May-August 2016

Hello, everyone.

Over the past few weeks, we returned from a two month sojourn in the Greek Peloponnese. We drive down in the spring, winding our way through Europe and drive back in the late Autumn. Sadly, the car we use is very old, and, although, volvos are strong, this one has needed many repairs. It is unlikely that it will make another cross-European journey!

A final lunch at Panorama

We have returned to England for part of the summer. This year, I am frantically busy organising the HNS Conference 2nd-4th September. It is already selling out. We have a superb programme and there are Sunday and Friday tickets left with lots to chose from but, understandably, not as much as back in January. Even so, there really is still much to enjoy and select. Be aware that the to one interviews with agents have essentially gone. We do get the odd one to one interview cancellation. I simply put those back into the system.

hnsoxford2016.org

There are few tickets left for the main day, Saturday but more for Friday and Sunday programmes. We have over 360 delegates on that day. Friday night should be fabulous with Fay Weldon and Jo Baker in a conversation on writing The Big House Story. The ticket includes wine and canapés. On Sunday we have an excellent half-day programme to include Tracy Chevalier. The ticket includes lunch.

Crowhurst Church

This summer, I have many speaking engagements. I spoke at Crowhurst in East Sussex two weekends ago about Edith Swan-Neck and The Battle of Hastings. The event was particularly interesting for me because Crowhurst is possibly the location for The Burning House depicted on The Bayeux Tapestry. There are, in fact, three women depicted on this tapestry. Two of them are clearly associated with The Godwin Family. Logically the third might be also. Why is there one child? Why is the house she flees clearly two storey? Why is this woman richly clad? These, of course, remain unanswered questions.

Was the ruin beyond the trees the site of The Burning House?

I enjoyed a fabulous reception at Crowhurst  and an audience of around 70 in the most picturesque setting one could possibly imagine. The church at Crowhurst where I spoke was filled with beautiful flower arrangements. During the day there was a flower festival. The welcome I received at Crowhurst was so warm, the people so generous hearted, I felt that, like Edith Swan-Neck, I wanted to move in next door!


 I also signed books for English Heritage at Battle Abbey.

 

Battle Abbey

This past weekend, I spoke at the RNA Conference in Lancaster on Romance and Realism in Historical Fiction. My co-speaker was my friend Charlotte Betts who is also an historical novelist. The conference was wonderfully informative about changes in the industry and our event extremely well-received. It is never easy to share a talk and it does require skill and empathy, but I am so glad Charlotte and I shared this one. It was an enjoyable experience indeed for us and evidently for our audience. There are photos on my The Daughters of Hastings Series face book page.


Finally, I have a story placed in a publication called 1066 Turned Upside-down. The collection is available for pre-order on amazon and already doing really well. It is a digital publication and lots of fun! Do look:

1066 Turned Upside Down

This week, very exhausted but full-filled, I am standing back. It will be a week for the garden, the home and well later this week more blogs to write and a third draft of The Woman in the Shadows, my novel to be published by Accent Press next May, to begin. It is, as ever, delightful to be home in Oxfordshire. The climate is deliciously cool, the skies ever changing, the garden lovely. And, as well as writing, I am enjoying a return to Georgette Heyer novels- a relaxing treat.

My poor over-grown English Garden

Where-ever you may be, dear website friends, I hope your summer is filled with good dining, cream teas, stories, and good company. If you are holidaying abroad have fun and read many books.

 

Spring 2016

I have been somewhat quiet recently. This is simply down to a very busy period in my life. Organisation for hnsoxford2016.org has claimed much time. All proceeds well. We have over 300 bookings for the conference already and are almost full. Do go to the conference website for information if you are interested in coming.

https://hnsoxford2016.org/

 Now for an long delayed update on other aspects of my life. In February, I travelled to India. India is one of my favourite countries. This was my fifth visit. We visited Aurangabad so we could view the caves which cover the mountainside with scores of ancient temples Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. The Ajanta caves high on the hillside are magnificent. The structure of the temples and the carvings are superlative.

Temple Carvings

On this trip we spent a week in Mumbai, a city that truly is hectic and exciting, full of sights, exotic cooking smells, colours and museums. Finally, we passed several enjoyable weeks in South Goa. We always use Taj hotels which are excellent and provide a peaceful retreat from the bustling chaotic outside world of Indian city streets, and quieter South Goa is one area where you find fabulous beaches and beach shacks with good food.

