Review For Royalist Rebel

I don't normally boast about my reviews, for every good one there are three bad ones hovering somewhere, right? I had to share this one from Petrea Burchard, who wrote it for her local publication Hometown Pasadena, really did 'get' what I was trying to portray in my version of Elizabeth Murray's story of her struggles during the English Civil War. When readers do that, it makes all the hard work and research worthwhile.

Regardless of the story inside, recent covers of historical novels are all about the bodice. A hint of cleavage indicates a hint of romance, maybe even lust. These books are obviously aimed at women, but when the character’s head is cut out of the picture, I wonder what kind of women those cover designers are aiming for.

The cover of Royalist Rebel suggests something less frivolous. It’s a circa 1651 portrait of the book’s protagonist, Elizabeth Murray, Lady Tollemache, with a black servant, possibly her beloved slave, Nero. It was painted at Ham House by Sir Peter Lely, and it still hangs there, where Elizabeth grew up and where much of the story takes place. There’s a bodice, yes, followed by a story that includes some lust and romance.

But author Anita Seymour takes her history seriously. The fun in historical fiction is letting someone else do the research for you. Some is more fiction, some is more historical. Seymour leans to the latter with an almost literal account of the facts.

Elizabeth Murray, a staunch royalist during the English Civil War of the 1640’s, is the only pretty sister of four. Raised by William Murray, First Earl of Dysart, a royalist spy and confidante of King Charles I, and Catherine Bruce Murray, who carries her husband’s secret messages back and forth across England, young Elizabeth catches on quickly to her parents’ schemes.

The real Elizabeth was known to be determined to have what she wanted, and in Seymour’s Royalist Rebel, what Elizabeth wants is Ham House. The king granted her father the lease on it in 1626, and it has been in her family ever since. She will stop at nothing to keep it for her family, and to inherit it for herself.

To keep Ham House out of the hands of rebels and the anti-royalist Parliament, Elizabeth must scheme against rebel leader Oliver Cromwell himself, and she does so with cunning and charm. Elizabeth is imperious, headstrong, and bossy. She believes that being of noble birth makes her better than those beneath her, especially rebel soldiers, and at times this snobbishness puts her and her loved ones in danger.

Seymour has made the wise choice to tell her story in first person, otherwise it might be difficult to sympathize with Elizabeth. But as we get inside her head, even as she disdains the lower class rebels, we begin to want her to succeed in keeping Ham House. We feel her discomfort when confronted by dirty soldiers. We cringe at the danger when a local rebel captain threatens. Yet while Elizabeth complains about minor losses (there’s very little wine left in the cellar), Seymour manages to show us rebel soldiers, outside Ham House, starving to the point of tearing out the gardens and chasing down livestock.

Seymour’s research is exhaustive. She weaves the most minute details into the story–the meaning in a turn of the neck, what is signaled by the uses of the hand, the styles of clothing. She also shows us the décor of every building the story visits, from Oxford to Ham House to Helmingham Hall in Suffolk.
The book is packed with names, dates, battles, wins, losses, and even body counts, all of them true to historical records. So much so, in fact, that this is my one quibble with the book. Seymour gets much of this information across in dialogue, and at times this fact-giving chit-chat is awkward, and not necessary to the whole.

However, besides the immense load of research she has accomplished in which I get to immerse myself, Seymour provides us with motivated, dimensional characters. No one is completely right, and no one is completely wrong. And as Elizabeth plots and schemes her way through the war, Anita Seymour excels at setting. In the best way, very few poetic phrases call attention to themselves. Yet I find myself immersed in the smell of lavender on a cool, English evening, or feeling claustrophobic as I climb the stairs to visit my lover in the Tower of London, or simply walking the halls of Ham House and wanting it for my own.

*

Petrea Burchard‘s new novel, Camelot & Vineavailable as in paperback and as an ebook. Her blog, Living Vicuriously, is featured on Hometown Pasadena’s “Best Blogs in San Gabriel Valley.” Petrea’s 30-year acting career began morphing into a writing career with “Act As If,” her humor column about the journeyman actor’s life, now in reruns at NowCasting.com. She gained a following in the animè world as the original English voice of Ryoko, a space pirate in the cult classic Tenchi Muyo!, and continues voice-over work as the voice of Stater Bros. markets.

