National Novel Writing Month!
I actually ‘finished’ this ‘book’, at exactly 50,000 words (by some fluke) on Friday, November 19th at 7:49 pm, at which point my husband suggeted we go out for ice cream . . . I couldn’t validate it until the end of the month. Like all first drafts, or parts of first drafts, it’s terrible! But I plan on spending the next year making it better 🙂
Danish Bones Found in Oxford
There’s a new article in The Oxford Student which describes a recent find of bones, determined to have belonged to Danes and the result of a massacre ordered by King Ethelbert in 1003 AD. It sheds some light on an early period in British history and points to something that is easy to forget as you work your way through the Early Middle Ages: that the “Saxons” from literature and mythology were not monolithic, but comprised of different ethnic groups and nationalities. What this find reveals is that the Saxons, who now controlled most of England, murdered their Danish neighbors. From a Welsh perspective, these groups might seem one and the same, but they weren’t. In the Oxford article, it states: “Vikings’ skeletons found underneath one of St John’s quads are the remains of a violent “ethnic cleansing” over 1,000 years ago. Read more…
NaNoWriMo Day 1
November 1, 2010: I sat up in bed morning, pulled my laptop close (hoping that my son wasn’t going to wake up quite yet) and started typing. Now, with historical fiction, it doesn’t take very long before a need for research pops up, and I encountered the first after 3 sentences. Why didn’t I do this research earlier? Because I didn’t know what I needed until I’d written those three sentences. This new book is a murder mystery, if I can pull it off, set in Gwynedd in 1143 AD. In real life, Cadwaladr, Owain Gwynedd’s obnoxious brother, has Anarawd, Owain’s future son-in-law, murdered on the eve of his wedding. It is over a land dispute, and Anarawd was ambushed on the road. Once it is determined that Cadwaladr is to blame, Hywel, Owain Gwynedd’s bastard son, is sent to exact retribution Read more…
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