Christy English

Nan Hawthorne and Beloved Pilgrim Give Away

Monday, April 18th, 2011 | Give Away, Guest Posts | 5 Comments

I am happy to welcome Nan Hawthorne to my blog today. She has written a novel set during the  Crusade of 1101, BELOVED PILGRIM. Nan has generously opened up a GIVE AWAY for her latest novel. Please leave a comment at the end of this post for a chance to win a copy of BELOVED PILGRIM. One copy of  the trade paperback to a North American winner,  or a copy of the ebook to an international winner.  The winner will be announced Monday, May 2nd.

Nan Hawthorne is a historical novelist who lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and doted-upon cats.  She has been in love with history and historical fiction since, at four, she discovered the Richard Greene “The Adventures of Robin Hood” television series.  She wrote her first short story at seven, then launched into the letters and stories with a teen friend that ultimately became her first novel, AN INVOLUNTARY KING: A TALE OF ANGLE SAXON ENGLAND (2008).  The author of one nonfiction work on women and body image, she now concentrates primarily on historical novels set in the Middle Ages.  Her latest novel, BELOVED PILGRIM, looks at gender identity and self-realization during the chaotic and doomed Crusade of 1101.  She writes several blogs on historical themes, owns the medieval-novels.com catalog and also Internet radio station, Radio Dé Danann.

And now, for a look into the mind of BELOVED PILGRIM’s author, Nan Hawthorne… Thank you for joining us, Nan.

Writing Battle Scenes for Fun and Profit

Well, maybe not profit… but it has been rather fun.  There’s something primal about writing battle scenes, and something satisfying about the primal.  But not being a fighter, the know how to write about swords and archers and destriers did not come easily to me.

Sometimes the wisest thing a person can do is recognize that someone else can do something you can’t, and then ask them.  When I was writing my first novel about an Anglo Saxon king I realized that just reading Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred novels with their long, involved and pitiless shield wall battle scenes was a good start but I needed more.  I got the bright idea to find a discussion group for the Society for Creative Anachronism and ask for help.  It turned out you can learn a lot more there than just what a bliaut is and what it is constructed from.  You can find people who know about medieval warfare and are passionate about it, and even have done it.  That is how I found Jack Graham, and the rest is historical fiction.

Jack has been a student of military history and practice all of his life.  He served as an officer in Vietnam where he saw plenty of combat.  He therefore understands battle planning.  It was his fascination with medieval warfare that took him from reality now to reality past.  He has a particular interest in the Crusades era, but he knew all about shield walls and seaxas and other Saxon matters as well.  Better even than that, he knows horses and how they were used in different military situations.  I knew enough about this to know a real expert when I saw one, and recognize one who knew enough not to lump all eras and locations into one inaccurate amalgam.

Jack and I quickly formed a mutual admiration society.  I enjoyed his enthusiasm and willingness to help me plot and choreograph battle.  He came to enjoy how I could take all that and turn it into something that was being experienced by actual participants.  He told me what would happen, and I illustrated it.  It was a literary marriage made in heaven.

Let me stop here and say that one thing I learned early in my career is that if you want to know something, ask an enthusiast.    That does not just mean hobbyist, but also actual accredited experts.  So many people with obscure interests and knowledge are delighted to find someone who cares to learn about it.  I have found this to be true of amateur fighters and university professors alike.  They say that necessity is the mother of invention.  I have adapted my own research style to my visual disability, unable to read hundreds of pages of scholarly works or, even less accessible, primary sources, I have learned to find those who have already done all that.  By asking intelligent questions and showing my appreciation, I get some quality information.  That, again, is where Jack Graham comes in.

Let me give you an example of how we worked together.  In Beloved Pilgrim which takes place during the Crusade of 1101, Jack not only knew how the Crusader knights and men at arms fought, he knew what they would face from the Turkish warriors, who were largely mounted archers.  The Europeans were unused to this sort of strategy, dozens of men on horseback who loosed a flight of arrows and rode away, only to loop back and do the same again and again.  The Crusaders were mighty fighters but jack told me how they typically fought, heavily armored, heavily armed, and heavily mounted, one on one.  When in the Crusades they could fight like this, they were virtually unstoppable, but they did not have a way to respond to the Turkish tactics.

Those heavy mounts I mentioned, the huge horses called destriers, did not just carry their knights but were taught to fight as well.  Jack told me how the famous Lippizaner stallions were originally fighters themselves, and when my protagonist went into battle her horse, Gauner, was an effective partner.  In one scene outside Ancyra, Gauner acts on his long training and uses his hooves to fend off and injure both other horses and men.  Jack wrote on my Facebook page “Gauner is the real hero of the novel.”

The fact that Jack lived in Turkey and knew the land, the terrain, and had visited many of the sites from the Crusade just added to his ability to describe for me what my characters had to contend with.

I think the most surprising and revealing thing that Jack was able to do is look at some of the scholarship about battles in the Crusade of 1101 and challenge conclusions.  More than once he corrected Steven Runciman’s assumptions about the why and how of a battle tactic.  My book may be fiction, but there are moments in it when it may well be more accurate than the scholarly interpretation, thanks to Jack.  In fact, when noted novelist, Sharon Kay Penman wanted to understand a battle scene from history, Jack was able to take the historical details and turn them into something that made sense to a layperson.  It was then Penman’s, and in my own case, my job to drop the human personalities into the scene and make history into an experience.

