The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hello everyone,

My name is Kate Quinn, and my first novel is due to come out April 2010. (Pause while I jump up and down in excitement - the fact that I am a published author is still both thrilling and deeply startling.) My book is titled "Mistress of Rome" and centers around the reign of Emperor Domitian in first-century Rome.

I'm a Luddite who has never written a blog or joined a chatroom in my life, but my agent turned me onto Goodreads and I was pleasantly surprised to find so many literate and intelligent people writing so passionately about books. A book club where I don't have to bring a casserole? Sign me up.

I'm twenty-seven, I live in San Diego, Bernard Cornwell and Judith Merkle Riley are my heroes, and I look forward to chatting with you all.

Congrats on being published, and welcome to GoodReads!

I have a ton of Judith Merkle Riley sitting around I need to get to reading...I saw you posted about her books in another thread and it got me excited to push them up on my TBR list. :)

Allison wrote: "Congrats on being published, and welcome to GoodReads!

I have a ton of Judith Merkle Riley sitting around I need to get to reading...I saw you posted about her books in another thread and it go..."

Thanks for all the welcomes! My favorite book of JMR's is the Oracle Glass, but they all have her trademark: vivid settings and lots of humor, which is rare. When did historical fiction get so serious?

Hi Kate! Welcome and congratulations on your book. and seeing that I live in Rome, I guess I will have to put it on my TBR.

How did you come to choose Rome as your first subject?

Hayes wrote: "Hi Kate! Welcome and congratulations on your book. and seeing that I live in Rome, I guess I will have to put it on my TBR.

How did you come to choose that as your first subject?
"

I love ancient Rome - my mother was a classics major, so I got stories about Julius Caesar and Augustus when I was a kid instead of fairy tales. I picked Domitian as a subject because he's more obscure than some of the other despotic Emperors like Caligula or Nero - but still a very interesting man. He held mass treason executions, held all-black dinner parties, stabbed flies out of the air on the point of his pen, was loved by his soldiers, was one of the few wholly heterosexual Emperors, and wrote a book on hair care. Lots of material there for a novel!

Hi Kate -

Congratulations, it will be fun to hear what you like to read.

I've already enjoyed the Didius Falco mysteries set in ancient Rome by Lindsey Davis, the bent of humor in them most of all, so yours definitely sounds intriguing.

Welcome Kate! And hearty congratulations for your book!

Welcome Kate, thanks for joining our big family and congrats on your newly published novel! I want to thank you for posting a newbie thread rather than push your book at us, its so refreshing to have authors here who are interested in getting to know us!

You will love it here!

Lori wrote: "Welcome Kate, thanks for joining our big family and congrats on your newly published novel! I want to thank you for posting a newbie thread rather than push your book at us, its so refreshing to ha..."

I can already tell!

Hi Kate...welcome and yay you're from San Diego (me too, but I moved a year ago to be closer to my mom, but there's no way the San Diego can get taken out of me

Kate, I just read your short story. Very interesting :)

You are quite the creative one!

Hey Kate... we have a lot in common! My name is Kate (well, Kathryn but people call me Kate) and I live in San Diego. Welcome to TNBBC. I will have to look into your novel. That must be so exciting for you!

Lori, thanks for reading. I wrote that story some years ago, but I think it's one of my better ones. I'll post a few more in the days to come. I haven't read I, Lucifer, but I read a Piers Anthony book in middle school (can't remember the name) that was written from the Devil's point of view. He seemed like such a pleasant fellow; that may have given me the idea for the story in the first place. I can't wait to browse the archives and see what other people have written! Have you posted anything?

Kate, posted anything as in writing? No.... Im not much of a writer, hee hee. But as far as the threads here, I participate in a whole slew of 'em!

Kate wrote: "Lots of material there for a novel!"

I'll say!! Well, I'll keep an eye out for it, and you keep us posted!

Kate..welcome and congrats! That must be so exciting for you, and I will keep my eyes open for your book!

Hi Kate. Congratulations on your book. I'll watch for it.

Hi Kate,

Welcome to the group...and congratulations on your book. :~)

Hi Kate! Welcome to the group!

A fellow San Diegan!!!

Huge Congrats on getting your book published? Do you belong to the San Diego Writer's group. I do but I just don't seem to get down there very often.

Are you planning any signings around town?

I'm not in the San Diego writer's group - just looking around at various groups so far, since I just joined Goodreads. No signings planned yet either (fingers crossed!)

Wow, thanks for the welcomes, everybody. I can tell I'm going to like it here.