Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 41

One of the most compelling back stories of the Olympics

I am still on the mend, but am continuing to have to pace myself, so occasional disappearances need not have sinister connotations. I am currently in Beirut, in the midst of a serious quarrel between King Baldwin and his former tutor, the Archbishop of Tyre. At least this time, they are using words as weapons, so I don’t have to shed any blood.
Are many of you watching the Olympics? We always get such heartening and poignant stories about the backgrounds of the Olympic athletes, many of whom overcome great obstacles to take part. This story about a young Syrian swimmer is truly amazing. She and her sister were forced to flee Syria, as thousands and thousands of their countrymen have had to do. They managed to reach Turkey and then boarded a small boat—holding only twenty people—to try to reach one of the Greek islands. The boat’s motor soon died, leaving them at the mercy of very choppy seas. This remarkable young woman---only eighteen—and her sister got into the water and for over three hours, they pulled and pushed that boat until they eventually reached land. She was quite matter of fact about it, saying, “Well, we were the only ones who knew how to swim.” She is now taking part in the Olympics under their flag, as are seven other refugee athletes, an idea as brilliant as it is humane. She even won her heat yesterday, although she is not expected to be in contention for a medal. But just getting to Rio is a triumph of monumental proportions. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/06/spo...

Two very significant medieval August battles

I would like to offer thanks again to all of you who urged me to switch from IE to Firefox. It has been well-nigh perfect so far.
And on the historical front, August 4th is the date of two significant medieval battles. On August 4, 1192, Richard Lionheart won a remarkable victory at Jaffa against a much larger Saracen army. Richard was camped outside the city walls, having managed to regain control of Jaffa. Learning that re-enforcements would not be coming, Saladin staged a surprise attack upon the crusaders. He may have won a huge victory if not for a sharp-eyed Genoese who’d risen early to relieve himself and spotted the sun glinting off the shields and spears. Richard had time to rally his small force and they held off assault after assault, until late in the day he took the offensive with barely a handful of knights and scored one of the more improbable triumphs in military history. For those who haven’t read Lionheart yet (what are you waiting for???), I naturally dramatize this battle in considerable detail, for I was lucky enough to have eye-witnesses accounts from both the crusaders and the Saracens who actually fought in this conflict.
And on August 4, 1265, another brilliant medieval general, the future Edward I, trapped his godfather and uncle, Simon de Montfort, at Evesham. Edward had earlier staged a successful assault upon Simon’s son, Bran, who was camped at Kenilworth Castle, and he used some of the captured banners so that Simon would assume this was his son arriving with the much-needed reinforcements. By the time they realized the truth, it was too late. Simon, watching the approaching army from the bell tower in Evesham, said, “They come on well. He learned that from me.” He then uttered one of history’s better exit lines, saying to his sons and soldiers, “We must commend our souls to God, for our bodies are theirs.” In the ensuing battle, a violent thunderstorm broke out over the field at the height of the battle. Simon was slain and his body horribly mutilated by Edward’s men. Simon’s eldest son died on the field with him and his younger son, Guy, was gravely wounded. Edward showed no mercy; even the squires were killed, which was highly unusual. A chronicler would later write, “Such was the murder of Evesham, for battle it was none.” Simon’s son, Bran, would arrive on the battlefield in time to see his father’s head on a pike. Simon’s widow and daughter were allowed to go into French exile. Simon’s death was not forgotten; much to Edward’s frustration, people began to make surreptitious pilgrimages to Evesham to pray to a man some saw as a saint. A saint, he most definitely was not. As I said in the Author’s Note for Falls the Shadow, “A French-born English hero, lordly champion of the commons, an honorable adven-turer, Simon continues to be as controversial and enigmatic and paradoxical a figure in our time as he was in his own.” I think he’d have been pleased, though, with the memorial stone erected in his honor at Evesham on the 700th anniversary of his death, which was unveiled by the Speaker of the House of Commons and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury:
HERE WERE BURIED THE REMAINS OF
SIMON DE MONTFORT, EARL OF LEICESTER,
PIONEER OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, WHO WAS
KILLED IN THE BATTLE OF EVESHAM ON 4 AUGUST 1265.

