Blog Tour: London Tales (Short Stories) by Tim Walker

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

London Tales is a collection of sixteen tales that offer dramatic pinpricks in the rich tapestry of London’s timeline, a city with two thousand years of history. They are glimpses of imagined lives at key moments, starting with a prologue in verse from the point of view of a native Briton tribeswoman absorbing the shock of Roman invasion. 

Then there’s a tale set in Roman Londinium in 60 CE, from the perspective of terrified legionaries and townsfolk facing the vengeful Iceni queen, Boudica, whose army burnt the fledgling city to the ground.

From Roman Londinium there’s a jump to Saxon Lundenwic in the late eighth century, then onward to the medieval city in 1381 at the time of the Peasant’s Revolt. Then a jump to the second significant conflagration, the Great Fire of London, in 1666. 

From there the reader is transported to 1814 and the last ice fair on the frozen River Thames in the year before the battle of Waterloo, then onto an unnerving tale of copycat killings based on the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders. This is followed by a fraught romance set during the Blitz in 1941; then the swinging Sixties and wide-flared seventies are remembered in the life story of fictional policeman, Brian Smith. 

There’s a series of contemporary stories that reference recent history and current affairs, including the London terrorist bombings of 2005; a literary pub crawl and a daring prison break, building to the imagined death throes of London in a dystopian vision.

These stories are inspired by the author’s love of history, personal experiences and reflections on his time living and working in London in the 1980’s and 90’s. Adaptability, resilience, conformity and resolve are recurring themes in these stories.

For ten years the author was one of thousands of commuters who’d pour in daily from outlying suburbs to feed the insatiable economic appetite of the city. London’s a busy and at times unfriendly place, driven by the productivity of its inhabitants and set against an incredible landscape of history, art, architectural and cultural development. It both inspires and tires in equal measure.

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About the Author

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK.  Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, Tim grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book history-meets-legend fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. This series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of a possible historical King Arthur based on scant research material. Find out more at Tim's website and follow him on  Twitter,  Facebook, and Bluesky: @timwalker1666.bsky.social

Special Guest Post by Elena Maria Vidal, Author of Generalissima: A Novel of Henrietta Maria: The Henrietta of France Trilogy, Book Two

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

As the Three Kingdoms totter on the brink of anarchy, Henriette-Marie, queen of Charles I, strives to bring up their lively, growing family. In addition to her own health problems, she worries about the welfare of her mother the Dowager Queen of France, who sought refuge in London only to find herself under attack. As Henriette faces choices which may separate herself from her beloved husband and children, she seeks help from the Pope and the Irish Catholics. 

Henrietta Maria and Her Mother, Marie de’ Medici

First of all, I would like to thank Tony Riches for opening his popular blog to other historical writers so that we may share our research. I am the author of a biography of Marie-Antoinette as well as six historical novels. The latest two novels are about Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I and they are entitled My Queen, My Love and Generalissima. They are part of an unfinished trilogy; the third instalment Avalon will be out sometime in 2027 or 28. 

In my readings about Henrietta of France, I have found that her mother Marie de’ Medici played an enormous role not only in her upbringing but in her ongoing political decisions, as well as shaping her faith, her love of the arts, of music, theater, and architecture. 

Queen Marie has ended up playing a much larger role in my novels than I originally would ever have imagined, due to the sheer force of her personality as much as to her real adventures, which included leading rebellions against her son, climbing out of windows to escape the royal guards, and hiding with her entourage of dwarves in a German brewery. All of this followed a glittering career of being Queen Mother Regent of France. Most of the Queen’s life is captured in the spectacular series of twenty-four huge paintings by Rubens, now at the Louvre.

 Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, painted by the Flemish Baroque artist 

Peter Paul Rubens around 1622.

Marie’s life had always been eventful, however. Born in 1575 in Florence, the youngest daughter of Francesco de' Medici, who was to inherit the Duchy of Tuscany, she was reared in the magnificent Pitti Palace. Marie’s mother, a Habsburg Archduchess, fell down the palace steps when expecting her eighth child and died in agony. Some thought she had been murdered. 

