#AmWriting

Achievement unlocked!

"Tyburn cursed aloud, first in English & then in his best gutter Dutch, something he usually reserved only for special affronts."

50,000 words done on THIEVES CASTLE!

All downhill from here!

Indie BRAG Interview!

My first real author interview as a IndieBrag Honoree is up!

Please go have a look! And tell your friends!

Kind of exciting (at least to me!). Check it out!

https://aliteraryvacation.blogspot.ca/2016/07/interview-with-brag-medallion-honoree_19.html

Free Summer Read!

Looking for a dastardly summer read?

My novella BLACK DOG is free on #Kindle Jun 29-Jul 3rd!

http://amzn.to/292zTUX

IndieB.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree!

It's official!

THE JESUIT LETTER is now an @IndieBrag Medallion Honoree!

For those that haven't run into this before, “indie” refers to self-published books and B.R.A.G. is an acronym for Book Readers Appreciation Group.

The IndieB.R.A.G. Medallion is a quality mark that is applied to independently published books that achieve a high standard of quality - covering  writing, plot, characterization, dialogue, style, editing, formatting, cover design and more. Only about 10% of the books submitted for review walk away with a Medallion, so hitting this achievement is a significant mark for any book.

So. YAY!!!

Go see: http://bit.ly/1tcXWI4

And I get some fancy foil logo stickers for my printed books!

M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction - SemiFinalist!

Terrific news!

THE JESUIT LETTER is a semifinalist selection for M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction!

The list of Semifinalists 2016 in order of submission:

Helena P. Schrader – Defender of Jerusalem
Carol Anne Dobson – Hecate’s Moon
Lucienne Boyce: Bloodie Bones
Stuart Blackburn: Into the Hidden Valley
Karen Charlton: The San Pareil Mystery
Gemma Lawrence: The Heretic Heir
Dean Hamilton: The Jesuit Letter
Kermit Roosevelt: Allegiance
Nuala O’Connor: Miss Emily
Tobias: Prue Batten


The finalists will be announced in May.

http://bit.ly/22tTBzG

And gentlemen in England now a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here...

In the U.K.?

Now's your chance to nab THE JESUIT LETTER from Amazon.Co.UK for a mere £0.99!

On sale Feb. 1 - 4, 2016, as a Kindle Countdown Deal.

amzn.to/1QGF9xf 

Go! Now! Grab one!

And thanks! Be sure to tell your friends!

A Great Way to Start a New year!

What a great way to start 2016!

Woke up this morning to the news that THE JESUIT LETTER has been selected for the Historical Novel Society's 2016 HNS Indie Award Shortlist, alongside eight other terrific books!

About 38 books were long-listed by HNS reviewers throughout 2015, then the list was narrowed to a short-list of nine, to be followed by a selection of four finalists, and then, in September, the Indie Award winner!

It is a huge honour to have made the short-list, as there are some excellent books in competition. Best of luck to everyone! Have a look at the shortlist below, you are sure to find some great historical fiction to get you through the winter!

HNS Indie Award 2016 shortlisted titles :

WHEN SORROWS COME Maria Dziedzan https://historicalnovelsociety.org/revie…/when-sorrows-come/

BLOODIE BONES Lucienne Boyce https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/bloodie-bones/

AURELIA Alison Morton https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/aurelia/

A PRIDE OF POPPIES Julia Bozza & others https://historicalnovelsociety.org/revi…/a-pride-of-poppies/

FOSSIL ISLAND Barbara Sjoholm https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/fossil-island/

FAR AWAY Victoria Blake https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/far-away/

THE JESUIT LETTER Dean Hamilton https://historicalnovelsociety.org/revie…/the-jesuit-letter/

ONE SUMMER IN ARCADIA Bill Page https://historicalnovelsociety.org/r…/one-summer-in-arcadia/

OUT OF TIME Loretta Livingstone https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/out-of-time/

From these nine books, four will be selected as finalists and the winner and runner up announced at HNS Oxford 2016 Conference in September.

