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Leonardo Noto
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Welcome!!!

Post by Leonardo Noto » Sat February 11th, 2012, 11:01 pm

Welcome!!! Let me ask you something-- why not write a novel about your experiences growing up in Rhodesia? I know that it is a touchy subject, and probably a raw emotional subject for you as well, but the Rhodesian civil war is as fascinating as it was terrible and there aren't very many people who are as qualified to write about it as you are. Think about it anyhow.

Leonardo Noto

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Sun February 12th, 2012, 5:33 am

Welcome to the forum. I'd like to read something set in early medieval Gaul--I can only think of one book I've ever read set there, and I can't remember the title.

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Mon February 13th, 2012, 1:15 am

[quote=""Justin Swanton""]Hi DianeL,

Yes, Clovis is an important character in my novel. The famous Vase of Soissons incident also appears there.

You might be interested in my illustration of him in my album (the Secret Meeting pic).

Good luck with your own novel! Where can I get a copy of it, by the way?[/quote]

I'm still working on revisions for the dream agent.

Once he falls insanely in love with it, we'll have to get it sold then published. So maybe you can get one about two years in the future. :)
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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Justin Swanton
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Location: Durban, South Africa
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Post by Justin Swanton » Mon February 13th, 2012, 5:41 am

[quote=""Leonardo Noto""]Welcome!!! Let me ask you something-- why not write a novel about your experiences growing up in Rhodesia? I know that it is a touchy subject, and probably a raw emotional subject for you as well, but the Rhodesian civil war is as fascinating as it was terrible and there aren't very many people who are as qualified to write about it as you are. Think about it anyhow.

Leonardo Noto[/quote]

I've thought about it. Peter Godwin (I met his sister Georgina) has already done so, but I find his books whiney. I would want to come in from a different angle.

There is something about Rhodesia (and Zimbabwe) that I haven't found anywhere else - except perhaps Namibia. I don't know how to put it - an outlook, a beauty, that has not yet been artificialised by the stamp of too much western culture. South Africa, by contrast, has been artificialised almost to death.
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Tue February 14th, 2012, 1:22 am

A place to add to the "go here" list of dreams ...

Justin, even in just a short post, you hinted at something magical about your home. Thank you.
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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Justin Swanton
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Post by Justin Swanton » Tue February 14th, 2012, 6:12 am

[quote=""MLE""]Welcome to the forum. I'd like to read something set in early medieval Gaul--I can only think of one book I've ever read set there, and I can't remember the title.[/quote]

Well...Centurion's Daughter is sort of early mediaeval...very early mediaeval...

Seriously, the Merovingian period has a lot to offer a novelist: brothers and cousins fighting each other to reunite a constantly fragmenting kingdom, a game of thrones in which women sometimes played a prominent part (women were the subjects of a unique respect in Frankish society: they could own property in their own right, and with it, troops). But I personally know of no-one who has yet given it a look.

I'd personally also be interested in anything on Charles Martel and Pepin the Short. Charlemagne has been written on quite a bit already, and I always feel he collected the glory for work his father and grandfather had already done.
Last edited by Justin Swanton on Tue February 14th, 2012, 11:19 am, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: making my grammar less hideous
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

Leonardo Noto
Scribbler
Posts: 49
Joined: January 2012

Zimbabwe

Post by Leonardo Noto » Tue February 14th, 2012, 4:54 pm

Diane, I agree that Zimbabwe would be an interesting place to visit, but I'd highly recommend putting off those travel plans while the current regime is in place. I've never been there, but I have been to many countries with less-than-stable governments and they tend not to be the kind of places I'd want to be walking around without an assault rifle. Just thought I'd mention it before anyone goes and and books a plane ticket...

Leonardo Noto

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Wed February 15th, 2012, 12:33 am

Leonard, I'm a secretary. The years between me and picking up to buy a plane ticket are probably sufficient protection for the time being!

Justin, my research indicated absolutely no novels about Clovis in American (or indeed English-language) publishing. There was a university press semi-creative-semi-nonfiction book with what appears to have been a somewhat limited printing, which I have bought, but still have never allowed myself to read yet (I look forward to it, but want my writing to be completed without any influences at all), but the Merovingians are NOT the Tudors, darlings-of-fiction-wise. I find this mystifying. But you and I can forge the new vanguard!
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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Justin Swanton
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Location: Durban, South Africa
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Post by Justin Swanton » Wed February 15th, 2012, 5:10 am

Leonard, things are not that bad in Zim! My brother-in-law and his mother and sister live there. There is crime, but it is not rampant, and is probably less of a issue than in South Africa.

The real problem is economics, but since the Zim dollar collapsed all trade is done in US dollars (love ya, uncle Sam!) and things have picked up.

Besides the fare, getting there is a problem as, to the best of my knowledge, no airline flies in. Driving up from South Africa will mean real fun and games at the Beit Bridge border post. But once you're in, relax (except when Mugabe's escort cavalcade comes screaming down the road, then get off it fast - they shoot to kill).

DianeL: I came across one novel about Syagrius - a real potboiler, couldn't even get his first name right. Otherwise, as you say, nothing.
Last edited by Justin Swanton on Wed February 15th, 2012, 6:21 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: wish I could get my spelling right first time
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed February 15th, 2012, 5:28 am

For some reason, the title that keeps coming to mind as including the Merovingians is Mary Stewart's The prince and the pilgrim. But when I read the blurb, it doesn't sound like the novel I remember at all.

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