Author of The Greenest Branch, a novel of Germany's first female physician
Song of the Siren starts off an exciting new series Songs of Steppe & Forest by author C.P. Lesley. It takes us deep into Eastern Europe during the middle part of the 16th century. It was a century that saw the reign of some of the most fearsome and consequential monarchs in history, from Henry VIII to... Continue Reading →
My own writing and research take me back to the Middle Ages and, more recently, the 16th century Eastern Europe. So it is refreshing to come across historical fiction that is much closer to our own times, and set in the period that I am also quite interested in but do not know as much... Continue Reading →
To paraphrase a classic, a writer's work is never done. That's why this post, which should have appeared a month ago - closer the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the flu pandemic - is posted only now. But I was in the middle of doing final manuscript revisions for my second book (to be... Continue Reading →
On a rainy day in November 1950, Father Michael Kavanagh seeks refuge in New York's famed Cloisters Museum of medieval art at the northern tip of Manhattan. There he meets a mysterious woman who turns out to be a Jewish historian and Holocaust survivor. One of the few possessions she managed to salvage from the ravages of... Continue Reading →
Chapter 25 Ingelheim, May 1154 Volmar presented the letter of invitation stamped with the royal seal to a guard. We were ushered through an arched tunnel into the inner courtyard, where brightly-dressed courtiers and clerics in dark lawyers’ robes came and went between the buildings ranged along the perimeter. I noted signs of both greatness... Continue Reading →
This is a review I have wanted to post for months, but this book is MASSIVE at over 900 pages. Ken Follett strikes again! Of course, Ken Follett needs no introduction. After the runaway success of Pillars of the Earth and World Without End comes the third part in the Kingsbridge series. A Column of... Continue Reading →
Guest post by Suanne Schafer When I started writing A Different Kind of Fire, set in the late Victorian era, I found it somewhat difficult to recreate a time before E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey appeared in popular culture. My protagonist, Ruby Schmidt, was a young Texas girl. Raised on a ranch, she had... Continue Reading →
I love reading historical fiction set in places that are not the usual go-tos of this genre, like revolutionary France or Tudor England (interesting though they are!!). There are vast areas of Europe, especially its eastern parts, not to mention places like Africa or South America, that rarely make an appearance. In that sense, Scotland... Continue Reading →
During the last weekend of August I participated in the Historical Novel Society 2018 conference just outside of Glasgow, Scotland. I have been writing historical fiction for seven years, but it was only this year that I decided to attend my first conference, after my debut novel The Greenest Branch, a Novel of Germany's First... Continue Reading →
