Guest Post: Who would I play on the big screen ‘The French Executioner’ by C.C. Humphreys

Flashlight Commentary is pleased to host author C.C. Humphreys as a guest contributor and eagerly invite readers to enjoy his original feature, Who would I play on the big screen ‘The French Executioner’?

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

Ah, the most tormenting question! And the answer to which has changed over the life of the book. I wrote it thirteen years ago so I was younger, more lithe - had knees! You need knees if you are going to leap around with bladed weaponry. And of course I always foresaw myself as one of the sword wielders, since I was – and sometimes still am – a swordsman.

I never saw myself as Jean Rombaud, the executioner himself. Too dark, too brooding, too… French! Besides – and I suppose this applies to all the main characters – you need stars for the big roles. Originally I wanted perhaps Mel Gibson – now so fallen from grace but a powerful actor. Later – and this is still possible - Javier Bardem.

So leave Jean aside and assume I am a ‘name’… I am half Norwegian but don’t think I am large enough for Haakon. He must be vast. Januc always appealed – the Croatian former Janissary, superb wielder of scimitars, wit. Alas, he should be about 25!

I would love to play Giancarlo Cibo, the Archbishop of Siena. The main villain, the role is an actor’s treat: relishing evil, totally debauched, dying of consumption, he seduces, kills, conducts a Black Mass – marvelous stuff!

However I am probably not great casting. Needs an Italian style actor. Pacino, channeling his inner Richard the Third. No, in the end I would happily settle for a very showy cameo. The one agreed when the novel was originally optioned for screen ten years ago. 

I would play the slave ship’s master, Captain de la Vallerie. He hates slaves, especially their stench, is always clutching a ball of fragrant herbs to his nose… which is so Gallically-large that everyone just calls him Big Nose. He’s a good sailor though, mad in battle, and when he charges his one ship into action to fight three pirates, he wears full black armour – and dances the galliard in it. Now there’s a scene I dream of shooting!

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys was born in Toronto and grew up in the UK. All four grandparents were actors and since his father was an actor as well, it was inevitable he would follow the bloodline. He has acted all over the world and appeared on stages ranging from London’s West End to Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox. Favorite roles have included Hamlet, Caleb the Gladiator in NBC’s Biblical-Roman epic mini-series, ‘AD – Anno Domini’, Clive Parnell in ‘Coronation Street’, and Jack Absolute in Sheridan’s ‘The Rivals’.

Chris has written eight historical novels. The first, ‘The French Executioner’ told the tale of the man who killed Anne Boleyn, was runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers 2002, and has been optioned for the screen. Its sequel was ‘Blood Ties’. Having played Jack Absolute, he stole the character and has written three books on this ‘007 of the 1770’s’ – ‘Jack Absolute’, ‘The Blooding of Jack Absolute’ and ‘Absolute Honour’- short listed for the 2007 Evergreen Prize by the Ontario Library Association, all currently being re-released in the US by Sourcebooks. His novel about the real Dracula, ‘Vlad, The Last Confession’ was a bestseller in Canada and his novel, ‘A Place Called Armageddon’ was recently published in Turkish. All have been published in the UK, Canada, the US and many have been translated in various languages including Russian, Italian, German, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Serbian, Turkish and Indonesian.

He has also written a trilogy for young adults ‘The Runestone Saga’. A heady brew of Norse myth, runic magic, time travel and horror, the first book in the series ‘The Fetch’ was published in North America in July 2006, with the sequel, ‘Vendetta’ in August 2007 and the conclusion, ‘Possession’, August 2008. They are also published in Russia, Greece, Turkey and Indonesia. His latest Young Adult novel ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’ was released by Knopf in North America in March 2011 and also published in Spain.

His new adult novel ‘Shakespeare’s Rebel’, about William Shakespeare’s fight choreographer at the time of ‘Hamlet’, was released in the UK in March 2013 and in Canada August 2011.

He has recently signed to write two books for Century in the UK and Doubleday in Canada. ‘Plague’ and ‘Fire’ are tales of religious fundamentalist serial killers set against the wild events of 1665 to 1666, London. They will be published in 2014 and 2015.

Chris lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, with his wife and young son.