"Cogging & Foisting": Elizabethan Cardplay & Gaming

“I never prospered since I forswore myself at primero. Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.” 

– Falstaff, The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Gambling games in the Elizabethan era variously included tossing the bales (dice), shrove-groat, venter point, cross-and-pile (all coin-tossing games), and wide variety of card games such as gleek, cent, foot-savant, maw, bone-ace, monchance & primero in all its many variations. Queen Elizabeth herself was inordinately fond of card games and played regularly (she apparently took Lord North for £33 playing Maw in August, 1577).

Technically gambling and games (along with bowls, tennis & football among others) were forbidden by law. The government instead encouraged all young males to practice the more martially useful sport of archery, an activity that was rapidly waning in face of gunpowder. The statutes on gambling were so commonly broken that the Queen eventually licensed the Groom-Porter's office in 1578 to allow licenses for gaming establishments, a very lucrative prerequisite for the occupants of the position.

The Cardsharps, by Caravaggio, c 1594 - Note the player in the gold-striped doublet is cheating....

Cheating was wide-spread and common, enough that a very specialized vocabulary for the many different variations has emerged and was in common language usage, often by Shakespeare and other playwrights. Cogging & foisting, cozening, cony-catching, bar-dice, bristle-dice, card chopping, highman & lowman and contraries were all actively in play.  False dice in particular were a concern (with at least 14 distinct variations cited) of the Groom-Porter's office as it cut into their own role as a monopoly supplier for licensed dice and cards.

"If you play among strangers, beware of him that seems simple or drunken; for under their habit the most special cozeners are presented, and while you think by their simplicity and imperfections to beguile them...you yourself will be most of all overtaken." - Reginald Scott, Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584

Elizabethan-era card decks were commonly imported from France or Germany. The earliest, most well-known designs were from Rouen, France by Pierre Marechal.  Spanish and Italian cards typically used 4 suits - chalices, swords, coins, and batons, while Germanic cards displayed hearts, acorns, hawk-bells, and leaves.  The French (and subsequent English cards) used the familiar hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs of today, although the cards did not display any numerals.

Facsimile based on playing cards by Pierre Marechal of Rouen, c.1567  
Published by Rose & Pentagram Design, 2006. www.historicgames.com

These French card designs formed the basis for the subsequent development of English card decks after foreign cards were banned in 1628. Very few cards remain extant today, only about a dozen cards from the 1590's have survived.

Attitudes of the Puritan authorities towards any type of recreational activity, particularly gaming of any form, was generally negative. Even bowls, the famous pastime Sir Francis Drake was engaged in 1588 while waiting for the arrival of the Spanish Armada, was problematic. Bowling alleys are described in School of Abuse (1579) by Stephen Gosson as "privy moths that eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose gains at home are not able to weight down their losses abroad, whose shops are so far from maintaining their play, that their wives and children cry out for bread, and go to bed supperless oft in the year."

Of all the card games, Primero was probably the most popular and widespread 16th century card game. The game originated in Italy or Spain.  Widespread across Europe, it is widely considered one of the precursors of modern Poker.  The game was very fashionable during the Tudor and Elizabethan eras.

Primero is commonly played with four to six players, and with a 40-card deck (the 1567 Rouen deck pictured above, of which you can get a gloriously colourful reproduction of from historicgames.com is perfect), with the 8, 9 and 10 cards removed.

Here is a quick (and fairly light) review of the basic rules, in case you wanted to "toss a hand" (be advised, there are a number of variant rules and approaches. This is just one variant, the one I used in illustrating a card-playing scene in my book The Jesuit Letter).

