social media site referral traffic. Who knew?​
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 Narrow your audience
Once you are clear about your audiences, make an effort to find a specific niche. While it seems that getting the word out to as many people as possible, that motion is not entirely correct. For one thing, the narrower the audience, the less competition. You'll get a better return on your efforts. It also helps with:
   ● Key words
   ●Tagging on Amazon (and other locations)
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  Put yourself out there
● Nothing replaces face-to-face marketing and word of mouth
    ● Speaking Engagements at local book clubs, libraries, service organizations, etc.
    ● Book signings
    ● Guest lecturing at local service clubs, women's clubs, etc. They always want speakers.
 
Successful authors find ways to build a loyal readership which supports the author enthusiastically and raves about his/her novels, instead of just reading the books.
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​Resources
http://marthaengber.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-authors-find-their-audience.html
http://spiritauthors.com/news/target-audience-knowing-finding-and-reaching-your-readers/
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/page.cfm?pageid=327
http://paintthistownred.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/finding-your-niche-a-guest-post-from-marilyn-baron-author-of-dead-mix/
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-find-writing-niche-5344877.html
http://freelancefolder.com/7-ways-to-find-your-freelance-writing-niche/
http://www.examiner.com/article/finding-your-creative-niche
http://www.articledestination.com/Article/Finding-Your-Writing-Niche/7524
https://www.matilijapress.com/articles/DetermineTargetAudience.htm
http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/how-to-target-an-audience/
https://blog.reedsy.com/3-steps-reaching-target-audience
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/06/13/identify-your-target-audience/
http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/how-to-target-an-audience/
https://monicashaughnessy.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/finding-an-audience-for-your-book-signing/
http://www.janbking.com/2007/05/finding-the-audience-for-your-book/
http://writershelpingwriters./
https://blog.reedsy.com/social-media-tips-for-authors


 
 

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HOTEL TO THE STARS: A tribute to an Old Timer That Couldn't Be Saved

9/28/2018

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Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador
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While I was preparing a foreword to my contemporary murder mystery, The Last Weekend In October, which was released last July, I felt the need to explain the literary license I'd taken with the timing of story. Most readers won't notice the discrepancy between fate of the famed Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel in reality and the timing in the novel, but the explanation is there for those who know the history.
​
NIGHTCLUB of the HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES
One of the most glamorous places in old Hollywood was the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel, home of the famed Coccanut Grove Nightclub. A product of Hollywood's golden years, the Grove was THE place to rub shoulders with the royalty of Hollywood movie industry.                                                                                                                                                                                 
The Ambassador Hotel 1939                                                  Entrance To Coccanut Grove Nightclub             Coccanut Grove Interior
California Digital Library (1939)                                             Sylvie Auger: www.pinterest.com/pin/                Photo In 01-04-2015 "Ambassador Hotel"
​www.findinglostangeles.com/ambassador-hotel                                                                      www.findinglostangeles.com/ambassador-hotel                                                                                                                        
​The Ambassador hotel, designed by architect Myron Hunt, opened in 1921. It was built as a part of the Ambassador Hotel Chain, but that dissolved in 1930 and was sold to Schine Hotels. Over the years it hosted six Academy Awards ceremonies, numerous other celebrity events such as the Golden Globe Awards, and seven presidents. Some celebrities, such as Pola Negri, actually resided there.                                                               
Mary Pickford–2nd Academy Awards               Marilyn Monroe at 1960 Golden Globe Awards                                      1943 Academy Awards Banquet
Photo:www.pinterest.com/academy-awards    Courtesy of Herald-Examiner Collection -LA Library                            Photo: www.pinterest.com/baker9144/
                                                                               www.kcet.org/shows/ambassador-hotel
                                                                               
During the 1920's the Coccanut Grove was frequented by celebrities like Louis B. Mayer, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Howard Hughes, Clara Bow, Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, and others. Do you recognize James Cagney in the photo above?

In the 1930's the regulars included Norma Shearer, Irving Thalberg, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, Jimmy Steward, Marlene Dietrich, Lana Turner, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and more.  During this period many movies were filmed there.
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​HOTEL of PRESIDENTS
For decades, the Ambassador was the hotel of choice for presidents, diplomats, and foreign dignitaries when staying the Los Angeles area. Seven US Presidents are said to have stayed there.

On June 5, 1968, after a victory speech in the Embassy Room, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, winner of the California Democratic presidential primary, was shot along with five other people. Kennedy died one day later.
​
This event, combined with a decline of the neighborhood in general, signaled the demise of the hotel. In the mid-1970's Sammy Davis, Jr., headed a renovation of the Coccanut Grove, to no avail, and in 1989 the hotel closed to guests. It did remain available for private events, such as the campaign dinner in my novel, and filming television and movies.
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THE END OF AN ERA
That didn't end the celebrity status of the Hotel. It remained in the limelight another ten plus years.

For some time before the close of the hotel, the Los Angeles School Board had been looking at the 23.5 acre property for a high school. When it closed Donald Trump scooped up the property for $64 million and announced he would build a 125 story tower. The School Board voted to take the property by eminent domain.

I worked for the City of Los Angeles Planning Department at that time, and we occasionally saw Donald Trump roaming the hallways of City Hall during the early 1990s. Without going into the gory details of the "Dump Trump" and "Public need over private greed" war, Trump eventually dropped out of the deal without making a penny, and the School Board ended up with the property. Then there were several years of fighting with the historic preservation community who want to save the hotel and declare it a historic monument.

The School District eventually prevailed, and the hotel was torn down in late 2005 and early 2006 (and hence the discrepancy in my novel). Today the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, comprised of six autonomous pilot schools from kindergarten-through-12th-grade, occupy the property, attended by over 4,200 students. It is touted -- and widely criticized – as the nation’s most expensive public school costing over $578 million to build.

The kitchen where Kennedy was killed can still be seen in the school library, the Coccanut Grove has become the auditorium with new doors replicating the originals, and many of the other historic features have been incorporated into the school and preserved.

Another part of campus - Photo Source:                         Replica of doors to the Coconut Grove                       The Visual and Performing Arts High School  
framework.latimes.com/ambassador-hotel                     Photo Source:                                                                  Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press
                                                                                            www.findinglostangeles.com/ambassador-hotel           www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/
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Students participate in creation of murals
http://livefastmag.com/2016/05/rfk-mural-fest-the-most-inspiring-way-to-support-arts-education-in-schools/





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THE LAST WEEKEND IN OCTOBER
Overview
Psychiatrist Mark LeBonge, driven by a strong sense of justice, arrives at the group home for convicted teenage sexual abusers, where his sister has worked the night shift…and finds her murdered. When police Lieutenant Art Krantz, primary on the case, ignores Mark's suspicions about one of the boys in the half-way house, Mark enlists his sister's roommate, Karen Mitchell, to help him identify the murderer.

Mark learns from Karen that Art Krantz and his sister had an affair several years ago, which she broke off because Krantz was married. To complicate matters, he also comes to believe the boy he suspected of the murder, is possibly innocent of the crime he was convicted for.

The complex twists and turns bring Mark and Krantz into conflict and put Karen in danger as they attempt unravel crimes and conspiracy starting at a group home and ending in high level politics.

Excerpt
     Wearily, Mark got out of the car, stretching his long frame as he did so, then shot his cuffs and adjusted the tweed sports coat. Last night's rain storm left the morning air a tad cooler than brisk, chilling him even with the jacket on.
     "Why'd you have to park there, Mark?" an irritable voice greeted him.
     He glanced up. His sister's partner, Ron Philips, was climbing out of his old Honda Civic parked at the curb. Ron had worked the day shift with Hollie for the last four months. He looked his usual unkempt self in blue jeans, an old sweater with a hole in one elbow, and a day's growth of beard.
     "Good morning to you, too, Ron." Mark shot him an insincere smile. "You're on time for a change."
    He didn't care for Ron's lackadaisical attitude, particularly in a counselor for such disturbed youths as these teenage sexual offenders. Granted, the job didn't pay much, but the counselors were role models to these kids. They should at least take the position seriously for the short time they worked there.
     "What the..." Ron swore as he stepped in a puddle by his car. He kicked at the rain water, splashing it onto his jeans.
     "Watch your language." Mark frowned at Ron as the younger man walked up the driveway cursing.
      Ron glared at him, his hands dug into his pockets, and ignored the comment. "Your car is in my parking spot. You made me get my shoes muddy, and I'll have to take the time to move my car later."
      "Bummer." Like I really care. The two of them walked up the path to the house together. "Anyway, I'm not staying. As soon as Hollie's done, we're going to breakfast. You can move your car as soon as we leave."
     "Hollie?" Ron stopped short. His eyebrows shot up, then collapsed into a puzzled frown. "She's supposed to work with me today. I thought she just got here." He gestured toward her car.
     Mark shook his head. "She pulled an emergency shift last night. I'm surprised you didn't know. Something about the night man being sick."
     Ron pulled out his keys, inserted one into the lock, and turned it. "Damn, she'll be in a charming mood." The dead bolt clicked. "Or am I alone with these brats today?" He turned the knob, but the door didn't open. "Hey, what's going on?"
     "It must have been unlocked already, and you locked it."
    At that moment, a twitch of anxiety rippled through Mark. A vague sense of unease settled over him like a black cloud. It wasn't like his sister to leave the door unlocked. She was meticulous about procedure, a residual habit from her three years as a Los Angeles City cop.
     Ron turned the key in the opposite direction. Again, the dead bolt clicked, and this time the door opened. Ron stepped into the unlit entry hall.
     Mark followed, his sense of unease building. The heavy air reeked with a strange metallic odor, hovering like a recent malignant presence. A shiver skittered up his spine.
      Something was wrong.
     On the threshold, Ron paused and frowned at him, his face reflecting the premonition he felt. "Do you smell something?"
     "Hollie!" Mark called.
    A few paces ahead of him, Ron hurried through the living room to the kitchen, the preferred spot for the counselors on the night watch, and skidded to a stop. "Holy shit!"
     "Oh, my God!"
     Hollie's body lay on the floor, butchered in a waste of dark blood, her head twisted at an odd angle. Blood everywhere. A desperate coldness flooded Mark's body. His heart pounded against his ribcage, and his own blood drummed in his ears. Blood seemed to splash in bright globules against the retinas of his eyes.
□
TRAVEL TO FOREIGN LANDS FOR ROMANCE AND INTRIGUE
with a novel by Author R. Ann Siracusa
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_(Los_Angeles)
https://www.laconservancy.org/issues/ambassador-hotel
http://theambassadorhotel.com/
http://www.seeing-stars.com/Hotels/Ambassador.shtml
http://www.rfkcommunityschools.org/Information
http://www.rfkcommunityschools.org/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1308768166559
http://lahistoryarchive.socalstudio.org/resources/CommonGround/project_files/sites.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-trump-ambassador-20151220-story.html
HFPA   https://www.goldenglobes.com/person/marilyn-monroe
https://www.pinterest.com/baker9144/golden-globes-1960/?lp=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_(Los_Angeles)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/25192079141370447/?lp=true
https://martinturnbull.com/2012/11/09/cocoanut-grove-nightclub-ambassador-hotel-wilshire-blvd-los-angeles/
https://www.findinglostangeles.com/all-content/2017/12/13/the-ambassador-hotel
http://framework.latimes.com/2010/09/12/new-schools-rise-from-ambassador-hotel-site/#/0
https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Nation-s-most-expensive-public-school-578-729128.php
http://livefastmag.com/2016/05/rfk-mural-fest-the-most-inspiring-way-to-support-arts-education-in-schools/




