I’m really excited to share the details of the Pagan Warrior blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.
I might have written this book many years ago, but it’s had a refresh, and is now available in audio, narrated by the fabulous, Matt Coles, as is the second book, Pagan King. Warrior King will be coming later this year in audio.
You can follow the blog tour, and I’ll be sharing posts here as well. A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.
And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.
For March 21st check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos, thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all).
Finally free of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, is now married to Anne Boleyn and eagerly awaiting the birth of his son. In a court still reeling from the royal divorce and growing public resentment against church reform, Henry must negotiate widespread resentment toward Anne. He places all his hopes in a son to cement his Tudor blood line, but his dreams are shattered when Anne is delivered of a daughter.
Burying his disappointment, Henry focuses on getting her with child again, but their marriage is volatile and as Henry faces personal bereavement, and discord at court, Anne’s enemies are gathering. When the queen miscarries of a son, and Henry suffers a life-threatening accident, his need for an heir becomes critical. Waiting in the wings is Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting who offers the king comfort and respite from Anne’s fiery passions.
But, when Anne falls foul of her former ally, Thomas Cromwell, and the king is persuaded he has been made a cuckold, Henry strikes out and the queen falls beneath the executioner’s sword, taking key players in Henry’s household with her.
Jane Seymour, stepping up to replace the fallen queen, quickly becomes pregnant. Delighted with his dull but fertile wife, Henry’s spirits rise even further when the prince is born safely. At last, Henry has all he desires but even as he celebrates, fate is preparing to deliver one more staggering blow.
Henry, the once perfect Renaissance prince, is now a damaged middle-aged man, disappointed in those around him but most of all in himself. As the king’s optimism diminishes, his intractability increases, and the wounded lion begins to roar.
Buy Links
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
When Judith Arnopp began to write professionally there was no question as to which genre to choose. A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds an honours degree in English and Creative writing, and a Masters in Medieval Studies, both from the University of Wales, Lampeter.
Judith writes both fiction and non-fiction, working full-time from her home overlooking Cardigan Bay in Wales where she crafts novels based in the Medieval and Tudor period. Her main focus is on the perspective of historical women from all roles of life, prostitutes to queens, but she has recently turned her attention to Henry VIII himself.
Her novels include:
A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years. (Book one of The Henrician Chronicle)
A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the years of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle)
The Beaufort Bride: (Book one of The Beaufort Chronicle)
The Beaufort Woman: (Book two of The Beaufort Chronicle)
The Kings Mother: (Book three of The Beaufort Chronicle)
The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England
A Song of Sixpence: The story of Elizabeth of York
Intractable Heart: The story of Katheryn Parr
The Kiss of the Concubine: A story of Anne Boleyn
Sisters of Arden: on the pilgrimage of Grace
The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII
The Song of Heledd:
The Forest Dwellers
Peaceweaver
Her non-fiction articles feature in various historical anthologies and magazines and an illustrated non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor will be published by Pen & Sword in 2023.
I’m really excited to share the details of the Pagan Warrior blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.
I might have written this book many years ago, but it’s had a refresh, and is now available in audio, narrated by the fabulous, Matt Coles, as is the second book, Pagan King. Warrior King will be coming later this year in audio.
You can follow the blog tour, and I’ll be sharing posts here as well. A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.
For April 25th, check out a post about Penda of Mercia.
And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.
For March 21st check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos, thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all).
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Alison Morton to the blog to celebrate the 10th Anniversary edition of INCEPTIO.
Why Roman alternative history?
An avid reader of spy, thriller and crime stories from childhood and a life-long devotee of all things Roman, I yearned to write a Roman thriller with a true-hearted heroine imbued with Roman virtue but a tendency to go off-piste. Lindsey Davis does this beautifully with Flavia Albia, Falco’s daughter and to a certain extent with Helena Justina, Falco’s wife. However, I wanted women to run this New Rome. Yes, I had also read a lot of science fiction including wonderful stories by Anne McCaffery where women were equal if not leading their society. But I didn’t want to write space opera.
There was only one solution: I stayed on Planet Earth and brought my Roman stories up to the 21st century.
A fascination with the ‘what if’ idea
Perhaps it’s something all kids speculate about: suppose I have the wrong parents, suppose I’m really a lost princess, what if I could fly, what if we were all rich? Later, as a student of history, I was always fascinated by the possibilities of the tiniest thing turning the huge wheel of history – “For want of a nail,” and so on. Then I learnt about the ‘butterfly of doom’ where one butterfly flapping its wings cascaded events in a different direction.
When I produced my first manuscript, I didn’t know I was writing in a genre called alternative history (“althist” for short). I was inspired by Robert Harris’s Fatherland, a tense, shocking and beautifully written thriller with a heart-wrenching ‘secret’. Twisting history was allowed and used by acclaimed writers such as Michael Chabon and Kingsley Amis as well as Harris!
Of course, a thriller must be exciting, intriguing and full of emotional punch, but althist stories have their own ‘rules’. The most important are to identify the moment where history as we know it veers off onto a different path forever, and to weave into the story to show how the alternative timeline has developed since that point of divergence.
Why Roman alternative history?
‘Rome’ lasted 1229 years in the West, which time span would take us back to AD 794 from today. It changed from a tiny community of tribal farmers to a confident military and trading empire boasting high culture, diversity, power, engineering and rule of law, eventually dwindling to a miserable rump kneeling before barbarians.
Rome had the dark side of all ancient and later cultures: slavery, rampant corruption, patriarchalism and scant regard for disabled and poor people. But Rome gave us systems, values, including civic-mindedness, cultural and engineering genius and literacy that are still firmly embedded in our psyches today. So it shrieked “explore me” very loudly!
It goes back to a mosaic in Spain Standing on the beautiful floors in Ampurias, I asked my father, “What would it be like if Roman ladies were in charge, instead of the men?” Maybe it was the fierce sun boiling my brain, maybe early feminism peeping out or maybe just a precocious kid asking a smartarse question. But clever man and senior ‘Roman nut’, my father replied, “What do you think it would be like?”
Alison, age 11, and her mosaic
That childish vision grew and grew. When I was older, I realised I had to put in some proper research. The dissolution of the Roman Empire is fascinating and full of ‘what if’ and natural conflict:
The senatorial families at the end of the 4th century fiercely defended their tradition of worshipping the Roman gods despite ever encroaching Christianity. Led by former urban prefect of Rome and consul Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, they pleaded for religious tolerance, but by late 394 AD Emperor Theodosius made any pagan practice, even dropping a pinch of incense on a family altar in a private home, into a capital offence.
In its last fifty to seventy years the Western Roman Empire was dissolving into small enclaves, client states, cut off regions – the Domain of Soissons is one example.
Many former Roman territories retained their Roman administrative systems into the seventh and eighth centuries. Could one remote colony last even longer, say centuries?
Switching from a male Roman ethos to a feminist-lite one
I wanted a strong female character who drove the story, but not a harsh, excluding one, hence my heroine has some very human faults and characteristics. There was and perhaps still is a distinct lack of stories where two women have conversations beyond social or fashion issues and are not dependent on the male characters as wife, girlfriend, colleague. I use a technique called gender mirroring where I reverse the behaviour of the characters of a typical spy or action thriller. Think Jane Reacher or Jamie Bond in modern terms. A fascinating writing exercise!
So, I had to exercise the brain and apply some historical logic for Roma Nova. As the men defended the tiny new state of Roma Nova women worked in the fields, traded, sat on the council and managed the families. Consider the dynamic of only a few hundred men at the front especially during the Great Migrations. They simply ran out of male fighters to defend Roma Nova, so sisters and daughters from these pioneer families had to put on armour and heft weapons to defend their homeland and their way of life.
