Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion
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Our kitchen remodel in coming along - everything is out and the new electrical has been run - painting and flooring should be next week. It's amazing how much bigger the space looks with everything out of it.The dogs are still not quite sure about all of this. They don't like crossing the plywood flooring to get outside, plus it echos:) Also, I'm getting really tired of frozen dinners and take out!
Good for you happy! Takeouts? Sounds like me, hee hee. I'm a lazy and lousy cook :) Can manage pasta and scrambled eggs only.
Isn't that the truth!!! We haven't used the Forman grill since the kitchen Reno was completed!!
I know exactly how you are feeling, happy. Exciting when the tradesmen show up to start, but the novelty starts to wear off after a few days.Currently, in our house with bathroom renovations, at night time we are peeing in a bucket with a toilet seat on it. Otherwise we've got a long trek downstairs to the only working toilet.
Which is fine during the day, not in the middle of the night though. :)
I'll be glad in a few days when the toilet goes back in upstairs!
I remember when we ripped out our kitchen (and walls, oh, and roof - umm - on a day it rained, no less, lol - our luck had deserted us as the Oathsworn might say!). Kitchen Reno took 6 mo. While I was pregnant with my daughter. Toaster oven only. Fun for oh, 3 weeks for this avid cook. Told my husband all I asked was completion before delivery. One awesome dinner cooked in New kitchen before labor hit. Gotta give contractors a deadline they can work with!!
Hang in there Happy! It will be worth it in the end :)
That was lucky, Renata! Just in the nick of time.My builder has turned out to be a real pain in the butt. It appears he doesn't accept deadlines.
He came around to quote at Christmas. With the two biggest jobs being the two bathrooms. Said he'd start middle to end of Feb. He ended up started first week of March. Which was sort of okay.
My husband took 3 weeks off work to be here and help or do any driving into town for materials.
Builder did one bathroom, said he'd be back in the last week of hubby's holidays to do second bathroom.
The day before builder was supposed to start second bathroom, we rang to make sure everything was right to go next day...builder said a big job came up and it will put him behind so he won't be here until June!
He wasn't even going to ring and tell us. He just wasn't going to show up.
I know someone who had the same builder booked for their bathroom after ours. Builder did same thing to him. He fired the builder, but we are stuck with the builder because the plumber we need to finish our job works for this builder. We fire the builder, we lose our plumber and plumbers are so hard to get.
I wish I had another plumber and could tell this builder to stick it.
That stinks Terri. Been there. We acted as our own contractor after a similar situation. Found our own subs. Can you do similar?
TerriThat really stinks!
Our contractor is really sticking to the schedule he gave us.
happy wrote: "TerriThat really stinks!
Our contractor is really sticking to the schedule he gave us."
That is good to hear. Sounds like you found a good one.
Renata wrote: "That stinks Terri. Been there. We acted as our own contractor after a similar situation. Found our own subs. Can you do similar?"I can find everything but the plumber. Some of the jobs I am going to track down a Carpenter and see what they can quote. For example, we are replacing a lot of doors in the house. Being an old house all doors have to be made to measure or cut to size.
The front door is a big job. Builder was supposed to do it when he was here early March, but didn't bother. So I'm thinking a Carpenter can do that door and if does a decent job, then get him to do the 13 remaining doors.
Margaret wrote: "I tried to read "The Wake", Tamara. Only the fact it was borrowed from a friend saved it from being thrown against the wall with extreme force.I found it pretentious."
I gave up on it after several pages. I could understand many of the words but it was a struggle--one that simply wasn't worth having.
Do him for breach of contract Terri. I don't know if Aussie law differs greatly from UK law or not but in the UK contracts can be either written, verbal or implied, but they are still contracts. So a breach of a verbal contract is still a breach and the two parties have to reach a new agreement. That opens up possibilities like compensation.
Hi Jerry, There's a big reason I can't stomp my feet and cause trouble with him. Being a small community, he and I have actually known each other all our lives. Not as friends, but we went to school together (he was a few grades younger than me) and our families have been neighbours for over a hundred years. His grandfather was best man at my grandfather's wedding. His grandfather helped mine build his home.
