End of November: Is it Soup Yet?

We Are the Champions, My Friends!

Check it out, one of the two heroes of the end-of-the-world movie 2012 is a novelist.. and an underrepresented one at that. Yay us!

National Novel Writing Month 2009

NaNoWriMo is all but over in the Pacific Time Zone. I finished! I reach my 50,000 somewhere around November 20th, then switched my goal to finishing the first draft of my novel. I did that today, with a total count of 78,307 words! The novel itself, the story of a woman who goes to the Crusade of 1101 disguised her late twin brother, will no doubt be around 100,000 to 115,000 when the second draft is done. I plan to seek a publisher for the book this time.

The most important part of participating in NaNoWriMo for me this year is that it broke me out of whatever block or slump or miasma or whatever was stopping me from getting writing again. On the theory I once heard that anything you do, or don't do, for 21 days becomes a habit, it worked for me. Llike most if not all of you, writing gets my endorphens spouting.. and I am happily addicted again.

Interesting New Blogs

Fictional Appearance By.. Real people in Historical Fiction will cover a topic I find intriguing, obviously what real people have been fictionalized in historical fiction. There are several articles posted already, about many of the historical figures we all love to follow like paparazzi follow movie stars. Go take a look and see who is there.

Fans of History and Women will be glad to know that while the original blog has been retired, a replacement popped up almost immediately. The New History and Women blog has a selection of the biographies drawn from the old blog and will continue in the same tradition, with authors Maggie Anton, Greta Marlow, Anne Gilbert, Brandy Purdy, and me as the remaining editors. Gemini Sasson has stepped away to finish two manuscripts, and Mirella Patzer, the woman responsible for the history and Women blog and all its awards, is focusing on other projects of her own, including her own fourth novel.

Speaking of Brandy

If you are looking for Brandy Purdy's upcoming release of The Boleyn Wife in the UK, look instead for The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy. It's the same book, same author, just amde up to sound more British, I guess. Youo can find out more and read the great reviews at www.brandypurdy.com .

Holiday Music, Celtic Style

'Tis the winter holiday season, so it is, and i am after invitin' ye all to partake of a Celtic celebration on Radio Dé Danaan. I am looking for, and finding, winter holiday music from not only Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also Cornwall, the Isle of Man, the Orkneys and the Hebrides, Brittany, Astirias and Dalicia, and Cape Breton in Canada. This will largely be Christmas music, but believe it or not I have found CVeltic music for Hanukkah as well, and needless to say some Yule music for our Pagan fans, and that most famous Scottish song of all, Auld Lang Syne. So tune in soon for an increasing saturation of holiday music on Radio Dé Dnaan, Music of the Pan-Celtic World.

Now.. to get back to all my back emails....

Doomsday: The Ultimate Case for Ebooks

I just went to see the new movie, 2012.My review in a nutshell: the effects were everything you have heard they were, the script one disaster movie cliché after another: divorced family, scientist no one believes, up to the last minute solution, corruption vs. self sacrifice. My favorite line in the movie, I think, was "If you want to give up your space on this ship to one of those workers down there, go right ahead." He doesn't.

The very best thing about the movie is that one of the two protagonists is a novelist, and an unappreciated one at that! You go!

Anyway, without really pulling a spoiler, let me just say that part of the story is the desire to preserve human culture. Early in you see the president's daughter helping to switch the real paintings in the Louvre with fake ones so that the real ones can be preserved. It occurered to me, being far more into books than art, that ebooks could be the best way to preserve the collected literature of all our heritages.

Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before" it's just not the same, you want something made of paper to hold in your hands. Go for it, nobody is stopping you. But as literature is intellectual rather than physical we can preserve the essence of it in digital form, which takes up a lot less space. A lot less! I'm not actually expecting Armageddon, but there are just so many good reasons to create digital copies of every book we have. This is just one.. if the final one.

So my hat is off to all those who endeavor to save the great writing of the world, whether for posterity or for some Brave new World. As the other protagonist says of the novelist's book, "The man who wrote this book may not even be alive but thanks to his book, human culture will be preserved."

You betcha!

