Michelle Styles: Premise for Return of the Viking Warrior plus giveaway

because I love knowing where authors get their ideas from, I thought I'd explain a bit about mine for Return of the Viking Warrior. 

The premise for Return of the Viking Warrior came to me several years before I actually wrote it. I wanted to tell a tale of a woman whose husband returns from war, and then the relationship is very different to the one they had previously.

 At first it was going to be a Roman and then a  Regency. Finally it seemed right to be a Viking and the two leads decided to be cast. My heroine, Kara decided that she was tired of waiting around for my hero and in any case, he was supposed to be dead, so she was going to remarry. Ash, my hero responded by showing up on her wedding day. So it is a back from the dead story which is a trope that I happen to love and have done ever since I first read The Return of Martin Guerre in high school. Does anyone else remember the story? It was made into several movies, most recently Somersby, but it was based on a true story. However, in my story, the returning warrior is indeed the husband, rather than someone pretending to be him.

 I also happen to love the true story of one of the dukes of Richmond (I believe the father of the one whose wife gave the ball before Waterloo) where it was a marriage of convenience to pay a gambling debt. After which the Duke took off on a tour of Europe. When he returned than going to see his bride, he went to the theatre and spied an absolutely gorgeous woman. He made enquiries and learnt that the woman in question was in fact the Duchess of Richmond. It is not recorded how he wooed her, but they did remain devoted to each other for the rest of their lives.

Back from the dead stories are easier to write in historical as communication is so much better today. What was plausible once is far less plausible in our social media connected world. But you still do have the problem of readjusting when someone returns from a long absence, particularly if they have been through a life changing experience such as being on a battlefield.

Return of the Viking Warrior is available both print and ebook in the UK. In the US, it is available as print and ebook through Harlequin and ebook everywhere. 

Giveaway:

Because   Return of the Viking Warrior is officially publishing in May, I am doing a giveaway for readers of this blog. Please email me contest@michellestyles.co.uk  with the answer to this question: In what year does Return of the Viking warrior take place. (hint read the excerpt).  Please put ToteBags contest in the subject line.

I will do the draw on 21 April. Void where prohibited.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances in a wide range of time periods. Her latest Return of the Viking Warrior is published in May 2014. You can learn more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk

Vikings: Life and Legend exhibit by Michelle Styles

As I love the Viking period, I am totally excited about the Viking exhibit which opens at the British Museum next month. I’ve booked my ticket and am really looking forward to seeing all the objects. That was even before my husband brought home the book of the exhibition which combines some of the latest research and thinking on the Vikings  -- Vikings: life and Legend ed. Gareth Williams.

The exhibit is the largest mounted  for the past 30 years and will be shown at the British Museum, the Museum of Berlin and the Danish National Museum. No word on if it will travel to the US. Among other things, it includes Roskilde 6 which is the largest Viking ship yet recovered. The tale of how the fragments were conserved was breath-taking. It took 15 years and included 48 months of vaccum freeze-drying in nine processes and more than 8,000 working hours so that it can be displayed in a way which makes sense. The conserved wood is mounted on a specially engineered steel frame so the sheer scale of the ship can be experienced. It is thought that Roskilde 6 was a royal ship and very brightly coloured when it was new. This ship was discovered when they were excavating for a new Viking Ship museum.

One of the more interesting facts from the book was about how some Vikings (predominantly in the East) not only sported tattoos  but also filed their teeth. The mere thought makes me wince.   There are reasons why the practice died out.

Teeth feature in much of the recent research because advances in isotype analysis allow archaeologists to discover where someone grew up. It is possible to tell  a bit more about what was actually happening and looking over large populations of skulls and skeletons to determine trends in the general population.

One of the big things that has happened is that Russia and the East have opened up. Under the Soviets, the Viking contribution to Russia was suppressed as  it was all supposed to be Slavic. The word Russia comes from Rus which is a word meaning from Scandinavia, primarily Sweden.  It is now clear that the Vikings did play a significant part in the development of Russia and some of the hordes and other objects are displayed in the exhibit for the first time in the West.

The other interesting bit that I learnt was about the current thinking about the Viking religion. Although some of the major gods and goddesses like Thor, Odin and Loki are familiar names, the actual religion is hugely opaque. Scholars are currently divided on whether or not the writing of the Eddas were an attempt to codify (and potentially discredit) the religion or not.  Much of what we know is contradictory.  It is now thought that the Norse religion might have been much looser and more localised. In other words, it is not like any of today’s world religions and was much more based on social behaviour and tradition.

One interesting aspect is the whole concept of  hamr and hugr or the Viking concept of the soul. There was a widespread belief about the ability to shape shift and that the outer human form or hamr was simply a vessel or shell for carrying the essence of hugr. They also believed that everyone had a fylgur or a follower spirit who would appear in dreams to warn of impending danger. They were inherited in families. Some of these aspects of Viking spirituality can still be found in Iceland. The conversion to Christianity was at time very violent and very political.

Anyway, the exhibit looks very exciting. There will be television programmes etc about the exhibition. You can learn more at the website but there will a live presentation of the exhibit  at cinemas across Britain (no idea about elsewhere) with Micheal Wood narrating on 24 April 2014

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance in a wide range of time periods, including Viking. Her next novel Return of the Viking Warrior will be published in May 2014. You can read more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk