Random thoughts of an Accidental Author

Free ebook--Loyalty Binds Me

2012-01-24T13:47:00.002-05:00

Barnes & Noble and Amazon reviews needed. For a limited time, Loyalty Binds Me, my second book about Richard III in the 21st-century is available free on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel. Although it's the second book in the series, it was written to be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

Recommended by Midwest Book Reviews.

Rant: Soliciting for Donations

2012-01-01T02:34:00.000-05:00

For the past few years, I have been making all of my donations online through the various organizations’ websites where possible. My idea for doing this was to reduce the amount of paper mail that I had to recycle. I also thought it would make the money the organizations would have spent on these mailings available to support the reason for their existence.

Now, in addition to nearly daily emails, which I don’t mind deleting, I still get paper mail—some as often as bi-monthly. I could understand a yearly mailing thanking me for my support, but this barrage of mail is acting more to deter than encourage me to continue giving. I’m slowly being buried under a mountain of return address labels, cheap pens, note cards, newsletters, and calendars meant to get me to give through the mail. I expect that these so-called goodies are a significant expense that could otherwise be used to greater benefit.

Why can’t these organizations ask those who donate online if they wish to receive solicitations or any of these items in the mail when the donation is made? That for me is what I’d call a win-win.

Please indulge me in some boasting.

2011-12-28T21:41:00.000-05:00

I hope you don't mind a bit of bragging—I recently got news that my short story, Becoming Ishmael finished second in Writer's Digest SciFi short story competition--Woohoo!! Additionally. I will be listed in the May/June 2012 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.

Although most of you know me from my novels about Richard III in the 21st-century, I have always loved the short story and science fiction. About three months ago I came upon a Writer’s Digest competition for science fiction and I immediately thought of my story about a computer scientist who was trying to create the first sentient robot. A dozen or so edits later, I was submitted it and then forced myself to stop thinking about it. Thus, it was a lovely surprise when I got an email and a voice mail to let me know that my story came in second.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”—Mark Twain

It's Alive!

2011-11-25T14:26:00.000-05:00

At last, my redesigned website is finally accessible. Please check it out and let me know what you think. The domain is the same, so if you had bookmarked joanszechtman.com, you should still be able to reach my site via the original bookmark. A nice new feature is that you can now reach all pages with a direct link.

I had been meaning to update my website for some time, but kept finding reasons to keep the update on a back burner whose fire I had allowed to extinguish. However, my ISP provider decided to shut down their free personal website hosting, so I was forced to find a new hosting site. I decided to update the site, instead of just moving it. I got the new site installed and tested and then redirected my domain name to the new site. Alas, Murphy's Law--simply stated, "if something can go wrong, it will"--kicked in. I stumbled and no one could access the site for a couple of days until I fixed the last little kink. My apologies to anyone who wasn't able to find my website these past couple of days.

Ramblings: libraries, no power, no internet, and book review

2011-11-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

Along with hundreds of thousands of other Connecticut residents, we lost power starting late Saturday night of October 30th and didn’t get it back until sometime Friday, November 4th. Although most of the days were sunny and the temperatures rose to the mid-fifties Fahrenheit, overnight they cooled down to the mid-thirties or lower, some nights below freezing. We didn’t get the Internet or phone back until the next evening, but at least we were warm and could cook hot meals. What a treat!

Bless the public libraries. Except for Sunday, a nearby library was our daily refuge. In addition to depending on them for certain research and obtaining hard to find books through the inter-library loan system, they also have free WIFI. So, for that week, we drove to the library and connected my laptop to the internet. We also stayed warm, at least during the day. Because of the library, I was able to meet an important deadline--producing the December issue of the Richard III Society, American Branch publication (Ricardian Register).

After we got our services back, I discovered that BigAl's Books and Pals favorably reviewed This Time, my first book about Richard III in the 21st-century.

The week ended well. :-)

The Typo

2011-10-09T23:57:00.001-04:00

I had been away on a combined vacation and Richard III Society American Branch Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chicago. When I returned I found a note in my email letting me know that Loyalty Binds Me, the second book in the series about Richard III in the 21st-century, got a review from Midwest Book Reviews. Now Midwest Book Reviews is one of the better recognized online book review sites, so a review from this site carries some weight. The email only said that Midwest Book Reviews had published their review online in the Smell Press Bookwatch September postings. I prayed it was a typo and that the reviewer didn't think my book stunk. I did wonder how many skunks it got. Phew, it was a typo--should have been Small Press Bookwatch, not smell. I'm actually quite pleased with the review.

Reprinted here (it's short):

Immortality plays into our hands strangely. "Loyalty Binds Me" is a unique novel that spins into a Richard the III alive in the twenty-first century. Wrapped into a centuries old problem and facing what he's been running from for centuries. With a five hundred year old murder mystery turning hot again, "Loyalty Binds Me" is a highly unique twist on historical fiction and mystery, recommended.

Read With Your Partner

2011-09-14T10:25:00.000-04:00

I just read a note about a couple taking turns reading a book aloud on a discussion group in which I participate that reminded me of how much pleasure I got from doing the same thing. The book that we happened to do it with was 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. The story was told in the form of letters between an American screen writer and bibliophile and an English bookstore owner--the book's title is the address of the bookstore. While most books probably won't provide the natural breaks the letters provided, it wouldn't be too difficult to alternate between chapters or scenes. Not only was it a very enjoyable activity for us to do, but I feel that reading aloud enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

I'd love to hear about any experiences you may have had.

2006 Reenactment of the Battle of Bosworth

2011-08-21T02:04:00.000-04:00

August 22nd is the 526th anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth. I was able to attend the reenactment in 2006 and produced this video from my photos. Music is by Mince Pye

Or see the video on YouTube.

Cephalopod Camouflage

2011-08-06T02:17:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite shows, Science Friday, airs Friday afternoon at 2 pm on my local NPR radio station. This Friday, the show ended with a discussion about the amazing abilities that squids, octopi, and cuttlefish to, within a second, camouflage themselves against various backgrounds and textures by sight, even though they are colorblind. See this amazing video that includes the interview from Science Friday's website.

(I see a bit of the right side of the video is truncated. To see the original, go to Science Friday's website here.)

My shiny new trailer

2011-07-29T23:27:00.000-04:00

Thank you Blazing Trailers for creating this trailer that combines This Time and Loyalty Binds Me--two novels about Richard III in the 21st-century. Please take a minute to watch and enjoy.

A Tale of Two Times: or when is the 8th really the 17th?

2011-07-14T13:49:00.002-04:00

From time to time, the contentious topic of historical accuracy in historical fiction rears its pointy head, where one camp succinctly points out that it’s FICTION, and that gives it sufficient license to “bend” history. The other camp takes exception to this license, since the works are based on real people, and we owe it to them to be as accurate as possible. This camp of authors—I among them—have found ourselves obsessing over dates to the point of obtaining itineraries where available and being scrupulous about not having a character in one place if records show that character in another. We save our speculation for where the information is absent or conflicted.

Adhering to the facts has spoiled many a plot point. Often, when the story has to be retooled to accommodate what is known, the story gets better, but not always. I’m happy to reveal a 170 year loophole, but only if the story takes place between October 1582 and September 1752. This is because in February 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull to correct discrepancies in the calendar where the solstices didn’t align. The bull decreed that ten days were to be eliminated from the calendar such that the day following Thursday, October 4, 1582 would thereafter be known as Friday, October 15, 1582 (instead of October 5th)—hence eliminating ten days from that year. Years that were divisible by 100 must also be divisible by 400 to be a leap year, and new rules were put in place for determining the date on which Easter fell. In addition, leap day was moved from the day before February 25th to the day after February 28th. (I wonder if the Julian leap day was February 24.5?)

A further complication was the day celebrated for the New Year. Not only did it vary from country to country, but also between groups within a country. So the New Year may have been celebrated in March, January, or December. This bull also set the New Year to January 1st.

The bull was issued after Great Britain broke with the Roman Catholic Church. Great Britain did not adopt the new calendar until September 1752, when September 14th immediately followed September 2nd.

The difference between the calendars created some problems and disparities. For example, in the colonies (now the United States) the New Year was observed March 25th, but when Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the observed day was pushed back to January 1st. As a result, those born between January 1st and March 25th suddenly found their birth year advancing by a year. Imagine having to wait an extra year to collect social security or being able to legally drink because your calendar suddenly changed? While George Washington didn’t have to worry about social security or a legal drinking age, he might have not made the cut-off legal age to be president if he had been born ten years later than his actual birth on February 2, 1731 (Julian)/1732 (Gregorian).

So rejoice historical fiction writers of the late 16th, the entire 17th, and first half of the 18th centuries—here is your loophole. Or curse, because it’s also your dilemma. Suppose your character is English, but the documents you are referring to were translated from the French. Were the dates in Julian or Gregorian? How did people who traveled between the countries reckon the dates?

What fun!

Reference: The Julian and Gregorian Calendars by Peter Meyer

Richard III, the law, and the Innocence Project

2011-07-02T14:17:00.003-04:00

When Richard III became king in 1483, he instituted statutory reforms to prevent concealment of property transfer—what we know today as title search. In Richard’s time, it was not unusual for property to be fraudulently transferred from person to person such that the final buyer ran the risk of financial ruin from multiple lawsuits. Another statute placed a five-year limitation on when a person could sue.

Many of the statutes affected all citizens, not just the privileged. As an introduction to the laws reforming bail and juror qualifications, for example, he wrote that the laws shall cease to be an instrument of oppression and extortion.(1) Prior to these laws, it had not been uncommon for people to locked up without charge, or to be charged and held for weeks and months awaiting trial.

Late in 1483, Richard III made himself accessible through his officers to the lower classes: peasants, yeomen, and artisans. He established a council that sat at Whitehall that would hear the requests of the poor, where the council would either take action or refer the cases to appropriate courts.(2) Richard did not simply delegate all cases to his council. Kendall cites an example where the king sent a letter to the Mayor of York, “...on behalf of our poor subject Katherine Bassingbourne of an injury....”(3)

In July of 1484, Richard III established the Council of the North to afford the same accessibility to justice that the south of England enjoyed. This council lasted for more than 150 years.(4)

When on August 22, 1485, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III, Richard lost not only his life and kingdom, but his good name as well. Shakespeare then immortalized the rumor promoted by the Tudors that Richard had had his nephews murdered. Richard’s demonization began with Henry taking the crown. To begin, Henry “back dated” the start of his reign to August 21st in order to name those who fought for Richard as traitors. Henry then had his Parliament revoke Titulus Regius, thus reversing the bastardization of all Edward IV’s children so that he could marry Edward’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth of York. If the princes were still alive, they would no longer be bastards and would have a stronger claim to the crown through inheritance than Henry.

