My Scottsdale sojourn was great fun.  Visits to the Poisoned Pen always go well; if you believe, as I do, that independent bookstores need to be supported by readers, check out their website at www.poisonedpen.com.     The  PP customers are invariably enthusiastic and receptive, people who love books, and what greater compliment can there be than that?     Diana Gabaldon and Dana Stabenow kindly lent their star-power to my event, and we discussed books with one another and the audience, with Barbara Peters gently nudging the conversation in the right direction from time to time.   The Poisoned Pen began life as a mystery book store, but Barbara has inclusive instincts and she always found room for my historical sagas, just as she did for Diana’s Outlander series; now the Poisoned Pen has branched out into “good fiction, history, books on dogs and cats—whatever the staff likes.”    Barbara’s husband, Rob, is a superb cook, and so I was very well fed during my stay, although I had to miss his culinary triumph, the TurDucken that he was planning to cook for Thanksgiving—a turkey stuffed with duck, stuffed with chicken, and how much more medieval can you get than that?   To see Rob’s  TurDucken, click onto this link.  http://tinyurl.com/599k2q     

          Of course turkeys were not known in the Old World, but the medievals did love exotic recipes like that.   One such was a “cockentrice,” an odd concoction in which the front half of a chicken was sewn to the back half of a pig, and vice versa.   Another strange delicacy was a “glazed pilgrim,” a pike that was boiled at the head, fried in the middle, and roasted at the end, accompanied by roast lampreys to serve as the pilgrim’s staff.    But as alien as some of the medieval dishes sound to us, I think that the Romans’ enjoyment of roasted mice is far more bizarre!  

         I got sidetracked by my yearning to sample Rob’s TurDucken, sorry.  Back to the book news I learned at the Poisoned Pen.  Diana’s new Outlander novel, ECHO IN THE BONE, will be published in October of 2009, and the Poisoned Pen is already taking orders for signed copies.   Dana’s next book in her Kate Shugak series, WHISPER TO THE BLOOD, will be published in February of next year; I am already starting to count the days for that one.   If you’ve attended any of my book signings, you’re sure to have heard me rave about Dana’s Alaskan mysteries; Kate Shugak is one of the most compelling and vivid characters I’ve encountered in print.   I can also recommend Dana’s latest book, PREPARED FOR RAGE, a gripping account of a terrorist’s plot to strike at an American icon; to research it, she actually spent two months aboard the US Coast Guard cutter Munro.   You might also want to check out Dana’s website at www.stabenow.com, for she has posted a video that offers a tongue-in-cheek summary of all fifteen of the Kate Shugak books to date; it is faster than the proverbial speeding bullet and a lot funnier.  I hadn’t visited her website for a while and was interested to find a listing for all the reviews she’s posted on Amazon.com.  Naturally I had to check this out—I’ll go to great lengths to avoid doing my own work.  I was delighted to discover that Dana also loves one of my favorite books, Farley Mowat’s THE BOAT WHO WOULDN’T FLOAT, a hysterical account of his obsession with a schooner that seemed bound and determined to commit suicide and take him down with it.  While I’m at it, I might as well recommend two other Mowat books that I love: THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE and NEVER CRY WOLF.  And Dana also likes my own favorite of Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael series, THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE.  I bought this many years ago when I stopped in a Shrewsbury bookshop on my way into Wales, and I was  so taken with it that I actually drove back to Shrewsbury to buy as many other Brother Cadfael books as I could find.   But I still think THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE is the best of the lot, and am glad that Dana agrees with me.   Any other Brother Cadfael fans out there besides me and Julie?

           I was delighted to learn from Barbara that Lindsey Davis has a new Falco mystery coming out next May, earlier in the UK for you lucky British readers; the title is ALEXANDRIA.   And good news for Carrie–Laurie King will be bringing out a new Mary Russell mystery in May, which should be of interest to Sherlock Holmes fans, too.   I also have great news for fans of P.F. Chisholm’s wonderful Elizabethan mysteries.  After a long hiatus, she is working on another one.   So there is time for those of you who haven’t read her other novels to catch up; the titles are A FAMINE OF HORSES, A SEASON OF KNIVES, A SURFEIT OF GUNS, and A PLAGUE OF ANGELS.  She also writes historical novels under the name Patricia Finney, set in Elizabethan times.   Elizabeth is the only interesting Tudor in my admittedly biased opinion; you think I’ve forgiven Henry Tudor for Bosworth Field?     So I can recommend Patricia’s Elizabethan novels with a clear conscience.   I can’t resist throwing out this query for discussion, though.  Have many of you read Philippa Gregory’s novels about the Tudors?  And what do you think of them?

