Kate Middleton related to author Jane Austen

(Reuters) - Prince William's bride Kate Middleton is a distant relation of British novelist Jane Austen, genealogy website Ancestry.com said on Tuesday.





Ancestry.com said that the new Duchess of Cambridge and the author of "Pride and Prejudice" are 11th cousins, six times removed due to their 15th century common ancestor Henry Percy, who was the 2nd Earl of Northumberland.

The family history research group said the connection was fitting given Austen's many female characters who fall in love with, or aspire to marry, men of higher rank.

Middleton, 29, a commoner with no aristocratic background, married Prince William -- second in line to the
British throne -- in April after a nine-year romance. She is now formally known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

"Finding this connection between the Duchess of Cambridge and Jane Austen is very exciting since, in many ways, Catherine is the modern Jane Austen heroine: a middle class girl marrying the future King of England," said Anastasia Harman, lead family historian for Ancestry.com.

"Jane Austen may have written about happily-ever-after but it seems Catherine has found a nonfiction hero to spend her life with -- far past the epilogue," Harman added.

Born in England in 1775, Jane Austen is one of the best-known novelists and social satirists in the world with works like "Sense and Sensibility", "Emma" and "Persuasion." She never married.

*I think we are related to someone.*

Self-help author convicted of negligent homicide

(AP) A self-help guru was found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide Wednesday in a case that shined a spotlight on a deadly Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that ended in chaos, with participants vomiting, shaking and being dragged outside.



Jurors reached their verdict with remarkable swiftness: They took less than 10 hours to convict James Arthur Ray following a four-month trial that included hundreds of exhibits and countless hours of testimony.

The eight men and four women were given the option of convicting Ray of manslaughter but decided on the lesser charge instead. He faces a sentence ranging from probation to nearly 12 years in prison.

Ray fought back emotion as the verdict was read. His parents and brother sat behind him, while victims' friends and family members held hands and looked on from across the courtroom.

Prosecutors asked that Ray be taken into custody immediately, but the judge denied their request.

More than 50 people participated in the October 2009 sweat lodge that was meant to be the highlight of Ray's five-day "Spiritual Warrior" seminar near Sedona.

Three people died following the sauna-like ceremony aimed at providing spiritual cleansing. Eighteen people were hospitalized, while several others were given water to cool down at the scene.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed over whether the deaths and illnesses were caused by heat or unknown toxins. Ray's attorneys have maintained they were a tragic accident. Prosecutors argued Ray recklessly caused the fatalities.

Ray used the sweat lodge as a way for participants to break through whatever was holding them back in life.
He warned participants in a recording of the event played during the trial that the sweat lodge would be "hellacious" and that participants were guaranteed to feel like they were dying but would do so only metaphorically.

"The true spiritual warrior has conquered death and therefore has no fear or enemies in this lifetime or the next, because the greatest fear you'll ever experience is the fear of what? Death," Ray said in the recording.
"You will have to get a point to where you surrender and it's OK to die."

Witnesses have described the scene following the two-hour sweat lodge ceremony as alarming and chaotic, with people vomiting and shaking violently, while others dragged "lifeless" and "barely breathing" participants outside. Volunteers performed CPR.

More than 20 people were transported to hospitals. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee died upon arrival. Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and died more than a week later.

In court Wednesday, members of Neuman's family and a friend of Brown held hands and smiled when the verdict was read.

"Justice was served in there," Neuman's ex-husband, Randy Neuman, said later.

Mika Cutler, who Brown visited in Moab, Utah, the week before the ceremony, said: "There was not a moment in my mind that I didn't think he (Ray) was responsible for this tragedy."

Ray quickly left the courtroom with his family after the hearing, saying "No, not at this time" when asked if he had any comment.

Ray's attorneys maintained the deaths were nothing but a tragic accident, and said Ray took all the necessary precautions to ensure participants' safety. They contend authorities botched the investigation and failed to consider that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths and called two witnesses to support that argument.

Prosecutors relied heavily on Ray's own words to try to convince the jury that he was responsible for the deaths. They said a reasonable person would have stopped the "abomination of a sweat lodge" when participants began exhibiting signs of distress about halfway through the ceremony.

Sweat lodges typically are used by American Indians to rid the body of toxins by pouring water over heated rocks in the structure.

Prosecutors have lined up nine witnesses to testify at a hearing next week that will determine whether any aggravating circumstances factor into Ray's sentencing. The circumstances include Ray's position of trust with the defendants, and any emotional or financial suffering by the victims' families, according to documents filed by prosecutors.

