Tales of Passion and Peril in the Dark Ages

Updates

March 31, 2012 – 11:58 pm

I’ve been writing steadily since the New York conference last summer. Every month my healthcare column, “Writercare”, continues to be published in our RWA-NYC chapter newsletter, and once a month an “encore” column appears on our chapter blog. I’ve published five more book reviews in Historical Novels Review, too.

Wedded to the Dragon received some positive comments from editors and agents, but unfortunately the criticisms were congruent across the boards: At least I know that knowledgeable people agree about what’s wrong with it. The reader for the RNA-NWS contest in England had plenty to say about Wedded to the Warrior–a decidedly mixed critique–but full of valuable insights. Despite some polishing, it still didn’t final in the Golden Heart… curses, curses. The more I write fiction, the more I learn, and I am trying to pull it all up to the next level. In reading some of my chapter members’ work, I can see so clearly how some have progressed in their writing–from “Nice” to “Wow–I can’t put this down.” Needless to say, I am trying to get into that “Wow–I can’t put this down” group. I’m sending a requested partial of Wedded to the Dragon to an agent who asked for it at the Liberty States conference last month, and I’m working on Wedded to the Viking for this year’s RNA-NWS.

So onward–the story continues!

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Miscellaneous ~ Comments (0)

Turn, turn, turn…Firefighter Adam…and Brother Mike

February 13, 2012 – 11:51 pm

Just briefly, before I return to all things medieval, I want to memorialize my brother Mike Knowles and nephew Adam Myers in this space. Adam, age 39, was killed in a tragic, senseless car accident July 20, 2011, leaving a wife, two tiny children, and a large extended family missing him beyond belief. Mike, age 57, was found dead of natural causes on August 19, not even a month later. He was a mainstay in our family–dear and necessary, a best friend, an irreplacable brother. May they both rest in peace. (It’s more likely that they’re having a couple of beers up in Heaven, telling jokes and having a high old time.) If anything good has come from these heartbreaks, it is that our family is closer than ever, even more supportive of each other than before. You already know this, but it is true: Hug your family, love each other, and don’t postpone one thing that you want to do. Just like in the Dark Ages, life can be cruelly short and death can be sudden.

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Miscellaneous ~ Comments (2)

Writing frenzy!

June 22, 2011 – 8:00 pm

I don’t know what was in the water at the Connecticut Fiction Fest May 14, but after I got home, all I wanted to do was write. I mailed off the two full hardcopies that were requested, studied some craft articles online, and just seemed to get compulsive about sitting down at my desk and working on my current story. I play my harp or pennywhistle for about five minutes, light the three battery candles on my desk, and just get lost in 1070 A.D. I’m going to the RWA National Conference in New York next week–only 90 miles from home–yay!! As much as I’m looking forward to it, I hate to leave the peace of the June garden and the music and candlelight of creative evenings at home. Times Square is so…well, how can I describe it–noisy, crazy, garish–yes, and fabulous. I do love New York City, but I’m in a medieval state of mind just now. Here is a picture of my yard–it looks countrified like a cottage garden of several hundred years ago. I don’t know when picket fences started–I’ll have to research that!

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Writing ~ Comments (1)

Animal Labor in the Dark Ages

May 12, 2011 – 11:39 am

I’ve been thinking a good deal about what it must have been like working with oxen in medieval times.  I’m familiar with horses, although I sold my own mare and gelding in 1991.  I’m on firm ground when using horses in my manuscripts–I understand their quirky ways and how to take care of them–but I don’t know enough about oxen. Recently I found the most useful and evocative Youtube oxen video I have ever seen. I checked with its creator, Myles Matteson of Epsom, New Hampshire, and with his gracious permission, am posting it here. This is a must-see: 

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Early Medieval Life, Research ~ Comments (0)

Thinking about Daffodils…and Wales

April 27, 2011 – 6:00 am

The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, but it is unclear how and why it began to replace the leek as the country’s emblem. Some sources say that the Victorians wore the Welsh wild daffodil on Saint David’s Day because it seemed more elegant than wearing a leek.  It certainly would be easier to pin to a hat or place through a buttonhole.

Another name for the wild daffodil is Lenten lily, because of the time of year it blooms. Narcissus pseudonarcissus is shorter than the common daffodil and has pale yellow petals surrounding a darker yellow center.

