HOYDENS AT LARGE: A Farewell and our news...

The Hoydens are very sad to say farewell to Sandra Gulland. Sandra has been with us since the Hoydens first burst on to the blogging scene but her writing and her life are moving her in different directions. While she remains a 17th century passionista, the lure of the Napoleonic days has captured her and that is where she needs to devote her time and her energies.  

Thank you, Sandra, for your support and your friendship over the last five years. You have graced us with some wonderful articles and will always be welcome back as a guest author should you have a 17th century "moment"!

In the meantime we are waiting with baited breath for the televisation (is that a word?) of your Josephine B. series. I am currently half way through the second book and just loving it.  Mini review here:  Sandra Gulland has chosen the first person voice of Josephine Bonataparte to tell her own story in a diarised format.  The result is a deeply personal account not only of Josephine's own  life but the tumultuous times in which she lived. I can't put it down!

Fear not, dear followers...the Hoydens will continue with our core group of Anita Davison (Anita Seymour), Dee Swift, Kim Murphy and Mary Sharratt, supplemented with our wonderful guests.  We are finding more and more fellow 17th century passionistas...so if you write books set in this period of history, do please email me at alison@alisonstuart.com and ask for a guest spot on the blog. The more people we can share our interest in this period with - the better!

Back to the Hoydens:

MARY SHARRATT:

Mary on a panel at HNS

THE DARK LADY’S MASQUE, the story of Aemilia Bassano Lanier, the first rofessional woman poet in Renaissance England, and her collaboration—and star-crossed love affair—with William Shakespeare, as his Dark Lady, sold to Nicole Angeloro at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

 Conference news: I (Mary) was on three panels at the recent HNS conference: Depicting Religion in Historical Fiction;  Genre vs Literary Historical Fiction ; and The Witchcraft Window: Scrying the Past with Erika Mailman, Kathleen Kent, and Suzy Witten. 



ANITA DAVISON
Writing as Anita Seymour, ROYALIST REBEL, was released in January this year.  The biographical novel of the tumultuous life of Elizabeth Murray who lived through the reigns of Charles I through to William and Mary. The book is gathering some wonderful reviews. 






DEBORAH (DEE) SWIFT
Like Mary, Dee was recently in Florida where she appeared on the Historical fiction bloggers panel. Blogging is alive and well...

Dee Swift on the panel at HNS

Her two wonderful 17th century books THE GILDED LILY and THE LADY'S SLIPPER are out in the world and gathering wonderful reviews. We are all waiting for her next book A DIVIDED INHERITANCE, set in 1609, it moves from London to Seville in Spain...coming soon




KIM MURPHY

Kim reports:  "I'm working on my copy edits for my nonfiction title I HAD RATHER DIE:  RAPE IN THE CIVIL WAR. Release date looks like it will be Jan. 2014."  Kim's study of the American Civil War will be a major contribution to women's history and the fate of women in war time.

ALISON STUART

Alison's September 2012 release, GATHER THE BONES (set post World War One) has gathered some major award nominations this year:  The Australian Romance Readers Awards, the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence, the GDRW Booksellers Best Awards and the InDtale Magazine RONE Awards. 
In April 2013, SECRETS IN TIME was released, an unabashed time travel romance with a time travelling cavalier hero.  Fun to write and a short read.






Alison Stuart
July 7 2013

Hoydens News and Updates

It's proving to be a big year for the girls at Hoydens and Firebrands and we are very excited to share our news with our readers.

Mary Sharratt reports

My news is that I'll be speaking at Capturing Witches, an interdisciplinary academic conference commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trials, at Lancaster University, August 17-19. There will be distinguished speakers from all over the world addressing topics as diverse as historical witchcraft, gothic fiction, Neopagan practice, and the horrifying persecution of so called "child witches" in modern day Nigeria.

My forthcoming book ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGENwill be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on October 9 and will explore the life of the 12th century visionary abbess, composer, polymath, and powerfrau. 
On October 7, Saint Hildegard will be elevated to Doctor of the Church. Currently there are only thirty-three Doctors of the Church and only three are women. This is a solemn title given to theologians who have made a significant impact. 
My book tour will also be launched on October 9 at Common Good Books in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

From Sandra Gulland:

My own news is in the "soon to come" category!


I am releasing e-book editions of all my novels in all territories outside North America (where they are already published). This will be under my own imprint—Sandra Gulland Ink—so I'm quite excited about it. For information see http://www.sandragulland.com/books/sandra-gulland-ink/


Also, my next novel, a second one set in the Court of Louis XIV, the Sun King, is in final draft, and will be published in May of next year.


And, I've contracted with Penguin to write two Young Adult novels, at least one of which will be the story of Hortense, Josephine Bonaparte's daughter. 

Our newest Hoyden Dee Swift writes:

My next book The Gilded Lily, set in Restoration London in the little ice age finally has its covers.Two very different views of the same book, but both reflect it very well I think. It tells the story of two sisters - one pretty and one plain, on the run and looking to re-invent themselves and find their fortune in fashionable society. How will they fare? And when one begins to rise and the other to fall, and their relationship crumbles,will they help each other when danger strikes?

It's publication date is 13th September (UK) and 26th November (US)

Meanwhile, I've  Just finished my third novel, working title "A Divided Inheritance", which is set in England and Spain and will be published by Macmillan in 2013.

Alison Stuart reports:

My next book, GATHER THE BONES comes out in September 2012 from Lyrical Press.  Sadly, it is not a seventeenth century story. I am traversing Downton Abbey territory (if you can imagine Downton Abbey with ghosts).

Set in 1923 against a background of the Great War, grieving war widow, Helen Morrow and her husband’s cousin, the wounded and reclusive Paul are haunted not only by the horrors of the Great War but ghosts from another time and another conflict. A coded diary provides the clues to the mysterious disappearance of Paul’s great grandmother in 1812. As the desperate voice of the young woman reaches out to them from the pages, Paul and Helen are bound together in their search for answers, not only to the old mystery but also the circumstances surrounding the death of Helen’s husband at Passchandaele in  1917. As the two stories become entwined, Paul and Helen will not find peace until the mysteries are solved.

And in late breaking news:  Alison has sold a "time slip" novella (with its feet in the seventeenth century) to Lyrical Press.

From ANITA DAVISON:

Coming in early 2013 from Pen and Sword Press, ROYALIST REBEL, a Novel Based on the early life of Elizabeth Murray, Lady Tollemache, Countess Dysart, Duchess of Lauderdale.

Last but by no means least KIM MURPHY:

Kim reports that she has been working hard on her non fiction foray into the American Civil War.  In the meantime her book  THE DREAMING: WALKS THROUGH MIST received an Honorary Mention in ForeWord magazine's Book of the Year Awards. Congratulations, Kim!


That's it from the Hoydens for now...watch out for all these exciting new releases in the next 6 months!