Vote for the Mother of Dragons

Whatever our political views, I think we can all agree this has been the most divisive campaign within memory. So I am very happy to report that here is something else we can all agree upon. Go to the links below, read about the Westeros election and then vote for the candidate of your choice. Breaching the usual veil of privacy, I am proud to say that I voted for Daenerys and Tyrian. They are not winning at the moment, though, so I am shamelessly shilling for them here. Yes, Jon Snow is a very appealing candidate and we were all very happy when he came back from the dead. But you really want to vote for the Khaleesi and the Imp—trust me on this. And if that is not enough, think DRAGONS. On a more serious note, I would like to give public thanks to the police departments of Cleveland and Philadelphia, who handled the convention demonstrators so well that violence never broke out and there were only 28 arrests in Cleveland and an amazing zero arrests in Philadelphia.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/01/...
http://www.thegotparty.com/

Bloody August days in the Middle Ages

I am pleased to report that I have left the dark side (IE) and crossed over to the light (Firefox). Thanks to all of you who posted such helpful feedback, banishing the last of my uncertainty. My one real concern was that I might lose all of my desktop shortcuts, which I use for my work; I’d already gotten Firefox to import my bookmarks from IE. To my delight, the shortcuts all survived the crossover with me. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, to steal a quote from one of Hollywood’s greatest films, Casablanca.
Please pray for the people of Ellicott City, MD, whose town was devastated by a sudden flash flood.
Now back to the MA. 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.
But if August 1st was a good day for the Angevins, it was a disastrous day for the de Montforts. On this day in August, 1265, 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?

Winners of my mystery book giveaway

Who says the Age of Miracles is dead? I finally have a new blog up! Here is the link. http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/?p=664

WINNERS OF MY MYSTERY BOOKS GIVEAWAY

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to write a new blog, but as many of you know from reading my Facebook and Goodreads posts, I have been dealing with an injury that has forced me to severely limit my time at the computer. This, of course, wreaked havoc upon my deadline, gave unholy glee to my unwelcome roommate, the Deadline Dragon, and caused a lot to just slip through the cracks. I am—I hope—on the mend now, though.

In my last blog, I promised to hold a drawing for all of my readers who posted comments about any of my mysteries on that blog. I finally was able to do that drawing and the winner is Chris Torrance. I can give you a hardcover edition of Prince of Darkness or Dragon’s Lair, Chris; just let me know which one you prefer. I started thinking about it after you emerged as the winner and remembered that the first four horses in a race receive prizes. That seemed like a good idea so I drew three more names. Sara, I will be happy to give you a copy of Prince of Darkness, too; you mentioned that you would like to read that one. Rosemary and Thomas Greene , you are also winners. I am afraid you’ll have to settle for paperback editions, but you both can choose between Dragon’s Lair and Prince of Darkness. Unfortunately, I’ve about run out of copies of The Queen’s Man and Cruel as the Grave. Please contact me through my Contact Sharon feature on my website and once I have your addresses, I can send the books out.

I really enjoyed the reader responses to my last blog. So many of you provided wonderful first sentences from books you enjoyed and all of them made me want to read those books. Of course at this point, my TBR list is so long that I’d need nine lives like a cat in order to read them all. That is true for virtually all book lovers. This is why the saddest Twilight Zone episode ever was the one about the librarian who somehow survived a catastrophe, emerging to find NYC was intact but all the people were gone. I saw it as a child, so I am very fuzzy on the details. All I remember is the ending. He was naturally stunned at first, but then realized he could spend the rest of his life reading. But as he sat on the steps of the New York City library, he dropped his glasses and they broke. I think I cried when that happened.

I still have to pace myself when it comes to using the computer, so this will probably be my shortest blog ever. Not surprisingly, it is book-themed. Here is my question: What was the book you read this year that truly resonated with you, one you will long remember? This is sure to give us all dozens of new books to add to our TBR lists as we go happily off into book bankruptcy together.

For me, it was The Underdogs: children, dogs, and the power of unconditional love by Melissa Fay Greene. This was one of the most moving and inspirational stories I’ve ever read. The author tells the true story of Karen Shirk, a young woman stricken at age 24 with a neuromuscular disease that put her in a wheel chair and made her dependent upon a ventilator. She was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was “too disabled.” Instead of despairing, she trained her own service dog, but she was haunted by the thought of all the people who were being denied the service dogs that would have enabled them to lead productive lives, especially children.

The result was 4 Paws for Ability, the service dog academy that she founded and runs today in Ohio. The Underdogs tells the story of how this came to be, interspersed with heartbreaking glimpses into the lives of overwhelmed parents struggling desperately to help their stricken children, families whose lives would be transformed by the service dogs that Karen selected for them. As I read this remarkable book, I could only marvel at the resiliency of the human spirit and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The Amazon description of The Underdogs says it better than I could: “Written with characteristic insight, humanity, humor, and irrepressible joy, what could have been merely touching is a penetrating, compassionate exploration of larger questions about our attachments to dogs, what constitutes a productive life, and what can be accomplished with unconditional love.” I have decided that if I am ever lucky enough to win the lottery, a good portion of those winnings will go to Karen Shirk and 4 Paws for Ability. It costs over $16,000 to train one of her service dogs, most of which she finds in shelters; she helps the families to raise the money. But if ever anyone deserved a financial good angel, this is the woman.

