Shakespeare Calling: December 2018

Sunday, December 2, 2018

December 2018

An Isle Full of Noises – The Merlin Chronicles Volume 3, by my alter ego Rhuddem Gwelin, is at the printer. Shakespeare and Merlin are about to make their entrance into the world of books.

But there have been other Shakespeare things to report as well. So I will.

But first, as always, I will mention to visitors of this blog that Shakespeare Calling – the book is available for purchase. Please help promote the book by buying it, of course, and telling your friends about it, by liking and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Bokus…. And please encourage your local book shops and libraries to buy it. Thank you! Your support is needed to keep this project alive.

Available for those of you in Great Britain and Europe on this site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/9163782626/ref=tmm_hrd_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1514378301&sr=8-1

Also available on http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Calling-book-Ruby-Jand/dp/9163782626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436073737&sr=1-1&keywords=Ruby+Jand+shakespeare+calling

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789163782626/shakespeare-calling-the-book/

or Adlibris. Or contact the publisher info@vulkan.se

Shakespeare sightings:

In Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, which isn’t worth reading despite the Shakespeare reference, the intergalactic soldiers are asked what they miss from their lives on earth and one answers, ‘Shakespeare in the Park… My last night on Earth, I saw a production of Macbeth that was just perfection.’ Later the main character tells about meeting his future wife while working with her on a high school production of Romeo and Juliet and quoting the love scenes to her.
In Laini Taylor’s Days of Blood and Starlight the main character Karou explains to her friend Zuzana why she no longer loves Akiva: ‘You know how, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wakes up in the crypt and Romeo’s already dead? He thought she was dead so he killed himself right next to her...? Well, imagine if she woke up and he was still alive, but… he had killed her whole family. And burned her city. And killed and enslaved her people.’ A grim but quite good fantasy book.
In She-Wolves the author Helen Castor has so far only used the much- (over?) used quote about discretion being the better part of valour, but in the up-coming chapters she writes about Margaret, Henry VI’s queen, so I’m expecting more.
In The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud one of the bad guys had given ‘an intense performance of Othello’. He later informed the heroes that he had also done Hamlet and many other Shakespeare characters. In the end our hero Lockwood tripped him up because of this. A fun book in many ways.
On Sverige Idag – Kultur (on TV: Sweden today – culture) it was reported that something was rotten in the western city of Karlstad where an opera, having a laugh a both opera and Shakespeare, was performed. That would have been fun to see.
In New Boy, the retelling of Othello by Tracy Chevalier (see below)

The teacher had chosen words from Shakespeare which contained silent letters, for example ‘sword’.
Dee and her friends had watched Romeo and Juliet on TV recently and her friend Mimi had fallen for Romeo. Their friend Jennifer said, ‘Who did she say Shakespeare is?’ To which Dee answered, ‘You know! He wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
When Mimi sees O and Dee together she thinks their black and white arms together ‘was the sexiest thing she had ever seen, even more powerful than Romeo and Juliet making out during the balcony scene.’

Further since last time:

Finished reading aloud with Hal: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Watched: the Globe production of same on DVD.
Started reading aloud with Hal: New Boy by Tracy Chevalier, based on Othello
An Isle Full of Noises – The Merlin Chronicles Volume 3 see above…
Watched: Gnomeo and Juliet