May 15^th is another slow
history day, so I was going to fall back on that old standby, Game of Thrones,
which is quite medieval except for the dragons and Others and dyrewolves
and…Okay, maybe it is not so medieval.  But I decided that my Game of Thrones quiz
would make a better blog than a Facebook entry. 
First, I want to pass on an interesting bit of information.  George RR Martin wrote Sunday’s episode
himself.  He writes one each season; I’m
not sure which one he did in Season One but he did the Blackwater Battle
episode in Season Two.

     I hope this will
be fun for my fellow Game addicts.  
While we are all living in the Martin universe, we live on separate
continents; there are those of us who have read the books and those of us who
have not, preferring to watch the series without knowing what is coming
next.    So it will be tricky to pull
this off without telling the latter what they do not want to know.  But I have confidence we can do it.   The first SPOILER ALERT is for those who are
watching the HBO series but have not seen Sunday’s episode yet.  Read no further if you want to preserve the
suspense.    I found it interesting that
almost all of the scenes in this episode were not in the books, and even more
interesting that Master Martin penned them himself.   I really like the by-play between Bronn and
Tyrion.  I am still very worried about
Gentry.  I loved Tywin’s response when
bratty grandson Joffrey whined about having to climb all the steps up to the Hand’s
Tower.  Tywin said coolly, “We can always
arrange to have you carried.”   Joffrey
may be an idiot as well as a sociopath, but at least he has enough sense to be
wary of Grand-dad.   And I also loved Arya’s answer when asked who
her God was:  Death.    Rather sad, though, that this young girl
could make that sound so believable.

            Okay, now
we are into more dangerous territory.  I
want to ask a few questions about the characters.  Only some of my own answers come from the
books and we do not want to give anything away for our HBO-only brothers and
sisters.  So I suggest this.  In your own answers, do not specify WHY you
are choosing a particular character if his or her bad behavior has not yet
occurred in the series.    Just say; see
books.   Those who’ve read them will
understand and we won’t be spoiling the suspense for those who haven’t.  Here are the questions.

1)        Who do you think is the most evil character
in the Ice and Fire series?  For me, it
is Littlefinger, but my pick is based on what he does in later books.  So I am not going into detail about his many
sins.  This is a SEE BOOKS sort of pick.

2)       Who do you think is the most unlikable
character in the series?   For me, it is
Cersei.  My choice is based more on the
books than the series, especially the fourth book when we are allowed into
Cersei’s head—not a pleasant place to visit.

3)      Who
do you think is the character who has made the most remarkable
rehabilitation?  For me, that has to be
Jaime.

4)       Who do you think is the most sadistic
character in the series?    For me, it is
a dead heat between Joffrey and Theon’s torturer.  (Notice I do not identify the monster since
he has not be identified yet on HBO)  I’d
actually give him the edge over Joffrey, although it is a close race.

5)      This
is strictly an HBO question.  Which
character do you think makes more of an impact in the series than in the
books?   For me, it would be Margaery,
who did not make much of an impression on me on the printed page, but who
steals every scene she is in, thanks to the wonderful Natalie Dormer.   Same for her grandmother, the Queen of
Thorns, played by the incomparable Diana Rigg, who’d make a marvelous Eleanor
of Aquitaine in her winter years.   And
while I think Tywin is a strong character in the books, Charles Dance gives him
even more of an edge on screen. 

6)      Who
do you think is the character nowhere near as smart as he or she thinks?   For me, this is Cersei, based on both the
series and the books.

7)      Which
“good character” do you find the least sympathetic?   For me, that is Catelyn.  I can’t forgive her for the cruelty she
displayed to Jon Snow as a boy. 

8)      I
often found myself wanting to scream at my Angevins when they were about to do
something they’d greatly regret.  
Eleanor, maybe you ought to rethink this rebellion idea.  Richard, I think you forgot your hauberk;
want to go back for it?   Henry, for a
brilliant man, how can you be so dense as a dad?   Applying the lessons you belatedly learned
with Hal to Richard and Geoffrey is not going to work out so well for you.   You get the drift.  So here is my Game of Thrones question.   Which character did you want to grab and
give a good shake?  For me, this was an
easy one—the noble Ned Stark.  

9)      This
one is posed out of curiosity about your answers.  Who is your favorite character?  For me, it is Tyrion, both in the books and
as played by the brilliant Peter Dinklage in the HBO series.  

10)   Which secondary characters are you most happy
to see in a scene in the HBO series?  
For me, it would be Bronn and Ygritte and Brienne.    

11)   Lastly, what is your favorite scene in the
series so far?  And which one do you
think is the most shocking to date?   For
me, my favorite is the scene with Daenerys and the slimy slave trader, when she
trades one of her precious dragons for his Unsullied slave army and then pulls
a beautiful double-cross.   The most
shocking to me—especially since I had not read any of the books when I watched
the first episode of Season One—was when Jaime murmured, “The things I do for
love,” and pushed Bran out that window.

May 15, 2013

I am sorry for flying under the radar for so long, but I’ve been struggling with twin demons—that looming deadline for A King’s Ransom and what may be bronchitis.   I am happy to report that I am finally on the mend and I have a new blog entry—an interview with the author, actor, and director, David Blixt.    When you read the interview, you will be able to tell that David and I are friends—and that we share the same somewhat warped sense of humor.    (I mean that in a good way, of course.)    For anyone who has not yet read one or more of David’s novels, you are about to hit the literary lottery.    Yes, he is that good.  You can visit his website, but first I hope you read our interview below.    http://www.davidblixt.com/

Your novel HER MAJESTY’S WILL is quite the comic romp, very different from the twists and turns of THE MASTER OF VERONA. But they’re both inspired from Shakespeare. Is that where your ideas come from?
Partly. I’m inspired by gaps in stories we all know, or think we know. For MoV, it was the origin of the Capulet-Montague feud. For HMW, it was the biography of Shakespeare himself, those lost eight years after he left Stratford and before he showed up in London. My Roman/Jewish series is the gap in the history of the early Christian church. I don’t want to tell stories people know. I want to tell stories that surprise people, flout their expectations.

You’re an actor. How much is theatre a part of your writing process?
It’s a huge influence, because it’s what I know. Most of my professional life in the theatre involves Shakespeare, so that’s what I know. He’s a great teacher for character, structure, and dialogue. His plots are rather dippy, but he’s a genius for motive and honest expression. Shakespeare also introduced me to my wife. So I owe him a lot.

What inspired you to write your first book?
THE HOBBIT, and DREADSTAR comics, which is a sprawling dark space epic. I was eleven years old, and imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, so it had giant spiders and a magic sword that lives in your soul. But my first real attempt at a novel was inspired by Jonathan Carroll’s SLEEPING IN FLAME. Romantic and disturbing all at once. I was nineteen when I read that, and it spurred me on.

