Joyce DiPastena's Blog, page 29

Christmas Books Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Christmas Books Giveaway Hop, sponsored by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Laurie Here.


Here at JDP NEWS I'm giving away a copy of my sweet medieval Christmas novella,  A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance . Here's the story summary.
When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind.
What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret.
Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father’s deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.
This giveaway is open to International entries. The winner will have her choice of a Smashwords coupon to choose her own e-format.
Please enter via the Rafflecopter form below. (NOTE TO READERS OF MY BLOG ON GOODREADS. TO ENTER THIS CONTEST, PLEASE CLICK OVER TO MY BLOG AND ENTER VIA RAFFLECOPTER)
The hop ends at 11:59 EST December 7. Winner will be drawn on December 8.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Winners will be selected on December 8, 2012. Winners have 48 hours to respond to an email notifying them of their win. Prizes not claimed within 48 hours will be reawarded Sponsor name and contact info: Joyce DiPastena, jdipastena@yahoo.com. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW
a Rafflecopter giveaway

All entered? Click below for some more great Christmas giveaways!

Sweet Saturday Samples

Welcome back to Sweet Saturday Samples, where authors share sweet, clean excerpts from their works with you!

Last week I shared with you an excerpt from my short Christmas story, A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance . (Click here if you haven't read it and would like to.) This week I'd like to share an excerpt from a second short Christmas story of mine, called "Caroles on the Green." This story is one of six sweet short romances included in A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection .

Here is an excerpt from my contribution to the collection, where the characters are preparing to dance a medieval Christmas carole. (Yes, that was the spelling when it was a dance.)


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Caroles on the GreenEnglandDecember 24, 1151
“We are to dance sinister, eh?”
Isabel stiffened. Amidst all the shuffling, she had not seen Lucian maneuver into position on her right. Or perhaps it was mere coincidence. He would have been on the opposite side of Ronwen had they been dancing the other direction. Ronwen certainly looked unhappy to see him take Isabel’s free hand in his. Lucian lifted her fingers lightly and gazed for a moment at the pale yellow stone. Did he remember that she preferred the deeper hues of emeralds and rubies to set off her dark coloring?
“They begin the circle to the right in the East,” he said, as he slipped her fingers into the strong grip that she remembered so well.
She felt herself recoiling ever so slightly from Sir Theo’s weak clasp on her other side and silently chastised herself. She would teach him that he need not be so diffident, once he knew that she wished to marry him.
“I do not see that it matters which direction we circle, so long as we all move in unison,” she said.
She tossed Lucian one of her haughty looks and felt a little hitch in her breath. He had recovered quite splendidly from their last encounter, when he had sported two black eyes and a swollen nose. The latter cast slightly sideways, a departure from the arrogantly straight nose she remembered in his youth and in the proud young crusader who had returned from the East. Judging from the dagger looks Ronwen threw at her, the flaw in his otherwise absurdly handsome face had not dampened her cousin’s welcome of Lucian’s courtship one whit. Then why did he not gaze at Ronwen, instead of holding Isabel’s eyes with a weighing look that she refused to break first?
The hollow thump thump thump of a drum finally broke the spell for them both. Isabel saw the confusion that flooded the circle as the music started. They surely wondered which way Sir Theo would decide to step first. She would have leaned over to him, but felt the subtle pressure of Lucian’s hand guiding her into a gentle bounce on the balls of her feet in rhythm to the beat of the drums. She fought back waves of memories at his touch, even as she watched Sir Theo’s face flame when he realized himself the center of attention. All the watching eyes seemed to freeze him into place.
Isabel’s bounce grew more impatient until at last she tugged on Sir Theo’s hand, trying to signal him to begin. Sir Theo gave a visible start and apparently thinking she wished him to move her direction, lurched so suddenly to his right that he crashed into Isabel’s shoulder and sent her stumbling into Lucian.
Lucian’s fingers fluttered around hers, as though instinct commanded he release her hand and steady her with his strong arm around her waist. Or so rose the unbidden vision to her mind. A vision which the crack of his chin against the top of her head obliterated. She heard the clack of his teeth before his chin snapped up. The blow reverberated through her skull and left her leaning against his chest, momentarily stunned. The decorative band of embroidery that ran around the breast of his deep blue tunic swam before her watering eyes.
His hand tightened on hers and he nudged her upright with his shoulder—but not before he lowered his head and murmured into her ear on a soft note of mockery, “The same old Isabel.”
*****************
A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection contains six short, clean winter romances by Sarah M. Eden, Heidi Ashworth, Annette Lyon, Joyce DiPastena, Donna Hatch, and Heather B. Moore. This ebook is available for only $3.99 on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. To learn more about A Timeless Romance Anthology , visit our blog and like our Facebook page.
Now click here to read more Sweet Saturday Samples by more great authors!

Medieval Word of the Day

Rights of warren: permission granted to a knight or baron to hunt small game in the royal forests, such as hares, conies, pheasants, partridges, etc.

(From the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry series, late 15th Century)

Medieval Word of the Day

Chase: a private forest not under royal forest law, or an area of the royal forest where a knight or baron had been granted permission to hunt big game, such as deer and boar.

Thankful for Books Giveaway Hop: Winner!

Congratulations to Ayse, winner of the Thankful for Books Giveaway Hop! Ayse has won a copy of my sweet medieval novella, A Candlelight Courting: A Short Christmas Romance .

