Welcome to our latest guest blogger, Cecelia Holland!

Last April I climbed a steep hill in Normandy and stood in the ruins of Castle Gailliard. The great keep, made of white stone studded with nodules of black, dominates the river valley below, virtually unapproachable except by a narrow neck of land a child with a slingshot could defend. It was a terrific example of Medieval military engineering at its best.

For me it had a special attraction, because Richard the Lion-Hearted built this castle.

“My beautiful three-year-old daughter,” he called Gaillard, which took only that long to build.(Climbing up, I had occasionally been on my hands and knees; I could hardly imagine hauling the stones up to this site.) And although the Lionheart never lived here, the castle kept his mortal enemy Philip Augustus out of Normandy.

Richard was a great general, a master of terrain, the hero of his age. He was also, I believe, while accepting the controversy, what we now call homosexual, or gay. In any case he left no heir to his throne. Therefore his ditzy brother John succeeded him, and John promptly lost Normandy to Philip Augustus, who took Gailliard after a long siege. So the King’s beautiful daughter wound up in the hands of his worst enemy after all. 

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My name is Debbie and I love to read just about anything. My favorite books, however, are generally paranormal romances. I am a social worker with the school system in Florida so I get a lot of time off in the summer to read (except when I'm sitting in the dark with no ac thanks to a hurricane)! I'm happily married and have 2 doggie children. I also enjoying working out, "American Idol", and cheering on the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team.

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