Which novel is that?
The one that lives in a drawer. In fact, that’s probably a better title for it than the original – THE NOVEL THAT LIVES IN THE DRAWER. For all that it’s a dark time-travel romance, it’s actually the novel I had to write to get out of my own way.

What about your first work of Historical Fiction? What was the inspiration for that?
The basic story for THE MASTER OF VERONA was rattling around in my brain when I happened to read Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series for the first time. It was her work more than anything that showed me the model I wanted to follow.

But the idea itself came from Shakespeare. There’s a line at the end of Romeo & Juliet that hints, maybe, sorta, at the origin of the feud. It doesn’t work theatrically, but I couldn’t get past the notion. Yet I was physically incapable of not telling that story. So I dove in and wrote a much more ambitious novel than I’d intended, involving Dante and Cangrande and politics and religion and war and honor and love. When I finished that book, I realized I wasn’t done with the story. Which is what kicked off the Star-Cross’d series. 

You have a new novel out?
Yes, COLOSSUS: THE FOUR EMPERORS. It’s about Nero’s final year and the terror that follows, known today as the Year Of The Four Emperors. It’s available as a Kindle e-book now, and in trade paperback next month.

And then a new Verona book at the end of the summer?
That’s the hope. I’m terribly behind. THE PRINCE’S DOOM, fourth in the Star-Cross’d series. The first three are available on Kindle and Nook, with the trade paperback edition of VOICE OF THE FALCONER out now, and FORTUNE’S FOOL coming next month. The covers are breathtaking.

Speaking of covers, the cover for HER MAJESTY’S WILL is very funny. A twist on the ‘headless woman’ trend. Except when you look closely, it’s a man. Who designed it?
A wonderful artist and fellow actor by the name of Rob McLean. I knew exactly what I wanted from the cover, but it took Rob to make it real. He got photographer Paul Metreyon to come in and shoot the pic. I borrowed the Renaissance dress from Elizabeth MacDougal, and we stuck a wig on the very talented, very tall actor Matt Holzfeind. The photo-shoot was hilarious and joyful, and I think that comes through in the cover. I’m lucky to know so many talented people.

Is there a message in your novels that you want readers to grasp?
Someone recently said my books convey the message, ‘Life is pain, and then you die.’ I hope not. I’m a pretty happy guy. I’m both bothered and tickled when I see myself being compared to George RR Martin. I love it because I admire his skill at flouting his audience’s expectations. And I approve of his ‘no one is safe’ method. But his work is so bleak, there’s almost no relief. Drama is conflict, and so we thrive on trouble and strife. But there has to be some joy to punctuate the trouble, or else we’re just pummeling ourselves. And our readers.

To actually answer your question – no, I don’t think so. I just like to tell stories. History holds enough messages, and I want people to take away what they will.

You have a great deal of ‘child in peril’ in your Verona books.
I do. Someday my children are going to read these books and wonder what I have against them. Especially as the character Cesco looks a lot like my son Dash. But I created Cesco a full six years before Dash was born. I’m saved by the clock.

What books have influenced your life most?
Dorothy Dunnett’s A PAWN IN FRANKENCENSE. Jonathan Carroll’s SLEEPING IN FLAME. Bernard Cornwell’s ENEMY OF GOD. Colleen McCullough’s THE FIRST MAN IN ROME. And THE SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR.

You’re cute. What book are you reading now?
For pleasure, I’m re-reading Christopher Gortner’s THE TUDOR SECRET in preparation for the sequel, coming later this year. I’m also back in the pages of A. M. Allen’s A HISTORY OF VERONA. That’s my one regret in becoming an author – these days I read so much more for research than I do for fun.

Do you have to travel much concerning your books?
Not nearly as much as I’d like. But I’ve been everywhere I’ve written about, with the exception of Avignon in FORTUNE’S FOOL. That was hard. I hate relying on pictures and written descriptions of places. I need to have my own impression of the land, the color of the light, the roll and pitch of the streets, the smell in the air.

What projects are you working on at present?
I’m finishing the aforementioned fourth Star-Cross’d novel, THE PRINCE’S DOOM. Then two more Colossus novels, WAIL OF THE FALLEN and THE HOLLOW TRIUMPH. After that comes the novel I’m dying to get to, the one that I’ve wanted to write for years but have finally figured out how. It’s about the Devil. I’m very excited.

And future projects?
I want to wade into another Shakespeare property and tackle Othello. I also have a vampire series in the back of my head. Right now I’m about five years behind my brain, and I’m just trying desperately to catch up. I hope I never do.

Part of the hold-up is theatre. This summer I’ll be on-stage playing Orsino in Twelfth Night at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. While acting can inspire me to write, I can never actually write while I’m doing a show. That’s part of how I fall behind – I took a show last October, and it put me two months off my ideal writing schedule. But theatre feeds a different part of my ego.

Your ego s
eems very healthy.
Um, thank you?

Vampires, the Devil. You seem to want to genre hop.
My heart is in historical fiction, but there are occasions when I want to play in another sandbox.

What’s your favorite fruit?
To eat, grapes. As a flavor in drinks and whatnot, peach.
 

Have you ever been in trouble with the police?
Not in the United States.

If you were going to commit the perfect murder, how would you go about it?
I’d replace someone’s medicine with sugar pills, and wait. I’m very patient. It’s like reverse-poisoning.

And if they didn’t take medicine?
A good hand axe. Lots of heft.

What’s the best juxtaposition of life events you’ve experienced?
Being physically thrown out of the Vatican, and being blessed by the Pope. Two different days.

Sounds like a good story.
It is.

Back to acting – you’ve been stabbed how many times? On stage, I mean.
Once in the belly, once in the thigh. Once I thought I’d lost part of a finger during a swordfight on stage, but I only lost the fingernail. Lots of blood, though. I’ve had my nose broken onstage. As safe as we try to be, there are mishaps. And with swords, those mishaps can be pretty dramatic.

That’s disturbingly attractive.
Sharon, I’m married.

What do you consider your biggest failure?
All of them. I relive my failures constantly. It’s like my brain says, “Oh, we’re feeling pretty good, are we? Remember that moment in the second grade when you did this?” And I shake to my core.

What do you like to read in your free time?
Comic books.

Seriously?
Seriously. I’m a lifelong addict. I have well over 20,000 comics, all bagged and boxed. And now that I have an iPad I read comics on that, too.

Would you ever want to write comics?
I would. Like everyone I know, I have a killer Batman story. But mine does not involve the Joker. Or Catwoman. In fact, it’s a new villain, but features an old one. And suddenly we’re talking about a whole different part of my brain. Or maybe the same one. It’s all world-building, with familiar characters.

You seem far less attractive suddenly.
Does that mean you’ll stop undressing me with your eyes?

You’re really a child, aren’t you?
Yes. I discovered the things that made me happy as a child make me happy as an adult. I’ve just added sex, cars, and alcohol to the list.

What’s your favorite movie?
Casablanca.

What’s your favorite movie that isn’t a cliché?
Nice. It Happened One night. Or Die Hard.

