Lisa Jensen's Blog
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May.15.2013
Har! Look what the tide washed in, me hearties!
Precious booty, indeed—a box of my author's copies of Alias Hook, freshly arrived from my publisher in the UK. It is, without doubt and irrefutably, a book!
I would love to let them sift through my fingers like gold doubloons, to dive into them...
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May.01.2013
Like Ebenezer Scrooge time-traveling back to the jolly Fezziwigs' ball, but unable to join in. Like Stella Dallas watching tearfully from outside the church window on her daughter's wedding day. Like Woody Allen in Stardust Memories, trapped on a train full of gloomy characters out of a Munch...
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Apr.08.2013
Hey, kids, the countdown has begun to the publication of my new novel, Alias Hook, in the UK! On May 1st, my novel will be available from the intrepid small press, Snowbooks, at bookstores across the UK and online.
(Over at The Book Depository, you can pre-order it for $US, with free shipping...
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Mar.08.2013
"And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"
I agree with Lewis Carroll's intrepid heroine. Asked to name my favorite children's adventure, I'm looking for lots of action, lotes of funny, interesting talk, and wonderful images—whether on the page or conjured...
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Feb.10.2013
Maybe it's because I'm working on a novel about traveling theatrical players in post-Regency England, but I find myself struggling against the urge to stage-manage every move my characters make.
Of course, I'm writing all their dialogue; I'm the author, that's my job. (Although, as any writer will...
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Feb.05.2013
As any writer will tell you, there is nothing like seeing the words you've written bound in book form for the first time!
This advance copy of my novel, Alias Hook, arrived last week from my publisher, Snowbooks, in the UK. It's only an uncorrected proof, which means it does not reflect the two...
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Dec.28.2012
The first wave of holiday madness is behind us—the shopping, wapping, prepping, cooking, eating (and, hopefully, cleaning up) part. Whew! Thank heavens that's over! Take a deep breath, and congratulate yourself for making it this far.
Now: who's ready to jump back into the fray and hit the post-...
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Dec.06.2012
Okay, I'm a little late to the party. I got "tagged" to join the Next Big Thing blog chain back in mid-November, which is when I posted on my blog, but, er, well, I'm easily distracted so I'm just now getting around to re-posting here.
But first, many thanks to Vinnie Hansen for inviting me to join...
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Nov.24.2012
Wow, this is exciting!
My publisher, Emma Barnes, at Snowbooks, in the UK, just put up a blog about my upcoming novel, Alias Hook.
"Now, I don't like to brag. But. Next year we have a book coming out which is going to knock your socks off," she writes. "Alias Hook is really special."
Aw, shucks!...
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Oct.26.2012
It was not the way I wanted to spend my last day in Paris.
On our first trip to France, in 2001, the lovely Art Boy and I had arrived with friends on June First, a Friday afternoon, and spent the rainy weekend visiting museums and discovering cafés. Our friends had bought an old stone millhouse on...
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Sep.25.2012
Oh, brave new world! A couple of weeks ago, I had my first experience editing a proofed ms via the Track Changes thingy in Word.
This may not exactly be a stop-the-presses moment to most authors these days, but it was news to me. Call me a sentimentalist, but I still think of "real" editing as...
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Sep.11.2012
Here's something I've wanted to post for a long time. I have a new novel coming out!
I've just signed a contract with Snowbooks, a small, award-winning independent publisher in the UK to publish my fantasy novel, Alias Hook.
The story reimagines the life and times of Captain James...
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Jul.30.2012
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Klimt, and the museums in Vienna are hosting special Klimt events all year. I love Klimt, leader of the Secession Movement at the turn of the last century that broke away from traditional, conservative classicism to pioneer a new sensual...
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Jul.25.2012
I'm doing a Guest Post today over at Sarah Johnson's excellent historical fiction blog, Reading the Past. If you love historical fiction as much as I do, and you haven't yet discovered Sarah's blog, now is as good a time as any to hie thee hither!
Sarah is a one-woman dynamo who not only posts...
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Jul.13.2012
Christopher Moore is a merry madman. To call the Bay Area novelist a comic author does not begin to address the richness of his outrageous and singular oeuvre.
Moore can take a sacred plot (literally, like the Gospels, in Lamb, or figuratively, like King Lear in Fool, which I just had the pleasure...
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About Lisa
I grew up in Hermosa Beach, CA, and graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a decorative, but not especially useful B.A. in Aesthetic Studies. I launched my writing career as a film critic for the Santa Cruz alternative weekly, Good Times, a position I've held...
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Lisa’s Favorite Books
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. The entire Harry Potter ouvre (but especially The Prisoner of Azkaban) by J. K. Rowling....