aka The John Dee Chronicles
General posts that don’t fit a specialised category
When I’m researching the history, characters, and locations that I use in the Predestination series of cosy Tudor mysteries, I build up a lot of material that never makes it into the books – it would be just too dry to drop it into the middle of the fiction. However, it is fascinating stuff! To … Read more
Tudor historical fiction mystery books have exploded in popularity over the past two decades. From C.J. Sansom’s dark atmospheric Shardlake novels to lighter cosy mysteries like the Predestination series, readers can’t seem to get enough of sleuths solving crimes in Henry VIII and his dynasty’s England. But what exactly makes Tudor mysteries so compelling? And … Read more
Back in 2018-2019 I was commuting to work by car, about 1 hour each direction. This was in the Calgary area of Alberta, Canada. Most of the roads I travelled were long, straight, and 2-lanes in each direction, with minimal other traffic 😀 I had time to listen … and to think. What I listened to, … Read more
On November 30th I published my eBook Predestination: The Bloodstone of Boiorix, on Amazon/Kindle. Now seems like a really good moment to give a shout-out to my pre-readers and editor, without whom Predestination would not be nearly as polished. Of course, any remaining errors are mine alone, but I guarantee there would have been many more … Read more
One of the advantages of writing historical fiction is that you have a worthy excuse for buying great reference books. Some of the works that I found most useful and dipped into (or even lived in) are listed here: Title Author ISBN Edward VI, The Lost king of England Chris Skidmore. 0-312-35142-9 The Arch-Conjuror of … Read more
My intention with this blog is to provide more information and images of places, events and people from within the story, that either interest me, or are of particular interest to readers. I would love to receive your photos and stories of the locations that are mentioned in the book. Or perhaps you own or … Read more
I spent seven years (2014-21) researching and writing my first book, Predestination I wove the fictional tale around actual historical events, locations and people. Of course it is a work of fiction, so the characters’ thoughts and deeds are my invention. I find this history endlessly fascinating and I wanted to share that fascination with you, and … Read more