Goodreads and Me

I haven’t been very active on Goodreads, even though I think it is a wonderful site. In part, it is a time crunch with killer book deadlines, etc. But also I have not really mastered the intricacies of Goodreads, so I was content just to communicate via my blogs. But for reasons unknown to me, Goodreads no longer posts my blogs on my Goodreads page. Fortunately, I belatedly discovered that I can post directly to Goodreads, as I did for my last blog; it offers a book giveaway of either Lionheart, Devil’s Brood, Time and Chance, or The Reckoning. Still time to enter, too; all you have to do is post a comment here. http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/
It occurred to me that I can also interact with readers on Goodreads by sharing some of my Facebook posts. I do a lot of “Today in history” entries that my Facebook readers seem to like. So I thought I’d start off by sharing my Facebook post for today, July 29th.

You know how in those horror films you want to scream out to the teenagers, “For God’s sake, do not go down into the basement!” Well, something happened on July 29th, 1565 that elicits the same response. On this date, Mary Stuart married Lord Darnley. I am not even a fan of Mary’s and yet I want so much to stop her! I always thought this disastrous marriage was the handiwork of the fiendishly clever Elizabeth; I really believe she deliberately sent the handsome but vacuous Darnley to Mary’s court after first insulting Mary by offering her Robert Dudley as a husband, knowing Mary would take the bait. Her plan succeeded beyond her wildest expectations, for less than two years later, Darnley had been murdered and Mary was in free fall, taking her first steps along the road that would eventually lead to Fotheringhay Castle.
On a more cheerful note, July 28, 1166 was the birthdate of one of my favorite characters in Lionheart, Richard’s nephew Henri, Count of Champagne. I very much hope that Henri will get much more time on center stage in my next book.