Taking this playlist idea from a fellow author and friend, Natalie Wright of Emily's House fame, I thought it would be fun to share the soundtrack to my upcoming release. I never actually pondered the tuneage in my noodle, cohesively, as a soundtrack per se; yet, as music is integral to my daily life as well as to my writing, I absolutely had songs that not only played in my head as a running score, but are indeed referenced in the pages of The Darlings of Orange County. For those of you whom will be reading it (Thank you! Releasing next week!!), you'll note specifically in Chapter 54, wherein our heroine Veronica Darling does a guest spot on Imus in the Morning, she has ready her Five Fave songs: a standard requirement for all Don Imus interviewees. She also reveals she used to have a fave Gwen Stefani song, It's My Life ... until she learned on a show that it was also a fave of Alan Colmes and it was instantly tainted.
As of late, the adventure-lit of Edgar Rice Burroughs has captured my interest with a pleasant focus. The travel narratives of 19thC. adventurers have forever suited me well: Mark Twain, Richard Henry Dana, Charles Darwin, Henry James and Thomas Jefferson with his 18thC. accounts of Italian and French sojourns. To that end, contemporary travel essayists fill a healthy portion of our nearly 2,000 volume library: Bill Bryson, Peter Mayle, Hunter S. Thompson. Perhaps these travel writers and novelists have fueled my Wanderlust; perhaps I am drawn to them because of said-lust.
Motivated by this year's themes for San Diego Comic-Con -for which I am anxiously awaiting press passes for the purposes of reporting from the convention floor for GoodtobeaGeek.com, as my alter ego/pseudonym Miss Hannah Hart, ghostdame- I have dipped my feathered quill and now sit pensively, pondering my submission to the official Souvenir Book, my inky nib aloft and hesitating just inches above my parchment. My theme of choice? The 100th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes.
I utilize this casual canvas, similar to my previous post wherein I gathered some Savannah of Williamsburg thoughts -how to formulate my fourth book in this series- as a sounding board to crystallize some free-radical ideas in my noodle. It seems to be working; I feel the gears moving, like one of Dr. Lucia Devereaux's steampunk contraptions sputtering to life. (If you read Hannah, you'll know of Dr. Lucy.) Some of you may know I was published in the 2010 Comic-Con Book: lead story even for the 60th Anniversary of Peanuts segment! My task at hand this time is considerable. These Tarzan geeks are tough competition.
Now, being the weird combination of she whom reveres original fairy tales -Grimm (Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel und Gretel), de la Fontaine (The Grasshopper and the Ant, The Tortoise and the Hare), de Ségur (Blondine), etc.- yet also adores the Disney reiterations thereof, my Viking and I ventured to Disneyland to get my noggin revving and skittered amidst the branches of Tarzan's Treehouse in Adventureland. In fact, the attraction used to be the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and far superior ... to the Tarzan Treehouse, not superior to the Robert Louis Stevenson book. Ha! It was a subtle homage of vintage suitcases, silver hairbrushes and antique china to the durable and genteel, accidental survivalists from the mind of the man from Edinburgh. Happily, some of the props have remained in place.
Once again, merci pour écouter, thanks for listening; I think I have some ideas brewing. I imagine, alongside reading more of Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs, a few more trips through the treehouse may very well be in order.
Update to Post: I did indeed come up with an article for Comic-Con 2012 and it was published in the annual Souivernir Book. Read it here!
In a springtime issue of Next Door Neighbors magazine, author Jennifer Susannah Devore was interviewed by Suzi Drake about from whence the idea for the series originated, how the author was enjoying her new life on the East Coast and what was next in the literary hopper.
Savannah of Williamsburg: Being the Account of a Young, London Squirrel, Virginia 1705 and Savannah of Williamsburg: The Trials of Blackbeard and His Pirates, Virginia 1718 are discussed in the interview.
Mrs. Wyn Williams' fourth-graders at Yorktown Elementary Math, Science and Technology Magnate School in Yorktown, Virginia honoured the author immensely by putting on a play of the first book in the Savannah of Williamsburg Series. Ms. Devore's favourite scene? The duel between William Byrd II and Sir Roland Graham, of course!
Savannah of Williamsburg: The Trials of Blackbeard and His Pirates, Virginia 1718 made front page news in the Lifestyle section of the Virginia Gazette. One of the oldest newspapers in the country, having first printed its weekly editions in 1736, the Gazette and its founder William Parks are actually the focus of Devore's follow-up title, Savannah of Williamsburg: Ben Franklin, Freedom & Freedom of the Press, Virginia, 1735.
As of late, yours truly has been greatly distracted and engaged by the likes of my dear pal Miss Hannah Hart, ghostdame of the Hotel Del (her latest piece being a gracious and geeky ode to Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Leonard Nimoy on the former's 200th birthday); my Darlings of Orange County and it's forthwith release; the launch of my website JennyPop.com and the great fun of being @JennyPopCom.
In those spare moments when I'm not Tweeting, blogging, editing, primping, ghosting and pirating, I have been dutifully and diligently researching, developing and gathering facts, dates, details and tidbits like a perky squirrel gathering perfect branches and bits of shiny, gold string for her new nest. Sans doute, this next installment of Savannah of Williamsburg is proving the most difficult yet of all past titles.
THE COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
P.O. BOX 1776
WILLIAMSBURG, VA 23187-1776
(757) 220-7286
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2008
Media Contact: Penna Rogers
(757) 220-7121 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
WILLIAMSBURG AUTHOR TO SIGN CHILDREN’S BOOKS AT Williamsburg Booksellers THROUGHOUT THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Williamsburg author Jennifer Susannah Devore will sign her latest book, “Savannah of Williamsburg: Ben Franklin, Freedom & Freedom of the Press, Virginia 1735” during the Thanksgiving weekend at Williamsburg Booksellers, 101 Visitor Center Dr. The book signings will be held 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, 4 to 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 29 and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30.
“Savannah of Williamsburg: Ben Franklin, Freedom & Freedom of the Press, Virginia 1735” is the third book in the “Savannah Squirrel Series of Books.” A series of historical fiction and fantasy, “Savannah of Williamsburg” brings adventure and early American history together as it ties Williamsburg and its influence to all the colonies’ wildest events and people.