Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am delighted to once again be teaming up with The Coffee Pot Book Club , this time to share an excerpt from SP Somtow 's fantastic new book Nero and Sporus ! First of all, let's meet the book... Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena. Nero and Sporus is available on #KindleUnlimited via this link . And here's an excerpt to whet your appetite: I suppose we were anxious to see who the surprise competitor would be, but no one was as surprise...
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Today is the arrival of #HistFicMay, now in its third year. When I started it, I did it because I had really enjoyed meeting new writers through a similar #IndieApril list of prompts. I had a quick perusal to see if anyone had done a Historical Fiction one, saw they hadn't, and decided to set one up. It had the desired effect, and I have "met" (only online!) and discovered some wonderful writers and their books over the last couple of years.
Community is a bigger thing than most writers realise. The more detached individuals may refer to community as networking, but the writing community is so much more than that. Don't get me wrong, I'm as introverted as they come, but without those people I have met during #HistFicMay or the online community of historical fiction writers, there are so many things I would never have known - sometimes even things which have led me to write certain scenes or books. I'm not saying you can't be a fabulous historical fiction writer without being part of a community, but it certainly has many, many benefits.
I have found the community works in three tiers:
- The Inner Circle - those you would share a first draft with, warts and all! For me, I am lucky enough to have a family who fit this bill. They may laugh at the typos (of which there are many!) but they are honest and constructive.
- The Friendship Circle - a larger community who are all interested and eager enough to help out. A very handy group to have an expert or two tucked away in. And if one or two of them happen to be involved in publishing too, that's all the better!
- The Discovery Circle - exactly what #HistFicMay was created for! It's not easy to be a writer, especially an indie writer, but this community comes together to celebrate the work and the books of those whose voice might otherwise be lost in the copious adverts and memes on social media. This is for people who want to celebrate all things linked to the Historical Fiction genre, and for readers to discover their new favourite book.
You don't need to take part every day, you could do one, eleven, or all thirty-one prompts, but I hope that my fellow Historical Fiction writers will find #HistFicMay is a helpful tool as well as a great fun project in which to take part. Thank you to everyone who has taken part over the last couple of years, and let's make 2025 the best one yet!
[You can find all the 2025 details and prompts here]
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