KD Rose: Author Tales: Michele Stegman fills us in on her new book "The Shrew That Tames"!

Friday, May 9, 2014

Michele Stegman fills us in on her new book "The Shrew That Tames"!

Welcome Michele Stegman!

Michele writes:

Who enjoys a challenge? I do! Writing The Shrew That Tames was a challenge for me. The challenge was to write a story based on a Shakespearian play for Breathless Press. I chose The Taming of the Shrew because I don't like the way Kate, the shrew, was treated. I don't think any woman should be treated the way poor Kate was treated, and I especially don't like it when she knuckles under at the end, practically worshipping her husband. To me, he is abusive and domineering. She should have continued to be a burr and make him realize that she is an intelligent woman who needs to be loved, understood, and treated with respect.

Oh my! Who am I to criticize The Bard of Avon? There was the challenge, indeed!

I set my twisted story in the Regency period in England, and made my shrew find a man who was not going to trample her into the dust. But to be fair, she didn't want to do any trampling, either. Sure, she was a shrew. She had cut practically every importuning bachelor in London to shreds with her tongue.

So why does she ask penniless fortune hunter, Peter Monroe, Marquis of Ashfair to marry her?

Blurb

What's an impoverished aristocrat to do when a beautiful heiress asks him to marry her?

Katherine is an heiress who uses her shrewish tongue to keep fortune hunters away. But what is it about Lord Ashfair that leaves her speechless?

Although in need of money, Peter Monroe, Marquis of Ashfair, has resolved to restore his ravaged estates on his own. How can he convince Katherine that he wants her, not her money?

Buy Links for The Shrew That Tames

The Breathless Press site: http://www.breathlesspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_free_shipping_info&cPath=17&products_id=548&zenid=4e6d9f6ce3d528292ee985817b5c447d

All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theshrewthattames-1447787-340.html

Book Strand: http://www.bookstrand.com/the-shrew-that-tames

Biography

Michele Stegman is a multi-published author of historical romances. Her seventh book, The Shrew That Tames, has just been released from Breathless Press. She wrote the book as a challenge from her publisher to write a story based on a Shakespearean play. She chose The Taming of the Shrew, and, as you can tell from her title, she really twisted that old tale into something totally new. The Shrew That Tames is set during the Regency period in England.

Another of Michele's books, Conquest of the Heart, is a Medieval historical, set during the Norman conquest of England. It was released in June from Breathless Press.

Her next offering from Breathless Press will be a short story, The Admirer.

You can find information about all Michele's books at her website, www.MicheleStegman.com. Or connect with her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/MicheleStegmanAuthor.

1 comment:

MicheleMay 9, 2014 at 10:39 AM
Thank you for hosting me today!
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KIRKUS Review of Inside Sorrow

In 11 bare-bones, free verse poems, Rose (Heavy Bags of Soul, 2012) refines a yearslong grieving process into a heartbreakingly potent distillate of sorrow.“I am at a loss,” declares Rose’s bereft narrator after her husband’s death. Ostensibly referring to her uncertainty about what to do with his belongings, the narrator is also confronting an existential fact; she has arrived at loss and seemingly has nowhere else to go. This technique—the evocation of loss on one level to imply an unspeakably more profound loss beneath—is one Rose frequently employs. She writes that “No one ever thinks of tragedy / the other way around / when nothing is left but shoes,” noticing that the “space between my fingers / is ever present. / At any moment, / small slivers,” and other fingers will never interlace with hers again. The sparseness of her verse—often a single beat or two per line—borders on gaunt and serves to codify the body’s and psyche’s inward collapses under the weight of grief, the instinctively protective drawing inward until “we are balled up in the fetal position.” She also structurally simulates the simultaneous, and paradoxical, scattering of self that accompanies a loss of this magnitude. Upon her husband’s death, she is at once “a wall” with “no door,” “the I’s that must witness” and the peripatetic who has “been bleeding out / all over the house. / I can walk / up and down the stairs / tens of times.” The difficulty of relationships—“So much compromise / when it comes to another”—urges her to acknowledge that “some part should feel like freedom / it should feel like freedom / it should,” yet what she finds is that his absence has become a violation of self: “Sorrow has left me naked / in a way I couldn’t have imagined, / leaving my life open to all. / Every nook and cranny.” The recovery of self, the poems reveal, is a long and always incomplete process. Though slightly marred by a handful of prosaic moments, the overall force of these poems is such that lines as simple as “I see a blue sky today. / It seems like a triumph” will, in context, shock readers with their cathartic power. Startlingly touching poetry; be prepared to step inside the sorrow.

Reviews of Inside Sorrow

"This book is a gift to anyone who is dealing with the grief of a loved one,
whether recent or past, and without a doubt will bring them comfort." Danielle Marie, Amazon.com

“Inside Sorrow” is a stellar little book of poems..." Erica Lovett, Goodreads

"K.D. Rose has captured the internal world of grief in a way that very few people
share - the parts that western civilization tells us to suck up and move on, as
if the death of a loved one has no bearing on who we are, that grief doesn't
change us, that life must go on at breakneck speed." K.J. Pierce, Amazon.com

5 Stars

“This book is for girls. This book is for women. This is a book to empower females from teenagers through adults.” I Am: Poetry In Motion by K.D. Rose is not what I expected; a pleasant surprise and a fresh twist on the self-help book genre. I absolutely love the pictures that accompany each poem and writings. They are not merely for you to look at. They definitely capture the vital messages that we should embrace rather than ignore. You will definitely want to look at them more consciously, and the meaning of each picture will resonate in your mind.

It touches on every subject that the female sex is familiar with: what is the perception of beauty in today’s world, limitations that society often impose on women, women’s status in politics and so much more. There is something for everyone, and everything is layered with deep yet clear words of inspiring encouragement. This book is good, not because of the above-mentioned issues we females have to face, but because it softly compels us to confront them. I gravitated to one of the poems, the melancholic and alluring Vinyl Lines – “We are vinyl lines / We have our own groove / We require diamonds / We scratch easily / We cascade melodies.”
K.D. Rose gives us a book with a compelling message that will change the way we see life. Forty-four pages of pure, poignantly beautiful, and thought-provoking empowerment. To all my fellow females, I Am: Poetry In Motion is invigorating and engaging. It is definitely for us." Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers Favorite

Heavy Bags of Soul 4 Stars

"Heavy Bags of Soul" paints a rather dour picture of the modern world. In this engaging collection of poems and prosody is chronicled the trials and pitfalls of an oppressive world that is as absurd as it is tiring. Yet despite this dim outlook on life the book does offer a sense of hope and unity that serves to offset the nihilism of the main theme. Woven throughout the collection - most notable in the author’s modernizations of the classic Socratic dialogue - this theme of unity maintains that although the road of life is an exhaustive one and that all on that road are laden with their own heavy bags, everyone is in this together and only through tackling the challenges of this world together, only through tapping the resources of the equally heavy bags of soul, will everyone can make it through. Structurally, the aforementioned Socratic dialogues are just one of a variety of literary forms through which the collection’s themes are conveyed. The genre utilized here include both metered and free verse, terse maxims, essays on pop philosophy and cultural movement, and even the occasional bon mot as a punctuation point. This mix of literary formats not only manages to show each and every topical point in a number of different lights, but also challenges the readers who must themselves view each literary format in its own light. Also challenging is the author’s trust in her readers’ intelligence. Though not outwardly acknowledged, that trust is implicit in the author’s habit of using the most diverse and arcane cultural references possible. Citing sources that extend in relevance from Greek taxonomy through quantum physics and on to Top 40 Radio, the topical references may at times have readers wishing they had Wikipedia on speed dial, but do provide for an entertaining, esoteric and intellectually stimulating read."