Website ❧  Blog ❧  Goodreads ❧  Twitter ❧  Facebook

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

PRAISE FOR THE FRENCH EXECUTIONER

"This unusual tale conjures visions of an Errol Flynn-type Hollywood swashbuckler...the tale's well-told, engagingly written, and includes a colorful immersion into a time when life was cheap and danger or death literally waited around every corner. A gory but fascinating...look at the world in the early 16th century. " - Kirkus

"Set against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation, his superbloody Princess Bride-like adventure is, at its heart, a tale of redemption, well earned and hard-won." - Library Journal

“Humphreys has fashioned a rollicking good yarn that keeps the pages turning from start to finish." -Irish Examiner

"The art of writing historical fiction is to make sure the story holds the modern audience attention and the author has certainly achieved this. I am rating this story five stars for originality, lots of action, an incredible intense plot, dynamic character development and vivid scenery. Love everything about it!" - Layered Pages Review

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

It is 1536 and the expert swordsman Jean Rombaud has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it... From a battle between slave galleys to a Black Mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

Amazon CA Amazon US Amazon UK Barnes & Noble Book Depository

Format: Paperback, Audio & eBook Re-Released: October 7, 2014 Length: 400 pages ISBN-13: 978-1402272349 Genre: Historical Fiction Series: The French Executioner

Guest Post: Women and Witchcraft by Anna Belfrage

Flashlight Commentary and Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours are pleased to host author Anna Belfrage as a guest contributor and eagerly invite readers to enjoy her original feature, Women and Witchcraft.

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

In the lost mists of time, long before the advent of monotheist religions, man worshiped Mother Nature. Time passed, civilisations developed, and somewhere 4 000 years ago, the old veneration for Mother Nature – a most female deity – was replaced by the decidedly male God of the Hebrews, soon to become the equally male God of Christians and Muslims.

A Patriarch God preferred male servants – or so the male servants said. Scripture abounds with examples putting women in their place – below men. St Paul states that “woman was created for the sake of man” and men like Thomas of Aquino did women a disservice when he described us as being intellectually inferior to men, weak vessels that did best in acknowledging man’s supremacy. 

Further to this, woman was much more susceptible to sin than men – after all, it was Eve, not Adam, who ate that famous apple. And let us not get into the myth of Lilith, that ultimate apocryphal seductress, proving once and for all that woman was susceptible to lust, a creature ruled by her carnal desires and adept at entrapping men in her web of sensual pleasures. Ugh, said Thomas of Aquino, wrinkling his nose. Seriously, he added, sex for pleasure is a sin, and women are most sinful of all.

It suited the powerful Church to relegate women to the fringes of things. By combining a subtle defamation campaign along the lines described above with the often repeated “truth” that women are weak and need male protectors, women were eased out of almost all positions of power – at least officially. 

Women who chose not to listen, or who continued to draw on ancient knowledge to heal and help others were viewed with distrust. Witches, their uneducated neighbours would whisper – but more in awe than in fear. Initially, however, the Church scoffed at the concept of magic and witches, stating that such things did not exist, and it was very rare for anyone to be accused of witchcraft. But in the 15th century, things began to change. For one thing, the Church was battling an increased number of heretics, and secondly, popular belief began to equate witches with heretics – in the sense that a witch worshiped Satan. A papal bull late in the century and the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer) in 1487 effectively created an open season on witches – most of whom were female (of course, what with us being weak and sinful to begin with…) 

Things didn’t explode until late in the 16th century. The tensions of the Reformation coupled with the general instability of the times created fertile ground for witch hunters, and suddenly there were witches crawling out of every fissure in the ground, both on the Continent and in Britain. No matter how many voices were raised protesting the barbaric practises of torturing a woman to extract her confession of being a witch, they didn’t help – especially not when such prominent figures as James VI of Scotland loudly argued that witches did exist and had to be fought with whatever means possible. 

Enter the Witch-finder, usually a man, who claimed to have the ability of identifying all potential witches. One such man was Matthew Hopkins, and what childish dreams he may have had regarding what he wanted to be when he grew up we will never know, as essentially nothing is known of Matthew Hopkins until that day in 1645 when out he pops of the woodwork, a self-proclaimed Witch-finder General. 

At the time, Hopkins was a young man, some years and twenty, and over the coming years he was to more or less singlehandedly cause the death by hanging of 300 witches (mostly women) Given that it is estimated the total number of people executed for witchery in England is around 500, one can but assume that Hopkins took to being a Witch-finder as fish take to water. 

He extracted confessions through various creative procedures, such as sleep deprivation and “pricking”, whereby the accused was shaved of all body hair and submitted to being pricked with a long, sharp needle. Should the needle hit upon a point that didn’t bleed – well, obviously the naked terrified woman being inspected was a witch. 

