This morning, I have been marketing. I contacted two blog tour services to see about setting up blog tours for The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte. If it works out, I’ll be posting details on the blog as the tours happen.
I have also been cold calling, emailing, and writing to gift shops connected with historic sites that are related to my novel. I’m not sure if there’s really much chance of getting my book placed in those shops, but it never hurts to ask!
Now, having finished that bit of business, I’m going out with my husband to eat lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then go see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Happy Friday, all.
Ruth Hull Chatlien 
I wish you much success, Ruth.
Thank you!
Calling shops like that is a great idea. The best of luck!
How’d you like The Hobbit?
I had mixed feelings about it because of the extensive changes from the book. But I liked it better than the first installment and thought the scenes with the dragon were mesmerizing.
The Smaug scenes were great! (well, for the most part….I wasn’t as much a fan of the extended chase). Benedict Cumberbatch really excels in, well, I guess maybe every role? I didn’t mind many of the book changes. The addition of the female elf was not a big deal for me. The Black Arrow change, though, that one stuck in my craw.
Tauriel didn’t bother me. But all the stuff about Sauron added from other sources did bug me. I must confess, I did not catch the black arrow change.
I thought the stuff added from other sources was interesting because, much like high school History class, the events of the Hobbit lack context (and yes, I know it was written first and the other stuff wasn’t even dreamed up yet…). So it’s nice to know things like where Gandalf went for that time period, that kind of thing.
The Black Arrow in the movies is, apparently, a Dwarvish ballista bolt meant to be fired from that Dwarvish ballista thing that’s in Lake Town. In the book The Hobbit, Black Arrow was I think still made by Dwarves, but was a “regular” longbow arrow, passed through the Bard the Bowman family. It just struck me as an unnecessary change.
Oh, that’s right. The problem I had with all the additions is that he cut some of the more charming little episodes of the book to make room for them. So it ended up being not much like the Hobbit and a lot like Peter Jackson’s vision of Tolkien’s work as a hole.
Yes, I can definitely agree with that. Cutting Tom Bombadil, and the Barrow Wight, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a definite standout for me.