Ray became a self-help superstar by using his charismatic personality and convincing people his words would lead them to spiritual and financial wealth. He used free talks to recruit people to expensive seminars like the Sedona retreat that led to the sweat lodge tragedy. Participants paid up to $10,000 for the five-day program intended to push people beyond their physical and emotional limits.

Ray's popularity soared after appearing in the 2006 Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," and Ray promoted it on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live."

But his multimillion-dollar self-help empire was thrown into turmoil with the sweat lodge deaths. Ray ended his seminars shortly after but has continued to offer advice throughout his trial via the Internet and social networking sites.

*Look where to much ego will get you!*

Tina Fey's 'Bossypants' among Amazon.com favorites

Amazon.com's favorite books for this year so far run the gamut from Fey (FAY') to Z.

Editors for the online retailer cite Tina Fey's best-selling essay collection, "Bossypants," as one of the top 10 books for the first half of 2011.

Fey is named first — because the list is alphabetical by author. Last is "Lost in Shangri-La," Mitchell Zuckoff's account of plane crash survivors in New Guinea.

Other favorites announced Monday include Joshua Foer's memory experiment, "Moonwalking With Einstein"; Tea Obreht's debut novel, "The Tiger's Wife"; and Erik Larson's account of the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany, "In the Garden of Beasts."

Harry Potter wizard series to be sold as e-books

(AP) Harry Potter battled the forces of evil and now is set to conquer the web — coming to e-books in a groundbreaking deal that has delighted fans but alarmed the book industry that helped make creator J.K. Rowling a billionaire.



Rowling announced Thursday that her seven novels about the boy wizard will be sold for the first time as e-books, beginning in October, exclusively through a new online portal to her wizarding world called "Pottermore."

The deal brings longtime e-book refusnik Rowling into the digital fold, but comes as a bitter potion to established booksellers, who will be shut out of the latest chapter of a vastly profitable saga.

"You can't hold back progress," Rowling told reporters in London. "E-books are here and they are here to stay."

The Potter novels will be available as audiobooks and e-books in multiple languages, initially including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Prices have yet to be set. The "Pottermore" website, meanwhile, is an immersive online environment that combines elements of a role-playing game and a digital encyclopedia with social networking and an online store.

By selling directly to fans, Rowling is bypassing established online retailers like Amazon, although the creators of "Pottermore" say the books will be compatible with popular e-readers including Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader and Apple's iPad.

Tom Turcan, chief operating officer of the new venture, Pottermore Ltd., said Rowling wanted "to make the books available to everybody, not to make them available only to people who own a particular set of devices, or tethered to a particular set of platforms."

Phil Jones, deputy editor of The Bookseller, a London-based trade magazine, said cutting out retailers was a gamble — but if anyone can pull that off, it would be Rowling. The 45-year-old British author has retained the electronic publishing rights to her books, which have sold 450 million copies around the world in paper form.

"Only Rowling could do this," he said. "I don't think any other author could launch their own site and get fans to buy e-books through it. And I think she will succeed. I think she will get hordes of fans on the site and sell hundreds of thousands of e-books."

Booksellers hope the e-books will further boost sales of the printed Potter books, but have otherwise been cut out of the electronic future of the mega-successful series.

Jon Howells, spokesman for Britain's Waterstone's chain, said the Harry Potter book launches, which for years drew throngs of fans in wizard garb to midnight store openings, "have become the stuff of legend at Waterstone's and other booksellers."

"We're therefore disappointed that, having been a key factor in the growth of the Harry Potter phenomenon since the first book was published, the book trade is effectively banned from selling the long-awaited e-book editions," he said.

"Pottermore" had been the subject of intense speculation among fans since it appeared on the Internet with the words "coming soon." Rowling revealed Thursday it is a website designed to immerse users in her intricately crafted world of wizards and magic.

The site lets fans delve into Harry Potter's beloved Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They can shop for wands in Diagon Alley, travel to Hogwarts from the imaginary Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross train station and be sorted into Hogwarts school houses by the perceptive Sorting Hat.

Along the way are wand fights, games and new information about characters beloved around the world, including Harry's boorish relatives, the Dursleys.

The website also features 18,000 words of new Potter material from Rowling, who said it will have "information I have been hoarding for years" about the books' characters and settings. The level of detail is sure to please fans of Potter minutiae, who have been sharing their enthusiasm online for years.

"I go into ridiculous detail about wand woods," Rowling said.
 
"Pottermore" was trademarked in 2009 by Warner Bros., which distributes the Potter movies. But the site is a partnership with Sony Corp. and its online shop is described as "a potential outlet for Sony products."
 
