Anna Elliott: Georgiana Darcy’s Diary
Today’s Inspiration Award goes to Anna Elliott! Anna is the author of the Twilight of Avalon Trilogy (book three comes out this September), and she has recently gone the indie route with the publication of her new book Georgiana Darcy’s Diary. Welcome Anna! _______________________ I’ve read Pride and Prejudice many, many times, and seen the various movie adaptations more times than I can even begin to count. (Colin Firth is my favorite Mr. Darcy!). I love Elizabeth and Darcy’s love story, of course–it’s a testament to Jane Austen’s genius that it truly stands the test of time and feels as compelling now as it did 200 years ago. And yet, strangely, it’s always been Georgiana Darcy’s character that stays with me the longest, each time I read the book or watch one of the films. Georgiana’s character is almost Read more…
Things Fall Apart–the End of an Independent Wales
Things Fall Apart is the name of an excellent book written in 1958 by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, describing his main character’s fall from grace where he loses his power, his family, and ultimately his life (he hangs himself). It is an equally apt phrase for defining what happened in Wales immediately after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. J. Beverley Smith writes: “By the beginning of 1283, but not very long before, Llanrwst and Betws became bases for English operations in the upper Conwy valley, and it seems that a crossing of the river had been forced by then. The Welsh forces faced an advance made in two directions. One army moved upstream along the Conwy and Lledr valleys to Dolwyddelan, a key position in the defensive preparations of the princes. By 18 January the castle was in the king’s Read more…
The Poetic Tradition
Tonight the hall of my lord is dark, With neither fire nor bed. I will weep a while, then still myself to silence. Tonight the hall of my lord is dark, With neither fire nor candle. Who will give me peace? Tonight the hall of my lord is dark, With neither fire nor light. Grief for you overtakes me. Darkness descends on the hall of my lord The blessed assembly has departed, praying That good comes to those of us who remain. This poem (interpreted for my own purposes from the original: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/492llyw.htm) is from the Welsh poem Canu Heledd. The poem tells a story of Cynddylan, or Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn, a seventh century ruler of a sub-kingdom of Gwynedd. His father allied with Penda of Mercia, but died before 642: “In the aftermath of victory Penda and Cynddylan seem Read more…
Writing and re-writing: A Novel of King Arthur
I normally blog about dark age and medieval Wales, and just touch on the writing that has preoccupied my life for the last five years. But I’ve just put up my new novel, Cold My Heart: A Novel of King Arthur, and I thought I’d talk about the process that created it, particularly for my long time readers and followers who will have seen a blurb to this book in another form not long ago. The most important thing I’ve learned in writing fiction over the years is, of course, never give up. The second most important thing is that no book is ever set in stone. It’s really hard to see that when you’re in the process of writing it, but every single one of my books has gone through a transformative process from when I first began writing Read more…
Links to Interviews, Guest Blogs, and Posts :)
A couple of links that came up this week: Interview over at Kindle Authors on Thursday, talking about The Last Pendragon: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2011/04/kindle-author-interview-sarah-woodbury.html Interview over at The Inner Bean on Friday, talking about writing Historical Fiction: http://jennybeans.net/2011/04/08/guest-blog-sarah-woodbury-on-writing-historical-fiction/ Interview over at Katie Klein Writes on Friday about Footsteps in Time: http://katiekleinwrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/ya-indie-spotlight-sarah-woodbury.html Daughter of Time listed on the Indie 500 booklist: http://thebookorbust.blogspot.com/2011/04/apr-4-new-this-week-on-indie-500.html Interview with me about writing (4/11) over at Parlez-moi blog: http://parlezmoiblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/forfrom-indie-authors-sarah-woodbury.html
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