I’d like to close by calling a few books to your attention. I do this from time to time, for even though I have not read these novels, I think they might be of interest to my history-loving, book-loving readers and friends. I will start with Samantha Wilcoxson, who has written two intriguing novels about historical figures we have come to care about. Her newest is Faithful Traitor: the story of Margaret Pole. Margaret was the daughter of George of Clarence, who was murdered—no other word for it—by Henry VIII and would later by beatified by the Catholic Church. Her second novel tells the story of a woman familiar to any readers of The Sunne in Splendour, titled Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen: the story of Elizabeth of York.

Moving back to the twelfth century, Hilary Benford has just written a novel about Richard I’s sister, Joanna, titled Sister of the Lionheart. I really enjoyed writing about Joanna and can well understand the magnetic pull she exerted upon Hilary. And Charlene Newcomb is continuing the story of two fictional young knights who accompanied the Lionheart to the Holy Land on the Third Crusade. The first book was titled Men of the Cross and her new one is called For King and Country. All of these books are available on Amazon’s mother ship and its satellite sites and the last time I checked, they were garnering some very enthusiastic reviews.

Lastly, there is finally a biography out of the eldest surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor, known to history as the young king and to readers of my books as Hal. It has proven to be harder to hunt down than a unicorn; I am still waiting for my copy to arrive from Amazon. But the young king’s eloquent and devoted champion, Kasia Ogrodnik, has just received her copy, I think from Book Depository. I am looking forward to reading it, albeit feeling a bit frustrated that it was not available when I was writing Devil’s Brood. I have a few reservations simply because I wonder if there was enough extant material on the young king to support a full-scale biography.

Dr Judith Everhard, the highly-regarded scholar who wrote the brilliant Brittany and the Angevins, once told me that she’d initially meant to do a biography about the “forgotten” son, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, only to discover that there was not enough material to warrant a biography. She wisely expanded the scope of her project to include the other Angevins, especially Henry, and I will be forever grateful to her for that, as she is the first historian to study Geoffrey and his too-brief reign in Brittany. The author of Henry, the Young King is another noted historian, Matthew Strickland, whose previous books I enjoyed greatly and found very helpful in my own writing. So if anyone can do justice to a biography of the young king, this is the man.

Well, so much for this being a brief blog. You’d think I’d know better by now. One final thought; here is the link to Kasia’s always interesting blog about the young king and his flamboyant family. http://henrytheyoungking.blogspot.com/

July 31, 2016

Otters rock and a Firefox query

I had my final injection this past week, so now all I can do is wait to see how helpful it is; I do see some improvement. It is hard to remain an optimist at a time when the entire world seems to be in freefall, but I am trying to remain optimistic about this. And since we all are in need of comfort posts (like comfort food), here is a wonderful video about Pumpkin, a baby otter that was discovered abandoned soon after birth and taken to the Monterey Aquarium, where she recovered. She could not be returned to the wild, so she has a new life at Seaworld in San Diego. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5ER...
Also, I have a computer query for my Facebook friends and readers. I have always used the much -despised Internet Explorer as my browser, having tried Google Chrome and found it wanting. But IE has become so balky and frustrating that I have to look for another browser. I am exploring Foxfire and it seems promising. I have not yet made it my default browser, mainly because I am concerned that in doing that, I might lose my desktop shortcuts, all of which are used in my research. I am in the process of copying the desktop icons “just in case,” but I would be grateful if any of you with Foxfire experience let me know what you think of it. Thanks!

A captive king and a foolish queen

July 29, 1469 was not a good day for the House of York, for it was on this date that Edward was captured and taken as a prisoner to his cousin, the Earl of Warwick. However, I had great fun writing this scene and the succeeding scenes, as Edward showed he was more than a skilled battle commander and a playboy prince. He had a first-rate brain, too, and he was one of those rare men who were at their best when things were at their worst, although sadly he was at his worst when things were at their best. Warwick had always underestimated him, and that would prove to be a costly mistake. Writers usually have favorite chapters and Edward’s capture at Olney is one of mine. So, too, are the scenes with Warwick, so smugly sure he has the upper hand, while Edward smiles and complies with the demands made upon him and makes plans of his own. Plans that come to fruition when Warwick returns to Middleham and is shocked to discover that Edward has managed to summon the lords of the realm--and an army led by his young brother Richard and the loyal Will Hastings.
The Sunne in Splendour, pages 152-153
* * *
The men were watching Warwick with expectant interest; several, like Jack Howard, were openly challenging. Warwick’s eyes moved from face to face, until at last he found the one he sought. Edward was standing with the Archbishop of York. The latter was resplendent in the jeweled miter and robes of a Prince of the Church, but as white of face as one being marched to the gallows. Edward had been laughing as Warwick entered the hall; he was flushed with triumph, looked surprisingly young and suddenly carefree.
For a moment, time seemed to fragment, the intervening eight years seemed to disappear as if they’d never been, and Warwick was seeing again the jubilant nineteen year old youth who’d ridden beside him into London to deafening cheers on that long-ago February day that was to lead to the throne. And then the eerie illusion shattered and Warwick was facing a man who watched him with hard mocking eyes and a smile that promised not remembrance, but retribution.
* * *
July 29th was also the date in 1565 when Mary Queen of Scots made a mistake so monumental that it can be argued this was her first step on the road to the gallows at Fotheringhay Castle. I am not a fan of Mary’s, having always been a member of Team Elizabeth, but even I wish I could time-travel back to the day of her wedding to Lord Darnley and warn her not to marry him, not to fall into the trap Elizabeth had shrewdly set for her. Not that she’d have heeded me. Mary was never one for listening to good advice. I’d even go so far as to say she never met a bad decision she did not run to embrace.

