Scoping out Warwick Castle for a Heist #Anthology #HistoricalFiction @HistFictioneers

Categories: 17th century · English Civil War · Highwayman · Traitor's KnotTags: · · · · · Leave a comment

In “Honour of Thieves”, one of the stories in the historical anthology Betrayed, highwayman James Hart plans a heist and has to break into Warwick Castle. During the English Civil War, the castle served as a Parliamentarian garrison, so it’s imperative that James doesn’t get caught. He’s a staunch Royalist with a price on his head. I love heist movies like The Italian Job and Ocean’s Eleven. They’re like a clever puzzle where you don’t see the full picture until the last piece is snapped into place. A proper heist involves meticulous planning and requires the ability to find vulnerabilities…

Rambling through 17th century Ireland

Categories: 17th centuryTags: · · · 1 Comment

In the course of researching day to day life in 17th century Ireland, I came across an interesting little volume called Teague Land or A Merry Ramble to the Wild Irish (1698). It’s a series of letters by John Dunton, written during his travels through Ireland, or as he liked to call them, rambles. The letters were eventually published when he returned to London. Dunton was a London bookseller who enjoyed travelling and often combined both passions. Before hitting Ireland, he travelled to the New England states where he auctioned off a huge stack of books and made quite a…

Inspired by travel: A guest post by Amy Maroney @amymaroneywrites #histfic #research #amreading

Categories: Author SpotlightsTags: · · · · · 3 Comments

There’s nothing so exciting to a reader as discovering a new author, especially when that reader is also a writer. Most writers will express frustration at not being able to read the way they used to before the Muse tapped them on the shoulder, uncritically and forgiving. The problem is that we know what’s behind that screen, and it’s hard not to see the seams. But when we do find a book that flows and makes us forget that we’re also writers, that’s magic. This is how I felt when I read Amy Maroney’s The Girl from Oto, the first book…