Croatia

A few photos from my recent trip to Croatia - beautiful country, stunning scenery, friendly people - and blue skies and sunshine all week!



Between Dubrovnik and Split
 

The bay at Omis (just outside our hotel)

Waterfall in Krka National Park

A sail down the Krka River to Skradin

Cafes and bars outside Diocletian's Palace in Split

Father Christmas - in flip-flops - at Trogir!

An evening sail up the Cetina River from Omis

The bridge at Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The main street in Dubrovnik Old Town

One of the many streets of steps in the Old Town

Walls of the Old Town

View of Dubrovnik from the south

Wall of the Old Town at Kotor in Montenegro

Montenegro's 'inland sea'

Sunset - from our hotel near Dubrovnik

June 1st - Book Anniversary Giveaway

A month ago, I wrote about the 45th anniversary of the publication of my first book (yes, I really am getting old now!).
Between 1968 and 1978 I had four books published - all of them in hardback. One of them was also bought for serialisation in a UK women's magazine, three were bought by Harlequin for publication as paperbacks in the USA and Canada, and one of them was even published in Italian!
Jump forward 30 years, and I started writing romance novels again. My confidence had deserted me, until 'His Leading Lady' was accepted and published at the beginning of June 2011.
Since then I've had another four novels published.
So, to celebrate my return to writing contemporary romance, I'm offering five (yes, FIVE!) e-copies (PDF format) of 'His Leading Lady' to 5 lucky commenters who answer the following question:
What is your favourite musical show - and why?

His Leading Lady

Jess Harper’s predictable life is turned upside down when she discovers that Lora, her twin sister, has disappeared.  It’s just a week before rehearsals are due to start for a new West End musical in which Lora has the lead role.  Jess decides to pose as her sister in order to save Lora's career.  This brings her into close contact with arrogant theatre director Kyle Drummond.  Attraction sparks between them but there’s also evidence he had been dating Lora.  So is Jess simply a substitute – in real life as well as in the show?  And what will happen when Lora eventually returns? 

 

 

12 Five Star reviews and 2 Four Star:
"His Leading Lady has a gripping cast of characters taking you on an emotional journey of sisterly love, betrayal and desire."

"Paula has brilliantly written a page turner that dives the reader head first into romance, intrigue and mystery, set in London's Theatrical West End."

"It has everything that a romance novel should have: sexy male and female characters, humor, mystery, chemistry, antagonists, misunderstandings, pride, forgiveness, pain, joy, and reconciliations."

Visit my website for more information about my award-winning romance novels http://paulamartinromances.webs.com/

Sunshine Award

Last week I was awarded the Sunshine Award by Janice Horton, my Scottish friend whom I first met at the RNA Conference at Penrith last year. Janice writes wonderful novels set in her native Scotland. Her new book, ‘How to Party Online’ is something completely different, and I’m really looking forward to reading it. Find out more http://janicehortonwriter.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Now I have to answer some questions!

 

Favourite Colour: Blue – my school uniform was blue, and I was in the Girl Guides, and then a leader for 30+ years (another blue uniform) When buying clothes, I gravitate towards anything blue, and have to force myself to vary my choice at time!

 

Favourite Animal: I had a cat for 18 years and I like that they’re independent but can choose when they want to be cuddled.

 

Favourite Number: Don’t think I have one.

 

Favourite Non-alcoholic Drink: Diet Coke or Pepsi, or even cheap supermarket cola.

 

Favourite Alcoholic Drink: Lager, preferably Carlsberg or Carling.

 

Facebook or Twitter: Definitely Facebook, I’ve never really got the hang of Twitter.

 

Your Passion(s): Writing, family history, English Lake District and Ireland. Oh, and pub lunches too!

 

Giving or getting presents: Both!

 

Favourite Day: Now that I’m retired, every day is weekend to me

 

Favourite Flowers: Definitely daffodils, because they’re the sign that spring really is here

 

 

And now I nominate these 7 lovely author bloggers whom I love to visit:

 

Celia Yeary - Romance and a little bit o'Texas

Rosemary Gemmell - Reading and Writing

Claudia Moser - The Story

Glynis Smy - Author of Historical Romance/Suspense 

Kathy Thompson Coombs -The Giggling Trucker's Wife

Cathy Graham - Cattitude and Gratitude

Anne Ashby - New Zealand Romance Writer

Zooming Around!