Although it was in Henry’s best interest for the princes to be dead, it is my contention that he didn’t know what had happened to them. Then it was general practice to display the bodies of your enemies or of any potential challengers, which he had done with Richard’s body, despite the despicable treatment Henry’s forces gave the body on the battlefield. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that if Henry had had proof of the boys’ deaths, he would have displayed skeletonized bodies to prevent rebellion on behalf of the princes. Instead, Henry never directly accused Richard of having the princes murdered.

In 1487 Henry did have to put down a rebellion (Battle of Stoke), where he captured the impostor who first claimed to be Edward VI, and then another of Richard III’s nephews, Edward, Earl of Warwick.(5) In 1497 Henry’s forces captured the man who claimed to be Richard of York when he led a rebellion to recapture the crown. Two years later, Henry had him executed after forcing a confession that he was an impostor whose real name was Perkin Warbeck.

During Charles II’s reign the Tower of London underwent extensive renovations, which started in 1666. In 1674 some skeletonized remains were removed from a pit ten feet deep near the White Tower.(6) The remains were tossed into a trash heap containing other debris. Four days later, the skeletons were “rescued” and Charles II declared that they were those belonging to Edward IV’s boys, now thought to have been murdered by their uncle, Richard III.

Up until the Tower bones were declared to be those of Edward IV’s sons, there was no physical or other extant evidence to suggest the boys had died prior to Richard III’s demise, let alone that he had killed them. However, if one accepts that the bones are those of the princes, then Thomas More’s history—albeit wildly inaccurate in detail—coupled with the remains might suggest that the boys were killed, although the killer remains unidentified. Therefore, it would be nice for the crown to permit DNA testing of those bones to determine if they could have been those of the princes, or if they should be excluded. Even if permission is granted, there is no assurance that there is sufficient uncorrupted DNA available to do the necessary testing, for not only would they need to test the tower bones, but also those of Elizabeth Woodville’s and Edward IV’s DNA.

But the events, whatever those events were, occurred over 500 years ago, and simply testing the DNA can only exclude the bones being those of the princes. A positive result would not determine how they died or who killed them if they were murdered. Likewise, a negative result would not be proof that the princes weren’t killed.

This was not the case with the over 270 people who were languishing on death row. Through DNA testing, the Innocence Project had been able to exonerate them, but there are still so many who need the project’s support. So while Richard III may be the ultimate “poster boy” for those wrongfully convicted, I think those wrongfully accused today shouldn’t have to wait more than 500 years for their DNA tests.

Notes:

(1) Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard III. pp 340-341
(2) Ibid. pp 374-375.
(3) Ibid. pp 374-375.
(4) Ibid. pp 376-377. I encourage readers to read Kendall’s text for an in depth look at these statutes and councils.
(5) I believe there are a lot of strange circumstances surrounding this impostor who was later referred to as Lambert Simnel. For one, why would John, Earl of Lincoln, support an impostor if the princes were dead since he would have been the next rightful heir to the throne once Richard III died.
(6) Fields, Bertram. Royal Blood. pp 239-241

Interview with Sharon Kay Penman

2011-05-23T23:26:00.003-04:00

I am thrilled that one of my favorite historical fiction authors, Sharon Kay Penman, has granted me an interview on her blog (link here). It was her novel, The Sunne in Splendour, that first put me on the path to learning about the real Richard III. So it is a true honor for me to have this interview with one of my favorite historical fiction authors about a medieval king we both admire.

THIS TIME promotion at Smashwords

2011-04-12T15:06:00.003-04:00

To anticipate the May 23, 2011 publication of Loyalty Binds Me, the second book in the series about Richard III in the 21st-century, I am offering a 40% discount off the ebook price. To get Kindle and other ebook versions of This Time, go to Smashwords and download it via wifi. You may have to download it to your computer and then transfer it to the Kindle, Nook, etc. The 40% discount will be available until June 3rd if you buy from Smashwords directly. To get the discount, enter YQ52G (not case sensitive) at checkout.

Nature's Sculpture

2011-04-07T14:45:00.007-04:00

I go for a walk nearly every day that takes me on part of the "greenway" trail created from an old, discontinued railroad. The trail is flanked on either side by undeveloped land where a small river also courses; and even though the river overflows during heavy rains, there's enough undeveloped land to absorb the overflow. Everyone who walks the trail--and it seems as though much of the town does--is treated to a variety of wildlife. So, I wasn't too surprised at first to see what I thought was a hawk alighting on a dead tree stump. But the "hawk" didn't move as I approached. It was part of the tree stump! The photo on the left was taken with my cell phone. I brought a camera with me the next day to get a close up of the "sculpture" where you can see the state of the stump.

Read an eBook Week at Smashwords

2011-03-07T03:33:00.005-05:00

Here's a perfect opportunity to read This Time, the first book in the series about Richard III in the 21st-century before the second book, Loyalty Binds Me is published this coming May. For one week, until March 12th, Smashwords is promoting ebooks. To purchase This Time at a 75% discount, go here and enter the coupon code posted at checkout.

News: Loyalty Binds Me

2011-02-14T01:03:00.002-05:00

The sequel to This Time publication is scheduled for May 23, 2011 by Star Publish LLC. We had originally planned to publish earlier, but made the decision to get the book reviewed prior to its publication. Advance copies are out for review.

Watch this blog for pre-order information.

More’s Code

2010-12-30T19:36:00.005-05:00

dit dah dah dah / dah dit dah

Oops, not Morse Code—More’s Code, that sainted friend of Henry VIII who wrote the “History of King Richard the Third” that ultimately accused Richard of murdering his nephews. But this so-called history is rife with errors and contradictions--points that are easily verified, that an educated man such as More would have known to be incorrect and points that state one position in the first sentence, only to be contradicted in the next. But it has been used as proof of Richard’s guilt among many traditionalists who hold the view that Richard III would have murdered his nephews.

Although true that Thomas More was beatified in 1886 and then canonized in 1935, does that mean he could not have written a piece that was meant to be satire? He began the “History” around 1512 and stopped before completing it by 1518. He did not have it published. His nephew, William Rastell was the first to publish it in 1557, well after More had been executed in 1535. The quoted text below is taken from this publication available on the Richard III Society, American Branch website.

The first glaring error is found in the opening line of the history: “[K]Yng Edwarde of that name the fowrth, after that hee hadde lyued fiftie and three yeares, seven monethes, and five dayes,..., dyed at Westmynster the nynth daye of Aprill,...” Edward IV was born on 28 April 1442, which means that he was about three weeks shy of his forty-first birthday, not fifty-three and change. While the common medieval citizen might not have known how old Edward IV was when he died, it was in the records and those people with whom More might have shared this text would almost certainly have known the age More gave was incorrect.

Although there are no extant contemporary reports that Richard III was physically deformed (Richard was in fact a soldier who fought in battles in full armor) More described him as: “...little of stature, ill fetured of limmes, croke backed, his left shoulder much higher then his right....” This is a very clever combination of using what is verifiable—contemporary chroniclers described Richard as slight of stature—with elements that are made up. Certainly, the physical deformities that More attributed would have been noted by contemporary chroniclers, especially in light of Richard’s military prowess.

Then, why should we believe that two men who More claimed Richard had ordered to murder the princes had been able to bury them undiscovered under a stone staircase in one night in a place bustling with people, and then to later remove them and rebury them in consecrated ground. That people believe the skeletons found in 1674 during the tower renovation are those of the princes based on More’s work stretches credulity to the breaking point. Because if More had been factual instead of just spinning a tale, the bones would not have been found there and both Henry VIII and his father Henry VII would have known where the princes remains were. If More had been correct, they were not under the White Tower stairs.

I think the opening salvo of giving an incorrect age at time of death for Edward IV leaps out as a warning to the readers that this work should not be taken seriously. Could it be that it was his code for j/k (just kidding)? Or as Morse would have telegraphed it: dit dah dah dah / dah dit dah.

Encyclopædia Britannica article on William Rastell.

More, Thomas. The History of King Richard III.

A plea to recycle electronic equipment responsibly

2010-12-22T00:42:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite radio shows is “Fresh Air” hosted by Terry Gross. She broadcasts out of the public radio station, WHYY in Philadelphia. I listen to Fresh Air on my local public radio station, WNPR. On December 22, 2010, Gross interviewed Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basal Action Network about the issue of properly recycling electronic equipment such as cell phones, computers, TV’s, etc. I’ve always known that these devices contain toxic materials and have in the past, tried to properly recycle them. The cell phones are easy as they can be turned into centers where they are redistributed to people in need of a cell phone for emergency use. For the rest, I’ve brought them to a retailer where I pay $10/item so that these items are responsibly recycled. However, after listening to this broadcast about what happens to electronic waste, I’m not so sure that I’m accomplishing my goal.

Much of this waste is shipped to countries such as China and Nigeria where the waste is dumped and then the valuable material is scavenged from the waste using dirty and unsafe methods, such as burning the materials so that the salvageable metal is left. The toxins pollute the air and water. The people working in these places, often children, have to breathe the poisoned air.

I think it’s time we stopped sweeping the dirt under the rug and recycled responsibly.

Time Travel in Fiction

2010-11-10T14:32:00.003-05:00

Laura Vosika, a fellow time travel, historical fiction author invited me to submit an article on using time travel in fiction, which was published last September on her Blue Bells Trilogy blog. Thank you Laura!

Time Travel in Fiction:

Ever since I read, and reread A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain when I was but a girl of ten, I’ve loved time travel fiction, for many reasons, not the least of which is because one can examine culture and technology with alien eyes.

One point of fascination for me is the mechanism the author uses to get the time traveler from his or her now to the past or the future. To get his Connecticut Yankee into the past, Mark Twain simply had his hero’s head bonked and when the man came to, he was in the sixth-century. When I read it as a child of ten, I didn’t know that sixth-century English would not be recognizable to a nineteenth-century American, nor did I fully appreciate the laws of conservation of mass and energy, so I was able to enjoy the book and imagine myself in King Arthur’s court.

Authors use a variety of literary devices to get their character from one time to another. Many use natural objects or phenomena such as the “standing stones” in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Other authors such as H.G. Welles and Michael Crichton have “invented” devices that would enable time travel. Although I fall into the latter category in that I created a device that I call a Quantum Displacement Engine, I don’t go into any great detail as to how it might work. I am aware that there are some current theories that involve quantum mechanics that might point to how time travel might be accomplished, but this aspect is at its most nascent phase. I used time travel to enable the story that I wanted to tell.

