Corey Holst's Blog: To blog or not to blog..........

Defender of the Faithful is now available in print or for your Kindle. It is book 3 in the Defender of the Realm series. The print version will take a few days before it shows up on Amazon, but you can go to www.coreyholst.com and order one for yourself right now, or gift all 3 to a friend. Happy Holidays! ☺

I just finished the first draft of Defender of the Faithful! Now begins a few months of edits and rewrites. But I am still of the belief that it will be done in time for Christmas. So, start your wishlist now :D

After a trip to England last spring, I was inspired to do a minor overhaul of both Defender of the Realm, and Defender of the North. I have reworked some of the details within each, as well as commissioned new artwork for the covers. I am quite pleased with the way they turned out. Go to www.coreyholst.com and have a look. Let me know what you think.

When I was writing Defender of the North, there was a wealth of research available from 1174 because alot was happening at that time. But King Henry's forces did such a thorough job of crushing the rebellion that everyone played nice for another ten years or more. Therefore, not as much to research. I really didn't want to skip ahead ten years. I want to work my way up to it, because I like the characters and where they're at emotionally. There's plenty of time to mess up their lives later.

One of the comments I've received from fans of the series, is to make Elena more proactive within the adventure. And while I agree, I felt there had to be a logical and believable reason for her to be involved. Present day readers LOVE a good strong female character, but no woman in medieval times has her own suit of armor and goes marching off into battle. Joan of Arc was truly unique and she didn't come around for another 250 years. Having Elena just pick up a sword and start using it like an expert just would not have happened. So her involvement had to be more cerebral. As James' wife and partner in all things, he would rely on her counsel more than anyone. So, if the trouble they faced was not a military style attack, but more of a stealthy evil that is closer to home, then it would be logical for James to talk to Elena about it and they can face the trouble together.

I have the full outline and know the whole story. It's now a matter of writing it out. I just finished writing Chapter 3 last night in Defender of the Faithful.

Several female friends of mine were surprised to find that "Defender of the Realm" has a romantic theme as well as all the medieval battle stuff and asked why I didn't market it that way. I suppose it's because the moment you say that a book is a "Romance Novel" you automatically think of those muscle man/ heaving bosom stories of heavy breathing and explicit sex. "Defender of the Realm" isn't like that. Yes, there is a romantic thread. The characters actually fall in love without jumping in the sack! I suppose if Hollywood ever gets a hold of it, they will probably include something steamy, but I have this wacky notion that love does not necessarily mean sex. I suppose if I ever wrote something like "Basic Instinct" sex would be prevalent because it's relevant. For the story I am telling in the Defender books, sex is not what drives the characters, so it's not included. But the fact that my main character falls in love with someone above his station, IS relevant. It creates some of the drama or tension that needs resolution. That's what makes a book fun for me, wondering all along and ultimately finding out... how is this going to end? Don't you want to find out too?

I just finished writing the follow-up story to Defender of the Realm. It is called Defender of the North and takes place two years later. Ironically it has been two years since I finished writing the first one. When I initially started writing Realm, I had set the year as 1174, but the more I wrote and researched, the more I realized it had to be set earlier, because of how much political turmoil England was going through in 1174. I wanted to introduce my characters in a slightly less volatile time and shifted the year to 1172. But all the reasons for shifting the first story, made for a perfect second story. There is so much going on in King Henry's England in 1174, the book practically wrote itself. All I had to do was figure out how to weave my characters into the middle of it. I think you'll like what I came up with. Look for Defender of the North in January 2011!

While I have always been a fan of the medieval time period, the idea of writing Defender of the Realm literally came to me in an instant. One day I simply saw the last four lines of the book in my head. I knew how the story ended before I knew the rest of the story. That's when I started writing.
But I would say the idea began brewing years before while working on a stage production of "the Lion in Winter". It tells the story of King Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and three of their sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. Henry had his queen imprisoned for 16 years for trying to marshal a rebellion against him and attempting to put Richard on the throne. It is a fascinating story of the power struggle within the royal family for control of England and/ or each other.
I had grown up watching various tales of Robin Hood and I realized that "Good King Richard" and his scheming brother Prince John were not the stuff of legend like Robin Hood himself, but they actually lived and were part of, perhaps, the most dysfunctional family in history. It intrigued me to think of them as real people with real problems.
Of course Richard does succeed his father as king and becomes 'the Lionheart" but is so preoccupied with the crusades that he never bothers to marry or have any children. Ironically it means that John becomes king anyway, and is such a weak monarch that he ends up losing all of the family holdings in France and is forced into signing the Magna Carta by parliament(England's version of the Bill of Rights).
All of which occur years after my story. I started when they were all the most dysfunctional family in history. Richard is still a teen and is not even the heir to the throne. At this point his older brother, Henry (who would've become Henry III if he had lived long enough) is the heir apparent. The royal family are secondary characters though, they serve as the historical background for the time period I love. Defender of the Realm is about an average guy thrust into "the moment".
Want to know more? Go to www.coreyholst.com read the synopsis, watch the video, read some reviews and buy the book for yourself. I bet you like it. :)

If you only know a couple of people through a website (like goodreads) and you are an unknown author, then who would be interested in reading a blog? Do you write about yourself? Who would care? You would probably want to write about your book to generate interest as goodreads suggests. But if nobody knows you, then how would they find your page in the first place? If millions had already read Defender of the Realm then I wouldn't NEED to give it exposure, but by the time J.K. Rowling wrote book 7 I suppose she had no shortage of faithful fans who would be hanging in suspense for her next blog entry.
Until then, here is my first official blog entry. Maybe someone other than my wife will stumble across it.
If that someone is you and you are reading this now, go to http://www.coreyholst.com and check out my first novel: Defender of the Realm.