Historical Fiction Spotlight: The King's Jew. Book Two: In the shadow of the king. The middle years. 1265 to 1274. by Darius Stransky

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

As Cristian Gilleson keeps vigil for his dead king (Edward the First) in Westminster Abbey on Friday, October 27th 1307, his enemies, Edward Secundus and Piers Gaveston, still plot his downfall.

In the aftermath of The Baron’s War and the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Lord Cristian Gilleson and his companion Lord Edward (the future king, Edward the First) have some pockets of resistance to clear up.

Cristian’s lady, Dulcea, wonders if they will ever marry but can a Jew marry a Christian? 

The unfaithful Earl of Gloucester (Gilbert de Clare) occupies London and must be ousted.

Earl Gilbert seeks Cristian’s death and their long running feud continues.

Lord Edward takes the cross and leaves for Outremer to wage war on the Sultan Baybars. Will this Ninth Crusade be successful?

All the while the agents of Gilbert de Clare plot the perfect murder in a foreign land.

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About the Author

Darius Stransky; part Irish and part English gypsy but fully formed individual who loves all things medieval. For many years he wrote weekly columns for top media groups in the UK and hired out his writing skills as a freelance to many magazines and periodicals. Then the life and times of King Edward the First became a passion and one morning a character (now known as Lord Cristian Gilleson in 'The King's Jew') appeared and insisted on telling his tale.

Darius immersed himself in thirteenth century Europe and the result was Book One. But it didn't end there for Gilleson hadn't ended his story and so ... the saga continued. Now back in the twenty-first century Stransky enjoys the peace and quiet of his study, his grumpy cat and a good book. But every now and then he returns to his medieval world and writes and writes and writes.... Find Darius on Twitter @DariusStransky.  

Historical Fiction Spotlight: Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors (The Wars of the Roses) by Conn Iggulden

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

England, 1470. A divided kingdom cannot stand.  King Edward of York has been driven out of England. Queen Elizabeth and her children tremble in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. The House of Lancaster has won the crown, but York will not go quietly.

Desperate to reclaim his throne, Edward lands at Ravenspur with a half-drowned army and his brother Richard at his side. Every hand is against them, every city gate is shut, yet the brothers York go on the attack.

But neither sees that their true enemy is Henry Tudor, now grown into a man. As the Red Dragon - 'the man of destiny' - his claim to the throne leads to Bosworth Field and a battle that will call an end to the Wars of the Roses . . .

'A tough, pacy chronicle of bloody encounters, betrayals and cruelties. Superb' Daily Mail

'Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction' Daily Mirror

'Superb, fantastic, extraordinary' Sunday Express

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About the Author

Born in London, Conn Iggulden read English at London University and worked as a teacher for seven years before becoming a full-time writer. Married with three children, he lives in Hertfordshire. Find out more at his website www.conniggulden.com and find him on Twitter 

@Conn_Iggulden. 

Guest Post: Doing More with Less: Organizational Learning and the OLSET tool, by Anthi Theiopoulou

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

It was during the end of the ‘90s that a big question emerged and haunted me since then: how can humans change a system (i.e. a big human-made organization)?

I was a medical student doing very good with my studies, as I always did with anything related to books, when at the end of our third year one of our professors decided to talk to us about career choices. She explained that we could chose to specialize in research or in practicing medicine. “In both cases, she said, you as doctors will have to adhere to the polices of the medical system which are put in place by the big pharmaceutical companies”. The whole auditorium of 200 students left that class with depression. I was one of them. 

But I wasn’t willing to become a doctor and have to obey the system’s orders. Especially as we are talking about a human made system. Thus I decided to find a way to change the medical system for all these 199 fellow students of mine. I had no idea how someone could possibly change a whole medical system but I was going to find out. It was common knowledge that the management science contemplates systems and their change thus I immediately stopped my medical studies and started studying management.

During my management studies it soon became obvious that the mainstream management practices that were part of a BSc curriculum were already outdated and proven counterproductive and yet no alternative was proposed to the students. That was when I read the book “Leadership and the New Science” by M. Wheatley which talked about the innovation of management i.e. management’s newest approach named Organizational Learning (OL), being researched extensively in MIT. In that book I found out about the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) which I started following and learning from since then.

There, I found out that yes the theory about changing a system was in place already since Maslow’s Eupsychian Management book and significantly advanced through contemporary scientists like the Chair of SoL himself Peter Senge and yet, nobody knew how to apply this new approach at a large scale. It simply never happened before and all case studies followed a different methodology completely dependent upon the scientist that was leading the organization’s change making it impossible to standardize and scale up.

Ten years of research on finding out a way to apply OL at a large scale later, “Doing More with Less; Organizational Learningand the OLSET tool” summarizes all the findings and tools for anybody to be able to change a system or an organisation - regardless of size, sector, culture or age (startup or no).

In this in-depth overview, theory intersects with practice to prepare leaders to apply OL knowledge in their organisations. The book includes the most current research in operationalizing OL, which I conducted at the University of Liverpool between 2011 and 2012.