Which is pretty much what HER MAJESTY’S WILL is – a combination of It Happened One Night and Die Hard, with a smidge of Brokeback Mountain.
Ha! Yes. With some Hope/Crosby Road Movies thrown in for good measure.
Way to make a callback!

Thank you. Any final words?
Wait – does this interview end with my death?

If you keep this up, yes.
Then I’ll just say what an honor it is to be counted among your friends. And what an inspiration you are, a dynamo of great writing that it is impossible to hope to match.

And….?
And that talent is sexy, which makes you the Marilyn Monroe of Historical Fiction authors.

Excellent answer. Say goodnight, David.
Goodnight, David.

April 28, 2013

A KING’S RANSOM AND MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

 I just finished Chapter 33 of Ransom, which ended well for Richard, not so well for the French king.  The happiest day of Philippe’s life had to be the day that Richard died at the siege of Chalus.  But I am taking a quick breathing space to put up a new blog.  I thought you  might like to read some brief excerpts from Ransom since the ones I’ve posted in the past were well received. 
 Aboard the pirate ship Sea Wolf, November  1192.
*     *     *
 The ship shuddered, like an animal in its death throes.  Its prow was pointing skyward, so steep was the wave, and the men desperately braced themselves, knowing the worst was to come.  The galley was engulfed, white water breaking over both sides, flooding the deck.  And then it was going down, plunging into the trough, and there was nothing in their world but seething, surging water.  Richard heard terrified cries of “Jesu!” and “Holy Mother!”  Beside him, Arne was whimpering in German.  The bow was completely submerged and Richard was sure that the Sea Wolf was doomed, heading for the bottom of the Adriatic Sea.
 “Lord God, I entreat Thee to save us, Thy servants!”  Richard’s voice rose above the roar of the storm, for he was used to shouting commands on the battlefield.  “Let us reach a safe harbor and I pledge one hundred thousand ducats to build for Thee a church wherever we come ashore!  Do not let men who’ve taken the cross die at sea and be denied Christian burial!” 
*     *     *
 Aboard the pirate ship Sea Serpent, December 1192
*     *     *
 At last the shoreline came into view, greenish-grey under an overcast, dull sky.  The pirates were manning the oars again.  As soon as they had reached the shallows, they plunged into the water to beach the galley.  The ground was marshy and they sank into it almost to the tops of their boots, but even a quagmire seemed like Eden to them after their ordeal on the Sea-Serpent.
 The pirates were positioning the anchors to keep the galley from being caught in the next high tide and cursing among themselves as they confirmed that the rudder had indeed broken off.  The wind had a bite and the men began to shiver.  A silence fell as they looked around at the most barren, bleak landscape any had ever seen.  No trees.  No vegetation, just salty marsh grass.  No sounds but the surging of the surf, not even the cries of sea birds.  No signs of life.
 Richard spoke for them all when he said at last, “Where in God’s Holy Name are we?”
*     *     *
 Austria, December 1192
*     *     *
 By late afternoon, they could see castle walls in the distance.  Even before Gunther pointed toward it and said, “Durnstein,” Richard knew that he was looking at Leopold’s “impregnable stronghold.”  It cast a formidable shadow over the valley, perched high on a cliff above the Danube, as rough-hewn, ominous, and impassable as the surrounding mountains.  Richard would normally have assessed it with a soldier’s eye, seeking its weaknesses and weighing its strengths.  Now he saw only a prison.
*     *     *
London   January 1193
*     *     *
 Eleanor was sitting up straight now, no longer slumped back in the chair as if her bones could not bear her weight, and Andre saw that color was slowly returning to her cheeks; that sickly white pallor was gone.  As he watched, it seemed to him that she was willing her body to recover, finding strength from some inner source that defied her advancing years, and he felt a surge of relief.  It had shaken him to see her looking so fragile, so vulnerable, so old.  She was on her feet now, beginning to pace as she absorbed the impact of the emperor’s letter, and when she turned to face Andre, he saw that her hazel eyes had taken on a greenish, cat-like glitter, reflecting nothing at that moment but a fierce, unforgiving rage.
 “They will not get away with this,” she said, making that simple sentence a declaration of war.  “We shall secure my son’s freedom, no matter what it takes.  And we will protect his kingdom until he can be restored to us, Andre.”
*     *      *
Marseilles  August 1193  Joanna’s first meeting with the son of the Count of Toulouse, who was a controversial figure because of his tolerance of the Cathar heretics.
*     *     *
 There was so much tension over Raimond de St Gilles’s impending arrival that Mariam joked privately to Joanna, “It is as if we are expecting the Anti-Christ.”  Joanna smiled sourly, for her sense of humor seemed to have decamped as soon as she’d learned of Alfonso’s double-cross, for that was how she saw his surprise.  Soon afterward, she found herself seated on the dais with Alfonso, Sancha, and Berengaria, awaiting the Anti-Christ’s entrance.
 There was a stir as he entered the hall, for he was accompanied by a rising troubadour star, Ramon de Miravel.  Joanna never noticed the troubadour, though, for she saw only Raimond de St Gilles.  He was taller than average, with a lean build and the easy grace of a man comfortable in his own body.  She had never seen hair so dark—as glossy and black as a raven’s wing—or eyes so blue, all the more striking because his face was so deeply tanned by the southern sun.  He was clean-shaven, with sharply sculptured cheekbones and a well-shaped, sensual mouth that curved slightly at the corners, as if he were suppressing a smile.  He was not as conventionally handsome as her brothers or her husband, but as she watched him approach the dais, Joanna’s breath caught in her throat, for the first time understanding what the troubadours meant when they sang of a “fire in the blood.” 
*     *      *
 Now, on to those random thoughts.   Sometimes it can be a good thing to be late to the party.  I was very, very late to the George R.R. Martin party.  I had not read any of his Ice and Fire novels until HBO began running the Game of Throne series.  I would follow Sean Bean anywhere so I tuned in, and was hooked.   Naturally I then moved on to the books.  But I was spared the endless waits between books, six years for one of them!  And now it has happened again.  I did not watch Downton Abbey when it first aired.   Once I did come to the Downton party, I enjoyed myself enormously.  It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite series, Upstairs, Downstairs.  And no waiting—I can move on to Seasons Two and Three.   I know many of my readers share my fascination with Game of Thrones.   Are many of you fans of Downton Abbey, too?
 I hear there is going to be a television series in the U.K. based up Philippa Gregory’s novels, The Cousins’ War.  And of course the media remains keen on stories about the king in the car park.  I will admit that I hope Sunne benefits from this surge of interest in the Wars of the Roses!  I have already been given a rare opportunity—I was able to make revisions for the new hardcover edition of Sunne coming out in September.  Nothing drastic; Richard still loses at Bosworth Field, I’m sorry to say.  But Sunne was a learning experience for me, it being my first novel, and I subsequently concluded that when it came to writing medieval dialogue, less is more.   I have also written
a new Author’s Note;, for how could I not discuss  the remarkable discovery of Richard’s lost grave.  I will try to include the new Sunne cover in this blog, but no promises, for Melusine has been her usual contrary self lately, joining Demon Spawn on the dark side.  I don’t mean to brag, but I doubt that anyone has the sort of computer troubles that I do.  
April 5, 2013

I am very pleased to be able to interview David Pilling, author of The White Hawk, the first of a trilogy set during the Wars of the Roses, which will follow the shifting fortunes of a family pledged to the House of Lancaster.  So often historical novels focus only upon those at the top of the social pyramid, but the lives of all the English were affected by the power struggles that convulsed England in the 15th century, and David takes us into this interesting, unknown territory.   I admit I have not been able to read The White Hawk, for I’ve had to give up any hopes of having a normal life until Ransom is done, but I did get to read a few chapters, and I was quite impressed.   I think you’ll all enjoy David’s interview, which is highly entertaining. 

