The Queen’s Mistake: In the Court of Henry VIII

by Diane Haeger

Catherine Howard comes to the court of Henry VIII with the goal having fun and eventually settling down with a good husband of high social status.  Her ambitious family – specifically¸ her uncle the Duke of Norfolk – plan to elevate Catherine to the highest position in the land, the wife of Henry VIII.  There’s only a tiny snag…the King already has a Queen, the plain-faced but kind Anne of Cleves.  As Catherine happily flirts and falls in love with the handsomest courtier serving the King, Thomas Culpepper, her Howard relatives scheme to oust Anne and lead the King back to the Catholic faith with a youthful new bride.  When their plans succeed and Catherine marries the King, trouble starts almost immediately as her old friends and enemies converge on the court, demanding favors and special positions in return for their silence about Catherine’s secret dalliances in the past…

 

Catherine Howard’s been enjoying a resurgence in popularity; seems like the historical fiction/historical romance section of the bookstore is overflowing with new books about her.  Haeger’s is one of the best versions of her life that I have read.  Mostly told through the eyes of Catherine, Diane Haeger reveals a girl who is sweet and vivacious, but simply loves boys too much.  This Catherine enjoys flirting and attention, and feels no shame for it.  But she is loyal and kind, too; once married to Henry, she does her best to obey her marriage vows, which is no small feat when you’re a teenager and your husband is an obese man old enough to be your grandfather!  In this version of history, there was nothing Catherine could have done to save herself from her ultimate fate.  No matter how well behaved she was after marriage, she was condemned by her youthful indiscretions long before she ever met the King.  But even knowing that the cards are completely stacked against her, you can’t help but root for Catherine as she does her best to maneuver the web of deceit around her. 

 

 

To read more about The Queen’s Mistake, buy it or add it to your wishlist click here.

Tags: ****1/2, 16th century, 2009, catherine howard, diane haeger, england, fiction, henry viii, historical fiction, r2009, romance, royalty, tudors

Okay, so I have this problem. After getting my game to work and all that (now I don't have to use the CD to play, thankfully so it won't tear up now), I go to play the game. I get half-way into playing a household and the next thing I know, I get this pop-up saying to run Check Disc because of these two neighborhoods, previously made yet deleted from the game. I go to delete the N004 and N005 from my Sims 2 Neighborhood folder, but it won't let me delete it.

Does anyone know where the Check Disc is (I searched in the search place on my computer but didn't find it -- I might not have the right name for it -- I could start up my game and capture a picture of what it says and post a link to said picture) or know what I can do? I had problems deleting the neighborhoods before... so, I would uninstall my games and reinstall them to see if that would work but this is the first time I got the pop-up telling me to run Disc Check/Check Disc.

=/.

Tags: tech: bugs/glitches

So I seem to have a glitch. I searched for it around here and on Google but I didn't find anything exactly like mine. For some strange reason my sims just turn invisible. I can see the plumbob floating and walking around as the sim does things but I cannot click the sim itself, though I can click the thumbnail and I can still tell the sim to do things.
Changing clothes or appearance does not fix it. It seems only aging the sim up/down fixes it. But it's happened twice so I "fixed" it and came here because it was legit freaking me out. This has happened to 2 sims in my legacy and it's very recent, it never happened before gen 5.

Has this happened to anybody here before? Is my neighborhood going to explode? Do I need to make preparations and start backing up all of my legacy sims?

Also my sims keep "jumping" over and over if they aren't occupied. Like they have to do something at all times, if they just stand there doing nothing they starting jumping. If one "jumping sim" dies another one will start to do it almost as if my game is making sure two sims in that home keep having that error at all times. This error has been going on since gen 2.

Here are two logs from the jump errors of two different sims in the same home.
http://www.box.net/shared/cmmla2tfbj
http://www.box.net/shared/caq6nr4lxc

Help? D:

Tags: tech: bugs/glitches

Poppy, my lovely bun bun seems to be sick. Last night, she kept getting up to wash for like a second and then flopped back down. She was also shaking. This morning she was moving around a little more but her head feels like it's vibrating and she still doesn't look well. She's 9 years old so it could just be related to old age but any input as to what she may have would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

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• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
• If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
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Tweaks

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Give a little extra!

We're pleased to report that we've already sold over 100 virtual red ribbons in honor of National AIDS Awareness month. Remember, for each charitable vgift you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to fund the development of an HIV vaccine. Once again, we thank you for your generosity.

Celebrate with holiday vGifts!

Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.

Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!

Tags: holiday coupons, lj_photophile, ljlimericks, my guests, red ribbon vgift

writing things:

4,000 words yesterday, total, plus interview questions, and the first half of a freelance gig. Only 2700 new words written so far today. I know I'll be able to put away another thousand or so later today, but mid-day is not good crafting time for me. So I give it over to the Other Stuff that fills every life, and hope to get back to it when my creative brain wakes up again.

Understanding how my brain worked -- what the most productive writing hours were, and when I simply wasn't going to do my best work, was a major breakthrough for me. I write best from 6am to about 11am, and then again from 4pm through to about 9pm. Mid-day is good for taking care of paperwork and chores, thinking-not-writing, etc. But it can be frustrating, sitting here at 2pm, wanting to write, but knowing that odds are good I'll just get frustrated and force 500 words -- while if I wait a while longer, those 500 and more will flow.

This is why I like doing freelance editing and copywriting. It fills the space between 11am and 4 pm so nicely.



non-writing things:

For my fellow Leverage fans: http://popculturezoo.com/archives/5049 You're welcome. :-D

Tags: the writing life, this is my job, tv
I'm feeling: calm

(infrared, by Jonathan, the other morning, not long after waking)

Is there anything that'll let me change a Sim's skin tone in game? I don't even want to add a custom skin, just turn him from S2 to S3 because I made a mistake by not making him S3 to begin with.

The Sim Blender won't do it.

Tags: where can i find...?

I've decided to take a second crack at legacies, since I now have all of the EPs and SPs. =D

Once again, I'm putting the first companion to a vote. I've made it so they all are attracted to the head of the legacy, and vice-versa, but once one is chosen, I'll cheat make the attraction more specific.



( Individual profiles under the cut... )

Ever wonder what happened to Mark? Well...

• RT @KellyMeding Three Days to Dead: 4.5 stars from Romantic Times! ..."a thrilling urban fantasy full of desperate humans & menacing evil." #
• America’s Most Literate Cities, 2009 bit.ly/70A5fu (via @branflakez)--someone asked me why there were so many writers in Seattle. #
• Vampire Academy Jewelry and stuff! Order Now, unless you're a dolt. bit.ly/5p1LPB #
• I haz a tummy ache from all the CRACKer Candy. I might die now. #
• The Christmas Carols on XM, cookies are in the mixer and only one gift left to come in the mail. Looking good people! #
• When Dido is providing the holiday music, you can bet it'll be a white Christmas. Mighty white. #
• Watching Lost Season 1 for the first time. I do dig it. Just not as much as Fringe. Maybe it's the lack of the X-Files feel. #
• RT 2011. It's in Los Angeles at the Westin Bonaventure. (via @Debi_Murray) Hmm. #
• Dammit! Sugar headache. I can look forward to a few more of these this week. #

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