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Karen Essex | |
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| Born | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
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| Nationality | American |
| Education | Tulane University Vanderbilt University Goddard College (MFA) |
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| karenessex | |
Karen Essex is an American historical novelist, a screenwriter, and journalist.
Essex was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a teenager, she got involved with the theatre and focused her collegiate studies on costume design and theatrical history at Tulane University. She later attended an interdisciplinary graduate program at Vanderbilt University, and in 1999, received an MFA. in Writing at Goddard College in Vermont. [1]
After college, Essex briefly modeled in Europe before returning to the U. S. where she found an entrée into the film industry as a costume designer. She moved into executive positions, becoming vice-president of a subsidiary of Blake Edwards Entertainment and senior vice-president of Force Ten Productions, a bi-coastal company that financed Broadway, Off-Broadway, and motion pictures. By the early 1990s, she had given birth to her only child and had resigned from film production to pursue a career in writing. [2]
Essex first short story, “Three Audreys,” was published in The Sun: A Magazine of Ideas. Based on that story and on her knowledge of popular music, she was hired by L. A. Style Magazine to write a lengthy profile of the band Los Lobos, which began her career as a music journalist. In 1991, she wrote a cover story for The L. A. Weekly, "In Search of Bettie Page", which kicked off the Bettie Page revival and led to a biography of the pin-up queen, Bettie Page: Life of a Pin-Up Legend, written with the reclusive Page’s cooperation. [3] In 1994, Essex moved to Nashville, where she worked as a music journalist and taught writing workshops at Vanderbilt University’s Women’s Center. She returned to Los Angeles in 2000. [4]
In 1992, while studying women’s history, Essex discovered that the historical Cleopatra had little to do with the Elizabeth Taylor creation that existed in the popular imagination. Her two-volume novel, Kleopatra and Pharaoh, published in 2001 and 2002 respectively, reimagined the queen as a shrewd ruler and diplomat. Essex also adapted the books into a screenplay for Warner Bros. [5] In 2004, while staring at the mural opposite The Last Supper in Milan, she decided to write a novel about the powerful Este sisters—both muses to Leonardo da Vinci—and their rivalry for the attentions of the Duke of Milan as well as for the artist. Leonardo's Swans was published by Doubleday in 2006 and became a bestseller both nationally and internationally. It was especially popular in Italy, where it became a runaway bestseller and won the 2007 Premio Roma for foreign fiction. Stealing Athena (Doubleday 2008) tells the story of the controversial Elgin Marbles told from the dual narratives of Mary Nisbet, wife of the Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to Constantinople, and Aspasia, mistress of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens. [6] All of her novels have received praise for her meticulous research, attention to detail, and evocation of the historical settings.[ citation needed ] No matter what the setting, Essex’s books are always about women and power. In an interview on her website about Stealing Athena, Essex said. “Although women of power and influence have always existed, history has not always recorded their contributions and achievements. It has been my ambition in each of my novels to retell the stories of strong and beguiling women who helped to change the world.”
In 2010, Essex released Dracula in Love, a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula from the viewpoint of Mina Murray. AudioFile magazine gave the audiobook recording its Earphones Award, calling the story "the real deal" and writing that narrator Bianca Amato "gives Mina a measured, deeply felt emotional depth that brings her alive and keeps listeners engaged." [7]
Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula.
A fetish model is a model who models fetish clothing or accessories that augment their body in a fetish-like manner or in fetishistic situations. Fetish models do not necessarily work exclusively in that form of modeling.
Bettie Mae Page was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up photos. She was often referred to as the "Queen of Pinups": her long jet-black hair, blue eyes, and trademark bangs have influenced artists for generations. After her death, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner called her "a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society".
