Work took up a huge chunk of my energy in August; my company changed ownership, and that required me to spend a lot of extra time each week getting caught up and processing my switch from one company to another. I was, simply put, exhausted for much of the month, without the energy to work on projects. I spent most of my time recovering or relaxing.
Projects
When I got to work on my projects, I got stuff done. I worked out some stellar cartography for one project, and continued to refine the outlines for several others. I processed some chapters for The Colonel Lieutenant, wrote out character backgrounds, and organized a number of institutions. It wasn’t the list I hoped to get done, but it was work.
I’m hoping, now that the sale is done and my job has returned to a normal routine, that I can refocus my creative efforts. I still have almost a hundred ISBNs, which means I can publish dozens of more titles. But I cannot keep allowing myself to have lulls like I’ve suffered twice this summer. If I want to publish more, I need to write more consistently.
September Goals
Get The Colonel Lieutenant completed up to the big campaign
Finish Re-Writing Orcfyre Act 1
Publish two blog posts
Complete 10 other Project Items
Books
Image Courtesy of Goodreads
Red Rabbit (Fiction, Re-Read)
Hunt for Red October (Fiction, Re-Read)
The Seven Basic Plots (Research)
The Gypsy Morph (Fiction)
War and Peace (Fiction, Audiobook)
I finished Red Rabbit and moved into Hunt for Red October. I’m making good progress through it, and I’m having the same, improved enjoyment of the story that I had with the previous novels. But what I hadn’t realized from my previous readings was how little of the middle book takes place on the submarine or with Jack Ryan. Probably influenced by my memories of the movie, I had forgotten how many scenes revolve around naval, aviation or political action in support of the story.
I’ve continued through the other books, slowly chipping away at them chapter by chapter. It doesn’t help that I don’t have a good reading chair in my basement; I think I want to do something about that.
September Goals
Finish Red October
Get past Chapter 20 in Seven Basic Plots
Finish Gypsy Morph
Finish One other Book
Movies and Shows
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 3)
Foundation (Season 1)
Alien: Earth (Season 1)
My roommate and I started watching Alien: Earth this month. This show is fantastic. The characters are enjoyable (even the ones I don’t like). The action is limited, but when it happens it matters. The world we see makes sense and has rules it follows. We’re four episodes in, and I’m very excited to see what else we’ve got coming before the end of the series.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I haven’t hated any of the episodes, and they’ve all had at least a basic story that I could get behind. But most of them don’t reach the A-level I’ve been hoping for. There’s either some misstep in the pacing, or some payoff that wasn’t built up properly, or just something that made the whole story stall out. I still have a few episodes to watch before I can give a rating to the whole season.
September Goals
Finish Three Seasons of TV (Any Kind)
Watch Three Movies (Any Kind)
Games
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
Madden 26
Horizon Forbidden West
Anno 1800
World of Warships
Last of Us (Replay)
Last of Us Part 2 (Replay)
Since August was a big stress month, I found myself destressing with a lot of video games.
I finished my replay of Last of Us at a higher difficulty, only to discover there wasn’t any achievement for doing so. Alas. At least now I can go back and play pick up what I missed in easier modes, and play around with some of the options the game offers.
With that, I moved on to Last of Us Part 2. This replay is different because I’m playing in an entirely different structure. If you weren’t aware, Last of Us Part 2 is a non-linear story. You play as one character for three days, then another for three days, and each experiences flashbacks going back years. This game has the option to play in chronological mode, where you play all those events in sequence. It’s a lot of fun. I’m experiencing the game in a new way. It’s the same story, but much more direct.
I’ve been playing a lot of World of Warships, an online game where you play early 20th century warships against each other. I’ve been having fun, trying to play daily and monthly challenges within the game to advance for certain rewards. It’s a nice way to burn off some steam and let my inner historian out.
I’m still playing through the sandbox of Anno 1800, the city-building and resource management game. I’m enjoying the challenges, but this game does strain my computer’s system. It takes almost fifteen minutes to load, and it slows down sometimes as it tries to process. I’m not sure my computer can handle it; I’m looking into building/buying a new computer, and this is one of the games I want to experience on the newer machine.
And finally, Madden 26. My roommate and I are playing each other, which is fun, but I’m also playing the Superstar mode. In this mode, I play a single player, and I play only when that player is on the field. It’s a good way to play a story game within Madden without needing a ridiculous amount of time and effort.
September Goals
Finish Anno game
Finish Last of Us Part 2
Advance Horizon Forbidden West Storyline
Start PC Storyline Game
What’s Next
I don’t have anything planned at the moment, but I have my eyes on a few things. I very much want to get another event on the books for the autumn or winter. If and when that happens, I will post about it.
I recently finished Last of Us Season 2, the second season of the series based off the games. This season follows roughly the first half of the second game.
I liked this season, but I have to acknowledge that it was not as tight as the first season. This season made more changes to the story and characters than the first season did. As a result, the story is significantly different from the game. I’ll try to explain without giving away too many spoilers. Then I’ll go through five things that stood out to me about this show.
A quick synopsis
Okay, I’m going to try to do this spoiler free.
Four years after the first season, Joel and Ellie are now accepted citizens of Jackson Hole, but are estranged from each other. The town celebrates New Years and then suffers an attack from an outside party that leaves great devastation. Seeking justice (or possibly revenge), Ellie heads to Seattle to find those responsible, without regard of the consequences.
Simple enough? Good. Now, five things.
Fewer Game Experiences / Faster Storytelling
The game takes roughly 25 hours to complete, so halfway is 12 hours. The show tells the same amount of story in less than seven hours, missing five hours of game play. In addition, the show is adding its own plot lines, further constraining how much of the game’s story line the show can use.
As with the first season, a large portion of the game is automatically missing: the world exploration. This takes up a good amount of game time and involves a lot of little fights and Easter eggs. All this is missing from the show (with good reason; it’s not good screen time). It also means the show can feel a bit rushed, as a single day in Seattle takes one episode instead of four hours of game play.
Also, there is one aspect of this that I noticed, and we won’t know the true impact until Season 3 comes out. In the game, while you’re experiencing those broad sequences of world exploration, you hear all these little sound bits and side notes about what’s happening elsewhere in Seattle. These bits and notes help ground the experience of second half of the game .
Spoiler below if you want a better explanation of what I mean.
Spoiler
Spoiler explanation: The first half of the game follows Ellie in Seattle; the second half follows a new character, Abby. While playing as Ellie, you hear a lot of things that make sense once you’re playing as Abby. Now, there were a lot of little bits I saw that might fill the same purpose when Season 3 comes out and we see Abby’s story, but we won’t know that for a good while.
Different Routes for the Same Story
The show changes the story significantly while managing to retain the same overall arcs and high points. In other words, the same characters reach the same important plot points but get there taking different routes.
For example, the outside party’s attack on Jackson Hole that sets the story in motion.
In the game, it’s a small, selected strike that does what it needs to do and then they head home. the city as a whole isn’t impacted beyond that one attack. But in the show, the party sets a chain of events up that results in Jackson Hole suffering a cataclysm, defending against a major attack of the infected (this is in the trailers, so it shouldn’t be much of a spoiler).