        I was given a surprise treat by Barbara; she allowed me to read the manuscript of Priscilla Royal’s new mystery, CHAMBERS OF THE DOOMED, which will be published next year.  I am happy to assure Priscilla’s fans that this is her best book yet; she just keeps getting better and better.   Her characters are so firmly grounded in the thirteenth century that reading one of her books is like a form of time travel.    That matters a great deal to me.  No matter how well written a book may be, I cannot enjoy it if the characters seem like anachronisms to me.    I’ve often wondered if others feel as strongly about this as I do.   How much leeway will you allow an author?   Does it matter to you if medieval characters display an enlightenment that was centuries removed from their era?  

         Sometimes I do think that historical novelists are obsessive-compulsive about our writing and researching, and we can occasionally lose touch with the real world.  I was chatting with Patrick, the Poisoned Pen’s Customer Services Manager, when a customer came up to buy some books.   After he left, Patrick asked me if I’d recognized him, and when I confessed I hadn’t, he identified the customer as Luke Wilson.  I’m sorry to say it took a moment for the synapses of my brain to make the connection.   Wilson?  Actor?   Owen Wilson’s brother?     In my defense, though, I am sure I’d have recognized George Clooney.  

         I can’t end this without giving credit to Diana Gabaldon for her marvelous theory about fictional characters.  She divides them into three categories: onions, mushrooms, and acorns.  Onions reveal themselves slowly to the reader, have to be peeled back, layer by layer.  Mushrooms pop up suddenly, without warning, and in full bloom.  And then there are the hard nuts to crack.    I asked if her Lord John was a mushroom, and she agreed that he was.  One of my mushrooms was Davydd ap Gruffydd, brother of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd in FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING.   He was never supposed to have so much time on center stage, but from his first appearance, he proved to be a born scene-stealer.    I am enjoying the Sebastian St Cyr mysteries by C.S. Harris, and I think her female character, Hero Jarvis, is a perfect example of an onion, revealing a little more of herself in each succeeding book.   In my mysteries, I think Durand de Curzon is a mushroom, albeit a dark mushroom, another character who somehow muscled his way into the storyline before I realized what he was up to.    What do you think of this theory?  Can you think of any other onions, mushrooms, or acorns in my books?       

         The trip would have been perfect if only I could have ended it by saying, “Beam me up, Scotty.”  Unfortunately I had to rely upon US AIR, not the Starship Enterprise, and the return flight was wretched in every sense of the word.  I’ll spare you all the dreary details, but if any of you have your own travel horror stories to share, feel free to vent here!    I hope you all were blessed with a special thanksgiving.  See you next week.

PS  I see there are some additional questions posted, so I will go over them as soon as I can and either answer you privately or in my next blog.

December 1, 2008

     I’d intended to use my recent on-line interview about my dogs to segue into a discussion of the contrast between our attitudes toward animals and those of the medievals.  I still think that will be a good topic for a blog, but I am going to have to put it on hold.  I didn’t have a good week, have been ill again, and I thought I ought to alert you that I still have health “issues,” which might occasionally interfere with my blogs or e-mail responses.  It is frustrating without a doubt, and I am still learning how to live with a chronic illness—actually several of them.  But as soon as I start researching medieval medicine, that quickly cures any inclination to have a “pity party.”   My latest research has been on peritonitis, as I’ve picked that as my disease de jour, a plausible cause of death for one of my characters in Lionheart, and the result is a heightened appreciation for modern medicine!

        Anticipating questions about this, I thought I ought to talk about causes of death.  It is very rare when we actually know what killed a historical figure.  Usually the most we can hope for is the date of death.  If chroniclers mention a lingering illness, that would indicate a disease like cancer.   But when the death was sudden or quick, then writers have to rely upon our imaginations.  

