I suppose this is the sort of image most of us have of a writer at work – the relaxed serenity of creativity, the beautiful uncluttered workplace, the light from a window that overlooks a garden. Is it time, I wonder, to bust the myth? I’m not saying there aren’t writers who fit this image … More A writer’s life – (or suffering for your art).
My father’s family is not so squeaky clean when it comes to its family history. After researching and revealing my mother’s family scandals, I thought it only fair to delve into Dad’s family. I’m nothing if not fair… I knew that his grandfather had married sisters. My grandmother, Grandma Toadle, and my Great-Aunt Grace had … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – KINDRED AND AFFINITY
Where do authors find the inspirations for their stories? This trilogy, or a least, book one because I didn’t start out to write a trilogy, was inspired by an article on the television program Flog It! They were visiting the Black Country Living Museum in what was in the early twentieth century the heart of … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – THE CHAINMAKERS TRILOGY
After writing the trilogy based on my maternal grandmother’s family misdeeds, I felt the need to delve into my grandfather’s family. I knew he was born in the Duke of Buccleuch’s Northamptonshire Boughton Estate village of Warkton, near Kettering – a beautiful little village of thatched ironstone cottages set around a church. I lived not … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – THE DANDELION CLOCK
More inside information about the inspirations behind another story. Anyone who has read my short story, Ooh, Air Margrit, https://rebeccabrynblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/19/ooh-air-margrit/ will know that I come from ‘a good family’. Not my words, the words of the lay preacher who conducted my mother’s funeral. Read the short story if you want a laugh, though it was … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – FOR THEIR COUNTRY’S GOOD TRILOGY.
This third book in my little library was the hardest topic I’ve ever written about. Once I began researching it, I knew I had to write Touching the Wire. The initial inspiration came from a television report about Nazi war criminals living incognito after the war. Joseph Mengele, the doctor who carried out horrendous medical … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – TOUCHING THE WIRE
The Silence of the Stones was the second of my novels to be published; a mystery, set in beautiful West Wales where I live, it almost wrote itself. The initial inspiration came from a holiday with a young friend to China in the autumn of 1989, six months before the Tiananmen Square massacre. We’d been … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – THE SILENCE OF THE STONES
What inspirations kick-start a story? What life experiences endow it with realism and emotion? What message is the author trying to get across? The first story I was moved to tell was inspired by the science behind climate change, the science as it stood in 2010 that is. I tried to imagine the effect climate … More THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES – THE CHILD OF PROPHECY.
http://mybook.to/GiveUsThisDay It is said that in Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales, the red flag of socialism was raised for the first time in Britain. It was 1831, and the men and women who worked in the coalfields and ironworks of the Welsh valleys joined together to protest against wage cuts and the unfair ‘truck system’ … More A SNEAK PEEK! Give Us This Day – The Merthyr Rising.
I’ve had a shadow at my side for most of the last sixty-odd years. It’s taken different shapes and sizes, but it has been a comfort, a non-judgemental inspiration, and an ever-cheerful devoted friend. My present shadow has been my constant companion for the last fourteen years. She’s a small chocolate and tan collie-cross rescued … More The shadow at my side.
Chapter One ‘Of all the pirates I’ve heard and seen The basest and the bloodiest is Captain Green’ *** My Country men who do intend on Pirrating to go, Be sure what e’re ye may pretend The certain end is wo, I know’t to sad Experience .The better may I tell, I thought my self … More Pre-release sneak peek of ‘Revenge: England and Scotland, rivalry and retribution’.
It’s 1705 and Scotland is on its knees. For years, the country’s Company of Scotland has been denied access to the profitable trade routes to the East Indies by the rival English East India Company. Piracy is rife across the ocean trade routes, the slave trade is at its height, England is keen to avoid … More The most ignominious act of treachery in Scottish history.
March is Women’s History Month, and as a writer of historical fiction – stories that feature strong women – I can’t let it pass unmentioned. You might ask why women should have a month dedicated to their history; after all, everyone’s history is important if we’re to understand our present, but I shall attempt to … More Women’s History Month
As writers, we are encouraged not to use cliches, but these phrases started out somewhere in the dim and distant past and had a real meaning, so as a writer of historical fiction, I ask myself ‘was it a cliche at the time about which I am writing?’, and perhaps more importantly, will the reader … More When is a cliche not a cliche?
It all began when I saw a TV report about the Black Country Living Museum and the women chainmaker’s strike of 1910, when they fought the chain masters for a living wage and paved the way for a National Minimum Wage – the phrase The White Slaves of England piqued my interest. That children from … More The trilogy I didn’t intend to write.
It’s odd the subjects you get led to when researching for a novel. While looking into the events of 1929 for The Chain Mistress, which may not be it’s final title, I came across a butterfly by the name of Clarence Hatry, who flapped his wings with dire effects. Hatry, son of a Jewish immigrant … More A butterfly’s wings, cause and effect, and why fraud is dangerous.
Anna is eighteen, and hasn’t had an easy childhood. Diagnosed with ADHD, she’s been on medication since she was twelve. She’s an intelligent , caring young woman, who has already had more to cope with than most people have in a lifetime, but she was coping with it well and had her future mapped out … More When life crumbles around you – parents, PLEASE have this conversation with your children.
Treat yourself, ladies. You deserve it. Fancy a binge read? Love a love story? Here are some for you at bargain prices. Take a look at http://mybook.to/FTCGtrilogy the series page to immerse yourself in Jem and Ella’s epic tale which is set in England and Australia in the 1840s. When Jem is transported, Ella determines … More It’s Mothers’ Day in USA.
