jograhamwrites

jograhamwrites, 19 days ago to random

#WordWeavers Antagoinist pov: What do you like most about yourself?

Ascanio: What's not to like? I'm intelligent, handsome, powerful, and clever?

Rodrigo: You've described me perfectly.

Ascanio: You have a nose like a duck.

Rodrigo: So do you. If your nose is handsome, so is mine.

Giulia: Saint Bibiana, not this again! So modest, these prelates!

You be the judge! Who has a better nose?

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jograhamwrites, 23 days ago to random

#WordWeavers Who is your most fun character?

In The Borgia Dove, Giulia herself. I love being in her head and her viewpoint on the world. She's very pithy sometimes. "Disasters averted are soon forgotten."

jograhamwrites, 1 month ago to random

Supporting character: Juan Borgia -- on the left in real life, on the right as played by David Oakes in The Borgias.

Juan is Rodrigo's son, and at 16 has just moved out of his mother's house to live with his father. Now reckoned a man for social purposes, he's expected to attend parties and defend a gentleman's honor as a young blade. However, his father isn't entirely confident in his discretion or judgment, and there are family secrets Juan isn't in on.

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jograhamwrites, 1 month ago to random

#wordweavers If your MC hosted a talk show, what would it be about?

Join us now for Inside Roma, hosted by Giulia Farnese and Fiammetta de Michelis! Today's guests - Maestro di Betti talks art and coming up from nothing to sudden fame, Cardinal Raffaele Riario presents his new musical protege from Hungary, Ermolao Barbaro give us a sneak preview of his new book, and the ladies spill the tea on all the latest! Plus - forehead necklaces - are they coming back in style?

jograhamwrites, 1 month ago to random

#wordweavers Is there writing advice you used to follow but changed your mind?

"Write what you know."

So I could only write about the experiences of white, middle class American teenagers in the present day? No.

"Stay in your lane."

Don't be curious, don't stretch, don't imagine. Behave, girl. Write trivial little stories like the trivial little person you are. You are not a person of consequence, so how do you get off writing people who do things that are important?

B.S.

jograhamwrites, 2 months ago to random

#wordweavers If you had to stay with one of your characters for a week, who would you choose?

Giulia of course! I'd love to stay in beautiful Palazzo Orsini de Ponte (now Palazzo Taverna) for a week. When I was in Rome, I stayed in the 15th century house next door which is now a B & B, and the neighborhood, the beauty, the wonder of touching Giulia's world, walking her streets, looking in through her windows -- I'd go stay with her for a week in a heartbeat!

Here's the house! Click to bigify

Looking in to the garden through the main front door.
The kitchen door of Giulia's house from my hotel room window. Note the tiny kitchen window and the double door arrangement - important in The Borgia Dove!
A corner of the back courtyard off the kitchen looking up at the windows which are Lucrezia's in The Borgia Dove.

jograhamwrites, 3 months ago to random

My dreamcast Giulia Farnese, Astrid Berges-Frisbey.

jograhamwrites, 4 months ago to random

Searches fruitless, so I put this to you - does anyone have a picture of Andromeda in the Perseus and Andromeda story from the Perseus Room (study of Pope Paul III) from the Castel Sant'Angelo? I'm at the point where I need to describe Silvia and I think she must be Andromeda esp. since the pictures face the Longhi portrait The Lady and the Unicorn. This is Alessandro's room, so of course he's Perseus and Silvia is Andromeda! Anybody got a pic of Andromeda that isn't from across the room?

jograhamwrites, 5 months ago to random

#wordweavers Have you ever wanted to give up writing? What helped you to continue?

Yes. I quit for 4 years after I took a college creative writing class. Published author and artsy peers convinced me my "vision" was no good -- positive, sexy, historical, numinous, full of the beauty and joy of the world. In other words, that who I am as a person is immature and silly.

I have now published 23 more books than that author to greater acclaim.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your vision.

jograhamwrites, 6 months ago to random

#wordweavers Do you ever use mundane daily tasks to show character?

All the time! What people do in their daily lives tells you so much about them. What does a normal day look like? The Borgia Dove opens with Giulia answering correspondence - who writes to her, what do they want, and what does she say is really important. She's a patron. She's part of a social group where entertaining is work. That every day she devotes an hour to correspondence tells us about her life now.

jograhamwrites, 6 months ago to random

#wordweavers What does your MC know that other people don't?

Some of Rodrigo Borgia's secrets. Not all of them. Not most of them, but Giulia is increasingly in his confidence. As Pope Innocent is dying and the papal election looms, Giulia knows a lot about the strategies and the maneuvers and the delicate pressures. Now it's her turn to play the game for him, dealing on his behalf while he's locked in to vote. With Cesare. They're quite a team - if they can work together!

jograhamwrites, 6 months ago to random

The dark of the year is here. Just be kind.

jograhamwrites, 7 months ago to random

#wordweavers Are your MCs good at fixing mechanical things?

Bister is reasonably good for all she grew up without technology. She's kind of the spit and duct tape school, but it works.

Caralys has no idea. She calls somebody for that.

Boral will fix your electronics all right - if by "fix" you mean "render inoperable for its original purpose." He's an electromancer. He can make your fragile guidance systems do all kinds of things you didn't intend or turn your doorbell into a bomb.

jograhamwrites, 7 months ago to random

Fortune's Favor -- Caralys' pet octopus, Keef, is named for Keith Richards.

jograhamwrites, 7 months ago to random

#wordweavers Introduce your MC from the pov of the antagonist. Fortune's Favor.

Cassian: Caralys Sardai i Melian is an employee of House Melian, one of the leading merchant families of the city of Beira. She's only a courtesan, though no doubt an expensive one. Sending a courtesan to negotiate with the Calpurnian Navy is either an insult, or more likely given Menaechmi, that this is how they do it - a government run by hairdressers and maidservants!

jograhamwrites, 8 months ago to random

#writerscoffeeclub What's your top advice to an aspiring writer?

Do not listen to people who tell you that you can't sell the story you want to tell or that it has no audience. When I was 26 an author 10 years my senior who had 6 books out told me to give up on my epic, that Napoleonics didn't sell, that it was dated, that it was a genre-straddler, and that it wasn't that good. Dear reader, I sold The General's Mistress to Simon & Schuster for a $25k advance. Don't. Listen.

jograhamwrites, 9 months ago to random

It's time to share this again, because it's ok to love that pumpkin spice latte, warm beach, action movie, and whatever else. You've got nothing to prove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY&ab_channel=CollegeHumor

kissane, 10 months ago to Futurology

This week, I went over to Bluesky and asked people who'd left Mastodon why they left, and lots of people told me. I grabbed the replies and crunched them and wrote up a summary. I think it's really interesting and often kind of wrenching.

https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

#meta

fade, 11 months ago to random

As I once again attempt to maneuver a little cart of groceries through the aisles of the light rail car, I reflect on how public transport can only do so much to replace private cars when it doesn't have robust cargo options.