Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders

Author: Susanne Alleyn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781310013522
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
This is not a book on how to write historical fiction. It IS a book on how NOT to write historical fiction.If you love history and you're hard at work on your first historical novel, but you're wondering if your medieval Irishmen would live on potatoes, if your 17th-century pirate would use a revolver, or if your hero would be able to offer Marie-Antoinette a box of chocolate bonbons...(The answer to all these is "Absolutely not!")...then Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders is the book for you. Medieval Underpants will guide you through the factual mistakes that writers of historical fiction--both beginners and professionals--most often make, and show you how to avoid them. From fictional characters crossing streets that wouldn't exist for another sixty (or two thousand) years, to South American foods on ancient Roman plates, to 1990s slang in the mouths of 1940s characters, Susanne Alleyn exposes the often hilarious, always painful goofs that turn up most frequently in fiction set in the past. Alleyn stresses the hazards to writers of assuming too much about details of life in past centuries, providing numerous examples of mistakes that could easily have been avoided. She also explores commonly-confused topics such as the important difference between the British titles "Lord John Smith" and "John, Lord Smith" and why they're not interchangeable, and provides simple guidelines for getting them right. In a wide assortment of chapters including Food and Plants; Guns; Money; Hygiene; Dialogue; Attitudes; Research; and, of course, Ladies' Underpants, she offers tips on how to avoid errors and anachronisms while continually reminding writers of the necessity of meticulous historical research.

The Anachronistic Turn

Author: Stephanie Russo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003814344
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
The Anachronistic Turn: Historical Fiction, Drama, Film and Television is the first study to investigate the ways in which the creative use of anachronism in historical fictions can allow us to rethink the relationship between past and present. Through an examination of literary, cinematic, and popular texts and practices, this book investigates how twenty-first century historical fictions use creative anachronisms as a way of understanding modern issues and anxieties. Drawing together a wide range of texts across all forms of historical fiction - novels, dramas, musicals, films and television - this book re-frames anachronism not as an error, but as a deliberate strategy that emphasises the fictionalising tendencies of all forms of historical writing. The book achieves this by exploring three core themes: the developing trends in the twenty-first century for creators of historical fiction to include deliberate anachronisms, such as contemporary references, music, and language; the ways in which the deliberate use of anachronism in historical fiction can allow us to rethink the relationship between past and present, and; the way that contemporary historical fiction uses anachronism to better understand modern issues and anxieties. This book will appeal to students and scholars of historical fiction, contemporary historical film and television studies, and historical theatre studies.

Historical Fiction Now

Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019887703X
Category : Historical fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
Historical Fiction Now brings together prominent authors, scholars, and critics of historical fiction to explore the genre's character, fortunes, and potential in the twenty-first century. Gathering together the voices of novelists, critics, academics, and several authors writing across these categories, the volume explores the nature of reading, writing, and writing about historical fiction in the present moment while meditating on some of the myriad contexts of the genre. What inspires writers to choose particular moments, events, and personalities as the subjects of their fictional imaginings, and with what implications for their readers' understanding of the present? How do contemporary scholars approach the making and reception of historical fiction, and how do these approaches resonate with writers' own preoccupations in the process of invention? What might scholars of a genre with a long and complex history learn from its contemporary practitioners? Conversely, how do novelists understand their own historical fictions (if at all) in relation to the theoretical and critical traditions shaping the work of their academic colleagues? The collection features an original essay by Hilary Mantel on the making of the Wolf Hall trilogy as well as contributions from internationally known novelists such as George Saunders, Namwali Serpell, Maaza Mengiste, and Téa Obreht, among others.

Writing Historical Fiction

Author: Celia Brayfield
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1780935773
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
Writing Historical Fiction: A Writers' & Artists' Companion is an invaluable companion for a writer working in this challenging and popular literary genre, whether your period is Ancient Rome or World War II. PART 1 includes reflections on the genre and provides a short history of historical fiction. PART 2 contains guest contributions from Margaret Atwood, Ian Beck, Madison Smartt Bell, Ronan Bennett, Vanora Bennett, Tracy Chevalier, Lindsay Clarke, Elizabeth Cook, Anne Doughty, Sarah Dunant, Michel Faber, Margaret George, Philippa Gregory, Katharine McMahon, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Hilary Mantel, Alan Massie, Ian Mortimer, Kate Mosse, Charles Palliser, Orhan Pamuk, Edward Rutherfurd, Manda Scott, Adam Thorpe, Stella Tillyard, Rose Tremain, Alison Weir and Louisa Young. PART 3 offers practical exercises and advice on such topics as research, plots and characters, mastering authentic but accessible dialogue and navigating the world of agents and publishers.

Write a Novel in 10 Minutes a Day

Author: Katharine Grubb
Publisher: Teach Yourself
ISBN: 1529352487
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
LEARN HOW TO WRITE FICTION BY WRITING EVERY DAY Would you like to write but have no spare time? Do you not know where to begin? Write A Novel In 10 Minutes A Day will help you sculpt a full-length piece of creative writing in just ten minutes a day. Starting with a daily practical exercise, it will help you manage your writing schedule within this time frame and help you bring your novel to life. You will be able to clarify your vision and review your time commitments, as well as understand your own abilities. Learning to observe the world around you, write quickly and tap into your unique voice will help you to create all the elements of your story and, by the time you've finished all the exercises, you'll have created something beautiful. ABOUT THE SERIES The Teach Yourself Creative Writing series helps aspiring authors tell their story. Covering a range of genres from science fiction and romantic novels, to illustrated children's books and comedy, this series is packed with advice, exercises and tips for unlocking creativity and improving your writing. And because we know how daunting the blank page can be, we set up the Just Write online community at tyjustwrite, for budding authors and successful writers to connect and share.

Robin Hood, 1192 (The Symbiont Time Travel Adventures Series, Book 7)

Author: T.L.B. Wood
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
ISBN: 1644571862
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Petra and Kipp, accompanied by fellow time travelers Peter and Elani, travel to medieval England to answer a nagging question in the time-travel adventure, Robin Hood - 1192, by T.L.B. Wood Was Robin Hood a real man or a myth? The ever-curious time traveler, Kipp, becomes intrigued with this question after reading the novel, Ivanhoe. He convinces his partner, Petra, that a trip to medieval England's dangerous and politically complicated times is necessary to solve the puzzle. Accompanied by fellow travelers, Peter and Elani, the team assumes disguises as humans partnered with their companion dogs. But the class conflicts between the conquering Normans and the native Saxons quickly turns the adventure into the most dangerous feat the four investigators have undertaken. Now the travelers face a new question: Can they find the way back to their own time? THE SYMBIONT TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURES, 1. The Symbiont 2. Tombstone, 1881 3. Whitechapel, 1888 4.The Great Locomotive Chase, 1862 5. Titanic, 1912 6. A Conspiracy to Murder, 1865 7. Robin Hood, 1192

How to Live Like a Lord Without Really Trying

Author: Shepherd Mead
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781851242795
Category : Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Shepherd Mead, bestselling author of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, came to live in England with his family in 1958. Six years later he published a satirical handbook for fellow Americans to guide them through the nuances of British culture and save them from blunders: 'Write down now that pants always mean underpants', he advises. 'What you wear out in the open are trousers. Mistakes in this area can lead to nasty misunderstandings.'Structured around the fictional experience of an American couple Peggy and Buckley Brash and their two children, the book covers such topics as 'How to Dress in England', 'The Dream House and How to Rebuild it', and 'How to Live with the Upper Classes Without Having Any Money'. Through the Brash family's encounters with the British and their bewildered conversations with each other as they attempt to interpret an alien way of life, Mead answers pertinent questions such as 'Do English schools create sex madness?' and 'Is England really a pest hole?' with quirky and affectionate humour.Written with the light touch and incisive wit which brought Mead such success with his earlier book, and deftly illustrated with dynamic cartoons, How to Live Like A Lord without Really Trying is packed with gems on Anglo-American differences and pithy advice which tells us as much about the British of the 1960s as it does about their visitors from across the Pond.

The Spinning Wheel Secret

Author: Lillie V. Albrecht
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781484987384
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
Joan Tower's two big brothers didn't want a baby sister. So they called her Jo and never admitted that she was a girl. Even though the neighbors disapprove, Jo is happier doing boys' jobs. A properly-brought-up young girl in a New England Puritan village of 1705 would never know all the useful skills, like fishing and swimming, that Jo learns from Dan and Sam. When it comes to doing ordinary household tasks, though, she believes she is hopeless. She's not much good at cooking or knitting, and spinning thread is simply beyond her--a fact which her disapproving, fault-finding aunt and cousin never fail to point out. But when Indians attack their little village of Hatfield and carry off many captives, including Jo's mother, Jo and her brothers must make their way alone to Westfield to find shelter with their grandfather. In Westfield, however, more bad news awaits them, and Jo will find her own resources and courage sorely tested. "A plot that remains reasonable as well as exciting. For younger girls in this age group, a treat instead of the usual treatment." --Kirkus Reviews (1965)

The Cavalier of the Apocalypse

Author: Susanne Alleyn
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781502592378
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In the icy winter of 1786, in the final years before the French Revolution, hunger, cold, and seething frustration with the iron grip of France's absolute monarchy drive poor and rich alike to outright defiance. Slums, fashionable caf�s, and even aristocratic mansions echo with discontent and the first warning signals of the approaching turmoil of 1789. Paris's cemeteries are foul and disease-ridden, but no one, including penniless writer Aristide Ravel, expects to find a man with his throat cut lying dead in a churchyard, surrounded by strange Masonic symbols. Already suspected of subversive activities, Ravel must now clear his name of murder. His search for answers amid the city's literary and intellectual demimonde-with the aid of friends who may not be all that they seem-leads him into a tangle of conspiracy, secret societies, royal scandal, and imminent revolution, which grows only more complex when the corpse disappears...