I have read a lot of series in the past and marvelled at how they were put together, how events from the first or second books played a pivotal role in the later books. How on earth did the authors weave these books together so flawlessly? Having written several stand-alone books and two historical series, … More Writing a series – different approaches.
It’s what my ex mother-in-law used to say when I phoned her and asked her how she was. ‘I’m a mess of minor miseries.‘ At ninety-seven, having lost her husband of sixty-nine years, she was more than entitled to have the occasional moan, and I like to think I was a good listener. She was … More A Mess of Minor Miseries
I had a review a while ago for one of my historical novels. It went something like this, ‘Rebecca Bryn isn’t afraid of tackling the hard subjects.’ Another reviewer said of the horror of WW1 ‘Rebecca Bryn was brave enough to dwell on it.’ I confess that to begin with, I shied away from tackling … More Sanitising our history – and why we shouldn’t.
I’ve moaned about the criminal element of the world holding the law abiding to ransom before – and the fact that there’s no such thing as a victimless crime. I’ve argued for tougher penalties, and parenting classes for new parents to raise socially responsible children. I’ve even suggested a points system – so many points … More ‘That’s where all the criminals come from’ – a different point of view.
I wrote about this last year, https://rebeccabrynblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/08/the-inequalities-that-inspired/ and much has changed since then. The pandemic has turned all our lives upside-down. So how have I spent my year in lockdown? I finished my work-in-progress, The Chainmakers’ Daughter, the story of the white slaves of England – the women chainmakers who went on a ten-week strike … More International Women’s Day 2021 – fighting to prove a woman’s worth.
Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation, on January 27th 1945, of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp in Poland, by the Russian 60th Army. While most people have heard of Auschwitz and the horror perpetrated there, many would reasonably believe that liberation put an end to the inmates suffering, that they were rescued and returned to … More The March of Death – Holocaust Memorial Day
You wouldn’t think that was a big ask, would you? George’s hens, along the far side of Chapel Lane, lay the most beautiful eggs, so after a request from my husband for more eggs, I set off with the dog, a carrier bag, and an empty egg box to fetch some. It’s a bitterly cold … More Half a dozen large eggs, please.
‘Should lost out to want, as usual. She grabbed a coat, her car keys, and Aunt Siân’s digital camera and headed for the hills. The sketch she’d made of standing stones in the mist was atmospheric, but she needed to see the stones again within the landscape to understand them. She parked on a rocky … More Solstice, catkins, and the silence of the stones.
It’s impossible, when researching a woman’s role in historical fiction, not to be appalled by the inequalities, abuse, and lack of rights women suffered in previous centuries. It’s equally impossible not to be inspired by those women who fought for what we take for granted today – the right to an education, to own property, … More Strong women – woman power!
I’ve just typed THE END to my latest novel, The Chainmaker’s Wife – a sequel to The Chainmakers’ Daughter. There’s still a lot of work to be done applying my latest research findings, editing, beta reading, etc, but I hope to be able to publish it before Christmas. I was asked to write this sequel … More Power Politics and Emptying an Entire Dog out of my Vacuum Cleaner.
I fell into historical fiction writing quite by accident, but once there, I was totally hooked on the events in the past that made us who we are today. Writing this genre follows much the same basic rules as any fiction writing: The inspiration for the story – what got my juices going. The characters … More Writing historical fiction
You’re in luck. We have two free books to get you started on two very different epic tales. If you love historical and contemporary adventure, you’ll love these. If you love romance, we have everything you want. If you’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be a star of stage and screen, look … More Love to get stuck into a good series?
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about removing statues and destroying parts of our history because it’s contentious. The sad fact is that most of our history is contentious, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught. In fact, it’s all the more reason why it should be taught. Our history is the path … More History we shouldn’t forget.
Firstly, I’m happy to announce that my latest novel, The Chainmaker’s Wife, is available to pre-order at http://mybook.to/ChainmakersWife Book One, The Chainmakers’ Daughter, is also available at http://mybook.to/ChainmakersDaughter It’s been an interesting book to write given the present happenings around the globe – so much in it resonates with today’s problems – truly, nothing really … More New release! Nothing really changes.
I don’t consider myself to be a women’s libber, and had I lived in the early 1900s, I’m not sure I’d have had the courage of the likes of Mary Macarthur or Emily Pankhurst, but I have always been keenly aware of women being viewed as second-class citizens. I didn’t question it – it’s how … More The inequalities that inspired a revolution. International Women’s Day 2020
We all do it, whether it’s the simple act of walking down the road, seeing a primrose in early spring, touching the hand of a loved one, having a meal with friends, or listening to music. And we all moan about the weather, the government, the state of the world in general, and few of … More Taking things for granted. Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020.
Royal Command Family Saga: Plus Sizzling Sunset 99c/99p held for November! Click / to Amazon Michael, a poverty-stricken amateur actor makes superstar abetted by wife Elspeth. Unknown to Michael, Elspeth and their daughter are influenced by a literary heirloom. Seductions, betrayals, kidnap, blackmail, & murder follow. The Spy, an unscrupulous journalist, is out to prove…
It seems to me that the best way of honouring the fallen of two world wars is not to forget their sacrifice and have some understanding of what they went through. ‘Lest we Forget’ is written large on many memorials for a very good reason, but what do most of us actually know about the … More Honouring the Fallen
What an Achievement! Jaykishan, my friend from a country I’ve never visited, but nobody who follows my blog will be surprised; music flows through my writing, and this is a very special time. An Editor’s Pick! Congratulations my friend.? Jaykishan grew up in a family to which music is a blessing from God. Music is…
Rebecca Bryn 