Sharing numbers redux . . .
Last August, I posted my sales numbers for Amazon US through July, and thought now was the time to share more. I released two new books in September: The Pendragon’s Quest, the sequel to The Last Pendragon and The Good Knight, my medieval mystery. The only reason my numbers are holding up is because I’ve sold hundreds of copies of The Good Knight in the last two months. Other than The Good Knight, my sales numbers for total books, and the subsequent rankings for all my books, have been down this fall by as much as two-thirds. I want to reiterate the importance of writing more books. My big seller since March had been Daughter of Time, which was selling up to 50 books a day at times. Down to 14 a day now, with the commensurate slow downs for Read more…
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is one of many rings of standing stones built by the ancient peoples in Britain, in this case on the Salisbury Plain. More is known about Stonehenge in particular than other stone circles because it was so well preserved that real archaeological work has been done around it. A ‘henge’, in archaeological terms, is a large enclosure. It appears that the first ‘henge’ at Stonehenge involved no stones at all, but was an earthwork, composed of a ditch, a bank, and a series of dug holes called the ‘Aubrey holes, all begun around 3100 BC. The Aubrey holes are round pits dug into the chalk of the plain, each about a meter wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms. These holes form a circle a little less than a 100 meters in diameter. In a way, then, Read more…
Gerald of Wales
We are talking about Gerald of Wales because, as a churchmen, he exemplifies the tensions and complicated nature of the relationship between the Welsh and Norman church in the Middle Ages. Gerald was the grandson of Gerald of Windsor and Nest, a princess of Deheubarth, who established Carew Castle after the Norman Conquest of this region of Wales. Thus he was mixed Norman and Welsh descent, and as our daughter writes in her senior thesis, “His Welsh ancestry meant he could act Norman” and side with the Normans but never be accepted as fully Norman. He himself “decried” both Normans and Welsh for despising him, arguing that his uncertain identity left him accepted by neither culture. At the same time, he spoke French primarily, and Latin as a churchman, with only a little Welsh, and overtly participated in Norman efforts Read more…
How did Latin get into English?
It was the Romans right? Well, ultimately, but not necessarily because they conquered Britian in 43 AD. The Romans controlled Britain from 43 AD to when they marched away in the beginning of the 5th century. During that time, they built roads, towns, forts, and established a government. Upon their departure, the ‘dark ages’ consumed Britain, with the assistance of several invading groups (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, plus Picts, Scots, Irish). The people who lived in Britain at the time were Celtic and spoke a language that eventually became what we know today as Welsh. As the story goes, these invading groups pushed the Britons into Wales until a real wall (Offa’s Dyke) permanently created a barrier between them. Latin had been spoken by the Romans, of course, and had entered the Welsh language as a result. “These borrowed words are Read more…
The Wild Boar in Britain
Four hundred years ago, wild boar officially became extinct in Britain. A wild boar is a creature that weighed upwards of two hundred pounds. “The wild boar is a member of the pig family, Suidae, and is an even-toed ungulate or artiodactyl. It is a large mammal, with an adult male weighing up to 200 kg., or occasionally more, and with a head and body length of up to 2 metres. The tail, which is usually straight, is about 25 cm. long. Female boars are about two thirds of the size of the males, although both stand about one metre in height. A prominent feature of the wild boar is its coat of short, thick bristly hair, which can vary in colour from brown and black to grey. In western Europe, boar generally have brown coats, while in eastern Europe Read more…
National Novel Writing Month 2011
Today is November 1 and National Novel Writing month begins! If you’ve never heard of it, this is an opportunity to write 50,000 words in one month on a new book. Here’s the official site: http://nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard Here’s my novel link: http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/drsarah Feel free to be my buddy 🙂 Starting today, Nov. 1, I’m going to be doing a full court press for the second Gareth and Gwen medieval mystery. I even have a cover! And maybe, just maybe, I have a plot. I have a three page outline, single spaced, which for me is incredible. I try not to be a pantster, but outlines have never really been meaningful for me. Until now! We’ll see how it goes. If you think you’ve got 50,000 words in you, come join me for NaNoWriMo (thirty days and nights of literary abandon)! Read more…
Is Your Life Whispering to You?
