BBAW contest winner, and what got me started with historical reading

I've really enjoyed reading all the contest entries this past week. Without further ado, it's time to draw the winner's name. This morning Random.org picked the winner as contest entrant #2, which is Mantelli! Congratulations, Mantelli, and I hope you enjoy the book. I'll be in touch shortly.

This wasn't meant to be a formal survey, but I found it fascinating to read about the novels that got everyone started reading historical fiction. The top titles/authors mentioned were Gone with the Wind, anything by Jean Plaidy, and The Other Boleyn Girl. Other books and authors cited more than once: Outlander (aka Cross Stitch), Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, Sharon Penman, Susan Carroll's The Dark Queen, Johnny Tremain, Dumas, Elizabeth Byrd's Immortal Queen (sounds like a good candidate for reissue!), The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth Chadwick, Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre.

There were many, many other books recommended, so please stop by the comment trail on the previous post to read them all. I've certainly added more than a few to my mental TBR list.

I suppose I should answer the question myself, although I don't really remember specific historical novels standing out in my childhood reading. I used to read voraciously and indiscriminately -- classics, contemporary fiction, teenage romances, historical novels, fantasy, SF, mysteries, whatever. I read all the Little House books as well as Witch of Blackbird Pond and Johnny Tremain, the latter two for middle school. I expect most kids growing up in New England read them. The first adult historical novel I remember reading was Anya Seton's Katherine, which I wrote about for a 9th grade research paper. But I think the author who really got me started on reading HF was Jean Plaidy, in her alter ego as Victoria Holt. I read through all of the Holts and all her Philippa Carrs and kept seeing these Jean Plaidy books listed in the ending pages. "Jean Plaidy" didn't sound like a very glamorous name, and I was more into gothic romance at the time, so I figured the books were boring. What can I say.

When I was working a temp secretarial job between grad schools, I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time. The boss didn't mind if I read at my desk as long as all his memos got typed up and the phones were answered, and there really wasn't much else to do... I had a PC to work on, but this was before the Web (this probably dates me). So I went through all of the Plaidys in chronological order, reading one a day, until I'd made it through all of the Normans, Plantagenets, Stuarts, Georgians, and Victorians and then all the Queens of England novels that were out at the time. After that, I picked up Valerie Anand's Bridges Over Time books, Margaret Campbell Barnes, what I hadn't yet read of Norah Lofts, and whatever other historical novels I could find on the shelves of the East Lansing Public Library.

I have a feeling I've written most of this on the blog before, but there you have it. And the rest, as they say, is history. :)

My BBAW giveaway: Win a copy of Historical Fiction II

This is going to be my one and only giveaway in celebration of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, but it's a big one (literally). I've just finished mailing off 35 books to the winners and participants of the Title Game challenge, but couldn't resist doing just one more of these. (I'm doing my part to keep the post office in business, so that Saturday mail delivery doesn't go away.)

This time, the book I'm offering up is my own. One of my author copies of Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre will be mailed out to a randomly selected blog visitor. Headless cover art below.

Within the book's 750-plus pages, you'll find detailed summaries and complete publication information for over 2700 recent and classic historical novels, all eagerly waiting to be added to your TBR piles! The chapter introductions discuss the history of the field, current trends, and benchmark titles, and a Resource section lists historical fiction publishers, book review sources, websites, bibliographies, and more. It's exhaustively indexed by author, title, series, subject, historical character, and place/time. Here's the publisher's description:

Historical fiction has surged in popularity in recent years, with new subgenres emerging (e.g. Viking romance, religious thrillers) and reader interest showing no signs of slowing down. This follow-up to Johnson's critically acclaimed guide published in 2005 covers new territory by focusing on English-language historical novels for adults published between mid-2004 and mid-2008, in particular those commonly found in American public library collections. The author's unique approach involves classifying titles by subgenres, rather than strictly by geography and chronology; thereby grouping read-alikes together. It gives users a deeper understanding of the genre, an update on new titles, and an easy way to identify read-alikes and book club selections. More than 2,700 historical fiction titles, about 2,000 new to this volume, are organized and described.

Historical Fiction II came out in hardcover this past March; it's been getting some nice reviews. Should you be the winner, I'll even sign this copy for you if you want.

To enter the drawing, leave a comment on this post mentioning the novel that first got you interested in reading historical fiction. Whether you're a new historical fiction fan or a longtime devotee, I'm curious to hear what book or books first got you started! Please include your email address as well. Deadline is 11:59pm CST, Friday, September 18th. The winner will be announced on Saturday.

Good luck to all the entrants!

Guest post by Jeri Westerson: "I'm Not Dead!"

Jeri is stopping by Reading the Past today as part of the blog tour for her second Crispin Guest novel, Serpent in the Thorns. This is the tour's first stop, and I hope you'll enjoy her informative, hilarious post as much as I did!

"I’m Not Dead!"

by Jeri Westerson

The medieval period was nothing if not rife with ceremony, where everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. It’s particularly true for my character Crispin Guest, an ex-knight turned detective in fourteenth century London. He no longer belongs to the society in which he was bred, but it doesn’t stop him from living by his knightly code.

Living by the rules is one thing. But following rules on one’s deathbed?

The pomp did not wait for the person to be deceased, but began as they lay dying. There were do’s and don’ts for the those in attendance, but as if you didn’t have enough to worry over, there was also a bit to do when you were the one dying. You learned all you needed from the Ars Moriendi or “Art of Dying,” a book on how to die well. You needed to concentrate on where you were going and to avoid all those demons hovering around you waiting to snatch your soul when you were the most vulnerable. Of course, you’re dying, for crying out loud! and it seems a little much to expect a person who might very well be in pain to keep from crying out unnecessarily, or moaning, or, well…making a spectacle of yourself, even if the room is filled with people, including your confessor. In fact, family was discouraged from being with you at this crucial stage as they would be a distraction for you as you worked on keeping your pride in check. Your priest would be anointing you. Once you were dead this anointing would not be cleansed from you to give you further protection from those lurking demons. But if you had the audacity to recover, it was certainly all right to wash it all off.

The room would be draped in black and there might be your executor helping you draft that really last will and testament. If you were of the wealthier class, you would be providing cloth for funeral gowns for the attendants. Perhaps you would also provide gowns for paupers to be in attendance and they could also be useful to carry torches in the procession to the church. The poor were often dragged into the proceedings since the prayers of the poor were deemed of more value than from others, being that Christ always had a special place in his heart for the poor. Shoes were bequeathed to poor women and coal was also provided for their hearths. All this last ditch generosity served to put you in better stead with the Almighty while showing off to the populace that you were an important bloke.

Once you were really most sincerely dead—and they might use a polished brass mirror or feather to see if you were breathing, or thump you on the breast to draw your attention to a crucifix or to an elevated Eucharist—you would be dressed in a shroud and laid in a parish hearse or a hearse of your own, if you were rich, and taken to the church for a mass. In the front of the procession were candle-bearers and bell-ringers. Both of these were designed to scare off demons who were still ready to snatch your soul as it was believed that the dead’s soul lingered for about a month after death like the last guest at a party who would not go home. Many masses throughout the month would be sung for you (as long as you paid for them ahead of time) to chase away the devils and to give your soul that last heave-ho to point you in the right direction. Hopefully, that would be upward.

Mourners in funeral gowns would also be in this procession. The body might lie in state at home from one day to several weeks, depending. A murdered individual or someone who died by violent means wasn’t very welcomed into the church as it was believed that he might be dripping blood all over the place, even though a body ceases to “drip” blood once the heart stops. It was believed a corpse’s blood would run in front of the murderer, ratting him out. Not so strange, then, that no one wanted to be present at the funeral under such circumstances. Still, there was a stigma attached to an unnatural death and such funerals—unless they were for a monarch—were dealt with quickly.

A coffin might be part of the procedures. They were involved in the transport of the body but not necessarily in the burying thereof. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, after all. Though if you had enough money you could be entombed in the church itself either in a shrine or in the floor. The nave was the cheapest. Your own chapel was premium.

At the end of the month of your death, it was traditional to hold a second service, alms for the poor again, and serve a funeral feast which was often more spectacular than the burial itself. A year after the burial an anniversary celebration might take place, much as the celebration of the anniversary of the death of a saint (that’s what a saint’s feast day is, after all).

So if you are after a really great death, forget the Viking funeral. You might want to opt for the extravagant medieval-style send off. But remember. It’ll cost you.

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For more reading, see Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550 by Christopher Daniell, Medieval Death by Paul Binski.

Jeri’s new Crispin Guest Medieval Noir, Serpent In The Thorns, will be in bookstores September 29th. For more, go to http://www.jeriwesterson.com/. To follow Jeri on the rest of her blog tour, visit her appearance schedule.

