My life has been pretty simple. I grew up in Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor's in Advertising. I have spent about the last ten years in web development. In 1998, a friend of mine and I started a web design company we ran for three or four years before deciding to close it due to the demands of school. Since then, I stayed in the web working with various companies in Alabama. I worked for a brief period with Southern Progress, namely with Southern Living magazine and Health magazine, in their web departments. While there, I also wrote for Southern Living magazine, Health.com., and the company's internal newsletter. I write as much as I can. For the last five years, I have been working on my first novel. I am on the third revision now and hope to be finished with this draft by the end of the year. I also write short fiction, though not as frequently as I used to due to the time I spend on the novel. My goal is to have my novel published in the next three years. Other interests include: History (particularly medieval and ancient civlizations), Reading, Foreign Language (I currently speak Spanish but plan to learn as many as I can), Landscape Photography, the outdoors, sports (especially college football), and Travel.
“Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)” A good article discussing the common problems amateur writers face that cause literary agents, publishers, and editors to immediately dismiss submissions. The list includes: Repeats Flat Writing Empty Adverbs Phony Dialogue No-Good Suffixes The “To Be” Words Lists… Read More »The 10 Common Mistakes of Amateur Writers
Aethelbad’s War Date: 733 – 750 Aethelbad’s War involved the kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex, and Northumbria. The Mercian king, Aethelbad (r. 716 – 757), and his cousin Offa — who was to be Athelbad’s successor — invaded Wessex and Northumbria with the vision of unifying England under Mercian rule. At… Read More »Famous Wars in Medieval History: Aethelbad’s War
On this date, December 1, in medieval history: 1135 – King Henry I of England, the fourth son of William the Conqueror, dies. He was buried at Reading Abbey. 1170 – Thomas Becket reconciles with King Henry II and returns to his See at Canterbury after a six-year-long exile. *image… Read More »Medieval Timeline: Today in Medieval History
The Angles and Saxons arrived in England sometime during the 5th century, not long after Rome had fled the island and left the Britons to fight against their northern aggressors, the Picts. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in A.D. 449: In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Wurtgern, king… Read More »The Anglo-Saxons in Medieval England
On this date, November 20th, in medieval history: 1272 – Edward I (“Longshanks”) begins his reign as King of England 1316 – John I King of France dies; he was born only five days earlier on November 15 1376 – Richard of Bordeaux (Richard II), son of the Black Prince,… Read More »Medieval Timeline: Today in Medieval History
This post is intended to provide only a brief and basic overview of feudalism, not an in-depth study by any means. The idea is to hopefully stimulate discussion about feudalism from more knowledeable experts than myself. The word “feudalism” is a 17th century term used by legal historians to explain… Read More »The Framework of Feudalism
I’ve added a list of medieval history resources to my site. These are sites (not blogs) I’ve come across while browsing the web. I had been storing them in my del.icio.us account but thought I’d go ahead and share them here as well. I’ve put them in the right-hand sidebar… Read More »New List of Medieval History Online Resources
George R.R. Martin announced on his blog last week that HBO confirmed it will be filming the pilot of the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (A Game of Thrones being the first season). This is good news, but there are no guarantees the pilot will turn into… Read More »HBO to Film Pilot of “A Song of Ice and Fire”
I’m still working on getting a new short story posted to my site. I’m nearly half-way through editing the first draft now. Then, I’ll post it to Critique Circle, and once I have feedback from other readers, it will go through a few more cycles of editing and revising until… Read More »Short Story Still in Progress