historical fiction – Page 5

A 1960s Childhood Reimagined Joe Van Rhyn

One of the exciting things about moving to a new city is the chance to meet a whole new crop of writers and artists. Las Vegas has a thriving writing scene, as you’ll learn over the next few weeks as I interview new friends and people I’ve crossed trails with.

One of the first writers I met here is Joe Van Rhyn. He’s written a number of historical novels including his newest, Born Yesterday. I’m not happier realizing that the 1960s were nearly 60 years ago than you are, but they qualify as history. I have managed to come to grips with that.

Joe, tell us about you.

I’m a “late bloomer.” I didn’t start writing seriously until I retired. Over the years, I toyed with the idea of writing a book, retirement just freed up the time. I had written things like press releases and news articles. My first published work came as a contributor to another author’s book on the town we grew up in. My first solo project was a twenty-page history of my wife’s family’s one-hundred-year ownership of a tavern in Berlin, Wisconsin. I considered myself a good story teller, but wondered if I could hold it together long enough to finish a full-length novel? I’m proud to say, I not only finished the first book but have completed two more, since.

So much of my writing is drawn from the things I’ve experienced in my life. I grew up in a small resort town in Wisconsin. My family owned a Supper Club. We aged and cut our own steaks. I started tending bar when I was eighteen. I loved it. It gave me a master’s degree of knowledge in human behavior, both good and bad. Every night I’d get a new cast of characters to study. (Editors note: the Wisconsin Supper Club is its own little world, and someone needs to write a novel about it. Not me, you understand, but someone.)

I did a lot of acting in school and summer theater. Writing and acting come from the same part of the brain. Scenes are built on action and dialogue. In both, you have to be able to climb into your characters’ skin to fully expose their strengths and weaknesses.

In a nutshell, what’s Born Yesterday about?

My first book, “Born Yesterday,” is set in 1964. It’s how life and relationships change when a stranger is found unconscious in the park of a small resort town, and how fate brings two people together.

What is it about that time period that intrigued you?

When I began writing it, the thing I knew for sure, Pine Lake, the fictitious town, based on the one I grew up in, had to play a large role. I wanted to capture the flavor and values of the community as I saw then. The story is made up. The characters are composites of people I knew.

What’s your favorite scene?

Growing up I spent my entire summer on the lake, swimming, fishing, boating, and water skiing. On weekends we had competitive sailboat races. People said, in the race scene, they felt they were in the boat and caught up in the excitement of the race. I guess it would be my favorite, too.

What more should people know, and where can they learn it?

In the usual places, I have three books on Amazon in both paperback and for Kindle. Along with “Born Yesterday,” I have the follow up book, “Battle Born,” and my latest, a novella, called Life Along the Humboldt.” This last one has no relationship to the first two. It is a pioneer story set in the 1860’s.

The idea came out of the blue. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Everyday I’d be adding new parts to the story. Finally, I just had to put everything aside and write it. Nutshell? “Even in the midst of tragedy and hardship, love finds its way.” I’m also on Facebook and have a website. www.joevanrhyn.com

You mentioned “Battle Born,” what’s it about?

One of my editors, loved the character of Nora, the crusty head nurse, in “Born Yesterday”. She suggested I should do something more with her. “Battle Born,” the second in the series, is Nora’s story going back to 1945. She a headstrong Army nurse, with a caring heart. A chance meeting with a fifteen-year-old girl sends Nora on a path, loaded with conflict, murder and mayhem.

So, what’s next for you?

I’m well into book three. (still untitled) Our fifteen-year-old becomes the protagonist and she brings everything full circle back to the wonderful town of Pine Lake.

Subscribe to my newsletter and get a chance to win a signed paperback copy of my upcoming novel. Each month you’ll receive links to interviews with great authors, news about upcoming events and previews of my work in progress, Acre’s Orphans. Look at the bottom left of the page for the sign-up sheet. No spam, just once a month updates and a chance to learn about great new Historical Fiction of all types from around the world.

Ancient Rome and China Meet – Lewis McIntyre

Whenever I hear people freaked out by other cultures (and you see it all the time) I think about what it must have been like when someone would literally see a different colored face or hear a different language for the first time. I’m not alone in this, I presume, because Lewis McIntyre has written a novel about a literal clash of cultures: Ancient Rome crossing paths with the Chinese for the first time in his novel The Eagle and the Dragon.

So what’s the Lew McIntyre story?

Hello to all. My name is Lew McIntyre. I have done a little bit of everything, it seems. I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1970 and spent my career in Naval Aviation flying special-mission C-130 Hercules aircraft. I retired in 1990 and continued to support my aviation community to this day as an engineer, though the “Herc” has long since been replaced by the “Merc,” the E-6B Mercury.

