What ideas or circumstances have strongly influenced you to write?
I was influenced by Arthurian Legend. Gawain and the Green Knight is a particular favourite tale amongst those of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
My interest in Chivalry led me to: Greek Mythology, Homer, The Illiad and The Odyssesy. Chaucer, A Knights Tale. Tennyson, The Idylls of the King.
The Romans, Hannibal, The Spartans, and Alexander the Great were also of much interest.
Arthur King of The Britons, by Michael Morpurgo had a profound affect.
You can guess what my first as yet unpublished novel is about. Historical fact combined with historical fiction with a touch of Merlin fantasy in a surprise form. This includes a Prophecy.
After I have finished editing my novel, I will start book two. I intend to write a series of books based on my main character. I have roughly outlined three more books in the series.
No I haven't Adrian, but now I will have to at least look it up out of curiosity. I will get back to you on this. I will see if I can get it on my kindle :-)
Victoria, having worked in education for a number of years I can understand how frustrating it must have been for you to have such a teacher and I know that they exist because I've worked with some of them and it really is frustrating. Dorry, I too love to write children's stories in verse so understand where you're coming from.
For me, my writing started really at junior school when we were doing a class newspaper. A boy called Paul and myself wrote the stories for the paper and he was so nasty to me telling me that his was the best that I was pleased when he emigrated to Australia. (I used to wonder where he'd been eaten by a croc!) Then, after my mother died, I started to write poetry as a way of expressing myself without having to talk to anyone. For me, writing is a form of escapism and allows me to focus on pure fiction.
Adrian - you're right, but even at Waterloo the charge of heavy cavalry was criticised for its lack of control. And that's one vital fact usually overlooked - as at Balaklava it was officers who were often responsible for poor performance, not the men.
And many period accounts (Napier et al) were written by ex-infantry officers so are bound to be skewed in their favour. Most historians write to suit their own views ;)