Rowling spokesman Mark Hutchinson said Sony was selected as "the most appropriate partner."
 
The site goes live on July 31 — which as true fans know is Harry Potter's birthday — when 1 million registered users will be chosen through an online competition to help flesh out the Pottermore world. Visitors can register now to enter that competition.
 
The site will be open to all users from October, in languages including English, French, German and Spanish.
Initially it will follow the plotline of the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," with the six other adventures added later.
 
"(It's) a way I can be creative in a medium that didn't exist when I started the books back in 1990," Rowling told reporters. She said it was a way to incorporate the thousands of "stories, drawings, ideas, suggestions" she still receives from fans four years after the last Potter book was published.
 
Potter fans should be delighted by the new digital world, but Rowling said she wanted to keep the emphasis of the site firmly on the written word.
 
"We've had a lot of requests for online games," she said. "I wanted to pull it back to reading."
 
The seven Harry Potter novels have made Rowling one of the world's richest women, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $1 billion.
 
The last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," was published in 2007, and Rowling said she still has no plans to write an eighth. But she said Pottermore was a way to reconnect with a character and a universe she loved.
 
"It is exactly like an ex-boyfriend," Rowling said. "Finishing writing Harry — I have only ever cried in that way and that much when my mother died. I have never cried for a man the way I cried for Harry Potter."
 
There may yet be another Potter book — a long-anticipated encyclopedia. Rowling said she was still considering compiling one, with the proceeds going to charity.
 
"Will there ever be an encyclopedia?" Rowling said. "Possibly."
 
The final Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," has its world premiere in London on July 7. Hutchinson said timing of the website announcement had nothing to do with the Warner Bros. movie.

*The Diva has done it again!*

Rowling set to unveil new Harry Potter venture

(Reuters) – Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling will unveil her latest venture involving the boy wizard Thursday, ending fevered speculation among fans about what comes next.



Having announced a new website (www.pottermore.com), the British author has kept its contents a closely guarded secret, giving previews to just a handful of the biggest fan sites who have been sworn to silence.

All will be revealed Thursday, with a countdown clock linked to the website indicating that it will go live at noon London time (7 a.m. ET).

"The owls are gathering ... Find out why soon" is all the link says.

What many Potter fans would like most would be an eighth novel to follow on from the seventh and "final" installment "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" published in 2007.

But Rowling's publicist has already made clear that it would not involve a new book.

The seven-novel series has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, and, along with the blockbuster movie franchise, turned Rowling into the world's wealthiest writer.

Other options on the website include a social networking fan site, an online game or the launch of the novels as ebooks.

The announcement comes just a few weeks ahead of the theatrical release on July 15 of the eighth and final Harry Potter film which will be shown in 3D. The seven movies released so far have grossed $6.4 billion in ticket sales..


*She's at it again!*

New comic book to tell Martha Stewart's life story!

Martha Stewart's media aspirations just got bigger: Meet Martha Stewart, comic-book heroine.

The woman who created her own media empire — television, magazines and more — is getting a biographical treatment in her own comic book next month.



"Female Force: Martha Stewart," a one-shot issue from Bluewater Productions Inc. to be sold in comic book shops, bookstores and online, will focus on how Stewart rose to become of the nation's best-known purveyors of home decor, cooking and confident but practical living.

It's the latest in a line of titles from the Vancouver, Wash.-based publisher, with previous subjects in the
"Female Force" family of titles focusing on Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michelle Obama, Barbara Walters, Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher, among others.

Publisher Darren G. Davis said the comic, written by C.W. Cooke, will look at all sides of Stewart, including her rapport with fans as well as her conviction on insider trading.

"Our goal is to show the behind-the scenes machinations — many of them ignored by the mainstream media — that resulted in Martha Stewart becoming the phenomenon she is," he said.

A comic book, he said, was the perfect way to do that.

"A visual medium provides perspective that is not only accessible but more relatable to the average person without losing any of the information involved," Davis said.

Cooke said he wrote the issue because Stewart embodies the "American Dream" and "sounds like a superhero," too.

"I am writing Martha Stewart as both icon and from a perspective of someone who might see her as callous, calculating and scheming," he said.

Cooke notes that in addition to being a businesswoman, entrepreneur and famous brand name, Stewart has been a model and a small business owner.

"She's been to jail and she's come out unscathed," he said. "She sounds like a superhero, but really, Martha is an amazing human being and I hope readers love learning about her as much as I did."

DEJUNA BARNES: Avante Garde Diva!

 American write who played an important part in the development of 20th century english language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Pars after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Villge of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T.S. Elliot It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.

