Spotlight on A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica’s Rebellion {Giveaway}

Publication Date: November 13, 2015

Knight Media LLCe

Book & Paperback; 440 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Celt . . . and these are their stories.
A calculating queen sees the sparks of revolt in a king’s death.

A neglected slave girl seizes her own courage as Boudica calls for war.

An idealistic tribune finds manhood in a brutal baptism of blood and slaughter.

A conflicted warrior hovers between loyalty to tribe and loyalty to Rome.

A death-haunted Druid challenges the gods themselves to ensure victory for his people.

An old champion struggles for everlasting glory in the final battle against the legions.

A fiery princess fights to salvage the pieces of her mother’s dream as the ravens circle.

A novel in seven parts, overlapping stories of warriors and peacemakers, queens and slaves, Romans and Celts who cross paths during Boudica’s epic rebellion. But who will survive to see the dawn of a new Britannia, and who will fall to feed the ravens?

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | ITUNES

A Year of Ravens Authors
Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, & Russell Whitfield

Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/ayearofravensblogtour/
Hashtags: #AYearofRavensBlogTour #HistoricalFiction #Boudica
Twitter Tags: @hfvbt

GIVEAWAY
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a Celtic inspired set of silver tone metal and red Swarovski crystal beads, including a necklace, bracelet, and earrings inspired by the setting of A Year of Ravens! Please enter the giveaway via the GLEAM form below.

Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on December 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to residents in the US and UK.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

ENTER HERE: https://gleam.io/O6l0X/a-year-of-ravens-

Spotlight on A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii

Please join historical novelists Vicky Alvear Shecter, Sophie Perinot, Ben Kane, Kate Quinn, E. Knight, and Stephanie Dray as they tour the blogosphere for A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii, from October 27-December 5 with HF Virtual Book Tours!

Publication Date: November 4, 2014
Knight Media, LLC
eBook; 315p
ASIN: B00NI5CBXI
Genre: Historical Fiction

Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories:

A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii’s flourishing streets.
An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire.
An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished.
A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue.
A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls.
A priestess and a whore seek resurrection and redemption as the town is buried.

Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each others’ path during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

Pre-order/Buy the Book
Amazon US
Amazon UK

About the Authors

STEPHANIE DRAY is a multi-published, award-winning author of historical women’s fiction and fantasy set in the ancient world. Her critically acclaimed historical Nile series about Cleopatra’s daughter has been translated into more than six different languages, was nominated for a RITA Award and won the Golden Leaf. Her focus on Ptolemaic Egypt and Augustan Age Rome has given her a unique perspective on the consequences of Egypt’s ancient clash with Rome, both in terms of the still-extant tensions between East and West as well as the worldwide decline of female-oriented religion. Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Learn more at www.StephanieDray.com

BEN KANE worked as a veterinarian for sixteen years, but his love of ancient history and historical fiction drew him to write fast-paced novels about Roman soldiers, generals and gladiators. Irish by nationality but UK-based, he is the author of seven books, the last five of which have been Sunday Times top ten bestsellers.Ben’s books have been translated into ten languages. In 2013, Ben walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall with two other authors, for charity; he did so in full Roman military kit, including hobnailed boots. He repeated the madness in 2014, over 130 miles in Italy. Over $50,000 has been raised with these two efforts. Learn more at http://www.benkane.net

E. KNIGHT is an award-winning, indie national best-selling author historical fiction. Under the name, Eliza Knight she writes historical romance and time-travel. Her debut historical fiction novel, MY LADY VIPER, has received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Historical Novel Society 2015 Annual Indie Award. She regularly presents on writing panels and was named Romance Writer’s of America’s 2013 PRO Mentor of the Year. Eliza lives in Maryland atop a small mountain with a knight, three princesses and a very naughty puppy. For more information, visit Eliza at www.elizaknight.com.

