Book Launch Guest Post ~ Fictionalising history: On Wilder Seas, by Nikki Marmery

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

April 1579: When two ships meet off the Pacific coast of New Spain, an enslaved woman seizes the chance to escape. But Maria has unwittingly joined Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage as he sets sail on a secret detour into the far north.

On Wilder Seas is the story of Maria, the only woman aboard the Golden Hind with Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation voyage. Inspired by an eye-witness account describing Drake’s raid of a ship off the Pacific coast of New Spain, the unknown sailor tells us: “Drake tooke out of this ship… a proper negro wench called Maria which was afterward gotten with child between the captain and his men pirates and sett on a small iland to take her adventures.”

Although other eye-witnesses add some few details, this fleeting reference is pretty much all we know about Maria. All we can be sure of is that she joined the Golden Hind on April 4, 1579 from the ship of Spanish nobleman Don Francisco de Zarate; she was aboard for Drake’s exploration of North America and his aborted attempt to find the Northwest Passage above America; and that she was abandoned, heavily pregnant, on an island in the East Indies, eight months later on December 12.

In writing Maria’s story, I set myself the challenge of sticking to the facts, where they could be ascertained, and fictionalising in the space between them. But I soon found that when it comes to Drake’s famous voyage, facts are few and far between.

Histories of the Golden Hind are based on the earliest published accounts: the first appeared in 1589, in Richard Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation. A fuller account, The World Encompassed, was published by Drake’s nephew in 1628.

Both were heavily censored; Maria is not mentioned in either of them. Another episode: the trial and execution of the officer Thomas Doughty, accused of treason and beheaded at Port San Julian in July 1578, has been heavily edited in Drake’s favour, compared to eye-witness testimony.

A further indication of the unreliability of these accounts is the mystery surrounding the location of Drake’s colony Nova Albion. In Hakluyt and The World Encompassed, the colony where Drake and his crew lived for five weeks in the summer of 1579 is located at 38° N – in California, where Drake’s Bay is today. 

But eye-witnesses placed it at 44°-48°N – between Oregon and Vancouver. This is also where it is located in contemporary maps made by cartographers who knew Drake, and on the Molyneux Globes, which were first published in 1592 by Emery Molyneux, who knew and had sailed with Drake.

It appears that in the written accounts cleared for publication in Elizabethan England and in the following decades, the location of the colony was revised – most likely to prevent the Spaniards from learning how far north Drake had sailed, and that he had been seeking the NorthWest Passage, which would give the English a shortcut route to challenge Spanish power on the American Pacific coast.

As a result, there is very little we can be sure of about Drake’s exploration of North America. While this is a problem for a historian, it is a gift for the novelist. It enabled me to fictionalise more fully in my portrayal of Drake in Nova Albion; it is where Maria’s story can live and breathe.

Thus, in my novel, Drake’s colony is sited on or near Vancouver Island, rather than California. I explored the idea of first contact between Drake’s English sailors and the First Nations peoples in this part of North America – but seen purely through the eyes of a woman unconnected to either culture. It gave me the freedom to imagine a far more shocking end to the colony than is suggested by the sources.

As for Maria’s fate, she sailed on from Nova Albion to cross the Pacific Ocean with Drake. The historical record leaves her about to give birth on Crab Island, 1 degree 40 minutes south of the equator, just east of Sulawesi. We cannot know if she survived the birth, or the exposure on a waterless, deserted island.

Here then, was another gap in the record – and one I was glad to fill with my own interpretation. I believe there was something special about Maria: it can be seen in the space between the facts; in what is left unsaid in the records. 

Something about her was sufficiently compelling that Drake defied his own rule forbidding women on his ships – uniquely in her case – and permitted her to stay aboard for so long. During the course of my research, I learned about so many courageous, ingenious and resourceful women, living lives like Maria’s in the colonial New World. They gave me the confidence to trust in Maria’s ability to overcome her situation – and imagine her forging an alternative ending for herself than is suggested by the historical facts.

Nikki Marmery

In this gripping tale of true feminine courage, strength and spirit of adventure, Nikki Marmery gives voice to a woman who, like so many others, has been written out of history.' ~ Martine McDonagh

'On Wilder Seas is a gripping adventure story of an extraordinary journey half way around the world by a woman who was almost completely written out of history. Nikki Marmery brings Macaia (Maria) vividly to life along with a tremendous crew of compelling and believable characters, including Drake himself.' ~ Mandy Haggith

'This is a lively, spirited account of the epic voyage made by Maria, a woman who was a mysterious passenger on Francis Drake’s Golden Hind…thoroughly researched and vividly written, with a host of colourful characters. The brutality, horror and discomfort of life on board a 16th century galleon and the wonders and dangers that the crew experiences are skilfully evoked.' ~ Sally O’Reilly 

# # #

About the Author

In a previous life, Nikki worked as a financial journalist, editing magazines about credit and foreign exchange trading. She now writes historical fiction from a rural village in Buckinghamshire. On Wilder Seas is her first novel, inspired by the true story of Maria, the woman who sailed on the Golden Hind with Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation voyage. Earlier drafts were shortlisted for the Myriad Editions First Drafts Competition 2017 and the Historical Novel Society’s New Novel Award 2018. Find Nikki at www.nikkimarmery.com, on Twitter @nikkimarmery and Instagram @marmerynikki

Book Launch Guest Post by Diana Jackson, Author of Missing, Past and Present

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Following the mysterious disappearance of her husband, Dorothy Gibbons, affectionately known as Lady Pink Hat, trudged the lanes around Drumford, homeless and directionless. Alone she rolled a dice, reflecting on her life, times both painful and pleasant. She stumbled upon The Grange, which changed the course of her life. In her isolation Dot began to write ...Millie, an 18th Century aspirant nun, ran away from The Grange ...Jamal Hussain, a Syrian refugee and asylum seeker, was fostered under the careful wing of Dorothy until leaving school and finding work. He and his brother settled in a nearby flat until the misguided Ahmed Hussain also disappeared. With three missing people, who will discover the truth? Is Millie still haunting 

The Grange until her story is told?

