California Dreamin'

I have to share a recent amusing moment.
Back in November while visiting a re-enactment fair at Warwick, I ordered a shield. I wanted a mid 12thC kite shield with an early depiction of the Marshal Lion. This is the shield I envisage William Marshal's father John carrying into battle. Same colours as his famous son's but with the green and yellow reversed. The lion figure is based on an early existing manuscript painting.

Anyway, Royal Mail tried to deliver the finished shield today when I was out and left a note. There was a tick beside 'Would not fit in the letterbox.' Ummmm....no, I can understand that. The postman had written at the top of the document 'surf board.' After I'd finished grinning, I thought about my psychic friend's description of John Marshal and his blond good looks. From there I took to imagining him not in a mail shirt, but walking out of the California surf in a wet suit. Phew! It certainly made a frozen, foggy UK day a LOT warmer!

Dark deeds afoot

Although I'm still working on the story of John Marshal - A Place Beyond Courage, I am also looking towards the next project which I'm due to start writing byn March 07. As usual there's no title yet, but I do know it's going to be about Roger Bigod, William Marshal's eldest grandson and will cover much of the reign of Henry III.
I've started preliminary researching and while doing so came across a primary source account of the terrible incident of the death of Roger's uncle, Gilbert Marshal. Roger had five Marshal uncles and all of them died without issue. Foul play is known in the case of the second son, Richard, and highly suspected in Gilbert's. The other three are anyone's guess but I suspect they were helped off the mortal coil since none of them made old bones.
According to Matthew Paris, Gilbert was killed at a tourney near Hertford. He had a new Italian destrier which he was having trouble controlling - he didn't have the equestrian or military skills of his famous father. His first vocation had been as a clergyman and it had been rumoured that he was 'inexperienced and useless as a knight.' His fate was sealed when he attempted to rein the horse in and his bridle leathers snapped off right beside the bit chains. Paris suggests that they had been deliberately cut so that they would snap under pressure. With no means of controlling the horse, it was almost inevitable that he would fall. Unfortunately his foot was caught in the stirrup and he was dragged for some distance, sustaining cuts, bruises and traumatic internal injuries from which he died in agony later that same day. The damaged state of his internal organs was remarked upon when he was eviscerated prior to his body being borne to London for burial in the Temple Church.
Gilbert's effigy bears poignant testimony to his demise - and perhaps something more down the ages. Whereas most knights of this period have their feet couched upon a dog or a lion, Gilbert Marshal's feet reside upon a serpent that is twisted round, chewing at his foot. I am led to wonder if this is a hint from the family that he was murdered as well as being a testimony to the manner of his death. Gilbert had plenty of enemies but I wonder who it was who gave the order to take him down. It's going to be interesting finding out.

Book Signing Date!

I have a piece to write about another visit I made to the Temple Church last week and how it pertains to Gilbert Marshal, it's just a case of getting around to it as Christmas and approaching deadlines, begin to squeeze my time even more than it's usually squeezed.

However, I'm dropping in to say I will be signing copies of The Scarlet Lion, Daughters of the Grail, The Greatest Knight, and my other novels at W. H. Smiths Meadowhall in Sheffield on Wednesday 6th December at 1pm. If you're in the area, do come and say hi if you've got a moment!

Title Deeds

How do you go about choosing a book title? Is it there as a slow burn long before you begin? Does it come to you in a flash at the start of your project? Does it develop as you write? Do you think about titles afterwards?
Long ago, before I was published, I bought Writing Historical Fiction by Rhona Martin. She says: 'It always makes me uneasy when someone reading a story in a workshop says, 'I haven't thought of a title yet.' All too often it turns out that the writer hasn't thought about the theme either, with the consequence that quite soon he or she complains of being 'stuck' with that particular story, having run out of anything further to say.' She says that frequently writers' block comes of losing sight of your theme and that since a title should be a distillation of the theme, if you don't have a title, keeping to your theme is going to be more difficult.
I acknowledge Rhona Martin's point and agree that it might be true in some cases, but I certainly have to disagree where it applies to myself as a writer. I'm now on my sixteenth published novel and just finishing up my seventeenth for delivery sometime before March O7. Some of them have had strong titles from the start. Others have been a last minute scramble as we head to press. I have yet to suffer from writers' block. Looking at the titles of my three most recent novels about the Marshal family - one in print and a bestseller, one about to come out in hardcover and one still in progress - I find that none of them had a title at the outset.

