Saturday, August 5, 2017

ABOUT ROSEMARY MORRIS






If I had a pound for everyone who tells me that they could write a novel it would add a worthwhile sum to my savings. At a party, a man whom I met for the first time found out I am a published historical novelist. He pursued me. Years ago, he wrote a text book and now wants to write fiction. I became more and more irritated with his belief that I could give him the means to write a novel and find a literary agent or publisher. Eventually, my good manners frayed around the edges, “There is only one way to succeed,” I said as politely as possible. He obviously thought I have a magic formula. “Write,” I told him, but resisted the temptation to say: ‘And get on with it instead of talking about it’.
Every day of the year, except for Christmas Day, I get up at 6 a.m. With a short break to eat breakfast I work until 10.a.m. On most days, after lunch, at 1 p.m. I work for an hour, then I relax until 4 p.m. then I work until 8 p.m. with a break for afternoon tea.
I am a historical novelist.  During my working day, I divide my time between writing a novel, research, and dealing with business, receiving and answering e-mails, working with on-line constructive critique partners and sending out information about my novels.
Among my other activities related to writing, I attend Watford Writers where I meet published and unpublished writers. Members may read extracts from their novels, non-fiction, poetry etc., and receive useful feedback. If someone chats to me about finding time to write, my advice is to have a routine, whether it is as little as fifteen minutes every day carved out from a busy life, or time set aside to write once a week. The important thing is the routine which separates real authors from would be ones. As I said to the gentleman at the party, the only way to become a novelist is to write.

Sunday’s Child

Heroine’s Born on Different Days of The Week. Book One

Georgianne Whitley’s beloved father and brothers died in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. While she is grieving for them, she must deal with her unpredictable mother’s sorrow, and her younger sisters’ situation caused by it.
Georgianne’s problems increase when the arrogant, wealthy but elderly Earl of Pennington, proposes marriage to her for the sole purpose of being provided with an heir. At first, she is tempted by his proposal, but something is not quite right about him. She rejects him not suspecting it will lead to unwelcome repercussions.
Once, Georgianne had wanted to marry an army officer. Now, she decides never to marry ‘a military man’ for fear he will be killed on the battlefield. However, Georgianne still dreams of a happy marriage before unexpected violence forces her to relinquish the chance to participate in a London Season sponsored by her aunt.
Shocked and in pain, Georgianne goes to the inn where her cousin Sarah’s step-brother, Major Tarrant, is staying, while waiting for the blacksmith to return to the village and shoe his horse. Recently, she has been reacquainted with Tarrant—whom she knew when in the nursery—at the vicarage where Sarah lives with her husband Reverend Stanton.
The war in the Iberian Peninsula is nearly at an end so, after his older brother’s death, Tarrant, who was wounded, returns to England where his father asks him to marry and produce an heir.
To please his father, Tarrant agrees to marry, but due to a personal tragedy he has decided never to father a child.
When Georgianne, arrives at the inn, quixotic Tarrant sympathises with her unhappy situation. Moreover, he is shocked by the unforgivably brutal treatment she has suffered.
Full of admiration for her beauty and courage Tarrant decides to help,

“A Sweet Treat”
5* Review
By Lindsay Townsend
7th March, 2017

When Georgianne, the appealing, enterprising heroine of 'Sunday's Child' first encounters Rupert Tarrant, she is fourteen. Georgianne thinks even then the tall, blond handsome soldier is the kind of man she hopes to marry one day.
At seventeen, when they meet again, Georgianne is in mourning for her brothers and father, lost in the Napoleonic wars. She is now wary of becoming romantically involved with a military man, despite the limited life that an unmarried woman is forced to lead in the 1800s.
However, as the novel superbly shows, a young woman without a father or brother to protect her interests is vulnerable to predatory males. None is more predatory than Lord Pennington, a truly odious Earl, whose relentless pursuit of Georgianne is aided by the conventions and morals of the time.
Rupert Tarrant meanwhile is haunted by the violent death of his betrothed and is torn between remaining single to grieve and marrying to provide an heir to his recently acquired estate.
That Georgianne and Tarrant should marry - she for protection, he for an heir - seems an ideal compromise. But what chance is there for love to grow between them?
This is a flowing romance, full of intrigue and incident, with rich details of Regency fashion, food and furniture. There are frost fairs and Nabobs, Lord Byron's poetry, kidnappers and ruffians, attempted blackmail and a heroine who can shoot.
The whole convenient marriage trope is treated with tender realism. With their careful treatment of each other and their striving to understand their differing experiences, Georgianne and Tarrant thoroughly deserve their eventual happy ever after.

Links:-

Available as e-publications and paperbacks by Rosemary Morris.