Another consideration of time travel is that the Earth, our Solar System, the galaxy, and our universe are themselves all traveling through space at incredibly high speeds. So for anyone to go into the past to a specific point on this planet, would require knowing where the Earth was in space at that time. I haven’t read any time travel novels that even hint this might need to be solved. In addition, I haven’t read any that compensate for the laws of conservation of mass and energy. I have tried to do this in my novel, and have used the laws of conservation as a plot point.

Even though my inner-geek not only made me consider the scientific considerations and the improbabilities of time travel, I do agree that novels that don’t try to cover the science, or even give it a nod, are worth reading. It is up to the skill of the author to convince the reader to suspend disbelief, regardless of what mechanism the writer chooses to use.

In This Time, my novel about Richard III in the twenty-first century, I was interested in the attitudinal and cultural differences between fifteenth-century England and twenty-first century America. One of the first challenges Richard would face was to understand today’s English. Many of the words that Richard would have commonly used, are today not currently used or have changed meaning. For example, if we use the word corpse, we are referring to a dead body. Not so in Richard’s time. Then, a corpse was a living body (from the Latin, corpus). Interestingly, I learned that the English spoken then was more like what we can still hear in some isolated areas of the American Appalachians, which is close in sound and pronunciation to sixteenth-century English.

While forks existed in Richard’s time, they were used primarily in kitchens. When served, meats were cut up into bite-sized pieces that could be picked up with ones fingers or with the point of a knife and then dipped into a sop (sauce) before ingesting.

Even though the poor didn’t have access to frequent baths in Richard’s time, the wealthy (including a burgeoning middle class), not only bathed regularly, but would often travel with their tubs. Some baths in castles were fed by pipes and fitted with spigots as early as the twelfth-century.

Religion was a large presence in every day life. This was before the reformation, so the state religion was Catholic. Richard, like many of his peers, kept a book of hours for daily prayers, and for prayers of special occasions. Religious tolerance was low, if non existent—the Jews having been expelled from England in 1290. While the last crusade had ended shortly after the expulsion of the Jews, most Christian leaders saw the Turks and the Muslims as a great threat. Richard was no exception. However, Richard was the first English king to knight a converted Jew (Edward Brampton in 1484), so I thought that maybe he was a little more tolerant than your average fifteenth-century king. Bearing these factors in mind, I tried to imagine what his reaction would have been to a country where all the leaders, national and local are elected, where most citizens have the right to vote in these elections, and where there is no state religion and everyone is free to choose how and whether to worship or not.

Time travel gave me an opportunity to not only look at these differences between now and the past, but by my bringing Richard into this time, I was able to see the world today through my main character’s eyes. I hope the people who have read or are going to read my book will experience the same.

Proper protocol on hugging a baby :-)

2010-10-29T19:46:00.002-04:00

Sorry for not posting for so long, but my excuse this time is that I'm working on the edits for Loyalty Binds Me, the sequel to This Time. So I have to thank my cousin for sending sharing this delightful manual: Instructions for Properly Hugging a Baby.

Enjoy!

Review: VEIL OF LIES by Jeri Westerson

2010-10-08T11:55:00.002-04:00

Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson
Published 2008 by St. Martin’s Minotaur, New York

Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir is Jeri Westerson’s debut novel featuring Crispin Guest; a medieval tec of the Sam Spade ilk. Originally from nobility with land, wealth, and a promising future, he loses it all to a rash and treasonous act against King Richard II. Although lucky to be alive, he was degraded and left with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Though literate, Crispin doesn’t have the skills for most employment. But he has a knack for finding things and develops a reputation as “The Tracker.” He contracts his services for six pence per day, but rarely has two farthings to rub together. At the novel’s start, we find him in debt, owing his landlord, the butcher, and the couple who befriended him, pub owners who are willing to maintain a running tab. He is summoned to the manor of Nicholas Walcote, a wealthy cloth merchant who wants to hire Crispin to spy on his wife, who Nicholas suspects of infidelity. Crispin is loath to take the job, and even though his fee is the only thing between him and supper, he turns it down.

However, Nicholas would not be so easily dismissed, and what ensues is a tale of loyalty, murder, love, and international intrigue that stretches from England to Italy. At its heart is a relic—a medieval lie detector, the Mandyllon or Veronica from the Latin: vera icona, true image. Through his investigation, Crispin not only discovers his quarry, but also learns a good deal about himself, and he is not altogether pleased.

Westerson wastes no words bringing the characters to life in a fourteenth-century London that the reader can not only see in the mind’s eye, but hear, feel, and smell as well. This book should appeal to readers who enjoy a medieval setting, mystery, and the hardboiled detective that is Crispin Guest. For me, the best thing is that there are more novels in the works. The next, Serpent in the Thorns, is currently available, and the third, The Demon’s Parchment, will be available this month. Happily, there are more to come, as I know this is one series that I’ll want to keep reading.

Where can I find this book?

2010-09-26T12:02:00.003-04:00

We all know how to find a book that we'd like to read, either to buy or to borrow--right? Not exactly. Depending on where one lives, this can be a challenge to find even the more popular books, because of distribution considerations, further complicated by high shipping charges. This can even be the case with ebooks, as not all countries have access. When I first published This Time, I was thrilled to see it appear in all the Amazons. Still, for those who don't live in an "Amazon country" (Australia is an example), getting my book from Amazon meant paying exorbitant shipping fees. It was, in fact, fellow Ricardians (people interested in restoring Richard III's good name) who pointed me to alternative book distributors. So, here's a list of places, besides the usual suspects such as Amazon, to buy and find books no matter where you live.

Print Books:
Buy: Better World Books and The Book Depository
Find: Google Books (will also search libraries); AddAll; Bookfinder

eBooks:
Buy & Free: Smashwords; Digital Books; Project Gutenberg; Google Books; Internet Archive
Find: AddAll Ebooks

I'm sure this list is not comprehensive. If you know of other resources, please let us know.

And let us not forget about a great resource--the local library. Since I live in the USA, I do have ready access to Amazon, B&N, etc., but the cost of some research material can be quite high, so I relied on my library to obtain these books through the inter-library loan (ILL) system. ILL gave me access to books from public and university libraries from all over the US. I can't say enough good about the libraries and our librarians.

Book Review: The Broken Sword

2010-09-17T11:58:00.002-04:00

The Broken Sword by Rhoda Edwards
Published 1976 by Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York
(UK title: Some Touch of Pity)

The Broken Sword: A Novel of the Reign of Richard III by Rhoda Edwards is among the best fictional accounts of the late maligned king that I have read. It covers the last two years of Richard’s life, from shortly before he discovered his brother, Edward IV, had died and named him protector of his son Edward V, to his tragic defeat two years later after having suffered the deaths of his only legitimate son and of his wife of twelve years. We get a real sense of his character and the difficulties he had to deal with during his rule.

Edwards shows us the king from the eyes of several people who were important to him in some way, from his own view point, and from Robert Bolman, the clerk Richard promoted based solely on merit—a truly unique act of those times. Even though this two year period was presented from multiple view points, Edwards gave each a unique voice.

I found the chapters told by Richard’s wife, Anne Neville, his close friend and ally, Francis Lovell, and his physician, Dr. William Hobbes especially poignant. In these chapters we see Richard at the height of his powers and personal happiness and at his most vulnerable and at the depths of his emotional agony.

One point that had puzzled me was why Richard rushed into that last fateful battle where he lost his life and subsequently, his reputation. Edwards shows us Richard was among other things, under fiscal pressure to not delay the battle. The treasury was still depleted and not unlike affairs today, he needed money to govern. Had he pushed the battle back to when he could have been assured of the necessary troops, he risked not having the capital to pay for them. One point Edwards developed that I particularly liked was how Richard had been aware of the Stanleys’ potential betrayal, but that he had approached their “fence sitting” pragmatically.

There were a few expository paragraphs, more so near the beginning of the book, interrupting the narrative flow that Edwards had otherwise so beautifully crafted. I would have preferred it if those parts had been handled through author’s notes at the end.

Ordinarily, I don’t recommend fiction as a reference for historical facts, since to get at what the author interprets as an emotional or larger truth, the writer might decide to “bend” a few facts. In this instance, I take exception. Not only did Edwards not take any license with the facts, but I feel she did find the larger truth. This book stands equally with the other oft touted Ricardian classics—Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey and Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman.

The Broken Sword is no longer in print. Used copies are available.

Patrol Cats

2010-09-09T01:28:00.002-04:00

I was reminded of a pair of cats that I “rescued” while reading Sharon Kay Penman’s blog post: Shadow and Bambi. Shadow is a white Alsatian shepherd that Penman rescued a few weeks ago, and from all reports he is absolutely blossoming under her loving care.

Anyhoo, back in the early 1980s, I had bought a three family house in Hartford, Connecticut and shortly after getting settled into my second floor apartment and having filled the other two apartments with tenants, I discovered some mouse droppings in the cellar. I already had two dogs (a golden retriever mix and a Welsh terrier) and two small indoor cats. I reckoned that my two kitties wouldn’t be able to handle the mice, and my dogs were too goofy to do it, so I went to the pound to get a mouser. I got there a little early and while I was waiting to enter, a woman came in with two rather large, beautiful cats. Her children had developed allergies to cats, and she couldn’t keep her beloved felines. They never saw the inside of the pound.

The first floor tenants were students at Trinity College and they immediately took to the cats. It was a great arrangement—the cats dispensed with the mice and patrolled the perimeter making sure no more entered. The students were thrilled to have cats around, and the cats integrated themselves into the house so quickly that it was like they had always been there. They took to my dogs instantly. They’d walk with me when I walked the dogs; dashing in front of the pups and then throwing themselves on their backs to get attention. When the dogs sidestepped their bodies, the cats would leap up, dash in front and repeat the process.

The students ended up taking care of the cats most of the time. I’d get their food and took care of the annual vet visits.

The students eventually graduated and I saw how attached one in particular had become to them, so I offered them to her, as they were really her cats at that point. She wanted them, but she was moving to Switzerland, so there were some complications. But we worked everything out and they spent their remaining years living somewhere outside of Geneva.

I wish all animal stories could end as happily as this one did.

