I was looking over my site and realized I don’t write as many reviews of novels as I would like to. So I thought I’d go back through the list of books I’ve read over the years and write reviews on them. I normally like to review novels immediately after… Read More »Review of The Archer’s Tale by Bernard Cornwell
“Observing this, [Duke] William gave a signal to his troops, that, feigning flight, they should withdraw from the field. By means of this device the solid phalanx of the English opened for the purpose of cutting down the fleeing enemy and thus brought upon itself swift destruction; for the Normans,… Read More »The Medieval Warhorse
Barbican bahr-bi-kuhn Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French barbecane, from Medieval Latin barbacana 1) An outwork or forward extension of a castle gateway. (Gies, Joseph and Francis. Life in a Medieval Castle, 225) 2) Outerwork of a castle, providing additional defence for the gatehouse. (Prestwich, Michael. Armies and Warfare in the… Read More »Medieval Term of the Week: Barbican
There’s been a lot of talk today about the latest search engine to hit the market. Cuil (www.cuil.com), developed by former employees of Google, is willing to take on the biggest player in the search engine arena, claiming its searches return more relevant results to the users and its results… Read More »Using the Cuil Search Engine for Research
Last week, I mentioned Carl Pyrdum’s post on his blog Got Medieval about describing the Middle Ages in seven words or less — or I guess I should have said seven concepts or less. I also said I would post an explanation of why I chose the seven I did,… Read More »Explaining the Middle Ages in Seven Words
Heraldry, defined as a system of inherited symbols or devices for the purpose of identifying individuals or families, became one of the most distinguishable elements of feudalism and knighthood during the Middle Ages. The term “heraldry” comes from the the fact that heralds at tournaments became experts in the design… Read More »Heraldry in the Middle Ages
Last week over at Got Medieval, blog owner Carl S. Pyrdum asked readers to describe the medieval period in seven words or less. My seven were as follows: 1) The Church 2) The Nobles 3) The Peasantry 4) The Crusades 5) The Black Death 6) Feudalism 7) Cathedrals (“Gothic” architecture)… Read More »Describing the Middle Ages in Seven Words
At times, you’ve probably been reading a sentence and come across a set of dashes being used to separate out a phrase or a few words from the main part of the sentence. These dashes — also known as em dashes — are often used incorrectly in writing. Many writers… Read More »When to Properly Use a Dash — or Em Dash — in Grammar
Over the weekend, I went back and edited one of my works of short fiction. I’ve submitted it to a couple of critique group sites for review: www.critiquecircle.com and www.writerscafe.org. Critique Circle is a great online group for peer reviewing. The majority of the reviewers really take the time to… Read More »New Short Story Coming Soon