Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 111

A day of bloody battles

August 1st was a busy and bloody day in the MA. In 1192, Richard I fought and won the first battle of Jaffa, which I dramatized in Lionheart. It was a remarkable victory which did much to burnish the legend of the Lionheart. It seems to have been a lucky day for the Angevins, for ten years later, his brother would have his one great military triumph.
On August 1st, 1202, John swooped down upon his nephew Arthur and the leading Breton barons as they lay siege to Eleanor in Mirebeau Castle. It was a brilliant accomplishment. Sadly, he tarnished his triumph and his reputation by treating the prisoners very badly, which stirred up much resentment against him. It is generally believed that he was responsible for Arthur’s murder the following year; it was certainly the view of his contemporaries and he never fully recovered from that.
August 1st in 1265 was surely the worst day of Simon de Montfort jr’s life. Young Simon (renamed Bran in my novels to save me from ever having to write: Simon said to Simon) and his men were taking their ease at Kenilworth Castle, bathing in the lake and entertaining themselves with the prostitutes that inevitably flocked to a medieval army. His cousin Edward was warned of this by a female spy, and staged an unusual night march to take Bran by surprise. Edward then collected Bran’s banners and headed for Evesham. Simon was expecting Bran’s arrival and when he first saw the banners in the distance, he assumed it was his son. When he went up into the bell tower of Evesham’s abbey and realized that he was looking at his doom, he faced it unflinchingly, giving us one of history’s better exit lines: “We must commend our souls to God, for our bodies are theirs.” Meanwhile, back at Kenilworth, Bran collected what was left of his scattered army and raced for Evesham. He arrived too late; the battle was over. One chronicler would comment, “Such was the murder of Evesham, for battle it was none.” But Bran got there just in time to see his father’s head on a pike. Once again reality trumps fiction, for what writer would dare to make something like that up?

My Richard III Tour and Sunne in Splendour

I have a new blog up with information for my British readers about my Richard III tour. And I could not resist talking a bit about Sunne's exciting rebirth in hardcover come September.

http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/

My Richard III Tour and The Sunne in Splendour

As many of you know, I am leading a tour to England this September, following in the Footsteps of Richard III, visiting all of the places that were important to Richard during his lifetime and brief reign.  The tour sold out in two days, showing that Richard has rock star appeal even after 500 years!  Some of my British readers had indicated they’d love to meet me during the course of the tour.  I discussed this with Academic Travel and they explained they normally do not permit non-tour members to take part in the scheduled events.   But they understood that these were unusual circumstances and they knew I did not want to disappoint my readers.  So I was very pleased when they came up with this option.  They have scheduled a special event in York that will be open to the public.  It will take place on the evening of September 10th at Mansion House in York.  But because seating is limited, anyone wanting to attend must purchase a ticket in advance and sooner rather than later would probably be better.   Here is the information below, as well as links to the Mansion House and Barley Hall, where the reception afterward will be held.  My publisher has assured me that we will have copies of the new hardcover edition of The Sunne in Splendour available for purchase and of course I’d be delighted to sign them.  (Writers love doing that!) 
Tuesday September 10th, Mansion House, York at 6:30 pm.
Ticket price £25
Join Sharon Kay Penman for a short preview reading of A King’s Ransom, to be published in 2014.
A buffet reception with live music inspired by the Middle Ages follows at Barley Hall.
Sharon will also be available for book signing.
Pre-booking is essential as capacity is strictly limited. For more information or to make a booking please call +44 01904 615505 or at jorvikbookings.com
 http://www.mansionhouseyork.com/ 
http://barleyhall.co.uk/about-barley-hall/
 Our Eleanor tour was a magical experience and many friendships were formed, which I suspect does not usually occur on tours.   If this one goes as well, we will give serious consideration to another Richard III tour next year, perhaps in time to visit his new tomb.  We are still planning another Eleanor tour, but we continue to be stymied by the renovations at the Abbaye Royale hotel on the grounds of Fontevrault Abbey, and so we would not be able to schedule the Eleanor tour until 2015.    
 This has been such a good year for Richard—and therefore, for Sunne.  I am very happy to report that Sunne is back on Amazon.com.UK’s Kindle historical fiction bestseller list.  I was puzzled at first by the sudden bump in sales, but then I realized I probably have Philippa Gregory to thank for that!  It makes sense that viewers of her television series being shown in the UK this summer might be motivated to find out more about the Wars of the Roses.  
 I will try again to get my blog to allow me to insert the new Sunne book jacket, which I love.  (This has been an on-going problem, which will not be surprising to any of my friends and readers who’ve been following my computer woes on Facebook. Several of them even suggested that I have my very own “dead zone” hovering over me at all times.)    But in case it balks again, I am including the Amazon.com.UK link for those who have not seen the new cover yet.
This rebirth of Sunne gave me a rare opportunity.  I was able to rewrite some of the dialogue from the original edition of Sunne thirty years ago—and yes that makes me feel very old.   I have also written a new Author’s Note to reflect the amazing discovery of Richard’s lost grave.  Unfortunately, space constraints compelled us to cut some of the new AN for the hardcover edition.  But the AN will appear in its entirety in the new Kindle edition of Sunne, which will be released at the same time as the hardcover, September 12th.  And I will post it on my website, too, once the book is published.   Many of my American readers have expressed their disappointment at missing out, but they can still buy the new hardcover edition; the wonderful folks at Book Depository will ship worldwide for free.     They cannot buy the new Kindle e-book, of course, thanks to the restrictions that drive writers and readers to drink.   But one of my American publishers, St Martin’s Press, will be bringing out a new Kindle e-book edition of Sunne that will mirror the British one, even as to the British spelling.  American spelling really jars a minority of my British readers, but I’ve never had any American readers complain about British spelling.  I rather fancy it myself, and managed to get the British spelling of grey approved for all of my books because Elizabeth Woodville’s first husband was named Grey.
 Anyway, here is the Amazon link.   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunne-Splendour-Sharon-Penman/dp/0230768695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373755647&sr=1-2 And here is the Book Depository link.  Apparently they are not taking pre-orders, but they do have a Notify Me feature to alert readers when it becomes available for sale.  Ignore the icon saying the paperback edition will also be published on September 12th.  That is not so; it will be published in the UK next spring.  http://www.bookdepository.com/search/advanced?page=1&searchRefined=1&searchAddedTerm=&searchTitle=The+Sunne+in+Splendour&searchAuthor=Sharon+Penman&searchPublisher=Macmillan&searchIsbn=&searchLang=&submit=%3CSPAN%3E%3CEM%3ESearch%3C%2FEM%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E 
 These are exciting times to be a Ricardian!
July 30, 2014
 

Happy Birthday to one of history's good guys

Taking a Dragon break to mention that one of my favorite Lionheart characters, Richard's nephew, Henri, the Count of Champagne was born on this date in 1166. I am looking forward to having him hang around the house again in the next book.

A dog in need

I am sorry I am making such sporadic appearances here, but I dare not take my eyes off that Deadline Dragon for fear he might make a snack of Holly. I did want to post this, though, on behalf of Echo White Shepherd Rescue. I will be eternally grateful to them for transporting Tristan up the coast from Florida to me and they are trying to give a two year old white shepherd named Jefferson a new life, too. They need volunteers willing to drive an hour or so to get him from Commerce, GA to a foster home in New Jersey. Below are the legs of the pilgrimage; if he is passing through your state and you’d like the adventure and satisfaction of helping this sad-eyed boy out, please contact: amylusty@comcast.net Or you can let me know you’re interested, and I’ll put Amy in touch with you. Thanks for considering this.
Saturday August 3, 2013
Leg 1
Commerce, GA – Greenville, SC
81 miles 1 hour 15 minutes
Leave: 9:00 AM
Arrive: 10:15 AM
** NEEDED **
Leg 2
Greenville, SC – Gastonia, NC (outside Charlotte)
80 miles 1 hour 15 minutes
Leave: 10:30 AM
Arrive: 11:45 AM
** NEEDED **
Leg 3
Gastonia, NC – Lexington, NC
77 miles 1 hour 15 minutes
Leave: 12:00 PM
Arrive: 1:15 PM
** NEEDED **
Leg 4
Lexington, NC – Durham, NC
85 miles 1 hour 25 minutes
Leave: 1:30 PM
Arrive: 2:55 PM
** NEEDED **
Leg 5
Durham, NC – South Hill, VA
85 miles 1 hour 10 minutes
Leave: 3:10 PM
Arrive: 4:20 PM
** NEEDED **
Leg 6
South Hill, VA – Richmond, VA
80 miles 1 hour 15 minutes
Leave: 4:30 PM
Arrive: 5:45 PM
** NEEDED **
OVERNIGHT NEEDED – RICHMOND AREA
TRANSPORT RESUMES SUNDAY – AUGUST 5
Leg 7
Richmond, VA to Fredericksburg, VA
Approx. 58 miles 1 hour 5 minutes
Leave: 8:30 am
Arrive: 9:35 am
**** NEEDED ****
Leg 8
Fredericksburg, VA to Silver Spring, MD
Approx. 66 miles 1 hour 10 minutes
Leave: 9:45 am
Arrive: 10:55 am
**** NEEDED ****
Leg 9
Silver Spring, MD to Newark, DE
Approx. 92 miles 1 hour 40 minutes
Leave: 11:10 am
Arrive: 12:50 pm
**** NEEDED ****
Leg 10
Newark, DE to Piscataway, NJ
Approx. 107 miles 1 hour 45 minutes
Leave: 1:00 pm
Arrive: 2:45 pm
Filled – Thanks Rudy

A soldier's missing dog

I hope people will share this story, for this soldier's only hope of recovering his dog is through publicity. The dog is micro-chipped, so that may help.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/wash...

Turn of the Tide

I recently discovered a novel by Margaret Skea, Turn of the Tide, set in 16th century Scotland. It has been nominated for the People’s Book Prize, and the website enables interested readers to access the first two chapters of the book. Here is the link. http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.... You can also order it at that site or on Amazon and Amazon.com.UK, if you decide you’d like to read it. I found the first two chapters very suspenseful and I wanted to know more, so I added it to my Kindle. Sadly, my TBR list now resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but it is comforting to know I’ll never run out of books I want to read. I know that you all share my passion for the past, so I wanted to call Turn of the Tide to your attention. If you like what you read, you can register and vote for it, but that is not necessary to access the chapters.

People at their worst and their best

There was a sad story on the MSNBC website today about two women who got lost hiking in Vermont during bad weather. They called for help and were found and taken back to their car. But it was raining heavily and foggy and there was a boat ramp at the end of the road; they accidentally drove off it into the ocean and both women and their dog drowned. To make the story even sadder, one of the women was pregnant. I mention this because I made the mistake of reading the comments by readers, and was stunned to find so many of them were hateful, calling the women some vile names, making all sorts of assumptions, and claiming they were no loss to the gene pool. This has long been the ugly underside of the Internet, of course, providing a forum for people who do not deserve one, but this seemed particularly nasty to me. So my day got off to a bad start and I haven’t even tackled the Deadline Dragon yet. But then I came upon this story, about two fishermen who came upon a right whale entangled in buoy lines. There are only about 350 of these whales in the world, and thanks to these two men, we did not lose another one. One of the men was an experienced diver and he managed to free the whale, which swam safely away. And they also managed to get the underwater rescue on video, which you can watch here. http://www.care2.com/causes/fisherman...

The Deadline Dragon and the royal heir

Another day, another fight with the Deadline Dragon. What can I say—life in the fast lane. It really helps, of course, that I am getting such enthusiastic responses to Ransom, but sleep would be nice, too. Anyway, while said dragon stalks Holly, who probably looks like a juicy morsel from a dragon’s perspective, I thought I’d pop in to say Hi and confess I was a bit disappointed that the royal baby was not a girl. I liked the idea of a daughter finally getting to stay on center stage and not being shoved off into the wings when little brothers appeared on the scene. Since I have had an intimate relationship, fictionally speaking, with two of the English kings named Richard, naturally I’d like to see another Richard crowned one day. But it is not the luckiest of royal names—all three Richards died young and violently—and Shakespeare does cast a long shadow, so I’d say the chances of that happening are slim and none and slim has left town. But having had to deal with infertility and the high mortality rate of medieval mothers and babies in my books, I am just happy that this baby is a healthy one. And at least William’s Kate did not have the sort of pressure Anne Boleyn faced to produce a son. Such a pity that Henry VIII never knew that it was the father who determined the sex of the child. But then the Tudors were not fans of irony.

Interview with Anne Easter Smith

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to put up a new blog. It is all Richard's fault of course. But I think you'll this was worth waiting for, a very interesting interview with Anne Easter Smith about her new novel, Royal Mistress, which tells the fascinating story of Edward IV's favorite, Jane Shore. Here is the link to the new blog. http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/