Religious Hysteria and the Black Plague

Lovely bones make a lovely face, and underneath the fictional flesh of each historical novel lie the lovely bones of history. The English Historical Fiction Authors (EHFA) blog gives historical novelists a chance to share their historical work and reach out to their readers. Each day the site features a nonfiction post by a historical novelist, usually related to some historical topic they have researched for their novel.

Today, I have a post over at the EHFA blog that ties in with the research for my book I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince. It's titled, "Scourge of Europe: The Religious Hysteria Created by the Black Plague."

Death has always been one of the most frightening prospects faced by mankind. The fear of death even has its own word to describe it—thanotophobia. In a society where a third to a half of the people around you have succumbed to death within the past year, the terror of knowing that you might be next can become overwhelming. It can drive a person to bizarre and unthinkable acts as he tries to ward off death’s icy grip from descending on his own shoulder. This is what happened in the mid-fourteenth century, during the years of the Black Plague. The world went wild with thanotophobia, and the country of England was no exception.... (read more)

Questions for a Self-Published Author: Interview at Ashley Barron's Blog

In September and October I had the chance to do several interviews with historical fiction bloggers on my virtual book tour for Road from the West. Most of the questions involved the inspiration for and the plot of the book and there were a few personal questions about my life outside of authorship.

Today I have an interview of a totally different nature over at Ashley Barron's blog, a fellow self-published author. This interview focuses mostly on my publishing journey and the hurdles I have overcome to get my books out to readers.   The decision to self-publish, how I market my books, how I use social media--those are all topics I get to address in today's interview. If you're interested in a candid story of an indie author's path to publishing, head on over to Ashley's blog to get the scoop.