Fighting danger side-by-side with brothers and fathers reinforced women’s status and roles. And they never allowed the incursion of monotheistic paternalistic religions. In this way, women developed leadership roles in all parts of Roma Novan life over the next sixteen centuries.
Pulling in my own history
I served six years in the UK forces with active assignments all over the NATO area and beyond. It never occurred to me that women couldn’t serve in the military. I loved it! In the forces, you are only as good as your last job and you are promoted only on merit; both appealing ideas. Thus, my heroines serve in the elite forces in Roma Nova which fits in neatly with the traditional Roman military mindset.
Building the world
For credible alternative history (not Inglourious Basterds!), there is no easy ride such as making everything up. You need to research as thoroughly as for standard historical fiction, especially around the point in time when the timeline splits and leaves the standard one. For Roma Nova this was AD 395.
The twin guidelines of alternative history writing are plausibility and internal consistency. No country, real or imagined, can survive without a functioning government, an economic, social and political system, food, law and order and income. The basic skills of historical fiction writing apply in the same way: ability to research, respect for known facts (up to the point of divergence), a sense of historical setting, the avoidance of the information dump, and keeping speech, clothes and manners both consistent with and in the world you are describing. For example, in AD395, solidinot aurei, sestertii or denarii were coins used in the late empire, so Roma Nova Internet banking and credit cards in the 21st century are denoted in solidi.
The sources problem
Much of the historical record is missing from the late fourth century, the springboard for my book world. This complicates research. The big problem of records from antiquity is that they tend to contain the actions and thoughts of the elite and usually only of men. Symmachus, whom I mentioned above, was not only the urban prefect of Rome at one time but also a noted writer in a wide circle of intellectuals. Just under a dozen books of his letters and official dispatches have survived. Such fragments combined with finds from archaeological digs and the physical remains on the landscape help researchers build up a picture of life at the time. I’m always dropping into the British Museum, buying new books and searching online. It’s very much a case of putting the different pieces of a jigsaw together then filling in the gaps intelligently and with historical logic.
“It’s about Roman blood, survival and money. Mostly yours.”
In an alternative New York, Karen Brown is running for her life. She makes a snap decision to flee to Roma Nova – her dead mother’s homeland, the last remnant of the Roman Empire in the 21st century. But can Karen tough it out in such an alien culture? And with a crazy killer determined to terminate her for a very personal reason?
Stifled by the protective cocoon of her Roma Novan family, deceived by her new lover, she propels herself into a dangerous mission. But then the killer sets a trap – she must sacrifice herself for another – and she sees no escape.
A thriller laced with romance and coming of age, this first in series is Roman fiction brought into the 21st century through the lens of alternative history and driven by a female protagonist with heart and courage.
This 10th Anniversary hardback edition includes bonus content: Three character ‘conversations’, two short stories and the story behind INCEPTIO.
Buy links:
INCEPTIO 10th Anniversary special edition hardback:
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her ten-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21stcentury and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a sharp line in dialogue. INCEPTIO starts the adventure…
She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading historical, crime and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
Six full-length Roma Nova novels, including INCEPTIO, have won the BRAG Medallion, the prestigious award for indie fiction. SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO were selected as Historical Novel Society’s Indie Editor’s Choices. AURELIA was a finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. The Bookseller selected SUCCESSIO as Editor’s Choice in its inaugural indie review. The Historical Novel Society recently selected JULIA PRIMA, the first Foundation story set in the 4thcentury, the accolade of Editors’ Choice.
Alison lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identityand Double Pursuit. Oh, and she’s writing the next Roma Nova story.
I’m delighted to welcome David Lawrence to the blog to share a guest post with us.
Criminal Records and the Cant Language
by David Lawrence
For me, historical research is like spinning a spider’s web – every fact I find interesting, be it a great political event or simply learning of a small household object no longer in use, is like a sticky thread spinning out into the ether. Eventually, a specific place, time, and event emerge, rather like a web, in which my story is caught.
