Blog
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#OTD 25 March 1194 – Richard the Lionheart arrives at the Siege of Nottingham
King Richard I, the Lionheart, had taken the Cross and journeyed to the Holy Land in 1190. He led his army of approx. 15,000 men to within 12 miles of Jerusalem, but did not re-take the holy city. After a truce with Salah-al-Din, Richard attempted to return home, but was faced with enemies on his path.…
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My visit to Nottingham Castle
As part of my travels in September, I was able to return to Nottingham for a half day adventure to explore the Castle. I set several scenes of For King and Country there, so you can imagine how exciting it was for me to have an opportunity to see it from the perspective of someone with research interests…
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Discovering 12th Century Nottingham Castle
“Richard arrived at the siege of Nottingham in a black mood and his first act was to set up an enormous gallows beneath the walls.” — Richard Coeur de Lion by P. Henderson Line drawing is copyright The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire. Used with permission. Earlier this week I was a guest at Catherine Curzon’s…
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Visual inspiration and the writer
As someone who grew up with television, visuals have always been important to me. Can’t you get a sense of time, of place, from those period dramas? Translating that to paper – or to computer screen – is still the most difficult thing for me. As a writer of historical fiction, I have to be…
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almost there… work in progress Wednesday
Title: Battle Scars: For King and Country(book 2 of a series)Current word count: @96,500 words The writing of the most recent 8,000 words has been like pulling teeth. I want them to be good – well, I want the whole book to be good – but as I close in on the climax, my goal…
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Nottingham Castle
“Richard arrived at the siege of Nottingham in a black mood and his first act was to set up an enormous gallows beneath the walls.”— Richard Coeur de Lion by P. Henderson I am mere paragraphs away from writing the opening scene as King Richard arrives at Nottingham Castle with knights Henry and Stephan. I…
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work in progress Wednesday – weddings and signs of The End
Title: Battle Scars: For King and Country(book 2 of a series)Current word count: @88,900 words I am drawing ever closer to the climax of this story. My unexpected character death? With 11,000 words added since my last update, the man is still dead, and there is no hope for resurrection. But there were weddings this…