On the princes surviving Richard III

2010-08-28T14:22:00.005-04:00

Despite Richard III’s good governance and numerous accomplishments as Lord of the North for his brother, Edward IV’s proxy and as England’s king for just over two years (June 26, 1483 to August 22, 1485), Richard has come to us as the evil uncle who, to gain the crown, murdered his nephews and ruled with a tyrannical grip. While the fate of the princes remains a mystery to this day, the evidence of what manner of ruler and man he was belies this impression. For example, upon taking the crown, Richard reformed the laws to ensure the right to a qualified jury and right of the accused to bail writing, “The law shall cease to be an instrument of oppression and extortion.” And yet, his reputation seems to have been irrevocably stained by his supposed murder of his brother’s two boys, Edward V and Richard of York.

Most Ricardians, and I among them, would like to prove that Richard didn’t have the princes killed, or better still, that they weren’t killed. Unfortunately, any forensic evidence has long disappeared, so we must rely on contemporary reports, secondary sources, and logical deduction to come to some reasonable conclusions. Here’s my stab on why I think that Richard didn’t have the princes killed, and that they survived him.

Among other Ricardians, I maintain that if Richard had ordered that the boys be killed, he would have made their demise public. Keeping it secret would have done him no good. If the bodies were mutilated in some way that was obvious, I believe he would have accused whoever he had to of murder and had them quickly executed. That would have taken care of the "problem" for good. To me, the main reason that makes sense considering his silence and that the living royal bastards were not paraded around from time to time is that he secured them from potential harm and abduction and had to keep their whereabouts secret.

On August 9, 1483, Richard learned of a failed conspiracy to remove the princes from their apartments in the Tower by John Welles, Margaret Beaufort’s half brother (Margaret Beaufort was Henry Tudor’s mother and Lord Thomas Stanley’s wife.) Annette Carson points out in Richard III: The Maligned King that if Richard had already had the boys killed and had not as yet said anything about it, then this was a perfect opportunity to reveal the bodies, accuse, and then convict Welles of their murder. Since this didn’t transpire, I must conclude that Edward and Richard were alive and in London then.

Shortly after the failed plot to abduct the princes, I think Richard had them removed to separate and what he thought were safe places. I think Richard III assigned one of his trusted “sergeants”, possibly Tyrrell, to remove Edward V to Ireland and for another, likely Edward Brampton, to remove Richard to his home in Portugal. (More on Brampton later.)

Once the boys "disappeared" Richard risked the rumors that the boys had been murdered. In October of 1483, Richard defeated a rebellion whose initial purpose was to restore Edward V to the throne, but by mid-September, the rebels had switched their support to Henry Tudor when rumors spread that Edward V was dead. Around that time, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham gave his support to the rebellion and it’s sometimes referred to as Buckingham’s rebellion. When he became king, Richard had made Buckingham England’s Constable, and as late as August 27, 1483, Richard III signed the final warrant for Buckingham to enter his Bohun inheritance (that had been denied to him by Edward IV). There is some speculation that if the princes were killed, that Buckingham was involved. However, Richard had later learned of Buckingham’s treachery and had executed him for treason when he put down the rebellion, the princes were probably alive at that time because Richard could have easily pinned the murder on his former ally and constable.

One point that is often overlooked when discussing the mystery of Edward IV’s boys is that there was a third prince—George’s son Edward, Earl of Warwick whose fate is known. George, Duke of Clarence was married to Isabel Neville, sister to Anne, Richard’s wife. Isabel died just over a year before Clarence was executed for treason and their children were attainted. Edward was no longer eligible to inherit title. Without this impediment, the crown would have gone to Clarence’s son, not Richard since George, had he survived Edward IV, would have been next in line after Edward IV’s boys.* After Edward IV died, Richard took George’s children into his household and placed them at Sheriff Hutton where Edward of Warwick and his sister, Margaret lived with the other children. When Henry Tudor defeated Richard, he imprisoned Edward in the tower, and eventually had him (and Perkin Warbec) executed in 1499. Interestingly, if Warbec had in fact been Richard of York, then it was Henry VII and not Richard III who executed two of the three princes. On a side note, in 1541 Henry VII’s son, Henry VIII executed Edward of Warwick’s sister, Margaret Pole, who by then was nearly sixty-eight.

The Battle of Stoke, which is generally thought to have been the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, had an obvious impostor at its head in the form of a ten year-old boy who Henry VII placed in his kitchens and gave the name of Lambert Simnel. However, Margaret of Burgundy organized and funded the rebellion that failed at Stoke in 1487, which I doubt that she would have done for an impostor at its inception. I think that Edward V was still alive while Stoke was being planned but that he died too close to the battle for it to have been called off. Another possibility is that Edward V was killed in that battle and that Henry VII put Lambert Simnel in as an impostor. Later, Margaret supported the man who claimed to be Richard of York, who Henry VII executed as Perkin Warbec. Margaret of Burgundy was one of the nobles who believed he was Richard of York Would she have supported someone who she knew to be an impostor? Most accounts of Warbec indicated that he spoke perfect English and was knowledgeable of Edward IV’s court. While not absolute proof that he was Edward’s son as he claimed, it does add circumstantial evidence in his favor.

A factor that I think adds to the circumstantial evidence that at least Richard of York survived Richard III is Richard's generous rewards to Edward Brampton, a converted Jew who first entered into Edward IV's service and then Richard's. In addition to monetary rewards, Richard knighted Brampton, the first English monarch to knight a converso. I think Richard III had Brampton take Richard of York into his care and rewarded Brampton for his loyalty and support. (In his confession that he was not Richard of York, Warbec referred to the time he spent in Brampton’s household.)

Therefore, because of the circumstantial and documentary evidence, and by my application of Occam's razor, I think it likely that the princes survived Richard and he got them out of the country to safe places.

*By the 1484 Act of Parliament, Titulus Regius named Edward of Warwick ineligible: “...by an Acte made in the fame Parliament, George Duc of Clarence, Brother to the faid King Edward nowe deceffed, was convicted and atteinted of High Treafon; as in the fame Acte is conteigned more at large. Bicaufe and by reafon wherof, all the Iffue of the faid George, was and is difhabled and barred of all Right and Clayme, that in any wife they might have or chalenge by Enheritance, to the Crown and Dignite Roiall of this Reame, by the auncien Lawe and Cuftome of this fame Reame.”

Sources:

1. Carson, Annette. Richard III: The Maligned King. Second Edition. The History Press. 2009.
2. Fields, Bertram. Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes. First Perennial Edition. New York. Regan Books, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. 2000
3. Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. Book of the Month Club Edition. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1996.
4. Wroe, Ann. The Perfect Prince: the Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and his Quest for the Throne of England. New York. Random House. 2003.
5. Titulus Regius. From the 1484 Parliament of Richard III reproduced on The Richard III Society, American Branch website.

Sequel Update

2010-08-22T13:59:00.001-04:00

First, my apologies for being so slack about updating Random Thoughts. I do have some news—I’m getting Loyalty Binds Me, the sequel to This Time ready to send to my copy editor.

Loyalty Binds Me starts a year after the first book ends, two years after Richard arrives in the 21st-century. Even though this continues Richard’s story in our time, it can be read without having read the first book. I don’t appreciate cliff-hangers at the end of books that I read, so I would not subject my readers to that in my work.

One of Richard’s mottos was loyaulte me lie, which translates to loyalty binds me. He would sign it with his name both on personal correspondence and on official documents. For Richard it seemed, it was more than a motto, but a code by which he lived.

My projected schedule for the sequel is to send it to my copy editor by mid-September, with a publish date around mid-November.

"This Time" got a book award

2010-06-26T01:09:00.004-04:00

Here's a photo of me when I received the award--I'm the one on the left with the goofy smile. Nearly a year ago, I submitted my novel to the Indie Book Awards for General Fiction/Novel category and although the submission was always in the back of my mind, I sort of forgot about it. It turned into a wonderful surprise to receive an email from the Indie Book Awards that This Time was one of the finalists. The Indie Book Awards included an invitation to an awards cocktail reception at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. I almost didn't go, but thankfully, I decided to attend and had the most exhilarating time, meeting other awarded authors and reviewers. I even got to speak to a reviewer who remembered my book and told me how much she enjoyed reading it. I'm still grinning. :)

Well, back to reality--must finish editing the sequel.

Book Review: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

2010-05-07T01:30:00.002-04:00

The High Crusade
Poul Anderson
192 pages
Science Fiction

In reading The High Crusade I returned to my first love—science fiction by one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Poul Anderson. To my absolute delight and surprise, this book satisfied a very recent love—historical fiction. Although the characters and settings are fictitious, Anderson captured the sense of the English medieval culture of the pre-plague, mid-fourteenth-century.

The highly advanced, interstellar Wersgorix send a scout ship to Earth to assess its suitability for a Wersgorix settlement. They would search out planets where they, the Wersgorix had superior technology and would quickly subjugate the natives, killing all who dared challenge them and enslaving the rest.

The Wersgorix had not counted on was to land on a planet so far removed from their sophisticated weaponry that they effectively had no defenses. They landed smack in the middle of war preparations for Edward III’s campaign against the French in the little English village of Ansby, led by Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville. The English, armed and ready for war investigate the massive ship that lands in their midst. The alien defenses—effective against energy weapons similar to their own—are next to useless against arrows and steel. In short shrift, the English knights and yeomen penetrate the energy shields and kill all but one Wersgoran technician, suffering but a few killed and wounded themselves.

What follows is a wonderful romp where the entire town of Ansby, human and animal, take over the space ship intending to go to France to support King Edward III, but instead get transported to the last planet the Wersgorix had conquered.

Anderson seamlessly weaves the medieval culture, feudal system and warfare with a sci-fi setting for an altogether enjoyable read.

Are you a Dord?

2010-05-04T00:26:00.002-04:00

Typos—we all make them, but some are more spectacular than others. Take dord—it’s supposed to mean density. Dord first appeared in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary for nearly all of the 1930s until an editor found it in February, 1939. It was supposed to be “D or d” but when it first went in, no one noticed there were supposed to be spaces separating the "d"s from the "or" (see The 7 Most Disastrous Typos of All Time article in Cracked.com).

My friend told one of my favorite typo stories to me about a mechanically introduced typo that nearly cost her doctorate in psychology. This was pre-word processing and my friend hired someone to type her thesis on a typewriter that she rented. What she didn’t know was that the typewriter introduced a half space after every “e” in the text. The most egregious change was to transform “therapist” into “the rapist.”

“Unfortunately,” my friend had said, “that was often the truth.”

Book review: My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse

2010-03-31T17:24:00.002-04:00

My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse
Three Clover Press
Trade Paperback
250 pages
Historical Fiction

My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse is about Robert Hart. The bare facts are that in 1854, Hart left Ireland under a cloud for China to fill the role of interpreter for the British consulate. He immersed himself into the Chinese culture and learned the language and Chinese thinking so well that he was the first foreigner to become the Inspector General of China’s Customs Service. He lived in China for 54 years. Prior to the Cultural Revolution he became known as the “Godfather of China’s modernism.”