          We know that Hal, Henry’s son, died of the “bloody flux,” or dysentery, which was one of the great killers of the MA; Hal would actually have died of dehydration caused by dysentery, and those are the symptoms I describe in his death scene.  Henry himself most likely died of septicemia, based upon comments he made to William Marshal in the Histoire.  Henry was also suffering from other ailments, including what one chronicler described as “an abscess in his groin,”  and a recurring leg injury that dated back to his being kicked by a horse in 1174.  After researching head injuries at length, I concluded that Geoffrey probably died of an epidural hematoma.  Henry and Eleanor’s daughter Matilda, the Duchess of Saxony, Tilda in DB, died suddenly in June of 1189, and we haven’t a clue as to what caused her death; she was only thirty-three.   At least Henry was spared this grief, for he died without knowing it.  Eleanor was not as fortunate; she gave birth to ten children and outlived all but two of them, her daughter Leonora in Castile and John. 

       With respect to the poor soul who is going to die of peritonitis in Lionheart, we know nothing whatsoever about his fatal illness, only that it was sudden and unexpected and does not appear to have been an accident.   In cases like this, I look for those ailments known to have had a high mortality rate in the MA.   Of course even a minor mishap could prove fatal to medievals, stepping on a nail, for example.   Basically, fictional deaths involve a degree of detective work.   For those of you who share my morbid curiosity about such matters, feel free to ask for all the gory details about the deaths of various characters in my novels.  I’ll be happy to explain why I concluded that Edward IV died of pneumonia or why I chose to let Llewelyn and Joanna’s daughter Elen die of a miscarriage.  At least with my mysteries, it is more straight-forward.  If a character dies, it is of my choosing, and I also get to select the method of demise, usually a bloody one, of course.

        This coming Wednesday, the 19^th of November, I will be in Scottsdale, Arizona  at my favorite bookstore, the Poisoned Pen, making a joint appearance with Diana Gabaldon and Dana Stabenow, and I ought to have some interesting stories to tell upon my return.  Meanwhile, thank you all for the feedback about Author’s Notes.  I am very glad that you find them as valuable as I do.  And thanks, too, Gabrielle, for the wonderful links.  More after Scottsdale.

November 17, 2008

     I am delighted to announce that Danielle Campisi, my brilliant webmaster (webmistress?) has put up a slide-show of the castles featured in Devil’s Brood, complete with haunting background music.  Much of the credit for this new feature must go to Susan Flantzer, who first posted the photos on one of my favorite websites, the Historical Fiction On-line forum.  As soon as I saw the photos, I knew readers of Devil’s Brood had to see them, too.  Be warned, though—they will make you want to head for the airport and catch the next plane for France!  I am now going to add castles for my other books, too.  It will be easy to find castles for my Welsh trilogy; the magnificent Castles of Wales website makes for one-stop shopping.  If any of you have requests for castle photos relating to Sunne or Saints or Time and Chance, do feel free to pass them on, and we’ll do our best.

     We have also added new links to Sharon’s Favorites.  And for those readers who’ve asked me when Devil’s Brood will be available in the Kindle format, just cruise on over to the Amazon mother ship.  You can also get Sunne and Prince of Darkness in Kindle, and we hope that St Martin’s new editions of Here Be Dragons and Falls the Shadow will soon join the list.  I confess that I am not a Kindle fan myself.  I need the tangible feel of the book, need to be able to hold it and read it in bed or even the bath.  But then I’ve been called a Luddite by some of my Kindle-loving friends, so I defer to their judgment.

     Thank you all for continuing to share your author recommendations with us.  I am looking forward to adding these new writers to my To Read List.   I thought I’d return the favor by recommending several books sure to interest my readers, especially those of you who chose Saints as your favorite of my novels.  Elizabeth Chadwick has written a fascinating novel about William Marshal’s controversial father, John Marshal, titled A Place Beyond Courage.  You will find it to be a visit to a familiar neighborhood, with people you already know from Saints:  Stephen, Maude, Robert of Gloucester, Brien Fitz Count, the young Henry.  It is like my favorite line from Casablanca, “Round up the usual subjects.”

