A few weeks ago I conducted this interview with award-winning Australian author Margo Lanagan. You can find the full interview with images over at Suvudu.

With us today is Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels and recent winner of the prestigious Printz Award for Young Adult fiction. The novel tells the story of Liga, an abused young woman who falls into her own personal heaven with the help of mysterious magic. However, the real world threatens the idyllic life of her and her two daughters and must eventually be dealt with. The novel is brought to life by darkly enchanting prose and the richly human interactions between the vibrant characters. It is a dark fairytale that sucks you in from the first page and wraps you up in the fortunes and heartbreaking misfortunes of its characters.

Hi Margo. Thank you for joining us on Suvudu. We are excited to have you.

It’s my pleasure to be here!

Can you tell us a little about your writing career before Tender Morsels?

Oh, my writing career before TM was loooong, with spots of illustriousness. I had my first poems published when I was about 16, wrote poetry throughout my teens and twenties, wrote a thesis in the mid-1980s and a bunch of teenage romance novels in the early 1990s to teach myself to construct a book-length story, and then tried junior fantasy fiction and gritty-realist YA fiction before really having a go at fantasy. I published 3 short story collections,White Time, Black Juice and Red Spikes, and several fantasy novels that crashed and burned, before Tender Morsels worked out for me.

Tender Morsels presents a different spin on the world of Grimm’s Fairytales, in particular the stories of “Snow-White and Rose-Red” and “The Ungrateful Dwarf”. What drew you to these stories in particular, such that you wanted to retell them?

The Grimm tale was a reworking of the earlier tale (“The Ungrateful Dwarf”) written by a German woman, Caroline Stahl. The main irritant for me was the way the Grimms made it over into a moral tale for young women, whose message was basically, “You must expect men to behave like animals sometimes. If you just keep on being sweet, nice, obliging and helpful in the face of this poor behaviour, you will be rewarded.” I thought that was pretty unimpressive, as moral messages go, and I guess I wanted to undo the work they’d done, and point out that there is some animalistic behaviour that is not forgivable and shouldn’t be tolerated. I also wanted to look at how far people go to protect their children, particularly their girl-children, and how vulnerable children are, who are overprotected and then released into the world with no armour or strategies to use against its dangers.

Another thing that attracted me about the original stories was the fact that there were elements of them that really didn’t make sense – such as the fact that the dwarf cursed the prince by making him into a bear, so that he could have the prince’s treasure. That was brought in very late in the story, with no explanation. So I felt that I had a challenge ahead of me just to work out a version of the story where all the elements that I liked (which included man-to-bear-to-man transformations!) could be put together in a more structurally viable way.Tender Morsels Pbk Cover1.jpg

How long has this book been in the making? Can you tell us more about the process?

I was fairly efficient (for me) with this book. I started it in September 2006, and submitted the final draft just before Christmas 2007. In the beginning, I was very frightened of the project, because I’d had so many problems with previous novel attempts, so I started by taking the original story and telling myself I was writing short stories around it – as long as each story veered in and touched the original at some stage, that was enough.

And if you do that for long enough with any existing story, and play with all the different aspects of the original that are attractive – with this one, for example, the encounters of the girls with the dwarf, the bears’ adventures (from their own and the daughters’ points of view) the treasure, and how that’s obtained and moves around during the story – eventually some of those stories start nudging up against one another and making different kinds of sense out of each other, and suggesting new areas that aren’t in the original, that you could create and explore. It is a bit laborious, at some stages, to rewrite the stories to make them fit with what you eventually decide is the central story, but that was the only way that I could proceed: giving myself that freedom to range anywhere I wanted, and reach for the most outlandish possibilities, and push them around a bit; making one of my rules be that I had to maximise the fun I got out of this writing.

The revision process also was pretty labour-intensive. I sent my editor, Rosalind Price of Allen & Unwin, what I called “a novel-like thing” in mid-May of 2007, just so that she could see what sort of entity the novel was, and with the proviso that she could ask questions about it, but not actually start editing it. (By this, you can see how insecure I was feeling – I really didn’t want much editorial input until I’d hammered down the story and could defend most of my choices in it.)

With the assistance of Rosalind’s questions, I prepared the editable draft, which was largely a rewrite, and which was going to go to 3 different editors for comment. I sent that off at the beginning of August, and before long I got a total of 30 pages of editorial comment back. In response to those, I rewrote a lot of the novel a second time, including exchanging the happy ending for a more ambiguous one.