Marie’s father married his mistress. Marie was well-educated and healthy but lonely. The stepmother found a companion for Marie: a homely dwarf named Dianora, who claimed to possess psychic powers. In spite of the Florentine court’s penchant for fortune-telling and astrology, Marie remained firmly Catholic her entire life. When in her twenties, word came that the King of France was looking for a wealthy wife.

Henri IV or Henri of Navarre (1553-1610) has been celebrated by the French people as the monarch who was the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. The fact of his many mistresses and bastards never hindered his popularity, so great were his achievements on behalf of the French people in ending the Wars of Religion. His childless first marriage with his cousin Marguerite de Valois was annulled so that he could have legitimate offspring. 

He married the much younger Marie de' Medici in 1600. Queen Marie, loving her husband, suffered from his unfaithfulness. She brought with her Dianora, renamed Leonora. Leonora married another Italian, a thug named Concini who later bullied his way into becoming a marshal of France. After the couple had several children, in 1610 Henri had Marie crowned and anointed at Notre Dame de Paris. The day after her coronation, Henri was stabbed to death in his coach in the streets of Paris. Marie became the Regent for their young son, Louis XIII.

As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. Too often Queen Marie is dismissed as being "stupid" in histories of the time. But Henri IV would never have designated Marie to be Regent in case of his death if he had thought her hopelessly ignorant and helpless. Queen Marie had great devotion to the Virgin Mary, seeing her role as being like that of the Mother of God, the conduit of power between the king and his people. 

As regent for her son Louis XIII she was determined to keep France out of wars, especially wars with other Catholic countries. Her older daughters, Elisabeth, Queen of Spain and Christine, Duchess of Savoy, had been brought up with Marian devotion and saw their roles in their adopted countries as being active rather than passive. As for Louis XIII, he attained his majority in 1614, although Marie kept running the country. Louis overthrew his mother in 1617, and had Leonora and Concini executed. After a brief exile, Marie managed to make her way back to Paris, where she presided in majesty at the new Medici Palace, later known as the Luxembourg. And she had one more daughter left to marry off.

The youngest child, Henriette-Marie de France, born on 25 November, 1609, was perhaps Marie’s favorite as she greatly resembled Henri IV, in coloring and wiry agility, as well as in merriment and a sense of adventure. Marie arranged for her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. Henrietta Maria, at age fifteen, tackled the insurmountable task of converting the British Isles back to Catholicism. 

Marie made Henriette promise never to become a Protestant and if she did, she would be cursed by Marie. Henriette never flagged in the practice of her Catholic faith no matter the cost. While Charles I never converted to Catholicism, his relationship with his devout wife was deeply spiritual, which enhanced the intense physical passion between them. They were happiest together and with their children. Their tragedy is that they were eventually separated by the Civil Wars as their family was scattered. Their two youngest children were captives of the enemy forces. And Charles I was eventually arrested and beheaded in 1649.

In Marie’s later years, another falling-out with her oldest son Louis XIII, and especially with his minister Cardinal de Richelieu, led to her exile in England, where she lived in St. James Palace. Marie was warmly welcomed by Charles I and Henriette, although they were in the throes of a constitutional crisis. Marie saw the coming disasters and, realizing her Catholic presence was causing political complications for Charles and Henriette, went to Germany to seek refuge with her friend the painter Rubens. 

The Thirty Years War was raging; Rubens had died but the ailing Queen was able to stay in a brewery in Cologne owned by the Rubens family. She died in the brewery in Cologne on 3 July, 1642 in a state of destitution, abandoned by her son Louis XIII, who would not allow her to die in France, although he later had her buried at Saint Denis. Mercifully, the Queen received the ministrations of the Carmelites of Cologne, to whom she bequeathed a cherished statue of the Blessed Virgin, one of her last possessions.

