This is just a dream...

Well today is my birthday. I got the boys off to school then went and got my driver lic renewed . I also was able to take my vision test without my glases so I was able to have that restriction taken off my licence. Yahoo for me!! Well, while driving over to the licensing office a song came on the radio and it's also on my ipod. It's "Just a dream" by Carrie Underwood. Now in my van I play country, but on my ipod I have everything from classical, country, heavy metal, classic rock. I am always on the lookout for new music to listen to. One, I find it very relaxing or inspiring depending on what I am doing. Well this song if you haven't heard it, go find it on youtube and listen to it, watch the video. It evokes such a sadness. A sadness that someone who has just lost someone they loved. It brings out all those feelings. Especially when you are listening to it over and over to create a scene in a book. When writing my 2nd book but first in the series of the two that will be coming out soon, it's title "One Thousand Years to Forever" . It opens up with a pretty dramatic scene that required me to watch a video over and over and then to just listen to just the music to get the sense of utter loss and destruction of all that is good in this world... BUT something has grown from that. Bravery beyond anything I think the people who were behind this attack ever thought would ever come. Anyway you will know once you read. BUT the next scene is a funeral of a husband. The wife who was also with the husband for a time during this cataclysmic event, she is trying to make sense of what is happening. It's the funeral of her husband, best friend, lover who has been wiped out of her life and she can't cope with it. Her sadness is in a sense overwhelming. BUT she finally finds a way to cope and express the feelings of sadness which then turns into anger and rage. The way she finally handles it is the way a woman like her would and should. So that is my thought today. Next week I start editing again. Everyone have a wonderful day!!!

