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6 November 2024

Book Review ~ Pact of Silence, by Linda Huber


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A fresh start for a new life. Newly pregnant, Emma is startled when her husband Luke announces they’re swapping homes with his parents, but the rural idyll where Luke grew up is a great place to start their family. Yet Luke’s manner suggests something odd is afoot, something that Emma can’t quite fathom.

Too many secrets, not enough truths

Linda Huber’s Pact of Silence is a gripping exploration of the enduring power of secrets. Darker than some of her books, this has plenty of suspense, betrayal, and redemption, drawing readers into a world where the past casts a long shadow.

The central character, Emma, uncovers a web of lies and deceit, forcing her to confront the painful truth about her husband's past. 

Insightful and thought-provoking, Pact of Silence is a sensitive portrayal of grief, guilt, and forgiveness, and the impact of trauma on individuals and families. which I am happy to recommend.

Tony Riches

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About the Author

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Linda’s writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty feel-good short stories published in women’s magazines. Her newest project is a series of feel-good novels set in her home area on the banks of Lake Constance in N.E. Switzerland. She really appreciates having the views admired by her characters right on her own doorstep! Find out more at Linda's website https://lindahuber.net/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @LindaHuber19

5 November 2024

Special Guest Interview with Seeley James, Author of Chasm of Exiles


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Haunted by a past riddled with violence, former Army Ranger Jacob Stearne finds himself navigating the treacherous world of corporate espionage for the enigmatic billionaire, Pia Sabel.

I'm pleased to welcome author Seeley James back to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

Chasm of Exiles is summed up in the book’s tagline: “He’s a haunted hero with a dark past. She’s a stripper-turned-spy learning on the job. Together they face an enemy intending to control the future in a deadly game.” Giving it a bit more detail: it’s a race to retrieve the Chaac Equation, a key to green energy that could make the owner a trillionaire. Petrostates are out to destroy it, and oil-dependent countries are trying to steal it. Our hero, Jacob Stearne has been sent to save it. Along the way, he must face the consequences of his past: is he really a hero—or is he a serial killer?

What is your preferred writing routine?

I tend to be more creative in the evening between 4 and 8 pm, give or take a couple hours. I spend my mornings editing the crap I wrote the day before. I've heard several famous authors note a similar routine and others who have the opposite. Obviously, the latter are heathens who should be burned at the stake. Within my writing window, I kinda-outline what I'm expecting to write, a scene or bit of dialogue, before I start and that helps keep things on track. 

What do I mean by "kinda-outline?" It's not a formal outline, it's three to five (sometimes up to twenty) bullet points about the conflicts and resolutions I want in the passage. I use the kinda-outline as a way to work out whether the conflict or tension is unexpected, revelatory, and twists while remaining credible. When I edit it the next morning, I compare what I wrote to my notes. Sometimes I pump a fist and say, "Pure genius!" While other times, I hit delete on 2,000 words and start over.

What advice do you have for new writers?

Writing is easy. Writing stories that you can con other people into paying money to read is hard. Really hard. Study the craft relentlessly. Read relentlessly. Deconstruct every story you come across from books to movies to podcasts. My book club just read The Haunting of Hill House, which I thought was a horror/ghost story, not my favorite a genre. I was wrong! It's a psychological thriller of highest order and brilliantly written. IMHO, Stephen King's The Shining is a rip-off of this 1959 masterpiece. I'm in the middle of a detailed deconstruction of the book now.

Self-improvement is crucial to life. We are put on Earth to learn. If you read my series from the beginning (God help you) to the end, you'll see a remarkable improvement. My 100-year-old mother calls it "Unbelievable improvement" with extra emphasis on unbelievable. I'm not sure what she means, but I'm taking it as a compliment. It could be.

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

The best is word-of-mouth, but in these days of constant bombardment from so many sources, it's nearly impossible to count on. In the cacophony of modern life, my biggest fans go unheard. If you can win over one of the influencers on TikTok, you can make some headway, but that's a whole different generation for someone like me. That leaves reviews, brilliant blogs like Tony Riches', and advertising.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

Research was very different for this book. I'd long wanted to examine the psychology of "heroes." But I write funny adventures along the lines of Slow Horses or Bad Monkey. Just as I started writing Chasm of Exiles my sister was diagnosed with leukemia and died within two months. Several months after that, my wife died unexpectedly. Those two tragedies made for the most painful year of my life, setting my writing back by eighteen months. During that time, I re-evaluated the direction of my novel.

