This Writer's Diary
Wednesday of this week, in a December already too cold and too snowy, it snowed all day. Heavy, wet snow, the temperature sitting just about at the freezing point. The highlight of the day was the dawn sighting of a fox, hunting for mice or voles under our bird feeder and around our neighbours’ shrubs. Thursday morning, preparing to go out to fill the heated water bowl on our deck that serves birds and squirrels, I saw, in the light covering of snow over the shovelled path, fox tracks. In the deeper snow were the imprints of four paws and a snout where it had leapt at some small rodent. Whether successfully or not, I don’t know.
The snow is ridiculous for the second week of December in this part of the world. The plough piles are already taller than me.
In the book world, two friends convinced me to try the holiday markets put on by various community organizations on weekends in November and December. We set up at four, with books from the three of us plus a couple of other authors. One of my friends is a born salesperson, and almost certainly due to her skills we did sell quite a few books. I am completely hopeless at schmoozing, whether in person or on line!
Another thing I’m not great at is anything to do with military actions. In Empire’s Exile, the final battle is based on The Battle of Maldon; a historic battle retelling in Empire’s Hostage is just the Battle of Stamford Bridge, modified; and I can’t remember now which battle I used in Empress & Soldier for the character Druisius’s first experience as a soldier. I rewrite scenes of violence more than any other scenes in the books. So when it became necessary to plan a coup attempt, I do what I always do when there’s no appropriate historic event to base it on, and asked my husband. After dinner one day this week, we plotted out how it will work, and why it will fail. I’ll still have to rewrite it half a dozen times, but at least I have the framework.
I was going to write more about the research into Islamic medicine I’m doing, but based on a couple of reactions, I won’t go into too much detail. Specifically, I am reading about the machaab, the first non-surgical method of removing bladder stones developed by the physician Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-’Abbās al-Zahrāwī al-Ansari (usually called al-Zahrawi) at Córdoba1 at the turn of the 10th century.
The ‘Machaab’ is a device with a crushing end,a long body and a holder.The crushing end is tapered with a jaggered mouth to crush the hard stones. The body was made long and slender so that it can be easily inserted into the urethra. The holder consists of two circular rings as the operator can hold it like a forcep.2
While I pity the character who will have to undergo this treatment, what I am learning about the science of the Islamic world in the middle ages is eye-opening. I knew a little of it. I’m learning more every day. To that end, this is what I’m reading right now, a dual biography of the central Asian polymaths Biruni and Ibn Sina, both of whom lived and worked at Gurganj, the great 10th century intellectual centre in what is now Uzbekistan.
‘Both thinkers achieved stunning breakthroughs in various fields, such as medicine, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, geography, and physics. Moreover, Biruni and Ibn Sina referenced the works of ancient Greeks and earlier Muslim thinkers to improve their respective canons. While Biruni produced precise measurements of the world, Ibn Sina’s grand thesis of medical knowledge became the standard in Europe, the Middle East, and India for the next six centuries.’3
A couple of very different book recommendations: both are books by friends of mine, for full disclosure, and both are newly out.
First, a detective-agency procedural, set in 10th century Baghdad. It’s not necessary to have read the previous series, The Sufi Mysteries, which introduces Ammar, the detective. I will say he was my favourite character in the previous books, though!
Or perhaps you’re in the mood for a Christmas novella set during WWII?
Part of Karen’s excellent Ava and Clare series, set in Pennsylvania in the middle of last century, and definitely heart-warming without being sappy.
Another free book promotion to Feb 2, 2026. It includes a prequel story that introduces my fictional world.
This week’s music had to mention physicians…so, here’s Jackson Browne and ‘Doctor My Eyes’.
The basis for the university town of Tajeto in An Unwise Prince, although it is set, were it our world and not a fictional one, somewhat later than Al-Zahrawi’s time.
Mahboob Ali, Mohamed. (2023). AL-ZAHWARI’S MICHAAB-The Genesis of Modern Lithotripter. American College of Surgeons Conference paper.
Starr, S. Frederick, The Genius of their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the Lost Enlightenment (New York, 2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Sept. 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197675557.001.0001, accessed 11 Dec. 2025.