Giveaway Winner & Life Getting in the Way

I know I owe everyone the name of the giveaway for Mike Dixon's book Wolf Wood.
I promise to do a fair and square drawing on Saturday and write a real blog post about it..
Meanwhile, I'm shuffling along on my NaNoWriMo challenge and I've written more than 14,000 words so far this month.
NaNo has some cool widgets that would tell you how much I've written. I can't predict whether this will change as I update my word count or not.


So, I'm busy writing, plus the usual family stuff. Plus I have a sinus infection and apparently a trick knee. The sinus and the knee pain have kept me from running very far. I'm sure both are hurting my progress on my novel.
And my novel has just gone in a strange direction, but I figure as long as I keep writing, there will have to be some parts in there worth saving.

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser Plus a Book Giveaway

Giveaway
I'm thrilled to offer a book giveaway this week too. Mike Dixon, author of Wolf Wood, has generously

offered to send out a hard copy to either a North American or UK reader, along with an ecopy. Dixon's book is set in Medieval England and France. It includes a great attention to detail and some intriguing characters that you'll cheer for while rooting against those Medieval bad guys. See my full review here.
Leave a comment and make sure I know how to reach you if you want to be registered. I'll draw a winner next Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading
This is one of those weeks that I wish I had more time to spend curled up in a chair on the front porch with a book.
I have more time, since three of my classes finished, but a new one is starting and I have a list of things to do that I've put off.
But here's a book that I have snuck a bit of so far. Someone online recommended it to me, but I can't remember where or when.
The House of the Wind by Titania Hardie is about a woman who is heartbroken after her fiance dies, so her grandfather sned her to Tuscany to heal. Who couldn't heal in Tuscany? The story is interwoven with one from 1347 in the same area of Tuscany.
Here's the intro from the first chapter:

In the calendar of seasons and times, January is Janus-headed: the patron month of gateways and doors, of looking forward and backward. Back over what has been, what brings us to this point; ahead to what may be, anticipating the dreams of future days.
Perhaps today, laughing and circling the date on her calendar with a bright pen, Madeline Moretti had given some thought to this, at least unconsciously. She'd certainly been revising in her mind Christopher's favorite foods -- his preference for salads and seafood, his enjoyment of full-bodied red wines more than champagne, his very British love of crumpets (accompanied with quince jelly!) instead of croissants, his funny thing for rose Turkish delight and dates dipped in dark melted chocolate -- so that when she opened the cupboard tomorrow on his first morning in San Francisco she would be able to supply his most eccentric wish effortlessly, with dainties that had been shipped in anywhere from Maine to the Napa Valley, from London to Provence, "from silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon."

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read  and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's my teaser from page 101:

The captain raced on in his speech. "We thought the girl had been killed, crushed by the fallen masonry, along with her parents and the guards. But," he said, breathing in deeply, "after the weather let up we began to clear away much of the rubble, and while all other bodies have been recovered, she appears to have vanished. There is no trace of her. It is witchcraft!"

Wolf Wood Review

Welcome to another France Book Tour review. This one is Wolf Wood Part One by Mike Dixon. The book is set in Medieval England while at war with France, so part of the story takes place in France.
Here's the synopsis from the author:

(Some violence, family and political intrigue, quite a lot of romance, some sex but never explicit.)

In 1436 a dispute arose between the people of Sherborne and their abbot over the ownership of a baptismal font.  Before it was settled, the abbey was burnt down and a bishop murdered.  Some saw the hand of evil at work and blamed a newcomer to the town, accusing her of being a witch.  Others saw her as a saint.  Wolf Wood is set in the turbulent years of the late middle ages.  The old feudal aristocracy is losing control, a new middle class is flexing its muscles, the authority of the church is being questioned, law and order have broken down and England is facing defeat in France.  Wolf Wood is a work of fiction based on actual events.

I enjoyed the writing in this story and it pulled me back to keep reading. Some of the characters were likable and others were deplorable, as they should be. The history in the book seemed very well-researched with lots of details that put the reader back in the middle ages. Of course, it doesn't matter how authentic the details are if the story isn't interesting. And the stories of the people's lives was interesting, although the main story of the baptismal font seemed a little vague to me.

The most likable character iss Alice. She comes to Sherbourne as the matron of the almshouse and the nearby Bishop immediately becomes suspicious of her because she uses herbs and plants to help heal people, silly things like recommending prunes for constipation, that obviously brand her a witch. 

Another likable character is Sir Harald, the oldest brother in a noble family, but he prefers books and learning rather than war, like his father and younger brother. We meet Harald as he is fighting a paternity dispute. His widow's family claim that Harald's son was actually fathered by Harald's brother, Guy. The widow's family hopes to get their property back if the son is a bastard.
An interesting thing about this book was that if focused quite a bit on different classes, rather than only on the noble class. 
A drawback of this book is the number of characters, especially while reading on my Kindle. It made it difficult to keep everyone straight. I can't tell you the number of Williams and Richards, and I wondered if the author couldn't have changed the names just to help out the reader.
I also hesitate to read books with numbers after the title, like part one or part two. I hate to make the commitment "to be continued" endings. This one did have a solid ending, so I wasn't left unhappy. 
Taken overall, the book was an interesting slice of life in the middle ages. I can assure you, after reading this, that I would not have wanted to live during those times, but I enjoyed exploring the people and living conditions of the time.

PURCHASING INFORMATION

On the author's website: http://mikejkdixon.com

Author's bio:

"I was born in Sherborne (Dorset) and attended school there and (as an exchange student) in the Medoc region of France.  I studied physics at Oxford and received a PhD degree in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge.  Following teaching and research appointments in South Africa, Scotland and Australia, I joined the Australian Government Service and worked, for a while, as a ministerial assistant.  I entered the tourist industry through public relations and scuba diving and established one of Australia's first backpacker resorts.  I have a keen interest in medieval history and I am a frequent visitor to Britain and France.

"As a boy, growing up in Sherborne, I heard about the famous fire of Sherborne Abbey and was told that a priest shot a flaming arrow into the tower and set the building on fire.  The marks of the fire are visible today, over five hundred years later.  And there is a lot more to tell us what happened.

"There was an inquiry into the dispute that led to the fire and the surviving documents tell of a bitter feud between the abbot and the townspeople.  It's highly dramatic stuff and it inspired me to write my Wolf Wood novels.

"My books are fiction.  Some of the characters are based on real people; others are entirely imaginary.  I have done my best to be faithful to the main course of historical events and fill in the gaps with the sort of things that could have happened to my characters."

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- Wolf Wood

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading. 
This week I started Wolf Wood by Mike Dixon, a new book for France Book Tours. I'll be reviewing it at the end of August. The book is about a dispute between the abbot and the townspeople of Sherbourne over a baptismal font. Apparently, the custom was that people had to pay for baptism. From the cover and the title, I didn't think I'd like this book, but the writing is good and the medieval story is pulling me in. Here's the intro:

Easter Sunday 1446
Alice walked up the cobbled path towards the abbey. The old building was undergoing renovation and the scaffolding had recently been removed from the south side of the tower. The work was being undertaken at the huge expense to the parish and was a major cause of friction between the abbot and the local people. On that chilly April morning, the new stonework shone brightly in the crisp light of a cloudless day. 

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read h and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Here's a teaser from 16% on my Kindle: 

Robin sank down on his haunches. It was a trick he'd learnt from Guy. Let them think you were a useless whimpering kid. It wouldn't enter their stupid heads that you were out to maim them.  

I'll let you know what I think of this one on Aug. 29.