Elena Maria Vidal

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About the Author

Elena Maria Vidal was born in Florence, Oregon in 1962 but grew up in Frederick County, Maryland. She received her BA in Psychology from Hood College and her MA in Modern European History from SUNY Albany. She has been a member of the Secular Order of Mount Carmel since 1986. Elena enjoys cooking, gardening, opera and working with the elderly. She lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with her family. She is currently engaged in writing a historical fiction trilogy about Queen Henrietta Maria. Elena’s Tea at Trianon blog deals with social, religious and political issues as well as history. My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria is her fifth novel and sixth book. Find out more from her blog, Tea at Trianon and find her on Twitter @emvidal

New Audiobook: Queen Anna, Book One in the Stuart Queens Trilogy, Narrated by Ruth Urquhart

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A crown won in the eye of a storm. A queen who refuses to be broken... Princess Anna of Denmark sails for Scotland to marry King James VI, but storms ravage her fleet, igniting a deadly obsession with witchcraft in her new home. Arriving in a strange and paranoid court, Anna finds her new husband’s bed is a treacherous place.

After fourteen years researching and writing the twelve books which tell the story of the Tudors, it seemed natural to explore the succession in more detail and understand the rise of the Stuarts.

I discovered Anna’s story while writing about Bess and Walter Raleigh, and like most people, knew little about her life. I’ve enjoyed the year of research behind this book, uncovering primary sources – and even learning a little Danish.

With notable exceptions, Anna is largely overlooked by historians, and I found myself wondering about the image of her as shallow, with little influence. I don’t recall her being mentioned in my history lessons at school, but Anna was the daughter of a king, wife of a king and mother of a king. 

I became intrigued by the idea of a fourteen-year-old Danish princess being forced by her parents into a strategic, arranged marriage with King James of Scotland. Anna had to leave her friends, her family, and everything she knew, for a strange country across a dangerous sea where she could barely speak the language.

There is also the question of her relationship with King James, and how they had so many children. As well as her daughter Elizabeth, the ‘Winter Queen’ of Bohemia, Anna was the mother of Henry, possibly the greatest king we never had, and the ill-fated King Charles I.

My research took me from the Danish Court to Holyrood House in Scotland and on to the palaces of Westminster and Anna's beloved Denmark House. Her vibrant personality can be seen in her surviving letters, some of which I had translated from old French, (and include in the book in italics). 

I enjoyed following Anna to England after the death of Queen Elizabeth Ist, and making a new life died as queen consort of three kingdoms. She ordered the old queen’s priceless gowns to be used as costumes in her legendary masques, and slept in the same bedchamber as Queen Jane Seymour, her favourite bed.

I found a resilient woman and a devoted mother to her children. Anna was a creative patron of the arts, and did her best to be a loyal queen consort to King James.

 

Tony Riches

 

About the Narrator

Ruth Urquhart is an award winning, Scottish female voice over artist and character voice actor. Professionally trained as an actor with over 10 years experience as a voiceover artist, she is the voice of multiple characters in global animations, cartoons and video games. Ruth has provided voiceovers for TV commercials, global brands and corporate films as well as e-learning and online courses, medical narration, video explainers, and radio adverts.  She has dubbed worldwide cinema released movies and animations as well as providing narration for documentaries and over 200 audiobooks.  Ruth says, ‘My sister-in-law Anne is Danish and I have always been picking her brain over the years regarding various jobs that have required a Danish accent!’ Find oiut more at ruthurquhart.com/ and find Ruth on Instagram  @tartanchameleon 

Special Guest Post by Dr. Eric Jourgensen, Author of The Deadline Plate (The Chronicle Keepers)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The Deadline Plate is a student journalism time-travel mystery about four young reporters who discover an old printing plate in their school’s anniversary time capsule. When the plate pulls them into 1887 New York, they must work with Nellie Bly as her groundbreaking asylum investigation is threatened by a mysterious force trying to erase the record. To get home, they have to protect sources, preserve evidence, and learn that telling the truth means more than getting the story first.

