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July 29th, 2010
LOCKED ROOMS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA This is the cover for the Czech edition of the Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes,
which includes a translation of my short story "The Traveler's Tale".
Or, as it appears in Czech, "Kocar do pekel", which Google Translate intriguingly
renders as "Coach to Hell". I'm not sure what to think of that, but I rather like the sound of it. - Margaret | 
| July 27th, 2010
NEITHER PITY, LOVE, NOR FEAR - KINDLE EDITION A Kindle edition of "Neither Pity, Love, Nor Fear"
-- my short story which won the Herodotus Award -- has been published.
Even if you don't own a Kindle, that means that the story is now
available for the whole suite of Kindle Reading Apps: iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry. I have to admit I give a hoot of laughter to see a Victorian painting on the cover, but I really like the strong impact it has. From the metaphorical dust jacket: This
award-winning story from Margaret Frazer dives into one of the great
mysteries of history: The strange death of Henry VI, King of England.
Was it a conspiracy of murder? The grudge of an old rival? Suicide? The
vengeance of the new king or his bloody brother? Frazer uncovers a
truth deeper than fiction in this powerful image of living history.
"Neither
Pity, Love, Nor Fear" won the Herodotus Award for Best Short Story.
Margaret Frazer, in addition to her other awards and honors, has been
twice nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award. She lives in
Minneapolis, MN. |
Buy Now - Margaret |
| July 22nd, 2010
SEMPSTER'S
TALE - AUDIO BOOK
- Margaret
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| July 15th, 2010
PRIORESS' TALE - LARGE PRINT EDITION Ulverscroft U.K. has released a hardcover, large print edition of the Edgar-nominated The Prioress' Tale with an absolutely breathtaking cover. It has been added to the Alternative Covers Gallery. - Margaret |
| July 8th, 2010
THE BOOK OF DAME FREVISSE Some
few years ago I was contacted by a young woman named Faria Sookdeo. She
was working as a student for Dr. James Como, who wanted to talk with me
and had set her the task of finding me. Since those first
conversations, I have enjoyed Dr. Como's scholarly work immensely and
become good friends with Faria. Later, when Ms. Sookdeo decided
to do her master's thesis on the idea that the Dame Frevisse novels
form a multi-volumed novel with a single, over-arching story, I was
happy to give her all the help I could. She has now received her M.A.
in English, and I'm happy to present her thesis here for everyone to
read. I confess that I am SO proud. THE BOOK OF DAME FREVISSE:
MARGARET FRAZER'S MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES 
- Margaret
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| July 1st, 2010
A MEDIEVAL YEAR IN ENGLAND:
JULY
No tempest,
Good July
That
short verse sums up the greatest need of the month – good weather for
the haying. To the Saxons this was Hey-monath or Maed-monath, named for
the meadows being at their fullest flowering. For the haying,
workers began each morning as soon as the dew was dried and went on
until the evening dew fell. They stayed in the fields all day, even to
eat, but by custom usually took an hour of rest and sleep at mid-day.
The hay not only had to be cut but turned over in its swathes for
better drying, then raked and lifted up and built into haycocks to shed
rain and dew until finally fully dry. Only then could it be collected
and carted for piling into haystacks. The amount of hay that could be
cut and stored during the summer was of major importance because it
determined how many animals could be kept over the winter for the next
year’s flocks and herds. A poor haying meant most of the livestock
might have to be killed come the autumn. The fewer animals which could
be kept, the poorer the next year would be. So good weather with little
rain was a necessity all through July until haying ended near
Lammastide at the beginning of August. At the same time the work
days owed to the lord of the manor were at their heaviest, his hay
harvest also needing to be mowed, tossed, cocked, stacked as well as
all the other work tended to as well. And with the good weather
building work went on, with repairs to mills and the setting up of
folds, pens, and fishing weirs. Barley, oats, peas and beans needed
weeding. Blacksmiths were kept busy making and repairing scythes,
sickles, and hay forks. On the moors there was danger of
bracken-poisoning of sheep and cows, with extra care needed there,
although as soon as the haying was done, the fields would be opened to
the cows for grazing and the sake of having their dung dropped there. Closer
to home, beekeeping was particularly vital, since honey and wax were
used in every household. Honey was the main sweetener (sugar being an
expensive import from abroad) and also used in medicines and in mead
and its by-products in dyes. So most people kept their own bees,
maintaining the hives and processing and storing the honey and wax. Among
other things happening, the flax and hemp crops were ripening. Flax was
grown by most households for their cloth needs, with the extensive
labor needed to change the flax from plant to linen thread mainly the
housewife’s task. So was preparing the hemp needed for making ropes
stronger than the common ones made of twisted straw. Along with
all of that, this was the hottest time of year. On July 3 the
proverbially hot Dog Days officially began (and went on until August
11), named from the Roman idea that the heat and attending diseases of
these days were connected to the rising and setting of the Little Dog
Star, Canicula. For those with leisure to hunt, the roebuck was
still officially in season but the summer months were commonly treated
as a time of grace, with no hunting until Holy Rood Day in September. With
so much pressing work on the land, there were no major Church holidays
to distract folk, but according to folklore, rain on St. Swithin of
Winchester’s day, July 15, meant the saint had “christened the little
apples” and there would be rain more or less for the next forty days.
