Historical Jaunt #2

Part 1 HERE - Hever Castle

Part 3 - The Tower of London HERE

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- Hever Church -

Here lies Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne, Mary and George

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- Penshurst Place -

Where Henry VIII used to stay when he visited Mary Boleyn in the pre-Anne days, and later Anne; he used it as a hunting lodge.

The Barons' Hall, with ghost (Gemma).

I love this place.  Built in 1341 and said to be the best preserved example of 14th Century domestic architecture in England.

Actual Cromwellian armour

Julia took this one of me from the back, which I really like 

because I didn't realise my hair was so long!!

Historical Jaunt #1

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A delightful couple of Anne Boleyn-orientated days away with sister Julia and friend Gemma, to commemorate Anne's death on May 19th, 1536.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, The Leicester Arms, in the ridiculously picturesque village of Penshurst in Kent.

'Shamed be he who thinks evil of it' (motto of The Order of the Garter - est. 1348 by Edward III.  Hanging outside the room I slept in on the second night)

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Julia and me in our room :)

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- Hever Castle -

You wouldn't think that Katherine of Aragon would have ever visited the Boleyn castle, but here she is taking a selfie with her portrait.

Ditto Anne, who doesn't look moost happi about Katherine's visit.

At the stairs going up to what is thought to be the bedroom shared by Anne and Mary when they were young.  

Wonder if the Boleyn sisters giggled under the covers and had midnight feasts of marchpane confections and comfits (Julia and I used to have a few pear drops and mint imperials held back from our weekend sweet allowance...)

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Queen Elizabeth's coronation robe (obviously not the original!).  It stands in the room Henry VIII stayed in when he visited the castle - a shame he didn't know what a mighty and much-loved queen his second daughter would become, or he might not have been such a murderous git to Anne.

Part 2 - Hever Castle and Penshurst Place HERE

Part 3 - The Tower of London HERE

Daring to change genre ~ could it become the new black?

I read an author interview on Shelley Wilson's blog the other day, in which children's fantasy writer Lynette Creswell talked about writing fantasy for grown ups, and other genres.  

The other day I was talking online to author of the fantasy Storm Trilogy, Anthony Lavisher, who says he's going to write a thriller next, possibly followed by something historical.

Is this a bad idea?  Some might say yes, but I applaud them.

Since I've started this self-pub thing, one piece of advice I've read over and over again (and, indeed, have given myself) is to stay roughly in the same genre.  This is why: if Angela Author has built up a fanbase for her historical fiction over the last 5 books, those readers are going to be disappointed if her 6th book is about space ships and aliens.  "It's not what I expect from an Angela Author book," they will say, and may give up on her.

But I've been thinking about this.  All creative minds grow and change, don't they?  Surely the essence of creativity is that you're always thinking of new stuff?

I photographed various piles of books around my living room!

The books I write are all character driven, from multiple POVs.  I went darker with The House of York, but they all centre around relationships, usually family.  After The House of York, the plot for The Devil You Know popped into my head - it's about five people who think a local serial killer might be someone close to them.  I wanted to write something more suspenseful, including the odd character with some seriously evil sh*t going on in their heads.  I slid diagonally, I suppose, rather than changing genre....

.... but what I'm coming to is this.  Most of us read several different genres, so if you love the SciFi of Joe Bloggs and the financial thrillers of Bob Smith, might you not like to read Bob Smith's SciFi, too?  Should we be as fearful as we are that we'll put off our readers if we produce something that isn't along exactly the same lines as what's gone before?

 

Bit of a GRR Martin bias on this shelf!

The cheapness and easy availability of Kindle books means that most avid readers have tried new genres over the past few years, and discovered new writers.  In 2010, I was told by a reputable literary agent that she couldn't sell You Wish to a publisher because it was written from multiple 1st person POVs.  I had no desire to rewrite, so I self-published.  Several years down the line, multiple 1st person POVs has become so popular that I rarely open a book that features the same narrator all the way through.  Many readers didn't seem to care for it at the time, either, but now accept it as a popular style, and comment about the author's skill in changing 'voice'.

....so, my point is this.  If a certain style/format used to be thought of as unsaleable, but is now not only accepted but the happening way to go, maybe authors writing in multiple genres might become more accepted, too.  The norm, even.  I know some have got round it by writing the alternative genre under a pen name, but unless you have a good publisher behind you it can mean starting off a whole new promotional platform for that pen name.

Okay.  *Deep breath*.  My next book will be part one of a post apocalyptic series.  No, not zombies, much though I love to read about them, but a pandemic.  Essentially, though, it will still be a Terry Tyler novel.  It centres around one family and their friends, their hopes, fears, love lives, joys and disappointments, but in an end-of-the-world setting rather than comfortable middle class life in East Anglia.  I think that if you like the way I write, then you'll like Tipping Point (working title) as well.  

I'm fascinated by survival after disaster, by the psychology of how people cope, by the manipulation of the population by the media (Tipping Point deals with this, too) ~ isn't it, therefore, logical that I would want to write about it?  If you like the way someone writes, then you like the way they write, full stop ~ surely?  Unless they're moving from romcoms to air conditioning installation manuals, it's likely that you'll still have time for whatever they bring out.  And with any author you like, even if it's action thriller after action thriller or vampire after vampire, you always have your favourites and not-so-favourites.

