Weekly Roundup of History, Archaeology and Writing Wisdom Nov 16-23
E.L. Doctorow, Bloody Mary, Egyptian love story on a tomb, blogging medievally, getting it together with Scrivener, “Selfie” word of the year?!
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.
E.L. Doctorow, Bloody Mary, Egyptian love story on a tomb, blogging medievally, getting it together with Scrivener, “Selfie” word of the year?!
Priscilla Royal’s latest mystery finds Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas on a pilgrimage to Walsingham to mend Eleanor’s troubled soul. Royal takes on the notion of self-righteous religiosity that’s used to cover personal failings and sins. She also deals with a more subtle theme that she’s explored before—how to live true to oneself when who you are is rejected by your world.
Medicinal plants and Bronze Age medicine.
Mummies, hemlock & other poisons, ancient libraries, tracking folktale origins and an excellent WWI book by Elizabeth Speller. Everything that caught my interest on the web this week.
At age fifteen in 1002, Emma came from Normandy to marry the much older King Aethelred. Bracewell brings back to life this often forgotten English queen through Viking invasions and jealous rivalries.
Here’s what I found interesting this week–a varied assortment from good historical fiction reading to foodie history to writing advice to archaeology, and a bit of humor thrown in.
Upcoming Dates:
April 5 Ann Chamberlin on a history of sex and contraception.
May 3 Fred Ramsay on his historical mystery series set in Jerusalem
Announcing Fireship’s online book tours, expert’s overview of Historical Fiction, ancient foodie recipes, deciphering an historical mystery fr pollen counts, & a haunted Florentine tale.
Upcoming AZ Historical Novel Society meeting Nov 2 with Patricia Bracewell, Hittite and Canaanite archaeology goes wild, Amazon’s HF categories explained , humorous hats of the Renaissance. How’s that for assorted topics?
An amazing archaeological find of great importance to the study of Hittites, what you’ve been missing in your ebooks, book interviews with Gillian Bagwell and David Blixt, the most essential survey from the HNS about your reading habits and more!