I have to take this builder's crap, because if I make a fuss it would create tension between the families.
I'm in a rock and a hard place. I know he'd get over it if I fired him, but if I bring in any legal action it would not be good.
That is a problem, when the good trades get all tied up on the big jobs. The better quality the tradesman, the more likely he or she will be working on important or high profile jobs, while the small jobs get benched.Our builder gets the contracts at the local Public Hospital. Not a massive hospital and it is a remodel, not building from scratch.
Every time a contract is offered on the long running remodel, my builder wins the job.
This means all the smaller jobs, ie renovations, home extensions, get dropped so he can do these hospital contracts. The good tradies that he uses ie plumbers, electricians, carpenters, go with him to the hospital job.
The only tradesman we still have is our tiler. He has been awesome and hasn't let us down.
We got fed up this week, got our tiler out to tile the upstairs toilet (we had been waiting for plumber to take toilet out, but of course he won't be back until the builder is back in June). We did the plumbing bit ourselves. Took the toilet out. A couple days for tiler to waterproof, tile then grout, and today we installed the toilet again.
Involved some tricky replumbing, as tile made the toilet higher than it used to be, but at least we'll have a working toilet now...and not in 3 months time when plumber finally shows up again. :/
Oh Terri, I feel for you. It must have been quite stressful having to go through all that delay and all. Take a deep breath :)
It certainly has been stressful. Lot of sleepless nights. Especially when you feel you have to take it and can't stand up for yourself.At least your experience is positive so far, happy? When is your finish date?
In about 3 weeks for the kitchen - he's ahead of schedule so it might be less - and then we start the garage. We don't have a schedule for that yetThe cabinets are to be delivered monday/ flooring end of the week. We have to get the new carpet purchased for the living room/stairs and upstairs hall.
Are you and Mrs happy putting the old appliances back in or going for all new and shiny.When your kitchen is finished I'd love to see a pic.
I tried the other day to upload pics of my new upstairs bathroom, but GR kept saying the upload feature wasn't active.
The new appliances are sitting in the carport right at this moment. We bought them at a pres day sale and the store said they they had to be delivered by 1 April so we could get the rebates on them ($250)Will post the before/during/after pics when it is done.
We did well for the reno during the Christmas and New Year sales. With everything sitting in the house waiting for the reno to start end of Feb. New oven, new vanities, taps, bath, shower, washing machine and so on.At least we got some of it in before the builder dumped us for bigger and better things for three months.
Getting much enjoyment out of the big new oven!
I tried again to upload a picture of bathroom to GR. No go. Maybe it's the Tablet. May have to try on laptop.
Here are a few pics of our bathroom reno upstairs. (and the new flooring in our laundry.Before.
Old bathroom ripped out. Only old bath was still to come out.
Herringbone tile going in
After.
Bathroom looks a little more narrow than it is due to the camera rotated sideways for shot.
The silver sword shaped thing on the wall is a vertical heated towel rail. You hook the towels on each side of it. We had no space for a horizontal rail.
Installed a new frosted French sliding door as it uses less space than an opening/closing door.
New Laundry flooring. This laundry serves as a 'mud room' too. Somewhere to come in with muddy boots and coats.
The builder was at the end of the day when he instaled the shower walls. he put it in a little crooked and will be straightening it when he 'eventually' shows up to do the downstairs bathroom.
Very pretty!!! I love the laundry / mud room floor!!
We did splurge on that laundry floor. :) We wanted something that was hard wearing, but would make the room cheery when you walk in there to do the boring laundry chores! I used to hate laundry chores. Now we kind of like them.
Everything's beautiful, Terri! That bathroom looks like it's a picture from a magazine!
cabinets delivered today! (happy dance)
Allie wrote: "Everything's beautiful, Terri! That bathroom looks like it's a picture from a magazine!"Wow, thanks, Allie. :-D
Glad it looks as nice to others as I had hoped it would.
I agonised over everything that went into that bathroom.
happy wrote: "cabinets delivered today! (happy dance)"woohoo! tv dinners nearly a distant memory.
