I came across this article by Mark Schatzker on “How do medieval-themed restaurants get it wrong?” It’s an interesting read concerning the accuracy of food served at such restaurants as Medieval Times. He dispels several myths in regards to the eating habits of medieval people:
Myth No. 1: Medieval food was bland.
Myth No. 2: Medieval chefs […]
Filed under: Medieval History, Historical Fiction on February 14th, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Here are a few of my recommendations for books dedicated to writing. Please feel free to share your suggestions as well.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. - A classic. This is a must-have reference for all writers. A simple and logical approach to the basic prinicples of composition, grammar, word usage, and writing […]
Filed under: Writing Resources, Creative Writing on February 13th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Some people feel J.R.R Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings are pure genius, with Tolkien being one of the most influential writers of his time, maybe even all time. Others find his writing a bit heavy and dull, as the novel is filled with hundreds of pages of backstory and lyrical poems and huge […]
Filed under: Fiction, Fantasy on February 12th, 2008 | No Comments »
If you’ve never visited Amazon Shorts, you should definitely check it out; there, you can download short literary works digitally for only $.49, and currently, the contest for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is going on. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is a contest designed to discover the next big author in fiction, and this […]
Filed under: Fiction, Literary News, Creative Writing on February 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
Constructed in little more than 12 months by Richard I of England (”The Lionheart”), Chateau Gaillard was an imposing castle upon the French landscape, built to deter King Philip Augustus of France from invading Richard’s Norman territories. The stronghold was placed along the Seine River on a cliff extending above the towns of Grand and […]
Filed under: Battles, Wars, Medieval History on February 9th, 2008 | No Comments »
I came across this article, written by Leo Babuata, that deals with developing good writing habits. A lot of these are logical ideas you’ve probably already heard, but reinforcing those ideas and putting them into practice is another thing. I think his approach is simple and very do-able; it’s just a matter of focus and self-motivation […]
Filed under: Writing Tips, Creative Writing on February 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Just a couple of recent historical fiction resources I’ve run across in the past few days:
Reading Historical Fiction Squidoo Lens by Susan Higginbotham
Enjoy reading historical fiction? Just getting interested in it? Here are some useful sites for readers (or prospective readers) of historical fiction. You’re bound to find something you like, whatever the time period you’re […]
Filed under: Historical Fiction, Writing Resources on February 7th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
In my post yesterday — “What is Historical Fantasy?” – I touched briefly on the definition of historical fiction. For a more in depth look at this defintion, The Historical Novel Society has an entire section devoted to this topic. There are links to articles that discuss: the rules for historical fiction, the problem of truth […]
Filed under: Historical Fiction, Writing Resources, Creative Writing on February 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
What is the definition of historical fantasy? How does it differ from historical fiction? Fantasy? I’ve often seen the term ”historical fantasy” to classify a certain subgenre of literature but have never really understoood what, exactly, that refers to. What types of works are classified in this category? I did a little bit of research on […]
Filed under: Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Creative Writing on February 5th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The following are some medieval history resources I have run across online. Please let me know of any interesting sites you may have found as well.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook - contains many writings by contemporaries of the medieval period
The-ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies - an academic site for scholars and students; site contains a nice listing […]
Filed under: Medieval History, Writing Resources on February 4th, 2008 | No Comments »
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