Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Nov 12

15

Guest Post: Angelas Shelton, Author of The Adventure of Tilda Pinkerton.

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on November 15, 2012
Posted in Guest Author  | 9 Comments

I reviewed The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton and posted a giveaway on October 30th, here.  I adored it.  Today I have the pleasure of having the author, Angela Shelton as my guest.  She is going to share with us what she does when she’s not writing.

Welcome Angela!


Doesn’t every writer just want to write?


Don’t you crawl away into your writer’s cave – or that area you’ve carved out for yourself at the family table – and just write away all day?


Not.


I’m sure there are some writers out there who have the privilege of just writing. I read Stephen King’s book On Writing and was so impressed with his writing schedule. He gets up, he writes until a set hour, then he has lunch and spends the rest of the day making calls, running errands and being with his family at night. Then he rises early and gets back to writing.


He obviously does not have a puppy. Or small children.


You Need Experience to Write


I envy Stephen King’s wonderful schedule and I try, oh how I try to emulate it. But the truth is that I don’t write all the time because in order to be inspired to write about fantastical stories like The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton, I have to go out and experience the world.


I hike in the woods and am fascinated by the myriad of mushroom populations. They make me think of little villages and my mind wanders to the small creatures who must have to walk past them in the forest. AND BOOM – there’s a chapter of a book or a moment of dialog between a bug and a horse.


Yes, animals can converse and walking in the woods to “hear” them is extremely helpful.


I let my mind wander – and yes, I totally space out. My husband calls me out on it all the time. “You’re writing, aren’t you?” He asks as I’m staring off into a field of ferns. “What? Oh, yes… I just figured out how Tilda gets out of that predicament. Were you saying something?” He just smiles at me as we continue hiking and says, “No, H Bear, go back to writing.”


Exploring the Writer’s Cave


Going into the writer’s cave for me is literally, looking for caves. We’ve spotted bears in our woods, which leads us to believe there must be a bear cave nearby and yes – that makes all kinds of stories pop into my head.


I talk to people desiring to write all the time who bang their heads against the wall, searching for something to write about or wrestling with an idea and I suggest they go look for a writer’s cave – literally.


Go look for caves. Go explore a mushroom patch (not those kinds of mushrooms!).


It’s amazing what you are inspired to write when you stop thinking about writing.


Bring a Notepad


A writer will always write, right? Yes, usually, but always writing doesn’t necessarily mean sitting at the laptop (I love my Mac) and punching out the great American novel every hour of the day. It doesn’t mean that you’ve got the best blog post idea – every single day!


Always writing for me is always allowing my mind to breathe, the expand and to open to new ideas.


And don’t forget your notepad. Seriously.


I don’t always have the cute little one that fits in my back pocket, but I do have my Iphone – where I have a Notepad app.


When you have your face in your phone, typing away, you may be accused of being a text addict or a twitter junky (follow me!) when in reality you could be writing the best blog post ever, a great chapter in a future book, or outlining the journey of your next hero for your next book.


So…


What am I doing when I’m not writing?


I guess, I’m always writing…


Angela Shelton
author of The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton

 Links

Be sure to enter the giveaway for The Adventures of Tilda Pinkerton, here!

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Jun 12

26

Guest Author, David LeRoy, Author of The Siren of Paris

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 26, 2012
Posted in Guest Author  | 5 Comments



On June 22, 2012 I posted a Feature and giveaway of The Siren of Paris. Be sure to go there to enter the international giveaway!  Now I would like to welcome the author, David LeRoy to So Many Precious Books. Welcome David!

Your Siren’s Calling    

 

          You were wearing the smart pumps on June 3rd, 1940. When those terrible sirens sounded at noon, and the bombs started to fall in Paris, they were quick to get out of and grab, as you ran across the street to the metro station underground shelter. Later that night you called your sister and brother back in England. Even though they pleaded for you to leave, you decided it was safer to stay.

           On June 10th, sitting in that special prayer service at Notre Dam, you admired Ambassador Bullitt as he knelt before the Priest. Your heart went out to the man as he sobbed underneath the blessing of the priest, now bestowing upon him the duties of Mayor of Paris. The government left for the south of France. Maybe now America will soon join the war you secretly prayed that morning.

