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Showing posts from October, 2022

#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series: Alexander the Great

I honestly canā€™t remember what inspired me to write about Alexander the Great. I think it was probably the Horrible Histories song , but I could be wrong about that. I suddenly just wanted to know everything there was to know about him, and to put it into story form. I actually started the story before I knew much about him and his campaigns at all so, still in its first draft condition, the opening chapter of the book has some rather hilarious mistakes and inferences. By the second chapter, I had eased into the story a little more and, by the fourth chapter, the research was there to support it too. This story was unique among my historical fantasy because of the sheer quantity of research which I did for it. I devoured anything and everything I could find about Alexander the Great. There was a wonderful blog called The Second Achilles, and I spent hours poring over archived posts, reading as much as I could about different theories and stories about the great conqueror. The blog disa...

#HistFicThursdays - Horrible Histories 10 - Crassus: Minted

  This week, I've been delving back into Ancient Rome, so this song was October's logical choice for a Horrible Histories blog. I'm so excited about the release of Alternate Endings , a collection of eight short stories from different historical writers. Each one (as the title suggests!) picked an event to change in history. Mine was the sparing of Vercingetorix's life. So Julius Caesar has been at the forefront of my mind! But Crassus was already dead by the time my story was set. In fact, his death triggered the collapse of that First Triumvirate. Unlike the later triumvirates, theirs was established solely to further their own ends individually. As the centuries turned, a certain hierarchy was established within each set of three, the geography reflecting this, but Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey were all as close to equal as they could be. Despite the appearance in the video, however, they all equally disliked one another. There was a circle of mistrust amongst them and...

#HistFicThursdays - The Godmother's Secret - Elizabeth St.John - Guest Post

 It's #HistFicThursdays, and I'm so thrilled to be sharing a guest post from Elizabeth St.John ,   as part of her  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. Read on to find out about Elizabeth's love of the mystery surrounding the Princes in the Tower, and how she weaves this into her story. But first, let's meet the book.. Blurb What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret? November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodvilleā€“witness the birth of Edward IVā€™s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabethā€™s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict. Bound by blood and torn by honour, w...

#HistFicThursdays - When History and Fiction Dance - Guest Post - Tempest Wright

Happy #HistFicThursdays! Today, I'm thrilled to be sharing a guest post from Tempest Wright 's work in progress:  The McKarthy Journals: Brothers In Secrets ! Read on to share in the guest post - and what an incredible title for a post it is! - but first, let's meet the book... Brendan - one half of the McKarthy pair... Blurb In 1822, there is no way for one to dissolve an arranged marriage or aspire to higher fatesā€¦unless one is fortunate enough to possess an acquaintance with the McKarthy brothers. While veiling themselves in a shroud of propriety, the brothers wield their position within high society to defy social norms for the liberation of many ā€“ at the expense of a few. The sudden appearance of a notorious London criminal in their quiet corner of Kent, not only threatens everything achieved through the Mckarthysā€™ indiscretions, but conjures up a dark history the brothers are desperate to keep buried. Juggling to maintain their faƧade and contain this impending threat...

#HistFicThursdays - Brushstrokes from the Past - Heidi Eljarbo - Guest Post

  It's #HistFicThursdays, and I'm so excited to be sharing a guest post from  Heidi Eljarbo ,   as part of her  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. Find out all about Heidi's connection with art and her thoughts on the most important piece of art in history. But first, let's meet the book.. Blurb A Historical Art Mystery WWII and the mid-seventeenth century are entwined in this fourth dual timeline novel about Nazi art theft, bravery, friendship, and romance. April 1945. Art historian Soli Hansen and her friend Heddy arrive at an excavation site only to find Soliā€™s old archeology professor deeply engrossed in an extraordinary find in a marsh. The remains of a man have lain undisturbed for three centuries, but thereā€™s more to this discoveryā€¦ As Soli tries to understand who the baroque man was and discovers what he carried in a sealed wooden tube, problems arise. A leak reveals the finds to the notorious Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Walter, and soon, both Nazi elite and...