Crowvus Book Blog

 Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am delighted to be hosting Erryn Lee with her new book, What Remains , as part of The Coffee Pot Book Club 's book tour. Read on to enjoy an excerpt from this fabulous book! First of all, let's meet the book... What Remains is a haunting dual-timeline mystery that bridges centuries-and secrets-between ancient Rome and the modern world. Forensic anthropologist Tori Benino has just landed the opportunity of a lifetime: leading a dig at a long-buried Roman village lost to the eruption of Vesuvius. But when she uncovers the remains of a Praetorian guard hidden in an ancient latrine-clearly murdered-Tori realizes she's stumbled onto something far more sinister than a routine excavation. As she digs deeper into the past, her own carefully ordered life begins to fall apart. Nearly two thousand years earlier, Thalia, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is desperate to escape an arranged marriage to a brutal and politically powerful senator. Her only ...

 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...

  For today's #HistFicThursdays blog, I am so excited to be welcoming  Fiona Forsyth  to the blog with a guest post about her new book  Death and The Poet ,   as part of her  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. Her fabulous guest post discusses the book's setting, moving away from the perception of Ancient Rome to its reality with just enough artistic license to keep readers deeply engaged with the story. But first, let's meet the book... Blurb 14 AD. When Dokimos the vegetable seller is found bludgeoned to death in the Black Sea town of Tomis, it’s the most exciting thing to have happened in the region for years. Now reluctantly settled into life in exile, the disgraced Roman poet Ovid helps his friend Avitius to investigate the crime, with the evidence pointing straight at a cuckolded neighbour. But Ovid is also on edge, waiting for the most momentous death of all. Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, is nearing his end, and the future of the whole Roman wor...

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...

 As I'm sure you know by now, one of the things I love the most about writing historical fiction is the thin line which exists between the fact of historiography and the truths of history. Throw into that my interest in Theology, and there is little surprise that a person like Amphibalus sneaks into one of my WIPs. But who was he? And, perhaps more curiously, did he really exist? Amphibalus is credited with the conversion of Saint Alban, who is broadly accepted as being the first British martyr. According to the legend, Saint Alban took Amphibalus' cloak and went to execution in his stead because - and this is the bit which makes it perfect for applying to a novel - no one had a clue who Amphibalus even was. He was known simply as "The Cloaked Man". While the martyrdom of Saint Alban suggests that "cloaked" meant he wore a cloak, that isn't all it meant. After all, quite a few people probably wore a cloak in those days, it didn't really limit the hun...

I was thrilled to be asked to share a story for the Historical Writers Forum's Alternate Endings  anthology. This post is a little insight into the historical figures of my story, Vercingetorix's Virgin , and why I changed what I did... A Good Death: The Stubborn Dictator and The Headstrong King Memento Mori - Remember Death (This is actually in Nuremberg, but suited my purpose well!) Death is an inevitability. There is nothing which levels the playing-field more than the acknowledgement that everyone must die. All of humanity, whether kings or serfs, will end their days in death. Throughout history, across regions and religions, this has been a factor which has played upon the minds of mankind. Unsurprisingly, this has given rise to the notion of a "Good Death". The Vikings knew they could enter Valhalla if they died in battle, Christians knew they would be counted amongst the saints if they suffered martyrdom. But if there is a good death, there must also be a bad ...

  This week, I've been delving back into Ancient Rome, so this song was October's logical choice for a Horrible Histories blog. I'm so excited about the release of Alternate Endings , a collection of eight short stories from different historical writers. Each one (as the title suggests!) picked an event to change in history. Mine was the sparing of Vercingetorix's life. So Julius Caesar has been at the forefront of my mind! But Crassus was already dead by the time my story was set. In fact, his death triggered the collapse of that First Triumvirate. Unlike the later triumvirates, theirs was established solely to further their own ends individually. As the centuries turned, a certain hierarchy was established within each set of three, the geography reflecting this, but Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey were all as close to equal as they could be. Despite the appearance in the video, however, they all equally disliked one another. There was a circle of mistrust amongst them and...

This book looked absolutely fascinating and it didn't disappoint! The journey followed through the pages demonstrates a multidisciplinary assessment of Roman Britain: its fall, and the gradual shift away from all things Roman. The different approaches - scientific, historical, linguistic - merge and blend as succinctly in the text as they did in the evolution of culture from Brythonic, through Roman, and into Saxon. The distinct and maintained differences between cultures was fascinating to read about. This book is clearly well-researched, and the author supports every theory he puts forward. I appreciate too that he makes the point all these theories are just best-fit conjecture. I loved the layout of the book, like a series of essays each with their own argument to establish and conclusion to reach. This prevented an overwhelming presentation of facts, but managed each subtopic as a self-contained and effectively structured assignment. The ultimate conclusion ties up the contents...

 For this week's #HistFicThursdays blog, I am thrilled to be welcoming Linnea Tanner, with the first book in her Curse of Clansmen and Kings  series! Apollo's Raven  is enjoying its book tour with  Coffee Pot Book Club  and I am so excited to be able to share this fascinating Guest Post from Linnea about the  Highlights and Challenges in Researching Historical Backdrop of Apollo’s Raven . But first, let's meet the book... Blurb A Celtic warrior princess is torn between her forbidden love for the enemy and duty to her people.   AWARD-WINNING APOLLO’S RAVEN sweeps you into an epic Celtic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. In 24 AD British kings hand-picked by Rome to rule are fighting each other for power. King Amren’s former queen, a powerful Druid, has cast a curse that Blood Wolf and the Raven will rise and destroy him. The king’s daughter, Catrin, learns to her dismay that she is...