--- title: Author Crystal King's Blog - Tasting Life Twice | Publishing description: Publishing | Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food. --- # Tasting Life Twice Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food. Browse by All Blog Books italy ancient rome Italian History Recipe Writing When in Rome food Feast of Sorrow fun historical fiction Bartolomeo Scappi Viva Italia! The Chef's Secret reading history Apicius Italian Language Renaissance 52 books Boston Cinquecento Publishing italian recipes grub street renaissance recipe roman video Ancient Roman Food Colosseum Culinary Delights books set in italy renaissance italy Ancient history YouTube authors cooking fiction music 52 books in a year Author Book Christmas Language Learning Maine Poetry Pope Roman Forum Scappi The Renaissance Venice Writer Writers Resources fantasy learning Italian travel writers Anne Rice Art Book Clubs Christmas carol Christopher Castellani Circus Maximus Florence Gillian Flynn Greek Harry Potter Honey Italiano Italo Calvino Latin Literary agent Marcus Aurelius Marcus Gavius Apicius Muse and the Marketplace Pantheon Papal conclave Pope Benedict XVI Research Roman Empire Sardinia Sistine Chapel Turkey Ursula K- Le Guin Vestal Virgin Wine ancient recipes architecture baking beauty blogging book recommendation book review christmas gift cibo cookies crystal king gelato giveaway holiday ice cream interview italian cooking literary literature middle ages new year's resolution rejection renaissance Italian food recipe roma rome sci-fi shopping social media special event summer television xmas 100 favorite books 1950s 1960s 1970s 2016 2017 320 AD 3D Achilles Aelia Agostino Chigi Alice Alina Reyes All This Talk of Love Amanda Palmer Amaryah Orenstein Anais Nin Ancient Greece Ancient Roman architecture Andrea Bocelli Anita Shreve Anjali Mitter Duva Anne Carson Anne Rampling Antonio Latini Arch of Constantine Arts Artusi Astrology Augustus Author Life BBC BDSM Baldassare Peruzzi Baroque Bell-ringer Bells Benvenuto Cellini Black tea BlogHer Bloggers Bologna Boodles Byki Cake Catholic Church Cellini Charles Dicken Chuck Palahniuk Clark Frasier Colleen McCullough Cologne Colum McCann Concord Cook Cookbook Corsica Cosimo de Medici Critical & Creative Thinking Dante Dante Alighieri David Bowie David Wishart De Re Coquinaria Doge's Palace Dormouse Durham Cathedral E-L- James Earth Egypt Eleonora Galasso Emily Browning England English language Ernest Hemingway Erotic literature Etsy Faint Promise of Rain Fifty Shades of Grey Fight Club Flamingo tongue snail Forum Forvo France Francesa Michielin GO Literary George Orwell Germany Gone Girl Gone Girl (novel) Google Translate Got Milk Grasso Grub Grub Street Muse Gunter Grass Hairstyle Harvard Harvard University Henry David Thoreau Henry VII of England Hunger Games Independence Day International Space Station Isabella Dalla Ragione Italian American Italian food J-R-R- Tolkien James Wood Jane Austen Janet Fitch Julius III July Justin Rowe Karl Lagerfeld Katie Caldesi Kennebunkport Maine Kessler Twins Keurig Kindle Deal Kit Harington Kurt Vonnegut L'Amore Esiste La Cucina Leicester Leonardo Da Vinci Linguistics Livia Lucca ## Posts about Publishing: ![FEAST OF SORROW is 1 Week Old!](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Bookshelf.jpeg) [Books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/books) [Learning](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/learning) [Feast of Sorrow](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/feast-of-sorrow) [friends](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/friends) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) I began writing FEAST OF SORROW in 2007.  I had about five or six chapters when I joined [Lisa Border](http://www.lisaborders.com/)'s [Grub Street](https://grubstreet.org/) summer Novel in Progress class and began workshopping it. In it I met one of my writing partners, [Anjali Mitter Duva](http://anjalimitterduva.com/). When I took the fall class, I met another writing partner, [Jennifer Dupee](http://blog.jenniferdupee.com/). I was off and running.  ![Out With the Old, In With the New](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/img-23.jpg) [Books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/books) [2016](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/2016) [2017](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/2017) [Feast of Sorrow](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/feast-of-sorrow) [fun](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/fun) [new year](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/new-year) [new year's resolution](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/new-years-resolution) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) Another year nearly gone by. A time for reflection and a time for resolutions. The end of this year feels fraught with anxiety for me, for a variety of reasons. I know I'm not alone in this regard. There seems to be a collective UGH that the people around me are saying. 2016 can't go away fast enough, for me, and for [many others](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ6WPo-oW5Q) out there.  ![Touchstone Books is Publishing FEAST OF SORROW](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/img-56.jpg) [Writing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing) [Books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/books) [Apicius](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/apicius) [Blog](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/blog) [Feast of Sorrow](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/feast-of-sorrow) [historical fiction](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/historical-fiction) [Marcus Gavius Apicius](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/marcus-gavius-apicius) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) [simon and schuster](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/simon-and-schuster) [touchstone books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/touchstone-books) ![I Have an Agent! Signing with GO Literary](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Go.jpg) [Amaryah Orenstein](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/amaryah-orenstein) [Author](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/author) [Literary agent](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/literary-agent) [Blog](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/blog) [Book](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/book) [Feast of Sorrow](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/feast-of-sorrow) [GO Literary](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/go-literary) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) ![On Writing: The Power of Rejection](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/regret.jpg) [Writing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing) [Literary agent](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/literary-agent) [agent](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/agent) [Blog](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/blog) [Colleen McCullough](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/colleen-mccullough) [David Wishart](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/david-wishart) [editor](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/editor) [Marcus Gavius Apicius](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/marcus-gavius-apicius) [Michael Curtis Ford](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/michael-curtis-ford) [Petronius](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/petronius) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) [query](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/query) [rejection](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/rejection) [rewrite](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/rewrite) [Satyricon](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/satyricon) [Ursula K- Le Guin](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ursula-k-le-guin) [writer's rejection](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writers-rejection) As you may know from either reading my blog, following me on social or being one of my friends and acquaintances, I'm currently seeking representation for my novel, FEAST OF SORROW. The novel, set in ancient Rome, is about [Marcus Gavius Apicius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Gavius_Apicius) (hear the [pronunciation here](http://www.forvo.com/word/apicius/)) , the man with his name on the oldest known cookbook. The story, told through the eyes of the cook that makes him famous, is a turbulent and tragic story of a family in peril as a result of Apicius' ever-growing ego. It's a story full of luxurious food, drama, violence and political intrigue. The novel is historical fiction, but because of the time period in which it is set, it's essentially [genre fiction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction), that of ancient Rome. Many of the novels set in ancient Rome tend to be mysteries, which my book is not.  [Lindsey Davis](http://amzn.to/13JR6ud), [Steven Saylor](http://amzn.to/Zk152b), [David Wishart](http://amzn.to/12yhyHy) and [Robert Harris](http://amzn.to/Zk1qSu) (all fantastic authors!) come to mind.  Other books in the genre tend to be very heavy on the war and/or politics, including a few stand alone novels by some of the previously named authors, but also by others such as [Colleen McCullough](http://amzn.to/XZ6ETG), [Michael Curtis Ford](http://amzn.to/Z3E9Wi), or [Allan Massie](http://amzn.to/Zvdwtc). ![Creativity Begets Creativity: The Writing Group](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/nautchphoto1.jpg) [Writing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing) [Writer](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writer) [Writer Resources](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writer-resources) [Writing circle](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing-circle) [Blog](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/blog) [Boston](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/boston) [grub street](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/grub-street) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) [Ursula K- Le Guin](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/ursula-k-le-guin) [writing group](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing-group) For the last four (nearly five?) years or so I've been meeting with my writing group, not quite like clockwork, but about every two weeks. The three of us have hacked and slashed and encouraged each other's novels from start to finish, and gone through query letters, agent pitches and publishing challenges during that time. And of course, best of all, we have become close and dear friends as part of the process, bolstering spirits as we deal with family, illness, relationships, weddings, work woes and the ilk. I will know [Anjali](http://www.anjalimitterduva.com) and Jen until I'm quite old and wizened, I am convinced. Awhile back I thought I read that [Ursula K. LeGuin](http://www.ursulakleguin.com) has been in a writing group for many many years (if I'm remembering right she talks about this in [Steering the Craft](http://amzn.to/OXlND9)). At the time I remembering thinking, wow, someone as accomplished as she is still meets with others to go over her work?! I was impressed, but at the time, I didn't really understand the power of having ongoing encouragement that comes from being part of a small group that truly cares about your work. It's invaluable. Because of my writing group I don't get lazy. I moved immediately from finished to researching my next book. I feel compelled to move on the next chapter. I get excited to turn in work for feedback. I get lost in the worlds of their books. In short, because of this group I am on the continuous hamster wheel of writing creativity and as those of you know, if you fall off, it's a massive PITA to jump back on. ![Fifty Shades of Green](https://blog.crystalking.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/2117447039_6e48f8c70f_z.jpg) [Writing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/writing) [Books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/books) [Alina Reyes](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/alina-reyes) [Anne Rice](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/anne-rice) [sex](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/sex) [Anais Nin](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/anais-nin) [Anne Rampling](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/anne-rampling) [BDSM](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/bdsm) [Blog](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/blog) [bondage](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/bondage) [Book](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/book) [e-books](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/e-books) [E-L- James](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/e-l-james) [Erotic literature](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/erotic-literature) [erotica](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/erotica) [Fifty Shades of Grey](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/fifty-shades-of-grey) [Pauline Reage](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/pauline-reage) [Publishing](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/publishing) [Twilight](https://blog.crystalking.com/tag/twilight) One of my fave blogs, [Jezebel](http://www.jezebel.org), recently reported on a [CelebrityNetWorth article](http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/fifty-shades-grey-author-making-1-million-week/) about the [*Fifty Shades of Grey*](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034580404X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=clk140c-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=034580404X) author, E.L. James,  making one million dollars a week.  Yes, that's right -- **A WEEK**. For poorly written [Twilight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_%28novel%29) fan-fiction turned [BDSM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM) erotica. ![](https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1481231558851356&ev=PageView&noscript=1)