Author Interview & Book Giveaway: CASTLES, CUSTOMS & KINGS, Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

This week as a special feature, we're offering insight into Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors, The Second Volume of a Special Anthology. The works of fifty authors are included.  The authors will offer a free copy of Castles, Customs, and Kings to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:

An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels. 

About the Anthology

From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.

For those who have read Volume 1, you know this book will contain great information, a book you can pick up when you have ten minutes to spare, but a book that will be hard to set down. Fifty authors contributed articles on British history from pre-Roman times through World War II, not dry dates and documents, but the interesting stuff.

In both volumes, the book starts with the authors and their biographies, a list of their historical novels, and then begins a parade of persons from the past, from druids moving freely across tribal boundaries to the uncovering of Lady Godiva to Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who commissioned the Luttrell Psalter to the London life and paintings of John Singer Sargent—truly a varied and fascinating ensemble.

**Q&A with Debra Brown, editor of Castles, Customs and Kings

– Volume II**

Thanks for being our guest. How does this volume differ from the previous issue?

Thanks for having me!

Volume II is mostly articles from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog by fifty histfic authors. Like Volume I from the first year, it is set up chronologically with articles on history topics from pre-Roman times to World War II. Many of the same authors from Volume I contributed as well as numerous others, some indie, some mainstream published.

What would you like to readers to know most about this volume?

Like Volume I, it is full of surprises and interesting tidbits from history. Each topic is a few pages in length, so it is a good book to pick up during a coffee break or in bed for a short read before the lamp goes off. The Volume I  25+ hour audio book has sold very well, so that is in the works for the second as well if all goes as planned.

How were the contributions compiled?

They were originally posts on the blog. It was quite a bit of work to sort through the 365 excellent posts and select few enough to make up what is, even so, a big book. Since topics on the blog vary widely from day to day, the next project was to organize them.

Why do you believe this publication is important for historical fiction readers?

Most histfic readers enjoy history and want to learn more about past customs that seem strange now, amusing laws, interesting people, and happenings that have sometimes led to today’s traditions. Since authors try not to write too much of the history into their books, which would be tiresome to better informed readers, but to give a flavor of living in the midst of it, readers will enjoy the novels more if they know the history behind the story.

Any plans for a future volume?

That is on our minds, assuming the new Volume II is as well received as Volume I has been. Though the posts are on the blog, reviewers have stated that they enjoy the convenience of having them organized in a beautiful book for easy access. Authors have commented that some of the articles are good fuel for a novel, or that they have included what they learned in their books.

Excerpt Thursday: CASTLES, CUSTOMS & KINGS, Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

This week as a special feature, we're offering insight into Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors, The Second Volume of a Special Anthology. The works of fifty authors are included.  Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. The author will offer a free copy of Castles, Customs, and Kings to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:

An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels. 

About the Anthology

From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.

For those who have read Volume 1, you know this book will contain great information, a book you can pick up when you have ten minutes to spare, but a book that will be hard to set down. Fifty authors contributed articles on British history from pre-Roman times through World War II, not dry dates and documents, but the interesting stuff.

In both volumes, the book starts with the authors and their biographies, a list of their historical novels, and then begins a parade of persons from the past, from druids moving freely across tribal boundaries to the uncovering of Lady Godiva to Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who commissioned the Luttrell Psalter to the London life and paintings of John Singer Sargent—truly a varied and fascinating ensemble. Some interesting excerpts follow; each is but a paragraph from an essay:

**Excerpts from Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II**

From Mark Patton’s “The Flavian Palace at Fishbourne: Luxury Unparalleled in Europe North of the Alps”:

“Close to the modern city of Chichester is a Roman Palace that bears comparison with Nero’s ‘Golden House’ and the Palace of Domitian in Rome itself. Much of it is now hidden beneath modern housing, but in its heyday it had a larger footprint than Buckingham Palace. Not only is it, by far, the most lavish Roman dwelling ever built in Britain, it is also one of the earliest, having been built within a few decades of the Roman invasion of 43 A.D.”

This article goes on to discuss the palace, and it is followed by fascinating information about what existed inside a Roman home, including reason to believe that graffiti and even sexually explicit paintings adorned the walls. It is nice to have an archeologist in our group of authors!

Patricia Bracewell, in her article “The Science of History” brings out the horror of an unknowable (at the time) event:

“Part of the entry for 1014 reads: ‘his year, on the eve of St. Michael’s day, came the great sea-flood, which spread wide over this land, and ran so far up as it never did before, overwhelming many towns, and an innumerable multitude of people.’

“Anyone reading this today would recognize it as a description of a tsunami. We’ve already experienced two such massive sea floods in this young century, and we knkow what devastation such events can cause. The word itself would not be incorporated into the English language until the nineteenth century, thanks to the Japanese who, like the English, live surrounded by water. But although the word we use today did not exist in 1014, the great sea-flood of that year was corroborated all over southern Britain by annalists writing in Wales, Cornwall, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. In addition, a chronicl written at the Convent of Quedlinburg Abbey in Saxony states that in that year a great flood struck Juteland, Holstein, Friesland, the Netherlands, and Belgium.”

Patricia goes on to explain what apparently caused the tsunami; perhaps not what you think.

For Tudor lovers, the book has, among other essays, “Unveiling Marie Stuart: The Poetry of the Queen of Scots” by Linda Root.

“It is small wonder that one of Scotland’s two contributors to the list of technically accomplished royal poets of the sixteenth century wrote her verse in French.

“It is more puzzling to explain how easily the creative aspect of her character is trivialized. The poet of whom I speak is Marie Stuart, a woman we know as the French Queen Consort and anointed Queen of Scots, but often forget that she was a student and life-0long confidante of Pierre Ronsard, the leader of the Pleiade, frequently called the Prince of Poets, and that both Ronsard and the scholar-historian Brantome acknowledged her expertise….”

Linda goes on to write about the poetry of the French child and the later Regnant Queen of Scots.

To see more of the variety of topics and to meet the authors in each of the volumes, please see the Table of Contents of each using Amazon’s Look Inside feature.

Volume I

Volume II

Excerpt Thursday:CASTLES, CUSTOMS & KINGS, Volume I - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

This week as a special feature, we're offering insight on Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors, which made its debut this month. The work of more than fifty authors are included. NOTE: There is no giveaway of this title scheduled. Here's the blurb:

A compilation of essays from the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book provides a wealth of historical information from Roman Britain to early twentieth century England. Over fifty different authors share hundreds of real life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels. From Queen Boadicea’s revolt to Tudor ladies-in-waiting, from Regency dining and dress to Victorian crime and technology, immerse yourself in the lore of Great Britain. Read the history behind the fiction and discover the true tales surrounding England’s castles, customs, and kings.

**An Excerpt from Castles, Customs, and Kings: 

True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors**

FALLING IN LOVE WITH ENGLAND AND ITS HISTORY

By Stephanie Cowell

It began when I was very young; I felt I did not belong in New York City where I was born but somewhere across the sea in that land called England. But what was England to me? Any place for which we long is formed from fragments which mysteriously arrive and become part of us.

My first sense of England was literature, of course: Sara Crewe in A Little Princess and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden in beautifully illustrated editions. I read them until the words almost wore away. I was Sara coming from her attic to be discovered at last as the little girl everyone had been looking for. I was Mary exploring the deserted rooms of the manor house on the moors. In my early teens it was the poetry (all of Shakespeare) and the great Victorian novels. I told myself, “That is where I belong; that is where I must be.” England had formed in my mind as the place where I could find my true self.

I painted a picture of “this earth, this realm, this England,” as Shakespeare calls it. It was a mixture of lovers running over the moors, a beautiful young queen, London attics, hot milky tea and servants always on hand to make it, and a great mysterious line of kings described as “the Unready” or “the Confessor” and queens who always looked ready to have their portraits painted and who each possessed a far more glamorous wardrobe than that within my schoolgirl closet; tombstones, ancient churches, an orderly way of being and doing things. (I was looking for the orderly; I passed by Henry VIII and his disorderly coterie of marriages. I am glad others felt differently! What would we do without Anne Boleyn?)

And so I saved and saved and finally went to England, and the England I expected was waiting for me. I walked all over London. I visited the Tower on an overcast day when it was not crowded and was properly awed by the tiny rooms and thick walls. Still, the heart of my England was literature not royalty even though I love the stability and ceremony of a monarch, a world in which everyone had their place.

I looked for writers—the new Globe had not been built, but I walked where Shakespeare had walked and found the old streets he had known: Cheapside, Love Lane. I visited Dickens’ House. I found and touched what was left of the London City Walls.

I went to Haworth and walked in the parlor where Charlotte Bronte had walked with her sisters. I climbed about the moors and heard the wind wuthering. I went to Oxford where my great heroes had studied and heard the choirboys sing in the little cathedral as they had done for hundreds of years. I longed for medieval houses, for London fog, for wonderful names of villages. (I shall not forget my first bus ride to Yorkshire and passing the signs for the town of Giggleswick.) I was looking for something that I felt had been waiting for me. I believe it was.

My husband came with me as I visited the places I love. When we stood in the old city, though, he saw the tall financial buildings and I saw the long-gone, half-timbered houses. Upon taking a tour bus, I became increasingly emotional at every sight, and when we finally passed Temple Bar where Fleet Street, City of London, becomes the Strand, Westminster, and where the City of London traditionally erected a barrier to regulate trade into the city (and traditionally the Lord Mayor of London must meet and allow entry to the monarch), I burst into a flood of tears. My husband was patient, comforting, and bewildered; he has often repeated this story to friends of how his wife could cry because someone walked a street in London three hundred years ago.

All of us who write on this blog or read it are English or have longed for England so intensely that we have made it a major part of our creative and emotional lives. Its present and past are rooted in us in a way we cannot fully explain; it calls to each of us in a slightly different way. How has it called you and for what reasons?

“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle…

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea…

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”

—Richard II (Shakespeare)

Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors - Available Now for Kindle and in paperback!