In southern England, at least, folk gave the priest farthings in church
on St. Swithin’s day.
St. Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithin’s Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair.
It
was a mixed blessing either way, because too much rain would spoil the
haying but some rain was needed for all the crops waiting to be
harvested come August and the autumn. The hardest work of the year was
only partly done by the time July ended. 
Summer 1448 - Margaret |
| June 10th, 2010
REVIEW: RED ROSES FOR AUTHORS A rather pleasant review of The Maiden's Tale was recently posted at Red Roses for Authors: | This medieval tale gives a flavour of Chaucer's times and is authentic
enough to make the reader feel that they know what life was like for the
characters within this involved plot. (...) It is certainly well
researched and written and will be welcomed by fans of this kind of
historical story. A little heavy going for the romance reader but meaty
enough to satisfy those in search of more. (...) I give this book 4.5 red roses. A thoroughly enjoyable read. |
You can read the full review here. I
mention this here because they're specifically reviewing the hardcover
Robert Hale edition of the book, which was only released in the U.S. in
paperback. If you're interested in grabbing a hardcover copy, they're
available from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Robert Hale has also published several other exclusive limited edition hardcovers from both the Frevisse and Joliffe series. - Margaret |
| June 3rd, 2010
A MEDIEVAL YEAR IN ENGLAND:
JUNE This
is the Summer month, with trees at their fullest and the flowers most
fair. On the land, where most of medieval England’s population’s
concerns were centered, the summer work began to intensify, with
sheep-shearing at the beginning of the month, followed by one of the
quarter days of the year when rents came due, after which there was an
increase in the work days that lords received by right from their
landholders. Because sheep’s wool was the basis for much of
England’s wealth at every level of society, shearing time was a vital
time for the economy. The sheep were not simply dipped but thoroughly
washed and foul wool removed before shearing. Afterward, the husbandman
or lord was expected to give a dinner for those who had helped with his
flock, and the sheared fleeces were prepared and sacked in readiness
for when the wool merchants and their agents would tour the country
purchasing it for the foreign trade. Households would keep enough wool
for its own clothing needs, with the carding, spinning, dyeing,
weaving, and sewing needed for clothing a year-round concern for
housewives. Ideally, the shearing would be done before St.
John the Baptist day, June 24. This was one of the four quarter days of
each year, when the rents came due and contracts might be renewed. It
was also the last holiday before the long stretch of haying and harvest
work began. On its eve, bonfires and the gathering of green boughs to
decorate homes and churches was traditional, with dancing around the
bonfires and often a town watch parading all night with torches and
merriment. In London a Watch of 2,000 men would parade the streets on
Midsummer’s Eve and again five days later on the eve of St. Peter and
Paul. The hunting season for hare ended now (since
Michaelmas in last September), and although the roebuck continued in
season there was usually a ‘time of grace’ from Midsummer to Holyrood
Day (September 14). For farmers, field work became the
over-riding concern. Depending on the year’s weather and local climate
some haying might be started in late May but usually sufficient dry
weather could not be counted on until June, and even then
When the wind goes to the west early in June,
Expect wet weather till the end of the moon.
Wet
weather could be a disaster to a hay crop, and disaster to the hay crop
meant fewer animals could be kept through the coming winter so that the
next spring there would be fewer animals for breeding, milk, cheese,
and wool – a disaster for everyone. The haying was spread out through
June and July. It had to be timed not only to the weather but to when
the meadows were ready to be cut and dried, and even then only some of
the meadows could be cut at one time to better the chances of getting
enough good hay to last the whole year. Meanwhile, weeding of
crops and all the dairy work went on. Because of the increase in the
number of work days that a worker owed his lord after Midsummer, there
was even less time for someone to do his own work just when he needed
it most. The constant tug-of-war between the workers, wanting to work
their own land, and the lord’s clerks, trying to keep track of who owed
what work when and seeing to it that the work got done, was probably a
major factor in those work-days gradually being commuted to money
payments, freeing the workers to their own work and simplifying the
lord’s business since he could then simply hire workers without all the
bureaucratic interfacing that complicated everyone’s life. This
was also the time for repairing mills (necessary to grind grain to make
bread that was a staple of everyone’s life) and setting up pens for
animals on new-mowed land, placing weirs in streams to catch fish, and
doing last minute planting. For those less tied to the
land, the expectation of good weather made this a likely time for
travel, for merchanting or pilgrimages, and such aristocratic games as
tournaments. Between the cool of Spring and the heat of Summer, warm
June could be the most pleasant time of the year – for those with the
leisure to enjoy it. - Margaret |
| May 13th, 2010
MYSTERIES OF HISTORY - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY I recently did an e-mail interview with Lenny Picker for an article he was writing for Publisher's Weekly. The full article -- "Mysteries of History"
-- is available online now, but quite a bit of our discussion quite
naturally didn't make the cut. I thought you might be interested in my
at-length comments, which appear below.