With the town having suffered a major attack and recovery, Ellie’s request to go to Seattle and get justice brings different responses. The characters have to look at the situation differently, but the story requires them to arrive at the same decisions they did in the game. The different sequences of decisions and minor changes to characters lets this happen without any of it seeming to be too far of a reach.
That’s just one example of what I’m talking about, but hopefully you get the gist.
Different Character Roster
Changing the characters from the game is one thing, but the show takes it a step further by changing the roster.
The show has deleted several characters, mostly superfluous, third-tier characters who don’t do much but participate in certain scenes and events. In every case so far, I haven’t missed their deletion. I get why they’ve been cut, or why their influence was handed off to another characters.
Image courtesy of hbomax.com
The show makes up for it by adding new or expanding upon minor characters. As I said above, they’re telling a different story than they were in the game, with the main characters going through different processes to reach the same events, and the added/expanded characters facilitate those processes. In no case have I regretted or been frustrated at a characters’ addition or expansion.
Ellie – A very different character
Every character is different from their game version, but I thought Ellie was the most changed.
I found her to be more self-centered than the game version. Both show and game Ellies are capable and confident, but the show version takes it to a level of arrogance that I found annoying. She was stupid, even reckless, at times. And for a community as security conscious as Jackson Hole is, there’s no way she would be allowed to do the crap she does. But they keep letting her do it. I found it a bit unbelievable.
That being said, show Ellie needs to be arrogant. The obstacles in front of her are greater than what game Ellie had to deal with, and she needs that arrogance to roll over them. Game Ellie said she would do the same things, but Show Ellie had to do them.
She still works as a character, but she crossed into my annoyance with arrogance characters.
Game Psych Outs
Finally, I want to bring up the game psych outs. These are instances where the show did something that messed with the viewers who have played the game. These psych outs took two forms.
The first was when the show did something that, in the game, heralded a certain event or cutscene. The gamers would be ready to experience the show’s version of what happened next. Sometimes the show did what was expected, but sometimes it did not. Anyone who was new was none the wiser, while those who played the games were left surprised and maybe a little disappointed.
The second was when the show did something completely new, so far out of the expected story that the gamers had to wonder if the show was going to completely divorce from the original story. In these cases, the show manages to bring it back around, but for a moment, there’s that ‘holy crap they’re changing so much’ thought.
It was fun, as someone who’d played the games, to see the writers dangle the ‘will we/won’t we’ bits in front of us. Because as much as I expect them to follow the same path, they’ve already made changes, and there’s always that question of ‘how far from the path will they go’?
Conclusion
There are many other things I could say about this show, but that would require spoilers. So, I’ll leave it at those five things that stood out to me and save my spoiler thoughts for direct conversations.
This season is a fun watch. It’s not as good as the first season, but it’s got its highlights. If you have played the game, you’ll get to see a variation of the story you know that will keep you guessing and wondering up until the end. And if you haven’t played the game, I think you’ll still understand what’s going on.
It’s a shame we have to wait several years for the next season.
July was very productive…but unfocused. Most of what I accomplished was on my tertiary and quaternary projects: world building or writing test scenes. It felt good to stretch my mind and get words on the page, but I didn’t get a lot of things off my primary or secondary projects done, or my blog posts. So overall, I’m kind of disappointed with myself. Not in a ‘beat myself up’ about it way, more of a ‘if you want to be serious about this, do better’ sort of way.
Projects
The good news about Book 3 is that the printed copy works wonders for revising and development. It’s great to have that copy available, and to have the space to spread out pages of tracking notes, character bios, and whatnot. The first half-dozen chapters are well streamlined, and I’ve got a good view on several fixes for future errors and plot points. Now to sit down an do it.
As for all those other projects, I’m not kidding when I said I got a lot of work done. I puzzled out the pantheon for the human cultures of Orcfyre and the geography and politics of Genevieve’s spin-off from Champion Bold. I started structuring another Light Star novel and I’m ready to start putting words on the page for a historical fiction story. All good work. Just…not my primary goals.
August Goals
Advance The Colonel Lieutenant
Figure out The Colonel Lieutenant maps
Complete Orcfyre Act 1
Finish ten items off to-do list
Finish Last of Us Pt2 and Writing Process 8 Blog Posts
Come up with a better ‘Weekly Work’ process
Books
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
War and Peace (Fiction, Audiobook)
Patriot Games (Fiction, Re-Read)
Red Rabbit (Fiction, Re-Read)
The Seven Basic Plots (Research)
The Elves of Cintra (Fiction)
The Gypsy Morph (Fiction)
Ashen Light (Fiction)
Continuing through the books. War and Peace is a glorious monstrosity of a piece. The audio book file is a public domain free project which clocks in at 365 files; I expect it’ll take well into 2026 before I’m done with it, but who knows. Maybe I’ll make finishing it by new year’s a goal.
In my Tom Clancy re-read, I finished Patriot Games and moved onto Red Rabbit. If you don’t know, Red Rabbit is a book Tom Clancy wrote well into his series, but set back earlier in the narrative. I read it once in college, and I remember not being too impressed. This time around, though, I’m enjoying it a lot more. Not sure why yet; I’ll have to reflect.
I also moved from Elves of Cintra onto Gypsy Morph, and I’m not really enjoying the story. I’m hoping it picks up soon. Once I’m done, I’ve got two more books before I hit the series I first read in Middle School. So…slog on. Not what you necessarily want to hear from a book series, but here we are.
August Goals
Finish Gypsy Morph
Finish One Research Book
Finish One Other Fiction Book
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Bad Batch
Foundation
Thunderbolts
Fantastic Four
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3
Got to see two moves last month, including my first movie theater outing in a good amount of time.
First, Thunderbolts*. This is an ensemble MCU movie that I wasn’t too excited for, as it’s cast is a bunch of secondary characters from other movies that are assembled for whatever reason (probably covert or illicit). Which was right. But the movie turned out to be a lot more exciting and enjoyable than I expected. I really liked it.
Then, Fantastic Four. I made a point to go see this in the theater, and man it was worth it. It avoided the problems of the other two Fantastic Four attempts. And it told a great story. I’m excited to see where these characters go, and after two successful MCU movies in a row, I’m kind of excited for the MCU again.
And finally I started Foundation, a TV series based off the Isaac Asimov book series. Now this isn’t a direct translation from page to screen; it’s adding a lot of characters and storylines that don’t exist in the book. I’m not far enough along to know if its better or worse, yet. It is a beautiful series, though.
August Goals
Finish One TV Show
Finish One Started TV Show
Watch One Best Picture Winner
Watch One Other Movie
Start One Longer TV Show
Games
Horizon Forbidden West
Last of Us (Replay)
Anno 1800
Continuing through Forbidden West and Last of Us Replay. I don’t really sit down to just play for hours on end. With Forbidden West I try to finish one or two quests; with Last of Us I set myself a narrative point and play until I get there. It keeps me from spending too much time as a couch potato.
