Category: Arthurian Legend

Posted on

Interview with Jeri Westerson

Please welcome Jeri Westerson, who writes a medieval mystery series with lots of British myth, characters and landscapes.

blood lanceWould you please tell us about your latest book?

BLOOD LANCE is the fifth book in the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir mysteries where our hero/detective Crispin Guest—a slave to his personal honor—gets talked into finding a lost relic that an old friend in distress is looking for, must investigate a murder that everyone else wants to call a suicide, gets involved with a beautiful woman who means trouble, runs into Spanish spies, court intrigue, and Geoffrey Chaucer, that all culminates in a deadly joust on London Bridge.

What made you interested in writing this particular story?

Because Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight turned detective, he holds his personal honor dear. He lost his title, status, wealth and place in the world because he committed treason…for a good cause. (He lost all but his life) He hasn’t been a knight for ten years, but I still wanted to bring knightly attitudes and fighting into the book. And because Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been in the news lately, I thought I’d research it to see if PTSD is a modern phenomenon or has been with us since war began. There is some information on knights fleeing battles and talk about “cowardice” which was their only explanation at the time. So I decided to make one of Crispin’s old friends a knight with PTSD, desperate to get his hands on this missing relic that he believes will help him. All of Crispin’s chivalric training comes to bear here. Including London Bridge (which many readers were surely unaware contained houses and shops) just added another interesting element. The joust that happens on London Bridge has its precedence in the time period. Maybe not this particular joust but at least one did happen on the bridge.

jeri_westerson_1 (2)What does a typical writing day look like?

I get up and try to take care of necessary business at  7 am: emails, blogging, Facebooking, and Twitter first thing. Promotion is a necessary evil and it seems to drag more and more of my energy away from writing time. Keeping a balance between that business of writing and actual writing is tough these days.

But when that’s finally out of the way, I can sit down and get to my manuscript. I read over what I wrote the day before, editing as I go, and then plunge into the new work of the day. I make myself do a minimum of ten pages a day. They don’t have to be a good ten pages but they have to be at least ten. Theoretically, by the end of a month, I should have a finished first draft. It never ends up that way, because I may have to stop and do some research, or do a promotional event that day, or any number of other distractions. I’m usually done with a first draft these days in three months, and that includes the first month of writing the outline and doing some initial research (because although I have a pretty good handle on the day to day life and history of fourteenth century London, there are always real people, real history, and a new relic to research for each story). So I start writing around 9 am and am usually done or mentally spent by about 3 pm. Though sometimes I skip a lot of time in the middle and work later at night. I quit my day job a few years ago (which might have been premature, but I didn’t think it was going to be possible for me to produce three books in three different genres a year, short stories, and do all my promo while also stuck at a job that was just a job. But money is nice to pay bills with, too.) so I can write all day. Once I have a first draft I do a lot more editing and rewriting. Then it goes to my husband to read and more editing; then to my critique group for more of the same; then to my agent for yet more fine tuning; and finally to my editor for even more tweaking.   

Tell us about your main character’s psyche or personality. What led her (or him) to be the person s/he is today?

Crispin is complex. He’s noble to the core. And he defined himself by his nobility. He knew his place in the world because he was born to it. When he lost it all he was truly set adrift. Knowing he was guilty, knowing what he did was right at the time, doesn’t help him now. He had to make his own way in the world, stripped of all that he knew. He reinvents himself as the “Tracker,” a man who is hired to find things. When he stumbles upon murder he feels obliged by his knightly upbringing to see justice done.

He still has a hard time reconciling his current status living on the Shambles, the butcher’s district in London, to the courtly life and lands he once enjoyed, and he is naturally bitter, especially because he knows it’s his own fault.

Some years earlier, he reluctantly took in an orphaned street urchin, a young cutpurse named Jack Tucker, who insinuated himself into Crispin’s life as his servant and now serves as an “apprentice Tracker.” Their relationship is like a father and son, two people from two different worlds, but cleaving together for emotional and financial support. They get into trouble and adventures together, with sometimes the apprentice teaching the master a thing or two.  

What advice do you have for writers who have not yet been published?

Do your homework. Learn about your industry and the genre you write. Join professional organizations so you can network with authors in your genre so you don’t make amateur mistakes. Do a lot of listening and heeding advice. Believe me, you do not know it all and you will waste precious time and money if you don’t learn the ropes and pay your dues first.