The information is laid out in three parts:

- Background knowledge required to skillfully implement OL tools

- Theory and research behind the components of the OL equation

-  A customizable OL management system named OLSET that you can apply directly in your organization

The new Organizational Learning Self-Evaluation Tool (OLSET) presented in this book, allows leaders to conduct an OL capacity audit and plan change, ensuring that their businesses have a continuous competitive advantage, regardless of market conditions. OLSET is the answer to my old question since the medical school as it enables humans to change their organisations and systems.

Anthi Theiopoulou

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About the Author

Anthi Theiopoulou is one of the foremost experts on organizational learning (OL), with over fifteen years of experience. From 2009 to 2011, she conducted breakthrough research on OL best practices. She went on to research operationalizing OL at the University of Liverpool from 2011 to 2012. A ten-year member of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), she was also part of the Group of 25 for the Evolution of SoL with Peter Senge. She is the president and founder of SoL Greece. Born in Athens, she received an MSc in International Management from the University of Liverpool. In 2015, she founded OLSET Ltd., which provides scientifically based software to help companies of any size to apply organizational learning. She lives in Athens, with her twelve-year-old son. This is her first book.

Historical Fiction Book Launch: Rebellion's Forge (The Blood of Kings Book 3) by K. M. Ashman

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

An uneasy peace reigns in Wales. It’s 1109 and the truce with England hangs by the thinnest of threads. While King Gruffydd ap Cynan’s rule of law holds in the north, a spirit of rebellion is rising in the south, as tearaway princes and rebels grow to resent England’s oppression of their homeland. And when Nesta, married off in a political move by England’s King Henry, leaves the safety of her husband’s castle to attend a celebration, the rebels seize their opportunity.

The truce broken, England’s rulers look to turn the ensuing chaos to their advantage, and to crush Wales under their boot once and for all. Gruffydd is left with a stark choice: enforce the peace he so desires for his land, and betray his countrymen, or risk everything he has built by going to war with the English once again. But the decision is soon taken out of his hands by those who ride for liberty from the depths of Rebellion’s Forge.

Rebellion’s Forge is the third book in the Blood of Kings trilogy.

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About the Author

Kevin Ashman is the author of seventeen novels, including the bestselling Roman Chronicles and highly ranked Medieval Sagas. Always pushing the boundaries, he found further success with the India Sommers Mysteries, as well as three other standalone projects, Vampire, Savage Eden and the dystopian horror story The Last Citadel. Kevin was born and raised in Wales and now writes full-time. He is married with four grown children and enjoys cycling, swimming and watching rugby. Current works include the highly anticipated Blood of Kings series, of which Rebellion’s Forge is the third and final instalment. Find out more at www.KMAshman.co.uk and follow Kevin on Twitter @KMAshman.

Book Review: Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen, By Giles Tremlett

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Yesterday was the anniversary of Queen Catherine of Aragon's death at the age of fifty in 1536 at Kimbolton Castle in  Cambridgeshire. I've read every book I can find on Catherine of Aragon in the course of the research for my new book on Henry VII. Each has it's high points, a fascinating detail here, a new insight there - sometimes a thought-provoking theory.

All this reading has given me a deeper understanding of what it might have been like for Catherine, arriving in England without even being able to speak the language. After her tragically short marriage to Prince Arthur, which left her widowed at sixteen, Henry VII was less than helpful, continuing the 'negotiations' about her dowry until his death.

Meanwhile, Catherine is forced to sell off her jewels and borrow money for food. Giles Tremlett makes the most of the scant information about Catherine's early life - but it is his engaging account of her later life which makes this book one of my favourites. 

It is important to remember that Catherine lasted twice as long as Henry VIII's queen as all the other five put together. She was laid to rest in Peterborough Cathedral on the 29th of January - while Henry VIII is reported to have dressed in yellow, put a white feather in his cap and danced with Anne Boleyn's ladies. 

Giles Tremlett's access to original material from the Spanish archives adds a freshness to this biography that I highly recommend for anyone interested to understand more about the life of Catherine of Aragon. 

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About the Author

Giles Tremlett is a British author, journalist and broadcaster based in Madrid, Spain. He has lived in, and written extensively about, Spain almost continuously since graduating from Oxford University twenty-five years ago. He is Contributing Editor at The Guardian and Madrid Correspondent for The Economist magazine. His books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Dutch and Serbian. He has contributed to several academic collections on Spanish history and is currently preparing a biography of Isabel of Castile. Giles is on Twitter @gilestremlett.

Guest Post by Raimey Gallant: Never too early to start building your author platform

Whether you aspire to self publish or traditionally publish, make no mistake, you will be responsible for the lion share of the marketing efforts to sell your books. And if you aim to get in the traditional game, I have heard two, count them TWO horror stories of fiction authors being rejected because of their lack of a presence and following online. One of these stories was about an author being passed over by an agent, and the other was about a publishing company that passed on an agented manuscript.