Anno 1800 has made a reappearance; a RTS resource game. I beat the campaign some time ago, but now I want to try to build to the end of the tech tree and see if I can really get the city going.
On a similar note, a friend and I wrapped up a game of War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition that we started in 2019. This iteration of the Pacific War of World War 2 ended in May of 1946 with a draw. Alas, what a fun game. We’re already looking for our next one.
August Goals
Finish Anno 1800
Start new narrative PC Game
What’s Next
Nothing right now. I’m looking for some fall and winter events to partake in. Some things on my radar, but nothing on the books.
June of this year included my launch party, but it was dominated by my 9 to 5. My office job took up a significant amount of my energy this month, enough that I fell behind on most of my goals. It happens. We adjust and we move on.
Projects
There are still a number of minor bits for Champion Impact I need to finish, such as getting the PDFs up for sale on my website and finishing the ebooks for the supplements. Things that I should be done with but I keep getting distracted from.
I’m making good progress on The Colonel Lieutenant. Over the last month I started a printed copy of the project so I can re-read what I’ve got and see it from a reader’s perspective. I’ve also worked through several of the plot points. Which is good, though it will require some revisions and re-writes (but what doesn’t?). I also took a stab at some of the maps for the book, though this is a very initial stab. It’ll take several iterations to come up with something I like.
I nipped at a few other projects. There was a pass at Orcfyre, my ever-illusive fantasy novel, which wasn’t ‘this is it!’ but was informative. I want to get some scenes from other projects written soon, if only to get a feel for the story and their characters: and to stretch my creative legs a bit.
July Goals
Finish at least a good scene guide to The Colonel Lieutenant, if not have a rough draft ready to go.
Finish a scene guide to Orcfyre
Knock half of the bullet points of my Champion Bold Remember to finish this list!
Complete one to-do item for each other project
Books
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
War and Peace (, Fiction, Audiobook)
Without Remorse (Fiction, Re-Read)
Patriot Games (Fiction, Re-Read)
Hell to Pay (Non-Fiction)
The Seven Basic Plots (Research)
Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory (Research)
The Elves of Cintra (Fiction)
Ashen Light (Fiction)
Man, I got into or worked through a lot of books last month.
Re-reading the Ryan-verse (Tom Clancy’s series, Without Remorse and Patriot Games) is fun. It’s the first adult series I read growing up, and I used to read through the books every year. I haven’t touched them in a decade. That means that in this re-read, I’m picking up on things I hadn’t noticed before, because my mind is no longer used to the books. Plus, I’m older and mature enough to notice new things. It’s fantastic.
The Elves of Cintra is okay, but not particularly exciting. I don’t know why, it seems to have all the elements but they’re just not synching as much as I’d like. I’m worried that when I get back to the Shanarra books of my childhood I’ll find them just as out of synch as these books.
I’m enjoying reading through The Seven Basic Plots, one of my research books. It’s a large book I picked up a long time ago and never got around to reading, but it’s helping me think about my stories and how they could be better, or at least more unique. I’m hoping they’ll help me get some of my stalled projects up and running.
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Last Kingdom
Bad Batch
Clearly, I did not make as much of an effort at watching shows as I did at reading. Which is fine.
I’m continuing to re-watch The Last Kingdom in preparation of watching the final movie. I’m still surprised how much of this show I don’t remember. I know I watched through it multiple times years ago, but I guess it just didn’t stick. I’m guessing because the books are still better.
I did start a new show last month: Bad Batch, a Star Wars animated show. I’m only a few episodes in, but I like it. It’s got some interesting characters, and it’s a different sort of Star Wars story than I’ve experienced before. I’m eager to see how it goes.
July Goals
Finish One Show
Watch One Best Picture Winner
Watch One Fix-It Title
Start New Show
Games
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Space Marine 2
Horizon Forbidden West
Last of Us (Replay)
Stellaris
I got to finish a video game and start a new one last month! Huzzah!
I finished Space Marine 2, a 40K first person shooter. This game was fun, and it really immersed you in the universe. I particularly enjoyed how the between mission sections allowed you to walk around and listen to side conversations and hear about other events. But it wasn’t a great game, on the level of Gears of War or Halo. I haven’t quite put my finger on why; the closest I can say is that it comes off as far too cartoony, and not quite as serious, as the other titles I mentioned.
With a game done, I could start a new one: Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, which is generally on my list of favorite games of all time. I’m excited to get into the game; the first bit is already just as amazing as I’d expected.
I want to get a PC story game going; I’ll have to consider some options. Probably something strategic or national.
On the RPG front, one of my games is starting to wrap up, which means we’re building characters for the next chapter. That’s always fun. The game I’m running is going well, with the characters getting into the spirit of troll fighting. As I expected, this chapter is a lot easier to plan and execute than the last one.
July Goals
Advance Horizon Forbidden West
Start PC Game
Continue enjoying Stellaris
Coming Up
I don’t have anything planned for now; no conventions or appearanced.
July Goals
Get a convention or appearance planned.
That’s all for this month. I’ll see you all soon for more blog updates and — hopefully — news of new appearances.
May was a busy month. I finished sending out Champion Bold physical packages. I had a convention, QuantumCon, which was a bit of a last minute addition but worth attending. There were good books and good shows. And as always, writing, world building, and procrastination. the good news is, I head into June with more books published, a short story accepted into an anthology, and a launch party on the way.
Projects
Champion Bold is mostly done. The physical copies of the novel and the supplements are available. The ebook of the novel is up. I still need to finish the supplement ebooks and PDFs and get those up. I should have had them done by now, but once the book is up I find myself looking towards the next project. Lesson learned: get the minor stuff done before the big finale, otherwise you lose focus.
I got a good amount of work done on the Colonel Lieutenant, though not as much as I’d hoped. I’m running into some issues of ‘is this working right’ or ‘did I set this up enough.’ There’s no real way to get around it, so I’m putting my head down and running right into the issues. No way to finish it except by doing it.
And, happily enough, I managed to get a large number of items done off my other project lists. Either small world-building things, or a few scenes I banged out. And some brainstorming that got me past a couple of project blocks, allowing me to figure out major plot points for some very low-level projects. Very excited for how those will workout.
June Goals
Finish Champion Bold ends
Finish the Colonel Lieutenant
Process Champion Impact Responses
Complete revised synopsis of Orcfyre
Knock 10 things of other to-do lists
Books
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Armageddon’s Children (Fiction)
The Elves of Cintra (Fiction)
War and Peace (Fiction, Audiobook)
The Seven Basic Plots (Research)
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory (Research)
Without Remorse (Fiction, Re-Read)
Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan (Non-Fiction)
I’m into the second trilogy of the Shannara series, which has gone from modern fantasy to post-apocalyptic fantasy. The world has gotten a lot bleaker, and there are factions of demons and paladins warring for control of the future. I’m kind of enjoying the series, but it’s not really grabbing my attention. I’m hoping this book picks up the pace a bit, so I don’t feel like I have to force myself to read. And I’m still five books away from the ones I read as a kid.