Book review: J.H. Schryer's Goodnight Vienna

In March 1938, the Nazis enter Vienna to widespread acclaim and little overt resistance. Overnight, anti-Jewish propaganda rains down on the populace and begins appearing on shop windows. Katharine Walters, a concert violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic, has a second job at the British Embassy’s passport office overseeing the issuance of visas, a demanding task since many Jews are frantic to emigrate. She also works undercover as an operative for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), otherwise known as MI6.

Her husband Jonathan, a surgeon and fellow agent, is continually sent on dangerous missions by his superior, Captain Henderson. In his absence, Katharine is assigned to watch over Freud's apartment until his visa is secured. Captain Henderson, for his part, has secretly loved Katharine for years but knows he's not free to reveal his feelings. Their close working relationship, and his seeming aloofness, creates an awkward situation for them both.

Alarming news reports come in: agents on active service are being eliminated, one by one. There’s a mole at work within the SIS, making Katharine fear for Jonathan’s safety. One night, her worst fears are realized. The story then flashes back to Berlin, six months earlier, to the point of their first meeting and Katharine’s recruitment into the world of international espionage.

Schryer (pseudonym of authors/historians James Hamilton and Dr. Helen Fry) keeps the pacing brisk and tension level high. The sharply written prose and cinematic descriptions make it easy to picture Vienna at a traumatic point in its history, and the dialogue is realistic and era-appropriate. The authors zoom in on striking images, such as the palatial lobby of the Hotel Imperial, with its polished checkerboard floor and sparkling chandelier. The tragic plight of Vienna's Jews is portrayed movingly, and the paths followed by the Jewish secondary characters exemplify the limited routes open to them.

All the characters have something to hide, as befitting a wartime thriller, but some are as inscrutable to the reader as they are to one another. Despite her career choice, for example, we never feel Katharine’s passion for her instrument. Surprising confidences are shared, viewpoints shift without warning, and one subplot is abandoned mid-story. (Perhaps the expected sequel will wrap up the loose ends?) While historical detail is mostly inserted smoothly, there's some heavy-handed explication: we're told at least three times that Jews were forced to scrub pavements. With the many misplaced commas and a few calculation errors, the novel sometimes reads like it missed the proofreading stage. It's meatier than expected from the short page count, but the miniscule typeface is really too small for comfort.

The most prominent character is actually Vienna itself, an elegant, cosmopolitan city transformed into a place of fear and heightening danger. The authors do a good job expressing the difficulty of living day-to-day when the Hitler Youth roam the streets and attempts at opposition are stifled. The complicated political situation is presented in an easily digestible manner, and it's educational and inspiring to read about the heroism of SIS operatives in 1930s Austria. Despite the novel’s rough edges, those fascinated by the subject, place, and time should find it worthwhile.

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Goodnight Vienna was published this June by The History Press (UK) in paperback at £8.99, 192pp, 978-0-7524-4920-3. For more details, see the authors' website.

Historical Novel Title Game - the winners!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge! You've all done an excellent job and come up with some great lists. Tabulating the results last night and this morning turned out to be a challenge for me, too, because there were many titles (especially historical romances and out-of-print books) I hadn't heard of before. Anyone notice that there were two titles from the grid in the photo itself? :)

I went through everyone's lists, removing the ones that weren't historical fiction (such as nonfiction biographies, modern thrillers, fantasy fiction; there was even a Star Trek novel in there), duplicates, and those with incomplete information or with words in the wrong order. For anyone who's interested, Hebe Elsna and Dorothy Phoebe Ansle are the same person, as are Lozania Prole and Ursula Bloom, so if you listed both for the same title, I counted them once. If anyone has questions on why certain titles didn't count, just email me or leave a comment. This is all pedantic stuff, but even after making these adjustments, it didn't change anyone's placement.

The results are:

First Place (and six free books): Yvette Hoitink, with 106 titles
Second Place (and five books): Heather Ganshorn, with 104 titles
Third Place (and four books): Daphne from Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff, with 90 titles

Congratulations - great work!! I'll be in touch shortly.

And now for the winners' lists. Who would have thought there'd be so many combinations? Because I knew people would be curious, and because I was curious myself, I've made a brief notation as to the topic/setting after each book. I've put (hf) for those I know are historical fiction but couldn't easily find the exact subject for.

Yvette's list:

Devil's Bride - Stephanie Laurens (Regency romance)
Devil's Garden - Ace Atkins (1920s San Francisco)
Devil's mistress - Heather Graham (17th c witch trials)
Empress - Evelyn McCune (Wu Jao, 7th-c China)
Empress - Shan Sa (7th-c China)
First Knight - Elizabeth Chadwick (medieval England)
First queen - John Gall (Hatshepsut)
Golden girl - Joan Wolf (Regency romance)
Golden Princess - Laurence Moody (Elizabeth I)
Grace - Chapman Travers (post-Civil War romance)
Grace - Deneane Clark (Regency romance)
Grace - Robert Ward (Civil Rights era)
Heretic - Bernard Cornwell (Hundred Years War)
Heretic's daughter - Kathleen Kent (Salem witch trials)
King's fool - Margaret Campbell Barnes (Henry VIII’s England)
King's mistress - Julia Watson (hf)
King's mistress - Kathryn Dryden (Tudor era)
The Last Concubine - Lesley Downer (19th-c Japan)
Last Tsarina - Lozania Prole (Empress Alexandra)
Mistress - Amanda Quick (hist romance)
Mistress - Leda Swann (19th c erotic romance)
Princess - Gaelen Foley (19th c Europe, romance)
The Queen's Bastard - Robin Maxwell (Elizabeth I)
Rebel - Bernard Cornwell (US Civil War)
Rebel - Heather Graham (Florida Civil War romance)
Rebel - John Clagett (Confederate navy)
Rebel king - Charles Randolph Bruce, Carolyn Hale Bruce (Robert Bruce)
Red Queen - Jane Hammond (hf)
Royal Blood - Rona Sharon (Tudor vampires)
Royal's bride - Kat Martin (1854 England, romance)
The bastard - John Jakes (Am Revolution)
The Boleyn Wife - Brandy Purdy (Jane Boleyn)
The concubine - Jade Lee (19th c China)
The concubine - Norah Lofts (Anne Boleyn)
The Concubine - Elechi Amadi (colonial Africa)
The concubine's daughter - Helen Kwok (1950s-60s Hong Kong)
The concubine's daughter - Pai Kit Fai (20th c rural China)
The courtier's secret - Donna Russo Morin (Louis XIV’s court)
The devil's daughter - Laura Drewry (western romance)
The Devil's Queen - Jeanne Kalogridis (Catherine de Medici)
The French Mistress - Susan Holloway Scott (Louise de Keroualle)
The Garden - Gillian Linscott (Edwardian saga)
The German Bride - Joanna Hershon (post-Civil War Southwest)
The golden king - Max Overton (ancient Scythia)
The Heretic - Alison Macleod (Anne Askew)
The heretic - Andrew Feder (ancient Greece, timeslip)
The Heretic - Chris Scott (Giordano Bruno)
The Heretic - Lewis M. Weinstein (15th-c Spain)
The Heretic - Miguel Delibes (Inquisition)
The heretic queen - Michelle Moran (Nefertari)
The heretic's wife - Brenda Rickman Vantrease (medieval)
The Italian - Ann Radcliffe (18th c Italy)
The Italian - Elaine Coffman (19th-c romance)
The Italian Garden - Judith Lennox (16th-c Venice)
The Italian Woman - Jean Plaidy (Catherine de Medici)
The King’s Grace - Anne Easter Smith (Grace Plantagenet, dau of Edward IV)
The King's Daughter - Sandra Worth (Elizabeth of York)
The King's gold - Arturo Perez-Reverte (17th-c Spain)
The Last Boleyn - Karen Harper (Mary Boleyn)
The Last Empress - Anchee Min (Empress Tzu Hsi)
The Last Heretic - D Conrad (16th-c Europe)
The last queen - C.W. Gortner (Juana of Castile)
The mistress - Philippe Tapon (WWII)
The mistress - Valerie Sherwood (historical romance)
The other Boleyn girl - Philippa Gregory (Mary/Anne Boleyn)
The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory (Mary Queen of Scots)
The other wife - Emery Barrus (Mormon history)
The perfect bride - Eileen Putman (Regency romance)
The perfect knight - Catherine Gousseff and Fabian Negrin (Middle Ages, juvenile hf)
The perfect mistress - Betina Krahn (hist romance)
The perfect royal mistress - Diane Haeger (Nell Gwyn)
The perfect wife - Doris Leslie (wife of Disraeli)
The perfect wife - Lynsay Sands (medieval romance)
The perfect wife - Mary Burton (romance, 1876 Colorado)
The perfect wife - Victoria Alexander (romance, 19th c Egypt)
The princess - Jude Deveraux (WWII-era romance)
The Queen's fool - Philippa Gregory (Mary Tudor)
The rebel - Jack Dann (James Dean)
The rebel - May McGoldrick (Irish hist romance)
The rebel Bride - Eva McDonald (Restoration romance)
The Rebel Princess - Judith Koll Healey (Alais of France)
The red queen - Margaret Drabble (18th c Korea)
The Red queen - Ruth S. Perot (Margaret of Anjou)
The shoe queen - Anna Davis (1925 Paris)
The Tsarina's Daughter - Carolly Erickson (Grand Duchess Tatiana)
The Venetian - David Weiss (Titian)
The Venetian Mask - Rosalind Laker (1775 Venice)
The Venetian's Mistress - Ann Elizabeth Cree (19th c Italy, romance)
The Virgin Queen's Daughter - Ella March Chase (Tudor England)
The virgin's secret - Victoria Alexander (Victorian romance)
The White knight - Gilbert Morris (saga, 1942)
The White Queen - Philippa Gregory (Elizabeth Woodville)
The widow's secret - Sara Mitchell (insp Christian romance)
The Widow's War - Sally Gunning (colonial Cape Cod)
The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell (King Arthur trilogy, v.1)
The Winter Prince - Cheryl Sawyer (Rupert of the Rhine)
The winter queen - Boris Akunin (20th c Russia)
The Winter Queen - Jane Stevenson (Elizabeth of Bohemia)
The wise woman - Christian Jacq (ancient Egypt)
The wise woman - Philippa Gregory (Tudor England)
Virgin wife - Clare Kersey (hf)
White Knight - Jaclyn Reding (Regency romance)
White Queen - Lesley J. Nickell (Anne Neville)
White widow - Jim Lehrer (1950s Texas)
Winter's bride - Catherine Archer (historical romance)
Wise woman - R.A. Forde (5th c Brittany)

