Spotlight: Castles, Customs, and Kings Volume Two

Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors (Volume 2)

Publication Date: September 30, 2015

Madison Street Publishing

Hardcover, Paperback, eBook; 598 Pages

Genre: History

An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.

From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.

Visit the English Historical Fiction Authors blog & Facebook page.

“Thoroughly enjoyable and diverse…leisure reading for any history fan.” – Elizabeth Chadwick, on Castles, Customs, and Kings (Volume 1)

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Blog Tour Guest Post: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

Please join me in welcoming bestselling author Karen Abbott to Let Them Read Books! Karen is touring the blogosphere to celebrate the paperback release of her critically acclaimed smash hit, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, and I am thrilled to have her here today with a guest post on one of my favorite subjects: fascinating historical research discoveries!

New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything during the Civil War.

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines. The beautiful widow Rose O'Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.

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Favorite Research Discoveries

by Karen Abbott

Research is my favorite part of the writing process, partly because it’s easier (there’s no such struggle as “research block”) but mostly because it lets me time-travel back into my characters’ lives. The women’s intimate histories—published and unpublished diaries, documents, and letters—yield the details and key moments of their stories and give me a peek inside their minds. I become a detective, and each archival box is another potential treasure trove of clues. Below are some of my favorite research discoveries from Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy:

Blog Tour Guest Post: Inglorious Royal Marriages by Leslie Carroll

Please join me in welcoming author Leslie Carroll to Let Them Read Books! Leslie is touring the blogosphere with her newest nonfiction release, Inglorious Royal Marriages, compiling the outrageous real-life stories of the most spectacular mismatches in five hundred years of royal history. Leslie's got a guest post for us on a surprising modern-historical connection, and she's brought along a copy of Inglorious Royal Marriages to give away. Read on for your chance to win!

What Do the National Football League and the Medicis Have In Common?

by Leslie Carroll

It goes a lot deeper than bling and big houses. If you were to say “trophy wives,” you’d be warm, but the Medici women were prizes themselves, at least as wealthy and glamorous in their own right as any starlet or supermodel.

The rather sordid and sinister answer is: domestic violence.

During the course of my research for INGLORIOUS ROYAL MARRIAGES, when I came to the chapter on the 16th century unions of the stunning heiress, Isabella Romola de Medici to Paolo Giordano Orsini, the scion of a prestigious Roman family; and that of Isabella’s incredibly warped younger brother Pietro de Medici to their beautiful and spirited cousin Eleonora di Garzia di Toledo, little did I realize how relevant their stories would become to current events.

To me, the horrific events of these two Medici marriages were shocking. I have written about countless royal unions, both connubial and extramarital. Because most royal marriages were arranged, and therefore not love matches, it’s no wonder that they failed to some extent—that there was acrimony, or adultery. But murder? And not the Henry VIII-trumped-up-charges-of-high-treason sort. But the kind of spousal assault designed to look like an accident where the husband then weeps crocodile tears. And gets away with it.