Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2023

#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series: Alexander the Great

I honestly can’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...
Post a Comment
Read more

#HistFicThursdays - If It's the Last Thing I Do - David Fitz-Gerald - Book Excerpt

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to once again be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  for author  David Fitz-Gerald 's blog tour! Today, I'm sharing an excerpt from his brilliant book,  If It's the Last Thing I Do ! First of all, let's meet the book... It's 1975, and Misty Menard unexpectedly inherits her father's business in Lake Placid, New York. It never occurred to her that she could wind up as the CEO of a good old-fashioned manufacturing company. After years of working for lawyers, Misty knows a few things about the law. Her favorite young attorney is making a name for himself, helping traditionally owned companies become employee owned, using a little-known, newly-passed law. When he offers to help Misty convert Adirondack Dowel into an ESOP, pro bono, Misty jumps at the chance.  The employees are stunned, the management team becomes hostile, and the Board of Directors is concerned. Misfortune quickly follows the business t...
2 comments
Read more

#HistFicThursdays - Burning Secret - R J Lloyd - Guest Post

  It's #HistFicThursdays, and I'm delighted to offer you a fabulous guest post from  R J Lloyd ,   as part of his  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. Discover the personal nature of this book, and why the author chose to tell Enoch's story in  Burning Secret . But first, let's meet the book... Blurb Inspired by actual events, Burning Secret is a dramatic and compelling tale of ambition, lies and betrayal.  Born in the slums of Bristol in 1844, Enoch Price seems destined for a life of poverty and hardship-but he’s determined not to accept his lot.  Enoch becomes a bare-knuckle fighter in London’s criminal underworld. But in a city where there’s no place for honest dealing, a cruel loan shark cheats him, leaving Enoch penniless and facing imprisonment.  Undaunted, he escapes to a new life in America and embarks on a series of audacious exploits. But even as he helps shape history, Enoch is not content. Tormented by his past and the life he left b...
1 comment
Read more

#HistFicThursdays - Drumbeats - Julia Ibbotson

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to shine a spotlight on  Julia Ibbotson 's fabulous book,  Drumbeats ! So, let's meet the book... It’s 1965, and 18 year old Jess escapes her stifling English home for a gap year in Ghana, West Africa. But it’s a time of political turbulence across the region. Fighting to keep her young love who waits back in England, she’s thrown into the physical and emotional dangers of civil war, tragedy and the conflict of a disturbing new relationship. And why do the drumbeats haunt her dreams? This is a rite of passage story which takes the reader hand in hand with Jess on her journey towards the complexities and mysteries of a disconcerting adult world. This is the first novel in the acclaimed Drumbeats trilogy: Drumbeats , Walking in the Rain , Finding Jess . For fans of Dinah Jefferies, Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Jenny Ashcroft You can find  Drumbeats  on #KindleUn...
2 comments
Read more

#HistFicThursdays - The Bocksten Man - A Riddle in a Bog

The Bocksten Man (Photo Courtesy of Halland Museum of Cultural History)  Over the last couple of weeks, I feel like I've got to know The Bocksten Man rather well, which is funny because I don't even know his name. But then, no one does. We all love a mystery. There is an age-old appeal to them, as people try to crack ancient codes, or unearth hidden tombs. But his mystery is far sadder. His is a mystery of death. When he was unearthed in 1934, people were amazed by how complete his possessions were. He has become an invaluable source for textile historians, with some of the most intact garments from his time (mid-1300s) in Europe. Definitely a useful find to pull out of the bog! But what really fascinates me - and many others - is who he was. This was an individual of note. Not necessarily a noble, but certainly someone who moved amongst them. His clothes were neat and well-made, and his gugel length (not a euphemism – a gugel was a cowl with a long tail) was of a design to sug...
Post a Comment
Read more