BEADTIME STORIES: Official website of Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Welcome to the first ever newsletter for the Beadtime Stories website, your full service all inclusive website that tells you more than you probably ever wanted to know about the beadwork, books, cats, house painting, celebrations, triumphs and trials of yours truly.
BEADS : I began this site mostly for my beadwork, to show off images of the pieces I slaved over thinking I would have something cool to wear to events I never got a chance to go to before my friends talked me out of the beaded masterpieces in question. Although most of my bead patterns are available for sale on Bead-Patterns.com (search under my name and find about 400 of them) I will put up a simple free pattern on my site from time to time. I hope to put up some simple instructions on bead weaving techniques later on, as soon as I figure out how to use one of the graphics programs a little better. Meanwhile, for you beginning beaders, there are free instructions for most stitches available for download at Bead-Patterns.com by me and other people too.
LATEST NEW PIECE: Turtle necklace
LATEST BEAD NEWS : My design for an Art Deco style Egyptian Lotus and Bud collar has been accepted as a finalist for the Swarovski crystal Create Your Style contest with the theme of Cultural Fusion. Now all I have to do is make two copies of the design and send it to them before Aug. 15 to be eligible for one of three yummy prizes. Sorry I can't show you the completed object yet.
NEW FREE PATTERN: Welcome Home Bracelet
Ulterior motive of beading section is to sell you stuff. My bead book, BEADTIME STORIES , is still for sale through me as well as Bead-Patterns.com. Although it was originally 19.99 I reduced the price a few years ago to 12.99. I do charge $1.50 for shipping. To order your copy, email me with your address. If you want to pay by check or money order, we can arrange that. If you want to pay by Paypal, send the payment to my email address and then send me YOUR address and I'll send you the book. If I DON'T send you the book, send me your address again, especially if you sent it snail mail, because although I am very honest I sometimes do lose things.
COMING SOON : Pix of my three current UFOs (bead talk for UnFinished Objects) which I will of course complete while waiting for the crystals to complete my projects for the contest.
BEADY ASPIRATIONS FOR THIS WEBSITE : I hope to keep you posted re eye candy alerts on the web, my favorite new bead books, such as Margie Deeb's gorgeous new pattern book, competitions, shows I may be attending (so we can say hi as we stare at each other's chests between vendor booths) and beady news in general.
BOOKS: The true ulterior purpose of this new website and this newsletter is to counter the tendency of my beloved readers to utter the following depressing and gloomy words: "(Insert name of new book, sold for toilet paper within three months of its release for lack of interest) I didn't know you had a new one out! I love that series!" We just hate it when that happens! So when I have a new solo book or a new one in the series Anne McCaffrey and I write, I will let you know so you can rush right out and buy it. Well, okay, you can wait for the paperback if you must, or demand the library buy the hardback copy when it first comes out. Then, having read it and of course having decided that you must have a copy for your very own, if for no other reason than to support your favorite author (moi? You're too kind!) you will be thrilled to learn when the paperback comes out and go get one to treasure forever.
SALES PITCH AND PLEA FOR SURVIVAL (the sensitive and small children may want to skip this part. It always makes me cry)
The sad thing for me is this: don't get me wrong, I would so much rather you'd read my books than not read them, but if you want me to be able to continue writing the books you enjoy, you gotta buy them new. I know the darned things are expensive, but publishers' sales figures depend on the sales of new books and the sales figures are how they whether or not they want to buy ANOTHER book from me or another book in your favorite series from me instead of "something fresh. They seem to be tired of the other series." I am nowhere near being a rich author. I am an author who may soon have to get a job as a cart girl (woman?) at Safeway because people aren't reading much anymore and those who are don't buy new books. But whenever possible I buy my favorite authors' books or any other fiction book particularly that looks like I want to read it new, often in hardback, to support my industry and my favorite writers. Of course, it's deductible for me and I have cats instead of children and grandkids. Still IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE THOSE CHARACTERS AGAIN, go to your nearest new bookstore and make the exchange--$$ for the new paperback (at least. You can buy a hardback if you like. I wouldn't mind) even if you read it already (give it as a gift to a friend! That way--the first book is free, heh heh heh).
If you must buy my books used in order to read them at all, I'd appreciate it if you'd use the Powell's link on my website because I get a kickback that way.
End of advertisement.
If anyone is at all interested, I may start a writer's whine page to educate aspiring writers and curious (and sometimes indignant) readers about the realities of being published by the big publishers, most of whom are owned by about three multinational conglomerates at the present time. Email me if you are interested in reading this sort of thing. I don't want to bore everybody with it otherwise.
LATEST BOOK NEWS: SCARBOROUGH FAIR, my short story collection (click on link for list of stories and synopsis) published in a limited quantity (and availability) by Five Star Press, is now going out of print and I have gleaned 50 copies from the last of the books to sell online. I handpicked these 11 stories from all of those I've done for anthologies over the years. Signed hardback on sale for $15.00 plus postage. VERY limited. email me for more details
ACORNA'S CHILDREN: FIRST WARNING (Harper/Collins) should be out in the next month or two. There is a description on my website (link) and critic's review blurbs. I love Khorii, her android brother Elviiz and the rather mysterious cat Khiindi, introduced at the end of ACORNA'S TRIUMPH. We hope to finish the second book by the end of August.
