Women and Archeology: The Queens of Ancient Ur

The course Women and Science has two areas of emphasis. One of these focuses on the obstacles women scientists encounter due to gender dynamics, as well as the many contributions women have made despite these obstacles. The other area of emphasis examines how gendered perspectives influence the substance of science: How scientists see the world through a gendered lens, and how gender biases can influence our interpretation the data. 

Earlier in the semester, as the class was reading Londa Schiebinger's Has Feminism Changed Science?, I was reflecting on Schiebinger's discussion of how the archeological record is often subject to interpretation based on contemporary gender stereotypes.  Schiebinger's attention to this topic reminded me of the Archeology Series, a special collection of historical fiction published by Hadley Rille Books, wherein the lives of ordinary women are reconstructed based on sound archeological evidence.  I decided to contact the author of one of these novels, Shauna Roberts, and to my delight she was willing to provide a guest post that touches upon this topic.

Shauna Roberts, Ph.D., is a novelist, short-story writer, and editor in California.  She writes primarily science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. A 2009 graduate of the Clarion Writers' Workshop, she won the 2011 Speculative Literature Foundation's Older Writers Grant.  Her publications include short stories, and the historical novel Like Mayflies in a Stream, based on the "Epic of Gilgamesh". Her new fantasy novel Ice Magic, Fire Magic will be released from Hadley Rille Books in 2013. You can visit Shauna at http://shaunaroberts.blogspot.com.

As a side note, I also want to let our readers know that Hadley Rille Books will celebrate its birthday this weekend, and that ALL its electronic titles, including the Archeology Series, will be on sale for $0.99 (Kindle and Nook editions). Browse Hadley Rille's great collection of historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, for quality gifts and great holiday reading.

~*~

Did Queens Sometimes Rule Ancient Ur?

Even the greatest archaeologists can be led astray by the prejudices of their era. Sir Leonard Woolley, who with colleagues excavated the ancient city of Ur in Mesopotamia from 1922 to 1934, was ahead of his time in the carefulness of his excavations, the exactitude of his notes, and his respect for his Arab workers.

Even so, some of his practices and interpretations have not stood the test of time. His correlations of his finds with events in the Bible were often invalid. After excavating 2,000 graves at Ur, Woolley threw out almost all of the skeletons, never guessing that radiology, computed tomography (CT), DNA analysis, isotope analysis, and other technologies would one day make skeletons priceless goldmines of information. Woolley also assumed that all rulers in ancient Mesopotamia were male. Thus, when he excavated the “Royal Graveyard” at Ur, he labeled the elite men as kings and the elite women as wives or relatives of kings.

Headdress and jewelry of Queen Puabi
as reconstructed and displayed by the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Object 17711. Courtesy of the Penn Museum.
http://www.penn.museum

That interpretation was challenged in 2008 by Kathleen McCaffrey (1), then a graduate student at University of California at Berkeley. Her reanalysis of the graves and/or grave goods of three women suggests that they were ruling queens, not queen consorts.

The sixteen burials Woolley designated “royal tombs” at Ur date to 2600 to 2450 B.C.E. Each burial included one person of obviously high status: The person occupied a separate chamber within the tomb and wore jewelry of gold and precious stones. The small chamber often contained an identifying cylinder seal (which was used to “sign” legal, accounting, and other documents) and luxury goods.

The main portion of the tomb contained more luxury goods and food … as well as one or more adult bodies carefully positioned and aligned with compass points. Recent CT scans of two skulls revealed that these grave attendants were killed by blunt force trauma to the head, perhaps from being hit by a battle axe (2). This study and another recent study (3) of the alignment of bodies suggested that after death, the grave attendants were washed, dressed, and added in separate groups to the tomb.

McCaffrey noticed that in Woolley’s itemized records of the contents of tombs, the gender of the grave goods did not always match the sex of the presumably royal body. According to McCaffrey, Woolley inventoried royal graves accurately, but his interpretations were founded in stereotypes of sex and gender. In cases of sex-gender mismatch, he came up with ad hoc explanations for the mismatches, “normalized” the artifacts (for example, referring to weapons as “tools” when they accompanied an elite woman), and/or avoided talking about the mismatched grave goods.

In three cases, graves that would ordinarily have been identified as belonging to kings were not, because the elite occupants were women.

Case 1. The elite woman in tomb RT/1054 wore a dagger at her waist. Her grave goods included some male-gendered items such as a bronze axe, a whetstone, a bronze hatchet, a spare man’s gold headdress, and a king’s seal bearing the name Meskalamdug. Woolley assigned ownership of most of the male-gendered items to attendants—even though the items were made of precious imported metals, the attendants were poorly dressed, and Woolley had repeatedly asserted that attendants were buried with no grave goods of their own. Woolley concluded that the royal seal in tomb RT/1054 could not belong to its occupant because she was a woman.

Cosmetic box lid buried with Queen Puabi. The box was made
of silver. The lid is made of shell and lapis lazuli and
shows a lion eating a ram. Object B16744A.
Courtesy of the Penn Museum. http://www.penn.museum

Case 2. Queen Puabi (tomb RT/800) had a lavish burial with incredible wealth and 26 attendants. Her grave goods included gold and silver spears, axes, daggers, saws, and chisels and were nearly identical to those of a man Woolley identified as a king. However, Woolley and others assumed that Puabi was not a ruler, both because she was a woman and because her seals identified her as a nin. Archaeologists usually translate nin as “queen” in the sense of “the wife of a king.” However, the meanings of the word “nin” are far more nuanced and complex (4).

Case 3. Tomb RT/1050 was stripped by looters in ancient times. However, the robbers missed a cylinder seal. The text on the seal is in the standard format for a king’s seal: The first line of text lists the king’s name, the second line lists the city name, and the third line identifies him as lugal (king, owner, master). A rule follows, and the fourth line lists a name and identifies that person as the spouse. The seal read:

            A-u-sikil-am₆

            (of) Ur
            the lugal
            —————
            A-kalam-dug, his/her spouse

However, that’s not the translation Woolley’s linguist, Eric Burrows, published. A-u-sikil-am₆ is a female name, and A-kalam-dug is a male name. Burrows found it easier to believe that the sealmaker made three major errors in engraving the seal than that a woman could have been lugal. So he rearranged the lines and published the translation as:

            A-kalam-dug, his/her spouse

            —————
            (of) Ur
            the lugal
            A-u-sikil-am₆

We know that Burrows’ translation was rearranged because Woolley and his colleagues followed the good practice of publishing the rationales for their interpretations. As a result, scholars today can look back at their evidence, logic, and conclusions and decide for themselves whether the reasoning was sound. Unfortunately, not all current scholars follow the same good practice.

McCaffrey concluded that Meskallumdug, Puabi, and/or A-u-sikil-am₆ were ruling queens of Ur. She said, “scholars project current assumptions about gender into the past when analyzing mortuary remains…. We see the binaries of our own gender logic in the material record because deeply ingrained preconceptions prevent us from seeing anything else.”

We can look to other cities in the ancient Near East for possible supporting evidence. Archaeologists from Johns Hopkins University have discovered a possible royal cemetery at Umm el-Marra in western Mesopotamia (present-day Syria) dating to 2300 B.C.E. (5). Some of the people buried with riches and attendants are women. Their graves raise the same questions—and may have the same answers—as the graves at Ur.

Also, according to the Sumerian King List (6), a woman was lugal of the city of Kish and ruled Sumer sometime between 2500 and 2300 B.C.E. This woman, a former tavernkeeper called Kug-Bau in Sumerian-language sources and Kubaba in Akkadian-language sources, must have done a memorable job: Her son and grandson succeeded her as lugal, she was deified after her death, and shrines to worship her sprang up in Mesopotamia and later in other areas.

Kug-Bau’s example makes clear that women did rule in Mesopotamia. A fresh look at the tombs of Ur suggests Kug-bau was not the only ancient lugal.

 

References and Footnotes

(1) McCaffrey, Kathleen. “The Female Kings of Ur.” In Diane Bolger, Editor. Gender through Time in the Ancient Near East. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press, 2008, pp. 173–215.

(2) Baadsgaard, Aubrey, Janet Monge, Samantha Cox, and Richard L. Zettler. “Human Sacrifice and Intentional Corpse Preservation in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.” Antiquity 85:27–42, 2011.

(3) Vidale, Massimo. “PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur: Patterns in Death.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21: 427–451, 2011.

(4) The word “nin” was sometimes used as a title for gods, both male and female. John Alan Halloran’s Sumerian Lexicon (Los Angeles: Logogram Publishing, 2006) defines nin as queen, mistress, proprietress, lady, and lord. The etymology of nin suggests that it may have originally meant a person who is much feared or respected. Even more confusing, the cuneiform character for nin (MUNUS.TÚG) also meant eresh. Halloran defines eresh as lady, mistress, proprietress, queen, and wise one. Its etymology is complicated; it may have derived from the combination of e (speaking, prayer), ri (to throw, to cast, to expel, to beget, to inundate, and several other verbs), and isi (mountain). Scholars continue to debate both the difference between the two words and when to read MUNUS.TÚG as nin and when to read it as eresh.  University of Pennsylvania researchers currently believe that eresh is the correct reading Puabi's title.  Even though McCaffrey based her argument on reading MUNUS.TÚG as nin, I believe her general point is still valid:  We do not yet understand the full meaning of Puabi's title, so we cannot say it excludes her as ruler of Ur. 

(5) See page 3 of the project’s Website at http://neareast.jhu.edu/uem/index.html.

(6) http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr211.htm. Note that although this translation (and all others) uses “he” and “son,” the characters so translated meant “he, she, it” and “child” in the original Sumerian. Thus, Kug-Bau may not be the only woman ruler on the list.

McClintock, Maize, and Modern Genetics

At last, Thanksgiving break has arrived! I have a moment to breath, to eat lots of turkey, and to write a proper post.

The semester is fast drawing to a close. Following Thanksgiving, we have two weeks of classes left at Avila University, and then final exams. For my course Women and Science, the last two weeks will be filled with student presentations, each one devoted to a particular woman scientist.  This is one of my favorite parts of the semester, as it renews my appreciation of the many contributions of women to science throughout history. Also, I invariably learn about someone whose story I have not yet heard.

While the students are putting their final touches on their end-of-semester reports, I want to take some time on my blog to talk about Nobel prize laureate Barbara McClintock, the woman who discovered transposons, otherwise known as jumping genes.

McClintock's story is told in a couple different biographies, including A Feeling for the Organism by Evelyn Fox Keller. 

She was born in 1902 in Hartford, Connecticut, and attended Cornell University at a time when enrollment by women in U.S. universities was on the rise. (This trend was shut down during the 1950s, only to pick up again with the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s.)  Even though McClintock was not entirely unique in her desire to earn a college degree, her mother was opposed to the idea because she feared it would make her daughter unmarriageable.  (As it turned out, McClintock did not, in fact, ever marry...)

There are a lot of remarkable moments in McClintock's long and illustrious career.  One of these was the difficulty she had finding a job after earning her PhD at Cornell.  Even though she was greatly respected by leading geneticists of the time, no university seemed to have a place for her. 

McClintock did the best she could under the circumstances, accepting temporary positions until at last in 1941 (fourteen years after finishing her degree), she was offered a research position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  Cold Spring Harbor would be McClintock's home for the rest of her career, and it was here that she completed the work that earned her the Nobel Prize. 

Her study organism was maize -- another factor that set her apart, because at the time, the biology of maize was considered more relevant to agronomists than to "serious" geneticists.  McClintock, however, did not let this prejudice stop her.  Her experiments combined controlled breeding with careful documentation of the behavior of chromosomes during cell division. 

By monitoring the appearance, position, and size of dark patches on kernels of known parentage, she was able to determine that something internal to the cell was controlling the rate of mutation in maize.  This discovery ran counter to everything that was known and believed about chromosomes at the time.  Mutation was supposed to be a random event, and chromosomes were supposed to be in control of the cell, not vice-versa. 

As McClintock dug deeper into the evidence, she discovered something even more amazing:  The elements that controlled the rate of mutation were actually part of the chromosome itself.  Moreover, these elements could move!  They could physically dissociate from one part of the chromosome and insert themselves into another part.  Wherever these elements inserted themselves, the adjacent functional genes would be turned off.

In the summer of 1951, Barbara McClintock presented her conclusions -- supported by volumes of data gathered over the course of six years -- at the annual symposium at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  The response of her colleagues was, in McClintock's own words, "puzzlement, even hostility".  The academic community was unwilling to accept these astonishing results. Within a couple years McClintock, realizing she was beginning to alienate the scientific mainstream, stopped talking about her data and its paradigm-shattering implications. She turned instead to other research questions, such as the evolutionary origin of maize, to which she also made important contributions.

Almost a decade later, in 1961, Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod described the regulation of a set of genes called the lac operon in bacteria.  McClintock was quick to recognize the similarities between their discovery and hers, and published a paper in the American Naturalist comparing the lac operon to the controlling elements she had discovered in maize. 

These parallel discoveries paved the way to wider acceptance of the existence of mobile controlling elements within the genome, and as time went on it was recognized that McClintock's data and her interpretation were not abberations, but representative of a widespread and important phenomenon in genetics. In 1983, McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize for her discovery of transposons.

Barbara McClintock is an excellent example of a woman who made fundamentally important contributions to science, and who received due recognition for those contributions. Nonetheless, many scholars argue that her career was plagued by gender discrimination, noting for example the difficulty she had finding a faculty position. 

The mysterious lag time between when McClintock presented her results in 1951, and when they were finally recognized as valid more than 10 years later, is also a point of emphasis for many feminists.  Was her work ignored for so long because it threatened the dominant paradigm?  Or was it ignored because she was a woman?

McClintock's biographers tend to come down on one side or the other of this debate.  Personally, I suspect both gender discrimation and the inertia imposed by scientific paradigm were at play.   

Barbara McClintock never believed she was subject to discrimination on the basis of her gender at any point in her career.  Regarding the initial unwillingness of the scientific community to accept her findings, she wrote in 1973:

Over the years I have found that it is difficult if not impossible to bring to consciousness of another person the nature of his tacit assumptions when, by some special experiences, I have been made aware of them. This became painfully evident to me in my attempts during the 1950s to convince geneticists that the action of genes had to be and was controlled. It is now equally painful to recognize the fixity of assumptions that many persons hold on the nature of controlling elements in maize and the manners of their operation. One must await the right time for conceptual change.

From McClintock's point of view, it would not have mattered whether she was a woman or a man. At the time she presented her results, there was simply a reluctance among geneticists to accept data that undermined their basic assumptions about how DNA worked, and whether DNA could be subject to deliberate control mechanisms imposed by the cell.  It was a matter of waiting until the scientific community was ready for the next conceptual revolution. 

So she waited. Fortunately, Barbara McClintock was still around to enjoy the moment when the rest of the scientific world caught up with her.

McClintock's microscope and ears of maize on
display at the Museum of Natural History.

Guest Author: Juli D. Revezzo

Please join me in welcoming Juli D. Revezzo as a guest author.  I met Juli through the Magic Appreciation Tour.

Juli has long been in love with writing, a love built by devouring everything from the Arthurian legends, to the works of Michael Moorcock, and the classics, and has a soft spot for the classic "Goths" of the 19th century in love of which she received a Bachelor's degree in literature from the University of South Florida.  Her short fiction has been published in Dark Things II:  Cat Crimes, The Scribing Ibis, Eternal Haunted Summer, Twisted Dreams Magazine, and Luna Station Quarterly.  She also has an article and book review or two out there.  But her heart lies in storytelling.  She is a member of the Independent Author Network.  The Artist's Inheritance is her first novel.  You can visit Juli at http://julidrevezzo.com

Following Juli's post, you'll find an excerpt from her novel, so please keep reading!

~*~

The Role of Wife in Storytelling -- Rebooted

If you look at any popular television show or novel these days, the relationship between the heroine and hero always seems to be centered in the early days of their relationship, or just about the time the wife is popping out kid number three or four (or seven, or eight) while putting child number one into her prom dress and taking boy child number two to soccer practice.

In short, the wife has become a stereotype.

No matter how strong women claim they are in real life, in fiction, the strong, the fighters are relegated to the unmarried, and don’t even get me started about the women who fight with men they have their sights set on.

In the immortal words of Moon Unit Zappa, “Gag me with a spoon!”

When I look at the women who inspire me, it’s the women who can stand on their own: the Friggas and Heras, the  Paksenarrions. It’s women like Queen Mary I, Mrs. Virginia Woolf and Madame Marie Curie who I consider the strongest figures out there.

Yet, pick up any fantasy novel and you’ll meet her: The quiet mother who tends to her household while her daughters and sons run rampant. Usually, the girls get married and the boys run off to save the world. On rare occasions, the girl runs off to save the world, though somehow, always in the end, she marries and leaves the job of defending the family to her husband. There are a few exceptions to that rule that come to mind but even if children don’t factor in, the wife somehow always ends up in a passive role.

And think of the horror genre. Those women—sheesh! Either they are the scream queens, or they’re the ninnies that check out the weird noise out back, even when there’s a serial killer on the loose. And did I mention they go out unarmed? No, no, no. Come on, ladies! As modern women, aren’t we all a little smarter than that?

Why can’t a woman marry, yet still nurture her warrior roots?  Why must she simper and preen and worry only about her children? Why must she stand back and wring her hands while the men fight? After all, centuries ago, Celtic women picked up swords and fought hard against their enemies and demons for their families.

I had this question in mind when I sat down to write The Artist’s Inheritance. The theme of the story necessitated my character Caitlin facing some scary demons both from outside herself, and within herself. She didn’t simper in a corner and wait for her hubby to do the job; she didn’t go downstairs (or upstairs in her case) unarmed when it most counted. Like Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife she does what she must to nurture and defend her family.

To become the true heroine. And does she defeat those demons?

Well, I can’t tell you the whole story. You’ll have to read The Artist’s Inheritance yourself to see how it comes out. I’ll tell you what, though: it is a close call. J If you’d like to try it, The Artist’s Inheritance is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and in time for holiday gift giving, in paperback at Createspace.

Synopsis:

Trouble only a witch can solve...

Settling into their new home, changes come over Caitlin’s husband Trevor. He’s obsessed with a beautiful chair he's carving, a passion that smacks of his familial curse. Armed with little experience of the supernatural, Caitlin must proceed with caution. If she fails to break this cycle of damnation, she’ll lose forever the one thing she loves most: Trevor.

Thank you, Karin, for having me here today. One last thing before I go: Strong women rock! ;)

~*~

 

 

Excerpt from The Artist's Inheritance

 

“How much will you take for these fine drawings?”

 

The male voice drew her attention away from Trevor’s work. A short man with black hair and a lazy eye, dressed in a pinstripe suit and straw hat, crossed the gallery to pause at Trevor’s side. “They’re your work, are they not? Are they available?”

 

“Yes, they’re mine,” Trevor said. “They’re not for sale. Sorry.”

 

Caitlin eyed the older man. Who’s this fella?

 

“Don’t be absurd, Trevor.” Abby Wilkins, jumped in before Caitlin could ask.

 

Caitlin took in his fine coat, the diamond gleaming from his ring finger. More than likely, the man could pay a fortune for the pictures. Perhaps even the chair they had stashed in the attic. Maybe they’d be rid of the stupid thing yet.

 

“For you, Mr. Hofter? Of course they are.”

 

“No, I’m sorry,” Trevor said. “They’re not for sale.”

 

Abby choked and pulled Trevor aside. “Are you mad, darling? Do you know who he is?”

 

Caitlin peered over Abby’s shoulder, seeing the man in question studying a Jeffersonian era desk. Trevor grimaced. “I can’t say I do.”

 

“That’s Marvin Hofter,” Mrs. Wilkins said conspiratorially.

 

“Who’s Marvin Hofter?” Caitlin asked.

 

Abby spluttered and tugged at the collar of her linen blouse. “How can you not know him?”

 

The name meant nothing; Caitlin could only give her a blank look. “I don’t.”

 

“My dear, he’s only the editor in chief of Antiques Daily.”

 

Now Caitlin understood why Trevor’s mentor was making such a huge deal.

 

Trevor touched one of the sketches, almost, Caitlin thought, as if he would protect them. “I’m sorry, no. The pictures aren’t for sale.”

 

Hofter pursed his lips and retrieved a card case from the pocket of his silk coat. He pulled forth an embossed business card and handed it to him. “If you change your mind, don’t hesitate to call me.” The man tipped his hat and walked away.

 

Caitlin kept her gaze on him. Something about him made her want to grab Trevor and move as far away as possible. Like to Siberia.

 

* * * *

You can also visit Juli at the following links:

 

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Juli-D.-Revezzo/e/B008AHVTLO/

On Author's Den: http://www.authorsden.com/julidrevezzo

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JD-Revezzo/233193150037011

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111476709039805267272/posts

On Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5782712.Juli_D_Revezzo

On LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/profile/julidrevezzo

On Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/o1514830030

And on Twitter: http://twitter.com/julidrevezzo



EOLYN Featured in Bewitching Book Tours Magazine!

