A Question of Honour

I was sucked right into this story and period. Amena is a sympathetic character you can really care about. You have an excellent knowledge of the period and your settings are authentic along with your use of the senses. I look forward to reading more. Best of luck on your novel, it's a winner!

Jess Steven Hughes
THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE

Michaela,
A Question of Honour has a likeable and sympathetic protagonist in Amena. I wanted to delve more into this story from having read the first chapter and look forward to seeing the complete work. Backed with enthusiasm.

Very interesting for fans of anceint Rome; I wish I could read more of it.

Lynne Ellison

The Green Bronze Mirror

Hi Michaela, This is entrancing as it brings the reader into this age with the lifestyle, the woods, the attitudes towards the Roman's, and Amena. I liked how it started out with her horse riding. Her stumbling into Margawse's temple was done with good action and terse dialogue. It almost seems too bad that the story moves her into Roman hands but your rendering of this time is so effective that it looks like a fascinating read! Shelved with pleasure - Katherine (The Swan Bonnet)

What great dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed your writing style and the basic flow of the plotline. You have the makings of a great story here. Best of luck with your continued writing. Please remember December Gold in your future reading and comments.

This is the reason I love historical fiction. I get swept away to a time and place I've never known, plus I learn things too! You've got a great character in Amena, I really like her. Roman history is so fascinating so I'm very interested to see how this will progress. I hope you upload more soon!! This is well written and very engaging.

Missy

An interesting take on a fascinating period of British history. Amena's path to becoming a druidess is well laid out. The timeframe jumps around a bit but the events are presented in a clear enough fashion. "She brought out the worse in Gawain," is the only nitpick i spotted
John O'Brien - Other Face

Michaela: I like this book. I am not very conversant with YA literature, but this is well written and I hope it goes far. If you get a chance, pls take a look at The President's Wife is on Prozac by Jayne Lind. Good luck! Jayne

This will appeal to a YA audience. I liked the historical perspective. Needs some editing, and dialogue work but I see the hard effort, and it is worth backing.

I hope you will give mine a read and back it if you like it.
Best,
Robert
Golden Conspiracy

Hi Michaela,
I generally enjoyed reading your book but think it has some areas which could benefit from some further work.
A factual point - you first name Amena’s brother as Bran, then say he is called Adric then go back to Bran.
You do have a tendency to repetition at times, using the same word twice in close proximity of each other. This is not a huge problem but I think it would make it an easier read without these repetitions, particularly they fall within the same sentence.
“…be called upon to do their duty if the warrior queen called on them…”
“…been good to her so perhaps there was a good reason…”
““I am Margawse,” she replied. Margawse uncovered…”
“...as Briana’s pains had started. Briana lay in her bed.”
“…your presence at the birth of my daughter as my wife asked for you to be here. Your presence is no longer...”
I main area I have a problem with is how you approach dialogue. Whilst the dialogue itself is fine, I cannot recall that there was a single instance of speech where you did not use “Amena said, Briana asked, Margawse replied, he said” etc. It gets quite monotonous in the lengthier sections of dialogue. I think you could give your reader some credit and trust them to be able to follow a conversation without having to point out exactly who has said each and every sentence.
I was a prolific reader in my youth and this is the kind of historical fiction I would have jumped right into during my later childhood years. With bit of tightening up, this would really work.
Best.

MIchaela: I read Ch 3 and this worked for me. This is a historical genre. One thing you wanna be aware of: if you really want a YA audience then you need to break down these long paragraphs into smaller paragraphs so they read faster. The pitches worked for me. BACKED!

I can use your comments on my book when you get the chance. Cheers!

JC
The Obergemau Key

Backed with pleasure!