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne, Lady of Cassio

Early 18th century novels. Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies,The Captain and The Countess,

Regency novels. False Pretences, Heroine’s Born on Different Days of the Week. Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Pillars of Avalon by Katherine Pym & Jude Pittman



KATHERINE PYM shares her cozy life in a Seattle 'Burb' with her husband and puppy-dog. During the summers when it's not raining, they explore the great Northwest. 

PILLARS of Avalon is a celebration of Newfoundland Labrador during Canada's sesquicentennial, or Canada 150. Searching through Newfoundland data, I found Sir David & Lady Sara Kirke, their accomplishments. Sara Kirke is considered North America's first female entrepreneur.    

DAVID and Sarah Kirke live in a time of upheaval under the reign of King Charles I who gives, then takes. He gives David the nod of approval to range up and down the French Canadian shores, burning colonies and pillaging ships that are loaded with goods meant for the French. When King Louis of France shouts his outrage, King Charles reneges. He takes David’s prizes and returns them to the French, putting David and his family in dire straits. 

UNDETERRED, David and Sarah will not be denied. After years, the king relents. He knights David and grants him the Province of Avalon (Ferryland), a large tract of land on the southeast coast of Newfoundland. There David and Sarah build a prosperous plantation. They trade fish and fish oil with English, Europeans, and New England colonists. They thrive while England is torn in two by the civil wars. 

SOON, these troubles engulf his family. David is carried in chains back to England to stand trial. He leaves Sara to manage the plantation, a daunting task but with a strength that defies a stalwart man, she digs in and prospers, becoming the first female entrepreneur of North America. 

For more buy information:


Twitter: @KatherinePym

The Executioner by Katherine Pym



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David and Sarah Kirke live in a time of upheaval under the reign of King Charles I who gives David the nod of approval to privateer French Canadian shores. When Louis XIII of France shouts his outrage, King Charles reneges.

After several years, the king knights David and gives him a grant for the whole of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Soon, David is carried in chains back to England. He entreats Sara to manage the Ferryland plantation. She digs in and prospers, becoming the first entrepreneur of Newfoundland.


 Bio: Katherine, her husband and their puppy-dog divide their time between Seattle and Austin. Katherine loves history, especially of early Modern England which is filled with all sorts of adventure. 

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King Louis XVI's execution by Sanson

Executioners are interesting although it is not easy to find a lot of data on these guys.  I know of two who were completely different. One was thoughtful, the other a menace to the public.

Charles-Henri Sanson
Charles-Henri Sanson was the executioner during the French Revolution. He executed Danton, Robespierre, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Before Camille Desmoulins was guillotined, he handed Sanson a locket of his wife’s hair. “Please return this to my wife’s mother.” 

Sanson honored Camille's wishes. While he was at the Duplessis’ household, Camille’s mother-in-law learned her daughter would be executed. Afraid Sanson would be recognized as the one who had guillotined Camille, and would Madame Duplessis’ daughter, he dashed away from their house, mournful of his vocation.  

I read once that the offspring of executioners in France were never allowed any other vocation but that of an executioner. He must marry an executioner’s daughter, thus keeping their grisly profession within a lower social stratum, and within the family. (Everyone must have been related. How many executioners could there have been in France in a given year?)

They were not allowed to live in town but at its outskirts. One of Sanson’s descendants was a known herbalist. People came to him for cures. Another Sanson, who could not bear a life of executing people, committed suicide. 

Jack Ketch somewhere in the crowd.
An English well-known executioner was Jack Ketch. There are no known pictures of what the man looked like. The one that shows up on Wikipedia and other sources is not the correct Ketch, but from the autobiography of another Jack. The clothes are not of the 17th century, either. 

English executioners were taught several ways to execute an individual; i.e., with fire, the axe, and the rope. I’m not sure if Ketch was very proficient in his vocation or a complete fool. He botched most of his executions.  

The hanging knot is supposed to be placed on the side of the neck so that when the poor wretch is thrust in the air, his neck should break, but Jack liked to put the knot at the back of the neck. This meant long strangulation. Family members were forced to run under the Tyburn hanging tree, grab the wretch’s legs and yank down, hoping somehow for a quick end. 

The Tyburn Tree
When Jack used the axe, he knocked the blade against the person’s neck several times before the head came off.  One tortured fellow was Lord Russell. It took four strokes of the axe before the man was finally dispatched. Because of his cruelty, a hue and cry reached the king. Jack Ketch was forced to write a note of apology to the Russell family, which published in 1683.

The Handsome Duke of Monmouth
The Duke of Monmouth expressly requested Jack Ketch make good use of the axe: “Here,” said the duke, “are six guineas for you. Do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell. I have heard that you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you some gold if you do the work well.”

There is no evidence if Ketch took the money, but he disregarded the duke’s request. It took several strokes to finally behead the lad. 

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Many thanks to Wikicommons, Public Domain, &

Old and New London: A Narrative Its History, Its People, and Its Places, The Western and Northern Suburbs, Vol. V.,  1892, by Edward Walford

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