This Sunday was bright and sunny. I was tired after helping my daughter do a charity event on the Saturday evening and of course the pesky clocks went forward. Any sensible mortal would plan a lie in to counter the loss of an hour followed by a walk in the park perhaps. Not I. Along with something like 150 other writers or aspiring writers I got up early and traveled to a leafy suburb of Leicester to attend the 2nd Self-Publishing conference run by Troubadour Publishing.

I had heard of this event via a friend Helen Hollick, who in many ways is my mentor having giving me the kick start I needed 4 years ago to adopt a professional approach to self-publishing. By the way I can massively recommend her book on editing fiction called  Discovering the Diamond – co written with Jo Field.

This was not an expensive day. Registration fee was £55.00 per person. This includes a delegate’s pack, morning coffee, buffet lunch, afternoon tea and a choice from many sessions on different aspects of self-publishing.

The structure of the day was an introduction by the CEO of Troubador and a key note speech by Alysoun Owen the editor of the Writers and Artists year book which was a good over view of the current state of publishing and self publishing. She showed us the growth of self publishing in the last few years and how it both has become a viable approach for many authors but also a massively competitive area due the simple vast numbers of authors and aspiring authors out there.

The rest of the day was split into 4 sessions of 75 to 90 minutes each divided by coffee breaks and lunch.  Accross these 4 sessions there were 21  different sessions to choose from and I found that I often had a tough decision between more than one speaker. The sessions I chose were:

Working Successfully with bookshops and libraries to sell your books. 

The speakers took us through approaching local libraries individually, developing a relationship perhaps by offering events and free books, to going through the central buying departments.  With budgets shrinking the message was that is is not easy to get adopted in every library and you are more likely to succeed with local studies and history/ interest books than fiction.  As for getting into bookshops we were encouraged to ensure books were of course well presented and professional, on distribution via Gardners etc but even then there would be a low chance of getting onto the shelves of Waterstones and Smith.

One useful snippet from this talk is to keep an ear to the ground on any upcoming festival or literary event in libraries etc as you might just have a book or books that could fit. Then contact community librarians and offer up talks etc.

From Self-publishing to mainstream and back again

Polly Courtney was an investment banker who after working in the city left to write books on her experiences. Her first novel Golden Handcuffs failed to gain much interest until the 2008 financial crash when she self published, managed to get coverage linked to the crash and basically that kicked off her sales. She was picked up by Harper Collins and had a frustrating time finding that they would design covers that did not suit her books or even give the books titles that were wrong.  She eventually came back to self publishing and has a successful career writing as well as doing talks. An interesting message I took from her talk was the need to be very proactive with marketing books and to be open to the right opportunity that the world flings at you.

Whilst Waiting for Helen Hollick to go to lunch I chatted to Jane Rowland former editor of the Self Publishing magazine and she reminded me that the magazine does take review books from self published authors. Over Lunch Helen and I discussed having books in print in the USA and UK and the possible needs for different covers and editions.

 Promoting your Book to Online Bookshops

This session by Steve Potter of Wordery covered how to get your books on sale on Amazon, Wordery and elsewhere but also marketing using Twitter, Pinterest etc. the sheer vastness of social media means that one needs a focused strategy so as not to loose all day online. Checked on my ipad and my books are on sale on Wordery too so that was one job I dont need to do.

Successful Promotion for Children’s Authors

Basic take home message: for all children under 8 you are trying to reach the parent not the child. For 8 to 12’s its a mix of getting the message across to child and parent and for teens it is the reader themselves. Reviews are critical and here there are many blogs and sites who will do reviews. The talk covered doing school visits etc.

As I say there were many other sessions on for example ebook publishing, book covers, book reviews and the importance of employing a good editor etc.

Overall I found that I was doing most things I should be doing but I did pick up a snippet or two from each talk to take further. The conference allowed for a lot of networking and  I did think that what would REALLY help would be a full list of delegates, who they were and what they were as well as speakers along with contact info for everyone as I think many of us wanted to follow up chats we had during the day. So my feedback would be to have a contact list.

Otherwise I can not think of very much wrong with the event and can recommend it to aspiring writers and indie/ self publishers.

When I set out to research books set in the early Anglo-Saxon period I was immediately faced with an enormous problem: finding out what had happened.

When the last Roman soldier departed Britain in the early 5th century reliable documentation of events started to collapse. The invading Anglo-Saxon tribes were effectively illiterate and it was not until the coming of Christianity (which did not fully pervade England until the late 7th century) that some form of regular record keeping returned. In fact it really took until the time of Alfred the Great at the end of the 9th century for reliable continuous commentaries on the goings on in the land to be kept in the form of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and other documents.

What then do we do when we want to find out what happened in the early Saxon period? Where could I turn to when writing a book set in the late 6th century?

The documents that I turned to when trying to found out what historians knew about this period were:

De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain by Gildas. Gildas was a monk who lived around AD 500 to 570 in the Dumfries area of Scotland (what was then the British Kingdom of Strathclyde). Much of what we know about the possible existence of Arthur, Vortigern, Ambrosius and so on comes from Gildas. His writing shows the state of chaos and confusion with a land split between half a dozen races and the civilization that had persisted for four centuries collapsing. There are limits to Gildas however. Firstly he had a message to pass on. He wrote about the downfall of Britain – the end of Roman rule and the invasion of the Anglo Saxons and very much argued that this was God’s punishment for their sins. More importantly he died around AD 570 – JUST before the period I was writing about.

The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum: Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede. Bede was a late 7th and early 8th century scholar and monk. His main work is believed to have been completed in 731. Bede writes a lot about the ancient (to him) history of Britain and basically stopped around the fall of Britain and the end of Roman rule, picking up the story with the Augustine mission in 597. He only really gets interested in the conflict between Celtic and Roman Christianity and the conversion of kings and very much argues that the defeat of the Britons is the result of them backing the wrong horse (theologically speaking). So he was quite content to report Pagan English slaughter of Welsh monks as being justified for example. All that said he has a lot of detail from the early 7th century onwards BUT there is an agonising gap before about AD 600.

The Historia Brittonum, or The History of the Britons, is a historical work that was first composed around 830 by the Welsh Monk Nennius. It contains a lot of of detail on the Arthurian period and some full genealogies of the Royal Families of Deira and Bernicia but again there is an annoying lack of commentary on the late 6th century.

Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, and other Annales in Ireland and Scotland are chronologies and lists of dates compiled in the 8th to 12th centuries in various monasteries and then combined together. They offer snippets and brief glimpses of events – particularly brief the further back you go. Names come up, some useful dates but very little detail. It its like looking at the contents page of history text book! Scholars though can study all these fragments and combine them into something approaching a coherent history and these add some knowledge.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle (late 9th century and afterwards)
Probably started by King Alfred the Great who at least sponsored and encouraged it, this was a chronicle of events in England and surrounding lands recorded by monks. It focuses on the large events, battles, Kings and Lords and so forth and at first glance would seem to be just the thing. BUT there are limitations to its usefullness. The writers were living in a period over three hundred years after the events they recorded and so were relying on passed on word of mouth or old documents that no longer exist and we cannot validate. Moreover the Chronicle is south centric – focusing for the most part on the events in the southern kingdoms and little on those in Northumbria where my story is set. This is so much so that the chroniclers seems to just simplify matters by lumping the Royal Houses of Deira and Bernician (the two parts of Northumbria) into one. Fortunately other geneaologies do exisit for this period. The historic Battle of Catreath which did so much to shape the north is not even mentioned in the ASC. Then again it is not mentioned in many places.

Welsh Poetry

Oddly enough it is poetry, not historical documents, that shed some more light on these dark years. The British poets and bards Aneiren and Taliessen witnessed or heard about the great and traumatic moments of the late 6th century. To them it was real life, happening to them and those they knew. Taliessen lived circa 534 to 599 or early 600’s and wrote about Urien and Owain of Rheged. Much of what we know about the struggles between Bernicia and Rheged we read of in his poems. Aneirin was younger – possible a young man in 597 at the battle of Catreath and it was his poem about it – Y Goddodin that is really the only record of the event.

Modern References
There are many books that have been written that discuss events in he period 550 to 650 AD. It can be tempting to take them at face value and assume they are correct. However you soon discover that they often contradict each other and that many are making assumptions and simplifications themselves and that all struggle with the same paucity of original sources. So all must be taken with a pinch of salt. That said there are a few useful sources for someone researching this period:
The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens Mike Ashley takes all the material including a vast number of commentaries and modern books on the monarchies and nations of the last 2000 years and tries to set out a definitive record. It is the most accessible of the reference tools I used.
The Age of Arthur John Morris. Written by an academic whose area of expertise was the period 350 to 650 this tries to lay out as fact a coherent history for the period. It ha been widely criticized by historians for relying heavily on interpretation but at least Morris gives us A version of history. The problem with many academics work is there is almost NO attempt to sift the evidence and present an interpretation. Morris has the courage to do that.
An English Empire NJ Higham is a work that conducts an analysis of what Bede writing tells us about this period and is a useful commentary although a bit limited to Bede’s perspective.
The Britons Christopher Snyder is an academic work with a lot of archaeological references but is a good summary of current thinking on the period. He presents the arguments that are current (or where a few years ago) and tries to weigh them.

