Some good news

I've been asked to write a short review of one of Elizabeth Chadwick's novels, 'Lady of the English' for a national geneaolgy magazine, Your Family Tree. I'm chuffed to bits about this because it gives me the opportunity to promote Elizabeth to a wider audience. Not that I think she needs any help from me!

Elizabeth is the queen of the medieval novel and writes comprehensively of how people lived their lives at that time. Originally, she wrote novels about fictional people but now she bases her books on real people who lived at the time. 'Lady of the English' is about the Empress Matilda, widow of the Emperor of Germany, daughter of Henry I, mother of Henry II and who is famous for the civil war between her and her cousin King Stephen for the crown of England. She is currently writing the first in a trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Update on progress on two counts

I'm half way through yet another rewrite of Save The Last Dance For Me. A Facebook friend and follower of this blog pointed me in the direction of some excellent notes on self-editing and it has been a great help. I'm finding I keep referring to them to remind myself what I'm striving for. I've been working on a pivotal chapter today and although it's taken me a few hours to do, I feel reasonably happy with it.

I had good news in my search for any Buttolph cousins in that I was contacted by someone who is descended from the brother of my great-grandmother, Anna Maria Buttolph. She has traced their ancestry back as far as 1640! That's great going, only possible because the family stayed in more or less the same area for the whole of that time. 

To be published - or not!

The quarterly journal of the Norfolk Family History Society arrived today. It included an article on an aspect of my family history that had been perplexing me for a long time, that of not being able to find a birth certificate for my maternal grandfather, for without that, I was unable to ascertain who my great-grandmother was. I wrote the article in the hope that some descendants of what was quite a large family, the Buttolphs in Wymondham, will still be around. That would be nice.

That was the good news. The bad news is that Family History Monthly, who were to print an article of mine in the May issue is to close down. This is such a shame as in my opinion it was one of the best family history magazines around and excellent value for money.

The other good news is that I've nearly finished amending Save The Last Dance For Me. It still needs a bit more work but I shall keep trying. Ever the optimist!