Before I launch in to this month’s newsletter and history bit, a small plea: if you loved The Traitor of Sherwood Forest, I could really use a review on Amazon. (If Amazon is not a place you want to go, then Goodreads, your preferred bookstore, or even your local library would be helpful!) But unfortunately, Amazon is the most influential - the more reviews you have on there, they more they tell people about your book. Debuts, like democracy, die in darkness.

Yes, that joke has so many very unpleasant layers. Moving on!

No Rooms at the Inn

I’m back on tour for most of autumn, including stops in Halifax, Boston, and Providence! I’m also taking a much-needed local vacation in October. This means staying in a lot of hotel rooms, which is actually one of my favourite things in the world. I love a climate-controlled, minimalist space where everything you need is right there, there are no household demands, and nobody one knows who you are. It’s all very un-medievalist of me because hotels with private rooms (like the “medieval” inns that play a huge role in so many fantasy novels) are a relatively modern invention.

Medieval inns existed, but you couldn’t find them in any given village, waiting for intrepid adventurers to roll through on their way to greatness. Inns were mostly in densely-populated towns and cities, or on well-travelled routes for merchants and pilgrims. If you stopped in a random village, you’ll be relegated to sleeping in someone’s occupied bedroom—or even in someone else’s bed!

Sleeping alone was a luxury that few medieval people had. (Maybe this explains why there are so many hermits in Arthurian legend.) Even guests of nobles and royals might share a chamber—or a bed—when they were visiting friends and family. Much like modern romantasies, medieval literary plots sometimes even hinged on this shared sleeping space, such as when Guinevere overhears her lover Lancelot in bed with another woman and all courtly hell breaks loose.

If you wanted food before you hit the overcrowded sack, you would eat with the household, and you might even need to bring your own raw materials to throw in the pot. If you were very lucky, you might lodge with a woman who brewed beer and sold it to her neighbours, which is what passed for a medieval “tavern” in many villages. Ale spoiled quickly, so a villager who had just brewed a batch would put out an “ale-stake” to open up sales to the neighbourhood. But you can give up your fantasies of the flirty local bar wench serving that ale. If you were wealthy enough to afford an inn that offered table service, you’d be served by servants, or even slaves.

Finally, if you’re expecting to wake up to the smell of bread or pie baking in that cozy medieval home, you should know that’s pretty unlikely unless you’re sleeping near the village oven. Few medieval peasants had personal ovens. Instead, there was a communal oven, where everyone had to pay a fee and wait their turn.

Book Spotlight

This month I’m thrilled to tell you about two authors whose debut novels just came out last week! Meet Robin Allison Davis’s Surviving Paris and T. A. Chan’s One Last Game! Yes, these are very different books, but if you’ve known me for a while, then you know I’m super into both dystopias and Paris.

News and Events

I had a really fun time over the weekend in Vancouver, where I got to spend two days talking to book lovers and other writers!

And now, I’m ready to head east! Here’s where to find me in October and November:

• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1: Book talk and signing at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 5:00pm. Visit the Authors@Acadia event page for more information.

• WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5: “Robin Hood Reimagined: An Evening with Dr. Amy S. Kaufman.” Northeastern University in Boston, MA. 5:00pm.

  • PS: I’ll be dropping in to sign books at Trident Booksellers while I’m in Boston!

• SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9 (tentative): I’m in the midst of setting up a reading at the very cool Riffraff bookstore in Providence, RI. I’m still waiting on the details for this one, so I’ll let you know when it’s confirmed!
  

As you can see, October and November will be on the busy side, so we might skip a month over here at newsletter central. But if I have any updates in the meantime, I’ll keep you posted on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook!

—Amy