HF Grand EVENT Begins!! Interview, Guest, Post and GIVEAWAY!!

Good morning for this fantastic Historical Fiction Bloggers Round Table Event, today I have the Honour of presenting to you, Royal Heiress of the Day: Heather from the Maiden’s Court.
This gal is fantastic-not only does she love history and reading about it, she also posts the most interesting historical fiction reviews; most of these responsible for my ever-growing TBR list!! And If that’s not all, she’s also the nicest person you’ll ever meet:) I’m so happy to have her join me today for our very first post to this grand event!

Heather has answered some interview questions for me and has agreed to write a fabulous guest post for Enchanted By Josephine.I present to you: Heather!

1-When and Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging at the end of May this year (I can’t believe it has only been a little over 3 months!) I had been an active member of the Philippa Gregory Message Board for about a year and about 2 weeks before I started my blog, a friend from the message board (Susie Tudor Daughter) had announced that she had created a blog. So I spent those 2 weeks exploring her blog and checking out the blogs of others, which got me really excited and thought “I can do this!” And thus, my blog was born!

2-What has been your best blogging experience?

I would have to say that my best blogging experience has to do with Michelle Moran. After reading Nefertiti and checking out her website, I decided that I wanted to try hosting my first giveaway. She was the first author that I had ever contacted and she was absolutely wonderful! She is one of the nicest people. She stopped by my blog after the giveaway and posted a comment (which I was super excited about) and sent me a further email later on offering me Cleopatra’s Daughter for review. It was the best experience I could ask for with my first contact with an author, first giveaway, and first review offer.

3-What is the most interesting book you’ve ever read? Why?

I’m really going to have to go with The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory for this one. I didn’t really know much about the Tudors before I read this book – I couldn’t name more than 2 of his wives. Not only did I love this book for the way it was written, the unique perspective, and the wildly entertaining story it told – but it really opened my eyes to historical fiction. Since I was 12 I had been reading some historical fiction – but it was mostly based on American history events. I had never really thought about looking at other countries. Reading this book really got me interested in Tudor history and from there spawned my interest in other royalty and historical periods. You could say it is really where my love of historical fiction started.

4-If you could go back in history and meet your favorite figure of all times- who would that be? Why?

Man, this is a tough question – I’m wavering back and forth between a couple of people. I think I would have to go WAY back and meet Nefertari. She has always been my favorite Egyptian queen. I would love to see if she really looked like the beautiful images painted of her. I would want to ask her about what it was like to go out to war with her husband and be such a strong woman when that wasn’t really the norm. I would want to ask her about her family and where she came from because not a lot is known. I think it would be a very informative conversation filling in many of the holes that are left today in what we know about her.

5-Who would you absolutely love to interview/ or have guest-post on your blog?

I think it would be an absolute dream to have Philippa Gregory guest-post or be interviewed on my blog. Like I said earlier, her book was a reason I really became interested in historical fiction and I have read almost all of her Tudor series; I just have The Other Queen left. There would be SO many things that I would love to ask her about.

Thanks Heather, for this great interview:) And now, for something that’s mystified people for thousands of ages, read her intriguing post on Cleopatra:


Fact or Fiction – The Death of Cleopatra - by Heather of The Maiden's Court



Cleopatra is an iconic woman and her death is something that is much talked about. There are so many images painted of her death – if you do a simple search you will find many different versions of this event.

There are a couple theories that have been passed around over time as to how she died; some are more believable than others. Some are more based on fact while others are better for their storytelling quality.

It is known that Cleopatra poisoned herself. The most accepted theory of her poisoning is the bite of an asp that she applied to her arm (or breast depending on the story). The story is that an asp was hidden in a basket of figs and when she saw it (knowing that there was no way out) she let it bite her. Some believe Octavian made sure the snake was in there when it was sent to her – so he wouldn’t have to kill her; others believe that it was just in the basket. The story of the asp is supported by the presence of 2 pinprick marks on her skin.

Another theory that utilized these pinprick marks is that these were scratches from applying a poison to the skin with a hair pin. This theory doesn’t account well for the death of her two maids though.

Most storytellers have adopted the snake bite theory as it tells a much better story. The truth is, it could really have been either theory, or neither. The best quote to sum up this post come from Plutarch, "the truth of the matter no one knows". I guess it’s up to you to decide.

Wow…This mystry will continue to fascinate and intrigue us! Thank you VERY much, Heather.

Moving along to our GIVEAWAY:

I’ve decided to kick off the Historical Fiction Event, here on EBJ, with a giveaway of a book revolving around one of the great masters in history. Most of you know how I love Italian history and so, fittingly so, I’m giving away a hard copy of Leonardo’s Swans!



Contest Rules:

1 Chance: Leave a comment telling me who you think is ‘great’ in history.
2 Chances: Post about this on your blog, twitter…
3 Chances: Become a follower (You get this automatically if you’re already a follower)

PLEASE NOTE:

1) This contest is open to Canada and US only
2) Locked or unavailable profiles are not eligible


To continue with this exciting event, be sure to go to The Burton Review, where Marie interviews Allie from Hist-Fic-Chick.

And there’s another wonderful GIVEAWAY there too!

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