Award Winning Historical Fiction
Novels | Short Stories | Flash Fiction
Novels
Thwarted Queen
When Robert Baratheon died suddenly after a boar hunt, he left two young sons and an alarming wife.
When Edward IV, King of England, died suddenly after a fishing trip in April 1483, he left two young sons, a dangerous wife, and war broke out, the Yorks (Starks) battling the Lancasters (Lannisters.)
This fictionalized biography of Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the Thwarted Queen, spins a saga of power, fear, madness and greed.
When you play the Game of Thrones,
you either win,
or you die.
Twelve Cursed Sisters
How old are folktales really? Most of us believe them to be a few hundred years old, dating back to the Middle Ages.
But suppose the Twelve Dancing Princesses story is much older?
Suppose there is a kernel in the story that dates back tens of thousands of years to the end of the Ice Age?
Behind the ruined slippers
hides a tale of raging fires, devouring floods, ferocious winds
and near-total
devastation.
Short Stories
Find out more about my Short Stories
A Short Story set during the Labor Unrest in Bristol during 1889 and 1890
What if your wife returns home from vacation with a much younger man?
It is September, 1889 in Bristol, England.
Edward Daniell, a lawyer with a well-heeled clientele, lives a comfortable middle-class life. He is careful to hide the fact that he was born into poverty 36 years ago.
Eight years ago, Edward acquired a wife in the shape of 19-year-old Miriam Wheeler, the daughter of a well-to-do merchant in Bristol. However, things were not quite as they seemed. Although Miriam had a conventional Victorian childhood, poor Edward had no idea that he would be acquiring a firebrand, a woman who became more and more unconventional as the years went by. Eventually, Miriam Daniell acquired a taste for Socialism, becoming a member of the Bristol Socialist Society and Treasurer of the Bristol Strike Committee of 1889-1890.
Despite her passion for politics, Miriam is not well. Her condition is so unmentionable that no-one (not even her husband) cares to discuss it, but it necessitates trips to Edinburgh so that she can consult with her Lady Doctor. After one of these trips, Miriam returns home to Bristol bringing a young man she met in Edinburgh, a Scot from Dunfermline who quit medical school in Edinburgh to become yet another Socialist firebrand…
A Short Story about my Grandmother, set in 1913, just before World War I.
What if your eldest daughter attacks you with a malicious lie?
It is 1913. Stephanie, the eldest daughter, is a lovely young woman; tall, well-grown, with a creamy complexion, thick blonde hair, and large blue eyes. She is intelligent, charming and funny. She should marry well and do the family proud, but she behaves so badly, going out with young men, unchaperoned, to dance-halls.
When her mother attempts to rein in Stephanie’s behavior, concerned that it will ruin the marriage prospects of her three sisters,
Stephanie retaliates…
A Short Story about my five times Grandmother, set in 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars.
What if your Master began flirting with you, courting you and talking about making you his wife? Would you be able to refuse?
“You be careful Miss, or you’ll end up in trouble,” remarked Martha the Cook one day, out of the blue. “I can see the master has taken a fancy to you,” she continued.
Fourteen-year-old Susan was puzzled. Hadn’t she been brought into Mr. Clayton’s home as a companion for his daughter Maria? Hadn’t he promised her father to look after her, so that when the time was right she would make a good marriage?
So why did he keep staring at her and making embarrassing remarks? Why had he told her she was blooming? Why had he given her a ring? And what was she to do about his repeated attentions? It didn’t seem right when his wife was upstairs, dying.
A Short Story about my great-uncle set in 1930s England.
What if your second marriage makes you a bigamist?
“Tomorrow, I become a married man,” begins Robert Prisley Caveley’s diary. His elegant copperplate sweeps across the page.
“Not having been married before,” he continues, “I can’t say how I’m going to find my new station in life, although Miss Florence Emily Richards, and I, have been walking out for some time.”
It all sounds ordinary enough, but Robert Caveley is a man bearing secrets. Secrets that are punishable by a long jail sentence…
What if the crush you develop for your professor is never quite returned?
He is tall, dark and handsome, charming and attentive. He becomes an admirer when he realizes she is his best student.
She is shy, sheltered, naive, her life circumscribed by tradition, convention, and her parent’s wishes.
They come together discussing Montaillou, by Emmanuel le Roy Ladurie, a sociological study of French village life in 1294.
Meanwhile, his huge desk glowers silently, situated oddly in an academic office forming a barricade against anyone daring to step within.
Feelings ebb and surge across that desk, but nothing quite connects…