My re-read of Tom Clancy’s Ryan-verse is going okay. It’s been a long time since I’ve read these books, and it’s gone much as I’d hoped. I’m remember why I liked it, but after so long away, not only do I still enjoy it, but I’m picking up things I’d never noticed before, or didn’t understand. It’s a much different read now. And I’ve still got 10 more books before I hit the end of the main series and the books that Clancy himself wrote.
Hell to Pay is a fascinating history book. It’s covering the planned Allied Invasion of Japan, and it’s doing it pretty well. Each chapter covers one aspect of the plan, without worrying about chronology. So when we discuss Allied recruitment efforts or Japanese defense planning, we get to read everything important in one chapter, without jumping topics. I’m looking forward to finishing it.
June Goals
Finish one fiction title
Finish one non-fiction title
Finish two research titles
Movies and Shows
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Last of Us (Season 2)
Marco Polo
Last Kingdom (Re-Watch)
Andor (Season 2)
Captain America: Brave New World
In May I finished two great second seasons.
In Last of Us Part 2, we see the story of Joel and Ellie continue, much as it does in the second game. This season follows roughly the first half of that game, and it does it pretty well. It hits the emotional high points, but does so in its own way. I think the pacing was a bit off (another episode or two would have helped), but i don’t hate it. Expect a better blog post shortly.
And then there’s Andor Season 2, the last season of this show. Holy crap, talk about an amazing show. The show covers roughly four years of time, leading up to Rogue One and the original Star Wars movie. Great characters, amazing sets and costumes, and a story that just kept me wanting more. Even the last scenes gave us a good wrap up for the characters we wanted to know about. No complaints.
Finally, I saw the new marvel film, Captain America Brave New World. It was good, but not great. This movie had some high points, and some interesting connections to other films in the series. It didn’t quite feel as firm as other Captain America movies, but that’s a fairly minor complaint overall. I would definitely watch it again, but I wouldn’t start someone into the MCU with this one.
June Goals
Watch one Best Picture Winner (three left)
Watch one Fix-It Title (four left)
Finish one in progress show
Start one new show
Games
Stellaris
Space Marine 2
Last of Us Part 1 (Re-Play)
Nothing much in gaming this month. I advanced Space Marine 2 but haven’t beaten it yet. I’ve been playing some more Stellaris with new DLCs, which is fun. And I started replaying the Last of Us Part 1, for fun.
RPG wise, all the campaigns are going well. My characters (French gambler, half-orc noble, half-elf oddity and otter water mage) are all still alive. The game I run is still fun and people are engaging with the story.
So, not much to tell, but it’s still fun.
June Goals
Finish Space Marine 2
Start new PC game
What’s Next?
Launch Party
I’ve got a launch party Sunday, June 8th, at Inbound BrewCo in Minneapolis. 1 to 5 PM. Hope to see you there.
In the fall of 2021, I started reading Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet and Tudor Series. I had been discussing historical fiction with a friend in a writing group. and she mentioned this series. I recognized some of the titles from movies and shows, but I hadn’t read any of them. So, I hit the library and started reading.
The series spends fifteen books covering the Wars of the Roses and the reign of the Tudors. Roughly 150 years of history as of the last book. It tells stories of the reigns of twelve English monarchs, from Henry IV to Elizabeth I. It does so by telling the stories from the eyes of the women: the queens, mistresses, and court ladies who watch great events with an often-overlooked perspective.
(Update: After starting this blog post, I discovered that Philippa Gregory has announced a new book in this series. This book will follow Jane Boleyn and is set five books back from the last book I read. So, this post is a review of the series so far. I will review the next book when it comes out.)
This is a review of my experiences with the series. First, my overall thoughts. Second, I’ll go over structural and literary topics I want to cover. Then I’ll discuss some of the thoughts I had about the women POV characters. And finally, I’ll hit some points about the series as historical fiction.
Overall Thoughts
This wasn’t a series I’d probably ever read if it hadn’t been recommended to me. My historical fiction tends towards military characters or great leaders, with lots of battles and conflict. And, honestly, mostly from male perspectives.
This series has battles that occur, but rarely are we given anything more than a few paragraphs; this series is more concerned with their influence on events. Great leaders are common in every title, but we’re seeing them from a close and personal viewpoints, warts and all. And seeing the series from an a primarily women’s perspective paints the decisions of the era in a very different light.
All that considered, I liked this series. Looking back at the titles, many more of them were ones I would revisit than ones I would be okay never returning to. None of them reached into my lists of favorite books, but I’m still glad I read them.
Literary Thoughts
These are several points about the series from a literary perspective.
One thing real quick, because this will help understand the points below. When Philippa Gregory started writing these books, she was actually writing two different series: The Cousins’ War about the Wars of the Roses and The Tudor Court about the reign of the Tudors. They remained separate for fifteen years, until she combined them into one narrative. This does have an impact on some of the topics I will address below.
Multiple POV Characters
One great thing about this series: it was the first series I’ve read that every book follows a different character. Other series follow one character from start to finish, or switch between characters each chapter. Not this one. Each book followed a different character than the previous.
This means that each book comes with a different attitude, set of skills and relationships to experience. In the shifting politics of the era, this gives each character strengths and vulnerabilities that are markedly different from the preceding book. We see these characters experience great rises and falls, each of which is unique to that characters’ position.
And, it’s nice that the POV characters in one book are supporting characters in other books. So, after reading with one character for a book, you may get to see how the rest of their life plays out in other books.
Assuming they survive their own book, which isn’t always the case.
As a writer, it’s great to see a long series that doesn’t follow the same character through each book, especially a multi-generational series like this one. It’s made me wonder if I could do something similar with one of my ideas
Not Written in Order
By this, I mean the books are not written in chronological order. They are written and inserted into the timeline as they come out. The first book chronologically is the 9th book written in the series. New titles added to the list can (and will) be inserted into the chronology where she wants.
This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this. The Sharpe series does the same, with Bernard Cornwell adding new stories here and there as he finds stories to develop. It means that as you read them in order, you’ll find the writing style change dramatically, as the book that follows may have been written years before the book you just finished. Her writing style changes as she continues to write. As it does for everyone.
Magic
This series has an odd aspect to it, in that some of the books (particularly the early ones) include some fantastical magic powers. We’re not talking about fireballs or enchanting items. These are more about minor divinations: abilities to see the future or know what’s happening far away.
Not every book has this aspect. Many of them don’t touch upon magic or powers except as an excuse to execute someone. In the books that do have it, it is very minimal, used only to inform the character — and by extension the reader — of important plot events.
It’s a nice way of advancing some stories, without needing the same powers to appear in all of them.
Women’s Perspective
I’ve read plenty of books with women protagonists, but this was a new experience. It was a whole series of novels, written from different women’s viewpoint, all unified by shared experiences with the system they lived in.
Again, this isn’t something new I’ve never experienced. You can’t read historical fiction and expect to find modern sensibilities in previous eras. But there’s a difference between having a few female characters in a male dominated narrative, and having the entire narrative told from their POV.
