Exiles in Time is here!

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Exiles in Time is finally here!  Currently available at:  Amazon  Amazon UK  Apple I-Tunes   Barnes and Noble  Smashwords  Kobo  and  Paperback     Here’s the pitch: Two years in Afghanistan, four years working for MI-5, the British security service, and the death of both of his parents from cancer. At the age of thirty-four, Callum thought he’d experienced the worst that life could throw at him. That is, until his boss ordered him to open a buried file on his desk and to take it seriously. His new assignment: to detain and question a pregnant woman and her ailing husband—and if need be, to stop them from returning to medieval Wales. Until today, Callum believed in his job and always followed orders. Until today, he thought time travel wasn’t real … Exiles in Time is a novel from the After Cilmeri Series. Other books Read more…


How did medieval people light fires?

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The simple answer to this question is by striking flint and steel. Lighting a fire was a big deal in the middle ages–both incredibly common place and sometimes not that easy to do if the conditions weren’t right. Fires were kept lit in houses all the time and woe to the child who was supposed to be watching it and it went out 🙂 Lots about medieval fire lighting here:  http://www.sthubertsrangers.org/making_fire.htm Even more here:  “Since matches did not become available until the mid-1800’s, prior to that time people had to make fires in other ways. The two most common methods of fire-making before the advent of matches were friction and percussion.”  http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/fire.shtml “A fire striker (or fire steel) is a piece of high carbon or alloyed steel from which sparks are struck by the sharp edge of chert or similar Read more…


What Richard III looked like …

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The bones of Richard III were dug up out of a car park and now they have reconstructed his face from the skeleton:   Read more: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16852349-king-richard-iiis-face-revealed-after-500-years?lite&lite=obnetwork From the BBC: “Richard was born on 2 October 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. His father was Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and his mother Cecily Neville. Richard had a claim to the English throne through both parents. We now know that Richard had a curvature of the spine, but the withered arm and limp of legend are almost certainly either fabrications or greatly exaggerated. Wars of the Roses His father’s conflict with Henry VI was a major cause of the Wars of the Roses, which dominated Richard’s early life. His father and older brother died at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. In 1461, Richard’s brother, Edward, became Edward IV and created Read more…


Medieval Shields

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While we’re on the topic of medieval warfare, the medieval shield was not a standard item, but evolved over a period of time depending upon the needs of the warrior who held it. “The early Middle Ages saw a quite crude form of armor and shield. Metal had not begun to be widely used, so both armor and shields were commonly made of wood and animal hide. The shields tended to be small, round objects that served a minimal level of close-range defense. As the Middle Ages passed, and advances in technology allowed the development of new armor and weapons, a new shield was needed. Different shapes and sizes of shield were adapted, each to serve a specific purpose. Features such as handles were added to shields in order to make them more practical in battle. New methods of warfare Read more…


Medieval Sword Vocabulary

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Following up on the post about medieval swords, here’s an extensive vocabulary list for swords from http://www.thearma.org/SwordForms.html  From all us medieval-obsessed people, thank you for posting it! _______________ SWORD PARTS Many sword types are closely identified with a particular style of hilt.  Yet hilts were very often replaced on blades over time a weapon. Thus, a sword cannot be classified or categorized by whatever kind of cross, pommel, or grip it has, but by the length, form, and geometry of its blade. Hilt – The upper portion of a sword consisting of the cross-guard, handle/grip, and pommel (most Medieval swords have a straight cross or cruciform-hilt). Called the Handhabe in German. In Old French the crosspiece was called helz, the grip called poing, the pommel called pom, and the handle might be bound with metal rings called mangon. Cross – The typically straight bar or “guard” of a Read more…


Medieval Swords and Armor

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I have posted about how medieval swords and armor weren’t ‘heavy’ here: https://sarahwoodbury.com/medieval-swords-and-armor-were-not-heavy/ about dark age and medieval armor:  https://sarahwoodbury.com/darkageandmedievalarmor/ and about medieval martial arts and its resurrection as an art form: https://sarahwoodbury.com/european-martial-arts/   A friend has justdirected me to a post detailing the different kinds of medieval swords.: http://www.thearma.org/SwordForms.html Here’s a sample of their section on long swords: Long-Swords The various kinds of long bladed Medieval swords that had handles long enough to be used in two hands were deemed long-swords (German Langenschwert/ Langes Swertor Italian spada longa). Long–swords, war-swords, or great swords are characterized by having both a long grip and a long blade. We know at the time that Medieval warriors did distinguished war-swords or great-swords (“grant espees” or “grete swerdes”) from “standard” swords in general, but long-swords were really just those larger versions of typical one-handed swords, except with stouter blades. They were “longer swords,” as opposed to Read more…


Footsteps in Time a Break Out Book on I-Tunes!