Three Strands of Research and Planning ~ Past, Present and the roll of a Dice

My inspiration for MISSING Past and Present began from two angles; three if you count the dice!

1. The Past

When an old abandoned, but not dilapidated house was pointed out to me while walking with friends one day, I was moved to look it up on an old map and found that it was called ‘The Grange’. I noticed, though, that there were several other places labelled ‘the Grange’ and so I looked this up online:

Dictionary.com wrote:
grange 

noun 

Chiefly British. a country house or large farmhouse with its various farm buildings (usually in house names):Bulkeley Grange;the grange of a gentleman-farmer.
(in historical use) an isolated farm, with its farmhouse and nearby buildings, belonging to monks or nuns or to a feudal lord:the nunnery's grange at Tisbury.
the Grange, See under Granger Movement. 

Archaic. a barn or granary.

That led me to do some research in my local archives. Was there a monastery or nunnery in the area? I found several, surprisingly. Were there any notable mysterious happenings? Yes ...

I stumbled upon a story of a trainee nun’s ghost who is allegedly still swinging from the rafters in a place not far from the abandoned home. She caught my attention and I was hooked. The ghost is at Chicksands Priory, a place with a fascinating history of its own, but I decided against relocating my novel there.

I next wrote down a series of questions about monastic life, many of which I could discover online:

What are the stages to become a nun? 

Here’s a lovely succinct website: https://nunsforpriests.org/handmaid-vocations/steps-how-does-one-become-a-nun/

I chose an 'aspirant nun' for my story and called her Evie.

What kind of dress would she be wearing in the 18th century?

I Googled this and found some great pictures, but an aspirant nun’s costume would have been simpler. More of a tunic, especially when doing farm work.

What would the pattern of her day be like?

There are seven hours of prayer:

“any of certain periods of the day set apart for prayer and devotion: these are matins and lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline. Prime - the second canonical hour; about 6 a.m. terce, tierce - the third canonical hour; about 9 a.m. nones - the fifth of the seven canonical hours; about 3 p.m.”

My imagination was working at its most virulent in thinking of ideas for a possible plot.

Why did she become an aspirant nun? You’ll have to read the story ...
Did she have any family?

Yes she did and I decided that her sister would be training to be a nun alongside her. It is Evie's sister Millie who disappears.

Why is she swinging from the rafters?
You’ll have to read the story to find out.

My research continued for Millie. Without giving the story away too much, this included questions and visits:

How long did it take people to travel on 18th Century tracks and roads?

What canal systems were in place? A visit to the canal museum in Stoke Bruerne.

What type of work did itinerant workers find in different areas of the country heading north?

There was a workhouse to research.

A visit to make to New Lanark Mills. (and guidebooks to buy)

Research is never quite finished but is ongoing until the first draft is complete.

2. The Present

In the present I was drawn to the uncomfortable truth about homelessness and the need for food-banks, but also the human aspect of refugees. (It is all too easy to think of numbers) As a friend once remarked ‘there but by the grace of God go I,’ which sums up my feelings that if it were not for chance, it could happen to any one of us in the ‘blink of an eye’, if you’ll excuse the cliché.

It is a worrying thought that we even have many ‘refugees’ escaping the flood waters in the UK at the moment. (I'm talking here of folks being temporarily re-housed in the crisis.)

I made notes on my experiences too~ of volunteering at a soup kitchen in Luton years ago and more recently at a food-bank locally in Fife. I also noted many of my memories teaching refugees and asylum seekers while teaching at a college in Luton.

I drew on personal experiences or on second hand accounts for much of Dot's life, my homeless character ,and I based her living in a make believe town called Drumford with the Grange at a village called Canbury. I chose made up locations this time to preserve the anonymity of the actual house on which the story was based.

3. The Dice

This was an unusual device I stumbled upon. I found a dice and was rolling it one day and found myself wondering about times in my own life which could be seen as a 'one' or a 'six'.

This was perfect for Dot as she remembered the back story of her life, which had brought her to the point of homelessness.

I must admit I loved this idea and enjoyed writing about it.

~ And so MISSING Past and Present was conceived, researched, planned and now it is born!

Diana Jackson

# # #

About the Author

Diana Jackson is a retired teacher and her first, historical romantic fiction, Riduna, set in the Victorian era, was re-launched by Eventispress in 2012 - a writer’s indie collaborative publisher, through which all her other works have been published. After moving to Fife from Bedfordshire in 2014 Diana has had a break from her life as an author to settle into her new life within the Kinghorn Community. To find out about Diana Jackson’s other writing projects, you can visit her blog http://dianamj.wordpress.com/ and find her on Twitter @Riduna

Special Guest Post by Camilla Downs, Author of Words of Alchemy

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

When life became heavy with struggling, I became more committed to a loosely held walking practice. Walking, being in nature, became a mediation of sorts, guiding me in processing life events.

During these walks, I increasingly became moved to photograph nature. Listening to the intuitive nudges of when to stop walking, which direction to look, whether to kneel on the ground, and at which angle to take a photo became a colorful ingredient to the practice of walking.

What happened next surprised and delighted me in ways I find difficult to describe. Following a walk, I would scroll through the nature photographs, choosing one to post on social media. As I began to type a comment to accompany the photo, poetic words spilled from my heart and mind, through my fingers, landing on the screen.

This began to happen more and more with the poems becoming more and more meaningful. Eventually the poems began to flow simply from events I was in the midst of experiencing. During morning journal writing, I would write about what was happening in my life. Magically, a poem would flow forth.