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NAPOLEON AND JOSEPHINE: Greatest Love Stories Ever Told Series

9/21/2018

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WHAT COULD BE MORE ROMANTIC?
Napoleon Bonaparte (08-15-1769 to 05-05-1821) was the first emperor of France and is considered one of the world's greatest military leaders of all times.

​He was sponsor of the Napoleonic Code, revolutionized military training, education, and organization, and established the long-lived Owner/ Source of Photo: Bruun-rasmussen  https://skeel.info/                  Concordat with the papacy. What could be more                                                                           romantic?

I can think of a lot of more romantic things. That Napoleon was a brilliant military strategist and politician, is the sort of information we all learned in school. He was the Emperor of France and Josephine was Empress. I’d never even imagined there was a great love story there.

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
The story begins six years before our hero was born, in June of 1763, when Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie was born in the French colony of Martinique. Rose, as she was called by family and friends--Napoleon changed her name to Josephine because he didn’t like the name Rose--​was the daughter of a moderately wealthy aristocrat who owned a sugar plantation.
                                                      La Pagerie Sugar Plantation - The house where Josephine grew up
                                                                                                Photo source: Royalty and the Atlantic World 2: Napoleon, Josephine and the French
                                                                                                Caribbean; 03-10-2013 by Carolyn Harris  http://www.royalhistorian.com/napoleon-josephine
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However, after hurricanes destroyed the Tascher properties in 1766, the family was left with only their aristocratic name. Josephine soon realized if she wanted to defeat her destiny, some sacrifices would be necessary, and the best way to secure the family financial status was through marriage.
​
Her family arranged a marriage to the wealthy Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, not for Josephine but for her younger sister Catherine who was twelve. The Tascher family was depending on the liaison to end their financial hardships, but Catherine died suddenly. Thus, Josephine took her place and married the Viscount in 1779 at the age of 16.

They had two children, but the marriage failed eventually, and in 1794 she got court authorization to separate. It scarcely mattered, since her husband was accused of being a supporter of the royalists during the Reign of Terror and was sent to the guillotine. Josephine, also jailed for four months, was freed when Robespierre was overthrown and executed.

THE MEETING
Josephine, reunited with her two children, turned to her many well-heeled friends and continued to live an active social life. Not only was she well connected, she was charming, beautiful and, reputedly, expert at living the good life and spending money, particularly other people’s money.

Despite the taint left on her departed husband’s name, Josephine became one of the most prominent women in Paris society. She had many affairs with important political and military figures, and became the mistress of Paul François Jean Nicolas, Viscount de Barras, the most politically influential man in France.
​
There are several fanciful tales about how she met Napoleon, but historians tend to believe they met in 1795 at a social event while accompanying Barras. Apparently, Josephine didn’t particularly like Napoleon but she realized he was an ambitious man with a sharp intelligent mind.
                                                                              Josephine Bonaparte de Beauharnais -by Andrea Appiani (1796)
                                                                                                                          Source of photo: https://culturacolectiva.com/history/
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​Napoleon, a mere general at the time, fell in love at first sight. He began courting her at once, and his passion is expressed in the many surviving love letters he wrote when he was on campaign. She wasn’t as enthusiastic. She was at the top of the social ladder, and her suitor was younger, penniless, and less good looking than Barras. However, one source indicated Barras arranged for Napoleon be appointed commander of the French army in Italy on the condition that he’d marry Josephine.

Whether that is accurate or not, Napoleon proposed. His family was against his marrying Josephine and thought he could do better. Josephine’s friends and daughter advised her not to marry him. Not in love, Josephine still hoped that General Hoche, whom she had met in prison and had an affair with, would leave his wife and marry her. When she realized he would never do so, she accepted the proposal.

