Take all the free help you can find

Monday mornings I spend a little time catching up on my favourite blogs. Even if I spend an hour of writing time, I always pick up at least three new tips.

Today, from Your Writer Platform I found out about the marvellous editorial calendar for WordPress which I promptly installed. On the Smashwords blog, I […]

Carol McGrath and The Handfasted Wife

Today, I’m welcoming a special guest to my blog. Carol McGrath writes historical fiction and has recently achieved her MPhil in Creative Writing from the Royal Holloway University, London. Hearty congratulations! A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme with me, Carol has graduated to full membership on the publication of her debut […]

Roman dating essentials

Julius Caesar (He’s the one on the plinth.)

Watching the countdown calendar to the publication day of INCEPTIO on 1 March reminded that the first of the month in the Roman system – the Kalends – ended up as our word for measuring the whole thing.

In my Roma Nova thrillers, I use […]

Latin, eh?

What connects a Wallsend metro station, an ATM in the Vatican City, Asterix and Wikipedia?

Latin, of course!

Originating in Italy, it was spoken in Ancient Rome and spread through the Mediterranean into much of the then known world. Although now considered a dead language, many students, scholars, and members of the Christian clergy speak […]

Alternate history at the Historical Novel Society Conference 2012

That the HNS included a workshop on alternate/alternative history at the 2012 was a factor in my signing up to go. Christopher Cevasco (editor/publisher of the award-winning, but now sadly defunct, Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction), led it with verve and patience.

My earlier post on this blog on alternate history gives […]