Thanks for the Greatest Gift of All: Your Generous Support

Dear Peeps!

A simple “thanks” fails to scratch the surface, though I don't know what else to say. It’s been quite a ride these past few years, but Beware Madame la Guillotine is finally published and in the App Store!

Click here if you haven't seen it yet.

If it weren’t for you, Richard H, I might not even be in this place today.

I definitely wouldn’t be here without the help of Jim and Beth and Isabelle and Rachel. There will never be "thanks" enough for them, nor for my writer friends Tioka, Anne N, Michele H, Emma, Whitney, Orel, Dhonielle, and everyone else who read early drafts of Charlotte's story and coached me in honing it along the way.

I would be nowhere without the time, advice, loving patience and/or financial support of Lily and Kati, Bill and Steph, Ned, Charlie, Carey and Carrie, and all the many pilot testers (you know who you are!) of the print, live and app iterations. Thanks to all of you for helping steer me in the right direction.

And I could never have gotten this far without the professional expertise of my partners at SmartyShortz, namelos, Raab Associations and Hen & Ink Literary, nor without my Paris blogging community, Hen & Ink Coop and Moms With Apps friends who have contributed (and still plan to contribute) to the Beware Madame La Guillotine Blog Tour.

Creation doesn't happen in a vaccuum!

But what kept me going, what really kept me going, throughout the long process, with all its ups and downs, was the support and encouragement from all of the interested and interesting people, like you, many of whom I barely know -- if I know at all -- or at least don’t know in person, who stopped by here or on twitter or Facebook to say "cool project!".

I hereby raise a glass to all of you who believed (and continue to believe) and who encouraged (and continue to encourage) through your comments and good vibes and actions. Please don't stop!

Check out what we’ve accomplished so far:

School Library Journal's, Daryl Garbarek, Editor of Touch and Go: Guide to the Best Apps for Children and Teens, gives Beware Madame la Guillotine a rave review, asking: Drama of historical proportions, an awesome guide, and games and challenges, what more could a teen on vacation ask for?

Kirkus Reviews: The World's Toughest Book Critic recommends Beware Madame la Guillotine, calling it satisfying for both historian and eager tourist.

Moms With Apps describes Beware Madame la Guillotine as travel guide + history lesson + unforgettable protagonist + mobile platform = a whole new way to access travel information.

Al Vuona, host of The Public Eye, WICN, Worcester, MA, identifies Beware Madame la Guillotine as a marvelous new way to travel with vast potential and far-reaching implications.

Just today I received word that I'll be interviewed by Jordan Rich of WBZ-AM's The Jordan Rich Show on Sept 7. So stay tuned for that! 

So whether you've...

• contributed to the inspiration and/or production of Charlotte's app or
• downloaded her app or
• Liked the TTT on Facebook or 
• followed us on Twitter or
• reviewed the app in the App Store (please do, please do!) or
• connected with me, blog to blog or
• supported the Kickstarter Campaign to help create BMLG V2:

...or some or all of the above:

Thank You for your generous support and for helping me to ensure that Beware Mme la Guillotine and Time Traveler Tours are a smashing success...for all.

It wouldn't be an adventure without such wonderful company!

Sarah



And now, to conclude Charlotte's story...

Proud Participant of App Friday @MomsWithApps

Time Traveler Tours joins Star Walk, iReward and ESL Dictionary for a 1-day 80% off back-2-school promotional... today!

If you haven't downloaded Beware Madame la Guillotine yet, now's the perfect time!

Read more about these and other great apps for kids and families at Moms With Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families.

Kirkus Reviews Beware Madame la Guillotine

And it's a good review too!

The City of Lights was once made bright by the flash of a revolution’s guillotine, and this app provides a glimpse into one of Paris' pivotal backstories...

Read the complete Kirkuskidsapps review of Beware Madame la Guillotine here...

Travel Guides, Revolutionized

What do you get when you cross The Magic Tree House series with the Lonely Planet tour guide?

You get Time Traveler Tours interactive StoryApp itineraries, an idea whose time has come thanks to the digital revolution.

 - Sarah Towle

Moms With Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families, features Beware Mme la Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris.

Read Sarah's guest post here!

Stop by MomsWithApps on Friday, August 19th, for their App Friday promotional. Get Beware Mme la Guillotine 80% off!

In Paris with a Murderess

Daryl Grabarek, Editor of Touch & Go, Guide to the Best Apps for Children and Teens, posts a rave review of Beware Mme la Guillotine: A Revolutionary Tour of Paris.

Read It Here!

"Touch and Go, a guide to the best apps and enhanced books for children and teens, is a blog powered by School Library Journal. Reviews, commentary, news, and interviews with movers and shakers in the dynamic world of digital publishing will be posted on the blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Touch and Go reviews will be also archived in SLJ's review database."

Sarah Towle Talks to Guide2Paris about Life in Paris

Guide2Paris is a brand new, just launched online resource dedicated to the Anglophone community visiting Paris, living in Paris and thinking of living in Paris.

Check it out here!

The Story Continues: Chapter 20 - My Capture

Chapter Twenty...

In which Charlotte is bound, captured and taken to prison.

As Simone and others rushed to Marat, I escaped into an antechamber. But I was immediately apprehended, my ears deafened by the wails of “Help!” and “Assassin!”  Someone hit me with a chair. I fell to the floor. Someone else tied my wrists together with a rough rope. It hurt terribly, but I didn’t resist. I knew all along that it would come to this; I knew that killing Marat was as good as committing suicide.

I was questioned for hours, always the same demand. My interrogators wanted to know who was behind my act; who were my collaborators. Over and over I told them it was my idea; that I acted alone. 

