WHERE AM I?

You’ll find this tricky unless you’re reasonably good at Scottish topography! However, to help you along, author Jen Black and I have agreed to give you a clue - the place is at the mouth of a river that used to be called “Nis”. Och, that’s too easy, so forget I just said that while you read this excerpt from Jen Black’s first book The Banners of Alba, set in Scotland in 1035AD. The question is: Where am I?
 

"The ship glided smoothly forward with the incoming tide and
Ratagan studied the shoreline. Plump mallards and eider ducks,
beaks shovelling through the mud and weed, waddled through the
shallows of the broad, tree-lined estuary. Gulls swooped and dived over the wooded hill with the ancient ruined walls that stood like bones stark against the sky. She thought of the raucous colonies of long tailed gannets and fulmars that plundered the turbulent seas of the north and west, and a sudden longing for the white sand, turquoise water and golden brown gneiss of the western coast took
her by the throat and made her concentrate her gaze on the wooden landing stage where men and horses waited. She recognized no one. He had not come to meet her.

The horses made light work of the track up to the tall palisade
that ringed the new fort on the small hill by the river. Men within
would be able to stare down the length of the silver ribbon of water
winding through the thatched huts of (guess the name!) all the way to the estuary. A breeze brought fresh, flowery scents and from a turn in the track, she glimpsed the ring of soft green hills encircling the fort,
and the fainter rim of higher hills beyond. Her spirits began to lift."

Is it:

A) Edinburgh
B) Aberdeen
C) Inverness?


Click comment to give your answer...

Visit Jen Black's blog here.

Read More... WHERE AM I?

BLIND AMBITION: INTERVIEW WITH NAN HAWTHORNE

When US author NAN HAWTHORNE decided to review my first novel, Libertas, she kept me up to speed on her (astonishing) progress and fired the occasional question across the Atlantic ether. It became apparent that she needed to be sure of certain facts and phrases because she is legally blind… and that led to a number of questions of my own. It's a privilege to have one of the most prolific reviewers of historical fiction with us for this Blog's second interview...

Q Nan, you read an incredible amount and yet you are virtually blind. How do you do this?

A Let me define blindness as it applies to me in particular.  I have a condition that completely obscures my central vision, sort of the opposite of tunnel Vision.  Instead of seeing a narrow tunnel of whatever I am looking at, it is what I am looking at directly that is blocked. For a while, many years ago, I could just barely manage to read with peripheral vision… try it… it ain't easy. But that was quite a while ago.  It's not what is popularly known as age-related macular degeneration, which is a growing issue for aging Baby Boomers, but a congenital and hereditary condition. I didn't even know I had it until my twenties. By then I had already formed my lifelong obsession with historical novels.

Up until recently I was pretty much confined to the audiobooks provided by the National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the U.S. Library of Congress.  They have been around for as long as there has been manageable recording technology.  There was Braille before that but I am not a Braille reader.  The selection of books though immense is still limited compared to the selection someone who can read visually has access to.  So I have been pleased at all the new tools for reading that give me an opportunity to read even more.  Besides the NLS's latest, digital talking books, which are just audiobooks available in a digital format, there is the Kindle 2 with text-to-speech, a wider selection of unabridged commercially produced audiobooks, TextAloud, an application that converts plain text into speech, and my latest tool, a Plustek Bookreader, a sort of scanner that turns text on paper into speech, so I can now read any book.

Nevertheless, I mostly rely on digital talking books, audiobooks, and my Kindle 2.  The Bookreader can read anything, but it is a tedious and labor intensive process, so it is not my first choice.

As for reading a lot of books, I always have.  Remember, I can do dishes and housework and lie in bed in the dark and read... and the only time I don't have a book going is when I need to concentrate on writing!

Q You've also written a very long book, An Involuntary King, and you have another soon in progress. Tell us how you go about achieving so much.

