Michael Schmicker's Blog, page 4
April 18, 2015
Crime King (BOOK REVIEW)
Philip IV was one greedy royal.
Le Roi de fer (the “Iron King”) ruled France with an iron fist, financing his costly, incessant wars by shaking down the Church, Jews, bankers, and the Knights Templar. When Pope Boniface VIII protested His Royal Highness’s heavy tax on the clergy, Philip accused him of heresy and set up a French anti-pope, Clement V, under his thumb. When Lombard bankers who financed his fight with England demanded repayment of their loans, he expelled them from France and seized their properties. In 1306, he drove the Jews from France, then forced their debtors to pay the Crown instead. In 1307, he turned his avaricious eye on the assets of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (aka the Knights Templar) – a militant, monastic order created in 1120 to do good by protecting Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The poor soldiers did very well indeed over the following two centuries; by the time Philip moved against them, the Order owned valuable properties and assets throughout Christendom, including France.
On Friday the 13th October, 1307, Philip fell on them like a falcon on a rabbit.
"The English Templar" is a captivating fictional account of this shameful event, and its disastrous effects on a noble French family brave enough to hide Sir Percival de Lacy, an English Templar caught in Poitiers when Philip pounces.
Author and historian Helena Schrader knows her century and her subject; two of her novels – "Knight of Jerusalem" and "St. Louis' Knight" – were recently named Finalists for the 2014 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction. They’re among a suite of well-received novels Schrader sets in the so-called “Age of Chivalry.” Barbara Tuchman’s National Book Award-winning work, "A Distant Mirror," exposed the sour truth of a medieval age wracked by senseless, unending warfare that spared no one. Schrader’s "English Templar" echoes the coarse brutality of this calamitous era, while shining a harsh light on a corrupt, morally-compromised, pre-Reformation Church complicit with Philip in applying the dreaded tortures of the Inquisition to destroy the Templars. She wisely balances the horrors of the day with a sweet love story. Young Felice de Preuthune falls slowly but inexorably for the outlaw Sir Percy, and vice-versa. Standing in the way is Umberto di Sante, an ambitious, unscrupulous, young cleric, determined to enjoy Felice as his concubine. The Pope has one; why shouldn’t he?
The Knights Templar have fascinated novelists as far back as Sir Water Scott. "Ivanhoe" (1820) showcased a Templar Knight as villain. More recently, Italian author Umberto Eco ("Foucault’s Pendulum") and writer Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code") profitably wove the legenday fraternity into best-sellers. Schrader successfully mines the same literary gold, crafting a compelling, expertly researched, and provocative tale of her own.
If the Middle Ages are your dish, don’t miss this delicious literary feast.
Le Roi de fer (the “Iron King”) ruled France with an iron fist, financing his costly, incessant wars by shaking down the Church, Jews, bankers, and the Knights Templar. When Pope Boniface VIII protested His Royal Highness’s heavy tax on the clergy, Philip accused him of heresy and set up a French anti-pope, Clement V, under his thumb. When Lombard bankers who financed his fight with England demanded repayment of their loans, he expelled them from France and seized their properties. In 1306, he drove the Jews from France, then forced their debtors to pay the Crown instead. In 1307, he turned his avaricious eye on the assets of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (aka the Knights Templar) – a militant, monastic order created in 1120 to do good by protecting Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The poor soldiers did very well indeed over the following two centuries; by the time Philip moved against them, the Order owned valuable properties and assets throughout Christendom, including France.
On Friday the 13th October, 1307, Philip fell on them like a falcon on a rabbit.
"The English Templar" is a captivating fictional account of this shameful event, and its disastrous effects on a noble French family brave enough to hide Sir Percival de Lacy, an English Templar caught in Poitiers when Philip pounces.
Author and historian Helena Schrader knows her century and her subject; two of her novels – "Knight of Jerusalem" and "St. Louis' Knight" – were recently named Finalists for the 2014 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction. They’re among a suite of well-received novels Schrader sets in the so-called “Age of Chivalry.” Barbara Tuchman’s National Book Award-winning work, "A Distant Mirror," exposed the sour truth of a medieval age wracked by senseless, unending warfare that spared no one. Schrader’s "English Templar" echoes the coarse brutality of this calamitous era, while shining a harsh light on a corrupt, morally-compromised, pre-Reformation Church complicit with Philip in applying the dreaded tortures of the Inquisition to destroy the Templars. She wisely balances the horrors of the day with a sweet love story. Young Felice de Preuthune falls slowly but inexorably for the outlaw Sir Percy, and vice-versa. Standing in the way is Umberto di Sante, an ambitious, unscrupulous, young cleric, determined to enjoy Felice as his concubine. The Pope has one; why shouldn’t he?
