Kismet

For some reason, I thought my blogging day was NEXT week. I'm going away next weekend, but had planned to do up my post and schedule it for when I was away. This past week has been very tough - we lost our dear dog, who we raised from a pup, to lymphoma, and I had to work four days, which I hardly ever do, and the summer term at college started this week, and I had to turn in the Final Line Edits to my next Samhain book. So I haven't been thinking much about what I was going to post, thinking I had another week to do it.

So here I am, writing off the cuff. What strikes me this week, besides the way that sometimes life can quite frankly suck, is the strange way that kismet can find us. My series, The Library of Athena, contains different mythologies from different cultures. The first book, The Crown of Zeus, is centered around Greek mythology. I shouldn't say centered - really the series has bigger things going on, but let's say it's a large component. The upcoming book, The Ankh of Isis, contains a whole lot of research about Ancient Egypt. (reviewers have been saying that the books are educational as well as fun, which wasn't my intention, but that's a post for another day.)

At any rate, the third book, which is just a WIP at the moment, takes us to Ancient China. I wanted to do China, because I don't think it's a culture many books explore. I've been researching for this book for almost two years. There have been difficulties to overcome with the book - China is such a LARGE country, for starters. Having my characters travel all over the country really wouldn't work. And the mythology is so different. But despite these hurdles, I've managed to put something together that I think is exciting and fun. The only component I was missing is that I didn't have quite a good grasp of Chinese culture.

Then on Tuesday I started my college courses, one of which is American Women Writers since 1900. This course has a particular focus on second-wave feminism. What does that have to do with my book? The first novel we are reading is Women Warrior:Memories of a Childhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Kingston. Maxine is a first generation Chinese immigrant. It tells her story being the child of Chinese immigrants, and more importantly for me, gives me a window into Chinese culture before the Revolution. I couldn't have asked for a better book to help me understand the traditions and mindset of the Chinese people. That this book should fall into my lap, sort of, at this exact time, reminds me that yes, sometimes life does suck, but sometimes fate takes pity on us and throws us a bone. Kismet. Serendipity. Karma. Fate. Whatever you want to call it, something pulls us back onto the path when we need it most.

And on that note, I'll leave you. Next month, I promise to have something more interesting to talk about. I'm almost free of the day job for the summer, AND I'll be talking about my newest book. I think a tutorial on Egyptian gods is in order. :)

If you happen to be in the Bowie, Maryland area next weekend, drop by the Maryland Faerie Festival and say hi! I'll be signing copies of my first two books, and I'll have some promo materials for the new books too!