Why My Time Travelers Carry Notebooks 

When I decided to send four student journalists into 1887 New York, I gave them the obvious modern tools: phones, cameras, audio recorders, and the instinct to document everything. Then I made those tools unreliable.

That choice became one of the engines of The Deadline Plate, the first book in The Chronicle Keepers series.

The novel begins with four students discovering a printing plate buried in their school's time capsule. The plate carries a story about their own disappearance and sends them to New York during Nellie Bly'searly reporting career. 

Someone called the Redactor is changing the historical record. The students cannot simply look up what happened, record a confession, or trust that a digital file will survive. They have to interview witnesses, compare accounts, preserve documents, and decide what they can prove.

In other words, they have to do journalism.

I teach high school journalism, newspaper, broadcast journalism, and yearbook. My students live in a world where nearly every moment can be photographed, recorded, copied, reposted, and misunderstood before the bell rings. Their problem is rarely a lack of information. It is figuring out which information deserves trust.

That made time travel an interesting writing problem. If my characters could carry perfect access to the present into the past, the mystery would collapse. A smartphone can become a shortcut disguised as a prop. Search the name. Photograph the document. Record the witness. Check the date. Done.

But journalism is not supposed to be a shortcut.

So the past pushes back. Batteries fail. Recordings cannot be trusted. Context disappears. The students discover that having a copy of something is not the same as understanding it. A document can be authentic and still incomplete. A witness can tell the truth and still be wrong. A newspaper can print accurate facts and create a false impression through what it leaves out.

That last problem matters to me. My nonfiction work uses a framework called the WATER Check: Wait, Ask, Trace, Examine, Respond. It teaches students to slow down before accepting or sharing something. The framework grew from a classroom deception in which every fact I presented was technically true, but the overall conclusion was designed to mislead.

The same idea sits underneath The Deadline Plate. The villain does not always need to invent a lie. Sometimes changing the record means removing a name, shifting a date, preserving one account, or making another impossible to find.

That is why the notebooks matter.

A notebook is limited. It cannot capture everything. The person holding it must choose what to write down, which quotation is exact, what needs verification, and which detail might matter later. Those choices create responsibility. The notebook also leaves evidence of uncertainty: crossed-out words, arrows, questions in the margin, and a blank where the reporter did not hear clearly enough to pretend.

For young reporters, that can be an important lesson. Technology makes documentation easier, but it does not make judgment automatic.

Nellie Bly was the right historical journalist for the first book because she understood both evidence and access. Her reporting mattered because she entered places powerful institutions preferred to keep closed. She observed, remembered, questioned, and wrote for readers who had not seen what she had seen. 

Her work also creates difficult questions for a modern writer. How do you introduce a real person without turning her into a marble statue? How do you respect what she accomplished while still allowing fictional characters to occupy the same room?

My answer was to make her active, intelligent, impatient, and human. The students do not arrive to teach Nellie Bly how journalism works. They are the ones trying to keep up.

The research moved between biographies, archival newspapers, timelines, maps, and the practical details of a nineteenth-century pressroom. I kept returning to the physical nature of news. Type had

weight. Ink stained hands. A printing plate could preserve a page, but it could also be altered, hidden, or destroyed. That physicality gave the fantasy rules something solid to push against.

It also changed how I thought about the students' modern newsroom. Their digital stories feel temporary until one incomplete version travels farther than the correction. Suddenly, the old problem and the

new problem look remarkably similar. Once a record begins moving, the reporter cannot control every place it goes.

The students carry notebooks because they need tools that still work when the spectacular tools fail. More importantly, they carry notebooks because the series is about the choices made before publication.

What did you see?

Who told you?

What can you verify?

What is missing?

Who pays the price if you get it wrong?

Those questions matter in 1887. They matter in a high school newsroom.They matter anywhere history is still being written.