It was a slog, but it was an enjoyable slog, and thanks to a Fellowship from the Literature Board here in Australia it wasn’t too long-drawn-out a slog – I was able to take some slabs of time off from the day-job to be a full-time writer when I needed to. I think the main issues were anxiety management (that is, not trying so hard to control the process that I killed the story stone dead) and just keeping on turning up at the writing desk.

The beauty and poetry of the prose is easily one of the gripping aspects of the novel. You also make some unique choices, such as having female characters speak from the third person while male characters speak from the first. Could you tell us a bit more about the development of your style and the choices you made with the prose in Tender Morsels?

Thank you for the compliment! I kind of hoped that the language would go some way towards softening the harshness of parts of the story. (It did for some readers; it irritated others!) The style was something that grew out of the characters in the story; I wanted some of the characters to have vivid voices of their own – Muddy Annie and Collaby Dought, notably – but others were less developed. I wanted Liga and her daughters, for example, to feel the way fairy-tale heroines always felt to me, that is, not entirely substantial as characters, not entirely real.

And I extended that into telling all the women’s and girls’ stories in the third person, because I wanted to give the sense of them being pushed around by the story, being pushed around by life, not being in control of their fates, whereas the blokes I wanted to sound as if they took it for granted that their story was the central story, that they were at the centre of their universe. It was a statement about the sense of entitlement the men carried around with them, that the women didn’t have.

Would you say there is a moral or lesson in Tender Morsels that you’d like the reader to come away with, or was there a deliberate attempt to steer away from that fairytale convention?

No, I don’t think novels (or short stories) are lesson-delivery systems; I think they’re there to raise questions and explore – as Emily Maguire has been saying at the Perth Writers’ Festival, “Fiction should widen understanding, opening up discussions of what it is like to be someone who isn’t me.” There’s a long tradition of using stories as ways to provide moral guidance, but I know I don’t enjoy feeling preached-at when I read – I like an author to leave me at a point where my own brain is buzzing with questions and possibilities, rather than to tie everything up neatly and conclusively, allowing only one way of interpreting what’s happened.
Snow White Rose Red.jpg

Did you have a target audience in mind for this book, a perfect reader?

I suppose readers who like anything dark or weird, and are fearless and open-minded in their reading, are my target audience. There’s no real age band I’m after, although the usual controversy about is-this-YA has sprung up aroundTM. (The answer is, Yes this is YA – for some young adults. Others will be unable to cope with it, or dislike it intensely – please don’t force anyone to read it. There are also older adults who will find this book too strong for them. It’s a very individual matter, a book’s suitability and appeal.)

Has anything changed for you now that you are a prize-winning author?

My lifestyle hasn’t changed very much, but I think a major change has been in the damping down of the anxiety and insecurity that tend to dog a writer’s career. I feel a lot more freedom to follow my own instincts, and a lot more faith in those instincts, than I used to, because I’ve managed to demonstrate to myself that my best work happens when I stop thinking about audiences and sales, and focus closely on the story and what it seems to want to do and say. I think I can safely say that I’m writing what I want to write now, rather than writing to please other people – and in doing that, I seem to please a whole lot more other people than I used to!

Do you ever see yourself returning to the world of Tender Morsels in a future novel?

I’d never say never, but I have no plans to, at the moment. I can imagine a short story or two spinning off the novel, but I don’t think a sequel is likely – sorry to all those people who wanted to see Liga’s happy ending!

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Don’t let anyone put you off. Keep going, be pigheaded about your writing. Enjoy the process as much as possible. Until you are established, cultivate a dayjob that doesn’t make your life miserable, to fall back on. Don’t be too eager to publish; in the end, write for the sake of the writing itself, to improve it, to allow it to say what needs to be said.

Can you tell us a little about your next work?

I’ve got a collection of YA fantasy short stories, titled Yellowcake, coming out, probably later this year. All the stories in it except for one have been published elsewhere, in magazines and anthologies, but I’m bringing them together for easier access.

Also, I’m just completing the first draft of a novel called The Brides of Rollrock Island, which is about selkies – that is, seals that come up out of the sea and transform into humans, and live among people. It’s a very sad, strange story; a lot of people in it make themselves wretched with magic. But of course it’s beautiful and atmospheric too – the selkies themselves are beautiful, but so is the landscape, the seascape, the weather, and some of the humans. This novel is also less violent than Tender Morsels, so a lot more readers will find it easier to stomach, I hope. I believe it’ll come out as YA here in Australia and in the US, but as a crossover, in adult and YA editions, in the UK, as Tender Morsels did.

