Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 55

Two of history's more intriguing men

October 2nd is an important date on the Penman calendar. On this date in 1187, the city of Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin after Balian d’Ibelin convinced him to agree to a peaceful takeover rather than to take the city by storm as he’d vowed to do—vengeance for the blood bath staged by the men of the First Crusade when they captured Jerusalem in 1099. Balian saved thousands of lives and spared thousands from slavery when he persuaded Saladin to allow the people to ransom themselves; he also contributed greatly to Saladin’s reputation by keeping the sultan from carrying out that blood-vow. Had Saladin massacred the city’s inhabitants, it is unlikely that his legend would have burned so brightly, for one of the aspects of that legend was his generosity to fallen foes. Balian really deserves considerable credit for what he accomplished via pleading and threats, but history has generally ignored him. Well, he did attract the notice of Ridley Scott, but the director did him no favor, transforming one of the most powerful lords of Outremer into an illegitimate French blacksmith.
October 2nd is also the birthday of a man dear to many of our hearts---the future Richard III was born in 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle, better known as the site of Mary, Queen of Scots’ execution—at least to non-Yorkists.
I am actually writing this post tonight (October 1st) for we are getting a nasty storm tomorrow and they are warning of widespread loss of power. And this is not even Joaquin! Good luck to all my friends and readers on the water-logged East Coast this weekend.
PS It is now Friday and it looks as if Joaquin will be heading out to sea—a huge break for those of us already dealing with bad flooding.

My least favorite Templar and Hurricane Joaquin

On October 1st, ;11189, Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Templars, was slain in battle at the siege of Acre. He is one of the villains in my novel Outremer, for his baneful influence led to the disaster at Hattin; he was also directly responsible for a bloody defeat at the battle of Cresson Springs. He managed to escape both catastrophes, so I always saw his death at Acre as payment for a debt long overdue.
October 1st, 1207 is also the birthdate for John’s eldest son, the future Henry III, who appears as a character in my Welsh trilogy novels. Unlike Gerard, Henry was not a villain. But his reign was a good argument against hereditary kingship. He did, however, leave a spectacular legacy: Westminster Abbey.
I hope that all of you in the path of Hurricane Joaquin stay safe and dry. We in Jersey are currently under a state of emergency; even though the weather forecasters are not yet sure if Joaquin will strike us, we are expecting another storm with very heavy rains and a high risk of flooding tomorrow. Such a shame we could not bottle up all this excess rainfall and ship it to our drought-stricken friends in CA and the Far West.

A battle fought, a return from the dead?

I am so relieved to be able to report that the battle is finally over. Now there is only the ugly aftermath to deal with---ugly even for the winners, as the casualty count on both sides was very high. Real life is always much messier than fiction, never more so than when warfare is concerned. Most writers show this, but Hollywood is all too often guilty of turning death into a cool video game.
On to another subject—ironically—for few television shows have been as gory or violent as Game of Thrones. But here is a Vanity Fair article about the fate of Jon Snow, of intense interest to almost all of us Gamers.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2...

Two bargains worth checking out

First blood spilled today! I hope I don’t sound too ghoulish for being happy about that, but it means the end is in sight and I won’t really be trapped in this chapter till the end of time.
Here is a bargain from Amazon. For tomorrow only, September 25th, Amazon is offering their Amazon Prime at only $67 instead of its usual $99; this is to celebrate all the Emmy awards they won on Sunday. I am a huge fan of Amazon Prime, have been a member for years; just forall the books that I buy, it is well worth the price to me. So here is the link; check out what they have to say about its benefits so you can decide if you’d like to take advantage of the sale.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/22/news/...
And here is another bargain to check out. My friend Valerie alerted me today that a historical mystery is available for free on Kindle. I have not read any of the books in the series, but it is set in France during their Revolution in the 18th century, so that does sound interesting. And Valerie recommends it highly. The title is Cavalier of the Apocalypse by Suzanne Alleyn. I don’t know if it is available for free just on Amazon’s mother ship.

A glimpse of my new novel

I am still trapped in Outremer, about to fight a major battle. The actual battle was over in less than two hours, but at the rate I’ve been going, mine will take two weeks….sigh. Since I haven’t been able to post much on Facebook, I thought I’d share a few paragraphs of the chapter so you can see what I’ve been up to. (I’ve also been dealing with my laptop going rogue, but that is another story.) Anyway, here is a brief glimpse of Outremer; the sultan is, of course, Saladin; Taqi al-Din is his nephew, Isa a friend, and al-Quts the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
* * * * *
Taqi al-Din’s teeth gleamed whitely in the flare of torchlight. “Uncle, have you heard? The cowards are fleeing back into Asqalan, not daring to fight us!”
“Not cowards,” the sultan said mildly. “They just know how to count.”
Taqi al-Din shrugged off the correction. “But whilst they cower behind their city walls, the road to al-Quts lies open to us. God has truly blessed us, Uncle, for the infidel kingdom is ours for the taking.”
Isa did not fully trust Taqi al-Din. While he’d proved himself to be a fierce fighter, one without fear, Isa thought he was too impulsive, too emotional, and too ambitious. But the sultan loved him, almost like a brother rather than a nephew, for they were close in age, and so Isa took care to keep his misgivings to himself. “He is right, my lord,” he said, and Salah al-Din smiled.
* * * * *

Tuesday

Yom Kippur began tonight at sunset. This is the Jewish day of atonement, something all people could benefit from.
The battle is finally about to begin. So if I disappear for a few more days, that only means I’m busy killing people. Wish me luck.

Game of Thrones!

A good night for Game of Thrones fans. It finally won the Best Drama Emmy and the brilliant Peter Dinklage won again for his mesmerizing portrayal of Tyrion. In fact, they won twelve in all, breaking the record previously held by The West Wing.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/20/...
The less said about football, though, the better. 

A hertwarming story

I am getting ready to fight that major battle, with luck in the next day or so (time out for a few football games tomorrow, of course.) But I took a brief break to post this heartwarming story. They are sadly as rare as dragon’s teeth, so we need to share them whenever we can find one. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/west...

Book giveaway!

Who does not want a chance to win something free? And for us, what could be better than a free book? Okay, maybe a free Mercedes, but we live in the real world, at least when we are not dwelling in fictional realms. So here is the good news. Stephanie is doing a book giveaway for her first novel, The Scribe’s Daughter. The rules are simple; just post a comment on her website and you’re in. Here is the link. http://www.stephaniechurchillauthor.c...

Did Kit Harrington let something slip?

Good news for Game of Thrones fans

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/k...