Cheryl Shireman invited me to join her in the Indie Chicks Anthology. What an amazing group of inspiring women! Cheryl is here today to talk about the book. Welcome Cheryl! _____________ I believe life whispers to you and provides direction. I call that life force God. You can call it whatever you want, but there is no escaping it. If we are open, and brave enough to say yes, life will take us in directions we never expected, and you will live a life beyond your wildest dreams. Those whisperings often come in the form of a “crazy” idea or a nudge to move into a certain direction that seems odd or silly or daring. Then there is that moment when you think, Well, that’s weird. Where in the world did that come from? And then there’s the second moment, Read more…
Free Giveaway! Indie Chicks Anthology
I’m one of 25 women involved in this anthology and I’m gifting 10 free copies via Amazon when the book comes out on Nov. 1. If you’d like a free ebook, leave a comment below for the drawing. We also have a facebook page … come ‘like’ us 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/IndieChicksAnthology _______ As women, one of our most powerful “gifts” is the ability to encourage one another. This book is our effort to encourage women across the world. Twenty-five women share stories that will make you laugh, inspire you, and maybe even make you cry. It is our hope that our stories will inspire your independent spirit and allow you to live the life you were meant to live. All proceeds from this book will go to the Susan G. Komen Foudantion which fights breast cancer – a disease all too Read more…
Razing Castles in the 14th Century
Welcome today to N. Gemini Sasson, talking about the Scottish practice of razing their own castles in the 14th century, as well as her new book, The Honor Due a King, the third book in her Bruce Trilogy. Welcome Gemini! _____________ It’s impossible to write a historical novel without delving into the ‘why’ of certain events and how they unfolded the way they did. When I began to write about Robert the Bruce what amazed me was how he secured his kingdom’s independence despite the fact that he was fighting an army that was far bigger and better armed than his. To do so, he adopted some rather unorthodox tactics for his time. When Robert the Bruce claimed Scotland’s crown in 1306, he knew that if he could not outnumber the English in battle, the only way he could defeat Read more…
Excalibur (Caledfwlch)
“Excalibur” was first used for King Arthur’s sword in the embellishment of the King Arthur legend by the French. Contrary to present-day myth, Excalibur was not the famous “Sword in the Stone” (which broke in battle), but a second sword acquired by the King through the intercession of Myrddin (Merlin). Worried that Arthur would fall in battle, “Merlin took the King to a magical lake where a mysterious hand thrust itself up from the water, holding aloft a magnificent sword. It was the Lady of the Lake, offering Arthur a magic unbreakable blade, fashioned by an Avalonian elf smith, along with a scabbard which would protect him as long as he wore it . . .” http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/excalibur.html The Welsh name for King Arthur’s sword was ‘Caledfwlch’, which means ‘cleaving what is hard’. (from Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia). It later Read more…
Rewriting the Dark Ages
A new theory has been working it’s way through the archaeological literature that there was no Saxon ‘invasion’ of Britain after the fall of Rome. The theory states that “9th century Anglo-Saxon propaganda distort [ed] the records for the turbulent 5th and 6th centuries. . . . Rather than Briton versus Anglo-Saxon – as in the myth of Arthur – was it simply a murderous struggle between rival British warlords?” http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/rewriting-the-age-of-arthur.htm The theory, at least in this article, is based on a lack of primary sources of the era. This is an interesting argument, but there are a number of sources that suggest it isn’t accurate. First: written evidence, which the article claims to be scarce, is far more prevalent than at first appears–it’s just that the sources are not necessarily British. This site on the ruin and conquest of Britain, details, Read more…
Ironclad (2011) — Movie Review
Ironclad begins with the background that King John was known for losing wars, levying taxes, and sleeping with other men’s wives. He lost a bloody civil war with his barons that resulted in him signing the Magna Carta. Fair enough, as far as it goes. The movie, however, says that it’s about ‘what John did next’. Which is interesting because this is a small medieval movie in the way that Kingdom of Heaven was big. It is an interesting choice, because the movie is about John’s seige of Rochester Castle, which was one play in his continuing war against the barons. It centers on Thomas Marshall, a Templar. Supposedly, the Templars fought on the side of the Barons in the Civil War–I have no idea if this is true but for the movie’s purposes, it resulted in King John’s hatred of all Read more…
^