Conceptions of leadership have evolved, and Liberating Leadership Capacity captures these new ideas and provides a pathway to create sustainable systems of high leadership capacity. Available April 2016 from 
A sizzling new novel set in Taos, New Mexico. The third in the Justine Trilogy, preceded by the award-winning, The Cairo Codex and The Italian Letters. Buy it at your local independent bookstore, 
Taos
Newer Entries »The Road to Taos: Are Book Tours Worth It?
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby never made a movie entitled, The Road to Taos, although they performed admirably in Morocco, Bali, Singapore, Zanzibar, Rio, and Hong Kong. All on a back lot at Universal Studios. Not likely that they ever attempted the Road to Needles, which is where we drove this morning.
But a few words about last evening at the delightful Skylight Bookstore on Vermont Street in LA. A small crowd, so without friends and relatives, I have to wonder if it is worth it. As we drive through the desert, images of book talks float like mirages, and singular occurrences surface.
…on the Mendocino-Sonoma coast, The Cairo Codex outsells The Zealot, and every other book. Ok, loyal friends are great.
…at Book Passage in Marin, a woman from India tells me she intends to recommend The Cairo Codex to her book club on her arrival back home in India.
…at the Capitola, CA, Bookstore, a woman who lived in Cairo for four years invites us to her house to see a painting by a friend of the inside of St. Sergius Church in Old Cairo—the very church where the Codex was found!
…at Skylight books in LA, a woman from the Midwest who married an Egyptian, has a film agent son named Ramses, and asks, “Can you write a screenplay?”
If serendipity is the magic that catapults a novel onto the public stage, perhaps book talks are worth it. What do you think?
Linda
Posted in Book Tour, Education, Egypt, Family, Fiction, Taos, Travel | No Comments » | Leave a Comment
Poisoned Pen Review: The Cairo Codex
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
This well written debut novel by Professor Emeritus Lambert who once served as a State Department Envoy to Egypt is both meaningful and entertaining. Meaningful in that she walks us inside modern Cairo-it’s 2007 in the story-with its many communities in the Old and fast-growing new city, the growing factionalism affecting the secularists, moderate Muslims, the Copts, Jews, scholars, tourists, etc. Her tone is sympathetic, her view well rounded, she’s an informed tour guide. How shall I be a modern Egyptian woman, thinks Justine, conscious of her dual heritage. The backstory begins in 2CE in the family of elderly carpenter Joseph and his family who’ve been living in a cave in that part of Cairo called Babylon for several years, refugees from Israel (Palestine). The bridge is the small, battered, diary kept by Joseph’s wife and found by accident when Justine is trapped in a cave under the ancient church of St. Sergius during an earthquake and aftershock. There’s a death in the modern day as several agendas clash once the discovery of the book and its contents become known. So not Dan Brown, in fact more Bruce Feiler, part women’s fiction, part a meditation on three major religions and more (Tao figures in). The prose flows so comfortably it’s easy to gloss over the serious issues and read this for fun. Fans of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody books will lap this up, too.
-Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, Arizona
Posted in Education, Egypt, Fiction, Taos, Travel | No Comments » | Leave a Comment
Do fictional characters have to be fictional?
Monday, June 24th, 2013
Writing coaches are notorious for saying so—same with writing tutors, magazines, etc. However, many authors, such as one of my favorites, D.H. Lawrence, constructed his characters from the people he knew best—and sometimes got himself in a lot of trouble because of it.
As I ventured into research for The Justine Trilogy—in Cairo, Italy, and Taos—I met fascinating characters: an ambassador, Director of Antiquities, Minister, and a revolutionary in Cairo; a striking geneticist and novelist in Ferrara, a museum director in Fiesole, a Baroness in Tuscany; three archeologists and Pueblo Indians in New Mexico…. A Greek historian here, and Lawrence scholar there. How could I ignore such a rich mine of flamboyant characters?
What was I to do? So, I asked them if they would consent to being characters in my novels. To a person, they were delighted. (However, I will admit that I never directly asked the Supreme Director of Antiquities—but I did rename him!)
What do you think about this lovely conundrum?
Posted in Egypt, Fiction, Italy, Taos, Travel | No Comments » | Leave a Comment