Sarah Woodbury

The Trip to Wales is Approaching!

Sarah — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:46:06 +0000

From May 24th to June 6th, my husband and I will be traveling through Wales, feasting our eyes on what I haven’t been able to see in far too many years. We will be spending time mostly in the north, where my books are predominantly set. Our itinerary is so …

Continue Reading →

Guest Post from Athanasios, cover artist and author

Sarah — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:10:37 +0000

You are both a cover artist and an author. Does one art inform the other? Only with my own covers. My own knowledge of the subject matter makes my own covers for Mad Gods, Commitment, I Am Eternal or any of the Predatory Ethics series richer with symbolism and content. …

Continue Reading →

Wooly Mittens

Sarah — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:08:19 +0000

My mother and I quilt, and we were working on some charity quilts, which prompted me to think about what fabric-work was like in the Middle Ages. When I was writing The Last Pendragon, I wondered about winter hats, since it is cold and snowy in Wales in February. Knitting, …

Continue Reading →

Inheritance and Welsh Law

Sarah — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:59:35 +0000

The Laws of Hywel Dda, codifed formally before 950 AD. The historical consensus is that the laws had been effect for hundreds of years, but Hywel Dda ruled much of Wales and that allowed a more cohesive approach to the law. “Most of the surviving manuscripts of Welsh law start …

Continue Reading →

Exploring the Lives of Real Historical Figures

Sarah — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:29:32 +0000

Welcome to my friend and fellow historical fiction writer, N. Gemini Sasson, talking about her history and writing … Great to have you here, Gemini! ___________________ Exploring the Lives of Real Historical Figures by N. Gemini Sasson Ten years ago, when I sat down to write about the early …

Continue Reading →

The History of Chester

Sarah — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:36:29 +0000

The City of Chester, which just happens to be the first stop on my Wales odyssey at the end of the month, dates to Roman times, when it was called ‘Deva’. “The Roman military presence at Chester probably began with a fort or marching camp at the mouth of the Deva …

Continue Reading →

Reading Fiction is Good for You!

Sarah — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:25:38 +0000

As a writer, this should go without saying, but several new studies show that fiction does more than spark the imagination and take us to other worlds. And article in the Boston Globe (http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-29/ideas/31417849_1_fiction-morality-happy-endings) follows a series of studies by researcher (and anthropologists) about what fiction does to us–how it …

Continue Reading →

Literacy in the Middle Ages

Sarah — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:35:11 +0000

What it means to be literate is not an absolute standard even now. This was even more true in the Middle Ages when the majority of the population couldn’t read at all, a certain percentage could read and not write, and the only way to be ‘literate’ at the time …

Continue Reading →

How did medieval people keep warm?

Sarah — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:07:37 +0000

How did medieval people keep warm? The short answer might be they didn’t, but that’s only half an answer. Certainly, in medieval Wales like in modern Wales, people didn’t have to deal with extreme temperatures of say–Minnesota–but they did have to deal with snow and cold in the winter, and …

Continue Reading →

Welsh Heraldry

Sarah — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:40:50 +0000

(update) Knights in the Middle Ages wore a coat of arms to distinguish themselves from one another in battle. Within a given family individuals would have their own coats of arms, separate from each other and sometimes blending with another family, depending on the circumstances of marriage. A family would …

Continue Reading →