In September 2002, a friend and I decided to 'zoom around' i.e. complete a sponsored ‘Castle Trail’ to raise funds for a new building on our Girl Guide campsite. The site was called Ashley, and the mascot was a rabbit, so of course we had to take ‘Ashley the Rabbit’ on our trail. Our aim was to visit 15 castles in a 12-hour period.

'Ashley' at Sandal Castle, Wakefield

We planned the route carefully and set off at 7.30am, heading from Manchester over the Pennines into Yorkshire. We were held up by traffic jams near Leeds, and by roadworks outside Wakefield, and so we were half an hour behind schedule when we arrived at Sandal Castle, just outside Wakefield. Time for a quick photo, and we were off again, to take Ashley's photo at Pontefract, Spofforth, and Knaresborough. At the latter, we attracted some curious glances as we had to park on the main street because there was no place to park near the castle. People must have wondered what we were doing carrying a large rabbit with us!

Middleham

The next castle, Ripley, was closed, but we took a photo near the main gate. Then it was north again to Middleham, and a quick break for a soup and sandwich lunch at the Richard III pub in the main square. By this time we had done 128 miles and it was 12.15pm.

On again to Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire, and then into County Durham to visit Raby Castle, the home of the Neville family (and the birthplace of Richard III’s mother, Cecily Neville), Barnard Castle and Bowes Castle.

We then headed west into Cumbria, stopping at Brough, Appleby, and Brougham castles (which had all belonged to the Lancastrian Clifford family - boo, hiss!). Our final stop in Cumbria was at Penrith Castle, where a little girl in the park surrounding the castle was very excited at seeing our large rabbit!

We changed our plans slightly at this stage, as we’d intended stopping at Kendal Castle, but that involved quite a long detour off the motorway, so we continued south to Lancaster Castle, which we finally reached after going around the one-way system twice, and also ending up in the bus station at one point.

Last stop at Clitheroe

We still had some time left, so although Lancaster was our 15th castle, we decided to take a detour to Clitheroe. All went well until we reached the country lane leading to the town when we got behind one of the ‘Isn’t it a lovely evening? Let’s go for a drive’ drivers, who went about 20 miles an hour. However, we made it to Clitheroe for about 6.30pm, and finally got home at 7.25pm, just within our deadline, and after a 329 mile round trip!

 

 



Our route

Many thanks to you all for joining me on this A-Z tour

of 15th century England.

Look forward to seeing you here again,

hopefully sometime before next year's April A-Z Challenge!

 

York

Founded by the Romans in the 1st century A.D, the city of York has a rich heritage covering every period of history ever since then.

 

In the early Middle Ages, it was the capital of the kingdom of Northumbria, and in the 9th century, it was captured by the Vikings.

 

York Minster, the city’s most well-known edifice, was founded in the 7th century, but the current building dates from the 11th century. It is a beautiful church, and has been completely restored after the disastrous fire in the 1980s. The Rose Window, with its red and white roses, was added at the end of the 15th century  to commemorate the union of the houses of York and Lancaster when Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York. After the fire, the 7,000 pieces of stained glass had cracked into about 40,000 pieces. Craftsmen took about four years to restore the window to its former glory.

 

It was also interesting to see the memorial window to Richard III, installed by the RIII Society in 1997.

 

The chapel of the medieval Archbishop’s Palace still exists, and it was here that Richard created his son Edward as Prince of Wales in 1483.

 

Substantial remains of the city walls still exist, as do the gates into the city, knows as ‘Bars’. The four main ones were Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Micklegate Bar and Walmgate Bar. After the battle of Wakefield in 1460, the heads of Richard of York and his son Edmund were displayed on spikes on Micklegate Bar, adorned with paper crowns.

 

In 1472 Edward IV set up the Council of the North, and appointed his brother Richard as its first President. Thus Richard virtually ruled the north on behalf of Edward, and he was highly regarded by the people there, and especially by the City of York. The city archives contain this record, dated 23 August 1485 (the day after the Battle of Bosworth): King Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us … was piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city.

 

It seems Richard intended to be buried at York Minster and planned to build a large chantry chapel there for priests to pray for his soul. Definitely a moot point now that his body has been found in Leicester, and plans are underway for him to be buried at Leicester Cathedral. 

Sunday Snippet

Another eight sentences from my work in progress 'Irish Inheritance' for the Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

 

Guy and Jenna have met at Dublin airport and are sharing a cab, but neither yet knows the other is the co-inheritor of a legacy and a house in Ireland.

 

This is in Guy’s POV.

 

Jenna laughed and splayed her fingers to push her long dark hair back from her face. For some reason, the movement was incredibly sexy, and he experienced a momentary urge to run his fingers through her hair, exactly as she’d done. He had a vision of her wavy hair spread on a pillow…

 

Cool it, Guy. You’ve only just met this girl - and she’s an actress.

 

He glanced through the cab window to divert his mind from the still painful memory of the way Suzie had dumped him when she went to L.A. “So do you have any recommendations about what I should see while I’m here in Dublin? I’m hoping to have a couple of free days after I’ve sorted out some legal matters.”

 

The River Liffey in Dublin

 

Many thanks to everyone who visits each Sunday, and for your encouraging comments.

 

Here's my first (very rough!) draft of the 'blurb' for 'Irish Inheritance' for those of you who want to know more about this story:

English actress Jenna Sutton and American artist Guy Sinclair first meet when they jointly inherit a house on the west coast of Ireland. Curious about their unknown benefactress and why they are both considered as 'family', they gradually work out their links to the original owners of the house. At the same time as they are uncovering a nineteenth century love story, they struggle against their mutual attraction to each other. The two lovers in the past were destined not to have a happy ending, and it seems the same thing will happen to their two descendants - or will it?

 

For more snippets from the 'Weekend Writing Warriors', please visit http://www.wewriwa.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/SnippetSunday/

X marks the spot - or does it?

The ‘Bloody Tower’ in the Tower of London is ‘traditionally’ the place where the two princes, Edward and Richard, sons of Edward IV, were reputed to have been murdered by, or on the order of, their ‘wicked’ uncle, Richard III.

 

In the 15th century, it was known as the Garden Tower, because it overlooked the gardens of the Lieutenant’s lodging in the Tower (now called the Queen’s House). It’s worth noting that the Tower at this time was a royal residence, and a contemporary French chronicler mention the boys playing and practising archery in the garden in the summer of 1483.

 

Nothing more was seen or heard of them but this doesn't necessarily mean they had been killed. Reams have been written about them, including the theory that they had been taken elsewhere for safety, possibly in Flanders, but I don’t intend to go into all this now.

 

The first ‘evidence’ came during the reign of Henry VII who defeated and killed Richard at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. One of Richard's knights, Sir James Tyrrell, ‘confessed’ (under torture) that he ) had killed the princes, with the assistance of two others, but was unable to say where their bodies were. However, there is no evidence that Tyrell's alleged co-murderers were ever interrogated, and Tyrell was not charged with regicide.

Thomas More, who gives the most detailed account of the supposed murder, says the bodies were first buried 'at the stayre foot, metely depe in the ground under a great heape of stones' and then moved to a 'better' site 'because thei were a kinges sonnes'. The priest who reburied them had died by this time, and so no one knew where the bodies were buried. How very convenient!
 

In 1674 (i.e. nearly 200 years later) workmen demolishing a stone staircase connecting the royal apartments with the White Tower, found bones in a wooden chest, about “ten feet in the ground”. This has been taken to mean they were found under the stairs, rather than ten feet further down. It was decreed that the bones were those of the two princes, and King Charles II commissioned a marble casket for them which still stands in Westminster Abbey.

 

The whole story seems to have more holes than a sieve! More says the princes were buried at the stair foot, and then moved to a ‘better site’ and the information board at the Tower reiterates this. It says the bodies were buried for 24 hours under the stairway leading to the Wakefield Tower which adjoins the Bloody Tower, and were then removed by a priest and buried under an exterior staircase leading to the White Tower. One wonders how that could possibly be called a ‘better site’? And pity the poor priest who supposedly dug up the bones from under one staircase - and promptly buried them under another! At the time, probably dozens, if not hundreds, of people lived in the Tower of London. So no one saw a priest digging under a couple of staircases and asked questions? Add to that the fact that, if (and this is a big 'if') the princes had been murdered, it would have been far easier to take the bodies through the gate very near the Bloody Tower which led to steps down to the River Thames, from which a boat could take them and dump them out at sea.

 

In 1933, experts were allowed to examine the bones in the casket, but scientific knowledge at that time was scanty at best, and concentrated mainly on dental evidence, much of which has now been discredited.

However, until the royal family allow further examination of the bones, with modern methods of dating etc, there is no way of proving whether or not the bones in the casket are really the bones of the princes. And even if they are, there is still no proof that Richard III killed them. There were others with far greater motives for wanting the princes dead.

The memorial in Westminster Abbey,
supposedly containing the bones of the Princes

 

 

P.S. For true Ricardians, I apologise for this much abridged version of ‘ what happened to the princes?’ I’m well aware it is far more complex than my basic summary here!