Now Available For the First Time: Sabin Howard Anatomical Drawing Prints

Now Available For the First Time: Sabin Howard Anatomical Drawing Prints

Posted on:

For all the fans of Leonardo and Michelangelo and beautiful art and human bodies, take a look at my husband Sabin Howard‘s anatomical drawings, now available as signed, numbered, limited edition giclee prints.

The drawings are printed on 104 lb all cotton Rives Paper, which is mold-made in France.

http://sabinhowarddrawings.com/index.html

See also the drawing page on Sabin’s website

Also the drawings on sabinhowardart.com

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Modern Classic

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Modern Classic

Posted on:

I finished the last book with a sharp pang: I had read them all. There were no more to read. I felt a sense of loss.

Stieg Larrson simply wrote three of the most compulsively readable, engaging books I’ve read in decades. The characters were fantastic, complex and multi-dimensional and intriguing, flawed but heroic. I cared about Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. I liked them and I was rooting for them.
When I discussed the books with my mother, who reads continually, she said, “When Lisbeth got her revenge, I stood up and cheered!”
I could see my mother at her kitchen table with a cup of coffee, standing up to holler as Lisbeth took her vengeance. It’s that kind of novel. It moves you to your feet.
The books are suspenseful: the engine of the plot works robustly. I always look for that in a novel. Does the story move forward? Does it build suspense and tension? Yes, yes, yes for this trilogy.
One of my rules for writing novels is that every story is an argument for a specific value. The value at the heart of the Millennium trilogy is suggested by its original title “Men who hate women.” It has something to do with sexual politics, with the power dynamic between men and women, a power that, at its basest level, comes out of physical strength alone, without making reference to intelligence or character. But that’s at the most base, least evolved level.
Tiny, waifish Salander with her multiple piercings and autistic affect gives the lie to the importance of physical size. She is a trained fighter. She is a resourceful person with hidden gifts. She doesn’t give up and she takes her power into herself. She isn’t traditionally beautiful, she isn’t seductive or pleasing, and she doesn’t fit the stereotypical sitcom image of the good girl we all root for.
But we all root for her. She stays in the reader’s imagination for long after the back cover closes over the pages.
Contrast Salander’s complexity with the nauseating and stupefyingly stupid simplicity of the female character in “Fifty Shades of Gray,” who has a fictional life solely to dither about whether or not to let her naughty handsome billionaire boyfriend spank her. Oh yes, and to surprise herself by having orgasms. Lots of orgasms.
That female character was so insipid and forgettable that I’ve forgotten her name. I couldn’t bring myself to read more than the first half of the first book; the prose was embarrassingly badly written, appallingly badly written. It’s fascinating to me that the author is making so much money with such a pile of crap.
Don’t misunderstand, I had high hopes for “Fifty Shades” of silliness. Mommy porn? Sounded fun to me: I’m game! But the disappointment that I felt wasn’t that the novel was over, it was disappointment that prose this poorly written, and characters this vapid, and a plot this nonexistent, was being published so extravagantly. I would have welcomed well-written mommy porn that didn’t feature an inane female protagonist.
But this goes to show the power of my rule of novels: Every story is an argument for a value. The value behind “Fifty Shades” of mental retardation is that female orgasm is good. Oh, yes, yes Yes YES IT’S GOOD!
Women like that value $$. Duh.
Fortunately, there is a character like Lisbeth Salander to offset the rank idiocy of “Fifty Shades.” Lisbeth is the agent of her own sexuality. Lisbeth chooses her pleasures.
According to Wikipedia, Larrson witnessed the gang-rape of a young woman when he was young, and it haunted him. It led him into thinking deeply about gender relations, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy is a meditation on the power dynamics between the genders, and how men feel about women, especially strong women, women who defy traditional roles and categorizations.
Basically, insecure men want to hurt women they can’t control.
It’s not an accident that Blomkvist’s magazine profiles sex trafficking in the second book, “The Girl who Played with Fire.” Men who hate women see them as objects for their use.
At one point, I think in the last book, Larrson refers to Salander as ‘the girl who hated men who hate women.’ I’m paraphrasing because I was too caught up in the story to remember exactly, though I took note of that phrase. Lisbeth Salander personifies defiance of the approved female roles. She just isn’t going to be objectified.
So the trilogy was deeply pleasurable on many levels. It worked as a riveting story with characters who grabbed you and didn’t let go no matter what. It also worked on the intellectual level, with ideas that matter.
Read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. I recommend it. It will satisfy you and make you think, both at the same time.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
My recent post on HuffPo: What I’m learning about life from writing novels…
· · · · · · · ·

My recent post on HuffPo: What I’m learning about life from writing novels…

Posted on:

Writing novels is at the very core of my life. It follows that I take my craft as a novelist seriously. It’s about continual improvement, about personal best. I feel fortunate that I’ve chosen a profession–an obsession, really–that offers me an opportunity to grow throughout my life, even unto the day they pry my cold, stiff fingers off the keyboard and lay me in a plain, pine box. It’s not like, say, dance, which is over sometime in your 30’s. Your brain can keep forming connections and laying down new pathways. Look at Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, written when he was no longer young. It’s some of his best writing. The language of that play is sheer beauty.

But I also want to improve as a human being. Writing is so integral to my life that it becomes a springboard from which I launch into almost all other pursuits, endeavors, tasks, responsibilities, roles, and recreations.

Here’s my recent posting on the Huffington Post, in which I wrote:

So, what is story? I ask myself this question every time I sit down at my computer and stare with a peculiar mixture of dread and anticipation at an empty white document page. I’ve attended workshops, read books, interrogated famous authors, and even matriculated in a creative writing graduate program to figure out the answer. The pared-down statement above was taken from screenwriters, who often tackle the issue best. Some novelists seem to look down on screenwriters, but those people deal with story every day, in its palpable, unvarnished essence. They get it right, they make a movie and they eat. Otherwise, not so much. So they’re not kidding around. They have something to teach us novelists.

Indeed, all sorts of people have something useful to teach me. Condescension doesn’t behoove me — respect does. I never know who will toss me the next meaty nugget about writing, or about living.

Also, I don’t want my life to be story-like. I don’t want my life filled with conflict and obstacle, which is how a good writer toys with her characters, prevents them from fulfilling their desires, and sucks in readers. I want my life to be smooth, like the most elegantly milled vanilla ice cream. Peace nourishes my creativity; when my life calms, my mind fills with intriguing possibilities.

Read the article here.

 

writing novels, Fallen

Quotes of the Day

Posted on:

A couple of years ago, vacationing in Cape Cod, I discovered a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. It was a good read, and left me with even more respect for this gifted, sensitive, and intelligent woman who faced her life with dignity.

Here are some of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes:

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
Eleanor Roosevelt

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Note: I found these quotes on brainyquote.com