Historical Fiction Author Jennifer C. Wilson Knows How to Use NaNoWriMo to Her Advantage

I know a lot of you participate in NaNoWriMo. Even if you've never heard of the National Novel Writing Month challenge, you'll be interested in the post by today's guest. Jennifer C. Wilson has figured out how to make a month of relentless fiction-writing work for her, and her latest novel, Kindred Spirits: Tower of London, is proof.

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A New Novel, Thanks to NaNoWriMo

by Jennifer C. Wilson

In March 2015, I was in Leicester Cathedral, attending the service of compline for my debut novel’s leading man. Rewarded for my early arrival with a front-row seat, I watched his coffin arrive, be carried with solemn ceremony through the doors, and placed on the waiting stand.

There cannot be many writers who get to attend part of their lead character’s funeral, and even fewer historical fiction writers who can claim the same. But there I was. Of course, at that stage, my debut novel was simply a file on my hard-drive, waiting to be worked on, but from the moment I received the pristine white envelope, with the ‘RIII’ emblem on the reverse, I knew I had to get it sorted. Returning that evening to my hotel (by tradition, on the site of the inn Richard III stayed at prior to Bosworth), I opened my notebook and began making plans.

The plotline was thanks to a Writing Magazine poetry competition, to feature ghosts. I started thinking that the spirits of Richard III and Anne Boleyn would have a lot in common if they happened to meet, and the more I thought about it, the most logical place for both to be was the Tower of London. I was lucky enough to visit the Tower twice within six months, in freezing blizzards and glorious sunshine, and gradually ideas began to crystallise. The original poem was awful; I never entered it. But the general arc seemed to flow, and finding a quiet spot on my second visit, the poem became an outline for a novel.

By the time NaNoWriMo arrived, I was ready.

I’ve used NaNoWriMo three times to finish a first draft; I love the manic joy of just sitting down and getting the words out. No self-editing, no re-reading, just onwards to a conclusion that’s never been the one I expected. But there it was: fifty thousand words. It felt almost like cheating, with no need to worry about anachronisms or sixteenth century women using twenty-first century slang, but there was still plenty of fact-checking needed – burial locations, ages, and ensuring people could have met if I’d said they had. This all came later of course, once the bulk of the plot was down, with plenty of time and space for finesse.

For me, NaNoWriMo is the best way to get that first draft ‘out’, and I’m already planning for November 2017. After all, you cannot edit what you haven’t written, however inspired you might be.

Author Jennifer C. Wilson

Two months after compline, my novel was submitted; six months later, it was published. 

NaNoWriMo and a funeral are an odd combination, but hey, with writing, it’s never worth arguing with what appears to work! Although, unless we start looking for more monarchs, I doubt lightning will strike twice…

Kindred Spirits: Tower of London – Blurb

A King, three Queens, a handful of nobles and a host of former courtiers…

In the Tower of London, the dead outnumber the living, with the likes of Tudor Queens Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard rubbing shoulders with one man who has made his way back from his place of death at Bosworth Field to discover the truth about the disappearance of his famous nephews.

Amidst the chaos of daily life, with political and personal tensions running high, Richard III takes control, as each ghostly resident looks for their own peace in the former palace – where privacy was always a limited luxury.

With so many characters haunting the Tower of London, will they all find the calm they crave?

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Learn more about Jennifer C. Wilson on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can purchase Kindred Spirits: Tower of London here.

Author Jennifer Bohnhoff Talks about Mistaken Identities in Middle Grade Fiction

My guest today is Jennifer Bohnhoff, the author of several works of middle grade historical fiction. Her next book, Valverde, is set in New Mexico during the Civil War and will be published this spring. 

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Mistaken Identities in Middle Grade Fiction

by Jennifer Bohnhoff


Most middle school readers wonder if they were adopted. Some actually revel in it: who are these people, and why can’t they understand me? Clearly my own people are elsewhere. Middle grade readers are going through so many emotional, physical and psychological changes that it’s not surprising that they are drawn to books about other children who don’t know who they are. Here are a few suggested books with this theme.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist is the classic novel of mistaken identity. Originally published in monthly installments between 1837 and 1839, it tells the story of an orphan born in a workhouse in 1830s England. Oliver leaves the workhouse when he is nine years old and apprenticed to an undertaker, but runs away and finds himself in the company of a troop of pickpockets. Through a series of interwoven circumstances, the kind that only Dickens could have created, Oliver’s identity is eventually revealed, and the orphan boy goes from rags to riches and takes his rightful place in the kind of generous and loving family that every middle school child wishes he had. 

Jennifer Bohnhoff

Jip, His Story, written in 1996 by the Newbery-winning American novelist Katherine Paterson, focuses on another orphan, this time a 12-year-old. Set on a poor farm in Vermont during the 1850s, it tells the story of a baby who supposedly fell of a cart and was never retrieved. He is called Jip because his dark skin color made people believe he was a gypsy. Despite the hard work and difficult conditions, Jip gets along well with the other workers on the farm, many of whom are mentally ill, and he enjoys working with the farm animals. But when a man shows up and begins asking questions about Jip’s background, it becomes clear that Jip is no gypsy, and his real identity puts him in grave danger.

The main character of my historical novel Code: Elephants on the Moon may not be an orphan, but she still doesn’t know who she is. Eponine Lambaol thinks she is the only red head in a town filled with brown-haired people because she is Breton living in a tiny village in Normandy, France. It is spring of 1944 and there are many things that Eponine doesn’t understand. Where is her father? Who is the mysterious cousin who has come to live with her and her mother? When Eponine finds her mother and cousin listening to strange announcements on a forbidden radio, she realizes that nothing she’s believed about herself is true.