The concept of a dark hero has been brooding in my head since I first witnessed the rise of the comic book heroes in the early 2000s. While watching these movies, my inner-cynic said, “Extrajudicial killings? Skyscrapers leveled? Thousands of cars destroyed? And it's all written off as collateral damage? At what cost are we calling these people ‘Heroes?’” Which developed into: What if they did all this death and destruction based on faulty information? Would that make these superheroes villains? I set out to write about the hero who has regrets, uncertainties, and questions his actions. Jacob Stearne could reflect on what it means to be a hero.

The unexpected research: I found very few studies on the psychology of extraordinary individuals. From war heroes to medical staff in pandemics, there is little known about the effects of heroic acts, whether they're recognized with a medal or unappreciated by the public. What we know anecdotally: many have a distinctly different view of their experience than the adoring public.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

Before the previously mentioned devastating loss of my wife, my plan was to write a typical hero-based story: good guy goes on a quest, encounters deadly odds stacked against him, overcomes terrifying bad guys, grabs the Golden Fleece, and returns home (with or without a beautiful damsel). My plan was to write a modernized version of Argonautica (aka Jason and the Argonauts).

After the tragic year, I considered a “Dark Jacob” something of a haunted hero. But, since Jacob had always an accidental, even hapless, hero, the change to a brooding and uncertain character filled me with concerns for my fans. So I polled them with a sample chapter. They loved it. After that, it came easily.
Character arcs are difficult over sixteen books, but taking an introspective turn led me to write a passage my fans have been praising in numbers. 

It takes place after a secondary character, an eighteen-year-old stripper-turned-spy, asks Jacob Stearne to teach her how to kill her enemies. He replies:
“Hate is an all-consuming fire, Symone.” I took a deep breath. “In order to kill, you have to hate. Hate binds your victims to you for life. My world’s populated with ghosts. Phantoms follow my every step. The dead, the defeated, their survivors—they’re specters trudging three feet behind me. Forgotten gods speak to me. Hatred might feel good and just and righteous. It leads to the opposite.
“People we call leaders will use that hate for their purposes. They’ll feed on your hate and throw gasoline on the fire. They’ll use it to manipulate you. You’ll join them, pumping your fist with righteous indignation and spitting on your enemies. And next, those leaders will slaughter enemies you never knew existed, and then they’ll butcher your neighbors claiming they have been enemies all along. And then they’ll come for you. In the end, hate destroys everything. Take the other path, Symone. Go the way I left behind. Love the world around you while you still can. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Let go of your hatred. That’s what real heroes do.”

What are you planning to write next?

When I was ten, I read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The mystery in that one blew me away: how can they all be dead with no one else on the island? Ever since then, I've found Ms. Christie's work great fun. Not the deepest characters, or social commentary, but great brain teasers with terrific twists. Plain old fun to read. I'm planning to write a mystery in the spirit of her manor mysteries, famous for Hercule Poirot's insightful (and often magical) solutions.

Mine will be set in an exclusive resort high in the Alps where a gathering of American billionaires plot to turn the USA into an Oligarchy they control. An avalanche cuts them off from their sycophants and assistants, forcing the herd of narcissistic megalomaniacs to solve a murder among them.

Seeley James

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About the Author

Seeley James says his near-death experiences range from talking a jealous husband into putting the gun down to spinning out on an icy freeway in heavy traffic without touching anything. His resume ranges from washing dishes to global technology management. His personal life ranges from homeless at 17, adopting a 3-year-old at 19, getting married at 37, fathering his last child at 43, hiking the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim at 59, and taking the occasional nap. His writing career ranges from humble beginnings with short stories in The Battered Suitcase, to being awarded a Medallion from the Book Readers Appreciation Group. Seeley is best known for his Sabel Security series of thrillers featuring athlete and heiress Pia Sabel and her bodyguard, veteran Jacob Stearne. One of them kicks ass and the other talks to the wrong god. His love of creativity began at an early age, growing up at Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture in Arizona and Wisconsin. He carried his imagination first into a successful career in sales and marketing, and then to his real love: fiction. Find out more at his website https://seeleyjames.com/ and find him on Facebook and Twitter @SeeleyJamesAuth

4 November 2024

Book Launch Guest Post: The Herbalist's Daughters: A dual timeline historical fantasy (Book 2 in The Wise Women series) by Cheryl Burman


Available for pre-order from 

Can the past be truly redeemed? In 1997, Mara Ash discovers among her mother’s possessions the beautifully illustrated 19thC journals of the flora of the Forest of Dean by one Aaron Appleby. Tucked among the pages are two cryptic letters from Aaron to a woman called Hester.

Thank you so much, Tony, for having me here and giving me the chance to talk about my latest book, The Herbalist’s Daughters.

I’ve been writing now for about ten years, and have two short story collections (including one of historical tales) and ten novels under my belt. One of these is what I thought would be a standalone inspired by historical events which took place in the Forest of Dean, UK, where I live, in 1906. A local ‘wise woman’ (herbal healer plus a little more), was charged with witchcraft (yes, in 1906). 

The case was even discussed in Parliament, where the local MP was roundly teased about his backward constituents, poor man. The woman was acquitted, but when I came across her story I loved the idea of a witchy vibes book set here, using other local tales and legends to create an historical fantasy. That book became River Witch, and was warmly welcomed by readers – to the extent some people asked for a sequel. Which is a long-winded way of explaining how The Herbalist’s Daughters came about.

Never one to do things easily, I decided this book should be a dual timeline. I love reading dual timeline historical novels, which are immensely popular these days – a fact that didn’t escape the marketing bit of my author brain. Learning this new approach was fun, and challenging.

The ‘modern’ tale is set in 1997. My protagonist Mara Ash goes searching for her forebears, and I didn’t want to make things too easy for her with our current online access to this kind of information. The historic tale spans 1897 to 1917, and follows Hester and Aaron, the key characters in River Witch. One River Witch reviewer had made the comment that there were ‘no guarantees’ in the ending of the book when these characters are re-united. I took her at her word and spun the story from there. Hope she approves!

Researching for the novel led me all over the place, from gas street lighting, the 19th century postal service, how far a horse can travel in a day and turn of the century train journeys, through to the 1996 Good Pubs Guide. Plus quite a bit about VADs in World War 1. 

However, the sub-plot involving the VAD would have complicated things and made the book overly long, so I have set referred to it and set it aside for the next book, which I hope to publish in late spring 2025.

Cheryl Burman

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About the Author

Cheryl Burman lives in the Forest of Dean, UK with her husband. She is a multi-genre author with several books to her name including middle grade fantasy, women’s fiction and historical fantasy. Her flash fiction, short stories, and whole or parts of her novels have won various prizes. Find out more at Cheryl's website https://cherylburman.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @cr_burman.

2 November 2024

Special Guest Post: 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…

In 1559, on a hot summer’s day in Paris, the course of French history took a dramatic turn. The unexpected events that unfolded on that fateful day would also transform the life of a young girl, Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery. Her story inspired the latest novel in my ‘Daughters of Devon’ series, The Dartington Bride, due for release on March 28, 2024.

Everything was going well for King Henri II of France. The succession was guaranteed, as he had four sons with Queen Catherine de Medici. The French army had reclaimed Calais from the English. The 60-year-long Italian wars had finally come to an end. Through successful negotiations with the Hapsburghs and Queen Elizabeth of England, he had achieved The Peace of Cateau Cambresis.


King Henri II of France (1519-1559) after Francis Clouet
(Wikimedia Commons) 

In June 1559 lavish festivities were held to celebrate the peace agreements and two royal marriages. The festivities reached their peak with a magnificent tournament, held near the Place des Vosges, and set to last for 5 days. On the third day, June 30, forty-year-old King Henri himself would take on challengers.

King Henri had been training hard to excel in the joust. But Queen Catherine was troubled by the alarming predictions of her astrologers, Nostradamus, and Luca Gaurico. They foretold that Henri’s reign would end with an eye injury he would sustain in a duel. Gaurico, the astrologer of the Medici family in Italy, went as far as writing a letter to the king, advising him to:

‘… avoid all single combat in an enclosed field, especially around his forty-first year… for in that period of his life he was threatened by a wound in the head which could bring about blindness, or death.’