Heather's list:

The Alchemist, by Donna Boyd (time-slip to ancient Egypt)
The Alchemist's Daughter, by Katharine McMahon (1712 England)
The Alchemist's Daughter, by Eileen Kernaghan (YA, Elizabethan England)
The Alchemist's Daughter, by Elaine Knighton (historical romance)
The Bastard, by John Jakes (American Revolution)
The Bastard, by Brigitte von Tessin (medieval)
The Concubine, by Norah Lofts (Anne Boleyn)
The Concubine, by Elechi Amadi (colonial Africa)
The Concubine's Secret, by Kate Furnivall (1929 China)
The Concubine's Daughter, by Pai Kit Fai (20th c rural China)
The Courtier's Secret, by Donna Russo Morin (Louis XIV’s France)
The Devil's Queen, by Jeanne Kalogridis (Catherine de Medici)
The Devil's Bastard, by Charlsie Russell (18th c Natchez)
The Devil's Blood, by Kirby Jonas (American West)
Devil's Bride, by Stephanie Laurens (Regency romance)
Devil's Daughter, by Catherine Coulter (romance, England 1803)
Devil's Garden, by Ace Atkins (1920s San Frnacisco)
The Devil's Lady, by Deborah Simmons (medieval romance)
Devil's Lady, by Patricia Rice (hist romance)
Devil's Lady, by Dawn Lindsey (Regency romance)
Devil's Mistress, by Heather Graham (17th c witch trials)
The Devil's Mistress, by Alison Leslie Gold (Eva Braun)
Empress, by Shan Sa (7th-c China)
First Knight, by Elizabeth Chadwick (medieval)
The First Queen, by John Gall (Hatshepsut)
The French Mistress, by Susan Holloway Scott (Louise de Keroualle)
The Golden Knight, by George Challis (medieval)
Heretic, by Bernard Cornwell (Hundred Years’ War)
The Heretic, by Lewis M. Weinstein (Jews during the Inquisition)
The Heretic, by Alison MacLeod (Anne Askew)
The Heretic, by Miguel Delibes (15th-c Spain)
The Heretic, by Andrew Feder (ancient Greece, timeslip)
The Heretic, by Chris Scott (Giordano Bruno)
The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent (Salem witch trials)
The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran (ancient Egypt)
The Heretic's Wife, by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (medieval, forthcoming)
King's Bastard, by Charlotte Denis (Charles II)
King Bastard, by Aileen Quigley (William the Conqueror)
The King's Bastard, by Hebe Elsna (Duke of Monmouth)
The King's Bastard, by Noel de Vic Beamish (Maurice de Saxe)
King's Blood, by Judith Tarr (Norman England)
The King's Daughter, by Sandra Worth (Elizabeth of York)
The King's Daughter, by Barbara Kyle (Mary Tudor’s England)
The King's Daughter, by Suzanne Martel (1660s Canada)
The King's Daughter, by Mary O'Connell (Hildegard of Bingen)
King's Fool, by Margaret Campbell Barnes (Henry VIII’s England)
The King's Fool, by Louis Arthur Cunningham (time of Louis XV, adventure)
The King's Garden, by Fanny Deschamps (time of Louis XIV)
The King's Girl, by Sylvie Ouellette (erotic romance set in early Canada)
The King's Gold, by Arturo Perez-Reverte (17th-c Spain)
The King's Grace, by Anne Easter Smith (Grace Plantagenet, illeg dau of Edward IV)
The King's Mistress, by Jean Plaidy (Jane Shore)
The King's Mistress, by Terri Brisbin (medieval romance)
The King's Mistress, by Julia Watson (hf)
The King's Mistress, by Emma Campion (Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III)
The King's Mistress, by Kathryn Dryden (Tudor)
The King's Secret, by Kathryn Dryden (hf)
The King's Secret, by Tyrone Power (Edward III)
The King's Wife, by Ursula Bloom (hf)
The Knight, by Juliana Garnett (medieval romance)
The Knight's Bride, by Lyn Stone (medieval romance)
Knight's Lady, by Julianne Lee (timeslip, 14th-c Scotland)
Knight's Lady, by Suzanne Barclay (Regency romance)
The Last Boleyn, by Karen Harper (Mary Boleyn)
The Last Concubine, by Lesley Downer (19th c Japan)
The Last Empress, by Anchee Min (Empress Tzu Hsi)
The Last Heretic, by D.S. Conrad (16th-c Europe)
The Last Queen, by C.W. Gortner (Juana of Castile)
The Last King, by Michael Curtis Ford (King Mithradates the Great)
The Last Knight, by Candice Proctor (medieval romance)
The Last Princess, by Charles O. Locke (Incas)
The Mask, by Stuart Cloete (19th-c South Africa)
The Mask, by Donna Lee Poff (medieval romance)
The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory (Anne and Mary Boleyn)
The Other Queen, by Philippa Gregory (Mary Queen of Scots)
The Prince, by Hushain Golshiri (1920s Iran)
The Prince, by Francine Rivers (biblical)
The Prince's Bride, by Victoria Alexander (Regency romance)
The Queen's Bastard, by Robin Maxwell (Elizabethan)
The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory (Mary Tudor’s England)
The Queen's Grace, by Nigel Tranter (Mary Queen of Scots)
The Queen's Grace, by Jan Westcott (Katharine Parr)
The Queen's Secret, by Jean Plaidy (Katharine de Valois)
The Queen's War, by Jeanne Mackin (Eleanor of Aquitaine)
Rebel King (trilogy name), by Charles Randolph Bruce and Carolyn Hale Bruce (Robert Bruce)
The Red Queen's Daughter, by Jacqueline A. Kolosov (Mary Seymour)
Royal Blood, by Rona Sharon (Tudor vampires)
Royal Bride, by Joan Wolf (post-Bonaparte Europe, romance)
The Shoe Queen, by Anna Davis (1925 Paris)
The Tsarina's Daughter, by Carolly Erickson (Grand Duchess Tatiana)
The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell (Arthurian)
The Virgin Queen's Daughter, by Ella March Chase (Elizabethan)
The Venetian Mask, by Rosalind Laker (1775 Venice)
The Virgin Queen, by Maureen Peters (Elizabeth I)
The White Queen, by Frederic Fallon (MQos)
The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory (Eliz Woodville)
The Winter Queen, by Boris Akunin (20th c Russia)
The Winter Queen, by Jane Stevenson (Eliz of Bohemia)
The Widow's Secret, by Brian Thompson (Victorian romp)
The Widow's Secret, by Sara Mitchell (insp Christian romance)
The Widow's War, by Sally Gunning (colonial Massachusetts)
The Widow's War, by Mary Mackey (US Civil War)
The Winter Prince, by Cheryl Sawyer (Rupert of the Rhine)

Daphne's list:
(topic noted for those not listed previously)