Fortunately for the women of England, Hopkins died in 1647 – still a number of years shy of his thirtieth birthday. At the time, his methods were already being questioned, and a number of people were speaking out against him, accusing him of being a cheat (duh), more motivated by the money involved than by any genuine desire to cleanse the world of real evil.  

Unfortunately for several women in the New World, Hopkins was very proud of his methods – so proud he wrote a handbook, called The Discovery of Witches in 1647. This book was taken as the ultimate guide in how to find witches – at least in the Colonies – and indirectly Hopkins would thereby cause a number of further deaths in America – long after he was dead.

This little handbook offered a number of alternatives as to how to reveal a witch. Sleep deprivation and pricking have already been mentioned, but Hopkins was also a warm advocate of the swimming test, whereby the unfortunate woman was tied up and thrown into the water. If she floated, she was a witch, if she sank she was innocent. Most people float – at least initially – when thrown in water. And once they start sinking, chances are they’re already more dead than alive…

Over the coming years, Hopkins’ methods would be applied to a number of unfortunates, starting with poor Margaret Jones, a Boston midwife who was hanged as a witch in 1648. His suggested approach to witch discovery was also used at the notorious Salem Trials of the 1690’s, and the swimming test would be continued to be used for a number of decades after that, as testified by the sad case of Grace Sherwood, who was ducked in 1706, had the misfortune (or not) to float, and accordingly spent the following eight years in prison for witchcraft. 

Over time, the voice of reason prevailed. Over time, men would yet again scoff at the ridiculous notion of witches. Sadly, that reaction came too late to save the estimated 50 000 people, 75% of which were women, who were executed during those centuries when it sufficed to point finger and yell “witch” to bring that person’s life tumbling down. 

In Revenge and Retribution, my main character, Alex Graham, faces accusations of being a witch. No wonder she is more than unnerved when she hears this. Just the thought of being subjected to one more humiliating inspection after the other – plus the fear that she might be found guilty – must have led to an endless number of sleepless nights!

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

I was raised abroad, on a pungent mix of Latin American culture, English history and Swedish traditions. As a result I’m multilingual and most of my reading is historical – both non-fiction and fiction.

I was always going to be a writer – or a historian, preferably both. Instead I ended up with a degree in Business and Finance, with very little time to spare for my most favourite pursuit. Still, one does as one must, and in between juggling a challenging career I raised my four children on a potent combination of invented stories, historical debates and masses of good food and homemade cakes. They seem to thrive … Nowadays I spend most of my spare time at my writing desk. The children are half grown, the house is at times eerily silent and I slip away into my imaginary world, with my imaginary characters. Every now and then the one and only man in my life pops his head in to ensure I’m still there. I like that – just as I like how he makes me laugh so often I’ll probably live to well over a hundred.

I was always going to be a writer. Now I am – I have achieved my dream.

Website ❧ Blog ❧ Facebook ❧ Twitter ❧ Goodreads

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

PRAISE FOR REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION

A dark and addictive tale, Revenge and Retribution proved impossible to put down. Highly recommended to both fans of the series and those discovering it for the first time.

-  Erin Davies at Flashlight Commentary

Anna writes deep, emotional historical novels, adding the fantastical element of the time slip and a “what if?” scenario, and creates for us a world in which to be lost in on rainy days and weekend reading fests.

- Erin Al-Mehairi at Oh, for the HOOK of a BOOK!

With each book she writes about the Grahams, I have been blown away by her characters’ lives and their family unit. One can tell how much heart and soul puts into her characters and the situation they are going through no matter what. 

- Stephanie Moore Hopkins at Layered Pages

 I loved the element of historical detail in this book. I loved learning a little bit of new information about my state! Overall, this was a very good story that I ate up!

- Meg at A Bookish Affair

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

'Revenge & Retribution' is the sixth book in Anna Belfrage's time slip series featuring time traveller Alexandra Lind and her seventeenth century husband, Matthew Graham. Life in the Colony of Maryland is no sinecure - as Alex and Matthew Graham well know. But nothing in their previous life has prepared them for the mayhem that is about to be unleashed upon them. Being labelled a witch is not a good thing in 1684, so it is no wonder Alex Graham is aghast at having such insinuations thrown at her. Even worse, it's Matthew's brother-in-law, Simon Melville, who points finger at her. Not that the ensuing hearing is her main concern, because nowadays Alex's entire life is tainted by the fear of what Philip Burley will do to them once he gets hold of them. On a sunny May afternoon, Philip finally achieves his aim and over the course of the coming days Alex sees her whole life unravelling, leaving her family permanently maimed. As if all this wasn't enough, Alex also has to cope with the loss of one of her sons. Forcibly adopted by the former Susquehannock, Samuel is dragged from Alex's arms to begin a new life in the wilderness. How is Alex to survive all this? And will she be able to put her damaged family back together?