Getting a Head start on the Pre-Book Launch Party

Good Morning all! In order to get started with the Pre-Book Launch Party that will be held on my author page on facebook on March 25th, I wanted to give you all something to read so when I ask some questions you may already have the answer. Now for those of you who don't already have my book "The Kings of Angkor:Army of a Thousand Elephants" You will have a chance to win a signed copy. I will figure out how many questions have to be answered and let you know on the day of the party. Not only will I be having a Q & A time on my first book and some of the research that went into it but also you will be finding out a bit about the world that is in my 2nd book to be published , "One Thousand Years to Forever:The Making of a Queen". So here is some reading. Find the blog post from what I copy & paste here. It's titled "Angkor and the Titanic" Read and I am sure you will find the answer to one or more of my questions that will be posted. This is a jump start for you all :-) Have an awesome day! http://thekingsofangkor.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50 I am going to make it easy for you :-) Friday, November 11, 2011 Angkor and The Titanic That may seem a strange title and you my say what in the world does Angkor Wat which is located in Cambodia have to do with THe Titanic? Well I will get to that. Here are some cold facts that I am sure many of you have seen before or at least heard: Titanic Survivors Of the 2,223 passengers on the Titanic, only 706 survived leaving 1,517 dead. The largest percentage of survivors were first class passengers, followed by second class, and finally third class. Most of the deaths were due to hypothermia in the freezing water, which would cause death in less than 15 minutes. 6 of the 7 children in first class survived. All of the children in second class survived, whereas only 34 percent were saved in third class. 4 first class women died, 86 percent women survived in second class and less than half survived in third class. Overall, only 20 percent of the men survived, compared to nearly 75 percent of the women. First-class men were four times as likely to survive as second-class men, and twice as likely to survive as third class men. Another disparity is that a greater percentage of British passengers died than American passengers; some sources claim this could be because many Britons of the time were too polite and queued, rather than to force and elbow their way onto the lifeboats as some Americans did. The captain, Edward John Smith, shouted out: “Be British, boys, be British!” as the ocean liner went down, according to witnesses. What brought this subject to mind is yesterday my son Daniel was home sick and was watching the movie "The Titanic". He asked questions so I started telling him about what I knew. I have another son who is 11 who was given on his birthday an collectors book of the Sinking of The Titanic. He at a very young was outraged at the fact that most of the 3rd class passengers never stood a chance. You can see from the figures above how it was. I was just reading in the book that my son Ian was given, the name of the book is "Titanic, The Truth Behind the Disaster" . I had read before how the life boats were under filled. I have a photo of a half filled life boats. Well back to one instance where a Lady Duff Gordon, her husband Sir Cosmo and her secretary were in Life Boat #1. That boat held only twelve when it was launched. That was probably the worse example of under filling of a life boat. Surprisingly The 1997 movie on the Titanic, had scenes that were actually factual, like the orchestra and staying to play "Nearer, my God, to Thee" while passengers tried to get on life boats. Here is something from the inquiry about the filling of the lifeboats. At the British investigation, Charles Lightoller as the senior surviving officer was questioned about the fact that the lifeboats were not filled to capacity. They had been tested in Belfast on 25th March 1912 and each boat had carried seventy men safely. When questioned about the filling of lifeboat number six, Lightoller testified that the boat was filled with as many people as he considered to be safe. Lightoller believed that it would be impossible to fill the boats to capacity before lowering them to sea without the mechanism that held them collapsing. He was questioned as to whether he had arranged for more people to be put into the boats once it was afloat. Lightoller admitted that he should have made some arrangement for the boats to be filled once they were afloat. When asked if the crew member in charge of lifeboat number six was told to return to pick up survivors, the inquiry was told that the crew member was told to stay close to the ship. (questions 13883 - 13910) Lifeboat number 6 was designed to hold 65 people. It left with 40. Titanic also carried 3500 lifebelts and 48 life rings; Useless in the icy water. The majority of passengers that went into the sea did not drown, but froze to death. Many people were confused about where they should go after the order to launch the lifeboats had been given. There should have been a lifeboat drill on 14th April, but the Captain cancelled it to allow people to go to church. Many people believed that Titanic was not actually sinking but that the call to the lifeboats was actually a drill and stayed inside rather than venture out onto the freezing deck. Life Boat #1 carried 12, Life boat #6 that carried Margaret Brown or as she later became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and Helen Churchill Candee who would go on to write one of the first survivor accounts and then later go on to travel to Cambodia and Angkor Wat. Some asked why they waited for over an hour before even launching any of the life boats. Something we will never know. I read an account of a young brother and sister who were buffeted from side to side by people scrambling to find a way to get onto a life boat. When all the 1st class passengers were safely aboard life boats that could get onto one (But again they were under filled) at that, These two were trying in vain to find their family. They were standing on the deck crying and a man who the young boy later identified as Col. John Jacob Astor put them in a life boat after he made sure his young pregnant wife was safely aboard a boat. That was the last time anyone saw that man, the richest man at that time in the world went down with the mightiest ocean going vessle. So now I get back to why the Titanic and Angkor Wat are connected... because of one survivor Helen Churchill Candee. Helen Churchill Candee wrote in 1922 from Angkor Wat: It is with hesitation that I mention the larger ladies of the carvings, the Tevadas or sacred dancers. I am made shy in their presence, while they remain unperturbed. They are so many to know all at once, and their character is to me unfathomable. Helen Candee Angkor Wat, 1922 Her account was one of the first English accounts of this wonderful place. Up till then most accounts were in French. I have a lot of old travelogues but this one means a great deal to me being about the country of my natural children's birth and where my grandchildren still live. I lived there for about 11 years and hope to get back there this coming May.

Pre-launch Book Party

Come meet Author Mary Moriarty as she talks about her new book "One Thousand Years to Forever: The making of a Queen" here on March 25th at 6PM. That book will be out early June. There will also be question and answers and a lucky attendee will get a free, signed copy of "The Kings of Angkor:Army of a Thousand Elephants" So stay tuned to this channel or blog :-) for more information. https://www.facebook.com/events/345243738914585/346036382168654/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Fact and Fiction: Where the edges blur...

I have sent back my novella to the editor and she said she would get to work on it. As she works on it I am trying to finish up the sequel to it. The story begged to be continued and finished. I let my daughter Megan read the rough manuscript and she really enjoyed it. She holds back nothing and told me what she thought I should add or take away. I am doing that. One thing is she thought I should have a back story to explain the past lives of the main characters. Loving history the way I do and knowing a lot of the Irish history from the time I was little. I grew up listening to my father who was Scottish and Irish. We won't mention the English there (for now) Anyway even though he only went to 8th grade he also loved history and would tell me about this place or that, or this person lived here. Or This battle was fought here. He got me into antiquing at a very young age and looking for old bottles along rock walls. That was all fine and good till I became allergic to poison ivy and all it's cousins... Do you know the sap from the mango fruit has the same properties as poison ivy,oak and sumac... Yup!! Well anyway back to history, I learned to love reading and thankfully my father never censored my reading. While I was plowing through "War and Peace" and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy I was also reading anything about the Czars and Russian History. It was then in the 1970s that I found out from my Uncle (Mother's brother) that my mother's family the Oldenburgs who were from Northern Germany and part of a Royal Family and later one of the girls married the last Kaiser's second son. Well the Oldenburg family married into a lot of the Royal families of Europe. Boy what a rabbit trail I am getting on this morning. Back to history So being raised by my father since my mother passed away when I was five gave me a certain amount of freedom. I had a steady supply of money to buy as many books as I wanted. Sometimes I am sure it was not what my teachers thought was appropriate for my age BUT I have the same attitude, If my child is reading, I don't really care what it is(well maybe) BUT my father didn't censor me and in between all the Tolstoy books and history I also read a lot of fiction, "Summer of 42" about gave one of my 8th grade teachers a fit... "Helter Skelter" Not the best reading for however young I was, gave me nightmares... Anything Stephen King. Again nightmare city. BUT I was reading and while one of my friends went and bought tons of clothes, I was happy with my faded jeans, peasant blouses and any cast off she gave me cause I took any spare money I had and bought books. History was right at the top of the list. Somewhere soon after 1979 I found romance books and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. All of her books, well I was sold on the whole romance genre. "The Flame and The Flower", "Shanna", "The Wolf and The Dove" were the first ones that I read. From then on I knew Romance with history would be the love of my life when it came to books. So now I am researching the prologue of the sequel of my second novella. It will go back to the year 1014 and the Battle of Clontarf and it's main characters and some I am making up who were the main characters in my novella which is in the hands of my editor. The Battle of Clontarf was on the outskirts of Dublin,Ireland and between the the Forces of High King Brian Boru and his opposing forces. It is quite the impressive list and one of the characters was his ex wife. So I will get back to organizing my characters and getting the opening scene set so I can write. Once this novella is finished I can take a breath and get back to the second in the series of "The Kings of Angkor"