Devil’s Garden – Ace Atkins
Empress – Shan Sa
First Knight – Elizabeth Chadwick
Gold – Stewart White (California Gold Rush)
Heretic – Bernard Cornwall
King’s Bastard – Charlotte Denis
King’s Blood – Judith Tarr
Knight’s Blood – Julianne Lee (timeslip, 14th-c Scotland)
Knight’s Lady – Julianne Lee
Perfect Wife – Lynsay Sands (medieval romance)
Queen Gold – Philippa Wiat (Philippa of Hainault)
Queen’s Lady – Patricia Parkes (Mary Tudor’s England)
The Queen’s War – Jeanne Mackin
Rebel – Bernard Cornwell
Red Gold – Alan Furst (WWII thriller)
Royal Blood – Rona Sharon
The Alchemist’s Daughter – Katherine McMahon
The Bastard – John Jakes
The Bride – Julie Garwood (medieval romance)
The Concubine – Norah Lofts
The Concubine’s Secret – Kate Furnivall
The Courtier’s Secret – Donna Russo Morin
The Devil’s Queen – Jeanne Kalogridis
The French Mistress – Susan Holloway Scott
The German Woman – Paul Griner (WWII)
The Golden Princess – Alexander Baron (Marina and Cortes)
The Heretic Queen – Michelle Moran
The Heretic’s Daughter – Kathleen Kent
The Heretic’s Wife – Brenda Rickman Vantrease
The Italian Garden – Judith Lennox
The Italian Woman – Jean Plaidy
The King’s Bastard – Hebe Elsna
The King’s Daughter - Lozania Prole (hf)
The King’s Daughter - Barbara Kyle
The King’s Daughter - Christie Dickason
The King’s Daughter – Sandra Worth
The King’s Fool – Margaret Campbell Barnes
The King’s Garden – Fanny Deschamps
The King’s Gold – Arturo-Perez Reverte
The King’s Grace – Anne Easter Smith
The King’s Mistress – Emma Campion
The King’s Mistress - Jean Plaidy
The King’s Wife – Ursula Bloom
The Last Boleyn – Karen Harper
The Last Bride – Sandra Landry (timeslip to medieval France)
The Last Concubine – Lesley Downer
The Last Empress- Anchee Min
The Last Girl – Stephan Collishaw (1930s Vilnius, Lithuania)
The Last King – Michael Curtis Ford
The Last Knight – Candice Proctor
The Last Queen – CW Gortner
The Last Tsarina – Lozania Prole
The Other Boleyn Girl – Philippa Gregory
The Other Queen – Philippa Gregory
The Other Woman – Iris Gower (Welsh saga)
The Perfect Daughter – Gillian Linscott (suffragette mystery)
The Perfect Royal Mistress – Diane Haeger
The Perfect Wife – Doris Leslie
The Prince – Francine Rivers
The Queen’s Bastard – Robin Maxwell
The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory
The Queen’s Grace – Jan Westcott
The Queen’s Grace – Nigel Tranter
The Queen’s Lady – Barbara Kyle
The Queen’s Secret – Jean Plaidy
The Rebel Princess – Judith Koll Healey
The Red Queen – Ruth S. Perot
The Red Queen’s Daughter – Jacqueline Kolosov
The Shoe Queen – Anna Davis
The Tsarina’s Daughter – Carolly Erickson
The Venetian Mask – Rosalind Laker
The Virgin Queen – Maureen Peters
The Virgin Queen’s Daughter – Ella March Chase
The White – Deborah Larsen (Mary Jemison, 18th c Pennsylvania)
The White Empress – Lyn Andrews (British saga)
The White Queen - Lesley Nickell
The White Queen – Philippa Gregory
The Widow’s Secret – Brian Thompson
The Widow’s War - Mary Mackey
The Widow’s War – Sally Gunning
The Winter King – Bernand Cornwell
The Winter Prince – Cheryl Sawyer
The Winter Queen – Jane Stevenson
The Winter Queen - Judith Saxton
The Wise Woman – Philippa Gregory
Virgin – Robin Maxwell
Virgin Princess – Jane P. Richardson (historical India)
White Blood – James Fleming (1917 Russia)
Winter Garden – Adele Ashworth (Edwardian romance)
Winter’s Daughter – Juliet Dymoke (British saga)

Additional titles found by other participants:

Grace by Jane Roberts Wood (20th c Texas)
King's Daughter by Margaret Orford (Joanna, illeg dau of King John)
Rebel Girl by Ann Clancy (colonial Australia)
Royal Mistress by Margaret Orford (Princess Nest of Wales)
Royal Mistress by Patricia Campbell Horton (Barbara Villiers)
The Courtier’s Daughter by Lady Catherine Stepney (early 19th c)
The Devil’s Bride by Joan Silsby (sequel to Much Ado About Nothing)
The German Woman by Janet Ashton (Empress Alexandra)
The King's Daughter by Rosemary Churchill (Mary Tudor)
The Perfect Bride by Brenda Joyce (Regency-era romance)
The Perfect Princess by Elizabeth Thornton (Regency-era romance)
The Queen's Lady by Shannon Drake (Tudor-era romance)
The Rebel Princess by Doris Leslie (Sophia Dorothea of Celle)
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (forthcoming about Margaret Beaufort)
The Venetian’s Wife by Nick Bantock (Renaissance pictorial)
The Virgin Widow by Anne O’Brien (forthcoming about Anne Neville)
The White Princess by Philippa Gregory (forthcoming about Eliz of York)
The white queen by Frances Irwin (Anne Neville)
The White Queen by William Stearns Davis (St. Louis, King of France)
The Winter Queen by Amanda McCabe (historical romance, forthcoming)
The Winter War by William Durbin (1939 invasion of Finland)

But before I sign off ...

Whew - I think this is the longest post ever on this blog. I hope this helped turn you on to some historical novels new to you. And, finally, I wanted to thank the remaining participants who entered the contest and came up with impressive lists of their own. Rather than my doing a random drawing, you'll each be receiving two books from my pile of extras (which has grown slightly in size since the original contest was posted). The top 3 winners will get first dibs, but I hope you'll each end up with books you haven't read before. I'll be emailing you soon with a list of what's available. Enjoy!

Just a brief reminder

... that entries for the Historical Novel Title Game are due in by this Friday. I'll accept entries through midnight CST.

"None such in the land"

Susan's recent post on The White Queen got me to thinking about Nonsuch, the royal palace built by Henry VIII, and a novel I once read about its history. In the 1530s, the king chose a site on the Surrey plain for the location of a magnificent hunting lodge. The lands were already owned by the Cuddington family, and had been for hundreds of years, but no matter -- King Henry annexed the entire village, along with a manor house, church, and priory, and had all the structures torn down to construct a Renaissance palace "as there would be none such in the land." The Cuddingtons were properly compensated for their troubles and given lands in Sussex in exchange. No doubt they were less than thrilled by this demonstration of the king's munificence!

Nonsuch Palace, which never merited more than a few visits by Henry VIII, proved more popular with his daughter, Elizabeth I. It remained standing until 1682. By this time it had fallen into the hands of Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, the notorious mistress of Charles II. Her gambling habits left her short of cash, so she had it demolished, the building materials sold to pay her debts.

Mary M. Luke's The Nonsuch Lure focuses not on the Tudors themselves, but on the Cuddingtons, the family dispossessed by the king's decision. It's a time-slip novel about star-crossed lovers, a beautiful 16th-century woman thought to be tainted by witchcraft, a curse that lasts over generations, and a mysterious lost treasure known only as the Lure. An irresistible combination for an escapist historical read.

The novel begins in the 1970s, as Andrew Moffatt, a wealthy American architect who spends his time jet-setting around the globe, comes across an old journal in a Virginia bookstore. Andrew gets caught up in reading the diary entries of Julian Cushing, a young teacher from colonial Williamsburg, who became so enraptured by a painting that it drew him across the Atlantic and to the ruins of Nonsuch Palace. Curious, Andrew travels to England to visit the Nonsuch excavation site, and finds that his life and Julian's are running in parallel. He begins seeing ghosts from the Tudor era, and there's an evil presence at Nonsuch that seems to have lingered...

I first read The Nonsuch Palace about twenty years ago, and after a quick reread, I found the storyline just as captivating now as it was to me then. Parts are dated, like the 1970s-era slang, and then there's Andrew's occasional cigarette-smoking (in a historic building, too, for shame!). But it's still a wonderful book, and you won't soon forget the history of Nonsuch Palace after reading it. My copy's a 1977 paperback, and it's long out of print, but you can find copies on ABE and Bookfinder.com, among others (kind of pricey, though), as well as at many public libraries.

Good stuff this week

1 - The new bookshelves have arrived. I don't know why it is, but I can always think more clearly when my house isn't a mess. I've had some books sitting in piles on the floor for over a year.

2 - An ARC of DeVa Gantt's Forever Waiting is on its way to me. This will be one of these drop-everything-and-read-it books, so I won't be beginning any lengthy novels for a little while.

3 - Entries have started to come in for the historical novel title game. This is exciting - I really had no idea if anyone would take me up on the challenge!

4 - There is talk of a book blogger convention which would tag along after (or before) BEA in 2010. It sounds like great fun, and if it happens, I plan to be there.

5 - An article that I've been struggling to write for the past couple of days is starting to take shape.

6 - There have been many new historical novel deals in Publishers Marketplace. Judging by past practice, the titles on some of these will be changing before publication, but here are some of them:

CEZANNE'S QUARRY author Barbara Corrado Pope's THE BLOOD OF LORRAINE, at the height of the Dreyfus Affair, the town magistrate must prove that a mutilated baby is not a case of "ritual sacrifice" in order to quell the anti-Semitic hysteria threatening to engulf the town, to Jessica Case at Pegasus, by Mollie Glick at Foundry Literary + Media (World). [speaker at the Historical Novel Society conference in Schaumburg; her first novel was an HNS editors' choice title]

Dori Jones Yang's DAUGHTER OF XANADU, about a spirited young Mongolian princess who must decide between her growing attraction towards a young foreigner, Marco Polo, and proving to the Khan, and to herself, that she can be a bold warrior, to Michelle Poploff at Delacorte, by Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (NA). [this is a YA novel]

Suzanne Desrochers's BRIDE OF NEW FRANCE, pitched as pioneering meets Philippa Gregory, based on the riveting true story of the Filles du roi, the unlucky girls sent from the poor houses of Paris to the wilderness of New France to populate its new colony for King Louis XIV, to Adrienne Kerr at Penguin Canada, for publication in November 2010, by Samantha Haywood of the Transatlantic Literary Agency. [if it's a novel about historical women, the comparison to Gregory is almost a given. It's the subject that makes me want to read it, though]

Melissa Hardy's BROKEN ROAD, following several generations of one Cherokee family in their various quests for wealth, love, power and dignity, drawing upon the roots of their native mythology and sacred history to create a moving account of the intense love-hate relationship between two peoples that would ultimately end in the destruction of the Cherokee way of life, to Michael Callaghan of Exile Editions, for publication in Fall 2009, by Bill Hanna of Acacia House. [another great-sounding novel from Canada]

RITA-nominated author Susanna Kearsley's THE WINTER SEA, the story of a modern novelist who slowly comes to realize that her book about a little-known Jacobite rebellion and the people taking part in it might be more fact than fiction, to Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2010, by Shawna McCarthy at The McCarthy Agency (US). [so glad this one will finally be available in American bookstores!]

BBAW, and recent purchases

First, thank you to whoever nominated Reading the Past for Best History/Historical Fiction blog for Book Blogger Appreciation Week! It's an honor to be in such great company (I know many of my fellow HF bloggers were also nominated) and also really nice to see that our little corner of the blogosphere has an award to call our own.

I've made a couple semi-large purchases this week and thought I'd spread the word, especially since the sales won't last long. The first is that there's a really good deal on stackable folding bookshelves going on this week at Staples, the US-based office supply store. They're $29.99 apiece in stores, which means you can get a floor-to-ceiling pair of them for $60. I own a couple dozen of these shelves, and this is the cheapest I've ever seen them, so yesterday we went out and ordered four more with free delivery since our local store was out of stock. This means the mini-chateau of books next to my desk will soon be gone (to my cats' dismay).

This is what eight of them look like, stacked and placed side by side. And yes, there is another row of them around the corner to the left...

The second thing is that, for those of you who haven't heard, Book Depository's US site, http://www.bookdepository.com/, is now in business and has enormous discounts (up to 54% off) on some brand new titles and preorders, but you have to be fast and catch them before they disappear. Last week, I found Lindsey Davis's Rebels and Traitors, to be published in two weeks, on sale for $9ish plus free shipping. Of course I put it in my cart. That particular discount doesn't seem to be available any more, but there are others just as good on different books.

I purchased, erm, seven or eight other historical novels at similar prices and will have to wait a few weeks to a few months until some of them come in, but that's OK with me. Browse through their historical novel section and see what else you can find. Some books are as low as $5.24 US. How are they making money on this, especially with the free shipping? I've no idea. They're also selling Gregory's The White Queen for 1/2 off, should you be leaning in that direction. (My book is even on sale with a small discount, with free shipping worldwide. Normally, for some countries, airmail shipping would be more than the book itself costs.)

Anyway, I have no association with either company, but maybe some other book collector will find this info useful.

The Historical Novel Title Game

Okay, I have a lot of duplicate historical novels on hand and no room on my shelves. They need to find good homes, so I thought I'd share the wealth.

To do this, I've come up with a little game that will not only test your historical fiction knowledge but hopefully be fun to participate in, too.

This is the grid you'll have to work with:

Your mission is to find as many historical novel titles as you can.

The rules:

(1) The words have to be used in the order given (left to right).

(2) You don't have to use something from every column, as long as the words are in the correct order. For example, if there were historical novels called The Italian Bastard or The Shoe Garden (as far as I know, neither exists), they would count.

(3) Forthcoming titles count. Out-of-print titles count. As long as it's a historical novel that will be or has been published, it counts.

(4) You need to provide both the titles and the authors. (Hint: there are some titles that work for more than one author.)

(5) If you're an author who discovers title possibilities within the grid, you're more than welcome to use them for your next book!

The prizes:

There are 20 books in the pile above. All are unread and in pristine shape, a mix of new books, ARCs, and older titles I've had sitting around for a while. Most were published in summer 2009.

The person who sends the longest list of titles, per the rules above, will win 6 books or his/her choice from the pile. The second-place winner will get to choose 5 books from what remains, the third-place winner will get 4 books... after that, randomly selected entrants will get to choose two apiece from the remaining books until they're all gone.

How to enter:

Email your completed lists to me at readingthepast@hotmail.com with the subject "Title Game." The deadline is Friday, September 4th. One entry per person. International entrants welcome. Please don't leave your contest entries in the comments; if you do, your fellow readers will see your answers and will have every right to use them :)

I'll post the top 3 winners' names and their lists on Saturday, September 5th, and I'll be in touch about the prizes shortly thereafter.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Book review: Margaret Redfern, Flint

A well-paced, thoughtful novel of brotherly affection, self-discovery, and shifting wartime loyalties, Margaret Redfern's Flint deals not so much with the movers and shakers of history as with the moved and shaken. In the summer of 1277, Edward I of England and his men are trampling over North Wales, building castles to consolidate their domination of the land and people. Their enemy, Prince Llewelyn, remains trapped with his men in the mountains of Snowdonia, and pockets of Welsh resistance still exist.

When Edward's men arrive in the village of Boston Haven in the English fens, recruiting peasants as ditch-diggers, ten-year-old Will accompanies his sixteen-year-old brother Ned when he is conscripted into the makeshift army. Their journey over water and land, a long and exhausting march, will end at Flint, in the sandy marshes of the eastern border of Wales. Here they will do what they do best, "make land out of sea," creating banks and wide trenches to keep Edward's new fortress safe from attack.

The story is narrated by Will, both as a youth and in old age, with an occasional third-person perspective. Small icons denote the alternating sections.

Will has always watched over his older brother, whose garbled speech makes him seem simple-minded to others, although Ned has uncanny abilities to calm restless animals and communicate with music. Ned has further talents besides, some of which Will doesn't yet know. As they make their way westward with their 300-man company, Ned quietly follows his private, more complicated mission: to reunite with his former teacher and friend, the Welsh bard Ieuan ap y Gof.

The landscape along their route becomes a character in itself: the red stone and earth of Chester, the thick mud of the camp at Flint, the damp odor of the marshy riverbanks. The haunting imagery is beautifully rendered, with the sky, sea, and native birds and other animals changing constantly along the way. Redfern writes in the lilting language of myth. In this land where children believe in marsh-devils and elf-lights, and musicians whittle pipes out of the bones of swans' wings, the dark medieval atmosphere becomes infused with its own magic.

As the brothers' personal tale plays out in the wake of the English and Welsh monarchs' actions, Will gradually learns that one's path in life hinges on seemingly minor choices, and that ties of love matter more than politics. Emotionally resonant, and considerably deeper than its short length might suggest, Flint celebrates the power of song and story to help us remember people and places that might otherwise be forgotten. Highly recommended.

---

Flint was published this June by Honno, an independent cooperative press focused on Welsh women writers (£6.99, 195pp, 1-906-78404-3, free postage to UK addresses). It can also be ordered from Book Depository at $9.95.

It's time for more tacky

More lusty adventures in the past! Another trawl through my basement bookshelves revealed more tacky historical novel covers -- with equally tacky blurbs.



"A picture of the wanton court of James I and of the beautiful, voluptuous Arabella Stuart, a woman who lived only to satisfy her own lusts."

"The dull pain in his heart gave way to seething anger; fury at this wench who thought Pagan de Beaugency's love was a plaything to be tossed aside at a woman's whim..."

"Romance and horror! The fabulous, magnificent story of the young Englishman, Dirk Young, and of the lovely Dutch girl who followed him across a savage land..."

(That's bad enough; the rest of the blurb goes beyond culturally insensitive.)



"Illegitimate daughter of a debauched nobleman; ragged pickpocket of the slums; wife of a titled wastrel; insatiable paramour of men of low estate and high. But finally and forever, she was a slave to the lust of Innocent Paradine, king of highwaymen."



"The spectacular story of a reckless adventurer who went where few men dared to go..."



"A mighty empire sliding into a pit of corruption, pride, and hatred."



"Bloody civil wars, tiger hunts, the passionate loves of Lalita, the sultry slave girl ... He learned all there was to know about life and death -- and desire!"



"Full of violence, lust, cruelty, and barbaric passion."



"A swashbuckling tale about the cutthroat pirate and a highborn lady... In the hot darkness, she had learned more about men than she would have guessed it possible to know."

If you missed the previous two galleries of tackiness, check them out here and here.

And the winners of Invasion are...

In the order their numbers were drawn: Laura, Michael, Valorie, Marie B, and Lucy.

Drop me a line at sljohnson2 at eiu.edu with your mailing address and I'll get your ARCs out to you. Congratulations to the five winners, and thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway!

ps - For another chance to enter, C.W. Gortner is offering a similar contest on his blog and will draw the winners on August 10.

A visual preview of the fall season, part three

I'm late in getting this final group of covers posted. The good news about my tardiness, though, is that many of these titles will be available in the very near future. See parts one and two here and here. Part one of my spring 2010 preview coming soon!


In 1815 Paris, a medical student from Edinburgh gets drawn into an underworld of outlaws and émigrés after a beautiful woman steals his coral specimens. Spiegel & Grau, September; also Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK), Jan 2010.

Edghill (Queenmaker, Wisdom's Daughter) reinterprets another biblical tale from the feminine perspective. I was fortunate to read an early copy of Delilah and think it's her best yet. St. Martin's, November.



The conclusion of the authors' Colette trilogy, a family saga set in the West Indies during the early 19th century. This series is addictive, and I'll be indulging myself as soon as my copy arrives. Avon A, November.


Catalan novelist Rosales's fourth novel, set in the contemporary art world and at the royal court of 18th-century Barcelona, centers on a manuscript telling of a lost masterpiece by the Venetian painter Tiepolo. Carlos Ruiz Zafón gave it a great blurb. Alma Books, October.

Jarrettsville takes place in northern Maryland just after the Civil War, and looks deeply into the reasons behind the inexplicable killing of a Union hero by his fiancée. Based on a true story from the author's family history. Counterpoint, October.

A multigenerational epic of Canada, done up in the style of Michener and Rutherfurd, and inspired by the life of David Thompson, an early 19th-century Welsh immigrant who became Canada's greatest cartographer. I love the cover. Viking Canada, November.

Third in Gedge's King's Man trilogy, which follows the life of the renowned seer, Huy, in the last years of ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty. This volume begins as Huy becomes scribe and counselor to the young pharaoh, Amunhotep III. Penguin Canada, forthcoming [publication delayed, per publisher]



In the Aizu mountains of Japan in the late 19th century, a young peasant girl falls desperately in love with a samurai warrior, only to learn that the world she inhabits has no place for love. Alma, October, and available in the UK now.


An author known for her historical mysteries set in ancient Rome turns to the English Civil War and Commonwealth, a setting she calls her first love in historical fiction. Century, September.


Canadian novelist Holeman has written three historical novels for adults, all part of her Indian trilogy set in 19th-century India and Afghanistan. Her latest, about a woman in search of her missing fiancé, takes place in 1930s Marrakech. McArthur & Co (Canada) and Headline Review (UK), October.


A debut novel about a mysterious young woman named Rachel and the passion she and Vincent van Gogh shared. If you're not already a regular to Sheramy's blog, give it a visit for insights into the writing process as well as Van Gogh's life and art. Avon A, October.


In the third in her Languedoc trilogy, a man and woman haunted by loss in the Great War meet in the Pyrenees in 1928 and begin unraveling a tragic mystery extending back centuries. Orion, October.

Interesting cover...

After finishing up The Taste of Sorrow, I pulled my old copy of Wuthering Heights off the shelf (it has my former name and homeroom penciled in on the inside cover) and noticed the heroine on the cover looked familiar. What do you think — Catherine Earnshaw as a more demure version of Madame X?

Forthcoming titles, and an old book gets a makeover

I've finished compiling an update to the forthcoming books list on the Historical Novel Society website. It's only July, but a few publishers have their Winter 2010 catalogs out already. The main page lists titles through December, while those for January and forward appear on a separate page. Info on titles from US publishers was provided by me; Sarah Cuthbertson compiles the UK listings.

One of the new books on Sarah C's list, Mary Jane Staples's The Summer's Day is Done, caught my attention because the title seemed so familiar. A little googling revealed it was a reissue of a novel from 1976, one that I happen to own. The new and the old:

Mary Jane Staples and Robert Tyler Stevens were both pseudonyms used by Reginald Thomas Staples. He's best known for the Adams Family series of cockney wartime sagas written as Mary Jane Staples. Although he died in 2005, some of his older, non-series books are being reissued under the more familiar Mary Jane Staples name, which has been confusing some readers.

The novel's about a secret (fictional) love affair between Grand Duchess Olga and British agent John Kirby, who meets her at the Tsar's ball in 1911. The original edition was also published in the US, in paperback. Has anyone read it? Kind of a similar plotline to Catherine Gavin's The Snow Mountain, which a while back I mentioned as a favorite of mine.

Book review: Jude Morgan's The Taste of Sorrow

In historical fiction circles, the Brontës look set to become this year’s Tudors, prompting questions on whether the world needs yet another novel on 19th-century England’s most famous literary family. In this case, the answer is definitely yes. Jude Morgan has traced the dark paths to artistic genius before (his Passion is an absorbing look at Byron, Shelley, Keats, and the women in their lives). In his latest effort, he sweeps the aura of romantic legend away from Charlotte, Emily, and Anne and examines who they were as writers and as people, working separately and together. The Taste of Sorrow is a masterful work, written with admiration, deep understanding, and imaginative skill while remaining faithful to the historical record. It’s totally engrossing as well, the only downside being that it may spoil the enjoyment of other fictional accounts.

As the title suggests, a sense of melancholy pervades the Brontës’ lives. As Morgan details their personal histories, he makes it easy to understand why. But despite the suffering and tragedies they each experience, we’re also left with vivid impressions of the intellectual spark that helped them triumph over what could have been a wholly bleak existence.

The most harrowing moments occur toward the beginning and end. In 1824, Reverend Patrick Brontë, the strong-willed parson of Haworth parish in windswept, remote Yorkshire, helps his dowerless daughters plan for a lifetime of duty by sending the four eldest away to boarding school. The abominable conditions and abusive treatment leave them malnourished and despondent, yet they’re too proud to complain. Maria and Elizabeth, the oldest girls, eventually sicken and die of consumption, events recited as living examples of the dreadful “children’s stories” read by the school’s proprietor.

Charlotte’s childhood experience at the Cowan School clearly shapes her character (and writings, as we know from Jane Eyre). After their sisters’ deaths, she and her remaining siblings, including brother Branwell – gifted, unhappy, self-destructive Branwell – band together in a fertile literary synergy, creating imaginary worlds which to them are very real. The lands of Angria and Gondal become physical places where they spend time (and sometimes get lost), so strong is their pull. Literary genius, given life on the page.

Although Charlotte emerges as the main protagonist, Morgan ensures no one receives short shrift. We see how Anne, quietly independent, uses her frustrations with governessing as fodder for Agnes Grey, but Emily needs no outside inspiration. She finds all the knowledge she needs of passion, torment, and the complexity of human nature within herself; she is a wonderfully realized character. Though fiercely solitary, Emily's advice following Charlotte’s romantic rejection by her married mentor from Brussels shows perceptive insight. Even Maria and Elizabeth, the young leaders of their family group, have more than walk-on roles, and their absence leaves Charlotte, the original middle child, feeling vulnerable and exposed.

Not only does Morgan have a sure touch with character, but his wording is spot on. His phrasing is precisely crafted and setting-appropriate. When Anne notes that the unpleasantness she encounters as governess at Thorp Green Hall “rubbed like a nutmeg-grater at the quick of her self,” we know her meaning exactly. However, while the language reflects its time, the novel’s style is actually quite contemporary, and what’s remarkable is how well it works. Without excess drama or irrelevant scenes, it presents the Brontës in tune with what’s known of them, offering impressionistic fragments when full sentences won’t do. The narrative slips back and forth between their actions and thoughts; one scene told in a tangle of four contrasting inner voices is especially effective. Every word contributes to the whole, and the result reads seamlessly.

One result of this understated approach is that the sisters are allowed some of their intensely guarded privacy. For example, with a few exceptions, we don’t get to scrutinize the thought processes that went into the creation of their masterworks; those novels stand on their own, as they should. Other scenes fade out at a point when less practiced writers might have been tempted to continue. Knowing when to hone in versus step back is a powerful skill, and here, the silences speak as loudly as words. This restraint makes the emotional content all the more poignant, and the conclusion all the more heartbreaking.

-----

The Taste of Sorrow was published in hardcover this May by Headline Review (£12.99, 384pp, 9780755338894 ). Those outside the UK can order it, as I did, from Book Depository.

Win a copy of Julian Stockwin's upcoming Kydd novel, Invasion

Thanks to McBooks Press, I have five ARCs of Invasion, the 10th novel in Julian Stockwin's Kydd series, to offer to Reading the Past visitors. The series, based on real events from history, is the story of Thomas Paine Kydd's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the Great Age of Fighting Sail.

Readers new to the series will find that each volume stands on its own merits, while those familiar with Kydd should enjoy reading about his new adventures. A plot synopsis follows:

In the tenth book of the popular series, rumors fly of Napoleon's planned invasion of England, and British naval commander Thomas Kydd is sent to liaise with American inventor, Robert Fulton. The American has created "infernal machines" that can kill from a distance. Fulton believes that his inventions--the submarine and torpedo--will win the day for the power that possesses them, and Kydd must help him develop the devices. Despite his own scruples, believing that standing man-to-man is the only honorable way to fight, Kydd agrees to take part in the crucial testing of these weapons of mass destruction. In the end, their fire power just may decide the fate of England.

These five copies are galleys... not in the nautical sense, mind you, but pre-publication Advanced Reading Copies (paperbacks). Invasion will be published in October 2009, so this is your chance to read it early. The McBooks site as a whole, I might add, is worth checking out if you're into historical fiction at all, especially thrillers and multi-volume historical adventures.

To enter the drawing for Invasion, all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post, briefly mentioning why you'd like to receive a copy. Deadline is Saturday, August 1st, and the five winners will be selected randomly (and announced) the following day. Good luck to all the entrants!

Book review: Susan Holloway Scott's The French Mistress

(This is the first of three reviews of novels by authors consistently given Editor's Choice status by the Historical Novels Review. I take no credit for this, as the editors simply choose the novels that the reviewers recommend most highly. This also marks a stop on Susan Holloway Scott's online book tour; for more details, read to the bottom of the review.)

As the most honored mistress of Charles II of England and a spy for Louis XIV of France, Louise de Keroualle was in a unique position to nurture an alliance between their two countries. That she carried out her mission while remaining high in the favor of both men testifies to her cleverness, ambition, and unwavering devotion to her royal lover. It’s no surprise that Louise’s story is a compelling one, and Scott’s fictionalized memoir of this fascinating woman brims with color and vitality.

In the prologue, set in London in 1685, Louise looks back on her life to that point, acknowledging her bad reputation among the English while remaining proud of her accomplishments. We follow her journey beginning in 1668, when as a shy eighteen-year-old she joins the household of the English-born Henriette-Anne, Duchesse d’Orleans, as a maid of honor. Louise soon becomes the confidante of “Madame,” witnessing her abusive marriage and her close relationship with her royal brother, Charles, with whom she frequently corresponds.

After Madame’s tragic (and suspicious) early death, Louise obeys the Sun King’s request that she travel to England to seduce Charles and ensure his sympathy to French interests. It’s a dangerous game, for her nationality and Catholicism make her an easy target in that overly Protestant country, but Louise’s beauty, elegance, and kindness capture Charles’s attention. Surrounded by flatterers and enemies, Louise learns that the king is the only person she can trust in England, but she finds that sufficient.

Scott has the gift of creating appealing characters while simultaneously allowing us to observe their flaws. Louise retains her charm, even when we’re presented with hints that Englishmen had good reason to note her appetite for jewels and other royal gifts. Similarly, although Charles is hardly faithful, because we understand the values they share, we also share her assurance that Charles will always return to her. We don’t get the chance to fully indulge in the bawdiness of the Restoration court – though Louise observes it on occasion, she’s an unwilling participant – but this fits in with her narrative. The technique used for her dialogue, which omits French vocabulary save for titles and honorifics, feels quite natural to read.

The French Mistress presents a study in contrasts. Louis XIV rules by divine right; despite his magnificent public persona, he keeps his innermost feelings private, so much so that the only evidence his courtiers have of his ongoing relations with his mistress is her appearance on his daily schedule. On the other hand, Charles II’s open, outgoing nature shows in his attendance at Drury Lane theatres and the considerably more relaxed atmosphere at the English court. We also view his ongoing frustration with Parliament, particularly in his efforts to show tolerance to Catholics in his realm.

Through Louise’s jealous eyes we also glimpse her fellow mistresses: notorious Barbara Villiers, saucy Nell Gwyn, and bold, brazen Hortense Mancini, who briefly replaces her in the king’s bed. This provides an even fuller picture of Charles II and his age. And although Louise herself may be sorry to hear this, her narrative served to whet my appetite for two of her competitors’ stories, as recounted in The Royal Harlot and The King’s Favorite.

The French Mistress was published in July by NAL/Penguin ($15.00/C$18.50, 477pp including author's note + discussion questions, pb, 978-0-751-22694-1). To visit the other stops on Susan Holloway Scott's tour-du-blog, visit her News page.

What's next on the blog

This is really just a placeholder until I have more time for a proper post. Deadlines always have a way of creeping up, but during the past month, several have sneaked up behind me and smacked me in the back of the head.

I leave Friday for the ALA conference in Chicago. Saturday afternoon I'm speaking on "sharpening your resume for a tough job market" as part of the New Members Round Table (NMRT) President's Program, 1:30-3:30pm in the Hyatt Regency Chicago's Grand D North. I'm at the conference till Tuesday, after which I plan to come home, lie down on the couch, and not leave it for the next week.

The blog will likely be minimally attended until I get back, but I do have some plans for future posts. I'll be participating in Susan Holloway Scott's recent tour-du-blog, with a review of her latest, The French Mistress. As you may be aware, Susan is one of a select group of authors whose latest novels have all been named Editors' Choice selections in the Historical Novels Review. At the same time, I'll be covering newish releases by Jude Morgan and Cora Harrison, the two other historical novelists who fit this category... I'm eager to see for myself why HNR reviewers have been so enthusiastic about their works. (HNR hasn't yet reviewed Morgan's latest, The Taste of Sorrow, so we'll have to see if this streak continues.)

I still intend to post Part 3 of the Visual Preview for Fall. I'm not sure why I feel delinquent about this, since it's only the beginning of July, but some spring covers have already been spotted on Amazon. Meanwhile, the TBR pile next to my desk is starting to resemble Chenonceau, minus the river, so I need to get cracking on reading more of them... and I'll post reviews on as many as I'm able.

Hope to see some of you in Chicago this coming weekend!

And the books go to...

Copies of The Personal History of Rachel DuPree will shortly be making their way around the globe. The three winners of last Saturday's contest are: Michelle from Australia, Susan from the West Coast U.S., and Teddy Rose from Vancouver, BC. Please email me at sljohnson2 @ eiu.edu with your full name and mailing address, and your books will be on their way. Hope you enjoy the novel as much as I did!

An opportunity to read Rachel DuPree's personal history for yourself

Not long after I posted my interview with Ann Weisgarber on April 27th, she generously offered to send copies of The Personal History of Rachel DuPree for blog readers as soon as she received them from her publisher. I happily accepted.

So now I have three new paperbacks sitting on my bookshelf, and each awaits a reader. All you need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this post saying why you'd be interested in reading it.

If you didn't catch my earlier interview with Ann, click the link above for details. Deadline is Thursday, July 2nd. The names of the three winners will be drawn on Friday. International entrants welcome.

And the best news of all: At the time of the interview, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree had yet to be picked up by an U.S. publisher, despite its South Dakota Badlands setting and classic American themes. I was very pleased to learn that this has changed. I got the chance to meet Ann at the HNS conference two weekends ago, and while speaking as part of the "debut novels" panel, she announced that it had been acquired by Viking US. Publication will be next summer. Congratulations, Ann, and thanks for providing copies for Reading the Past visitors!

Good luck to all the entrants!

Book review: Anna Elliott's Twilight of Avalon

(I finished Twilight of Avalon before leaving for the conference, which meant I got the opportunity to mention it in my "best new historical fiction" panel. For those who were there, here's an extended version of my thoughts.)

Despite my longtime interest in Arthurian myth and fiction, the classic romance of Tristan and Isolde had never truly captured my attention. While reading Anna Elliott’s new historical novel Twilight of Avalon, I've been trying to analyze why. As tradition has it, Tristan and Isolde accidentally drink a love potion while en route to her wedding to his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. This serves as the catalyst for an intense conflict between love, honor and duty that ends ultimately in tragedy for the young couple. However, I’ve always found it hard to believe in a romance enhanced by magical means, and in a strong, beautiful heroine made weak by love.

Other recent fictional takes on the legend include Dee Morrison Meaney’s heartrending romantic tragedy (Iseult), Rosalind Miles’s proto-feminist triumph (Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle and its sequels), and Diana Paxson’s complex historical fantasy epic (The White Raven). All are moving, poetically written, and worth seeking out. Among them, only the latter found a place among my favorite retellings. It relegates selfish Esseilte to the background while her more intelligent and rational cousin, Branwen, steals the spotlight and gets her man. All too often, Isolde has been a woman whose circumstances earned my sympathy but who I found difficult to like or even admire; that is, until now.

Twilight of Avalon bears small resemblance to the earlier novels and indeed to the Arthurian saga most are familiar with. The genealogical chart in the opening pages let me know I was in for something different. The novel is set firmly in 6th-century Cornwall, a land beset by political turmoil, seven years after Camlann. Arthur’s heir, Constantine, has been killed fighting the Saxons, or so it's believed, and his widow, Isolde, is left alone, distrusted by everyone. The bastard daughter of Modred and Gwynefar – King Arthur’s traitorous son and his adulterous wife – Isolde was married to Con in an arrangement of political necessity.

Now that her husband the High King is dead, Isolde is helpless to do anything except try to heal soldiers’ battle-wounds and ponder her unknown future with dread. She is thought by all of Britain’s lesser kings to be a witch, though her powers of Sight – inherited from her grandmother Morgan – have been blocked, and her pre-Camlann past forgotten through force of will. King Marche of Cornwall, who is chosen the new High King by his fellow monarchs, forces her hand in marriage, though Isolde refuses to submit to his mistreatment. Her only sometime ally is Trystan, a part-Saxon, part-Briton prisoner whose suspicious outlook and desperate actions reflect the violence of the age. They form an unlikely, reluctant partnership to flee from Marche’s clutches at Tintagel and uncover evidence of his treason.

Readers looking for scenes of chivalrous romance or sweeping Celtic enchantment won’t find them here: this is not a Camelot-style fantasy world but a vividly evoked early medieval Britain of uneasy alliances and swift, surprising brutality. The characters express a healthy cynicism about how their reality will be transformed over time into glorious legend, as has happened with their forebears, but accept its inevitability and work it to their own benefit. This isn’t to say there’s nothing magical about the tale, though. Aside from Isolde’s own limited supernatural powers, Twilight of Avalon celebrates the magic of storytelling in ways that pay tribute to both the legends and their historical origins. Most notably, Isolde, for all of her initial powerlessness, is never a weak character. She knows what she must do to escape her situation and the long odds of her success; she has a few tricks up her sleeve as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this inventive retelling, in all its gritty authenticity. It would be horribly unromantic of me to say it works better without the passionate love story, so I won’t go that far. Rather, it plants the seeds for a deeper connection between Isolde and Trystan that I’ll be eager to see develop in the next two volumes.

Twilight of Avalon was published in May by Touchstone Books ($16.00/C$21.00, 428pp, 978-1-4165-8989-9). Anna Elliott's website is http://www.annaelliottbooks.com/.

HNS conference linkfest

(me, Joyce Saricks, and Georgine Olson speaking at our "what to read and why" panel at 8:30am on Saturday)

I've been back in Charleston for three days, but my mind's still up north in Schaumburg. It was wrenching to come back home after having such an outstanding time meeting up with authors and readers, old friends and new, at the HNS conference last weekend.

I'd planned on doing a longer, more descriptive post, but so many bloggers have already done it for me. Below are other authors' and readers' summaries of the event, in no particular order, with occasional commentary from me.

Barbara Vey, contributing editor of Publishers Weekly, blogged from the event over the entire weekend, complete with photos, covering Margaret George's keynote, the late-night sex scene readings -- which has become a tradition -- and a nice wrap-up, complete with conference committee photo. If you haven't done so already, you must watch C.W. Gortner's hilarious drive-by interview with Barbara. Afterwards, responding to HNS authors' discussions on research, Barbara asked Beyond Her Book readers whether they require accurate details in their fiction.

I chatted with Barbara and Romance B(u)y the Book and B&N genre fiction columnist Michelle Buonfiglio in the hotel lobby on Saturday afternoon about book recommendations and the mission/history of the HNS. The organizing committee put a lot of effort into ensuring that many different types of historical novels (including historical romance) were well represented at the conference, so it pleased me to see this come out in her report. There's a photo of us three at Michelle's RBTB blog.

Julianne Douglas wrote an excellent summary of the event which covered many panels I didn't get to see. As I told her afterward on the Historical Fiction forum, the hotel used to be done up in Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, though following last summer's renovation, it looks more like 2020 than 1920! Other bloggers include:

• Nancy Blanton, who got a photo of some costume pageant participants;


• Conference volunteer DL Larson, who writes about her book-signing experience;


• Joyce Moore, who moderated the "query letter" panel and who wore a gorgeous green linen gown at the costume pageant. Scroll down to Joyce's gallery for more photos.


• Sheramy Bundrick, on how she and Margaret George make connections with their characters;


• I shared a book-signing table with Doug Jacobson and thoroughly enjoyed the "historical boys" panel on Sunday;


• It was fun to catch up with Michelle Moran and get my copy of The Heretic Queen signed! Her blog has a few more photos.


• HNS reviewer and Facebook pal Laurel Corona has a great picture of all the Jane Rotrosen Agency clients who attended (quite a few!);


• Dawna Rand did an extensive writeup that covered some cool photos (of three-time conference attendees Vic and Jenny Brown, who bought me drinks and kept me up late in Salt Lake City in 2005), the "debut novels" panel, more great pics, and marketing tips from Karen Essex, C.W. Gortner, and Michelle Moran (which I couldn't attend because my panel ran concurrently, alas).


• Costume pageant winner Joan Baril, from Thunder Bay, Ontario, talks about Margaret George's unique writing method;


• And Gemi Sasson, whose summary made me proud to be part of the conference, and who created a clever logo!

Did I miss anyone's blog post? Let me know!

Coming soon - a review of Anna Elliott's Twilight of Avalon and a giveaway of Ann Weisgarber's The Personal History of Rachel DuPree.

Tote bag stuffing party: before and after

And so, the big conference adventure begins

It's Wednesday morning, and the trunk of our SUV is completely full of tote bags, programs, and assorted flyers and promo items sent by authors/publishers for the HNS conference this week. Mark's still asleep, and we haven't really packed anything else yet, though I've got a folder of notes and other printouts set aside.

The last week has been hectic, even beyond expectations. After BEA, we were home for exactly two days before taking off in the car again for my cousin's wedding in London, Ontario, a 9-hour drive, though we overnighted in Ann Arbor on the way out. The trip went smoothly, the wedding was lovely (beautiful sunny day, not too hot, held at a historical estate on the outskirts of London) and we got to visit with many family members from across the US and Canada.

More troublesome was the return trip to the States on Sunday, which Mark summarized succinctly on his blog. Yeah, we're armed and dangerous, all right. (Armed with book purchases, maybe. I did some historical novel shopping at a Canadian bookstore on Saturday morning.)

On Monday morning, we learned that one of our author guests of honor, Edward Rutherfurd, had a family emergency and had to return to England asap, so was unable to appear at the conference after all. He was extremely sorry about it, and we're disappointed we won't be seeing him there, but family comes first. Fortunately for us, conference attendee Sharon Kay Penman accepted our very last-minute invite to give Saturday night's keynote address in his place. Sharon's one of my favorite historical novelists, and I'm really looking forward to meeting her and hearing her talk.

Today's plan: head up to Schaumburg, unload all our stuff at the hotel, and meet up with editor/agent liaison Ann Chamberlin for the drive out to hotel liaison Winifred Halsey's house an hour west; she's been storing 120+ boxes of books in her garage for the past month and more. Publishers were very, very generous with donations for attendees, so there's lots of good reading to look forward to. These books will mysteriously reappear in conference attendees' tote bags when registration opens on Friday. We're renting a U-Haul and plan to do the big book move this afternoon and evening.

Inspired by a post by Susan on the HFO forum, I've set up a Twitter account, which I'd been mulling over since BEA, and will be posting news flashes from the conference there as time permits. Holly from Wonders and Marvels (tweeting as history_geek) and I are wondering what other historical novel folks are there, so if you're connected up, let me know! I'm coming late to the party and am still figuring out how it works - no snazzy backgrounds yet - so please bear with me. No doubt I'll be blogging more about the event as well, though maybe not until after it's over.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Schaumburg!