  How did you begin writing and what keeps you going?

     I’ve always had ideas for original stories swirling around in my head. The setting of my childhood no doubt helped a great deal – I was brought up in the West Wales countryside, a beautiful area soaked in history (and rain), and spent many years dragging my poor parents up and down ruined castles. Added to that, I always enjoyed creative writing at school, but there was a significant lapse during my teens and early twenties. I started writing short stories again about four years ago and since then the floodgates have opened.

What became of your earliest efforts at writing?

     Either rotting away in a cupboard somewhere, or long since lost in the rubbish. Probably a good thing! My earliest attempt at a full-length novel, a truly awful attempt at fictionalizing the life of William Marshall has gone missing – again, probably a good thing! My second, a slightly less awful effort based on the life of Hereward the Wake, is still extant. And no-one shall ever read it!

   What made you choose the genres and time periods you write in?

      I generally write fiction based in the medieval era, or Tolkien-esque fantasy, and chose those thanks to my lifelong obsession with all things medieval. The first full-length novels I ever read were the Lord of the Rings and TH White’s The Once and Future King. I still rate White’s book as the best version of Arthurian legend I have ever read.

  What parts of the writing process do you most enjoy, and what do you        dislike?

      The creative process is the most enjoyable, particularly those moments where fresh ideas suddenly occur to me, and the putting together of a storyline. The least enjoyable by far is editing and proofreading.  These I find a major headache.

    Historical fiction requires a great deal of research. What is the most  memorable thing you have discovered during this process?

      The research for battle conditions during The Wars of the Roses – the era of my current novel – was both eye-popping and terrifying. How anyone had the courage to stand and fight on a medieval battlefield is beyond me, considering the lack of medical knowledge and the appalling wounds men suffered. Men like the Earl of Wiltshire were accused of cowardice for running away from battles. Personally, I can only empathize with their good sense.

   What is the best piece of writing advice you have received?

      It’s a cliché, but ‘never give up’ is probably the best advice. There are so many naysayers and armchair critics out there. Self-belief and drive are crucial. I have been fortunate in the response to my work so far, but every so often someone does stick the knife in, and it’s often difficult to pretend that doesn’t hurt.

    Tell us something about your current project.

     My current novel, The White Hawk, is the first of a trilogy set during The Wars of the Roses in 15th century England. Book One: Revenge follows the fortunes of a minor gentry family, the Boltons of Staffordshire, in their attempts to survive and prosper in an increasingly brutal and uncertain world. I wanted to weave a story around the contrasting fortunes of individual members of the same family, and how the savage and uncertain politics of the time affected ‘ordinary’ people.

   And finally, what’s next for you?
     
      My next novel, Nowhere Was There Peace, is due to be published by Fireship Press, and I have another story in the pipeline based on the exploits of King Arthur’s (fictional) grandson…

Thank you, David, for a very interesting interview. 

March 22, 2013

I am writing this in memory of my friend Gail Frazer, who wrote her medieval mysteries under the name Margaret Frazer, for she has finally lost her long battle.  Gail was my sister in all the ways that counted.  We were Yorkists, fellow writers, animal lovers, wine lovers, bibliophiles, and shared the same fascination with history.   She was much funnier than me, though, much funnier than the great majority of people on the planet.  I’d not have been surprised to discover that she could trace her descent from Mark Twain. All that irreverence and irony had to come from somewhere, after all.   She could laugh at almost anything, including herself, even death.  She was as courageous as any warrior, fighting cancer for twenty years, giving no quarter. She joked that her mantra was one she’d stolen from Han Solo, “Never tell me the odds!”   She also took a perverse pleasure in defying her doctors, who were, she reported gleefully, baffled that she was still alive.   She rescued stray cats and wayward friends.  She loved fiercely and had no patience with the pompous or the pretentious, skewering writers who did not do their research, describing their sloppy sort of work as “Mary Jane visits the castle.”  
 Her books were a delight to read, for her wit and intelligence shone through on every page.  She was not a Catholic, but don’t tell that to Sister Frevisse, her austere medieval nun, who yearned only to serve God, although Gail kept dragging corpses into her peaceful convent.  Her dashing spy and sometime player, Joliffe, is probably closer to Gail’s own nature, for he took nothing in life all that seriously, especially himself,   She had the imagination to create both chillingly believable villains and the heartbreakingly vulnerable people they victimized.  She was almost as ruthless as George R.R. Martin about killing her characters off; my mother never quite forgave her for The Servant’s Tale.   It would have been fascinating to see what she could have done with Elizabeth of York, the subject of her next novel; Henry Tudor would have been verbally eviscerated before he even knew what was happening. 
Her books are only one of her legacies, though.   She touched so many lives.   She lives on in her sons and in her books and in the memories of all those who loved her, and we are legion.    The world will be a darker place without her.  But for those of you who’ve not yet had the pleasure of reading her novels, there is still time.  And what better way can a writer be remembered than to be read?  