The Greatest Knight had a working title of William Marshal - yeah, I guess that's a distillation of the theme, as is the final, but up until the last minute, The Greatest Knight wasn't carved in stone.

The Scarlet Lion - due out on 6th December was called Marshal II for most of its creation. Again it was a last minute scramble to find something more inspiring. The Red Lion of Pembroke? - Nope, too much like a pub. William and Isabelle? - too much like a drawing room.
The Countess? - no, because it's more about William than his wife, although she does feature strongly. Something, something Regent? No. You could call it a Regency novel, because William was regent of England, but of course everyone thinks of the Regency as existing in the early nineteenth century. Same problem with the word 'Marshal'. People immediately think of westerns. Then there's the problem of having a wide cross section of readers - all ages all genders, so the title needs to welcome all. The Scarlet Lion was the final decision. I like it and it does the job, but it was a tough one.

The work in progress is about William Marshal's father John: the man who told King Stephen to do as he wished with his son because he had the anvils and hammers to beget better sons. The working title has been Hammers and Anvils but the general consensus was that while the title was pertinent to the character and part of a direct quote from the Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal, it was perhaps a bit too in your face and masculine for the broad scope of the readership. As aforementioned the word 'Marshal' in the title wasn't a goer. We were all out of red lions. I quite liked The Forging, (as I felt it was a pun that covered a lot of ground) but no takers. A long dog walk, the inspiration of a song by Runrig called 'Only The Brave' 1 and a quote from the Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal 2 finally led me to suggest 'A Place Beyond Courage'. My agent and publisher love it. I'm relieved to have what appears to be a strong title that reflects many of the themes in the story...and in place three months before I'm due to hand it in.
I thought I'd go through all of my titles and try and remember if they came to me at the beginning or the end of the writing process. I'd also be interested to know how other writers who happen by this blog come by their own titles for their work.

The Wild Hunt - last minute scramble
The Running Vixen - Decided from the start, inspired by the above title
The Leopard Unleashed - suggested by a friend half way through the writing
Children of Destiny/Daughters of the Grail - decided on half way through
Shields of Pride - known from the start - one of the easy ones
First Knight - a given by Columbia Pictures
The Conquest - known from the start
The Champion - known from the start
The Love Knot - known from the start
The Marsh King's Daughter - known from the start
Lords of the White Castle - Decided half way through. The Spanish are calling it The Outlaw, which I think is much better actually.
The Winter Mantle - Decided late on. For a long time it was The Briar Garden
The Falcons of Montabard - known from the start
Shadows and Strongholds - a scramble at the last minute

1 The relevant lines being
Not to love is not to live
Not to live is to feel no pain
So unlock this heart of stone
Teach me the ways of mystery
In the places where they say
Only the brave can walk alone

2 The brave and the valiant
are to be sought often between the hooves of horses
for never will cowards fall down there

To Market, To Market additional photo

Here's the dough trough (see post below),
and have somehow managed to post the brooch and wimple pins, although the formatting is still weird!

To Market to Market!

Staying on the theme of re-enactment for this next post, I went to two re-enactor's markets in Warwick and Coventry last weekend and returned with all sorts of gauds! The rather alarming piece of pottery on the left is a replica of a mid thirteenth century jug from Kingston on Thames. It's made by 'Jim the Pot' of Trinity Court Potteries, whose wares may also be seen gracing the trestles of the film A Knight's Tale. Here's the url to his site. www.trinitycourtpotteries.co.uk
I've now added it to my mantlepiece collection of 'authentic' medieval pottery, much of which I use at shows, and of course as an inspiration to my writing.
As well as the chappy on the left, I also returned with:

A 12th century replica brooch
Four wimple pins
Two cookery booklets titled: The Recipe Book of Gareth The Baker and And We Must Eat of the Yellow Wobbly Bits - being a sundry and diverse collection of notes on the arcane art of offal cookery.
A rather beautiful deep wooden trough for kneading bread dough
A trug for my husband who had his last one stolen at the village
show.
A Venetian glass pen as a Christmas present
I ordered a pair of shoes from www.anaperiodshoes.co.uk They're in the High Medieval section and they're the twelfth century laced ankle shoe.
Not content with that, I have also ordered a late period kite shield (mid twelfth century) from
www.shieldsandshoes.co.uk
It's going to be blazoned for John Marshal, the father of the great William. Not that anyone knows his blazon and heraldry was only just beginning at that time, but I am having it done half green half yellow like William's, but with the green and yellow reversed, and the famous rampant lion in the foreground.
I think that's about all I bought - indeed, I would have needed a mortgage if I'd come home with anything else, but pennies are now being saved for a nice firebox on which to do my cooking instead of having to use the group's firebox. This will give me leeway to experiment at home. And I did find myself rather longingly eying up the rivet mail hauberks and late 12thC helms at the Get Dressed for Battle stand....Hmmmm. www.getdressedforbattle.co.uk

Robin Hood, Robin Hood!

Last weekend Nottingham held its fourteenth annual Robin Hood Pageant in the castle grounds. It was business as usual for my re-enactment society Regia Anglorum who were employed to provide part of the living history exhibit and acts of derring do in the main arena.
The photo to the left features members of the Nottingham branch of Regia, the Conroi de Vey.
I am on the far left of the photo and dressed down in my 'cooking frock'. Just before the photo was taken (by Sarah, also known as the Lady Nicolaa and the mum of the two little boys in the picture) I remembered to remove my by then disreputable apron!
De Vey has performed at most of the pageants, aided and abetted by other groups within Regia Anglorum's framework - Cestrefeld, de Bec, Deoraby to name but three, together with guests from other societies who share Regia's ethic for 'getting it right.' Not that the Robin Hood Pageant is an event calling for white-hot authenticity. It's a fun show where anything vaguely Medieval goes. Costumes range from Viking to fifteenth Century. Purple velvet, wench corsets, black leather and fantasy gear are well represented. Regia's dateline for this event was late 12thC and we dressed to suit.
Numerous traders have booths and stalls on the site and it's a great opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping. I picked up some Fraoch beer for my sons. www.heatherale.co.uk
Also a medieval drinking cup from www.themerchantventurer.co.uk
A while ago I blogged that I was considering what sort of food to dish up to the Regia members at the pageant, given that I'd be cooking outdoors, using a firebox and cauldrons and catering for approximately thirty people, including some vegetarians. I finally decided on a spicy beef stew for the Saturday, containing (as well as beef!) onions, ginger, cumin and black pepper. I'd tried this out before at Castleton and it had worked very well. Also it's a fairly generic, authentic medieval dish. Being as it was the Robin Hood Pageant, I could always claim that we'd stolen the spices off the sheriff's baggage cart! The vegetarians dined on a leek and onion pottage. People returned for seconds, so it was evidently a success! Sunday's main course was sweet and sour chicken (authentic Medieval again. The Museum of London cookbook has it in the Norman section, although more academic works put it later, but I assume it comes from a long tradition). Actually, when I say authentic, the meat should have been goat or rabbit, but chicken is more readily available today and user friendly. For smaller quantities I'd have used the original suggested meat. The sweet and sour was obtained using wine, wine vinegar, honey and currants. There were also onions in the dish and garlic.
We also had nibbles, including parsnip cakes - mash cooked parsnip with flour and salt and fry on the griddle in a little butter in the manner of a potato cake. Excellent! We had pear tarts and leche lumbard among other things. The latter is an interesting medieval dessert for which there are as many recipes as days in the year. My adaptation is this: Empty a bag of dates into a saucepan. Cover with white wine. Add a couple of teaspoons of mixed spice and one of ginger. A few screws of ground black pepper. Cook until it makes a squidgy mush. Then stir in breadcrumbs until you have a stiff but still moist mixture. When cool, mould into an oblong shape. It will look like a plate of poo (ahem!). People at shows who've never encountered it before will look at it askance, but once they've tried it, if they like dates, they can't stop eating it.
As always, when attending a show in kit, there was a lot to learn just by being around re-enactors and enthusiasts for a couple of days. I had a go with a hand quern (hard work, but wonderful to see grains gradually emerge after several grindings onto the boult cloth as flour.
Fun too to learn that a pine cone makes a marvellous brillo pad for a scummy cauldron!

All in all a great weekend. Good friends, good food, loads of research and a medieval atmosphere. What more could anyone want....apart from a bit less rain on the Sunday afternoon!