Dhobi Ghat ( where all the washing is done)

A tea pot in the Victoria and Albert Museum Mumbai

Relaxing in Goa

April arrived too soon but this winter my daughter and her husband had their first child, a gorgeous little boy, and we are besotted. In mid April we set off for the Greek Mani- travelling through Holland, Germany, Austria and Italy. At last I saw Herculaneum which is well worth a visit lasting several days. After a few days in Tuscany, finally, we arrived in Puglia to visit friends.

Greek Easter fell on May Day weekend this year. It is a more popular event than Christmas in this part of Greece. There are Church services, pageantry and since it brings lent to an end, the cuisine at Easter is focused on spit roasted lambs. If you are vegetarian ignore!

I find my retreat here in the Greek Mani perfect for writing. So far, I have completed a commissioned short story for a collection 1066 Upside Down and finished the first draft of my new novel The Woman in the Shadows, a story set circa 1515-1525. It should be published May 2017 so I have time to edit it and begin The Silken Rose, the first novel in a trilogy about three medieval queens.

The sun is shining and summer is just around the corner. I hope my readers are enjoying a wonderful May. Remember, I do love to hear from you. Without readers there would never be books.

January Resolutions

We all make resolutions. Mine is to pop in here more often. Sadly, I do not. When I get back to this, I thoroughly enjoy writing it up.

Happy New Year

So how was 2015  for me? And you too? I shall just go through my year briefly, like one of those Christmas letters we receive from afar. I enjoy reading them but I delay writing them. To be honest, I delay writing these pieces so long, I never do.

The following represent a few highlights since I last wrote here. First of all, I had a fabulous trip to Cambodia and Vietnam via Hong Kong last March. I recommend Siem Reap in Cambodia. If you like the Gothic this is for you. I cannot access the photographs I took and shall explain why later.

Siem Reap

In May, we travelled through Europe to Greece stopping in Germany, Switzerland and Lake Como, Italy, on the way down. There, we caught the Ancona to Patras ferry. That was when my summer changed. It was one of those moments that shock and make you thankful to be alive. Unfortunately, I slipped on the ferry steps shortly before docking in Patras, and had to have a hip joint replacement in Patras Hospital. The hospital was fabulous and the surgery successful. However, the recovery took a long time. First, I used a walker, then a splayed leg stick, a walking stick and ,although, seven or more months later I walk perfectly, I do still get aches in my right leg.

Lake Como

I lived, wrote and edited in Greece all summer which was a great place to recover. Many writer friends visited me here and I wrote every day. I swam every day too and had an excellent Greek physio therapist. It was time to return to Oxford. I spent a brief spell at home in England in September. My latest novel The Betrothed Sister which is partially set in Medieval Rus lands was published end of September. It is my personal favourite of the three.

Woe ! As if a broken femur was not enough, in July we were burgled and that is how the photos on my ipad and phone have disappeared. We used track my I phone and tracked the stolen goods, apple I pads and lap tops to Tirana. Then the trail stopped! Well,  I guess in an internet café in Tirana , Albania. I left a stinker of a message! It is all now history but we have improved security. And I met the local Greek Inspector Montalbano!

In October, we were back in Greece  with visiting friends and I have been writing my new novel The Woman in the Shadows ever since. It is set between 1515 and 1525. Watch this space because I have signed a new four book contract with Accent and the three books following this novel are about medieval queens. The Woman in the Shadows will be published by next December. I am busy writing.

A new novel soon!

We spent November and December in England. Our family Christmas was fabulous and we have been fortunate to spend New Year in Greece.

Finally I am the coordinator for the Historical Novels Conference in Oxford in September 2nd -4th. If you are interested, book soon because this conference will be an absolute sell out. Look at the conference website below for details.

www.//hnsoxford2016.org

Our author list is star-studded! I have been working hard on the programme details and I do hope to meet many of my readers there.

Come and visit our dreaming spires

It remains for me to say Happy New Year. Resolutions! Well, we can try.
 

March and April 2015

This March I was thrilled to be invited to speak at The Alderney Literary Festival. You can read all about that on my blog www.scribbling-inthemargins.blogspot. I think Alderney really do know how to put on a superb event and also how to make a festival such fun for all of us.

Beautiful Alderney

 I joined writers Simon Scarrow, Tom Holland, Danuta Reah, Mandy Scott and others to speak on the theme of historical fact and fiction. Simon Scarrow and I spoke on fact and fiction in our writing. I was on panels, spoke solo on Medieval Women, introduced Marc Morris's King John and spoke with him on The Bayeux Tapestry. I also gave radio interviews. The hospitality on Alderney was fabulous. I leaned a lot too. In fact, I learned how to organise a successful literary event. This will be useful because I am co ordinating The Historical Novel Conference 2016, September 2nd-4th. It will be held in Oxford which is a superb venue. More about this in time.

