New Release: Rogue by Charlene Newcomb

I'm delighted to welcome Charlene Newcomb to the blog today, to talk about her new release, Rogue:

Tell us about your new book…

Rogue is a tale of Robin Hood, but one that will offer a different take on the origins of the legend most know as Robin Hood and the Merry Men. In my tale, Allan a Dale has been leading the outlaw gang I call The Hood, since King Richard’s death in 1199. 

After years of knightly service to Richard, Robin who-is-not-yet-Hood has [mostly] led a quiet life with Marian in Yorkshire. Both Robin and Allan are old enemies of King John - they helped thwart John’s attempt to usurp the throne when Richard was king. 

The year is now 1216.  Allan is captured and thrown in Nottingham Castle’s dungeons to await execution upon the king’s arrival. Robin will not leave his former squire to the noose. But when your estranged son Robert is in the Sheriff of Nottingham’s household, a rescue attempt could get ugly. If you like stories of fathers and sons, knights and outlaws, spies, and a bit of romance, then Rogue may be right up your alley. 

Does the new book fit in with your other books? Are they related or linked?

Rogue is a standalone but is related to my Battle Scars trilogy where many of the characters were introduced as secondary players. Rogue’s main character Sir Robert, son of of Marian and Robin, was 12 years old in For King and Country (Battle Scars II). Now, in 1216, he is 34… which makes his da Robin 53. 

Let’s go back a minute… you said Robin has mostly led a quiet life with Marian. Can you elaborate?

Ah yes, so I did. Robin went into self-imposed exile after King Richard’s death because he knew that John, once crowned king, would seek revenge. Many assume he is long dead. He spends his days training squires at Castle l’Aigle. But Allan’s Hood gang gets help from him. Robert recalls Robin’s regular trips to Nottingham supposedly on business for the lord of l’Aigle. As Rogue opens, he has no idea Robin’s extracurricular activities included pilfering supplies from the castle undercroft with Allan for those in need. 

In the original ballads,  Robin and Marian did not have children. In Rogue, they are married. You’ve noted their son Robert is a main character, but do they have other children?

Two more: their daughter Lucy is 19, and son Richard is age 15 (and yes, named in honor of King Richard). Young Richard managed to talk me into giving him a bigger role in the novel.

How and/or when did you get hooked on history? What role has history played in your personal life?

I was the kid in school who always liked to study history when everyone else found it boring, well, and honestly, the way it is taught - dates, event, a person - yeah, boring. But I would hear something and want to know more. Back in the dark ages (the 1960s), my parents had a set of World Book Encyclopedias. I would pull a volume out and dive into it. 

Most summers when we traveled hundreds of miles from South Carolina to visit relatives in New York or Iowa, my Dad would make a point of stopping along the way (or slightly out of the way). We visited Lincoln’s birthplace, Amish country, famous Revolutionary War and Civil War battlefields, Washington, DC, Williamsburg, VA, and dozens more places of historic interest. 

I wanted to teach high school history until I learned I needed more college credits in education/how to teach rather than in history. (How can you teach a subject when you haven’t been immersed in it?)  So I majored in US History. Never have written that 1776 time-travel novel… 

Where do you get ideas for your books?

I wish ideas just sprang from my brain to the keyboard without effort, but that isn’t the case. I guess most have come from an event - like the Third Crusade, which I studied up intently on after seeing it referenced in the television series Robin Hood (BBC). There is such rich material about the crusades, Lionheart, King Philip of France, Prince John - translations of contemporary chronicles were priceless gems. Rather than write about the well-known real people, I decided to focus on two fictional knights who served King Richard. I followed those knights and their close friends through 3 novels until the end of Richard’s reign. 

*****

Enjoy this excerpt from the opening chapter of Rogue:

Chapter 1

Sherwood Forest

Nottinghamshire

September 1216

Wooded hillsides hugged the holloway along the Old North Road. Sir Robert Fitzwilliam eyed the steep slopes soaring to ridges as high as the stone curtain surrounding Nottingham Castle. A prime spot for an ambush, barely wide enough for a wagon.

