POISON IN THE BLOOD - The Memoirs Of Lucrezia Borgia

[mgscarsbrook]

The Borgias Is Coming To The UK!

For any UK readers out there, just wanted to announce that the hit Showtime series The Borgias is due to air on Sky at the end of July. Lucrezia Borgia - the main character of my novel, POISON IN THE BLOOD - has also been the show's most popular character with viewers in the US. Hopefully Britain feels the same! We shall see!

The Borgias community is thriving online, if you want to chat to others about all things Borgia-related:

http://theborgias.wetpaint.com/

[mgscarsbrook]

Five Things You (Probably!) Didn't Know About Lucrezia Borgia

- Her name derives from the Roman legend of Lucretia, a woman who killed herself rather than live with the shame of being raped. Lucretia is a symbol of womanly chastity.

- Like many noblewomen, she knew the power of maintaining a dazzling appearance. For example, one of her capes
was made from crimson satin, lined with ermine, and embroidered with 61 rubies, 55 diamonds, 5 large pearls, 412 medium-sized pearls, and 114 small pearls.

- She was well educated and spoke Italian, Catalan, French, Latin, and Greek. She also loved music, poetry, and dancing.

- She came from a notorious family accused of many crimes. Her father, Pope Alexander VI, kept a herd of courtesans at the Vatican Palace, and is rumoured to have created his own special poison to dispatch political rivals. Her eldest brother, Cesare Borgia, was a very shrewd and cruel leader of the Papal army, and served as the inspiration for Machiavelli's 'The Prince'.

- Lucrezia and her family were known for their extravagant banquets. For instance, at Lucrezia's second marriage to Alfonso of Aragon, over 800 barrels of wine and 30,000 pounds of meat were consumed in just one night!

[mgscarsbrook]

The greatest whore in Rome?

An innocent pawn of her powerful family?

A skilled ruler and a generous patron of the arts?

Find out about more by reading POISON IN THE BLOOD: The Memoirs Of Lucrezia Borgia

Now on sale at Smashwords!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29234

[mgscarsbrook]

For the last few days of July POISON IN THE BLOOD is 50% off over at Smashwords.

Just use the code SSW50 at checkout.

Happy reading!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29234

[mgscarsbrook]

Entertainment - Borgia Style!

The Borgia family was of Spanish origin, so on special occasions they often chose to dazzle Rome with one of Spain's most popular spectacles - Bull fighting.

For example, one real-life event that occurs in my novel POISON IN THE BLOOD is the bullfight held to honor Lucrezia's wedding to Alfonso of Aragon. Cesare organized the bullfight to be staged in the park of Cardinal Asciano’s villa. 10,000 spectators watched. Lucrezia and Alfonso sat on a magnificently decorated platform draped with tapestries and lengths of silk. Cesare appeared on the field with a white Barbary steed, in a jewelled harness, and a silver and gold lance. With him, 2 mounted pages rode with lanced bearing banners embroidered with a golden sun. Preceding them, were 12 boys dressed in C’s livery of yellow satin halved with carmine, and also 12 horsemen in the same livery. Cesare killed all 12 bulls set against him...

Quite a show!

[mgscarsbrook]

The renaissance was arguably the most colorful and inventive era for the english language. Here's a brief selection of my favorite words, many of which appear in my novel POISON IN THE BLOOD: THE MEMOIRS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA.

Baconbrains = idiot
Bed-presser = lazy person
Bedswerver = adulterer
Beef-witted = stupid
Bellygod = glutton
Belly-timber = food
Clapperdudgeon = a beggar
Cup-shotten = drunk
Dandiprat = an insignificant person
Fanfaronade = arrogant, boastful talk or behavior
Fanfaron = a braggart
Fizgig = a flighty, fretful, flirtatious, flustered woman
Glop = swallow greedily
Goatish = lustful
Gobbet = mouthful
Gorbelly = fat
Greedigut = glutton
Grief-shot = sorrowful
Gutfoundered = very hungry
Guttle = to swallow
Guttler = greedy eater
Hobbledehoy = a clumsy, awkward lad between boyhood and manhood
Hodgepudding = pudding of many ingredients
Honeyfuggle = to obtain by cheating / deception
Hugger-mugger = something done in secrecy and disorder
Indrenched = drowned / immersed
Jackleg = incompetent person without scruples (a cowboy)
Junket = feast secretly
Laborsome = laborious / elaborate
Leaping House = brothel
Lightskirt = tart / prostitute
Maltworm = drunkard
Minimus = insignificant person
Mizmaze = bewilderment
Moonling = idiot
Mounch = eat lots
Mumblecrust = beggar
Niddle-noddle = to nod rapidly and unsteadily back and forth
Nuppence = no money
Onion-eyed = tearful
Pingle = to eat with little or no appetite
Pismire = a urinating ant / a despicable individual
Popinjay = showoff (particularly someone dressed gaudily)
Quicken = to make alive / lively
Rapscallion = a rascal
Raddled = wearing too much make-up
Roister = to revel wildly
Simpleton = idiot
Skelder = to live by begging / to swindle, defraud, obtain money by cheating
Skimble-skamble = something confused, rambling, incoherent
Smellfeast = freeloader
Tapster = alehouse keeper
Taradiddle = fib, white lie, pretentious nonsense
Tatterdemalion = a ragamuffin child who wears tatters
Yaffling = eat greedily and noisily

[mgscarsbrook]

POISON IN THE BLOOD is soon to be published in Turkey! Yay!

I've just signed contracts for the Turkish translation rights with Altin Kitaplar (http://www.altinkitaplar.com.tr/index.asp), one of Turkey's largest publishers. They also publish authors like Dan Brown, Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Wilbur Smith, so I'm in good company.

Can't wait to see my novel in Turkish... not that I'll be able to read it, of course...