The Once and Future "shield-wall"

medievalnovels · Post by **medievalnovels** » Tue August 26th, 2008, 3:41 pm

I am a brand new member. My name is nan Hawthorne, my usual screen name is merryhearted, but for now and in the future I will use my "publisher" name "shield-wall" -- as in Shield-wall Books.

I am about to have my first historical novel published, "An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England". This all started in 1965 when a friend and I at Methodist Camp in Southeast Alaska started play-acting a king (me) and queen (her). She was 12, and I was 13. Since we lived in different unconnected towns we had to write letters as the characters, then had to start writing what we called "scenes" since reasons our characters were never in eac h other's presence dwindled.

Forty years later I decided to take the stories we wrote over a five year period and rewrite them from the perspective of all that adult life. Read: "I have had sex now, so I can write about it." The result is about a 650 page novel recounting the adventures, trials and triumphs of some anachronistically named 8th century Anglo Saxons.. and my proudest achievement.

I plan to go on from here with a split personality.. a paranormal mystery series that takes place in 10th century Wessex and beyond, and under a pen name divers erotic histoircal novels.

Susan Higginbotham has been a great encourager and help for over a year or so and when she invites, I accept.. so here I am.

Oh, mustn't forget... I also run medieval-novels.com -- an online bookstore at http://www.medieval-novels.com and am the founder of the 14 yrar old Ghostletters creative/collaborative writing grou p -- see http://www.ghostletters.net .

And a notorious typo artist.

Leyland · Post by **Leyland** » Tue August 26th, 2008, 3:54 pm

Welcome, Nan. Absolutely love the backstory on your Involuntary King novel.

My best friend and I did something similar at the same age, but it was contemporary 'fiction' about fellow students and teachers - until the shared notebook of stories was stolen by another student. We never saw it again but still to this day expect to see it turn up as a clinical psychologist's case study. We were very precocious since we were reading the very early historical romances like The Wolf and the Dove at this barely teen age and may have shocked any adults who read our little stories that included our 'knowledge' of sexual matters.

Anyway, I hadn't thought of our book in years. Yours sounds much more interesting and I look forward to discovering your paranormal stories as well.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Tue August 26th, 2008, 3:58 pm

Welcome, Nan!

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Tue August 26th, 2008, 4:24 pm

I don't know about anyone else here, but I read typonese fluently.

Welcome nan, it sounds like you're an ecclectic writer and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Tue August 26th, 2008, 6:30 pm

Welcome, Shield-wall. Can I call you SW for short?

pat · Post by **pat** » Wed August 27th, 2008, 5:17 am

Hello and welcome!!

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Wed August 27th, 2008, 9:54 am

Welcome Nan! It's so great that we are getting both our former members and new members! Hope you feel at home here!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Thu August 28th, 2008, 3:31 pm

Hello Nan and welcome! Nice to see you here.

TerriPray · Post by **TerriPray** » Thu August 28th, 2008, 3:39 pm

Sounds like you did play by mail rpgs, which I got into as a teenager.

I then went onto face to face rpgs, and then online rpgs. I'm also involved in a couple of one on one message board rpgs.

Although I do a lot of writing I only have one historical novel currently out, a celtic erotic romance send in ancient Gaul just prior to the Roman Invasion.

Good luck with your writing and with the publishing company, running even a small press is hard work. I'm dealing with submissions now for Under the Moon as we're launching fully in October with three releases a month.

Terri Pray

Melisende · Post by **Melisende** » Thu August 28th, 2008, 11:47 pm

Welcome Nan!