For my first novel, Hugh, the story was caught in Westminster, 1768, centring around the antics of naughty MP John Wilkes.
For this novel, Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon, the web caught a story in The Mint (in Southwark), 1771, the summer of Captain Cook’s return from his first voyage round the globe.
Just how I arrived at my completed story I couldn’t exactly tell you(!). However, I can say that the initial thread came from a book called Mother Clap’s Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700 – 1830. I had heard this book referenced here and there during various research projects, and by 2021, when I began researching Blue Billy and needed to read it, I discovered a copy was quite difficult to locate. It was one of the first of its kind on the subject, published in 1992 by Rictor Norton. Ebay, however, saved the day, and I secured my lightly-worn, and beloved, copy.
Little is known about the gay subculture in London during the 18th century, but what we do know, and what Mother Clap’s Molly House outlines wonderfully, are the criminal cases in which homosexual activity ended in legal prosecution. From an historical perspective, these criminal records are priceless, preserving glimpses of lives which would otherwise have been lost to history.
I knew my protagonist William Dempsey had a history quite far down the social ladder – raised on the streets by a den of thieves before getting himself into keeping by a Marquess with a taste for deceptively doe-eyed youths. Mother Clap’s Molly House mentioned that the dialect of the molly (gay) subculture might well have had parallels with the rogue’s lexicon used by your run-of-the-mill London criminals, which included female prostitutes. I already knew that William had worked as a male prostitute, and pow! I suddenly understood that his tricking name was Blue Billy, and that a rogue’s lexicon would form the framework for the novel (the chapter names in the novel are terms taken from this street slang).
The early 1770s I had long known was to be my general time period, but Captain Cook’s return to England after his three-year voyage round the globe cemented it as the summer of 1771. Why? I was seeing parallels between his journey of discovery and Billy’s journey of self-discovery. In the summer of 1771, Billy is thrown out of his West End apartment and must not simply start over from nothing but re-examine his life choices. For details on the voyage, Captain Cook by Walter Besant was a 19th century biography I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks from 25 August 1768-12 July 1771 – Banks being the botanist who accompanied Cook on his journey.
Wonderful books like London in the 18th Century by Jerry White and The First Bohemians by Vic Gatrell filled in many more details about this glorious era. I also found James Boswell’s diary from the 1760s, relating his experiences as a young man in London, to be a priceless resource, not only in terms of the attitudes at that time, but for those small details of daily life which make a novel so much richer.
Completing my research were two books detailing the lives of rogues, beggars and thieves of the era. The titles alone tell you how colourful they are: The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars – Containing his Life, a Dictionary of the Cant Language, and many Entertaining Particulars of that Extraordinary Man by Robert Goadby (published 1749) and The English Rogue: Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, A Witty Extravagant by Richard Head (published 1665)
Research on this project was quite a journey for me, and some wonderful reading along the way. All books (including, er, my own) are highly recommended!
Thank you so much for sharing. I love the titles of these books from the 17th and 18th century.
Here’s the blurb
William Dempsey was a wonder among wonders.
By 18, he had risen from a gang of London street rogues to be the personal plaything of the Marquess of Argyll. Maintained in splendour, celebrated at masquerades – with everything he could wish for.
Now all has come crashing down. He is put out in the rain without patronage, his West End apartment, or a place among the ton.
So on a stormy night, he arrives at a house in Southwark. Marathon Moll’s in the Mint – the bawdyhouse he worked in during his ascent and where he earned the name Blue Billy.
But is Marathon Moll’s a place from which to rise again? For there is one in the crowd, who catches his eye. Who takes his hand and promises something better.
Or does Moll’s signify a return to his roots? For one day, a second and very different young man raps on the door. Takes his hand and asks him to return to his past.
