LINKS

CELTIC & HISTORY LINKS

I did all my research from books, however there are literally thousands of sites on all things Celtic. Here are just a few suggestions. I will be adding more soon.

This Wikipedia article on the Celts is pretty accurate, and summarises a complicated topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

This site is written by Simon James, an archaeologist. It is a good explanation of the problem with the term “Celts”:
http://www.le.ac.uk/ar/stj/intro.htm

Links from Simon James’ site (above), with some good reading suggestions:
http://www.le.ac.uk/ar/stj/furthread.htm

World of the Ancient Britons - A long-established site with lots of information about lifestyles, religion and history of the Celts:http://www.gallica.co.uk/celts/contents.htm

This page on the above site shows the inside of a roundhouse, and what it would have contained: http://www.gallica.co.uk/celts/house-pan.htm

The BBC History site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/

A good site for Celtic historical information:
http://celts.etrusia.co.uk/

CELT – The Corpus of Electronic Texts, “brings the wealth of Irish literary and historical culture to the Internet, for the benefit of everyone worldwide. It has a searchable textbase drawn from 1035 contemporary and historical documents from many areas, including literature and the other arts.”:
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/

The British Library has searchable journal articles that you can then buy online:
http://www.bl.uk/

BBC Wales – this is for kids, but I could not resist. Good basic information – and online cartoons!:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts/

Brigantia, the famous Celtic re-enactment society; good information on Celtic dress, weapons, etc:
http://ironage-history.com/brigantia/celts.htm

Pictish Nation is the first and best site on the web about the Picts, with lots of links:
http://members.tripod.com/~Halfmoon/

Ronald Henderson is a fabulous carver, who recreates Pictish symbols and designs in stone, as well as original Celtic designs:
http://www.thesonsofscotland.co.uk/ronhendersonsculptor.htm

Myth, paganism, standing stones, circles, megalithic sites:
http://www.mythicalireland.com/

A shout out to my friend Carter in Laramie, Wyoming, who found this site that has a ton of links to other sites about Stonehenge. I haven't looked into them all, but it's a gateway to a LOAD of info to get you started. Thanks, Carter!:http://www.waytofly.com/business-class/specials/europe/united-kingdom/stonehenge/

MUSEUMS:

The British Museum has some wonderful photos of their Celtic collections:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights.aspx

The Kilmartin House Museum – the small but perfectly formed museum near the sites in my Dalriada Trilogy. Great cafe too!:
http://www.kilmartin.org

HISTORY PARKS with reconstructed Celtic houses - These websites also have a lot of other information about Celtic history and lifestyles:

Butser Ancient Farm - a famous site where they built roundhouses and conducted research projects by growing ancient types of crops and raising the animals that would have been on Celtic farms. Good general information, too: http://www.butser.org.uk/index_sub.html

Castell Henllys

A history park in Wales, on the site on an Iron Age hillfort, where they have built reconstructed roundhouses:
http://www.castellhenllys.com/

Flag Fen - this archaeology park's site has some great general information about Celtic lifestyles
Flag Fen Archaeology Park

Archaeolink, a fantastic archaeology park in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
http://www.archaeolink.co.uk/

The Scottish Crannog Centre - on Loch Tay in Perthshire, Scotland. Has a reconstructed crannog, a fort built over the water:
http://www.crannog.co.uk/

CELTIC MYTHS

Mary Jones has a wonderful site with all the great Celtic myths, particularly the original versions written down in medieval times:
http://www.maryjones.us/

Sacred Texts is a fantastic site that has the texts of many books on myths, legends and sagas. Every Celtic tale you can think of is here. I have given the link straight to the Celtic pages, if the link is broken search for "Sacred Texts":
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/index.htm

Another good summary of many Celtic myths:
http://www.lugodoc.demon.co.uk/MYTH/MYTH01.HTM

The Timeless Myths site:
http://www.timelessmyths.com/

ROMAN SITES

Good site on the Roman army:
http://www.romanarmy.net/

Roman and ancient foods and food preparation:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/8337/index.html

Great site about the places and sites of Roman Britain, including clickable maps:
http://www.roman-britain.org/

HISTORICAL FICTION SITES FOR READERS AND WRITERS

The best historical fiction forum on the web, inhabited by readers AND writers,
with advice on HF books to read, historical info and debates, and writing advice:

www.historicalfictiononline.com

Blogs / sites for lovers of historical fiction:

Author Michelle Moran's blog gathers together recent archaeology and history news:
http://michellemoran.blogspot.com/

Wonderful blog on all eras by a passionate group of HF readers:
http://historicaltapestry.blogspot.com/

Other great, informative blogs on all things HF, including news and reviews:

http://readingadventures.blogspot.com/

http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/

http://www.passagestothepast.blogspot.com/

Bringing 16th century France to life through historical fiction:
Writing the Renaissance

Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff:
http://www.shelfandstuff.blogspot.com/

Historical Novels Info: over 5000 historical novels listed by time and place:
http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/

AUTHOR SITES

The lovely Michelle Moran has many great links to writing sites:
http://michellemoran.com/

Diana Gabaldon, one of my favourite writers:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html

Sharon Kay Penman, a wonderful author and person, who writes medieval novels:
http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/

Elizabeth Chadwick, who also writes fabulous medieval novels:
http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/index.html

Juliet Marillier, who writes mostly Celtic historical fiction / fantasy books:
http://www.julietmarillier.com/

Carla Nayland writes historical fiction set in Britain from 5th to 11th centuries AD, and fiction set in an invented world loosely based on medieval and Renaissance Britain.
http://www.carlanayland.org/

C.W Gortner's books about 16th century Spain and Tudor England:
http://www.cwgortner.com/

WRITING LINKS

This list is currently growing.

WRITING ADVICE

Great one-stop writing site Absolute Write:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/

Literary agent Nathan Brandsford, who has good information on querying agents:
http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

Plotting tips: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/

SITES FOR WRITERS AND READERS

Many more coming!

www.writerunboxed.com

http://www.beatrice.com/wordpress/

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php

Societies

RWA – Romance Writers of America
http://www.rwanational.org/

Historical Novel Society – publishes the Historical Novels Review:

http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/

Rights queries: Russell Galen
at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency

Publicity queries: Kathleen Rudkin
at Bantam Dell