It was 2018 when I began to feel that it was time for my next book. I thought I would be writing another memoir. Yet, the pull to gather and publish the poems written between 2012 and 2019 was powerfully insistent. I listened, went with it, and Words of Alchemy was published in December 2019. The cover photo is a photo I took on one of my 2018 walks.

The poetry of nature, the poetry of healing, the poetry of appreciation, the poetry of love … in one beautiful book.

Camilla Downs


Praise for Words of Alchemy:

“Words of Alchemy, a heartfelt new collection by Camilla Downs, lives up to its namesake in numerous ways. Downs spans the broad range of nature, healing, love, and parenting, while making sure we have a little fun along the way. And the bridge she creates from the mindfulness of how we see the world at large to the poetry of everyday life is certainly worth a stroll or two across its borders.” – Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Award-winning author of Painted Oxen 

“This poetry collection offers contemplative words, soothing thoughts and peace to the reader.” – Sue Bentley, Bestselling author of Second Skin 

“Camilla Downs shares truth, vulnerability and wisdom in her Words of Alchemy collection, inviting readers to be inspired, contemplate and dive into her world of self-awareness and growth.” – G. Brian Benson – Award-winning author, actor and spoken word artist 

“These poems take you on a calm and loving walk through the verses of the author’s thoughts. Alchemy is a perfect word for the title as Camilla Downs understands nature; connecting with its magical, medicinal qualities and beauty which she conveys throughout her poetry.” – Ailsa Craig, Author of The Sand Between My Toes 

“Words of Alchemy is a chronicle of hope. These poems are an encouragement, especially when we are feeling at our lowest, to keep seeking the light that is our way forward, and focus on the real. This collection is a walk through the positive nature of life. Camilla Downs is to be commended.” – Frank Prem, Author of free-verse memoir Small Town Kid

 # # #

About the Author

Camilla Downs is a bestselling author, indie publisher, mentor, and mom. Nature and life experiences are a constant source of inspiration for her writing. She enjoys living a minimalist lifestyle, practicing meditation and mindfulness, reading, going for walks, and capturing nature’s essence with photographs. Camilla is the founder of  MeetingtheAuthors.com and lives in Northern Nevada, USA with her two kids. Find our more at Camilla's website camilladowns.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @CamillaDowns

Guest post by Cynthia Jefferies, Author of The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Thomas Chayne has never managed to impress his overbearing father, and when a small act of rebellion has lasting consequences, Thomas finds himself exiled in disgrace. But with England on the brink of civil war, a larger revolution is in the air and Thomas has an opportunity to prove his worth by rallying a troop of royalists to defend Oxford 

from the escalating violence.

Putting your home town into fiction. The Storming of Cirencester!

They say write about what you know…and if it’s historical fiction you’d better make sure you’ve done the research! Good advice, but even when you think you know your subject pretty well there can be pitfalls. I wonder if Ian Rankin ever makes mistakes about the places in Edinburgh that Rebus mentions, and if so, does he get picked up on it? Laurie Lee put real people in Cider with Rosie and famously some declared that he had got most people right but not them!

I like to think that I know my home town as well as Rankin does Edinburgh, but I write historical fiction, so I need to get the facts about events right as well as the geography of the town. Over hundreds of years roads and buildings change, or disappear. And then there’s the fact that I was working on a novel. Where to deviate from the truth and when to keep it real? Should I be searching for old street maps?

I was born and brought up in Cirencester, a market town in Gloucestershire, England. The area was valued for its cloth, and strategically it is a gateway to the South and West. These things were important during the English Civil Wars. It was largely a Parliamentarian town, and was stormed in 1643 by Prince Rupert and his brother Prince Maurice. It was the events on this snowy day in early February that I wanted to put in my second novel for Allison & Busby, The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne. 

Fortunately, there are two very good eyewitness accounts of the action, one from each side, so it’s possible to have a pretty clear idea of what happened. But in fiction the story is the thing. Engaging and keeping readers turning the pages is far more than simply relating the facts. And the storming of a town doesn’t conveniently all happen in one place. Several streets in the outskirts will be attacked at a similar time. Where should the forces gather once they are in the town, and if they take prisoners, where can they keep them safely out of the action? 

Instead of trying to give an overall picture I opted to stick with Thomas as he did his bit in his first engagement of the war. It helped that he knew the town, and so didn’t get lost. It also helped that he was new to warfare, and was under command. That meant I could use other characters to hint at action taking place elsewhere without becoming ponderous. 

No one wants long descriptions during the heat of battle! But troops on horseback could get split up in the maze of narrow streets in the centre of a town that was ancient, even in 1643. It would be easy for Thomas, who knew exactly where he was going, to get ahead without meaning to. And there were other things to consider. What if he came face to face with someone he knew? That ghastly situation was no doubt faced by many during this terrible war. 

I did look at street maps. And two very useful plans of the attack and movement of troops were to be found in an excellent publication by John Miles Paddock for the Cotswold District Council in 1993, which I already had. 

I’m very glad I chose to tell this small, violent part of my town’s history. It was something of a journey for me, having first got interested in the event when I was young. It was also a journey for young Thomas Chayne, because of course this book is his story, not mine. He appears in Oxford, Bristol, Norfolk and Flintshire, even up into Scotland. From my comfortable chair in Gloucestershire I was taken aback at how far he roamed. I hadn’t thought he would do that, or have the life he eventually led. He took me to places I had never been before, and taught me things about human nature that I didn’t know. 