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Learn more about Jennifer Bohnhoff on her website.
You can purchase Code: Elephants on the Moon on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers.

It's launch day! #middlegrade #historicalfiction #musichistory FRANNI AND THE DUKE

Hello! I'm thrilled to share launch day with you. 

Franni and the Duke is here! This is a historical mystery novel about a 12-year-old girl in the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. It takes place in 1608, while famed composer Claudio Monteverdi is rehearsing his new opera, Arianna.

The missing duke of a neighboring town may be hiding out in Mantua as an opera singer. Franni thinks she knows the truth, but she dare not tell...

Buy Franni and the Duke on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, or directly from the publisher, Sunbury Press.

Cover reveal now! FRANNI AND THE DUKE middle grade historical novel from @SunburyPress

In May of 1608, the Duke of Mantua will throw the most spectacular wedding extravaganza in history. But it will all be ruined unless twelve-year-old Franni can keep a very big secret.

Franni and the Duke, coming soon from Sunbury Press, takes place during rehearsals for Arianna, an opera by the great composer Claudio Monteverdi. When Franni and her older sister Alli run away to Mantua, they both find work in Monteverdi's company. 

A messenger from the north announces that the next duke of the town of Bergamo is missing, and he may well be in Mantua. Alli notices that Luca, a singer she's in love with, fits the missing Duke's description. 

Although Franni thinks Luca is a pompous idiot, she promises for Alli's sake to keep Luca's secret safe and protect him from bounty hunters and Bergamo's rival family. She does this with the help of the company's set designer, a worldly wise and world-weary dwarf named Edgardo, who is not exactly what he seems. 

Here's a look at the beautiful cover of Franni and the Duke:

One for Every Taste: My Three Novels Coming Out in 2016

The year 2015 saw a lot of short publications by Anne E. Johnson, but nothing longer than five thousand words. And not for lack of trying. The fact is, when you deal with small publishers, you learn to expect various things not to go as planned.

Giving details would be gauche, so suffice it to say that I lived through a bookless 2015 and now look forward to the 2016 release of three novels, in three genres, from three different publishers. To wit:


WINTER 2016

SPACE SURFERS (Alban Lake Publishing) 
This YA far-future science fiction adventure takes place on a planet called Soranen and features a pair of twins whose ancestry is a mixture of the Ellarisor and Human species. The teens' secret, illegal jet flights above the planet's atmosphere uncover a great mystery that inspires them to figure out the origins of their Human blood.

SPRING 2016

FRANNI AND THE DUKE (Sunbury Press) 
Going back to my roots as a musicologist, I wrote this middle-grade historical novel as a celebration of one of my favorite composers, Claudio Monteverdi. It's May of 1608 when a 12-year-old girl named Franni and her older sister enter the glorious city of Mantua. Soon they find themselves working on Monteverdi's new opera in the Duke's impossibly glamorous Palazzo. But when the Duke of a nearby town goes missing and Franni's sister also seems to be in danger, Franni must piece together a puzzle even more complicated than the maestro's music.

FALL 2016

RED SPAWN DELIVERY (Book 3 of the Webrid Chronicles; Candlemark & Gleam) 
Webrid is back, and it's chaos as usual in the Raralt Planetary Circle. The every-alien who just wants to be left alone to belch beer is once again forced into an adventure. This time a whole litter of babies get stolen from under their mother's nose. And just because the mom went to college with Webrid's friend Zatell, Webrid has to help find the blasted things.

The intensive research behind J.S. Dunn's BENDING THE BOYNE

May I just say how much I love the term "archaeofiction," which I learned from this essay by J.S. Dunn? This author is all about research and historical fiction, two other things I love.

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Bending The Boyne, set in ancient Eire at 2200 BCE, emulates Jean Auel’s carefully researched series 21^st century archaeology and reveals a compelling story of change. Bending The Boyne is the first novel of Bronze Age Ireland to explore what might well have happened underlying the mythology. It can be read as archaeofiction, a tale of a largely forgotten culture.

in 'prehistory'. This work has no druid/esses, no time travel, no leprechauns; in short, no fantasy elements. What could possibly inspire a first-time author to spend ten years researching and writing such a work? The answer lies in western Europe’s oldest mythology and its largest concentration of prehistoric rock art. The Boyne mounds, older than the pyramids and Stonehenge, fell out of use around the end of the third millennium BCE as did megaliths along much of the north Atlantic coasts, from the Pyrenees in northern Spain, to Brittany, and into the Isles. The great passage mounds and their carved rocks are now acknowledged to be intricately engineered observatories for movements of sun, moon, and constellations. So what happened?

            To show the cultural clash between astronomy-loving natives and the metal-using newcomers proved no small task. Academics don't agree on all issues but gradually the pattern emerged, that the Beaker People of ca. 2200 BCE disrupted the native culture wherever they arrived. Fortunately, the author enjoyed reading numerous archaeology, archaeogenetics, and astonomy volumes and journals. RyanAir's cheap fares facilitated travel from Ireland, where the author had a country stone house, to the coasts of Wales, Orkney, Brittany, and Spain. 

