LIVING THE HISTORY: I haven't dropped off the face of the earth!

Friday, April 06, 2007

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth!

A brief note to say that I am still frantically busy with my workload. Having delivered back the first lot of edits for A Place Beyond Courage, I am now editing Shields of Pride ready for its December Re-issue. (old issue UK cover on the left, new one to come) It's interesting visiting a novel so long after publication - around 11 years. Boy have I moved on as a writer. The main thing I appear to be doing is cutting adjectives - so I guess I've learned that less is more and I don't need as many words these days to convey what I mean. It's proving a fascinating experience. It does mean though that I am having to put in more hours on the day job in order to keep all the balls in the air. So the blog is just running at maintenance level at the moment. I have a couple of small things to post over the next couple of weeks - new foreign covers, dates of talks, that sort of thing, and I'll try to drop by when I can squeeze a moment.
I was in London yesterday. I had lunch with my editor - glamorous you might think, but actually it was a cheese sandwich in her office where we discussed the cover for A Place Beyond Courage and sales figures for other novels. I also managed to scrounge a copy of Stephenie Meyer's New Moon off the Little Brown bookshelf. I loved the first one in the series, Twilight, and I'm hoping to enjoy New Moon just as much. However The main purpose of being in London was to have a new author photo taken for my novels. Here's the url to his website www.charliehopkinson.com
As long as I don't end up looking like Spike Milligan, I'll be very happy!

While I'm here, I should also add that my literary agency, Blake Friedmann has just gone live with its website. Url here: www.blakefriedmann.co.uk

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WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

" Wow! I feel like someone used to watching movies in black and white but has just seen the first one in technicolor! " A personal letter from a reader.

"The Winter Crown ...will, I have no doubt, become the definitive fictional account of this remarkable woman.' ..." I’ve read a fair few fictional depictions of Henry II over the years and I must say that his portrait in The Winter Crown has the most authentic feel of them all."
Kate Atherton, author of For Winters Night blog.

"Eeanor’s life story has been told many times over in historical novels but rarely with such insight, emotional intensity and page-turning readability." Pam Norfolk, Lancashire Evening Post.

"In the world of the arts, the Black Legend and the Golden Myth still hold sway, as seen in novels, such as Alison Weir's, which seek to portray both the scandalous, adulterous queen of legend and the powerful female ruler. Historians may shake their heads at the perpetuation of such myths, but many historical novelists such as Sharon Kay Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick are seeking to apply modern scholarship to their fiction, and consequently avoid the most egregious of the legends that surround Eleanor."

Professor Michael R. Evans in Inventing Eleanor - Bloomsbury Academic.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SUMMER QUEEN

"What I loved about this novel, and I have felt this way about all of Elizabeth’s novels that I have read, is that she does not pander to stereotypes or write scandal for the sake of it. The historical Eleanor is defamed beyond belief- a whore chasing anything in trousers, a woman who committed incest with her uncle, a woman who was ‘ahead of her time’, and so on. Elizabeth’s Alienor is none of these things. She is treated fairly, as a woman of her own time, written in a believable way. Elizabeth does not go for scandal because she does not need to- the writing in this novel makes that very clear. Her scene setting is lovely, her character development top notch, and the book is a compulsive page turner. I couldn’t put it down." Sarah Bell

."The Summer Queen is a fabulous novel based on the most up-to-date and meticulous research. This is historical fiction at its best and I loved every page of it." Kate Atherton, blogger.

"I have read just about everything I can about Eleanor and enjoyed both biographical and fictional accounts of her life but I must say that your creation of Eleanor is the most compelling." Reader from Australia

"I loved the story; I loved the way the author wrote Alienor as a woman of her times instead of a thoroughly modern independent woman, or a slut in chase of anything in pants. As with all Chadwick novels, there's also the added plus of being sucked into another century with the sights, smells and sounds that wrap up a darn-near perfect reading experience. I couldn't put it down, and very sorry I'm going to have to wait for the next installment. Reader from the USA

"Meticulous research and strong storytelling." Woman & Home
"A rich and compelling read. " Candis Magazine

"I often see the expressions, `fleshing out the history' and `making it real', and they more than apply here...the main aspect that made me keep turning the pages and burning the midnight oil? The things that I didn't know about Alienor.." Reader from Australia

"Chadwick has succeeded where many other novelists have failed by giving us not just the legend but the very human young woman – intelligent, determined, witty and sexy." Pam Norfolk. Lancashire Evening Post.