The Master of Verona

FALCONER release date - Mach II

When I reported that Amazon was pre-ordering VOICE OF THE FALCONER for this Fall, I said that the date would change. Well, it has.

The official release date for FALCONER is June 28, 2009.

It's amusing that I learn this not from St. Martin's Press, but from Amazon.com. By the by, you can no longer pre-order the novel (which makes me wonder what happens to all the orders already placed?), only sign up for an e-mail.

Sorry to all the folks who got excited at a November release date, but I did warn you. The book is finished and complete but unedited, and lacking art and internals, to say nothing of ARCs and advance plugs. Those things take about a year, I'm told, so the new date is likely to be the right one. We'll see.

On a side note, I got back from seeing The Dark Knight on Saturday to find a package from SMP containing a mock-up of the paperback cover for THE MASTER OF VERONA. It's just lovely. I especially like the spine, which on the hardcover was nearly illegible. The art department has recified that error, and now the title sings a siren song from the stacks.

More soon, I promise. There's a great deal of wonderful nonsense in my life. The only trouble is that, with a two year-old son and a newborn daughter, any time I have to write is spent, you know - writing. There's very little of my brain left over for blogging. But, like the Cylons, I have a plan... 

Two Dominant Searches

Of all the various seach terms that bring people to this site, there are two that are dominant. 1) Capulet-Montague feud; and 2) Tomorrow and tomorrow.

The first is rather obvious - I've written a novel about the cause of the Capulet-Montague feud in Romeo & Juliet. But the second is due to a single piece I wrote last summer, where my wife and I put forward our notion of the first half of the famous speech as Lady Macbeth's suicide note.

Well, someone else has just found it, and commented upon it. The link is here. And for those interested, the original link is here.

Now I have to figure out how to attract more people searching for the Muppets.

Favorite Search Ever

I occasionally check to see how people are finding the site. Mostly it's my name, or "tomorrow and tomorrow," or else "Montague-Capulet," but every now and then a fun search pops up to amuse me.

At least once a month someone finds this site by searching for "Camilla the Chicken." Likewise for "Lew Zeeland." (These are muppets, based on a post I did a year ago casting two Shakespeare shows with the muppet characters).

But today I think I saw my favorite search ever: "Was Verona a real place?"

Ah, the imaginary land of Verona, a floating city where lovers meet to die.

I'm going to be smiling all day.

Spoiler hunters

Okay, seriously. Who found this page by Googling "Master of Verona" + Ending? Really? Isn't that cheating? Don't want to read it, so you look for a link to the end?

Or maybe it's someone who found the ending unclear. Hmmm. Disconcerting.

Okay, so maybe I did throw a lot into the end. But really, don't you like a few surprises?

Andtrust me, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Man, FALCONER and especially FORTUNE'S FOOL are gonna knock your socks off. To say nothing of THE PRINCE'S DOOM! Twists, turns, and several sucker-punches.

Of course, if I told you any more about them, then I'd be handing out spoilers. Wouldn't want to do that, in case I was right the first time out.

So for the spoiler hunters out there, sorry. No spoilers here. Just hints, and a wee bit of glee.

Alrighty. Back to Gunsmoke.

DB

New Blog

I've got a NEW BLOG. (Yes, as if I had time time...)

It's called A DARK WOOD, and it's due to the other theatre company I'm a part of, ShanghiLow Theatricals. In an attempt to raise our profile, our Project Czar Steve Pickering has asked that all four of us create blogs that can be a part of the ShanghiLow experience. Kevin Theis has a political blog going called THIS DIRTY HOOD, while Steve's is ORSON'S RUN. We're still waiting on Sherman, I think.

Anyway, since the company is about adapting literature for the stage, I decided to start reviewing books. My first is SLEEPING IN FLAME, by Jonathan Carroll. It's up now.

Caveat - I'm not a reviewer, nor have I reviewed before. I am really just saying nice things about books I'd like to see on stage.

Final links of 2007

This week I've returned to VOICE OF THE FALCONER for some editing, including a major rewrite in the final chapter. Going well so far, but it's keeping me busy. Plus there's been some light fight-choreography to do. However there have been two lovely posts from people I count as friends that I thought I should link to here.

The first is Christopher Walsh's interview with me. It was done after my signing at the Book Cellar, while we hung out and I drank peach tea (my favorite). Chris has become a contributer for Metroblogging Chicago, so that's where the piece is posted. While I must say I've never worn lace-up boots in private life (motercycle boots, ten years as my standard footwear), and I've never EVER performed at a Ren-Fair, it's a lovely piece. Thanks Chris!

The second bit came out of the blue - Sarah Johnson over at Reading The Past listed THE MASTER OF VERONA as one of her top ten books of 2007. I'm humbled - that woman reads everything, and is an editor for the Historical Novel Society. Being ranked among her favorites is like being listed in the AFI top films of the year.

