April 7th, 2011
COMING SOON: 
THE WINTER HEART'S BLOG TOUR On May 15th we'll be releasing Winter Heart, a novella starring Domina Frevisse. This will be the first new story featuring Frevisse since The Apostate's Tale in
2008. Like the recent reprints of my older stories and novels, this new
tale will be released for the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and other e-reading
platforms. In order to celebrate the release, I'll be participating in a blog tour from May 15th through May 31st. WHAT'S A BLOG TOUR? I'll
be making "appearances" on blogs featuring mysteries, historical
fiction, and history around the web and participating in short digital
interviews. These appearances will be linked here on my home page, so
if you check-in during the blog tour, subscribe to my feed, or follow me on Facebook, you'll be able to follow the tour as it happens. HOW CAN I HELP? Do you have a blog? We've still got days free in the schedule if you're interested in participating. Send an e-mail to blogtour@margaretfrazer.com and the nice fellow I have organizing things for me will sort it out. Do
you have a favorite blog you read that you think would be the perfect
fit for the tour? Let them know about the blog tour so that they can
sign up! - Margaret |
April 14th, 2011
THE BISHOP'S TALE - FOR KINDLE AND THE NOOK! The Bishop's Tale has been released for both the Kindle
and the Nook. It can also be
read on any iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry device using
either the free Kindle
Reading Apps or the free Nook
Apps for those platforms. It
will also be available through the iBookstore shortly, but Apple takes
much longer to process new e-books than Amazon or B&N. "MAY GOD STRIKE ME DOWN WITHIN THE HOUR!"
To the guests at the
mourning feast for Thomas Chaucer, the last words of Sir Clement Sharpe
had been enough to damn him in the eyes of God. Detested by all who knew
him, his final blasphemy had turned even God's anger against him and
his death would be a lesson well-remembered. None among them would ever
forget the sight of God striking down a sinning man, and each would keep
in their heart the need to honor God's charity and love in all the
hours of their lives.
But the crafty Dame Frevisse and cunning
Bishop Beaufort suspect that there may be an all-too-mortal hand at work
in Sir Clement's death. If their suspicions can be proved, then the
only lesson to be learned is the bleakest secret of the blackest heart. |
A Minnesota Book Awards Nominee Buy
Kindle Edition / Buy
Nook Edition
PRAISE FOR THE BISHOP'S TALE
"The setting for another tale of mystery, intrigue, jealousy and
ambition, well drawn, well paced, and a pleasure to read." - Historical
Novels Review
“Rich period detail, canny characterization, and a
lively plot should endear Sister Frevisse and her tales to anyone who
enjoys historical mysteries.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Truly
this is a winter’s tale, wintry in setting and in themes. The most
powerful emotions are chilled and subdued: Cool authority, icy
determination, cold despair – these are stronger than the widow’s
stormy, self-pitying grief, the petulant anger of a pair of young
lovers, the heat of a proud man’s anger, and the fiery rash which
clutches and kills him.” – Jeanne M. Jacobson, Drood Review of Mystery |
When the time came to write The Bishop's Tale, my then-co-author Mary
and I decided it
was time to move out of the circumscribed world of the nunnery and
country
gentry of the first books and instead involve Frevisse in the
politics of the 1400s. That would be made
the easier because in The Novice’s Tale and
afterward, we had
established Frevisse’s relationship with her uncle-by-marriage
Thomas Chaucer,
who moved in high political circles and would provide a logical
way to get her
involved in whatever manner of political trouble was going at the
time.
When we first
brought Thomas
Chaucer into the series, we had no expectation of using him in
this way. In fact, when we first brought
him into the
series, we didn’t have a series. When we
were plotting The Novice’s Tale, we
didn’t have any contract yet and no realization at all where we
(and then I
alone) were heading. We simply needed
someone who could bring news from the outside world into the
nunnery, and because
the nunnery was to be in Oxfordshire, I enthusiastically suggested
Thomas
Chaucer. I’d come across him in my
research and had liked his apparently deep determination to avoid
being dragged
into politics despite he was related to some of the most powerful
people in England. That he was also
Geoffrey Chaucer’s son added
to the interest of him as a character. After
The Novice’s Tale, he had a
background part in The Servant’s Tale and made an
appearance in The Outlaw’s Tale, and
I was thoroughly looking forward to furthering my acquaintance
with him in The Bishop’s Tale.
Now remember
that when I chose
him for a part in The Novice’s Tale,
we didn’t know we were heading into a series, and while I had a
goodly amount
of information about him in my files, I hadn’t looked any further
ahead than to
see he was available that year (not on embassy abroad or
something), and so for
The Bishop’s Tale, I went back to my
files to find out where and what he was doing at the time we meant
to set the
story -- and was appalled to find out that what he was doing was
dying. That about six months after the
time of The Outlaw’s Tale, he had died.
I remember
calling up Mary and
exclaiming over the phone, “Thomas Chaucer is dead!”
She told me later that what went through her
mind was, “Yyyesss. He would be. It’s been over 500 years. She’s
losing it.” But I explained, and while she
was no happier
than I was at losing a character we both liked, there was nothing
(playing fair
with history) we could do about it. So The Bishop’s Tale became quite a
different story from what it might have been, Frevisse was spared
being
embroiled in politics until another tale, and perhaps some day
I’ll write a
prequel to the Tales simply for the
sake of spending time again with Master Chaucer. - Margaret |