I am an odd character, an engineer that seems to have mastered the art of writing. Over the past twenty years I have done a lot of technical writing that people actually seem to enjoy reading. About twenty years ago, I began The Eagle and the Dragon, and now here we are, two books out, three in the oven, and my wife Karen has published two, with a third in work. We seem to have found our third careers!

Besides writing, I enjoy biking, amateur radio (call sign KB6IC) and deer hunting.

OH, he tries to sound all normal-guy and non-engineery, then he goes and gives us his HAM sign. Probably not helping your cause any, but I digress. What’s The Eagle and the Dragon about?

The Eagle and the Dragon is a fictional account of the first Roman mission to China, set in 100AD, and modeled loosely around an actual Roman mission to China in 166AD. Like most first missions, nothing goes according to plan: Senator Aulus Aemilius Galba, tapped by Trajan to lead the envoy, expects an easy path to fame and fortune. But the Fates have other plans for him and his unlikely companions. From the storm-tossed Indian Ocean to the opulent court of Han China, from the grassy steppes north of China with the wild Xiongnu nomads, to the forbidding peaks of the Pamir Mountains guarding Central Asia, they will fight for their lives, looking for the road leading back to Rome. It’s quite an epic adventure, with a few love stories thrown in for good measure.

Writing it was a lot like watching a TV series, I had to go write the next chapter to find out what happened next!

Fun. That’s how I felt writing Acre’s Orphans. What intrigued you about this time period enough to invest the time writing a novel?

What intrigued me most about the era was the extensive contact the Romans had with “The Distant East”, the Oriens Repositus as they called it. Every year for over two centuries, 120 ships a year sailed from the Red Sea ports over the open Indian Ocean for India, loaded with gold, silver and Mediterranean wine to purchase silks, peppers and spices, and artwork. Even tortoise-shell, from which they made a plastic-like, decorative waterproof finishing for wood furniture. The scale of trade was almost modern in scope, about a half billion dollars in gold going out each year to purchase goods that would be marked up ten, twenty, thirty-fold and taxed at 25%. There were Roman interest sections, today we would call them consulates, in dozens of Indian cities, along with Roman temples. Buddhism made its way to Rome as a popular, philosophical religion… things we never heard of. Roman coins of the era have been found in Nagasaki, Roman shipping jugs have been found in Vietnam, and they even got as far east as Kattigat, somewhere in Borneo. Outside London, two Chinese skeletons were found in a Roman grave across the Thames two years ago… I know their names, they figure in my sequel!

I just had to capture this wholly unknown side of ancient Rome, the big ships they used, how they would have defended their lucrative cargo against pirates, what they thought of the world of the East, so different from their own. I had to experience for myself what it was like to make that trip, and bring that experience to my readers.

What’s your favorite scene in the book?

I have two, I think.(Editors note: why does everyone always have two?) One is a violent storm that blows up while the Europa is transiting the Indian Ocean. I think it was a tropical cyclone, the time of year was right, but I believe they just grazed the fringes of it, otherwise, I might not have been able to finish the book. The Europa was a big ship, a three-master of about 200 feet, but the seas were bigger, and they fought through the night to keep the ship afloat and facing into the forty-foot waves, wind gusting to perhaps eighty or more knots. And the next day, de-watering the ship, surveying and repairing the damage, tending the injured.

Yes, the Romans had ships of that size. I modeled the Europa, Asia and Africa off the Mediterranean grain freighters, which were of that size, perhaps 800 to 1200 tons displacement, for you nautical types. You can read about one such ship, besides my own, caught in a Mediterranean storm with St Paul on board, in the Acts of the Apostles. It was a very detailed contemporary description of a prolonged storm at sea, accurate enough for a detailed reconstruction of the incident.

The second involves my heroine, Marcia Lucia, Chinese name Si Huar, who begins as an abused concubine of a mid-level Chinese official. She rises throughout the story, coming to leave that life behind and find love with the grizzled centurion Antonius, for whom love is also a new experience. She learns to fight, much to his disgruntlement, taught by Hina, a warrior woman of the Xiongnu nomads. Hina is a hard taskmaster and Marcia masters everything Hina sets her to do. But when she faces her first real fight, a fight with her former consort that must be to the death if she is not to return to the life she left behind, she hesitates… almost fatally. The doubt, the fear, the uncertainty of that first real fight, the agonizing pain of a serious wound that must be ignored. Then sitting beside the dead body of the man she has known for ten years, the man she has just killed.

That’s intense. Where can people learn more about you and your work?

You can find my book at Amazon, in Kindle or paperback. Or email me at mcintyrel@verizon.net and I will send you signed copy for just $20, shipping included at no extra charge.

https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Dragon-Novel-Rome-China-ebook/dp/B01MSEAC3I/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

I have a second book out, a short story, Come,Follow Me, a Story of Pilate and Jesus, that first Easter weekend told from the point of view of that most reluctant executioner, Pontius Pilate. Also on Amazon.

