The Ming Storytellers - Paperback Release

I am pleased to announce the Paperback release of The Ming Storytellers on 

January 2013.

To celebrate this occasion, one lucky person will WIN an advance paperback copy of The Ming Storytellers. Talk about a Christmas present... 

And wait! There's more...we are speaking about a dedicated and SIGNED copy of this absolutely gorgeous book set in China's Ming Dynasty. How can you not want this?  

But seriously, how can you not want to ditch your e-reader for a hefty 633 pages? This is, after all, a historical novel. It demands the traditional reading experience with the forearm cramps, paper cuts and all.

To be in the draw to win, please click here and follow the competition instructions.

The winner will be announced shortly after the Australian New Year's Eve countdown on 01/01/2013.  

The Arrogance of Youth - Homage to Oscar Wilde

Advice to the Ladies, especially those past 35 years of age.

Never flatter a man much younger than yourself unless you truly are in a relationship with him.

He does not understand that you feel confident and that age has bestowed you with endless generosity.

He will come to believe that he condescends to you; you, whose gifts of flattery he perceives as indications that you must be grateful for youth's attention.

Madam, you do yourself a disservice to entertain the belief that you may groom this young calf and shower him with the openness that you suspect dames of his generation are incapable of giving him freely (such is the arrogance of your age!)

Madam, stop!

Your kindness is not seen as such by him. He cannot fathom that you bloom and that experience has endowed you with inner peace, nor that the amassed joys of your years keep you from self-doubt, doubt that you merely affect from time to time to hint at modesty.

It does not even cross his mind that you are oft graced with pleasures beyond imagining and that you have none to envy. Youth and the conceit of his youth cloud his mind.

Your generosity is misplaced, Madam.

You are kind but know this, know that no insecurity of his, no, none of his inner doubts appear to him as shortcomings compared to those extra years which he is convinced he erases in you through his attention.

Such is the arrogance of youth.

A Novel Set in Ming China

It warms me to know that people are still interested in this blog even though I no longer post here.
Please, if you want to keep reading me, and I thank you kindly for this, you can find me here.

But since I have your attention...  : )

I think it is only fair, since this blog has been the platform for much rambling and musings about a 'certain' historical novel set in Ming Dynasty China, that I should let readers of Les Nuits Masquées know before anyone else, that this novel is now a visual reality. I mean it!

Designer, Caryn Gillespie has produced gorgeous artwork for it. I am so pleased with this cover that I just had to post it here even though the novel is not due for release until August 2012.

I love the languorous vermillion eyeshadow and the ripe-cherry lip makeup.

I believe any self-respecting Ming concubine would be proud to be so made up.  Don't you think?