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Holy ebooks, Batman … I just was notified that Apple’s iBookstore today launched a major feature in the US called ‘Breakout Books’.  It highlights several dozen titles, including my book, Footsteps in Time! If you go to I-tunes, you can see this feature at the top of the  iBookstore.  The New York Times covered the story this morning at http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/apple-to-highlight-self-published-books/ From Mark Coker, Founder of Smashwords, my ebook distributor: Late last night, I blogged about the feature and mentioned your book here: http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/02/smashwords-authors-gain-seat-at.html This type of feature, currently running with heavy exposure throughout the iBookstore, is unprecedented. The selection of titles will continue to be refreshed with new breakout books and remain accessible at its own unique destination on the iBookstore at http://iTunes.com/BreakoutBooks. Did you get that?  Here’s the link again:  http://iTunes.com/BreakoutBooks Thank you to Smashwords, Apple, and all my fabulous readers for making Read more…


Breaking news! Richard III’s Skeleton Found in Car Park

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Finally … the word is in: “A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III. Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch’s family. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: “Beyond reasonable doubt it’s Richard.” Richard, killed in battle in 1485, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral. Interactive: Twisted bones reveal a king Mr Buckley said the bones had been subjected to “rigorous academic study” and had been carbon dated to a period from 1455-1540. Dr Jo Appleby, an osteo-archaeologist from the university’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, revealed the bones were of a man in his late 20s or early 30s. Richard was 32 when he died. His skeleton had Read more…


Maps from the Books!

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A reader suggested I post the maps from the books on my web page, which is a really good idea. This is the main map for the After Cilmeri Series:   For Cold My Heart. It is much the same, except I use the old name for Aber, which is Garth Celyn:   The Last Pendragon Saga: The Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mysteries. Carreg Cennen from The Bard’s Daughter is not shown, but it forms a triangle with Dinefwr and Dryslyn:


Historical Sources for King Arthur

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Whether or not King Arthur was a real person is an either/or query.  He either lived or he didn’t.  Many scholars, researchers, and Arthurophile’s have strong opinions on this topic, both for and against.  Because of the paucity of written records, much of the academic work has come down on the side of ‘didn’t—or at least if Arthur was a real person, his name was not ‘Arthur’ and he possibly wasn’t even a king. I, however, look at the poetry and tales from the early Middle Ages, and choose to believe he did actually exist. Medieval people certainly thought he did, and throughout the Middle Ages, an entire body of work developed around his story, much of it mythologized. Historically speaking, however, there are genuine near contemporaneous references to him that predate the kinds of stories we read about now, with the Round Read more…


Messenger Pigeons in the Middle Ages

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This is kind of quirky thing, but one I ran across and found fascinating.  Messenger pigeons have been used since ancient times for communication across long distances. Of course, whatever message has to be written small on a tiny piece of paper or the pigeon couldn’t carry it. Still, they have provided an invaluable service for many thousands of years. “Homing pigeons (Columba livia) can reliably deliver a short message from any location within a roughly 400-mile radius to their home base. Even today, information carried by homing pigeon can still compare favorably in speed and reliability with information carried by Internet.” http://www.helium.com/items/2380155-carrier-pigeons-through-history A great summary is here:  “The first known use of pigeons as postal messengers was in ancient Egypt. In 2900 B.C.E. in Egypt, incoming ships released pigeons as an announcement of important visitors. Around the time of Moses, Read more…


The Succession of 1290 (Scotland)

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When Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286 by falling off a cliff (which is another whole story–what king dies falling off a cliff when riding from one castle to another alone in the fog? Whatever.), he left Scotland without a king. He had one living grandchild, Margaret, otherwise known as the ‘Maid of Norway’. She was the child of Alexander’s daughter, who’d died at her birth, and Erik, the King of Norway. The succession was already in trouble after King Alexander’s only son died, two years earlier:  “When Prince Alexander died on 28 January 1284, leaving only the king’s granddaughter Margaret living out of his descendants, Alexander III summoned all thirteen Earls of Scotland, twenty-four barons and the heads of the three main Gaelic kindreds of the West, Alexander of Argyll, Aonghas Mór of Islay and Alan MacRuari of Garmoran. At Scone on 5 February Read more…