 Eric Jourgensen 

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About the Author

Eric Jourgensen, Ed.D., is a journalism educator, author, and adviser to student newspaper, broadcast, and yearbook programs in South Florida. He is the creator of the WATER Check media-literacy framework and the author of The Deadline Plate, Book One of The Chronicle Keepers. The young adult series follows student journalists who travel through history to protect stories at risk of being changed or erased.Learn more at https:ericjourgensen.com and find Eric on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky @drdarthgrader.bsky.social

Book Review Finis Britanniae: A Military History of Late Roman Britain and the Saxon Conquest, by Murray Dahm

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Murray Dahm’s Finis Britanniae is an engaging exploration of one of the most dramatic turning points in British history: the collapse of Roman rule and the emergence of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

What sets this book apart is its military focus, moving beyond the familiar story of the Romans leaving and the Saxons arriving, examining warfare, fortifications, armies and the changing political landscape that shaped Britain’s transformation.

 
I particularly liked the occasional asides, which show the period as brutal as anything in ‘Game of Thrones’:

Hengist prepared an entertainment, to which he invited the king, the nobles and military officers. He ordered three hundred Saxons to conceal each a knife under his feet, and to mix with the Britons, and when they are sufficiently inebriated, he would cry out, ‘Nimeder Sexa!’ the let each draw his knife and kill his man, by which were slain three hundred nobles of Vortigern. (Save the king, held for ransom.)

Accessible and thought-provoking, Finis Britanniae is recommended to anyone interested in Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval warfare. It brings a fascinating but often misunderstood period to life.

Tony Riches

(I would like t thank Amberley Publishing for providing a review copy.)

Special Guest Interview with Gabriel Garcia, Author of Decimus: The Wolf Of Rome: (Tales from The Gathering)

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

216 BC, the formidable Carthaginian general Hannibal unleashed a terrifying wave of aggression against Rome following the catastrophic Battle of Cannae, a defeat that sent shockwaves through the Roman Republic. As the dust settled from the chaos of war, the arrival of Mago and Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brothers commanding forces in Hispania, threatened to cement Rome's fate. Amidst the turmoil, Hannibal delivered a chilling ultimatum to the people of Rome: surrender

or face utter annihilation.

I'm pleased to welcome author Gabriel Garcia to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book.

Decimus: The Wolf of Rome is an alternative historical fantasy set within The Gathering Universe and is the second book in the Tales from The Gathering spinoff series. The story follows Decimus Aquilla, a survivor of the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, who must rescue his son, Justinian, from the Carthaginian king Hannibal, now the ruler of Rome, all the while forming a rebellion to fight back against the Carthaginians and retake their home. 

What is your preferred writing routine?

I am a night owl when it comes to my writing. I typically write between 9 and 11 pm, focusing on 20-30 minutes of writing per day.

What advice do you have for new writers?

Craft the story that speaks to you. Put it down on paper. Not every tale is destined for the spotlight; some are meant to be cherished privately. Share the narrative that matters to you with the world, and from there, dive into research, build connections, and promote your work whenever you can.

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

So far, in-person events have been great. I've attended two major gatherings this year, and I have another one lined up next week on the 19th called Alpha & Omega Con. Additionally, I’m looking forward to two events in November: one at my local library and another at an indie book fair.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.

While delving into the historical context of Decimus during the Second Punic Wars, I realized just how crucial this conflict was on a grand scale. If the Romans had truly lost and Carthage somehow emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean, the course of Western history would have changed dramatically. Much of Europe could have remained pagan, with Carthage, Sicily, and southern Italy potentially becoming the heart of the Renaissance. Major religions like Christianity and Islam might have followed very different paths in their expansion and trade, leading to a drastically altered development of future continents, such as the Americas.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

The most challenging scene I wrote was early in the book, when Decimus faces the loss of his wife, Flavia. It was difficult to capture, as it sets the emotional tone for the rest of the story. The moment was raw and authentic, creating an uncomfortable feeling that oddly felt poetic in its delivery.