          The all night air raids and bombs on the night of June 11th rattled you to the core. You had already accepted the worse that could happen, but you didn’t honestly think it would be that bad. As the shockwaves hit the metro station, doubt returned to your soul. It has been ten years now since you move to Paris from London, and maybe now is the best time to return home you think to yourself amid the frightened women and children. In the morning, you tried to phone home to your sister, but the phone lines leaving Paris had now been cut.     

          It seemed things turned around when your friend from the Church Army encouraged you to come with them on a train to the coast of Saint-Nazaire. Ships are waiting to take the soldiers home and civilians can tag along. You surprised yourself when you had to climb on top of the train the morning of June 12thwith the other fleeing refugees of Paris. It is not easy being over 60 years old. It was good to know that in a pinch you could do whatever you needed to do. The train left the cover of the station revealing the clear bright morning sky and as you accepted that the peaceful retirement you hoped for was but a dream.

          In Saint-Nazaire on June 17th, a fishing boat took you out to the refugee ship in the bay. When you clip the heel off of your right pump, as you board the ship, it does not get you down. You just clipped the other one off to make some flats. At least you are now almost home, where it will be safer than France. Waiting for the ship to leave, you visit with some other civilian refugees in the lounge, watching some children from Belgium play with some of the soldiers.

          When the bombs fall on the ship, and your lifeboat over turned into the water below, you faced another test of your will. You swam with everything you had for the other lifeboat rowing away from the sinking ship.

          “Known unto god,” was not your choice for a marker. The letters for you have gone unanswered back in Paris. None of them suspected or guessed you made it this far. You were sixty at the time, and could never ride on top of train, or walk for miles upon miles to a port on the west coast of France. Your sister and brother in London dismissed any idea that you had even left Paris. It was desperate and foolish to board a troop ship, but it was the only choice you had. At the time, it seemed like a good one, so you made the best of it.

          The polite young man, who helped you on top of the train, he is the same young man who you saw that morning at Norte Dam Cathedral with the Ambassador. You enjoyed chatting with him while walking towards Saint-Nazaire when your train broke down, mussing how much your family would worry if they could only see you then. He got on the same ship as you did, but swam just a little bit faster.

For you, the war is now over, but for him, it has just begun. The ship is now resting on the bottom of the harbor of Saint-Nazaire with 6,000 or more other forsaken souls. The helpful young man has been conscripted by the Germans to dig your grave. Because you were a civilian with no identity disk, your grave is marked “Known unto God.” Your siren’s calling was the RMS. Lancastria, Britain’s worse maritime disaster ever, but your family will never know it, because the British government suppressed the news from being broadcasted over the D-System. That young gentleman Marc, who helped you on top of the train, siren’s calling is back in Paris. You will need to read in The Siren of Paris to know his fate. May the Lord be with you my Known unto God. Your brother and sister would be proud of just how far you made it even at 60 with a heart condition and gout.

David LeRoy.

@studioleroy

David Leroy did extensive research on the German occupation of France for his debut novel The Siren of Paris. This historical novel follows the journey of one American from medical student, to artist, to political prisoner at Buchenwald Concentration Camp during World War Two. Rich in historical detail, full of suspense, and offering a bit of romance, this novel is definitely a page turner.

You can purchase The Siren of Paris in Kindle e-book format from Amazon — http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088CA098 and learn more about this author and novel at http://www.thesirenofparis.com/

For more information about this virtual book tour, please visit — http://bookpromotionservices.com/2012/05/22/siren-of-paris-tour/

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Jun 12

23

Guest Author: Susan Higginbotham, Auther of Her Highness, the Traitor

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 23, 2012
Posted in Guest Author  | 3 Comments

Yesterday I posted my review of Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham.  Be sure to check it out to enter the giveaway!  I am a big fan of Susan’s and always so excited when I hear she has a new book out.  She has never disappointed me.
Today it is my honor to welcome Susan as my guest at So Many Precious books!  Welcome Susan!

When researching Her Highness, the Traitor, I was shocked at the sheer number of “facts” about the people in my novel which, on further investigation, turned out not to be true. Here are a few of them:

Myth: Edward VI was a sickly child. Fact: Until the last months of his life, Edward VI was a healthy boy who had no more than routine childhood illnesses.

