Mastodon The Writing Desk

28 March 2024

Blog Tour: The Dartington Bride, by Rosemary Griggs


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

1571, and the beautiful, headstrong daughter of a French Count marries the son of the Vice Admiral of the Fleet of the West in Queen Elizabeth’s chapel at Greenwich. It sounds like a marriage made in heaven…

Roberda’s father, the Count of Montgomery, is a prominent Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion. When her formidable mother follows him into battle, she takes all her children with her.

After a traumatic childhood in war-torn France, Roberda arrives in England full of hope for her wedding. But her ambitious bridegroom, Gawen, has little interest in taking a wife.

Received with suspicion by the servants at her new home, Dartington Hall in Devon, Roberda works hard to prove herself as mistress of the household and to be a good wife. But there are some who will never accept her as a true daughter of Devon.

After the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Gawen’s father welcomes Roberda’s family to Dartington as refugees. Compassionate Roberda is determined to help other French women left destitute by the wars. But her husband does not approve. Their differences will set them on an extraordinary path…


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About the Author

Rosemary Griggs is a retired Whitehall Senior Civil Servant with a lifelong passion for history. An avid researcher, she is now a speaker on Devon’s history and leads heritage tours at Dartington Hall.  She also creates and wears sixteenth century clothing which she often uses to bring history to life for local museums and community groups.  Rosemary lives in Devon with husband David, and her first novel, a Woman of Noble Wit features many of the county’s well loved places.  Find out more on Rosemary’s website https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/ and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @RAGriggsauthor

27 March 2024

Book Launch Guest Post: Riddle of the Gods: A Viking Age Novel (Olaf's Saga Book 4) by Eric Schumacher


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

AD 976. Olaf Tryggvason, the renegade prince of Norway, has lost his beloved wife to a tragedy that turns the lords of the land he rules against him. With his family gone and his future uncertain, Olaf leaves his realm and embarks on a decades-long quest to discover his course in life.

Inspiration for Riddle of the Gods

To understand the inspiration behind Riddle of the Gods, it’s best to start at the beginnig and provide the impotus behind the entire series, since this is a follow-on book to the previous three. 

My stories take place in the Viking Age, and are all focused on actual characters taken from the pages of the ancient Norse sagas. I was not yet done telling tales about this fascinating period, despite having spent years researching and writing Hakon’s Saga (the previous series). I knew I had at least one more saga in me, and so I began to search for a suitable character and story that stood out to me.

I landed on Olaf for a number of reasons, the least of which were his raiding years. His raiding was not so unlike many other Vikings that came before and after him, nor are the stories of his violence. What made him truly stand out to me was his arc as a character. He begins his life as a noble, becomes a slave, and rises again to the throne of Norway. 

In addition, his is a life that began as a pagan and ended as a Christian, though a Chistian known for his violence rather than his goodwill. And, it was a life filled with adventure and exploits. There was much there to work with and I wanted to explore it all. I wanted to unearth the man, not the myth, and put meat on his bones. Who was this handsome, gifted, violent man? 

In addition, Olaf’s life spanned the known world of the Vikings: Scandinavia, the Baltic kingdoms, the Slavic kingdoms, and what is now Western Europe. In him was a chance to explore each of those places in the 10th century and the various cultural divides between them. That, too, really piqued my desire to write about him. 

The first book in Olaf’s Saga, Forged by Iron, tells of Olaf’s childhood and his frightening life on the run from his kin-killing cousins. The second novel, Sigurd’s Swords, explores Olaf’s adventures in the land of the Rus. Wolves of Wagria (Book 3) dove into his tumultuous time in what the Vikings called Wendland, and more specifically, a kingdom called Wagria. I’ve written several blog posts about those exploits and the history surrounding them on my own blog. 

What this book unearths is Olaf’s time on the move, not only as a raider in Western Europe, but also as a person. But, I did not want to just write a travelogue (dare I say, raiding-logue) of his years on the seas. I wanted to focus on what happened to him personally during that period, and so I landed on his time in Ireland.

Olaf in Ireland

We do not know much about Olaf in Western Europe. We know only that he raided extensively, including in Ireland. At that point in time, Ireland was a land in turmoil, divided between royal families/clans who countrolled separate kingdoms that were often at odds with each other. Adding to that dangerous mix were the Vikings, who founded or fortified bases and towns along the coast – Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Wexford – from which they could raid into the land and trade internationally. It was into that environment that Olaf sailed in the latter half of the 10th century.