This novel was all his but, he also appears briefly, and significantly in my other novel for Allison & Busby, The Outrageous Fortune of Abel Morgan. In that novel he demanded silently that I take the time to tell his story, and so I did. I think I was faithful to Thomas, and in spite of some tweaks here and there I hope I was pretty faithful to my home town. If you know the town I hope you will recognise it in the book. If you have never been there perhaps you will read the book and then go and see for yourself. If you’re lucky you might find a lardy cake, and the coffee is good in the King’s Head Hotel! 

Cynthia Jefferies

Free Event. The Storming of Cirencester! 29th February at 3pm. Cynthia Jefferies will be signing and talking about her latest book, The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne, and the storming of Cirencester at Octavia’s Bookshop in Black Jack Street, Cirencester, down which her hero cantered. Nibbles of traditional lardy cake may be available!

# # #

About the Author

Cynthia Jefferies wrote for many years for children as Cindy Jefferies. Her Fame School series for Usborne Books attracted world wide interest, and was eventually published in 22 languages. The books remain in print in the UK. More recently, she has turned to her interest in the C17th to write historical fiction for adults. As a child of ten she wrote a play about the escape of Charles II after the Civil Wars in the UK, and performed it with her class at school. From that moment she knew she would be a writer, however difficult it might be to achieve her goal. Success as a writer was hard won and so, while raising her family she had a variety of jobs, from working in a china shop to raising poultry, pigs and sheep; trying her hand at being a DJ, working behind the bar in a pub and dealing in junk antiques. “I think I have always been pretty well unemployable,” she says. “I always wanted to work for myself!” Eventually she did just that, starting a bookselling business which sold to schools all over the UK. It was while building up the business that she sent her first children’s novel, Sebastian’s Quest to Barry Cunningham, who first took on J K Rowling of Harry Potter fame. To her great surprise and total delight he took it on. “It didn’t do terribly well for him, so he didn’t want any more from me, but he was a great first editor to have, and was very encouraging.” After twenty years of writing for children she is now writing historical fiction for Allison & Busby. Her first, The Outrageous Fortune of Abel Morgan came out in 2018 and was reviewed by the American Libraries Association. Their Booklist publication gave it a starred review, saying it was “Outstanding storytelling”.  Find out more at Cynthia's website www.cynthiajefferies.co.uk and find her on Twitter @cindyjefferies1

Guest Post by Bart Casey, Author of The Vavasour Macbeth

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Buried Shakespearean treasure from an ancestor’s tomb brings a disillusioned BBC reporter home to solve her father’s murder and restart her life with the man who has always loved her.

Thanks to Tony Riches for inviting me to write a guest post on The Writing Desk about my new novel The Vavasour Macbeth.  I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to some of the very real Tudor tales written into the book.

As I hope you’ll soon discover for yourselves, the story is told in the form of a 20th century thriller after scores of old manuscripts are found in a flooded Elizabethan tomb.  But underpinning the modern-day action are details drawn from three lines of historical research that I have been exploring for decades: first, investigations into the question of who actually wrote Shakespeare; secondly, the remarkable biographies of Tudors Anne Vavasour and Sir Henry Lee; and finally some little-known quirks about Shakespeare’s play-writing and his masterpiece Macbeth.

Shakespeare Authorship 

It was in graduate school that I read Sir Edmund Chambers’ magisterial two-volume biography called William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems.  Quite frankly, I was shocked at how few facts and how many problems remain about the world’s most famous writer.

It turned out I was not alone, and very shortly I found myself in that crazy corner of English literature studies called “the Shakespeare Authorship Question,” which is filled with conspiracy theories, name calling and loud shouting.  I was astonished at how many people could not believe “the Stratford man” wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare.  I was even more surprised that worthies such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Henry James, and Sigmund Freud were among them.

Since the leading alt-candidate Shakespeare appeared to be Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, I plunged into serious study of his life and literary remains (because there are many examples of works undoubtedly written by him).  I concluded that he was just not up to Shakespeare’s mark – not even close.  But it was while reading about Oxford that I stumbled onto the sad tale of his fling with a teenaged maid of honor named Anne Vavasour.  And that began the second line of research incorporated into The Vavasour Macbeth.

Anne Vavasour and Sir Henry Lee

Anne Vavasour

Anne’s family groomed her from childhood to be a companion to the Queen.  True to plan, she arrived at court at the age of sixteen as a Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber.  She was a lively breath of fresh air for the courtiers hanging around awaiting the Queen’s pleasure.  Unfortunately, the Earl of Oxford – then in his thirties  -- was estranged from his wife at the time and on the prowl for excitement.  So perhaps it wasn’t much of a surprise that young Anne was ensnared.  She then became the scandal of the season when she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy in the maidens’ chamber at court only about 15 months after she had arrived.

Elizabeth was furious and sent both Anne and Oxford to the Tower for a time.  Oxford was banned from court for two years and never recovered his favorable position, while Anne seemed doomed to a miserably reduced life as an unwed mother – until Sir Henry Lee came to her rescue a few years later.

Sir Henry was in Elizabeth’s innermost circle.  He was immensely wealthy and of impeccable character.  He was also thirty years older than Anne.  He had been at court since he inherited his family lands and fortune at the age of fourteen.  That’s when he had been taken from his family into the direct service of King Henry VIII in the royal household.  In fact, there was a rumor that Sir Henry was the king’s illegitimate son.  Indeed, that relationship may explain why Sir Henry always remained in the closest circle of courtiers serving King Henry VIII and each of his children -- Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth – during difficult times when many lost their footing.

