Rock, Paper, Swords! - the Historical Action and Adventure Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Clive Mantle starred as Little John in the 80s classic series Robin of Sherwood. You might well also have seen him as Great Jon Umber in Game of Thrones, Simon Horton in The Vicar of Dibley and Mike Barratt in Casualty. He has also narrated over 180 audio books, and voiced animated characters, including Gator in Thomas the Tank Engine.

As if that wasn’t enough, Clive is also an award winning author. 'The Treasure at the Top of the World', the first in the Freddie Malone series of books, was released in 2018 and won the People’s Book Prize 2019.

Welcome to RPS, Clive!

If you're a fan of Robin Hood/ Robin of Sherwood become one of our Top Fans or Producers over on Patreon to get access to our bonus episodes, one of which is all about RoS!

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Support us on Patreon - ⁠patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast⁠ If you're an author or publisher and would like to sponsor one of our episodes, please get in touch. You can find us on social media or email us at rockpaperswordspodcast@gmail.com

A classic episode from 2023 when our guest was Dr Joanne Ball! Joanne is a Roman archaeologist and battlefield archaeologist based at the University of Liverpool, with a PhD in Archaeology on the subject of Roman battlefield archaeology. 

She is a regular contributor to several magazines focused on ancient history and was co-editor of Ancient World Magazine. And is soon to have published the Publius Quinctilius Varus: The Man Who Lost Three Roman Legions in the Teutoburg Disaster.

Welcome to RPS, Joanne.

If you would like to help us with our running costs, and get exclusive bonus episodes every month, and other cool perks including a FREE copy of the book we wrote together, check out our patreon page: ⁠  / rockpaperswordspodcast   Another episode and another musician who truly puts the ROCK in Rock, Paper, Swords! Todd "Dammit" Kerns is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is most noted for being the bass player and backup singer in “Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators”, and for being the front man of “The Age of Electric”. His latest album is with Heroes and Monsters and it ROCKS! Check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-KGpbcH8qU&ab_channel=FrontiersMusicsrl

While touring the world, playing to sold out audiences, he has had the opportunity to share the stage with some of rock's biggest names, including some of his own personal heroes including Slash, Lemmy, Alice Cooper, Duff McKagan, Fergie, Bill Murray, Sammy Hagar and many more.

Having played with so much rock royalty, that must make Todd “Rock Nobility” at the very least!

Welcome to Rock, Paper, Swords, Todd!

If you would like to help us with our running costs, and get exclusive bonus episodes every month, and other cool perks, check out our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast

Born and raised in Detroit, now living in Nashville, Tennessee, Cody C. Engdahl describes himself as a practitioner of the Southern Gentlemanly Arts, an amateur fiddler, cook, whiskey connoisseur, and armchair historian. He is the author of five historical novels. His latest is The Prussian Prince, a swashbuckling adventure that'll take you into the heart of the Austro-Prussian War and book 5 of the Long Century series.

Welcome to RPS, Cody!

Useful links: https://codycengdahl.wordpress.com/

https://www.techspot.com/news/102875-40000-ai-narrated-audiobooks-flood-audible-dividing-authors.html

Researching is a huge part of a historical fiction author's life. In this episode we discuss what we use to embed ourselves in our chosen time periods.

Support us on one of our 3 tiers on Patreon - patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast If you're an author or publisher and would like to sponsor one of our episodes, please get in touch. You can find us on social media or email us at rockpaperswordspodcast@gmail.com

Today we have a special guest who we think will be of particular interest, especially to aspiring writers. Kit Nevile is a Commissioning Editor at publishers Canelo. He is particularly interested in thrillers, horror, and action/adventure books, and just so happens to be Steven’s editor! Before working at Canelo he was at Persephone Books and Whitefox publishing services, both in an editorial role.

In this episode we will try to find out what a commissioning editor actually does, what they look for in a new book, how he thinks the publishing business will change in coming years, how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact things, and lots more!

Welcome to RPS, Kit Nevile!

https://www.canelo.co/

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X: x.com/rock_swords

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We're republishing this classic episode as we'll be doing a panel with Giles and Patricia Bracewell on February 8th with the HISTORY QUILL CONVENTION.

During the 90s Giles Kristian was lead singer of pop group Upside Down, achieving four top twenty hit records! As a singer-songwriter he lived and toured for two years in Europe and has made music videos all over the world.

Giles is half-Norwegian and his family history inspired him to write his first historical novels: the acclaimed and bestselling RAVEN Viking trilogy. For his next series, he drew on a long-held fascination with the English Civil War to chart the fortunes of a family divided by this brutal conflict in The Bleeding Land and Brothers’ Fury. Giles also co-wrote Wilbur Smith’s No.1 bestseller, Golden Lion. In The Rise of Sigurd novels he returned to the world of the Vikings. His Sunday Times bestseller, Lancelot, is currently in development for TV. He followed Lancelot with Camelot, and now, Where Blood Runs Cold is his debut contemporary thriller.

His latest book, ARTHUR, came out in June 2024.

Welcome to Rock, Paper, Swords, Giles Kristian!

This episode is sponsored by Paul Bernardi's brand new historical thriller Blood Feud. Please check it out HERE!

On today's episode we're talking about what IS "historical fiction". It's a genre that seems to encapsulate so many other genres, crime, thrillers, action and adventure… but what actually makes a story historical fiction?

The Historical Novel Society defines the genre as works "written at least fifty years after the events described". Do you agree with that? What about alternative history? What about novels that were written as contemporary fiction but are now hundreds of years old? What about fiction set in a time SO remote that it's essentially speculative? We discuss these points and more!

Take a listen to this fascinating topic and please let us know what you think constitutes "historical fiction".

Useful links:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_fiction

If you're an author or publisher and would like to sponsor one of our episodes, please get in touch. You can find us on social media or email us at rockpaperswordspodcast@gmail.com

THE EMPEROR'S SWORD is out next week, 25th April 2024, so we thought we'd remind you of this chat we had with him...

Another fantastic guest this week, as Christian (also known as Miles) Cameron joins Steven and Matthew to chat about his books, research, re-enactments, historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, being a member of US Intelligence, and loads more! Some great chat and brilliant anecdotes in this one, you must check it out, Christian was a superb guest!

Christian's website - https://christiancameronauthor.com/

Yes, Matthew and Steven have written a non-fiction book together! It's called Tips for Writing, Publishing and Marketing Your Novel and it comes out on Thursday April 25th 2024. You can pre-order it now, and it will also be available to read with Kindle Unlimited. Check it out at the links here - https://mybook.to/RPSTipsForWriting

The book will also be FREE to our Patreon TOP FANS and PRODUCERS so if you'd like to sign up, head over to Patreon now and check out our tiers:

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Whether you're a novice or a veteran of the writing world, Tips for Writing, Publishing and Marketing Your Novel is an indispensable companion for every author's journey. Pre-order your copy now!