Twenty-One Things You Didn’t Know About The Black Prince

Have you read The Black Prince yet?  Did you like it?  Here are some things about the book, and the series as a whole, that you might not know:

The character of Arvid is based on one of my best (female) friends.
The name Arvid comes from the Old Norse for forest of eagles, which I found fitting for her as the eagle (which name in Old Norse roughly translates to corpse-gulper) is a symbol of strength and perseverance in the face of challenge.
The character of Maeve is based, in part, on my own biological mother.
The idea for the entire series came to me while I was bedridden during a serious illness–so maybe you can blame the medication!
I tried every recipe (food and drink) in every single book.
My obsessive fascination with the minutiae of (real) medieval life comes from the fact that I, myself, love it enough to have earned a degree in the subject.
The inspiration for Tristan (and especially his sense of humor) was my husband.
My choice of the surname Cavendish for Isla’s family was an homage to a favorite feminist from history, the Duchess of Devonshire.
Hart is named after her son, the 6th Duke of Devonshire (but there the similarities between them end).
The name Tristan is Celtic for tumult.
The name Rowena comes from a conjoining of two Germanic words meaning fame and joy; in other words, Rowena is literally a fame whore.
Piers, First of His Name, is loosely based on England’s King Stephen.
The line of poetry that Lissa’s shopkeeper friend recites was penned by Hildegard von Bingen–another woman famous for her rejection of societal mores, and for her long term affair with a man she could not marry.
Attic, as a language, is this world’s term for Latin.
Fuck you was a common medieval insult.
My inspiration for Solene’s character came from, in part, living near (and studying the horrors committed in) the famous and infamous Danvers State Hospital.
The name Asher comes from the Hebrew word for happiness; one named Asher is, according to the Old Testament, blessed with a life of both fulfillment and abundance.
The version of Christianity in the series is based on that of the medieval Cathari.
I got the idea for Father Justin’s botched embalming after attending a wake where that actually happened.
Loch Addanc is based on Lake Michigan (although the rest of Darkling Reach is based mostly on Northumbria).
Bragi, meaning chieftain, is another name for Odin.