Latest Set of Searches

s many of you know, it can be puzzling to look over what search phrases lead googlers to one's site.  The following are for this blog, Nan Hawthorne's Booking the Middle Ages.

Daddy Longshanks

Is this what Nedikins called his Pop?

what would you call a maid in the middle ages?

I don't know, just don't call her late for the feast.

words used to describe historical fiction

Um, how about: womderful, amazing, fascinating, important, educational, well-written?

reviews of books by Ian Morson

Of which there were none on my blog.

where midgets burned at the stake in the middle ages

Wherever it was I would recommend Little People stay the hell out of it.

etiquette in middle ages

The post I wrote was actually about etipquette in author PR, but there was etiquette in the Middle Ages too.  For instance, it was considered quite impolite not to avert your eyes when castrating those you were also about to draw and quarter. 

nudity in medieval ages

It was particularly rampant in newborns.

holly king story

Robin the Boy Wonder  apparently took one look at the cover of my novel and said this, followed by "Batnan!"

review The Afflicted Girls

Bingo!  for once...

famous new year resolutions

Since all the ones they would find on my blog are fakes, I suspect there will be some recommendations from teachers to resolve not to believe everything you read on the Internet.
 
what is a detailed itinerary for a person in the middle ages
 
Very brief.

Christmas and New Year Revels

An Involuntary Christmas, or How Lawrence and Elerde Found the True Meaning of Christmas

Read a story written just for those of you who have read my novel, An Involuntary King, at

An Involuntary KIng: The Stories - An Involuntary Christmas

And a Happy Holidays to you all!  May you be showered with great novels throughout 2010!

Storytelling: The Raison D'être of Artistic Prose

From the Author's Note of The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Although the short story is not in vogue nowadays, I still believe that it constitutes the utmost challenge to the creative writer. Unlike the novel, which can absorb and even forgive lengthy digressions, flashbacks, and loose construction, the short story must aim directly at its climax. It must possess uninterrupted tension and suspense. Also, brevity is its very essence. The short story must have a definite plan; it cannot be what in literary jargon is called "a slice of life."

The masters of the short story, Chekhov, Maupassant, as well as the sublime scribe of the Joseph story in the Book of Genesis, knew exactly where they were going. One can read them over and over again and never get bored. Fiction in general should never become analytic. As a matter of fact, the writer of fiction should not even try to dabble in psychology and its various isms. Genuine literature informs while it entertains. It manages to be both clear and profound. It has the magical power of merging causality with purpose, doubt with faith, the passions of the flesh with the yearnings of the soul. It is unique and general, national and universal, realistic and mystical. While it tolerates commentary by others, it should never try to explain itself. These obvious truths must be emphasized, because false criticism and pseudo-originality have created a state of literary amnesia in our generation. The zeal for messages has made many writers forget that storytelling is the raison d'etre of artistic prose.  (My italics.)

Never forget that.  never lose sight of the purpose of fiction, and that is to tell stories.  Stories are a central need in the human heart and mind.  better a well-told story that touches its readers than a strictly factual history that enlightens and entertains no one.

Making Light of the Dark Ages, and the Crusades

Byzantine Emperor Alexius II rips Count Rauymond

a new one after the massacre at Merzifon.

"My dear Count, I thought we understood each other. 

 'Toulouse' is your name, not your quest."

September 1101.

"An Involuntary King" Outtake

One of the fun things about writing novels is the relationship one builds with characters. I don't know how many authors do this, but I have had character panels and even written myself into the stories from time to time.

Here is one of the latter instances from my novel, An Involuntary King, meant to fit into the point in the first draft where Lawrence leaves Josephine alone while he waltzes off to his new fortress. Incidentally, my "co-author" Laura did not like this story at all. Unlike me she prefers not to admit to a personal relationship with the characters... ahem.

See old, new and outtakes stories from An Involuntary King on the An Involuntary King: The Stories blog.

The King and Queen were about to take their leave of each other, she to stay behind and he to go off to his new capital.

Suddenly out of nowhere two women appeared near them. One was short and stout and had long currently red hair and they both appeared by 8th century standards to be in their late 30s but were in fact in their 50s. Both were dressed very oddly.

The red haired one strode over to where Lawrence was preparing to mount his horse. Before anyone could move, she had grabbed him by an earlobe and was dragging him to one side. "You, my dear Lawrence, need a Timeout," she said, reprovingly.

Meanwhile the other woman with one hand on her hip was in Josephine's face waving a scolding finger. "Are you ever going to get a spine, Josephine?" Josephine stepped back, but the woman just advanced on her. "Why are you two always making yourselves miserable?"

The woman who had pulled Lawrence aside was similarly berating the King. "OK, so your willy doesn't work right now.. that doesn't mean you have to go off and pout. I thought you were supposed to be so devoted to Josephine. Why are you going off and leaving her alone with your child. Do you have any idea what that could lead to?"

The woman with Josephine heard this and added, "Yes, with your pathological need to be loved and adored.. don't you know what that does to men?"

Josephine looked over at Lawrence. "His willy isn't working?"

Lawrence blushed. The woman with him snapped, "Oh grow up. You were wounded.. it happens. You'll get over it." She pressed a button on her watch and a quiet man's voice said the time. "In fact any time now."

Lorin, who was standing watching all this, came up and cleared his throat. They all four looked at him. "Well met,. Laura. Well met, Nan."

Laura and Nan exchanged glances.

Lorin, in his dignified way, simply went on. "Begging thy leave, mayst I remind thee that thou wrote all this nonsense."

Nan looked defensive. Well yeah, but we were teenagers."

Lorin's look was withering. "Aye, but thou art not teenagers now. "

Laura crossed her arms. "Well what do you want, Lorin? To leave him enchanted and out of his mind or in a coma for the umpteenth time and her running off to France, managing to conceive twins immaculately?"

Now it was Lawrence and Josephine who exchanged glances and looked puzzled.

"Enchanted? A coma?" he asked.

"Twins? Immaculately?" she repeated.

Nan protested, "Yeah, at least this is more realistic."

Lorin gazed at his two authors will ill conceived irritation. "If thou canst rewrite it that far, then why cannot thou make them happy for once?" He looked over at his very pregnant wife Anne. "And now thou art going to kill off my Anne." Behind him Anne gasped.

Nan muttered, "Well there are rules about these things..."

Laura affirmed, "It wouldn't be The Story anymore if we change things too much."

Lawrence and Josephine had left their respective authors and were now clinging to each other for support.

Lorin said, "All I am saying, my ladies, is that do what thou wilt, do not chide thy creations for doing what thou hast made them do."

Again Laura and Nan looked at each other. Then each went to her respective creation.

"Jo, it does get better.. eventually," Laura said.

Nan nodded as she gave the King a hug. "I'd say keep your pecker in your pocket but then Tavish would never be born." She turned to Josephine and gave her a hug too. "He adores you, you know."

Laura nodded, "And if I thought you'd remember this for more than ten minutes, I'd tell you, Lawrence, that she is never in love with anyone but you."

And they winked out.

Lawrence breathed, "Those two scare the shit out of me." His wife nodded and buried her face in his chest.

Sorry, Laura.

Image: A drawing I did at about 15 of what Lawrence and josephine would have looked like in the 1960s.

King Holly, King Oak: A Homemade Video

Recent posts

Do Book Rebiews Sell Books?
A Book's a Book for A' That
What Book Would You Like to Find under your Tree?
Doomsday: The Ultimate Case for Ebooks

Listen to Celtic Christmas Music on Radio Dé Danaan

Do Book Reviews Sell Books?

e'll tell you what we learned about whether book reviews sell books, and you tell us your experiences!