But those are merely the facts. Thankfully, Hart kept journals, many of which survive to this day. While researching Hart’s life, Lofthouse discovered that Hart kept a concubine with whom he had three children. To protect her and his children, he burned most of the journal entries concerning the love of his life. Fortunately for us, Lofthouse was able to piece together a lusty and poignant portrait of a conflicted and principled man who would not abandon his Chinese family no matter what the cost.

Rather than focus on what was already known about Hart, from his journals and official records, Lofthouse focused on Hart’s long-term affair with Ayaou, a boat-girl. Even most Chinese looked down upon the boat-people. He meets Ayaou and her sister, Shao-mei while escaping the oppressive summer heat of Ningpo to join his fellow country man, Patridge at his summerhouse on the western end of Zhoushan Island. Patridge had arranged to bring in eligible girls for concubines for his friends staying with him. Hart is immediately attracted to Ayaou and decides to buy her, but before he can do so, another of Patridge’s guests beats him to her. As you already know from my previous paragraph, Hart does eventually secure Ayaou, but you, dear reader, will have to read this book to find out how he does it and what happens to Ayaou and Shao-mei.

Lofthouse does a masterful job of not only presenting Hart and those he encountered as fully fleshed people, but also gives us a taste of how the Chinese think and what that culture is all about—an understanding that one can’t get from the news. And even though this story takes place in the nineteenth-century, I think much of the insight into the Chinese culture is relevant today.

The one fault that I have with this book is the denouement was far too abrupt. I kept flipping the last page, hoping that I really wasn’t at the end. The resolution was incomplete for me. Thankfully, the sequel, My Hart, promises to continue where this book left off. I will be reading it soon.

My Splendid Concubine received Honorable Mention in Fiction at the 2008 London Book Festival.

Thank You Google Books!

2010-03-05T17:17:00.004-05:00

Four weeks ago, I railed against Google Books for removing the "search my library" feature. I also sent them a complaint and I wasn't very sanguine that they'd put it back. I was wrong. Even though this feature's appearance is somewhat altered, I can now search "my library."

To recap why I so desperately wanted it back: this feature allows me to search through my hard copy books electronically. To add a book to "my library", all I have to do is find the book in Google books and add it to "Bookshelves" (was "my library"). Once the book is on one of my bookshelves, I can go to "my library" and do a search for key words, for example, and all the books that I have that have these key words will be displayed. If the publisher has allowed Google Books to display a snippet view or limited view, then this can also be displayed. All public domain books allow full view.

Happy "my library" search everyone.

Bosworth Battlefield Site

2010-02-22T11:44:00.004-05:00

It had been suspected for a long time that the battlefield site at Ambion Hill where the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Visitor's Center is located, and the monument to where Richard III was slain, was not the actual site of Richard's final battle. Archeologists and historians have been investigating potential sites for several year and have revealed what they believe to be the actual site of the battle--about two and a half miles southwest of the Visitor's Center--based on finding evidence of a large medieval battle. Various objects found were buckles and strappings from armor, buckles, and most significantly, a boar badge of a quality that Richard III would have given to his closest lieutenants. See video clip and read article at BBC News.

Bosworth Field--a Shakespearean spoof

2010-02-12T16:55:00.002-05:00

Enjoy!

I'll be doing a webcast Tuesday, Feb. 9

2010-02-08T01:38:00.002-05:00

I will be a guest on Janet E. Smith's Internet Voices Radio show, Marketing for Fun and Profit on Tuesday, February 9, from 4:30 to 5:00pm (east coast time, US). In addition to talking about my novel, This Time (a story about Richard III in the 21st century), we will be discussing the challenges of marketing self published works without investing a lot of money to do so. You can listen at Internet Voices Radio either at the time of the webcast by selecting "Listen Live" or later by selecting "Listen On Demand". The show may be accessed for about a month following the webcast.

I met Janet on the Yahoo discussion group set up for the Independent Author's Guild and got to know her through her insightful comments on self publishing and marketing. She is one savvy self published author.

Major Rant: Google ruined the My Library feature

2010-02-05T01:22:00.004-05:00

Google Books has a wonderful search tool that lets you find specific strings in books and they used to have that ability in the "My Library" feature. I loved being able to search my personal library for information where I didn't remember exactly the references where I had found it. (See my June 15,2009 post here.)

It looks completely different now where the books are strung out pictorially in some useless categories such as favorites, read, to be read, etc. instead of just listed with publishing information like they used to. I know what my books look like, I don't need a picture of the jacket.

I can still search the entire Google library and then sift through the hundreds of results for the ones that I've flagged as being in my library. However, there is no way for me to narrow my search choices down to the ones I have, instead of the millions that Google has catalogued.

Why did they have to go and "fix" something that wasn't broken?

Random Rant: Ad nauseam remakes

2010-01-24T23:03:00.003-05:00

I settled in tonight to watch Masterpiece Theater Classic only to discover that it is yet another remake of Jane Austen’s Emma. As much as I love Jane Austen and enjoy Masterpiece Theater’s productions of her work, didn’t I see another version of Emma on Masterpiece Theater just last year? Aren’t there any other authors and other stories that Masterpiece Theater could produce?

Mystery seems to do the same with Agatha Christie's and Arthur Conan Doyle's works, but at least with these two authors, there are many more stories to choose from. Still, I do crave exposure to other authors.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too loudly, though. They could turn *shudder* Hollywood, and not only create endless remakes, but pick stories that aren’t nearly as good and then substitute CGI for good writing.

Review of Blue Bells of Scotland by Laura Vosika

2010-01-07T10:25:00.005-05:00

In Blue Bells of Scotland, Laura Vosika spins a captivating tale that combines historical fiction with time travel and a bit of reverse alternate history cleverly woven in. Instead of changing the final outcome of an important historical event, Vosika changes the history at the start of the novel so that her time traveler changes it to what actually is. Although the grandfather paradox is mentioned, no consequences are shown for the changed history that the time travel generated such as people disappearing as if they never existed. The pacing flows from a measured cadence at the start of the tale and builds to a climatic crescendo reminiscent of Ravel’s Bolero.

Just before the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn, the two main characters, Shawn Kleiner, a twenty-first century classical trombonist who has rock-star fame, switches places with Niall Campbell, a fourteenth century lord, soldier, and harpist. Niall and Shawn are effectively clones, and so are seen by their peers to be the persons they were expected to be. One thing that often bothers me in time travel tales is how the time traveler is able to understand radically different versions of the same language. For example, in addition to Gaelic, Niall knew Middle English, which is not readily intelligible to Modern English speakers. Here is a sample from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales:

Heere bigynneth The Knyghtes Tale

WHILOM, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;

Visually, this may be more understandable for us than if we heard it, because of the way pronunciations changed. In Monty Python and The Holy Grail, knight was pronounced ki-nig-it. This is probably the way knight was said then as one of the members of Monty Python, Terry Jones, is a medievalist. Vosika shows how Niall works through the language change in a believable way.

Vosika created a plausible background for both characters that allowed them to function—albeit awkwardly—in the others time. I was able to suspend my disbelief that these two men had these skills and were physically identical to each other. I particularly liked Shawn’s transformation from an arrogant womanizer who only thinks about himself and what people can do for him, to an unpretentious loyal friend—a man ready to lay down his life for a cause he believes in.

Perhaps the most important aspect of a story to me is that I become invested in the characters. Blue Bells of Scotland does not disappoint. Both Shawn and Niall are fully fleshed and I could imagine having a conversation with each. In addition to the two main characters, I feel I got to know and cared for Amy, Shawn’s lover. One negative in my mind is the author sprang a significant revelation about Amy where I did not see the behavior as consistent with her character. My apologies for being vague, but I do not want to introduce spoilers. One character that I would have like to have known better was Allene, a feisty, self-sufficient medieval noblewoman and Niall’s betrothed. I look forward to learning more about her in the second book.

Of some minor concern was that I thought the prose could have been tighter and I found a few typos. I soon forgot these as I became absorbed by the story. This is one book that I found hard to put down.

Even though this is only the first book, I found the ending sufficiently satisfying, giving me the patience to wait for the second of the trilogy. That said; write faster, Laura. I want to read more.

Blue Bells of Scotland may be purchase from Amazon.com:

Once in a Blue Moon

2009-12-30T21:52:00.003-05:00

Even though this phrase means a rare event, it does refer to a natural phenomenon when there are two full moons in a calendar month. This occurs about once every 2.5 years. However, this New Years Eve's blue moon is rarer still--it happens only once every 19 years.

Happy New Year and a Blue Moon to everyone.

'Tis the Season for Mondegreens

2009-12-24T01:56:00.005-05:00

I'm not a big fan of Christmas music, but hearing Winter Wonderland reminded me of how my eight-year-old mind heard this Christmas classic. Because I didn't know what a Parson was, I heard:
In the meadow we will build a snow man
And pretend that he is parcel brown
Further along in the song I heard:
Later on we'll perspire as we dream by the fire

So when I saw Miss Cellania's recent post on Christmas Mondegreens it put me in the mood to visit my favorite site for misheard lyrics whose url contains one of the most famous mondegreens: 'scuse me, while I kiss this guy. This site requires a SPEW WARNING else you'll be mopping up your monitor while counting head lice on the highway
from Tiny Dancer or watching as the girl with colitis go by the Beatles.

Here are three of mine that may or may not be on this archive.

The Beatles: But the fool on the hill / Sees the sun going down / And the ice in his hair / See the world spinning round.

Janis Joplin: Take another little piece of my hard on baby

Abba: Wannado, couldn't escape if I wanted to

New Richard III blog added to list

2009-12-11T23:39:00.004-05:00

I recently learned of the New South Wales chapter in Australia of the Richard III Society and have added their site to my blog list. You can explore their site here.

I'm a member of the American branch and am active in the New England chapter. We are going to have our annual holiday luncheon this Sunday at the Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts.

We Ricardians and others who are interested in that period of English history are scattered across the globe, many of us in remote places where access to resources is often difficult obtain.

While I'm not shy about my interest in Richard III, I find that it usually isn't the topic of conversation. So it's a great surprise when I learn that someone who I've known for months or even years is also a Ricardian.

Please feel free to leave a comment about your interest in Richard III and/or that period of history and let us know where you are from.