Making sense of it all
This then is the problem that writers of historical fiction set in the late 6th and early 7th century have. There is something like a 150 year gap in reliable data. There are theories and ideas but in the end you just have to examine it all, visit the possible battlefields and locations that are known about and make the best effort to create a believable world, to bring to life those that lived in these forgotten but critical years – the birth of England.

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I write Historical Fiction set in the late 6th and early 7th Century. The Amber Treasure is the BRAG Medallion winning first book in the Northern Crown Series for older teens and adults. Shield Maiden in the Children’s Literary Classics Silver Medal winning first book in the Nine World Series for children. Both are currently free in e-book form. on Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and  (some of the time) on Amazon.

Giveaways: Two copies of The Amber Treasure paperback can be won. Email me via  http://www.richarddenning.co.uk/contact.html and I will draw names and post out the 2 copies to the winners. The prize will be declared on 1st  January.

 Do join the Blog Hop and visit these other interesting authors! 

1. Helen Hollick : A little light relief concerning those dark reviews! Plus a Giveaway Prize
2. Prue Batten : Casting Light….Plus a Giveaway Prize!
3. Alison Morton ‎ Shedding light on the Roman dusk Plus a Giveaway Prize!
4. Anna Belfrage  Let there be light!
5. Beth Elliott : Steering by the Stars. Stratford Canning in Constantinople, 1810/12
6. Melanie Spiller : Lux Aeterna, the chant of eternal light
7. Janet Reedman   The Winter Solstice Monuments
8. Petrea Burchard  : Darkness – how did people of the past cope with the dark?
9. Richard Denning : The Darkest Years of the Dark Ages: what do we really know? Plus a Giveaway Prize! 
10. Pauline Barclay  : Shedding Light on a Traditional Pie
11. David Ebsworth : Propaganda in the Spanish Civil War
12. David Pilling  :  Greek Fire Plus a Giveaway Prize
13. Debbie Young : Fear of the Dark
14. Derek Birks  : Lies, Damned Lies and … Chronicles
15. Mark Patton : Casting Light on Saturnalia
16. Tim Hodkinson : Soltice@Newgrange
17. Wendy Percival  : Ancestors in the Spotlight
18. Judy Ridgley : Santa and his elves  Plus a Giveaway Prize
19. Suzanne McLeod  : The Dark of the Moon
20. Katherine Bone   : Admiral Nelson, A Light in Dark Times
21. Christina Courtenay : The Darkest Night of the Year
22. Edward James  : The secret life of Christopher Columbus; Which Way to Paradise?
23. Janis Pegrum Smith  : Into The Light – A Short Story
24. Julian Stockwin  : Ghost Ships – Plus a Giveaway Present
25. Manda Scott : Dark into Light – Mithras, and the older gods
26. Pat Bracewell Anglo-Saxon Art: Splendor in the Dark
27. Lucienne Boyce : We will have a fire – 18th Century protests against enclosure
28. Nicole Evelina What Lurks Beneath Glastonbury Abbey? 
29. Sky Purington  :  How the Celts Cast Light on Current American Christmas Traditions
30. Stuart MacAllister (Sir Read A Lot) : The Darkness of Depression

Quite a lot of the writing I do mixes real history with fantasy as I enjoy that type of treatment of both genres. My novel The Last Seal is set in 1666 during the Great Fire of London but involves sorcery, secret societies and the odd demon.

I am delighted therefore to be hosting Helen Hollick today during the Blog Tour she is doing for her Sea Witch novels. I have read the first two and have the third packed ready for my holiday reading. You can read my review of Helen’s books a little later today on this blog so do come back.

I wanted to find out how Helen had set about writing a novel which mixed the age of piracy with fantasy. So then over to Helen. Hi there and welcome to Richard’s Ramblings, Helen.

Hello Richard, and Blog Readers, thank you for inviting me here. I am enjoying an Internet Tour with my Sea Witch Voyages – nautical historical adventure fantasy, starring Captain Jesamiah Acorne.

A few years ago, my agent (now my ex agent) wanted me to write something like Harry Potter. I wasn’t too keen. For one thing, it had already been done, and another, I write for adults. I suggested pirates instead; the first Pirates of the Caribbean Movie had only been out a few months and Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow was causing a distinct stir among a variety of age groups, especially those of us of (ahem) a mature age. I enjoyed the movie and wanted to read something with the same feel about it – as did, I discovered from the many pirate and Jack Sparrow forums and websites, a multitude of other readers – mostly female.

