Sharon Kay Penman

      I’d like to start with an Alert Message.  I am hoping that most of the people who e-mail me via my website also read my blogs, for I had a computer meltdown recently, and all of the e-mails in my In Box since August of 2007 were instantly erased.  Fortunately I do back up onto my flash drive, but I’d been lazy and so I lost at least two weeks of e-mails, including a number from readers.  I get so much mail that I cannot respond to every one, but I do try to answer specific questions or requests, and some of these were among the vaporized e-mails.   I renamed my computer Expletive-Deleted after this little episode, but a computer savvy friend said it is really the fault of Outlook Express; apparently the program will take it upon itself to dump e-mails at random when it “decides” the In Box is getting too full.   So I suppose I’ll have to curse Bill Gates instead of my computer, although that is not as much fun since he started giving his billions away to worthwhile charities.  Anyway, for all readers who e-mailed me during the month of April with questions, I would ask you to e-mail me again since your e-mails may have ended up in a black hole of  cyberspace.

       I have some surprising news.  Ballantine Books is planning to send me out on a brief book tour at the time they publish Devil’s Brood and re-issue Time and Chance and When Christ and His Saints Slept in late July.    I’ve done numerous book tours over the years, but this is the first time a paperback house is arranging one for me, so I am very grateful to Ballantine for resurrecting my canceled tour from last October.   The trip itinerary will be posted by week’s end in the Press Room section of my website, but basically I am going to the same stores I’d planned to visit before my unexpected hospital stay wreaked havoc with our plans and will be visiting Bailey’s Crossroads, VA, West Chester, PA, Dayton, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, MI.     I will also be in the Chicago suburbs for the Historical Novel Society Conference on June 12^th through the 14^th, but unfortunately that is not open to the general public, only to conference participants.   I ought to have some interesting stories for you guys, though, when I get back!

     I am updating my Research Recommendations section, and have added a heartfelt Mea Culpa to my Medieval Mishaps page, having discovering a monumental error in The Reckoning.   I am repeating my apology here because I want to publicize it as widely as possible. On p. 229, Edward is discussing weaponry with Roger de Mortimer, and Roger says that longbows are more easily mastered than the crossbow.  This could not be further from the truth.  A man could learn to use a crossbow fairly quickly, whereas it took years of training and considerable physical strength to shoot a longbow.   I am baffled by the mistake, for I am obsessive-compulsive about my research, one reason why it takes me so long to write one of my historical novels.   But since The Reckoning was published eighteen years ago, I will never be able to solve this bizarre mystery.  I can only seek to spread the word about the error—and grovel a bit.   BTW, Bernard Cornwell’s new novel Agincourt is the book to read if you want to know more about the use of longbows.   And there is an interesting story about Richard I and crossbows.  Upon Richard’s arrival in Acre, he was struck down by a mysterious ailment that also infected the French king.  Richard was seriously ill, but as soon as he was on the mend, he insisted upon being taken by litter to the siege site, and lying within a shelter from the extreme heat, he spent hours firing a crossbow at the defenders up on the city walls.   

      There is a new biography of Eleanor, written by the British historian Ralph Turner.  I have not had time to read it from cover to cover yet, have just been skimming so far, but I’ve read enough to recommend it.   He has an excellent account of Eleanor’s time on crusade and a perceptive analysis of the reasons why she has been such a lighting rod for controversy over the centuries.  I did find one startling error; he says that Henry’s father Geoffrey drowned in the River Loire, whereas Geoffrey actually died of a fever after swimming in the Loire to cool off on a hot day.   But even the best historians are not infallible and I’d be the last person to quibble at an occasional error.  (See longbow lunacy above.) 

     Dr. Turner and I do not always interpret known facts in the same way, but his conclusions are always defensible.  For example, he believes that Henry did seduce Alys, the unhappy French princess.  Based upon what we know, I think that is a legitimate point of view.  I concluded otherwise, but after reading his argument, I confess that I felt a pang or two of regret that I’d been convinced by Henry’s biographers and my own understanding of Henry’s very pragmatic character.   As I admitted in my AN for Devil’s Brood, I felt cheated that I hadn’t been able to take the Lion in Winter route, for writers instinctively yearn for scenes of high drama.   Whatever the arguments pro and con about Henry and Alys, the film is very much out of date in its depiction of a love affair between Richard and Philippe, the French king.  But it is still great fun to watch and I continue to recommend it highly to one and all.  Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn were perfection itself as Henry and Eleanor, probably even better than the originals themselves!

      Now back to Lionheart.   I am happy to report that Eleanor and Berengaria have safely arrived in Italy.  Because we know which alpine pass they took, I was able to figure out the route they must have followed, which was great fun.   As I’ve always been fascinated by travel in bygone times, I have gone into considerable details about Eleanor’s journey.  I just hope my editors will let me keep all these details in!   Eleanor took the Montgenevre Pass over the Alps, which is now a ski resort.  I wonder what she would have thought of that?   If you’d like to see some photos of Montgenevre today, google “Montgenevre photos” and prepare to be amazed by all that comes up.   

