All posts tagged: dark ages

10 Types of Bad guys!

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The Lord of the Manor – “What shall we do with the scullery maid we found reading a book, Lord Dastardly?” “Have her dismissed, force her parents off my land, and send her brothers and sisters to the local poor-house.  That should stop her getting ideas above her station…” You can’t beat the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the English Lord and Lady, unless….. The mean King – Unless he is the king of course! The English normally supply most these bad guys as well, and you have plenty to choose between.  From Edward 1st ‘Hammer of the Scots’, Richard III locking his nephews in the Tower (then murdering them), to Henry VIII and his severance package for estranged wives. The decadent Emperor – Ancient Rome with all its wealth and power needs a good insane Emperor to keep things ticking along.  Making a horse a senator (Caligula), killing his mother (Nero), or being deluded into thinking he was Hercules (Commodus), you have plenty to choose from, and that’s just Rome… Ancient China, The British …

Great periods of history to write about – STAGE 1 (Ancient to Medieval)

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Okay, so you want to write a historical novel, but what period of history do you choose?  The list is endless, but here are a few options…. Featured novel: The King Must Die by Mary Renault Ancient Greece 1200BC – 300BC:  Greek gods, myths, large scale battles of Hoplites… PRO’s:  The birthplace of democracy, the Olympics, philosophy, and other ideas that shaped the modern world, give you lots of subject matter to base your novel around; whilst the mythology of Ancient Greece allows your novel to be full of gods, goddesses, and all the mysticism that goes with it.  If you prefer a little more action, don’t worry – you have the warlike Spartans, their rivalry with the Athenians, or Alexander the Great’s invasion of Persia.  Disclaimer: I couldn’t resist the last on that list, so I tried my hand at that myself in the first novel I wrote. CONS:  It can be more difficult than you think to research a historical period so far in the past.  Although there are a host of non-fictional books …