Then in 1590, after decades of faithful service, Sir Henry decided to retire as Queen Elizabeth’s Personal Champion at the joust.  His wife and three children were all dead, and he was facing lonely years ahead.  That’s when he invited Anne (and her son by Oxford) to join him as his de facto wife.  Then for the next twenty years, they divided their time between his fifteen-room apartment overlooking the Thames in London and his many estates in the country.  Sir Henry was about 57 and Anne about 27 years old.  And they lived happily in sin together, as confirmed by many reports, stories, and letters documented today in the British State Papers and National Archives. Their unusual living arrangements even seemed to have the tacit approval of Elizabeth, especially after her well-documented visit to Sir Henry’s Ditchley estate during the Progress of 1592.  That was when the Queen and her court all were drafted into acting out a two-day drama on the nature of love which Sir Henry paid to have written by a dream team of poets and dramatists.  And this September event would have coincided exactly with the time when young Shakespeare and his writing colleagues were desperate for writing work while the theatres were closed by plague in the city.

Finally, when Sir Henry died approaching age 80, he left his money and the use of his estates to Anne for a period of sixty years or until her death, whichever came first.  She would have been about 47 at the time of this bequest, and lived out the rest of her long life as one of the richest women in England, completing her highly unlikely recovery from youthful ruin.  In The Vavasour Macbeth, those ancient manuscripts are found in Anne and Sir Henry’s shared tomb.

Shakespeare’s play-writing and Macbeth

My own conclusion about Shakespeare’s plays is that they were highly collaborative creations.  I have no doubt the Stratford man himself wrote the great speeches and soliloquies, and also shaped the stories and their pacing.  But I don’t think he wrote every word and crossed every “t” in the versions remaining today -- just as Steven Spielberg did not write all of the screenplays of his films.  And specific performances would have been adapted for their audiences and time allowed.

In The Vavasour Macbeth I do describe many of the forensic forays into the search for Shakespeare’s handwriting as well as some textual issues of his plays in the posthumous First Folio.  While many of those thirty-six plays appeared in previous smaller “quarto” editions, Macbeth did not, and the only known example of that play is the one found in the First Folio.  Also, unlike the others, it was not “cleaned up” for publication by scribes like Anthony Munday or Ralph Crane who standardized stage directions and formatting.  By contrast, the surviving version of Macbeth seems to be a last minute inclusion in the First Folio, and is obviously a script from one particular performance.  It also shows evidence of serious abridgment from a lost longer version.  Songs by the witches were lobbed in from other sources, a stage direction to “ring the bell” was actually incorporated into the spoken lines by an apprentice typesetter, and many (including Samuel Taylor Coleridge) believe the scene with the drunken porter was added by another writer for comic relief.  Finally, what remains as Macbeth today is a very abbreviated version at just over 2,000 lines compared with Hamlet at more than 4,000.  All of this and more is explained and discussed in The Vavasour Macbeth as the papers discovered in the tomb continue to reveal themselves.

Finally, there is the question of whether anything really new about Shakespeare and his plays is likely to be discovered in the future.  Having been briefly introduced to the mountains of unread and untranscribed documents stored in the National Archive in Kew, and understanding that there are still a very few people today who can actually read and interpret those documents, I dare say we very might well have some Shakespearean revelations coming sometime in the future.  And it is in the fictional part of The Vavasour Macbeth that I show just how much we believe about the bard might be changed by even a single new discovery – such as papers found in an Elizabethan tomb perhaps?

I hope that your curiosity will lead you to read The Vavasour Macbeth and that you will not be disappointed.  The book is available in print, ebook, and audio editions for your reading pleasure.

Best wishes,

Bart Casey

# # #

About the Author

Bart Casey grew up in London, studied Literature at Harvard, and trained as a professor before switching to an advertising career, living many years amidst the settings for The Vavasour Macbeth. His recent biography of Victorian Laurence Oliphant was chosen by Kirkus for its Best Books of 2016. Now writing full-time, Bart is working on a sequel novel to The Vavasour Macbeth in which the same modern-day characters follow in the footsteps of Byron, Keats and the Shelleys around post-Napoleonic Switzerland and Italy. Find out more at Bart's website http://www.bartcasey.com/

Special Guest Post by Sarah Kennedy, Author of The King's Sisters

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The King’s Sisters continues the story of Catherine Havens. It’s now 1542, and another queen, Catherine Howard, has been beheaded for adultery. Although young Prince Edward is growing, and the line of Tudor succession seems secure, the king falls into a deep melancholy and questions the faith and loyalty of those around him.

Is the third novel the most difficult? It was for me. My first novel, The Altarpiece, the beginning of my Tudor series The Cross and the Crown, was the writing on which I learned to be a novelist rather than a poet. That was hard enough (plot, plot, plot!). Its sequel, City of Ladies, seemed somewhat . . . well, not easier, but at least more familiar. I knew my character, and I knew where I was going, as though the field were mine and I had walked it many times before.

Then I hit the third book, The King’s Sisters (a metaphor that plays on the unofficial title of Henry VIII’s discarded third wife, Anne of Cleves, who was called “the king’s beloved sister” after their divorce). In this novel, my main character Catherine has two children and is serving in the household of Anne of Cleves. Henry has just executed his fourth wife, Catherine Howard, for adultery when the book begins—and Catherine has just discovered that she might be pregnant, even though she’s not married.

Writing this story was like encountering a barbed wire fence where there once had been open pasture. I sailed through a first draft, only to discover that I didn’t know how to end it. I went back to the beginning. Again, I wandered into a wilderness and came up against the barrier of an ending that felt like a satisfying and inevitable ending. Again, I went back to the beginning. Again, I arrived at the last fifty pages only to find that I had no idea how to get over that fence and into the lovely land of conclusion.

Did I finally figure it out? Well, I hope so. The book was initially scheduled to appear in 2015, and was actually advertised on Amazon, but it never appeared, except as an Advanced Review Copy for reviewers. It was right after this sort-of release that my first fiction publisher suddenly went out of business. For The King’s Sisters, this shocking and dismaying event turned out to be something of a blessing, because while I was searching for a new publisher, which I found to my delight in the wonderful folks at Penmore Press, I had time to look at the manuscript with fresh eyes.

In doing so, I discovered what is, for me at least, one of the problems with a continuing character or a series of any kind, mine or someone else’s: what can a writer do that’s different, interesting, even unexpected in the middle of a series without losing coherence? Historical fiction writers, like me, often have to cast about for yet another famous person whose biography the character can get tangled in or some event of great moment for the character to become a player in.

But, for me, the answer lies in character, a person who finds herself confronting political and spiritual issues that force her to make difficult choices. I want my main character Catherine to be a human being facing human problems in the human world. Our lives may sometimes be crime stories, and we may sometimes encounter the great and the famous, but human lives are also fictions of love, self-deception, betrayal, triumph, and grief. The notion of “the King’s sisters” became, at last, as much a description of Catherine’s awkward position as a former novice, in a newly Protestant country, who still seeks the company of women as a pun on the title of Anne of Cleves.

It took me a long time to figure out what my Catherine really wants this time. She doesn’t want to be part of the court, and she doesn’t want to marry a prince. She wants the things that many people want: freedom to make choices for herself, security for her children, and, sometimes, a man in her bed. The events that unfold take their shape from her very human and often quite flawed desires. And so, after several false starts and one large disappointment, I was finally able to jump that fence. It was not an easy or pleasant experience, but it taught me quite a lot about myself as a writer and about the construction of a series. On now to Books Four and Five and all of the problems they are sure to bring to me!

Sarah Kennedy

# # #

About the Author

Sarah Kennedy is the author of the novels The Altarpiece, City of Ladies, and The King’s Sisters, Books One, Two, and Three of The Cross and the Crown series, set in Tudor England, and Self-Portrait, with Ghost.  She has also published seven books of poems.  A professor of English at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia, Sarah Kennedy holds a PhD in Renaissance Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing.  She has received grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.  Find out more at Sarah's website:  http://sarahkennedybooks.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @KennedyNovels

Book Launch Guest Post by Jennifer C Wilson, Author of The Raided Heart

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The Raided Heart is the first of "The Historic Hearts", a collection of historical romantic adventures set in Scotland and the North of England.

Hi Tony, and thanks so much for featuring The Raided Heart on your blog today. I’ve joked that this is the “Trigger’s Broom” of books, a reference I hope most people still get, but I’ll explain more for those who don’t… 

The Raided Heart started life when I was 13, which, sadly, is not just ten years ago, but rather, twenty-two. If the book was a person, it’s now legally able to do practically anything it wants to! But don’t worry, if you’re tempted to download a copy – it isn’t ‘exactly’ the same book. The original version was set in 1530s Scotland, well before I understood the notion of historical accuracy in fiction. 

My main references for historical fiction at that point were Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and The Princess Bride. Both wonderful stories, but not so great at the ‘being true to the facts’ side of things. But, the story lived with me for twelve years, until 2009’s NaNoWriMo came about, and I thought it was time to look at the old manuscript I knew I had lying around somewhere on my hard-drive. 

That’s when I realised how awful some of the plot was, including additional secondary characters included for no reason whatsoever, appalling dialogue (where I’d even bothered with speaking at all), and oh yes, a completely made-up King of Scotland, Edmund. Hmm…

At the time, I was living in Hexham, and had been re-reading a lot of the history of the region, including the fascinating border reivers, groups of families both sides of the England-Scotland border, notorious for their feuding, raids and violence. The perfect back-drop to a historical romance?! 

Undaunted, I went ahead and did my research, keeping the action in the 1530s, but moving from Scotland to Northumberland, using a lot of the days out I was having to build a new world for the story. Plus, Hexham is home to the first purpose-built gaol in England, which gives a great insight into the world the reivers inhabited… 

I merged a lot of the supporting characters, amended the plot points which weren’t working, and in November 2009, wrote a whole new 50,000 words. There was better dialogue this time. Some, anyway. 

Move forward almost another decade, with a series of ghostly tales published, the story kept niggling away at me, and finally, the time was right to see what I could do about self-publishing The Raided Heart. It needed another rewrite, but the words wouldn’t flow. What could I do? 

Add my muse, of course. So we moved era again, from 1530s to 1470s, when Richard III was Duke of Gloucester, and the Warden of the West March, installed in Carlisle Castle, and trying to keep the peace along the Scottish border. NOW the words flowed! 

Which brings us to now, with Trigger’s Broom displaying new characters, new location, new time period, but essentially, the same plot. To call The Raided Heart a labour of love is an understatement. I’m almost sad to be letting it go from my hard-drive, and releasing it into the wild, but I think, at last, it’s time, and thanks to wonderful editing and support from fellow Ocelots, I know it’s definitely the best it could possibly be.  I hope you enjoy reading it!

Jennifer C. Wilson

# # #

About the Author

Jennifer C. Wilson has been stalking dead monarchs since childhood. At least now it usually results in a story, it isn’t considered (quite) as strange. Jennifer won North Tyneside Libraries’ Story Tyne short story competition in 2014 and, as well as working on her own writing, she is a founder and co-host of the award-winning North Tyneside Writers’ Circle and has been running writing workshops since 2015. Her debut novel, Kindred Spirits: Tower of London was published by Crooked Cat Books in 2015, with the fourth in the series, Kindred Spirits: York, released in early 2019. Her timeslip romance The Last Plantagenet? is published through Ocelot Press, an authors’ collective formed in 2018. Find out more at Jennifer's website jennifercwilsonwriter.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @inkjunkie1984

Why do we call this period the ‘dark ages’? ~ Special Guest Post by Dr Julia Ibbotson

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

When Dr Viv DuLac, a medievalist and academic, slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, little does she realise that their lives across the centuries will become intertwined as they fight for their dreams…and their lives.

