Anna Chant's Blog, page 6

Dawn of the Franks – just 99c or 99p

Buy Dawn of the Franks for just 99c or 99p until 10th September 2019.

[image error]Sitting firmly at the fiction end of historical fiction, Dawn of the Franks is a tale of a real woman, Basina of Thuringia whose story owes easily as much to legend as it does to fact. Set at a pivotal moment of European history, as the might of Rome wanes, the Franks are still a minor Germanic tribe. There is little to suggest they will become Europe’s dominant power, particularly as their king, young Childeric is a disgraced, womanising exile at the court of King Bisinus of Thuringia and his wife, Basina…

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Peril & Plunder – just 99c or 99p

As the large group of Anglo-Saxons, led by Siward of Gloucester, flee England they hope to leave the past behind. But the wounds of 1066 do not heal easily and the shadow of Hastings is hard to escape – especially when they encounter Normans once again…

[image error]Peril & Plunder is just 99p or 99c until 17th August 2019

 

 

 

If you haven’t already read it Rising from the Ruins tells how this epic voyage began.

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For more information on Peril & Plunder see Cover reveal: Peril & Plunder

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God’s Maidservant – just 99c or 99p

[image error]Adelheid, the daughter of King Rudolph II of Burgundy started as so many royal women did – as the teenage bride of a foreign king.

But for Adelheid, this life was full of complications – her husband was a mere cipher king with true power lying elsewhere.  Widowed young, she finds herself threatened by the power behind the throne.

Deeply religious, she prays for salvation. But in practical terms, might she get more help from Otto, the King of Germany and the most powerful man in Europe?

[image error]Otto the Great

 

God’s Maidservant is just 99c or 99p until 23rd July.

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The Saxon Marriage – just 99c or 99p

The Saxon Marriage is just 99c or 99p until 15th July 2019.

[image error]This novel tells of the union between two royal Saxon houses – the ancient West Saxon dynasty and the upstart royal family of Saxony. The marriage between Eadgyth of Wessex and Otto of Saxony appears to have been that rarity in medieval marriages – a love match.

But life cannot have been all plain sailing between them and even if life was usually harmonious between them, Otto managed to quarrel with just about everyone else!

The Saxon Marriage – a tale of an often forgotten medieval woman as well as the youth and early reign of the man who would become known as Otto the Great – told from the view of the woman who loved him.

[image error]Otto the Great

For more on Eadgyth of Wessex see The wives of Otto the Great

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A visit to Hound Tor medieval village

For anyone professing to love history as much as I do, this is probably a bit of a shattering confession: I’m not a big fan of museums. That’s not to say there aren’t some great museums, because there most certainly are or that I have not seen any good exhibitions, because I have, most notably earlier this year at the British Library. But for me, there is nothing like getting close to where the action took place, where those often forgotten people of the past actually lived, toiled, loved, suffered and died. It is why visits to Winchester, Dunadd and Senlis have ranked so highly in my holidays of the last few years – they have offered a chance to get close to those characters I feel I have come to know so well and to walk where they once walked.

Hound Tor Medieval village is an intriguing place. With evidence of farming dating back to the Bronze Age, the remains you can see today date to the thirteenth century. Today was not the first time I have visited it, but as always it remains a fascinating place to explore, with its walls of long-houses where once both humans and animals resided. It is one of those sites which is completely uncommercial, where you are free to visit whenever you wish to walk to it. The remoteness means you may well find yourself the only visitor as you wander around the village, considering the families and livestock which once would have crammed themselves behind those walls. [image error]Today it seems a bleak spot to make a home, but in the medieval period when it was occupied temperatures were higher. Even so, it must have been a remote existence. My son asked if one of the buildings had been a church, to which I had no answer. There is no evidence of one, so where did the inhabitants worship? And what became of the inhabitants? Where did they go when the village was abandoned in the early fifteenth century?

Looking around the village I wondered whether this might be a location where I could one day set a story. Ok, I’m probably getting way ahead of myself. I’m currently working on the second draft of Book three of the Quest for New England series and that still has some way to go. But I am starting to think of what might come next. I have a number of ideas but one of them is a tale which I would set in my home county of Devon, with at least some of the action taking place on Dartmoor. So, perhaps it is possible.