When my own daffodils bloomed at home this year, I thought perhaps I could connect the flower fictionally with the Welsh settings in my first two book-length manuscripts. Further research revealed that my early medieval characters would have used the leek as their badge, not the daffodil.   I suppose if worse came to worst and famine ravaged the land, they could have eaten those badges!

The photo shows part of my side yard. A woman had stopped and was admiring the flowers through the fence. I was so thrilled by her compliments that after she left, I ran in the house, grabbed my camera, and took a couple of pictures.

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Early Medieval Life, Research ~ Comments (2)

Writingwritingwriting… Reviewing!

April 3, 2011 – 10:52 am

If you write historicals–or just like to read them–you might be interested in the Historical Novels Review. This journal is published quarterly by the Historical Novel Society. It reviews over 800 titles every year, attempting to appraise every new work of adult historical fiction released in the United States and the United Kingdom. Some titles from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are included, as are some selected children’s and young adult titles.

Historical Novels Review Online covers selected electronically-published, subsidy-published, and self-published historical novels. Occasionally mainstream and small press books may be included due to space limitations in the print magazine.

Anyone interested in the historical fiction market should take a look at the society’s website  www.historicalnovelsociety.org The site explains the many benefits of membership, how to inquire about reviewing, and how to submit a book for review. It discusses the problems defining historical novels, and gives the society’s definition of the genre.

The HNR reviews traditional and literary historical fiction, historical mysteries, fantasies, romances, and sagas. It covers alternate histories, Christian historical stories, time-slips, and even a small amount of non-fiction.

Reviewers receive a list of available titles and choose what book or books they would like to read and evaluate. As an example, I’ve posted my review of Catherine Coulter’s The Valcourt Heiress. It appeared in the February, 2011 Historical Novels Review.

England, 1278:  Marianna de Luce de Mornay is running away from her mother–a real witch–and an unwelcome suitor. She meets the stalwart Garron of Kersey, newly endowed with his dead brother’s estate and all its problems. These include a traumatized household, a ruined castle, enemies of several varieties, and a treasure trove that may or may not exist.

The lively, kind, intelligent “Merry”, as she is called, soon puts Garron’s castle to rights and becomes a favorite of the castle folk. King Edward is helpful, too, through his secretary, Robert Burnell. Love grows between Merry and Garron as they try to discover the identity of the threatening Black Demon.

Fast-paced and humorous, with a fairly mild sensuality level, the story makes a quick, entertaining read. This unpretentious romp is history lite, with huge dollops of magick and fantasy. There is a hugely surprising twist ending, which mystery fans may find contrived. This is a romance, however, as well as a mystery, and there is a satisfying Happily Ever After. A fun, fast, light read, useful by the fireside, on an airplane, or at the beach.

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Writing ~ Comments (0)

Contest Winner!

December 1, 2010 – 10:32 pm

Wedded to the Warlord won the Windy City RWA 2010 Four Seasons Contest! It won in the historical category, and was also the overall winner.  I want to thank the first and final round judges and the Windy City RWA members for this honor.

For some reason when I was entering the contest, I was fighting with my computer file names, and I actually entered Wedded to the Dragon, excerpted elsewhere on this blog, under the Warlord title.  Wedded to the Dragon proves that love conquers all–if a lady of Aquitaine and her noble Welsh warrior can manage to stay alive in the war-torn Marcher lands between Wales and post-Conquest England.

Wedded to the Warlord is actually the second book in the series, which I have completed in a draft copy. It explores how a Saxon noblewoman comes to terms with the loss of her family and lands after the Battle of Hastings. She refuses  to wed her Norman overlord, and finds her own happily-ever-after in an unexpected way.

Wedded to the Viking is off and underway. Its time period runs earlier than the first two novels, as it deals with how a Saxon lady in Northumbria  holds her manor intact  when Canute the Great conquers England in 1016. She has always hated the Danes–until she falls in love with one!

In other news, I’ve addressed Jennifer’s comments personally with her, and will be posting something more about Viking longships. In writing about Viking ship construction, the challenge is in how to be concise! It is a complicated subject indeed. The short answer about their use of wood is that they used all different kinds–some seasoned and some not. I have not found any resources that indicated women were considered bad luck on the longships.

