Category Archives: religion

Elisha Daemon Launch Day!

Today’s the day! Not only is this the launch for Elisha Daemon, but this book is the final volume in the series!  If you’ve been waiting to get all five books in hand before you read, it’s time to start. … Continue reading

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Avignon: The Palace of the Popes

One of my favorite parts of writing the Elisha series has been learning about all these fantastic places and people of the 14th century.  One of the best has got to be the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France.  … Continue reading

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Celebrating Friday the 13th with the Knights Templar!

So, today is Friday the Thirteenth, a day which apparently over 21 million Americans still fear.  There are numerous explanations for this concern about the date (I actually wrote a paper about this back in junior high, when I was … Continue reading

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What’s Your Sign? Ophiuchus!

It’s not the first time I’ve written about the conjunction between astronomy and astrology–for a long time, they were considered to be essentially the same thing. The only reason to study the stars was to understand how they governed those … Continue reading

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A Brief History of Jews in China

Continuing my inadvertent series about surprising cultural connections (and my ruminations on the fact that history so often repeats itself), I recently came across this article in the New York Times about the clampdown on public practice of Judaism in … Continue reading

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Unused Settings: Aachen, the Imperial City of Germany

I’ve mentioned Aachen in a couple of recent blog posts, and I figure it’s time this beautiful city got its own entry although, alas, it will not appear in my book. I had the opportunity to visit a couple of … Continue reading

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Crowned with Legitimacy: Recognizing a Ruler

Here in America, we are in the throes of a presidential election cycle (you may have noticed. . .)  If one of the candidates sweeps up a large majority of the popular vote in November, that leader will be said … Continue reading

Posted in Elisha Rex, England, essays, history, medieval, Mongolia, religion, research, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Relics in the Middle Ages: The Crucifixion

In honor of Easter, which many folks will be observing this weekend, I wanted to look a little more deeply at the role of relics in the Middle Ages.  It’s no secret that medievals were a little mad for relics.  … Continue reading

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Review: Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism, by Gedalyah Nigal

I picked up this book after discovering it in the bibliography of a couple of other books on Jewish mysticism which I was reading as research material for book 4 in my Dark Apostle series. I wanted more detail on … Continue reading

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The Two Emperors: part II, Charles IV

At the end of the first part of this blog, I noted that Charles IV could not have been more different from his rival, Louis the Bavarian.  Charles, born 1316, was 34 years younger, handsome and affable. He was highly … Continue reading

Posted in Great Characters of the Middle Ages, history, medieval, profiles, religion, research, The Dark Apostle | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment