#Elizabeth Lesser

[amandapalmer]

Sexy new author photo time! I never wear my hair down but I’m getting brave so you better believe I’m serious about getting back into being an author this year. And…while I have you here, a great excuse to talk about my upcoming book-y events. ✍️

Fate dealt me a great hand when I was working away in the Porter Square Books café a few months ago and I ran into the photographer Mark Ostow, who asked if he could take my portrait.

And boom, beautiful new author photo for me!

I am working on deals for several new books and it’s VERY EXCITING!!

And at the same time, I’ve been steeped in so many incredible and inspiring new books and made friends with so many POWERHOUSE GODDAMN WRITERS from the NY area…and hell, I have my own venue….

…so I decided to connect all the dots and I’m hosting three salon-style “in conversation” events this month at Graveside Variety, my little crowdfunded hidey-hole in Woodstock, NY.

Co-presented by our local indie The Golden Notebook Bookstore, only 50 tickets for every conversation (all tickets are $25 and help keep the venue afloat) and will include a Q&A with me and each author.

We are also curating a special book sale table for each event! There’ll be coffee and tea and tears and truth and I hope you all make the trip. This is the way I really wanna say goodbye to this iteration of this venue: with stories that don’t usually get told. With stories that matter. Come share in the moment.

I’ll be throwing down with authors:

Elizabeth Lesser (bestsellers “Broken Open” and “Cassandra Speaks: WHEN WOMEN ARE THE STORYTELLERS, THE HUMAN STORY CHANGES”)

May 12th - 12:30pm

Katherine Yeske Taylor (author of brand-new “SHE’S A BAD ASS: Women in Rock Shaping Feminism”)

May 18th - 1pm

Leslie Jamison (author of best-selling “The Recovering” and the new - incredible - “Splinters”)

June 1st @ 1pm

Get tickets FAST. Leslie’s day is nearing sold out. These are gonna be so so cosy and good. Read the books and come armed with questions !!!

All tickets here:

Gravesidevariety.com

We are at 33 Rock City Road, in Woodstock, NY

📚♥️🙏

[ophelia-network]

"How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be." ~ Elizabeth Lesser

Mercy by Chris Mars 2019

[kamala-laxman]

“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.” ― Elizabeth Lesser

[johnesimpson]

The Unlit Cavern Behind Your Eyes, the One Behind Mine

Elizabeth Lesser, Kelly Link, Chuang Tzu, and a Maxim for Nostalgists: 'The Unlit Cavern Behind Your Eyes, the One Behind Mine'

[Image: “Forever on the Outside, Looking In” by John E. Simpson. (Photo shared here under a Creative Commons License; for more information, see this page at RAMH.)] From whiskey river: The irony of hiding the dark side of our humanness is that our secret is not really a secret at all. How can it be when we’re all safeguarding the very same story? That’s why Rumi calls it an Open Secret. It’s…

[wistfulwatcher]

Criminal Minds: Evolution | 17.01 Gold Star

[fictionadventurer]

The BBC lady blowing my mind by pointing out the parallels between the endings of North and South and Jane Eyre (man brought low after losing his fortune, woman has gained wealth and comes to his rescue so they're now on equal footing).

She also pointed out that North and South is a continuation of issues Bronte explored in Shirley (to the point that Helstone is named after a character there), so I guess I may have to read that book one day.

[wonder-worker]

I don't understand why people keep quoting/referencing Lynda Pidgeon's Brought Up of Nought when they talk about Elizabeth Woodville because Pidgeon is literally almost always wrong. To give you just a few examples:

"Their [the Woodvilles'] status was not really an issue" - It was a major issue and resulted in Elizabeth having to endure a great deal of judgement and criticism across her life.

"Traditionally, English queens had been granted a dower of 10,000 marks" - Only queens after Isabelle of Valois received that amount. Elizabeth's assigned dower was on par with what earlier 14th century queens had received.

"The attacks on Elizabeth can be compared to those made on Margaret of Anjou" - The attacks against them really cannot be compared as they were different in almost every way. And to be very honest, if we absolutely have to compare them, the ones against Elizabeth were significantly worse.

"Elizabeth’s influence with Edward IV was less than with family members who were part of the king’s council or that of her son, Edward, Prince of Wales" - Firstly, we know Elizabeth had the most personal influence with Edward, to the point where even the pro-Yorkist Croyland Chronicle thought that he could be "too greatly influenced" by her. Secondly, ELIZABETH HERSELF WAS PART OF HER SON'S COUNCIL. SHE WAS ITS FIRST APPPOINTED MEMBER. And the fact of the matter is that late medieval queens weren't given these kind of formal governing roles beyond their queenship - neither Isabella of France nor Margaret of Anjou ever were, and their lack of appointment is almost never used to claim that they lacked influence compared to the men around them. So why on earth is this used against Elizabeth, the ONLY LATE MEDIEVAL QUEEN as far as I know who was actually given this kind of unconventional authority? As Pidgeon has erased Elizabeth's role entirely (assuming she was even aware of it, which I sincerely doubt), I'm not surprised she's managed to come to such a bizarre and demonstrably false conclusion about Elizabeth's influence as queen.

"Chroniclers writing shortly after Edward IV’s death suggest that the real power around the throne belonged to men such as Hastings" - The Croyland Chronicle indicated that Elizabeth had taken the king's place in listening to his council, and Mancini literally claimed that Edward V "had complete confidence in the peers of realm and the queen" to govern England for him, so I really cannot understand which chronicles Pidgeon is talking about? If men like Hastings were the ones with the "real power", why didn't they simply write to Edward V and tell him to reduce his military escort themselves? Why was Elizabeth specifically the only one who could do so, and the most Hastings et al could do was convince her? Why did forces gather Westminster "in the queen's name" after word reached London that Richard of Gloucester had seized Edward V, rather than Dorset or the other men in her family?

"[The Woodvilles] would only have expected to have a few years before the young king took control and had his own queen and supporters to provide for" - This is pure speculation and cannot be used as an analysis, let alone a defense. The idea of Edward V taking control relies on the assumption that he would have been kept out of control if the Woodville's family was in the picture, which seems unlikely. It also relies on the idea that his maternal family would not have counted among Edward's "own" supporters who he would have had to provide for, which also seems unlikely and is at odds with how contemporaries themselves perceived the situation. Finally, it relies on the assumption that Elizabeth would have stepped back once a new queen entered the scene, which is entirely unknowable - she may have done so, she may have taken opposite route (again: neither her appointment as a councilor nor her actions after Edward IV's death were conventional), or she may have taken a middle ground. We simply don't know.

Etc, etc. There is no reason why anyone should be taking Pidgeon's demonstrably faulty interpretations seriously.

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This Amber necklace is worn on Kelly Macdonald as Isabel Knollys in Elizabeth (1998) and worn on Carice van Houten as Maria Oldknow in From Time to Time (2009) and worn again many years later on Lillith Lesser as Princess Mary I Tudor in Wolf Hall The Mirror and the Light (2024)

[oceanusborealis]

Andor (Star Wars: Andor): Jedha, Kyber, Erso – TV Review

TL;DR – A bittersweet symphony of hope and coming sadness. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress. Andor Review – Well, we are here, it is the end of it all, yet we find ourselves in an interesting place. Unlike most series finales, Andor doesn’t need to stick the landing because the…

[connectionterminated13]

Fun thing about William's wife and Evan/Elizabeth's mother.... She was a little homophobic...

No one tells her that her husband is pansexual... She already has a hard enough time reconciling the fact that he definitely slept with a lot more women before her...

[kamala-laxman]

How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.” ― Elizabeth Lesser,

[banesberry-anomoly]

Meri Emily-Afton/Circus Baby Voice Claim

The voice sounds younger, and whether its through editing or not that makes it perfect for Meri

Undecided on whether the animatronic she haunts will still be called Circus Baby or if Ill change it hmmm

[wonder-worker]

"The division between the two families [the Woodvilles and the Nevilles] and their allies can be seen in the royal charters that they witnessed. Warwick, Rivers and Archbishop Neville of York, while serving as chancellor and afterwards, were fairly constant witnesses to royal charters and consequently often appeared together. This was not, however, the case for other family members and friends. From 1466 to 1469, if Scales or Woodville associates like Sir John Fogge, John Lord Audley or Humphrey Lord Stafford of Southwick witnessed royal charters, then members of the Neville group, such as John Neville, earl of Northumberland, or John Lord Wenlock would not, and vice versa. Discounting the ubiquitous Warwick, Rivers and Archbishop Neville, of the twenty-four charters issued between February 1466 and June 1469, twelve were witnessed by men associated with the Woodvilles, eight by men associated with the Nevilles and two were witnessed by no member of either group beyond the two earls at their heads and the archbishop; only two charters, both from 1466, featured associates of both families.

Such striking segregation of witnesses suggests that something more than simple convenience or availability was at play. [...] The evidence of these witness lists does show the extent of the split between the two groups from early in Edward's reign and of the need for political society to work with that cleavage in the heart of the Yorkist regime."

— Theron Westervelt, "Royal charter witness lists and the politics of the reign of Edward IV"

*This is specifically applicable for Edward IV's first reign; in contrast, the charters in his second reign displayed a great deal of aristocratic and domestic unity and cohesion.

[djkerr]

Andor 02x10 Make It Stop // Andor 02x11 Who Else Knows? // Andor 02x12 Jedha, Kyber, Erso + text posts

ANDOR | 2.10 - 2.12 + TEXT POSTS

[oceanusborealis]

Andor (Star Wars: Andor): Who Else Knows?– TV Review

TL;DR – Tension starts to ratchet up now that the Empire knows what sort of information might just have leaked ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series. Andor Review – So far, each of the mini-arcs has been almost a mini-season in its own right. This week is the first time this season that it felt like I was watching a Part 2 of 3, which…

[dreamsteddie]

Steve and Eddie childhood friends au where Eddie's mom, Elizabeth Munson, is hired on as Steve's nanny when Steve turns four.

Elizabeth may not have the best reputation in town, but she went to school with Linda Harrington before she threw her life and money away on Al. She was young and foolish and thought he loved her like she loved him. It hurt to be proven wrong, that he loved her modest saving account more than he could ever love her, but at the end of the day, he gave her Eddie, so she carries on.

Linda had known her from before she met Al. They weren't ever friends, but Elizabeth was from a nice lower middle-class family and had long black curls that the other girls could admire. Not popular by any means, but someone who could be partnered up with Queen Linda for a history project without heads turning. Linda also knew from health class that Elizabeth was good with kids, so it's not a complete surprise when she gets a call asking if she'd like to nanny her 4-year-old son, Steve, for the foreseeable future so she can return to work with her husband.

The Harrintons are a wealthy couple, for Hawkins Indiana at least. In the grand scheme of things Richard's position as one of many property realtors in a major corporation keeps them comfortably in the upper middle classes, but the dollar stretches almost twice as far in the sleepy parts of Indiana.

Still, to Elizabeth who has never known more than a modest three bedroom and little Eddie who has never lived outside the tin walls of the trailer park, the Harrington home seems like a mansion fit for a king.

Or in this case, a little prince.

Steve is a sweet little boy, if a little bratty the first few times Elizabeth has to tell him no. When she first comes to the house to be briefed on all Steve's needs and how the house runs, he clings to his mother's perfectly pressed skirts and looks up at him with big brown eyes that remind her so much of Eddie's, full of barely contained curiosity. It doesn't take long after she introduces himself to him, stooping down to say hi and shake his little hand, for him to lose all that shyness and start, trying, to ask her questions. He's not at a place where he can use full sentences, but he makes do with pointing and the words he does have.

It's easy to see that Linda doesn't know how to interact with Steve, telling him more than once to let the grownups talk and to stop holding her skirt. Elizabeth doesn't say anything though, it's not her place and she could really use the job. Edde is sprouting up like a weed, and her previous income from the diner wasn't enough to get him all the things he needed. The Harringtons, for all their faults, are offering her more than a fair salary to look after their son.

The next week, she brings her and Eddie bright and early to make sure they get there just as the Harringtons head off to work. Elizabeth knows Richard wasn't keen on Eddie coming with her, probably not wanting his son to associate with a child he sees as lesser, but Elizabeth quickly realized that matters of the home like childcare were left to Linda's discretion, and she hadn't seen a problem with it.

Steve is waiting for his mother on the front porch, clutching her hand as hard as he can. When Linda pries his hand away he starts to snivel and cry, but to Elizaeth's surprise, he doesn't start to wail and scream. The first time she had to leave for work Eddie just about had a complete meltdown, not understanding where his mom was going or why he had to stay with his Uncle Wayne. Steve stays quiet, muffing his cries in a way that tugs at her heartstrings.

She takes his hand and guides him inside, holding back from scooping him up in her arms like she would Eddie to sing him a song and dry his tears. Something tells him the Harringtons wouldn't appreciate that.

So he waits, watches their car depart from the open doorway, and once she's sure they're completely out of sight she swoops down to hold him in her arms. The act opens the floodgates. Steve starts really crying and wailing into her arms, asking for his mama and clutching hard at the sleeves of Elizabeth's blouse.

That's when Eddie steps in, placing his hand on Steve's shirt and rubbing clumsy circles on the younger boy's shoulder. Eddie's not five quite yet, has about four more moths to go, but he's talking much more than Steve is and seems to relish in the use of his voice. Right now he's using it to soothe Steve, telling him it's going to be ok and his mama will come back and that they can share his mama until she does.

Then he does the damnedest thing.

He starts singing.

It's the same thing she's always done for him. Every time Al comes home and leaves again, when he falls off the jungle gym at the park, when one of the kids in town points out that his shoes have holes in them and that he must be poor. She holds him close, rubs his tiny shoulder, and sings her favorite Patsy Cline song into his ear.

The three of them stay in the Harrington's entryway for as long as it takes for Steve's tears to dry out, starting this new phase of their lives to the tune of Sweet Dreams.