Joyce DiPastena's Blog, page 39

Medieval Word of the Day

Seneschal: Official in a medieval household responsible for the supervision and management of a nobleman's estates

Medieval Word of the Day

mesnie privée : A lord's inner circle of most trusted knights, specifically those who travel together with their lord to fight in tournaments and wars

I don't know if this king and his companions are riding off to a tournament, but they might be!
If you'd like to know how to pronounce this phrase, go to Google Translate, type mesnie privée under French and click on the little "listen" icon

Medieval Word of the Day

Sennight: One week (from seven nights) 

Fortnight: Two weeks (from fourteen nights)

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with "cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I've borrowed it from LDS Women's Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare at least two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post a teaser. 
Actually, I have two teasers for you this week, because I'm reading two books at the moment. First, a quote from Miss Delacourt Has Her Day , by Heidi Ashworth:
"May I introduce Miss Burton, Hepzibah, better known as Kazzy? So daft how these names go, is it not? Hepzibah, Heppy, Hezzy, Kezzy, Kazzy! One never knows what someone might end up being called, do they?"
From  Miss Delacourt Has Her Day , p 41
And here's a teaser from A Mormon in the White House: 10 Things Every Conservative Should Know about Mitt Romney :
On the surface, the two men (George and Mitt Romney) are near clones. Same business-world pedigree. Same storybook marriage to his high school sweetheart. Same square jaw and large forehead, made larger when he flashes that bright white smile and his eyes receded under a heavy brow. Same central-casting sweep of black hair with a dose of distinguished white at the temples. (Sure, it's talked about entirely too much, but, good Lord, is that a nice head of hair.) Neil Swidey, Boston Globe magazine, August 2006.
From A Mormon in the White House , p 38
If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading.

Medieval Word of the Day

Unlike my previous novels, which took place in Poitou,  Dangerous Favor  takes place in Normandy.

Normandy: A region of northern France bordering the English Channel, ruled by Henry II of England during the Middle Ages; assigned inheritance of Henry's eldest son, Henry, the Young King (along with England and Anjou)
Rouen: Capital of Normandy
You can see Normandy on this map directly across the channel from England (D. of Normandie)

What Am I Reading Now?

I finished Isabelle Webb: The Pharaoh's Daughter , by N.C. Allen, the third finalist for a 2011 Whitney Award in historical fiction. I enjoyed the book, but be warned: it's the second volume in a three-part series, so if you start here (like I did), you may run into some initial confusion about what's going on. Instead, try to start with the first book in her series, Isabelle Webb: Legend of the Jewel .

Next up, I'm reading two books, which is unusual for me, since as I may have mentioned once or twice before, I'm a very slow reader. But one is a hard copy and the other is an e-book I'm reading a little bit at a time "here and there".

The hard copy is the fourth Whitney Award finalist on my reading list, Miss Delacourt Has Her Day , by Heidi Ashworth. Here's the back cover blurb:


Ginny Delacourt felt the course of true love could not have run smoother. After all, it required only a fortnight, a pair of highwaymen, a pox quarantine, a sham betrothal, and a masquerade ball to bring Sir Anthony up to snuff. When her beloved suddenly becomes the heir to his uncle, the Duke of Marcross, protocol dictates that he drop the 'Sir' from his name. It's his uncle who insists Ginny, daughter of a lowly vicar, is not the proper bride for a future duke.

Lucinda and Lord Avery arrive on the scene to stir up trouble, and Ginny's normally manipulative Grandaunt Regina seems helpless to arrange anything, least of all a frowned-upon wedding. It's up to Anthony, with help from his fussy valet, to see to it that Ginny has her day.
The road to true love just got a little bumpier.



The second (e-)book I'm reading is A Mormon in the White House? Ten Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney , by Hugh Hewitt. It was written during the 2007/2008 election, but I didn't know about it at the time to read it then. Since the title is pretty self-explanatory, I won't try to hunt down a back cover blurb (there isn't one on Goodreads and since mine is an e-copy, I can't flip it over and copy it off from there), but I'll share a Tuesday Teaser from both books with you on Tuesday!

Summary Sunday

Here are some new sentences from Emilie's story. 
Monday: "It's past time you settled down, lad," Sir Jaques had chided him along the road to Poitiers. (Frankly, Monday was a horrible writing session, and this was the best of the batch. Not saying much, and I've already cut this sentence out!)
Tuesday: Sir Jaques had given them no encouragement to do more than that, though he had rather mischievously thrown Crespin repeatedly into the path of their wiles.
Wednesday: Even with the scandal that had driven her from court seven years ago, he would never have called the niece of Lady Noel de Cary a "little thief."
Thursday: That Guilberta's shrill giggle grated in his ears and Beatris's dramatic sighs made him want to shake her, were faults in himself he could surely overcome?
Friday: (Went out of town, and due to a very long and unexpected detour getting home, I didn't get any writing in.)
Saturday: But to endure that jangling laughter only moments after basking in tones that flowed like smooth cream from the Lady Emilie's tongue…

Medieval Word of the Day

Mêlée: A mock battle between two opposing teams of knights that formed the tournament of the 12th Century

One on one jousting had not yet become popularized in the 12th century. The mêlée, with two groups of knights basically crashing at each other over an artificial battlefield, was the norm. Think "team sports!"

Chaos like in the picture above was the order of the day in the medieval mêlée. Only you weren't supposed to stab anyone's eye out, so that one knight there is being very bad. Although accidents did happen and some knights were killed, that was never the goal. You wanted to capture your opponent and hold him for ransom. Tournaments were intended to be practice for real battle, when stabbing opponents' eyes out would have been perfectly legal.

Medieval Word of the Day

Refuge: Roped off areas set apart on a tournament field for knights to rest or rearm during the combat; also called recets

"I simply love becoming lost in her world."

Author Rachel Rager writes of Dangerous Favor : "I am easily transported to another time and place. I simply love becoming lost in her world." Read the rest of Rachel's review here.


Order Dangerous Favor on Amazon (print and Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (print and Nook).