1920s Italy, Intrigue and Murder with John Anthony Miller

The trauma of World War 1 created the environment that allowed the ’20s to roar. It was an amazing time of change and trying to figure out exactly what the hell had just happened. I was intrigued when I heard about John Anthony Miller’s new novel, “Honour the Dead.” It goes on sale November 1.

So what’s the John Anthony Miller story?

I like to write about ordinary people who are compelled to do extraordinary things, driven by events or tumultuous times. My first four books are about WWII, but not generals or admirals or politicians, but a reporter, a history teacher, a banker, a violinist. They become heroes, just as many other ordinary people became heroes during the global conflict, their stories difficult to imagine in a world that is now so different, but in some ways, still the same. I also like to use the location of the novel as a character, often exotic, richly described, a place where people have either been or might someday like to go. My first four books are set in Singapore, Berlin, Lisbon, and Paris. For my fifth novel, a murder mystery entitled Honour the Dead, I chose Lake Como, Italy, one of the most beautiful places in the world and a personal favorite of mine.

I agree, I prefer writing about “ordinary” people as well. What’s “Honour the Dead,” about?

Honour the Dead is about six English survivors of WWI who converge on Lake Como, Italy in 1921: four men, two women = one corpse and one killer.

Penelope Jones, a wealthy socialite, is admitted to Lakeside Sanitarium, convinced someone is trying to kill her. Her husband, Alexander Cavendish, a WWI hero, is having an affair with her closest friend and owes gambling debts to Billy Flynn, a London gangster. Her father, Wellington Jones, is fighting the collapse of his business empire and knows about Cavendish’s affair and gambling debts. Wellington needs money desperately and knows Penelope will inherit Cavendish’s estate. Dr. Joseph Barnett, Penelope’s doctor, struggles to control images of a war he can’t forget. He despises Cavendish, having served with him in the war. Barnett doesn’t see a war hero, but a despicable murderer who forced young men to die. Rose Barnett, the doctor’s wife, is a famous poet with a sordid secret. Rose was a nurse in France during the war, where she committed five mercy killings on horrifically wounded soldiers. Cavendish, the only witness, is blackmailing her. Who is the corpse and who is the killer?

I am a total geek for the post-WWI era. What is your fascination with it?

I set the novel in the 1920’s because I was intrigued by the utter devastation wrought by the First World War, which has since been overshadowed by the cataclysmic Second World War. I wanted to write about survivors, people desperately trying to forget the horrific tragedies they endured, losing family and friends, neighbors and coworkers – all victims to a war waged in muddy trenches with chlorine gas, the horror amplified by modern inventions like the tank and airplane. And even in 1921, three years after the fighting ended, I wanted to show that, regardless of how bright the future might seem, the past still clings tightly, refusing to let go.

Without giving away the farm, what’s your favorite (or favourite) part of the book?

My favorite scene from Honor the Dead is the epilogue, where a series of twists and turns show the reader that nothing is ever as it seems.

I think you may be the first person to say “the epilogue.” Now I’m intrigued. Where can we find more about you and your work?

https://www.amazon.com/JOHN-ANTHONY-MILLER/e/B00Q1U0OKO/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9787380.John_Anthony_Miller

https://twitter.com/authorjamiller

Website: http://johnanthonymiller.net/

Helen Hollick and Her Arthurian Series

One of the unsung heroes of the indie historical fiction world is Helen Hollick. Besides being a prolific author, (she writes badass pirate novels among other things, and you know how I love me a pirate story) her site “Discovering Diamonds” blog is a great place to learn about new historical fiction. She also is very discerning, as Acre’s Bastard got a very kind review, but didn’t win a “Discovered Diamond” award. I live in hope that Acre’s Orphans wins one. At any rate, the lady spends a lot of time helping other authors find an audience. It only seemed right that I help her launch her new “the Pendragon’s Banner” series.

For those of my readers not acquainted with the fabulousness that is you, what’s your story?

I am Helen Hollick, I moved from London in January 2013 to live on a thirteen acre 18th Century farm in Devon, England, with my husband, adult daughter and son-in-law.

In between gazing out the window at the beautiful view across the Taw Valley, I write historical fiction, getting to the nuts and bolts of the ‘what might have really happened’ story of King Arthur in my PENDRAGON’S BANNER Trilogy.

It’s an honor to have you visit my humble blog. In a nutshell, what’s the new book and series about?

The book is The Kingmaking and it is the first part of a trilogy … a ‘what might have really happened’ story about King Arthur.

Historical Arthuriana is a bit of a cottage industry these days. What is it about the time period or the story that got you revved up?

I have never particularly liked the traditional medieval tales of Arthur and his knights – sorry folks, but I can’t stand Lancelot, nor ever understood what Guinevere saw in him… I realised a few years ago that my ambivalence might be because there is no historical reality in these made-up tales, (which I am convinced were told as a propaganda advert to entice men to Take the Cross and go on Crusade.) IF Arthur had existed (and alas, that is a big ‘IF’) he would have been around circa the mid-to-late fifth century to the early sixth, basically, what is commonly called the Dark Ages – that period of upheaval between the going of the Romans and the coming of the Anglo Saxons, well before the Age of Chivalry, knights in armour and quests for the Holy Grail were thought of.

