http://www.margaretfrazer.com Award-winning Author of the Sister Frevisse Mysteries and the Joliffe Player Mysteries My retrospective "A Survey of Medieval London" appears in the Spring 2011 issue of the Mystery Readers Journal. It's only a short article, but I had a lovely time writing it, remembering while I did my time tracing out the remains of medieval London by walking all over the heart of modern London with modern map and 16th century guidebook in hand. Great days. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110531 My Winter Heart Blog Tour is coming to its end, and I can't believe how much fun I've had. As an author, I cheerfully spend most of my time alone, immersed in my work. Over the years, signings and suchlike have drawn me out only occasionally. So this venture into the cyber-world has been an adventure. Thank you, one and all, for sharing it with me. (read more)> http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110530 For today's pit-stop on the Winter Heart Blog Tour, Tiffany Harkleroad offers a full review of Winter Heart for those of you still on the fence regarding the story. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110529 I remember, in my early days in St. Frideswide's, a morning when I had to leave off my writing for the day, dress in "office clothes", and go to stand on a corner waiting for a bus to take me to yet another temp job. The day was February at its most bleak: grim, gray, cold, and slush-ridden. Traffic roared past, and all the buses were full or, when one paused with at least standing room left, I failed to scale the dirty snowbank faster than others eager to crowd into the fusty heat beyond the hissing doors. As one bus after another came and went - with nothing to be won by actually getting on one except a day in a cubicle under merciless fluorescent lights - I thought (quite pathetically, as I recall), "I want to go back to my nunnery!" Historical Tapestry is hosting Why I Love Life in a Medieval Nunnery today. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110528 The technical difficulties we were having a couple days ago seem to have been largely resolved. Which means I'm now retroactively appearing at Karen Johnson's Release Notes. Take my hand for a little double-layered time travel, as we go Falling Into Medieval England. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110526 I'm joining Jeri Westerson, author of the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series, and Getting Medieval. Jeri's hosting my thoughts on the Joys of Research. If there's anything that I enjoy in the same degree that I enjoy writing, it's the research that goes with it... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110525 We have apparently run into some scheduling problems with the blog tour today. We're hoping to have them straightened out shortly, but in the meantime here's something I meant to mention awhile ago, but which slipped through the cracks: Sharon Kay Penman, my dear friend and an extraordinarily talented writer, has written a very fine article on the difficulties (and rewards) of staying as true as may be to medieval mind-sets in our novels and not cheating by giving our characters modern sensibilities they could never have had. To that I can only add, "Hear! Hear!" You might also be interested in an interview Sharon did with me back in December as a very special Christmas gift. Hopefully that can tide you over until this blog tour thing can get itself straightened out! (click thru for links) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110524 Priscilla Royal, most recently author of the medieval mystery Valley of Dry Bones, was kind enough to interview me for the LadyKillers. Venturing far beyond Winter Heart, we chatted about Joliffe and my other short stories and all manner of things. Come join us for Crafting the Historical Mystery: An Interview with Margaret Frazer. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110522 At Let Them Read Books, Lady Q has been entertaining me with her Tour d'Italia -- a literary tour of Italy. Winter Heart, of course, is a bit further afield, but she has nonetheless been kind enough to host me today with a brief discussion of where this particular story came from. She also offers a very charming review for those of you still pondering the novella's virtues. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110520 I had a simply delightful time being interviewed by Elizabeth Zelvin for Poe's Deadly Daughters. And Elizabeth was kind enough to let me blather on for as long as I'd like. Come join our little chat! I'll be answering questions in the comments over there starting later this morning. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110519 Today I'm taking a break from appearances. But instead of an interview, you're getting a Blog Tour Special! My short story "Strange Gods, Strange Men" is on sale for both the Kindle and Nook for just $0.99! http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110518 Justin Alexander, who runs the Alexandrian, is also the fellow who has been editing my e-books and designing my covers. The Alexandrian isn't a blog dedicated to mysteries or historicals, but Justin asked me some great questions and the unique, outside perspective on historical fiction gave the interview a really interesting slant. Check it out. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110517 What is a historical novel? Why do we write them? What makes them special? These are questions I wrestle with often and Patricia Stoltey gave me a chance to explore some answers. Check it out. I'll be joining you in the comments over there later today. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110516 Winter Heart, a novella starring Domina Frevisse, has been released for both the Kindle and the Nook! This is the first new story featuring Frevisse since The Apostate's Tale in 2008 and to celebrate I'm going on a blog tour: Over the next two weeks, I'll be making "appearances" on blogs all across the web with interviews, essays, and other fun stuff. My appearances will all be linked here from my home page, so if you subscribe to my feed, or follow me on Facebook, you'll be able to keep track of me during the tour as it happens. (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110515 Those of you with iPads might be interested to know that The Outlaw's Tale and The Boy's Tale are now available through Apple's iBookstore. The Bishop's Tale will be following them shortly, as soon as it clears Apple's digital publishing process. (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110508 "The Stone-Worker's Tale" has been released for the Kindle. It can also be read on any iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry device using the free Kindle Reading Apps for those platforms. As a special feature, this e-book also contains a Lost Tale of Dame Frevise... sort of. (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-05.html#20110501 "The Witch's Tale" and "The Midwife's Tale" have both been added to the Master Chronology for the Frevisse and Joliffe stories. If you haven't seen the Chronology before, it shows how the two series weave together through the middle years of the 15th century. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-04.html#20110420 A video book trailer for The Bishop's Tale. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive.html#20110416 The Bishop's Tale has been released for both the Kindle and the Nook. When the time came to write The Bishop's Tale, my then-co-author Mary and I decided it was time to move out of the circumscribed world of the nunnery and country gentry of the first books and instead involve Frevisse in the politics of the 1400s. That would be made teh easier because in The Novice's Tale and afterward, we had established Frevisse's relationship with her uncle-by-marriage Thomas Chaucer, who moved in high political circles and would provide a logical way to get her involved in whatever manner of political trouble was going on at the time... (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-04.html#20110414 On May 15th we'll be releasing Winter Heart, a novella starring Domina Frevisse. This will be the first new story featuring Frevisse since The Apostate's Tale in 2008. Like the recent reprints of my older stories and novels, this new tale will be released for the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and other e-reading platforms. In order to celebrate the release, I'll be participating in a blog tour from May 15th through May 31st. (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-04.html#20110407 In The Outlaw's Tale there is talk of the cloak that's going to be made for Mistress Payne. Here, on the chance you would like to make one for yourself, are simple instructions for the cloak she would have been making... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-03.html#20110329 The Saxon name for this month is Leneth-monath - length-month - for the lengthening days, the same word from which "Lent" is derived. It is a dry month with blustery winds, particularly at its start. The winds may cause too much dust but the dryness is hoped for, for the sake of the ploughing and sowing and harrowing that - begun in February - will go on all this month.... (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-03.html#20110326 Apologies for this being posted a bit late. February got a bit out of hand.... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-03.html#20110316 Readying The Boy's Tale to go online and talking about it with a friend, I suddenly remembered (out of some backward-reaching abyss of my mind) when I must have met young Jasper and Edmund for the very first time. Years upon decades ago (in high school, could it have been?) I read a book called The Black Tower by E.K. Seth-Smith and afterwards remembered liking it so much that when I encountered it in a garage sale perhaps twenty years or more after I had read it, I bought it. (Garage sales - or car boot sales if you're British - are very treacherous that way.) It went, unread, into my library, which is (at preset anyway) organized enough that when the book came to mind again the other day, I was able to find it on my shelves (moment miraculous)... (Read More) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-03.html#20110308 A book trailer for The Boy's Tale has been posted to Youtube. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-02.html#20110218 The Boy's Tale is has been released for both the Kindle and the Nook. It can also be read on any iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry device using either the free Kindle Reading Apps or the free Nook Apps for those platforms. The Boy's Tale is the fifth in Dame Frevisse's series and came after three books where the weather was terrible. I would like to say right here and now that the weather in those books was Not My Fault. From chronicles of the time we know there were three years of cold, wet, harvest-wrecking weather at the time those books were set. I didn't plan it that way; it just happened and I was stuck with it because I try to root my stories as deeply into accurate history as possible... (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-02.html#20110215 Since The Outlaw's Tale was made available for the Kindle and Nook earlier this year, I've received many e-mails asking me when the book would be made available in print again or where printed copies can be obtained... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-02.html#20110210 By popular demand, The Outlaw's Tale is now available for the Nook. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-02.html#20110207 My ebook manager told me that the best way for an ebook to stand out from the crowd is for it to be reviewed. He said, "Reviews from readers have probably never been more important in the history of publishing." So I've hatched a scheme: I need readers to review. If you're reading this, you're probably a reader of my novels or short stories. So if you've got a couple of spare minutes, please pop over to the list of my Kindle ebooks here on the website. Pick a novel or short story that you've read, click on the cover to go to Amazon, and then post a review. To offer a little encouragement, I'm also going to hold a drawing for two signed copies of A Play of Piety for anyone who posts a review between now and February 28th. Here's how it will work... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110124 A book trailer for The Outlaw's Tale, which has just been released as an ebook for the Kindle, can now be found at Youtube. Or by pushing the "play" button up above. I'd love to hear your comments on my Facebook fan page! http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110117 "The Death of Kings", a short murder mystery based on Shakespeare's Richard II, has been released for the Kindle. This was the first of my three short stories based on the plays of William Shakespeare. Editor Mike Ashley was behind it, asking for a story for The Mammoth Book of Shakespearean Whodunnits. His idea was to have a story for each of Shakespeare's plays, and authors were each supposed to choose the play they wanted to use for their story... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110112 This is the coldest of the months, with the cold expected to increase as the month goes on and warm weather considered more treacherous than good. On the land this is something of a slack time for work but preparations for spring go on. Dung is gathered from barns and privies to be spread on the fields while the ground is frozen. Wood is cut for fuel. Tools and hedges are repaired; walls are repaired or made. Seed grain is checked to be sure it is keeping well, and ewes are readied for lambing time. In less harsh parts of England, lambing may begin now since ewes are milked from lambing to Lammas (August 1) and the earlier they lamb the longer they can be milked. Cows are expected to be calving now, between Christmas and Lent, and sows are breeding. In barns threshing of last harvest's grain continues when the weather is too cold for working outside. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110110 I'm continuing to creep my way into the 21st century with a Facebook Fan Page. If you're on Facebook, give it a quick click and a "Like". http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110106 "Shakespeare's Mousetrap", a short story set around a startling production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, has been released for the Kindle. To write it I had to break a long-held promise to myself - that I would never, never, never write a story with William Shakespeare as a character. Never. Then Mike Ashley struck again. I had already written "The Death of Kings" for his first collection of Shakespearean whodunits, but there had not been room in that anthology for stories for all of Shakespeare's plays, so there was to be a second volume - The Mammoth Book of Shakespearean Detectives - for the rest of the plays, sonnets, and poems, and authors were asked to choose their play. Unfortunately, I was not habituated to e-mail at that time and would go days at a time without checking mine... (read more) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2011-01.html#20110103 Despite what many historians may think, there can be value in the perspective a novelist may bring to another time and place. Not those novelists who "skim off the top", as it were - taking the Big Events and Big Names of a time and then pasting in on top of them whatever florid improbabilities have taken the novelist's fancy. These authors well deserve both historians' and readers' scorn. But there are authors who work mightily to tell their stories within the context of the time and keep their characters true to that time, not turn them into some out-of-period freak with modern sensibilities and perceptions. Sharon Kay Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick are excellent examples of authors who work hard at playing fair with the times and people they write about. I know I ceaselessly strive to do the same, and it's fascinating what insights can come when trying to see a time, a world, and people from as far inside them as good novelists try to go. Which brings me to the Battle of Wakefield, today being its 550th anniversary and a dark day for all true Yorkists (of which count me strongly one)... http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101230 The Outlaw's Tale, the long-out-of-print third book in the Dame Frevisse series, is now available from Amazon.com for downloading to your Kindle or PC or iPad! (Also the Mac, Blackberry, and Android.) I am nigh to dumbstruck by this. Yes, I know my publisher has some of my later books available as e-books, but I had nothing to do with the process of getting the books set up for that. But rights to The Outlaw's Tale reverted to me several years ago, and so I have been very involved in the process of getting it ready to go electronic, which entailed, among other things, having to read the entire book for the first time since it was published seventeen years ago. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101229 For those living on the land, this is a time of settling in with the winter. If the frost is not yet deep into the soil, more plowing in preparation for spring may be doe. If the cold is not yet too great, the geese, sheep, and cattle that have survived last month's slaughtering are let out to graze the stubble fields. If they cannot be loosed to graze, especial care must be kept of them in their barns. Beekeepers should be sure their hives have food enough and supply them with honey and water if need be. (...) http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101227 I find that I've maybe internalized my medieval life a bit too far. (I can hear my near-and-dear muttering "maybe?") In medieval times the weeks of Advent were a subdued time for penance, reflection, fasting, and purification in readiness for the great gift of Christ's life at Christmas. This was true across the culture, not simply in religious establishments where purple was the color of vestments and all, just as in Lent. Christmas Eve was the culmination of preparation for the day rather than a time for partying.

But come Christmas Day!

That was when all that fasting and subduing of spirits paid off in a bursting out into a feasting and partying that went on for twelve days. You know -- the Twelve Days of Christmas. None of this modern nonsense about Christmas Day, toss out the tree, pause, New Year's, and it's over. No. In medieval times the ideal was: Christmas Day, then party, party, party, more party, New Year's (when gifts were exchanged, rather than on Christmas), more party, party, party, Big Party on Twelfth Night; recuperate and get back to work. Now that's the way to celebrate Midwinter! http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101225 Over the weekend an interview I did for Sharon Kay Penman was posted on her website. You can find it here. Sharon is not only a dear friend of mine, but the author simply wonderful historical novels. If enjoy romping with Frevisse and Joliffe, I think you would be well advised to hunt down some of her work. http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101221 "This World's Eternity", a short story based around Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 2, has been released for the Kindle. It can also be read on any iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry device by using some of the free Kindle Reading Apps. This story features some familiar faces: Queen Margaret and King Henry IV from "Neither Pity, Love, Nor Fear" as well as Bishop Beaufort from The Bishop's Tale and A Play of Lords. It's one of the three short stories I have written based around various plays by Shakespeare (for a series of Shakespeare-oriented anthologies). http://www.margaretfrazer.com/archive/archive2010-12.html#20101218