Influence on the Narrative
For starters, it’s a different read when most of the characters have limited influence and agency instead of just a handful.
Now, the first thought might be to say ‘these characters are passive participants of their own story’, but that’s not the case. None of these characters are weak. They are extremely limited in how they can influence their world, but they do have options. One character might present the best version of themselves, whatever that version needs to be; another might scheme for power to protect herself through family and patrons. How each individual character approached their situation and how they try to control it is up to them. And how well they do so is part of each of their stories.
One more thing: with the rise and fall of the characters in relation to the throne of England, what they do with power once they have it is as much a part of their story as anything else. Which characters try to improve their kingdom, and which ones use their authority to remove their enemies and secure their position? With so many POV characters over the narrative, you get a lot of different answers to this theme.
Misogyny
I’ve read books with female characters before. The Honor Harrington series has a strong female protagonist. But these series take place in societies of equality: Honor Harrington is a military officer who only faces sexism on one backwards planet, and ends up changing that planet’s society instead of succumbing to it.
This series has misogyny front and center, and that’s not really a surprise. Late Medical and Early Renaissance England, despite the female monarch who reigned for a good chunk of that time, was not known for its progressive gender views.
Throughout this series, we see the women experience the prejudice and bigotry of their society. They are brides to be married off for political power, or wombs to bear the next heir to the throne. They are sent to seduce lords and kings to advance the family interest, and if they fail (by their own fault or not) they are forgotten and discarded. All too often, parents treated their children as pawns in the political game around the throne, while their children — the characters — either understood or pushed back.
They were several instances where I got angry at what the characters were experiencing. But that’s what the time period was like, and I appreciate that Philippa Gregory doesn’t shy away from showing that.
Historical Fiction
As historical fiction, this series touches upon real events. Following the throne of England, many of these events have great consequences, often for the characters we’re reading with. Also, it was a period I didn’t know much about, so there was a bit of a learning curve while reading. And I do like learning.
But the main thing to remember when it comes to historical fiction is: it’s historical. You can do all the research you want, but you’re still writing a fictional narrative. As a reader, you cannot accept this as historical fact. Sure, you can learn the dates of the important events, but that’s about it. Everything else is suspect.
It Took How Long?
One thing I learned from this series was how long things took to happen. History books may mention dates, but that usually gets lost in the shuttle. For example, you read, ‘Queen Elizabeth captured Mary Queen of Scots, and after some time executed her for plotting against the throne,’ and think it was a period of months or a year.
Nope, 19 years. 1568-1587.
This kind of long-term planning and execution feels so alien, but it’s a part of their world and the characters don’t expect anything else. On the other hand, after getting used to how long it takes for a decision to be made and implemented, it makes some of the quick, impulsive decisions that much more jarring for the characters and readers to experience.
Historical Mysteries
When you’re writing historical fiction, there are always events that you don’t have a historical answer to. Some of these are small questions that weren’t important enough to records answers to Others are big, great mysteries that living historians debate to this day. There are two solutions to this: to ignore or side-step the mystery, or to craft an answer that fits your narrative. Philippa Gregory does both.
As a good example of side-stepping, there’s the Princes in the Tower. The deposed King Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, being held in the the Tower of London, disappear without a trace. It’s one of the biggest mysteries of English history. In this series, Gregory never gives an answer. The mystery occurs or is referenced in several books, and each character has their own belief about what happened. But the truth — even the fictional truth — is never revealed.
On the other hand, there’s the death of Amy Robsart, wife of Queen Elizabeth’s lover Robert Dudley. The historical figure was found dead, and her true cause of death was never confirmed one way or the other. But Philippa Gregory provides an answer that works well within the plot of her story. I won’t tell you what it is, but it works well.
From a writer’s perspective, it’s good to see how the same problem can be corrected differently, depending on the needs of the story. If and when I get around to writing historical fiction, I’ll be approaching things like this. I’ll have to.
The Red Queen
If you’ve kept up with my posts on the series, then you know how much I came to hate the Red Queen, the fictional version of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, who appears in six of the fifteen books.
I won’t go through a whole biography of the character or her historical counterpart, but I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how great this character is. Yes, I hate her, but I appreciate the character.
In the first half of her book, I came to to sympathize with her so much. She was a young girl — only thirteen — when she was widowed while pregnant with the future king. And her entire value to society is as a womb capable of bearing future monarchs. Her own mother tells the doctors to sacrifice Margaret for her child if a problem arises. She survives, only to have her son whisked away for his safety. I had so much pity for her.
And then she became a character I absolutely detested. The lengths she went to get her son on the throne, and how she influenced his court once he was there, were terrible. I understand her reasoning, but I hate bullies and tyrants, and she works up to be a great and powerful one, who terrorizes the characters of five more books.
Yes, I appreciate the character, as much as I hate her. I hope to write a character who evokes a quarter of that response.
Conclusion
There are many reasons I appreciate this series. I learned about an era of history I didn’t know much about. I got to experience a multi-generational epic that spans more than a century. And I got to see the stories through lenses that I’ve never really looked through before. Not only did I enjoy it, but I feel I’ve learned a lot as a writer.
Now, this isn’t the end of my experience with Philippa Gregory. There’s at least one more book in the series coming out. And there are a number of movies and TV shows based of her works that I will watch at some point. I’ll add them to my ever-lengthening list of ‘to watch’ titles.
If you’re interested in reading some of these books but don’t want to check them all out, please feel free to check out my blog posts on the series, or ask for recommendations. Always glad to introduce people to new books.
April was a full and busy month, with the new book coming out, finishing the supplements, processing backer rewards, attending a convention, and ramping up my next projects. That’s one of the reasons this post is being sent a week later than usual. The other is because I wanted to wait for the details of my launch party before I posted.
Projects
I’ve been winding down Champion Impact, though a lot of the final steps are taking longer than expected. There’s a good chance I will be done with everything by the end of this month, as long as I don’t get distracted.
I’m ramping up the next projects. The primary project is The Colonel Lieutenant, Book 3 of the Renaissance Army series that people keep asking about. I’m hoping to have that done by Easter of next year, but I’ll have to keep focused.
There are other projects I’m working on, but nothing major to report or confirm. The two bigger ones are Champion Impact, the sequel to Champion Bold, and Orcfyre, my fantasy novel I’m eager to finish.
May Goals
Complete draft of The Colonel Lieutenant
Get Champion Impact forms out to backers.
Finish Orcfyre re-plotting and start writing
Knock 10 items off Project To-Do List
Books
Image courtesy of Goodreads
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Non-Fiction)
Homemade Sourdough: Mastering the Art and Science (Non Fiction)
Armageddon’s Children (Fiction)
War and Peace (Fiction, Audiobook)
The Seven Basic Plots (Research)
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Game Theory (Research)
Without Remorse (Fiction, Re-Read)
Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan (Non-Fiction)
Actually finished two books this month, which is great. Still behind on my goal for the year, but at least I’ve knocked a couple out. The two I finished were both great reads.
