Twitter Tuesday 24 Feb 2 pm gmt Inaugural chat

You are invited:

The Harlequin historical authors have got together and decided to chat on twitter  this coming Tuesday 2 - 2:30 pm GMT. Please feel free to join in.
The entire chat will use the hashtag #Harlequinhistorical so if  you missed the chat, just do a search  #harlequinhisotrical and all will be revealed.

This Tuesday will focus on medievals (upcoming chats will feature the latest books, Regencies, Westerns and a host of other topics).  Authors Michelle Styles, and Carol Townend will be joined by debutante Harlequin Historical authors Nicole Locke and Harper St George as well such firm favourites as Diane Gaston, Ann Lethbridge, Cheryl St John and others as well as few of the editors (if their schedule permits). Interesting conversation and hopefully much mirth and merriment will ensue.

The authors are planning to do this twice a month on a Tuesday. Please come along.

Some Research Notes by Carol Townend

The Palace Brides trilogy is set in Medieval Byzantium. The starting point was a map of the Imperial Palace in Constantinople found on Wikipedia.

(Apologies for the slightly blurry resolution.) The map gives tantalising hints at why the Byzantine era was one of the most fascinating periods in history. There are glittering palaces. There’s a polo field. There are great reception chambers, and baths made from marble. Princesses would have walked through the Palace grounds, great retinues trailing in their wake. The paths and courtyards would have been crowded with lords and ladies, with generals and soldiers, with servants and slaves.

The City of Constantinople was built on the tip of a peninsular, and from the map you can see that the Great Palace was close to the sea walls. There would have been fabulous views of the Sea of Marmara from some of the Palace windows! After finding this map, the idea for the Palace Brides trilogy was born.

My husband and I visited Istanbul (the site of medieval Constantinople) to refine some ideas.  Here are some of the photos.

In the first one I am standing by the ruins of the Hippodrome where the entertainments (circuses, chariot races etc) were held. It gives some idea of the scale, the Hippodrome was HUGE! A scene in the first Palace Bride (Bound to the Barbarian) takes place outside the Hippodrome.
 
At which point I had better add that for the citizens of Constantinople, anyone born outside the Empire was considered to be a barbarian.  My first hero is an Anglo-Saxon, so that definitely puts him in the barbarian category as far as the Byzantines were concerned!  The same goes for the hero of the second book (Chained to the Barbarian).  Sir William Bradfer is an Apulian knight, who has been enslaved.   The heroine first sees him when he is put up for sale in the slave market.
 
Another place we visited in Istanbul is the underground cistern, the Basilica Cistern.   This was a vast chamber in which freshwater was collected for use in the palace.  It's close to Hagia Sophia, on the map its towards the top, at the centre.

The Basilica Cistern  is an extraordinary feat of Byzantine engineering.     It was begun in 532 by the Emperor Justinian, and the engineers used a site where there had been an even earlier cistern.   It has survived the ravages of time and conquest.    Wandering about Istanbul near Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, it's hard to imagine the hidden cistern beneath your feet.   It's vast! 

Down in the cistern, it's so quiet you have no idea that there's a thriving city overhead. The bases of some of the columns show heads that have come to us from Greek mythology. Among other things, you can find the Medusa...

After seeing the cistern, I couldn't resist setting part of Chained to the Barbarian there!  I love research, it's like following a trail, once you start you never quite know where you are going to end up...

Goodreads Giveaway...

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/20432

Five copies of Bound to the Barbarian are available.   You have until February 18th to express an interest!

Strawberry Hill Gothic...

Horace Walpole had his summer villa built between 1748 and 1790. Here, his love of the medieval is made manifest in every wall and window. The picture below shows you the house - or should it be castle? - as you approach it from the road.

I love the turret, it has a Norman look to it.

Above is what is called the 'Prior's Garden' complete with gothic arches. Stawberry Hill has recently been restored so you can see much of the building as Horace Walpole might have expected it to be seen. Walpole wanted visitors to Strawberry Hill to have a theatrical experience and the mood shifts dramatically as the tour progresses. Walpole's fascination with the medieval can be seen at every turn. Here, a heraldic beast masquerades as a newel post on the stairs...

The ceiling of the library is rich with pictures of knights and heraldic devices...

And below is the most splendid room of all, the Gallery. The design for the ceiling is taken from a side aisle in Westminster Abbey, and the restoration team have restored it using real gold leaf. Wool and silk damask wallcoverings have been specially made to match the originals.

Strawberry Hill is exactly as you might imagine a small palace to be. But it is not just somewhere to enjoy looking at gothic revival. Horace Walpole was so inspired by his 'castle' that he wrote what has come to be seen as the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. He said that the novel was 'an attempt to blend the ancient and the modern.' A description which seems to fit the house too.