I wanted to write the story about the man who became a king and then a legend. MY Gwenhwyfar is feisty, her relationship with Arthur turbulent, but beneath their squabbling they love each other deeply. MY Arthur is a rough, tough, warlord who has to fight hard to gain his kingdom – and fight even harder to keep it!

Without giving away spoilers, what’s your favorite scene in the Kingmaking?

Oh there are quite a few, but then the Pendragon’s Banner series is a trilogy… can I really only pick one (pouts…) Editor’s note: Quit sniveling. You have plenty of rules on your blog, too 🙂 . Oh OK, I think it has to be where the young lad, Arthur is declared as the next Pendragon. The scene is at Cunedda’s Court (Gwynedd, North Wales.) Men have, one by one, knelt and pledged their swords and loyalty to Arthur, finally, Cunedda’s only daughter, Gwenhwyfar, steps forward…

No woman took the oath of loyalty. What was this girl-child about?

“I too am of the blood of Gwynedd. Were I born male I would swear my oath, but I am woman-born. I have no shield or sword.”

Arthur took her hands in his. Like a fool he felt a sudden urge to weep. Looking down at her earnest face, his dark eyes seeing deep into the hidden secrets of her tawny flecked green, he realised how much he wanted her for his own.

Tremulously Gwenhwyfar said, “I have something else to give, Lord.” Her heart was hammering. “When I am woman-grown I shall have a greater gift to pledge. I offer you, my Lord, Arthur Pendragon, to use how you choose, my unborn sons.”

Where can people learn more about you and your prodigious body of work?

Website: www.helenhollick.net

Amazon Author Page (Worldwide Universal Link) http://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Newsletter Subscription: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick
Main Blog: www.ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com
Twitter: @HelenHollick

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/HelenHollickAuthor/

Subscribe to my newsletter and get a chance to win a signed paperback copy of Acre’s Bastard. Each month you’ll receive links to interviews with great authors, news about upcoming events and previews of my work in progress, Acre’s Orphans. Look at the bottom left of the page for the sign-up sheet. No spam, just once a month updates and a chance to learn about great new Historical Fiction of all types from around the world.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

If you’ve noticed a slow-down in my interviews and blogging ( and blessings upon your house and camels for caring) it’s because there’s a lot going on. Here’s just a sample of what’s been going on in this writer’s life:

We are moving to Las Vegas. After 17 years of Chicago winters, The Duchess has declared, “no mas.” Since I’d have to sell a butt-load more books than I have to live in California, Vegas it is. Between househunting and packing, until October 1, my literary efforts are taking a back seat. We can’t wait to move though! I never thought I’d be able to buy real estate in las vegas! I’m so lucky to be in the position to move house but I can’t say it’s been an easy process! So exciting!There have been some other changes since then too…
Byron the cockatiel has a new home. For 8 years, I have shared my office and writing with a very cranky room-mate. Byron doesn’t take well to change, and the logistics of moving across the country, and the increased travel I’ll be doing, made re-homing him the right answer. It was hard to do, and the first person who says “he’s just a bird” gets punched in the throat.
The day job and “The Long-Distance Leader” require mental bandwidth. I usually keep my business and personal life separate. That’s why readers here probably don’t pay much attention to my non-fiction work. Still, “The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership,” is actually doing very well. It’s far outsold any of my other work and continues to drive business, which helps pay the rent in the new city, and keeps me fed. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s a big seller in airports. Seriously, we’re a Hudson Best-Seller three months running. I have actually published 10 books with the new one coming out, my Amazon Author Page is here if you care.

I’ve been doing more short-story writing, which doesn’t usually show up here. Between novels and my non-fiction writing, I like to do short stories. One of these, “The Clairtangentist” was just published on Storgy.com July 31, and another will be coming out October 8. I will also have a story in this year’s Rivulets, the annual anthology of the Naperville Writers Group. “Dien Bien Phu, 1954” If you’re interested, you can find either the stories or links to them on the “Short stories and other pieces” link on this site. Enjoy.
I’m getting fewer interview opportunities. Maybe because I’ve been spending less time pimping myself out on Goodreads, but I’m getting fewer contacts from authors who want me to help spread the news about their books. If you know a historical fiction writer who’s looking to get the word out, have them drop me a line.
I’m working on Acre’s Orphans for a January release. Just because you can self-pubish with one push of a button doesn’t mean you should. I”m doing everything I can to make sure the book looks good, gets publicity and out-sells my other fiction. That takes time.

All of this is my way of saying things will be slow here until mid-October. I have a couple of interviews planned, but will resurface with an update after we’ve settled into Sin City.