Do Writers' Blogs Work?

Agents, publishers, editors and other authors always tell me that if I am serious about a writing career, I must have some sort of web presence. That blogging is one of the most important ways to market your persona and your writing because readers want to hear about your everyday life, what set you on the path to authorship etc.

I looked up a few statistics, which may or may not be accurate, after all we have all heard that 96% of statistics are made up, or that there are lies, damn lies and statistics, but here they are anyway.

Apparently, 46% of people read blogs multiple times a day, and another 32% read them at least once a day.

These figures don't specify what sort of blogs these refer to, and writer blogs tend to occupy their own niche, so this may render them totally inaccurate - but I have to begin somewhere.

But do they work, in that does a writer's blog sell more books?

Also, are paid blogs any more effective that free blogs? Not easy to quantify that one, so I shall avoid it. A blog is a blog is a blog. Even if you are diligent and blog once a day or once a week, does the magic happen and thousands of people spot your blog and come back to read it regularly? Not necessarily.

What's the magic formula to draw readers and then get them to buy your books? Do you write about the genre your books are about, or stick to personal anecdotes, including your progression from hobby writer to published author? Bearing in mind that particular journey could be a protracted and depressing one - how many of us write a novel, send it out to agents and published and Yay - someone picks it up and it suddenly appears in the bestseller lists? Writing as a long term career is not that simple for most.

Do we hope someone will notice our hard work—and reward us with an endless supply of traffic that converts readers into book buyers, fans and a stream of positive reviews?

It's logical that the more time you spend working on something without seeing quantitative results, the harder it is to continue doing it.  We all begin with the best of intentions but sometimes blogging gets in the way of the real 'job' as it were - the writing. Then there is always the problem of what to write.

Do readers really want to hear about how cute your cat is and how he nudges the keyboard as you are trying to work? Difficult to say - there are plenty of cat lovers out there-but how many of them are likely to progress from 'cute cat anecdotes' to buying your books?

No one knows, which is exactly the point, and deserving bloggers can easily become demotivated, so the next time you visit their blog, you notice the last post is dated months before.

According to the marketing bods, creating too much content can be a death knell - not everyone can keep up with writing daily blog posts never mind reading them. Apparently, adding more content to blogs which have a small number of readers doesn’t help get more readers. I suspect the effectiveness of blogs, including author blogs, is that there are so many 'out there' we couldn't keep up with them if we tried.

One blog marketing company says:

“You don’t have to create content, day in, and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have… in the hands of more people.”

Good advice - I think - but how?

Have You Been Plagarised?

I was sent a link from one of my fellow members of the Hoydens and Firebrands Blog this morning saying she looked up a blog post I wrote on the subject of 17^th Century Funeral Practices. While comparing it with others, she came across one as almost exactly the same as mine.

On reading it I discovered she was right, in that the style, phraseology, and even the order in which the information was laid out looked eerily similar. Curious, I went looking for other sources, and within minutes found a second one which was again virtually the same as mine.

I am more bemused about this than annoyed - I mean the historical information wasn’t mine to begin with, compiled from various sources such as Maureen Waller's 1700 - Scenes of London Life, which is a fantastic reference book, and Liza Picard's Restoration London, but I did spend the time to compile it from different sources and write it in my own words.

I wanted to kill off one of my main characters and became fascinated with the rituals and beliefs of the time, especially things like 'woolen shrouds' being instigated by Charles II to promote the wool trade, but everyone paid the fine for a linen one as 'no one was buried in flannel' Then there was the belief that keeping the nose and mouth of a sick person closed to stop the spirit escaping - which struck me as an excuse for euthanasia!

What qualifies these days as research as opposed to plagiarism? There are hundreds of online history reference books, essays, articles and blogs out there on every subject imaginable, information that is limited until the boffins discover more, so the posts are bound to resemble each other.

Maybe I should be pragmatic and treat it as a compliment, but one thing it has taught me, is always acknowledge your original source as part of the article, or it could come back to haunt you.

 

Or is this a sign that we are all growing lazy and the ease of the ‘cut and paste’ facility makes word thieves of us all as it doesn’t seem like wrongdoing? It is reassuring that my post was dated July 2009 while the other two are 2012 and 2013, so I can relax in that the accusations won’t be directed my way.

