Here, there, hither and yon

See these books?  It's really all their fault that you're not getting a proper blog post this week.  You see, there's this pesky thing called "marketing" that an author has to do these days, in order to sell any books.

And because I've been concentrating on that, rather than on bringing you my usual ridiculously longwinded historical posts, I don't have much for you this week.  However, if you want to read about my books, I can point you to some other places on the blogosphere (I know, it's an irritating term, isn't it?) where I am popping up lately.

First, Deborah Swift, author of the acclaimed novels The Lady's Slipper and The Gilded Lily, was gracious enough to allow me to post a description of how I came to write A Thing Done.  It's on her wonderful blog, Royalty Free Fiction, which features historical fiction without any kings or queens - I thought it was a great idea, and was happy to be able to post there.  If you're curious, you can read my post here.

Next, Kim Rendfeld, author of The Cross and the Dragon, invited me to do a guest post for her.  We agreed on a topic which merged my interest in Dante's Florence with hers in the time of Charlemagne, and my post (in two parts) will appear on her blog Outtakes of a Historical Novelist on Tuesday, December 11 and Wednesday, December 12, preceded by her introduction on Monday, December 10.  Kim is a fellow Fireship Press author, and her debut novel has been getting some great reviews.

And finally, Sandy Frykholm, who blogs about The Italian South, also asked me to do a guest post, and that one appeared on Friday, December 14.  Take a look at Sandy's blog for some wonderful pictures, and also for travel, historical, and culinary information (including some fabulous recipes).  For Sandy, I wrote a post about Sicilian puppets.

There are more things in the works, on many different blogs:  blog posts, reviews, interviews, excerpts, and giveaways.  For a complete schedule, see the News page on my website.

But I haven't forgotten this, my own blog.  Watch this space next week for a description of a group of 13th century spendthrifts from Siena, who took conspicuous consumption to its (il)logical extreme.  Perhaps I should have run it on Black Friday, but as we are still in the max-out-your-credit-cards season, I think it will still be timely.

Meanwhile, here's your blogger, trying to get in the mood for all of this marketing stuff: