Catching up

I see there are some questions in the comments that I haven't answered, me being such a lame blogger.

Regarding the paperback: the agent never could find a publisher so I will be editing and updating the book this fall and releasing it myself. That's the plan, anyway. A friend in Germany suggested I also do a "lite" version, which is an interesting idea.

Regarding the Canadian documentary: It never happened. I have no idea why -- someone called just a few months before the summer they wanted to schedule it, but I never heard from them again. John and I have it on our list to create a nice DVD of my presentation so there will be something for teachers to show students, at least. Or anyone else who might be interested.

Sweet Swan of Avon, the book, has been optioned by a fabulous team of producers in Hollywood, though. They are extremely interested and committed and have produced remarkable (and well-known) films. I've been asked not to say much about it at this point, though.

Regarding Mary Sidney's will: That's a question I've wondered often myself -- how unusual was it for a woman in her position to not have a will? It's been on my list for a long time to do some research on that, and now that I have access (as a student) to a much greater pool of information, I'll put that on my list again.

I will be doing several presentations about Mary Sidney in northern California in late October. I'll post a schedule when it gets closer. If you're interested in organizing a talk for your own group in that area, just let me know!

more real soon now . . . . . . . . :-)
Robin

Update

I must be the World's Worst Blogger. So much has happened in the past year and so much is coming up -- I have no idea why I don't blog more often. Maybe I work too much.

In mid-September I leave for London for six to nine months to get a Masters in Shakespearean Authorship at Brunel University, the first post-graduate degree on that topic in the world. I'm hoping that when I am immersed in nothing else except the Shakespearean works and Mary Sidney that I will blog every dang day. But before I leave I have to get four books to press, so back to work I go.

anon!

Orbis Mundi -- Reading Shakespeare

Amy just told me about a great little web site that keeps track of the number of people reading "shakespeare"—Shakespeare’s Global Globe. This is so great! It would be really terrific if there was some way to contact other reading groups to share information about how everyone is reading. I've lead two reading groups for six years, plus Amy and I have the lengthy discussion group, The Understanders.

If you have a Shakespeare reading group, please let me know!

Sweet Swan in paperback?

I have an agent! A book agent. One who knows what I'm capable of and thinks it's perfectly viable to find a publisher to put Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? into paperback. Bless his heart. With the two documentaries about Mary Sidney coming out this year, it shouldn't be too difficult to sell to a publisher, I hope. Then we can start promoting it to book clubs and do a new push.

This agent is also interested in selling my book about starting your own Shakespeare reading group. I was astounded, while speaking on the Shakespeare at Sea cruise, how few people actually read Shakespeare! It's so great to read a play in a group, especially. And with things showing up like brain gyms specifically for boomers and older, it's an indication of how much people might actually enjoy learning something new in this way. If you have any experience with a Shakespeare reading group and are interested in sharing, please let me know.

And My Agent is also interested in shopping my book about the women in Shakespeare -- a fun, illustrated look at 52 women and what they accomplished. Then those books will open the doors to other projects! woo hoo! I've got a long list of projects already on my plate and can't wait to dive in.

Upcoming talks about Mary Sidney

I have several talks about Mary Sidney as author coming up.

One is at the Newberry Library in Chicago, at their Wednesday Club. This will be Wednesday, May 7, 2008. The reception begins at 5:30 and my talk at 6:15. My dear friends Jim Price and Don Newcomb, founders of the ChicaGourmet Club (the premier gourmet source in Chicago) will also be creating a dinner event while I'm there. Stay tuned for more info.

Also in May, I'll be speaking at the UCLA Affiliates Luncheon in Los Angeles. That's May 15, 11:30 to 2 p.m.

If you're in town, please drop in and say hello!

New group open for discussion

I get email regularly from people who have questions or comments about Mary Sidney as the author of the shakespearean works. So I started a Google Group to facilitate an open discussion between interested people. Please visit and add your thoughts!

The address is http://groups.google.com/group/MarySidney.

The only rule about posting questions or comments is that you have to be nice! Even though other authorship groups, including shakespeareans, say really mean things to each other, we're not going to do that. We're the nice ones. :-)

Shakespeare at Sea 2008

Wow—I just got word that I was invited back by the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival to speak on the next Shakespeare at Sea cruise, November 2008. Judging from the line-up of speakers, I am the only one from the previous cruise who was asked to return. In fact, they asked me to do six presentations, but golly, it takes me a week to prepare each one! So I asked to do only five. At the moment, I'll be doing presentations on two of the plays that will be in the 2009 season at OSF, one on death in Shakespeare, one on the humours (which includes a self-test to see what kind of humour you are most abundant in, and which characters you are thus most like), and "Why Read Shakespeare?"

While I was at Macworld in San Francisco attending to the working-for-a-living part of my life, I was approached by the book buyer for the gift shop at OSF (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). She ordered 25 copies of Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? because four people from the cruise (where I was not allowed to even talk about Mary Sidney) have come in requesting the book. Aha! A breach in the wall.