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Judith P. Zinsser is our guest blogger during the week of December 10th. If you have any questions for Judith P. Zinsser, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some brief information about Emilie du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment:

Although today she is best known for her fifteen-year liaison with Voltaire, Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Châtelet (1706–1749) was more than a great man’s mistress. After marrying a marquis at the age of eighteen, she proceeded to fulfill the prescribed—and delightfully frivolous—role of a French noblewoman of her time. But she also challenged it, conducting a highly visible affair with a commoner, writing philosophical works, and translating Newton’s Principia while pregnant by a younger lover. With the sweep of Galileo’s Daughter, Emilie Du Châtelet captures the charm, glamour, and brilliance of this magnetic woman.

About Judith Zinsser

Judith P. Zinsser is co-author of the landmark two-volume history of European women, A History of Their Own, and teaches at Miami University in Ohio. A recognized expert on the Marquise Du Châtelet, she was featured in October on the PBS Nova special Einstein’s Big Idea.

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On my last day as the Ace and Roc guest blogger, I have ventured into the wild and captured…editors. In their natural habitats! At left you will see us all smiling and happily sporting our Ace and Roc t-shirts. (Ginjer wanted me to tell you that I harangued them all into wearing matching outfits today, but I think that in the interest of full disclosure I should reveal the fact that we actually all dress alike every day of the week...) Anne wasn’t here today because she apparently thinks it’s “ok” to “take a day off” during “the holiday season.” Whatever, slacker. (Waaaay below, you can see a fantastical take on what might have been—after all, we are publishers of speculative fiction!)

Aside from patiently posing for a photo of the group, many of our editors were kind enough to give us a glimpse into their working environment, and share about a special aspect of their office/cubicle that helps them keep the wheels of Ace and Roc turning smoothly…

*Although Danielle Stockley has been here only a few short months, she has already begun an ambitious project---creating a list of words only used in fantasy novels. If anyone has a word or two to add to her list, feel free! Danielle says, “This is my ongoing list of words found only in fantasy novels. You may question some of my choices, but in this case, context is key. For example, while “whelp” may appear in other books, in the fantasy novel it is applied exclusively to young apprentices, usually before they are savagely kicked (and in fantasy books, all kicks are savage.) And while there are acolytes in the real world, they are almost never servants to some dark and bloodthirsty god from beyond as they are in the world of fantasy.”