THE MARRIAGE
They were to be married in a civil ceremony at 8 pm on March 9, 1796. The written accounts of their wedding are bizarre. Absolutely nothing was normal. The wedding party arrived on time. Napoleon was four hours late, his excuse being that he was so absorbed in planning a military champagne that he’d lost track of time. The official who was supposed to marry them had left after two hours of waiting, and the ceremony was eventually performed in the middle of the night by some junior civil servant.

Josephine’s ex-lover, Barras, served as witness. Both bride and groom had lied about their ages on the marriage certificate, Josephine taking off four years and Napoleon adding eighteen months.

On their wedding night, Napoleon discovered Josephine expected her pug dog to sleep with them in the bed. He objected but eventually gave in. According to J. David Markham, www.dummies.com/education/history/ “An unamused Napoleon nevertheless attempted to claim his husbandly rights (or perform his husbandly duties, take your pick), but the miserable dog, evidently unhappy with the competition, bit him on the shin.”

It sounds a bit like an “I Love Lucy” episode.

THE NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER ENDING
Regardless of their beginning, most chroniclers indicate Napoleon and Josephine shared a love and passion throughout their marriage which was genuine and kept them together despite each of them having numerous affairs. She was a good and loving mother and was particularly close to her daughter, Hortense. Napoleon was a good stepfather despite his absences.
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
http://brewminate.com/the-romance-of-josephine-and-napoleon-bonaparte/
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In 1804, Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France and Josephine was crowned empress. She almost did not attend because she’d caught Napoleon in bed with another woman just a few hours before the coronation.

After fourteen years of marriage, six after he was crowned emperor, Josephine had not produced an heir. In 1810, Napoleon gave in to pressure, had the marriage annulled, and married Marie Louise of Austria (who did produce him an heir).
​
Napoleon loved Josephine deeply for the rest of his life, and after the divorce he ordered that she keep her title as Empresses of France. She retired to Malmaison, her estate outside Paris, alone but with considerable resources.
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Without her, Napoleon’s career began to fail. When he was imprisoned in 1814, she took the news badly, fell ill, and lost the will to live. She died in May, 1814 and was buried in the church of St. Pierre-St. Paul in Rueil.

He died seven years later and his last words were for Josephine. His tomb is located in the    Josephine’s Manor House Malmaison is now a
Dôme des Invalides, Paris.                                                  museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Malmaison                                                                       
AFTERWORD
Biographers and historians often slant their opinions of Josephine in the direction of her being just another opportunist or of being a victim of the times which valued women only for their ability to have children, males specifically.

I don’t believe we need to feel sorry for Josephine on any level, even if she was dumped by the emperor. She lived her life as she wanted, enjoyed more freedom than most women of the time, and achieved the position in society and politics that she desired. Together, Napoleon and Josephine are considered one of the most famous and powerful couples in history.
□
 
Sources
http://amolife.com/reviews/top-20-most-famous-love-stories-in-history-and-literature.html
https://culturacolectiva.com/history/empress-josephine-napoleon-paintings/
https://www.dummies.com/education/history/world-history/napoleons-josephine-a-rose-by-any-other-name/
https://www.biography.com/people/groups/napoleon-and-josephine
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/chateau-malmaison-napoleon-josephine-bonaparte
https://shannonselin.com/2016/04/marriage-napoleon-marie-louise/
https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/napoleon/c_house.html
https://www.biography.com/people/jos%C3%A9phine-de-beauharnais-9358328
https://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291
http://wedoitfortheloveofmusic.com/the-greatest-love-stories-in-history-napoleon-and-josephine/
http://sites.coloradocollege.edu/martinique/
http://www.royalhistorian.com/royalty-and-the-atlantic-world-2-napoleon-josephine-and-the-french-caribbean/z
http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-spaces/dome-des-invalides-tomb-of-napoleon-i.html
http://brewminate.com/the-romance-of-josephine-and-napoleon-bonaparte/
 
 

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THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT: The Next Big Thing

9/14/2018

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I NEVER WOULD HAVE BELIEVED…
When I first started writing romance novels in the mid-1980’s, the “rules” were so restrictive an author couldn’t write about women in traditionally male professions, much less about a heroine in the entertainment business or sports. “Readers can’t relate,” Harlequin told my agent.
Photo: http://www.westword.com

Phooey. I was an architect and urban planner, and I didn’t want to read about nannies.

At the time, I never would have believed someday we’d be writing romances including vampires, but now they’re crawling all over the shelves in the book stores [if Amazon has allowed any brick and mortar bookstores to survive]. Along with vampire romances there are romances about werewolves, zombies, shape shifters, demons, angels, dragons, aliens, witches, ad infinitum.

So, what will be the next big thing? We need something new and fresh, your editor will tell you. I was at a loss for ideas until I remembered the bogeyman [also spelled bogyman, boogeyman, bogieman, and boogieman].

“IF YOU DON’T BEHAVE, THE BOGEYMAN WILL GET YOU!”
Did you ever hear your parents use those words when you were a kid? I’m not sure whether I learned about the bogeyman at home or somewhere else, but I grew up knowing this monster meant business.