I happen to be a believer in showing battle as the hell it is.  Perhaps I get that from being such a fan of Cornwell, who does not hesitate to describe spilling entrails.  Jack, who is deeply religious, believes that young people should learn about war, but that they should see it for what it is, blood, pain and stink.  I agree.  What would be wrong is to let young people believe in the sanitized glory that older war novels and movies show.

Jack Graham is a writer, though for a living he is a high school geometry teacher.  He has been involved in NaNoWriMo for the past few years, and I enjoy his writing.  That helps our partnership greatly as we can speak a common language.  I am so impressed by and grateful to Jack that I dedicated Beloved Pilgrim to him.

Nan Hawthorne’s latest novel, Beloved Pilgrim, about a woman who chooses to live and fight as a man in the doomed Crusade of 1101 is available on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.

Links:

http://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Pilgrim-Nan-Hawthorne/dp/098339850X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302744275&sr=8-1

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/47882

Medieval Festival Friday

Friday, April 15th, 2011 | Eleanor of Aquitaine, Guest Posts | 4 Comments

I am happy to revel in medieval happenings here on this website. Today in the UK, another novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine hits the shelves: DEVIL’S CONSORT.  Please check out the first chapter here on the lovely Anne O’Brien’s website.

http://www.anneobrienbooks.com/queen-defiant-devils-consort/

And good news for us here in the US…this novel will come out here in June under the title of QUEEN DEFIANT.  I can never get enough Eleanor…

And tune in Monday on this site for a guest post from the brilliant Nan Hawthorne, author of BELOVED PILGRIM. She will tell us about the First Crusade in 1101, the setting for her novel. So please join us again Monday…the medieval festivities will continue…

Historical Fiction Welcome for TO BE QUEEN

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 | Guest Posts, To Be Queen | 2 Comments

With TO BE QUEEN coming out next Tuesday,  many fellow authors and bloggers have been so gracious as to let me write guest posts for their blogs. I am very touched by the support and kindness that is rampant in the historical fiction world. “Rampant kindness”…how often do we hear that phrase? Not nearly enough.

Here is my post that went up yesterday on C.W. Gortner’s blog, Historical Boys. On Friday, Mitchell James Kaplan will be hosting me…tune in Friday for that link.

http://historicalboys.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-from-christy-english-author.html

And starting today, the Historical Fiction Blogger Roundtable is hosting an event to honor TO BE QUEEN and Eleanor. Thank you, Arleigh, Heather, Lizzy, and Allie!

http://historicalfictionroundtable.com/?p=898

REBEL PURITAN: One Journey to Self-Publishing

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 | Guest Posts | 5 Comments

Here is an interesting and informative look into self-publishing by Jo Ann Butler, author of REBEL PURITAN.

My first book, Rebel Puritan, was printed in January 2011, and I am so utterly new at self-publishing that my information is best described as incomplete! I wish I could say whether my model will be a success or I’ll fall flat on my face, but my Magic 8-Ball says “ask again later.”

I tried the traditional publishing route, sending queries and manuscripts to agents and publishers. The fiction market was in full meltdown when I completed Rebel Puritan, so the responses I received were drearily similar, “Very nice, but we aren’t taking fiction. You should self-publish this.”

After studying books by Dan Poynter and Peter Bowerman, I decided that I really could publish Rebel Puritan on my own. It’s not as expensive as I expected, but not cheap. So far I’ve spent about $5,000 for 2000 books, software, fees, postage, and no end in sight. It’s a colossal commitment of time, and I’ve spent so many hours on my laptop that I can hear the fan in my sleep. Lastly, this is an insomnia-producing leap of faith in my story, and in my ability to produce professional-quality books and sell them.

I began by making a spreadsheet based on Poynter and Bowerman’s publishing calendars, listing the tasks I need to do. I add my own procedures as I discover them. Right now I’m on step #127 and have another 80 to go, but they are like mosquitoes – kill one and two take their place.

A major decision was whether to use a Print-On-Demand service or to write my own contract with a printer. POD printers can do everything but write the book for you. They make a good product, but with the printing fees, I’d get about $2/book. With Amazon’s bite, I would lose 10 cents for each $16 sale there. You might make some money selling $100 hardcovers with a big, guaranteed market, but does such a thing really exist? For a $15-17 trade paperback, the only entity making money in POD would be my printer.

Some printers sell you an ISBN at a hefty markup from Bowker’s price, but others retain both the number and the rights to your book. I wanted to keep the rights to Rebel Puritan, so I formed a sole proprietor-owned publishing company, Neverest Press, and bought my own ISBNs.

Setting up the publishing business was very easy –a business license from my county, business checking account, and a sales tax certificate from the state. The fees weren’t nearly as bad as I expected (though I have yet to cough up $325 for a federal trademark for my logo). Filing tax returns will be complex, and I have to do quarterly state reports this year.