Under the scorching sun, a crowd gathered on Paris’ widest street, the rue Saint-Antoine. Colourful banners fluttered from the surrounding buildings, adding to the festive atmosphere as the spectators vied for positions in the stands. Queen Catherine begged Henri to let others take the field in his place. But he was having none of it. The anxious queen looked on as, proudly wearing the colours of his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, Henri rode out.

Despite winning the first contest, he faced a formidable challenge from his second opponent, who nearly knocked him off his horse. The Duke of Savoy and Queen Catherine both urged him not to ride again. But Henri was stubborn. He insisted on another contest and commanded Gabriel de Lorges, the Captain of his Scots Guards, to ride against him.


Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, (5 May 1530 – 26 June 1574)
(Wikimedia Commons) 

From the fifteenth century, the King’s Scots guards served as an elite personal bodyguard to French monarchs. A few years before the tournament, Gabriel took over from his father as their captain. A handsome and fit soldier, he was at least ten years younger than King Henri. At first he resisted, but he dared not disobey his king.

The two horses thundered towards each other. Gabriel’s lance struck the king in the right shoulder and, in a move that was not the usual practice in the sport, held onto his lance. The impact caused the lance to splinter, sending wooden shards into Henri’s forehead. In his haste to prove a point, the king may have let down the visor on his helmet without fastening the buckle, making him especially vulnerable. The visor failed to protect his right eye, and a shard of wood from the lance pierced it, reaching into his brain.

At first, Henri stayed in the saddle. But when his attendants saw how serious his injury was, they lifted him from his horse. They carried him into the nearby Hôtel des Tournelles, where, according to an eyewitness, Bishop Antoine Caraccioli, Gabriel begged for forgiveness at the king’s bedside. He even asked that the king cut off his head and hand. Henri refused, saying that Gabriel had merely followed his orders.

Ambroise Paré, the renowned barber-surgeon and French court physician, hoped to operate and save the king. According to some sources, he may have even practiced eye surgery on prisoners in the Bastille to refine his technique. Additionally, Philip of Spain sent his physician, the equally renowned anatomist Andreas Vesalius, all the way from Brussels. They tried everything. Despite the combined efforts of the two learned men, King Henri died on 10 July 1559. After his death, jousting declined as a sport, particularly in France.

On his deathbed, King Henri again declared Gabriel blameless. However, Queen Catherine would never forgive him. From that day, she took the broken lance as her emblem. Gabriel de Lorges had become the French regicide.

Gabriel, who became Count of Montgomery after his father’s death in 1562, came from a noble family of Scottish descent. His father, Jacques, had forged a successful career as a soldier under King Francois II. In 1545, during the Anglo/Scottish wars, known as Henry VIII’s ‘Rough Wooing,’ he led a French force to support the Scots. Jaques married his third wife, Charlotte de Maille, in 1550. 

It was a double wedding as Gabriel married Charlotte’s daughter, Isabeau de la Touche, on the same day. Gabriel and Isabeau would go on to have had four sons and four daughters. Gabrielle, affectionately known as Roberda in the family, was about five years old at the time of the tournament.

After the accident, Gabriel spent a few days in the ‘Montgomery Tower’ within the wall of Philippe Auguste in Paris. Then, still in fear of his life, he fled. He went first to the family home at Ducey in Normandy. By mid-July, he had travelled to Jersey. In December, diplomatic papers mentioned him being in Venice.

In the spring of 1560, Gabriel arrived in England. He met many influential people, including Lord Robert Dudley. He also made, or renewed, his acquaintance with Sir Arthur Champernowne of Dartington Hall. The two men may have first met some years earlier, in1554. Once the investigation into his supposed participation in the Wyatt rebellion had concluded, Queen Mary released Arthur from the Tower of London and permitted him to travel to France. During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Sir Arthur, a staunch Protestant, held the important position of Vice Admiral of the Fleet of the West.

While her husband was in England, Isabeau embraced the teachings of John Calvin, joining his followers, the Huguenots. By the time Gabriel returned to Ducey in December 1561, he too had converted to the Protestant faith.

Religious tensions had been simmering in France for some time. They came to a boiling point on 1 March 1562 when the troops of the powerful Catholic leader, the Duke de Guise, murdered a group of Protestants in a barn at Vassy. The massacre marked the start of the bitter wars of religion that would engulf France for the next 30 years. As France spiralled towards war, Gabriel joined forces with Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and emerged as a Huguenot military leader.