Sapiens was in a similar vein to Guns, Germs and Steel, only without being as preachy. It provide a good, well-structures history of human development and how progress is not always beneficial. It also gave me some ideas of how to work out issues with some of the histories I’m working on for my own projects.
And the book on sourdough was about answering some questions on sourdough, and some fun recipes to try.
According to Goodreads, I currently have nine active books, including the audiobook, I’m working through. That’s a lot. Some of them are in niche places (my patio read book, my Kindle ebook, the audiobook). The rest are just books I need to sit down and pull notes from.
Which is all a long way of of saying I need to read more.
May Goals
Finish Game Theory Book
Finish Two Fiction Books
Finish One Non-Fiction Book
Movies and Shows
Scrapped Princess (Re-Watch)
Rurouni Kenshin Reboot (Season 1)
Andor (Season 2)
Last Kingdom (Re-Watch)
Marco Polo
The Last of Us (Season 2)
Image courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic website
This last month my roommate put Crunchyroll and Max on the main TV, so now I’ve got even more options to watch.
I watched two season of anime off Crunchyroll. I re-watched Scrapped Princess, which I haven’t seen in 20 years. I’d forgotten enough that it was almost like watching it for the first time. Almost. I still remembered bits here and there.
Then I watched the first season of the Rurouni Kenshin reboot. This is my favorite anime series, and to see it redone was pretty fun. The story-telling is tighter and the animation cleaner. That being said, it’s not perfect. One of my three favorite fights occurred at the end of the season, and though it was visually stunning, it wasn’t as exciting as the original fight.
The two big shows from April and early May are Andor and The Last of Us, both in their second season. Andor continues to be a fantastic show, with excellent writing that isn’t dependent on huge action sequences and space battles. There’s one more trio of episodes to go; expect a bigger write up in June.
The Last of Us was a show I really enjoyed, based off a pair of games that I also really liked. I even did a whole post about the first season; the second has yet to disappoint. They are making a lot of changes to the story on so many levels, I can’t really get into it here. I will have to see how it ends to really see how the changes work out.
May Goals
Watch One Best Picture Winner (Three remaining)
Watch One Fix-It title (Four remaining)
Finish One Started TV Show
Start One New TV Show
Games
Space Marine 2
Madden 2025
Not much in the gaming department. I’m working through Space Marine 2, and playing some Madden 2025 with my roommate. Also revisited Stellaris some more, but that’s nothing special.
RPG wise, the game I run, Atonement, has advanced to the next chapter. The party is now in the high mountains, preparing to fight trolls and undead. I’m excited for this chapter; it’ll be much more straight forward than the pseudo-politics of the great city of Erasmus. Simple fights leading to moderate puzzles. Good, old-fashioned role-playing game.
May Goals
Finish Space Marine 2
Start new PC Game
Continue a game in progress
What’s Next
I have a launch party set for June 8th at Inbound BrewCo. Here’s a link to the Facebook Event Page, and an image below with the appropriate info.
This post will cover building and outlining organizations. By organization, I mean any distinct group that is assembled with a specific purpose. This could be a military unit, a branch of government, or a church. It could be as large as a nation, or as small as a clubhouse.
Any organization that will have a noticeable impact on the story in one way or another should appear on my list and receive at least some sort of prep work. How much prep work and to what level of detail will depend on what I need the organization to do.
Why build organizations?
Because organizations of various sizes have so much influence on our lives on so many levels. Think about how many organizations you interact with on a daily basis: law enforcement, insurance agencies, restaurants, etc. Even if the experience is smooth, you’ve still interacted with them.
Within a story, organizations can influence the choices of a character (antagonist, protagonist, or other) as they experience the narrative. They can restrict or assist characters. Some organizations may act as characters in and of themselves, if they’re central enough to the story.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways I expect an organization can influence the story.
Availability of resources
An organization has access to resources. By planning ahead, I know what those resources are and how the characters can access them. An army brigade has so many tanks and machine guns. A corporation has so much money and so many facilities. And so on.
When writing, I then have an idea of what the character who is part of this organization has access to. How many guns can they bring? How much money can they withdraw? It helps define things ahead of time, so a character doesn’t suddenly have access to resources beyond their means; or if they do, they’re going to draw attention.
Powers and Limitations
Characters who are part of organizations operate within the rules of that organization. The organization gives them certain powers, but also impresses upon them certain limitation. Think about law enforcement agencies. Officers of the agencies have powers and authorities while conducting their duties, but also work within the law and limitations of their culture. And different agencies will have different powers and restrictions.
For characters in the story, an organization can be the source of conflict, by restricting a character in one way or another. Having some idea of how these restrictions work, and the punishment for ignoring the restrictions, helps inform the decision-making process of that character.
Knowledge and Ethos
Organizations are not just about people and equipment, but also about knowledge. What does the organization know and what can it teach (or has it taught) the character? Deep secrets, professional knowledge, client information: organizations come with an array of bits that characters can know to come to learn.
Related is an organization’s ethos: the character and spirit of the organization. This ethos can influence the character and/or their interactions with the organization. A character from a military unit that prides itself on always completing the mission would react strongly to even the idea of failing. Another character from a secretive religious order would find spycraft to be second nature.
What to build?
Start with some basics. Names of the organization, a brief history. Some ideas of what its scope is and what its powers are. Much of this might seem pretty obvious, but I’ve found it helps to write it down.
Tables of organization
A table of organization is a great way to lay out how different parts of a group interact with each other. The one I’m most familiar with is the TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment) used in military histories to explain how sides of battles are organized, but the concept is the same for non-military or non-historical organizations. Boxes represent parts; lines represent relationships.
Tables are a great visual reference to explain organizational relationships without getting into paragraphs of explanation and exposition. They’re also helpful if I need to game out battle or campaign scenarios, as the units on the table can translate to units on the tabletop.
The Table of Organization and Equipment for a Royal Army Corps from the Renaissance Army series. A table like this allows me to quickly know unit names, sizes, and what equipment is available at each level.
Lists of Resources
A list of the resources available (and I’m including knowledge and secrets in this list) can be a helpful bit to keep on hand. It could lead to a new story idea of fun conversation within a scene. Plus, I’ve found that having a list of the resources centralized in one location makes it easier to reference during writing.
Positions, Ranks and Characters
Organizations are filled with people, who have titles, responsibilities, and possibly a role within the narrative. Much of this may feel thematic, but it is important to get it right. It doesn’t make sense for a European-style organization to use Japanese titles, unless there’s a very good reason for it.
Once the organization charts are built, figuring out the titles, names and even biographies of important decision makers ahead of time will help with the flow of the story. I don’t need to necessarily prepare the name of every single character in the organization, but having them ready can be great when I’m writing the scenes.
Paying Attention to What I Need
At various points while building organizations, I need to take a step back and ensure I’m building what I need for the story. I could go through an entire military organization and label every officer and unit name, but does the story need that? Do I need to work out the titles for every officer in a church leadership, or not? I need to pay attention to what work I need to focus on.