            Boann’s impassioned struggle to hold on to her people’s astronomy and their values forms the central conflict, when marauders with long bronze knives seek to plunder the Boyne for gold. Boann is associated with the river Boyne and with the white river in the sky, the Milky Way. She appears briefly in the earliest myths and then she literally disappears. Her son Aengus is strongly associated with the passage mound now called Newgrange, his origin a prehistoric version of Who’s Your Daddy? The myths are not clear on just who is his father. It is clear that Boann is the mother of Aengus. In this novel, she is also an apprentice learning her people’s astronomy.

            She faces the choice of duty as against personal desires. Boann’s lover Cian, another sketchy figure from the earliest mythology, is banished overseas. From there he figures out how to help Boann and his people survive the incoming warriors in a profound way.

            The discord surrounding Aengus’ paternity haunts him into adulthood and leads to the shocking result when Aengus finally confronts Elcmar, the invader who married Boann for his own purposes.

            Aengus knows that “all of time is made up of night and day.” He intends to hold onto the Boyne forever, newcomers or not. Truth is stranger than fiction. Even today, winter solstice sunrise warms the inner chamber after more than 4,000 years. So it is that Aengus, the young son of Boann, returns at solstice to shine upon Eire. The Bru na Boinn complex in Ireland is now a UN World Heritage site that has tens of thousands of visitors annually. Perhaps the builders knew this structure could last forever.

            The hidden gold of Eire is not metal, it is the myths themselves and the rich heritage of Irish literature from the likes of Yeats, Synge, Joyce, Flann O’Brien, and others. The astute reader will catch echoes of these in Bending The Boyne.

            One last thing, about the precise location of gold in Ireland: that is still a secret.

More about Bending the Boyne:

Circa 2200 BCE: Changes rocking the Continent reach Eire with the dawning Bronze Age when marauders invade seeking copper and gold. The astronomer Boann and her lover the enigmatic Cian need all their wits and courage to save their people and their great Boyne mounds, as long bronze knives challenge the peaceful native starwatchers. Banished to far coasts, Cian discovers how to outwit the invaders at their own game. Tensions on Eire between new and old cultures and between Boann, Elcmar, and her son Aengus, ultimately explode. What emerges from the rubble of battle are the legends of Ireland’s beginnings in a totally new light.

This story appeals to fans of solid historical fiction, myth and fantasy, archaeo-astronomy, and Bronze Age Europe. Bending The Boyne received first place, historical fiction, 2011 Next Generation Awards.

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Follow the Bending the Boyne Facebook Page.

Purchase Bending the Boyne on Amazon.

Barbara Gaskell Denvil introduces the world to her medieval historical fiction

Always happy to have a writer of historical fiction as my guest. This week we have the talented and prolific Barbara Gaskell Denvil, who talks with such enthusiasm about writing her medieval English novels that you can't help but want to read them!

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INTRIGUING TALES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE

By Barbara Gaskell Denvil

Echoes in the night, running footsteps on the cobbles, the flicker of a candle flame at a window, distorted behind thick green-tinged glass. Outside in London’s alleyways the darkness is intense as the moon is hidden behind the rooftops with their soaring chimneys. But suddenly there’s the flare of a torch and its sizzle of fire. The Watch is coming – following – calling!  But the light is then extinguished, in the wind. Panting, losing breath, whispers. The lanes are narrow and the central gutters are thick with rubbish. The footsteps continue,  though now fainter in the distance. He is getting away.

Dreams. Visions. Inspiration. Hauntings.

I write historical fiction, and my books are set in late medieval England around the latter half of the 15^th century. There’s a reason for this, for I have dreamed of such things all my life and the episode above is a typical night’s journey into the past. Even while living a highly romantic life for some years on a yacht sailing the sunny Mediterranean, I slipped into those medieval paths of my dreams.

When I started, many, many years ago, to seriously research the period that I already visited once asleep, I found an absorbing fascination in such details. This has never abated. I love to study the principal characters of the era, such as Richard III, Edward IV, Henry VII and all their amazing lords, ladies, courtiers and followers. But it is the ordinary people who inspire me most of all, along with their intriguing lives, limitations, desperate struggles and beliefs .

I have always been an author of sorts, an editor, critic, journalist, short story writer, screenwriter, and most of all a reader. And so it came naturally for me to write about the experiences which were already nightly dramas. I have now written several historical novels based around this late medieval period, and although my plots are centred around genuine historical characters and events, it is my own multi-layered storylines inhabited by beggars and soldiers, prostitutes and butchers, thieves and orphaned children, which interest me the most. My books are long – sorry – but with a huge cast of characters and depth of plot, a short book would be inadequate. After all, it takes a long book to relate all the interweaving mystery, adventure, crime and romance that my books involve. I am fussy about historical accuracy, but it is bringing my individual characters to life which I particularly love, since they all quickly become my great friends – even the villains – and I continue caring for them long after the book is finished.

Two of my historical novels have been on sale for some time in Australia where I now live – but I have recently made them available worldwide and now have great pleasure in announcing that SATIN CINNABAR, SUMERFORD’S AUTUMN and BLESSOP’S WIFE are all available worldwide on Amazon.

BLESSOP’S WIFE (published as The King’s Shadow in Australia) is a tale of crime, mystery and espionage set against the turbulent times when Edward IV died, and events led to Richard III accepting the throne. SATIN CINNABAR actually starts on the battlefield of Bosworth as Henry Tudor claims the crown of England from Richard III. SUMERFORD’S AUTUMN takes place during the first years of the dawning Tudor dynasty when the pretender known as Perkin Warbeck appears in England, claiming to be the rightful king. These books do not lead on one from the other, and each has its individual story and characters. But the dark and troublesome background of late medieval England persists – on the page just as it does in my head.