To the cat language of vagabonds. The canting dialect of thieves.
David Lawrence is the author of two queer historical novels – ‘Hugh: A Hero without a Novel’ and ‘Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon’. As a writer, he loves taking a deep dive into the politics, social norms, and events of 18th century England while presenting humorous and unique coming-of-age tales.
A native of the American Southwest, David has spent much of his life in Great Britain, France, and Finland. He now lives in the American Northwest – Helena, Montana – with his Finnish partner.
By day he loves hiking under the Big Sky of his beautiful adopted state.
By night, however, he prefers wandering the byways of 18th century London…
I’m really excited to share the details of the Pagan Warrior blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.
I might have written this book many years ago, but it’s had a refresh, and is now available in audio, narrated by the fabulous, Matt Coles, as is the second book, Pagan King. Warrior King will be coming later this year in audio.
You can follow the blog tour, and I’ll be sharing posts here as well. A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.
For April 18th, I answered Paul Walker’s questions on his blog
And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.
For March 21st check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos, thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all).
The Kingmaking -New Editions for 2023 (sadly, this edition is not available in USA/Canada)
The Kingmaking: Book One Pendragon’s Banner: Book Two Shadow of the King: Book Three
Here’s the blurb
The Boy Who became a Man: Who became a King: Who became a Legend… KING ARTHUR There is no Merlin, no sword in the stone, and no Lancelot. Instead, the man who became our most enduring hero.
All knew the oath of allegiance: ‘To you, lord, I give my sword and shield, my heart and soul. To you, my Lord Pendragon, I give my life, to command as you will.’
This is the tale of Arthur made flesh and bone. Of the shaping of the man who became the legendary king; a man with dreams, ambitions and human flaws. A man, a warlord, who united the collapsing province of post-Roman Britain, who held the heart of the love of his life, Gwenhwyfar – and who emerged as the most enduring hero of all time.
A different telling of the later Medieval tales. This is the story of King Arthur as it might have really happened…
“If only all historical fiction could be this good.” Historical Novels Review
“… Juggles a large cast of characters and a bloody, tangled plot with great skill. ” Publishers Weekly
“Hollick’s writing is one of the best I’ve come across – her descriptions are so vivid it seems as if there’s a movie screen in front of you, playing out the scenes.” Passages To The Past “Hollick adds her own unique twists and turns to the familiar mythology” Booklist “Uniquely compelling… bound to have a lasting and resounding impact on Arthurian literature.” Books Magazine
(contains scenes of an adult nature)
Buy Links:
The Kingmaking is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Helen is celebrating her 70th birthday and thirty years as a published author. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy, a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, was accepted for traditional publication in April 1993 by William Heinemann (Random House UK) a week after her 40th birthday. The Trilogy has been widely acclaimed since then – and gone through several different editions.
Helen moved from Random House UK in 2006 and went ‘Indie’, now in 2023 to celebrate she has brought out her own fabulous new editions! (The Trilogy is published mainstream by Sourcebooks Inc in USA/Canada. The publisher was offered the new cover designs for free, but declined.)
Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK)with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
She writes a nautical adventure/fantasy Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Sea Witch Voyages and has also branched out into the quick read novella, ‘Cosy Mystery’ genre with her Jan Christopher Murder Mysteries, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A Mirror Murder incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working as a library assistant.
Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Talesand Life of A Smuggler. She lives with her family in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon with a variety of pets and horses.
I’m really excited to share the details of the Pagan Warrior blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.
I might have written this book many years ago, but it’s had a refresh, and is now available in audio, narrated by the fabulous, Matt Coles, as is the second book, Pagan King. Warrior King will be coming later this year in audio.
You can follow the blog tour, and I’ll be sharing posts here as well. A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.
For April 11th, read a guest post about how we know, what we know, about the seventh century.
And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.
For March 21st check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos, thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all).