Each card has certain points value, regardless of suit:

• Cards 2 to 5 = 10 points plus their value (i.e. 2 Clubs = 12 pts) 
• Cards 6 and 7 = 3x their value  (i.e. 6 Hearts = 18 pts)
• Face cards all count for 10 pts
• Aces = 16 pts

PRIMERO HANDS FROM HIGH TO LOW

• Chorus (Quartet) = Four  of a kind 
• Fluxus (Flush)  = All cards of the same suit
• Numerus (Point) = Two or three cards of the same suit. 
• Supremus (Fifty-five) = The highest possible three-flush, the Ace, 6, 7 (plus an unrelated fourth card) and Ace card from any other suit.
• Primero (Prime) = One card from each suit. It’s a four-card hand containing one card of each suit, hence the exact opposite of a “Flush” in Poker. 

HOW TO PLAY:

Two cards are dealt to each player (face down).  Players may elect to Vie/Bid, Stake or Pass. 

A Bid is an initial bet, but players must state their supposed point total of their hand, the hand type, and the bid amount (i.e. “Numerus 34, Bid $5).  Players  may understate their hands but you are not allowed to overstate its actual value.  

The next player may elect to Stake (cover) the bid or Pass.  If Staking, the player must cover the $ value bet (toss your coins into the pot), and state a hand of greater value than the previous player’s Bid.  If the player also elects to Bid, the player that follows them only needs to cover the previous player’s Bid, not the original one.

If the player elects to Pass, they put no money in, but must discard two cards and draw another two.

Once all players have Bid, or Passed, the second two cards are dealt.  Each player now has four cards.  Players may elect to Bid, Stake or Pass.

The rounds of Bid, Stake or Pass continues around until the last Bid is staked (similar to a covering the raise in Poker) at which point the winner (highest point value) would take the pot.

EXAMPLE:

The first set of two cards are dealt: 

1. Player 1 is dealt 2 cards, a King of spades (10 pts) and five hearts (15 pts).  If bidding, P1 would state “Primero 20 (understating his actual hand value of Primero 25), $2.”
2. Player 2 is dealt two sevens (hearts & clubs) for a total of 42 pts. He could Pass, putting in no $  (and discard his two cards for another two) , Stake for the previous P1 bid of $2, and then Bid himself with “Primero 34, Bid $15).
3. Player 3 is dealt a three clubs (13 pts) and a four diamonds (14 pts), for a total of  27 pts.  P3 passes puts in no $ and discards his two cards for two new cards. Note, if he had decided to stake, he would be staking for the P2’s bid of $15. By passing, P3 has dumped that option onto P4.
4. Player 4 receives a Queen hearts (10 pts)and an Ace hearts (16 pts) for a total of 26 pts. P4 Stakes the $15 and bids “Numerus 24, Bid $10)

The second set of two cards is dealt:

1. P1 receives two clubs (12 pts) and five spades (15 pts).  P1 already has a King spades & five hearts, giving him a hand type of Numerus, with a total point value of 52 pts.
2. P2 receives Jack hearts (10 pts) and an Ace spades (16 pts) . With P2’s two sevens, he now has a hand type of Numerus with a point value of 68.
3. P3 passed during the last round, drawing a ten hearts (10 pts) and a six clubs (16 pts). P2 now receives a ten diamonds (10 pts) and a Queen spades (10 pts). This leaves him with a hand type of Primero, with a point value of 46.
4. P4 is dealt another two hearts, the four (14 pts)  and the two (12 pts). This gives him a Fluxus (four of suit) with 52 points.
5. The rounds of Bid, Stake or Pass continues around until the last Bid is staked (similar to a covering the raise in Poker) at which point the winner takes the pot. If the round ends with the current set of cards, then P4 wins with a Fluxus 52.

Now go forth, and win yourself some coin!

"I was as virtuously given as a gentleman 

need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not 

above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once 

in a quarter—of an hour; paid money that I 

borrowed, three of four times; lived well and in 

good compass: and now I live out of all order, out 

of all compass." 

- Falstaff, Henry IV Part I

SOURCES:

1. The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer
2. The Elizabethan Underworld by Gamini Salgado
3. Wikipedia, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primero
4. Primero: A Renaissance Card Game, by Jeff A. Suzuki, 1994.  http://math.bu.edu/people/jeffs/primero.html
5. Game Report: Primero http://jducoeur.com/game-hist/game-recon-primero.html

HOLIDAY SPECIAL!