SOPHIE PERINOT is the author of the acclaimed debut, The Sister Queens, which weaves the story of medieval sisters Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence who became queens of France and England respectively. Perinot has both a BA in History and a law degree. A long-time member of the Historical Novel Society, she has attended all of the group’s North American Conferences, serving as a panelist at the most recent. When she is not visiting corners of the past, Sophie lives in Great Falls, VA. Learn more at www.SophiePerinot.com

KATE QUINN is the national bestselling author of the Empress of Rome novels, which have been variously translated into thirteen different languages. She first got hooked on Roman history while watching “I, Claudius” at the age of seven, and wrote her first book during her freshman year in college, retreating from a Boston winter into ancient Rome. She and her husband now live in Maryland with an imperious black dog named Caesar. Learn more at http://www.katequinnauthor.com

VICKY ALVEAR SHECTER is the award-winning author of the young adult novel, Cleopatra’s Moon (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2011), based on the life of Cleopatra’s only daughter. She is also the author of two biographies for kids on Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. The LA Times called Cleopatra’s Moon–set in Rome and Egypt–“magical” and “impressive.” Publisher’s Weekly said it was “fascinating” and “highly memorable.” Her young adult novel of Pompeii, Curses and Smoke (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic), released in June 2014. She has two other upcoming books for younger readers, Anubis Speaks! and Hades Speaks! Vicky is a docent at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University in Atlanta. Learn more at http://www.vickyalvearshecter.com/main

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule

Twitter Hashtag: #ADayofFireBlogTour #HistoricalFiction #Pompeii

Twitter Tags: @hfvbt @KateQuinnAuthor @ElizaKnight @StephanieHDray @BenKaneAuthor @Lit_Gal @VAlvearShecter

Empress of the Seven Hills Giveaway and Guest Post by Kate Quinn



Titled as Empress of Rome in UK
Due in UK July 2012



US Cover

Empress of the Seven Hills will be available April 12, 2012.. see end of the post for the book giveaway information!

SYNOPSIS: From the national bestselling author of Daughters of Rome and Mistress of Rome comes a tale of love, power, and intrigue spanning the wilds of the Empire to the seven hills of Rome.

Powerful, prosperous, and expanding ever farther into the untamed world, the Roman Empire has reached its zenith under the rule of the beloved Emperor Trajan. But neither Trajan nor his reign can last forever...
Brash and headstrong, Vix is a celebrated ex-gladiator returned to Rome to make his fortune. The sinuous, elusive Sabina is a senator's daughter who craves adventure. Sometimes lovers, sometimes enemies, Vix and Sabina are united by their devotion to Trajan. But others are already maneuvering in the shadows. Trajan's ambitious Empress has her own plans for Sabina. And the aristocratic Hadrian-the Empress's ruthless protégé and Vix's mortal enemy-has ambitions he confesses to no one, ambitions rooted in a secret prophecy.
When Trajan falls, the hardened soldier, the enigmatic empress, the adventurous girl, and the scheming politician will all be caught in a deadly whirlwind of desire and death that may seal their fates, and that of the entire Roman Empire...

Please welcome to HF-Connection author Kate Quinn, on her blog tour for Empress of the Seven Hills:


Sometimes I fantasize about quitting historical fiction and writing young adult instead. This usually happens when I am wrestling mightily with some historical figure who is sauntering through my latest book as a character, and I am faced with one of the following dilemmas:


1. How to make my character likeable even when they have some historically-accurate-but-distasteful opinions from their time period such as “Hey, I think slavery's just fine, want to go out and shop for a masseuse?”

2. How to ramp up the story's suspense for a historical figure when the reader already knows, thanks to Wikipedia, the history books, or the latest Showtime TV sensation, exactly what happened to them.

This is generally when I think about going into YA. In YA, I muse, I will no longer have these problems. My characters will all be modern and made-up, not longer meticulously documented historical figures with Wikipedia entries that I must fact-check for every detail of their lives. Sure, I'll have to plop them my YA characters down in some dystopian horrorland or, even worse, high school. But at least I won't have to figure out how to make their marriage to a 40-years-older man into a palatable romance, or explain away their historical fondness for bear-baitings.


That's the headache with making historical figures into book characters. You must work within the given facts: birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, and everything in between. You must re-interpret the character without twisting them out of all recognition: no turning Julius Caesar into a pacifist rather than a warrior. You must find out a way to make their less savory traits – a king's tolerance for brutal border expansion, a mother who marries her daughters off at twelve – into something a modern audience can relate to. And you must figure out a way to ramp up the tension in your story, even though everybody on the planet already knows, when picking up your Anne Boleyn book, exactly where Anne will end up in the last chapter and how she ended up eight inches shorter.

