The Knight of the Short Nose

"Count Guillaume is the biggest, boldest knight in southern France. So why does he keep needing a woman to get him out of trouble? A rollicking (semi) epic tale. Adventure, humor, a touch of romance, and occasional sword fights."

I've got a new book!  It's called The Knight of the Short Nose.  As I mentioned earlier, I originally posted the story on Kindle-Vella, where people can read it one episode at a time on their phones (first three episodes are free, plus you can get "free tokens" to "unlock" later episodes).  Now I've also made the book available on Amazon (you can "borrow" it if you're a Kindle Unlimited member), either as an ebook or a paperback.

Here's the Amazon link.  Also available on Kobo, B&N/Nook, and Apple Books.  It also remains on Vella for those who enjoy serials (19 episodes await you).

 

The cover artist is RL Sather.  I've used a lot of her covers.  She specializes in medieval-style fantasy, which works for me!  This one may be my favorite of hers.

This book isn't, strictly speaking, fantasy, because there are no wizards or magic.  It's a loose retelling of a twelfth-century epic, that was written both to glorify and to mock chivalrous deeds.  That aspect I've most definitely kept.

The epic (actually a series of epics) was based on a real eighth-ninth-century Count William of Gellone, who was a rough contemporary of Charlemagne.  In the twelfth century, the epics made him more or less a contemporary of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son and heir.  They also filled their story with a variety of real eleventh- and twelfth-century people, none of whom were contemporary of course with the original (real) Count William.

So I've taken this twelfth-century William of Orange epic cycle, which sort of tells about the ninth century while actually commenting on its own contemporary society, and retold it for a twenty-first century audience.  Take some humor and stir.  "Alternate history" at its finest.

© C. Dale Brittain 2021

Kindle Vella

 Amazon has just announced a new way to read books on line:  as serials.  Their platform is called "Kindle Vella."  Here's the link to the main page.

The idea is that a lot of people enjoy reading serials, one short episode at a time, on their phones, perhaps while on the bus to work, perhaps in a brief break while at work or while contemplating whether that laundry really needs to be done now.

So far there are about 5,000 stories on the site, some complete if you read all the episodes, some with just a few episodes up so far and the authors promising to publish regularly.  They are pretty much all genre fiction, that is romance, or mystery, or thriller, or fantasy, or science fiction.  You can read them on your phone or computer, although the assumption seems to be that phones will rule.

For all of the stories, people can read the first three episodes for free, to see if they find it intriguing.  After that, you have to pay (although there's a place on the site to get some free "tokens").  Amazon, which when it gets the bit between its teeth really likes to try something new, has the reader pay with "tokens."  You buy tokens in bundles.  They are about a penny each, less if you buy a lot of tokens.

A typical episode of about 2000 words (the equivalent of about half a dozen pages in a book) will require about 20 tokens to "unlock" the episode.  The authors, understandably, love to end their episodes with cliff-hangers, to make the readers cough up some more tokens.  Amazon will also nudge you to keep reading.  If you missed something, you can always go back to the beginning by clicking "see all episodes" below the list of the various episodes/chapters.

Also while trying to do something new, Amazon encourages readers to click that a story is their "Fave" (which I hope means favorite, it apparently is something good) or to give episodes "thumbs up."  (Wait.  Under the original Roman empire, didn't a thumbs-up in the Colosseum mean that the emperor wanted the gladiator to die miserably?  Let's move on.)

Now you probably guessed that I have my very own story up on Vella.  And you guessed correctly!  It's called "The Knight of the Short Nose" and is a complete story in 19 episodes, all there for your reading pleasure.  Here's the cover.

It's a rollicking tale of chivalry, betrayal, sword fights, and the biggest, baddest knight who somehow always needs a woman to save him.  It's loosely based on the epic cycle "William of Orange," about which I blogged recently.

If you enjoy reading serials, here's the direct link.  Or if you prefer a regular ebook or paperback version, those are now available on Amazon.  Enjoy!

© C. Dale Brittain 2021 

Epics and romance

As I have discussed elsewhere in the context of chivalry, how medieval knights and nobles would have liked to imagine themselves was presented in their own time in epics and romances.

These forms of literature began in the late eleventh or twelfth century (epics slightly earlier),  and were equivalent in some ways to what we now think of as fantasy:  larger than life characters having great adventures, with a serious admixture of the marvelous.  Then, this was literature, not just a genre.

The distinction between the two forms of literature (epic and romance) is really a modern one, because the categories were not entirely separate.  As a group, epics focused much more on battles and glorious deeds.  Wars, fights to the death, loyalty, and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds featured heavily.  The "Song of Roland" is probably the best known epic today, but there were plenty of others.

The "William of Orange" epics were very popular, based, as was "Roland," on some real figures of the ninth century who had been turned into legend--and who were depicted with twelfth-century armor and weapons and living in twelfth-century castles.  Although epics tended to be male-centered, in most of the "William of Orange"stories women played a major role, often being the only ones in sight with their heads on straight.

Romances, on the other hand, always featured women.  Although we now think of a romance as a love story, where the couple ends up happily ever after, a medieval romance was a story that did not focus almost exclusively on fighting.  (The modern French word roman, meaning novel, comes from "romance.")  The best known of these are the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes.  He essentially invented what we think of as King Arthur, including the love triangle with Lancelot, the quest of the Holy Grail, and the like.

As well as glorifying knights and nobles, epics and romances also critiqued them.  In "Roland," the hero (Roland) is undoubtedly brave and true, but his excessive pride loses the king half his army.  In "William of Orange," William would have been destroyed multiple times if not for women coming in to save the day.  Chrétien de Troyes condemned adultery even while introducing Lancelot's adulterous affair with Guinevere.  And in the "Romance of the Rose" the lovers enjoying themselves with fornication are clearly going to hell.

Medieval authors were subtle.  On the one hand, their stories were exciting and fun to read or hear.  On the other hand, the authors worked in all sorts of criticism of the aristocracy, if anyone was paying attention.

© C. Dale Brittain 2016 

For more on medieval life, see my new ebook, Positively Medieval: Life and Society in the Middle Ages.