• The Tom Walsingham Mysteries
  • Clara who?
  • Stories
  • Contact

Scribblings

~ Clara Giuliani, storyteller

Scribblings

Author Archives: la Clarina

Devils, magic and ghosts – oh my!

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by la Clarina in History

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alistair Gentry, christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Elizabethan science, Ian Mortimer, John Dee, Thomas Hariot

Gentry1Remember this post? And Alistair Gentry‘s video about Elizabethan metaphysics, and the math teacher worrying about what seemed a proximity of science and magic?

“I’m alarmed,” he wrote in a comment. “Must I consider myself akin to devils, ghosts and magic?”

Well no – but he certainly would have, had he been an Elizabethan mathematician. Or, at the very least, he wouldn’t have been especially alarmed to consider his studies akin to magic. Certainly any number of his contemporaries – not to mention several religious authorities would have thought so, with a potential array of more or less dangerous consequences. But it is safe to assume that the mathematician himself wouldn’t have disagreed at all… Continue reading →

Of comfort zones and mentors

01 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling, Things

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

comfort zone, mentor, writing

MentorI must say that I greatly miss my mentor.

He was one of Italy’s great paediatricians, and also a philosopher and the author of a few groundbreaking books about medical ethics. Hardly the right mentor for a historical novelist and playwright, one might think – except that he also was deeply and passionately knowledgeable about opera, literature, theatre, cinema – and the greatest and most enlightened president the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana ever had. Quite the Renaissance man – and a wonderful teacher and mentor to boot… Continue reading →

By Candlelight

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

candlelight, candles, fire, historical novel, research, rushlight

CandleBW1Shall we call it field research?

A few days ago, a malfunctioning and a very grey day combined to send me back in time. With no power and no heating, I found myself depending on candles for light and the fireplace for warmth – all through one afternoon and night. Besides, my laptop’s battery was running low, so there was nothing for it, but sit by the fire and write in longhand and read by candlelight… Continue reading →

A Peek Backstage

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

backstage, blogging, Royal Shakespeare Company, shakespeare, theatre

rsc_logo.tmb-logo-200Did you know that the Royal Shakespeare Company has not one, but three fabulous blogs?

There is Pathways to Shakespeare, in which RSC actors and directors tell of their Shakespearean rites of passage: how they first met the bard, what drew them, what made them Shakespearean actors, how they entered the company… Continue reading →

As Old as the Hills

18 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

info-dump, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic

CriticLast night’s meeting of Ad Alta Voce, my not-quite-reading-group, had a theme of “Fictions, Lies and Play-acting”. In answer, among other things, I read from Sheridan’s The Critic, and found it as lovely as I remembered from years ago…
Continue reading →

Too Many Words

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

historical novel, second draft, word count

Well, not this despairing...

Well, not this despairing…

Am I still revising?

Oh yes, with a vengeance. See the word-count thingie down there on the left? I’m past 75k words – which would be wonderful if not for the fact that I should by now have reached three quarters of my story… and I haven’t.

My first draft was overlong at over 114000 words, and when embarking on the second draft, I thought I had a lot of words to cut: scenes I didn’t need anymore, flowery descriptions, plot detours, even a couple of characters, you know the sort of things that seem great  at first and then get cut. Continue reading →

Elizabethan Metaphysics

13 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in History, Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alistair Gentry, beliefs, christopher marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Elizabethan England

Magickal RealismI’ve always liked this video Alistair Gentry used as part of his performance “Magickal Realism”, addressing questions of what the Elizabethan believed or did not believe…

I remember posting it on my Italian blog, and an habitual reader, a math teacher, commenting on the presence of geometrical figures and formulas… “I’m a little alarmed,” he wrote. “Must I consider myself akin to devils, ghost and magic?”

And my answer was that he certainly would have, had he been an Elizabethan mathematician… After all magic was a science back then – if one with  many disreputable and dangerous implications… We are speaking of the world in which Marlowe created his Doctor Faustus, after all.

I’m fascinated by the history of beliefs, ideas and perceptions… It’s likely you’re going to see more of this. For now, do watch Gentry’s video – and have a nice weekend.

Imagined Lives

11 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alexander McCall Smith, Joanna Trollope, John Banville, Julian Fellowes, Minette Walters, National Portrait Gallery, Sarah Singleton, Tarnya Cooper, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Chevalier

ImaginedLivesBWI discovered the existence of this little book back in December, and ordered it on the instant… After which it took more than a month for it to arrive – thanks to the dismal Italian post service – but it was well worth the wait. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People– published by the National Portrait Gallery in 2011, is truly a gem.

Just imagine a museum putting together eight novelists and fourteen portraits of unknown sitters from the XVIth and XVIIth century – and commissioning short fictional character sketches… Continue reading →

Richards

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Alec Guinness, Baliol Holloway, Christopher Plummer, David Garrick, Edmund Kean, Ian McKellen, John Barrymore, Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Olivier, Mark Rylance, Richard III, William Shakespeare

Ten of them – because, having begun my Shakespeare Year yesterday with a talk about Shakespearean villains, I’m in this kind of mood…

David Garrick

David Garrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kean

Edmund Kean

Baliol Holloway

Baliol Holloway

 

John Barrymore

John Barrymore

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness

ChPlummer

Christopher Plummer

 

Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh

Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance

Our Plots are Different

06 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Historical fiction, Holly Lisle, MK Tod, plotting, Stephen Denham

Plotting2I’m sure we all think that our own genre is unlike all others…

I remember, years ago when I first took one of her courses, trying to convince Holly Lisle that I couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t plot quite like her other pupils because I wrote historicals… Continue reading →

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Seek and Find

♠ THE TOM WALSINGHAM MYSTERIES

Available on Amazon
Available on Amazon

The Copperfield Review’s first anthology – containing Gentleman in Velvet

Recent Posts

  • For Queen and Country: Tom Walsingham at the HNR
  • A Snare of Deceit is out!
  • A Deadly Complot
  • Merry Christmas!
  • Death in Rheims – Publication day!

Popular Scribblings

  • Dante's Ulysses
  • The Tale of the History Tutor
  • Of Lamps and Comfort Zones
  • Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured
  • The Power of the Mask
  • What Ought to be Truth

Categories

  • Books
  • Eccentricities
  • History
  • Lostintranslation
  • Poetry
  • Scribbling
  • Silents
  • Stories
  • Theatre
  • Things
  • Uncategorized

Enter your email address to get a messenger on horseback... er, an email will reach you by email when a new Scribbling is out.

Join 311 other subscribers

RSS Feeds

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

No Blog’s an Island

Sapere Books

 

IBA

International Bloggers' Association

I tweet on Twitter

And I pin on Pinterest

Senza Errori di Stumpa – my Italian blog

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Scribblings
    • Join 311 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Scribblings
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...