Five Paintings That Disappeared Without a Trace

Art and art heists seem to go hand-in-hand. No wonder then that some of the rarest masterpieces of art have disappeared at different points in history under mysterious circumstances, leaving the cognoscenti speechless to date. Only reproductions exist today, thanks to...

Bathing in the Middle Ages

Continuing with my last post’s theme on bathing through history, this one deals specifically with bathing in the Middle Ages. While the Crusades are generally blamed for a number of things, they triggered significant advances in the West. Indeed, some scholars...

A Brief History of Bathing

A reader of my fantasy sci-fi series, Pearseus, once joked that I have a strange fascination with showers. And it’s true; I think of them as a great example of things we take for granted but are actually pretty new. In this day and age, we enjoy a lot of...

Ancient Travels

I came across an interesting question on Quora the other day: What was the approximate travel time between London and Rome in the 13th century? As Frank Melling, author of “A Sixpence in the Settee,” points out, this is not a simple question to answer, as...

Unknown Medieval Weapons

Everyone’s heard of swords and spears. But how about the Goedendag, the Ahlspiess, or the Hussite flail? If you write historical fiction, you may appreciate this opportunity to spice up your weapons, courtesy of Quora. The Goedendag Essentially, the Goedendag...

Dormice and Other Ancient Delicacies

I have a confession: besides writing, I love cooking and I love food. Perhaps that explains why the parts I enjoy most in fantasy or historical fiction books concern the little things – things like food and drink. What kind of dinner do the protagonists enjoy,...

What Does Fantasy Get Wrong about Medieval Warfare?

Largely thanks to Tolkien, the fantasy genre consists basically of how we imagine the Medieval times. Readers of this blog will know of my many articles on the Middle Ages and my keen interest in historical accuracy. In the interest of improving our (fantasy) writing,...

Happy St. Fanourios’ Day

Today, Greece is celebrating St. Fanourios’ Day. Because of a wordplay on the Saint’s name, whose name roughly translates into “Finder,” people pray to him when they need help with finding something. Now, when I say “finding,” this...

Creepy Book Inspiration from the Middle East

This is a guest post by David Collins. David is a marketing specialist and essay writer from Manchester, UK. He loves to share his ideas and knowledge about marketing, writing, and blogging with his followers through his blog. Currently, he is working as a marketer at...

Perseverance Blasts Off

A $2.7 billion NASA rover, Perseverance, blasted off into clear skies over Florida’s Cape Canaveral yesterday (Thursday, July 30th) atop an Atlas V rocket, as The Washington Post and The Curious report. The launch marks the start of a nearly seven-month journey to...