Isabeau was, by all accounts, a formidable woman who gave her unwavering support to her husband. When she followed Gabriel on the battle trail, she took all of her children with her. In October 1562, the entire family was at the heart of the fighting in the besieged city of Rouen. The sights Roberda and her siblings witnessed there must have had a profound effect on them.

In 1565, Gabriel granted Isabeau full power of attorney to act on his behalf in all matters concerning his estate and finances. She began negotiating marriages for their children, seeking alliances that would strengthen Gabriel’s position as a war leader.

Isabeau is probably the French lady Sir Arthur Champernowne entertained in Plymouth in 1568. Katherine Astley, one of Sir Arthur’s sisters, had been Queen Elizabeth’s childhood governess. Until her death in 1565, Mrs Astley was Chief Lady of the Privy chamber and a trusted confidante of the Queen. No doubt Gabriel hoped that an alliance with the well-connected Sir Arthur would strengthen his position when seeking support from Queen Elizabeth for the Huguenot cause.

After a good deal of discussion, Roberda left her family in France and started a new life in England. Researching and crafting Roberda’s story has been both challenging and fascinating. The Dartington Bride explores themes that resonate with us today; the devastating impact of war on innocent populations and societal attitudes towards refugees. It also reveals startling insights into women’s lives, and attitudes to marriage amongst wealthy families in sixteenth century England.

The Dartington Bride is available to pre-order as an ebook and as a paperback. An audiobook version follows soon.

Rosemary Griggs

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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

29 October 2024

Special Guest Interview with Chris (C.C.) Humphreys, Author of Someday I'll Find You


Available from Amazon UKAmazon US

When Billy Coke steps onto the streets of London one December evening he has no idea he is stepping to his fate. 

I'm pleased to welcome author Chris (C.C.) Humphreys to The Writing Desk;

Tell us about your latest book

I was going to write a load of new stuff about it… then realized I'd laboured so long and hard to narrow it down for the back cover copy I thought it better just to send you that! I promise after this there will be no more cut and paste:

'Inspired by my parents' true story, this is a novel about a spy and a pilot who fall in love, are wrenched apart by war, and must find their way back to each other.

When Billy Coke steps onto the streets of London one December evening in 1940, he has no idea he is stepping to his fate. As Hitler’s bombers come close to burning the city down, Billy meets the woman who will change the course of his life - Ilse Magnusson, a musician from Norway, but also something more – a spy in training. Escaping the Blitz for three days, she and Billy drive, quarrel, conceal, reveal… and fall, finally, fully, in love. 

Now they must part, each to fight the war their own way. Billy, a Canadian Spitfire pilot, to duel with the Luftwaffe over North Africa and the Med. Ilse to return to her conquered country, ingratiate herself with the Nazi elite – which includes her beloved father ¬– and send vital intelligence back to Britain. They know that the odds of both of them surviving are poor. All they can hope is that the other does survive – and that someday they find each other again.

From decadent pre-war Berlin to the atrocity at Guernica, from dogfights over Sicily to an Oslo ground under the German jackboot, through small victories and bitter losses, this is the story of a man and a woman at war. A tale of causes and compromises, heroism, and betrayal. Of choices made, with consequences unforeseen. Finally how sometimes . . . love can give you a second chance.

(And yes, my father was a Battle of Britain fighter pilot, and my mother was a spy in the Norwegian Resistance, her cell run by SOE)

What is your preferred writing routine?

It really depends on what draft I am on. If it is my first draft - after I have done all my preliminary research and have a rough idea of where I am going (I don't outline), I just set out and try to find out who these characters are… in action. I like to be caffeinated and at my desk by about 7:30am. 

If I am filling the blank screen i.e. making it all up as I go, I find I am inspired for about five hours, so I stop for lunch. If it's second draft i.e. I have a mountain of words to chip away at - then I can go all day. You have to drive me from my desk with hounds.

What advice do you have for new writers?

CC: My biggest piece of advice - and what I strive to teach when I do - is to regard writing as a process. A series of stages. This part - the first draft - is about finding out what the story is, telling it to yourself. You need to remove the words 'good' and 'bad'. (They are rarely useful at any stage. 

Does it work - serve your purpose at this stage - or doesn't it?) Like so many I thought I needed to write well, instantly, like my heroes. Then I remembered the cliché - 'journey not destination'. Each stage - preliminary, first draft, second draft, working with an editor - is separate and distinct. The lines should not be blurred.
 
