Barbara Kyle > Quotes

“Snow crunched under the feet of three cloaked figures – a queen, her lady, and a gravedigger – as they hurried along a moonlit path in Windsor Castle's lower ward. The gravedigger pushed a cart that held a slab of marble, his pick and shovel, and some straw. When the trio reached the steps of St. George's Chapel, Queen Mary stopped. She turned her head, pushing aside the fur of her hood, and a gust of wind needled her with crystallized snow. She looked back at her attendants. Was she wrong to trust them with this night's work?”
― Barbara Kyle, The King's Daughter

“Fenella Doorn watched the unfamiliar wreck of a ship ghosting into her bay. Crippled by cannon fire, she thought. What else could do such damage? The foremast was blown away, as well as half the mainmast where a jury rig clung to the jagged stump, and shot holes tattered the sails on the mizzen. And yet, to Fenella’s experienced eye the vessel had an air of defiance. Demi-cannons hulked in the shadowed gun ports. This ship was a fighter, battered but not beaten. With fight still in her, was she friend or foe?”
― Barbara Kyle, The Queen's Exiles

“Isabel Valverde was coming home. The brief, terrible letter from her brother had brought her across five thousand miles of ocean, from the New World to the Old, and during the long voyage she thought she had prepared herself for the worst. But now that London lay just beyond the next bend of the River Thames, she dreaded what awaited her. The not knowing – that was the hardest. Would she find her mother still a prisoner awaiting execution? Horrifying though that was, Isabel could at least hope to see her one last time. Or had her mother already been hanged?”
― Barbara Kyle, The Queen's Gamble

“The night of the fireworks changed the course of many lives in England, though no one suspected the dark future as hundreds of courtiers stared, faces upturned in delight, at the starbursts of crimson, green, and gold that lit up the terraces, gardens, and pleasure grounds of Rosethorn House, the country home of Richard, Baron Thornleigh. That night, no one was more proud to belong to the baron’s family than his eighteen-year-old ward, Justine Thornleigh; she had no idea that she would soon cause a deadly division in the family and ignite a struggle between two queens. Yet she was already, innocently, on a divergent path, for as Lord and Lady Thornleigh and their multitude of guests watched the dazzle of fireworks honoring the spring visit of Queen Elizabeth, Justine was hurrying away from the public gaiety. Someone had asked to meet her in private.”
― Barbara Kyle, Blood Between Queens

“No. I tell you, it is Holy Church which instructs Christians how to live, not the Bible. Christians could be pure in their faith even if the Bible had never been written. Doctrine has passed orally from one generation to the next, through Holy Mother Church, God’s instrument on earth. ‘Quod semper, quod ubique, quod omnibus.’ ‘What has been believed always, everywhere, and by all.’ Tradition. Founded by the Apostles and continuing, unbroken, to the present day. Christ founded a church. He did not write a book!”
― Barbara Kyle, The Queen's Lady

“I am here to tell you that the Pope has no power to loose souls from purgatory because there is no purgatory. I am here to tell you that there are no priests, only God. That the painted images of saints the poor ignorant folk pray to for intercession in their worldly woes are only sticks and stones—and man must pray to God alone. That all the spells a priest may mumble over a piece of bread to conjure it into the body of our Lord cannot make it anything other than bread, for I have read in scripture that God made man, but nowhere have I read that man can make God.”
― Barbara Kyle, The Queen's Lady

“It’s important that you don’t leave your reader in the dark about characters’ subtext. Inexperienced writers often make this mistake, leaving it out of the narration completely. I come across this frequently in reviewing emerging writers’ manuscripts. I think it’s because they’re relying on how they hear and see the scene in their head, as though they’re watching a lively film. No wonder: ours is a film culture; we’re saturated by films. But a novel is not a film. In a film there is an actor skillfully showing every nuance of emotion, giving rich life to dialogue that might reveal nothing on the words’ surface. The actor is playing the subtext, and the viewer sees it. A film also gets the potent boost of a music score composed to stir specific emotions in the viewer. But that experience does not exist for the reader of a novel. The novelist does not enjoy the luxury of having an actor effortlessly reveal complex meaning with a single look, and a musical score to emphasize it. When subtext is necessary, the novelist must write it, write the character’s precise thoughts and feelings. Imagine the scene above stripped of its written subtext. It would be Cardinal simply saying, “Hi, Kelly. How’s school going?” and Kelly chattering on about her art, without the author giving us Cardinal’s emotional state as he listens. The reader would have no hint of the love Cardinal longs to convey with his words, but can’t.”
― Barbara Kyle, Page-Turner: Your Path to Writing a Novel that Publishers Want and Readers Buy

“The priests will sell indulgence letters for fornication, for the breaking of vows, for shunning confession, for ignoring fasts, and, of course, for rescuing souls from purgatory. Purgatory,” he repeated with a sneer. “This dread place exists, the Church teaches, for the cleansing of sinful man’s soul after death, but the Church will gladly give you remission of years of your soul’s agony there—for a price. Now, tell me this. If the Pope has the power to deliver a soul out of purgatory, why then can he not deliver it without money? And if he can deliver one soul, then why does he not deliver a thousand? Why not all? Let loose all the poor, tortured souls, and thus destroy purgatory.” His fist punched the air. “I say the Pope is a tyrant if he keeps souls within purgatory’s prison until men give him money!”
― Barbara Kyle, The Queen's Lady

“Alana Marks had always known she was different. From her gypsy childhood, to the way she now made her living in the movies, she'd always lived on the edge. She'd been paid to leap from a sixteenth story window, roll a car to a cliff edge, get thrown off a speeding train and dragged into a river by a runaway horse. At the moment, she was about to set herself on fire and jump out of a burning barn.”
― Barbara Kyle, The Experiment