Sharon Kay Penman

Greetings to all.  I am sorry it has taken me so long to post another blog entry, but my herniated disks chose this time to flare up again and I’ve had to ration my time at the computer, much to my (and Richard’s) frustration.   We ran into technical difficulties with my on-line chat on January 19^th; their server kept crashing.  They are contacting my publicist at Putnam’s and we’ll see if we can reschedule it.  I’m feeling snakebit, for I also encountered computer troubles while I was doing a chat at the Historical Fiction On-line forum; it is almost enough to make me believe in vengeful Tudor ghosts.

     Let’s start with some of your posted comments and queries.  Meghan, I don’t think there are transcripts for most on-line chats, at least for this one.  Mary, I don’t have any New Jersey readings scheduled at present, though I hope to do one on behalf of the Atlantic County Women’s Shelter later in the year.  I am reluctant to take on any PR obligations until my health “issues” are resolved.  I’m feeling better than I was, but I have limited energy and tire very easily.  This is why I haven’t been able yet to add book recommendations for my earlier novels, Suzanne. 

       Julia, I am glad that you and others like the title “Land Beyond the Sea.”  I’ll probably use Outremer as the working title for my convenience since it is short and then suggest the translated version to my publishers.   What do you all think?   Does Land Beyond the Sea work for you?   I have never had any interest, though, Julia, in writing about Isabella and Edward II and Roger Mortimer; their story is too grim for me.   And I have no desire to write about Edward III either.  But after my books about Balian of Ibelin and Queen Constance, I very much want to write about Owain Glyndwr, and so Richard II will be a character in Owain’s story.   So will John of Gaunt.  I decided that I didn’t want to write a novel with John of Gaunt as the main character, though, not wanting to compete with a cult classic, Anya Seton’s Katherine.  

       Susan, I’ll relay your query about Kindle to St Martin’s Press; assuming I can deliver Lionheart on schedule—August, 2010—the publication date would probably occur in the autumn of 2011.  Elizabeth, I have never read  the Matthew Shardlake mysteries; aren’t they set in Tudor times?  Lastly, I want to answer your question, Victoria, about John’s whereabouts in June, 1189.  He disappeared after Henry’s flight from Le Mans and we don’t know where he was during the weeks leading up to Henry’s death.  In Here Be Dragons, I had his last meeting with Henry at Chinon, but when I researched Devil’s Brood, I became convinced that John parted from Henry much earlier, at Le Mans. 

     Now…I have several books to recommend, with great enthusiasm.  I have finished Elizabeth Chadwick’s A Place Beyond Courage, her novel about John Marshal and a time “when Christ and his saints slept.”  It took me so long because I do what you do, Tye; when I enjoy a book, I like to slow down and savor it.   Elizabeth’s John Marshal and mine (in Saints) are not carbon copies, but that is inevitable when we are writing about people who really lived.  Authors take the “known facts” and then interpret them in our own way, which is perfectly fair.  What is important is to get those “known facts” right.  Elizabeth’s John Marshal is a compelling and convincing man of his time, and I am sure that anyone who enjoyed my Saints will also enjoy A Place Beyond Courage.  It is available in paperback now in both the US and the UK.

      Next I want to alert you to a fascinating novel set in 12^th century Scandinavia, The Road to Jerusalem, by Jan Guillou.    Jan Guillou is a best-selling Swedish author who has written an acclaimed trilogy about the Crusades.  The Road to Jerusalem, the first book, will be published by Harper-Collins in May, 2009.  The trilogy is being made into a film, too; you can learn more at www.arnthemovie.com    I have read about 125 pages so far and I am enthralled by it, pure and simple.  The first book deals with the main character’s life in what would later become Sweden; the second one follows him to the Holy Land as a Knight Templar; the third takes him back to his homeland and the woman he loved.  Jan Guillou is an extraordinarily gifted writer and once you enter Arn’s world, you’ll want to stay—at least until you can finish the trilogy! 

       For a complete change of pace, I offer you The Adventures of Alianore Audley, which Elizabeth Chadwick kindly brought to my attention.   It is set during the Wars of the Roses, with Alianore acting as a spy for Edward IV and Richard III.   I am not sure how to classify the book, for it is not a historical novel in the true sense.  It is a spoof, I suppose, but a very clever one and done from a Yorkist perspective, so naturally I enjoyed it!  I realize it may not be to everyone’s taste, so I am going to quote a few passages to let you judge for yourselves.  Here the tart-tongued Alianore is speaking of her husband (whom she loves). 