I wanted a modest offset print run, and sought quotes from over 30 offset, digital, and POD printers. It is very easy to get quotes. Pick a number of books to print, and Poynter or Bowerman’s books help you decide on your specifications (page count, type of paper and cover, etc.). Most printers have quote request forms on their websites. They either spit out an amount on the spot, or email a quote, sometimes with suggestions for adjusting your specs and fees. If it is difficult to get a quote from a printer, skip that one, because they may not be novice-friendly in other ways too.

When my quotes arrived, POD and digital printing went out the window as too expensive. I made another spreadsheet to compare the offset printers’ fees. Here is where you must be very, very cautious. Some offer a tantalizingly low printing fee, and if you are going to store your books at home and ship them yourself, that may work – if they print high quality books.

I wanted my printer to store and ship books for me, and many offer those services. However, I had to pin them down on printing, storage, shipping, handling, and insurance fees. I saw offers to print 2000 books for $3000, but they charged up to $95/month for storage, or had very high handling fees. It was difficult to pry actual numbers out of those printers, because they knew their fees were deal-busters. Keep asking, and if they side-step your questions, then wonder what else they don’t want to disclose.

With my list narrowed down to 5, I asked for book samples equivalent to my specs, to ensure that the books were well-made. In the end, I chose Malloy Printing in Ann Arbor, MI, both for their prices and self-publisher friendliness. Malloy has been helpful, problem-free, and produced beautiful books.

As to my cover design and editing, I ditched the advice from the how-to-self-pub gurus and did both on my own. A local printer offered help with the cover if I got stuck. Malloy was also helpful, and provided a cover template (for spine width, bleed & crop marks), and an easy-to-use file to create PDFs for printing. I sought editing input from a score of readers. Time will tell if my confidence in my work is warranted.

I picked my initial market years ago – New England historians and genealogists, since my heroine actually lived in 17th-century New England, where she is still very notorious. Herodias (Long) Hicks Gardner Porter is my 8th-great grandmother, and her name hints at why she is well-known. Married at 13, Herodias’ marital history produced one scandal after another. She also walked 60 miles from Newport, RI to Boston, MA to protest Puritan abuse of the Quakers. Sheltering her infant daughter in her arms, Herodias was whipped and jailed for her bold act. More about Herodias, as well as ordering information is available at http://www.rebelpuritan.com/.

It’s tough to get media attention for a self-published book, since their quality is so variable. I’m seeking my first reviews from New England’s genealogy and history magazines. Jane Fletcher–Fiske is reviewing Rebel Puritan for the Rhode Island Historical Society’s magazine, a pair of online genealogy magazines wants review copies, and other review requests are pending. Rebel Puritan is entered in historical fiction and self-published book contests. Back to my Magic 8-Ball to find out how they like my story, and if Rebel Puritan can jump to the general market.

I filed my copyright papers, and am now prying into the Baker & Taylor and other distributor announcements. Yet another learning process begins. Soon I will turn to speeches and book signings. New England is my main target, but how to set up appearances? I’ll begin with lots of inquiries. It never hurts to ask!

Like most writers, I love to lock myself into my mental attic and commune with my characters. Instead, I’ve spent a year learning new software, contracting with printers, deciphering forms and regulations, and keeping immaculate records. I also face plenty of phone calls, public speaking, and endless promotion, which can be tough on us introverts. Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, but I was terrible at selling them! However, I agree with Nietzsche: That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. I’ve produced a book which makes me proud, I’m not dead, and I now enjoy bringing Rebel Puritan to the public.

Rebel Puritan Home page

www.rebelpuritan.com

Scarlett O’Hara Meets the Scarlet Letter: Herodias Long, Married at thirteen, Herodias Long combines these fictional characters in a real-life story from Puritan New England. Find information here about Herodias and a lineage society for her descendants.

 

An upstate New York native and San Diego transplant, Jo Ann Butler is the author of A Scandalous Life:
Rebel Puritan.  An avid equestrian, Jo Ann has been an archeologist, worked with handicapped children,  
and was an aerospace computer jockey.  She loves genealogy and New England history, travel, birds &
butterflies, photography and, of course, Herodias Long.

 

Jo Ann, thank you so much for this post!

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Bargaining with God

Monday, February 14th, 2011 | Eleanor of Aquitaine, Guest Posts | No Comments

In Eleanor’s day, it was expected that kings and queens would have to bargain, not so much with God, as with the Church. Eleanor spent her life trying to balance the power of the Church in her territories, and her second husband, Henry II of England fought the Church all his life, most famously in his struggle with Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket.

This cathedral in Poitiers, Eleanor’s capital in the county of Poitou, is one instance when Henry II began a new cathedral for the glory of God and for the honor of the Church. To build a cathedral was as much a political decision as a religious one, but as I look at the lovely photos of this church, I am glad that this structure was built, whatever the reason.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/poitiers-cathedral

On Wednesday, I will have the pleasure of hosting Jo Ann Butler, author of the new historical novel, REBEL PURITAN, about Herodios Long, a woman who waged her own struggle with the church fathers of the New World.

http://rebelpuritan.com/