     Elizabeth has also written two novels about everyone’s favorite knight, William Marshal, The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion, which I haven’t read as yet, not wanting to be influenced, even subconsciously, by her portrayal of Will until I’d finished Devil’s Brood and now Lionheart.  But I can recommend them without hesitation, based upon the pleasure I am having as I read A Place Beyond Courage.   Her William Marshal novels have been published in both the US and the UK, and while A Place Beyond Courage won’t be published in the States until next year, the English edition can still be purchased on Amazon.  

      When it came to the depiction of the major characters who appear in both Saints and Courage, Elizabeth and I were on the same page, which is not surprising; these were well known historical figures, so we were drawing upon the same sources.  We both feel that we owe it to our readers to adhere to the established historical facts, and if we detour from the beaten path, we believe writers should explain these detours in their Author’s Notes—as when I did a revisionist history of a certain Yorkist king not kindly treated by Shakespeare!

     I’ve always gotten very positive feedback about my Author’s Notes, but I’d still like to throw this open to general discussion.  How do you feel about them?  Do you feel cheated if a historical novel doesn’t include one?  Or do you consider them to be icing on the cake, nice but not essential?    And do you think I should keep fighting my natural instinct to write ANs almost as long as my books themselves or should I just go with the flow?   Of course then I’d need advice on how to get my editor on-board with an AN that might fairly be called a novella!

      I have posted a new interview in my Press Room, one I did with Susanne Saville about my dogs: Cody, the Johnny Depp of Dogdom, and Chelsea, his neurotic little sidekick.  I’d intended initially to devote this blog to a discussion of pets and the vast differences between the medieval attitude toward animals and ours.  But I’ve already spent so much time talking about books that it would probably be best to save the Pet Blog for the next one.   If, in the meantime, you’d like to brag about your own remarkable pets or books you’ve enjoyed about pets (I assume everyone has read Marley and Me!) I’d love to hear from you. 

PS  I’d hoped to add my first photos to this blog, but naturally I ran into a snag.  I will sort it out and add them to the next one.

November 11, 2008

HI, everyone.
     I suspected that Here Be Dragons would win the contest, and it did, with Sunne in Splendour coming in second.  These two are the books most mentioned when readers write to me.  Now, confession time.  Here Be Dragons has always been my own favorite of my books.  In part because, after Sunne, there were actually characters left alive at the end!  And Dragons began my love affair with Wales.  I’d initially meant it to be the story of John and his daughter Joanna. I’d wondered how a woman would react if she discovered that the father she’d adored since childhood was capable of chilling cruelties.  I knew, of course, that Joanna had wed “a Welsh prince,” but he was still a shadowy figure when I moved to Wales in 1982 to research Dragons.  It only took a fortnight, though, for Llewelyn to steal the book right from under John’s nose.  And best of all, Dragons led the way to Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning.  Writers always worry that the well will go dry and we will run out of ideas for future books.  Thanks to Dragons, I was free of these worries for nearly a decade.
     So many of the authors you recommended are favorites of mine, too.  I think Anya Seton’s Katherine and The Winthrop Woman are gems; Green Darkness is another of her books I can recommend.  LIke you, Carrie, I love Lindsay Davis’s Falco series and Laurie King’s clever series about Mary Russell, who just happens to be wed to Sherlock Holmes.  I think Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series is brilliant; he does about the best battle scenes I’ve ever read.  I agree with you Julie, about Edith Pargeter.  I read all of her Brother Cadfael books, written under the name Ellis Peters.  The only books of hers that I have not read are the four novels about the Welsh princes.  By the time I’d done my own Welsh trilogy, I was feeling so possessive of “my” princes that I didn’t want to read about them in another writer’s books.  And the fact that she wrote her books about thirty years before I did was utterly irrelevant!
     Kelly, I have good news for you.  P.F. Chisholm is writing another of her spectacular Elizabethan mysteries.  For those of you not yet familiar with this series, I can’t recommend it highly enough.  I am going to be doing an event at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona next month, and Barbara Peters, the owner of the bookshop, is also the publisher of the Chisholm books.  So once I find out when we can expect the next one, I will let you all know.  And Sharon, by now Devil’s Brood should be in Australian bookshops; Penguin published a paperback edition for Australia and New Zealand, although their hardback edition will not be published in the U.K. until February 5th.  And Dave, I do intend to write about Owain Glyndwr in the future.  How could I resist a history like his?
     I will be adding to my Recommended Reading section, suggesting research books for those readers who’d like to learn more about the Angevins in particular and the MA in general.  Obviously I cannot list all of the books I consult while researching a novel.  Those on the list will be some of the histories I found most useful or reliable or just fun to read.  If I don’t mention a biographer, that is usually because I have reservations about the work in question.  So feel free to ask me privately about any omissions that have aroused your curiosity.
     I think I will also add a Lionheart section to the Recommended Reading List since Richard’s story is already well-known and there is no danger of “spoilers.”  The volume of crusader histories is truly astonishing.  I have had to fight some memorable battles in the course of my books, but never as many as will be looming ahead in Lionheart.  I’ve dealt with gifted battle commanders before–Simon de Montfort and Edward I come at once to mind–but Richard’s exploits in the Holy Land were truly the stuff of legend.
     I hope we can continue discussing books we like; this is a wonderful way to find new authors to read.  And if there are any subjects you’d like me to address in one of my blogs, I am always open to suggestions.  If there are any literary websites you’d like to recommend, please share those, too.  I think Elizabeth Chadwick’s website is one of the best for people interest in the MA; do check it out for yourselves.
      Lastly, I want to thank  you for the wonderful, supportive e-mails about my on-going health problems, for your patience when Devil’s Brood kept falling off the radar screen, and for offering such heartening proof that reading is not a dying art and history still matters, now more than ever.
November 3, 2008

