From the Drop of Heaven is available from Beacon Audiobooks!
I am pleased to announce From the Drop of Heavenhas been produced by Beacon Audiobooks and is now available on Audible and other streaming venues.
With an audible membership, it is only $.99. Switch between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible audiobook with Whispersync for Voice. Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $7.49 after you buy the Kindle book. You can also sign up for a free 30-day trial of Audible and listen for free.
Beacon Audiobooks, a New York City-based production company, specializes in the narration and distribution of audiobooks throughout the world. Their productions are distributed to all major retail outlets, including public libraries, universities, colleges, high schools, and more.
David Cantor nailed the audio. With the setting in Alsace-Lorraine and Francisca coming from Spain, French, German, and Spanish accents were frequent in the text and were handled very well by the narrator.
I recently was invited to talk about my book on the Sunbury Press Book Show on the #BookSpeakNetwork Podcast. I am not an accomplished public speaker, so I was very nervous. I know the reason.
As a Yinzer from the hills around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, I catch myself saying regional words that might be confusing to those who don’t live here. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.
For example: I remember when I was in grade school. The word CHIMNEY was on my third-grade spelling list. I had never heard of a chimney, though I had often heard the word CHIMLEY. LOL. So I learned the “right way” to say and spell the word.
But where did the word chimley come from, and why do they say it in my neck of the woods? There are many instances of the word coming from Scotland and Northern England, but my ancestors are from France and Germany. I’ve searched for references, but could find nothing.
Yorkshire Dictionary
Other sources of the word chimley
Here are some sources found on the Ulster-Scotts Academy website:
chimbley, chimleyn A chimney. [oed chimbley, chimley n Scottish and dialect; dost chimlay n 1540→; snd chimbley, chimley n; dare chimbley n A chiefly South, Midland]
1829 McSparran Irish Legend 294 Out of the chimley she goes like a wild goose.
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 18 chimley = a chimney.
1886 Lyttle Ballycuddy 43 They put anither big sod on the chimley so as nae licht cud get in.
1928 McKay Oul’ Town 64 His next move was to pelt stones down widow Rooney’s ‘chimbley’, an’ if he didn’t break her teapot.
1981 Pepper Ulster-English Dict 18 That’s the second time this week the chimley’s went on fire.
1939 Hall Coll Boys, you’uns [are] talkin’ about rough country, but I’m going to tell you one time the roughest country I was in. It was so steep the people had to look up the chimley to see if the cows was still in the pasture.
1969GSMNP-38:62 They had it about all finished except the chimbley.
So, you see, chimley is not a made up word spoke by unintelligent hill folk. It has a very long history and is perfectly fine to say. I try not to say it simply because it is ancient and has fallen out of favor, though one day at Carnegie Mellon University, it slipped out. Old habits die hard. I just laughed, and called myself a hick. One colleague from Italy didn’t know the word hick either. I confused him completely.
But what does this have to do with the #BookSpeakNetwork Podcast?
Juliette Godot in the Authors Guild Member Spotlight
Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world?
Writing is important to the world because it allows the writer’s experiences, ideas, and dreams to be understood and contemplated by others who would never have met that person and would never have had the chance to see the world through another’s eyes.
What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block?
My tried and tested remedy to cure writer’s block is to read something. Something as mundane as the local news or a magazine article could trigger the perfect idea. Always keep your mind open to any reading opportunity.
What is your favorite time to write?
My favorite time to write is in the evening. I got a lot of my ideas on my long commute home. As soon as I arrived, I had to quickly get them written down before I forgot them.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers?
The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received and would like to impart to others is to get beta readers that are not your friends or family. Friends and family won’t tell you the truth. They mean well and since they know you personally, they may also know the situation you are describing. You need someone completely impartial to give you honest feedback.
What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age?
What excites me most about being a writer today is that research is so much easier. We have access to most of the world’s history at our fingertips. Within a few minutes, I can search for every historical event that happened on a certain day, hundreds of years ago. As someone who was born prior to the rise of the internet, I remember having to search my family’s encyclopedias (back then, every family had a set of encyclopedias) to find information for a school paper. Now, I can find that information in an instant.
Juliette Godot’s From the Drop of Heaven is out now with Brown Posey Press.
Find out more about me and my research for the novel, From the Drop of Heaven.
On Saturday, October 15, 2022, our little town held a craft fair and business crawl where all the shops on Main Street were open. My sister and I had a table. She sold her beautiful handmade jewelry, and I held a signing event. (the first photo is me, the rest are some of my lovely customers/ booklovers.)
Signing Event Photos
Juliette Godot at signing event
Booklover at signing event
The weather was gorgeous and I signed 14 books!
Why use a Pen Name?
People have often asked me why I use a pen name and something that happened at this signing event really made me glad that I decided to use one.
At the end of the day, two ladies came to the table and I told them about my book. When I explained that it is about my great-grandmother from 12 generations ago being charged with witchcraft, one of them advised that she and her friend were witches. They cast spells and do divinations. I had never met a real witch, and I was curious. I hate to dismiss anyone because they believe differently than I do, so I spoke with them for a few more minutes before they took their leave and continued down the street. They seemed perfectly normal.
I started packing up my stuff to go home, when another older lady came by and when I began telling her about my book, a weird look came over her face, and she took a step backward. She said witches will come back to life. Unnerved more than a little, and not knowing what to do, I just smiled and told her that my ancestor was not a real witch, but was unjustly charged with witchcraft. The woman said again, louder this time, that witches come back to life before she turned and hurried away… You just never know what someone is thinking!
I turned to my sister who shrugged. The thought of the Hellequin crossed my mind, so we hastily packed up the rest of our stuff so we were sure to be safely at home before dark.
I am excited to announce that my interview with the Historical Novel Society has been posted to their website. It will appear in the next print issue of the Historical Novels Review.
The Historical Novel Society was founded in 1997 as a campaigning society to bring more publicity to the historical novel genre. It has become an international organization for both authors and readers who love Historical Fiction. Anyone can join to learn about new releases and events.