Thank you so much for chatting.

And thank you!

Interview: Michael Terracciano’s Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

These days anyone can be a web comic artist; all you need is an internet connection and a pencil. But it takes vision and skill to continue to be a webcomic artist past the first few strips, and it takes a lot of vision and skill to keep your idea going several years. Michael Terracciano, creator of Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, is one of these people.

The webcomic tells the story of Dominic Deegan, a professional seer who lives with his talking cat Spark and makes a living telling fortunes for the local townsfolk. The story is initially made up of short, humorous encounters between Dominic and the idiotic townsfolk who come to him for readings. Yet as the story progresses it takes on a more epic tone and now, seven years later, Dominic and the host of other vibrant characters have battled demons, necromancers, and the occasional megalomaniacal old lady to become one of the most enduring and entertaining cast of characters on the web.

Michael, aka Mookie, was kind enough to do answer a few questions about the development of the series and what its like to be a professional webcomic writer.

Q: What inspired you to start writing Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire?

A: I was recently out of college and was trying to write the “great American fantasy novel.” It was god-awful and no one would read it. I had been reading webcomics for awhile and, after seeing some poor examples of them online, I said to myself, “You know what? I could do this!” I needed some kind of outlet for all the stories in my head, since waiting tables and working retail to pay the bills wasn’t providing many opportunities for it. I’d already doodled a couple of comic strips about a Dungeons & Dragons character I’d revisited, so after getting my free space on Keenspace (now Comic Genesis) I scanned them in and they were to be the first strips of Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire.

Q: What comics, movies, or books would you say had the most influence on Dominic Deegan?

A: I grew up reading comics, from the daily funnies in the newspaper to the box of random comic books my father brought home one day from a business trip. I love comics in all their forms and the craft of creating them has been a big influence. It was Raymond E. Feist’s “The Riftwar Saga” that got me into fantasy to begin with, so I suppose I have him to blame for all this.

Q: Your characters are especially engaging because they break many fantasy tropes, for example fantasy characters always seem to be orphaned and yet your main character not only has brothers but has also has (gasp!) living parents. Are there any other tropes you deliberately set out to break?

A: Luna was my first deliberate attempt to break a fantasy cliché. I guess Dominic could also be considered my “first deliberate attempt,” if for no other reason than I put the spotlight on the seer in a fantasy setting instead of the “farm boy turned king” or the “rugged adventuring swordsman.” I’m especially proud of Luna because she’s not a typical fantasy sorceress, in so much that she’s mysterious, confident, head-strong and smoking hot in a tiny little dress. She had low self-esteem, a deformity; she was always screwing up and cried all the time. When so many of my readers connected with her and really cheered her on through her various personal triumphs, I felt like I’d created a character that lots of people want to see more of.

Q: Your art style has very visibly developed over the course of the comic and your panel style has become much more daring. Could you take a moment to describe how Dominic Deegan has progressed artistically? Was there any aspect in particular that you set out to improve?

A: This is actually the biggest criticism I receive when people talk about my webcomic. I don’t think I’m a great artist at all, but I’m confident and happy with the style I’ve settled on to tell Dominic’s story. Since I seem to have settled in to this one particular style for so many years, some critics of mine say that my artwork has never improved and that if I were a real artist I would change styles, experiment more, and move past the manga-influenced work I’ve been using. I, for one, feel that I’ve experimented and improved not so greatly in artwork but in my panel layouts, especially when it comes to Dominic’s visions. I don’t pat myself on the back very much at all, but I’m very proud of the “vision layouts” I’ve experimented with and see those as my greatest improvement since I started doodling Dominic all those years ago.

Q: The comic originally began as short humor strips but has since evolved dramatic and deeply interwoven plotlines. How do you approach the balance of humor and drama that makes the comic so entertaining?

A: I really wish I had an insightful answer for this, but the truth is that some days I want a dramatic comic strip and other days I want to make myself chuckle. I determine when it’s time to do one over the other when I find myself saying, “you know, I haven’t written a bad pun in a few days” and vice-versa. It’s more gut feeling than anything else.

Q: How has writing the comic changed your life?

A: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire has changed my life completely. Total strangers from around the world care about the stories and characters that I write and draw. When I go to conventions some people regard me as a kind of celebrity, which is mind-blowing to say the least. I’ve met and made friends with an amazing group of talented artists that I never would have come in contact with if I wasn’t doing this webcomic. Hell, if it wasn’t for Dominic Deegan I wouldn’t have met my girlfriend! When it’s all said and done, I will look back and likely have nothing but fond memories of this time in my life.