Ferdi
A Bed of Thorns

Good, strong historical feel to this. Fascinating period which you have succeeded in involving the reader with. Agree about the names of Marcus and Marius, just drop the M and have Arius perhaps.
Jim Darcy
The Firelord's Crown

ps I changed a couple of my major characters' names and it was hard at first but I got used to it. :)

Fascinating and well written

backed

QUESTION OF HONOUR
This is an interesting story. You have a good main character in Amena. She’s likable and certainly sympathetic because she’s sold as a slave. Having both Marius and Marcus interested in her is good plotting (did you think of making their names not so much alike?). Makes this a good read. I’m adding it to my shelf. If you have a moment, would you look at mine (Grain of Salt)? I’m in 8th place but only holding on by my teeth. Burgio

Very good story that is relevant due to the success of the Spartacus tv show but here it fells more personal, a human drama that transcends the centuries. You paint the period well and make it gritty and real, playing it out in the readers mind as they read.

You obviously have the temperement to do meticulous research and you presnet if beautifully. The scenery is set with an exactness that only someone who knows their stuff can hope to achieve. Your writing has the polish that all good works require and your dedication is only to be admired. Excellent.

BACKED

Dear Michaela,
A Question of Honour deserves to be backed, not only is your pitch outstanding, but your writing is very good. I absolutely love romance novels and believe it has great potential
Congrats on posting it, best of luck and much success
Sincerely
Helen
The Last Dream

Wow - you have been blessed with a gifted imagination and the talent for putting it to the written word. It is obvious you have devoted time and research in writing this peice of literature. Easy to back!

Liz
The Cheech Room

An interesting story with well developed characters. Vivid writing. backed.

I've read only the first chapter but you've described it very well with excellent dialogue that advances the plot without rushing it.
Little touches, like the reference to Beltane and Margawse's seeing bowl add to the ancient feel and Gawain's dislike of Amena make it real. Different that it's written from a woman's point of view and about women. The preoccupations are different and for that it's original.
Informative and in my opinion more interesting than fantasy, I can see this doing very well with YA. Backed. Lynn

Hi, Michaela, you have certainly done a lot of research before writing this book. You have captured the historical scenes very well together with character names. I like what I have read and your excellent description throughout. Backed and SHELVED.

regard's,

Neville (The Secrets OF the Forest) Would be pleased if you could take a look.

Dear Michaela, I love your take me back almost 2 thousand years to feel what your heroine is feeling in your story - what a beautiful story. :) Your pitch is excellent, so set the hook for me to read your book. :) When you use short paragraphs & lots of dialogue, it makes me want to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next. I'm backing your book. :) Could you please take a moment to back my 2 memoir books? Thanks. :) Love, Susie :)

This is information from authonomy (so beware of any other untrue information you may receive that is spam & not quotes of authonomy):
"When you back a book, it only improves the ranking of that book, not yours. However, the author whose book you are backing may decide to back your book also, in which case yes, your ranking would be improved"
"Every time you place a book on your bookshelf, your recommendation pushes the book up the rankings. And while that book sits on your bookshelf, your reputation as a talent spotter increases depending on how well that book performs."
backed :)
Love, Susie :)

Welcome to authonomy. This is a nice site, if you are looking for constructive criticism of your work. So, in the hopes you will look at, and possibly back, my work, I'll let you know what I think of yours. You have a great beginning here. I see you know how to write, and that you are developing your plot. In your first chapter, you want to capture your audience, which you can't do with everyday stuff. You need to dive right into some sort of conflict, action, or some other hook to reel in your reader.

In my opinion, your first sentence should be Amena's reaction to Gawain's stone. This will put questions into the reader's mind about why the stone was thrown, what did Amena do to merit the attack, and what her reactions are going to be. So, that's three hooks set. Always stick to the moment. Don't go into the past. I'll back this for you. Dave

Reminds me a little of 'Quo Vadis.'

JMC

This is certainly an impressive debut novel but you will be criticised for not have some action at the start to draw the reader in. Did I read somewhere that horses were introduced to Britain by the Romans? If that was the case would Amena have owned a horse? You should do really well on here, historical fiction is a nice change. Paula Barrett (Cuthbert-how mean is my valley)

I like historica fiction and so have backed this from your pitch. I wish you luck on Authonomy and may get back with a more detailed comment when I have had time to read further.
Rosemary (Ziggy Chalan)

Michaela, well done on the book - I have backed it.

Best wishes,
T. L. Bartush
Bleak House Bleak Shed (if you can give it an airing on your shelf I'd appreciate it).