Deborah Swift's Blog, page 28
March 17, 2017
Launch of Shadow on the Highway with Endeavour Ink
Congratulations to all the authors whose books are the first books to be published by Endeavour Press in print. Wishing the imprint and all the authors much success. Reblogged from the Endeavour Press website: On the evening of March 15th Endeavour Press officially launched its new print division, Endeavour Ink, with a party at Waterstone’s Piccadilly. Endeavour […]
January 31, 2017
Historical Fiction : 10 Editing tools. No.4 – Themes & Threads
One of the most useful things I can do when I have finished a first draft is to examine the themes and the characters and follow their threads. Sometimes a character and a thread can be the same – at the moment I am looking at ‘ambition’, which is both part of Bess Bagwell’s character […]
January 3, 2017
Happy New Year to all my followers and readers
2017 is here already and, like most writers, the view from my desktop hardly changes. This Christmas I was able to get out into the fresh air, smell the frost in the atmosphere, and admire the lovely village where I live (and which I too often forget is there). Below you can see Warton Old […]
November 7, 2016
From Cinderella to Dorothy, the power of shoes to transform
Everyone has a favourite pair of shoes. For me it is a pair of shoes I got married in – black patent with black and white spotted bows on the front. I know, they may not be to your taste, but shoes are very individual things! You can tell a lot about a person, or […]
October 25, 2016
Young Adult Historical Fiction – an adult’s view
I was recently asked to give a talk at a conference about Teen and Young Adult historical fiction, and time being short, we didn’t get onto one of the most pertinent discussions about Young Adult historical fiction, which is, what exactly is a young adult? And when do you cease to become a ‘teen’ and […]
October 18, 2016
Historical Fiction – 10 Editing Tools. No 3 – The Sound of Time
In most of my novels the passing of time is something that is hard to convey in an era when nobody wore a watch, nobody had a mobile phone, and ways of telling the time were by sundial, candle calendar, or by listening out for church bells. Something that is really helpful to do is […]
October 9, 2016
Historical Fiction – Ten Editing Tools. No 2: Truth
When I am writing my first few drafts my main concern is to get the story out there, and for that reason at the beginning I tend to write in broad brushstrokes. This is especially true in the dialogue when things are getting tense, and I just want to progress the argument. I find I […]
October 6, 2016
Nettle Shirts and Cunning Women – herbal secrets of 17th century England
I have loved researching 17th Century botany and herbs for my novels, The Lady’s Slipper and The Gilded Lily. For both of them I have had to research the botanical beliefs of a society that relied on native plants for a good many things, including medicine, cleaning agents, and home-manufactured goods such as cloth. One of […]
Nettle Shirts and Cunning Women ��� herbal secrets of 17th century England
I have loved researching 17th Century botany and herbs for my novels,��The Lady���s Slipper and The Gilded Lily. For both of them I have had to research the botanical beliefs of a society that relied on native plants for a good many things, including medicine, cleaning agents, and home-manufactured goods such as cloth. One of […]
October 4, 2016
Five Novels of The English Civil War
My recommended read for this week is The Last Roundhead by Jemahl Evans. This is a one-off – you will read nothing else like it. Meticulously researched, this is the story of one man’s journey through the battles of the English Civil War. If you want to know what it was like at Edgehill, and […]