Review of "Richard III: The Maligned King" by Annette Carson

2009-12-02T12:12:00.003-05:00

If I had to summarize this book in one word, it would be provocative. From the opening chapter where Annette Carson analyzes Richard Collins’s theory that Edward IV may have died of poisoning, to the closing chapter depicting Richard’s personal tragedies--son dies suddenly and wife dies after a long illness--and how they affected his security, to his miscalculations of how to manage the powerful lords upon whose support he depended, we not only learn how history has maligned this medieval monarch, but also how certain key events have several valid interpretations.

The chapters are arranged chronologically, starting just before Edward IV’s death to Richard’s defeat and death on Bosworth Field--a period extending just under two and a half years--and of the Tudor aftermath where Richard’s good name was maligned. While Carson clearly sides with the “good king Richard” view, she does not ignore detracting theories for each point she examines. Throughout all the tumultuous events of this short historical span, Carson analyzes the primary (where available) and secondary sources--sometimes supporting and sometimes contradicting the conclusions that are drawn. Notably she doesn’t shirk from citing and examining controversial references such as that of Thomas More's History of King Richard III.

Carson’s work is well balanced, logical, and witty. I believe this text is readily understandable by someone just embarking on learning about this era as well as an important addition to the more knowledgeable reader. The selected bibliography lists over a hundred references that she cites throughout the text. Despite the weight of the research, the book is highly readable and accessible to the non-historian.

The one issue I had with this book has to do with its physical production and not the contents. For this, I lay the responsibility squarely on the publisher--The History Press. I found the tiny font size they chose for this book a real challenge for me to read. I measured it and the regular text is a six-point font size with quoted text even smaller. Admittedly, I am of an age where I need to use reading glasses for normal print size. Here, I often found myself using a magnifying glass in addition to the glasses. I implore The History Press to use at least a ten-point font size if they reprint this book. I’ll purchase another copy if they do.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the author and I traded books when we met for the first and only time last August. Neither of us had any expectations of receiving or giving a review. I am writing this review because I think this book is a valuable addition for anyone interested in Richard III and that period of history.

Richard III: the Maligned King may be purchased at Amazon.com:

Reviews, choices, and expectations

2009-11-24T11:24:00.006-05:00

I just received a lovely review from the Historical Novel Society. It caused me to reflect on the points reviewers made, what gave them pause, what were some common themes, and whether the points I hoped to convey got across.

So far, with only one exception, the reviewers liked my characters, found them endearing, vivid, and likeable (links to reviews at end of article). Since characters are paramount for me as a reader, I focused on making my characters real, and I’m thrilled that I have succeeded in this regard.

This Time is a mash-up of historical fiction and science fiction with a time travel twist. My main character was Richard III, who I brought into the twenty-first century seconds before he was about to be slain in battle. Bringing this medieval monarch over 500 years into the future gave me opportunities and choices in how I would handle his adjustment to modern technology and culture. Early on, I decided that the more interesting (to me) aspect to explore would be his cultural and emotional reaction and adaptation. I felt I should downplay the “wow--you can do that” aspect of the modern world, dealing with most of it, such as things like TV, telephone, and computers in the early chapters, and allowing the reader to imagine how Richard reacted to other technological advances.

Here, reviewers differed on whether I covered this aspect in too much, not enough, or the right level of detail. Interestingly, there seems to have been an even split among those who mentioned this angle. So what am I left to conclude? I think this has to do more with what the readers wanted or expected, rather than whether the book correctly balanced this aspect. Since I made the final editing decisions, I believed I wrote the right amount about Richard’s fish-out-of-water experiences. Some reviewers disagreed--my balance wasn’t right for them.

Fortunately, there was no such disagreement on the historical or emotional elements. For me, that was more important to the story I wanted to tell. As a result, I continue to feel that I met the expectations that I had set by my choice of story and by labeling it a Historical Fiction with Sci-fi elements.

Recently, several blogs have discussed whether writers of historical fiction should maintain historical accuracy where it is known. Some have argued that fiction is fiction and that gives us license to “adapt” the history to fit the story. I disagree. If the author wants to tell a story where someone dies at a different time from when they actually did, for example, then I don’t think it should be called historical because the historical label sets the reader’s expectations that it will at least adhere to the major points of known history. I do think it’s okay to speculate on the unknown such as where those outcomes were in doubt.

So, when I read a book that is supposed to be historical fiction, I expect the history to be accurate within the limits of what is currently known. I also expect most of the characters to conform to the attitudes of their culture except where the character is created as a cultural rebel, or the historical figure is known for writings and actions that did not conform.

Reviews:

Historical Novel Review (Nov 2009)
That’s All She Read
Writer’s Daily Grind
Medieval Woman
The Boogle

(more reviews at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble)

3 National Monuments and Sedona, AZ

2009-11-20T17:10:00.003-05:00

After Petrified Forest National Park, we drove to Sedona, AZ, making sure to visit three nearby national monuments of the northern Sinagua, a prehistoric culture that inhabited the Verde Valley until the 1400s when they suddenly abandoned this area. No one knows for certain why they left. This is copied from National Park Service flier for these national monuments:

Montezuma Castle and Well are located about 15 miles south of Sedona and Tuzigoot is about 20 miles southwest. The well is a natural cistern that Sinagua used to irrigate their farms by digging irrigation ditches. View slide showhere.

Tuzigoot is located about 20 miles southwest of Sedona. View slide show here.

The views in and around Sedona are breathtaking. People who live there say that it's like living in Zion National Park, we agreed. On our return to Las Vegas to fly home, we stopped at Slide Rock State Park in Oak Creek Canyon: Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

Emoticons and water on the moon

2009-11-18T00:26:00.003-05:00

Being an iconoclast at heart, I just love it when I stumble upon surprising facts, information that turns my view of something, large or small, on its head. I know that's a big reason why I was so compelled by Richard III when I discovered that the Shakespearean version is mainly fiction and why I read this Cracked article about the emoticon with great delight. Not only did Ambrose Bierce propose them nearly 120 years ago, but according to this article, Abraham Lincoln used them in his personal telegraphs. Who'da thunk!

Which brings me to another surprise, this one rather larger than the origin of emoticons. I had always thought, based on various articles and books that I read, that the moon was basically a lump of rock, devoid of life, and likely never supported life. On November 14, 2009, the New York Times reported that about a month ago, a satellite crashed into a lunar crater near its south pole and kicked up approximately 26 gallons of water that had been collecting for billions of years. Assuming there is a significant accumulation, the moon now appears to be an ideal candidate for a base, since water, and by virtue of the water, oxygen, would not have to be shipped from the Earth.

Views from the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest

2009-11-16T10:47:00.002-05:00

From Bryce Canyon, we drove south to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, the closest lodging I was able to get at the time was in Williams--an easy hour long drive to an entrance to the Grand Canyon. If you plan to go, I recommend you make your reservations early enough to stay at one of the motels that are just outside the park's entrance. One of the canyon's treats, is a mule ride down Bright Angel trail. We got to the park too late to take one of the rides but did manage to hike down a small piece of it.

Click this link to view some of the sights we saw.

In addition to petrified wood, The Petrified Forest stretches to the Painted Desert with sights of petroglyphs in between. See the views here..

Views from Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks

2009-11-05T17:25:00.000-05:00

After we left Vegas, we traveled north and stopped at Zion National Park.
Click here to view slide show.

From Zion we continued north to Bryce Canyon where we stayed at Ruby's Inn just outside the park. If you plan on visiting, I recommend staying here.
Click here to view slide show.

New discussion group

2009-11-02T02:13:00.005-05:00

The first chapter of 'Richard III: The Maligned King' by Annette Carson examines Edward IV's sudden death from what his doctors called an "unknown illness" just before his 41st birthday. One possible cause was that Edward IV had been given a lethal dose of arsenic.

This topic has already been discussed at some length on different Richard III discussion groups, but because other topics would intersperse this one, I have set up this temporary discussion group to focus on this theory--to determine if the arsenic could have been prescribed by his doctors to cure an illness and they got the dosage wrong, or if he were deliberately poisoned by someone he trusted.

Link to E4Arsenic and ask to join the group if you are interested in participating in the discussion.

2009 Richard III Society Annual General Meeting

2009-10-24T20:32:00.008-04:00

A Week ago Friday, Ed (my mate) and I flew to Las Vegas to attend the annual meeting of the Richard III Society, American Branch. Friday evening we registered and caught up with old friends and met new ones.

After a buffet breakfast Saturday, Kate Skegg presented her theory on what caused the English Sweating sickness. By her reckoning, it's a cyclical disease that's highly infectious, but not easily caught from person to person. Her research strongly points to Tularemia, an infectious disease carried by ticks, although there are other modalities that can spread the disease to humans.

Susan Higginbotham gave the next talk--one befitting the venue of this year's meeting--gambling! Dice were popular from ancient times, as was Backgammon, dating back to Mesopotamia. Even the 14th-century Luttrell Psalter has an illustration of two young people playing Backgammon in the garden. (If you're interested, you can see many images contained in the Luttrell Psalter, including this one, in Google images.) The modern deck of cards are derived from the Tarot deck and while many believe the Queen of Hearts may be that of Elizabeth of York and wife of Henry VII, the connection seems to be one of hindsight.

Following the buffet luncheon, Dr. Sharon Michalove gave the keynote speech on the reinvention of Richard III. Depending on which side of the fence you stand on, you may think of Richard as either a good king or evil as epitomized by William Shakespeare. Interestingly, as Dr. Michalove pointed out, not only has Richard been reinvented through the centuries since his defeat in 1485, but so have the the interpretations given to Shakespeares villain of the same name.

The banquet (buffet of course) followed the business meeting where many of us dressed up in our finest 15th-century style dress and we were treated to a play by Joyce Tumea, What Was That?: a modern medieval murder mystery.

As all things must, this came to an end after the Sunday breakfast, where I had the opportunity to participate in an author's panel with Susan Higginbotham, Maria Elena Torres, Sharon Michalove, and Joyce Tumea. This was my first experience participating in this sort of panel, and I found it a most enjoyable experience. I'm sure it helped that I was among friends.

Ed and I took advantage of a five hour break to drive out to Red Rock National Park, about 20 minute drive out of Las Vegas. I've taken many photos, but hopefully these two images will give you an idea of the magnitude of this park:

Ed and I stayed on with about twenty other Ricardians to attend the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel. We had a grand time watching the fabulous horsemanship, and acrobatic show while eating a roasted chicken with our fingers--knives and forks were not allowed to be consistent with medieval times, although I couldn't help smirking at the anachronistic home fried potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Here's a photo of a bit of Las Vegas at night:

We left the next day to tour a few of the national parks and to see some of the southwest. More on this later.