Still shopping? Need a stocking stuffer?  Grab some great holiday reading!

THE JESUIT LETTER is available on Kindle via Amazon.com for only $.99!

Limited time offer from Dec 23-25.

"a rousingly good debut novel" - The Historical Novel Society 

★HNS Editors Choice★

★HNS Indie Award 2016 Long-list Selection★

Get your copy of THE JESUIT LETTER!

http://amzn.to/1IUH3bC

Note: Apparently the KDP Amazon sales offer is only available via Amazon.com, so if you are looking for it on Amazon.ca, please accept my humblest apologies. Not sure why they have their systems set up in that way, but it is outside of my control...Sorry!

‪#‎histfic‬ ‪#‎Indie‬

Black Dog FREE!

Looking for a good holiday read?  BLACK DOG, my novella, is FREE on Amazon Kindle from December 10 - 14th, 2015!

Grab a copy at amzn.to/1Tr9hM5 and #FearTheDog!

Shiny!

Alongside the HNS Editor`s Choice logo, I get to add another shiny logo to THE JESUIT LETTER, courtesy the Historical Novel Society reviewing & liking my book!

Here they both are!

Editor's Choice

Great news to make even a dreary Monday shine!

The Historic Novel Society has reviewed The Jesuit Letter

and selected it as an Editor's Choice!

Read the review!

In addition to the snazzy logo, this makes The Jesuit Letter eligible on the long-list for the 2016 HNS Indie Award!

I know, way too many exclamation points for a Monday morning...but how often does this happen with a debut novel!

Thank you HNS!

Second!

Second Place!

As mentioned in earlier posts, my novella BLACK DOG was entered into Inkitt's "Reclaim Time" story competition.

I found out this morning via email that it has placed SECOND in Inkitt's historical fiction competition, a fact that fills me with excitement as I always have a difficult time judging and assessing my own work.

Thank you editors of Inkitt and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to read, vote and review my novella.

If you enjoy Elizabethan-era back-alley skulduggery, then go have a read!!

http://www.inkitt.com/stories/15411

"No one wants to run afoul of London’s most notorious prison rooker, the Black Dog. Now Kit Tyburn must pursue his secrets to free his friend, but you don’t stalk the Black Dog without consequences…."

Dark and Kind of Stormy, but in a good way...

For the darkest & stormiest of nights...

As bad openings for a novel go, this one was epic.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

Out of this breathless torrent of immortal words, sprang the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest. The competition challenges writers to compose THE BEST bad openings to imaginary novels (across any genre).

Here's one of the Dishonorable Mentions for Crime/Detective:

I knew that dame was damaged goods when she first sauntered in, and I don't mean lightly scratched and dented goods that a reputable merchant like Home Depot might offer in a clearly marked end display sale; no, she was more like the kind of flashy trashy plastic knockoff that always carries a child-choking hazard that no self-respecting 11-year-old Chinese sweat shop kids would ever call theirs. — Tom Billings, Minneapolis, MN

and one more, from Dishonorable Mentions, Historical Fiction:

The year was 1792, and the French Royal family was like a well-watered topiary: lush, widespread, and in need of a good pruning. — Arch Robison, Champaign, IL

Go to http://bit.ly/1igIxRo to bask in the glorious prose that is the #BulwerLytton contest winners!

Reclaim Time

Inkitt has a new historical fiction writing competition running and BLACK DOG is back in contention!

No one wants to run afoul of London’s most notorious prison rooker, the Black Dog. 

Now Kit Tyburn must pursue his secrets to free his friend, but you don’t stalk the Black Dog without consequences….

http://www.inkitt.com/stories/15411

Please read my 10,000 word Elizabethan novella (You will enjoy it! I promise!) and cast a vote.

Only the the top 10% of entries go forward to the judges round, so please help me get into that top 10% by casting your vote!

All votes need to be submitted by September 24th!

Thanks!