Deaths in a French prison and a Sicilian dungeon

On July 27, 1214 a highly significant battle occurred, the battle of Bouvines, which had severe consequences for King John and Otto, the Holy Roman Emperor. Otto was John and Richard’s nephew and was very close to his uncle Richard, as readers of Ransom may remember. John was not present at the battle; his brother William Longsword was taken prisoner and John was eventually able to ransom him. Renaud de Dammartin was not as fortunate. He was a minor character in Devil’s Brood and Here be Dragons, Count of Boulogne because he’d abducted the heiress and forced her to marry him. Philippe considered him a traitor and not only refused to ransom him, he had Renaud chained to a log in his dungeon cell and held him there till he died.
It was never wise to get on the bad side of a vengeful king, as Simon de Montfort’s son Guy was later to learn, too. Edward I understandably bore him a grudge for the murder of his cousin Hal in Viterbo, which was dramatized in The Reckoning. That shocking killing—in a church during Mass like the murder this week of an elderly French priest as he said Mass in his church before it was invaded by evil---created a great scandal throughout Europe. It would destroy Guy’s brother Bran, who was already a lost soul, blaming himself for the deaths of his father and eldest brother at Evesham. But Guy was luckier and because he’d inherited some of Simon’s battlefield brilliance, he continued to prosper, for a good general can be forgiven much. He owed a debt, though, for Viterbo, and the day would come when he’d pay it in a Sicilian dungeon after being captured in a sea battle in 1187. His friends tried to ransom him, but the offers were always refused, and it was generally believed that this was Edward’s doing. You all know Edward is not one of my favorite kings, but I do understand his determination to see Guy punished for his crime. Of course Edward had contributed to the bitterness that led Guy to commit that murder by mutilating Simon’s body at Evesham. When we read of the cruelties people inflicted upon one another throughout history and then when we read about the horrors happening today, it is all too obvious that human nature has not changed much down through the centuries.

Book Giveaway

Many of you have already read Stephanie Churchill’s novel, The Scribe’s Daughter. For those who have not, I have good news. Stephanie is offering it for free on Smashwords through July 31st; you need only use the code SFREE at checkout. Here is the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
And here is Stephanie’s description of the plot: “Usurped foreign thrones, vengeful noblemen, hardship, trauma and danger… Is information about Kassia’s past, about the mysteries of her family’s history, reward enough to face a future she doesn’t want? Only an unyielding inner strength will help her survive, and only then will she discover that contrary to her prior beliefs, she is not defined by external things, that she is worthy to be loved.”
If we must fit The Scribe’s Daughter into a particular genre, it would be fantasy, but in some ways, Stephanie is breaking new ground. She creates a world of her own, as all the good fantasy writers do. But it will seem familiar to readers of historical fiction, for like George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones novels, hers is rooted in a gritty medieval reality. Since this is my favorite milieu, I consider that a definite plus! It was like reading about a medieval kingdom that I had not yet discovered. Her characters are three-dimensional, there are always surprises lurking around the next bend in the road, and readers will be hooked by the very first sentence: “I never imagined my life would end this way.”
I think a book giveaway is a great way to introduce readers to new books. And of course social media like Facebook and Goodreads offer the same opportunities; I assume Twitter does, too, but I am still a Twitter holdout, at least for now. I love the way my readers recommend books to one another. That is pure fun and we find books we might otherwise have missed. Lastly, as a writer, I am grateful that so many of you post reviews on-line if you like a book. Some readers do not realize what an impact that can have. I have been told many times by readers that they were tempted to try one of my books simply because it had garnered so many favorable reviews on Amazon. I just wish all readers understood what power they wield! But on behalf of Stephanie and myself and writers everywhere, we thank you all for your continuing devotion to books in an age where there are so many competing distractions.