Q: To what extent is the script pre-planned and to what extent do you make it up as you go?

A: I know where each story begins and where each story ends, and the rest I make up as I go along. Some writers need to plan out every little detail of their stories ahead of time and I give them all the credit in the world because I cannot do that. I need to keep an element of “what’s going to happen next?” for myself because it helps keeps me invested in the comic… so I can know what’s going to happen next, too.

Q: One notable aspect of your comic is that it is updated every weekday, and at one point was updated every day. How do you accomplish this?

A: I’m one of the lucky few webcomickers that does this for a living, so when I was updating seven-days-a-week it was because I literally had nothing else to do. I updated every day for years until I finally started to burn myself out, and I felt the comic was suffering because of that. Going down to “weekdaily” not only gives me my weekends back, but also my sanity.

Q: Do you have a favorite character?

A: Dominic. I’m proud of Luna’s development as a character but it’s because of Dominic that I was given the opportunity to show her off to the world. Dominic was the first character to appear in the comic and I often refer to him (jokingly) as “my son.”

Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring webcomic writers and artists?

A: The biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone who wants to do a webcomic is to just put your work out there as fast as you can. Don’t wait until your art and/or writing is “perfect.” Webcomics are essentially constant works-in-progress and webcomic readers enjoy seeing you progress before their very eyes. Nobody hits the “FIRST” button in a webcomic’s navigation bar and says, “oh, look how good that was!” when they see that first comic. Everyone, reader and creator alike, goes “GAH! I can’t believe I showed that to people!” So you really just have to bite the bullet and put your work out there whether or not you feel you’re totally ready, otherwise you’ll never have the courage to do it.

Q: Is there anything else about Dominic Deegan you’d like to talk about? Is there anything you’d like to plug?

A: Not really. I feel like I’ve talked… well, typed enough already, and I hope I’ve been entertaining enough for anyone who’s read this far. Thanks for interviewing me!

And thank you for the interview!

You can find Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire at www.dominic-deegan.com. Be sure the check out the online store while you’re there and keep an eye out for Mookie at a comic convention near you.

Inuyasha by Rumiko Takashi (Ranma ½) is the story of Kagome, a Japanese school girl who falls back in time to the Feudal Era where she and a half-demon named Inuyasha fight the evil Naraku with the help of their friends. The award-winning manga began in 1996 and enjoyed immense popularity. In 2000 it was adapted for an anime. Sadly, the series was discontinued half way through in 2004, though the manga continued and was finally completed in 2008.

But now, five years later, the anime has resumed with Inuyasha: the Final Act, which will cover the rest of manga and finally conclude this epic series. Furthermore, the episodes are being released in the US weekly on Hulu.com, only a day after the episode airs in Japan. As far as anime goes this is a revolutionary format, normally fans have to wait months if not years for their favorite anime to be released in the US.

Inuyasha was one of my favorite series of all time, so I am ecstatic that the series is finally getting a chance to reach the epic finish. The quality of the anime is excellent, as are the subtitles as far as I can tell. Check out the trailer below!

(For some reason the trailer will not embed, so check it out over at http://www.suvudu.com/2009/12/back-after-a-long-break—inuyasha-the-final-act.html)

New Releases 11/17/09

Here are some of the new book, DVD, game and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover
First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera, Book 6) by Jim Butcher
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe by Tobias S. Buckell et al.
The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-Earth’s Magical Style by Steve Walker
The Cardinal’s Blades by Pierre Pevel
Hidden Currents by Christine Feehan
Luna Park by Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj

Paperback
Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Princeps’ Fury by Jim Butcher
Beyond the Wall of Time, Book Three by Russel Kirkpatrick
Black Ships by Jo Graham
Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles by Kathryn Smith
Definitely Dead: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris
Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow
Immortalby V.K. Forrest
Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo
The Knight of the Red Beard by Andre Norton and Sasha Miller

Video Games
Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
God of War Collection
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Call of Duty: Word at War: Zombies
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
Elven Legacy: Siege

DVD Release
Stark Trek
Farscape: The Complete Series
Galaxy Quest [Blu-ray]
Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone – Movie

In Theaters
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Planet 51

Here are the book, video game, DVD and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover

• Star Trek: The Art of the Film by Mark Cotta Vaz and J. J. Abrams
• Torch of Freedom (Honorverse) by David Weber and Eric Flint
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: The Pathfinder Bestiary by Jason Bulmahn
• The Lippolik Conundrum by Kami Dee Helm
• The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume 2: Breakfast at Twilight and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick
• Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove and Sheila Williams
• The Authorized Ender Companion by Orson Scott Card and Jake Black
• Burn Me Deadly: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel by Alex Bledsoe
• Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
• Jaclyn the Ripper by Karl Alexander
• Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper
• A Young Man Without Magic by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Paperback

• The Darwinian Extension: Transition by Hylton H. Smith
• Phantom by Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace
• The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
• The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
• Blade of the Immortal: Legend of the Sword Demon by Junishi Ohsako and Hiroaki Samura
• How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce
• Son of Perdition: The Chronicles of Brothers by Wendy Alec
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2009 edited by Rich Horton
• The Casting Trilogy: Full Circle by Pamela Freeman
• An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
• The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
• Shadow Walker by Marion David Russel
• Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Video Games

• WorldShift
• Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
• Dragonology
• Final Fantasy XI: Vana’diel Collection 2010
• Star Trek: D-A-C

DVD Release

• Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut [Blu-ray]
• Naruto Shippuden – The Movie
• Dragon Ball: Season 2
• Justice League: The Complete Series
• Godzilla [Blu-ray]
• Near Dark [Blu-ray]

In Theaters

• 2012

Here are the book, video game, DVD and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover

• Death Masks: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
• The Silver Mage: Book Four of the Silver Wyrm by Katherine Kerr
• Heart’s Blood by Julliet Marillier
• Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
• Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
• Eyes like Leaves by Charles de Lint
• Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett
• Gaunt’s Ghosts: Blood Pactby Dan Abnett
• The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
• The Sisterhood of the Rose by Jim Marrs
• The Captain’s Witch by Rosemary Hawley Jarman

Paperback

• Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Code Geass Novel Stage 3 by Goro Taniguichi and Ichiro Okouchi
• Chasing Midnight by Susan Krinard
• Agents of Artifice: A Planeswalker Novel by Ari Marmell
• Corsair: Blades of the Moonsea, Book II by Richard Baker
• Crusade: Destroyermen, Book II by Taylor Anderson
• The Fall of Highwatch: Chosen of Nendawen by Mark Sehestedt
• Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Golden Tower: Book Two of The Warriors of Estavia by Fiona Patton
• Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
• The Lord-Protector’s Daughter by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
• Magic in the Shadows by Devon Monk
• Asmodeus by Dawn McClure

Video Games

• Dragon Age: Origins
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
• Zodiac Online
• Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition
• Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
• The Force Unleashed: Sith Edition

DVD Release

• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
• Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One

In Theaters Friday

• The Fourth Kind

http://www.suvudu.com/2009/10/new-releases-102709.html

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover Books

• The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
• Star Wars: The Complete Vader by Ryder Windham and Peter Vilmur
• Makers by Cory Doctorow
• By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear
• Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man by Matt Kindt
• The Rats and the Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick
• Northwest Passages by Barbara Roden
• The Devil’s Handshake by Larry Hama and Ryan Schifrin

Paperback Books

• Terminator Salvation: Cold War by Greg Cox

DVDs

• Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
• Stargate 15th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray]
• Claymore: Complete Series Box Set
In Theaters Friday

• The House of the Devil

This is not a sneak peak at the latest Hollywood disaster film. It has happened before, to a city so great and powerful that it has yet to see a rival in the West. The capital of the only nation to ever rule the entire Mediterranean Sea. This nation was the Roman Empire. A world without this empire is one that lacks Christianity, Latin languages, or even modern Europe as we know it. Without Rome there would be no English, no Protestant Reformation, no Renaissance or subsequent Enlightenment, no United States. It is a nation that hardly needs such an introduction, and there was a time when its fall was inconceivable.  And yet it happened, and the event sent shockwaves through history.

If you are well versed in Roman history, you have likely studied a period that ranges roughly 1000 years, from 500 BC to 500 AD. Many studies of the Empire will stop there, or if they continue the focus will shift eastward to the new capital of Rome, Constantinople. Either way, the narrative will usually abandon the Italian peninsula for centuries, until the rise of the Roman Catholic Papacy returns the city to the list of European powers. Yet what took place in this time would dramatically shape the city as it is seen today, and feature a landscape that would stun even the most imaginative post-Apocalyptic screenwriter.