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What attracted you to
it?
I came to historical mysteries by way of long-standing
interests in archaeology and anthropology.
Or it might be better to say I came to history
that way and to history mysteries by
accident. I enjoy both history and
science fiction and fantasy. All of them, done well, serve to broaden the mind
and emotions out of the limitations of whatever time and place we live in. If
we stay cramped into where and when we are, our chances of mental and emotional
growth are in effect stunted. I like to venture into other when and other
where, to explore other ways of seeing the world, other ways of being alive
than what the confines of here and now dictate. What I was working at was the
writing of historical novels when the chance to write historical mysteries came
my way. Intrigued by the added challenge, I took it.
Were attracted to a
particular time period? What about that setting appealed to you?
Out of the various time periods I’ve an interest in, I’ve
ended up spending most of my time in England in the first half of the
1400s. It was first the politics and personalities of the time interested me,
but to understand those, I had to understand the economics, sociology,
philosophy, religion, literature, and everything else about the time. The more
I’ve researched (and I’ve been at it for about 45 years now, with no end in
sight), the more I’ve enjoyed the complexities and nuances of the time. I like,
too, that we have actual portraits of people – ordinary as well as royal --
from then. We can see their faces and trace their lives and visit places where
they lived, all of which helps me go deeper into that other when I mentioned
above.
What are the hardest
and easiest things about writing in the genre?
The hardest thing is staying “in period”, of having the
characters behave according to their time, their beliefs, not ours. So many
historicals – both mystery and otherwise – are just paste works of modern
people stuck into costumes and castles or whatever, acting out the author’s
fantasy of “Here is how I would have
been had I lived then,” usually in a rehash of clichés about a time period that
set my teeth on edge. If I come across one more novel set during the Black
Death ...
Of course I go what could be seen as overboard in trying for accuracy: I try to
keep the vocabulary in my books pre-1500 – not just what the characters say but
what I say as the author. For an
instance, in one book a main character was a very nervous man, but while
“nervous” existed as a word in the 1400s, it did not at all mean what it means
today. So I had to find medieval ways of describing the character. Nor was
“pregnant” a word at the time, and I had to search out the different ways a
bearing woman would have been referred to. Things like that serves to keep me
“in period”, forcing me to be inside the medieval world, rather than writing
about it from “outside”.
How do you perform your research?
I start with books – at first scholarly studies with footnotes and
bibliographies that can lead me ever deeper in ever more refined works about
whatever aspect I’m pursuing. Then published actual documents from the times –
bureaucratic documents such as the Close Rolls, Patent Rolls, and Fine Rolls
are wonderfully detailed; and household records; and court proceedings not only
at the high courts but at village levels – those are all deeply revealing. And
of course there’s the actual literature of the time. Right now, for me, it’s
the plays that were being performed. But going to the actual landscape, being
in actual buildings from the time – not just the churches and castles but
ordinary houses; there’s much reconstruction being done – is invaluable. AND
wearing the clothing and living by the manners of the time, for a few days at
the very least, reveals more than can be had from any book.
Do you read other authors in the genre?
Very few. I tend to get cranky very fast, especially with
books purporting to be in a medieval setting and awash in clichés about the
time. (If I read about one more garbage-infested street … What do you think all
those town laws about keeping streets clean were meant to do?)
How do you avoid anachronisms,
especially in how the detective investigates and reasons?
I do my best to avoid anachronisms by way of all that
heavy-duty research I wrote about above. I have immersed myself in the time as
far as possible, to the point that sometimes something I haven’t thought about
just doesn’t feel right when I come
to it in my writing and I have to go and look it up, usually discovering it is
indeed wrong for the time. As for how the detective investigates and reasons –
reasoning was alive and well in the Middle Ages. Churchmen were advised to
analyze carefully any claims of miracles and cross-question the witnesses.
Juries received directives on how to weigh evidence. Coroners were told how to
investigate a crime scene and the dead body. The word “detective” may date from
the 1700s, but the verb “detect” and the noun “detection” are very much
medieval and meant what they mean today. The vocabulary and tools of
investigation have changed -- oh, what I sometimes wouldn’t give for an alibi,
fingerprints, and some DNA testing -- but the awareness of how to go about
investigating suspicious circumstances was strong. And by the way, speaking of
clichés, by the 1400s in England
both torture and ordeals by fire and water were illegal; they were no longer
believed to be reasonable ways of learning guilt or innocence.
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- Margaret |
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