Making Rent in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #4b)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Medieval knights paying a portion of their “knight’s fees”

In modern times, rents on property are paid in money. In the medieval England and elsewhere, however, payment for a vassal’s fief or a villein’s farmland took a rather different form.

A vassal’s assorted obligations to his lord – his so-called “knight’s fee” – were collectively deemed military in nature. However, as mentioned in my previous post on the feudal system, this isn’t to say all of a vassal’s responsibilities involved fighting.

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Thoughts on Reading Through My Novel’s First Draft

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

My first draft chapters, bottom to top, colour coded by their revision needs

It was like grading the world’s longest midterm paper.

Coming in at 402 pages and with all but the last two chapters having been written some ten years ago, I really had no idea what I was in for when, upon completing my first novel ever (technically my first trilogy, but I count it as one completed story), the time came to read through the entire first draft.

The age of the thing alone terrified me, for how well could a ten-year-old story possibly hold up? I already knew going in that I’d have a fair amount of rewriting ahead of me, but the question was how much?

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En Sympathie pour Paris (and the World)

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

The Eiffel Tower with its lights extinguished to honour those killed in the recent attacks

My one and only trip to Paris thus far in my life was in 1995.

I was 17 years old at the time and on a trip to London with my father and his lady-friend to visit my uncle – my dad’s brother – and two cousins.

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Watching My Language (or, On the Quest to Gender-Neutralize My Speech)

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

It’s a tiny, seemingly throwaway phrase I hear uttered every day – from my own lips included – and it drives me just this side of batty.

As a writer, I’m very concerned and interested in the language I use, both on paper and verbally.

Part of the reason I’m such a slow writer is because, for me, every sentence is a search not just a word, but the exact word – the word that conveys the precise sentiment of what I’m trying to express.

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Replaying Xena: Season 3 – Camp, Comedy & Secondary Character Development

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Will the real Warrior Princess please step forward?

**I originally started my replay of the seasons of Xena Warrior Princess to help me in re-conceiving an old, shelved novel of mine that I want to rewrite set in Ancient Greece.**

Of course, I recognize that what will help me most in this endeavour is a thorough study of actual Ancient Greek history since Xena, although a rollicking good time to watch, is historical-ish at best – a work of historical fantasy that’s at times quite heavy on the fantasy, straining the linearity of the historical timeline to the limit.

(This season alone, Xena has dealings with legendary Celtic queen Boudicca, with Egyptian queen Cleopatra, in ancient China, and against the Persian army on their way to the Hot Gates at Thermopylae.)

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