Has anyone else been plagarised? Or has someone simply paid you a compliment by using your words?

Cute Seagull taken from KayKayKit at Deviant Art

Me Too Victoria!

My sincerest apologies to Victoria Lamb for having hi-jacked her blog post today, and kicking myself she thought of it first! - but it struck such a chord with me I found myself doing a Meg Ryan and shouting 'Yes' into the air - minus the slapping the table thing.

Y'see, I too suffer from the notebook obsession - I cannot pass a rack of bound and neatly lined up notebooks in stationary shops,or gift shops, or even Sainsbury's - I really can't.

Even if I can resist buying one - which isn't often, I like to heft the weight of them in my hand, and stroke the binding or admire the baroque/abstract/quirky design on the cover.

I have several, not telling how many exactly - of different sizes and thicknesses, some in their own Aspinal presentation boxes with leather straps wound round as closures, magnetic ones and others with slots at the side to accommodate a pretty ballpoint pen I'll never use.

Some I have had for five years, their crisp white pages unblemished by my handwriting which has grown scratchy by years of keyboard work - in fact I think I have forgotten how to hold a pen. Pens and pencils aren't quite so attractive, though I do have a Cross Pen I won't let anyone touch and rarely use myself. Yeah I know, I'm strange.

I don't name them, as Victoria does, [do read her blog post too, it's only fair] but I harbour no desire whatsoever to write in these pristine, perfect beautiful notebooks. I tried it once and the words weren't perfect and looked wrong on the page - spoiled it even - so I discarded it as a failure and went back to the virgin ones.

And so my notebooks shall stay until my last breath - and then the kids will scribble shopping lists on them or rip them up to leave notes for the milkman. Sob.

Chedworth Roman Villa

Chedworth Roman Villa

I know how my US writer friends always like to hear about historic houses and ancient sites in England I visit, so this is for them.  This Roman villa was built just off the Fosse Way, about eight miles north Cirencester [Corinium Dobunnorum] overlooking the River Coln in the Cotswolds 

There were about fifty Roman villas built in the Cotswold area, this one was begun at around 120 AD, evolving over a period of two hundred years into a substantial dwelling set round three sides of a courtyard.

We don’t know what it’s original name was, but included in the structure is a heated and furnished west wing containing a dining-room (triclinium) with a mosaic floor, as well as two separate bathing suites – one for damp-heat and one for dry-heat, a water-shrine and latrine. The owners built an apsidal shrine [a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, with Doric columns on a base] over the spring to the water-nymphs, where a Christian chi-rho monogram was discovered scratched on the rim of the pool.

It is assumed that the site was chosen because of this natural spring, which ran from the hills and fed the entire site, providing water for drinking, washing and also fed the under floor heating system by gravity.

Discovered by accident in 1864 by a gamekeeper who found fragments of paving and pottery in a bank of soil, it remains one of the largest Romano-British villas in England. It’s pretty impressive even in it’s ‘ruined’ state and so large, it must have been built and occupied by a very rich Roman, but of course no records exist as to who he might have been.

The Victorian owner of the land, the Earl of Eldon, recognised the importance of the find, and set a team of fifty men to excavate the site. They unearthed mosaic floors in eleven principal rooms, which also had under floor heating systems and hot and cold bathhouses.

Detail of the Triclinium mosaic showing the spirit of winter

In 1924 the site was bought for The National Trust and a child's coffin was found in 1935, as well as several further rooms which show how extensive the original villa was.

A stone carving of a hunter with a dog and stag was unearthed, and another bearing part of an inscription believed to refer to the healing god Mars Lenus, a deity of the Treveri tribe in Gaul.

What I found puzzling, and what may never be known now, is was what was the villa intended for? A rich man’s private house, a garrison, or a meeting place for politically important people?- Cirencester was one of the major Roman centres at the time. 

Apparently the Romans brought with them a species of snail which they regarded as a delicacy, and legend has it that these snails still breed in the area  - There are signs saying ‘Mind the Roman snails’.

In 2011 construction work was carried out to provide a new cover building for the mosaics to ensure their lasting quality. The villa has it’s own blog which features an account of the excavations which make fascinating reading Click here

The Liebster Award

I admit to having put off this task because some imagination is required in accepting this blog award. However, it was so nice of Kerry Letheby to nominate me, I shall give it a go!

