Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today I’m re-posting an updated article from years past about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began the research for Enoch’s Device. That novel begins in Derry and tells the story of two Irish monks…
This has been a crazy month so far if you’re a fan of television shows with historical or fantasy elements. I’m running out of time in the day to keep up with all the good TV airing right now, and we’re still a few weeks away from the biggest one of them all, the debut…
My meandering series on The Magic of Medieval Fiction moves into the Seventh Century, an era that is squarely within the Dark Ages as far as historical novels go. In fact, attempting to even identify novels set in this century proved to be a huge challenge. But maybe there’s a good reason for this. The…
This week, I was lucky enough to interview author L. Marrick about her new historical fantasy The Hallowed. I really enjoyed the novel, which is a unique prequel to the story of King Arthur and Merlin (you can read my review here). Welcome to the blog, Ms. Marrick, it’s great to have you here. Let’s…
I’ve been looking forward to The Hallowed by author L. Marrick for a long time. It’s considered Arthurian fiction, but takes place during the early years of the Fifth Century near the end of the Roman Empire. This had me intrigued. After all, the legends of Arthur place him at the end of the Fifth…
I came late to Pinterest, and probably still am not utilizing all of its features, but I’ve found it to be a wonderful place to collect pictures. In researching the sequel to Enoch’s Device, I started using it to store images of historical sites around Rome (where much of the new novel is set), and…
Every once in a while I read a novel that reminds me why I adore historical fantasy. It starts with the historical setting, a window to a world in our past and a chance to learn a bit of history – a trait that all well written historical fiction shares. But add in a bit…
I came late Fox’s Sleepy Hollow. I read about it before the season aired, but thought it was merely a modern day retelling of the story that was already done to perfection by Tim Burton in his movie, Sleepy Hollow. So, I decided to pass. It wasn’t until the show started to pick up some…
After finishing The White Queen on Starz, a show I really enjoyed, I picked up the novel by Philippa Gregory on which the show’s based. The Starz series stayed true to the novel, The White Queen, with a few significant exceptions, namely a very real difference in the stories’ narrative points of view. The cover of my edition Having read the novel…
Recently, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer re-ran an interview I gave to author Tyler Tichelaar about my novel, Enoch’s Device. I wasn’t expecting this, but what a great surprise! In the interview, I provide some insight into the meaning of the book’s title, the role played by the paladins of Charlemagne, and the sequel in the works….
I ripped through the second book in Roberto Calas’ The Scourge series, and I think that’s a testament to how engaging these books really are. I’ve tried hard to write a review that doesn’t contain too many *SPOILERS,* but if you’re inclined to read the first book in the series, you may want to stop…