The Knights Templar have fascinated novelists as far back as Sir Water Scott. "Ivanhoe" (1820) showcased a Templar Knight as villain. More recently, Italian author Umberto Eco ("Foucault’s Pendulum") and writer Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code") profitably wove the legenday fraternity into best-sellers. Schrader successfully mines the same literary gold, crafting a compelling, expertly researched, and provocative tale of her own.
If the Middle Ages are your dish, don’t miss this delicious literary feast.
April 17, 2015
John + Sabina, Forever (BOOK REVIEW)
Admit it. You’re curious about reincarnation.
Who isn’t intrigued by the possibility that we may have lived a past life?
Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism famously enshrine the idea, but reincarnation belief is global. Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, the Yoruba of West Africa, the aborigines of Australia, and the Teutonic and Celtic tribes of Europe all accept the idea of multiple rebirths. The biggest surprise? – a 2013 Harris Poll found one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. That’s 80 million people. Next time you’re standing in line at Starbucks, chances are a “born again” believer is queued up with you, looking for a venti mocha.
Voltaire, that quintessential, French rationalist and philosopher, didn’t find reincarnation intellectually absurd. “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Neither did Socrates, Napoleon, Balzac, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, or the Beatles’ George Harrison – just a few of the many famous people who embraced the possibility.
If you’re among their ranks, or simply fascinated with the thought, fire up your Kindle and download M.J. Rose’s "The Reincarnationist" – a time-slip thriller with an inventive, twisting plot that moves back and forth between modern Italy and 391 AD Rome, where a newly triumphant Christianity is brutally eradicating the last vestiges of Rome’s ancient, venerable state religion, the Vestal Virgins.
The time-traveling hero of this two-millennia romance is AP photojournalist Josh Ryder. He’s covering a delegation of peacekeepers visiting the Pope in Rome when a suicide bomber detonates his weapon just steps from him. The explosion lands him in the hospital; it also triggers troubling memory lurches back in time to a past life as the illicit lover of Sabina, a Vestal Virgin buried alive for having sex with him. I’m up on Christianity and the Roman Empire (I was raised Roman Catholic; I read history avidly), but knew almost nothing about Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, and the unbroken succession of young priestesses who served her for over a thousand years. Author Rose brings the banished religion back to vivid life, expertly weaving its fascinating catechism, rites, rituals, and harsh punishments into her intricately plotted tale.
Ryder, physically recovered but mentally tormented, subsequently returns to Rome seeking answers to his flashbacks. He finds them in a tomb being excavated by the reincarnation-focused Phoenix Foundation, which has hired Josh to photograph the dig. The Foundation is surreptitiously looking for more than pottery, beads and bones; it suspects the Vestal Virgin burial site may also contain the legendary “Memory Stones” –ancient gemstones which reputedly allow people to view their past lives. The Foundation finds its priceless, metaphysical treasure; Josh finds the body of his cruelly suffocated 4th century lover, Sabina; and a vicious struggle ensues for control of the stones, sparking robbery, kidnapping and murder. You’re hooked.
Erudite and entertaining, The Reincarnationist went on to inspire the 2010 Fox TV series "Past Life."
Rose has a fascination with the supernatural, a fervent following, and a suite of best-sellers exploring the metaphysical. If you enjoy historical fiction with paranormal twist, don’t forget to check out her latest novel, "The Witch of Painted Sorrows," a tale of spirit possession set in decadent, 1890s Belle Époque Paris. Who knows: you may have been there – a genial flâneur strolling Boulevard Haussmann in a previous life.
Isn’t that a pleasant thought!
Who isn’t intrigued by the possibility that we may have lived a past life?
Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism famously enshrine the idea, but reincarnation belief is global. Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, the Yoruba of West Africa, the aborigines of Australia, and the Teutonic and Celtic tribes of Europe all accept the idea of multiple rebirths. The biggest surprise? – a 2013 Harris Poll found one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. That’s 80 million people. Next time you’re standing in line at Starbucks, chances are a “born again” believer is queued up with you, looking for a venti mocha.
Voltaire, that quintessential, French rationalist and philosopher, didn’t find reincarnation intellectually absurd. “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Neither did Socrates, Napoleon, Balzac, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, or the Beatles’ George Harrison – just a few of the many famous people who embraced the possibility.
If you’re among their ranks, or simply fascinated with the thought, fire up your Kindle and download M.J. Rose’s "The Reincarnationist" – a time-slip thriller with an inventive, twisting plot that moves back and forth between modern Italy and 391 AD Rome, where a newly triumphant Christianity is brutally eradicating the last vestiges of Rome’s ancient, venerable state religion, the Vestal Virgins.