Quoting from Kelly - The Liebster Blog Award is an award bestowed upon bloggers by bloggers, the word Liebster being German, meaning ‘sweetest’, ‘kindest’, ‘dearest,’ ‘beloved’, ‘lovely’, ‘kind’, ‘pleasant’, ‘valued’, ‘cute’ and  ‘endearing’. The award encourages bloggers to continue on with their work in the blogging world, acknowledges them as gifted bloggers in their own right, and by nominating bloggers, you indicate that they are some of your personal favourites.

Here is how it works:

The nominated blogger must post 11 facts about themselves.

They must then answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated them.

Then nominate 11 bloggers and give them 11 questions to answer.

Link to your chosen 11 bloggers in your blog post. 

Let them know you have nominated them.

Don't nominate the blogger who nominated you.

11 Facts about me:

1     I’m a Londoner married to a northerner and about to move into his territory now our kids have left home.

2     I  broke both wrists, my foot and cracked my kneecap twice before I was 8!

3     My first novel was published at age 50 [not the novel - me]

4     My next writing ambition is to write a cozy mystery - scrap that, complete a good cozy mystery

5     I hate avocados and scallops but love chilli and anchovies

6     I play rock music at full volume when driving

7     I love the 17th Century - maybe I once lived there.

8     I hate telephones, mobiles too, and tend to stick to e-mails - they can be edited!

9     I have an unhealthy reliance on my laptop - or so my family say.

10    I keep a pen drive containing all my current and finished manuscripts with me at all times

11     I wish I was a better writer - but I am working on it.

Answers to Kelly’s questions to me:

1   Who knows you best in life - My husband of 33 years - No it isn’t an Awwww moment, it’s infuriating. I cannot hide anything, or start a fight without him knowing what the underlying issue is. It’s so frustrating!

2   If you could spend your life doing anything you like, what would it be? - Actually I do spend my life doing what I want, sort of, though there are still elements I don’t like - housework for instance.

3   What is your earliest memory? - I was in my pram and my mother [probably] whisked me out and placed me on a blanket on the floor. I can see the pram wheel and the front door where the sun shone through the stained glass - and I was furious ‘cos I wanted to stay in the pram where my toy was - I was apparently about 8 months old. I didn’t cry though - I was always a silent seether!

4   What lifts you up when you are feeling down? - Writing, which takes me into another world where time passes at a different rate -  it’s my most effective means of escape.

5   What are you most thankful for in life? - Perfect health and my family-boring but true.

6   If you were given $1000, what would you spend it on? - A new laptop and more research books.

7   Are you a hot weather person or a cold weather person? - Cold - I cannot function in high temperatures - heat drains me, mentally and physically

8   Name one thing on your bucket list. - I don’t have a bucket list

9   What is your favourite movie? - I have two - Steel Magnolias and Practical Magic

10  What is your favourite 'get away from it all place'? - The Lakes in NW England

11  What piece of advice do you hand out most often? - Age has taught me that no one wants advice - whether they ask for it or not. What they want is affirmation of the decision they have already made.  So my response these days is that I hope whatever they decide works for them.

Here are the 11 blogs I've tagged:

Bookbabe Blogspot
Dishin' It Out
Petrea Burchard
The Brooklyn Scribbler
Alison Brideson
Jane Beckenham
Hazel Gaynor
Cathie Dunn
Margaret Evans Porter
Laura Purcell
Talli Roland

Here Are The 11 Questions I Asked my Tagged Blogs -

There is a theme running through here - Men and Food

1.     Belgian chocolate or Pino Grigio?

2.    Ryan Reynolds or Matt Damon?

3.    Ben and Jerry’s [any flavour] or crème brulee?

4.    Orlando Bloom or Johnny Deppe?

5.    Roasted duck breast or grilled goat’s cheese?

6.    Gourmet dinner out or nachos and salsa in front of the TV?

7.    Jamie Oliver or Raymond Blanc?

8.    Christmas turkey with cranberry sauce or goose with spiced orange sauce?

9.    Jason Statham or Daniel Craig?

10. Who would you cast as the hero in a film made of your latest novel?

11.   Who would you cast as the heroine in a film made of your latest novel?

Have fun responding to this, bloggers, and keep up the good work with your very entertaining blogs.