I’ll tell you more when I come up for air. Don’t let the weasels get you down.

Britain After the Romans with Tim Walker

One of my earliest histfic obsessions was King Arthur. Few time periods have been as written about, even though little is actually known (which, let’s face it, makes it easier!) It’s a world where fantasy, history, romance and adventure all come together and everyone’s sort of okay with it. Whether you’re into Jack Whyte and his heavily researched Camulod series, or Marion Zimmer Bradley’s feminist take on it, it’s FUN.

Falling on the hard history side is Tim Walker’s “A Light in the Dark Ages,” series. He’s re-released his first tale, “Abandoned.”

Alright, Tim. What’s your deal?

I’m an independent author with seven titles in the following genres: historical fiction, dystopia, children’s and short stories. Fire away, Wayne…

In a nutshell, what’s the book about?

My latest book is an historical fiction novel, Abandoned. Actually, it is a second edition based on a novella I wrote in 2015, but more than twice the length of the original. Abandoned is the starting point for what became a three-book historical series, A Light in the Dark Ages. Having completed the series with the launch of book three, Uther’s Destiny, in March 2018, I then went back and did an extensive re-write of Abandoned, launching the second edition in July 2018. I can now sit back and say, ‘Job done!’

Abandoned is an adventure story that starts the day the last Roman Governor of Britannia departed for good, and surmises on what may have happened in the early days of the Dark Ages. It lives on the boundary between historical fact, supposition and mythology.

What is it about that time period or character that intrigued you and motivated you to write about it?

It all started when I visited the site of a former Roman town in the south of England and began wondering what life must have been like for the Briton inhabitants after the Roman garrison marched for the last time, around the year 410 AD. After nearly four hundred years of occupation and assimilation, would the locals have regarded this as liberation or abandonment? The town in question was called Calleva Atrebatum – literally, ‘the wooded place of the Atrebates’. The Romans built a fortified town on the site of the Atrebates’ tribal village. By naming their town after the locals, it suggests a desire at conciliation and co-operation. From this starting point I researched what was known about the immediate post-Roman period in Britain (the fifth century) and discovered that, apart from a few surviving manuscripts written by monks, there is very little to go on. Lurking on the horizon is the legend of King Arthur, with some historians daring to suggest there was a real military leader of this name who organised resistance to the spread of aggressive Germanic/Danish tribes – the Saxons, Angles and Jutes.

If Arthur, as is suggested in the Welsh Chronicles, died at the Battle of Camlann around the year 537, then assuming he was in his early fifties (why not?), then he would have been born around the year 485. I took this date as a target to conclude my ‘alternative history’, but became so intrigued by the earliest account of the Arthurian legend (written by Oxford academic, Geoffrey of Monmouth, around 1136), that I included the story of Arthur’s father – Uther Pendragon – and the early life of the boy Arthur, in my third book, Uther’s Destiny. Geoffrey, by the way, claims to have worked from ‘an ancient book written in the British language’ but no evidence of this mysterious text has ever been found to corroborate his claim.

It’s heady stuff delving into this ‘black hole’ in English history that has been plugged with legend and mythology. My aim was to write an alt-history of Britain in the fifth century, and slowly creep up on the Arthurian legend, presenting it as a believable part of the narrative. All myths have a basis in some human events – often extraordinary and worthy of immortalising in ballads and fireside stories. We know that it took the Saxons nearly two hundred years to subdue the Britons and carve out their kingdoms, so it is a fair assumption that there was organised resistance. Was Arthur one man or a composite of a number of resistance leaders? Our hopes for an answer lies with archaeologists and historians who are still searching for evidence of what really happened in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Without giving away spoilers, what’s your favourite scene or event in the book?

My hero, Marcus, had already suffered the trauma of barely surviving a battle against a ruthless Saxon war party when his heart froze at the sight of the return of his deadly foe. He is standing on the battlements of the town of Londinium (London) staring down the River Tamesis (Thames)…

A CRY WENT up at the sight of a fleet of a dozen ships slipping menacingly along the Tamesis as far as the Roman bridge, their dragon heads edging past startled merchant boats that tried to steer away. They lowered their sails and ran out their oars in a practised manoeuvre, rowing against the flow of the dirty brown river, following the lead ship along the centre channel. The drawbridge was down, preventing the single mast ships from passing under the bridge and forcing them to beach their vessels on the shingle shore outside the town walls. Soon helmeted warriors leapt from their ships, shouting war cries and banging their weapons on their shields to announce their arrival. Horn blasts from the towers called the guards to their posts.

Allectus and Marcus, barely a week into their tenure as Commanders of the Guard, met on the parapet over the south gatehouse. They looked down on scurrying families who had abandoned their pots, baskets and fishing nets to take to the wooden planks that floated above the river mud and led to the safety of the raised bridge approach.