SEEN FROM THE "L"

SO SHE stands—nude—stretching dully
Two amber combs loll through her hair
A vague molested carpet pitches
Down the dusty length of stair.
She does not see, she does not care
It’s always there.

The frail mosaic on her window
Facing starkly toward the street
Is scribbled there by tipsy sparrows—
Etched there with their rocking feet.
Is fashioned too, by every beat
  Of shirt and sheet.

Sill her clothing is less risky
Than her body in its prime,
They are chain-stitched and so is she
Chain-stitched to her soul for time.
Ravelling grandly into vice
Dropping crooked into rhyme.
Slipping through the stitch of virtue,
       Into crime.

Though her lips are vague as fancy
In her youth—
They bloom vivid and repulsive
As the truth.
Even vases in the making
    Are uncouth.

*We love this literary diva! She was different and very much did her literary thing. Give props to the avante-garde diva her self; "Djuna Barnes!*

xoxo$^$
Literary Barbie

William Faulkner And Mina Loy's Love Child!

If William Faulkner And Mina Loy gave birth to a poem what would it be like? Do you think it would be poetic or poetically dysfunctional?



















We believe it would be both as both poets were very eclectic in nature and bithed amazing poetry by themselves.

Here's what we think their love child would be read like: Here's two poems interwined by two amazing poets with two differient styles.

Get your read on with "Sappics And Gertrude Stein"; now known as "Sappics of Gertrude Stein."

So it is: sleep comes not on my eyelids.

Nor in my eyes, with shaken hair and white

Aloof pale hands, and lips and breasts of iron,

So she beholds me.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*

And yet though sleep comes not to me, there comes

A vision from the full smooth brow of sleep,

The white Aphrodite moving unbounded

   By her own hair.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*

In the purple beaks of the doves that draw her,

Beaks straight without desire, necks bent backward

Toward Lesbos and the flying feet of Loves

   Weeping behind her.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*
She looks not back, she looks not back to where

The nine crowned muses about Apollo

Stand like nine Corinthian columns singing

   In clear evening.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*

She sees not the Lesbians kissing mouth

To mouth across lute strings, drunken with singing,

Nor the white feet of the Oceanides

   Shining and unsandalled.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*
Before her go cryings and lamentations

Of barren women, a thunder of wings,

While ghosts of outcast Lethean women, lamenting,

   Stiffen the twilight.

*Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
to extract
a radium of the word*

  











xoxo$^$
Literary Barbie

Jennifer Hudson writing book about weight loss

(Hollywood Reporter) – Add author to Jennifer Hudson's resume.

The Academy Award-winning actress and singer has inked a deal with Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group, to pen a memoir detailing her struggles with weight. The still-untitled book, due in January 2012, will also expand on how she shed 80 lbs (36 kg)



Hudson has had her share of weight issues. Dubbed "the big girl" as a contestant on season 3 of "American Idol," she transformed her body for her Oscar-winning turn as Effie in "Dreamgirls" by gaining more than 20 lbs (9 kg). She signed on as a Weight Watchers spokeswoman last year and has since gone from a size 16 to a svelte size 6.

"I'm in the best shape of my life!" she recently gushed to People. Still, she admitted, "In my head, I am still the same weight I was before, It takes a while to get used to it." But one thing is certain. Said Hudson, "This is the way I want to be and the way I want to stay!"

Hudson released her second album, "I Remember Me," in March. The set has sold 338,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

*I am so proud of Jennifer Hudson for taking care of herself. She has really stepped up to the plate and did what many Americans are sometimes afraid to do.  Now a book! How fabulous! I can't wait to read it and experience what she went through in order to find her happiness.*

xoxo$^$
Literary Barbie

SOME OF WHAT WE'RE INTO!

My team and I love to read! 

Our list of faves extends from here to China.  What we love to read is a variety of books by many different authors.

One of our classic faves is by author/poet "Mina Loy."  She wrote a book of poetry titled "Lunar Baedeker." It's and awesome read! Highly recommended.

We love our classics as well as some of today's hottest writers, like; "Relentless Aaron-which he writes in the street lit grenre; "Jodi Picoult" and of course the diva her self "Daniell Steel" as well as many others.


*As a "Literary Barbie" aka "Literary Diva of Blogtalk Radio; you have to be diverse in your literature. Being well read on numerous diverse books by different authors goes along way. Never forget that!*

 

xoxo$^$

Literary Barbie

LITERARY BARBIE! I couldn't resist!

Thanks to the article by beware of my bitchitude, it has given me a whole new name (Literary Barbie)! 

How cool is that!!

Keep with what your "literary barbie" is doing in the literary world!

xoxo$^$
Literary Barbie