Words and phrases--medieval to modern

2009-10-12T14:30:00.003-04:00

I admit--I’m a word whore, from having about a dozen dictionaries (print), and about as many links to online dictionaries, etymologies, and phrases. In addition, I subscribe to “Word a Day” and “Phrase a Week”. Yet, armed with all these resources, I may still have some trouble finding the correct medieval term.

One challenge I had in writing This Time was to know which words Richard wouldn’t know or get an opposite meaning from when he awakens in the 21st- century. For example, early in the story, Richard observes what we would call a sympathetic reaction, but according to The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Word Histories, that word came into use in the mid 17th-century. So, instead of a single word, I ended up writing this paragraph:

“Katarina’s pupils grew large and her lips parted slightly. While Richard would not describe her expression as one of pity, the word that came to mind was in his Latin vocabulary-–misericors—caring heart.”

As it happens, I’m quite pleased with the end result because of the nuance it gave to the entire scene, but that cost me about a half day of research.

Despite my investment in those dictionaries and books on medieval words and phrases, the one thing that I found most frustrating was the medieval terms or phrases were listed alphabetically but there was no reverse lookup. For example, suppose I wanted to name a coned-shaped hat that fashionable women wore in the 15th-century. I would not have been able to find “hat” or “cone-shaped hat” but would need to have known that it was called a hennin.

The challenge for authors writing period pieces is even greater. For example, one can’t just say a horse, because like today, there were different types of horses, but the classifications have changed. The most expensive was the destrier, used mostly for the joust, and followed by the courser used for battle. A rouncey was the least expensive, often used as a pack animal, but also for riding.

My kudos go to those writers who successfully use the medieval terms so that they are meaningful to the modern reader without sounding pedantic.

Partial resource list:
Print:
--A Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams. D. S. Brewer. Cambridge. 2004.
--NTC’s Dictionary of Changes in Meanings. Adrian Room. NTC Publishing Group. Lincolnwood, IL. 1996
--Medieval Wordbook. Madeleine Pelner Cosman. Checkmark Books. 2001.
Links:
--Ask Oxford (Word a Day)
--Horses in the Middle Ages (Wikipedia article)
--Phrase Finder (Phrase a Week)

Review of Richard III and the Murder in the Tower by Peter A. Hancock.

2009-09-29T02:30:00.002-04:00

One of the issues I have thought both puzzling and key to the events surrounding Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s actions as Protector to Edward V on June 13, 1483 was his summary execution of William Hastings--an execution delivered without, it would seem, due process. From my point of view, this was uncharacteristic action by a man who was for most of his life, all about the rule of law. I struggled to tease apart this event in particular, and the subsequent actions taken by Richard that led him to be crowned king of England. Thus, it was with great anticipation that I opened this book that promised to offer a fresh and intriguing view of the possible motives and reasons that led to Hastings’ execution and Richard’s decision to go after the crown. Hancock did not disappoint.

First, I want comment on the style in which the book is written. It’s like Hancock is speaking with me. This book is highly readable and thoroughly engaging, and whether you agree or not with the theory, it is logically constructed. Hancock was careful to present primary and secondary sources that both substantiated and countered his theory. In the instances where the sources were contrary to his hypothesis, Hancock showed why he thought the interpretation was incorrect or didn’t hold up. He didn’t dismiss these arguments out-of-hand. In all but a small handful of instances, Hancock gives sources to substantiate his position. I will not quibble with a couple of un-sourced statements that were thrown in because they had no effect on the book’s premise.

The book set out to determine when did Richard first decide that he wanted to be King and not protector. The time span Hancock examines was from when Richard first learned his brother Edward IV had died to when Richard was made King on June 26, 1483. Although, Edward IV died April 9, 1483, Richard didn’t learn of it until about a week later. From the time Richard learned of Edward’s death to the council meeting on June 13th, Richard’s actions were consistent with his role as protector. There was no outward indication that he was aiming for anything else. Hancock posits that something happened during that council meeting that changed everything. Per Hancock, Richard learned about the precontracted marriage between Edward IV and Eleanor Butler from William Catesby during a break in the meeting. He also learned that Hastings knew about the precontract. Enraged by this betrayal, Richard returns to the council and accuses Hastings, among others, of treason. However, Hastings was executed that day and the only one to lose his head. Even though I don’t agree with the timing of the events for reasons I won’t go into here, I think the scenario Hancock painted holds together very well.

What I like best about this book is that it is thoughtful and pointed out possible scenarios that I had not considered. Whether or not you will agree with the thesis Hancock lays out in his book, I think it is well worth reading.

Richard III and the Murder in the Tower may be purchased at Amazon.com:

Authors--share your books with our troops

2009-09-12T10:57:00.005-04:00

Ed Patterson, an independent author I met at the Independent Author's Guild discussion group has joined with Smashwords to offer our troops in Iraq and elsewhere free access to electronic copies of our books through a program called ePubDrop. You can read the details about this program on the Smashwords blog.

This Time is now available through this program.

Because these are funny

2009-09-10T17:56:00.001-04:00

Doctors Notes, lifted from Miss Cellania's blog:

The things doctors have scribbled on patient’s charts when they are in a hurry:

# "Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year."

# "On the 2nd day the knee was better and on the 3rd day it disappeared completely."

# "The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1993."

# "Discharge status: Alive but without permission."

# "Healthy appearing decrepit 69 year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful."

# "The patient refused an autopsy."

# "The patient has no past history of suicides."

# "Patient has left his white blood cells at another hospital."

# "Patient's past medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days."

# "Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch."

# "She has had no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night."

# "She is numb from her toes down."

# "While in the ER, she was examined, X-rated and sent home."

# "The skin was moist and dry."

# "Occasional, constant, infrequent headaches."

# "Patient was alert and unresponsive."

# "She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce."

# "I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy."

# "The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stockbroker instead."

# "Patient has two teenage children but no other abnormalities."

# "Skin: Somewhat pale but present."

# "Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Blank, who felt we should sit on the abdomen, and I agree."

# "By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart stopped, and he was feeling better."

# "The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of gas and crashed."

# "When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room."

# "Patient was released to outpatient department without dressing."

# "The patient will need disposition, and therefore we will get Dr. Blank to dispose of him."

# "The patient expired on the floor uneventfully."

My brief but hectic UK trip

2009-09-07T17:31:00.004-04:00

Just got back from England and thought I’d take a few minutes to talk about my latest adventures.

My first stop was the Battle of Bosworth reenactment to promote my book, This Time. I met up with two Ricardian friends who formed a partnership called White Boar and to my joy and gratitude have agreed to distribute my book in the UK. The Heritage Center set me up with a small table and although I had some stiff competition from Philippa Gregory who was there signing her latest book, I did manage to sell 14 signed copies of mine. But the best news is the Heritage Center shop bought 10 copies from White Boar for sale at their shop. I signed those copies as well. Then, the cherry on top of the icing on the cake was the Richard III Society’s tent was next to us, and they gave White Boar a spot at their AGM (annual meeting) where more of my books will be available. And Phil Stone, the society’s chairman bought a copy.

It’s a good thing I got to see the reenactment in 2006, because I was pretty much tied to my table the whole time. Except for bio breaks, this was my view of the reenactment.

The second reason for my trip was to do some research for the third book, Strange Times (still a work in progress). To do this, I needed to rent a car because a few of the places I needed to see are not near public transportation or sufficiently out of the way so that I’d eat up my time just getting to a place. My mantra became “keep left, left turn on side, right turn cross over.” I kept repeating it over and over and didn’t have any problems adjusting.

Since the novel begins at the end of the Battle of Stoke with Henry VII’s troops roundly defeating the Yorkist rebels, I had to see and walk over some of the ground where the battle took place. Unfortunately, much of the land is privately owned and being farmed.

Part of the battlefield abuts the River Trent. According to what I’ve read, the far bank is high, which you can see here, but now the bank has a retaining wall, which undoubtedly wasn’t there in 1487.

Next research stop was Witney--noted for wool and woolen blanket production--and Minster Lovel Hall, about three miles upstream from Witney on Windrush River.
Buttercross Market Square

Windrush between Witney and the Cogges, a medieval farm

Minster Lovel Hall from the Windrush

Windrush at the edge of Minster Lovel Hall

My research for the third book done, I drove to Reading to see my friends from way back and returned the car. I still needed to do a bit of research for an unrelated book, so I split my time between visiting with my friends and taking the train into London. Part of this research brought me back to the tower, but now to see the Royal Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula where certain headless royalty were buried.
Tower of London from the underground stop

St. Peter ad Vincula (grassy foreground is where several people lost their heads, including William Hastings.

On my last day, I met with Annette Carson and we traded books. She also gave me two signed copies for the US AGM's sales table. Her book, Richard III, the Maligned King is well worth reading. I'm about half way through it and I'm singularly impressed with the quality of research and writing. I plan on reviewing this and Peter Hancock's book shortly.

Myth--Henry Stafford made to marry an older woman--Katherine Woodville

2009-08-16T13:36:00.004-04:00

I must thank Susan Higginbotham for the idea to include it as part of the myth-busting series from her Medieval Woman blog post on this topic where she points out that Katherine was about two years Henry’s junior.

My first search was for statements indicating this was a May/September match as some writers of both fiction and non-fiction have recently used to give reason for Stafford’s apparent contempt for his marriage. Interestingly, even the secondary sources I’ve investigated don’t make that claim.

Neither Kendall (1955) nor Ross (1997) claims that Katherine was twice Buckingham’s age when he was made to marry her when he was a boy.

Could it have been confused by some with the John Woodville (aged 20) match to Katherine Neville (aged 65) in 1465 (per Charles Ross in ‘Edward IV’ p 93?) Please forgive any typos I may have introduced transcribing the snippets.

“..In January 1465 the queen brought off a less suitable match -- the marriage of her younger brother, John Woodville, then aged about twenty, to the very wealthy dowager duchess of Norfolk, Katherine Nevill[e], who was then a ‘slip of a girl’ (juvencula) of at least sixty-five,...

“Aristocratic husbands were soon found for three more of the queen’s sisters. Their betrothals or marriages seem to have taken place soon after the baptism of the royal couple’s first child, Elizabeth of York, who was born on 11 February 1466. Katherine Woodville married Henry Stafford, grandson and heir of the duke of Buckingham;...”

So, even if Ross has the year wrong, he doesn’t explicitly state that Katherine was much older than Buckingham and the implication is a stretch since he mentions other matches with the Katherine Woodville/Henry Stafford match.

