Sharon Kay Penman

      I’d like to thank those of you who submitted questions for The Reckoning’s Book Club.  I passed them on to St Martin’s and they were delighted.  They made some minor editing changes, but used most of them, as well as several I’d provided.   You can read them at http://www.readinggroupgold.com/product/product.aspx?isbn=0312382472 ; click onto the Reading Group Guide to find The Reckoning.    A few of you offered questions after St Martin’s had posted them on-line, but I submitted them anyway, and they could possibly be added at a later date.  In any event, everyone who posed a question was eligible for the drawing.  And the winner is Suzanne; as soon as you send me your address, I’ll mail signed paperback copies of Here Be Dragons and Falls the Shadow and a hardback copy of The Reckoning.

        Erika, I’ve decided you have second-sight, for your question about the use of fictional characters was one I’d already proposed myself to St Martin’s!   I was very interested in the subsequent discussion between you and several other posters about this.      Erika, you also asked if this was done for a particular purpose.   The answer is yes.   Sometimes all I know of a secondary character is the name; so I then have to give that character a history.  Eleanor’s maid Amaria is an example of this.  So, too, are Hugh and Juliana in The Reckoning; I knew they were in Ellen de Montfort’s service, but nothing else, so I had to breathe life into them.  Hugh served a double purpose, for I also used his happy ending with Caitlin to mitigate the stark tragedy of the book’s conclusion.  And I  created Ranulf because I worried that my readers would not be able to fully identify with either Stephen or Maude, who were their own worst enemies.    I meant for Ranulf to bridge that sympathy gap until the young Henry Fitz Empress came onto center stage.  Ranulf was a hit with so many of my readers that I kept him on payroll, and then passed the baton on to his son Morgan in Lionheart!  

        So here is my question.    How do you feel about the insertion of purely fictional characters in novels that dramatize the lives of people who actually lived?  Suzanne would prefer to take her history straight, without any sweeteners.   Erika and Paula like a few glimmers of hope midst the darkness.     What about the rest of you?

       Now I’d like to respond to specific comments.    Cassandra, thank you so much for letting us know about bookdepository.com; it is a great site.   You asked about Simon de Montfort’s speech to his men before the battle of Evesham.  Chroniclers reported that he’d given such a speech; I filled in the blanks myself.      Angela, I loved your song for Joanna.  Gayle is right; set it to music and you have a ballad.     Maritza, I don’t have any plans to write about Richard of York and Cecily Neville.  Margaret Frazer has been talking about it for some time, though, so she is the one who needs prodding!   I do intend to write about Owain Glyn Dwr; Owain’s book will come after I finish Lionheart and my novels about Balian of Ibelin and Constance de Hauteville.   Thanks for sharing your “genealogical tidbit” with us, Marilyn, that the wives of Edward I and his brother Edmund were second cousins.   It is surprising how tangled the bloodlines of the highborn become.  For example, Richard’s queen, Berengaria, was the daughter of Sancho VI, King of Navarre.  She was therefore related to Richard’s sister Joanna by marriage, as Joanna’s husband William, King of Sicily, was Berengaria’s first cousin; William’s mother was a princess of Navarre, sister to Berengaria’s father.   Lastly, I’d like to address a question posed by Jenny.   You said you were troubled by Llewelyn ap Gruffydd’s “negative reaction” to his newborn daughter.  This was immediately after the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, so he was still in shock.  But I think his scene with his sister-in-law Elizabeth shows that he would have cherished his daughter had he not died so soon thereafter.

         I wanted to let you all know that I recently did an on-line interview with A ‘n’ E Vibe Magazine; it can be read at http://www.anevibe.com/headlines/bringing-history-to-life-an-interview-with-sharon-kay-penman.html       And my agent, Molly Friedrich, has informed me that one of her writers, Joseph Finder, has come up with an excellent idea to show support for independent bookstores.  He wants to declare this coming May 1^st as “Buy Indie Day,” hoping that we’ll all try to make a purchase at an independent bookstore in our communities on that day as a show of solidarity; he has set up a facebook event for those needing further information.   Sadly, my local independent bookstore closed a number of years ago, so I will buy a book from The Poisoned Pen, my favorite bookstore and one of the “indies.”    

        Lastly, I am sure we are all grieving for the people suffering so from the earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region of Italy.   Earthquakes have done so much damage over the centuries.  Medieval Messina was destroyed by an earthquake early in the 20^th century.  Another one wreaked havoc in the 18^th century, and Sicily was rocked by one in 1169, which leveled the town of Catania.     If you would like to make donations to help the survivors of L’Aquila and the surrounding villages, you can go to http://www.justgiving.com/italy-abruzzo-earthquake  where In Italy Magazine has arranged for contributions to be made to the British Red Cross; any such donations will be used only for the earthquake victims. 

       Lionheart is keeping me very busy these days, which is why it sometimes takes me so long to do a new blog.   In my next one, I hope to do another drawing, offering a signed copy of Devil’s Brood as the prize; I thought it might be fun to offer the English edition this time.  

April 14, 2009