Guest Post by author Philip K. Allan When the Queen Elizabeth class of Dreadnoughts were launched they were the most powerful warships afloat. The capital ships built during the arms race that proceeded WW1 divided into two broad categories. The majority of them consisted of heavily armoured, but slow, battleships. Dashing ahead of them into battle was the second type, fast, but poorly protected, battle cruisers. The Royal Navy were the first to realise that there was a way to combine these two ships into a class of fast battleships. If you built a Dreadnought that was big enough, it would be possible to have a ship that had both impressive speed and excellent protection, and so the Queen Elizabeths were born. These ships were…

Guest post by Hester Velmans, author of Slipper. He is the man who wrote some of the most famous stories of our time, but his name doesn’t ring a bell. He lived a full century before the Brothers Grimm and two hundred years before Hans Christian Anderson. And yet if you ask around if anyone has heard of “Charles Perrault”, you’re likely to be met with blank stares. That was the reaction I would get when I told people I was writing a novel about a young woman living in the 17th Century whose life could have been the inspiration for Charles Perrault’s most famous fairy tale. I don’t know how I came to the assumption that Perrault was a household name; I only know…

A desperate prayer and a dream led me to read the journals of Dr. David Livingstone (You may know him from the famous quote: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”). He landed in southern Africa in 1841 employed by the London Missionary Society to spread Christianity. He then traveled through the interior of Africa preaching, but after only one man was converted after years of sermons he largely gave up on missionary work and set his sights on documenting, mapping and exploring the African interior – making historical, noteworthy strides and putting a serious hitch in the slave trade as he went. But what about his one convert? He was actually a chief of a large tribe: Chief Sechele of the Bakwena. He listened to David’s and…

In Search of King Arthur By historical author, Tim Walker There can be few characters from history or legend who have captured the imagination quite as much as King Arthur. The story of the noble warrior king who led his knights against the forces of evil and ultimately was doomed to betrayal by those closest to him has been told and retold many times since the Twelfth Century when it was first set down in detail. Many historians have searched for clues to try and answer the question of whether Arthur was a real historical figure, or merely a legend. There are no surviving accounts from the time when he was said to have lived – the late fifth and early sixth centuries – that…

Please welcome author David Blixt, who has a brand new audio version of his book The Master of Verona on its 10th anniversary. The eBook version is also only $1.99 across platforms today (December 11th)! I’m one of “those” authors. The ones you have to discover for yourself, through a friend, or a comment, (or a blog!). There’s no big push, no publicity engine. And my books aren’t for everyone. I’m an author with a marvelously devoted group of readers, who is yet unknown to the public at large. And I’m entirely good with that. My favorite authors are “those authors”. As a kid, I was in a comic book store asking when the next Myth Adventures comic was coming out. The guy behind the…

Please welcome author John R. Bell today with a guest post about his WWII novel, The Circumstantial Enemy, and one copy of the book up for grabs! “If you don’t write it, Grandad’s story will be lost forever,” My daughter said. I’ll never forget the yearning in her eyes. That was 17 years ago. Grandad was 80 at the time. He’s now 97. The family had heard his war stories over and over again. Fascinating tales of trials and tribulations. As a young Yugoslav air force pilot, he was coerced onto the wrong side of WWII with the German invasion of 1941. They dispatched him to the Russian front – from there to surveillance over the Adriatic Sea where he would parachute into the frigid…

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) appears in all four of my royal mistress books. To some of these ladies, he was an annoying gadfly, and to others, a devoted, amusing friend. To Katherine Sedley, the heroine of The Countess and the King, he was the kind, droll friend of her father. Either way, he was undeniably one of the most unforgettable and most tragic figures of Charles II’s Restoration court. Rochester’s father, Henry Wilmot, was a royalist officer in the army who earned his earldom by helping the soon-to-be Charles II escape Parliamentary forces. Though Henry died in the future king’s service, Charles remembered his loyalty, and always regarded his son with almost filial devotion. But the boy had gifts beyond the king’s favor….

In my novel, Jane and the Damned, Jane Austen is a vampire. Not true. England is invaded by the French. Also not true. But the late 1790s was a time when England pretty much expected to be invaded by the French any day, one of the reasons the militia was formed during this period. One amazing theory I discovered while writing the book was that France and England had a sort of arms race centered on the military application of ballooning, and there was a fear that they might undertake an aerial invasion. I was sorely tempted… Popular myth has it that the last time the country was invaded was in 1066. There were some home grown invasions–didn’t the Scots cross the border a few…

I’m pleased to welcome Leslie Carroll with an article related to her non-fiction book, Royal Pains: A Rogues’ Gallery of Brats, Brutes, and Bad Seeds. ROYAL PAINS NOT IN THE BOOK Royal Pains: A Rogues’ Gallery of Brats, Brutes and Bad Seeds Arleigh and I had fun discussing the subject of my guest post and she decided she’d like me to talk about Royal Pains that didn’t make the cut into my book. ROYAL PAINS: A Rogues’ Gallery of Brats, Brutes, and Bad Seeds is my third nonfiction title for NAL, and as always, devising the table of contents was almost as challenging as the research itself, because there’s a never-ending parade of Pains! Ultimately I decided to narrow the field to an even dozen…

GUEST POST FROM AUTHOR GINGER MYRICK From Reader To Writer: The Evolution of Ginger Myrick – author of EL REY: A NOVEL OF RENAISSANCE IBERIA When I was about twelve, I found an old box of books in my grandmother’s closet. I had outgrown the material deemed appropriate for girls my age, so I eagerly cracked open the carton to see what new and exciting treasures the literary world had to offer. KATHERINE by Anya Seton was the book on top and my first experience with historical fiction. At first the language was odd with an old-fashioned cadence and expressions I had never heard before, but it soon became familiar and effectively plunged me into the world of knights and ladies and everything a little…

Syrie James, author of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, discusses how her extensive travels have influenced her writing. My family and I lived in France for two years when I was a child, and by the time I was eight years old, I had visited 26 countries. It was an amazing education that I’ll never forget. I think that living abroad, seeing so many famous places, and experiencing so many different cultures at a young age, has shaped the way I view the world. It has given me a better understanding of all the varied peoples, customs, foods, and life styles on the planet, and deepened my appreciation for what it means to be an American. It also instilled in me a great love…

Virgin and the Crab: Sketches, Fables and Mysteries from the early life of John Dee and Elizabeth Tudor by Robert Parry So who is the Virgin and who is the Crab? Well, it probably comes as no surprise that the Virgin refers to Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth I. The Crab is a little less obvious – but it represents Elizabeth’s guide and confidante John Dee, a person perhaps not quite so well known. It is in a bid to rectify this sorry state of affairs that I first began to write my story. The whole thing takes place during the turbulent decade of the 1550s – shortly after the demise of Henry VIII. The character of Elizabeth is therefore not as we generally…