Making historical figures into book characters is a process I enjoy hugely, despite my occasional head-banging urge to relocate to YA. Knowing the facts about a historical figure is rather like having a skeleton standing in the room: it's up to me to put flesh on the bones. My latest novel set in ancient Rome abounds in historical figures: Emperor Trajan, his wife Empress Plotina, and her protégé and adopted son Hadrian. Some of these characters were easy to flesh out – according to all my research Emperor Trajan was likeable and easy-going, a hearty man's man beloved by almost everyone. Hadrian was harder to pin down; a brilliant scholar and visionary world traveler who wasn't always a nice guy to his friends. Plotina comes across the centuries as a prim-and-proper woman, the very model of one of those political wives who sits behind her man on the campaign platform and smiles for the cameras – but one or two odd rumors have descended through the centuries about Plotina, enough for me to mold her into a splendid tooth-gnashing villainess.

One of the most crucial things to keep in mind when writing historical characters is that they are products of their own time, not ours. An upper-class Roman woman from the era of Empress of the Seven Hills owned slaves, submitted to her arranged marriage, was ruled over by an all-powerful emperor, went to the arena to watch both animals and human beings slaughtered for entertainment, and accepted all of these things as the natural course of life. If I make my heroine more politically correct – if she thinks the gladiatorial games are cruel and unjust, rails against her arranged marriage, and believes people deserve to govern themselves rather than submit to a despot – then I no longer have a historically authentic heroine. I have a 21st century feminist in a dress on rent from the Spartacus: Blood and Sand wardrobe department, running around a paper-mache mock-up of ancient Rome.

But still . . . another equally important thing to keep in mind is that people are still people. Human beings are subject to the same desires and hopes and feelings, no matter where or when we are born. Love, friendship, ambition, revenge, hope – some human emotions are so universal that they drive us all, from Emperor Trajan and Empress Plotina of the Roman Empire, to the readers devouring books about them in the 21st century. My heroine in Empress of the Seven Hills might accept her arranged marriage, but she still yearns to find real love just as much as any modern girl who secretly tears up at the end of The Notebook. My hero, when dumped by his girlfriend for the second time, has exactly the same impulse as most modern guys: he goes out, gets hammered, and feels sorry for himself. The only difference is that he goes to a Gallic tavern with cold mead and dice games, rather than a sports bar with Bud Lite on tap and a Steelers game on the flat-screen.

In the end, that's why I love writing historical fiction. It's deeply satisfying to strip away the differences, the strangenesses about these people who lived in the past, and make them relatable to readers today. If I can make you wish you had Emperor Trajan for a boss even though he was a ruthless conqueror, then I feel I've won. If you want my heroine for your BFF even though she owns slaves, then I've really won. It's the fun part of my job.