At about that time, an Irish king named Malachy dispelled the Vikings from Dublin, freed the slaves kept by the Scandinavians, and installed his half-brother as ruler of the city. While the locals may have been pleased with the change, there were others who saw it as an invitation to take the town for themselves, including a Viking leader named Ivar of Waterford. In other words, the politics of the land were rife for adventurous souls like Olaf who, like most Vikings, saw opportunity in chaos.

Religiously, Ireland was a Christian land, as were many Western European kingdoms. However, there were still many among the Vikings who had not yet embraced this new faith. Having followed the old gods his entire life, Olaf was curious about this Christian god. This, of course, creates a level of tension between his men, and within himself, that I wanted to investigate more deeply.

I will not give away any spoilers here, but the stage is set for what becomes Riddle of the Gods, a fast-paced retelling of Olaf and his time on the western seas. I hope you enjoy it!

Eric Schumacher

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About the Author

Eric Schumacheris the author of seven novels and one novella, all set in the Viking Age. By day, Schumacher is a PR consultant for early-stage technology companies. By night, he ventures into the past, using known history and ancient tales to create stories about real people living in turbulent times. From the earliest age, Schumacher devoured books about castles and warrior kings and Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Those stories, coupled with a love of writing, led him to the completion of Hakon’s Saga (published by Legionary Books), which tells the story of the young Norwegian king, Hakon Haraldsson, and his struggles to win, unify, and protect what was not yet Norway. Schumacher began his current series, called Olaf’s Saga, in 2019. The first three books in the saga, Forged by Iron, Sigurd’s Swords and Wolves of Wagra respectively, were all Amazon best sellers, and are now available across e-tailers. Riddle of the Gods is the fourth book in that series. Find out more at Eric's website: www.ericschumacher.net and find him on Facebook and Twitter @DarkAgeScribe

25 March 2024

Blog Tour Excerpt: Riddle of the Gods: A Viking Age Novel (Olaf's Saga Book 4) by Eric Schumacher


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Riddle of the Gods is the riveting fourth novel in the best-selling series chronicling the life and adventures of one of Norway’s most controversial kings, Olaf Tryggvason.

It is AD 976. Olaf Tryggvason, the renegade prince of Norway, has lost his beloved wife to a tragedy that turns the lords of the land he rules against him. 

With his family gone and his future uncertain, Olaf leaves his realm and embarks on a decades-long quest to discover his course in life. 

Though his journey brings him power and wealth, it is not until he encounters the strange man in the streets of Dublin that his path to fame unfolds. 

And in that moment, he is forced to make a choice as the gods look on – a choice that could, at worst, destroy him and at best, ensure his name lives on forever.

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About the Author

Eric Schumacheris the author of seven novels and one novella, all set in the Viking Age. By day, Schumacher is a PR consultant for early-stage technology companies. By night, he ventures into the past, using known history and ancient tales to create stories about real people living in turbulent times. From the earliest age, Schumacher devoured books about castles and warrior kings and Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Those stories, coupled with a love of writing, led him to the completion of Hakon’s Saga (published by Legionary Books), which tells the story of the young Norwegian king, Hakon Haraldsson, and his struggles to win, unify, and protect what was not yet Norway. Schumacher began his current series, called Olaf’s Saga, in 2019. The first three books in the saga, Forged by Iron, Sigurd’s Swords and Wolves of Wagra respectively, were all Amazon best sellers, and are now available across e-tailers. Riddle of the Gods is the fourth book in that series. Find out more at Eric's website: www.ericschumacher.net and find him on Facebook and Twitter @DarkAgeScribe

21 March 2024

Book Launch Spotlight: The Book of Secrets ~ The dark and dazzling new book from bestselling author Anna Mazzola


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The Book of Secrets is inspired by real events that took place in 17th century Italy.

Rome, 1659:.Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the truth.

To the west of the Tiber, Girolama and her female friends are at work, helping other women with childbirths and foretelling their futures. Elsewhere in the city, a young wife, Anna, must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But in a city made by men for men, there are no easy paths out.

Stefano's investigation at the Tor di Nona prison will introduce him to horror, magic and an astonishing cast of characters. He will be left wondering if certain deeds should remain forever unpunished...