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

Gosh, I am not great at the marketing stuff. Had to get a bit better since I started self-publishing some of my backlist. I find newsletters are useless, don't pay for them. Word of mouth - generated mostly by some social media shares - helps. 

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

I always say that research is not so much about getting the details right, necessary though that is. A good new fact acts as a springboard for the imagination. Very occasionally, maybe three times a novel, a fact merges with your imagination and writing becomes like taking dictation. 

In Someday I'll Find You (for reasons I can no longer recall) I chose to make Ilse, my female protagonist, a classical flautist. I am vastly ignorant about classical music, so I began to research, mainly by listening to flute quartets. I discovered that the adagio (second movement) in Mozart's Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major is based on an old Troubadour song. 

Then I remembered that the troubadours sang of courtly love which was pure - and unrequited. This gave Ilse the perfect excuse not to sleep with the viola player she'd been considering - and left her free to meet the other protagonist, Billy Coke. I confess to chortling while typing as research and character came together in action.

Interestingly, I mentioned to Doubleday my publishers that I'd put together a Spotify playlist of my research. Suggested they might want to use it in some way. They put it on a QR code on the free bookmarks.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

Ever? In my novel Vlad, The Last Confession I kept delaying writing the impalement scene which was vital. I mean he was Vlad the Impaler, not Vlad the Tickler, right? My writing was getting delayed, I was antsy, then realized why. 

So I sat down and wrote a page and a half in 45 minutes. You will never need to know anything more about how to impale someone. I never needed to write it again. There are other impalements in the novel, but all done from people's POV, their reactions, never directly. Phew. Definitely tough.

What are you planning to write next?

Someday I'll Find You did especially well in Canada. Sequels are apparently out of favour, but Doubleday wanted more of the same: spy, WW2, love story, with some Canadian Content. Two weeks ago I delivered 'Eve Sinclair', mainly set in the world of spies in neutral Sweden during the war. 

I have also finally written another Jack Absolute novel, sixteen years after the last one. It's the sequel to the original 'Jack Absolute' and I am hoping it revives the whole series. We are in talks with a publisher about reissuing them all with new covers etc. This one is appropriately called, 'The Resurrection of Jack Absolute'. They would also want new ones which would thrill me. I love Jack!

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys

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About the Author

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys has played Hamlet in Calgary, a gladiator in Tunisia, waltzed in London’s West End, conned the landlord of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street, commanded a starfleet in Andromeda, voiced Salem the cat in the original Sabrina, and is a dead immortal in Highlander. He has written eleven historical fiction novels including Shakespeare’s Rebel  which he adapted into a play and which premiered at Bard on the Beach, Vancouver, in 2015. Chris has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. He was the Fall Writer in Residence at the Vancouver Public Library 2021 and is very busy as an audiobook narrator-for-hire. Find out more from his website https://www.authorchrishumphreys.com/ and find Chris on Twitter X: @HumphreysCC

Historical Fiction Spotlight: The Tuscan Diary, by Anita Chapman


Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

As she gazes at the lights of Siena glowing in the dusk, Jess flips through the yellowing pages of the diary that led her here. Written by her grandfather during the war, it holds the answers to a family secret 
that might just change everything…

When Jessica’s grandfather left for war, he promised to keep a record of each day he was apart from her grandmother. The diary was lost along with him – until now, when a mysterious, handsome Italian man named Alessandro shows up at Jessica’s door with the diary in hand.

Immediately enchanted by her grandfather’s accounts of Italy’s glittering golden hours, Jess decides to spend a summer in Tuscany before she’s due to take over at her family’s farm. She hopes she can visit the places her grandfather once did – and finally find out what really happened the night he died…

In the historic city of Siena, she finds a job as companion to the glamorous Sofia – Alessandro’s grandmother – whose stories of Italy during the war are captivating. And as Jess spends more time with Alessandro, she begins to fall for him with each lingering look into his deep-brown eyes.

Together, Jess and Alessandro visit her grandfather’s resting place. But the more Jess learns about her grandfather’s time in Italy, the more she’s forced to question whether everything about her family’s past is a lie…

Jess came to Italy in search of answers, but time is running out. She can’t shake the feeling that the diary that has stolen her imagination is merely a work of fiction. And if it is, will the truth about her family inspire her to turn away from the path she thought she was destined for, and towards the life she truly wants?

