Historical Fiction with Speculative and Romantic Elements
Date Published: 09-01-2026
Publisher: Literary Wanderlust
England, 1381 AD: Blanche Fitzjohn is an outcast in her small coastal
village. Not only is she the illegitimate daughter of John of Gaunt, the man
responsible for her neighbors’ over-taxation, but she possesses strange
abilities: hearing sound from miles away and smelling people’s emotions.
She takes solace in her studies with the local wisewoman and in her friendship
with Geoff, a groom at the local manor. Until the day Henry of Lancaster,
Blanche’s half-brother, brings her news of an arranged marriage to Sir
Thomas Prescott, Constable of the Tower of London. Although she smells cruelty
on him, Blanche agrees to marry Thomas in the hopes that her influence may
help better the lives of Geoff and all England’s villeins.
But soon, the peasants’ discontent turns to revolt. Though her heart is
of the people, Blanche’s nobility makes her an enemy to the rebels. To
save herself and Henry from the executioner’s ax, Blanche must use every
power at her disposal, even those she once considered a curse.
About the Author
J.E. Rizzo is a life-long history fanatic and writer of historical fiction,
and her work can be found in Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The
Tudor Times, Tudor Life Magazine, Scary Mommy, and Ultrarunning Magazine.
Rizzo won Manuscript Academy’s Agent Choice Award in 2024, and her
article Past and Precedence: Abortion Law in the Middle Ages and Its Use to
Overturn Roe v. Wade won History Inquiry’s Medieval History Writing
Challenge.
By day, Rizzo works in Human Resources—a field offering more than ample
opportunity to observe the follies and fancies of humankind. Before her career
in HR, Rizzo worked as an opera singer, a professional baker, and a dog
walker. These days, when not writing she can be found running ultramarathons
through the forests and mountains of New England, knitting, reading, sewing,
baking, or performing any number of (what some might call) old-lady hobbies.
She also keeps busing caring for her two children and forty-seven houseplants,
making her husband carry heavy things and cook her gourmet meals, and
rehabilitating her rescue dog and semi-feral ginger cat.
Title: On a Sword’s Edge Author: J R Tomlin Series: The Sword of Scotland Release Date: November 16. 2024
Scotland. 1263. The scent of rain mingles with the smoke of campfires as word spreads: the Norse are coming…
As tempers rise between King Alexander and the Norse King Haakon, at the center of it all is sixteen-year-old William Douglas, a squire in service to Sir John Stewart, Lord High Steward of Scotland.
When Haakon’s fearsome fleet is espied approaching Scotland’s shores, carrying the greatest invasion force the Norse have ever mustered, the dread of battle settles over the land. Summoned to Ayr Castle, William joins the Scottish forces in a desperate defense. Now tasked with serving his newly knighted brother, Hugh, William has little time to dwell on the fear – or thrill – of his first real taste of war.
And once the Norse’s menacing line of ships finally touches shore, Scotland’s fate may rest on more than noble titles and knightly deeds— it’ll take the mettle of every soul on the ground for them to triumph.
Set against the wind-swept coast of medieval Scotland, On a Sword’s Edge takes you right into the center of The Battle of Largs alongside a mere – yet fearless – squire.
William Douglas, called le Hardi, which means ‘the bold’ in French, has always interested me. He is a man who divides opinions. I have seen him accused of being a thug. However, many consider him a hero of Scotland. Nothing is known about his youth. That meant I could make it up to suit myself. As a young man, his father’s home was attacked. He was nearly killed defending it against a large force of attackers, which is where he earned the sobriquet of the Bold.
Besides that, events were interesting in the 1260s and quite different from what people assume about Scotland and England. Because of later centuries of warfare between England and Scotland, many assume that they had always been enemies. That was not the case.
In 1263, King Alexander of Scotland was only twenty-two years old and married to the daughter of England’s King Henry III. The relationship between the two nations and the two monarchs was quite peaceful and friendly. However, you could not say the same about Scotland and Norway.
The Scottish king wanted the Western and Northern Isles which the Norse had conquered during the Viking Age, now over by at least a hundred years. The Norse king was King Haakon the Old, but don’t let the name fool you. He was a formidable man who had unified the Norse in Norway, intimidated his neighbors with shows of force, and conquered Greenland and Iceland to add them to the Norwegian hegemony.
I have written several novels about the wars and enmity between England and Scotland, so something totally different appealed to me. This was a period when Scots routinely purchased estates in England and spent time there. Even major nobles such as the Earl of Argyll were born in and had extensive interests in England.
The events of William’s life gave me the chance to write about how this worked. For example, there was a dispute between the Douglases and the Earl of Argyll over payment for an estate in England which they took to the courts in England. How English courts worked was fun to research and write about.
It also gave a chance to write not just about war, which was still happening in the background, but about daily life for families with ties on both sides of the Tweed. Whether it was the life of a squire or the celebration of Christmas, there was more to the Scottish Middle Ages than warfare, and I enjoyed touching on that. Hopefully, people also enjoy reading about it.
Author Bio:
J. R. Tomlin is the author of more than twenty historical novels, set for the most part in Scotland. Her love of that nation is traced from the stories of King Robert the Bruce and the Good Sir James her grandmother read to her when she was small to hillwalking through the Cairngorms where the granite hills have a gorgeous red glow under the setting sun. Later, her writing was influenced by the work of authors such as Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, and of course, Sir Walter Scott.
When JR isn’t writing, she enjoys spending time hiking, playing with her Westie, and killing monsters in computer games. In addition to having lived in Scotland, she has traveled in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim. She now lives in Oregon in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
