I just finished taking this quiz to determine which fantasy writer I am similar to. I normally don’t take a lot of quizzes, but this one was entertaining and thought provoking and accurate. It’s a 36 question quiz that took me about thirty minutes and made me actually think about… Read More »Which Fantasy Writer Are You?
On this day, June 15th, in medieval history: 1330 – Birth of Edward (“The Black Prince”), Prince of Wales and eldest son of King Edward III of England 1381 – Death of Wat Tyler, leader of the English Peasants’ Revolt; Sir William Walworth, the mayor of London, killed Wat during… Read More »Timeline: Today in Medieval History
The Book Trailer Blog An interesting site showing how people use video as a viral marketing medium to promote their books.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Paperback: 552 pages Publisher: Harvest Books; 1st edition (Sept. 28, 1994) ISBN-10: 0156001314 The Name of the Rose is a book I read several years back and one I wanted to revisit here on my blog. This historical fiction novel set in… Read More »Review of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
When writing historical fiction, how much should your dialogue reflect the actual historical period you are writing about? Is it a good idea to write — as say — a knight during the medieval period might actually speak, or write in more contemporary language for the reader? My personal thoughts are it’s… Read More »Discussion Topic: Dialogue and Historical Fiction
Melissa Snell has an in depth post on her blog regarding the heraldic symbols of the medieval period and what those symbols mean. The information is taken from W. Cecil Wade’s The Symbolisms of Heraldry or A Treatise on the Meanings and Derivations of Armorial Bearing, a document that is… Read More »What Do Different Heraldic Symbols Mean?
The power vacuum left after the deaths of King Henry I and his only legitimate son, William, resulted in a power struggle between Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, and Henry’s daughter, Matilda. Before Henry’s death, the barons had agreed to support Matilda as the next ruler of England, but instead… Read More »Stephen of Blois
“The popularity of Internet sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace might make social networking seem relatively modern. But a team of French researchers has challenged this idea by trawling through medieval documents to create the oldest detailed social network ever constructed. Working from records of land transactions dating back… Read More »The Medieval Social Network
If someone new to the fantasy genre asked you for your top five must-read fantasy novels, which novels would you suggest?