Sea Witch was the result. Unfortunately my agent didn’t share my enthusiasm for an adult market; she insisted I had to write it for teenage boys. I clearly saw in my mind the sort of story I wanted to write, and the audience it was aimed at. Adult fiction has more detail and I wanted some scenes to be of an adult nature. Sex and violence, I think, has no place in children’s fiction. I wanted to write Frenchman’s Creek, not Treasure Island. So my agent and I parted company and I wrote the book I wanted to read.

My dilemma was how much fantasy, and in what form,  to bring into it. I am well known for my serious historical fiction novels – The Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy and my Saxon Novels -  A Hollow Crown and Harold the King (entitled Forever Queen and I am the Chosen King in the US)

The Sea Witch Voyages, however, were meant to be a bit of escapism from reality. I think of them as a blend of Sharpe, James Bond, Hornblower and Indiana Jones. The main plots  of the books are based on historical fact, episodes that happened in history, like the sinking of an entire Spanish Treasure Fleet and the demise of Edward Teach – Blackbeard. Glimpses of history where I can easily locate my characters – and have Jesamiah there, right in the middle of what happened.

I wanted that touch of fantasy as well though, so Jesamiah’s girlfriend (later in the series, his wife) Tiola Oldstagh (pronounced Teo-la Oldstaff) is a healer, midwife and a white witch. Not the wand-waving Harry Potter type, but the subtle use of Energy, as in the Force in Star Wars. Her name is an anagram of “all that is good”.

At first, on my own without an agent, I was not sure whether to have this element of fantasy – should I write as straight historical? But there are plenty of nautical books like this – Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey series, Alexander Kent, Julian Stockwin, C.S. Forrester, James L. Nelson…. I wanted to capture the essence of the first Pirates of the Caribbean Movie, the Curse of the Black Pearl. It was the unreality that appealed – the typical take with a large dose of salt sailor’s yarn tale. Magic and Mermaids. I haven’t used mermaids yet – but I have used the ethereal entity of the sea – Tethys the Goddess of the sea, and her daughter Rain. While in Voyage Three, Bring It Close Jesamiah is haunted by the ghost of his father. So I suppose you could say these novels are supernatural-based rather than fantasy. Ripples In the Sand, Voyage Four, which is half written, will be a sort of Time Slip novel, while the historical fact will centre on the Jacobean rebellion of 1719, when James III had planned on invading England with an Armada. Ideal for Jesamiah to become involved in – after all, trouble follows him like a ship’s wake.

But how much is fantasy “fantasy” and how much of it is “real” or at least perceived “real”? How many of us believe in ghosts, or that feeling of déjà vu? And every sailor I know will swear that a ship has a living soul.

Just where does the normal blend, almost seamlessly, into the paranormal?

The entire plot of Sea Witch came into my head one afternoon when I was walking on a rainy English beach on the Dorset coast. I had researched the reality of pirates because I was interested in the subject, and then I had that not very encouraging interview with my ex-agent. Despite her negativity, as soon as I had decided to write Sea Witch (yes the title came into my mind straight away) I knew exactly what I was going to write. I even saw Jesamiah on the beach. Was he real, was he a figment of my imagination? But as writers or the teller of tales, what is real anyway? We make the believable from the unbelievable – we create what appears real from the imaginary.

I was driving, thinking about a next chapter and for a split second I saw and felt myself at the helm of a ship. My hands were curled round the spokes, I could see the mast rising ahead if me, hear the wind in the rigging, the crack of the sails; feel the spindrift on my face. I pulled over, shaking. What was that? Imagination? Time slip? Some sort of recalled DNA memory? Maybe. My ancestors came from Bristol – one of the largest Sea Ports in England.

Another time, I saw Jesamiah on the deck sorting through a chest of colours (flags) and I often hear his voice. Usually it’s an amused chuckle, occasionally a few words. More often that not: “Where’s the rum”?” !

So can you see now, why I was so determined to write these books how I “felt” they should be written? Is it up to an agent, publisher or editor to insist that a writer writes to order? I would have had no pleasure in writing Sea Witch for children. I have had enormous fun writing these stories for us grown ups who haven’t quite grown up yet though!

Only time, and sales, will prove my decision right or wrong.

Or that I’m nothing more than a demented scribbler!

You are welcome to visit my website www.helenhollick.net

join me on Facebook –

www.facebook.com/helen.hollick

Many thanks Helen. I enjoyed your visit.

Do come back everyone for my review of Helen’s books this afternoon.