Today’s parenting doesn’t buy into the concept of frightening children into good behavior, but for thousands of years it has been a main stay. After all, throughout history parents around the world have wanted good behavior from their children although, I’m sure, what constituted good behavior varied a lot.

​According to Melissa Breyer*, “Creating compliance in children is surely a universal desire, and there’s no easier way than to scare the bejesus out of them. Although it seems somewhat cruel to intensify the fears that are already part and parcel of childhood, as long as there are benevolent Santa figures used to affect behavior, the malevolent counterpart will remain alive and well. Because when the promise of presents and candy doesn't work, the threat of being eaten by a monster can be rather persuasive.”
Photo:https://kadampalife.org/2012/11/10/there-is-no-boogey-man-under-the-bed/                        Photo: http://warriorsofmyth.wikia.com/wiki/Boogeyman    
WHAT DOES HE/SHE/IT LOOK LIKE?
What I didn’t learn growing up is what this Bogeyman monster looked like. It was a non-specific incarnation of terror which leapt out of nowhere on the days when a child had been particularly difficult, ornery, mischievous, or just plain “bad.” It usually lived under the child’s bed or in the closet, and preferred to appear at night after the child was alone in the dark. Not knowing the appearance of the monster makes it even more frightening. You don’t know what to expect. You don’t have any clue what to look for. Eh, eh, eh!

Although the bogeyman is usually thought of as masculine, he/she/it can be anything. “The bogeyman himself varies in appearance. It’s common belief he will embody the fears of the person he has targeted. If you’re afraid of spiders, he could appear as a giant arachnid. If you’re afraid of a specific person in your life, he could appear as that person. The possibilities are endless.”    https://9thcircleofhorror.com/2015/11/01/the-legend-of-the-boogeyman/

O.M.G. WE’RE SURROUNDED!
It’s no surprise, then, that nearly every culture in the world developed its own equivalent of the Bogeyman. If you want to know more, go to  Wikipedia and search under Bogeyman.
Here are just a few of the ones I found interesting. 
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● Sack Man
In Spain , Portugal, Brazil, and other Spanish American countries, Sack Man [Hombre del Saco] carries away naughty children.

The inspiration likely comes from a very real person who, during the 16th and 17th centuries , was in charge of collecting orphan babies to take to the orphanages. He put them in bags or wicker baskets and carried them through the province. Most of them died before reaching the orphanages.

Photo: http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Skin_and_Bones
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● El Coco / El Cuco / El Cucuy
El Coco is also known in folklore as Cuco, Coca, Cuca, Cucuy. It is a mythical dragon or a ghost monster which is said to appear in many different shapes and forms. So, there is no description of the beast which can be applied to all the places where it appears.
Photo: http://www.ancient-origins.net/ 
The origins of Coco are in Portugal and Spanish Galicia, and it then appeared as a monster with a pumpkin head, two eyes, and a mouth. In medieval times in the same area, it transformed into a female dragon, which used to take part in different celebrations. In Portugal it has remained popular until today.
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In Spain, parents sing lullabies or tell rhymes to children, warning them that if they do not sleep, El Coco will come to get them. The rhyme originated in the 17th century has evolved over the years, but still retains its original meaning.
​ Photo: https://aminoapps.com [El CuCuy by C.A.Christensen March 2016]

El Cuco is the more common name in most of South and Central America, and among Mexican-Americans, El Cucuy is portrayed as a monster that hides under children's beds at night and kidnaps or eats the child who does not obey his/her parents or go to sleep when it is bedtime. However, the Spanish American bogeyman does not resemble the shapeless or hairy monster of Spain: social sciences professor Manuel Medrano says popular legend describes El cucuy as a small humanoid with glowing red eyes that hides in closets or under the bed.

● Babau or L’uomo Nero [The Black Man]
This Mediterranean monster is depicted as a tall man wearing a heavy black coat and a black hood or hat. Sometimes parents knock loudly under the dining table [like someone knocking at the door] and say “Here comes the Black Man. He knows a child who doesn’t want to drink his soup.”

The Italians version of L’uomo Nero is a demon appearing as a man or ghost without legs. In different parts of the country, the bogeyman is known as “Babau.”

Photos: 15 Boogymen from around the World,  Listverse Staff October 24, 2009         
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● Schwarze Mann [The Black Man] / Butzemann / Buhmann
Der schwarze Mann [the black man] is known as the most famous child’s monster in Germany, hiding in dark places, under beds and in closets, and carrying children away. Depending on the region and time, the Schwarze Mann was depicted with different features: a dark shadowy figure, a man with black clothes or a face blackened with ashes.
​                                                                     Photo: https://europeisnotdead.com/ Article by Helmut Kohl
But “Schwarz” doesn’t refer to the color of his skin but to his preference for hiding in dark places, like the closet, under the bed of children or in forests at night. There is also an active game for little children which is called Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann? [Who is afraid of the black man?] or an old traditional folk song Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann in unserm Haus herum [A Bi-Ba-Bogeyman dances around our house].
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● Mörkö / Marrän / The Groke
In the Scandavian countries the Bogeyman is substantially different. She is a large, scary, dark blue, ghost-like creature. She was created as a fictional character by Tove Jansson in the Moomin stories, and is depicted with a shapeless body, two staring eyes, and a wide row of shiny teeth.
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groke
​
She isn’t malicious but so lonely that wherever she stands, the ground freezes and plants die. How she became known as the Scandavian Bogeyman is not explained, nor did any reference mention which came first, the bogeyman or the fictional character Groke.
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  ● Lulu-khorkhore (لولو)
In Iran, children are warned about Lulu who eats naughty children. The threat is usually to make children eat their meals.

photo:Lulu - Originally shared by zahra lotfi


​● Namahage
In Japan the Bogeyman is a demon spirit who warns children not to be lazy or cry. He visits each house on New Year’s Eve and asks if the children have been lazy. If the parents can say “no”, then he moves on to the next house. I don’t know what he does if the parents say “yes.”