What are you planning to write next?

I'm currently working on my first novel titled "The Taino Gladiator." This story follows a young high school senior and amateur boxer from 1990s New York who finds himself magically transported back to ancient Rome, just before the Gladiator rebellion led by Spartacus kicks off.

Gabriel Garcia

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About the Author

Gabriel Garcia is a vibrant storyteller and passionate historian who weaves tales across the realms of fantasy, speculative fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Growing up in the sun-soaked expanses of Southern California, Gabriel’s vivid imagination was ignited by his deep-seated love for history and the art of storytelling. Influenced by the literary prowess of masters like Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, and Brian Jacques, he channels his creative spirit into crafting narratives that captivate and inspire. His literary adventure began with the release of his debut novel, The Gathering. This book was a labor of love, meticulously developed during his pursuit of a Master’s degree in History. That journey not only honed his writing skills but also deepened his appreciation for the intricate historical backdrops that enrich his stories. Building on this foundation, Gabriel has gone on to publish several more compelling books, each one exploring different facets of the human experience. Gabriel’s creativity doesn’t stop with writing novels. He also hosts the engaging podcast "Tales From The Wandering Scribe," available on YouTube. Here, he connects with fellow writers and creatives, diving into meaningful conversations about their unique journeys and inspiring stories. His podcast is more than just a platform for writers; it’s an exploration of fascinating historical topics alongside historians and passionate hobbyists. Gabriel invites listeners to embark on a thrilling journey through history’s many layers, creating a dynamic space for anyone curious about the past. Join him on this remarkable adventure, and discover the exciting paths that lie ahead in the wondrous worlds of literature and history!  Find out more at https://wonderingscribe.com/ and find Gabriel on Bluesky, and Instagram 

Blog Tour Spotlight: The Irish Ties That Bind, by Michael J. Hopkins

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

From the green hills of southern Ireland to the heartland of America, four families are united by faith, perseverance, and an enduring legacy that spans generations.

As famine and hardship drive Irish immigrants across the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century, the Power and Coughlin families plant new roots in the American Midwest. Their daughters answer a higher calling, joining the fledgling Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. Through the remarkable leadership of Sister Emily and Sister Samuel, these women help shape a religious community that will educate thousands and leave an indelible mark on the nation.

Their story intertwines with those of the Cullen and Hynes families, whose lives are transformed by the sisters’ influence. Seeking refuge from the unrest of postwar Chicago, they settle in Dixon, Illinois, where friendship, faith, and family bind them to another rising family—the Reagans. As Ronald Reagan grows from a small-town boy into a radio broadcaster, actor, and emerging public figure, the lives of ordinary and extraordinary Americans intersect in unexpected ways.

Set against the backdrop of immigration, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the dawn of the Cold War, The Irish Ties That Bind is a sweeping historical saga of courage, devotion, and the families whose quiet strength shaped generations. It is a powerful testament to the bonds of family, faith, and heritage that endure long after history's tides have turned.

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About the Authir

A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Michael J. Hopkins earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Beloit College, subsequently obtaining a degree in history from Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. He furthered his academic pursuits by completing a Master of Arts in the Humanities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mr. Hopkins concluded a distinguished forty-year tenure in secondary education, having served as a social studies instructor at Darlington High School for thirty-nine years. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he dedicated many years to coaching basketball, baseball, and football at the same high school. His contributions to athletics were formally recognized in 2021 with his induction into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.  Following his retirement from education, he has transitioned into a career as an author. In 2025, he published his autobiographical memoir, Embracing A Competitive Life: Trials, Triumphs, and 150 Life Lessons in Six Decades of Competition, which chronicles his experiences as both an athlete and a coach. Find out more at https://www.historiumpress.com/hp-authors/michael-hopkins and find Michael on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesk  @mjhop.bsky.social