I continue to write of course, every day at my computer with the glorious Australian scenery and wildlife outside my window for inspiration. Rather a contrast to dark medieval alleys, but the peace and beauty are great for concentrating the mind. All I hear is wind in the trees and birdsong – then the click, click of my keyboard. So there are many more books to come -----

Blurb for BLESSOP’S WIFE

1483 and Edward IV wears England’s crown, but no king rules unchallenged. Often it is those closest to him who are the unexpected danger. When the king dies suddenly, rumour replaces fact – and Andrew Cobham is already working behind the scenes.

Tyballis was forced into marriage and when she escapes, she meets Andrew and an uneasy alliance forms. Their friendship will take them in unusual directions as Tyballis becomes embroiled in Andrew’s work and the danger which surrounds him. A motley gathering of thieves, informers, prostitutes and children eventually joins the game, helping to uncover the underlying treason, as the country is brought to the brink of war.

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Learn more about Barbara Gaskell Denvil on her blog. Follow her on Facebook.

Purchase Sumerford's Autumn and Blessop's Wife.

Diana Reep Uses Spanish-American War as Backdrop for #YAlit novel

Fact is, we haven't had enough YA historical fiction on this blog. Diana Reep is here to fix that, sharing some background about her novel, The Dangerous Summer of Jesse Turner. Hold onto your hats: we're in for some rough riding.

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Teddy Roosevelt’s Volunteers

By Diana Reep

I appreciate the chance to talk about my teen historical adventure, The Dangerous Summer of Jesse Turner. I prefer to write fiction based on action-packed exploits in the past. The Spanish-American War of 1898, although brief, certainly fit that requirement and also was crucial in creating an independent Cuba. My research partner and I were discussing the 1890s in general when we realized the war was a perfect setting for a teen adventure.

President McKinley sent the regular U.S. Army to Cuba, but the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment formed by Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt captured the attention of the public. Volunteers for the Rough Riders, as the regiment was called, came from across the nation—cowboys, students from Yale and Harvard, farmers, and Indians from the western territories.  The challenge in historical fiction is to create vivid characters who live their own lives within the framework of historical events. 

The diversity of Rough Rider volunteers made it easy to develop three teens from different backgrounds who find friendship and loyal comrades amid sudden bloody conflict. Choosing the teen to narrate the story was also easy. Jesse Turner is from a small town in the Missouri area where the famous outlaws Frank and Jesse James and the Younger brothers once lived. Attaching his family background to the outlaw history means he has to face a personal enemy among his fellow Rough Riders along with the deadly hazards of combat. His pals, New Yorker Will and Ben, a Comanche from the territories, share his dangers and struggle with their own personal tests.

The fun in research for me is finding stories that lie beneath the general surface record.  For instance, although the volunteers were called Rough Riders, they had to leave most of their horses behind in Florida because the decrepit merchant ships taking them to Cuba were overloaded with troops. Of the horses that did sail to Cuba, most drowned in attempting to land on the beaches. So, the Rough Riders walked through the jungle and fought on foot. Battles often get the most attention in history books, but just as important were the daily frustrations the volunteers had to face—ugly land crabs, heat, rotten food, fever, torrential rains, and constant wet feet.

Readers who like fast-paced action-adventure will find it in The Dangerous Summer of Jesse Turner. As a writer I hated to leave Jesse, Will, and Ben, and they remain my favorite characters.  

Blurb:  When sixteen-year-old Jesse Turner lies about his age and joins Colonel Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, he expects to prove himself in battle. What he doesn’t expect is a fellow volunteer determined to kill him for something his outlaw father did in the past. Jesse and his new friends, New Yorker Will and Ben, a Comanche from the Indian Territories, share the hazards of a volunteer military force unprepared for war and the reality of deadly combat. Facing dangers from all sides, the three teens depend on friendship, courage, and integrity to get them through the bloody action of the Spanish-American War.

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Purchase The Dangerous Summer of Jesse Turner at Barnes and Noble and Amazon

Learn more about Diana Reep here. 

Gender-bending for the love of science in Catherine Haustein's NATURAL ATTRACTION

My guest today is Catherine Haustein, author of Natural Attraction, a science-based historical romance. She shares her book's complex background.

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Science, Sexuality, and Classification

by Catherine Haustein

I’ve been a chemist for over thirty years and it’s a stimulating and often amusing career—in other words, good novel material. Like Clementine in Natural Attraction, I’ve frequently imagined that things would have gone more smoothly had I been a man. Setting Natural Attraction in a time of strict gender roles illustrates how far we’ve come and what still needs to be done.

I chose to place Natural Attraction in 1871 because it was a time of great social change. The theory of evolution and the discovery of sperm and egg cells were quietly ushering in ideas of social equality. Science was a train riding the rails of certainty and classification. And in the hometown of my ancestors, Singapore, Michigan, USA, ecological disaster was brewing. These coalesce in Natural Attraction.

Picking the best genre for the story was a challenge. I decided to write it as romance, not sci-fi. My family was involved in a Shakespeare Festival for a while and I appreciated the complexity of the comedies and the required happy ending, fitting with a romance. Science is filled with passion, curiosity, and the unknown just like romance and the two are very compatible. I also thought it would be fun to give a scientist a romantic liaison with a preacher to let them explore what they had in common.