Why do we call this period the ‘dark ages’?

Recently, while I was on holiday in the sun, I read a fascinating book by Professor Susan Oosthuizen (The Emergence of the English 2019) which resonated with me and the 'thesis' underpinning my historical (so-called 'dark ages') time-slip novel A Shape on the Air.

The background to my novel rests on my belief that the so-called 'dark ages' were not a time of brutal barbaric suppression by the 'invaders', the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the continent of Europe - but instead, that it was a time of more gradual change with a succession of migrations from Europe and a settling and merging of communities: the Britons/Celts with the Romans then with the Angles and Saxons. 

But we all know the traditional conventional idea of the ‘dark ages’, don’t we? A time when the civilised Romans left and Britain collapsed into chaos, with villas and towns destroyed and warring tribal barbarians raping, plundering and pillaging each other all over the place? And didn’t the invading Saxons add to the mêlée until the great King Arthur came and sorted them all out?  Well, not necessarily so …

Firstly, we have conventionally referred to the ‘dark ages’ as the period between the withdrawal of the Roman occupying forces (commonly dated at 410) and the mid to late 8th century when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were fairly well established. But why ‘dark’? Tradition has it that it was a time of ignorance and barbaric brutal fighting, and that little of the civilisation, culture or administrative organisational efficiency of the Romans remained. Images of marauding ancient Britons and brutal Saxon invaders, with the settlements and the rule of law abandoned, spring to mind.

But academics and archaeologists now prefer to call 400-600 AD the ‘late antique’ period (‘early medieval’ 600-850AD, ‘pre-conquest 850-1066AD), although some also refer to it as ‘early medieval’. It was only ‘dark’ because we didn’t have the records, documents, artefacts in evidence. Now, in the light of finds (eg in Kent, Essex, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Cornwall, etc), that picture is changing.

Some of the myths and misconceptions?

There are many: from the date and ramifications of the Roman withdrawal of troops (sudden departure or gradual?), to the state of Britain in its wake (collapse or continuity?), to the status of King Arthur (literary myth, cunning invention, or historical saviour?).

Did the Romans really abandon Britain in 410? That has long been the date we assume the Romans left Britain, summoned back by Honorius to defend Rome. Traditionalists have believed that the Romans abandoned their villas, their culture, and left en masse, for the ignorant Britons and Celts to allow civilisation to go to rack and ruin.

Now a different view is emerging. It appears (eg from studies of Notitia Dignitatum 4th/5th c AD) that Roman military units were still here much later, suggesting a gradual withdrawal over possibly half a century, and even the ‘Honorius edict’ is in dispute. We only have ‘evidence’ written in the 6th ,7th and 8th centuries either by Byzantine officials or writers such as Gildas, Bede and Nennius, who are now regarded as distant from events, subjective and unreliable.

Domestic archaeology is also beginning to indicate that sites were occupied and developed long after Romans began to leave, and that there was continuity of occupation/population (eg Lyminge, Mucking, Barton Court, Orton Hall, Rinehall, West Heslerton, to name a few). Artefacts and building use suggest that there was a much more gradual change post-Roman occupation and during the migration of new waves of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, rather than sudden brutal invasions. Hence there was a slower cultural shift towards a settled British society. Of course, this is not to say that there weren’t bitter inter-tribal battles going on for land acquisition, nor that there wasn’t deep suspicion of the Saxons.

But the ‘modernist’ view is that there was much more mingling of Romano-British society than previously thought, through inter-marriage with the remaining Romans, and likewise for Britons and Celts and even Saxons.
This view of gradual change and evolution from immigration and settlement, rather than sudden brutal change from invasion and suppression by Anglo-Saxon marauders, is one advocated by (among others) Professor Susan Oosthuizen (The Emergence of the English 2019). She offers some fascinating insights into evidence from documentary, archaeological, and landscape studies.

As to King Arthur … well, I’ll leave that for another time and perhaps another blog… 

So what can we call the ‘dark ages’ instead? Some academics use 'early medieval'. Oosthuizen uses the term 'late antique' for the period 400-600AD (with 'early medieval' for 600-850AD). What do you think?

Dr Julia Ibbotson

# # #

About the Author

Acclaimed, award-winning author Dr Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and concepts of time travel. She read English at Keele University, England (after a turbulent but exciting gap year in Ghana, West Africa) specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. She wrote her first novel at 10 years of age, but became a school teacher, then an academic as a senior university lecturer and researcher. As well as medieval time-slip, she has published a number of books, including memoir (The Old Rectory), children’s medieval fantasy (S.C.A.R.S), a trilogy opening in 1960s Ghana (Drumbeats), and many academic works. Apart from insatiable reading, she loves travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and walking in the countryside in England and Madeira where she and her husband divide their time. Find out more at www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com and find Julia on Facebook and Twitter @JuliaIbbotson

Special Guest Post by Gila Green, Author of White Zion

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

I'm pleased to welcome author Gila Green to The Writing Desk;

Tell us about your latest book releases

In the last twelve months, I released three novels and it's been a rollercoaster ride ever since. I've done my best to juggle each one, sort of like having twins. (I've met women with triplets, that's too strong a comparison.)   

My novel Passport Control was released last August in Virginia. In Passport Control, a young woman comes to terms with her father's background and questions who she really is. She's forced to confront family secrets against the backdrop of Israel's mosaic of multiple identities. 

I tried to keep the novel authentic historically. The cover is composed of visa stamps from 1992-1993, the year in which the novel takes place, from old family passports. I spent a long time photographing them in my garden to get the best shot for the graphic artist. They don't make those entry visas anymore because of the difficulties some people experience with an Israeli stamp on their passport; now an entry visa comes on a loose piece of paper. 

