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Showing posts from July, 2024

#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 - Beneath Black Clouds and White - Book Excerpt

 I've been talking a lot about my family saga this month, so here's a little excerpt from Beneath Black Clouds and White . Although I published this second, it comes first chronologically. I hope you enjoy it! Chapter Nine Persephone and Rosanna Fotherby wasted little time as Peters left him, but began walking in the direction of Mayfair. After arriving at the house of Sir Manfred Chester so late on the last two occasions he had been a house guest, he was determined to arrive at a civilised time. He reached the white fronted house in the late afternoon and paused at the steps, uncertain that he should presume to simply arrive there. He walked across the road, rebuking himself for his lack of etiquette. He still carried the card that Peters had given him and he wondered at what the address was. It was somewhere in Westminster, and he was on the point of returning into the city when he turned at the sound of his name. ā€œHenry! You have come back to us. You must come in at once.ā€ ā€œ...

#HistFicThursdays - Things to Inspire - Books

There is a line in the remake of The Parent Trap  when the man (who owns a vineyard) is showing his former wife his collection of special wines: "I'm a man of limited interests". That is sort of like me with books! I have accumulated quite a few old books and it's not just because I love books. Our oldest complete book is the one above. It predates most of the settings for my books, the Jacobites, and the Great Fire of London. There is something very exciting about thinking about the different people who have read it over the years! I got it because it links in with one of our family's favourite books, The Children of Green Knowe . And then there are books which directly impact on my own writing. My sister bought me a first edition of Walter Scott's Ballads and Lyrical Pieces , a book which is gifted in my own story Day's Dying Glory . It is amazing to be able to hold the book, getting an idea of things beyond the words: the weight of the paper; the size o...

#HistFicThursdays - Poetry - The Tenterchilt Saga

 What do you say when people ask you if you like poetry? It's one of those questions where a single word answer just does not work for most people. Like all artforms - writing included - poetry is hugely subjective. But, when you do  find a poem you love, it can be one of the most inspiring things of all. Blake's original plate for The Little Black Boy My family saga draws constantly from poetry. I love the poetry of the Romantics - Byron in particular - and their poetry weaves in and out of the books, right down to the titles:  Day's Dying Glory  (from Byron's  Lachin y Gair ); and Beneath Black Clouds and White  (from Blake's The Little Black Boy ). I'm someone whose writing style is rather sumptuous (or should that be: overindulgent?!), and these flowery poems of depth and flow serve to add to my inspiration and also find a common ground between me and my characters, for whom they are contemporaneous. The way we interact with words can say a great deal a...

#HistFicThursdays - The Dream Collector: Sabrine and Vincent van Gogh - R. W. Meek - Book Excerpt

     Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am delighted to be sharing a book excerpt from  R. W. Meek 's fabulous new book! I'm once again teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to share a sample of the  The Dream Collector: Sabrine and Vincent van Gogh ! First of all, let's meet the book... Sabrine, hospitalized for five years at the infamous SalpĆŖtriĆØre Asylum for Women, gains her release due to intervention of her sister Julie Forette and a young Sigmund Freud. The reunited sisters are introduced to the dazzling art milieu of 1886 Paris, and soon become close friends to the leading Impressionists. Sabrine attracts a cult following as a poetess, the enigmatic "Haiku Princess." Seemingly cured by Freud of her Grand Hysteria, Sabrine soon enters into a tumultuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. Julie and Sigmund Freud, alarmed by the eerie parallels between the emotionally volatile couple and their self-destructive impulses, begin an urgent search to ...