Nice bathroom Terri. I love the laundry flooring :)
I'm trying to upload a photo of a beautiful scarf design that blends scenes from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with scenes from Ming playwright icon Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion:
It's beautiful Alice.Also Terri your renos look fantastic.
Thanks Alice and Ace. :)What a vibrant scarf. A wonderful splash of colour to wear in Winter. (Which for us Aussies is nearly one month away).
Oh, I forgot to say that the design came out in 2016, and the British designer did it in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the passing of Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu (they both died in the same year). He chose those two literary works because he felt they have similar themes, which I agree, having read both.
Any idea where we can find one to purchase? I think it is glorious!!
May, the British designer's name is Jason Pym, who is a GR friend of mine and who lives in Dali, Yunnan, China. I only know he did the design drawing for Penguin Books China. Here's the link to his GR blogpost:https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
I have a bit of random thought musing to do...In my recent review of a book, which I put on the A&M blog as well as Goodreads, I singled out American male authors writing in Ancient History eras.
I singled them out to be encouraged and supported so that more American male authors writing in eras of Ancient History would get published by the mainstream publishing houses.
If big publishers publish some of them, then they get onto book store and library shelves. This means more men get reading. And other men and women who have to go to the UK authors for action adventure, male protaganist type reads can finally have something easy to find in their own backyards.
I personally can list a few women writing in Ancient History who are getting published, but men aren't so lucky.
On my review on the blog I straight away attracted the ire of a female author. Resenting me for only talking about male authors.
Seems odd to me that we live in a time where people aren't allowed to seperate the sexes for independent praise without being frowned upon.
It seems a double standard, as I am sure if I had applauded female authors independently then men wouldn't jump up and down. I don't know, maybe they would. But they shouldn't.
For the record, I encourage all authors, irrespective of sex, to write good quality books. If you write good quality then I support you and hope you get published.
However, if we readers see a large gap not being filled in the market ie American male authors writing action/adventure set in Ancient History like Steven Pressfield did, then we should single out those that can fill the gaps for a little bit of extra support.
If you build it they will come. No?
May wrote: "Any idea where we can find one to purchase? I think it is glorious!!"May, if you happen to find a way to buy one, please please share the details. I have a friend that would love one.
Terri wrote: "I have a bit of random thought musing to do...In my recent review of a book, which I put on the A&M blog as well as Goodreads, I singled out American male authors writing in Ancient History eras...."
Ahhhh, what my dad used to call a Reverse Feminist.
Some people just are not happy without something to complain about. Ignore her. Any successful author is happy to see other authors encouraged, regardless of the sex.
I think history, any period of history, is viewed by the publishing companies as being the purvey of women writers, principally because, in the early part of the 20th century the best selling historical authors were female. Mary Renault, Jean Plaidy, Edith Pargeter, & Margaret Campbell Barnes immediately come to mind.
There were male writers of historical fiction, but with the honourable exception of Robert Graves, they weren't mainstream best sellers. Few people today have heard of George Shipway or Henry Treece, for example.
Terri wrote: "I have a bit of random thought musing to do...In my recent review of a book, which I put on the A&M blog as well as Goodreads, I singled out American male authors writing in Ancient History eras...."
Maybe this happened because men always had an easier way to publish (and other things), women must fight more than their male counterparts to do the same thing. It was in the past, it is nowadays.
Mainstream matters always was written by man, so a man that is published is not a great thing, Now the pendulum is fairer than it was centuries ago, but even now women must fight more. J.K. Rowling used a ambiguous name because it was told to her that a woman writing fantasy would not be read by young boys.
Yep. Reverse feminist, aka sexist. For some reason too many women think only men can be sexist. That sexist door swings both ways.I can think of more men than women authors in hist fic when I think back, so I'm the other way around in my opinion. There was a time when books written by women had to be romance to sell.
Romance was the domain of the woman and non romance books were the domain of men. Although there was plenty of romance and bodice ripping in male authored books. Still is.
I feel it is the same today. I struggle to find female authored hist fic that isn't too deeply dominated by love, lust, scheming, emotional betrayals and matters of the heart. All with bookcovers that appeal to women.
Chick lit.
