Strange Times by Joan Szechtman

Today, we interview Joan Szechtman, an American writer who has just published her third time-travel novel about King Richard the Third.  Fans of Joan have read her books, THIS TIME, which was published in 2009 and LOYALTY BINDS ME which was published in 2011.  Her third Richard the Third novel, STRANGE TIMES, has just been…

BLOOD OF ROSES (A Novella of Edward IV’s Victory at Towton)

Richard, Duke of York and his second son Edmund were killed at the battle of Wakefield at the bitter end of  1460. Within weeks, the Duke’s eldest son Edward was on the road with a mighty army, seeking revenge–and a crown. The novella BLOOD OF  ROSES by J.P. Reedman covers the period  from the Duke’s…

Robert S.P. Fripp’s “Power of a Woman”

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the daughter of a provincial Duke in France. Twice she married Kings and had many children, although she outlived most of them and several grandchildren, living into her ninth decade, suffering annulment and internal exile. Two of her sons became King of England and, through John “Sansterre”, she is the ancestress of…

TWO RARE RICARDIAN NOVELS

Almost every Ricardian knows about the famous novels ‘The Sunne in Splendour’ by Sharon Penman and ‘We Speak No Treason’ by Rosemary Hawley Jarman.  Most know  Majorie Bowen’s ‘Dickon’,  Carleton’s ‘Under The Hog,’ and ‘The White Boar’ by Marian Palmer. More recent readers who are discovering  the world of kindle  probably have seen Meredith Whitford’s…

Ricardian Story in ‘Scary’ Anthology!

I wrote a short story a couple of years ago, one of the first ‘Ricardian’ works I had ever written. So, when a best-selling Amazon author, Dan Alatorre (whose blog I follow), announced he wanted to make an anthology of stories from a variety of authors, all on a ‘scary’ theme, I remembered this story…

Richard and two Sun(ne)s in Splendour….

Here is a link to double reviews of books that are both entitled Sun(ne) in Splendour – Jean Plaidy’s and Sharon Kay Penman’s. http://www.encorepub.com/carpe-librum-richard-iii-takes-center-stage-again/ Both works are too well known to Ricardians for any explanation to be needed, so I will confine myself to bewailing Plaidy’s abominable cover. How could any publisher impose such a…

Look out for…

Following on from the success of my first novel about Richard III in the twenty first century and demands for a sequel, I am proud to announce the second part, Richard Liveth Yet (Book II): A Foreign Country, is now finished and in the process of being edited and proof read. It is planned for…

FEAST OF THE INNOCENTS: Ricardian Christmas Fiction

December 28th was the Feast of the Innocents, commemorating the day in which Herod slaughtered  young male children in an attempt to kill the newborn Christ-child. In medieval England it was an important feast day and also part of the ‘Feast of Fools’. In many towns and cities over the festive season the church authority…

A Slightly Different Ricardian Novel

I, RICHARD PLANTAGENET :TANTE LE DESIREE: Richard III fiction is ‘big business’ these days, after some years of stagnation in the 1990’s and first decade of this century. Many of the new novels, in order to keep their subject matter fresh, have added fantasy elements or alternative history, or have been written from the viewpoints…

Myrna Smith, Ricardian Reading Editor, writes a review of the Cicely Plantagenet Trilogy by Sandra Heath Wilson…

  Princess Cicely (an alternative spelling of Cecily) is 16 as her love story commences in this trilogy, 18 at the end of the third book. During that time, she has cut quite a swath at the English court. Her lovers include two kings and three jacks. That is, three men named John, whom the…