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Showing posts from January, 2025

#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...
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#HistFicThursdays - Inspiration in Film and Television

I'm delighted to be welcoming Judith for her second series of blogs. This one is about drawing inspiration from film and television, and it begins with that thought all writers can't help but consider: who would be perfect for my character..?  In this series of blogs, I am hoping to look at some historical fiction films and tv series which have inspired different stories – either my own or a guest blogger. The first thing I should say is that I don’t consider myself a historical fiction writer: that is something which belongs to Virginia in our household. The research she conducts is meticulous and marries historical fiction with, well, historical fact. By contrast, I look for gaps in history and just attempt to plug them, sucking in little details here and there to make them seem as plausible as possible. Plausibility is an important consideration for me because I write magical realism. One of the key challenges of this genre is that age old consideration for all scientists an...
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#MGMonday: #BookReview for "The Tale of Truthwater Lake" by Emma Carroll

 The Tale of Truthwater Lake by Emma Carroll This book marks my first book review for Middle Grade Mondays. I wish I could do more reading, but I work four days a week, and I'm crazy enough to be doing a science degree, and setting unrealistic New Year goals at the same time! This book, however, I read in no more than 24 hours. Not that it's a short book. It is a good length for a middle grade novel, but I became more and more invested in the characters the more I read. Why did I choose this book? I bought this signed copy some time ago from an online independent bookshop. I can't remember exactly what had happened, but the shop had posted that they had somehow been disadvantaged and, as I know how difficult it is to be an independent business in the book world, I wanted to support them. I searched through their booklist, and decided this book was the one that most appealed to me. I do love beautiful chapter headings! What is the book about? The book begins in the not-too-d...
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#HistFicThursdays - Ravenser Odd - Free Short Story

Later this year, a Ravenser Odd exhibition will be shared at Cleethorpes and Grimsby, not far from where the ill-fated island was situated. Last year, I was delighted to chat with Emily, whose PhD has been instrumental in the research and promotion of Yorkshire's Atlantis, and we talked about how the island had inspired this story, adding to the cultural evolution of the legend of of Ravenser Odd. It's a long read, but I hope you enjoy it... Ravenser Odd   I had lived all of my fifteen years in Ravenser Odd. In my earliest memories it had been a busy town, the docks lined with ships of all sizes, carrying garments and foods from the mystical continent beyond the mouth of the Humber. Then, aboard one of those ships, arrived the plague. Forced to anchor at the toll on the peninsula, the ship had paid a deadly tax upon Ravenser Odd, carrying away half its population on the riptide of the Black Death. When the low-lying land had flooded, forcing out many of the surviving inhabi...
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#MGMonday... Middle Grade Settings

 Middle Grade Settings: An Introduction Having photos in front of you can help you write about your settings I’m going to make a confession. Settings are not something I often spend time planning. Perhaps my stories are the poorer for it, but the settings come as I’m writing or editing. The Glass Room, in Taking Wing, is not something I planned before I started writing. Personally, I’m a very visual writer, seeing my characters as though they are a video in my head, and I write what I see. As such, the setting just happens! There are benefits and drawbacks to this. The main benefit is that the writing process is more interesting. Not everything is set, and my story can still give me surprises. The drawback is that, similar to AI, I cannot know that I’m not stealing settings from films and books I’ve seen/read previously. I certainly don’t mean to plagiarise but the concern is a real one! With that in mind, I have started to at least have a vague idea of my settings before I start t...
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