NOTE: This blog relates to 2014. I’m coming to the UK next month, 1—10 October. I’ll be doing a bunch o’ stuff to support Hild. If you’re a reader of this blog I hope you’ll come along and introduce yourself.

On To the Best of Our Knowledge I’m “Getting Medieval” with fellow writers George R.R. Martin, Karen Joy Fowler, and Bruce Holsinger, weapons expert Kelly DeVries, and more! To coincide with this weekend’s premier of Game of Thrones Season 4, it’s a whole hour of conversation about why we’re so interested in the Middle Ages.However, […]

I’ve been posting chunks of early reviews etc. on the Hild page of my main blog but thought I’d include a few snippets here to whet your appetite:

I’ve got all the help I need right now with my pitiful Old Irish, thank you all so much. When I’ve finalised the passage I’ll repost it here.

Just got back from a lightning visit to the UK. I spent a lot of time here: Those of you who travel to conferences will probably recognise it. If I could have delayed my trip by ten days or so, I could have met some of you. It’ll happen one day. Really. Perhaps next year? […]

Sentences are something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve always been a fan of clarity and simplicity: poetry masquerading as prose. Rhythm matters. Word choice matters. Metaphor matters. I love to vary the rhythm and shape of sentences in a paragraph–unless I’m going for a particular effect. But while writing about Hild, all […]

** This is a cross-post from my personal blog, Ask Nicola ** Yesterday I was feeling torpid and decided to actually read some of the free books I downloaded a few weeks ago, last time I was feeling ill. I read King Solomon’s Mines by (Sir) H(enry) Rider Haggard. I’d always assumed I’d read it […]

Perhaps this will surprise no one but I like the novel I’m writing. I’ve spent a 100,000 words taking Hild through childhood and am now poised to introduce her to young womanhood. Not a moment too soon. Don’t get me wrong. As I’ve said, I’m enjoying this novel–delighting in it, in fact. But writing that […]

The Authors’ Foundation, administered by the UK’s Society of Authors, have just given me a grant. Now I can do my research in England in person. Can you spell Bedes World? I’ll be in Yorkshire and Northumberland mostly–Bebbanburg, Goodmanham, Sancton, York (again), Whitby (again), hopefully Yeavering… Any other suggestions? Oh, this is going to be […]

A new issue of Heroic Age at last. Yay! Lots of ruminations on Arthur and folklore, leading off with a piece by C. Scott Littleton on parallels between two tales which may or may not have a common origin: Abstract: In this paper we consider whether the Norse story of the “Sword in the Branstock” […]