Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 61

Angel in need of angels

Echo White Shepherd Rescue is seeking volunteers to drive Angel, a beautiful young white shepherd from Wilmington, NC to Milford, PA next weekend. I know some of my readers have been kind enough to offer their help in transporting Echo’s rescued dogs, so here is Angel’s itinerary, with the list of the legs that still need to be filled. If any of you can help, the contact information is at the bottom of the itinerary, or you can contact me and I’ll happily pass your message on. I remember very fondly Tristan’s pilgrimage from Florida in 2011 and how so many of you followed his progress and cheered him on. For a dog who came within hours of being put down in that FLA shelter, it was wonderful that he should suddenly have fans all over the world.

Angel
Wilmington NC to Milford PA

Saturday, July 18th

Leg 1 Filled! Thank you, Lori Overton!
Wilmington NC to Rocky Mount NC
144 miles, 2 hrs 20 min.
Leave 8:00am
Arrive 10:20am

Leg 2 NEEDED
Rocky Mount NC to Petersburg VA
103 miles, 1 hr 35 min
Leave 10:30am
Arrive 12:05pm

Leg 3 NEEDED
Petersburg VA to Stafford VA
90 miles, 1 hr 30 min
Leave 12:15pm
Arrive 1:45pm

Leg 4 NEEDED
Stafford VA to Catonsville MD
86 miles, 1 hr 45 min
Leave 1:55pm
Arrive 3:40pm

Leg 5 NEEDED
Catonsville MD to Lancaster PA
81 miles, 1 hr 30 min
Leave 3:50pm
Arrive 5:20pm

Leg 6 NEEDED
Lancaster PA to Allentown PA
69 miles, 1 hr 25 min
Leave 5:30pm
Arrive 6:55pm

Leg 7 Filled! Thank you, Donna G.
Allentown PA to Milford PA
75 miles, 1 hr 30 min
Leave 7:05pm
Arrive 8:35pm


Sarabeth Gordon
Volunteer Transport Coordinator
Echo Dogs White Shepherd Rescue

hpsarabeth@gmail.com

Cutest animal video ever

This may be the cutest animal video I’ve ever seen—watch a patient mother raccoon teach her clumsy baby how to climb a tree.
http://www.care2.com/causes/daily-cut...

Henry VIII's luckiest wife

This was a day of liberation for Anne off Cleves, for on July 9, 1540, she officially survived the end of her marriage to the Tudor Bluebeard. Do you think any of Henry’s other wives were as happy on their wedding days as Anne was on the day of her marriage’s annulment? I’d guess that Katherine of Aragon was, for she’d not been graced with second sight. I suspect that by the time the pregnant, stressed-out Anne Boleyn wed Henry, she was too exhausted to feel genuine joy. Any thoughts on that? I wouldn’t presume to guess what the enigmatic Jane Seymour was feeling, anything from triumph to terror, depending upon the role she played in snaring Henry. Silly little Catherine Howard was probably happy to be queen, but I doubt she was happy at the prospect of wedding and bedding an ailing, short-tempered, overweight man so many years her senior. And the saddest of all must have been Catherine Parr. What a miserable marital history. So it is comforting that at least one of these women—Anne of Cleves—emerged victorious.

Jon Snow???

Another hot and very humid day in NJ; I'm already homesick for Colorado....sigh. Meanwhile, here is something for my fellow Game of Thrones fans. Are we grasping at straws--or hairs---here?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/06/enterta...

More royal deaths

I devoted yesterday’s post to the sad death of Henry II at Chinon Castle. But there were other occurrences worth mentioning. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became King Richard III upon his coronation at Westminster Abbey. And the son for whom Henry VIII turned Christendom upside down, Edward VI, died at the young age of fifteen, possibly of consumption. It is impossible to judge what sort of king he might have been. He was highly intelligent and well educated, but he’d also shown troubling signs of religious zealotry. And his death, of course, led to the crowning of one of England’s greatest rulers, his sister Elizabeth.
As for today’s date, one of my least favorite kings, Edward I, died on July 7, 1307. The Welsh, the Scots, and the Jews, among others, probably hoped that he’d be enjoying a fiery eternity.

A great king

I would like to apologize for giving you all erroneous information about Roberta Gellis yesterday. When I saw Chains of Folly’s publication date as June of 2015, I wrongly assumed that it was a new book in the series—wishful thinking on my part, I suppose. One of my readers kindly corrected my assumption. The series is now available in the e-book format, and the date referred to that. Sorry for misleading people---sometimes the only exercise I get is jumping to conclusions.
July 6th, 1189 is the anniversary of the death of one of my favorite kings, Henry II. He was such a fascinating man, a great king who was a very flawed father and husband. While he brought many of his troubles upon himself, he did not deserve such a sad death, betrayed by the son he most loved, John. He’d just been forced to make a humiliating surrender to his son Richard and the French king, Philippe, and John’s treachery was the final blow. He is said to have turned his face to the wall and did not speak again—not until he cried out in the throes of delirium, “Shame upon a conquered king!” While historians continue to give him the credit he so deserves, the general public remembers him mainly for uttering those angry, heedless words that led to Becket’s murder and for his turbulent relationship with his queen, Eleanor. At the end of Devil’s Brood, when the newly freed Eleanor lights a candle for Henry in Winchester Cathedral, she tells her dead husband that “At least it was never dull, my darling. And you will be remembered long after we’ve all turned to dust. But so will I.” Truer words were never spoken; on Amazon.UK, my Angevin trilogy is advertised as the Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy. Writing about Henry and Eleanor and their Devil’s Brood has been a pleasure and a privilege; I shall miss them.

Colorado, Saladin, and Roberta Gellis

I am back. I took a few extra days after the HNS convention to visit with a friend and see a little of Colorado. I can now cross Pike’s Peak off my Bucket List; okay, it was never on there, but it should have been, for the views were beyond spectacular. I had a very good time at the conference itself, and I was especially pleased to meet some of my Facebook friends. (Ken, you have a network that M-5 might envy) And of course I’ll have stories about David’s swordplay; I always suspected that man is as dangerous as he is charming!

But those flying tuna-can ordeals are getting worse and worse. More and more those planes resemble cattle cars, and the weather was horrific coming and going. I’ll spare you all the gory travel details—at least until I do a blog about the trip. Speaking of which, I still have not heard from Laurie Spencer, who won the hardcover edition of Sunne and I have no way to contact her. If she does not surface soon, I am going to have to re-do the drawing and pick a new winner, open only to those of you who entered the original drawing. (I’ll give Laurie a paperback copy as a consolation prize.)

I hope all of my American friends and readers are enjoying the holiday. July 4th is a day of great significance on the medieval calendar, too, for it was on this date in 1187 that Saladin destroyed the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem at the battle of Hattin, which is considered by military historians to be one of the most boneheaded blunders in the history of warfare. Thanks to my Israeli friend, Valerie Ben David, I was able to visit Hattin during my trip to Israel last year, and I will be eternally grateful to her for taking us out to the battlefield, which is at the back of beyond. Being able to experience that was such a blessing for a writer soon to fight that battle. I even had my own small miracle; my back pain had flared up during the trip and I was really hurting—until we reached Hattin, where my pain suddenly disappeared, enabling me to climb up the hill, which was rocky enough to have given a mountain goat pause. I still have vivid memories of that afternoon and evening, seeing the Sea of Galilee shimmering like a sapphire jewel on the horizon, exquisite torment to men half-maddened by thirst, and then watching as the sunset splashed the sky with dying colors and the day ebbed away.

Lastly, I have good news for fans of Roberta Gellis. I know many of you have enjoyed her Roselynde Chronicles about a noble fictional family in the 12th century. I also enjoyed her mystery series about Magdalene La Batarde, the shrewd and sympathetic madame of a London whorehouse during the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Maude. Roberta has a new one out, published in June, called Chains of Folly. I have it on my Kindle, but I dared not start it yet, or I would not even have unpacked. Books trump real life every time, don’t they?

Book signing, Denver, on Saturday

I am running around like Holly in pursuit of a squirrel, trying to get ready for the Historical Novel Society convention in Denver this week. While the convention itself is only for those who registered for it, all the attending writers are having a book signing that will be open to the general public. It will be held this Saturday, June 27th, from 5-7 PM., taking place in the hotel Atrium; the hotel is the Hyatt Regency Tech Center of Tufts Street; there is another Hyatt in Denver, so this is important. :-) I hope some of my readers in the Denver area can stop by. You can bring as many of my books as you like for me to sign; hey, I might even be willing to sign books by other writers, especially if I wish I’d written them myself. Speaking of other writers, check the list of those attending, for you may want to get signed books from some of them, too. I will surface again next week, but I’ll try to get onto Facebook a few times during the week.

Game of Thrones Life Cycle

My writer friend Joan sent me this after my Facebook rant about the season finale of Game of Thrones. This says it all.

http://nerdapproved.com/misc-weirdnes...

The power of forgiveness

Humanity at its best and at its worst. The families of the people massacred in church by a hate-filled terrorist offer him their forgiveness. I don’t think I could do that, but I have such admiration that they can.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/char...