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About the Author

Anita Chapman enjoyed writing stories from a young age, and won a local writing competition when she was nine years old. Encouraged by this, she typed up a series of stories about a mouse on her mum’s typewriter and sent them to Ladybird. She received a polite rejection letter, her first. Many of Anita’s summers growing up were spent with her family driving to Italy, and she went on to study French and Italian at university. As part of her degree, Anita lived in Siena for several months where she studied and au paired, and she spent a lot of time travelling around Italy in her twenties. Since 2015, Anita has worked as a social media manager, training authors on social media, and helping to promote their books. She’s run several courses in London and York, and has worked as a tutor at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College. Find out more from Anita's website https://anitachapman.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @neetschapman

27 October 2024

Special Guest Post by Birgit Constant, Author of Warrior of two Kings (The Northumbria Trilogy Book 1)


Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

England, 1066. In a remote Northumbrian village, young Oswulf is to become an elite warrior for the English king. But as English, Norse and Norman forces wage war against each other to secure control over Northumbria, Oswulf is caught in a perilous web of fickle loyalities and relentless ambition that drive friend and foe alike.

Linguistic challenges for writers

I love languages, and my readers hate me for it. 

Well, that's not really true. Most of those I have spoken to and who have posted reviews of my books – historical novels set in the Middle Ages – quite like the sprinkles of foreign words and phrases in my novels because they enhance the medieval feel of the story for those readers.

But languages are not everyone's cup of tea, and I understand if readers are confused, annoyed or outright frustrated by words whose meaning eludes them. They are not alone, for this is a problem that readers share with us writers of historical fiction – not to mention the characters in our books, who may have faced a similar challenge in their living days, all those centuries and sometimes millennia back in history.

Imagine you're a peasant in the 9th or 10th century in northeastern England. You speak your local northern, Anglian dialect, church services are in Latin, your neighbours further south speak Mercian, and your king speaks West Saxon. Sure, as a peasant, you probably never have to talk to your southern neighbours or king in person, but what if messengers from down south come to your village to tell you something important – in their dialect? Would you understand them? 

More importantly, would you comprehend the Viking raiders that the messengers tried to warn you about and who are suddenly popping up on the outskirts of your village? It probably wouldn't matter, because chances are those Vikings will kill you before entering into diplomatic relations.

If this linguistic situation sounds confusing, don't even get me started on 12th-century France.

Anyway, back in England, fast forward another century. Assuming you survived, your grand-grand-children have come to terms – they didn't have a choice, after all – with the descendants of the Vikings who decided to settle in England. Now, all of a sudden, the country is flooded with Normans, and you are forced to work for someone whose language is unlike anything you've ever heard and utterly unintelligible to you. This is the situation my teenage protagonist of Warrior of two Kings is thrown into when the Normans try to establish their authority in Northumbria.

At this point, all writers will have to think about how they get out of this tricky situation. There are three options:

1. Ignore

You can ignore the historical reality and let both characters speak English and understand each other easily, without questioning how likely this would have been. This is the easiest solution for the protagonist, writer and reader.

2. Circumvent

Let your characters converse in a lingua franca, a common language, used at the time to overcome or circumvent their linguistic differences. This option might be tricky or even impossible. Latin, for example, was spoken by everyone belonging to the clergy – not necessarily at the same level of proficiency, depending on their position in the church hierarchy – across the whole of Christian Europe, but laymen, in particular of lower social orders, would not usually have known and even less mastered it. So, even if there was a lingua franca, your characters may not have been able to speak it. Incidentally, the same might be true for today's readers. While you solve the historical communication problem, for example amongst travelling clerics or members of a highly educated nobility, you could be creating (another) one for your reader.

3. Accept

Could you accurately convey the linguistic background without overcomplicating things and confusing yourself and the reader? This is not simply a question of willingness. You also have to be able to do it, meaning you should understand the medieval languages and be able to work with them.

I'm a linguist and a medievalist, so this third option is my preferred choice. While I know and accept that some readers will take offence at my incorporating bits of Old English, Anglo-Norman, Old Norse, Old Breton and whatnot, I appreciate the effort and goodwill of the majority of readers, who will happily dive into my stories despite, sometimes even because of those foreign words and phrases. Think of foreign as a flourish, not a flaw.

