The featured book this month at Historical Fiction e-Books is The Honor Due a King. Check here for my blog post 'What was Robert the Bruce really like?'
P.S. Big cover reveal for the sequel to Isabeau, The King Must Die (scheduled for release in April 2012) coming soon!
Until later,
Gemi
4 comments:
I have been meaning to comment on your blog about how much I love the Bruce trilogy. So, (FINALLY)here I am telling you that I really love the Bruce trilogy. Whether fact or fiction, I like that you humanized him, as well as Edward II and James Douglas. Like you stated in your guest post, no one can really know what he was like as a private man, but I think how he led his men, his love for Elizabeth (knowing that he would be perceived as a traitor by his countrymen for making her his wife) and how he was able to forgive those who had seriously done injustices to him, is the best measure of what he was probably like in his private life. I can't stand when readers take offense to holes being filled in the telling of a story. Afterall, unless there was a diary kept, how does anyone really know what a person is like in private. You made him into a real person for me, not only a legend, and I thank you for that. I enjoyed how you made each chapter from the POV of the different characters. You also made James Douglas seem very real...although I wished a different ending for him. Your portrayal of Edward II was enlightening too. I think he has been maligned too much in history. A man born into the wrong family. A man who wanted to be a regular citizen and not a king. Can't fault him for wanting his own happiness.
Looking forward to your second book about Isabeau.
Thank you, Wendy. Many years ago, I was involved in scientific research. I learned then that even what seemed like cut and dry facts are often presented with a bias. History books can be like that, too, as I discovered while doing my research.
I'm glad you were able to connect with Robert, James and Edward. I think sometimes readers steer away from historical fiction because they perceive it as dry and slow-paced, too full of details that don't drive the story forward or develop the characters' emotions. But history is made up of people - people who loved, feared, hoped, hated... Novelists have to use their imagination to try to understand what it was like for those people and in doing so hopefully they can guide readers through a series of historical events without it ever seeming like a history lesson.
Looking forward to seeing the new cover. That's going to be one momentous book. Be interesting to see if you subscribe to the red hot poker theory.
Re: the theory you mentioned - not even remotely.
Expecting the cover any day now. Just tweaking minor details. Cover guy Lance is a magician. It's going to be incredible!
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