The way I know book reviews sell some books, at any rate, is that more than one person has, as a result of a review I wrote, said "I want to read this book! Thanks for the review!" But how many books one review sells depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the quality of the review and the reviewer.

In an article titled Book Reviews Sell Books Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., writes:

More than 200,000 books are published each year. Less than 2% of those books sell more than 500 copies. We’ve all heard the saying, “So many books. So little time.” People don’t want to waste time or money reading books they won’t enjoy, so they rely on book reviews to help them make buying decisions. Your book will stand out if it receives positive reviews from reliable reviewers.

OK, that's logical, but all it says is that book reviews could sell books.. not that they definitely do. And that word "reliable" gives me pause. One thing I have discovered about many of the book blogs I look at is that editors seem more focused on the author than the reader. I don't think that is what reviews are for, to encourage authors as one editor told me her review blog was all about. In my understanding, book reviews are to "help [book buyers] make buying decision," as Dr. Tichelaar avers. That must mean that all these book blogs are what he would call "unreliable"

When I write a review I try to be candid. I have a background teaching English literature so I am well-informed as to what makes writing good, and not just enjoyable. As a result I get the impression that my reviews make other reviewers a little nervous. And I thought I was generous enough without actually lying about what I read. What good does it do a reader if all they hear from a reviewer is niceness? If I have some prejudice or druther when it comes to a book's topic, I either skip writing that one or come clean about it. But others have deleted reviews I have written because they weren't "nice" enough.

That makes me wonder if all reviews really do is what I am convinced most advertising succeeds at. Commercials inform you of a product.. They say, "Hey, look at this cool thing! Here's where you can get it." They leave to you to decide, once they've made that one sale, whether you plan to buy another of those things. You cant really do that with a book. Not that books have repeat purchases by a single consumer. That's the theory behind being the first person to read a book.. so you can advise others before they make the purchase.

In many ways most of the book blogs reviews are no more than extended plot descriptions made to look like a recommendation. I ask you, do these reviews make you want to read a book? If so, is it just that you found out about a book you like the sound of? If not, would you read the book if you knew more about the quality of aspects of the book.

Other reviewers simply tell you "I liked this book" or "I didn't like this book". Fortunately they usually say why. Unfortunately you rarely know whether the reviewer has any idea what she is talking about. That is often the case with books that a segment of the reading population deems "obscene". That's a term that is very much in the eye of the beholder. Since my definition of obscenity is probably quite a lot looser than many others' you can't trust me or them to warn you as you might wish.

I plan to look for something more solid in the way of facts to support whether reviews sell books, and when I find some I'll share them.

In the meantime, please answer one or more of the following questions, and share your thoughts generally in the Comments section.

1. Do you buy books or at least read them based on reviews you read? What is it in a review that convinces you?

2. What makes a good review? All niceness, all negatives, or a combination? How much of each, if this is even relevant to you?

3. Have you ever picked up a book because of a review and then discovered you don't agree with the reviewer?

4. Do you have certain publishers of reviews or certain reviewers whose judgment you trust? Who?

5. As an author or publisher, ls do you use to assess the success of a specific review?

Finally, as an author, what do you don a review comes out that you believe shows the reviewer had no clue whatever what you were writing about? By and large, do you think most reviews you have received been worth the electrons used to deliver them to potential readers?

A Book's a Book for A' That: Musings on Indie Authorship

veryone knows that I am a great proponent of independent publishing, that recently amplified industry formerly known as self publishing or less complimentary terms. I have had reason lately to look at indie authorship through more experienced eyes as I read commercially published novels that seem to lack the right to the stamp of automatic superior quality and indie books that match or exceed them in quality. Might we be seeing a real move to populist publishing?

And everyone knows my position on why indie publishing is important. With the economy troubled and the changing nature of the commercial publishing industry into a risk adverse industry, good books are no longer necessarily the product this industry seeks. More and more the role of the editor in making the choice as to what gets published is being ceded to the marketing department. This is for a reason. The highly leveraged publishing corporations no longer can take a chance on new authors. They must go with the tried and true moneymaker. Unfortunately what sells is being defined by said marketing department. You might say, "Well, they just go by sales, right?" Yes, but conclusions drawn from the numbers can be wrong. I am constantly hearing that "publishers won't accept" this topic or theme or character. Some examples in historical fiction are eras other than Tudor England, countries other than England, first person narratives by men, and gay or lesbian protagonists.

What I want to know is, where do they get this? For it to be experience, they must have taken a chance on books with characteristics they deem unpopular. I have not myself seen evidence of this. Perhaps they do research on consumer preferences. Now, I ask you, is there not a big difference between what you think you will buy based on the question, "Would you buy a book about a lesbian?" and what you might actually read if you heard about a novel others have read and enjoyed? Do the publishing companies choose what books they accept rather on their own assessments of why a book did or did not sell that are based on their own prejudices or simple misapprehension?

OK, the fact is that this is how the publishing world works. It is not likely to change, no matter the eloquence of my minstrelsy. Now let's look at independently published books. Yes, there is some real crap out there, but more and more I am finding that just because a book was published by a big publisher is no guarantee that it is all that good. Again, they publish what sells or what they perceive will sell. On the other hand, I have read some top flight novels of late where the author chose to go the indie route. A stellar example is The Afflicted Girls by Suzy Witten. A novel I am reading now, The Amber Treasure by Richard Denning is shaping up to be another. Both these novels would be tossed out labeled as crap by some bookstores, certainly overlooked by "reputable" review publications and most certainly overlooked by libraries. Yet they are some of the better novels I have read in some time.

So what are you saying, Nan? How can authors manage without that corporate stamp of approval? I don't know yet. My ever wise husband Jim says that the independent book will inevitably come into its own. The big corporate publishers are like the dinosaurs, just too big to survive the scarcity of the resource they feed on, that being money. He believes that in particular the growing ebook industry will be the new adaptable species that thrives in the new climate. And it will ultimately be the consumer, the reader, who makes this happen.

Power to the People Who Buy Books. May they find what they wish to read, not what a marketing department thinks they do.

I subtitled this essay "Musings on Indie Authorship". By doing that I meant to focus on two things: the quality of books coming out of the indie publishing industry and the choice each author has to make about how to proceed. I have established that indie does not equal low quality, no matter the common wisdom, but I can't tell any author whether to go with a commercial publlisher or stay independent. The fact is this is the transition time. It will be years before the vaunted critical mass will visibly lean to the indie side assuming it is going to do that. I expect that necessity will rule in this matter, for the author I mean. You can stoutly declare that you won't surrender and publish on your own, but if that means your novel will never be published, you might change your tune. Given the way the econom y is going, that is even the more likely outcome. I am as stuck between this proverbial rock and hard place as you are. I know what I want to do with my latest manuscript, but what I will eventually do is quite another thing.

Patience. We can do our bit to help support indie authors by buying their books and publicly praising those we value. Ultimately I suspect the movers will be the ebook companies that are growing rapidly to fill niche desires in reading. That is as it should be, as the books that should be published are the ones that people want to read. It is encouraging to see companies like Smashwords moving into a larger market share -- they are now supplying ebooks for Amazon.com -- as their consumer base is broader and their appeal as well.

We have no choice really but to wait and see and do what our individual judgment directs us to choose for our beloved creations. A book's a book for a' that. Let's just hope and do what we can to see to it readers are served well and generously.

Learn more about indie publishing, whether you are an author or a reader, at Independent Authors Guild.

Nan HawthorneAuthor, An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Sacxn England
http://www.nanhawthorne.com

What Book Would You Like to Find Under Your Tree?

What book would you love to find under your tree this Winter Holiday?

Click on Comments below and dream your dreams aloud.

Image "borrowed" from clinicians with not enough to do.