Passport Control was followed eight months later by White Zion published in Massachusetts. White Zion is a novel in stories that I call a companion piece to Passport Control because two of the main characters reappear, though they are now distorted and fragmented. 

White Zion is historical fiction and migrates between Yemen, Ottoman Palestine, British Mandate Palestine, modern Israel and modern Canada against a backdrop of several wars. It follows a Yemenite Jewish family through divorce, immigration, racism, death, and ultimately, survival. 

Many people do not know there was a movement in Yemen in the 1880s among Jews to rush to Jerusalem to greet the Messiah, who was thought to be on his way. Much of the history of the area between the two World Wars is overlooked today, yet what happened then continues to have an enormous impact on millions of people.

In September 2019, my first young adult novel No Entry was released in Australia with an environmental press. This is a big pivot from the first two novels. No Entry centers around a teen heroine who takes on a murderous elephant poaching ring in South Africa's Kruger National Park. I wrote it because there has never been a more dangerous time to be an elephant and I hope to raise awareness regarding the perils of elephant extinction, particularly among young people who will be the most affected. No Entry is the first novel in an eco-series. 

What is your preferred writing routine?

I have five children and a day job, so there's no routine. I write whenever I can: if everyone's fed and there's a reduction in the noise level, I'm writing. I tend to write intensely once I get through those first fifty pages. I try to write at least an outline of an entire chapter in each session, even if it's the bare bones of the scene with no setting and no detail. You really have to just get it down! So, my routine once I'm writing is a chapter a session but that can be anywhere from two pages to twelve, as long as I have a map to expand before I stop writing. 

What advice do you have for new writers?

Clarify your goals. Are you in it for a long-term writing career, a hobby, do you want to turn it into your own business i.e., publish yourself and possibly others? Are you happy as a big fish in a small pond as many niche writers are who are well-known in a small circle? You need to know where you want to go if you want to get there. This doesn't mean you cannot change your mind! 

Find a mentor or two. Look for someone who is where you'd like to be (I'm not talking about Booker Prize winner), and someone who believes in you and your writing—important. Imitate. Inhale. Internalize. I wish I'd had my mentors for a lot longer. I'd be a better writer. 

Third, you can do a lot, but you don't have to do it all at once. For example, many other authors told me to network but I could not raise my children, pay the bills, run a home, develop my writing skills, seek publishers and publishing opportunities, AND network. 

So, I didn't! 

Now that my youngest is twelve, I have breathing room. I can go to an evening author talk and not worry (too much). You would be amazed at how quickly you can catch up. For years colleagues nagged me that I never get to any book/writer events. They were right but I was right, too. And with social media you can make up for lost time networking—something that was less possible even five years ago. 

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

The best way to raise awareness of your books is to invest in a practical, functional website. Then—and this is the hard part—use it.  

I am not saying throwing a lot of money at a fancy website is the answer. Keeping up a website and making it work for you takes a lot of effort. A functional website enables you to do so many things, I cannot list them all but here are a few:

• Post to any social media platform directly from your site with one click. I know the "experts" tell us that we should custom post everything to each media platform—that's probably true in the ideal world, but most of us have no time for that and cannot sustain it.
• Create and send out your own newsletters. People really like them. 
• Build community by interviewing other authors, reviewing their books, joint newsletters. 
• Blog on your own site instead of always guest posting. 
• If you work at your website, Google notices. 
• Advertise other services such as editing, classes, giveaways, free downloads.
• Receive direct comments from your audience and respond

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

I spent a lot of time on both Israel-based novels researching food because some interviewees used Arabic names for herbs, spices, and fruits and vegetables and I needed the Hebrew names or vice versa. 

While researching mallow, also named malva, I read that in Jewish culture, mallow was considered a very important plant and that its name means bread in both Hebrew and Arabic. I also learned that when Jerusalem was closed off on all side by Arab armies in 1948, and the inhabitants were threatened with starvation, this crop saved them. So, on Israeli Independence Day, many people celebrate by making a dish of mallow leaves.

Regarding No Entry, one of the most interesting things I learned that I did not know before was about Wooly Mammoth tusks. Wooly Mammoth ivory is legal and that's bad news for elephants and those trying to protect them. For 20,000 years Wooly Mammoth tusks lay frozen in Sibera and elsewhere-- out of reach. They are no longer frozen. Now poachers can claim that illegal elephant ivory is really legal Wooly Mammoth ivory and unless you're an expert, you cannot tell the difference. 

What was the hardest scene you remember writing? That's easy—any sort of violence. I am the type who covers my eyes during any violent scenes in movies (while thirteen-year olds in the theater stare and munch). Yet, I had to show the violence done against elephants to get my message across. Of course, I took the age category into account but it was difficult to write and still harder to read. I read it for the first time to an audience recently and realized it was harder still to read out loud. 

What are you planning to write next?

No Entry is the first in a series, but I'd like to get feedback on the second one, which no one has read except my own beta readers, before I embark on a third. I'm very tempted to write another novel in stories, though I know how hard it is to get them published, the short story is still my favorite genre. I have this idea of writing a novel in stories that's a fictionalized version of all of the lousy jobs I have had in my life. I published a couple of short stories on this theme and had great feedback and it occurred to me that I could expand it to a whole collection, preferably with a lot of humor. 

Gila Green

# # #

About the Author

Canadian Gila Green is an Israel-based author. Her novels include: No Entry, White Zion, Passport Control, and King of the Class and she's published dozens of short stories. She writes about racism, war, alienation, immigration, and survival. She has a fascination with the 1930s and 40s in the Middle East, and most recently has turned her attention to African elephant poaching. She does most of her work in a converted bomb shelter overlooking the Judean Hills. She loves to hear from readers, so for more information please visit: www.gilagreenwrites.com and find Gila om Twitter @green_gila