This is a brief holiday blog—to wish you all a Happy New Year.   The new year is getting off to a good start for me with the publication today by Ballantine Books of the American paperback edition of Lionheart and with the publication on Thursday by Macmillan of the British edition of Lionheart.   I will try to include the book covers, though lately my computer has been very uncooperative about agreeing to post photos on my blog, just another of the many ways my computers find to torment me.    This is one of the rare times when I am very happy with all four book covers; that has not always been true in the past.  
I think Here be Dragons was particularly unlucky in this regard.  I was never a fan of the American hardback cover, which showed two figures supposed to be Llywelyn and Joanna in a landscape that looked like the far side of the moon to me, complete with a little flying dragon.  It could have been worse, though.  I was told that when it was first unveiled in the art department, there were murmurs of approval, until a junior editor said, “But in the book, didn’t Llywelyn and Joanna have black hair?”   The artist had made them both flaming redheads.  Since that mistake was caught before I ever saw it, my blood pressure was not affected.    But an early Avon paperback edition of Dragons had Llywelyn looking like Tom Selleck in his Magnum, PI days and Joanna looking like…well, like a wench who had just tumbled out of her lover’s bed, and as the piece de resistance, in the top corner was a depiction of King John, who was a dead ringer for Peter O’Toole in Becket.   Yet that was not the worst.  The first version of the British hardback Dragons was bad enough to give me nightmares, all done in bilious purple and pink, with two hollow-eyed zombies purporting to be Llywelyn and Joanna.  It looked like a medieval version of a poster for Night of the Living Dead.   Fortunately, my British editor had loathed it, too, but had been outvoted by the marketing department, and she was able to get it deep-sixed after the extremely negative reaction from me and both of my agents.   They had to settle hastily for a generic scene of knights on horseback, but that was still such an improvement that I was quite happy to go with bland.  
 I don’t think I have one particular favorite book cover, though I confess to being partial to the hardback edition of Time and Chance because I found that image of a twelfth century lion myself while browsing in the on-line collection of the Cloisters.    Most of them I have liked, although I confess I was not crazy about the hardback edition jacket used by my American publisher for Devil’s Brood.  I was in the minority, and had no real objections to it; it simply did not resonate with me at the time.  But after we visited the chapel in Chinon during my Eleanor tour last year and I got to see the actual twelfth century mural for myself, I found my views changing and now I smile whenever I pick up a copy of Devil’s Brood, for it calls up memories of that very special day.   In terms of my input, I have a lot with Putnam’s and Macmillan has been wonderful, too, about consulting me.  For many years, I had no say in the paperback covers on either side of the Atlantic; I was often not even shown a cover beforehand.    Thankfully that has changed dramatically now with Ballantine, which has been extremely receptive to my ideas, and Macmillan is publishing my books both in hardback and paperback so there is no problem there, either.       
 But I am very happy with Ballantine’s regal lion and Macmillan’s battle-weary king, since I assume he is meant to be Richard, after what was obviously a hard day at the office.       The jacket used by my American publisher, Putnam’s, was taken from a nineteenth century painting depicting Richard and Philippe in the Holy Land, so it is not only visually very compelling, it is historically on-target.   Putnam’s art department deserves much credit for discovering it.    I am already very curious about the book cover for Sunne in Splendour when it gets its rare rebirth in hardback next September in the UK.    Of course I am so pleased that Sunne will be available in hardback after thirty years that they could probably publish it in a brown paper wrapper and I wouldn’t complain—too much.  
 Because of the merciful extension that my publishers have given me for A King’s Ransom, that will mean it will not be published until 2014, as I explained in an earlier Facebook Note.   But I was not going to be able to meet the original deadline, despite my increasingly frantic efforts to do so, so this extension is a blessing for the book and for my peace of mind. 
         So on that happy note, I am signing off, hoping the new year is off to a good start for all of my friends and readers, who happen to be the best readers on the planet.    (You know who you are.)   
January 1, 2013

I am delighted to welcome Margaret Frazer back to my blog. I am a great fan of Margaret’s historical mysteries, as most of you know, and highly recommend her Sister Frevisse series and her newer one, featuring one of my favorite characters, the dashing player and sometimes spy, Joliffe.  But Margaret has temporarily abandoned the fifteenth century.  Her new novel, available now as an e-book, Circle of Witches, is set in nineteenth century Yorkshire.  I was quite intrigued by this switch and so I invited Margaret to stop by so I could find out more.

Sharon: Where did your idea for writing this book come from?

Margaret:  Long, long ago I had unlimited access to a university library and I just plundered the shelves. I wasn’t a student. I was working there. And I had a lovely time just searching the shelves for things that caught my interest.
I got involved in studying megalithic circles and standing stones, which sidelined me into books about paganism and alternative ways of seeing our relationship with nature. I remember reading countless books on these topics. And out of this began to grow the idea that these were all good elements for a story. At the same time, I had a deep love for the Yorkshire dales. So I thought that would be a good place to set a story like this: It wouldn’t be modern, but it wouldn’t be far in the past. It would be some place where the transition was happening: Where the ancient world and ancient beliefs were just about gone and the modern world had not yet arrived.

Sharon:  Is that what led you to pick the 1800s as a time period?

Margaret:  Yes. Because they were well past the point where people were saying things like “burn the witches”, but there was still the possibility in the remote areas that the old ways could continue seriously instead of as folk parties designed for tourists to come to.

Sharon:  Speaking of these ancient religious themes versus modern religious themes, the religious themes in Circle of Witches are very different from those in your Dame Frevisse novels. How do you think your readers are going to react to that?

Margaret:  I hope they’ll be intrigued by the differences. I know that a lot of people reading my other books are convinced that I must be Catholic because I create such believable Benedictine nuns, but I’m not. This is simply – or not so simply – an author researching and using imagination to create what they believe to be a real person. And I’ve met nuns who have said, “She’s so real. And all the nuns are so real.” So I know that it worked.
But it’s true. For those who are convinced that this was my primary expression of faith, they’re going to be very intrigued – and perhaps a little disoriented – when I’m talking about a totally different mindset that I’ve research and imagined and created and made real. So I’m hoping that they’ll appreciate the different, for lack of a better word, ambience of the two approaches.

Sharon:  Was it a deliberate choice? Were you deliberately making it different from what you did before?

Margaret:  No, it wasn’t deliberate. It was simply what the story required. If I was interested in this theme and this was the plot I was working on, then this was the way the story had to go. It wasn’t, “I’m going to be very different in this book.” It was simply what the book demanded.

Sharon: You mention the themes and the historical aspects of the time period you’ve chosen in the 1800s. But why this particular location? Why the Yorkshire dales?

Margaret:  I visited the dales several times and once lived there for six months. It’s beautiful. And in the 1800s – especially the early 1800s – it was still a remote part of England. The railways had not come. So the landscape had so many elements in it that make it perfect for centering this story around.
And there was also a simple desire to write about it as a way to re-experience a place I love and care about deeply. So, in some ways, the book is my song of the Yorkshire dales.

Sharon: I know that this is a novel that you came back to time and time again until it was perfect. How did it change and grow over time for you?

Margaret:  Well, I grew and changed over time, so my perception of characters – of people’s relationships to each other and to themselves and to the world – became more complex and hopefully deeper. So things that had been all right when I was in my thirties I wanted to express more of when I was in my forties and fifties. There was more to be said and more to be done. And once you do that all of a sudden there are possibilities in the plot that hadn’t existed when these people weren’t so involved (both internally and externally).

Sharon: What’s the most important idea in the book for you?

Margaret:  I have to think about that… [long pause, then thoughtfully]That love of place and people should most deeply inform our decisions about life.
 
Sharon:  How have the love of place and people informed your decisions about life?