Creating a World

Since I have had numerous cups of tea and have gotten the boys to school... I can write. I thought I would do a post about creating a world that is in my book(s). Now how do I get my ideas? Like in the past I wrote, the ideas come from a variety of places and ways. Something that happens in life, a statement that could trigger a thought that ends up snowballing. A song that I get the whole story. That happened in Cambodia when I lived there. My son downloaded a bunch of songs on my ipod(one of the first ones) but one in particular "Back at One" by Brian McKnight helped me picture a whole book. One that I would later write that is yet to be published. Was it a failure since it's not published yet? No, I don't think so. Like with each story I write, I think I get better. I know my daughter Megan said she thinks I am. Honestly I am still learning my craft. I have a way of telling a story and a dear friend of mine in California says she is glad to see someone who writes that way. For me it's the way I am and the way my stories spill out. So that manuscript is on the back burner and in the hands of that same friend who is also a very gifted writer. My heros are strong, can be almost superhuman in their strengths. No, life is not like that but writing romance is an escape and that's why we as women read it... to escape. I can say I think there are some men who are and would fit in that category, almost superhuman in strength. I work in a very male dominated job. I am a firefighter. I honestly wish I had found this at a younger age BUT it would have been even less likely I could have succeeded or been accepted into the ranks of firefighters as I am today. I am very fortunate to have a department such as mine. So fire calls and working around some of the best guys in the world who have accepted me and can tease me helps me to be around some super men. It gives me a chance to watch and learn mannerisms where I would never have a chance in any other way. Do I use any real life times in my writings? Do I create scenes or stories from those real life times? I think I look at life and my days in a whole and take a little bit from here and there and take something from "Everywhere" like a potter and I create. I read and read... a writer is a reader first and foremost. I have far too many books going right now.I read articles in newspapers and magazines and I find something that gives me an idea for a story and I go with it. On the back burner: The second in the novella series that I am editing at the moment. A Paranormal, title to be announced. A manuscript that I have the title but want to wait for the cover to be created. It takes place in Cambodia in the 1920s. One of those fascinating times when women were gaining freedoms. I love being a wife and mother BUT honestly I would really have had a hard time if I was told 'you can't do that because you are a woman'. Even though it was a accepted thing back then. Obviously women were starting to question and want more in their lives. They wanted to be able to create their own lives, have a say in things. I think because I come from a family, both sides where the women were strong personalities. Look at me now. It took living in Cambodia, living through some exciting and scary times there politically, coming back to the states a single mother and going through FireFighter 1 & 2 training for four months. BUT I also know had I not gone through what I had in my past lives I could never done what I did( going through FF 1 & 2 ). I have read that some departments don't even consider candidates after a certain age... I was a woman and age 50 when I joined, age 51 when I passed both my practicals and written exams. Back to the manuscript that is set in the 1920s, So a strong woman in that story... Someone who is feminine but very strong in her own way. That is a common thread in all my manuscripts. Another story starts present time but through memories of a grandmother who was a young woman in the 40s and WWII goes back in time and again a strong woman. Going against norms of that time. I am converting a room in my house that will be my new office. It will have one wall that will be a desk and the wall over that desk will be all cork board. I have tons of notes and with all the books in the works I like to have things out where I can see them, make more notes, add to ideas and newspaper clippings that help. Another wall will be my research bookshelves. Even in romance writing, I research. My "Kings of Angkor" is a big research project. I am combing though photos that I took while visiting back in December and January just recently. One of greatest story tellers, Tolkien used to write and tell stories to his children. He being a professor at Oxford didn't do a whole lot of academic publications on his own which was frowned upon but he was developing a world. He was creating mythologies and languages all his own. Here is a quote from his biography from the Tolkien page: "Meanwhile Tolkien continued developing his mythology and languages. As mentioned above, he told his children stories, some of which he developed into those published posthumously as Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, etc. However, according to his own account, one day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc. From this investigation grew a tale that he told to his younger children, and even passed round." I am so glad that student left a page blank. Glad that the inner daemon wrote on those blank pages what he did and then wanted to find out what a Hobbit was and what a Hobbit hole was... Jane Austen took from her life and created the stories that we have come to love. She was not a widely traveled woman of this time... On the contrary she lived at the time of George washington and our founding father's. She was a woman who studied people around her and created some of the most memorable characters ever. She published six complete books. Those have been read over and over by her fans from the time she first published. From her biography page: "In the period spanning 1811-1816, she pseudonymously published Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice (a work she referred to as her "darling child," which also received critical acclaim), Mansfield Park and Emma." I have read her books over and over. I have watched the movies which are based on her books many times. Even my sons loved to watch them. She had a gift to bring out the best or the worst in a character. She was a keen student of us mere humans. She died far too young at age 41. So though she she wasn't widely travled she took what she knew and wrote. I hope you enjoy this little post. Now back to editing... till the horn blows as we say at the station.