“It seems our coming was timely,” Allectus growled, seeing the scampering traders on the bridge whipping their pigs and goats into a trot.

But for Marcus, it seemed time was suspended as he stared down at the tide of frightened folk cramming through the gates, his white-knuckled grip on the stone turret betraying his anxiety. To his left, Allectus was barking out orders as guards scurried past him. The Saxons swaggered across the mudflats with steely menace, shouting in their harsh, guttural language. Two raiders dragged a cowering boy from the first wicker hut they encountered and, whilst their accomplices mocked the wretched child’s screams, butchered him as if he were no more than an animal.

Marcus’s glazed expression and dream-like state had not gone unnoticed. “Your enemy has returned, Marcus,” Allectus intoned, slapping him on the shoulder and jolting him out of his daze. “We shall lock them outside for now, but the bridge and south bank settlement are exposed.”

“I have a troop of fifty men stationed in the south bank guardhouse,” Marcus groaned, staring helplessly across the now deserted bridge.

“They must buy time by raising the south arm of the drawbridge to prevent these dogs from rushing over the bridge to a feast of merry slaughter,” Allectus replied. “We have nearly two thousand men in barracks, and five hundred horses. I estimate their numbers at barely five hundred.”

Marcus eyed the more experienced commander as he marshaled his thoughts, struggling to shut out a living nightmare of guttural chanting in time to drum beats drifting on the wind. His fingers curled around the dragon medallion that hung from his neck, comforting him. “I shall send a rider across the bridge with an order to raise it and hold firm.”

Where can people find you and your book (links to Amazon page, Goodreads, Twitter, Blog whatever)

Readers can find out more about me and my books at my website – http://timwalkerwrites.co.uk

Universal book links for the three-book series:

http://myBook.to/Abandoned

http://myBook.to/Ambrosius

http://myBook.to/Uther

Amazon Author Page: http://Author.to/TimWalkerWrites

Facebook page: https://facebook.com/TimWalkerWrites

Twitter: https://twitter.com/timwalker1666

Acre’s Orphans is Done. When Will it See Daylight?

At 7:58 last night I typed the last words of the final rewrite on Acre’s Orphans. The sucker’s done. Now it’s off to proofing, design and whatever. Here’s proof:

Thanks to everyone who helped get it this far. Of course, now there’s proofing, layout, cover design and the rest of the stuff that goes with birthing a book. I am going to be asking you, my readers, for help on this. Your feedback will be most helpful. Help a brother out, will ya?

At this point, I”m not sure of the launch date. With the move to Las Vegas coming up and then Christmas, it will likely be January of 2019–two years after Acre’s Bastard, which is a helluva long time between installments. Hopefully the third (and final, I swear) Lucca story won’t take so long coming into the world.

So, as is traditional with every finished draft of a book, or sale of a short story, it’s time for this:

AT long last, it’s time to celebrate the completion of a final draft. Acre’s Orphan is a’birthing.

If you’re interested in getting one of the first copies, or getting on the list for an advanced copy for reviews (and if you know anyone who reviews books I’d like to do a better job of getting the word out in advance,) please sign up for my newsletter by clicking the link on the right side menu or the Contact Me button. No spam, but you’ll get a heads up on free offers and when the book is ready for the light of day.

My undying gratitude to all of you.

WWT

Time Jumping Through History with Doug Molitor

Okay, I know that the term “historical fantasy” gets a lot of people bent out of shape. They like the pure, detail-rich very serious stories, and so do I, most of the time. I also enjoy using history as a jumping-off point for silliness and fantasy. I look on such things as what I call “Jellybean books.” They’re not meant to be taken seriously, and yet you can still learn things and get intrigued enough to read more. Or just enjoy yourself for a bit. Not everything you eat has to be good for you. If Naomi Novik can write dragons into the Napoleonic wars iand become a gateway drug for more serious fare, God love her. Besides, it’s my blog, bite me. I’ll interview who I want.

Which leads us to Doug Molitor and his series of funny, time-traveling adventures. The latest is Memoirs of a Time Traveler the first in a series.

Okay, get on with it. What’s the Doug Molitor story?

Humorist and TV writer Doug Molitor is the author of Memoirs of a Time Traveler.

I am a TV comedy writer and novelist whose books include the Time Amazon series: Memoirs of a Time Traveler, Confessions of a Time Traveler and Revelations of a Time Traveler; and two Full Moon Fever novels, Monster, He Wrote and Pure Silver. I wrote TV comedies like Sledge Hammer!, You Can’t Take It With You and Police Academy, sci-fi/fantasy/adventure series like Sliders, Mission: Genesis, Adventure Inc., Young Hercules, F/X, and the western spoof Lucky Luke. In animation, I co-wrote the feature SpacePOP, and was the writer of 200 episodes of such series as X-Men, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, Sinbad, The Future Is Wild, Captain Planet, The Wizard of Oz, Happily Ever After, 1001 Nights, Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? and Sabrina.