Sharpe's Thanksgiving: A Menu

Setting:

A cannon-blasted faarmhouse in Flanders, Portugal or Spain

Guests:

Capt. Richard Sharpe, 95th Rifles, South Essex
Sgt. Patrick Harper
Rifleman Daniel Hhagman
Rifleman Harris
Rifleman Perkins
His Lordship, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
His Imperial Highness, the Emperor Napoleon
His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange
An ever-changing rotating series of womn in love with or loved by Sharpe

The Menu:

~ Soup Trafalgar, a godawful mix of nothing anyone wants to know
~ Poached Eggs a la Hagman
~ Your choice of Salt Beef Wellington or Pan-fried Horsesteak served in the front breastplate of a Cuirvasdsier, now deceased
~ Your choice of Tommy cakes, na'an or Hardtack
~ Salt Fish à la Turpentine
~ Spanish Rice
~ French Fries
~ Chile con Carne Vivar
~ Tippoo Sultanas
~ Tobacco, molasses and slaves from Virginia, courtesy XCat. Leroty

Your choice of beverage: tea made from birch leaves, port from Oporto, rum, ale , arrack , McCandless Scotch whiskey or gunpowder tea

Your dessert choice: Napoleons, Danish pastry, Durch Apple Pie, more rum

Oranges and cigars

Grace will be said by El Catolico -- be prepared to duck when he says "Amen".

Happy Thanksgiving from Nan and Jim, with a spe3cial thanks to author
Bernard Cornwell!

Historical Fiction Round Up, Holiday Gift Edition

We are delighted once again to offer this opportunity to authors to get the word out about their novels, new or old. Be sure to include instructions on how to find your book and, if possible, how to contact you.

For readers this post is a sort of shopping list for your holiday books. make sure you also check out the earlier Historical Fiction Roundups listed on the right of any post on this blog.

Since this is gift-giving season, we also would like to hear from everyone about books you loved and are sure other historical fiction fans would love to see wrapped up under the tree, or wherever you put your holiday presents.

Some fun gifts your medievalist fan would love are at Shieldwall Productions, a CafePress Store, with unique clothing and other gifts with unicorns, castles, and other designs. Take a look. The shirt on the left says "Historical novelists do it in the past!"

Present, you say?! For shame. The past is where it's at!

OK, now, let's hear the good news about your books and books you recommend!

[Book Review] Short Story: Deliverance, by Aleksandr Voinov

Deliverance
Aleksandr Voinov

Deliverance is a short story in a gayhistorical fiction antholigy from Novle Romance called Forbidden Love. There are three other stories, My Outlaw by Stormy Glen, Forbidden by H. C. Brown and Poisoned Heart by Anna O’Neill. Forbidden takes place in Norman England, or a reasonable.. well not really.. facsimile thereof. I mean, one of the people mentioned in the story is El Cid, for Pete's sake. But I am perfectly aware of and accept that the point of this story was not necessarily anatomical accuracy no less historical.

So much the more astounding, then, is Deliverance by Aleksandr Voinov. It tells the story of William Raven of kent whose love for Guy, his tournament partner, was becoming so notorious that he escaped to the Holy Land and found "deliverance" by becoming a Knight Templar. Lo and behold Guy, still carrying a torch for William, shows up and William must battle his desire for Guy while coming to understand why Guy is so angry with him. The actual "deleverance" comes when he makes his decision about which oath, his first one to Guy and his second to the Templars, is the priorty.

The thing with this story is that it is good! It is easily the best written in the anthology and could stand alone as a well written story in any collection. the characterization is good, the writing better, and whaddya know, the author actually knows a great deal about the Crusades and the era. Aleksandr Voinov has done a fine job that will not make any historical accuracy obsessed reader shake his or her head. All that and erotica too.

This story is only available as part of the anthology, Forbidden Love., an ebook in several formats, at least two of them accessible for people with print impairments. I purchased my download of the book. It should go without saying, this is a novel for mature audiences only.

Was "Ring Around the Rosie" About The Plague?