The Many hats I wear...

Photo by Patrisha McLean. I am a writer. I am also a wife and mother... and grandmother. Hey wait, if I type long enough here the tones may go off and I will be off to another fire call. I am a paid, call FF for the town of Camden Maine. I am on call 24/7 unless I decide to turn off my pager which is not very often. It usually only happens if some of us decide within the department to go out and relax for the night or I am having a special occasion at home. It is very hard to not respond though. It can be in the middle of the day while I am writing or in the middle of the night. No,I don't sleep at the station. I am home, snug in my bed . The tones go off and up I come off my bed. After getting back from Cambodia the 13th, things were quiet and I got back on my feet. This week it's been a lot busier for sure which is fine by me. It's like being a race horse at the starting gate, just waiting to be let go, waiting for the sound of the gun to leap forward. We wait sometimes and wait and then go about our business and when we least expect it the call comes. I have been getting my office organized to some degree since my return. But it's still too wicked cold out there to use. So I will use my bed, I spread all my papers and research books out and continue to work up here. I have a manuscript back from the editor and I need to get working on that. Plus I am organizing my 2nd book of the series of The Kings of Angkor. On a side note. This last Wednesday while waiting for my nine year old son to get out of school, I saw one of the teachers there at the school. I had given her for her birthday one of my books. She wanted to know when the next one was coming out because she loved the first one. She had also given the book to her friend to read. I love hearing this. Word of mouth, building a foundation of future readers who will buy books by me. That was a good shot in the arm! So until the tones go off I will write. Enjoy your day!

