Footsteps in Time Review (from Smashwords)
This was pretty cool, so I felt the need to repost it . . . so thank you Wil! I’m glad you liked the book! ________ Review by: Wilson James on Feb. 14, 2011 : Honor. That’s a word not often used today, in 2011. Honor, however, was one of the only things that American teenagers David and Anna took with them in their time travel to medieval Wales. Honor also describes the way in which Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd lived his life as the ruler of Wales in 1282. The best way to describe FOOTSTEPS IN TIME? An amazing tale of adventure, daring exploits, loyalty, and courage all wrapped up in a time travel young adult fiction story. This book was enjoyable from beginning to end, as it has plenty of action mixed with a truly remarkable degree of Read more…
Writing Historical Fantasy: a Conversation with Jules Watson
Guest Post by Anna Elliott: A Conversation with Jules Watson. Jules Watson writes amazing, lyric historical fantasy set in the Dark Age Celtic world. Her newest book, The Raven Queen, will be out next month. And she has an absolutely fantastic historical fiction workshop on her website. If you write historical fiction or fantasy, go check it out immediately, it’s one of the best resources for writers in the genre I’ve seen. http://juleswatson.com/fictionworkshop.html Where do your ideas for a book start? With a known historical fact or myth? A ‘scene’ that pulls you into a story? A particular character? Or maybe none of those? The Raven Queen and my previous book The Swan Maiden were inspired by the heroines of two ancient Irish myths. For The Swan Maiden, I had always adored the Celti story of Deirdre of the Sorrows, Read more…
New Books Available!
I’ve been working on the After Cilmeri series, a young adult, time-travel fantasy, for the past five years. As should be obvious by now, the fate of Wales after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd has been a near-constant occupation of mine, and these novels are a fun way to imagine a different fate for him. A prequel is in the works . . . Enjoy! _____________ Footsteps in Time In December of 1282, English soldiers ambushed and murdered Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales. His death marked the end of Wales as an independent nation and the beginning of over seven hundred years of English oppression. Footsteps in Time is the story of what might have happened had Llywelyn lived. And what happens to the two American teenagers who save him. Footsteps in Time is available (for free) at: http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/18316/footsteps-in-time Or Read more…
Working Archaeology in Wales
Archaeologists are always working on new projects in Wales. A shortage of workers and funding inhibit the work, but the Dyfed Archaeological Trust conducted seven different digs, mostly using volunteer labor, in 2010. A look at their page is a good review of what ‘real’ archaeology is like: lots of digging, frustration, and grunt work, interspersed with occasional finds. http://www.cambria.org.uk/ They worked on: Fan Barrow Excavation 2010 Capel y Groes 2010 Pantybutler Round Barrows 2010 Tir y Dail Castle, Ammanford Dig Diary July 2010 Upper Newton Roman Villa at Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire – Dig Diary 2010 Wernfawr Dig Diary 2010 Nevern Castle Summer Excavation 2010 Nevern Castle Spring Excavation 2010 Each of these is a fascinating study in luck and circumstance (and hard work). There are four archaeological trusts in Wales (Dyfed, Gwynedd, Glamorgan-Gwen, and Clwyd-Powys), found here: http://www.archwilio.org.uk/ Gwynedd’s digs Read more…
A Twilight Interlude
Forks, Washington is the setting for Stephanie Meyer’s Twlight series. While I’m not a Twlight ‘fan’, I appreciate it any time an author sparks a reading frenzy as she has. And today, we drove through Forks (on the way to somewhere else, but we decided we had to stop). We went to the visitor center and chatted with the proprieters who reported that 73,000 people passed through their doors in 2010. We were the only ones today. Forks is a town of 3000 people. The visitor center employee, who was very nice and knowledgable, said that 95% percent of the citizens of Forks were supportive of their role in the Twilight series and had embraced the tourists and the experience. (She has a bumper sticker which says ‘Team Jacob’. He has my vote too 🙂 Her parting comment was how Read more…
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi is a compliation of Welsh mythological tales found in the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest, both dating to the middle of the fourteenth century. The stories however, are older, the specific versions dating to around 1100 AD, and thus before the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Parker writes: “The Four Branches also relay aspects of a deeply pagan thought-world, which ultimately draws on traditions and beliefs from the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of prehistoric Britain, as well as those of the Celtic Iron Age and Romano-British eras.” http://www.mabinogion.info/ The first branch tells the story of Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed. Pwyll spends a year as Lord of Annwn, the Underworld and then encounters Rhiannon, whom he marries. I loved the following exchange between the two, in the initial stages Read more…