Margaret: I suppose, when I was in my teens, I fell in love with Shakespeare’s plays. That led to falling in love with England before I ever went there. And it was wonderful when I got there to discover that it was even better than my youthful dreams had envisioned. From there, I fell in love with English history in the 1400s, so that a great deal of my life and my travels have been focused around knowing that time period and knowing that place more intimately.
And my love of people – or, at least, certain people – has given me a deeper understanding of how lives link in order to benefit or harm each other. So I have this love among people and loves of a place and time. And when you love you want to know more. So for decades that’s what’s been informing my life and my work. To explore and to learn.

Sharon:  Do you see parallels between that and the characters in Circle of Witches? Do you see yourself in the character of Damaris?

Margaret:  It’s always been diverting for people to say, “Oh, you see yourself as your main character!” Whoever that might be in the present book. But the truth is, I’m in all of those characters. In order to write believable characters, I have to find some element of myself that I can then explore and enlarge and turn into this person on the page.

So, Damaris? Yes. But also everyone else in the book: The loving ones, the destructive ones, the foolish ones. They all have elements of me. Without that they would be… unliving.
Of course, when it’s someone really nasty sometimes you find things out about yourself you didn’t really want to know! [laughs]

Sharon:  Speaking of that, let’s talk about the villainess of Circle of Witches – the platinum blonde Virna. What do you see of yourself in her?

Margaret:  I have experienced hatred born out of frustration or anger. It’s never led me to try to destroy someone, but it burns and it hurts and it’s terrible. And if you’re lucky, you realize how destructive it is. I did. And I worked at… disposing of the anger in me; turning it into something else and accepting the situation and the people who had given rise to it.
But in Virna’s case, she never does. She hates and that’s all she becomes: Her hatred.
And I can see myself in that: If I had taken that feeling of hatred that I experienced and let it take over my life, that would have been Virna.

Sharon:  But for those of us who love your medieval books, you will be going back there, right?

Margaret:  Most certainly! The two books I’m working on now – the ones roiling in my head – are both back in the 1400s: Not history mysteries, but straight historical fiction.

Sharon:  And for those who have enjoyed your medieval stories, does Circle of Witches have something to offer them?

Margaret:  Oh, yes! It’s an extremely good, exciting story
that you can lose yourself in. Which is, I suppose, what I hope for in everything I write. And what I look for in everything that I read.

Sharon:  Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview, Margaret.   Circle of Witches is available now on Amazon.   And I discovered that you have a new collection of Sister Frevisse stories out in Kindle, too, Sins of the Blood.  Naturally I could not resist getting it, too.  So once again you are playing havoc with my deadline for A King’s Ransom!  Here is the Amazon link to Circle of Witches.  http://www.amazon.com/Circle-of-Witches-ebook/dp/B00AG3KGFK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355629529&sr=1-1&keywords=Circle+of+Witches  
 And since I won’t have another blog up until the new year, I would like to wish all of my readers a peaceful and happy holiday, with fervent hope that 2013 will be a better year for us all.
December 15, 2012  
 

I am very pleased to welcome Priscilla Royal to my blog for
a discussion of her newest novel, The Sanctity of Hate.  In the interest of full disclosure, I want to
reveal that Priscilla is a friend of mine. 
She is also a very talented writer. 
She has an impressive understanding of the medieval world; while reading
one of her novels, you never doubt that her characters are men and women of the
thirteenth century.  No Plantagenets in
Pasadena in any of Priscilla’s books! 
Her people are wonderfully three-dimensional, too, with all of the
virtues and flaws of people everywhere.  
Stir this mix with a suspenseful plot line and the result is always a
book almost impossible to put down—at least for those of us who are fascinated
in history, who understand that our past was someone else’s present. (Thank
you, David McCullough, for that)    So….here is Priscilla Royal. 

Tell us about your
newest book.

The Sanctity of Hate
will be out soon, early December, in trade paper, hardcover, audio, and
e-reader formats. Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas are back at Tyndal Priory
after the events in A Killing Season.
It is the summer of 1276 and quite bucolic, until the body of an unpopular man
is found floating in the priory mill pond. No one mourns this death, and the
villagers do not want one of their own found guilty. Coincidentally, a Jewish
family is stranded at the inn, refugees under the relocation provisions of
Edward I’s Statute of Jewry signed in late 1275. The wife is about to give
birth and is in obvious distress. Concluding that the rumored crime details
conform to the usual anti-Semitic myths, the villagers decide that a member of
this family is the most likely killer. Prioress Eleanor, Brother Thomas, and
Crowner Ralf are not so easily convinced but must act swiftly to find the true
murderer before the family is simply condemned by popular choice.

Anti-Semitism was
prevalent at the time. How did you deal with this?

Not easily! But I wanted to recreate the complexity of the
moment while respecting the era. To do that, I kept one thing in mind which my
research did support. The farther we are from an historical incident, the more
we tend to simplify it. We forget or lose documentation of so many opinions and
nuances of the time. Some things are never even recorded. As a more current
example, I’ve heard some insist that the internment of Americans with Japanese
ancestry during WW II was necessary, unavoidable, and everyone agreed with it.
Fortunately, we still have documentation proving otherwise. But in five hundred
years, how will we see this event? Will we lose the evidence that many
protested the injustice, or will we forget the unthinking panic that created
the law? No matter what, we will simplify the circumstances and see that event
as more one-sided than it was. Medieval anti-Semitism is similar. Relations
between Christians and Jews were not simple Yes, there was an overriding
prevalence of anti-Semitism, but there were also Christians who tried to
protect Jewish families against mobs, respected their education and skills, and
befriended them. Nor was conversion all one way. There may not be a lot of recorded
instances, but Christians did convert to Judaism, often because of
intermarriage. The most interesting convert was a priest, not of Jewish
ancestry, who was then persuaded to recant, went back to Judaism, and was
finally burned at the stake when he utterly rejected Christianity. 

How did your primary
characters respond to Jacob ben Asher and his family?

I wanted them to show a range of reactions. Prioress Eleanor
had the hardest time. She’s a true believer and grieves that this family cannot
“see the error of their faith”. Brother Thomas, as an outsider and one who
freely argues with his deity, feels a kinship with the family although he, too,
never doubts that Christianity is the right belief system. A difficult birth
tends to bring good women together no matter what their faith. And Crowner Ralf
doesn’t care what anyone claims to believe. He just wants to hang the right
person. In deciding how each of these characters would act, I considered their
psychology, history, and the nature of their faith. It’s also important to
remember that we’ve always found justification for what we want to do or what
we think is right within the tenets of our belief system. During the debates
over slavery in this country, we used Christianity to support the conclusion
that slavery was wrong as well as the argument it was God’s will. Prioress
Eleanor and Brother Thomas find a way, within the logic provided Christians at
the time, to act with the compassion their nature demands.

You have said that
each of your books presents you with a different challenge. What was it in The
Sanctity of Hate?

