TOBIAS BY PRUE BATTEN - BOOK REVIEW

Book Blurb

Byzantium stretches a weakening grip across Eastern Europe, trying in vain to hold onto all that has made it an empire. Tyrian purple, the unique dye that denotes its power, is held under close guard by the imperial house.

However a Jewish merchant from Venice has sourced an illegal supply and Tobias the dwarf minstrel and his twin brother, Tomas, begin a dangerous journey to retrieve the purple and deliver it into the merchant’s eager hands.

But is this supply as secret as they had hoped?

Trade is cut throat, men are expendable, money is power and Constantinople provides the exotic backdrop during a time of scimitars and shadows.

This is Tobias – the story of a minstrel and a broken life…

 My review

Prue Batten never ceases to amaze me with her embroidered prose, her unique characters and her meticulous research. Her new novel, Tobias, book 1 in the Triptych Chronicle, offers a gallery of unforgettable characters and so many delicious moments of beauty to her readers. With Prue Batten you can count on high quality prose.

The unusual hero of this  new medieval tale is a dwarf minstrel, Tobias,  with a sharp mind, a sharp wit, a beautiful singing voice, a love for books and a good story,  who can as well handle a dagger,  when the occasion occurs.   The experience of seeing the world from Tobias ‘s singular perspective, the enchantment of his music, the gift of his sensitivity and the uniqueness of his persona make the narration of his adventures peculiar, gripping and also moving..

MEET RACHEL ROSSANO AND DISCOVER HER SWEET MEDIEVAL ROMANCE - WIN HONOR: SECOND NOVEL OF RHYNAN

First of all welcome Rachel and thanks for being my guest at FLY HIGH!

Thank you so much for having me come and chat.

Just out of curiosity, you know I’m Italian  and your surname is Rossano. Are you of Italian origins?

Unfortunately I don’t come by the Italian name by blood. I married into it, but I love Italians and their culture.

Honor: Second Novel of Rhynan is part of a series set in the Middle Ages and featuring intriguing love stories and gripping adventures. What is your fascination with medieval history? When did it start?

It started when I was young. I loved fairy tales, queens, kings, princes, and princesses. The romance of the Arthurian legends and the fascination with England started almost as soon as I was reading books on my own. I spent hours researching the Tudor dynasty of English history when I was a teen, but when I started writing I settled more in the Middle Ages because of the simpler and wilder setting.

You planned the Novels of Rhynan as a 5-book series + an anthology. Are the books stand-alone volumes or a connected saga following the same characters?

Each book stands alone. Each book is about a different couple, but they are linked by friendship and family. The heroes of the first and second books are best friends. The third book is about the man that the heroine in the second book rejects. The fourth and fifth books are going to be about the second generation of these couples. Reading the books in order will enrich the experience, but each can be enjoyed completely alone.

WOLF'S HEAD: BACK TO ROBIN HOOD - MEET AUTHOR STEVEN A. MCKAY + BOOK GIVEAWAY

Hello, Steven, and welcome at FLY HIGH!  Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about your “Wolf’s Head”.  My first question is ... please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us what are the best and the worst  aspects of being a writer. Well, that is more than one question but, can you please, answer? 

Hi Maria, thank you for having me I really appreciate it! My name is Steven and I'm from Scotland. I'm new to the writing business, but so far the best part has been realising that people have really enjoyed my book. When you're writing you think you're coming up with something pretty good, but it's only when other people start reading it you find out what it's REALLY like. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with lots of great reviews on Amazon.

The worst aspect is probably the amount of work – and time – it takes to try and make a success of it. It can be hard to juggle the writing with family stuff, as I have a 5 year old daughter and I love to spend as much time as possible with her, but I hope the hard work will all be worth it in the long run.

Second question must be “Why Robin Hood”? I mean, what is it that you find so appealing in this ancient legendary hero to write a book about him?

RICHARD III AND THE OTHER ANNE - AUTHOR GUEST POST BY ELIZABETH ASHWORTH

Hornby Castle

Much is made in fiction, and sometimes non-fiction, about the love between King Richard III and his wife, Anne Neville. But Anne Neville was not the only woman in Richard’s life. He had at least one mistress and two illegitimate children – John and Katherine.

Historian Rosemary Horrox has suggested that Katherine Haute may have been Richard’s mistress.  She received an annuity from Richard of 100 shillings per year for life. The reason for the grant is not recorded, but as Richard’s daughter was given the same name, Katherine, it led Horrox to suggest that Haute may have been the child’s mother.

THE WAR OF THE ROSES IN A MAJOR BBC DRAMA SERIES: THE WHITE QUEEN

I'm really excited for this new BBC drama series based on Philippa Gregory's novels  set during what she calls The Cousins' War , that is The War of the Roses.  THE WHITE QUEEN debuts tomorrow Sunday 16 June at 9 p.m. on BBC1 and will go on for 10 episodes. 

The 10-hour production blends in one series three of the novels by Ms Gregory: The Red Queen, The White Queen and The Kingmakers' Daughter. 