Researching and traveling back in time

This post will be a bit about what I learned or remembered on my recent trip to Cambodia. It will also be about how I was affected by my trip to Angkor Wat. It was true I basically got no research done really while there BUT I tried to absorb anything and everything I came in contact with. I tried to capture everything on film. I have hundreds of photos that my daughter Megan and I shot in tandem. Photos that now for the most part I have uploaded to my facebook account I will now start pouring over to find certain photos that depict life of the time of Angkor but also of my Royal Family that I have written about and will be in the future. Well now with my cup of tea, two cats and a Chihuahua as my company I can sit and write. As I write Echo, the Boxer paces just outside of my room, my temporary office. I have myself plugged into Imagine Dragons and "It's Time". Sometimes I have to plug myself in. With boys gaming and Daniel now watching "Wizard's of Waverly Place" I need to have music. This is also one of my rowing songs. Well back to my hunt for my queens, Queen Jayarajadevi and Indradevi , the two sister queens and their beloved husband King Jayavarman VII. It wasn't until about his 60th year that he became King. I'm not sure how old they were, they are always presented as very youthful. He was king for about 38 years. When I wrote about them I had Nurung who would later become Jayavarman at about 40. Also I had him husband of one wife because it's hard for me to think about any man dividing his love between two women much less all the women they had in their lives.I have one of the queens , his aunt. It's easier for me to think that way. When I traveled to Cambodia there are things that I learned or remembered really fast. Traffic is still wicked crazy and it still amazes me that there aren't more accidents. I was telling my safety officer at the Fire Department how certain things would have given him a fit to see. I had to hope each time I rode in a tuk-tuk that the speeding cars that were coming towards us as we crossed traffic would stop or swerve. I would not get back on the back of a motor cycle though... well I almost did, told my daughter Megan that I needed to get to the bank on my last morning and would have resorted to it but was able to get a ride... When it's hot you should drink,drink,drink BUT if you are up in Siem Reap and at the temples and drinking to keep cool well it's not like there are porta potties all over. Well there may have been BUT if you know me I am not going to use a public bathroom unless it's an emergency... The few we found , one had a western style toilet. Second day it was more of a traditional one. It was clean and I managed. Meg was a good sport. She eats Khmer food every day at home, it's a lot cheaper then eating western food. I know, I spent a bit just buying milk, jam, bread and cookies to keep the kids and I in snacks while I stayed with them BUT for meals we ate Khmer which made me very happy. So when we got up to Siem Reap, how did we eat? Meg told her friend "I've been eating Khmer at each meal..." Thank you Meg! You are a sweetie and a good sport.Some of the places we ate at were roadside places for tourist so even though they had simple food, they charged tourist prices... So Meg and I made sure we drank our own water or tea we had brought with us. If I did by a fruit smoothie chances are it was made with bad ice so I took charcoal to hopefully prevent any kind of problems later. I didn't have any problems. Where ever you go you are going to find obnoxious people or tourist. You see it here in our town of Camden Maine along with the good ones. The first night we were in Siem Reap ,Chinese tourist,a large group of young ones, not the best example of their countrymen were at this restaurant. They had a few drinks already under their belt by the time we were seated, that was obvious. The wait staff were young and very timid. The large group when we got there were already full of themselves and as the night wore on they became worse to the point I was about to get up and ducktape their mouths or something. A French couple next to Megan and I kept looking over, eyebrows raised at the way this group would yell with an attitude to the poor waitresses. It finally got to the point that when one yelled "Waiter, you come here, NOW!" I turned as I stood and said. "Stop it now, they are busy!" Meg and I found that certain groups of tourist at the temples were loud, really obnoxious and very rude. At one point when we arrived early in the morning at Preah Khan. It was quiet and then a small busload of them arrived and all you could hear was them. Meg said "RUN!!!" We managed to keep a few steps ahead of them at that temple and fortunately the tour guide we hired kept us way ahead of them. Once at Angkor, The Bayon, Preah Khan Meg and I took photo after photo. I have yet to digest everything. It's too immense. I will be going through all those photos later day after day with a fine tooth comb... kinda like when going through with my boarding pass to board the last flight from Taiwan to the US and I got pulled aside for a random baggage check... I guess certain swear words are the same the world over. When I said under my breath "You can't be fu***** serious..." after the agent was picking everything and I mean everything apart... Turning everything on and going into everything, every nook and freaking cranny. The agent in Taiwan knew just what I was saying. Just like when outside Angkor Wat on the last afternoon when myself and some Italian or Spanish tourist were taking photos of one of their own and I was making a video. Well all of a sudden I said "ant" in Khmer, shut off my ipad and start dropping the "F Bomb" with fluency as the little buggers bit my foot. That brought quite the smile to one of the gentlemen in their group. I had a two fold reason for going to Cambodia and now having been there I have a better idea how much it will cost so I can save for my next trip. Living there in the past and being a tourist are two different things. This trip was like an introduction. Yes, I had lived there but when I went to Angkor Wat and the other temples there was far too much to see and absorb. Like Kent Davis said to me, 'you will not be doing any research, it's going to be take photos, see and try to absorb BUT you will get a lot more done when you get home'. That is so true. Now I know that when I go back, there will be certain things to see and study and to photograph. I tried to capture certain things. Some I did, some didn't come out so good because of the lack of light. Somethings without knowing or not certain of what I was seeing I took shots of, maybe not the best BUT now seeing them I remember how I felt when I stood in front of them. I was in awe of standing in front of the King I wrote about in my simple and humble way. I fell in love with him and his queens. He is to this day still spoken of with reverence for who he was and what he did for his country and people. It's amazing that a country that has gone through what it has the people still remember him. That is a very good testament indeed. Thankfully my friend Monica Hall dug up an article all on her own for me and sent it to me so when I woke up on the morning of when I was going to Preah Khan it was there waiting for me. Here is the address to the photographer who wrote the article and a book on this subject. I had read the article back when it came out thanks to Kent Davis. www.phalikan.com So Now I am going to introduce you to some of the photos that are of the Queens Jayarajadevi and her younger sister Indradevi. Also bas reliefs of the royal triad, King Jayavarman VII and his two queens.