Medieval Word of the Day

Blanchet: a very coarse woolen cloth.

Medieval Word of the Day

Prime: the second canonical hour of the Catholic Church, after which nuns might listen to readings from the scriptures or lives of the Saints; in 12th Century England, it could fall between 3:40-6:00 AM.
None: the fifth canonical hour of the Catholic Church, after which nuns might eat dinner while one of their number read to them from the scriptures or lives of the Saints; in 12th Century England, it could fall between 1:40-3:00 PM.
See canonical hour.

Blog Tour for "Spinster's Folly": Guest Post with Marsha Ward

When Western author Marsha Ward asked for volunteers for a blog tour for her newest Western novel release, Spinster's Foll y, I jumped at the chance. I love Marsha's novels! She has a true gift for transporting a reader back to the past (well, I guess there's no other way to get to the past than to go backwards...sorry, random thought here). I asked Marsha if she would be willing to share some of her thoughts on how she researches her historical novels and she kindly sent me the following guest post to share with you:


Write What You Know -- Or What You Can Researchby Marsha Ward
From the time I first studied creative writing, I've been told to write what I know. You have, too. What does that mean?
First, let me give you some of my background. For several years, I wrote feature and news stories for a series of small newspapers. I wrote hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects and people, but I knew little to nothing about those things or those people before I was assigned to write about them. The experience I gained during those years taught me about doing research, and finding out what you don’t know about from your own life experiences
Now I concentrate on writing novels set in the 19th Century. Did I live in the 19th Century? No. Does that mean I've broken that paramount rule of writing what I know?
Again, no. How’s that, you may ask? Here's the explanation: Writing students of school age are advised to write what they know because they haven't lived very long. They only know what they have experienced first hand, so that is all they can call upon. Writing students with more years of life behind them are also advised to write what they know, but there is the unspoken understanding that this includes what they can find out about through research, as well as the life experiences they have as background.
I had to interview, investigate, study and research my news subjects. That made me an "expert," at least for the moment, on that topic or person. I knew what I was writing about.
Similarly, although I didn't live through the tumultuous events of the 19th Century, I did read 150 books for research before I wrote my novel, The Man from Shenandoah. Now my readers ask if I was raised on a farm, because my knowledge of the tools and procedures seems to be so intimate. Research made me an "expert" on the things I neeced to know to write the book. I'm not as sure what to say about the readers who congratulate me on my ability to get inside the mind of my male characters. Maybe being a tomboy in my childhood and youth helped me "know" what to write in that area!
In my newest novel, Spinster’s Folly, I wrote about abuse and manipulative behavior. Some of that I knew intimately from an experience our family had in years past. However, I still had to brush up on those topics, as well as doing heavy research on experiences my characters would encounter in the course of the story, like how to play poker. After my online research (hurray for the Internet!), and picking the minds of friends with poker knowledge, I went so far as to buy several books, including one on how to cheat at poker!
My next novel goes back in time from where I’ve set my first four Owen Family Saga books. This one will explore Rulon Owen’s life as an infantryman during the War Against Northern Aggression, as it was known in the Confederate States of America. That’s the American Civil War to you Yankees. I have acquired a knee-high stack of reference books on the topic, as well as documentary videos and several notebooks filled with my gleanings from Civil War sites online. Because many fans of those time are, well, fanatics, I have to get my facts right!
You do what you have to do to get the facts right and tell a good tale. The next time someone tells you to "write what you know," take the counsel with a grain of salt, remembering that unspoken addition to the suggestion: "...or what you can find out about!"
More about Marsha Ward : Marsha Ward was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and currently lives in a pine forest in central Arizona. Marsha is an award-winning poet, freelance writer and editor whose published work includes four novels, two collaborative non-fiction books on writing, a collection of prose and poetry, and over 900 articles, columns, poems and short stories. Her novels, The Man from Shenandoah, Ride to Raton, Trail of Storms, and Spinster’s Folly have received rave reviews from both readers and reviewers.
Visit Marsha's author pages at Smashwords and Amazon:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/marshawardhttp://www.amazon.com/Marsha-Ward/e/B003RB9P9Q/
Or learn more about Marsha and her books at the following links:
Website:  http://marshaward.com Author Blog:  http://marshaward.blogspot.com Character Blog:  http://charactersinmarshashead.blogspot.comFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/authormarshaward Twitter:  http://twitter.com/MarshaWard

Medieval Word of the Day

Canonical hour: One of seven prayer times observed by the Catholic church during the Middle Ages. During the Equinox, the hours fell as follows:
Matins: 5:00 AMPrime: 6:00 AMTerce: 8:30 AMSext: 12:30 PMNone: 2:30 PMVespers: 5:00 PMCompline: 7:00-8:00 PM
These times naturally varied throughout the year as the days accordingly grew longer or shorter. To read more about the canonical hours during various times of the year, visit Court Will Begin at Half-way Terce: Keeping Time in High Middle Ages.

Medieval Word of the Day

Relics: objects venerated as sacred from their association with a saint or martyr.
Reliquary: a container where relics are stored.
Many reliquaries were elaborately decorated. Here's one example of an early medieval reliquary dated from the 7th Century:


You can see another example that I shared with you in a previous post: What Am I Writing Now?