Elisabeth Storrs Historical Novels
Ancient Roman Historical Fiction
Priestesses, divination and the role of women in the ancient past – all topics I explore in my guest post on Patricia Bracewell’s blog. Many thanks Pat! Read can the post here. You can read Pat’s interview with me on her sources of inspiration on Triclinium here.
My guest today is Eva Stachniak author of The Winter Palace, her novel of Catherine the Great which was an international bestseller, and has been included in The Washington Post 2012 list of most notable fiction. Empress of the Night, her second Catherine the Great novel, has just been published in Canada and the US. Itis also available in the… read more
My guest today is Gillian Bagwell whose richly detailed historical novels bring to vivid life England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her latest book, Venus in Winter, is based on the first forty years of the life of the formidable four-times widowed dynast Bess of Hardwick who survived the turbulent reigns of five Tudor monarchs to become one of… read more
My guest today is Sherry Jones, an American journalist and the internationally best selling author of the controversial The Jewel of Medina and other historical fiction novels about women’s power. She is also a speaker on issues including women’s rights, free speech, and Islamophobia. Her novels explore the obstacles women have long faced in reaching their highest potential in a… read more
My guest today is Jesse Blackadder who is fascinated by landscapes, adventurous women and very cold places. Her novel The Raven’s Heart won the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award and was published in Australia in 2011 and in the UK, USA and Canada in 2012. Chasing the light: A novel of Antarctica,which she wrote as part of a Doctor of… read more
Suzanne Adair, author of Camp Follower has featured my guest post on her Relevant History blog: The Realm of the Dead: Afterlife in the Ancient World
Does this picture look familiar? No, it’s not Lucretia (Dying for Rome) but this woman’s story is depressingly similar to that of the tragic Roman matron who was raped by an Etruscan prince. She is Virginia, whose death, just like Lucretia’s, was the catalyst for significant change in Rome. The image is deceptive, though, because the man stabbing her is… read more
The women of the early Roman Republic were definitely second class citizens (see Damn Whores or God’s Police). It is interesting, though, that two of them, Lucretia and Virginia, were catalysts for significant changes in early Roman history. While the existence of these women is debatable, their legends have been passed down through the ages as examples of the… read more
Old fashioned courtesy can go a long way. And so, too, can snail mail. When I requested Ursula Le Guin to endorse my novel I used both. Last year my first novel, The Wedding Shroud, was published in Australia (and has now been released as an e-book world wide). The book is set in C5th BCE at a time when… read more
‘There was drama to his ministry. When he marked the sacred boundaries with his lituus, carried the patera of water around the altar, she could almost see the lines that divided holy from profane appear.’ The Wedding Shroud To me a violent storm instils fascination and fear. Science tells me what causes it but tell that to my dog who… read more
