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Showing posts from March, 2024

#MGMonday #BookReview "The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey" by Megan Wynne

"The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey" by Megan Wynne Plot Gwen is supposed to be home-schooled but her mum's mental health problems mean she isn't receiving any schooling. When it is clear that her mum needs hospital treatment to recover, Gwen is sent to an unusual boarding school where students are helped to communicate with spirits. While there, she is confronted with an unsettling truth about her past. Review I read this book in a day, so that is always a good sign! I really enjoyed the mix of normal and supernatural that happens in the book, and how it weaves together so seamlessly. There is an air of mystery around the staff at the school, in particular the principal, which I would love to be developed. I found Gwen thoroughly annoying at first. She had every trait I dislike in "home-schooled" children - I was home-schooled myself and get annoyed when people equate home-schooling to no-schooling or random trips to educational establishments. Maths is important...

#HistFicThursdays - Things to Inspire - Religious Artefacts

 Writing historical fiction, it is impossible to ignore the overwhelming impact religion had on people's lives. It was not only the structure of organised religion, but the interwoven beliefs which dominated people's lives. Christianity, the religion which runs through most of my historical fiction, grew and survived with its ability to adapt as it spread from place to place and culture to culture, absorbing certain traditions as it powered on. I love Theology. I did my undergraduate degree in it, and it continues to remain a real interest of mine. I also love the idea of holding hands across history, seeing what my characters saw, and holding the same objects in my own hands as they or their peers did. Given the significance of religion and superstition throughout history, these things were common - although not necessarily accessible - and would have been understood by all. Religious iconography dominated Pre-Reformation Europe, speaking as a universal language to all. These ...

#HistFicThursdays - The Triumph of Maxentius - Free Short Story

Today for the #HistFicThursdays blog, I'm sharing my Alternative History short story The Triumph of Maxentius . It looks at the possible outcome if Constantine had not been victorious at Milvian Bridge. This was one of those key moments in history where everything changed direction... but what if it had gone in a different direction? If you enjoy this story, have a look at my other Roman Alternative History story, Vercingetorix's Virgin , in the Historical Writers Forum 's anthology Alternate Endings . The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (1520–24) by Giulio Romano.  The Triumph of Maxentius Ignatius had not watched his father’s execution. He had been present, hoping to avert the sword’s terrible movement as it delivered its fatal blow but, upon being recognised in the gathering crowd, he had fled. For several weeks he had hidden from everyone he knew and run from those he did not, dreaming of the day he could free his father and quit Rome altogether. But he had never found hi...

#HistFicThursdays - Writing to a Brief

 I'm not good at being told what to do. It's not just in writing, but in all walks of life. I don't mind guidelines - in fact, they can be very useful to creativity - but writing to someone else's criteria is another thing. So, back in 2021, when my sister Judith told me about Sapere Book's competition to write a series of books on one of their briefs, I initially ignored it. But then she said she would submit to their Age of Sail  brief if I did the Medici/Borgia books. I was still on something of a high after the success of The Year We Lived , but equally stuck in a deadspot in terms of creating a book which could live up to it, so I agreed to have a go at it, the resulting story being Poisoned Pilgrimage . My research took me far away from anything I had ever written creatively. Instead, I returned to my degree days and wrapped myself in the theology of the day. And it was good to be back! My set of stories was not selected by Sapere, but it didn't matter. I...