historical fiction

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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Another Soul Saved – welcoming John Anthony Miller and his new release

Today, I am happy to welcome John Anthony Miller on my blog. This prolific author has penned various books, and this his latest is set in World War II, more specifically in Vienna. The author has kindly offered an excerpt (see below) but let us start with the cover and the blurb! Vienna, 1941 Monika

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The devil lies in the details – a reflection on writing historical fiction

Writing novels set in the distant past has its disadvantages. Like when your heroine ends up in a situation where you just know she’s dying for a piece of chocolate – except that chocolate hasn’t been invented yet. Or when the scene you’ve just written calls for cold fingers clasped around the comforting warmth of

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