It's a bumper one this week! Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill spent the weekend of 21–23 August at the Historical Novel Society's 2026 conference in Maynooth, Ireland, and grabbed dozens of short, on-the-spot interviews with historical novelists between sessions, in corridors, and over conference dinners.

Across the episode you'll hear from Frances Donovan, Carolyn Morgan, Vaseem Khan, Kevin Connolly, Griff Hosker, Laura Morelli, Martin Lake, Aidan Morrissey, Lawrence O'Bryan, Anna Belfrage, Susan Nolen, Katherine Mezzacappa, Liz Harris, Naveen Sridhar, Krishor Sridhar, Alison Morton, Maybelle Wallis and Margaret Skea — covering everything from a copper-boom sea voyage around Cape Horn to alternate-history Rome, a Sumerian priestess-poet, and a keynote on James Bond and the end of the Raj.

Plus: Tolkien's Irish footsteps, the story behind Matthew and Justin's after-dinner speech, and why AI shouldn't get to write your stories.

🔗 Links: https://linktr.ee/rockpaperswords🔗 Patreon (bonus episodes, including the after-dinner speech): https://patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast

(A quick confession for patrons: We always read out the names of Patreon Producers and higher tiers, but in all of the excitement of editing, we forgot to include that in this episode. But that in no way lessens our gratitude to our Patreon Producers: Ben Maher, Andy Maxwell, Ben Fox, George Johnson, Matt Muller, and Tricia!

Our VIP, Bader Khrais!

And our Legend, Adam Turner!

Usual service will be resumed in subsequent episodes.)

#HistoricalFiction #HistFic #HNS2026 #HistoricalNovelSociety