Here are my favorites from around the web this week. It my usual mixture of historical fiction books and themes and archaeology. Have fun!
The Hittite Spring Equinox Festival of Purulli. A post by my friend Sevil on her blog Turkey: Istanbul and Beyond Click here for “Hittite Spring Purulli Festival” on Turkey: Istanbul and Beyond
An interview with Nancy Bilyeau on Julianne Douglas’s blog: Renaissance tapestries, an unconventional interpretation of Henry VIII and his separation from the Catholic Church, the hardest scenes to write and a number of intriguing surprises from one of my favorite authors about her latest, The Tapestry. Not all blog interviews are engaging. Hard to put one’s finger on what makes a good one—but here’s an example. Click here for Interview with Nancy Bilyeau on Julianne Douglas’s Blog.
The basics about being a determined writer. If you can’t shake your head and say, yup I do that to everything on Alison Morton’s list, get working! 7 sensible steps to being a “real” writer. Click here for “Guidelines for a Determined Writer” on Alison Morton’s Writing Blog.
For those of you doused in yet more cold white, a spectacular “desert bouquet” of photographs from Melissa Crytzer Fry. She lives on a gorgeous stretch of Sonoran desert and makes the most of this bounty with her camera. Click here for “Desert Bouquet on Melissa Crytzer Fry’s Blog What I Saw.
If you thought Medieval priories were places removed from the world—prayer and contemplation only—here’s a post by Priscilla Royal about the financial underpinnings of the English priories and how challenging it was for female leaders of said institutions to keep them financially solvent without offending anyone by showing excessive business acumen (being “weak and irrational” women, after all). Or you could just pick up Satan’s Lullaby, Priscilla’s latest, and see this all in action via exciting fiction. Click here for HfeBooks “The Financial Side of a Medieval Priory”
This is fun. Recordings of English pronounced as it would have been going back from Shakespeare to Beowulf. If you ever wondered what you’d hear if you had that time machine, here’s your chance to discover just how lost you’d be. Click here for TheWeek.com “What the English of Shakespeare, Beowulf and King Arthur actually Sounded Like”
Dujour Magazine’s 5 best new thrillers include some superb historical authors: Bruce Holsinger’s The Invention of Fire, Nancy Bilyeau’s The Tapestry and MJ Rose’s The Witch of Painted Sorrows. Also included Harlan Coben and Andrew Pyper. Click here for Dujour Magazine “Best Suspense Thriller Books”
Are historical novelists historians? What’s the difference between history and historical fiction? Four writers of historical fiction discuss: Nancy Bilyeau, Eva Stachniak, Erica Robuck and Sophie Perinot. On Erin Al-Mehairi’s blog. Click here for “Are Historical Novelists Historians” on Erin Al-Mehairi’s Oh For the Hook of a Book Blog
Homeric papyrus suffers an ignominious fate—toilet paper! What archaeologists dig up! Conservators say this fragment of Homer is a wee bit stinky. Perhaps it can be examined via photo from now on…. Click here for Brice C. Jones “Toilet Papyrus: A Papyrus of Homer Used as Toilet Paper”