Writing from a Jewish perspective. Although I did not grow
up in a church-going family, my ancestral heritage is also not Jewish. That
means I probably have blind spots and assumptions, many quite subconscious.
While I was thinking about this book, I read Mitchell J. Kaplan’s historical
novel, By Fire, By Water, which deals
with the expulsion from Spain
in 1492 of Jewish families. In one scene, he describes the refugees on the roads
to the ports that might take some to family members abroad while others had no
idea where they were going. Despite all the WW II films I’ve seen, documentary
and otherwise, and personal stories I have read of survival, near-misses, and
tragedies, I found Kaplan’s description uniquely powerful. Here were people
whose ancestors had suffered so much uprooting and violence for hundreds of
years that the knowledge of it must almost be stamped on the DNA. So I wanted
to create a family in that kind of situation, knowing that they can never
completely trust the world to be safe. And I wanted to do it with the respect
the experience deserves. Hopefully, my fictional family conveys the humor,
courage, creativity, and resilience that such survival requires.

What was the most
enjoyable part of writing this story?

The research required on Jewish history in medieval England was
fascinating. I won’t list the books because they are in the bibliography, but I
still have a stack on my bedside table that I can hardly wait to get into. The
other fun bit of research was medieval beekeeping. I have a friend who is a
local beekeeper, answered all my dumb questions, and loaned me books on the
history of honey harvesting. I learned that the medieval English bee was dark,
hairy, and larger than the black/gold one we are most familiar with. I found
that utterly charming!

What are you working
on next?

I just started putting ideas together for a medieval spy
story. There were spies at the time, but the organized system put together by
Walsingham under Elizabeth
I did not seem to exist. Of course, Brother Thomas has done his stint as a mole
for the Church, but this next story involves secular ones. As I often do, I
came late to the spy genre, but I fell in love with Le Carre’s novels about
Smiley and Alec Guinness in Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier Spy. No title yet, but I am having fun thinking about
possible characters.

How can readers
contact you?

Should anyone have questions about my books, they can reach
me through my website at www.priscillaroyal.com.
And I am one of several mystery writers blogging on The Lady Killers at
www.theladykillers.typepad.com.

Thank you so much, Sharon,
for inviting me to post on your blog. You have taught me so much about
research, and your beautifully written books have long been an inspiration. I
am very grateful.

Thank you, Priscilla, for agreeing to this interview.   It has been a pleasure, as usual.  And I forgive you for causing me to lose
precious sleep this past week.  Until I
finish A King’s Ransom, the only time I have for reading is after I’ve gone to
bed.  I am two-thirds of the way through
The Sanctity of Hate and I’ve found myself reading later and later into the
night, thinking “One more chapter, just one more.”   Of course I pay the price for that the next
morning, but The Sanctity of Hate is worth it. 
 

November 24,  2012

Some of you may remember a few years ago when six-word memoirs became the rage. Supposedly this trend could be traced to an anecdote about Ernest Hemingway. Challenged to write a short story in just six words, he sat down and scribbled: “For sale, baby shoes. Never worn.” Whether that was true or not, many people were inspired to take a shot at it, and at least one book of their split-second memoirs was published. I thought it might be fun to try it for historical figures. But first let me give you some examples from Six-word Memoirs. They are funny, ironic, wry, poignant, tragic, playful, disillusioned, clever — in other words, they run the gambit of human emotions.
Here are some I found sad: “I still make coffee for two.” “I like girls. Girls like boys.” “I hope to outlive my regrets.” “Everyone who loved me is dead.” “Was father. Boys died. Still sad.” “So devastated. No babies for me.” “Coulda, woulda, shoulda. A regretful life.”
Here are some I thought were clever or amusing or thought-provoking. “Verbal hemophilia; why can’t I clot?’ “Woman seeks men; high pain threshold.” “Perpetual work in progress. Need editor.” “Memory was my drug of choice.” “Came, saw, conquered. Had second thoughts.” “Always working on the next chapter.” “Lapsed Catholic. Failed poet. Unpublished prayers.” “Like an angel. The fallen kind.” “Giraffe born to a farm family.” “Tried not believing everything I thought.” “The militant who became a monk.”
Okay, everyone ready to play? How about this one for Henry II, a bit trite but true: “Happier if I’d had only daughters.” Or Richard, musing on his deathbed at Chalus. “Damn! Should have worn my armor.” Eleanor: “Rebellion? Probably not a good idea.” John: “Why do people not trust me?” Hal: “I was king; no one cared.” Geoffrey: “I was always the forgotten son.” Thomas Becket: “A saint now. I win, Henry.” The Empress Maude: “I was cheated of my destiny.” Eleanor and Henry’s daughter, Leonora: “I couldn’t live without my husband.” Berengaria: “If only I’d had a child.” Joanna: “I found love, but too late.” The French king Philippe: “God rot all those accursed Angevins.” His unhappy queen, Ingeborg: “Why did I ever leave Denmark?” King Stephen: “The crown brought me little happiness.” Here’s another one for Henry, which probably crossed his mind during his last days at Chinon: “Betrayed by all whom I loved.” Rosamund Clifford: “Loved by Henry, forgiven by God.” Henry’s illegitimate son Geoff, the Archbishop of York: “I never wanted to take vows!” Richard again, “The Lionheart legend lives on, Philippe!” Eleanor: “A mother shouldn’t outlive her children.” Geoffrey of Anjou, who died within a month after Bernard of Clairvaux prophesied his death: “Don’t get Bernard gloat about this.” Or Maude again, maybe wistfully this time: “I’d have been a good queen.” Her brother Robert, barred by illegitimacy from the throne: “I’d have been a better king.” And I’m going to cheat now and give John the last word, this one from Here Be Dragons: “I always knew I’d die alone.”
Moving on to Llywelyn Fawr: “Poor Wales, so close to England.” Joanna: “I loved him; he forgave me.” William de Braose, who was hanged by Llywelyn for his infidelity with Joanna: “Hellfire, no woman is worth this.” Llywelyn’s son Gruffydd, about to escape from the Tower: “Now if only the sheet holds.” Llywelyn’s grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: “God help Wales once I’m dead.” His wife, Ellen de Montfort: “But we had so little time together.” Their daughter Gwenllian: “Tell me, please, where is Wales?” Davydd ap Gruffydd: “Could not live with my regrets.” His wife Elizabeth de Ferrers: “My crime? That I loved Davydd.” Their son Owen, imprisoned from the age of three by Edward: “Why am I being held here?”
Edward I: “For me, more was never enough.” Henry III: “Westminster Abbey was my true legacy.” Simon de Montfort: “I died for a just cause.” Also, “My brother-in-law was such a fool.” His wife, Nell: “I’d do it all over again.” Their son Bran: “Never enough wine to drown memories.” Guy de Montfort, who committed suicide in a Sicilian dungeon after Edward I blocked a ransom: “Please God, let me go mad.”
Edward IV: “Burned my candle at both ends.” Richard III: “Please bury me at York Minster.” Anne Neville: “I wanted Middleham, not Westminster Palace.” Elizabeth Woodville: “I should have known-damn Edward!” Edmund, 17 year old Earl of Rutland: “This cannot be happening to me.” Marguerite d’Anjou: “My life? Much grief, few joys.” Cecily Neville: “My life? It lasted too long.” Elizabeth of York: “My life? I did my duty.” Henry Tudor: “Tudors lay claim to Hollywood next.” George of Clarence: “What’s that? A butt of malmsey?”
Okay, how about everyone else giving it a try? You can choose any historical character, though Henry VIII and his wives might be too easy. You can write your own memoirs instead, if you wish. (You may notice that I cravenly ducked that one.) Have fun.
October 21, 2012

Sharon: I’m
delighted to welcome back award-winning author Jeri Westerson to talk about her
upcoming medieval mystery BLOOD LANCE. For those of you unfamiliar with her
work, Jeri takes a different approach to her medieval novels. She employs the
tropes of the hard-boiled detective fiction of a Dashiell Hammett or Raymond
Chandler and re-imagines it in the fourteenth century. What was the idea behind
this for your “medieval noir” series and how exactly does it work?

