One Year Ago Today …
One year ago today, I uploaded my first book to Amazon.com, The Last Pendragon (not, however, with my beautiful new cover :)). I had decided to take the plunge into indie authordom, after nearly five years of writing and querying and being rejected by publishers large and small. I have a wonderful agent, Jacques de Spoelberch, who did his best for me, but no publisher wanted to take a chance on historical fantasy set in Wales. I had been giving the book away for free at other sites up until then, but two things happened the last week in December 2010 to change my perspective: 1) my writing partner, Anna Elliott, sent me to Joe Konrath’s blog; and 2) a reader sent me an email asking about the sequel and said, “Just for the record, I would happily have paid for Read more…
Surprise Holy Day Attack!
One of the most famous instances of one army attacking another on a holiday was when George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day: “During the night of December 25, Washington led his troops across the ice-swollen Delaware about 9 miles north of Trenton. The weather was horrendous and the river treacherous. Raging winds combined with snow, sleet and rain to produce almost impossible conditions. To add to the difficulties, a significant number of Washington’s force marched through the snow without shoes. The next morning they attacked to the south, taking the Hessian garrison by surprise and over-running the town. After fierce fighting, and the loss of their commander, the Hessians surrendered.” http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/washingtondelaware.htm This attack gave Washington a much needed victory and gave his troops a reason to reenlist for 1777. Five hundred years earlier, on the morning of 22 March Read more…
A Child’s Christmas in Wales
Dylan Thomas wrote A Child’s Christmas in Wales in 1954. It begins: “One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six. All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find . . .” For the full text: http://www.bfsmedia.com/MAS/Dylan/Christmas.html
Pixel of Ink today!
Footsteps in Time is being featured on Pixel of Ink today! http://www.pixelofink.com/bargain-ebook-footsteps-in-time-a-time-travel-fantasy/ https://www.facebook.com/PixelofInk As always, it’s available everywhere 🙂 Buy at: Amazon At Apple Ibooks: Footsteps in Time At Barnes and Noble: Footsteps in Time Amazon UK: Footsteps in Time For international customers: ebook: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38722 paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3566163
A Thank You and Book Give-Away!
The 28th of December will be my one-year anniversary as an indie author and to express my thanks to all of my readers, whether of my books, my blog, or both, I’d like to give you a gift of a free book! Between now and January 10th, you can download a copy of Daughter of Time or The Last Pendragon from Smashwords for FREE! Click on the book cover for the Smashwords web page for Daughter of Time: Coupon code for The Last Pendragon: GN59S
The Wildwood — the lost forest of the UK
Imagine all of the UK covered in a thickly wooded landscape, much like portions of the western United States. I just spent the last 1/2 an hour looking up native plants in Wales, trying to come up with a couple that would have reliably flourished in Gwynedd in the 13th century. My sister-in-law is a botanist, and she agreed that agrimony and juniper would good choices. What has been difficult to determine, as with the Roman and ancient roads, is what the landscape looked like in the Middle Ages. England was mostly denuded of trees by then, but it is possible that wasn’t the case in Wales. So when we see these broad lanscapes in the uplands with no trees, was that what they looked like eight hundred years ago? How do we find that out? According to scientists, only Read more…
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