Oxford - HNS Conference and a lot of rushing around

The 2016 Historical Novel Society in Oxford – fabulous speakers, sharp engaging talks, lively expert panels plus rampaging Saxons – a celebration of all things historical and fictional. This was the feast before us.

Battle of Fulford 1066 tapestry. (Click image for more info)

Many colleagues have written accounts which make compelling reading […]

Fenella Forster - Love me, love my character

Today is the start of a new, possibly disruptive series, ‘Love me, love my character’. I’m inviting authors and their characters to give us their separate views. Hopefully, we may get some unexpected results.

Fenella Forster (the writing name of Denise Barnes) writes sagas with a difference: all involve ‘voyages’, physical as well as emotional […]

Writing is bad for you

There, I’ve said it. I’m deep in the last third of my sixth book and I should know better. The crisis is coming, the characters’ nerves are shot and all I see is failure and death. I can’t sleep more than five hours nor stop thinking about those poor souls living under oppression or the […]

Launching books

Last week, I had the enormous pleasure of attending book launches for two writing friends. On Saturday 23 January, I drank bubbly, ate scones and cake with Denise Barnes who launched her second book, Juliet’s Story, at the University Women’s Club. The magnificent library was a perfect setting for us to hear about the research […]

Ruth Downie and 'A Year of Ravens'

Today, in this last ‘Ravens’ post I’m welcoming Ruth Downie, author and good friend of Roma Nova. We met in August 2013 on The Wonder of Rome blog hop (her post intriguingly called ‘First drown your ape’) and she enlightened us more about Roman medical practice in October 2014 in this post about historical truth […]