'Utterly compelling, brilliant and rage-inducing' CAROLINE LEA

'Deeply unsettling in all the best ways. Absolutely loved it!' JAMES OSWALD

Compelling and brilliantly atmospheric' ANDREW TAYLOR

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About the Author

Anna Mazzola Anna is the award-winning and bestselling author of four Gothic historical novels. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allan Poe award. Her third novel, The Clockwork Girl, set in 18th century Paris, has been nominated for two CWA Dagger awards as well as the Dublin Literary award. Her fourth novel, The House of Whispers, a ghost story set in Fascist Italy, reached number 7 in the Saturday Times Chart and is a Sunday Times historical fiction pick for 2023. When not writing or tutoring, Anna is a human rights and criminal justice solicitor, working with victims of crime. She lives in South London with her husband, their two children, a snake and a cat. Find out more from http://annamazzola.com and find Anna on Facebook and Twitter @Anna_Mazz

20 March 2024

Bringing Your Setting to Life with the Research Arsenal, by Steven Dacus


Research Arsenal provides access to thousands of primary documents including photographs, letters, diaries, ordnance returns, quartermaster specifications and more.

When writing historical fiction, it’s the little details that bring your world to life, that take it from a flat background to a vivid landscape that engages your readers and lets your plot and characters shine through. Unfortunately, doing historical research for a setting is often difficult and you can find yourself spending hours trying to nail down a little detail without knowing where to search.

As a historical database focusing on the American Civil War and mid-19th century life more generally, the Research Arsenal has a wealth of information for writers creating works in this era. Our focus is on primary documents, so you can learn about the era from the people who lived it as well as browse through thousands of photographs that are keyword-tagged to help you know what you’re looking at.

Building a Setting through Letters

If you’re planning to write a story based in a specific state or region of the United States, you can begin by searching for letters from that state or written by soldiers from that state. Letters written by civilians often have a great deal of information about community life as well as concerns about running farms and other businesses during that time.

Letters are also a great source for learning about customs and traditions that fell away in later generations. For example, many letters contain good natured grumbling from older siblings that they were forced to dance in a pig trough at a younger sibling’s wedding. This is an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that is seldom heard of today, but was very common at the time.

You can also keyword search to find letters addressing specific topics. As surprising as it sounds, a frequent topic in letters is the price of various goods like butter, cheese, apples and various types of clothing. This can save you hours of tedious research if you want to make sure any spending in your stories matches prices of the time.

Many letters also have vivid descriptions of camp life, including what soldiers ate, how they set up their tents, the things they carried with them, the various types of plants and trees they encountered on the march, and the things they did throughout their day. When they wrote, they wanted to paint a clear picture of their lives for their loved ones at home, and for modern readers those letters serve as an invaluable glimpse into the life of a soldier.


Building a Setting through Images and Other Documents

In addition to the letters the Research Arsenal has at your disposal, we have thousands of period photographs available as well. These range from portraits of soldiers, to the aftermath of battles, to soldiers on guard duty in towns, and much, much more. Browsing through photographs is a sure way to get a feeling for the times and help paint a vivid scene in your mind.

Photographs have the same comprehensive metadata tagging as letters, so it’s easy to search for specific items like “coffee pots” and bring up multiple images that contain the exact item you’re looking for. Our collection also includes an extensive amount of civilian images and portraits, which makes it possible for you to get a detailed look at clothing from the time.

Along with images, the Research Arsenal also has the complete quartermaster’s and ordnance specifications for the military. These specifications contain exact details on how every item used by the military should be made, the exact dimensions it should have, and other details that give you a thorough description of each item.

These specifications are so detailed that they will even tell you where specific types of ammunition should be placed in an ammunition chest, and what items should be kept in each drawer of a medicine cabinet. There are also specifications for surprising formulations for everyday items. For example, the Quartermaster’s Manual contains detailed instructions for making a type of glue out of cheese.

Enhancing Dialog through the Research Arsenal

A character’s voice is often the most distinctive part of who they are. When it works, we know who is speaking even without a dialog tag telling us who said the words. By drawing on real phrases and expressions from the mid-19th century, you can be sure your characters will have an authentic feel and more engaging dialog.

The best way to understand how mid-19th century Americans spoke is through reading letters. At the Research Arsenal, we have thousands of letters written from across the nation by both men and women. Not only do these letters reveal their honest thoughts and feelings about life in the 1850s and 1860s, but they are also an invaluable resource in learning the frequent phrases and slang of the day. It is hard to read more than three or four letters without finding the writer lamenting things that have been “played out” or noticing how much more often a writer will say “on account of” rather than “because.”

Reading letters also gives you a sense of the different belief systems people held and how those guided them. Some letters will have very strong religious language, while other writers will never make a single mention of God, focusing instead on their day-to-day realities. The more letters you read, the better sense you’ll have of what drove people and what their hopes and fears were.

Conclusion

The Research Arsenal is the best way for you to quickly and easily take a deep dive into the life and times of mid-19th century Americans. Through our collection of primary documents, you can learn about the details of everyday life, develop a vivid picture of the setting in which they lived, and get a feel for how people of the time thought and spoke. 

Keyword searching through the documents makes it easy to answer the million small questions that come up when building a setting, saving you countless hours of trawling through academic papers and history books trying to find an answer. Finally, reading letters and documents from the Research Arsenal may even inspire your next story. Perhaps you’ll stumble upon a heartfelt love letter or be inspired by a tale of courage and daring. Whatever type of stories you write, the Research Arsenal can help answer all of your tricky questions about crafting a setting and help you create a full, believable setting worthy of your plot and characters.

Steven Dacus

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About the Author

Steven Dacus grew up in Casper Wyoming and even as a child, had a deep interest and desire for American History. When the movie "Dances With Wolves" came out in 1990, it solidified his passion for the American Civil War. After graduating from Oklahoma State University with a BS in Fire Protection Engineering, Steve fought fire as a wildland firefighter with a variety of federal and state agencies and settled back in Casper, Wyoming when he accepted a position as a firefighter/EMT with the Casper Fire Department. After moving back to his hometown, he started volunteering at Fort Caspar Museum as a docent and helped plan and execute the 150th Anniversary of the major conflict at the fort in 2015. He started becoming a "hobby-historian" while researching western cavalry and quickly became obsessed with primary records and researching at local, state, and federal archives. After becoming frustrated with having hundreds of folders on his computer in an effort to organize all of the different primary records,  dozens of spreadsheets, and countless notes, he decided to make his own research database that would make it easier than ever to search and access all the primary records he had scanned. That initial effort quickly escalted into the public database known as the Research Arsenal. Steve's mission with the database is to tell "the rest of the story" of the soldiers who fought and died in the American Civil War, as well as their wives, mothers, and loved ones left at home. Steve's objective is to accent the amazing work that Ancestry.com and Fold3.com have done and help expand on the story of that time period of American History.  Find out more at www.researcharsenal.com on Facebook and YouTube

Blog Tour Guest Post by Alison Morton, Author of EXSILIUM: A Roma Nova Foundation Story (Roma Nova Thriller Series Book 11)


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Exile – A living death to a Roman

AD 395. In a Christian Roman Empire, worshipping the traditional gods is a death sentence. Three Romans, Maelia, Lucius and Galla, faithful to their beliefs in Rome’s thousand-year religion and values, must choose. Do they stay, hoping for the best, or leave Rome forever – a rupture from everything they know – to search for a safer life?

First of all, thank you, Tony, for hosting me on your blog on EXSILIUM’S tour. Even after thirteen fiction and two non-fiction books, I still feel excited when the new book goes out into the world.

EXSILIUM and its immediate predecessor, JULIA PRIMA, are different from the other books in the Roma Nova series set sixteen hundred years later in the 21st and 20th century. Those modern ones are firmly part of the alternate history genre where the historical timeline that we live in split in the distant past and the world developed differently. The modern society based in a small part of central Europe is a Roman one with Roman values but run by women. They’re very proud of their heritage which they’ve guarded fiercely through sixteen centuries but they’re very much at cutting edge of the digital revolution. 

Back in the past, JULIA PRIMA and EXSILIUM, set between AD 369 and early 395, before Roma Novan timeline split in late spring 395, means they are both standard historical novels. Well, to be accurate, the split occurs during EXSILIUM. When Maelia, Lucius and Galla take the first steps down Rome’s Alta Semita street towards the Porta Flaminia in the city walls, the timeline starts to divide. So perhaps the last part of EXSILIUM does verge on alternate history!

EXSILIUM is set in the last hundred years of Ancient Rome – not that Romans of that time were aware it was coming to an end within that short a time. People couldn’t help noticing things were going to the dogs, but every generation throughout human history has said that! Late fourth century sources are not plentiful, so the novelist must fill in the gaps as competently as possible and strive to show the historical period as accurately as they can. Grief and joy were the same human feelings in 4th century Rome as they are today. 

For the vast majority of people living until fairly recently, life was short, grindingly hard and socially restricted and where hunger and early infant death were normal. But in a complex society like the Roman one, there were thriving professional, artisan and trading classes as well as strong career paths in the military. Social and financial advancement were indeed possible, but so were demotion and loss. It wasn’t always only peasants vs. lords.

The strong romantic streak in JULIA PRIMA is essential as it’s the story of when the founders of Roma Nova met, but it takes account of the legal and economic aspects of marriage which were considered at the time to be much more important than emotional connection. Rules governing families, property and paternal power ebbed and flowed over the 1,229 years of Rome’s existence in the west, sometimes becoming more restrictive, other times more relaxed. 

EXSILIUM progresses the foundation story and considers how outside forces are closing in around the characters we met in JULIA PRIMA. Time has moved on and the next generation is coming to the fore. As a serial series writer, I love seeing my characters grow and mature. Sometimes, new ones are born and others die; this reflects life. 

Conflict moves a story along and provides plenty of tension in a story and nobody does intrigue and conspiracy like the Romans. EXSILIUM’s characters face a choice between staying in Rome and taking their chances – mostly of persecution by the Christianised Roman state which could end in execution – or leaving everything they have ever known. When tolerance disappears, this is the stark choice faced by people under severe pressure from religiously motivated authoritarian regimes past and present. 

But…However strong a message we wish to convey, we should remember we’re writing fiction, not a historical essay. The personal experiences ¬ of our characters living in their natural environment (comfortably or poorly) must be at the forefront. As novelists, our job is to entertain our readers. Without smacking people in the face with our message, we should highlight how people in the past may have lived, loved and dealt with the challenges of their times. And the people in EXSILIUM certainly have challenges, as we do today.

Alison Morton

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About the Author

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 Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. The latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova. She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.  Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit. Find out more at Alison's website  https://alison-morton.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @alison_morton.

19 March 2024

Blog Tour: The Royal Women Who Made England: The Tenth Century in Saxon England, by M J Porter


Available from Amazon UK 
and for pre-order from Amazon US

Throughout the tenth century, England, as it would be recognized today, formed. No longer many Saxon kingdoms, but rather, just England. Yet, this development masks much in the century in which the Viking raiders were seemingly driven from England’s shores by Alfred, his children and grandchildren, only to return during the reign of his great, great-grandson, the much-maligned Æthelred II.

The daughter of Æthelflæd of Mercia, Ælfwynn

Ælfwynn, the daughter of Æthelflæd of Mercia and her husband, Æthelred, was born at some point in the late 880s or early 890s. It is believed that she was an only child, although it does appear (in the later accounts of William of Malmesbury) that her cousins, Athelstan, and Edith/his unnamed sister were sent to Mercia to be raised by their aunt when Edward remarried on becoming king in 899. There is a suggestion that it might have been Alfred’s decision to do this and that Athelstan was being groomed to become king of Mercia. As such, Ælfwynn might have had close links to her Wessex cousins.

Ælfwynn is named in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the C text under 919. ‘Here also the daughter of Æthelred lord of the Mercians, was deprived of all control in Mercia, and was led into Wessex three weeks before Christmas; she was called Ælfwynn.’

And from there, we hear nothing more of Lady Ælfwynn, the second Lady of the Mercians. Even though this is the first record of a ruling woman being succeeded by her daughter. 

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About the Author 

MJ Porter is the author of over fifty fiction titles set in Saxon England and the era before the tumultuous events of 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a young age that it housed the long-dead bones of Saxon kings, it’s little wonder that the study of the era was undertaken at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The Royal Women of the Tenth Century is a first non-fiction title. It explores the ‘lost’ women of this period through the surviving contemporary source material. It stemmed from a frustration with how difficult it was to find a single volume dedicated to these ‘lost’ women and hopes to make it much easier for others to understand the prestige, wealth and influence of the women of the royal House of Wessex. Find out more at https://www.mjporterauthor.com/ and Twitter @coloursofunison