Robert rode knee-to-knee with a mail-clad knight in the rearguard of Sheriff Marc’s mesnie. The men and their ten companions carried swords, maces, and shields, outfitted for war. Pounding hooves and clinking mail masked the sounds of birds and tree branches swaying overhead. The remainder of the troop shadowed them a few miles back.

The road narrowed, barely a trail, and the horses slowed. The knight beside Robert ran his hand along the scabbard attached to his sword belt. “God willing, Allan and his Hood gang are clever enough not to rob the sheriff again.”

Robert glanced over his shoulder, and then towards the ridge. If it’s the Allan a Dale I remember, you don’t know him well. The chance of an outlaw attack could explain Marc’s tactic of splitting his troop. An ambush. But for whom?

Sweat soaked into Robert’s short-cropped beard, and not from the heat of the day. He dreaded the thought of crossing swords with Allan.

He’d a grudging respect for the man, and that long before stories of Allan of the Hood and his gang in Sherwood Forest became near legend. From king to peasants, everyone had heard them told in great halls or around campfires.

They’d met twenty-some years ago when Robert was a boy, Allan barely one himself. It had been ages since their paths crossed. 

Allan had served the late King Richard as squire to Robin du Louviers—Robert’s father.

Robert’s jaw tightened. Father? The man hadn’t bothered to meet his son until Robert was twelve summers…

But his connections to Robin and Allan could never be shared. It would place people he cared for—family and friends—in danger.

But here he was now, part of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s household. The sheriff who answered to King John. The king who would see Robin dangle from a gibbet…if he knew he still lived.

What had he been thinking when he joined the sheriff’s troop?

He should have known better.

BUY LINK 

A knight sworn to keep a family secret.

A king who seeks revenge.

A daring plan to save one life…or condemn many.

England 1216AD. Sir Robert Fitzwilliam faithfully serves the English crown, but when the outlaw Allan a Dale, a childhood friend, is captured and thrown in the sheriff’s dungeons beneath Nottingham Castle, trouble is certain to follow.

Allan’s days are numbered. Nothing would please King John more than to see an old nemesis hanged. Nothing except watching Robert’s estranged father, Robin, dangling dead from a rope beside him.

When his father joins forces with the Hood gang to rescue Allan, enlisting the aid of friends and even the girl he loves, Robert must decide where his loyalties lie.

TALES OF ROBIN HOOD

Before there was Robin Hood, there was Allan of the Hood. You know their story – in Sherwood Forest, they rob from the rich and give to the poor. Rogue is a retelling of the origins of the Robin Hood legends set during a time of a rebellion and invasion near the end of King John’s reign. It’s a thrilling adventure of loyalty, love, sacrifice, spies, and intrigue.

Available on Amazon 

About the Author:

Charlene Newcomb, aka Char, writes historical fiction and science fiction. Her Battle Scars trilogy is set in the 12th century during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. It’s filled with war, political intrigue, and a knightly romance of forbidden love. All 3 books are indieBRAG Medallion honorees; Book II is a Historical Novel Society Editors Choice, a finalist in the Chaucer Awards for pre-1750 Historical Fiction, and received an Honorable Mention from Writer's Digest. 

While medieval historical fiction has her under its spell at the moment, her writing roots are in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known as Legends) where she published her first short story in 1994 in the Star Wars Adventure Journal. She published a scifi/space opera, Echoes of the Storm, which was awarded 1st in category in the Chanticleer International Book Awards in 2021.

Librarian (retired).

US Navy veteran. 

Mom to 3 grown, amazing people, grandma to 3 adorable boys.

She spends most of the year in Louisiana, but escapes summer heat and humidity visiting family in Washington and Colorado.

Social Media Links: 

Website https://charlenenewcomb.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CharleneNewcombAuthor/

Twitter https://twitter.com/charnewcomb

Instagram https://instagram.com/charnewc

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00APY2H16

Subscribe to Char’s Newsletter https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/p7z5l7

Joint Interview: Sharon Bennett Connolly

Yesterday my book, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, was published by Pen & Sword Books. But it wasn't the only one they published yesterday. I'm delighted that Sharon Bennett Connolly's Ladies of Magna Carta was also released and we decided to interview each other, using the same questions. You'll find my answers on her BLOG. Meanwhile, here are Sharon's:

Welcome to the blog Sharon. Firstly, what motivated you to write the book?

I love writing and I love history. The 13th century and, in particular, the reign of King John, is a fascinating era. It is also a time when women stand out as being strong and influential on events. In my first book, Heroines of the Medieval World, I had included the stories of Nicholaa de la Haye and Matilda de Braose, both remarkable, independent women. Nicholaa successfully defended Lincoln Castle in no less than 3 sieges, the last against a joint army of English rebel barons and invading French.  Matilda had also held a castle under siege, but is remembered more as King John’s victim, starved to death in her cell, having chewed on her dead son’s cheek to survive just that bit longer – no one said medieval history was not gruesome! The lives of these two women deserved to be told. And as I looked into the era, the more remarkable women I found.

Runnymede, where Magna Carta was sealed
Photo: Jayne Smith

There are several women whose stories deserved telling, such as the Scottish princesses who were hostages of King John and John’s own wives and daughters. William Marshal was also a big part of the Magna Carta story, and the lives of his five daughters, who married some of the greatest barons of the age, were revealing – several found themselves married to men on the opposing side of the political spectrum to their father. 

I wanted to know how these women reacted to the events that was going on around them, how much influence – or not – they had on their men and history. And I wanted to tell their stories.

What were the research challenges?

As you know, Annie, it’s very hard to get much information on women in medieval history. Most of the chronicles talk about the men and only mention women in passing. So, you have to learn to read between the lines, work out, from the little information you have, where the women would have been and what they would have been up to. 

The 1215 Magna Carta (British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts)

Another challenge is that a lot of the chronicles are written in Latin – and I don’t read Latin. At least, I didn’t think I did. I am fluent in French, which seems to give me enough understanding of Latin to be able to summarise the texts, but not enough to do a thorough translation. And Google translate seems to have less understanding of Latin than I do.

On the plus side, research has never been easier. With the internet, even 1,000-year-old chronicles are at your fingertips. And the greats, such as Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury, are there to be read, from the comfort of your own laptop.


Do you have a particular favourite amongst the women you’ve written about?

I found all the women in the book fascinating. I loved the image of family in the stories of William Marshal’s daughters, how they were asked to sing at his bedside when the great knight was dying. I found Isabelle d’Angoulême particularly vexing. I wanted to feel sorry for her, married before she was even a teenager and thrust into King John’s bed and English politics. But then, she deserted her own children almost as soon as their father was buried, starting a new life and family in France, and only calling on her son, Henry III, when she wanted something. It was hard to feel any sympathy for her in the end!

Carving of Nicolaa de Haye at Lincoln
Castle - Sharon's own photo

My favourite is Nicholaa de la Haye. I have been researching her for about five years now. She is an incredible woman who managed to successfully defend Lincoln Castle against no less than three sieges; in the first one her attacks gave up and went home, in the second, she paid them to go away and in the third, the great William Marshal rode to her relief. 

Nicholaa was the first ever female sheriff in England and a staunch supporter of King John. And yet, four days after the 1217 Battle of Lincoln, which was the culmination of a six-week siege of the castle, she was relieved of her position as castellan of Lincoln Castle in favour of King Henry III’s uncle, William Longspee. 

I’m not sure what the men expected of a woman who had already proven that she would not surrender, but she rode straight to the ten-year-old king and asked for her castle back – and got it. 

Can you tell us briefly about your other books?

Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England is my third book. My first was Heroines of the Medieval World, which was a series of short biographies of some of the most remarkable medieval women, from queens to nuns and from warriors to mistresses. My second, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest, was a study of the events of 1066, and the years either side, focusing on the women of the era.

What’s next?

I am working on my next book at the moment – it is due into the publishers at the end of the month. It is a biography of the Warenne earls of Surrey, from the Norman Conquest to the last earl’s death in 1347. The family were one of the most prominent in medieval England, marrying into the royal families of England, France and Scotland. They had extensive lands stretching from the south coast to West Yorkshire and were participants in most of the major events of medieval England, from the Conquest itself to the Magna Carta and the Scottish Wars of Independence. As with all medieval lords, their story is replete with high drama, politics and a little love.

Thanks so much for chatting today! Where can people find you on Social Media and where can they buy your books? 

Blog, Facebook, Twitter: @Thehistorybits
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Huge congratulations to Sharon - watch out for my review of her wonderful book, coming soon!

Review: Blossom on the Thorn by Loretta Livingstone

1195
"I should have had nothing to do with those accursed Angevins. I should have run like hell in the opposite direction."

Giles de Soutenay can scarcely be blamed for his disappointment. Promised an heiress by Queen Eleanor, he is dismayed to discover that, although young and attractive, his bride has all the warmth of a stone effigy.

For the newly widowed Isabella, the reality of a new husband is no cause for celebration. She will do her duty but no more. She will give de Soutenay no reason to complain but he will not have her heart, for any belief in love and tenderness died during those brief years of her first marriage. However, she has reckoned without Giles' perseverance.

After the snows of winter, spring brings hope, until the arrival of a stranger threatens Giles and Isabella’s blossoming happiness. A stranger who might tear them apart before they have truly found each other. Only if Giles can learn patience and Isabella can learn trust can they hope to find lasting love.

So runs the blurb for this, the third in Loretta Livingstone's Out of Time series. The first two books are 'time-slip' novels but this third is not (apart from one brief mention of a 21st-century character in the abbey). I read this as a standalone, but it's as well to know that the other books are time-slips, otherwise that scene in the abbey might prove something of a shock!

But, that said, all the other characters are from the twelfth century and behave as such. By which I mean that Ms Livingstone has clearly done first class and painstaking research. I was never once jolted out of the medieval world and each scene was beautifully and accurately depicted. The hall of Giles and Isabella teems with medieval servants going about their medieval chores, and all are clothed according to the fashions of the day. Isabella is very much a woman of her time. She has guts, and fortitude, but nevertheless she is a medieval lady, not a modern woman, and her reaction to what happens to her never strays beyond the limits of the options available to a woman of her rank during that period. 

Giles is a bit of an anomaly. He's certainly a surprise to Isabella; I wondered at times whether his attitudes have been shaped by his coming into contact with modern-day characters in the other books? I guess I'll have to read them to find out! When he exacts revenge though, he is every inch the medieval soldier. So once again we have drama, but that which sits perfectly in its period setting.

There are plot twists and turns, despicable acts, and characters who left me itching to watch them get their comeuppance. At the heart of this story though is the romance between the two characters and it's a satisfying story arc which sees them struggle with initial wariness, disagreements, misunderstandings and the efforts of others to thwart them and drive a wedge between them. 

I enjoyed watching Isabella grow and develop, and appreciated the occasional reminders of just how young she is. This of course was not unusual, and it made me stop and think just how much this poor lass has endured by the time she's seventeen.

Ms Livingstone knows the world she's writing about, but uses her research sparingly; she tells us what we need to know but mainly uses her knowledge of the period to paint the scenery. The dialogue flows naturally, and nothing jars.

I especially loved the scene involving the window. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that people from history were modern-day characters in their own world. I'll say no more, except that it made me smile that Giles and Isabella have a lovely moment of 'keeping up with the Joneses'.

Romantic fiction is perhaps not my usual read, but I have to say that this is a wonderful example of its genre.

Find it on Amazon UK and Amazon US
and find more about Loretta HERE