Like Manhattan in New York City, Rome at its height had an estimated population of over a million people, in an area about the same size. This is in a time before super high-rise apartments or electricity, but the Romans did have running water, indoor plumbing, and tenement buildings that rose as high as seven stories in a time without elevators. The city bustled with the rich and the powerful. Usually they were one and the same, as wealth was a prerequisite to achieve office and to hold it, and those in office were well placed to gain it. Rome was the heart of a massive empire, the London or Washington D.C. of its day. But where would DC today be without the White House, the Congress, and the Senate? Who would live there if the fount of wealth and power diminished, or worse, disappeared? In 330 a Roman’s worst nightmare finally took place. The capital was moved from the increasingly indefensible and unsustainable city of Rome, where over 1000 years the city had begun as huts of wood and skins, huddled between the Tiber and the seven hills. The new capital also had seven hills and straddled a body of water, but in this case it was the Bosporus at the mouth of the Black Sea, and it was called Constantinople. Rome would still have her emperor, but the bulk of the empire wealth and power fled east. In one generation the city would lose 80% of its population, bled white by the loss of power and influence.

It was not just the movement of the capital that changed the city. Many know that the date of the end of the Roman Empire was 476 AD, the year that the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by barbarian Odovacar, who became the first Germanic king of Italy. Yet this was only one event in a series of humiliations that the city had seen. Already Rome had been sacked in 410 AD and would be again in 455. The world’s reaction to the event is chillingly described by St. Jerome:

“For a long time, from the Black Sea to the Julian Alps, those things which are ours have not been ours; and for thirty years, since the Danube boundary was broken, war has been waged in the very midst of the Roman Empire. Our tears are dried by old age. Except a few old men, all were born in captivity and siege, and do not desire the liberty they never knew.

Who could believe this? How could the whole tale be worthily told? How Rome has fought within her own bosom not for glory, but for preservation – nay, how she has not even fought, but with gold and all her precious things has ransomed her life…

Who could believe that Rome, built upon the conquest of the whole world, would fall to the ground? That the mother herself would become the tomb of her peoples? That all the regions of the East, of Africa and Egypt, once ruled by the queenly city, would be filled with troops of slaves and handmaidens? That to-day holy Bethlehem should shelter men and women of noble birth, who once abounded in wealth and are now beggars?”

He wrote this while far away in Bethlehem.  One can only imagine the kind of confusion and horror the Roman world felt at the news. Rumors would have flown, each traveler bringing different word. Some would say the city was gone, burned to the ground, its people killed or sold into slavery as was customary of sackings. Other would report that, no, the city was safe but stripped of its wealth. No again, as another claims the barbarians were bought off long before the city could be taken and that this rumor cannot be true. Though the empire was besieged on all sides, it must have seemed that at least Rome was impregnable. The city had not been invaded for over 700 years, and had seemed untouchable in a time where great cities were falling every year to the oncoming Germanic tribes.

The city would be sacked again in 455, and in 476 the last of a long line of puppet emperors was exiled. But the loss of its secular power and wealth would not mean safety for Rome or her inhabitants in the centuries to come. The city was still a powerful trophy, the symbol of the great Roman Empire. Throughout the 6^th c. it would be a major theater in the war between the Goths and the Byzantines, its walls hastily patched and re-patched as one side or the other took the city. By this time the only real power in the city was the Bishop of Rome, who was only one of four patriarchs that ruled the Christian Church from Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople.

Without power or populace, Rome’s grand past only put it in further danger as a focal point for aggression. So how did the city survive without being completely abandoned? Some shocking facts emerged. Unlike other cities, Rome never retreated into a smaller area but maintained walls that encompassed most of the ancient city. And yet within the entire Medieval period not a single new brick was made in the city. How was this so? It was because the city did not need fresh materials, when an entire city of abandoned buildings remained to be quarried.

It would be strange for a city to survive 1500 years in the same shape and with the same buildings, but anyone who has seen Rome knows that few of the ancient monuments remain intact around the city. Time alone is not sufficient to destroy buildings of stone; the great temples in Egypt are a testament to that. No, Rome’s destruction came from within. Its not that the marble and travertine was destroyed so much as spread very, very thin as quicklime.

Quicklime is best known for its use as mortar and plaster, it can be easily made by burning stones rich in calcium-carbonate, like marble. As much as 75% of the cities stone, including its greatest sculptures and monuments, disappeared into the limekilns to be converted into mortar and plaster. Monuments like Basilica Julia on the Sacra Via, the tomb of the Emperor Alexander Severus, half of the Coliseum, the remains of the Circus Maximus, and the basement of the tomb of Cecilia Metella. Yet in their defense, what else were the Romans to do? With barbarians literally at the gates, and easy access to blocks of building materials, it is hard to argue that survival would not have seemed more important than an ancient general’s monument to his own ego.