When I was a kid, the version of "Ring Around the Rosie" I learned was:

Ring around the rosie,
A pocketful of posies,
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

I also heard that this rhyme was a sort of childish commemoration of the Plague, and being a freak about the Middle Ages by the time I was five, I assume it meant the Black Death of the 1340s and later. The references pointed were:

- a rosy rash characteristic of the onset of plague
- posies carried at the nose to prevent contagion
- ashes as a symbol of death
- everyone falling down, i.e., dying

I have accepted this theory for my entire life, at least until this very evening I looked up what the prevailing thought of folklorists is. And they say "Not likely."

They give several convincing reasons. For one, the theory itself did not even arise until 1951, although many versions of the nursery rhyme appeared in print starting with a possible 1790 example. In addition:

- a rosy rash is, in fact, not a very common symptom of either the 14th century or the 17th century plagues,
- there are numerous version s of the rhyme that do not contain these and other perceived allusions to plague,
- the fact that "falling" was a common element in play of many kinds and always meant "curtsying" not literally falling, and
- the very fact that the interpretation of the rhyme as being about the plague only emerged in the second half of the 20th century.

So, it seems, the childhood game with its rhyme is not nearly as macabre as we all thought.

Here are a few other bersions of the rhyme.

1881

Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Hush! hush! hush! hush!
We’re all tumbled down.

United Kingdom, Ireland

Ring a-ring o' roses,
A pocketful of posies.
a-tishoo!, a-tishoo!.
We all fall down.

Australia and New Zealand

Ring a ring a rosie
A pocketful of posies
a-tishoo!, a-tishoo!. (or a tissue, a tissue)
We all fall down.

India

Ring-a Ring-a roses,
Pocket full of poses.
Husha, Busha.
We all fall down.

There are several versions in use in the United States. For example, in Louisiana and Southeast Texas:

Ring around the rosey,
Pocket full of posies.
Upstairs, downstairs.
We all fall down.

See more versions on Wikipedia and The Phrase Finder.

And enjoy a video version.



What version did you learn and where did you live? Use "POst a Comment" to reply.

Further Thoughts on Kindle 2's Text to Speech

See Kindle 2: Possible Drawback for Authors and Readers.

Having my Kindle 2 has been a great thing for me. It has opened up a huge selection of reading material that hitherto was outside my reach at least without a great deal of work and expenditure. Almost as important is that it allows me to be a consumer rather than a recipient of a government program, something that feels more dignified to me. Yes, the libraries for the blind are equivalent to any library, an institution I value and admire. But there is the feel of being done for and cosseted that we certainly will not get past for some time, I think, in our culture.

Ebooks and in particular Kindle 2 allows someone like me, an intellectual and overachiever, some independence and self sufficiency that I just could not have before.

So though obviously from my blog entry I understand authors who might not care to put their books on it because of the limitations of the test to speech, it also makes me sad that those books will be out of my reach for the most part. I tolerate the silliness of text to speech dictionaries because I'd rather do the mental adjustment than miss out altogether.

What I would love to see, given that the ancillary beneficiaries of the text to speech of the Kindle 2 are regarded as rather whiny demanding people and therefore not taken all that seriously as consumers, and to a degree understandably so, is authors and publishers coming forward to make their desires known about higher quality presentation of their work. I am not talking about your championing print impaired people. That;'s for us to do. I hope you will advocate rather for your work, for its optimal presentation. You deserve it. Your reward will be a wider readership.

So rather than dismissing this one outlet, think about speaking up not only as a consumer but as a producer of goods.

Let me just add that I recently, as many of you know, really battled to get independently published books taken seriously by my local library for the blind. They were out of hand rejecting indie books because of a bias that was not without some foundation. The result of my careful education is that this library, anyway, will look at an indie book and judge it uniquely when they choose whether to reproduce it in an accessible format. On its individual merits.

I hope I have brought indie authors and at least one of these libraries together. It seems like one of my quests in life is to get authors to make sure their books are available to the avid and hungry readers who are print impaired and those readers so they have access to "books outside the box".

Kindle is a stepping stone.

Kindle 2: A Possible Drawback for Authors and Their Readers

Getting your novel published on Kindle has lots of attractions. Let's face it, the more ways people can read it the better. The fact that the Kindle also has the "read aloud" feature makes the device not only accessible to people with print impairments, it basically turns a book into an audio book without paying narrators and sound studios.

Unfortunately one unfortunate fact has come to light. We already know that the average audio book reader, meaning the person, not the device, will not likely tolerate the mechanical nature of the text-to-speech voices. Print impaired people are used to it by now. While the books recorded by the National Library Services are professionally narrated, our various speech output applications have about as much resemblance to a human voice as any run-of-the-mill robot.Any authors worrying about the competing with their audio books can relax. It ain't gonna happen.

Now a new problem has come to.. well, not light, but definitely sound. While happily listening to Helen Hollick's splendid Sea Witch on my own Kindle I was dismayed by the pronunciation of the main characters' names: Jessamiah and Tiola. My computer reads them as jess-uh-MY-uh and TEE oh la. That's pretty close to what Hollick intended. But the Kindle 2 reads them as juh SAY me ack and SHY luh! Say what?

I contacted Amazon's Digital Rights people and asked whether the pronunciation of words in the Kindle's dictionary can be edited. The answer was no.

Now if I was as attached to one of my characters as I know Hollick is to Jessamiah (I am, but "Lawrence" and "Shannon" are easy to prounce) I would absolutely refuse to let his name get so mangled and would simply not put the book on the Kindle. This won't be an issue if you, as a novelist, don't care whether the people who prefer or have no choice other than to listen to books read yours. (If the latter is the case, then expect a withering look and n o review from me!) But my educated guess is that the Sea Witch series will never be on Kindle.

Whether the Kindle's makers have any clue about this limitation, I can't say. I personally believe that the "read aloud" feature on it was purely a gimmick to sell a new generation of Kindle. If that's what it is, then hey, I am happy to take advantage as I was with the first talking watches. But I'm with Hollick if, as a result, she never puts her books on their catalog.

Historical Fiction is Speculative Fiction

Remember when they used to call genre of Heinlein and Asimov science fiction?Some clever person came up with the idea sometime in the 60s or 70s to start calling it speculative fiction. This new designation was more accurate, after all, and what's more, it allowed for inclusion of some other genres with similar if not identical fans. What we called science fiction was not just about science. It was the "what if?" genre. What if humans could travel at speeds over the speed of light? What if we could travel through time? What if there was a society made up of magically powered princes who rode winged dragons/ That sort of thing.

You may, if you read me regularly, recall when I shared the comments of a woman who accused historical fiction of being misleading and downright wrong. She insisted that people read historical novels and come away with inaccurate ideas of what historical people were like, what they thought, and what they felt. My own reaction was something like,

A. Most historical novelists really try hard to research their eras and the events and people they portray, and
B. So what if they don't? It's a novel, not a textbook, for crying out loud.

That second of course sparked a furious flurry of "well I would never!" and "how could you?" and "lighten up, will you?" on the discussion lists and blogs. Oody woody hadda iddy biddy chip on our shoulders about not being historians, I think. In my conversations with actual historical novelists, I run into the "An it not be totally absurd, do as ye will". No potatoes for Pontius Pilate. That sort of thing. The story is what it it's all about.

So, to get to my point at long last, it occurs to me that historical fiction is also speculative fiction. I thought about this when reading the author's note in one of Sharon Kay Peman's novels. She said she tried to get it right, but if she wasn't spot on perhaps it did not really matter so much. She put it a l ot better than that, but just trust me. I agreed with her. She expressed something along the line that we can only guess what the people who lived through the events we write about thought or said or felt about them. We might have a hint in letters they wrote, but that's pretty rare. So what we do as historical novelists is speculate. We know, for instance, that Harold Godwinson hightailed it to Stamford Bridge where he fought, among others, his own brother Tostig. Then he had to turn around and dash south to be conquered by Normans. We know this. But how do we know how he felt when his kid brother lay dead near the bridge? And did he think about Edith Swanneck as he rode to his death? Was there a point when he thought, "Oh my God, we are going to lose this one?" Did one of his friends see the arrow pierce his eye and think, "No! Not Harold!"

That's all speculation, and it's our job to fill in those unknowns, the words that should appear in the word ballons. We try to do it carefully, ethically. We love these people we write about, and we want you all to come to know and love them too. So we will do all we can to make them real, make them accurate, but also make them feel like someone you could know.

Over and over I hear how someone became interested in history itself by reading historical fiction. In an essay I posted some weeks ago written by a teacher, she recounted how a young girl having read a fairly romantic portrayal of Pocahontas asked herself what the woman would probably have really been like. What would she have made of England when she went there? Did she ever miss her native shore? What really happened between her and John Smith? This same little girl started hitting the history books. If she keeps at it, makes primary research her career or even j ust her avocation, who knows what she might discover?

To the woman who told me historical novels were lies, all I can say is that it is one of the wonderful aspects of humans that we have imaginations and that we speculate about "what if"? It's that instiinct that also makes us wonder, "How would that person feel if.." and breeds what we calll humanity.

NaNo is Mega!

ou've been listening to me fret about just not getting into anything I was writing, watched me take one step after another to get myself revved up.

It is Day 14 of National Novel Writing Month and I just topped 40,000 words! The goal is 50k, which I will hit early this week. The novel itself is only about half done. I have to say that the whole thing felt right from the first sentence. If NaNoWriMo is supposed to get you to put words on a screen, it's working.

Just for the record, it's the story of a woman who dons her late twin bbrother's armor and sets out to join the disastrous Crusade of 1101. Just to be different my MC is German, not English, and there is not a single Irish character anywhere. It's a lesbian love story, a very sweet one at that, but my fans can count on my usual earthy style.

Why a lesbian story? It''s more interesting, that's why. And Elisabeth gives me a female character to write about who is more active, more adventuresome, and just plain more to my liking. My husband pointed out to me with the last book that none of the main characters I wrote were women. Of course, the queen is, but to be candid, I don't much like her. I invented Leofwen to try to make a woman character more to my liking. But her book is yet to be finished. Elisabeth, traveling as Elias, fits the bill.

I am having fun ridiculing people like Odo of Burgundy and Stephen of Blois (the other one), showing the pilgrim knights, they weren't called crusaders yet, for their more likely motivations, adventure, plunder, romanticism, and wanting the "get out of Hell free" card the Pope handed out. I am enjoying contrasting the groups who befriend Our Hero(ine), three high minded but clay footed knights and a band of mercenaries who while scoundrels are the more honorable. And I plan to solve the mystery of whatever happened to Ida of Austria.

I self published my first novel, but I have my eye on finding a publisher for this novel. An ebook publisher, which suits me since that means I will be able to read the thing too.

More than anything, I am astounded at how well this has gone. I think it was just what I needed. I find myself sitting down to scribble a few paragraphs in the next scene, a technique I use to get myself started the next day, and slapping out 1,000 words. I am confident that my writer's block or whatever it was is over. I can't wait to get back to Kerrick and Alehouse Tales!

So, NanoWriMo folks, old buddies, old pals, a great big THANK YOU for the impetus and inspiration to get what I needed back. The endorphens are spilling all over the damned place.

When Is a Book Review Not a Book Review?

An Editorial by Nan Hawthorne

When is a book review not a book review? When it is, in essence, a free advertisement.

I just resigned from a book review blog because a review I wrote was deemed "negative" and therefore unpublished. I had not known the policy of the group precluded anything but the most minor criticism of a book. If I had been, I should not have chosen to accept the invitation to participate. As I said recently to a colleague, I believe that if a reviewer cannot say what she thinks of a book she has no business reviewing it at all. It's dishonest. It calls into question the credibility of every single review published within its digital covers. It cheats those who read and trust the reviews.

I am terribly disappointed. I felt honored to be part of that group. But I simply feel that if authors want nothing but a send-off of their work, they should make sure their books are perfect. And you know and I know that no book is perfect. It's a subjective art, reviewing.

In the case of the book I reviewed "negatively" -- I don't happen to agree with that assessment, actually -- it had several plot threads that simply fizzled out and were never resolved. The book had its merits, the historical research was superb and it was one of the best portrayals of female friendships I have ever read written by a man. But the book was slow to start, got better, then started jumping about confusingly. Then it just ended. I feel it would have been a disservice to cover all that up.