Inkitt Editor's Pick: Black Dog

This is exciting! Alexandra MacDonald, Editor at Inkitt.com has selected "Black Dog" as an Inkitt Editor's Pick!

Here's her feedback (via email, and I hope she doesn't mind me publicly quoting her):

"Black Dog is a gripping, gritty period piece. Historical literature often falls flat but you have managed to write an engaging story with a wonderfully executed plot. The world your narrative creates feels natural, the character interactions feel genuine, and your approach toward drama within that period translates very well to modern readers."

Great news, great feedback and great way to start my day!

If you haven't read "Black Dog" yet, harken on over to http://www.inkitt.com/stories/15411  and enjoy.

Story Competition - Vote Like the Wind!

I've posted BLACK DOG up on www.inkitt.com as an entry into their Fated Paradox mystery writing competition! It's a free read!

Take a look, have a read and if you like it, please give it a vote!

Votes need to be submitted by July 4, 2015 and the story needs to be in the top 10% of selections to qualify for the competition!

So go, fly my pretties and vote like the wind!

Mapping in the Imagination

Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads; 
And every object that might make me fear 
Misfortune to my ventures...
      - Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

If you are looking to build your story setting, to develop your imaginary world, to evoke a sense of distance or scale, to add local colour or distant legends, whether it is winding byways or savage wilderness, it always helps to have a map.

A map can be an equally useful tool for both writer and reader.  For writers, it provides at least the bare bones of your setting because a map forces the writer to think through the concepts of space, time, population, density, geography, trade, economics, technology, transport, food, climate, culture - the thousand areas that will impact and anchor your characters, your storyline and your plot. These then become the fleshed out detailed world that lurks below your story, providing verve and verisimilitude. It helps deepen your characters - do they travel by foot, horse, cart, boat, or plane? Do they cross plains or deserts or mountains? Are they journeying across town - through a market or a shambles, past churches or trading houses? Is it thronged with crowds, or dark and sullenly empty with suspicion peering from every doorway? How does your character manage this journey? How do they change or develop? How can you show this to the reader and move your plot forward at the same time?

For readers, maps can clarify location, context, and distance. They can show the heroes journey and, in many cases, can become an iconic part of the author's work, adding depth and credibility to the world beyond just a bare-boned description of "distant mountains".  Tolkien's Middle-Earth and George R.R. Martin's Westeros would not be nearly as powerful a setting without a clear glimpse for the reader of the various lands and locales. Context builds detail and pulls the reader into the world you are creating.

Maps provide an anchor for a reader, locking the story into the world you are creating. They can be used to guide and direct, to suggest and evoke a much larger world than the one that your story inhabits. It can provide a backstory for your world that can suggest a much wider and grander world is hidden away, locked into unknown or unexplored regions.

This gives the author a broader sweep of the story to work with, and other areas to visit or re-visit for future plotlines or adventures.

For writers that work within the realm of the "real-world", maps can provide an excellent and highly efficient tool for story-telling, no matter what era you are trying to evoke. The tools available online give authors an unprecedented capability to accurately capture a place or location, without the necessity of a personal visit.  I can, through the wonders of Google Maps, pull up an accurate satellite map of Pitcairn Island (if I am writing about the mutineers of the Bounty), alongside photographs and (surprisingly) a Google "StreetView" walk-about. This unprecedented access to information about places, terrain, culture and locales is a massively useful tool for writers. Coupled with ever-broadening access to historical texts, first-person accounts, descriptions, travel guides, scholarly articles and other tools  etc. within the online realm, writers have never had more information at their fingertips than they do today.

By way of example, my current writing project Thieves Castle is set in Elizabethan London in 1576. Between Elizabethan contemporaries like John Stow (author of A Survey of London (1598), and other writers and maps like the Agas Map of London (c. 1560's), you can develop a clear picture of the geography, population and bustle of Elizabethan London, right down to the cacophonous cries of street vendors ("Hot codlings! Get your hot codlings!") and the stench of offal from the markets of Smithfield. As an added bonus, you can explore the Agas Map online via the University of Victoria's Map of Early & Modern London project.