Another challenge was giving Natural Attraction a Victorian feel without being weighed down by flowery language. I had Clementine be from a family of recent immigrants from the Netherlands, as my ancestors were. I had some characters use Victorian idiomatic expressions. I enjoyed incorporating a Victorian melodrama and theater into the manuscript and included patent medicines and the use of poisonous dyes in clothing as important Victorian touches.

One aspect I wrestled with was how to address sexuality and the transformation of Clementine into a man. I work in a male dominated field and had an inkling of the isolation she might feel as a woman who didn’t really fit in anywhere. I had help from men, particularly those at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, who offered suggestions on what it takes to be a man and the privilege and culpability that come with masculinity. This book is a romance pitched towards women but the comic look at gender roles should appeal to everyone who’s ever felt stuck in them.

Blurb: Clementine dreams of being a naturalist—a career that leaves no time for romance. To sneak on an adventurous prospecting expedition, Clementine will have to convince everyone she’s a man. A mysterious tonic offers her just that disguise.
But “Calvin,” as she calls herself now, had no idea what she was giving up. When Wesley, the expedition’s gentle preacher, catches her eye, she can’t get him out of her head; not his lush lips, wide brown eyes…or broad chest. Dare she reveal her secret to him? Can she keep her career if she does?

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Natural Attraction is available from Penner Publishing, Lybrary, and other major booksellers.

Find the author at catherinehaustein.com and on Facebook

Dionne Lorae Holly's CAMP BIRDSONG tells of the Girl Scouts' legacy for Black History Month

Happy Black History Month! We celebrate with a wonderful guest, author Dionne Lorae Holly, who shares with us the fascinating history behind her new book.

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CAMP BIRDSONG: A Night Under The Stars

When it’s darkest, the stars shine the brightest

By Dionne Lorae Holly

I began my adventure in researching for Camp Birdsong: A Night Under The Stars as a Girl Scout Troop Leader. I created a Black History Month badge activity for my troop about the first campgrounds for African American Girls.  The activity presented 1940’s vintage uniforms, handbooks, and photographs.  The presentation became popular thorough out my Girl Scout Service Unit.

What peeked my interest to do research is the famous Girl Scout quote by the founder, Juliette Low. Low called her friend describing a program she has for girls, "I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!”  The Girl Scouts began in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia. Then, there is a rumored quote by Martin Luther King Jr. dated in 1956, which describes the Girl Scouts as a force in desegregation. I had to learn what happened in between those two quotes.

I made inquiries online and learned about Girl Scout Volunteer, Josephine Holloway. She donated not only her time, but also bought land in Tennessee for a Girl Scout camp for African American girls.  The Jim Crow laws prevented her troop from a true camping experience.  The girls could not sleep overnight. Eventually, the local Girl Scout council purchased the campgrounds from Holloway.  Later the council integrated the campgrounds. 

Prior to Holloway purchasing the land, her troop traveled to Indiana to camp overnight.  

After reading about Holloway, I called the Tennessee Girl Scout Historian; I asked if there were any photographs. She replied no.  In my disbelief that there were not any photographs, I said, “You know what I’m coming up there.” The local council gave me permission to explore Camp Holloway for my research.  I drove four hundred miles across state lines to visit. Once there I toured the grounds and walked through the Holloway homestead. I saw the photographs!  I thought maybe that the historian had not visited the camp…

In order to tell this historical fiction authentically, I interviewed my mom.  As a Girl Scout from the 1950’s, she shared how she made a bed roll (sleeping bag) and cooked meals over an open fire. Foremost, she described how she felt many times like a spectator and not a participant at the annual Girl Scout gathering called Camporee.  My story uses a fictional scouting group called Girl Rangers. I studied orienteering for my research as well. The story tells how the Girl Rangers learn about the sun and the stars. The most shocking discovery I made was to learn the idea of introducing girls into scouting; was when the Boys Scouts founder, British General Powell observed African Zulu women’s resourcefulness while their tribesmen were away at war. 

Camp Birdsong: A Night Under The Stars is considered a children’s Black History Month book, but it is an inspirational story for any age, any gender or any skin color. The story shows how to overcome challenges and make your dreams come true. 

Blurb for Camp Birdsong: A Night Under The Stars:

In the 1940’s Joalee Olingsworth is frustrated when the local Jim Crow laws prevents her daughter from becoming Girl Ranger. Growing up a preacher’s kid, she’s fearless to give her daughter and the girls in her community the equal opportunity to enjoy a camping experience. She travels near and far for freedom to have “A Night Under The Stars.”

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Purchase Camp Birdsong: A Night Under The Stars on Amazon and Barnes & Noble; if you live the metro Atlanta area visit the Greater Atlanta Girl Scout Shop, 5601 Allen Rd. Mableton, GA 30126.

To learn about the author visit her website or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Tom Williams and his Historical Secret Agent, James Burke

Today's guest, Tom Williams, tells us about the research and inspiration for his historical adventure, Burke in the Land of Silver. Ladies and gents, meet James Burke....

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Years ago, I wrote a 19^th century historical novel that attracted interest from publishers but was generally regarded as too "difficult" for a first novel. My agent (yes, I had an agent then) said that I should write a more straightforward historical adventure in the same period. It made sense, but I like writing stories that are strongly based in historical reality, so I had to find a real life figure I could base an exciting story on. A friend who knows how much I love Argentina suggested that I look at Europeans who were in South America in the early days of that country. Thanks to her, I discovered James Burke, a little known spy for the British around the time of the Napoleonic wars. Burke’s story had everything: war, espionage, beautiful women and an evil villain.

