As everyone who has picked up a new historical novel in the last few years has noticed, the cover-art trend is to depict a person, most often a woman, in such a way that her face is partially or fully obscured or her head missing altogether.* These “headless woman” covers look classy, so much so […]
I’m still reeling from the news that I hit it big in the North Carolina State Lottery. Now, of course, I will be able to achieve my longtime goal of writing full-time, not to mention having an office with real walls to do so in. While I’m waiting for the contractors to show up to
I Become a Full-Time Historical Fiction Writer Read More »
Exciting day for us in the state of North Carolina today–we now have a state lottery! For now, all we have are the tickets that you scratch and match; we’ll get the big-boy random drawings later. I’m not a high-stakes gambler by any means; one or two $1 tickets is pretty much my limit. But
Gambling Fever, Meeting the Press, and John Guy Read More »
Finished reading Katherine Howard, a 1969 novel by Jessica Smith, yesterday. Like the other historical novels I’ve read about this foolish but intriguing young queen, it was somewhat disappointing, though I admittedly didn’t have huge hopes for it. Though the author often commented that Katherine was a featherhead, she didn’t come up with any motivation
Nonhistorical and Historical Characters: Should They Mingle? Read More »
I finished Jean Plaidy’s Royal Road to Fotheringay today. This is the second novel about Mary Queen of Scots I’ve read, the first being Margaret George’s. I didn’t finish George’s book. I’m not sure why. It’s not that I disliked what I did read of it; in fact, I rather liked the scene where the
Jean Plaidy, Mary Queen of Scots, and a Message to Promote Marital Harmony Read More »
C’mon, I don’t often get the chance to do this! I’m delighted to announce that The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward II (that’s my baby), has been named one of 15 finalists in the Historical Fiction category of ForeWord Magazine‘s 2005 Book of the Year Awards. The awards were established to
In Which I Soundly Administer Myself a Good Pat on the Back Read More »
Up until recently, I hadn’t been following the lawsuit filed in the UK against Dan Brown’s publishers, but it may be worth watching closely. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up all along, two of the three authors of a nonfiction book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, claim that in his novel The Da
The Da Vinci Code trial Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, the computer on which I do most of my novel-writing suddenly refused to start up properly. I consulted a local geek (that’s what computer guys seem to like to be called these days), who diagnosed it as having a corrupt profile, but had no idea why, even after consulting other
Both on this blog and on other sites I’ve visited, the question of historical accuracy in historical fiction has come up. As I said in one of my earlier blog posts, I think it’s the reader’s ultimate responsibility to check the accuracy of what he reads. Historical fiction, after all, is exactly that–fiction. By saying
Historical Accuracy in Historical Fiction Read More »
The other night, my husband channel-surfed and landed on Braveheart, which I missed seeing at the time it was released (a) because it wasn’t anything that interested me then and (b) because it came out when I was in law school, a time in which I was blissfully oblivious to all around me but the
At Last, I Sit Through Half of Braveheart Read More »