As a token of my appreciation and to help readers, notably the curious ones, I always include a glossary with translations, with literal and general meanings, at the end of my books. Yes, I know this is awkward to access on e-readers, hence I make sure that none of the information given in foreign words is essential to understanding the scene or the story. If it is, I cheat: in Warrior of two Kings, my young English protagonist – and hence also the reader – is lucky, as one of the Norman warriors is an interpreter who translates the foreign Norman gibberish into English.

Yet the linguistic challenges for us writers go beyond the character level. They start even before we decide how to handle languages of yore in our actual story, namely with the pile of research that every writer of historical fiction must do.

An essential question is how to get the information about the time and place where the story is set. What looks like a simple task might, however, be more complicated than it seems. After all, depending on your chosen time and setting, you may not be able to read source texts, because you do not speak the language they were written in and because there is no translation into a language you are familiar with.

There might also be specialist literature on certain essential details – architectural, social, cultural, whatever – in languages you don't know. Of course, if you don't know the languages, you won't be aware of those sources, but if for some reason, you come across them in your research, you'll have a hard time trying to make use of them.

Lastly, if your books are translated, how do you assess whether the translation is good? 

With my range of languages, those three areas are less of a problem, because I can search, understand and evaluate results in multiple languages. But what if this is not possible?

With the advent of free or cheap AI translation, you could always give that a try to get the gist of specialist literature. I would not go as far as to suggest using it on old source texts, though. For translations, you can always try to find colleagues or readers you trust who speak the translated language well enough to gauge the quality of the translation.

However, when it comes to specialist information, such as historical details and linguistic problems, there's nothing better than asking a specialist. Especially for obscure questions – I once needed help with Old Breton and Occitan dialects – I have found specialists very welcoming and helpful. So, don't be afraid to ask. It shows wisdom, not lack of it.

When faced with the challenge of languages, pick what is possible, desirable and most convenient to you and your readers. Think about how important languages and potential language barriers are for your story – you might discover interesting constellations of characters, underlying conflicts or motivations that could add an exciting extra to your novel.

For young Oswulf in Warrior of two Kings, it is the language barrier above all that alienates him from the Normans, creating mistrust and wariness. Cutting out the linguistic aspect would have removed much of the tension between the two opposing nations. It would also have given readers one reason less to fear for the young Saxon's life at a court full of foreign, battle-hardened Norman warriors.

Whichever way you decide, language is a powerful tool to convey a story. Make sure you use it to the fullest of your abilities – your readers will love you for it.

Helpful resources for languages:

https://www.oed.com/discover/history-of-english – History of English

http://www.triviumpublishing.com/articles/languages.html – Languages in Medieval England

https://bosworthtoller.com – Old English Dictionary

https://www.oed.com/discover/old-english-an-overview/ – Linguistic background of Old English

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary – Middle English Dictionary

https://www.oed.com/discover/middle-english-an-overview/?tl=true – Linguistic background of Middle English

https://anglo-norman.net – Anglo-Norman Dictionary and everything Anglo-Norman

http://zeus.atilf.fr/dmf/ – Dictionary of Middle French

https://dicodoc.eu/fr/dictionnaires – Dictionnaire occitan (available in Occitan/French only)

http://www.koeblergerhard.de/ahdwbhin.html – Dictionary of Old High German (German only)

https://mhdwb-online.de/wb.php?buchstabe=A&portion=0 – Dictionary of Middle High German (German only)

http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/ – Enter a word and select one of the available dictionaries of English, French, Old French or Latin to look up the word

https://www.etymonline.com – Etymological Dictionary of English

https://lecteur-few.atilf.fr/ – French Etymological Dictionary

Birgit Constant

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About the Author

Birgit Constant has a PhD in medieval studies, has learned eleven languages and worked her way through translation, IT and Public Relations before ending up in the world of books. She writes historical fiction for language nerds and is particularly interested in hidden histories of less well-known people and places. Her works include the Northumbria Trilogy and a fictional biography about Marie de France, a 12th-century French writer. Subscribe to her newsletter Medieval Motes at www.birgitconstant.com for exclusive reading material, news from the Middle Ages, and information about her projects and books. You can also find Birgit Constant on Facebook and Bluesky