candace robb
walking the Mean Streets of Medieval York
Category: The King’s Mistress
Shop Talk: using Clothing To Shape Story and Character
n Chaucer and Costume: The Secular Pilgrims in the General Prologue (DS Brewer 2000), Laura Hodges presents in wondrous detail how in “Chaucer’s descriptions of textiles, as well as styles, garments, and accessories worn by his pilgrims… [he] weaves a web of costume signs and fabricates characterizations.” (3) Laura knows something about using clothing to enhance a text, and that is why she has been my go to person regarding medieval clothing ever since we met.
Shoptalk: Use the Energy That's Present
Welcome to a new year on A Writer’s Retreat! I’ll be back with a longer post later this week, but do check out my essay published in Biographile’s “Write Start” series. I was fortunate to meet a wise, perceptive dharma teacher as I was… Continue Reading “Shoptalk: Use the Energy That's Present”
Shoptalk: Use the Energy That’s Present
Welcome to a new year on A Writer’s Retreat! I’ll be back with a longer post later this week, but do check out my essay published in Biographile’s “Write Start” series. I was fortunate to meet a wise, perceptive dharma teacher as I was… Continue Reading “Shoptalk: Use the Energy That’s Present”
Alice Perrers’s Pearls
Pearls. Beauty formed as protection for oysters and mussels from tiny stones or grains of sand. Layers and layers of a lustrous substance, nacre. Light reflected from the overlapping layers gives pearls their iridescent luster. I’ll be talking about The King’s Mistress at a… Continue Reading “Alice Perrers’s Pearls”
Shop Talk: Uses of History in a Novel
I’ve been thinking about the various ways I use history in novels. In the Owen Archer novels, I (as Candace) make use of the history to create the motivation for the crime and the circumstances–political, cultural, local–that led to it and that create obstacles… Continue Reading “Shop Talk: Uses of History in a Novel”
candace robb 