I've actually read only two of the three books and only liked the last one telling the story from Anne Neville's point of view. I'm a Ricardian, you know, and I'm really looking forward to my first Richard III in a TV series after a glimpse of him in an very old period drama I saw on Italian TV when I was a child, "La freccia nera", which was an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Black Arrow." I really hope they do him justice. We need to see him differently from what the Tudor propaganda made up and Shakespeare portrayed in his  eternal lines.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - ANNE EASTER SMITH, ROYAL MISTRESS BLOG TOUR - IF HISTORY WERE TAUGHT IN THE FORM OF STORIES

My guest today is Anne Easter Smith.  A native of England, Anne spent some of her childhood in Germany and Egypt and the rest at boarding school. She came to the US in the late ‘60s for two years and is still here, living in Newburyport, MA with her husband, Scott. Anne is the author of five novels about the York family in the Wars of the Roses, all published by Touchstone at Simon & Schuster. She has been a secretary, a PBS auction coordinator, the features editor at a daily newspaper, a folksinger and the administrator at a music school. When she is not writing, Anne is usually to be found either acting or directing in community theater productions, beach-walking, practicing yoga, or watching “Mad Men.” Her latest novel, Royal Mistress has just been published and she's here today to share her passion for history, the Ricardian cause and writing with us. Join me and welcome Anne at FLY HIGH! 

Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere, Anne. It’s a pleasure and an honour to have you as my very special guest on FLY HIGH!

This is my first question. I know you love quoting Rudyard Kipling with his “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." Does that mean we can learn the truth about our past and roots reading historical novels more than or as well as researching on documents?

I wouldn’t say that! Of course you will gain far more by reading the chronicles, letters and histories of the period. But what historical fiction does is bring those people to life and perhaps give you an appetite for doing more research on your own. However, just like watching a bio-pic on TV -- you shouldn’t believe everything you see. I try very hard never to have a person in the wrong place at the wong time--I will do my best to see if there is any evidence that someone was or was not at a certain castle when I want them to be, but I will not mess with history. If I cannot find anything that says Cecily Neville never met Joan of Arc, but the research tells me these two women were in the same building at the same time (one in the royal apartments and the other in the dungeon) then I feel it’s plausible that they did meet. As a reader of Historical Fiction, I think you have to learn to recognize a writer who respects the history rather than one who, with one obvious anachronism, can have me throwing a book across a room! If you question something in an historical novel, then go and seek out the truth in the non-fiction shelves. Fiction is fiction after all!

LOVING DANTE'S ITALY - INTERVIEW WITH TINNEY SUE HEATH, AUTHOR OF A THING DONE + GIVEAWAY

After reading Tinney Sue Heath’s  historical fiction novel, A Thing Done, set in 14th century Italy , I thought that it is curious and stimulating to get to know how people living in distant countries see your own. This is why I wanted to interview the author and ask her the reasons for her loving my country,  especially medieval Italy, so much. 

Giveaway! Read the interview, then take your chances to win one of the two e-book copies of A Thing Done. (see the rafflecopter form below the post)

First of all, welcome to Fly High,  Tinney, and for accepting to answer my questions.  I’d like to start asking you, what is the fascination of Dante's Italy to a person with such a different background? For us Italians it is compulsory to study Dante Alighieri and read his “Divina Commedia”  at high school. But you? How did you come to discover the greatest  Italian poet, his work and his Florence?
Thank you.  I'm delighted to be here.  Your question made me smile, because when I first learned about your blogs, I wondered what attracted an Italian to Jane Austen!  I first encountered Dante in high school.  In my case it was not because everyone studied his writings, but because I was fortunate enough to read them in a Great Books class I had chosen to take.  There I also read Boccaccio and Machiavelli.  I loved the art of the Italian Renaissance, and my tastes in opera and other classical music also tended toward the Italian, but it was Dante who focused my interest on pre-Renaissance Florence and Tuscany.  After all, it seems he put most of his neighbors in the Inferno, and he made 13th century Florence sound like such an interesting place.

AUTHOR GUEST POST & BOOK GIVEAWAY - ELIZABETH ASHWORTH, AN HONOURABLE ESTATE

Elizabeth Ashworth accepted my invitation to present her just released novel to you readers of FLY HIGH! She has also granted a signed paperback copy of An Honourable Estate.

Leave your comment + e-mail address to be entered in the contest. This giveaway is open worldwide and will end on July 10th. 

Thank you for inviting me to make a guest post on your blog to mark the publication of my new novel, An Honourable Estate. The pouring rain that we’ve had recently in the north west of England seems appropriate for the launch, because the story begins in the year 1315 when the rain was also torrential.  There was famine because the crops rotted in the fields and the animals were struck down with disease.  People were starving and the price of food was very high.

Like now, people tended to blame government for everything and Adam Banastre, a minor lord from Lancashire, decided to lead a rebellion against his overlord, Robert Holland, who was secretary to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.  One of the men who joined the Banastre Rebellion was William Bradshaigh.  But the rebels were defeated at a battle at Preston, on the banks of the River Ribble.  They fled for their lives and, as wanted men, had no choice but to live as outlaws.

DOES ROMANTICIZING THE PAST PUT US IN DANGER OF ALTERING HISTORY?

(by guestblogger Anne Illsley )

The Middle Ages has become a dominant genre in movies and literature, especially in America. Medieval pageants and fairs, where people dress up in clothing from the Middle Ages to watch jousts and romanticize about times gone by is a popular weekend pastime, and Hollywood movies centered on tales from medieval times never fail to bring in the crowds. From Robin Hood and Game of thrones, to classic Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbank swashbucklers, audiences, it seems, can’t get enough of the Middle Ages.

Perhaps this is because American history stops so abruptly at the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers, leaving the United States without the castles and folklore so common in Europe. However, Hollywood and publishing’s obsession with all things medieval has led to our perceptions of these times becoming altered and romanticized, but how far off from the truth is Hollywood’s version?

Hollywood’s history

There is perhaps no greater pleasure than sitting in a movie theatre, or settling down on a sectional sofa or recliner chair at home with a bowl of popcorn and a few friends to watch the latest Hollywood medieval romp. There is no shortage of medieval titles, either. From the various incarnations of Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe or Kevin Costner playing the eponymous outlaw, the Lord of the Rings trilogy,