historical fiction

The Queen’s Tears – a story straddling four centuries

The moment I heard Elizabeth St John was writing a dual timeline story I went OOOOOO. Not because I haven’t enjoyed her pure historicals -I have, even if they have often made me cry – but because Ms St.John is a very skilled author, and I am a big fan of sual timelines. A win-win,

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Writing the Tudor trilogy – in which Tony Riches shares insight into his inspiration

Today, I’ve invited Tony Riches to tell us about his Tudor trilogy, a series that has us following this future dynasty from the moment Owen married a royal widow to when his grandson became king. I must admit I am not really a Tudor fan – I am Plantagenet all the way – but I

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Meet our Renaissance Rivals – Lucrezia and Isabella

Today I am hosting Karen Essex and her latest release, Renaissance Rivals as part of her Coffee Pot Book Club blog tour. Ms Essex has written an interesting story, featuring not only the rivals themselves, but also – however indirectly – the great masters of the period she is writing about: Leonardo da Vinci (who,

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Queen Anna – welcoming Tony Riches and his latest release

Today, I am delighted to welcome Tony Riches back to my blog, this time to celebrate his recent release, Queen Anna Anna was born a Danish princess, daughter to the keen amateur chemist Sofia of Mecklenburg and Fredrik II. Her mother was a big fan of Tycho Brahe, not so Anna’s brother, Christian IV, both

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Life Choices and reading choices – my August newsletter

Of late, I’ve been thinking about choices. We make so many choices, don’t we, and sometimes we don’t quite understand that making one choice effectively kills opportunities f, K, Q and Z. So when next we haveto make a choice, the selection is smaller. Not necessarily a bad thing—having to choose can be difficult and

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The Cleansing – in which Ms Alvear transports us to Ancient Rome

I must start by apologising: I should have posted this some days ago, but e-mails got crossed, my brain went on a blink, and so this Coffee Pot Book Club blog tour post is 48 hrs late. Euuw! Makes me feel itchy all over. Anyway: today I am welcoming Ms Alvear and her book The

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Welcoming my 24th book baby – Queen of Shadows is here!

There are benefits to ushering book babies into the world vs real babies – like it doesn’t hurt quite as much. The labour behind a book baby is, however, in many ways as significant as that behind delivering a child. Hours and hours of research; days, weeks, months writing and honing your text; moments when

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Gushing over The Escape of the Grand Duchess

Oh my, oh my. When I first picked up Ms Appleyard’s latest release, I was expecting to find it interesting. I did not quite expect to become so utterly engrossed I spent hours breaking off to research further, or to break off my reading to turn to hubby and say “did you know…” before launching

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Heroica – Ms Morton’s troika of courageous ladies

Today, I am helping Alison Morton celebrate her recent release, Heroica. There’s a review further down, but I am first going to turn you over to Alison’s capable hands – she’s written a post about language. Made me smile that, as I recall reading her first book and wondering just what on Earth “Stat!” meant.

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Lovely spring comes with a new book! – my May newsletter

Today is the 1st of May. Here in Sweden, the cherry trees stand in flower, and the magnolia buds are just about to burst into short-lived flowering. I love magnolias. So does my little grandson, but only because magnolias have been around since the dinosaurs. He hasn’t quite grasped that “his” magnolia is not as

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