Originally hailing from the cold parts of the Oga Peninsula, the name comes from the blisters that form on one’s feet when they are close to the fire for too long, indicating the person was too lazy to move. There are many festivals where villagers don demon masks and pretend to be these spirits.   
Drawing: By Yuko Shimizu from Pinterest                                By Emerald Fury
​                                                                                                        ​https://emeraldfury.deviantart.com/art/
● Kotgahm
Kotgahm, the Korean bogeyman, is named after the Korean word for persimmon. The legend is that a mother told her child if he kept on crying, she would feed him to a tiger. A nearby tiger overheard the mother and decided to wait around for his dinner, since he didn’t believe the child would stop crying. Instead, the mother gave the child a persimmon, and the child stopped. The tiger was convinced the Kotgahm/persimmon was a fierce monster to be feared more than a tiger, and he left in a hurry. Today he is pictured as an old man with a mesh sack who carries off children.​
​
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● Torbalan
Torbalan is the evil partner of Baba Yaga, the Bulgarian Anti-Santa Claus, who hides in the forest and in the shadows, waiting to carry away naughty children in a sack. [Very similar to Sack Man]

Photo: http://listverse.com/2009/10/24/15-bogeymen-from-around-the-world/


​● Bubak
This scarecrow-like monster roams the Czech Republic and Poland, hiding on riverbanks and making sounds like a lost baby to lure both children and adults into his clutches. He drives a cart pulled by cats and weaves clothes for the souls he has stolen.
Photos: http://listverse.com/2009/10/24/15-bogeymen-from-around-the-world/
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● Boggart
In Scotland the bogeyman is a malicious fairy who causes big and small disasters for people. If you name it, it will follow you and your family everywhere you go. I don’t know if naming it means giving it a proper individual name or just calling it a Boggart. A horseshoe over the door protects you from Boggarts.
                                                                                       Photo: Fandom / http://boogeymen.wikia.com/wiki/Boggart
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● Baboulas
In Greece the bogeyman is named Baboulas" [Μπαμπούλας], pronounced babulas.  It is used by parents to scare their children into behaving. Baboulas is some kind of cannibal that eats children.​

Photo:https://europeisnotdead.com/video/images-of-europe/european-monsters/
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● Abu Rigl Maslukha
The Egyptian bogeyman is "Abu Rigl Maslukha" which translates to the "Man With Burnt Leg." It is a very scary story that parents tell their children when they misbehave. The "Abu Rigl Maslukha" is a monster who got burnt when he was a child because he did not listen to his parents. He grabs naughty children to cook and eat them. The same as al-Bu'bu', who is more popular and relevant to this topic. He is often depicted as a night creature dressed in black, who haunts children that misbehave.
Photo: https://emeraldfury.deviantart.com/art/Oct-3-Abu-Rigl-Maslukha-330592619
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● Bicho Papão and Sarronco
Even though one source indicates Sack Man is the Portuguese Bogeyman, another suggests that the Portuguese brought to Brazil the bogeymen Bicho Papão [The Eating Beast] and Sarronco [Deep-voiced Man]. In Brazil they use the names interchangeably with Sack Man. The only difference between the two is that Bag Man comes during the day and The Eating Beast comes during the night.
Photo: Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/290411875962782524/?lp=true Bicho Papao
There are plenty more: every country has a bogeyman. There are a number of good sources listed below for looking at other locations. 

THE CHALLENGE
Go ahead. Start the next big thing. I challenge you romance authors to pick one of the prototype bogeymen and make him the protagonist of a your next romance novel.□

Sources
http://warriorsofmyth.wikia.com/wiki/Boogeyman
http://www.destinationamerica.com/thehauntist/the-true-origins-of-the-boogeyman/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogeyman
https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/where-did-the-bogeyman-come-from
https://9thcircleofhorror.com/2015/11/01/the-legend-of-the-boogeyman/
https://rottenink.wordpress.com/tag/monster-under-your-bed/
http://www.playbuzz.com/genedjinn11/which-boogeyman-will-kill-you
https://kadampalife.org/2012/11/10/there-is-no-boogey-man-under-the-bed/
http://janonomar.blogspot.com/2011/02/el-origen-de-la-leyenda-del-hombre-del.html
http://listverse.com/2009/10/24/15-bogeymen-from-around-the-world/
http:/janonomar.blogspot.com/2011/02/el-origen-de-la-leyenda-del-hombre-del.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/
https://aminoapps.com    [The Coo Coo (El CuCuy) by C.A.Christensen March 2016]
https://europeisnotdead.com/video/images-of-europe/european-monsters/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groke
http://boogeymen.wikia.com/wiki/Boggart
https://brickthology.com/2014/10/31/bogeyman/
https://hubpages.com/family/the-bogeyman
https://emeraldfury.deviantart.com/art/October-6-Namahage-331328703
https://emeraldfury.deviantart.com/art/Oct-3-Abu-Rigl-Maslukha-330592619https://bizarre-and-amazing.blogspot.com/2016/09/el-sacoman-sack-man.html
http://cryptozoology.wikia.com/wiki/Bogeyman 