Yet limekilns, catastrophes, and the dominance of the Christian church in Rome had an unexpected side effect. The city began to forget itself. What ancient pagan monuments that were not converted into Christian sites lost importance to the Dark Age inhabitants. Theaters and sports arenas had ramshackle apartments built into them, or were simply dismantled to feed the kilns. The pagan held no importance to a Christian city, and by 1000 AD the amnesia was complete. The Palatine Hill, once the seat of the Emperor, the root of our word for “palace” was known as the “goat hill.” The Roman Forum, the heart of the empire, where once Cicero and Caesar had walked, was a marshy mess known as “the cow pasture”. The scattered bones of palaces meant nothing to people who were essentially farmers and villagers, but for the coincidence of living in the ruins of the capital. They regarded as a village would a nearby stone quarry – a valuable resource but not necessarily worth studying. A poem from this period beautifully expresses the loss of knowledge felt by the descendents of Rome:

“This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it
courtyard pavements were smashed; the work of giants is decaying.
Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age. The grasp of the earth possesses
the mighty builders, perished and fallen,
the hard grasp of earth, until a hundred generations
of people have departed.”

(Excerpt from “The Ruins”, by Anonymous)

It is the work of an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet gazing upon the ruins of Bath, in modern day England. He has no idea what he is looking at, and imagines it to be an ancient palace, when in truth it would have been considered a backwater bath facility to one familiar with Rome.

Fortunately, the amnesia would not last forever. Knowledge of antiquity was rediscovered with the Crusades and it would filter back, prompting a new generation of humanists to study the city and seek to understand its marvels. Its power too would return, as the Bishop of Rome would become the leader of the Western church after its break with the East. Rome would once again rise up as ruler of Europe, with bemusing sparks of continuity. For example, the Pope referred to himself by the same title the emperor claimed, Pontifex Maximus, chief priest, in a line of Roman rulers that went unbroken back to Augustus. In a way city did not die, but only sleep, perhaps dreaming somewhere in the ruins of glories past and future.

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Keep an eye out on iTunes for “Discover History”, an upcoming podcast that will delve into history’s forgotten moments and show you why they’re cool.

Works cited in this article:

• Coates-Stephens, Robert. “The Walls and Aqueducts of Rome in the Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500-1000.” The Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998): 166-78. JSTOR. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. Web. 17 Oct. 2009. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/300810>.
• Gadeyne, Jan. “The City of Rome.” Rome. Feb. 2008. Lecture.
• Levine, David A. “The Roman Limekilns of the Bamboccianti.” The Art Bulletin 70.4 (1988): 569-89. JSTOR. Web. 17 Oct. 2009. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3051103>.
• St. Jerome. “The Fall of Rome.” EyeWitness to History – history through the eyes of those who lived it. Web. 17 Oct. 2009. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/fallofrome.htm>.
• Wickham, Chris. The Inheritance of Rome. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

The excitement that attended this years Fed Ex Cup stands in sharp contrast to either of the previous years. In 2008, Vijay Singh accumulated enough points in the first two weeks of the four week pseudo-playoffs to clinch the Cup before the TOUR Championship even began. He had merely to complete four rounds upright and in conscious state of awareness to earn the top prize. In 2007 Tiger Woods was able to win the $10 million annuity (a rule since changed) while skipping one event entirely.

Since then, the rules have been adjusted for the third time in the tournament’s three-year history. This year, a reset of the points favors the top players, while still allowing for the others to gain ground over a four week series of “playoff” events where golfers are eliminated each week. Mickelson’s strong finish earned him second place in the year-long series and $3 million. Deutsche Bank Champion and newly minted “Mr. September,” Steve Stricker, finished third after coming in sixth place at East Lake. Back-to-back bogeys at 16 and 17 allowed Kenny Perry and Irishman Padraig Harrington to tie for 4th place ahead of him. Former U.S. Open Champion Jim Furyk finished fourth. O’Hair rounded out the top 5 in the FedEx Cup standings. Kenny Perry, the 49-year old who lost the Masters this year after heartbreaking bogeys on 17 and 18, started the day alone at the top of the TOUR Championship leaderboard, but a 4-over 74 took him out of contention.