Jeri: The need to
do something different, I suppose. What was going to make my series stand out above the outstanding series that were already
out there? And when I was developing these novels, I happened to have been
reading a lot of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. It just got me to
thinking about why couldn’t I incorporate some of the same tropes that you
might see in a hard-boiled mystery: the hard-drinking, tough-talking detective
with a chip on his shoulder, the dames in trouble, the corruption of officials,
the darker aspects of crime, the PI with his own code of honor. I felt it
translated very well to a detective who was a disgraced knight. Some things are
pretty universal, and the human condition, our greed, poverty, jealousy, lust,
go hand in hand in a murder story whether that story plays out in the 1940s or
1380s. But having said that, it is indeed a medieval story without anachronisms
in speech, motivations, or messing with history. It’s just my “what if?” What
if a man with his skill set found himself adrift on the streets of London? What
could he do to satisfy honor and make a living?          

Sharon: We talked
about your main character before, Crispin Guest. Why do you think this kind of
somewhat hang-dog character appeals to readers?

Jeri: Well, he is
a man of his time but some of his attitudes are also timeless. He should be a
broken man with all that’s happened to him but he isn’t. He stands alone, and
readers, male readers particularly, find this appealing, just as they found the
characters John Wayne portrayed appealing in the same way. He doesn’t take any
crap, he keeps his honor intact even through adversity. Woman find him
appealing because they want to save and redeem him…plus he’s a sexy beast.

Sharon: One would
think that this approach to writing a medieval piece the author would have to
disregard the history aspect.

Jeri: Not at all!
I am well aware that those readers who like history with their mystery demand
authenticity and accuracy when it comes to the history. That’s why they enjoy
reading historical mysteries. I’ve been told time and again—as I’m sure you have—that they like to learn about
the time period when they are reading the fiction. There are political aspects
at play in my books and I try to be as accurate as I can when I include them in
the plots without degenerating into a thesis. I try to keep it lively and
energetic with a clever mystery to keep another ball in the air. But if you aren’t
willing to stick to the history, why write it? 
  

Sharon: BLOOD
LANCE is the fifth book in your series. I’ve noticed that each book seems to
highlight a religious relic. Tell us about that.

Jeri: When I
started to plot out the series and to really figure out how to write a mystery
(since I started out writing historical fiction with no publishing success), I
studied hard-boiled mysteries, and one of the books I literally took apart to
figure out how to write one, was Dashiell Hammett’s wonderful THE MALTESE
FALCON. The falcon in the book is the McGuffin. Alfred Hitchcock coined that
term. It means the thing that the plot turns on, that starts the action. It can
actually be interchangeable with anything, anything at all, because in the long
run of the plot, it really isn’t important. But it nevertheless begins a sort
of chase to get it…before the bad guy does. I felt this added a fun element to
the story. And by making it a religious relic or venerated object, it also
added an ambivalently mystical quality to the twists in the plot. But unlike
the ordinary McGuffin that is not important to the story except as a means of
starting off the action, sometimes my relic is. That keeps it from becoming
formulaic, to my mind.    

Sharon: What is
the relic in BLOOD LANCE? And how do you decide what relic to use? Does the
relic come first, or the plot?

Jeri: The relic
usually comes first, though it depends on how I can wind around the history at
the time of the story. So once I’ve established the relic it presents a plot to
me. The relic in this instance is the Spear of Longinus. This was supposedly
the spear with which the Centurion Longinus pierced the side of Christ while he
hung on the cross. Like most relics from the time period, it has a long and
varied history, which makes it fun—and possible—to have it turn up when I need
them.    

Sharon: Did I
hear mention of jousting in this book?

Jeri: Yes! Being
a big fan of medieval weaponry and of knighthood, I wanted a book with jousting
in it. It’s all very formalized. I am fortunate that I have gotten to know men
who actually do competitive jousting—yes, even today!—and who teach sword
craft. I was afforded the opportunity to wear armor and even sit on a destrier,
a 2,000 pound Percheron, with a lance in my hand to really get the feel of it. I
also got a firsthand lesson on long sword fighting. I do love my hands-on research!

When I was studying about jousting in England, I read that
there had been jousts on London Bridge, so I decided to put that in the book.
In fact, a great deal of the action is set on London Bridge in this novel and
it almost becomes a character in itself. I know most people, when they picture
London Bridge think of a simple stone structure spanning the Thames, but it was
like a little city within a city. It had houses and shops and even a chapel
right there built along its span.

Without giving anything away, the joust becomes the exciting
climax to the story.   

Sharon:  Give us the “elevator pitch” of the novel.

Jeri: Crispin
witnesses a body hurtling from the uppermost reaches of London
Bridge. Whispers on the street claim it’s suicide, but Crispin insists
otherwise. Now he’s caught between rebellious factions in King Richard’s court,
Spanish spies, murderous knights, an old friend’s honor, and the true ownership
of the Holy Spear of Longinus, culminating in a deadly joust on London Bridge.

Sharon: What’s
next for you?

Jeri: Next fall
will see the release of Crispin number six, SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST, where Perenelle,
the wife of French alchemist Nicholas Flamel, has been kidnapped, and the
culprit wants Flamel’s most prized creation, the Philosopher’s Stone. There is
more here than a simple abduction. What follows is a chase down the shadowy
streets of London, and a deadly game between men who know the secrets of
poisons and purges, sorcery and forbidden sciences.

Take a look at the awesome Crispin series book trailer, book
discussion guides, my appearance schedule to see if I’ll be in your home town,
and other fun stuff on my website www.JeriWesterson.com;
you can see my blog of history and mystery at www.Getting-Medieval.com; and you
can read Crispin’s blog at www.jeriwesterson.com/crispins-blog.
You can also friend Crispin on his Facebook page or follow me on Twitter.

Sharon: Thank you
for sharing with us, Jeri.  I am looking
forward to reading Blood Lance.

Jeri: Thanks again
for having me, Sharon!

September 29, 2012