I've taken a few liberties in the telling of the tale but the plot of what became Burke in the Land of Silver is mostly either definitely true or very well could be. As I had already visited Argentina several times, I was writing about a place that I knew and I made a couple of extra trips to research places that were particularly connected with James Burke. That meant the opportunity to ride out with the gauchos on a cattle ranch and a trip on horseback up the Andes, besides the usual visits to museums and historical sites in Buenos Aires.

The story is set around the British invasion of Buenos Aires in 1806. It’s a little known – and not particularly impressive -- part of Britain's colonial history. The book gave me the chance to tell the story of a military adventure that few people will have heard of.

What I tried to do, having got this historical background accurate, was to write a modern spy story but set two hundred years ago. James Burke was to be my James Bond. I have always thought that Ian Fleming was a great writer and that his books are a model of how to write a thriller. Like Bond, Burke is nominally in the armed forces. Bond is a naval officer, Burke is in the infantry. Like Bond, he is a flawed hero: a snobbish womaniser, always with an eye to the main chance. (I’m not saying he has exactly the same flaws as Bond, but there's certainly an overlap.) In the end, though, we admire him because he is brave, loyal, and, when forced to choose, will ultimately do the right thing. It helps that he’s good looking, an excellent rider, multi-lingual and a crack shot.

Does it work? Well, I enjoyed writing it and, more importantly, I enjoyed reading it when I had to check the finished product before publication. I wouldn't claim that it's up to Fleming's standard, but I think it compares well with some of the stuff that’s been passed off as James Bond since Fleming died. I’m not really the person to say, though. Why not read it and decide for yourself?

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Learn more about Tom Williams on his blog.

Burke in the Land of Silver is available on Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle.

J.R. Sparlin's Irish Saga, The Sea at Mughain

Sometimes a journey can open the floodgates of a writer's mind. When J.R. Sparlin visited Ireland, a new saga was born from the ancient past. With the help of a lot of fascinating research, she turned her impressions of the Celtic surroundings into her YA historical fantasy novella, The Sea at Mughain.

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Threads

by J.R. Sparlin

When my husband and I visited Ireland, the first thing we saw was a big sign that read, “If you think this is all there is to Ireland, you’re wrong.” A toy leprechaun was stabbed onto it with a knife.

Many threads came together to give me the idea for The Sea at Mughain. Ireland was not at all what I expected. I had not, of course, expected leprechauns. But it is an ancient, remote, eerie place, full of sun-dappled green valleys, sheep, and the ruins of castles, churches, and ancient monuments no one really understands. It is also a modern country, with all the challenges faced by any of the rest of us.

The people of Ireland are anything but remote; we had wonderful conversations with our B&B proprietors and others we met along the way. One of the places we stayed was a renovated nineteenth-century schoolhouse in Ballinskelligs, just out of sight of the sea, an area believed by the ancient Celts to be an “in-between place” between our world and the Otherworld.  I sat by a peat fire in the sitting room and watched a wave of opaque white fog, several feet high, roll in over the hills that hid the sea. No getting around it, it was strange.

At some point after our trip, I was sick and had nothing to read. My husband has a degree in ancient and medieval history and has accumulated an extensive library. I snuffled around and found a volume entitled Ireland before the Vikings. I greatly enjoyed reading it. I especially liked a remark, early in the book, to the effect of, “This was a very long time ago and we have very little evidence so this may or may not be right.” Now that just begs for stuff to be made up. Derek was horrified to find me reading it; it is very scholarly and I was very sick and he felt I should be reading something lighter, so he went out and bought me two movie-star magazines. (I read those as well.) But the damage was done. I read another book, How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill, and was intrigued by the way Christianity had spread in Ireland. It was a much more peaceful process than in the rest of Europe, but it was still a period of conflict and transition between the old and new ways, and that type of transitional period, to me, just begs for stories.

I learned, as well, that a branch of my mother’s family may be descended from Dal Riata, one of the ancient kingdoms of Ireland (roughly equivalent to today’s County Antrim). This may or may not be true, but it is fun to consider.

So these were probably the main threads. Here you have a highly developed heroic culture in sixth-century Ireland, and most of the history and stories of the period deal with kings and battles and so on. I was interested in how a relatively unimportant young woman would fit into this picture, and that is how Mughain, daughter of Tiernan, king of Dal nAraide, came to be. If this were a “real” Irish saga, it would likely be about her father, not her. There is no shortage of strong female characters in the old stories, but they are in positions of more prominence.

So the story wove itself around these threads, and banged around in my skull until I wrote it down, and I present it to you, and hope I have done some justice to its strangeness and beauty.

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Learn more about J.R. Sparlin by visiting her blog or following her on Facebook.

You can purchase The Sea at Mughain on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Kim Rendfeld Interprets Saxon History in THE ASHES OF HEAVEN'S PILLAR

One of the greatest challenges facing a historical novelist is choosing what information to use from a sea of research. But just as tricky is wanting to find out about a historical event or place and discovering that almost nothing is known about it for sure. Kim Rendfeld dealt with both of these situations as she wrote her latest novel.

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What Was the Real Pillar of Heaven?

