Donald's comments
(member since Jul 29, 2008)
Donald's comments from the European Royalty group.
(showing 1-20 of 48)
Thank you April and Sara.
Mandy, libraries seldom order from small independent publishers unless there is a demand. You can request your library to order it.
Tanzanite, my publisher, who created the video, is a speed reader and did it at her pace. She is now aware. One can always use the pause (II) doohickey.
Yes, it is out and available on line at Amazon, B&N, or can be ordered through your nearest bookseller.
Every other year.
Check out AA(American Airlines). They are running specials and might have one for that route, and HNS has reserved rooms for $99/night plus the usual outrageous taxes.
For those who like Egyptian royalty, Michele Moran will be there too.
Freebies too they say.
Many friendly people -- based on my contacts from other sites -- will be there -- at least 70 writers will have their books available to purchase on Saturday the 13th.
I'll report on this thread after I return and go through 4 days of emails.
The major historical facts should not be altered (except in speculative HF clearly labeled as such), but gaps in the lives of the famous can be filled by the author, especially motives and thoughts of the characters if there is nothing written to contradict.
I understand there is an international best-seller set in Barcelona in the 14th century, and the author includes the Spanish Inquisition, which was founded in the mid-15th century. That would be a wall-banger for me.
Now, if an author has the wrong bird in a locale, I would not notice or care if I was told about it.
It is always the story and characters that matter most, with the exception of flagrant distortion of historical facts and events.
Philip IV and his siblings are described as Flemish in coloring. They are blond in their portraits, perhaps reddish blond in real life.
I saw on a web site "Olga" (all I remember) two pages of paintings by Velázquez that included Infanta María and Philip IV.
Yes, Jenna, the Austrians also are interesting. I found the Infanta María and her youngest brother, Cardinal-Infante Fernándo, to be the most interesting of the 17th century Spanish Hapsburgs.
The Count-Duke de Olivares described Infanta María as "that block of ice" yet she honored my MC and showered him with gifts according my my research.
An earlier connection Hapsburg-Bourbon connection: The double wedding of future Philip IV with his first wife Elizabeth de Bourbon daughter of Henry IV and Marie de Medecís and his sister Anne to Henry's heir future Louis XIII. Elizabeth then changed her name to Isabel. Charles Stuart wed her sister Henrietta Maria after he failed in his wooing of Infanta María.
For more information about ROCAMORA please visit www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
Louis XIV, whose mother was Philip IV's sister Anne, also married his first cousin, who was Philip IV's daughter María Teresa.
Am I the only one here who is interested in the Spanish Habsburgs of the 16th and 17th centuries?
We make jokes about inbreeding in the USA south, but know this about the Spanish Habsburgs. Philip II married his niece. Their son Philip III married his 1st cousin. Their son Philip IV married his niece. Their son Charles II was the last Spanish Habsburg.
My newly available novel, ROCAMORA, is set mostly at the court of Philip IV. My Historical MC was the confessor and spiritual director for the teenage sister of Philip IV and only five years older than she. Later he became a Jew, a physician, and father of nine in Amsterdam.
For those interested more in British history, I do cover the Prince of Wales' comedic courtship of the Infanta.
Think of the Henry VII and VIII body count of York's and Lancaster's heirs vs. a "measely" two Princes in the Tower. :)