Not too many women struggling against men in hist fic, in my opinion. They are only struggling against their fellow woman because they are competing with each other to get published. Look on Goodreads and you see the majority of published hist fic are women. They are doing very well these days.
Where they struggle is when they write genuinely unisex or masculine hist fic. Readers who don't read romance don't trust them easily. Publishers prefer the romance as it makes money. Women shot themselves in the foot by pumping out romance stories. They wrote themselves into a stereotype.
In the UK there are heaps of male hist fic authors getting published. Not as many as women, but they are out there. Without them, where would everybody get their non romance Roman hist fic, for example. The hist fic reader owes a lot to those UK publishing houses who take a chance on these fellows writing Ancient era hist fic. Without them most shelves in bookstores and libraries would be covered in books with women in period costume on the cover.
Thank goodness for Robyn Young and Manda Scott. :) I don't think I'd have any women writers to read. Lol.
Really though, I was only referring initially to US authors. Time for publishers to take a chance on the male Ancient history hist fic writer again.
Hopefully David Anthony Durham does well with his Spartacus book.
Is it possible that male authors in the U.S. don't write ancient historical fiction to the same degree that female authors do? In other words, do we know if they are writing but just not getting published?One of my favorite books of historical fiction is Ransom by David Malouf. It is about Priam's meeting with Achilles to retrieve the body of Hektor. It's a wonderful novel with a sensitive portrayal of the characters--especially Priam.
Another thing I'm wondering is this: I don't know if its true but I have heard that men frequently write some of the romance novels that are such hot items. However, they submit them under a woman's name because they think they have a better chance of getting published.
Is it possible the same thing may be happening with ancient historical fiction?
Terri wrote: "Yep. Reverse feminist, aka sexist. For some reason too many women think only men can be sexist. That sexist door swings both ways.I can think of more men than women authors in hist fic when I thi..."
Terri, I think you have insightful observation and have made some valid points. My own pet peeve though is that the genre of historical fiction, ancient or non-ancient, is far too "westerncentric", as though history only happens in the West. I, for one, would certainly like to see more historical novels set in Old China, whether written by male or female writers.
Tamara wrote: "Is it possible that male authors in the U.S. don't write ancient historical fiction to the same degree that female authors do? In other words, do we know if they are writing but just not getting pu..."I see a lot of self pub and indie Ancient Hist Fic floating around. There are some of them that I am sure a publishing house could take a risk on, that's for sure, including the author I recently read.
These books could polish up very well with a bit of professional editing and tweaking.
I just think it is that readers aren't biting when publishing houses do release ancient stuff. I believe this on the evidence that UK authors who are successful with the period in the UK, can't get deals with US publishing houses.
Ben Kane was the only one and recently got dropped. I am assuming because his books didn't sell well enough.
In my opinion UK Ancient period authors won't do very well because in most of them the authors have their characters sounded too British. Trying to sound like British squaddies.
Whereas US authors make their characters sound American, or of no origin. This makes them more palatable to a US reader.
Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire for example, his warriors do not sound like British squaddies. Sometimes they do sound more like American Grunts. Much more natural to an American reader.
I imagine there are men out there writing women's hist fic under a female pseudonym. Not sure a man can become too successful writing women's hist fic using a male name, so I imagine they have as much prejudice and stereotype to deal with as women authors do when trying to get non love story hist fic published.
I know of an Australian/British author who writes a lot of love story heavy women's hist fic. He is very good and yet can't get published. He has to stay Indie. Colin Falconer. I suppose women won't pick a chick lit hist fic book off a shelf if the author is male.
Hi Alice, you are very right. I'd like to see China represented too. Well all Asian countries really.I often think the same thing. Why do we the readers, the ones with the money and power to influence what gets published, only want to read about European History?
Conn Iggulden's mongol series was hugely popular. So you'd think there is a market if it is written well and in a marketable style.
Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction
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I hope she had someone to look after her animals and continue her work with rescue animals.
I did not know Lynne personally like you did Ace. I had a look at her profile and learned about her so that I will remember her properly.
I think in times like these, it is perfectly fine to link to other groups. No worries there at all.