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THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS: The Greatest Love Stories Ever Told Series

9/7/2018

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Every culture has great loves stories: myth, legend, literary, and real. The Butterfly Lovers is a legend that, for the Chinese culture, is similar to the Romeo and Juliet love story. A legend of an ill-fated romance so beloved that the story has been replicated in movies, music, operas, plays, reenactments, stories, and dance for over a thousand years.

Photo source:
ttp://www.femalearts.com/node/1138
​
"The hero of the legend, Liang Shanbo, and the heroine, Zhu Yingtai, are often equated to Romeo and Juliet, but the story is less similar than it may seem on the surface. “The duels and poisons of Shakespeare’s impulsive romantics have given way to disguises, leading metaphors, and unbreakable family arrangements.” http://www.chinawhisper.com
​
Since Liang and Zhu are actually last or surnames, I’ll refer to them as Shanbo and Yingtai, the equivalent of first or given names.                                        Drawing http://aminoapps.com ▼
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THE LEGEND 梁祝
Our heroine, Zhu Yingtai, is the only daughter of the nine Zhu family children. She is very bright and has been educated by her wealthy father. She reads, writes, has studied the classics and history, and admires the great women in China’s past, but craves more education. Unfortunately for Yingtai, Chinese schools don’t accept female students. Finally she convinces her father to let her travel to an academy in Hangzhou disguised as a boy, to continue her studies.

 ▼Photos:https://www.wattpad.com
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In her camoflage on her way to the academy, she meets Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Kuaiji. They feel an immediate kinship, and after chatting the whole way there, they take an oath of fraternity in the pavilion of a thatched bridge.

For three years, as sworn brothers, they live, study, debate scholarly topics, write poetry, and play together. Shanbo is so consumed by his studies that never suspects Yingtai is a girl. On the other hand, Yingtai falls in love with Shanbo and attempts to show her affection, but Shanbo never gets the picture.
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Then Yingtai receives a letter that her father is ill and she needs to go home. She has to leave but loves Shanbo and is determined to be with him for the rest of their lives. To pave the path she wants to follow with Shanbo, she discloses who she is to the headmaster’s wife. Yingtai asks her to tell Shanbo and to give him a jade pendant as a betrothal gift.
​
​Unknowing, Shanbo accompanies his "sworn brother" several for miles to see her off. During the journey, Yingtai again hints she is actually a woman by comparing them to a pair or mandarin ducks, in China the symbol of love between a man and a women. He is only confused and questions her comparison.  [This guy is really dense. I wonder what she sees in him.]
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In the mean time, Yingtai she learns her parents have already arranged a marriage for her with Ma Wencai, the son of a wealthy and powerful provincial governor. In the Chinese culture, marriage is not simply a union of man and wife, but the act of joining two families as one. In this case, the Zhu and Ma families had a history of amiable relations, and both were of high social standing. To cancel the engagement at this time would be unthinkable.

After Shanbo returns to the academy, the headmistress gives him the message and pendent.
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​When Shanbo finally arrives to ask for Yingtai’s hand in marriage, the answer has to be “no.”

Shanbo is so devastated that he becomes ill and dies.

Yingtai is also heartbroken, but her marriage to Wencai is a family commitment and she can’t have Shanbo. Finally she agrees to marry Wencai on the condition that the marriage procession pass by Shanbo’s grave and that she be permitted to make a sacrifice at his tomb. On the day of her wedding, dressed in funeral white (red is the usual color of Chinese wedding dresses), as the procession approaches the tomb, the weather became stormy. Yingtai is standing before the grave in the rain, weeping over the loss of her true love, when a bolt of lightning splits open the grave. Off balance, Yingtai falls into the hole, and then the chasm closes over her.
 ▼Photo: www.pinterest.com
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As suddenly as the storm came, it lets up. Before the family can dig Yingtai out, two large, colorful butterflies flutter out of the tomb, dancing and weaving, the ill-fated couple now rejoined in the afterlife.

LEGEND OR REALITY
Origins
The Butterfly Lovers is one of four Chinese Legends considered in that culture as The Greatest Love stories. Like most legends, there is usually a kernel of truth somewhere in the story since the character are also mentioned by name in written historical records.

The earliest dates back to the late Tang Dynasty, around 600 BC. Author Liang Zaigan wrote in Shidao Sifan Zhi, “The righteous woman Zhu Yingtai was buried together with Liang Shanbo.” http://www.chinawhisper.com

Also, a work entitled Xuanshi Zhi by author Zhang Du (Assistant-director of the Left in the Department of State Affairs, Tang Dynasty) tells 250 stories including that of Liang and Zhu.
References indicate the story became well known on a broad scale in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420 AD), and it is often credited to that time period or said to be set in that period. Also like most legends, there are many versions of the story.