If there was a big surprise, it was the Phil Mickelson’s remarkable resurgence and victory over Woods with a scintillating, bogey-free 65 to close. Every golfer has a story – glory, great victories, and heartbreaking losses – but burdened all year with family concerns that make golf seem trivial, Mickelson’s win at East Lake resonated with golf fans across the world. Shortly after the Masters, his wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer. Six weeks later, his mother also was diagnosed with the disease. This double tragedy clearly weighed on his mind in the months since: He was only competitive in one major event, the U.S. Open and skipped The Open Championship at Turnberry. His finished 73d in the PGA Championship, and in the other three FedEx Cup “playoff” events he finished 52d, 27th, and 30th.

“It means a lot to finish the year off on such a good note,” Mickelson said in an interview. “We’ve been through a lot, and I’m very proud of my wife and my mom on the fight that they’ve been through. We’re in good shape. Although day-to-day is tough, and it’s not easy for them, we’re fortunate that our long-term outlook is good.”

While this particular battle in this generation’s greatest golf rivalry went to Mickelson, the war went to Woods, at least for the 2009 season. Woods was still disappointed he didn’t win the TOUR Championship, he had his eye firmly set on winning and “let the FedEx Cup take care of itself,” he said before the final round. Even Mickelson acknowledged that Woods deserved to win the Cup because of his consistent record throughout the year. Woods won six events this season, but no majors.

The expectations placed on Woods are always incredibly, even impossibly high, yet it’s clear to see that the person with the highest expectations for Woods will always be himself. Woods’s recovery from recent knee surgery may or may not be complete, according to who you ask. But even out of top form, Woods plays a game that life-long golfers yearn for on their best days. Everyone else has to play their best just to stay even with him, if they can even do that.

“There’s a reason he’s number one in the world. He’s leaps and bounds ahead of number two,” explained prominent journalist and broadcaster Tom Auclair – who has only missed one PGA tournament in the last 12 years and is easily one of the greatest minds in golf. “He has amazing consistency after coming back from his surgery. He’s back on his game,” he said. “Golf is the hardest game in the world, you can look like a tremendous player one day and junk the next. When you can do what Tiger Woods has done, the expectations are crazy, but they’re crazy because of the standard he has set.”

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Written by Maggie MacAlpine, edited by the wonderful Jay Flemma, and also posted at

http://jayflemma.thegolfspace.com/?p=2107

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In Real Estate, It’s Not All Bad News

Grande Harbour at Grande Vista Bay—07/10/2008—Rockwood, Tennessee, July 10, 2008 – In this soft market, there are still some developers forging ahead and creating new ownership opportunities as others have decided to close up shop and wait for calmer waters. Tennessee Land & Lakes is taking a pro-active approach, announcing the Grand Opening of Grande Harbour, a new community within Grande Vista Bay, on the shores of Watts Bar Lake. During the Grand Opening, Grand Vista Bay will be offering a discount of $15,000 on all lakefront properties, and a $10,000 discount on all interior parcels, as well as no closing costs. This sales event will only be available to those who reserve an appointment in advance. There are a limited number of reservations available for both Saturday, August 2nd and Sunday, August 3rd, and they are all expected to fill up quickly. According to Gary Butler, sales consultant for Tennessee Land & Lakes and president of Professional Land Sales, LLC, “We fully anticipate selling this new community out in one weekend. I have sold property from Virginia to Florida and from NC to Colorado, and every state in between, and this is by far the most beautiful property that I’ve ever had the privilege to offer.”

Grande Vista Bay is a private, gated community within a half hour’s drive of Knoxville, with seven miles of shoreline on Watts Bar Lake, which is one of the most stable lakes in the state. Water fluctuation averages only 6 feet of elevation change per year, as compared to nearby Norris, Douglas, and Cherokee Lakes that range from 25-45 feet per year. Located on the inland waterway, Grande Vista Bay also provides boat access to the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The property is perched on 1,200 acres of rolling woodland and grassy meadows and offers various amenities. All property owners have access to boat slips, a wildlife preserve, clubhouse, and more. Club Grande, the community’s clubhouse, comes complete with a modern kitchen, large screen TV, stone patio, grills, decks, and a pool.

Tennessee Land & Lakes has been providing lakefront properties in Tennessee for nearly a decade with a strong reputation for delivering high quality lots at an exceptional value. For more information, please contact Tennessee Land & Lakes at:

Phone: 1-877-265-5253
Email: info@tnlake.net
Web: www.livegrandeharbour.com