Bits and pieces

A short news round-up for Friday afternoon.

Over at the Historical Novel Society website, I have a new interview with Jessica Brockmole, author of Letters from Skye, in which she talks about traveling to Scotland and sensing its history all around her, using the OED to create authentic voices for her characters, why the fine art of letter writing is the latest rage, and more.

The Langum Charitable Trust has announced the shortlisted titles from the first half of 2013 for the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction.  They are:

- Kent Wascom, The Blood of Heaven (Grove Press) - my review here
- Gary Schanbacher, Crossing Purgatory (Pegasus Books) - the author's guest post here, with a chance for US readers to win a signed copy through 7/22/13
- Christine Wade, Seven Locks (Atria/Simon & Schuster) - my review here
- Philipp Meyer, The Son (Ecco/HarperCollins) - which hasn't appeared on this blog before, but I do have an ARC I'm hoping to get to!

I've begun adding titles to the HNS's list of forthcoming books for 2014.  This is going to be a long-term work in progress, but quite a few titles through next April are listed now.

And lastly, for anyone curious about the person writing this blog, my local paper, the Journal-Gazette and Times-Courier, has an interview with me about my site and interests in historical fiction. The piece was written by Beth Heldebrandt, editorial writer at EIU's Booth Library, with photo by library photographer Bev Cruse.