Here's an excerpt of a description from Thieves Castle that basically owes itself to the cross-fertilization of maps & contemporary sources:

It began before dawn, with the harsh squeal of market-carts and drovers amputating the quiet dark.  The tramp of early foot traffic rose into a crescendo of sound as the sun edged above a yellow and grey horizon invisible to most city-dwellers.  With the light came a cacophony of trade and commerce, a cadence both familiar and discordant as the city woke to the new day.  Strident cries warred for attention, hawking baked apples, cabbages, fish, milk, bread and pie.  The distant percussive patina of metalwork and hammers was overlaid with the sounds of shouts and greetings, dogs barking and howling, pigs squealing and the bellow of tinkers and knife-sharpeners.

It was the bells that woke him.  They rose in a chorus, first St. Clements with a brassy clangor that sent birds skyward and silenced the yelping cries of the neighborhood dogs.  Then came St. Martins, lighter in pitch, a plangent tenor that hung a beat behind the nearby St. Clements like a thin sibling. The sound spread like ripples in a pond, the echo’s flitting down alleyways and thoroughfares, as more bells joined in the daily refrain. 

Now none of these tools replace the necessity of actually writing obviously.  Tolkien's description of the "cruel and ancient spires" and "far over the Misty Mountains cold / To dungeons deep and caverns old" in the song of the Dwarves help evoke a picture of the frozen and soaring savagery of ancient peaks, furrowed with dark secrets and hidden valleys.  How his characters then approach and pass through (or under in this case) this formidable barrier drives a key plot element and helps develop and illustrate the characters of the nascent Fellowship of the Ring.

Maps provide depth, context and structure to both the development of a plotline and the characters that inhabit it. They provide writers with guidance, direction and, often a helping hand in knowing what they might want to have their characters do and how they can do it.

Maps can give you direction, and direction can be a critical element in any character's or a writer's journey.

Remember, in the blank spaces on the maps and in the distant seas beyond the borders, here be dragons.

Launch Day!

It's Launch Day!

THE JESUIT LETTER, my new novel, is now available for order via Amazon, Kobo & CreateSpace.

What's it about? Ex-soldier turned play-actor Kit Tyburn is entangled in a deadly conspiracy when he intercepts a coded letter from a hidden Jesuit priest. 

So if you enjoy Elizabethan era skulduggery, sword-play& history with a touch of romance, check out THE JESUIT LETTER 

http://amzn.to/1HxfBgw

Go & read like the wind!

...oh, and tell all your friends!

It's Here! Launch Date April 23, 2015! Pre-Order via Amazon!

My book has arrived!

Ladies & Gentlemen, meet my first published novel, The Jesuit Letter (hint: it's in the box guarded by the intemperate cat). 

The Jesuit Letter is  available now for pre-orders on Amazon! Please place your orders now and on April 23rd, they will go through and your e-book will be sent out.

This particular batch of books shown is intended for all the supporters of my Kickstarter fundraiser however the official publication date is April 23, 2015; in honour of William Shakespeare's 451st Birthday (who is a key character in The Jesuit Letter as an eleven-year old Stratfordian troublemaker).

  

The Jesuit Letter (along with the 10,000 word novella prequel Black Dog) will also be available on Kobo and other  major e-book sites.

 Physical copies of the book (as seen in the pictures) can be ordered via Amazon as of April 23rd, 2015 but will not be available for pre-order.

If I sound overly excited it is because...I am.  This is the culmination of an almost ten-year long project and I am thrilled beyond measure that people can finally see and enjoy the fruit of that work, and hopefully, enjoy some sword-swinging Elizabethan intrigue and excitement.

So TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS! Your support for this creative endeavor is THE critical part of making this work and helping me bring Tyburn back for another trek through the London back-alleys.

Thank you in advance for your kind support, your assistance and your help in making this a reality.

Now bing a waste! (and if you don't know what that means - it's in the book.)