According to Ross, Stafford’s objection was one of wealth and inheritance in that the Woodvilles had little money and were considered upstarts.

Per the Royal Genealogy at Hull, Catherine Wydeville was born 1458, married Henry Stafford in February of 1466 and died in 1497. The same site gives Henry Stafford’s birth as September 4, 1455 and also lists five children from that marriage.

Then, the real mystery is why and how the myth that Katherine was about twelve years Buckingham’s senior has been assumed as fact by some recent writers of both fiction and non-fiction.

Interesting aside from ‘The dictionary of English history’ by Sir Sidney Low as to why Buckingham turned against Richard:

In the spirit of Mythbusting...

2009-07-24T17:29:00.003-04:00

Apollo 11 Moon Landing really happened.

Unfortunately, a small percentage of people in the conspiracy fringes hold that the 1969 moon landing never happened--it was all staged in a studio.

Nonsense! It really happened and is so well documented that it boggles my mind that about 6% of Americans think this glorious event was a hoax. So I'm pleased to share National Geographic's own Mythbusting article.

Horace Walpole: Vampires , Doubts, and Serendipity

2009-07-21T10:37:00.003-04:00

I recently picked up The Vampyre: A Bedside Companion edited by Christopher Frayling and in the introduction I stumbled upon the name of Horace Walpole as having written what is often considered to be the first gothic novel (Castle of Otranto (1764)) based on a nightmare he’d had. “What?” thought I. “Could this have been written by the same Walpole who wrote Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III (1768)?” A quick Google search revealed it was indeed the same person. So not only was he an early revisionist, but also a Gothic novel pioneer.

What I like about Doubts is that he questioned the prevailing “historical facts” of the time that Richard committed the following crimes:

1. His murder of Edward prince of Wales, son of Henry the Sixth.
2. His murder of Henry the Sixth.
3. The murder of his brother George duke of Clarence.
4. The execution of Rivers, Gray, and Vaughan.
5. The execution of Lord Hastings.
6. The murder of Edward the Fifth and his brother.
7. The murder of his own queen.

Because the executions are so well documented and there is no doubt that they did take place, Walpole instead questions More’s assumptions of Richard’s motivations.

Regardless of whether his conclusions were correct, the real value in Doubts for me is that he questioned the “facts” about Richard III and kept the door open for more research. As George Carlin said, “Question everything.”

So what does this have to do with serendipity? According to the article (cited) and the etymology given in The American Heritage Dictionary, Walpole is accredited with coining this word.

Horace Walpole
Historic Doubts

Myth: Richard and Anne were childhood sweethearts

2009-07-10T02:41:00.004-04:00

Since, by his actions, Richard appeared to be faithful to Anne throughout his marriage (although there is some indication that he may have strayed once or twice) and he seemed to genuinely mourn his wife’s death, many Ricardians retrofitted these behaviors and flat-footedly declared that he therefore must have been in love with her since his childhood.

Regardless of Richard’s motivations to marry Anne--and surely Anne’s inheritance played some major part--his behavior is the more telling as to his feelings for his wife once they were married. For one, in order to marry Anne, Richard had to effectively accept a prenuptial that denied transfer of Anne’s inheritance to him (the amount granted as condition that Clarence drop his claim) should their marriage end in divorce. (I could only find second hand reference to this in Markham and Kendall and this from Croyland:
“...At last, their most loving brother, king Edward, agreed to act as mediator between them; and in order that the discord between princes of such high rank might not cause any hindrance to the carrying out of his royal intentions in relation to the affairs of France, the whole misunderstanding was at last set at rest, upon the following terms: the marriage of the duke of Gloucester with Anne before-named was to take place, and he was to have such and so much of the earl's lands as should be agreed upon between them through the mediation of arbitrators; while all the rest were to remain in the possession of the duke of Clarence...”

However, I found a mystery surrounding the marriage. Up until the publication of Peter Clarke’s article in 2005 on English Royal Marriages and the Papal Penitentiary, it was thought that Richard married Anne without the requisite Papal dispensation. According to this article: “...they had sought a dispensation to marry from the penitentiary in early 1472, for it was granted on 22 April that year, and they were probably married shortly afterwards.” So, by the date on the dispensation, they should have been married no earlier than the end of April of that year (allowing time for the dispensation to reach them). But according to a letter (690) written by John Paston on the 17th of February 1472, Richard and Anne had already married! This predates the dispensation. If the date on Paston’s letter is accurate, then Richard and Anne must have wedded without this document, but only with the assurance that they would get it soon.

Assuming these dates are correct and that Richard had less to gain from the marriage because the “spoils” were divided between Anne and her sister, Isabel and possibly because Richard would be left with little if they divorced, can one conclude that by the time of their marriage, Richard was following his heart?

Reference:

Clarke, Peter D. English Royal Marriages and the Papal Penitentiary in the Fifteenth Century. English Historical Review Vol. CXX No. 488. 2005

Croyland Chronicle Continuations, 1453-1486. Richard III Society, American Branch http://www.r3.org/bookcase/croyland/index.html

Gairdner, James. The Paston Letters 1422-1509 A.D. Volume III, Westminster. Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd. 1900. Letter 690

Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. New York. W. W. Norton & Company Inc. 1955.

Markham, Sir Clements R. Richard III: His Life & Character Reviewed in the Light of Recent Research. New York. Russell & Russell. First published 1906 (rescued 1968 by Russell & Russell).

Deer update

2009-07-06T18:56:00.002-04:00

Momma and her fawn were cavorting in my yard today and stopped long enough for me to snap a couple of photos.

note to self: go back to Ricardian things, enough with this cuteness!

Deer returns

2009-07-02T12:21:00.002-04:00

I looked out my front door yesterday and was greeted by this sight:

I thought it was curious that the deer seemed to be resting in the open (sort of) in the middle of the day and even wondered if it had the equivalent of 'mad cow' disease. Later, however, my mate noticed a fawn and this deer cavorting on my neighbor's lawn. Was she giving birth in my front yard? Wish I had stayed at the door watching. What a sight that would have been!

Deer in my back yard

2009-06-19T13:06:00.005-04:00

I happened to look out my kitchen window the other day and saw this sight:

(click on each thumbnail for full view)

I live about 15 miles north of New Haven, Connecticut and while there are some small farms, the town is pretty much a part of suburbia. But we do have our share of wild life. In addition to the deer population, there are coyotes, red fox, ground hogs, raccoons, opossum, kestrels, hawks, eagles, owls, and a variety of birds, which I'm crap at identifying beyond little yellow bird, little black and white bird, and the more readily identifiable crows, blue jays, and wood peckers.

Myth busting series: Did Edward V have a diseased jaw?

2009-06-17T19:44:00.007-04:00

In 1674, workers at the Tower of London exposed bones of two children in a pit ten feet deep under a stairwell that was part of the White Tower. About four days after the bones were found, Charles II, then king of England, declared these bones were those of the princes and placed in an urn in Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey after giving them a funeral. In 1933 Professor Wright examined the bones and concluded the lower jaw of the older child was diseased. If Edward V had a diseased or infected jaw, then this finding would strengthen the theory that the bones belonged to the princes. But did he?

I could find no specific mention of Edward V having had a diseased jaw or having serious health problems in searching through contemporary documentation. The one mention I did find is from Mancini’s Usurpation: “...the young king, Edward V, felt himself to be awaiting death in the Tower.” Mancini mentions Argentine (Edward V’s physician) by name but doesn’t claim to have received this information directly from Argentine.

Edward may well have feared for his life since the important members of his entourage (Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan) had been arrested, held for treason and later executed.

The next account is found in More’s History of King Richard the Third (not contemporary, but he did have access to people who were Richard III’s contemporaries). The dowager Queen, Elizabeth protested that the younger prince “...nedeth good loking to, hath a while ben so sore diseased vexed with sicknes, and is so newly rather a lyttle amended then well recouered...” While this is hearsay, she may well have protested in this manner in an attempt to keep Richard of York with her in sanctuary rather than give him up to their uncle. In any case, even More’s account doesn’t say that Edward was ill.

Another factor may be from the excavation and examination of bones from a cousin, Anne Mowbray. The bones showed she had a rare congenital absence of both left second molars. According the to the 1965 article on Anne Mowbray’s teeth, the older of the tower bones shows the distal maxillary premolars had failed to develop and the younger of the bones had a suppressed second milk molar.

In the absence of DNA evidence that would match the bones’ DNA to Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV, and facial reconstruction using the skulls and then seeing if either skull matches up with portraits of Edward V, this, for me, is the most convincing argument that the bones could be those of the princes.

References:

C. A. J. Armstrong, ed., The Usurpation of Richard III, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1936.

Bertram Fields, Royal Blood, New York, ReganBooks, 2000.

Thomas More, The History of King Richard the Third, online at University of Oregon, read here.

Article on Anne Mowbray’s teeth from Br Med J, v.2(5477); Dec 25, 1965, link to PDF excerpt.

Really cool search tool using Google Books

2009-06-15T17:11:00.003-04:00

Google Books 'my library' button doesn't just allow you to catalog the books you own on their site, but also allows you to search those books electronically.

From the TYWKIWBDI blog:

"Most web users are at least marginally aware of Google Books. I frankly had not been aware that the site has a "my library" feature, which allows you to import the books you have on your own bookshelves. You can do this by searching Google Books for the title you have and then clicking "add to my library," or you can go to your library list, click import books, and type in the ISBN. The video above also shows that with a handheld scanner (or using your computers webcam and appropriate software) to can rapidly add large numbers of books to the database.

The advantage of compiling "your library" in this fashion is, of course, that when you search Google Books for a keyword or phrase or topic, you can opt to search only the books you already have at home. Nice.

Info found at The Centered Librarian, a blog created by/for librarians but of interest to any serious bibliophile."

You don't need a handheld barcode scanner to enter books into 'my library'. search for the book by title and then click the 'my library' button to add the book. Like the blog's writer, I had no idea what "my library" did for me. Now, I can use Google books to search my print books electronically. It's the best of both worlds!

note: I know I've posted this information on numerous boards and discussion groups--but I think this information bears repeating.

Mythbusting

2009-06-15T11:42:00.004-04:00

Taking a cue from the TV show, Mythbusters, I thought it would be fun to "bust" some myths that surround Richard III. The obvious one that he was physically deformed has been thoroughly debunked, but there are other myths that have become popular "truths" that bear scrutiny. Two myths that immediately come to mind are that Richard III and Francis Lovel were childhood friends and that Richard's nephew, Edward V had a diseased jaw.

I invite readers of this blog to suggest more myths for discussion.