Medieval Floors
I'm back with an attempt to dispel two common myths about sleeping conditions in the Middle Ages. Some people think that everyone slept on straw on the floor, as you may do in a stable. Others imagine everyone sleeping on mattresses, albeit of a more, ahem, organic...
Top 60+ Most Popular Social Networking Sites
We keep hearing that we must promote our books on social media. Given the billions of people who get online every day, this seems like a great idea. With so many media out there, however, how can you choose which one's right for you? Thankfully, Hostgator Coupon Code...
Understanding Old English
How far back in history could you go until you could no longer understand the English language?Stanislava Suplatovich has the answer in Quora. To answer this question, she uses three examples. Here's the first one: “See ye not yon twa bonny boys, As they play at the...
Sea Shanties of the Ancients
When I was at school, we learned of Ri-Pa-Pe - the rhythmic chant of Athenian oarsmen pulling a trireme's 180 oars. Contrary to what you might think, triremes were manned not by slaves but by some 200 free men from all social strata. Indeed, for a 5th-century BC...
The Mold Cape
I'm fresh back from my Easter break, and have the story of one of the most impressive treasures ever found in Britain to share with you: the Mold Cape. No, it's not moldy (although after so many centuries buried underground, I wouldn't be surprised if it were). This...
Happy Orthodox Easter
It's Orthodox Easter today. Visitors of this blog may recall my older posts on the quaint Greek customs such as shooting rockets at each other. Because what better way to celebrate Jesus' resurrection, right? Not that Medieval killer bunnies are much better, of...
Creating Universal Links with Booklinker
Many of you have asked me how you can create universal links. These are easy-to-remember links like "mybook.to/pearseus" that automatically link people to the appropriate Amazon store depending on their location. The answer is simple: Booklinker. Booklinker lets you...
Hello, Kindle Vella
Have you heard the news? Amazon just announced the Kindle Vella system. This is sort of "Wattpad on Amazon," as a quick recap will show you: You publish your book, one chapter ("episode") at a time. Episodes are between 600-5,000 words long. Readers find your story in...
10 Effective Ways to Avoid Distraction While You Write
As writers, we’ve all struggled with people, thoughts, and objects constantly distracting us while writing. In my case, it's an energetic 5-year-old who loves interrupting me to show me stuff like the dragon egg she painted as soon as I sit down to write. However,...
More Shakespearean Insults
From the story of how Shakespeare died a nobody, then got famous by accident to a Shakespearean insults infographic, the Bard keeps fascinating me. Having died 400 years ago last week, as The Independent reminds us, the great William Shakespeare was quite creative...
Free and Paid Photo Editing Tools
I frequently write about free photo editing tools like Picture Colorizer; a tool that automatically colorizes your old photos. But what happens if you need more than that? Then it may be time to upgrade to a paid photo editing tool. An increasing number of people use...
New Release: Hands
It feels like I've been writing about nothing but my new releases lately, but this isn't one of mine. Well, I helped publish it, but it was written by Ariadne Frey, an incredibly talented 14-year-old girl who wrote one of the most original stories I've read in recent...