By Kim Rendfeld

The title for The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar is derived from the Irminsul, a pillar sacred to the Continental Saxon peoples, including my heroine, Leova. The one thing we know with certainty: Charlemagne ordered its destruction in 772 and took the gold and silver in its temple.

The nature and location of the Irminsul is uncertain—as is whether it was the only one. Some sources say it was a stone pillar, others say wooden pillar, and still others say it was a tree. It’s been described as having an idol of the war god atop it. Because of the presence of a carving, some have placed it at the Externsteine, north of the Saxon fortress Eresburg.

We can’t turn to the pagan Saxons for any clarity. They did not have a written language as we know it, and the Church did everything it could to obliterate a religion it considered devil worship.

So what’s a historical novelist to do with so many contradictions? Choose the most plausible version that best fits her story and confess her liberties in an author’s note. Or a blog post.

My first liberty is to call the Irminsul the Pillar of Heaven. Irminsul is often translated as “universal pillar.” I chose Pillar of Heaven in my novel because frankly it sounds better. And Wodan, the war god whose idol might have surmounted the pillar, was a sky god, so the Pillar of Heaven is not too much of a stretch.

Next was the location. Leova lives in a village just outside the fortress of Eresburg. Having it nearby allowed her to smell the smoke when it burned and see the charred blotch it left behind. It made the loss more real and more devastating.

Flames are a dramatic form of destruction, which is why I decided the pillar should be made of wood. To the Continental Saxons, the Irminsul’s destruction was the equivalent of burning a cathedral. Did the Saxons believe anyone who desecrated their sacred monument would face the gods’ wrath? Again, there is no text to verify it. But this was age that believed in divine favor and retribution, so that idea passes the plausibility test.

From a storyteller’s point of view, actual facts about the Irminsul are not as important as its impact on the characters. And in this case, Leova’s faith is shaken, as you will see in the excerpt below.

 

Excerpt

“I greet you in the name of Our Lord, Jesus the Christ,” he roared. “My name is Father Osbald. We come in peace and mean you no harm.”

By his accent, Leova knew the priest was a Saxon from Britain, like many of the other priests who had come to her village. They were mild men bearing treats for the children along with the teachings of their odd religion.

“But the God who destroyed the Irminsul will strike down anyone who harms us,” the priest said. “The sound of our horn will summon scores of Christian soldiers to our aid.”

From the corner of her eye, Leova saw Wulfgar and Ludgar shrinking back. Perhaps, the Christian God was stronger than the gods of the Saxons.

“We will give safe conduct to Eresburg to anyone who promises to accept baptism,” Osbald continued.

Wulfgar’s voice boomed. “How can you give safe conduct? You are not warriors.”

“We do not need swords and armor when we have the power of the one, true God. The Frankish soldiers know God will condemn their souls to eternal torture if they harm anyone in our care.”

Osbald spoke Saxon, but Leova could not understand half of what he was saying. From the confidence in his voice, Leova surmised the Christian God had given His priests magic power, enough to cow warriors into submission. How she needed safe conduct to the fortress—and Derwine!

“What is baptism?” Leova asked.

“You vow to follow Christ, forsaking your devils, and He cleanses you of your sins,” the priest replied.

“Do we have to shave our hair in that strange way?” Sunwynn asked.

“No, child.” Osbald chuckled. “The tonsure is an honor reserved only for men of the clergy.”

Baptism appealed to Leova. She suspected the conquerors would be more generous with those who shared their religion. Maybe it was fate to follow a stronger God. The Saxon gods had allowed the Irminsul to be destroyed, Leodwulf and Derwine to die, and Eresburg to be conquered by foreigners. Despite her sacrifices and prayers, the Saxon gods had betrayed her and her family!

“I and my children accept your offer,” Leova called to the Christian priest, “but we will attend to our dead first.”

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To read the first chapter or find out more about Kim Renfield, visit her website, her blog Outtakes of a Historical Novelist, or like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter at @kimrendfeld.

You can purchase The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and elsewhere.

Historical fiction from Christie Maurer: The world of medieval music

As some of you may know, I studied musicology in grad school and taught music history for many years. My specialty was medieval music. Imagine my delight to discover the books of Christie Maurer, whose series uses the world of the troubadour as its backdrop. Christie shares a bit of historical context with us today.

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Troubadours in Life and Literature

by Christie Maurer

The hero of my medieval fantasy series is Sir Loriano of Vayne (pun intended), a whimsical, irreverent young troubadour with a superb tenor voice. The theme is the struggle of a repressed feminine (the Dark Lady) against an entrenched patriarchy (a god of Light and Fire). A troubadour bridges between both worlds—a man who writes poetry to an unattainable high-placed lady, and Loriano is sworn to champion oppressed women.

I wanted The Whitewood Kitarra to show how troubadours related to one another, their work, and their patrons. We meet a group of them on the way to a tournament of verse. The sharp-tongued Gillom is Marcabru, known for his caustic wit. Overweight Rikkert is Gaucelm Faidit, who was very fat and made fine verses but couldn’t sing, so he hired a singer ... At a party, a trobairitz (Comtessa de Dia) sings of her lover’s infidelity. They quarrel, put each other down, steal one another’s verse, and all seek the beautiful countess’s patronage. 

The first known troubadour was Guillaume IX, Duke of Aquitaine (1071-1126), a Crusader and traveler who had two wives and took his neighbor’s wife for a long-term mistress. His poetry ranges from tender passion to outright raunchy.

