M.G. Scarsbrook's Blog
May 17, 2012
THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY is now released an audioboook! Read by the entertaining and velvet-voiced David Lazarus, you can find it online at Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.
April 17, 2012
Poison In The Blood is now out as an audiobook! Read by Karen Savage, a talented and professional narrator, the unabridged audiobook can be sampled online or downloaded from Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.
February 15, 2012
Courtesy of ACX, I have now have narrators signed to produce both my novels.
THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY will be read by David Lazarus, and POISON IN THE BLOOD will be read by Karen Savage.
Both novels are in production right now, and will be available for download within the next few months from Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. Watch this space for more news!
THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY will be read by David Lazarus, and POISON IN THE BLOOD will be read by Karen Savage.
Both novels are in production right now, and will be available for download within the next few months from Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. Watch this space for more news!
February 1, 2012
Bulgarian rights to POISON IN THE BLOOD have just gone to INFODAR!
Also, I'm pleased to annouce that my novel will also be released next week in Brazil. Check out my facebook page to see the amazing new cover!
Also, I'm pleased to annouce that my novel will also be released next week in Brazil. Check out my facebook page to see the amazing new cover!
December 23, 2011
Polish translations of POISON IN THE BLOOD and THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY are on their way! Rights in Poland to both my novels have been purchased by Bellona, one of the top historical fiction publishers in the country :)
October 25, 2011
I'm happy to announce that POISON IN THE BLOOD is soon to be published in Turkey.
Altin Kitaplar, one of the country's largest publishers, has just purchased the translation rights. They also publish Dan Brown, Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Wilbur Smith, so I'm in good company!
Can't wait to see my book in Turkish (even though I won't be able to read it!)
Altin Kitaplar, one of the country's largest publishers, has just purchased the translation rights. They also publish Dan Brown, Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Wilbur Smith, so I'm in good company!
Can't wait to see my book in Turkish (even though I won't be able to read it!)
October 17, 2011
September 21, 2011
The renaissance was arguably the most colorful and inventive era in the english language. Here's a brief selection of my favorite words, many of which appear in my novel POISON IN THE BLOOD: THE MEMOIRS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA.
Baconbrains = idiot
Bed-presser = lazy person
Bedswerver = adulterer
Beef-witted = stupid
Bellygod = glutton
Belly-timber = food
Clapperdudgeon = a beggar
Cup-shotten = drunk
Dandiprat = an insignificant person
Fanfaronade = arrogant, boastful talk or behavior
Fanfaron = a braggart
Fizgig = a flighty, fretful, flirtatious, flustered woman
Glop = swallow greedily
Goatish = lustful
Gobbet = mouthful
Gorbelly = fat
Greedigut = glutton
Grief-shot = sorrowful
Gutfoundered = very hungry
Guttle = to swallow
Guttler = greedy eater
Hobbledehoy = a clumsy, awkward lad between boyhood and manhood
Hodgepudding = pudding of many ingredients
Honeyfuggle = to obtain by cheating / deception
Hugger-mugger = something done in secrecy and disorder
Indrenched = drowned / immersed
Jackleg = incompetent person without scruples (a cowboy)
Junket = feast secretly
Laborsome = laborious / elaborate
Leaping House = brothel
Lightskirt = tart / prostitute
Maltworm = drunkard
Minimus = insignificant person
Mizmaze = bewilderment
Moonling = idiot
Mounch = eat lots
Mumblecrust = beggar
Niddle-noddle = to nod rapidly and unsteadily back and forth
Nuppence = no money
Onion-eyed = tearful
Pingle = to eat with little or no appetite
Pismire = a urinating ant / a despicable individual
Popinjay = showoff (particularly someone dressed gaudily)
Quicken = to make alive / lively
Rapscallion = a rascal
Raddled = wearing too much make-up
Roister = to revel wildly
Simpleton = idiot
Skelder = to live by begging / to swindle, defraud, obtain money by cheating
Skimble-skamble = something confused, rambling, incoherent
Smellfeast = freeloader
Tapster = alehouse keeper
Taradiddle = fib, white lie, pretentious nonsense
Tatterdemalion = a ragamuffin child who wears tatters
Yaffling = eat greedily and noisily
Baconbrains = idiot
Bed-presser = lazy person
Bedswerver = adulterer
Beef-witted = stupid
Bellygod = glutton
Belly-timber = food
Clapperdudgeon = a beggar
Cup-shotten = drunk
Dandiprat = an insignificant person
Fanfaronade = arrogant, boastful talk or behavior
Fanfaron = a braggart
Fizgig = a flighty, fretful, flirtatious, flustered woman
Glop = swallow greedily
Goatish = lustful
Gobbet = mouthful
Gorbelly = fat
Greedigut = glutton
Grief-shot = sorrowful
Gutfoundered = very hungry
Guttle = to swallow
Guttler = greedy eater
Hobbledehoy = a clumsy, awkward lad between boyhood and manhood
Hodgepudding = pudding of many ingredients
Honeyfuggle = to obtain by cheating / deception
Hugger-mugger = something done in secrecy and disorder
Indrenched = drowned / immersed
Jackleg = incompetent person without scruples (a cowboy)
Junket = feast secretly
Laborsome = laborious / elaborate
Leaping House = brothel
Lightskirt = tart / prostitute
Maltworm = drunkard
Minimus = insignificant person
Mizmaze = bewilderment
Moonling = idiot
Mounch = eat lots
Mumblecrust = beggar
Niddle-noddle = to nod rapidly and unsteadily back and forth
Nuppence = no money
Onion-eyed = tearful
Pingle = to eat with little or no appetite
Pismire = a urinating ant / a despicable individual
Popinjay = showoff (particularly someone dressed gaudily)
Quicken = to make alive / lively
Rapscallion = a rascal
Raddled = wearing too much make-up
Roister = to revel wildly
Simpleton = idiot
Skelder = to live by begging / to swindle, defraud, obtain money by cheating
Skimble-skamble = something confused, rambling, incoherent
Smellfeast = freeloader
Tapster = alehouse keeper
Taradiddle = fib, white lie, pretentious nonsense
Tatterdemalion = a ragamuffin child who wears tatters
Yaffling = eat greedily and noisily
September 7, 2011
Historical Novels Review Online has just given a great review to THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY:
THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY: A NOVEL
Historical novelists would be lost without the dashing, mysterious figure of Christopher Marlowe, and they'd be equally lost if there were video footage of him getting fatally stabbed in a Deptford rooming house on May 30, 1593. The shady background of the men with Marlowe that day (and their summary acquittal by a royal inquest) has been grist for conspiracy mills ever since, and M.G. Scarsbrook, after a great deal of obvious and reassuring research, takes on the whole murky mess of Marlowe's life and death and afterlife in his packed and rambunctious novel, The Marlowe Conspiracy. Every major incident from the poet's life is re-imagined and very effectively dramatized (indeed, Scarsbrook often subtly re-arranges details to enhance the drama) as Marlowe enlists the aid of his friend Shakespeare to clear himself of charges of atheism in the spring of that fatal year. The vast and tangled world of Elizabethan culture and court politics is brought spectacularly alive under Scarsbrook's handling, and the dialogue crackles with urgency and wit. From the book's great first line (“The moon looked flat and pale and ready for a kill”), through the machinations of Elizabeth I's devious and powerful councilors, to an ending that will please most, if not all, conspiracy buffs, this novel never flags for an instant and never disappoints. Highly recommended. -- Steve Donoghue
THE MARLOWE CONSPIRACY: A NOVEL
Historical novelists would be lost without the dashing, mysterious figure of Christopher Marlowe, and they'd be equally lost if there were video footage of him getting fatally stabbed in a Deptford rooming house on May 30, 1593. The shady background of the men with Marlowe that day (and their summary acquittal by a royal inquest) has been grist for conspiracy mills ever since, and M.G. Scarsbrook, after a great deal of obvious and reassuring research, takes on the whole murky mess of Marlowe's life and death and afterlife in his packed and rambunctious novel, The Marlowe Conspiracy. Every major incident from the poet's life is re-imagined and very effectively dramatized (indeed, Scarsbrook often subtly re-arranges details to enhance the drama) as Marlowe enlists the aid of his friend Shakespeare to clear himself of charges of atheism in the spring of that fatal year. The vast and tangled world of Elizabethan culture and court politics is brought spectacularly alive under Scarsbrook's handling, and the dialogue crackles with urgency and wit. From the book's great first line (“The moon looked flat and pale and ready for a kill”), through the machinations of Elizabeth I's devious and powerful councilors, to an ending that will please most, if not all, conspiracy buffs, this novel never flags for an instant and never disappoints. Highly recommended. -- Steve Donoghue
September 6, 2011
The Borgia family was of Spanish origin, so on special occasions they often chose to dazzle Rome with one of Spain's most popular spectacles - Bull fighting.
For example, one real-life event that occurs in my novel POISON IN THE BLOOD is the bullfight held to honor Lucrezia's wedding to Alfonso of Aragon.
Cesare organized the bullfight to be staged in the park of Cardinal Asciano’s villa. 10,000 spectators watched. Lucrezia and Alfonso sat on a magnificently decorated platform draped with tapestries and lengths of silk. Cesare appeared on the field with a white Barbary steed, in a jewelled harness, and a silver and gold lance. With him, 2 mounted pages rode with lanced bearing banners embroidered with a golden sun. Preceding them, were 12 boys dressed in C’s livery of yellow satin halved with carmine, and also 12 horsemen in the same livery. Cesare killed all 12 bulls set against him...
Quite a show!
For example, one real-life event that occurs in my novel POISON IN THE BLOOD is the bullfight held to honor Lucrezia's wedding to Alfonso of Aragon.
Cesare organized the bullfight to be staged in the park of Cardinal Asciano’s villa. 10,000 spectators watched. Lucrezia and Alfonso sat on a magnificently decorated platform draped with tapestries and lengths of silk. Cesare appeared on the field with a white Barbary steed, in a jewelled harness, and a silver and gold lance. With him, 2 mounted pages rode with lanced bearing banners embroidered with a golden sun. Preceding them, were 12 boys dressed in C’s livery of yellow satin halved with carmine, and also 12 horsemen in the same livery. Cesare killed all 12 bulls set against him...
Quite a show!
