C.P. Lesley's guest appearances

C.P. Lesley

New Books in Literature

New Books Network

New Books in Arts & Letters

New Books in Historical Fiction

Octavia Randolph

Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Vladimir Sharov

Tsarina Maria Feodorovna

C. W. Gortner

Beatriz Williams

P. K. Adams

Laury Silvers

Rhys Bowen

Rebecca D’Harlingue

Pam Jenoff

Gwen C. Katz

Dorothy Hale

Terry Gamble

Karla FC Holloway

OwlTail

Since being sold into slavery as a child and working her way up to becoming concubine and mistress for several different men, Lady Juliana's survival has depended on her allure. Then her place in the world is shattered by a debilitating illness and she is spurned by the entire Polish royal court. Enter Felix Ossolinski—scholar, diplomat, Renaissance man. A riding accident in his teens forced him to redirect his energies from war to the life of the mind, and alone among the men of the sixteenth-century Polish court, he sees in Juliana a kindred spirit, a woman who has never appreciated her own value and whose inner beauty outweighs any marring of her face. Then the Polish queen offers Juliana a way out of her difficulties: travel to Moscow with Felix and spy for the royal family in return for a promise of financial independence. Facing poverty and degradation, Juliana cannot refuse, although the mission threatens not only her freedom but her life. Felix swears he will protect her. But no one can protect Juliana from the demons of her past. Join me for a discussion with C. P. Lesley about her new novel Song of the Siren (Five Directions Press 2019).Carolyn Pouncy (who holds a PhD in Russian history from Stanford University) writes under the pen name C. P. Lesley (who doesn’t exist and has no degrees). Carolyn (aka C.P.) is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, The Golden Lynx, The Winged Horse, The Swan Princess , The Vermilion Bird, and The Shattered Drum. Song of the Siren is the first in her newest series, Songs of Steppe &amp; Forest, based on 16th-century Russian history. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. That love of ballet finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles. A historian by profession, she also hosts New Books in Historical Fiction for the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction

Since being sold into slavery as a child and working her way up to becoming concubine and mistress for several different men, Lady Juliana's survival has depended on her allure. Then her place in the world is shattered by a debilitating illness and she is spurned by the entire Polish royal court. Enter Felix Ossolinski—scholar, diplomat, Renaissance man. A riding accident in his teens forced him to redirect his energies from war to the life of the mind, and alone among the men of the sixteenth-century Polish court, he sees in Juliana a kindred spirit, a woman who has never appreciated her own value and whose inner beauty outweighs any marring of her face. Then the Polish queen offers Juliana a way out of her difficulties: travel to Moscow with Felix and spy for the royal family in return for a promise of financial independence. Facing poverty and degradation, Juliana cannot refuse, although the mission threatens not only her freedom but her life. Felix swears he will protect her. But no one can protect Juliana from the demons of her past. Join me for a discussion with <a href="https://www.cplesley.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">C. P. Lesley</a> about her new novel <a href="https://aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com/x/c/QhRv0dl9SKJBiCXB-42OJSgAAAFphh464AEAAAFKAQj376Q/https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947044184/?creativeASIN=1947044184&amp;linkCode=w61&amp;imprToken=FqMqhjHfzkYZbt2yVzgoGw&amp;slotNum=0&amp;tag=newbooinhis-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Song of the Siren</a> (Five Directions Press 2019).Carolyn Pouncy (who holds a PhD in Russian history from Stanford University) writes under the pen name C. P. Lesley (who doesn’t exist and has no degrees). Carolyn (aka C.P.) is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, The Golden Lynx, The Winged Horse, The Swan Princess , The Vermilion Bird, and The Shattered Drum. Song of the Siren is the first in her newest series, Songs of Steppe &amp; Forest, based on 16th-century Russian history. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. That love of ballet finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles. A historian by profession, she also hosts <a href="http://newbooksnetwork.com/category/arts-letters/historical-fiction/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New Books in Historical Fiction</a> for the <a href="http://newbooksnetwork.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New Books Network</a>. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction</a>

C.P. Lesley, "Song of the Siren" (Five Directions Press, 2019)

Since being sold into slavery as a child and working her way up to becoming concubine and mistress for several different men, Lady Juliana's survival has depended on her allure. Then her place in the world is shattered by a debilitating illness and she is spurned by the entire Polish royal court. Enter Felix Ossolinski—scholar, diplomat, Renaissance man. A riding accident in his teens forced him to redirect his energies from war to the life of the mind, and alone among the men of the sixteenth-century Polish court, he sees in Juliana a kindred spirit, a woman who has never appreciated her own value and whose inner beauty outweighs any marring of her face. Then the Polish queen offers Juliana a way out of her difficulties: travel to Moscow with Felix and spy for the royal family in return for a promise of financial independence. Facing poverty and degradation, Juliana cannot refuse, although the mission threatens not only her freedom but her life. Felix swears he will protect her. But no one can protect Juliana from the demons of her past. Join me for a discussion with C. P. Lesley about her new novel Song of the Siren (Five Directions Press 2019).Carolyn Pouncy (who holds a PhD in Russian history from Stanford University) writes under the pen name C. P. Lesley (who doesn’t exist and has no degrees). Carolyn (aka C.P.) is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, The Golden Lynx, The Winged Horse, The Swan Princess , The Vermilion Bird, and The Shattered Drum. Song of the Siren is the first in her newest series, Songs of Steppe &amp; Forest, based on 16th-century Russian history. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. That love of ballet finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles. A historian by profession, she also hosts New Books in Historical Fiction for the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Since being sold into slavery as a child and working her way up to becoming concubine and mistress for several different men, Lady Juliana's survival has depended on her allure. Then her place in the world is shattered by a debilitating illness and she is spurned by the entire Polish royal court. Enter Felix Ossolinski—scholar, diplomat, Renaissance man. A riding accident in his teens forced him to redirect his energies from war to the life of the mind, and alone among the men of the sixteenth-century Polish court, he sees in Juliana a kindred spirit, a woman who has never appreciated her own value and whose inner beauty outweighs any marring of her face. Then the Polish queen offers Juliana a way out of her difficulties: travel to Moscow with Felix and spy for the royal family in return for a promise of financial independence. Facing poverty and degradation, Juliana cannot refuse, although the mission threatens not only her freedom but her life. Felix swears he will protect her. But no one can protect Juliana from the demons of her past. Join me for a discussion with <a href="https://www.cplesley.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">C. P. Lesley</a> about her new novel <a href="https://aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com/x/c/QhRv0dl9SKJBiCXB-42OJSgAAAFphh464AEAAAFKAQj376Q/https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947044184/?creativeASIN=1947044184&amp;linkCode=w61&amp;imprToken=FqMqhjHfzkYZbt2yVzgoGw&amp;slotNum=0&amp;tag=newbooinhis-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Song of the Siren</a> (Five Directions Press 2019).Carolyn Pouncy (who holds a PhD in Russian history from Stanford University) writes under the pen name C. P. Lesley (who doesn’t exist and has no degrees). Carolyn (aka C.P.) is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, The Golden Lynx, The Winged Horse, The Swan Princess , The Vermilion Bird, and The Shattered Drum. Song of the Siren is the first in her newest series, Songs of Steppe &amp; Forest, based on 16th-century Russian history. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. That love of ballet finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles. A historian by profession, she also hosts <a href="http://newbooksnetwork.com/category/arts-letters/historical-fiction/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New Books in Historical Fiction</a> for the <a href="http://newbooksnetwork.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New Books Network</a>. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature</a>

For more than three centuries after the Mongol conquest of 1240, the rulers of the Golden Horde played a major role in Eurasian politics, both directly and indirectly. One of the states most affected was Russia, where the ruling house of Moscow played the post-conquest political game so successfully that it made itself the center of the resurgent Russian tsardom. In her Legends of the Five Directions series, C. P. Lesley explores the dramatic potential of that distant and often conflict-ridden world. The Swan Princess (Five Directions Press, 2016)–third in the Legends series–returns to the story of Nasan, heroine of book 1, The Golden Lynx. Despite her high standing as a Tatar khan’s daughter and two years of marriage to a husband she has learned to love, Nasan has yet to bear a child. As a result, her status within her in-laws’ household is compromised. Her husband has been sent faraway; her snippy sister-in-law seldom misses a chance to score a point; and her mother-in-law, the mainstay of the household, has fallen seriously ill but is nonetheless determined to undertake a pilgrimage to a northern monastery. Nasan has reached her wit’s end when her older brother offers her an out: ride ahead and prepare the family estate for visitors while secretly investigating a renegade member of their family.Nasan jumps at the chance to strike out on her own. What she does not know is that her most bitter enemy has escaped from his Arctic prison, and he wants nothing more than to avenge himself on his relatives, starting with Nasan. C. P. Lesley is the host of New Books in Historical Fiction. Joan Schweighardt, author of The Last Wife of Attila the Hun and five other novels, conducted this interview. Find out more about her at www.joanschweighardt.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction

For more than three centuries after the Mongol conquest of 1240, the rulers of the Golden Horde played a major role in Eurasian politics, both directly and indirectly. One of the states most affected was Russia, where the ruling house of Moscow played the post-conquest political game so successfully that it made itself the center of the resurgent Russian tsardom. In her <a href="http://www.fivedirectionspress.com/historical" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Legends of the Five Directions</a> series, <a href="http://www.cplesley.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">C. P. Lesley</a> explores the dramatic potential of that distant and often conflict-ridden world. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692645608/?tag=newbooinhis-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Swan Princess</a> (Five Directions Press, 2016)–third in the Legends series–returns to the story of Nasan, heroine of book 1, The Golden Lynx. Despite her high standing as a Tatar khan’s daughter and two years of marriage to a husband she has learned to love, Nasan has yet to bear a child. As a result, her status within her in-laws’ household is compromised. Her husband has been sent faraway; her snippy sister-in-law seldom misses a chance to score a point; and her mother-in-law, the mainstay of the household, has fallen seriously ill but is nonetheless determined to undertake a pilgrimage to a northern monastery. Nasan has reached her wit’s end when her older brother offers her an out: ride ahead and prepare the family estate for visitors while secretly investigating a renegade member of their family. Nasan jumps at the chance to strike out on her own. What she does not know is that her most bitter enemy has escaped from his Arctic prison, and he wants nothing more than to avenge himself on his relatives, starting with Nasan. C. P. Lesley is the host of New Books in Historical Fiction. Joan Schweighardt, author of The Last Wife of Attila the Hun and five other novels, conducted this interview. Find out more about her at <a href="http://www.joanschweighardt.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.joanschweighardt.com</a>. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction</a>

C.P. Lesley, “The Swan Princess” (Five Directions Press, 2016)