I can't see doing much posting over the next couple of days - too much to do, what with playing with Dash around the tree, wrapping the final presents, and finishing the edits on VF. So to all, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers,

DB

MJ Rose - Hand Yelling MV

MJ Rose is a bestselling author and the genius behind AuthorBuzz. She was excited enough about THE MASTER OF VERONA to put a post up at her blog, Buzz, Balls, & Hype. She's one of the industry's major players, and you can only imagine how gratified I am to have her good opinion.

AuthorBuzz #0

Tomorrow on this site I begin giving away books to the AuthorBuzz Dear Reader contestants. While we wait with bated breath for the first name to be revealed, I've had a good starting question - why is my email greyhoundverona, not masterverona?

The answer is both short and convoluted. Short version - it was an early title of the book - THE GREYHOUND OF VERONA. And an even earlier title (the one it still is in my head) was the Italian version of the word GREYHOUND, which is IL VELTRO.

IL VELTRO has another meaning, too - it translates in slang to "the bastard."

Here begins the convoluted part. In the very opening canto to Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, he's faced with a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. The last one frightens him terribly, and when the spirit of Virgil comes to rescue him, the dead poet makes a prophecy about a savior who will come to restore Italy (and the world):

‘It is another path you must follow,’

he answered, when he saw me weeping,

‘If you would flee this wild and savage place:

For that beast that moves you to cry out

Lets no man pass her way,

But so besets him that she slays him.

Her nature is so vicious and malign

Her greedy appitite is never sated -

After feeding she is hungrier than ever.

Many are the creatures she mates with,

and there will yet be more, until the Greyhound

shall come who’ll make her die in pain.’

L’Inferno

Canto I, 91-102

The identity of the 'Greyhound' has been debated ever since the poem was first read. Some say it was the Emperor Heinrich, whom Dante adored. Some say it was Dante himself. Some say it's deliberately vague. And some say that figure was Cangrande della Scala, the Prince of Verona.

The question of that prophecy is rather important in the novel, as is the fate of a bastard child. So, in a book where both 'greyhound' and 'bastard' play large roles, IL VELTRO was the perfect title.

For an Italian audience.

So it became THE GREYHOUND OF VERONA. Which started my wife whispering in my ear each night as I went to sleep, "Honey - why is the bus going to Verona?"

So the title became THE MASTER OF VERONA. (applause) Thank you. Thank you.

Cheers, and see you tomorrow with the first name!

DB

Googling

Haven't done this in a few months. Below are some search questions typed into Google or Yahoo that have led to this page:

• Is Verona a real place?
• King Lear – is Cordelia proud?
• reasons why friar lawrence wasn't to blame
• Lady Montague from romeo+charges that could be put against her
• lady montague's death
• Lady Macbeth's suicide note
• meaning of fraud in dante
• events that happened when shakespeare was alive
• Real Elizabethan feuds
• after juliet playscript
• first battle in macbeth
• petruchio's falcon speech script
• the muppets book dr. teeth
• Italian Slang Pick Up Lines
• blixt murder
• hamlet tomorrow and tomorrow

Quite often I want to write back to these searchers. But it's probably a good thing that I can't.

- DB

Making New Friends

The signing at the Book Cellar was a lot of fun. Met a couple of really interesting authors, most notably Geoffrey Edwards, author of FIRE BELL IN THE NIGHT. I started reading it last night and it grabbed me, despite being far from my usual time and place - pre-Civil War America. Jeff is a great guy, and we hung around until they kicked up out swapping publishing stories. Turns out he's the winner of Gather.com's First Chapter contest - quite cool. So go buy his book.

I also got to sit down with my friend Chris Walsh for an interview. He's a new contributer for Metroblogging Chicago, and I gave him an over-long interview fraught with interruptions while I signed copies. I've mentioned him before on the blog, as we met during Defiant Theatre's production of A Clockwork Orange, for which I designed the violence. He's having a great acting year, which makes me envious - I've taken the year off to write more. A good choice, but I still feel the call of the stage every day...

Just last night a new interview with me went live. I say new, but when I read it I didn't at first remember giving it. Because it was something I had put together three months ago (!). However, I'm delighted it's up because there are a few nuggets of information that haven't show up in other places - mostly my road to getting published. Hence the title of the blog - Novel Journey. Thanks, Gina!

I've been e-chatting with Michelle Moran, author of Nefertiti. She is just a lovely woman, and is enjoying a deserved success with her novel. So go buy that too.

I'm going to try to be better about posting - this once-a-week thing is ridiculous. The problem is, all I have to talk about at the moment is Book 3, or the Othello book, or the Shakespeare novel, all of which have been progressing this past week. And I don't want to discuss them, as I tend to be a spoilery human being (Rosebud was the sled! Vader is Luke's father! The shrink is a ghost! Verbal is Kaiser! They were on Earth the whole time!). The only other thing I could do is post a few chapters from the new novel, which now has a title... Oh, hey! A post about the title! Okay. I'll do that tomorrow.

Cheers, DB