Articles from February 2010

It seems that some people are still fighting the propaganda battle that once raged between Innocent IV and Frederick II, for instance this article about Saint Rose of Viterbo. Little twelve year old Rose preached against the Imperial occupation of the Papal city of Viterbo. She even apparently predicted the death of Frederick II and [...]

I came across this very good biographical video of Frederick II on Youtube. It features lots of good images, many of which I hadn’t seen before. The sound is music, so you can watch it without the music on and read the captions to get the story of Frederick II’s life.

How strange is this! I just came across a Facebook page for Frederick II! Well I am now a fan. Some nice photos I hadn’t seen before on the page and he has 383 fans, which is probably more than he had in his lifetime! Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t allow you to indicate whether you think [...]

If anyone out there uses Critique Circle and fancies critiquing my latest story “Chivalry”, then it’s now on the Newbie Queue. It should be there until 23rd February. Haven’t used this site before, so I am looking forward to seeing how it works. I hope you like the story.

I came across an illustration of pfennigs minted at Ravensburg sometime between 1215 and 1250 bearing the image of Frederick II at Money Museum – it looks like a fascinating site for the medievalist.

Just spotted this competition to win a proof copy of Kraken on the Macmillan website – well I click on quite a cool video ad clip to find it actually! Only for UK residents I’m afraid!

Some work seems to have been done on the previously threadbare website for Season of the Witch! Unfortunately the site still uses annoying flash players to slow down loading of content, but now there is more than just a brief synopsis and trailer video. You also get sections on: Story – the synopsis again with [...]

A new novel by dark fantasy, new weird writer China Mieville is due out in May of this year. Called Kraken the book has something to do with squid worshippers and the Natural History Museum!

I hadn’t heard about this before, but there is to be a new book in the Gormenghast series published in 2011. The book was written by Mervyn’s widow Maeve Gilmore and is based on his notes. According to the Bookseller the manuscript was recently unearthed from a box in the attic of Peake’s granddaughter’s home. [...]

Issue 32 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction is now available! Here is the issue’s table of contents: Editorial New Friends and Old! Stephen Theaker Newton Braddell and His Inconclusive Researches into the Unknown: the Conclusion! John Greenwood Miss Lavender Goes It Alone A Diabolical Persistence in Error A Hard Bargain Sembawang The Quarterly Review Audio Doctor [...]