Panel on The Bayeux Tapestry ( I am second from the left)

I was fortunate to visit Vietnam and Cambodia in April. It was an incredible experience. I grew up in the shadow of The Vietnam War which in Vietnam is called The American War. I spent ten days in Hanoi visiting museums and taking photographs. I realised that although forty years have passed since the end of that war, Vietnam remembers. Equally, Vietnam is a very modern country, proud and progressive and yet there is a social conscience in Hanoi which is admirable. Vietnam may be a capitalist society now but it is different and very exciting. It is also beautiful.

Central Hanoi

Cambodia is suffering. There people struggle with daily life in many ways and yet it is an old world that is slowly moving forward. Siem Reap and Ankor Watt are two interesting locations. The first is a modern city and the second an ancient city filled with temples so old that the jungle reclaims them. Some are held together by trees. It is as if the trees are glue. If you took them away the temples would fall into the ground. It is a truly Gothic place and incredibly beautiful.

Anghor Watt

At the moment I am preparing to return to Greece for the summer. I am planning  a new book but currently it is in its beginnings. I am at the research stage. When I know more I shall share it with my readers.

The Betrothed Sister is up for pre order on amazon. The final novel of The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy will be published in the US in September and in the UK in October as paperback and as an e book simultaneously. I would like to thank all my readers. Without you these books would never have been so successful.

January and February 2015

After a book launch in Bicester, Oxfordshire, on 11th December for The Swan-Daughter, we flew Greece again. We spent a wonderful if very chilly Christmas period in The Stone House we rent in the Greek Mani. Those who follow me on Twitter will have seen the photographs.

 I worked on The Betrothed Sister relentlessly, almost every day during December including Christmas Day. The manuscript is complete at last but, of course, as every novelist knows this is only the beginning of a thorough editing process. Editing has had to wait until my return to England in late January.

Stoupa in Winter

We drove our aging Volvo Estate car, home via Venice, Padua, Verona and into France, spending a week in Amsterdam and Antwerp where we heard wonderful jazz. We went out into the bitter winter chill sightseeing. We visited art museums and spent romantic hours walking by chilly canals. Look at my blog www.scribbling-inthemargins.blogspot for the Italian week of the road trip adventure shown there in photographs.

Amsterdam in Winter

Whilst England in winter is cold, at least we have central heating. I have my large roomy study and my reference books to hand. There is time to catch up with friends and to research the next novel. Winter is a time for theater visits too. So far we have seen Treasure Island at the National Theater, London which made me want to write a sequel except that Andrew Motion has already done this superbly. I also loved The Shoemaker's Holiday, a hilarious Jabobean drama currently showing at The Swan, Stratford on Avon. For the very first time ever I laughed my way through Anything Goes, the musical. Wonderful songs and performances. Finally, I must mention that last week I was on Front of House duty for our local pantomime, Old King Cole which was a hoot! May I boast that my raffle ticket sales are legendary! A small claim to local fame.

Well there are the books of course. I am sending The Betrothed Sister to my editor by the end of March. The Handfasted Wife is going into audio this month. The audio is being narrated by a professional actress in LA. I look forward to listening to it. I gave an interview to Radio Marlow and to my local newspaper. The Swan-Daughter is Radio Marlow's book of the month for February. Good choice, say I. Otherwise, I am reading and reviewing for the HNS which is The Historical Novel Society. Look for their website and find superb reviews of historical novels. They also produce a superb glossy quarterly magazine which is international. There is a fine review of The Swan-Daughter in it this quarter. I am already working hard as coordinator for the Historical Novel Society Conference September 2016 to be held in Oxford.

Currently I am preparing a talk on Medieval Women, another on Fact into Fiction, and am part of a panel discussion concerning The Bayeux Tapestry for The Alderney Literary Festival. This is the weekend of 20th March. I am appearing with Marc Morris and Simon Scarrow amongst other broadcasters and writers. There are ten of us in total. If you are interested in the weekend do google the Alderney Literary Festival and please come to this famous Channel Island Event. The weekend promises to be fabulous. One of my all time favourite historians Tom Holland will be speaking and I simply cannot wait for the Roman dinner party though I am unsure about what might be served up! As for the ghost walk, well, dare I go on this and if I do, will I return sane.

May I wish you all a belated Happy 2015. Keep happy, healthy and reading.  
 

August and September

I think the best way to post about August into September is to deliver a small picture gallery. These two months have been really busy. Between 2nd of August and 13th September more writers have been staying in my house here in Greece. As a consequence, we have been sight-seeing and writing, eating fresh food, swimming and more writing. Despite the sun it has been a productive period and The Betrothed Sister is more than two thirds through a first draft.

 And it has been hot, very hot. At last, half way through September, the weather is cooling and we are walking again..

  This walk was to monasteries set back in the Tagetis mountains. They are ruins now, deserted except for the odd goat but they are very peaceful and perfect for picnics.

There are so many churches to visit here. The wall paintings are old. Many belong to the 12thC. The one above is an example of an ancient Byzantine fresco.

What better than a game of scrabble in the evening up in a mountain village! It is cooler up in the Taygetis. We have a regular Wednesday night scrabble contest followed by Spriros' barbecue and the best home-made chips in the Mani. The tall glasses of wine, we call papa or grand-dads!

 Liz Harris, author is one of the many writers who have stayed with me this summer. She is the author of The Road Back and A Bargain Struck and a collection of novellas. No, not writing in this picture taken on Friday night at Greg's Cafe where his mother, Freda, provides a fabulous buffet of home cooked Greek food, but we did, of course, work in the cool of the early morning.

Sarah Bower was another visitor. Sarah is a superb writer and teacher of writing. She is the author of The Needle in the Blood and The Book of Love. Both are beautifully written, best selling historical novels. She was great company too.

Finally, I leave you this month with a picture of a picturesque fishing village close to my house, Agios Dimitrious. Notice the colourful paintings on the harbour wall.

And enjoy the rest of September. If you are reading anything interesting do tell me in the comment box. I am reading Lionheart by Sharon Penman.

July Into August

It feels as if it has been such a long time since I climbed on an Easy Jet flight in Kalamata on 1st July to return to my Oxfordshire village. Yet, tomorrow, I climb back onto a plane to return to Greece for August and September. It has been absolutely wonderful to be home. I have had a fabulous July with family and friends. The English weather has been glorious with echoes of my long ago summers of childhood. Of course, as we well know, memory has a knack of playing tricks and I remember only the best days, the sun-filled days. These were in Donegal where we passed our childhood holidays recreating adventures inspired by The Famous Five, The Adventure Stories or Swallows and Amazons.

A Favourite Story

We actually did have an island to walk out to. This happened when the tide parted and exposed a sea-weedy pathway over damp yellow sands. There was just enough time to have a picnic on our island of adventure with our squashy chocolate bars, soggy tomato sandwiches and lemonade before the tide closed the temporary sea parting in again. Often we had to hurry back, racing against the tide. There was a haunted house and mountains behind us to return to where we imagined that smugglers flashed lights with morse code signals to guide suspicious boats into our bay under cover of darkness on moonless nights. There were sand dunes and rocks and for wet days transfers from a tiny shop, an Aladdin's cave,  card games and, best of all, imported American comics you could never get in England. These had superman and batman and other amazing superheroes whose adventures we children read long before the movies made them universally famous.

Our magical island in Donegal

July of 2014 began with a conference and a wedding. I spent a whole week teaching myself how to do a power point presentation. My very power point literate son who works in IT checked and passed my talk on Medieval Women. It was I must say a success. The slides came up at the right time. The talk enhanced the slides. The delegates enjoyed it and some asked me to sign bookmarks of The Handfasted Wife and The Swan-Daughter. Some said that they had written reams of notes and found ideas within the talk for their WIPs (their work in progress). The RNA conference was held at The Harper Adams University in Shropshire which was a fabulous venue. The weather was superb and Shropshire has quintessentially English villages. Some of us authors of historical fiction, dressed in period costume for a book event in the Victorian Iron Bridge Museum.

Medieval Wedding, power point presentation

Unfortunately I was not able to stay for the whole conference because I had to dash home for a wedding in our village. This was the first of the summer salmon and ham events, of which has become in the history of my village 'the ham and salmon summer'. The wedding took place in our medieval church and was followed by a reception in the groom's family's garden.

The final 'Ham and Salmon' wedding event was last weekend

The second ham and salmon event was a wedding anniversary party with a live band. This was held in our village Sports and Social Hall. The second wedding which we celebrated this weekend was very special. After the church ceremony but before the reception we had cup cakes and iced tea in the churchyard. The reception was idyllic. It was as if we had walked back in time as all the food was catered in a marquee in a garden, field and orchard. The catering was home-grown and a lot of work but it was a great success.

The biggest event for me this July was the publication of The Swan-Daughter as an e book on 24th July. If you have not yet read it , do. Here is the amazon link for The Swan-Daughter : 
 http://tinyurl.com/qz9lfju

I hope your summer so far has been as enjoyable as my own.

July, Medieval Calendar