You wrote Sledge Hammer! I’m now fanboying. In a nutshell, what’s the book and series about?

In a nutshell – and my critics would say that’s just where it belongs – Memoirs of a Time Traveler is about Ariyl, an Amazonian tourist from 2109 A.D. who drags David, an archaeologist of today, on a chase through time to stop a psychopath who’s rewriting history. Romantic comedy meets sci-fi with sword-swinging adventure.

Jellybeans of the first order! What is it about the time periods you write about that intrigue you?

The first era my travelers visit is Thera, the home island of the vanished Minoan Empire ca. 1600 B.C., which according to many historians (including my hero) was the source of the Atlantis legend. Since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by the fate of Thera; today’s sun-kissed Greek isle of Santorini is all that is left after a huge volcanic island exploded then collapsed beneath quarter-mile-high tsunamis. The two sequels visit equally exotic and turbulent ancient times: the Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258, and Rome under the monster Caesar, Commodus. There are also chapters set in America during the Revolution and just after the Civil War. But all three books come to a climax at pivotal events in Golden age Hollywood, between 1933 and 1954. Somehow, the birth of mass media is a nexus in time that repeatedly draws my antagonist into conflict with my hero and heroine.

What’s your favorite scene in “Memoirs”?

My favorite scene in Memoirs takes place in 1945, when my time-traveling odd couple find themselves at The Players, a storied Hollywood nightclub. Here they hook up with Orson Welles, and a trio of the town’s top leading men na

med Duke, Dutch and Jimmy. David and Ariyl are trying to keep history from being disastrously derailed by the murder of one of these beloved stars. When I first wrote the book ten years ago, I asked comedy legend Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H, Tootsie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) to vet these chapters, since he’d actually begun his writing career in 1945 Los Angeles. Instead, bless him, Larry asked to read the whole book, and gave me the blurb I proudly put on my cover: “You couldn’t ask for a finer guide to the future – or the past – than Doug Molitor.”

I’d take that one too. Not for nothing but my wife has a quite unnatural and incurable crush on Orson Welles. Where can we learn more about you and your books?

By the way, for a few more days Memoirs of a Time Traveler is going to be FREE on Amazon. Click this link to get your FREE copy while you still can.

To contact me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DougMolitorAuthor/

Author page: amazon.com/author/dougmolitor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DougMolitor

Webpage: dougsdozen.com/MemoirsofaTimeTraveler

The book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Time-Traveler-Amazon-Book-ebook/dp/B078L82R4N/?tag-dougmolitor-20

Thanks for putting me on your page!

Bram Stoker, Dracula and Victorian Dread

Before Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer ruined vampires for everyone, I was a big Dracula fan. As a writer, I loved the backstories of how tales like Frankenstein and Dracula came to be written. So when I heard about Calvin Cherry’s new novel, Stoker, about, duh, Bram Stoker I was in.

So what’s the Calvin Cherry story?

I am a 48-year-old native Georgian and a retired sailor. I work as a Business Systems Analyst for a major insurance company in Atlanta and have a 15-year-old son named Jacob. He is already 7 inches taller than me and six sizes up from my shoe size! My spouse, Kevin, is from Tennessee and shares my passion for music, traveling, reading and writing. I have seen Elton John 27 times in my life and about to make it 28 in November. English and History were my favorite subjects in school, so I guess it did not come as a surprise that one Christmas Santa left me four graphic novels under my tree when I turned 7: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. I have been taking a bite out of Dracula ever since! After 11 years of intense research and crafting, my debut historical fiction novel Stoker: Evolution of a Vampire was published by Page Publishing this past February.

What’s the basic plot of Stoker?

My novel can be considered a prequel to Dracula. It is mainly set in Victorian London and Romania in the late 1800s, during the time period Bram wrote Dracula. There are also flashbacks to Bram’s youth and when Vlad Dracula III reigned Wallachia. Bram is the central character in my novel, along with supporting roles by Bram’s wife, Florence, Bram’s son, Noel, and Bram’s employer, Sir Henry Irving.

Many of the events in my novel are factual as I used Bram’s own diaries, reference materials and notes on Dracula as material woven into my plot. It is written in Bram’s own writing style, which is vastly different from my own and was a great challenge for me. I listened to nonstop audio books written in this time period the entire 11 years I worked on my novel as I wanted the style and language to be as authentic to the period as possible. Though my book is classified as historical fiction, there are elements of gothic horror, mystery, crime and suspense that yields a 576 page thriller.

I have a thing for Victorian England, but what’s your excuse? What is it about the time or subject you found so interesting?