Troubadours flourished—the 12^th and 13^th Centuries in Languedoc/Provence. The songs sound weird and plaintive to modern ears, but listen closely and study the text. You’ll discover passion, longing, subtle word plays, and laugh-aloud humor. For example, in Dona, tant vos ai preida by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras the poet courts a Genovese in elegant Languedoc and she tells him off in gutter Italian.

Bertran (Bernatz) of Ventadorn was the master. In The Dark Lady’s Stone Loriano’s poems are a paraphrase of his. My favorite Lancan vei la follhe winds its way through my later chapters. The son of palace servants, Bertran was banished from Ventadorn for making love to the countess. Henry II took Bertran into his house, and some of his poetry for Eleanor of Aquitaine (Guillaume’s granddaughter) was so passionate that scholars wonder if they had an affair. “I will kiss her on the mouth ... so that for a month the marks will be seen,” and “What is life worth if I don’t see in bed, under the window, my lady’s body, white as snow ...”

Jaufre Rudel de Blaye exemplifies amor de lonh, or distant love. He fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli for her reputation, and they exchanged letters and poems. He joined the Second Crusade to go meet her, but he fell ill on the ship and was dying when he reached port. She hurried to his side, and he died in her arms. When Loriano thinks of a lady he will never see again, I hear Lancan li journ en mai . . .

The brutal Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars (1209-1244) utterly destroyed tolerant culture of Languedoc. The troubadours fled to Italy and Spain and French laws, language, and lords replaced what had been, and the Inquisition broke religious resistance.

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To learn more about Christie Maurer and her series, visit her blog.

The Dark Lady’s Stone and The Whitewood Kitarra are available on Amazon and Smashwords. 

Shauna Roberts on Mesopotamia and Doing Lots (and Lots) of Research

During my inglorious days in Academia, I nearly went to graduate school in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Thus, I was especially excited when today's guest, Shauna Roberts, offered to discuss how she researched her novels about ancient Mesopotamia.

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Five Reasons I Over-research…

and Over-research…and Over-research

by Shauna Roberts

1. I love research! Although the “butt in chair, fingers on keyboard” part of writing a novel is fun, I prefer research. Whether the subject is ancient cosmetics, the aurochs (the ancestor of modern cattle), or the climate of the Near East after the last Ice Age, research topics often turn into obsessions.

2. I usually take the less-traveled road. For example, my historical novel Like Mayflies in the Stream (Hadley Rille Books, 2009) and my forthcoming historical romance Claimed by the Enemy (Nicobar Press, June 2014) both have what some consider an obscure setting: ancient Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq and Syria). The two books take place in different cities and more than 400 years apart, so I had to do a lot of new research for the second book.

3. Sources often contain mistakes, overgeneralizations, and differences of opinion. Everyone knows by now not to use Wikipedia as a sole source. But it’s not unique in its problems. I worked as a medical and science writer and editor for twenty-five years, and one of the first things I learned was not to trust any source by itself, even when the source was the scientist or company I was writing about.

Writing with confidence about an ancient civilization requires the author to:

• read narrow, specific articles in scholarly journals and then extrapolate to other cities, other decades, other age groups, or the opposite sex

• read popular books and textbooks and then separate wild generalizations about, say, diet or religious practices from generalizations that did hold true for centuries or millennia

• look at art with as few preconceptions as possible and research what you think you see. For example, the equines pulling chariots in Mesopotamian art before 2000 B.C. look like horses, but aren’t. What are they? Scholars disagree.

• take the prejudices of the authors’ time into account. For example, the 1920s field reports of the excavations of the city of Ur describe the finds accurately. But the scholars’ interpretations are clearly influenced by, for example, their literal belief in the Biblical flood story (Mesopotamia actually suffered several extraordinary floods, not just one) and their assumption that women never ruled cities (wrong). 

4. Original sources are often in foreign languages. The scholarly literature on ancient Mesopotamia is often in German or French and partly relies on documents in the ancient Mesopotamia languages of Sumerian and Akkadian. I can read French and German, but not expertly, so I do extra research to verify facts from articles in those languages.

Two summers ago, I took a correspondence course in Sumerian. (Really!) Now I can compare the transcriptions of original texts against authors’ modern translations and judge for myself how reliable each might be.

5. Over-research makes it easier to avoid info dumps. Historical novelists often love their research so much they want to include every last bit in their book. After all, we’ve already generously shared with friends every detail of fabric dyes or furniture construction or cooking techniques of our time period, and readers are just friends that we haven’t met yet.

Over-research curbs that tendency because it leads to finding conflicting interpretations and contradictory evidence. One is acutely aware that few “facts” are 100% certain. For example, I read in the past week that chemical analyses of the bones of ancient Egyptians suggest they were vegetarians. In contrast, ancient art and common sense suggest Egyptians ate a lot of fish. (Glad I’m not writing a novel set in ancient Egypt right now!)

As a reader, I want a novel to provide an accurate understanding of life in a particular era, but I also want a strong plot and characters with understandable motivations. Let’s face it: It’s hard to understand the motivations of people in 1950, let alone those of people in 1950 B.C.E. Authors must modernize characters at least a little—enough that readers don’t see them as alien and incomprehensible.

As a writer, I try to provide the reading experience I desire for myself by writing a story deeply grounded in the time and place but not mired in details (which could be wrong) or explanations (which jerk the reader out of the story).

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Learn more about Shauna Roberts on her website.

Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

You can buy Like Mayflies in a Stream on Amazon and B&N.

Claimed by the Enemy will be available this summer.