To clarify, the site's policy is basically "If you have to say too much negative about a book, don't review it at all." In other words, you as the reader don't know if a book that is not on the site was tooo awful to review or was just never reviewed.

I don't understand how reviews of books where flaws are unacknowledged is anything but free advertising for the book?

I plan to ask the publishers of the site either to remove all my reviews as well as their review of my own novel or add a disclaimer that only positive comments were permitted.

As an author I object to mollycoddling. If I put out my work I must be prepared to hear things I don't like. I understand the author of the book whose flaws I acknowledged wrote to the owner of the site to object. The owner only said to me that his email "broke my heart". What sense does it make to write reviews then? I was not harsh or bitchy or nasty.. and I shouldn't be defending myself here. He should be defending his book. I know how it feels to have less than complimentary assessments of my work published. That's just the price of being a public artist.

My one chuckle over this situation concerns the new law that calls into question the integrity of product review blogs. As of December 1st bloggers in the U.S. must reveal if they received the book or other product they are reviewing in return for the review. This law doesn't apply to any mediem other than the Internet. The impllication is that people who review on the Internet are not to be trusted to have integrity, that we are likely to write rave reviews in exchange for compensation. In the case of book reviews, this is a laughable assertion, given that it is a rare review where the reviewer bought the book herself. That happens to be the case with most of my reviews, since That's All She Read is as much a place for me to record all the books I read.

But it appears that it doesn't take compensation or reward to assure a positive published assessment of a book. Ill-placed and unprofessional "niceness" will do the job as well.

Muisic to NaNo By

For the best mix of Celtic music from all over the wordl -- no, really! -- listen online to Radio Dé Danaan, Music of the Pan-Celtic World!


Now available on wifi Internet radio through Reciva Internet Radio and Pandora.

http://www.live365.com/stations/nan_hawthorne

Offer for UK Readers

I recently checked the price that Amazon.co.uk charges for my novel, An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon ENgland. I was appalled. Of course, it's a combination of the fact that the book costs too much anyway and that postage to ship from my printer to your green and sceptred-isle is likewise.

So I am making this offer to those to live in the land where my novel takes place, namely England. If you purchase the ebook version on Smashwords, I will give you a coupon for 100% off the cover price there. That is, I am giving you the book.

You will need to contact me to get the coupon code first.

hawthorne@nanhawthorne.com

You can check out the book's page on Smashwords for more information on the book itself.

To qualify you just have to tell me the name of the town and county you live in and the name of your favorite king or queen of England. That lpart is just to humour me.

Don't dilly dally... there's an expiration date for the coupon. It's not for a while, but still...

Nan Hawthorne

Introducing The Book Maven!

You remember a book or maybe just have heard of it, but you can't remember the title or the author. You really want to read it, but how can you if you don't know where or how to find it? Or perhaps you have a yen to read about a historical event or a famous person, and you wonder if anyone has written a novbel about it or him/her. Perhaps you even want to write the book yourself but want to be the first or only one?

Whatever your situation, you know this has happened to you. You can almost see the book in your hot little hands. You wish there was someone, a book maven you suppose, who knew all about books, in particular historical novels, and would know the title and author and could even find it for you.

There is. This week we launched a new feature on That's All She Read called, fortuitously enough called, well, Book Maven!

Everyone knows that Brandy Purdy can write one hell of a great historical novel. She's done it twice already, with The Confession of Piers Gaveston and The Boleyn Wife (originally published as Vendeance Is Mine.) (More on all three at http://www.brandypurdy.com.)

But did you know that she is also a talented bloodhound? No, I don't mean canis sleuthus criminallis floppus earae literally. For years she has been a professional book maven. People ask her to find books and she does. Even obscure or rare ones, if it is possible.

Now she is going to share part of that talent with us on That's All She Read. For instance, check out "Introducing Book Maven". You will get to see our bloodhound in action and how to get your own questions about historical novels answered.

Thanks, O redoubtable sleuth, for sharing your talent with our readers!

Ask the Book Maven a question.