Victorian England has been the time period for numerous fantastic and morbid fictional and historical tales from Sherlock Holmes to Jack the Ripper. My fascination with this period began with reading Dracula as a child and then carried over into adult hood with favorites Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Lewis Carroll. Though I have been quoted as saying countless times that Dracula is the most frightening phycological tale ever written, around 2004 I began reading everything I could on Bram Stoker. Until then, there had been few biographies written about Bram – a fact in itself which I found interesting. Today, there are close to a dozen. With each additional book I read, it was astonishing and fascinating to discover his life was worthy of a novel. And in 2006 I outlined my book, incorporating many situations, milestones and events in his life.

Without giving away spoilers, what’s your favorite scene in the book. (Don’t deny it, we all have one)

I believe my favorite scene in Stoker is about two-thirds into the plot when Bram is finally on a train back home. His watch had stopped shortly after he began his journey abroad, so he asks someone for the time. The answer he gets back is more than what he expected!

Where can we learn more about your book?

My novel can be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million. Here is a link to my Page Publishing page which contains links to all the national retailers that are carrying Stoker:

The Story of Lao Tzu with Wayne Ng

It’s easy to forget that the “great men” of history were real people. I mean, it’s one thing to think about Machiavelli, but can you imagine being the spouse of someone who actually thinks and operates that way? That kind of thinking got me intrigued by the subject of Wayne Ng’s new novel.

Lao Tzu is widely quoted and, along with Confucius, is one of the few Chinese thinkers most of us can name. But who was he, and what was his deal? That’s where Finding the Way comes in.

Wayne, besides having a very cool first name, what’s your story?

I was born in downtown Toronto to Chinese immigrants who fed me a steady diet of bitter melons and kung fu movies. Like my romantic, idealist protagonist Lao Tzu, in Finding the Way, I dream of a just society, of worlds far from my doorstep, and of tastes, sensations, and experiences beyond my imagination. I am a school social worker in Ottawa but live to write, travel, eat and play, preferably all at the same time. I’m an award-winning short story and travel writer who has twice backpacked through China. Hopefully, I continue to push my boundaries from the Arctic to the Antarctic, blogging and photographing along the way at WayneNgWrites.com

I know you’re a traverler because when I showed you a picture I took in Guatemala you correctly identified the lake, which is impressive. So this book attempts to capture Lao Tzu’s (or Laozi’s) work and his life. What’s the plot of”Finding the Way”?

Finding the Way is a fictionalized story of China’s ultimate dreamer, the philosopher Lao Tzu. Rooted in history, based on legends, Lao sees a world spinning too fast. People feeling alienated, disconnected, insecure, unable to find solace in each other or governments, leaders without a moral or altruistic foundation…this isn’t just 6th century BC, but also here and now. The historical context of Finding the Way was written to synchronize with similar modern questions today. The emptiness and imbalance Lao Tzu spoke of then weighs us down as heavily then as it does now. However, he also offered a soothing balm through Taoism that gateways into an inner peace and harmony that’s as relevant and necessary now as it was then. This story isn’t just a cerebral journey, but also a political thriller wrapped in a philosophical bow tie.

I’m certainly familiar with some of Lao Tzu’s thinking, but what is it about the time period or the man himself that intrigued you?

Very little has been written about the China of 2500 years ago. And though Lao Tzu is much admired and venerated, he often falls into the uni-dimensional wise, old, all-knowing sage, and not much else. I felt it was timely that the world came to better see him in the flesh, which I imagined to be brilliant but also a naive, idealist, and almost tragic figure.

I also wanted people to better appreciate eastern history. That much of the world has an appalling lack of knowledge and understanding of it, is short-sighted and Euro-centric, like almost all historical fiction in the west. Yet the prize of understanding the totality of China is not just reconciling whether it’s a friend or foe, but in providing answers to much of what ails us here and now. Lao’s the Way/Taoism tells us that our thirst for sanity and simplicity is a quest that transcends culture and time. I believe if he were here today and started to write Tao de Ching all over again, the message wouldn’t be much different, He might have a rant about social media. But his message is as important now as it was then: that even in a time where rulers are unjust, where change is scary, where greed and consumption drive us away from our natural state of balance and harmony—-we cannot lose hope.

Since you can’t simulate his Twitter account, and don’t want to give away any spoilers, what’s your favorite scene in the book?

Two sections stand out for me. Chapter 2, where Lao sees how the natural rhythms and energy around us are a force to be reckoned with and respected. This leads to the development of the Way/Taoism. Imagine Yoda discovering the Force and you’ll get what I mean.

The other section is 40 years later, when Lao has a private audience with one of the Princes vying for the throne. Lao comes to appreciate that the world and the people around him aren’t always as they seem, that people and circumstances are multi-layered and not so easily reduced.

Okay, there is another section, the end, big reveals happen, stunning, really. But that’s all I can say.

Fine, be that way. Where can people learn more about you and your work?

Website WayneNgWrites.com

Amazon amazon.com/author/WayneNg

Facebook facebook.com/WayneNgWrites

Twitter twitter.com/WayneNgWrites

Goodreads goodreads.com/WayneNgWrites