The Blog Formerly Known as The Mistress of Ancient Revelry

by Carole Wallencheck "The Shaman Rat" on May 7, 2009

In library-land they throw around words & phrases like roman a clef, nom de plume, pseudonym, ghost-writer, and pen name – but none of those really fit this situation.  This is not a straight-forward title-change, nor an identity crisis.  I’m really harking back to my original name for this blog. Without going into the whys and wherefores of how I ended up as The Mistress of Ancient Revelry, and why I’m now returning to my verbal roots, let’s pay a visit to my constant friend, the Oxford English Dictionary[click to continue…]

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Mr. Pekar’s Opus

by Carole Wallencheck "The Shaman Rat" on January 29, 2009

Despite growing up with a grandfather named Dominic DiOrio and a full complement of Italian relatives, I never inherited the opera gene.  And despite growing up with Superman and The Flash, I never inherited the graphic novel gene, either. However, I do confess to having huge respect for American Splendor  and great affection for its author, and so I may be sitting in Oberlin this weekend watching Harvey Pekar’s newest venture – an opera. [click to continue…]

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Beginnings (of all sorts)

January 6, 2009

It’s a new year, so let’s start with “Marley was dead: to begin with” and “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” If you share my reading tastes, you know where those sentences first saw the light of day. What follows are some of the best and the worst opening lines (my [...]

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The Return of the Light (Fantasy Novels in Celebration of the Season)

December 22, 2008

Snow-laden pine trees and roaring fires in the hearth may seem stereotypical, but I tend to think of them as archetypal.  Those images open a door in our psyches, and give us access to our primeval memories. The best fantasy novels do the same thing.  Here’s a list of books with winter/Christmas/solstice themes. Purchase some [...]

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Books = Gifts

December 8, 2008

Yes, yes, we all know that the economy is tanking, the barbarians are at the gates, and our hopes are low – and getting lower. So, here’s your chance to raise the economic outlook, someone’s intelligence quotient, and your spirits at the same time – buy books for the holidays.

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Witch Hunts New and Old

October 31, 2008

I like Halloween. I like any holiday where the veil between the worlds thins (but, then, all ancient holidays celebrate that in one form or another). In the Celtic calendar it was the eve of Samhain (pronounced Saw-in) and marked the New Year, and for that one night all things were possible and spirits of [...]

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Books as Art/The Art of Books

October 24, 2008

The Joy of Text is a festival of arts and letters, put together by HeightsArts and ABC (Art Books Cleveland). From Friday, October 24 through Sunday, October 26 you can celebrate the spoken and written word, trace the history of writing from papyrus to pixels, cheer (or boo) the contestants in the Haiku Death Match, [...]

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I’m Back…

September 25, 2008

…and soon to be on the road to Context 21 in Columbus, Ohio.  This will be my first speculative fiction conference, and I’ve already picked up two new words – cosplay and filking.

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A Good Man Writing about Badlands

August 29, 2008

I’m finally submitting to my internal temptations and throwing myself into the Richard Montanari love-fest.  Richard is handsome, sweet-tempered, charming, articulate, and wickedly funny (and – no – he didn’t pay me to write this).  He’s a gentleman and a scholar, and it cheers me enormously whenever I talk with him – but privately I [...]

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Desire and Devotion

August 8, 2008

If Lord Peter Wimsey wasn’t already married (and fictional), I’d make a play for him myself – but, alas, Harriet Vane, the mystery writer and a murder suspect twice over, has his heart and always will. We’ll also forget about the fact that Lord Peter would be 108 at this point. In my vision of [...]

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