         Because I had so much to communicate this time, I’m afraid I will have to limit my favorite part of each blog—responding to your comments and questions.  I’ll try to make up for it next time.  Cindy, welcome aboard!  (We’ve met at the Poisoned Pen, as Cindy is lucky enough to live near Scottsdale.)   Your news about Legacy is fantastic.  This is, by far, my favorite book about Elizabeth Tudor.   I haven’t read it in years, am delighted that it will be reprinted.   I have often wondered if Susan Kay wrote any other books or if this was her only child, a la Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird.    But for anyone interested in the Tudors and first-rate writing, this is the book to buy.   On the same subject, I think the best novel I’ve read about Anne Boleyn is Norah Lofts’ The Concubine.   Anyone else read it?

       Cindy, your comment about the need for a genealogy planted the seed for another question.   Do you as readers prefer a straight genealogical chart or a cast of characters for historical novels like mine?    Michele, I’m sorry I couldn’t take part in your book club discussion.  I’ve done a few by phone and they are great fun.  In fact, Ballantine is going to set up some phone chats with their Reading Clubs when their edition of Devil’s Brood comes out.   Gabriele, you have to write about Arminius!   He sounded so intriguing that I did a bit of on-line research and there is no doubt he deserves a book of his own.  Did you know his campaign was mentioned in Robert Graves’ classic, I, Claudius, under the name Hermann?   I’m not sure why ancient Rome casts such a potent spell as I doubt that any of us would have liked to live under the Empire or even the Republic, but novels about Rome are irresistible.  (Another hint, Gabriele, hang in there!)   I have just started Michelle Moran’s new novel, Cleopatra’s Daughter (her child by Marc Antony) and it looks like another winner for her.  

        Ken, it sounds as if you might have to reconsider your game plan.  Would you feel as if you had more control of your material if you focused on only three of your main characters instead of four?   Or you might want to think about writing two books, as I did with Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning.   Is there a natural breaking point in the story line?   I was fortunate in that Shadow had an obvious ending with Simon’s death.  And when I decided that I wanted to do a trilogy about Henry, it was easy to break his life into three segments.  That is not always the case, though.  Would it work to use Evesham as a natural breaking point for Othon’s story?  Based on my own experience, I would suggest you think about splitting it into two or maybe even three books.   The alternative is to leave a lot on the cutting room floor and that can be painful.      

      I loved Elizabeth’s description of Henry as a blazing fire that eventually burned out.  Henry will always be my personal favorite among the English kings, for he seems like the epitome of a Shakespearean tragic hero, one brought down by his own flaws.   I’ve discovered that he casts a long shadow and his memory remains very much alive in Lionheart.   Susan, I’ll see if I can find out from St Martins when The Reckoning will be available in Kindle format.  Lastly, you posed such a wonderful question, Carrie—how much historical interpretation or inaccuracies will readers accept?   I have a low tolerance level myself, but I have friends who are willing to overlook anachronisms if they are swept along by a strong story line.    So…here’s our question for the next blog.    Can powerful writing compensate for faulty research?      

May 20, 2009      

Wow!   This was a fascinating discussion about the use of purely fictional characters in books like mine.   Without doubt, I have remarkably perceptive and eloquent readers! It is gratifying, too, to find that my readers can intuitively sense what I am attempting to do with characters like Ranulf and Rhiannon; you were absolutely right, Michele, in concluding that I’d inserted Rhiannon into the story line to shed light upon the treatment of people with disabilities in the MA.    In Saints, I had Ranulf rescue two orphan children from the Fens, and again, I used them to dramatize the hardscrabble, perilous life of those at the very bottom of society’s social pyramid.   Several of you made the valid point that, in a sense, all characters in a book are fictional; writers start with the skeletal frame, if they are lucky, but then they have to flesh out the character by drawing upon their imaginations.

       This is where I think an Author’s Note is invaluable, for I firmly believe that if an author deviates from known historical facts, there is an obligation to discuss this deviation in the AN.  So often all we know of medieval people are their names and the stark facts of their lives—birth, marriage, death.  But when we are lucky enough to distill the essence of their beings from chronicles or individual actions, I think we owe it to our readers—and to the memories of these long-dead men and women—to depict them as they were, not as we’d like them to be.   So I am in total agreement with you, Sandy; it upsets me when I read a novel in which a real historical figure is distorted beyond recognition for the sake of plot development or the writer’s convenience.  Elizabeth Chadwick calls books like this “wall-bangers,” for even if they are well written, they are not playing fair with history.  

        I also agree with Sara’s post, that it can be liberating to read a book in which the fates of the main characters are not known.  This is one reason why I have enjoyed writing of medieval Wales so much.  I recently finished Brian Wainwright’s excellent historical novel, Within the Fetterlock, and one of the book’s many joys was that I was quite unfamiliar with his heroine, Constance of York.  So there were surprises lurking on every page.  And yes, this is the same Brian Wainwright who wrote the hilarious spoof, The Adventures of Alianore Audley.  While I’m on the subject of books I’ve been reading, I want to recommend another of Elizabeth Chadwick’s novels, Shadows and Strongholds, set in the 12^th century during the last years of  the civil war between Stephen and Henry Fitz Empress. As always, she has created vivid, three-dimensional characters while skillfully balancing the needs of the novelist with those of the historian.  She is particularly effective at revealing the precarious nature of their lives during this turbulent, violent era of English history, just as she did in her book about John Marshal, A Place Beyond Courage.  It truly was a time when Christ and his saints slept.    

       Some of your recent comments concerned the challenges of travel in the MA.  I have been doing extensive research about the crossing of the Alps, and some of the accounts of these harrowing experiences are riveting.   It speaks volumes about the courage and hardiness of medieval men and women that they so often undertook voyages that would be unthinkable in our age.  John of Salisbury crossed the Alps no less than ten times, whereas once would have been more than enough for me if it had to be done by mule.  Our Eleanor did it four times, the last two crossings when she was well into her sixties and in the dead of winter, too.   This is the next chapter in Lionheart, and I am looking forward to it—sometimes writers can have devilish fun making our characters suffer in the name of high drama! 

      Megan, I am so pleased that you named your son Owen; I understand, though, why you compromised with Anglicized spelling.  I did the same in Here be Dragons, using the more familiar spelling of Llewelyn rather than the pure Welsh of Llywelyn.  And friends of mine in Colorado who wanted to name their daughter after Gwynedd opted for spelling her name Gwyneth—although most people now assume she was named after Gwyneth Paltrow. 

        I find it very interesting that some of you are writers, too.  I hope you’ll keep us updated on the progress of your novel, Ken, as Othon sounds like a man who definitely deserves to have his own book.   I was intrigued by your revelation, Gabriele, that your novel was not working for you until you decided to add a “layer of magic.”   And I understand completely your complaint that some characters have to be watched closely lest they take the book in directions the writer does not want to go.   I’ve had several characters show that sort of devious determination to claim center stage.  Llewelyn ap Gruffydd’s brother Davydd had his own ideas how his character should be portrayed, and we had a battle of wills that lasted through two books.   Another character who took a small role and expanded it until he stole virtually every scene he was in was the Welsh poet-prince, Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd.  As an example, he wanted to go along with his friend Ranulf when Henry attempted to make good Eleanor’s rather tenuous claim to Toulouse.   So he reminded me that one of the chronicles said a Welsh prince did, in fact, accompany the English army, insisting with impeccable logic that since the name of this prince was not known, who is to say it could not have been Hywel?   Because he was a charmer, without some of Davydd’s darker undertones, Hywel usually got his way.  It is hard to deny a man whose poetry has withstood the tests of eight centuries.

       James, I am sorry but I cannot comment upon The Tudors, never having seen any of the episodes; too much fiction and not enough history for me.    Kristen, I’ve only read one Alys Clare mystery; while they are well written, I was not comfortable with the freedom enjoyed by her abbess.  If you want an accurate portrayal of the world of a medieval nun, try any of Margaret Frazer’s Sister Frevisse mysteries.  Robin, I’m not familiar with the trilogy written by Posie Graeme-Evans; I tend to stay away from books written about “my” characters; while I’m writing, I don’t want to be influenced, even subconsciously, and afterward a sense of territorial imperative kicks in!   Kristen, all of the songs I quoted in the wedding scene in The Reckoning were actual medieval compositions, but I am sure “Maria Perez” was the creation of a troubadour’s inventive imagination.  Women did take part in the crusades, though, the most infamous case being that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, dubbed by one recent historian the “femme fatale of the Second Crusade.”    Lastly, I hope your wedding was a lovely one, Beth, and the notoriously erratic Welsh weather cooperated for once. 

         Judith has pointed out that there are societies for Richard III, Simon de Montfort, and Napoleon, but sadly, none for Eleanor.  There is also a Gwenllian Society in Wales, and they have succeeded in getting a Welsh mountain named in honor of this tragic princess.    I agree with Judith that Eleanor has been unfairly overlooked.  Anyone want to remedy that injustice and start a society on her behalf? 

       I’d mentioned doing a book drawing, but I think I’ll have to save it for the next blog.  Eleanor is impatient to cross the Pyrenees and collect Richard’s future wife, and I am not going to argue with a woman who signed herself “Eleanor, by the wrath of God, Queen of England.”

May 5, 2009