The time-traveling hero of this two-millennia romance is AP photojournalist Josh Ryder. He’s covering a delegation of peacekeepers visiting the Pope in Rome when a suicide bomber detonates his weapon just steps from him. The explosion lands him in the hospital; it also triggers troubling memory lurches back in time to a past life as the illicit lover of Sabina, a Vestal Virgin buried alive for having sex with him. I’m up on Christianity and the Roman Empire (I was raised Roman Catholic; I read history avidly), but knew almost nothing about Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, and the unbroken succession of young priestesses who served her for over a thousand years. Author Rose brings the banished religion back to vivid life, expertly weaving its fascinating catechism, rites, rituals, and harsh punishments into her intricately plotted tale.
Ryder, physically recovered but mentally tormented, subsequently returns to Rome seeking answers to his flashbacks. He finds them in a tomb being excavated by the reincarnation-focused Phoenix Foundation, which has hired Josh to photograph the dig. The Foundation is surreptitiously looking for more than pottery, beads and bones; it suspects the Vestal Virgin burial site may also contain the legendary “Memory Stones” –ancient gemstones which reputedly allow people to view their past lives. The Foundation finds its priceless, metaphysical treasure; Josh finds the body of his cruelly suffocated 4th century lover, Sabina; and a vicious struggle ensues for control of the stones, sparking robbery, kidnapping and murder. You’re hooked.
Erudite and entertaining, The Reincarnationist went on to inspire the 2010 Fox TV series "Past Life."
Rose has a fascination with the supernatural, a fervent following, and a suite of best-sellers exploring the metaphysical. If you enjoy historical fiction with paranormal twist, don’t forget to check out her latest novel, "The Witch of Painted Sorrows," a tale of spirit possession set in decadent, 1890s Belle Époque Paris. Who knows: you may have been there – a genial flâneur strolling Boulevard Haussmann in a previous life.
Isn’t that a pleasant thought!
March 18, 2015
Blokes Muddling Through (BOOK REVIEW)
Modern life is rough on old-fashioned men.
Patriarchal, proud, stoical, breadwinners are anachronisms in a world of women’s liberation, plumbers on call, and hamburgers from McDonalds. Who needs a strong man these days? In “Blokes Muddling Through,” New Zealand author P.D.R. Lindsay casts a sympathetic eye on a half-dozen Kiwi husbands, fathers and grandfathers struggling to cope with life changes they mostly resent and resist. The poetic result is a spare collection of melancholy, bite-sized stories filled with bitter musings and dark surprises.
A recently widowed sheep rancher struggles to understand his grandchildren, “plugged into their techy gadgets, speaking in weird jargon, afraid of a bit of healthy dirt.” He suspects the kids are trying to “push him out, move him into a town house, or one of those gated retirement villages,” so they can turn his honest, working ranch into a tourist attraction. In another, a dairy farmer fights with his wife over their son’s decision to become a potter instead of taking over the family farm. She wants the boy to try his wings, instead of becoming just another “red necked, ultra-conservative, back block, cow cockie.” In a third, two elderly men – a pakeha (European) and a native Maori whose ancestors have farmed side-by-side for six generations – face up to the fact that their deaths will spark legal battles and drastic changes to the land they love. Whose children are worse, asks the pakeha: “my greedy, money-loving bastards, or your political shit-stirrers?” A fourth finds sad-sack, suburban husband Tom – “I’m not a fan of changes. Why fix what’s fine?” – watching in dismay as his wife hits 50, determined “to get out of the straitjacket I had enclosed her in.” Soon she’s taking film appreciation courses and fancy cooking classes, and planning a vacation to Greece – without him. (This is my favorite story, with a clever twist worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.)
This quartet of carefully observed, finely crafted stories is decidedly dark reading in the aggregate, so Lindsay wisely includes some comic relief in the anthology. “Kidnapped” will make you laugh out loud. Crotchety suburban gardener Arnold Sidebottom despises the young university students rooming down the street – “Louts, cheeky sods! Fancy they’re so clever.” When they grab his prize-winning garden gnome, it’s all-out war. “Fred’s Wall” is set in England, where a low-brow, no-nonsense, retired school bus driver takes tourists to visit the ruins Hadrian’s Wall – “All that fuss for a few tumbledown stones,” he snorts – until he finds himself smack dab in the middle of a pitched battle between Roman legionnaires and hairy Scots. They’re just filming a movie – right, Fred?
Six, stubborn, getting-on-in-age guys trying to figure things out.
Married to one? “Blokes” is the perfect read for that rainy day when you find yourself wrapped in a shawl, tea in hand, staring out the window, wondering what to do with your muddler.
Author Lindsay is a prolific short story writer, with over 100 pieces published in literary journals, magazines and e-zines in the UK, U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her novel “Tizzie” recently made the 2014-Novels Long List for the prestigious M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction.
Patriarchal, proud, stoical, breadwinners are anachronisms in a world of women’s liberation, plumbers on call, and hamburgers from McDonalds. Who needs a strong man these days? In “Blokes Muddling Through,” New Zealand author P.D.R. Lindsay casts a sympathetic eye on a half-dozen Kiwi husbands, fathers and grandfathers struggling to cope with life changes they mostly resent and resist. The poetic result is a spare collection of melancholy, bite-sized stories filled with bitter musings and dark surprises.
A recently widowed sheep rancher struggles to understand his grandchildren, “plugged into their techy gadgets, speaking in weird jargon, afraid of a bit of healthy dirt.” He suspects the kids are trying to “push him out, move him into a town house, or one of those gated retirement villages,” so they can turn his honest, working ranch into a tourist attraction. In another, a dairy farmer fights with his wife over their son’s decision to become a potter instead of taking over the family farm. She wants the boy to try his wings, instead of becoming just another “red necked, ultra-conservative, back block, cow cockie.” In a third, two elderly men – a pakeha (European) and a native Maori whose ancestors have farmed side-by-side for six generations – face up to the fact that their deaths will spark legal battles and drastic changes to the land they love. Whose children are worse, asks the pakeha: “my greedy, money-loving bastards, or your political shit-stirrers?” A fourth finds sad-sack, suburban husband Tom – “I’m not a fan of changes. Why fix what’s fine?” – watching in dismay as his wife hits 50, determined “to get out of the straitjacket I had enclosed her in.” Soon she’s taking film appreciation courses and fancy cooking classes, and planning a vacation to Greece – without him. (This is my favorite story, with a clever twist worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.)
This quartet of carefully observed, finely crafted stories is decidedly dark reading in the aggregate, so Lindsay wisely includes some comic relief in the anthology. “Kidnapped” will make you laugh out loud. Crotchety suburban gardener Arnold Sidebottom despises the young university students rooming down the street – “Louts, cheeky sods! Fancy they’re so clever.” When they grab his prize-winning garden gnome, it’s all-out war. “Fred’s Wall” is set in England, where a low-brow, no-nonsense, retired school bus driver takes tourists to visit the ruins Hadrian’s Wall – “All that fuss for a few tumbledown stones,” he snorts – until he finds himself smack dab in the middle of a pitched battle between Roman legionnaires and hairy Scots. They’re just filming a movie – right, Fred?
Six, stubborn, getting-on-in-age guys trying to figure things out.
Married to one? “Blokes” is the perfect read for that rainy day when you find yourself wrapped in a shawl, tea in hand, staring out the window, wondering what to do with your muddler.
Author Lindsay is a prolific short story writer, with over 100 pieces published in literary journals, magazines and e-zines in the UK, U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her novel “Tizzie” recently made the 2014-Novels Long List for the prestigious M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction.
March 7, 2015
Thank YOU!
All: A big "mahalo" (Hawaiian for "Thank You") to all of you for the help, encouragement, posted reviews and marketing ideas you shared with me along the way. I owe you guys
March 6, 2015
The Witch Makes the Kindle Top 100
Stunned. BookBub did an email promotion of The Witch of Napoli earlier today to its 4 million members. It's now 9 PM Hawaii time on Friday March 6, and the Witch of Napoli sits on the Top 100 list of Kindle paid books on Amazon. It is ranked #42 -- out of 3,305,202 books available for sale in the Kindle store. It is also ranked #1 in the Historical Fantasy category; and #2 in the Historical Romance category. My head is spinning. I'm going to bed.
March 2, 2015
Bookbub Features Witch of Napoli
March 6 should see the Witch soaring on Amazon. Bookbub's 2+ million members get a chance to buy the Witch of Napoli for 99 cents this Friday. The international promotion runs 14 days only, before the price goes back up. Not a member? No problem. It's free to join. You can sign up at www.bookbub.com. Gonna be a very busy March -- Amy Bruno's keeping me busy doing interviews and guest blogs on her historical fiction virtual book tour through March 20. Lots of fun!
February 18, 2015
50+ Reviews for The Witch
Curious about what 50+ passionate, book-loving reviewers across the U.S. think about "The Witch of Napoli"? You'll find their opinions on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com,. For links to The Witch page on each site, click here: amzn.to/1Dz07GS (Amazon) and here: http://bit.ly/1JmNjZ7 (Goodreads). Enjoy!
Palladino Levitates a Table
Thanks, Stephanie, for your fascinating review of "The Witch of Napoli" -- and the fascinating seance table levitation photo you found to accompany your post! It's one of the more famous photos taken during the career of the fiery Signora Eusapia Palladino. http://stephaniesbookreviews.weebly.com
A confession
My sincere thanks to prolific Brit author Tony Riches, across the pond in Merrie England, for allowing me to guest blog my confession today on his site, "The Writing Desk." Truth is, I originally wrote "The Witch of Napoli" as a... http://t.co/iNz9Oe2brm