 

But for now, wild, beautiful Dartmoor remains simply a place for relaxation, picnics and walks.

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Peril & Plunder now available in paperback

I once hated the thought of ebooks and vowed to always buy my books the old fashioned way! But I got given a Kindle one Christmas and needless to say, fell in love with it. It is handy for being able to buy books instantly at any time of the day or night from anywhere with an internet connection and it saves space on my already groaning bookshelves!

But there is still something about solid books with real pages to turn. For those who also enjoy the real thing, Peril & Plunder is now available in paperback.

This book is the second book in the Quest for New England series, following a group of Anglo-Saxons as they struggle in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest and picks up around a week after Book one, Rising from the Ruins ends.

However you like to read, take a look at these books now!

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Kindle Countdown Deal on Three Times the Lady

The summer is here (for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!)* and for those heading off on holiday soon, why not fill your Kindle/tablet/phone with bargain books?

Three Times the Lady – the story of Judith of Flanders is just 99c or 99p until July 5th 2019.

For anyone not familiar with the exciting true story of the determined Frankish princess, Judith of Flanders, you are in for a treat. It’s a story which takes in scandal, heartbreak, imprisonment, adventure and romance, as well as a host of famous faces.

Available in ebook and paperback.

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For more on the history of Judith of Flanders see Judith of Flanders – the Wessex years and Senlis and the romance of Judith of Flanders

*If you’re in the southern hemisphere it’s also a great book to while away a dark winter’s night!

 

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Rising from the Ruins on a Kindle Countdown Deal

With Quest for New England Book two: Peril & Plunder releasing tomorrow, Book one: Rising from the Ruins is just 99p or 99c until 18th June 2019.

Set in the 1070s, it follows a group of Anglo-Saxons as they struggle with the aftermath of the Norman Conquest.

[image error]After the defeat at Hastings,

The failure of rebellions,

And the devastation of the North,

England desperately needs a new hero.

Siward of Gloucester cannot be that man. Tortured by the disasters of the previous years, most of all he is haunted by the dying eyes of the man who saved his life.

Oswyth is one of the orphaned heiresses of Hastings. Resigned to the fate of marrying one of the conquerors, her hatred is focussed on Siward – the man she blames for her father’s death.

However, when Oswyth’s Norman husband arrives, her grandfather has other ideas. In a desperate attempt to keep his only remaining kin out of the hands of the hated invaders, he throws Oswyth and Siward together in an awkward marriage.

As Oswyth begins her new life, her contempt for her husband grows. Despite the warm welcome she receives from Siward’s eccentric mother, she struggles to overcome her feelings, torn between her duty as a wife and her loyalty to her dead father.

Siward has other matters on his mind. He has learnt the Atheling, Edgar is returning to claim the throne. Filled with new hope, he rides north accompanied by trusty friends to pledge his allegiance to the one he considers the true King of England. If he fails, the price for his loyalty will be a heavy one.

But with the spirit of the English rapidly fading, Siward struggles to defeat his torments. Can he find the strength to build a new England from the wreckage of the old?

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Meet Guy de Pelage

[image error]This is the last of the characters to be introduced ahead of the release tomorrow of Peril & Plunder. Buy it for the special pre-release price of 99c or 99p!

Guy de Pelage is a Norman and a (fictional) kinsman of Count Roger Bosso of Sicily. Commanding a stretch of the coast on the south of the island, he is unsettled by the arrival of this huge band of Englishmen.

With much of Sicily still in Saracen hands, the arrival of more Christian men could be an advantage and he bids them welcome.

Guy has a numerous family including an unmarried daughter named Adela.[image error]

Might she capture the heart of one of the young men of the fleet?

And is a closer acquaintance with either Adela or her father a good thing?

Can the English ever truly trust the Normans?

 

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Meet Bretana

[image error]Peril & Plunder will be published on 12th June and is currently available to pre-order at the bargain price of 99c or 99p.

In Rising from the Ruins we met Wicrun, one of Siward’s churls. A lively and adventurous young man, it is not surprising he joins Siward’s Quest for New England. Accompanying him is his only relative, his sister, Bretana.

Bretana is a beautiful young woman and is not averse to using her charms to gain additional luxuries and money from the men.

Which of the young men on the voyage will fall for her beauty?

And is there any who might see her as more than just a pretty face?

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