Judith Starkston has spent too much time exploring the remains of the ancient worlds of the Greeks and Hittites. Their myths and clashes inspire her fiction and open gates to magical realms. She has degrees in Classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She loves myths and telling stories, and her novels imbue fantasy with the richness of ancient worlds. The first book in her Trojan Threads Series, Hand of Fire was a semi-finalist for the M.M. Bennett’s Award for Historical Fiction. Priestess of Ishana, the first in her historical fantasy Tesha series, won the San Diego State University Conference Choice Award. Judith is represented by Richard Curtis.
My weekly web favorites: English beer making, Israeli mosaics, terrible book covers, interviews with Emma Campion & Diana Gabaldon, Sharon Kay Penman’s reading list, debunking religious myths in early America.
Review of Helen Hollick’s Sea Witch: a rich pirate yarn with magic mixed into the ships and battles–oh, and a love story.
My favs on the web this week: Witches & vampires fr historian Deborah Harkness, the state of historical fiction via The Guardian, truth and lies in historical fiction via Lisa Yarde, the Holy Grail via Jeri Westerson, Zelda and Scott via Spargo and a new find on Cyprus.
My favorites around the web this week: HNS on my book, Kim Rendfeld on a Medieval Cat poem, historical maps fr USGS, sunken ships off Turkey, and a debate, does little stuff cause the big stuff in history?
Book Launch of Hand of Fire at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore on September 10th. Join Judith Starkston in the celebration!
My favorites on the web this week: Nancy Bilyeau on endings, Alison McMahan on voice, Medieval Japan and WWI in lit, & a winning novel from Rebecca Cantrell.
Book Club Discussion Questions for Hand of Fire: A Novel of Briseis and the Trojan War Early on Briseis faces several crises and takes on adult responsibilities, although she is only fifteen at the time. Did you find her character believable? Did you find parallels to contemporary teenage life? What do the varied responses of women to the violent circumstances they face in this novel show about human nature and about some women’s resiliency in the face of tragedy? What does the novel say about the source of women’s strength? Is Achilles’ half-immortality more of an advantage or disadvantage to… Read More »Book Club Discussion Questions
Susan Spann’s second historical mystery, Blade of the Samurai, is set in medieval Japan and has several unpredictable twists for its two “sleuths,” a Portuguese Jesuit priest and a shinobi assassin. Highly recommended.
My favorites from around the web this week: Mycenaean and Etruscan archaeology, Elizabeth I comes alive in Barbara Kyle’s hands, writing historical fiction by Jessica McCann and the world’s oldest slam poetry and novel.
Tudor period novelist, Judith Arnopp, offers a guest post about the portraits of Katheryn Parr, one of Henry VIII’s wives. She includes an excerpt from her novel Intractable Heart that takes place in front of one of the portraits.