JUST FINISHED : TWINS OF PETAYBEE: CHANGELINGS (Del Rey). We turned this book in to Del Rey at the end of last year and it is currently undergoing the publishing process. Although they originally intended to bring it out this summer, Del Rey decided not to bring it out so close to FIRST WARNING so it is due to come out in early Spring of 2006. We also just turned in the second book in this series, no title yet, and are waiting for editorial feedback.
CLEOPATRA 7.2, my latest solo book, is still only in hardback but it is a really terrific book and for those who have read CHANNELING CLEOPATRA , the emphasis switches from Cleopatra's blend with the American armchair Egyptologist Leda Hubbard to the new blend of Cleo's DNA with Egyptian anthropologist and underground rescuer of abused Middle Eastern women, Gabriella Farouk. Leda, her deceased father and Gretchen Wolfe, Chimera, and the other characters are also in there pitching, but the emphasis is on the new blend. For those of you who haven't read CHANNELING CLEOPATRA , Sales pitch redux: I do have a few paperbacks left for sale. I think it is now out of print so okay, you can go to the library or used bookstores to buy it without making me whine, but once you do, and fall in love with it as I am of course certain that you will, please get 7.2 new from your local or online book pusher, preferably Powell's, from whom I get the kickback.
Plans for the future: Maybe a mystery? I love mysteries.
PLANS FOR THIS SECTION OF THE WEBSITE: Writer's whine page previously mentioned, more books for sale, and some reviews of my favorite books by other authors:
Right here in this very newsletter I have two suggestions for people who love good mysteries that also let you learn something while being entertained.
Eliot Pattison's marvelous mysteries set in Tibet. The first one is THE SKULL MANTRA. These are very exciting, very suspenseful, and very eye-opening about the contemporary situation in Tibet and China. The protagonist is a Chinese investigator who investigated the wrong party official and got sent to a prison camp in Tibet where imprisoned Tibetan monks saved his life when he would otherwise have given up and died. So he starts out in the worst possible trouble and then things get even worse. I LOVE these books.
Phil Rickman's wonderfully spooky earlier novels caught my attention a long time ago. He does wonderful suspense and atmospheric nail-biting, look-over-your-shoulder scary without a lot of gratuitous gore and with excellent characterization, plotting, pacing, and sense of place. His mystery series about a young widow and vicar in a small Welsh town are no exceptions and are in no way lighter or more formulaic than his earlier work. The very conscientious and kind vicar, Merrilee Watkins and her smart mouth pagan daughter Jane are not a team exactly but between them and their friends they usually get to the root of things, especially with the help of Gomer Parry, Plant Hire, the vicarage's groundskeeper and independent heavy-equipment operator. Super books.
I'm a bit late to recommend you read them new because I think they're out of print now, but some very fine mysteries indeed, maybe the most interesting written with American Indian protagonists, were by Mardi Oakley Medawar. Her self-deprecating protagonist, Tay Bodal, is a "practical doctor" in the same band as other Indians whose names you will recognize from Western history. Besides having great plotting and wonderful characters and superb history, these books also have a lot of humor.
PURRSONAL: This section is mostly to entice cat lovers to my site and to finally get my cats to earn part of their food by acting as shills for the books and beadwork. Cat lovers like looking at pretty cats (I've seldom met any other kind) and will wade through all kinds of other stuff to lookit the kitty. I know because I'm the same way.
There are also pictures of my house-painting efforts, my theatrical efforts on behalf of the local historical society, and my competition pieces for the local DAYS OF THE DEAD altar contest.
This area is sort of a catch-all for people who want to see how the eccentric half lives, as well as anything I want to share that isn't beads or books.
LATEST NEWS: The cats are still gorgeous but of course, underfed and not properly appreciated. There are still many areas of the house that need to be colorized and desperately need to be sorted and purged. However, at this point I'm concentrating on writing, the Swarovski contest, and trying to lose a bit of weight. I've lost about 22-23 pounds since May. This time I am not enriching any guru by espousing their program. It's not like I haven't dieted before. I know what to do but it never seems to include fudge brownies and ice cream or French fries, darn it.
So I'm doing the new revolutionary Scarborough diet. I'm counting calories and trying to walk more. Every packaged food on the market in the US practically has nutritional information including calories, and what isn't there you can look up on the internet. So I'm keeping track of those and every week or so I weigh and measure all pertinent points. And just keep trying. That's all.
COMING SOON: I'm hoping for thrilling adventures, great romance, perhaps a nice substantial inheritance from a hitherto unknown rich admirer? Or a grant at least, because I'd hate to lose ANY admirers in the way it takes to get an inheritance but a grant would be lovely.
Failing that, perhaps some cute cat stories or some more painting, or other local color. Will probably begin including something about music, since folk music is a big passion of mine. The only thing left then will be chocolate. I love chocolate and it's even on my diet.
Probably will include more links.
Most definitely, next time the newsletter will be shorter.
Thanks for your kind attention,
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough