Well, it is the last Wordly Women of 2025 and I cannot believe how well this series of interviews has been received. I do hope it has given you an insight into the writing life – the good and the bad. And maybe you have discovered a new author, or been re-acquainted with one you haven’t read in a while? For my part, it has been wonderful, learning a little bit more about my friends’ writing journeys. Isn’t it funny that no 2 people have the same experience as writers? But we all love the warmth and encouragement of the writing community – and the love and enthusiasm of our readers.

I will continue the series into 2026, hoping it will at least survive until its 1st birthday in March. And I already have the next 2 interviews ready to go. But for now, I would like to introduce you to Anne M. Beggs. Anne is one of those authors who uses her own platform to promote and encourage her fellow authors. I am so grateful to her for sharing every single one of my Wordly Women interviews so far – and I am sure she will share this one!

Sharon: Hello Anne! What got you into writing:

Anne: Well, that is a long story, but isn’t that what historical fiction and family sagas are? My story telling began with horses. I was born with the horse gene. Unable to have a horse I lived my equine dreams in artwork, drawing and painting my beloved “worsey/wishies” for horsey (my first spoken word, btw). I was an undiagnosed dyslexic as a child. Writing and reading were and ARE not easy, so my story telling was through visual art. Back then all my stories were Barn Romances: Girl meets horse. You get the idea.

My Medieval fetish is nearly as deep as my love of horses. My aunt took me to the cinema to see Disney’s Sleeping Beauty as a five-year-old and those images – the castle, the medieval setting, and a gray horse filled my dreams and nightmares for years. In high school I started a bit of research into the Crusades (horses, remember), and the exploring the soul-gripping architecture of castles and cathedrals.

A trip to Medieval Times in Anaheim, California, when our kids were little, triggered my medieval fetish and love of horses. The voices came alive. My fictional characters would not be still. The What Ifs, How Abouts, and a medieval barn romance morphed into a full-born passion…and it was no longer just Girl Meets Horse; a feisty, spiritual, heiress was seeking a voice in my mind and in her patriarchal time. Yes, initially it was all about getting “boinked” in a castle or cathedral. As I learned how to write a book, the stories developed into a spiritual quest for understanding, battles to save a family, create a dynasty, and an enduring love story or stories.

Sharon: You write fiction and non-fiction, and is one harder than the other?

Anne: It all depends. My first publications were articles on mounted archery and my journey from author to mounted archer. I didn’t have an editor, so those were WAY easy.

My fiction writing includes my Dahlquin series, a family saga set in 13th century Ireland, with more details in subsequent questions. To date I also have four short stories in four Paper Lantern Writers Anthologies: The Dragon Lord, A Winter Solstice Tale, in Unlocked, based on my Dahlquin characters; Dear Santa, in Beneath a Mid-Winter Moon, set in 1969, with Dahlquin descendants; Beg, Borrow, Tomorrow, in Destiny Comes Due, a “shopaholic” in a medieval convent; and The Storm in Echoes of Small Things, a story of Richard the Lion Heart’s final days.

In Archer’s Grace, Book One and By Arrow and Sword, Book Two, my editors told me repeatedly: “Less riding, more story. You are writing a novel, not a “how to” in horsemanship.”

When I was invited to write a chapter, Bringing Horses to Life in Historical Fiction, in the Paper Lantern Writers non-fiction book, Crafting Stories from the Past; A How-To Guide for Writing Historical Fiction, I thought GREAT, here is my chance to talk horses. Turns out, it was one of the hardest things I have ever written. It was vital to distil the important aspects of horses and not get carried away. Fortunately, my editors were non-horse people and found most parts necessary. Working on this entire project was a great education, and I still refer to the book myself, with fresh eyes. We are also doing live, hands-on-workshops teaching the Craft of Writing Stories From the Past to aspiring authors. I enjoy helping and learning more as we go.

Back to your question, which is harder – each is different. All deserve the best I can offer. They are full-on challenges that I accept, and I muddle through, learning, growing, finding enlightenment, and often not concluding with what I thought I was going to write about.

Sharon: Tell Us About Your books

Anne: Archer’s Grace, Book One, launches the Dahlquin series: Eloise, a 13th century only child grows up coming to terms with and battling her patriarchal Irish society. Intelligent, curious, bold, and romantic, she also has a secret that might get her condemned as a heretic.

Ireland is a volatile island poised for civil war, with another English invasion threating. A treasonous siege catapults her from her ancestral home. She and a stranger embark on a perilous journey across Ireland, running for their lives to save Dahlquin and mayhap Ireland itself.

By Arrow and Sword, Book Two, returns to Dahlquin for this family saga. A war-torn country lies between Eloise and Roland as they try to make their way back to each other, navigating a political landscape fraught with intrigue and betrayal. One threat is vanquished, but others loom in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to seek revenge.

For readers, Book Two, is written to stand alone.

Sharon: What attracts you to the 13th Century?

Anne: I like to say I researched the Middle Ages into and beyond Middle Age.

My characters, the voices, came to me. They are all fictional, with some true historic people, “Celebrity Cameos”, as Ana Brazil says. All are living in a medieval world. I just started taking dictation from them and researching the Middle Ages. This was before internet as we know it. Before social media and a world full of ‘arm-chair historians’ (some were quite cruel, but I am also sensitive). I depended on books. I delighted when the old-fashioned Barnes and Nobel catalogue arrived in my mailbox, with an abundance of history books. What a happy dance I did when I received Dress Accessories from 1150-1450, and Shoes and Patterns. My family thought I was nuts. Real bookstores also provided resources; thus started my personal research library, getting lost in an era I love.

Using the limited books I had, I found a fifty-year gap in history, as if records were lost between Henry and Eleanor, then resuming fifty years later. Of course, this is not true, but thirty years ago, I was stumped. What a great space to write my own fictional characters and their adventures. Thirteenth century it was and I really didn’t like those henins, either. Eloise could not be galloping across the countryside wearing one of those.

Sharon: Who is your favourite Medieval person?

Anne: Eleanor of Aquitaine, is one of my protagonist, Eloise’s, favourites. Twenty years after the queen’s death, her legend looms large in Eloise’s mind. I just finished listening to The Summer Queen, by Elizabeth Chadwick, and I am even more in love with the smart, feisty monarch myself.

Sharon: Who is your least favourite Medieval person?

Anne: It is not my style to pick a least favourite, so I let others share theirs.

Sharon: I’m the same. I love the History and even the bad guys bring something to the table

Sharon: How do you approach your research?

Anne: This year was special. Finally, after many years, I got to ride in Connacht, Ireland, where my fictional characters are. My husband sent me on a trip of a lifetime. Starting alone in Dublin, I toured for two days. Then a bus to Galway, and on to Connemara Equestrian Escapes for riding, history, and cultural immersion. Next two nights at Ashford Castle. That was as pilgrimage, for sure, as I have a fictional family named Ashbury. Research revealed there is an Ashford Castle exactly where my fictional family are – hmmm, I guess I got my character’s name wrong by a syllable. Connacht looked just as I expected. The trip was validating and magical.

As I mentioned earlier – and before my trip – it all started with history books, my own or the library’s. It never occurred to me to travel to a research library. I had kids at home, responsibilities to our businesses, being a domestic goddess, and community volunteer. Writing was a back burner passion for me, by my choice.

Enter the internet, chat rooms (which didn’t click with me then), and social media. I have access to research, so much research. Sometimes, too much. There is more opportunity for conflicting experts, scholars revealing new discoveries and insights. And that fifty-year gap in my sources…all filled in…oh gosh…oh well. I rejoice and lament. I concentrate on 13th century, because my own time is limited. Still, it is easy to get lured into anything medieval. The fetish runs hard and deep.

My hot tip for beginners; keep a list of the sources you use. You will be called on it later. I didn’t do that originally. I picked the expert whose claims fit my story and kept writing. It was a novel, not a college paper with footnotes. Big mistake on my part.

Research is also how I discovered Dahlquin’s location. I had written over 700 pages not knowing where my characters lived. Before he had horses and a boarding ranch, we travelled to Europe several times indulging my quest for anything medieval and other family holiday delights. Every where we went, hoping for a home for Dahlquin, it was a big nope. I considered going for pure fantasy fiction, making up a country and plopping it in Europe, but it didn’t feel right. I stumbled upon a used book on Medieval Ireland, and BINGO, my characters had been trying to tell me they were Irish…well, Welsh/Anglo/Irish/Celtic/English, it IS complicated.

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ medieval story you have come across in your research.

Anne: I enjoyed the 9th poem, Pangur Bán. As a cat and animal lover, I delight in the archaeological records of cats leaving their paw prints in history from ancient times to now. Besides horses and dogs, I have cats in my books, a song of a cat dropping a mouse in the wine. while writing my short story, Beg, Borrow, Tomorrow, it was fitting a cat play a role.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Anne: I am writing The High Love, Book Three, in the Dahlquin series. Much of my 25ish year-old version is on the cutting room floor, and I’m excited to rewrite it with more political intrigue as Eloise and Roland explore and define for themselves what is the highest love: Church, God, King, liege, family, each other? Eloise’s spiritual quest continues as she seeks balance and understanding – God and Goddess, love and loyalty, The Highest Love. I am seeing a better way to tackle Book Four, Ordained Folly, mayhap, mayhap not: The magic in writing. I don’t always know where the story must go until I write it, and write, and rewrite it. There is nothing fast in my process.

I anticipate another short story for the Paper Lantern Writers’ fifth anthology, for 2026, title and theme still a mystery. I love being part of these challenging books and working with our talented writers.

Sharon: What is the best thing about being a writer?

Anne: I love word dancing, making my character’s stories blaze to life, in full colour, texture, taste…cantering across the pages for others to read. It is fantabulous riding into the Middle Ages, safely (such a hazardous time, with no antibiotics, etc.), sharing my joy of lost voices, horses, and history. If I am fortunate, mayhap my writing will inspire someone to pick up a bow and arrow, take riding lessons, and best of all to Be Their Own Hero, Don’t Wait to Be Saved.

About the Author:

Anne M. Beggs, the writing, riding grandma, is an award-winning author of historical fiction and has published articles on mounted archery and horsemanship. Her debut novel, Archer’s Grace, Book One, in her Dahlquin series starts this family saga when a young noblewoman is catapulted from her ancestral home and set on a quest to save her family in Medieval Ireland. By and Arrow and Sword, Book Two is published, and The Highest Love, Book Three is underway. Four short stories appear in Paper Lantern Writer’s anthologies. Also with Paper Lantern Writers, she is a contributor to Crafting Stories from the Past: A How-To Guide for Writing Historical Fiction. She and other “Lanterns” give hands-on workshops on writing historical fiction.

Anne likes to say she researched the Middle Ages into middle age and beyond. Still married to her high school sweetheart, they live on and manage a horse boarding ranch, Equisance, in Watsonville, California. Anne is a member of the Historical Novel Society, and for more about her writing, horses, mounted archery and grandkids, she invites you to join up with her Facebook pages, Anne M. Beggs, https://www.facebook.com/anne.beggs.3/ ; or Anne M. Beggs, author, https://www.facebook.com/AnneMBeggsAuthor/ ; or her website, https://annembeggs.com/, IG @annibella72 ; Substack, https://substack.com/@annibella1

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My Books

Signed, dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop. or by contacting me.

Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody. Being England’s northern neighbour has never been easy. Scotland’s queens have had to deal with war, murder, imprisonment, political rivalries and open betrayal. They have loved and lost, raised kings and queens, ruled and died for Scotland. From St Margaret, who became one of the patron saints of Scotland, to Elizabeth de Burgh and the dramatic story of the Scottish Wars of Independence, to the love story and tragedy of Joan Beaufort, to Margaret of Denmark and the dawn of the Renaissance, Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes.

‘Scotland’s Medieval Queens gives a thorough grounding in the history of the women who ruled Scotland at the side of its kings, often in the shadows, but just as interesting in their lives beyond the spotlight. It’s not a subject that has been widely covered, and Sharon is a pioneer in bringing that information into accessible history.’ Elizabeth Chadwick (New York Times bestselling author)

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

Coming 30 March 2026: Princesses of the Early Middle Ages

Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them.

Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.

Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest is now available for pre-order.

Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Tudor World tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603. These are the women who ruled, the women who founded dynasties, the women who fought for religious freedom, their families and love. Heroines of the Tudor World is now available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. Women of the Anarchy demonstrates how Empress Matilda and Matilda of Boulogne, unable to wield a sword themselves, were prime movers in this time of conflict and lawlessness. It shows how their strengths, weaknesses, and personal ambitions swung the fortunes of war one way – and then the other. Available from Bookshop.org, Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK. King John’s Right-Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye is the story of a truly remarkable lady, the hereditary constable of Lincoln Castle and the first woman in England to be appointed sheriff in her own right. Available from all good bookshops Pen & Sword Books, bookshop.org and Amazon. 

Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org. Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon,  Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

Podcast:

Have a listen to the A Slice of Medieval podcast, which I co-host with Historical fiction novelist Derek Birks. Derek and I welcome guests, such as Ian Mortimer, Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and Scott Mariani, and discuss a wide range of topics in medieval history, from significant events to the personalities involved. 

Do have a listen to our 2025 Christmas episode in which Derek and I look bag at some of our favourite discussions with guests.

Every episode is also now available on YouTube.

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Don’t forget! Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available through my online bookshop.

For forthcoming online and in-person talks, please check out my Events Page.

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram.

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©2025 Sharon Bennett Connolly FRHistS and Anne M. Beggs