     “Roger wore his collar of golden Yorkist suns to show that he was one of the king’s knights, ludicrous piked shoes to show that he was fashionable, and a massive codpiece to show that he had a vivid imagination.”    And here she describes Elizabeth Woodville (whom she does not love) as “Elizabeth too-sexy-for-her-hennin Woodville.”   And this is her “take” on the third marriage of Margaret Beaufort (the mother of Henry Tudor) to Thomas Stanley.  “She and Stanley having fallen deeply in love with each other’s money.”   

     The author, Brian Wainwright, has also written a “serious” historical, Under the Fetlock, set in the reign of Richard II, and I have it on my To Read List.  You have to be knowledgeable about a time period to be able to spoof it successfully.   As for Alianore’s adventures, if you like Monty Python, you’ll like Alianore. 

     For a complete change of pace, I want to mention a mystery novel, Dog On It by Spencer Quinn, which will be published in February, 2009 by Atria Books.  I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries, dogs, laughter, and good writing.  Spence pulls off something remarkable—his narrator is a dog, and he manages to make Chet sound and act like a dog throughout the book.  Check out Chet’s blog at www.chetthedog.com and you’ll see what I mean.

     Finally, the British writer Jules Watson has a new novel coming out in February, 2009 called The Swan Maiden, a lyrical retelling of the legend of Deirdre, the “Irish Helen of Troy.”  It is not available yet in the UK, unfortunately, but British readers can order it from Amazon.

     I thought I’d close by answering a reader’s recent question, for I am sure others have wondered about it, too.  She wanted to know why Henry is called Fitz Empress in his trilogy but I refer to his son as John Plantagenet in Here Be Dragons.   Henry chose to call himself Fitz Empress rather than Fitz Count, preferring to stress his mother’s more rarified status.  The term Plantagenet did not come into use until three centuries later; I believe that Richard, Duke of York was the first to claim it as a surname.  As some of you probably know, Henry’s father Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, liked to wear a sprig of planta genesta in his cap—or so the legend goes.  I couldn’t resist having one of Henry’s spies use planta genesta as a code word in Devil’s Brood.

       John would not have called himself Plantagenet, but when I wrote Dragons, I chose to simplify things and go with the familiar name for their dynasty.  Writers are faced with choices like this all the time.  For example, the term “Byzantine Empire” did not come into use until the 19^th century.  But if it was just a passing reference, I have occasionally used it in one of my books for clarity, knowing my readers would then understand I was speaking of Constantinople.  But when their empire actually figures in the storyline, as in Lionheart, I prefer to refer to it by its medieval name—the empire of the Greeks.   It is a bit unwieldy, but has the virtue of being accurate.   To show you how confusing it can be, though, the Byzantines never called themselves Greeks; they considered themselves to be Romans.  And then we have the Holy Roman Empire, of course, which was actually Germany! 

           So….do you prefer that a historical writer use medieval names even if they are unfamiliar to you?   Or would you prefer that the writer make use of the familiar albeit modern names?   Henry and Eleanor wouldn’t have called it the English Channel, but I use that phrase in my narrative and I feel comfortable using the words “the channel” in dialogue.  In A Place Beyond Courage, Elizabeth Chadwick has John Marshal call it the “Narrow Sea.”    Whether that is historically accurate or a very clever invention on her part, I thought it worked quite well and paid her the highest compliment one writer can offer another, that I wish I’d come up with that.   I was pleased recently to be able to confirm that the term “Mediterranean Sea” was used in the MA, and I am now trying to decide whether to go with “Straits of Messina” or “Far de Meschines”.   Of course now you know why it takes me so long to write one of my books.  I believe the correct term is “obsessive-compulsive.”   

     In my next blog, I would like to talk about historical accuracy and what writers owe the reading public.  But if there are any subjects you’d like me to address, let me know and I’ll certainly give them consideration.   Till then, I hope you enjoy the books I’ve recommended and I hope, too, that you keep sharing your own recommendations with us all.   Finding a new book or new author is a joy for anyone who loves to read.