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Amazon CA Amazon US Barnes & Noble Book Depository

Format: Paperback & eBook Publication Date: July 1,2014 Released by: SilverWood Books Length: 391 pages ISBN-10: 1781321752 Genre: Historical Crossover Series: The Graham Saga

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Check Out All the Stops on Anna Belfrage's Revenge and Retribution Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Friday, August 15
Review at Just One More Chapter

Monday, August 18
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time

Tuesday, August 19
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Guest Post at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, August 20
Review at A Bookish Affair
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book

Friday, August 22
Review at Layered Pages

Monday, August 25
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, August 26
Spotlight & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, August 27
Review at A Bibliotaph’s Reviews

Friday, August 29
Review at Book Nerd

Monday, September 1
Review at Dianne Ascroft Blog

Tuesday, September 2
Review & Giveaway at Broken Teepee

Wednesday, September 3
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

Thursday, September 4
Review at Kincavel Korner

Friday, September 5
Guest Post at Kincavel Korner
Guest Post at bookworm2bookworm’s Blog

Guest Post: Crazy Roman Curses and the Passions Behind Them by Vicky Alvear Shecter

Flashlight Commentary and Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours are pleased to host author Vicky Alvear Shecter as a guest contributor and eagerly invite readers to enjoy her original feature, Crazy Roman Curses and the Passions Behind Them.

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

With her hands and feet bound, this small female effigy has
13 nails inserted throughout its body. Wrapped around
the figure was a lead curse tablet with a spell designed to
make the woman in question love the spellcaster. “Drag her
by her hair, by her guts,” he tells the dark gods of magic,
“until she does not stand aloof from me…”  Greek,
4th century CE

Ancient Romans believed they could invoke dark gods or spirits to curse their enemies, so of course I had to include a curse tablet at the heart of my new novel, Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii. For the Romans, most of this “cursing” took place via spells scratched on tablets that were then buried, thrown into bodies water, or affixed to temple walls.

The ancients thoroughly believed in the power of curse tablets—which is to say, they believed in magic. Close to 2,000 ancient curse tablets have been found around the Mediterranean. It’s likely that countless more lie undiscovered.
Romans typically scratched their curses onto thin sheets of lead, but folks also used whatever was at hand, including pottery shards, old papyrus, wax, ceramic bowls or even gemstones. I guess it depended on how mad, scared, or twitterpated you were!

Emotions ran high around these curses. The people most likely to be cursed? Charioteers. Everyone went to the races, even emperors. And just about everyone bet on the races too. Fortunes could be made or lost, so folks hoped to win by any magical means necessary. Horses weren’t immune to being cursed either:

“Bind every limb and sinew of Victoricus, the charioteer of the Blue Team... and of [his] horses. Blind them…twist their soul and heart so they cannot breathe…”

Tablets cursing riders and horses have been found buried under racing tracks, stable doors, and stadium entryways.Spells designed to make someone fall in love with you—or be insensible with desire for you—abound. One of my favorites:

…Attract, inflame, destroy, burn, cause her to swoon from love as she is being inflamed. Goad [her] until she leaps forth and comes to Apalos…out of passion and love… quickly, quickly….do not allow [her] to think of her [own] husband, her child….let her come melting for passion and love and intercourse, especially yearning for the intercourse of Apolos.

Curse tablets are often called “defixiones” because many
have been found pierced by iron nails used to “affix”
the curse to certain places. In my novel, my characters believe
that the magic of a particular curse is set in motion
the moment an iron nail is plunged through the lead tablet. 

Poor Apolo’s demand that his married beloved come to him “especially yearning for THE intercourse” cracks me up every single time. Dude had a one-track mind. Sadly, we’ll never know if his love/sex binding spell worked. 

Curses invoking revenge on an enemy were often buried near graves with the hope that unhappy or angry spirits would make the curse come true. A great many curses were invoked during legal trials, with one party usually asking the gods to make sure the tongues of their opposition shriveled up. Other tablets have been found damning the futures of the terrible people who stole “my cloak” or “my pig.” 