I hope I'm right and am not just trying to convince myself.  I daresay there will be some readers who say, "I like her family dramas but I don't really want to read about a global disaster."  But if more of us dare to branch out into other genres, it might give others the confidence to give it a go, too.  It might also encourage readers to try genres they always thought they wouldn't like.  I only discovered that I love zombie apocalypse books by accident.  A lady who reads my books asked if I'd be so kind as to read her zombie apoc short story.  I did so out of politeness, and bloody loved it, so much that I've bought three of her books since, and it's now my most-read genre after histfic. 

Maybe it depends how orientated you are towards marketing.  I'm not so much; I always have about 4 stories on the 'to be written' list, and when I've finished one novel I just pick which one I want to do next and crack on.  I'm sure those savvy book marketing people would pour much scorn on this!

I don't know where else I'm going with this really, but if you've dared to publish in more than one genre, are thinking about it but are wary, feel hemmed in by your publisher, or have any other thoughts on the subject, I'd love to hear about it! 

A crash course in the early Plantagenets

I'm currently reading the excellent The Plantagenets: Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England, by Dan Jones, mostly because I wanted to know more about Henry II and his heirs.  It's a book I would most definitely recommend but it's very long and involved, so, for those with less reading time, I would like to provide this crash course in the early history of this most fascinating of royal houses.

Henry II ~ my favourite Plantagenet

Henry I was the grandson of William The Conqueror, though at the time he was just called Henry, not Henry I, because no one knew there would be seven more.  

Henry's only surviving child was his daughter, Matilda, who he made his heir.  Henry made her marry Geoffrey of Anjou, in France.  Geoff was a stylish chap who wore a little yellow flower in his hat, the Latin name of which was planta genista, hence the name Plantagenet.  Cool, right?!  

This marriage reinforced England's control over France.  Matilda, however, wasn't too keen because she was twenty-nine and Geoff was only fifteen.  A little on the gross side, I am sure you agree.

Geoff, of yellow flower in hat fame

Enter stage left Matilda's cousin, Stephen, who thought he ought to be King, so they had a lot of battles until Matilda and Geoff threw the towel in and went back to France.  Geoff died, but they had a son called Henry II who was brave, intelligent and wise, even going into battle to support his father when he was just thirteen, ie, the sort of fellow you want to be in charge of a country or two.

(Also, it makes you think: if they'd let Arya in Game of Thrones and Judith in The Walking Dead fight in more battles instead of saying "y'all stay home, you're too young", they might have won more battles too.")

Later on Henry II zipped back over to England and made friends with Stephen, who agreed Henry could be king after him.  Stephen was pretty old by then.

King Stephen ~ an intelligent man with a dark side. 

Once Henry was king he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, a feisty wench previously married to Louis VII of France - he'd turned out to be a bit of a drip.  This was a good move by Henry because it guaranteed him control over loads of bits of France.

Henry carried on being a top bloke, and pulled lots of clever and diplomatic moves all over England and France, with lords and nobles and castles and laws, etc.

Feisty wench Eleanor of Aquitaine, who would ride about the country disguised as a chap

King Henry II was big buddies with Thomas Beckett who he made Archbishop of Canterbury, but it was one of those toxic friendships.  Thomas had lots of issues, including some way tedious self-esteem problems, so he made a lot of trouble for King Henry.  

One night at court, Henry was ranting about his high-maintenance chum, and a few of his soldiers mistakenly thought he meant them to kill him.  He didn't, but they did anyway.  Then everyone thought King Henry had ordered it, so a lot of people were angry because having the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered was a bit off.

Thomas Beckett: a psychotherapist's dream client

....and here he is being murdered.  You'd have thought he'd hear three of them that close behind him.

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King Henry and Eleanor had four sons:

• Henry The Young King (henceforth to be known as Henry TYK)
• Richard (soon to be The Lionheart)
• Geoffrey (a two-faced snake)
• John (later of Magna Carta fame).

  

Henry The Young King
~ the face that inspired a thousand doubts

Henry TYK was posturing and vain, and considered by most to be whiny and childishly impulsive.  Kind of the Prince Harry of his day.  At this time there were lots of arguments about bits of land in England and France and who owned what territory.  Then King Henry started giving bits of France to his daughters for dowrys, and Henry TYK, Richard and Geoffrey got pissed off about it - and so did their mother Eleanor.  She was possessive about Aquitaine, probably because it was part of her name.

Eleanor and the three boys teamed up with Eleanor's ex, Louis VII (who had never forgiven Henry for copping off with Eleanor), and started having battles against King Henry.  Peace was restored but King Henry put Eleanor under palace arrest for the rest of her days.  This is like being under house arrest but much better because you get servants.

Richard The Lionheart
~ much sexier than Henry The Young King, as you can see.

King Henry tried to make Richard and Geoffrey kneel to Henry TYK as his heir, but Richard wouldn't because he was an awesome soldier (if a tad obsessed with a guy called Saladin) and Henry TYK was of use to neither man nor beast.  Then Henry TYK chucked all his toys out of his pram and tried to rebel, but got dysentery and died, and everyone secretly said, "thank Christ for that".

Next: Richard is made King but plunders England's wealth on his quest for personal glory en Crusade.  I feel really sorry for Henry II.  That such a sound chap got such a rubbish family is most tragic.

And that's as far as I've got.