In Practice: The General of the Pen
So, we’ve gone over why I build organizations, and what I try to build for an organization when I build them. Let’s move onto the final part and put it into practice for our test project, the General of the Pen.
I’m going to build four organizations for this project:
The Campilesian church: the cultural glue that holds the local communities together.
The Campilesian independence movement: the political force that is driving the rebellion.
Alonso’s Army: the force that is being assembled in Valle de Cielo for the story.
The Sur-Marais army: the force that will serve as the antagonist for the story.
Don’t worry. I’m only going to give myself three paragraphs per organization. The first paragraph I will give the expectations I have for the organization within the world. The second, I will give an overview of the organization I’ve built. Third, how it will appear in the story.
The Campilesian Church
The Campilesian Church is a religious organization that has influence across the borders and strata of Campilesian society. I need it to be a culturally unifying force for a people who do not have a political unifying force, while they built a governing body. But I don’t want it to necessarily step in and try to rule in its own right.
The organization I envision is hierarchical, but broad. Local priests report to a bishop of a region or an archbishop of a city, all of whom report to a cardinal. The various cardinals make up a ruling council that decide ecumenical and spiritual matters after vigorous debat.e
In the book, I expect the bishop to be a character who will appear several times (so I add him to the list). Local priests will appear to lead their parishioners into the new era; some may actually become military officers.
Story Idea: The more religious Campilesian’s are willing to accept religious leaders as military leaders; Gerhard, from a nation which practices more separation between spiritual and military, looks at this with distrust.
The Campilesian Independence Movement
The Campilesian Independence Movement is the driving force behind the story; they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to drive for independence. But it’s not a controlling body; it’s not even a particulalry organized body. It’s more a loose collection of social clubs, poliitcal socities and local parties that is stepping up.
This organization is building to nationhood, but has some ways to go. Right now, it’s a very provisional organization. It has a central directing body, and several developing government organs, but nothing is set in stone. Much of the authority of the movement is held in local and regional organizations, which are trusting in the central body to figure it out.
For the course of the story, the Independence Movement is a driving force, but will be largely absent from the narrative. They have called for raising regiments, given Alonso his position as a general, and are sending him what supplies and units they can. But if any agent of the government does show up, it won’t be a large player.
Alonso’s Army of the Valle de Cielo
The Army of Independent Campilesia is a growing army, made up of small regiments of social clubs and emergency volunteers who are assembling into the larger formations in response to the current crisis. It should represent a chaotic and uncontrolled expansion. It should also show off that each regiment assembled is an expression of local customs and heraldry.
The building block of the army is the regimente, a formation of various companies assembled under a command staff. Each regiment has a common uniform for themselves, but these are not standard across the army. Regiments bear the name of the city or region they are raised in. They are sent to regions to fight in, where they are assigned to generals as needed.
Corps of Observation (700 at arms)
Middle Brigade (1,800 at arms)
East Brigade (2,600 at arms)
Santa Natalie Mounted Squadron (300 at arms)
Santa Margarita Regiment (400 at arms)
San Martin Regiment (1,000 at arms)
Valley Volunteer Mounted Squadron (160 at arms)
Santa Isabella Regiment (600 at arms)
Santa Angelica Regiment (600 at arms)
Valley Foot Scouts (200 at arms)
San Miguel Regiment (600 at arms)
San Roberto Regiment (800 at arms)
Ricardo’s Battery of Artillery
Garcia’s Battery of Artillery
The initial Army of the Valley and its regiments, including their size. Not shown are the command staff, civilian wagons pressed into service carrying goods, and the numerous camp followers.
In the General of the Pen, there are a number of regiments that form or are sent into the valley, from the well-equipped and uniform looking San Martin Regiment to the hastily raised and rough looking Santa Angelica Regiment. They currently service in the valley, under General Alonso, who has divided his army into the western Corps of Observation, and two fighting brigades. These formations will form the basic army that the characters operate in during the events of the story. More units could come in later, when it’s most dramatic.
Aside: In the Independence Army, most soldiers and officers are dedicated to their regimente, which are expressions of local support. They know each other. General officers and staff work for the central government, which is not the same thing. There is still a lot of distrust going around.
The Sur-Marais Army
This is a large, established army. Their unit histories go back centuries. They have standard uniforms, weapons and training. And they have an entire nation’s industry and economy behind them. The force that comes into the story is small enough to be defeated because they have confidence in their arms to win the day.
I build two charts for this army. One is a chart of the high organization, the top generals and their offices, to explain the inner workings of the army and how it responds to a crisis. The second is a TOE of a single army corps, a formation large enough to operate on its own.
A simple TOE for a Sur-Marais Army Corps. I haven’t worked out naming conventions or exact numbers per unit, but something of this size should work out to about 15,000 at arms.
During the course of the novel, the army corps will advance into the valley and engage the independence movement. Using the TOE, I can track the units and numbers of men involved, and track casualties as events unfold.
Conclusion
This was a quick overview of how I go about preparing organizations for a story. For major projects, I have whole spreadsheets counting down unit sizes to the man, and tables of organization to look back on and reference. It’s not meant to be perfect; it’s meant to answer the big questions before I start writing, so I stay consistent.
Next post I will do a quick overview of creating setting specific systems for Magic, Mythology and Science. Expect a lot of math, and a lot of ‘the characters don’t know how it works, but this is what they think.’
I just finished up three days at Minicon 58 in the Twin Cities. Set up my table, laid out my books, sat on some panels, and talked with other authors. Made some sales. Had some conversations.
Overall, it was a great weekend. Longer thoughts to follow.
Behold….my books!
My Table
My set up is pretty decent, as you can see from the picture. The table banner looks a lot better than that rolled up poster I used to have. I think putting the free pictures under the plastic sheet really helps keep them from moving around, and putting the business cards in card holders instead of spreading them out just keeps the table clear. It just looks more orderly than previous tables.
Talking with visitors is getting better. My elevator pitch for the two Renaissance Army books is okay, or at least I feel comfortable with it. I had to work through a few iterations of the Champion Bold pitch before I found one that felt right. I’ll probably practice some more before the next event.
There are a few things I’ll want to do in the future. for starters, I’m going to need to get something vertical to hold my books up, since I’m already going to have several more books once the supplements come in, and I’m going to be adding more titles in the future. Another idea I want to do is get some reviews off Amazon and Goodreads and put them up for people to read.
And, maybe, get some cool sci-fi videos for my picture display.
The Panels
I was on three panels at Minicon: Procrastination or Preparation, A Sense of Wonder in Sci-Fi, and Dealing with Writer’s Block.
I’m not going to bore you with details about each panel. They went well. I participated in discussions, responded to questions. I still felt like the junior member of the panels, but by most standards I probably am. It’s not like imposter syndrome is going to go away just because I want it to.
If I was to acknowledge one critique, I need to work on ending my response. More than once, I would say my bit, then sort of babble for a bit. What I need to do is say my thing, and the be done.
Readings
I was scheduled for one reading, I did two.
My individual reading was Friday afternoon, and no one came. Unfortunately, it was left off the schedule by accident, one of about half a dozen events that faced such a challenge. I don’t take it personally; it happens. I ended up sitting in my room reading my eBook for half an hour.
Later Friday night, I was approached by another author. he had assembled an Indie Author Reading Buffet; a handful of authors, reading for ten to fifteen minutes, but several of the authors had dropped out, and he was looking for readers. I had a copy of Champion Bold on the cloud, so I read as part of the group. Got at least one sale out of it.
From what I gather, this may be something we see more of in the future. Groups of authors reading in panels, rather than individuals sitting in rooms. I’m hoping that will mean more chances to read: a fantasy panel, a scifi panel, etc. We’ll see how they set it up next year.
Conclusion
Was it worth it? Absolutely. I made some sales of the new book, and had a lot of people ask about Book 3, which has to be my primary project for the rest of the year. I made some contacts and opened up some opportunities over the next few months that I want to take advantage of. There may be more announcements coming in the near future.
For now, I’m recovering from the con and prepping for the next projects. Looking forward to having at least one new title for next year.
The last book in Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series covering the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors, the Other Queen is about the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scotts, between fall of 1568 and summer of 1572. It follows three characters: Mary and her two captors, George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. Each character is experiencing personal hardship in this story, watching their world fall apart in their own way.
Did I like this book? Hard to say. For most of it, yes. I liked that each character provided a unique view of the events. I felt compassion for each of them, though only one of them I felt came out (mostly) untainted at the end. But then it ended in a way that just killed my enjoyment: I’ll explain at the end of the post after a spoiler’s tag.
First, I want to discuss the characters.
Mary, Queen of Scotts
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Mary, Queen of Scotts, is a prisoner of the English Crown. She has the claim to several thrones — including England’s — and is married or engaged to several suitors. She is eager to head back to Scotland and reclaim her birthright.
The character of Mary is a frustrating one. On the one hand, you understand her position completely. She does not believe she deserves to be there. Afterall, she is a crowned queen away from her throne, a mother away from her child. She believes she is divinely chosen to rule, and her confinement and the restrictions placed upon her are an insult. All that comes through.
But with that strong belief comes the conviction that she can lie and scheme to get what she wants without consequence. From her perspective, every action is warranted. So, the book is her plotting her escape and her revenge, or bemoaning the failure of whatever plot almost worked.
Mary gains sympathy because she’s a woman denied her right as a queen and her freedoms as a person. But she squanders it by arrogantly plotting. At the same time, what else can she do? She’s helpless, and fighting against being helpless, which brings us right back to sympathetic.
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
George Talbot is the nobleman selected by the English crown to hold Mary Queen of Scotts for a time. He is eager to do his duty to Queen Elizabeth, but as the story progresses, begins to find himself drawn more and more to Mary’s cause.
George is the second most frustrating character of the three.
He is an honorable man. When he was a judge as Queen Mary’s trial (before the start of the book) he judged her not guilty because the evidence was not sufficient, despite pressure to find her guilty just to be rid of her. He tries to do the right thing in a court where the right thing often changes as the whims of Queen Elizabeth and her senior advisor, William Cecil.
But when Mary comes into his household, he falls for her. As an honorable man, this tears as his soul. He wants to serve her, but he has a queen; he wants to love her, but he has a wife. George wants to believe the best of her, despite constant evidence that she plots and schemes.
This is where George fails. He’s an honorable man, but he refuses to navigate the world he lives in. Not that he can’t: he refuses.
George constantly hopes that the world will right itself and come into focus the way he wants it to. But he knows it won’t. He could take steps to protect Mary or Bess, but he doesn’t. He keeps hoping for a solution, but refuses to do anything to bring one about, because any solution he can bring about won’t be what he wants. in the end, he does one thing to mitigate the consequences of his action; I’ll discuss that in the next section.
Rich and politically powerful, but emotionally powerless.
Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Bess, wife of George, is the third character, and the only one who doesn’t lose me by the end of the book.
A lady of some means, Bess is on her fourth marriage, and has amassed a sizable amount of wealth in land and items to pass along to her children. She is a competent manager, balancing income and expenses in account books that she proudly knows back and forth. Bess has the character and confidence of a self-made woman.
When Mary is sent to their household. Bess sees the danger. As a queen, Mary expects a certain lifestyle that the hosts must pay for. The monthly allowance from Queen Elizabeth’s government is not nearly enough, nor is it consistently paid. Instead, they must drain their accounts and mortgage their lands to pay for the queen’s mini-court. All of which endangers the wealth Bess wants to leave to her children.
Bess is the opposite of George: she is realistic where he is idealistic. She does not expect to be paid. She is also an agent of William Cecil, Elizabeth’s most trusted advisor, and informs on Mary’s activities to the crown.
Why is Bess the only character who doesn’t lose me by the end of the book? Probably because she’s the only one who’s story isn’t dominated by their character flaw. Mary loses me because she’s too self-centered; George because he’s too idealistic and naive. But Bess knows she’s in danger and does her best, hoping to endure until she can survive or thrive.
She does survive, but only because George takes a step to separate their fortunes. This is what I alluded to last section; the one thing George does to mitigate the consequences of his actions, and it’s for Bess, not for himself. He gives her back the lands and fortunes she had at the time of their marriage, in exchange for her forgiving the debts he owes her. She comes out none the richer for her marriage, but she still retains everything she wanted to pass along to her children.
Not perfect, but the better of the three characters.
Spoiler – My Annoyance
Now we get to the spoiler ending bit. If you don’t want to know, don’t read beyond this.
Now.
Okay.
For real this time.
Here we go.
The book is primarily set between Autumn 1568 and June 1572. Within that nearly four-year period, Mary sees her rises and falls, George falls in love and falls out of favor, and Bess has to divorce her husband in her mind if not by law. Sounds good, right?
The last chapter is set fifteen years later. Bess hears about the execution of Mary, and spends several pages considering the last fifteen years. how Mary entrapped and involved those around her in her schemes and how many of them paid with her. How her husband became so attached to Mary that he wept at her execution. And how Bess worked hard to distance herself from both and protect herself.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? Why not? What better way is there to cover fifteen years of events? I agree.
So why does it bother me?
Because it is set up as just another chapter. As a reader, I found it jarring to go from weekly or monthly advances to more than a decade without warning. It pulled me from the flow of reading to sit back and figure out what was happening.
Now, it is true that the chapters all start with dates on them. And yes, if I was paying more attention to the dates maybe I wouldn’t have found it all the more jarring. But perfect readers are rare, and I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t label this last chapter the epilogue, or put a break page with a ‘fifteen years later’ announcement. Anything to keep the reader informed.
Completely jarring.
Conclusion
I’m glad I read this book. The characters were well written. Their flaws are front and center and truly debilitating, even fatal, to their well being. The end was jarring, but not enough to put me off or re-reading it.
What’s truly memorable is that this is the last book in the series. I’m now done with it. I’ll probably do a reflection blog post on the series at some point. But for now, I’ll just appreciate finishing the series.