I’m sharing an excerpt from Chris Tomasini’s novel, Close Your Eyes. I hope you enjoy.
Prologue
(Samuel’s first person narration)
In the early morning hours of June 1, 1431, the castle of Gora echoed and sounded with the cries of mobilizing soldiers. Preceded by hundreds of horsemen, the soldiers rumbled through the city and fanned into the surrounding countryside. The city populace awoke to the confusion, and meeting in the dark streets, neighbours questioned each other as to the reason for the hysteria. The most widely believed rumour was that forces of the Holy Roman Empire were preparing to attack our King. This caused considerable alarm, for our land had been at peace for nearly two decades, and war was thought of as a terrible plague that existed only in distant, foreign lands.
It was not war which had sent torches blazing and soldiers careening through the night, and though the true reason was known, and often spoken, it was as often dismissed, seeming too inconsequential and unlikely to be the cause of such a disturbance. The truth, which none of those people milling about in the city streets believed, was that the King’s cook and storyteller had fled the castle.
I was found wandering about the castle halls that night, and a party of guards subsequently escorted me to my room. They closed me in and set two watchmen outside the door. Alone in my cell I opened the shutters of my window, leant against the stone wall, stared up at the full moon, and listened to the shouts and cries drifting from the fields and through the city. I knew that I would be unable to sleep, but nevertheless I climbed into bed where I found, to my surprise, a scroll lying hidden amongst the furs and cushions. I sat up in the darkness and held it reverently in my hands. I knew immediately what it was – my parting gift from the storyteller, from my friend Tycho.
It is now 1435. When I found Tycho’s scroll in 1431 I was illiterate, and it has taken me four arduous years to learn the mysteries of the written word. Reading Tycho’s scroll, which proved to be an infrequently kept journal, and certain other documents which came into my possession, I developed a desire to write the story of my friend, a daunting task, for it is the story of a storyteller.
I spoke to an old and wise friend of my desire to write Tycho’s history. I asked him where I should begin, and he replied “At the beginning.” I pondered this for a few days, then returned to him and asked “Which one?” The old man smiled patiently, answering “My friend, the answer lies within yourself.”
That was a year ago. This business of writing, it is like being cast into a blackened dungeon, with your arms bound behind your back, and then ordered to sound out the dimensions of the room by bashing your head against the walls.
A year, but after so many false starts and counterfeit revelations, I think I have finally understood what my old friend meant.
Here’s the blurb
Set in early 1400s Europe, Close Your Eyes is a sincere, yet light-hearted and lustful, ode to love. As Samuel, the court jester, struggles to describe why his friends, Agnieszka the cook, and Tycho the story-teller, fled the King of Gora’s service, he learns that love was the beating heart behind everything that happened in the castle.
He learns as well that more ghosts than he knew of walked the midnight halls, and that the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc haunted his friend, and once slid into bed with Tycho, daring him to leave – to take to the cold roads of Europe, where he had once wandered orphaned and alone, and find his destiny there.
Chris Tomasini lives in Ontario, Canada. He has studied creative writing via Humber College’s “Correspondence Program in Creative Writing”, and through the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
In the 1990s Chris taught English as a Second Language and had stops in England, Poland, and Japan.
Since 2000, Chris has worked in bookstores, publishing, and in libraries.
Chris is married with two children, and can often be found (though not very easily) on a bicycle on country roads in central Ontario.
I’m really excited to share the details of the Pagan Warrior blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.
I might have written this book many years ago, but it’s had a refresh, and is now available in audio, narrated by the fabulous, Matt Coles, as is the second book, Pagan King. Warrior King will be coming later this year in audio.
And, if you read on Nook, I’ve created a special discount code just for Nook readers. Using code BNPPAGAN at checkout will get you 50% off all three titles, for a limited time.
You can follow the blog tour, and I’ll be sharing posts here as well. A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.
And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.
For March 21st check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos, thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all).
M J Porter 