I’m finding it a real challenge to compose and post blogs while I’m writing and submitting regularly. I promise to do better in documenting my progress toward book-length publication. And thanks again, Windy City RWA and contest judges!

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Writing ~ Comments (1)

Thinking About Longships

September 8, 2010 – 12:27 am

What was it really like to sail on a Viking longship? The Sea Stallion from Glendalough (or Havhingsten fra Glendalough if you happen to speak Danish) is one of five Viking ship replicas built at the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde, around twenty miles west of Copenhagen. In the 1960s, rumors of sunken ships in Roskilde Fjord were investigated, and five Viking workboats and warships were excavated from the fjord near Skuldelev. They had all been scuttled late in the tempestuous eleventh century to keep enemies out of the harbor. The museum built reconstructions of all five ships, using traditional Viking techniques and tools. The Sea Stallion was the last to be built, taking four years and costing two and a half million dollars. It was completed in 2004, and test voyages around Roskilde Fjord and north to Norway were successful.

Scientists were able to determine that the keelson–a centerline structure running the length of the ship just above the keel–was built of Irish oak harvested in May or June of 1042, most likely in Glendalough, County Wicklow. The longship was probably built in Dublin. It was without a doubt a warship, ninety-eight feet long and twelve feet wide, with a shallow draft of three feet. It could carry sixty-five men, and the mast and sail could be lowered, allowing the ship to be rowed in stealthily toward targeted forts or settlements.

The modern-day voyage from Denmark to Ireland took from July 1 to August 14, 2007. It was an experiment in maritime archaeology, meant to test and record the longship’s seaworthiness, speed, and ability to maneuver in both the open ocean and in coastal areas. Danish scientists and historians were interested in how the Viking rudder and the long, narrow, flexible hull would fare in the open seas. The crew was monitored for sickness, fatigue, and hypothermia–in the coldest, wettest summer in many years.

The ship handled like a racehorse, and the crew found that it could sail faster than they dared allow. Sea Stallion could easily do nine knots, has been recorded at thirteen knots, and could probably do more. A modern America’s Cup racer might do twenty knots.

After sailing a northern route around Scotland, the Sea Stallion arrived in Dublin (around forty miles from Glendalough), where it was taken out of the water and kept for the winter in the National Museum of Ireland. On June 29, 2008, it set a course out of Dublin harbor and south, then east around England. From Dover it sailed north to Lowestoft, then crossed the North Sea and arrived in Roskilde to a wild welcome.

http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk//index.php?id=647&L=1

This is the link for the specific, very detailed Sea Stallion information on the Viking Ship Museum’s website. Also try www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk or www.havhingsten.dk Clicking on the “Exhibition” tab will have a list of choices on the left, including one called “Sea Stallion.” If you happen to get on a Danish language page, just click on the tab that translates it into English. The museum website has videos, but I found much more thrilling footage on Youtube. Key in the names of the ship, either in English or Danish, or both, and key in Youtube. Look for the video that shows the Sea Stallion in big water. That footage alone would be enough to keep me on dry land.

An old-time Viking seafarer would be astonished if he could come forward in time and see how the Sea Stallion is being used for educational and scientific purposes. He would probably think it was a waste of a perfectly good raiding, plundering warship.

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Early Medieval Life, Research, Vikings, Writing ~ Comments (3)

Sea Stallion of Glendalough

July 26, 2010 – 10:01 pm
Sea Stallion from Glendalough

Sea Stallion from Glendalough

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Miscellaneous ~ Comments (4)

Writing, writing, writing.

July 2, 2010 – 9:29 pm

     I have not blogged recently because I’ve been re-reading and buffing up Wedded to the Dragon. I entered portions of it in two contests, and the full manuscript was requested by an editor and an agent at the Capital Region RWA conference last month in Albany, NY. I am going to give it one last look-through and then send it along to the Romantic Novelists’ Association in England. I’m in their New Writers’ Scheme this year.

     I did my Keynotes article, too, for my RWA-New York City chapter newsletter. That is only a one-pager, but can be surprisingly hard to do. I don’t mind writing tight, but sometimes I’m condensing so much that the paper squeaks. My monthly column is called “Writercare.” I try to address health hazards common to all writers, and offer some tips on prevention. It is mostly basic common sense, but I think we all tend to get crazy, especially on deadline, and forget to take care of ourselves.

By Elizabeth ~ Posted in Writing ~ Comments (2)