The curse tablet in Curses and Smoke is not as lighthearted as poor, horny Apolos’s, but it does play a key role in shaping the decisions of of one of the main characters. Even though magic was “against the law” in Rome, people employed it through curse tablets all the time. Whether it was in the pursuit of fortune, fame, revenge, or lust, the ancients believed that a wicked-good curse could make all the difference in the world.

════════════════════════════ ❧  ════════════════════════════

Vicky Alvear Shecter is the author of the young adult novel, CLEOPATRA’S MOON (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2011), based on the life of Cleopatra’s only daughter. She is also the author of two award-winning biographies for kids on Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. She is a docent at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University in Atlanta.

Website ❧ Blog ❧ Facebook ❧  Twitter ❧  Goodreads

════════════════════════════ ❧  ════════════════════════════

PRAISE FOR CURSES AND SMOKE

The story was a great foray into historical fiction, and I really enjoyed that the author didn’t use the explosion of Pompeii as her only conflict. There was a lot of tension from a lot of areas, making the story all the more real.
– Book Geek, Goodreads Reviewer

Historically accurate and beautifully written, Curses and Smoke is such a compelling read. Lucia is a character readers will fall in love with. From her plucky spirit to her eagerness for knowledge to her willingness to fight for herself, even if it means bucking societal norms and defying her father, Lucia is a force to be reckoned with.
- KM, Goodreads Reviewer

This book was also full of twists I did not see coming!
- Elizabeth Phillips, Goodreads Reviewer

════════════════════════════ ❧  ════════════════════════════

When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto? Tag is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master’s injured gladiators. But his warrior’s heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom. Lucia is the daughter of Tag’s owner, doomed by her father’s greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she’s been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air... When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them — to Lucia’s father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?

════════════════════════════ ❧  ════════════════════════════

Amazon Barnes & Noble Book Depository Books-a-Million Fishpond Powell’s Waterstones

Format: Paperback & eBook Publication Date: May 27, 2014 Released by: Arthur A. Levine Books Length: 336 pages ISBN-10: 0545509939 Genre: YA Historical Fiction

════════════════════════════ ❧  ════════════════════════════

Check Out All the Stops on Vicky Alvear Shecter's Curses and Smoke Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Monday, May 26
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Review & Giveaway at The Mad Reviewer

Tuesday, May 27
Guest Post & Giveaway at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, May 28
Review & Giveaway at Fiction Folio

Thursday, May 29
Review at Good Books and Good Wine

Friday, May 30
Guest Post at Good Books and Good Wine

Monday, June 2
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book

Tuesday, June 3
Review at Geek Girl’s Book Blog
Interview & Giveaway at Oh, For the Hook of a Book

Wednesday, June 4
Review at Book Drunkard

Thursday, June 5
Review at Book Lovers Paradise

Friday, June 6
Review at The Book Belles
Review at Manga Maniac Cafe

Monday, June 9
Review at Bibliophilia, Please
Review & Giveaway at A Bookish Affair

Tuesday, June 10
Review & Giveaway at Historical Tapestry

Wednesday, June 11
Interview & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Thursday, June 12
Review at Let Them Read Books
Review at Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Friday, June 13
Review at Broken Teepee
Guest Post & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books

Guest Post: Why Were the Ottoman Muslims Unstoppable? by C. Wayne Dawson

Flashlight Commentary and Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours are pleased to host author C. Wayne Dawson as a guest contributor and eagerly invite readers to enjoy his original feature, Why Were the Ottoman Muslims Unstoppable?

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Until the 1683 siege of Vienna, the Ottoman Turks appeared invincible. First the Byzantines, then the Serbs, Rumanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians crumbled before them. Why were the Christian powers unable to use their superior numbers to muscle the Turks back?

First, the Ottomans were united around one ruler with a single, energizing faith: Islam. That ruler, the Sultan, was expected to expand Islam aggressively whenever possible. It led him to create Europe’s largest and most professional army.

Christian Europe, on the other hand, was hopelessly divided. Splintered into hundreds of duchies and states, torn by religious feuds between Catholics and Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, they were busier quarreling against one another than Islam.

One of the biggest issues the Ottomans exploited was the centuries-old rivalry between the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and the French kings. Each power wanted to dominate Christendom at the expense of the other. In 1543, for instance, Francis I of France allowed 30,000 Muslim sailors and sailors to quarter in the port of Toulon, where they conducted raids against the Spanish, Italians, and the Holy Roman Empire.

Second, until the 17th century, the Ottomans generally tolerated religious differences better than their Christian counterparts. This made them a magnet for talented Protestant soldiers, engineers and Jewish merchants and doctors on the run from persecution. Referring to lower taxes and greater freedom under Ottoman rule, many conquered Greeks said, “Better the sultan’s turban than the bishop’s mitre.”

Finally, the Sultan created Europe’s best military corps, the Janissaries. Unlike European troops who were cobbled together for a few weeks’ education and put in the field, the Janissaries trained for seven years before serving in combat. They were better fed than European recruits who were frequently starved and vulnerable to disease. Additionally, these elite troops were superior in swordmanship, psychological warfare, and their system of supply.

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

C. Wayne Dawson writes for The Williamson County Sun, and has written for History Magazine, Focus On Georgetown, The Georgetown Advocate, and SAFVIC Law Enforcement Newsletter. In 2012, he founded Central Texas Authors, an author’s marketing collective.

He was an Adjunct Professor of History for ten years at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, where he created the Chautauqua program. There, he enlisted scholars, government officials and activists to discuss and debate social policy before the student body and the media.

In 2009, the students of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society honored him with the Glaux Mentor Teacher Award for bringing the Chautauqua program to Mt. SAC.

He currently lives in Georgetown, TX with his wife and two dogs.

Website ❧ Facebook ❧ Twitter ❧ Goodreads

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

PRAISE FOR VIENNA'S LAST JIHAD

First and foremost entertaining and high, fast-paced drama. A must read. I am ready for Dawson’s next book!
– Stephen O. Fought, Ph.D., Former Dean of Academics, Air War College.

Every paragraph is packed with images, texture, and information. It is an intense and spirited tale, bursting with excitement.
– Ann Seaman, biographer, editor of TERRA, the magazine of Los Angeles County’s Natural History Museum.

Vienna’s Last Jihad takes us on a journey that will surely keep readers turning their pages until the very end.
– Edward Zapletal, Editor, History Magazine.

A gem of historical fiction. Meticulously researched and wonderfully written, this picturesque presentation of war and passion in seventeenth-century Europe is flat-out fun to read. Plot, characters, historical detail, and dialogue blend together to become first-rate historical fiction.
– Harlan Hoffman, PhD., Mt. San Antonio College.

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Brash and brilliant, twenty year old Mathis Zieglar, Professor of Languages, faces an agonizing choice: should he fight the Turks who take his family hostage and move to destroy Vienna? Or should he betray his army to save his kin? Vienna’s Last Jihad is an historical novel set against the 1683 siege of Vienna.

Europe is balanced on a knife’s edge while Mathis, the man who holds its fate in his hands, struggles against powerful enemies: Father Sistini, a Jesuit who brands him a heretic and drags Mathis’ fiancée off to the Inquisition; a xenophobic city mob, who wants him dead for protecting a Hungarian soldier; but most dangerous of all, Captain Tyrek, a Muslim chieftain who will kill Mathis’ family unless he spies against his own army. One by one, Tyrek’s agents murder Mathis’ closest associates in an attempt to isolate him. As 138,000 Turks grind down Vienna’s 11,000 defenders with no relief in sight, Mathis’ only chance to save family and country is to use his wits, the ability to speak Tartar and the knack he learned as a child to leap, whirl, and strike.

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Amazon Alibris Book Depository Barnes & Noble

Format: Paperback Publication Date: October 20, 2013 Released by: Katy Crossing Press Length: 330 pages ISBN-13: 978-1490426341 Genre: Historical Fiction

════════════════════════════ ❧ ════════════════════════════

Check out all the stops on c. wayne Dawson's Vienna's Last Jihad virtual book tour

Monday, February 24
Spotlight & Giveaway at History & Women

Wednesday, February 26
Guest Post & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books

Monday, March 3
Review at Flashlight Commentary

Tuesday, March 4
Interview at Flashlight Commentary

Thursday, March 6
Guest Post & Giveaway at Historical Fiction Connection

Tuesday, March 11
Interview at Layered Pages

Wednesday, March 12
Guest Post at Flashlight Commentary

Thursday, March 13
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book

Friday, March 14
Interview at Oh, for the Hook of a Book

Thursday, March 20
Review at Just One More Chapter

Friday, March 21
Review & Giveaway at Broken Teepee