It wasn’t until midnight that was I placed in a coach and taken to the nearest prison. Though located close to Marat’s apartments, it took two hours to reach it, for a huge crowd had gathered wishing to see the murderess of Jean-Paul Marat. They menaced the horse and carriage, hurling death threats through distorted faces. I was frightened; I thought the people might tear me to pieces. This was not what I had expected. I thought they would rejoice. I thought they would carry me through the streets on their shoulders. Instead, they called me an “Enemy of the Revolution”.

Yesterday, I was transferred to the Conciergerie, the Revolutionary Prison, where most people these days leave by tumbrel - an open wooden cart used to ferry the condemned to their beheading at the Place de la Revolution.  For this reason the Conciergerie is known today as, “the antechamber to the guillotine.”

I beg you to come visit me at the Conciergerie Prison, to bear witness to the conditions of my incarceration. But, please, we’ve come a long way. You must first take a rest and a bit of nourishment at another hotbed of the Revolution: Le Café Procope.

Next...

Charlotte is tried and convicted to death by guillotine.

Listen to Charlotte tell her story in her own words.

Download her StoryApp here.

Image:

Charlotte Corday. Original steel engraving drawn by A. Lacauchie, engraved by Roze, 1849. Digital image courtesy of www.antique-prints.de.



The Climax, pt. 2: Chapter 19 - Marat's Bath

Chapter 19, pt 2...

In which, Charlotte steals into Marat's bath and dispatches him with a kitchen knife.

Simone took the letter and shut the door with a slam, leaving me alone on that drab, inhospitable landing. I could have turned around right there and then. But Marat was just on the other side of that door. I took a long, deep breath, and held it. Would I again be turned away? If so, so be it. Or would I meet the monster Marat at last?

I met my enemy in a small, square room with a brick-tiled floor. A map of France hung upon worn wallpaper. His tub was the shape of a sabot, an old wooden shoe. A board lying across it served as a writing table so that Marat could work on his articles and conduct his interviews even while soaking. To keep warm, he sat upon a linen sheet, the dry ends covering his bare shoulders. A second sheet, draped across the tub and writing table, offered him a bit of privacy from his visitors.

Marat was strange and unpleasant, thin and feverish.  His head was wrapped in a filthy, vinegar-soaked handkerchief.  On his skin were open lesions that reeked of decaying, rotten flesh.  My eyes began to tear, struggling so against the fumes of death and medicine that I did not at first notice Marat motioning me to take the chair placed beside his bath. I sat as requested, my head turned toward the window, searching the still, hot summer air for what little breeze might chance to come my way.  And in the gloom of evening’s waning light, Marat took great pleasure in scribbling down one by one, his head bent over his writing table, the names of each of my beloved Girondin friends. 

Once finished he raised his head, his blood-shot eyes met mine for the first time. He proclaimed viciously, hate dripping from his lips, “We’ll soon have them all guillotined in Paris!” 

At that moment I knew I had justly come.  I pulled out my knife and stabbed Marat right through the heart.

One blow was all it took. I felt the knife penetrate flesh, bone, muscle. It was shocking how easy it was. 

Marat died almost instantly. 

Next installment...

Charlotte is bound, captured and taken to prison.

Listen to Charlotte tell her story in her own words.

Download her StoryApp here.

Image:

David, Jacques Louis (1748-1825), (studio of). Death of Marat, 1793. Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm. Inv.: RF 1945-2. Photo: G. Blot/C. Jean. Louvre, Paris, France. Photo Credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY.

The Climax, pt. 1: Chapter 19 - Marat's Bath

Chapter 19, pt. 1...

In which Charlotte betrays her Girondin friends.

Here is the printing press where, until three days ago, on 13 July 1793 - until I killed him - Marat printed his revolutionary paper, Friend of the People. On an adjacent street, in an old house with a corner turret, Marat lived with his constant and faithful companion, Simone. While at the Palais Egalité, I learned that I was not the only person who hated Marat.  Indeed, he had many dangerous enemies as a result of the views expressed in his journal. He often had to go into hiding to keep from being killed. One such time he took refuge in the Paris sewers. While there, he contracted a terrible skin disease. 

After that his only comfort was soaking in a tub of cold water and medicinal herbs. On his worst days, when the pain was very great, he stayed in his bath all day.

On the evening of 13 July, I found Marat thus, in the bath at his apartment around the corner from his press. It was my third visit to his house that day. The first two times – once in the early morning, then at mid-day – I had been turned away by Simone. This time, however, I succeeded in gaining entry. I climbed the steps to Marat’s door, one heavy foot at a time, and plucked up the courage to knock yet again. I was confronted once more by a scowling and suspicious Simone, but before she could dismiss me a third time, I offered her, with a slightly trembling hand, a letter addressed to Monsieur Marat.  I had written the letter myself, in the heat of the afternoon after my second failed attempt to cross his threshold. The letter stated that I had come to name names; that I was prepared to give him information regarding the missing Girondin “Enemies of the Revolution” that he sought. 

Who would suspect a 24-year old girl?

Tomorrow: pt. 2...

In which Marat is dispatched.

Listen to Charlotte tell her story in her own words.

Download her StoryApp here.

Image:

David, Jacques Louis (1748-1825), (studio of). Detail from, Death of Marat, 1793. Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm. Inv.: RF 1945-2. Photo: G. Blot/C. Jean. Louvre, Paris, France. Photo Credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY.

The Blog Tour Continues: Next Stop, Hen&ink

Thrilled!

...to find Beware Mme la Guillotine featured alongside the art of my friend and fellow agency-mate, Jeanne B. de Sainte Marie.

Congratulations, Jeanne, on your success at the Telluride Gallery of Art!

You can check us both out at the website of Hen & Ink, A Literary Studio.

Image: copyright © Jeanne B. de Sainte Marie