That’s right, as it relates to becoming traditionally published, despite all the current rhetoric across countless blogs that high social media numbers are only a prerequisite for non-fiction authors, the times, they are a changin’.

I can’t predict how quickly this will become the norm, but now that you’ve been forewarned from a new author who has her ear to the ground, the question is, what are you going to do about it?
Because I happen to be a brilliant marketer *polishes nails on shoulder*, I can tell you what you’re going to do. First, there’s no need to stress. Rather, a take-it-in-stride approach is most effective.

Whether you’re new to social media and blogging or slightly further along your journey toward building an author platform, the key to avoiding that I-wanna-run-my-smartphone-through-the-microwave moment is to take it slow. My experience is that every social media platform is overwhelming until it isn’t, meaning sign up one at a time, take some time to learn how it works, and all of a sudden, it’s built into your routine, and you don’t even need to think about it.

But why would I take advice from you, Raimey? You’re not even published yet. Good point. But by the time I hit send on that first query letter, my social media numbers will be added incentive for agents and publishers to sign me, I can tell you that.

Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the next step is creating engagement. It’s one thing to create social media profiles, but if you want people to like/heart/interact with you online, you have to encourage them to do so by engaging with them first.

That sounds like a lot of work, Raimey. Are you sure you know what you’re talking about? Let’s put it this way: 1) I am in the middle of hosting a 400-participant author blog and social media hop, which is, in it’s essence, a follow-back campaign of engaged authors across all social media platforms, and the hop blog post received 5,000 page views in the first week; 2) In the past two months, I received two requests to guest post on other author’s blogs (including the wonderful host of this blog Mr. Tony Riches); and 3) I have increased my Twitter following by 5,000 in the past eight months.

Fiction authors need to be aware that in addition to the quality of their manuscript, agents and publishers are starting more and more to judge candidates on the size of their online following. Don’t wait until you finish writing the book to get your social media profiles together. Start slow but start now, and like me, you’ll see dividends soon enough.

Raimey Gallant

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About the Author

Raimey Gallant is a marketing and fundraising consultant who is currently writing a top secret, twisty crime thriller that is freaking awesome, if she does say so herself. If you want more advice from Raimey on building your author platform, it’s probably a good idea to follow her Wordpress blog, as well as her Twitter and Facebook pages post haste. Like, immediately.

Book Launch Guest Post: The Zorzi Affair: A Novel of Galileo's Italy, by Sylvia Prince

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Zaneta Lucia Zorzi secretly reads science books while her mother pushes etiquette lessons. But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, an arranged marriage changes everything. 

I’ve always been intrigued by arranged marriages. They were very common in the Renaissance, when marriage could make or break a family. Marriage was much too serious to leave up to young people—the institution was a business transaction designed to unite two families.

In 1391, Buonaccorso Pitti decided to marry, but instead of choosing a wife, he chose a family: “Since Guido del Palagio was the most respected and influential man in the city, I decided to put the matter in his hands and leave the choice of bride up to him, provided he picked her from among his own relatives.” Pitti was explicit about this strategic choice. “For I calculated that if I were to become a connection of his and could win his good will, he would be obliged to help me obtain a truce with the Corbizi family.”

And when Lorenzo de Medici married Roman Clarice Orsini in the mid-fifteenth century, it was seen as an insult to other Florentine families. Lorenzo’s choice declared that no one in Florence was worthy of an alliance with the Medici, so he was forced to go to Rome to find a bride.

But marriage was not always an option. In the late sixteenth century, over 60% of Venetian patrician women were put in convents. Rising dowry costs and a closed patrician class created a crisis, where patrician fathers could not find suitable partners for their daughters.

In this world, daughters had very few choices—in Italy, they would often be married or in a convent before their twentieth birthday. When I imagined the strict life of a Venetian patrician daughter, a character began to emerge: a girl who rejected those choices to pursue her true passion, the study of nature.

The Zorzi Affair follows Zaneta Lucia Zorzi as she flees her life in Venice to enroll at the University of Padua. Zaneta Lucia, disguised as a boy, moves in to Galileo’s boarding house—yes, that Galileo! He actually did run a boarding house at the University of Padua, and my fictional Galileo, along with crafty tutor Paolo Serravalle, help Zaneta Lucia pursue her dream.

I found myself rooting for Zaneta Lucia on her journey. And I loved writing about a woman pursuing an education at a time when women did not attend universities. The Zorzi Affair also allowed me to write about the history of science, which is a passion of mine. So if you’ve ever wondered about Galileo’s astronomical discoveries, but you’d also like to read about a courageous young woman, this is the book for you!

Sylvia Prince

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About the Author

Sylvia Prince is a historian and an author. Sylvia holds a PhD in history—and loves the bizarre but true stories she has encountered over the years working as a history professor. Did you know, for example, that in 1492 the pope received a blood transfusion by literally drinking the blood of three young boys? (It didn’t work—the pope and the boys all died.) You can follow her on twitter @sprincebooks, find her on Facebook  and visit her website, where she also blogs: www.sylviaprincebooks.com.