This week I wrote a blog about Louise de Savoie’s remarkable Journal. The Journal is a short document that has left me with many questions. Susan Abertnethy published it on her excellent Freelance History Blog. I have substantially changed my views about Louise’s Journal since I last posted about it. I will be writing more …
A Review of The Importance of Sons Historical romance meets period history… love and hate, power and corruption, fear and jealousy. This feels like Tudor England but is a leap into Renaissance France through the lens of powerful women hobbled by patriarchy, a prequel to Morgan’s The Importance of Pawns. The ambitious and manipulative Louise …
What do Countess Louise, Astrology, and January 1 have in common? Readers of the Journal de Louise de Savoye, duchesse d’Angoulesme, d’Anjou et de Valois will know the answer. For the rest of you, let me explain. Three crucial events In the 20 years between 1496 to 1515, three crucial events in Countess Louise’s life …
Roberta Rich’s Midwife’s Trilogy proves that powerful Renaissance women don’t have to be real; they can also be fictional. Hannah Levi, the heroine of Roberta Rich’s exciting Midwife’s trilogy is an example. The three historical novels are fast-paced, the characters believable and sympathetic, the plots well structured, and the settings brilliantly portrayed. Rich is a …
Renaissance Fiction: Roberta Rich’s Midwife’s Trilogy Read More »
Are you in the mood for a Canadian Thanksgiving mystery treat? Try an entertaining book to curl up with after that big turkey and too much pumpkin pie. Deadly Thanksgiving: A Senior Sleuth Cozy Mystery – Book 2 Kindle Edition by Maureen Fisher (Author) Format: Kindle Edition My long-time friend Maureen Fisher releases Deadly Thanksgiving: …
What clothing did French Renaissance Noblewomen wear? As a writer, I ask myself this question each time I need to describe a woman. I focus on noblewomen because courts set the fashion. People of every class copied the one above it as closely as their finances allowed. Styles varied from one country to another and from …
I began this website with facts not fiction about the women of 16th Century France. It was too limiting. , I posted historical content about the women I was fictionalizing. It was too limiting. Now my site is more eclectic. I have lots about my fiction, the blog posts with historical content about the women …
The Women of 16th-Century France: Fact and Fiction Read More »
R. J. (Rachel) McMillen writes suspenseful mysteries, with indigenous heroes, who help Detective Don Connor solve his cases. An environmentalist and sailor, Rachel and her husband traveled their beloved British Columbia coastline for many years. Now she writes mystery novels that interweave adventure and suspense with the natural environment and culture of the Pacific north-west. …
Support David Dunn’s Wild Life Fund! I recently received an appeal to support a book of poetry, SPACE PLACE TIME. Knowing the author as I do, the honesty of his appeal for a contribution to his art and fund struck a chord with me. What is the David Dunn Wild Life Fund? He explains its …
Few settings cast a spell like the French court. The French Renaissance court, even for those who know little about it, exercises a charm that is hard to resist. Writing about how I created it as a setting is the subject of my blog post Getting to Setting in The Importance of Pawns M.K. Tod’s …
Many people ask me how I became interested in the French renaissance. It’s a long story. The year I was five, I lived with my grandparents to go to grade one. It was the most formative of my life. Escaping from the position as a middle child of three, I became a pampered only child. …
How I Became Interested In The French Renaissance Read More »
Jasper is a Tudor story with a Breton flavour by Tony Riches. Its full title is Jasper: Book Two of the Tudor Trilogy. Riches continues the Tudor story from Owen, Book One. He takes us from father to the son, Jasper and his wanderings with his nephew, Henry Tudor. Not only was I entertained by …