While none of my research says specifically these were actual people, apparently Liang Shanbo was a magistrate of some nearby town. Several reference indicate the Liango Shanbo Temple was built in 347 (no reference to AD or BC but I’d guess the earlier) by locals in his memory primarily because he “contributed greatly in his term of office as magistrate to resolving the problems cause by the flooding river.”

Comparison to Romeo and Juliet
I was surprised by reader comments in some of my sources. Many seemed offended or indignant that The Butterfly Lovers is even mentioned in the same article as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (even though the R&J legend was in writing before Shakespeare wrote his play).

None the less, Verona, Italy (the setting for Romeo and Juliet) and Ningbo, China (the setting The Butterfly Lovers), became Sister Cities in 2005. In 2007, a delegation from Verona presented Ningbo with a bronze statue of Juliet which stands today in Liang Cultural Park. The next year, in September, 2008, the two cities co-sponsored the Sino-Italian love culture festival in Verona, during which Ningbo reciprocated with a white marble statue of Liang and Zhu which was placed in front of the Juliet Museum. Somebody must see a connection.
Statue of Juliet, Ningbo China                 Liang Temple at Liang Cultural Park      Butterfly lovers, Juliet Museum
Photo: www.wuxitravel.com                    Photo: www.chinaholiday.com                 Verona, Italy
                                                                                                                                        Photo: www.theepochtimes.com
                                                                                                                               
According to http://meammi.blogs.wm.edu, “The most significant difference between the romantic story lines in these three works [includes The Butterfly Lovers and two other legends] is that the Chinese iterations offer a happy ending.

All three feature tragic deaths, but while Romeo and Juliet become solemn examples of the perils of blind hate, their Chinese companions are resurrected to enjoy an eternity together.  The Eastern audience (or reading public) is reassured that love really can overcome all obstacles.  While the Western audience learns from tragedy, Chinese audiences traditionally thought that no lesson could be learned unless justice was served in the end. In romantic tragedies, a story that ended with lovers unfairly parted by social or realistic constraints would not be tenable to the purpose of art: to positively educate.”
□
 
Sources
https://www.chinaholiday.com/scenic-of-cixi/cixi-butterfly-temple-cixi/
https://chinesemusicworld.com/media/erhu%E4%BA%8C%E8%83%A1/the-butterfly-lovers-%E6%A2%81%E7%A5%9D-liang-zhu-erhu-%E4%BA%8C%E8%83%A1/
https://macaulifestyle.com/culture/arts/macao-arts-festival-5-shows-we-dont-want-miss/attachment/the-butterfly-lovers/
http://aminoapps.com
https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-butterfly-lovers-a-look-at-chinas-romeo-and-juliet_1059681.html
https://kingofsadness.deviantart.com/art/The-Butterfly-Lovers-Liu-Shan-x-Xingcai-568773978
https://www.lunastardesign.com/single-post/The-Butterfly-Lovers
http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Jan/85062.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers
http://www.chinawhisper.com/10-greatest-chinese-love-stories-ever/
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-03/15/content_12175140.htm
https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://lesscdn.com/twitter.php
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.352205331597131.1073741832.315170288633969&type=3
http://www.chinaflower214.com/posts/four_chinese_folk_love_stories.htm#.WjdAMminHcc
https://hubpages.com/literature/Romantic-Love-Stories-in-Chinese-Mythology-and-Literature
https://www.datehookup.com/singles-content-tales-of-love-from-china.htm
http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/learn-chinese/chinese-traditional-love-legends/
http://www.absolutechinatours.com/china-travel/Top-Four-China-Folk-Love-Stories.html
http://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2017/2/12/one-true-love-a-chinese-legend
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-03/15/content_12175140.htm
https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://lesscdn.com/twitter.php
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.352205331597131.1073741832.315170288633969&type=3
http://www.chinaflower214.com/posts/four_chinese_folk_love_stories.htm#.WjdAMminHcc
https://hubpages.com/literature/Romantic-Love-Stories-in-Chinese-Mythology-and-Literature
https://www.datehookup.com/singles-content-tales-of-love-from-china.htm
http://blog.eteacherchinese.com/learn-chinese/chinese-traditional-love-legends/
http://www.absolutechinatours.com/china-travel/Top-Four-China-Folk-Love-Stories.html
http://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2017/2/12/one-true-love-a-chinese-legend
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-famous-love-stories-chinese-valentine-day.htm
https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1010&context=asia_gradetds
http://www.femalearts.com/node/1138
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001473/147344E.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Butterfly_Lovers
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hangzhou-china-marco-polos-city-of-heaven-is-as_us_589a24aee4b0985224db5af0
http://www.wuxitravel.com/liang-zhu-legend/
http://www.chinesetimeschool.com/en-us/articles/ancient-wall-in-changting-county-se-china-fujian/
http://meammi.blogs.wm.edu/2009/10/10/for-neer-was-there-a-story-of-more-woe-than-that-of-liang-shanbo/



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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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