Do you like the idea of a medieval romance that blends both the ancient and the modern? How much history do you like? Do you prefer your romances to be solidly grounded in history? And how do you feel about time-shift novels?

Polo - Game of Princes, Warriors and...?

This beautiful wall painting shows Tang Dynasty courtiers playing polo in 706 AD. It was found on the walls of a prince's tomb, which is a bit gloomy, but the players look so alive! To read a brief blog to see who else played polo and the beginnings of related research and ideas for my current WIP (set in medieval Byzantium) visit Harlequin Historical Authors' Blog

Carol's latest novel, Bound to the Barbarian - the first in a mini-series set in Medieval Byzantium is released this month in the UK.

Here is the Cover Blurb:

Palace Brides - Byzantine Beauties, Claimed by Warriors


Out of her depth and into his arms…

Sold into slavery, maidservant Katerina promised one day to repay the Princess who rescued her. Now that time has come, and Katerina must convince commanding warrior Ashfirth Saxon that she is her royal mistress.

Spending balmy days and long sultry nights with this man make Katerina’s task increasingly impossible. How long will she be able to keep up her deception? And how long before she finds herself willingly bedded by this proud barbarian?

Harlequin Historical Advent Day 14

Medieval Romance author Carol Townend's turn today. http://caroltownend.blogspot.com/ She wants you to answer 2 questions about her latest release (link to the excerpt is provided) and one queston about the book you'd like if you won. She is giving away 2 books ( Her Banished Lord plus a signed copy of another of her Wessex Weddings) to 2 people who leave a comment.  Everyone who leaves a comment  is also put in for the grand prize of a kindle 3-g.

Medieval Romance Giveaway at Goodreads!

To enter, please click on the link below:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Her Banished Lord

by Carol Townend

Giveaway ends December 11, 2010.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Taming his Runaway Lady!

Runaway Lady, Conquering Lord
The idea for this novel was sparked by a comment a helpful reader made on the Harlequin Community Chat Boards. She had just read The Novice Bride and was interested in one of the secondary characters, Sir Richard of Asculf. She asked if Sir Richard was going to have his own story. It took me awhile, but here it is! Sir Richard's heroine, Emma, is the older sister of Cecily in The Novice Bride. Cecily was all innocence, but Emma most certainly is not, and at the novel's opening, her past is in danger of catching up with her.
It is set in England and France in the eleventh century.

Here is the cover blurb:
TAMING HIS
RUNAWAY LADY!
Raised a lady, Emma of Fulford is a fallen woman
with a young son as proof. He is all she has in the
world, and now the boy’s brutal father has returned.
Desperate and afraid, she needs to escape, and fast,
so she approaches Sir Richard of Asculf. She begs
this honorable Norman knight for help—and offers
the only thing she has left...herself.
Honorable he may be, but Sir Richard is only
human and Lady Emma tempts his resolve. Can this
conquering knight tame his runaway lady and stop
her running for good?
Wessex Weddings
Normans and Saxons, conflict and desire

This novel is available as a print book in the US from November 1st on the eHarlequin website. It is also published as an ebook. It is already out in hardback in the UK, where it will be published as a paperback in December.

HH July 08 Release: His Captive Lady by Carol Townend

Lady Erica had tried to bring peace to her people, so that they could join forces against the Normans. Instead she became captive to the Saxon warrior, Saewulf Brader! Wulf was, in truth, a Norman captain spying on the enemy. Chaste yet fearless Lady Erica wasn't part of his plan. Her beauty was as disarming as it was captivating, but Wulf knew that once she discovered his deception, their fragile bond of trust would be destroyed….

Read the excerpt

Buy
His Captive Lady

HH February Release: An Honorable Rogue by Carol Townend

Charmed and Seduced!Benedict Silvester is a rogue and a flirt! His skill as a musician means he is always traveling…and he charms women wherever he goes. Yet he is on a special mission: to accompany Rozenn Kerber to England.Rose is frustrated with Ben's frivolous behavior and annoyed that his wicked smile continually occupies her thoughts, for he can never offer the stability she craves. But on their travels, Rose begins to suspect that he may have a serious side, that Ben is more than he appears….

Read the excerpt

Buy
An Honorable Rogue

An Interview with Carol Townend

Carol Townend was born and brought up in Yorkshire, in the north of England, and went to a convent boarding school at Whitby on the East coast. Before global warming got going, winters on the East coast could be harsh, with blizzards blowing snow into huge drifts. The roads would become impassable and sometimes the school would be cut off for days. Carol has fond memories of these times, when she would tuck herself into a window seat and grab a book from the school library.
Carol is not sure which of the Sisters was responsible for stocking the school library, but the shelves were not simply filled with copies of Bede’s History of the English Church and People or The Confessions of St Augustine. Several of the Angélique and Rogue Herries books somehow found their way in. It is a bit of a mystery how they got there and Carol will admit that they were not exactly on public view, being hidden behind The Synod of Whitby, but whoever put them there, she would like to thank them. They sparked a lifelong interest in historical romance and sagas.
Of course, Carol’s reading tastes have altered somewhat since those convent school days, but fiction always comes first, contemporary as well as historical. The picture above is Carol researching at Les Chateaux de Lastours in Southern France.

And this one is the Moat at Larressingle Bastide Town, in Gascony - 13th Centry.

What attracts you to your time period?
My favourite period is medieval, but I love history generally. The ways that other generations lived is endlessly fascinating, but who can resist the idea of a chivalrous knight? And don’t forget the buildings; there are hundreds of gorgeous medieval castles all over Europe, just waiting to be visited. And the cathedrals! Two favourites are Chartres with its magnificent elongated stone statues and other-wordly stained glass. And Durham - there’s something about the solidity of those chunky Norman pillars, deeply carved with chevrons and acanthus leaves - Durham Cathedral, it gets to me every time…
My husband and I have just come back from a research trip to France. We stayed just south of Carcassonne for a week and I had a wonderful time dragging the poor man uphill and down dale to see dozens of Cathar Castles. I am hoping to use the material to inspire a novel or two. We did have something of a glitch on the technology front as the camera broke and we didn’t realise until we got home. We took it to our local camera shop and they said that the data on the card was unreadable and that we had lost ALL our photographs. Disaster. But, no. Luckily my brother is a professional photographer and he did something magic involving a ritzy new rescue programme and most of the pictures were saved.

Here is one of some 13th-15th Century beamed arcades in Mirepoix, France.

Writers often use photos of movie or tv stars for inspiration, who has been the inspiration for some of your heroes?
Sometimes a face jumps out of a magazine, and I know that, given the right costume, it could be the face of my hero or heroine. Generally though, it’s better if I don’t know too much about my ‘model’, so I can get to hear the developing character in the story. For my current work in progress I am using a cropped picture from an advertisement which only shows part of the hero’s face. That way he keeps his mystery. I like a bit of mystery in a man!
At other times, objects can help. If I get stuck, one of the best ways of becoming unstuck is to pay a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. It is chock-full of design ideas, and the images often strike a chord. Once I was getting nowhere with a novel and simply staring at a pattern made of Italian mosaics told me how to finish it. Another time a visit to the Cast Court to look at effigies of Medieval Kings and Queens did the trick. Or was it the carving on that vast Renaissance door…? The British Museum is also helpful in this way, but art galleries work equally well. It is probably something to do with giving your brain new images to work with. Who knows? I certainly enjoy the visits!

Above is another of the rescued research pictures. It is a view of the lists from the ramparts in Carcassonne, France.

What is the worst thing about being a writer?
The risk of putting on weight due to too much sitting at a desk. Not getting out enough. That’s why research trips are so necessary! The picture of the cloisters shows where monks could exercise in between singing the offices or illuminating manuscripts. It is the Abbaye de St. Hilaire, in France.

What is the biggest challenge you face when you are writing a book? The beginning, the middle or the end?
When I first thought about this question it seemed that teasing out one particular plot-line from all the other potential plot-lines was the biggest challenge. It’s not easy finding an idea which will have the power to keep you going for 250 pages or so. Which would imply that beginnings are most challenging. Then I remembered that I ALWAYS get stuck in the middle. Everything drags. The narrative drive seems to have lost its force and the characters’ motivations have become muddled. Middles are hard. (That’s usually when I am to be found haunting the corridors of the Victoria and Albert Museum!) And then again, sometimes the endings just won’t work out. You read through and wonder why you chose that particular story to tell, which is another way of saying that letting go can be hard!
Come to think of it, neither the beginning nor the middle nor the end is exactly easy…

Website: http://caroltownend.co.uk/

HH August Release: The Novice Bride by Carol Townend

As a novice, Lady Cecily of Fulford's knowledge of men is nonexistent. But when tragic news bids her home immediately, her only means of escape from the convent is to brazenly offer herself to the enemy…as a bride!
With her fate now in the hands of her husband, Sir Adam Wymark, she battles to protect her family. Suspicions and betrayal are rife, yet their convenient marriage offers Cecily much more than comfort in her knight's arms….

Read the excerpt

Buy
The Novice Bride