The November issue of Bewitching Book Tours Magazine includes an author interview where you can learn about my favorite character in the novel Eolyn, how the name 'Eolyn' came to be, what's in store for High Maga, and more! 

In addition to Eolyn's feature article, you'll find flash fiction, book excerpts and reviews, recipes and lots of other great articles.  The e-zine is FREE, and you can view it on-line or download your own copy below.

Enjoy!

Bewitching Book Tours November Issue

Winter Book Blast

Yes, it's that time of year again:  evenings of deep snow, hot chocolate, warm fireplaces, and great books!

To help you plan your winter escape, I'm participating in the Winter Book Blast Event, organized by author DelSheree Gladden.  From December 15th through 23rd, I'll be hosting a variety of authors representing different genres.  You'll get a chance to read a little about each book.  If your interest is piqued, click on the link below the summary to get your own copy in time for the holiday season.

Winter Book Blast Schedule:

Dec 15th:  Action/Adventure
Dec 16th:  Drama
Dec 17th:  Crime
Dec 18th:  Romance
Dec 19th:  Young Adult
Dec 20th:  Historical Fiction
Dec 21st:  Mystery/Detective
Dec 22nd: Fantasy
Dec 23rd:  YA Fantasy/Paranormal

Today's Featured Novels:


Book Blast Giveaways

As part of the Winter Book Blast, you will have the chance to win FREE books!  There will be one GRAND PRIZE featuring a book bundle for the holidays.  In addition, many individual authors will host raffles for their own books.  To enter the raffle for the grand prize, scroll down to the rafflecopter widget.  To win individual books, visit the blogs on the Linky List.

Giveaway Rules

US residents can enter giveaways for either paperbacks or ebooks.  International residents can enter ONLY for ebook giveaways.  International residents can enter the Grand Prize giveaway, but will receive only ebooks listed, or listed paperbacks will be exchanged for ebooks due to high shipping costs.

Good luck!

Enter the Giveaway for One Signed Copy of Eolyn (Hardcover Edition)

Enter the Grand Prize Giveaway for 18 Novels (Paperback and Electronic Copies)

A New Look for the Holidays

The end of Halloween has always marked the beginning of the holidays for me.  We're in the countdown now to Thanksgiving on November 22, and after that the Christmas Season will be in full swing. 

I have many reasons to celebrate this year, not the least of which is the completion of the manuscript High Maga, the companion novel to Eolyn.  High Maga is now in its final edits, being circulated for a few additional beta reads in preparation for the road to publication.  At the moment, we are looking at a release date in early 2014.  I've revamped the blog to accommodate this next stage of Eolyn's journey. I hope you like the new look, and I'm very excited about sharing this next adventure with all of you. 

This weekend is your last chance to register to win a FREE signed copy of Eolyn as part of my Bewitching Book Tour.  Visit any of the following posts and you can enter the November 6th drawing:

November 1:  Warrior Magic was first given to the mage Caedmon during the war against the Thunder People.  Read his story and more on For the Love of Film and Novels.

November 3:  Promotional Post for Eolyn on The Wormhole

November 4:  Author Interview with Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews

November 5:  For my last stop, I will talk about High Maga.  What challenges lay ahead for our favorite maga?  Who will be the new heroes and villains of her story?  Stop by and feel free to ask questions on Always a Booklover.

Or you can choose from several October guest spots listed in my previous post, A Bewitching Time for All.

 

In addition to the Bewitching Book Tour, we have a lot of exciting events coming up in November.  There will be guest posts by Claire Ashgrove, Juli Revezzo, and Shauna Roberts.  Check the side bar in coming days for the dates of their visits. 

 

There are also a few posts left for my fall series on Women and Science, including one of my favorite stories, that of Nobel Prize laureate Barbara McClintock, the woman who discovered jumping genes.

 

Also, at the end of November, Hadley Rille Books will celebrate its birthday with sales and special offers on all its titles.  Please stay tuned for more information about how you can join the fun.

 

Okay.  I won't keep you any longer, as I'm sure you are anxious to enter Eolyn's Bewitching Book Tours giveaway.  Have a great weekend, and Happy Holidays!