A My desktop computer is equipped with unforgivably expensive software that not only increases the size of the text on my monitor but also reads aloud to me.  It is reading aloud each word as I type it now.  Really, most disability is no more than a mechanical problem.  A matter of how I get something from my mind into the computer.  That's not difficult with the tools available now.  The hard part is being able to write a ripping yarn, and I've been able to do this since I was seven.  The hardest part for me is research, but as more and more material is becoming available on the web.  I am not afraid to find a scholar and email her or him and ask questions, and they rarely are anything but pleased to reply.  With the Bookreader I can read library books.  But doing what, say, Sharon Kay Penman does, going to England or France and poring through early records... that I would need help with, not to mention money to travel!

Q And your blogs... how do you make appearance choices and, dammit, where do you find the time to do all this?

A I can see, just not detail.  I am also artistically and visually inclined.  The hard part is that the way the screen magnifier works is that it only shows a fragment of the view on the monitor at any given time.  Here is a screenshot so you can see what I mean. 


The result is that I don't get the overall effect until I turn the magnifier off.  I have been startled by how small my font is and how my blog borders, for instance, are so wide.

As to the second part of that question, I am a workhorse.  I love to work.  I find it hard to be idle even for a few minutes, though I do dearly love naps.  I do not have a "job" so that is not in the way, and unlike many other people I know, I don't let other people make demands on my time.  I don't have to ferry kids here and there, and since I can't drive, I have no errands.  My cats are quite happy to have me home with them all the time.

Q You seem to depend on new technology (such as your talking Kindle) and old (your husband!) - if you could ask the world's best electronic engineer for something more, what would it be?

A Oddly, I have never thought of this before.  I think I would like a mobile device, meaning something easy to tote about, that can access books remotely either from a store or a library, that has a speech synthesis program that as much as possible mimics the human voice.  We are close now, but unfortunately publishers are balking at making their books available out of fear people won't bother to buy their audio books.  This is ridiculous since anyone who does not have any choice will listen to the dreadful speech synthesizer on, for instance, the Kindle.  The other part of this is that I would want every single book ever written formatted so that it could be read digitally.  I am still somewhat at the mercy of someone who "chooses" books for me.  For good or ill, the NLS has a limited collection.  They have to choose what they think people want, and believe me, a book on the development of Anglo Saxon towns is not among that group.

Another cool device does exist, a handheld reader that you can move across a page and convert it to speech, but like most products for the blind it is highly overpriced.  I can't afford one.

Q Does being visually impaired make you angry and frustrated? How do you manage to remain positive?

A I used to be better at being positive, but losses in acuity and therefore independence have made that harder of late.  Fortunately I am so restless that I tend to forge ahead just to keep busy.  I would say my greatest frustration is not being able just to walk into a bookstore or library, pick up a book and peruse it.  Others are frustrated by not being able to drive.  Not me.  I am quite  happy cruising the Internet superhighway.  Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, who invented the web,  is my big hero.

Angry?  With whom or what?  What would make me angry is anyone who does not see the Nan behind the lousy vision, who admires me but not because I am bright and witty and resourceful but that I am all those things in spite of my vision loss.  I get angry with people with disabilities who don't strive for excellence or fall back on "they won't let me..." and with non-disabled people who do not see that making the world accessible is self defeating, since the one minority group everyone is eligible for is disability.  It will happen to you, and it could happen overnight.  Don't you want the world already prepared so you can go on with your life?

Q You are not afraid to speak your mind. Have you made any enemies?

A  I don't see the point of a book review unless you tell the truth as you see it.  It happens I actually know what I'm doing so my reviews are not the sort of "loved it/hated it" pap that abounds on the Internet.  Reviews are written for readers so they can decide whether to bother with a book, not to encourage authors, as the editor of one review blog I got kicked off of for my candor insisted.  That being said, I'm not willfully critical, never nasty.  Of course, there are a few authors who might not be so sanguine about my reviews, but I find that if an author really cares about her or his work, as, for example, you do, they want the truth.  Since I clearly am able to see under the surface of their work, I can offer views of both the depth of a work and also suggest better ways something could be written.  If even after that they hate my review, then so be it.  At least it was intelligent.

Q Of all the historical fiction you've read and reviewed, which three made your heart beat most passionately with their sense of time and place?

A Hmmmm, let's see.  Edward Rutherfurd's "The Dublin Saga", really two novels, "The Princes of Ireland" and "The Rebels of Ireland", while not consistently, had me riveted and emotionally involved.  I fell in love with Ireland after first seeing Disney's "The Fighting Prince of Donegal", and like Robin Hood, who turned me into the person I am today in terms of values, pursuits, identity, I am quite passionate about that land's history.  Rutherfurd's sense of the flow of history as it affects individual lives spoke to something in me.  I felt what it would be like to be part of that turbulent history.

Bernard Cornwell's "King Alfred" novels (Saxon Series - ed) really caught my imagination as well, not surprising with my fascination with Anglo Saxon and Norse England.  His gritty guts-all-over-the-place dramatization overcomes the tendency of novelists of the medieval era to make that time pretty.  I also find his willingness to aver the more savage aspects  of human nature refreshing.

One obscure novel that fits this discussion is Brandy Purdy's "The Confession of Piers Gaveston".  Within three sentences I knew I was reading something insightful and skillfully rendered.  I am not generally that big a fan of first person narrative as it, I believe, should only be used only if that style will reveal something important.  This is one case where it was perfect.  Purdy manages to convey that even the narrator, Piers Gaveston himself, doesn't know everything about himself and his motivations, knows perfectly well he is lying to himself and others, and this says more about his character and a more honest look at his time and life than just telling his story would.  It is sad to me that of Purdy's novels, this one gets so little recognition.

Q And have you ever read about a character in historical fiction that made you feel as though you were meeting them in person?

A Oh yes, and in Francis Crawford of Lymond's case, it scared the bejeesus out of me!  In the first volume of his Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, "Game of Kings", I was blown away by the breadth of his characterization, from irritatingly clever and caustic to utterly destroyed.  The succeeding five novels took me from admiration to anxiety to downright alarm.  I would not have thought any ending could seem to work with all that constant turmoil, but Dunnett managed it exquisitely.

Another one that deeply affected me is William de Braose in Edith Pargeter's trilogy "The Heaven Tree".  I know from Sharon Kay Penman's exhaustive fact checking and accuracy that the character in Pargeter's novel is heavily embroidered, was not the tragically romantic figure the latter paints, but nevertheless what happens to him had me mourning literally for more than two weeks.  I was almost afraid to read Penman's recounting of what really happened, but am pleased to say I was able to accept Pargeter's de Braose as a great character if not accurate.

It saddens me that I have not found a female character that has stirred me that way.  Maybe it is because I have so little in common with the women I know.  The characters they write have values and experiences I simply cannot relate to.  I even had a dickens of a time with the female characters in "An Involuntary King".  I much preferred the men.  That is why I decided to write the novel I am calling "Beloved Pilgrim", whose protagonist is a woman who wants to live as a man in her time, the Crusade of 1101.  I found writing her that I could not write anything but a lesbian, however, since I could not find a relationship with a man would not throw Elisabeth's character askew.  Maybe in another era, but not in 1101.  Perhaps someday I will be able to find or write a female character under 50 I can relate to.

Q How many books have you reviewed?

A If you just count my blog, That's All She Read, somewhere around 150.  It sure feels like more.

Q And finally, tell us about your next book...

A Working title "Beloved Pilgrim" is, as I mentioned above, about a woman who chooses to go on crusade as a man.  She disguises herself as her late twin brother in order to get away from a brutal impending marriage and to complete her brother's vow to go to Jerusalem and to find their missing father.  The Crusade of 1101 was a farce and revealed the worst in its leaders, like Raymond of Toulouse (a cartoon I did has Byzantine Emperor Alexius II  saying, "Raymond, Toulouse is your name, not your mission."). I am presently completing the second draft.  I hope to have it to an agent this fall.  I know the lesbian relationship may ruin my chances of getting the book published, but as other novelists know, characters simply do not let you choose who they are.  And there was no way Elisabeth was going to be heterosexual.  I admire her for sticking to her, um, guns.

Thank you Nan, for your amazing insight!

Nan Hawthorne has several blogs worth visiting, listed and linked below, but she is also a songwriter and runs an online Celtic music station, Radio De Danann.

Nan Hawthorne's Booking History (Facts and more)
That's All She Read (Reviews)
Today in Medieval History (Calendar)
Random Biographies (Short bios of the somewhat less celebrated)
Historical Blogs: Fiction and Fact (A bloglist of dozens of of historical and historical fiction blogs)

And for a review example, of which this blog's author is particularly proud, click here.

Read More... BLIND AMBITION: INTERVIEW WITH NAN HAWTHORNE

INTERVIEW WITH DOUGLAS JACKSON

His first, Caligula, introduced the Emperor's elephant to much acclaim and the zoology continued with Claudius. But Douglas Jackson doesn't plod like his creation, he races on from one great story to the next: now we have Hero of Rome and a sequel in the making. Welcome, Doug, to QHistorical!

Your third book is out and you’ve been a full time writer for a year. How does it feel?

Hero of Rome seems to be selling really well, it has given both Caligula and Claudius a boost and I’ve just had a great review by Allan Massie in The Scotsman so I’m pleased with the way things are going. I’ve had a fantastic year. It’s been great being able to devote more time to writing and developing ideas and I’ve seen more of my family in twelve months than in the previous five years. The only downside is that I took my decision to go it alone at the start of the worst recession since the Depression and the fear of what might happen if things don’t work out is always with you.

What was it that made you decide on Imperial Rome as the setting for your novels?

I was driving home from work one night after a friend had jokingly suggested I should write a book. Where do you start? They say write what you know, but the world I inhabited and my interests were very bland, so I was a bit lost. Luckily I was listening to a history programme and I gradually realised that history was something I loved more than anything else. Rome and the Romans have always fascinated me. When the guy on the radio talked about the Emperor Claudius riding on an elephant at Colchester, I knew instantly that was the story I wanted to tell.

How important are grammar and punctuation to you as a writer and a reader?

As a journalist and someone who spent ten years as a sub-editor crafting words on a national newspaper there’s only one answer to that. ‘Eats, shoots and leaves’ says it all. How can you achieve nuance and accuracy if you don’t know where to put a full stop or a comma? Since I started writing books I’ve come to love the colon (don’t laugh) and the semi-colon because they give more flexibility than a full stop. That may make me a sad figure of fun, but it also makes me a better writer.

When you are writing do you have an audience in mind? Is it a person, real or imagined, or a group?

I don’t think I write for anybody but myself, and I sometimes worry that it could restrict my output or narrow it so much that it loses its appeal. Hopefully I’ll develop as a writer and a person, or at least a personality.

  

What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve been given?

My agent Stan gave me a tip that I’ve found very helpful. Once you’ve got your idea for the book, lay it out a chapter at a time in single paragraphs. It gives you a perspective on the whole book and saves a lot of time writing yourself out of blind alleys, which was where I spent a lot of my life during the first book. A more fundamental piece of advice is one I keep giving myself. Just keep writing. It’s never wasted.

How does writing a novel differ from journalism? Do you think your career experience made the process easier or harder?

A novel is an entirely different beast from a news story, or even a two or three thousand word news feature. Sometimes a novel is so huge that it threatens to engulf you in its sheer complexity. It’s like wrestling an octopus with one arm tied behind your back. Luckily my career experience has helped me become an expert octopus wrestler. Dealing with words all the time means writing comes relatively easily and being in charge of something every day that keeps changing shape and requires enormous accuracy is good training.

Were you conscious when you were writing your books of other writers who have set books in the same milieu recently (Conn Iggulden and Robert Harris to name a couple)?

I was conscious that I didn’t want to be subconsciously influenced by them. I’d read Conn’s Emperor series and Robert Harris’s Pompeii and thought they were wonderful books based on great ideas. Caligula was then just a twinkle in my eye called The Emperor’s Elephant (I didn’t even dare call it a book – it was my project) but I wanted it to be as unique as I could possibly make it. I went back to the usual primary sources, Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio, and created my own Rome and Romans. I think I got it just about right, but I now realise that doesn’t make me particularly unique because everybody who writes good Roman fiction works from those same sources and naturally some of us will come to the same conclusions.

How did you go about researching your books?

I was a raw first-time novelist, actually not even a novelist, just a writer trying to tell a story. I didn’t have any understanding of the balance between research, historical accuracy and creating a readable work of fiction. But as a reader and a writer I knew the difference between right and wrong. I did a lot of research early on (that’s part of writing I love, that finding out new things that might interest other people) but I soon found that research was getting in the way of writing. Eventually I decided to write until I reached a point where I needed to know something and then find it out. That way it’s the story that comes first. I’ve since heard the term ‘info dump’ and I think it’s probably the historical novelist’s greatest enemy.

Some historians argue that Caligula was quite cruelly treated by history? How did you feel about that aspect of the character?

I’m not sure about cruelly treated. He was almost certainly, at least in his later years as Emperor, a vicious, sadistic, merciless young man who revelled in his power to inflict pain. Whether he was a psychopath, suffering the symptoms of some disease or the victim of drugs is another matter. I think being a journalist allowed me to read between the lines of the histories and I had a certain sympathy for the boy trying to live up to the memory of his father – Germanicus, probably the greatest Roman of his age if you believe the stories – and brought up in a gilded cage that gave him no relation to reality. That didn’t stop me using the juiciest bits of the histories to get to the heart of a fascinating fictional character.

What’s next after Hero of Rome?

My next book will be the continuing story of Gaius Valerius Verrens in Defender of Rome. It’s 64 AD and a damaged Valerius is back in the city of his birth and making a living as a lawyer when the Emperor Nero gives him a thankless mission that puts he and his whole family in danger. Two well known early Christians, plus the philosopher Seneca and naturalist Pliny the elder all have parts to play in a story of which is full of intrigue and political backstabbing and winds up with a barnstorming finale.

Thanks, Doug, we look forward to Defender. Respect!

Visit Douglas Jackson's Amazon page here (UK purchases) and see Doug's book blog here. 

Read More... INTERVIEW WITH DOUGLAS JACKSON

COMING SOON

Coming soon - author interview with Douglas Jackson (Caligula, Claudius and Hero of Rome) and new excerpts from superb historical fiction. Watch out for these week beginning August 9. Happy and fulfilling reading to all who visit here.
Alistair, aka Lord Teaspoon

Read More... COMING SOON

WHERE AM I?

Here's this Blog's first trip over to the Crusades! This period offers a fruitful hunting ground for well-researched historical fiction, made all the more acute by modern east-west tensions. To mark the July 2010 launch of The Swords of Faith by Richard Warren Field (Strider Nolan Media), here’s an extract from the opening scenes. Saladin's near annihilation of the Christian army led to the capture of Jerusalem later in the year, subsequently tempting Richard the Lionheart from Western Europe to try to take Jerusalem back.

“Lord God, this battle is over,” Count Raymond of Tripoli lamented. Pierre watched Raymond’s horse carry him toward Pierre through the middle of the slow-moving column. Pierre again recalled how dark Count Raymond was for a European. Raymond’s family, though originally from Europe, had lived and ruled in Outremer for three generations. Pierre, also third generation Outremer, felt an affinity with his leader. But the usually confident fifty year old noble, with a distinguished nose shaped like a hawk beak, like a Roman emperor, or a Greek hero, radiated dejection. “We’ve been betrayed. We’re all dead. The Kingdom of Jerusalem…” Raymond took a huge breath. “…is finished.”

“My Lord Count. We-” The defeat in Raymond’s voice staggered Pierre. Pierre sensed that bringing Raymond out of this mood could be crucial to his survival. “A charge, my lord. A charge to the lake. We may be trapped, but a charge to water can save us.”

Raymond stopped next to Pierre. He removed his helmet. “Pierre. My worthy young knight.” Raymond paused. “We just met with King Guy. I begged him to order a charge. But the Templars in the rear have fended off attack after attack. They’re tired. They have the king’s ear. I don’t. They have convinced the king…”—Raymond drew in a deep breath— “…to order a halt.”

“Halt!” Pierre’s eyes widened. “He orders us out of Sephorie and has us pass the Tu’ran Springs without filling water carts, and now he won’t order a break-out to the lake?”

“King Guy… will not listen to me.”

Pierre tilted his head in disbelief. How could the king ignore the advice of Raymond of Tripoli?

Where and when are these men having this conversation?

A) The Horns of Hattin on July 3, 1187

B) The Springs of Goliath on September 2, 1260

C) The Plains of Acre on September 21, 1291

Click 'comment' below to have a crack at this...

Read More... WHERE AM I?

WHO AM I?

Douglas Jackson’s third novel, Hero of Rome, (Bantam) was published at the beginning of July 2010. Jackson made his mark with Caligula and Claudius, and now the Scottish author will please his growing army of readers with this latest offering. In it, Gaius Valerius Verrens, Commander of the veteran legions at Colonia, leads his men in a last stand against the unstoppable horde of Britons. Step by step, the bloodied survivors are forced back into the Temple of Claudius where Valerius will win lifelong fame and the accolade Hero of Rome.

Here's the question: Who is the speaker in this excerpt:

‘No man among the Iceni has suffered greater wrong than I. I will take the fight to the Romans with sword and spear. I will destroy them with fire and with iron. I will have my vengeance! Go now and call the war bands. Every man, be he warrior, youth or elder must play his part. I will wipe the Romans and any who stand with them from this land or I will die in the attempt.’

Volisios stared at her, overwhelmed by her presence and her anger. He snatched a startled glance at Gwlym. Now he understood. The wrath of Andraste.

Click on comment below to leave your answer, and any further observations/opinions. Fire away!

Read More... WHO AM I?

WHERE AM I?

Carla Nayland's Paths of Exile is special. Her novel has attracted high praise from none other than popular historical fiction authors Elizabeth Chadwick and Michelle Moran, and we're delighted to feature this extract to show you just how right Chadwick and Moran are.

The speaker is Eadwine, the central character in Paths of Exile. He is trying to comfort his young nephew, Hereric, whose beloved father has just been killed in battle, by describing the glorious afterlife awaiting a fallen warrior. At the end is a pathetically easy question (go on, leave a comment) but we just wanted you to read Carla's rich prose!

"Now the door swings wide. The flames flicker and out of the swirling smoke strides your father. His mail coat glitters. The grey blade of the spear in his hand glints. The red eyes of the boar upon his helmet glow as if alive, defying anyone to harm the man under its protection. On his shield the fire-drakes writhe, blue and red and green. The hilt of his sword, gold and jewelled, flashes in the firelight so that it hurts the eye to look upon it. At his shoulder the brooch on his cloak sparkles. Beside him the slave girl, though a strapping lass, can barely stagger under the weight of gold and silver plate in her arms.


"The skald ceases in his song. All along the mead-benches the warriors stop their talk, fall silent and turn to gaze. Woden's handmaids pause in their serving and stare, nudge one another and whisper. There are great names among the drinkers in that hall, men who were kings here on earth, yet none came there more richly provisioned, nor more noble in his bearing. All eyes follow him as he strides through the hall. Who is he, this tall and handsome man, bearing gifts of such splendour? Surely a king, king of the greatest kingdom on earth.


"He approaches the top table where the gods sit at meat, the three sons of Tiw Allfather who rule the world of the gods. Woden in the centre, an awesome figure more than man-high, his face shrouded, his one eye burning like a coal. Lord Frey on the left, the foster-son, his golden hair bright as the sun. Thunor on the right, his shoulders three times broader than a big man, his red beard flowing over his mighty chest. On the table before him lies his hammer, that forged the earth and has shattered many a giant's skull, and in his hand he holds the whetstone that makes the lightning flash in the skies. You and I, Hereric, would fall in fear before them, but your father has passed the dread gates of death and they hold no terror for him. He stands before Woden as a thane before his king, respectful, admiring, but not servile, a free man among his equals. At his gesture, the slave girl spreads her burden on the table before the gods. They are pleased with the gifts, for though they have many rare and beautiful things, they have nothing finer.


"Woden rises, cloaked in shadow. He is tall, taller than the tallest man, and his head brushes the rafters of that lofty hall. His voice is like the roar of flame in a forest, like the thunder of waves upon a shore. Woden speaks."

Is the setting:

(a) early Anglo-Saxon England

(b) Carolingian France

(c) Iron Age Gaul

Click 'comment' and tell us what you think...

Read More... WHERE AM I?