Katharina: Deliverance, the first installment of the fictionalized story of Katharina von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther, focuses on her childhood and early adult years. Katharina comes from a moderately well-to-do family from Saxony and is only five years old when her mother dies, leaving her and her brothers in the care of a... Continue Reading →
Divining the Past: Bringing the World of Ancient Hittites to Life through Historical Fiction
Guest blog by Judith Starkson Map of Hittite empire One of the delights of writing historical fiction—even when it blends into fantasy as mine does—comes from delving into the past via research. My fiction is set in the world of the ancient Hittites, a powerful Bronze Age empire (1600-1200 BCE) that stretched across what is... Continue Reading →
Writing a Family Story as Historical Fiction
Guest blog by Peter Curtis After retiring from medical work, I decided to write an account of my family’s escape from Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939. I researched refugee life in France and Britain and read a host of WWII accounts: military events, famous or infamous people, insurmountable obstacles overcome, and Holocaust survivals. I always had... Continue Reading →
Midnight Fire, A Jagiellon Mystery #2 coming in September 2020
In the summer of 1545, Caterina Konarska undertakes the long journey from Bari to Kraków in search of a cure for her ailing son Giulio. In Poland, she finds a court far different from the lively, cultured place she remembers from twenty-five years ago. The old king lies on his deathbed, and the once-charming Queen... Continue Reading →
Excerpt from The Merchant’s Tale
Chapter 1 St. Nicholas Monastery, Nyonoksa, Russia August 24, 1553 by P.K. Adams and C.P. Lesley So close to the Arctic, dawn flushed the skies with pink despite the early hour. A blessed silence descended as the monks finished yet another round of prayers, chanted in Slavonic to the accompaniment of bells, and returned to... Continue Reading →
5 Ways COVID-19 Will Impact the Publishing Industry
Guest post by Desiree Villena It’s been half a year since the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency following the appearance of a novel coronavirus. Since then, COVID-19 has profoundly changed how we live and how we work — and the publishing industry is no exception. The book trade might be stereotyped as sluggish and... Continue Reading →
The Arrival of Barbara Radziwiłł
Excerpt from Midnight Fire, Jagiellon Mystery #2 Increasingly bored, I was about to turn to Maria, when the volume of conversations suddenly abated and heads turned toward one corner of the hall. A sense of anticipation filled the air, as if the gathering awaited the beginning of a performance by a troupe of players, lowering... Continue Reading →
Silence in the Woods by J.P. Choquette
As a new Vermonter, I'm fascinated by local folktales. None are more popular here than those telling of the possible existence of Bigfoot, a hairy, ape-like creature that is said to dwell in the wilderness. J.P. Choquette's Silence In the Woods is the first in the Monsters in the Green Mountains series that centers around... Continue Reading →
The Power to Deny by Wendy Stanley
The Power to Deny introduces the reader to one of the forgotten figures of the late colonial and revolutionary America. Elizabeth Graeme was a Philadelphia socialite and a poet in her own right who was friends with, and admired by, many in her day, including some of the men who went on to sign the Declaration... Continue Reading →
New Novel Tells the Story of Revolutionary War-era socialite Elizabeth Graeme
Guest post by Wendy Long Stanley Eleven years ago, I moved from Canada to the United States with my husband and our two daughters. That first year, as I was exploring the Philadelphia area, I visited Graeme Park, a local historic site that once belonged to Pennsylvania colonial governor William Keith. Today, Graeme Park features... Continue Reading →