Besides, if I really did give up historical fiction and start writing YA, I'd have to write about dystopian horror-scapes or God forbid, high school. Which I think might be even worse in the long run than writing about arena executions, arranged marriages, and slavery combined.
~~~~~

To enter for your chance to win Empress of the Seven Hills, please be a follower of HF-Connection and comment here with your email address.

Preferences will be made to those who twitter and facebook the link to this post.
USA residents only, and giveaway will end on 4/21/12. The winner has 24 hours to respond via email with their mailing address. Good Luck!
Visit Kate Quinn's guest post from her last release
Visit Kate Quinn's site to learn about the entire Rome series.

{Giveaway!} Daughters of Rome - prequel to Kate Quinn's unforgettable debut, a Guest Post

Please welcome Kate Quinn to Historical Fiction Connection, and see below to enter for your chance to win a copy of her newest release, Daughters of Rome.

Sex and the City (of Rome)

By Kate Quinn, author of Daughters of Rome

I'll admit to a certain guilty pleasure of mine right off the bat: Sex and the City. Oh, I mocked it, but I still swooned over the clothes, the humor, the girltalk. And I've had a chance to catch up on SATC now that my second historical fiction novel Daughters of Rome is released. Which is why I've started to think of Daughters of Rome, set during the Year of Four Emperors, as “Sex and the City of Rome.” I have to admit, it didn't strike me at the time when I was writing it, but there are certain similarities . . .


The Setup

“Sex and the City” gives us four girls sticking together through love affairs, marriages, heartache, and brunch. Daughters of Rome gives us four girls sticking together through love affairs, marriages, heartache, and civil war. (Not that those SATC brunches didn't have a certain amount of civil war lobbied over the Bloody Marys from time to time.)

The Heroine

SATC had Carrie Bradshaw to narrate the chaos, a writer with a nice line in cynical voiceovers and an enormous appetite for stilettos (the higher the better). For DoR there is Marcella, a historian with a nice line in cynical one-liners and an enormous appetite for politics (the bloodier the better).


The Heroine's Posse

Carrie's three best gal-pals include a very proper brunette, a very sexy blond, and a very tomboyish redhead. Marcella has an older sister and two cousins: a very proper brunette, a very sexy redhead, and a very tomboyish blonde.

The Style

SATC popularized “Carrie” necklaces, Prada gowns, and Manolo Blahnik stilettos. DoR might end up popularizing ruby necklaces, goddess gowns, and gladiator sandals. (For women who are not a size zero! Roman fashion went for a curvier, softer silhouette, which frankly the skinny gals of SATC could have used. I adore Sarah Jessica Parker, but the woman needs a few cheeseburgers.)

The Romantic Escapades

Carrie and the girls managed, over many seasons and two movies, to rack up four marriages, one divorce, three children, and countless lovers. I'm sorry, but Marcella and her posse have them beat with eleven marriages, six divorces, eight children, and countless lovers. Those racy Romans . . .

The Men

SATC had one cute guy after another: suave Mr. Big, nice-guy Steve, sweetheart Harry, sexy Smith . . . to name but a few. DoR offers one Emperor after another: cranky Emperor Galba, metrosexual Emperor Otho, sports-fan Emperor Galba, nice-guy Emperor Vespasian . . . to name but a few.

The Obstacles

Carrie & Co. collectively faced pregnancy, divorce, abortion, adultery, and cancer. Plus trying to afford Louboutins during a recession. Marcella & Co. face pregnancy, divorce, abortion, adultery, and widowhood. Plus trying to stay alive when your political leaders are massacring each other literally on your doorstep every three months or so. Warring emperors aside, I guess the problems women face haven't changed so much over the millennia.

Perhaps that is the real reason Daughters of Rome is reminiscent of “Sex and the City,” all jokes aside. In the end, women face many of the same problems whether they happen to live in modern day New York or first century Rome. A girl who has gone through a divorce feels just as lousy about it whether the process involved a team of expensive lawyers (modern day), or just moving out of the house (ancient Rome). Both Roman women and modern women faced the agonizing choice of “adoption, abortion, or single motherhood?” when faced with an unwanted pregnancy. A passionate affair with the wrong man is just as confusing and heartbreaking whether the man in question is a married stockbroker with commitment issues, or (gasp) a slave.

What I'd love to see is Carrie and her friends meet up for brunch with Marcella and hers. Let's assume the English-to-Latin translation is seamless, and plenty of drinks are provided. After a certain awkward period where the Roman girls splutter over their very first taste of a Cosmopolitan, and the modern girls are introduced to Roman wine so strong it can be lit on fire with a match, I see this discussion going well. Marcella would be fascinated by Carrie's columnist gig - “Women get paid for writing here? I'm never going back!” Charlotte and her Roman counterpart Cornelia would bond instantly over the years they both spent yearning for babies; Charlotte pats Cornelia's hand a lot and assures her that it will happen someday, just you wait. Miranda and her tomboy equivalent Diana will both be talking at once, Miranda trying to explain baseball and Diana trying to explain chariot racing. And Roman party girl Lollia will be swapping hair-raising sex stories with Samantha: “A pearl thong? That's nothing; I wore sapphire nipple caps once. Never again, you wouldn't believe the chafing. Now tell me more about these things called vibrators . . .”

“Sex and the City of Rome” - now that would be a show worth seeing. HBO, if you're out there, Daughters of Rome has not yet been optioned for film . . .

Thanks for having me to the Historical Fiction Connection! It’s been a pleasure.



Daughters of Rome, April 5, 2011

A.D. 69. The Roman Empire is up for the taking. The Year of Four Emperors will change everything-especially the lives of two sisters with a very personal stake in the outcome. Elegant and ambitious, Cornelia embodies the essence of the perfect Roman wife. She lives to one day see her loyal husband as Emperor. Her sister Marcella is more aloof, content to witness history rather than make it. But when a bloody coup turns their world upside-down, both women must maneuver carefully just to stay alive. As Cornelia tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered dreams, Marcella discovers a hidden talent for influencing the most powerful men in Rome. In the end, though, there can only be one Emperor...and one Empress. 

Kate Quinn is a native of southern California. A lifelong history buff, she first got hooked on ancient Rome while watching I, Claudius at the age of seven. Still in elementary school when she saw the movie Spartacus, she resolved to someday write a book about a gladiator. That ambition turned into Mistress of Rome, written when she was a freshman in college.


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