Maps of Wales
Both topography and geography change over time. Geologically, Wales hasn’t changed much in 2000 years, but the topography has, from mining, from the building of villages and cities, and from the wholesale cutting–and then replanting–of forests. As evidenced by the loss of the location of many of the Roman roads, transportation routes change over time. What used to be on a major pathway across the country is now in a desolate, hard-to-reach area. As one example, in Powys, in the 19th century, the leader of Birmingham City Council set about finding a clean water supply for the City. He identified the Elan and Claerwen Valleys as having the best potential for water storage with ample water (72 inches a year), narrow downstream valleys, impermeable bedrock, and a higher altitude eliminating the need for pumps. “An Act of Parliament was passed Read more…
Roman Villa found near Aberystwyth
Thirty years ago, aerial photographers from Cambridge University noted something odd about the layout of a field near the village of Abermagwr near Aberystwyth. They were doing a flyover during the summer, and because of the dry conditions, there were unexplained cropmarks in a field. At the time, they noted, “a double-ditched rectangular enclosure, with traces of a possible building within.” http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/405315/details/NANT+MAGWR+ROMAN+SITE,+ABERMAGWR,+POSSIBLE+ROMAN+VILLA/ No excavations were undertaken until this summer. Researchers can now confirm that they are “the remains of a much-robbed late Roman villa. The Abermagwr villa had all the trappings of established villas in south Wales and southern England, including a slate roof and glazed windows. It was roofed with local slates, but these were pentagonal, cut with five sides and a fine point to form a highly decorative roof, common amongst villas in south-west England and the Isle Read more…
Welsh Cantrefs and Commotes
In medieval Wales, for legal and administrative purposes the country was divided into cantrefs, which were relatively large areas (like US counties) and commotes, which were smaller jurisdictions. “A cantref is a measurement of a hundred (literally, it means “one hundred”). A commot is a community, the word ultimately deriving from the same root as Cymru–comrad, compatriot, neighbor.” The list of cantrefs and commotes from the Red Book of Hergest is found here: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/cantref.html In the Middle Ages, Gwynedd had and fifteen cantrefs and thirty-six commotes. Overall, it was the largest of the regions of Wales. “The antiquity of the cantrefi is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between dialects. Some were originally kingdoms in their own right, others may have been artificial units created later. (Davies, John; Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur I. Lynch (2008), The Welsh Academy Read more…
Danish Bones Found in Oxford
There’s a new article in The Oxford Student which describes a recent find of bones, determined to have belonged to Danes and the result of a massacre ordered by King Ethelbert in 1003 AD. It sheds some light on an early period in British history and points to something that is easy to forget as you work your way through the Early Middle Ages: that the “Saxons” from literature and mythology were not monolithic, but comprised of different ethnic groups and nationalities. What this find reveals is that the Saxons, who now controlled most of England, murdered their Danish neighbors. From a Welsh perspective, these groups might seem one and the same, but they weren’t. In the Oxford article, it states: “Vikings’ skeletons found underneath one of St John’s quads are the remains of a violent “ethnic cleansing” over 1,000 years ago. Read more…
NaNoWriMo Day 1
November 1, 2010: I sat up in bed morning, pulled my laptop close (hoping that my son wasn’t going to wake up quite yet) and started typing. Now, with historical fiction, it doesn’t take very long before a need for research pops up, and I encountered the first after 3 sentences. Why didn’t I do this research earlier? Because I didn’t know what I needed until I’d written those three sentences. This new book is a murder mystery, if I can pull it off, set in Gwynedd in 1143 AD. In real life, Cadwaladr, Owain Gwynedd’s obnoxious brother, has Anarawd, Owain’s future son-in-law, murdered on the eve of his wedding. It is over a land dispute, and Anarawd was ambushed on the road. Once it is determined that Cadwaladr is to blame, Hywel, Owain Gwynedd’s bastard son, is sent to exact retribution Read more…
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