Myth: Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, physically shoved Katherine Parr out of her way and fumed, “If master admiral [Katherine’s husband Thomas Seymour] teach his wife no better manners, I am she that will.” Fact: The story about Anne shoving Katherine comes from the extremely unreliable Spanish Chronicle, which among other howlers has Thomas Cromwell (beheaded in 1540) investigating the allegations against Katherine Howard that arose in 1541. As for the quote about Katherine Parr being taught some manners, Anne Seymour never made such a statement. Rather, Peter Heylyn, writing in the seventeenth century, merely claimed that Anne thought this—something that Heylyn was hardly in a position to know.

Myth: Jane Grey’s parents were only interested in gambling and hunting. Fact: Nothing is known about the interests of Frances Grey, despite the prevailing notion of her as a predatory huntress. Henry Grey, however, was a patron of scholars who was also said to be “somewhat learned himself” and to speak elegant Latin. He spent the night before his own execution reading the works of Heinrich Bullinger, with whom his daughter Jane had corresponded. For a New Year’s gift, Jane translated a treatise on marriage from Latin into Greek for her father.

Myth: While visiting the manor of Sheen, Jane Grey and her parents were frightened by a bloody, axe-wielding hand that came from behind a wall. Fact: As far as I can tell, there is no contemporary source for this story. It seems to have arisen in the Victorian period.

Myth: Jane’s parents viciously beat her in order to force her to marry Guildford Dudley. Fact: This allegation, which has become a staple of novels and movies about Lady Jane, occurs only in a pirated Italian account. Significantly, Jane herself in her letter to Mary said nothing about being physically forced to wed Guildford, though it would have served her purpose to portray herself as a reluctant bride.

Myth: Edward VI was poisoned and his body switched with that of a youth of the same age. Fact: While it was widely rumored that John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, poisoned Edward, there is absolutely no evidence to support this, and Northumberland was never charged with regicide. As for the story of the body-switching, this tale originated with a cloth-merchant living in Strasbourg, who did not name his source. Edward VI had not yet been buried when Mary I took control of the government; had there been any doubts about the identity of the royal corpse, it would have been an easy matter to ascertain the truth.

Myth: Mary I executed Jane Grey in order to please Philip of Spain, who otherwise would have refused to go through with his marriage to the queen. Fact: While Mary had been under pressure from the imperial ambassador and some of her councilors to execute Jane and her husband Guildford, executing Jane was never a precondition to Mary’s marriage to Philip.

Myth: Guildford Dudley sniveled his way to the scaffold, in contrast to his self-possessed wife. Fact: the contemporary account of Guildford’s execution says simply that he shook hands with some well-wishers, prayed at length before his death, and made a short speech before his death. Nothing suggests that Guildford made anything other than a manly, dignified end.

Myth: Upon hearing of Frances’s marriage to her second husband, Adrian Stokes, Elizabeth I remarked, “What? Has she married her horse-keeper?” to which William Cecil replied, “Yes, madam, and she says your majesty would like to do so too.” Fact: Snappy as this repartee is, it is chronologically impossible. Elizabeth was not queen when Frances married, but was being held in custody by her sister Mary I.

Myth: Adrian Stokes was an uneducated stable hand half Frances’s age. Fact: Adrian was only two years younger than Frances. In the 1540’s, he served as marshal of Newhaven, an English post in occupied France, where he had command of ten men. Stokes was certainly literate in English, as letters written in his own hand show, and if he composed the epitaph on his wife’s tomb, he knew Latin as well. Stokes served in Parliament twice and on a number of local commissions. Fun Fact: Adrian’s stepdaughter by his second marriage, Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, married Sir Walter Ralegh.

About Susan Higginbotham:

I am the author of two historical novels set in fourteenth-century England: The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward II and Hugh and Bess. Both were reissued in 2009 by Sourcebooks.

My third novel, The Stolen Crown, is set during the Wars of the Roses. It features Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Katherine Woodville, as narrators. My fourth novel, The Queen of Last Hopes, features Margaret of Anjou, queen to Henry VI, and is set mainly in the earlier years of the Wars of the Roses. It was released in January 2011. My latest novel, Her Highness, the Traitor, will be released in June 2012. Its heroines are Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, and Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, who respectively were the mother-in-law and the mother of Lady Jane Grey.

My website is http://www.susanhigginbotham.com. I blog at http://susandhigginbotham.blogspot.com


Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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