January 25, 2009

     Thank you all for taking part in our first book giveaway.  It ended at midnight and the winner is Anne Meltzer.   As soon as you send me your address, Anne, I’ll put your copy in the mail to you.   This was fun and I’ll like to do it again from time to time.  When a hardback book is remaindered (goes out of print), an author is usually given the opportunity to buy it at cost, and most of us do so.  Sometimes an order goes astray; I never had any spare copies of Here Be Dragons because of such a slipup.   I’ve exhausted my supply of Sunne in Splendour over the years, and am almost out of copies of When Christ and His Saints Slept.  I do have extra copies of The Reckoning and Time and Chance.  I also have paperback copies of most of the historicals and the mysteries.  Would you be interested in a future giveaway with The Reckoning or Time and Chance or one of the paperbacks as the prize?

        Thank you so much for the vote of confidence in my writing; that means more than I can say.  I loved your comments, which were thoughtful and insightful and occasionally funny, and will respond to them at a later date.  I was just using the 21^st century California book as a hypothetical, so you needn’t worry—no way I’d ever want to write a book set in our time!  

        I hope you all had a good New Year’s.   I spent mine with my editor on Long Island and had a lovely visit; we had a dramatic snowstorm on New Year’s Eve which was great fun since we didn’t have to go out in it.   We also got to discuss my ideas for books after Lionheart—writers don’t feel secure unless we have other books glimmering on the horizon; we also need time to think about future books and let them marinate mentally.  I’ll start with the bad news, at least for my mystery readers.  The Justin de Quincy books are in limbo for now.  The sales have dropped off and my publishers on both sides of the Atlantic prefer that I concentrate upon the historical sagas until the economy improves.  I hope my mystery readers understand that the market dictates a decision like this; there are so many authors writing mysteries these days that the competition is intense.   But I haven’t abandoned Justin, hope to resurrect him when circumstances allow it.

     So I will not be doing a mystery after Lionheart, as originally planned.  What is next then?   Well, it is not carved in stone, but it seems likely now that I will be staying in the 12^th century for my next two books—which makes me very happy since this is the century in which I feel most at home.   Remember I mentioned my interest in writing about the real Balian of Ibelin?   Well, my editor likes the idea, too.   For those of you who’ve seen Kingdom of Heaven, my Balian and Orlando Bloom’s Balian share the same name, but not much else.  Well, they are both tall, and they both held Jerusalem against Saladin, but that‘s about it.    I’ve always thought that reality usually trumps fiction when we’re dealing with the MA.  What scriptwriter could top the antics of the Angevins?  And the real Balian of Ibelin’s life was so dramatic that it did not need any Hollywood embellishments. 

      Nor was drama lacking in the life of Constance de Hautville, heiress to the throne of Sicily.   She may not have been threatened by Byzantine pirates as Eleanor of Aquitaine was on her way home from Crusade; interestingly enough, Eleanor was saved by Constance’s father, King Roger II, whose fleet came to her rescue.  But Constance faced down a mob when they burst into her residence in Salerno and came close to losing her life.   And this was only one of the extraordinary episodes in the life of this strong-willed, remarkable woman.  When I first discovered her story, I remember thinking that she deserved a book of her own, and I am delighted that there is a good chance this may come to pass.  

        One of the many aspects of writing about Balian and Constance that appeals to me is the spillover from Lionheart.  Balian will be a character in my account of Richard I’s crusade, as he was a key player in the politics of Outremer, their name for the Holy Land, loosely translated as “the land beyond the sea.”   I think that would be a good title; anyone agree with me?    And Joanna will have a role in Constance’s book, for the latter was the aunt of Joanna’s husband, King William II, and Joanna loyally supported Constance’s claim to the Sicilian throne.  

         Again, circumstances could force a change of plans.  But as of now, this is the path I hope to travel after Lionheart is done.   And it is very heartening to know you’re all willing to travel it with me.   

           I almost forgot.  I am doing a live web chat at the Schuler e-Studio on Monday, January 19^th, 2009, at 8 PM.  You can visit the website at www.Schulerbooks.com for further details.   I hope some of you will drop in.

January 7, 2009