‘The Will of God’……’Choosing A Cover’ + Ringing Bells……The Neolithic Heart of Orkney…….
by Bernie Bell - 07:32 on 28 March 2025
‘The Will of God’……
“Cover Reveal for "The Will of God" by Julian de la Motte
Congratulations to Julian de la Motte from Historium Press for his upcoming historical medieval novel "The Will of God"!
Cover design by White Rabbit Arts at The Historical Fiction Company
Blurb:
''The Will of God'' is the literal translation of the Latin phrase ''Deus Lo Volt''; a ubiquitous war cry and a common offered explanation of all the horrors and iniquities unleashed by the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, when thousands of Europeans made the dangerous and terrifying journey to the Holy Land and the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the first of two books on the subject.
Gilles is the natural son of the Earl Wulfnoth, executed by William the Conqueror for supposed treachery. Raised in Normandy by Queen Matilda of England, Gilles is a young servant of Robert, Duke of Normandy, when the first call for a Holy War against the infidel and for the liberation of Jerusalem is raised in Christendom. Along with thousands of others inspired by a variety of motives, intense piety mixed with a sense of adventure and the prospects of richness, Gilles becomes a key and respected follower of the Duke of Normandy and travels through France and into Italy to the point of embarkation for Constantinople and the land of the Greeks.
In this epic first phase of a long and gruelling journey, Gilles begins to discover a sense of his own strengths and weaknesses, encounters for the first time the full might and strength of the Norman war machine and achieves his much coveted aim of knighthood, as well as a sense of responsibility to the men that he must now lead into battle.
“In one of his reincarnations, Julian De La Motte must have charged through 11th-century Europe in the vanguard of knights and nobles. What else accounts for the astonishing verisimilitude he brings to this period storytelling of the First Crusade? De La Motte has superpowers as a writer of historical fiction; he’s a warhorse of a writer bred to stun and trample the literary senses. You won’t stop turning the pages of The Will of God.” -- Charles McNair, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Land O'Goshen
"Brimming with extraordinary detail and intrigue, God’s Will becomes another medieval masterpiece by Julian de la Motte. Following on the heels of Senlac, his epic retelling of the Norman Conquest, the author vividly recreates the manic zeal of the First Crusade." --
R.w. Meek, Pulitzer Prize nominee for The Dream Collector, “Sabrine & Vincent van Gogh”
Book Buy Link: PRE-ORDER COMING SOON!”
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’Choosing A Cover’ + Ringing Bells…..
One of the things I find most enjoyable about imagining a fictional band is choosing their imaginary set. In 1976, the founding members were into Throbbing Gristle. Now, almost fifty years later, they are thinking of covering ‘Valerie’. That’s what mellowing out with age is like, kids.
Quite apart from the fact that ‘Valerie’ is a great song, and TG were not to everyone’s taste, (though they sound fairly harmless 50 years on) there are reasons that a band who haven’t played together since 1985 might choose to do ‘Valerie’ at a wedding. Everyone in the band (bar one) has played it with a function band, or played it at an open mic, or played it with the BBC Concert Orchestra for an Amy Winehouse themed ‘Friday Night is Music Night.’ The point of the players in the Breaking Wave is not that they are hopeless amateurs, but that they are all pros or high functioning semi-pros who didn’t hit it big. So ‘Valerie’ would be eminently do-able.
So, now my problem is, which version should they cover? My favourite version is Amy doing it at the Live Lounge for BBC Radio Two. You never got Throbbing Gristle on Radio Two, did you?
I also like the Zutons original.
But, until today, I’d never seen the video that accompanies the Mark Ronson/Amy version that was the hit. This is a cracking video. Of course, really, this is version that functions bands do. I mean, on one level, this IS a very good function band, getting girls up from the audience to sing. It’s just that, by an extraordinary coincidence, they all sound EXACTLY like Amy Winehouse.
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IAN MARCHANT
MARCH 23
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“you can't ring my bell...
… because it’s been decided to take me off chemo. When you finish chemo as prescribed, you get to ring the bell that hangs in every chemo lounge ever. But I’ve been sacked off the team due to ill-health, so I’ll not be ring ring ringing the bell.
Bollocks to that, though. Do not go thingy into that good whatsit. The night is a starry dome and we’re playing that scratchy rock and roll, etc.
Choosing cover versions is fun; equally fun is picking a playlist for an imaginary community radio station. One of the lead singers in The Breaking Wave is an imaginary late night DJ on an imaginary community radio station down in the Forest of Dean. She gets to play what she likes - which, by a strange coincidence are exactly the sort of things I like! Such as the productions of Georgio Moroder.
Now I’m in the mood for a Rubettes/Ralph McTell mash up. Enter Lawrence and Mozart Estate, who have entered this weeks imaginary Free Forester Radio Top Forty at Number i!
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Writing the Breaking Wave is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Writing the Breaking Wave that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.”
Mar 24
The Neolithic Heart of Orkney….
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https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/03/26/whs-consultation/
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