     Welcome to my second blog.  I had a very interesting chat recently at the Historical Fiction On-line forum, and several people mentioned one of my books as a particular favorite.  This got me to thinking.  I’d love to know which of my books is the most popular with my readers.  (I have a suspicion, but I don’t want to influence the vote.)  So if some of you would like to tell me your preferences, I promise to reveal my own favorite of my books in my next blog–deal?
     I am always curious about the reading habits of others.  Do most of you prefer historical fiction?  Any particular time period?  Obviously I am obsessed with the MA, but I am also fascinated with Ancient Rome.  I think Steven Saylor’s novels are wonderful and I enjoyed Colleen McCullough’s six book series about the end of the Roman Republic.  I have not yet read her novel about Antony and Cleopatra; any one recommend it?   I also enjoy reading about Egypt, be it Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series or Michelle Moran’s books about Nefertiti.  What about medieval mysteries?  I am a huge fan of Margaret Frazer, who writes two excellent mystery series set in 15th century England.  In the interest of full disclosure, she is a long-time friend, but I’d enjoy her work even if she’d kidnapped my dog–she is that good.  I can also recommend Sharan Newman, Alan Gordon, and Priscilla Royal, just to name a few of my favorites.  And for historical sagas like mine, naturally Elizabeth Chadwick comes to mind.  If some of you have your own favorites to share, please do join the discussion.  I think the best way to discover new writers is by word of mouth.
October 26, 2008
PS  I am sorry to report that Devil’s Brood’s appearance on the New York Times bestseller list was as fleeting as a shooting star.  FWIW, Time and Chance clung like a barnacle to the list for three weeks, and yet I think Devil’s Brood is the better book.

The long-awaited and highly anticipated final volume in Penman’s trilogy of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine—a tumultuous conclusion to this timeless story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal.
Where the second novel in the trilogy, Time And Chance, dealt with the extraordinary politics of the twelfth century, climaxing with the murder of Thomas Becket and Henry’s confrontation with the Church and self-imposed exile to Ireland, Devil’s Brood centers on the implosion of a family. And because it is a royal family whose domains span the English Channel and whose alliances encompass the Christian world, that collapse will have dire consequences. This is a story of betrayal as Henry’s three eldest sons and his wife enter into a rebellion against him, aligning themselves with his bitterest enemy, King Louis of France. But it is also the story of a great king whose brilliance forged an empire but whose personal blind spots led him into the most serious mistake of his life.
Sharon Kay Penman has created a novel of tremendous power, as two strong-willed, passionate people clash, a family divides, and a marriage ends in all but name. Curiously, it is a novel without villains—only flawed human beings caught up in misperceptions and bad judgment calls. Most devastating to Henry was not his sons’ rebellion but his wife’s betrayal in joining them. How could it happen that two people whose love for each other was all consuming end up as bitter adversaries? That is the heart of Penman’s tale in Devil’s Brood.
Read an Excerpt

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