Irving Klaw, self-named the "Pin-up King", was an influential American merchant of sexploitation, fetish, and Hollywood glamour pin-up photographs and films. Like his predecessor, Charles Guyette, who was also a merchant of fetish-themed photographs, Klaw was not a photographer, but a merchandiser of fetish art imagery and films. His great contribution to the world was to commission fetish art and sponsor illustrative artists, and to indirectly promote the legacy of Charles Guyette and John Willie. Irving Klaw is a central figure in what fetish art historian Richard Pérez Seves has designated as the "Bizarre Underground," the pre-1970 fetish art years.
The Notorious Bettie Page is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by Mary Harron. The screenplay by Harron and Guinevere Turner focuses on 1950s pinup and bondage model Bettie Page, portrayed by Gretchen Mol.
Linnea Eleanor "Bunny" Yeager was an American photographer and pin-up model.
Tanith Lee was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. She wrote more than 90 novels and 300 short stories, and was the winner of multiple World Fantasy Society Derleth Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. She also wrote a children's picture book, and many poems. She wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for her book Death's Master (1980).
Ahmose-Nefertari was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I became pharaoh and she may have served as his regent when he was young. Ahmose-Nefertari was deified after her death.
The Jewel of Seven Stars is a horror novel by Irish writer Bram Stoker, first published by Heinemann in 1903. The story is a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist's plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy. It explores common fin de siècle themes such as imperialism, the rise of the New Woman and feminism, and societal progress.
Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist.
Olivia De Berardinis, known professionally as Olivia, is an American artist who is famous for her paintings of women, often referred to as pinup or cheesecake art. She has been working in this genre since the mid-1970s, and became a contributor to Playboy in 1985 which ultimately led to her own monthly pinup page in the magazine.
Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, she is Mina Murray's best friend. Early in the story, Lucy gets proposed to by three suitors, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward, and Quincey Morris, on the same day. Turning the latter two down due to already being in love with Arthur, she accepts his proposal. Before getting the chance to marry, Lucy becomes Count Dracula's first English victim, and despite Seward contacting Abraham Van Helsing for help, she transforms into a vampire. Following her return as a vampire and attacks on children—dubbed the "Bloofer Lady" by them—she is eventually cornered into her crypt by Van Helsing and her suitors who destroy her, putting her soul to rest.
The World's Desire is a fantasy novel first published in 1890 and written by H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang. It was published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fortieth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in January 1972.
The Quantum Rose is a science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of Kamoj Argali and Skolian Prince Havyrl Valdoria. The book is situated within Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire series. The Quantum Rose won the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2001 Affaire de Coeur Award for Best Science Fiction. Additionally, it received the Romantic Times Reviewers choice award for best science fiction novel. The first third of the novel appeared as a three-part serialization in Analog magazine in the 1999 May, June, and July/August issues. In 2000, Tor Books published the novel in its entirety.
Kate Forsyth is an Australian author. She is best known for her historical novel Bitter Greens, which interweaves a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale with the true life story of the woman who first told the tale, the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force.
Stealing Athena is an historical novel by Karen Essex, which chronicles the journey of the controversial Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Sculptures from their home atop the Acropolis in Athens to the present location, The British Museum. The story is told in dual narratives from the points of view of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, who assisted her husband, British ambassador Lord Elgin, in removing the marbles, and Aspasia, mistress to Pericles, who witnessed the construction of the Parthenon. Published by Doubleday, June 2008.
Kleopatra and Pharaoh are a two volume novel by historical novelist Karen Essex, author of Leonardo's Swans and Stealing Athena. The books emphasize the Egyptian queen’s Greek roots as a descendant of Alexander the Great and re-imagine her as an astute ruler and diplomat.
Elizabeth Fremantle is an English novelist and teacher of Creative Writing. Her published works include Queen's Gambit (2013), The Girl in the Glass Tower (2016) and the critically acclaimed thriller The Poison Bed (2018).
Cleopatra in Space is an American animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation and animated by Titmouse, Inc., based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Mike Maihack. The showrunners for the series are Doug Langdale and Fitzy Fitzmaurice.
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