Realize that this is not a money-making career. Less than one tenth of one percent of authors ever make a decent living at this, or any kind of living at all. Don’t quit your day job!

What are you working on right now?

The next Crispin adventure will be released October 15 of this year, SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST; Perenelle, the wife of infamous alchemist Nicholas Flamel, has been kidnapped and the culprit wants his most prized creation, the Philosopher’s Stone. Flamel’s assistant is murdered and ancient symbols turn up on walls and carved on stones throughout London. Crispin must decipher them in a strange treasure hunt to find the man responsible. What follows is a chase down the shadowy streets of London, between men who know the secrets of poisons and purges, sorcery and forbidden sciences. With the help of Flamel’s deaf mute servant Avelyn and the indomitable Jack Tucker, Crispin races against time to save Perenelle from disaster, and the Philosopher’s Stone from falling into the wrong hands.  

I’m also working on a Young Adult series with Jack Tucker. And right now I’m working an entirely new contemporary paranormal series with humor and adventure when a feisty female protagonist in a small New England village is forced to hunt down and capture creatures who have escaped out of an ancient book, with the help of a dark and sexy demon, the local coven of Wiccans, and the handsome sheriff.

In the meantime, people can read about my Crispin books, see the series book trailer, and read Crispin’s own blog and book discussion guides on my website at www.JeriWesterson.com. 

 

Posted on

Interview–Mary Gillgannon

Imagine my delight on discovering another great book about Olde England. I mean really old. Mary Gillgannon’s last book is about the Celts, one of my favorite topics, and I know many of you can’t resist a good book about the Druids.

Would you please tell us a little about yourself?

MaryI’ve been writing fiction for almost twenty years, and I’ve published twelve historical romances, mostly in the dark age and medieval time periods. I’ve also written two fantasies, The Silver Wheel, which is an historical fantasy, and a book I call “chick lit fantasy” in which my modern heroine travels to bronze age Europe.

Would you please tell us about your latest book?

The Silver Wheel tells the story of the Roman conquest of Britain from the Celtic viewpoint. As the Romans threaten to overrun Britain and conquer her people, Sirona, a young Druid-in-training in Wales, begins having visions. Desperate to discover what the gods intend for her, she joins her fellow student Cruthin in a sex magic ceremony. Their flaunting of druid rules results in both of them being banished, and Sirona sets off on a perilous journey to the north. Five years later, Sirona begins to understand what her visions mean. Determined to change the course of history, she travels to warn the Iceni queen Boudica of the danger to come. But when Boudica refuses to listen, Sirona is forced to risk her life and her immortal spirit to save her people.

What inspired you to write this novel?

TheSilverWheel2_850I originally became interested in the story of the Romans in Britain when I read about a body found preserved in a peat bog near Lindow, England. The body was of a healthy, aristocratic young man who had been strangled, bludgeoned, had his throat cut and then was pushed into the bog. Because the body dates from the time of the Roman conquest in the early first century, some researchers surmise that this man was offered as a sacrifice to petition the Celtic deities to aid the British in their battle against the invaders. Reading about this discovery immediately started all sorts of plot ideas spinning in my mind.   

What does a typical writing day look like?

My writing is mostly done in the morning. After checking email and internet stuff, I usually write for an hour or two before heading off to my job at the local public library. (A great job for a writer!) On weekends I may put more time in, but I also help my husband with his business and try to “have a life”, so I usually don’t write more than fifteen hours a week. It’s a slow but steady pace.

Can you describe your writing process?

I’m an “into the mist” writer, which means I don’t really plot. Once my characters “come to me”, I just start writing and see what happens. Scenes sort of appear to me out of the mist. If they don’t and I get stuck, I mull things over, often in the middle of the night, until I “see” the next scene.  It’s not a very efficient process, but it’s the only method that really works for me. I used to write the first draft a lot faster, but then ended up doing a lot of revising. Now I go slower and let the story happen at its own pace. If I do this, my first draft is usually pretty clean, unlike The Silver Wheel, which I wrote pretty fast but then revised five different times over ten years. It definitely was the most challenging book I’ve written.

How did you prepare to write about the book’s specific area or field of study?

I did a lot of research on the Druids and Celtic mystical belief, as well as reading the historical accounts of the time period (all written by the Romans). I’ve always been fascinated with this era and Celtic culture in general, so I enjoyed that part of it. 

How did you come up with your title?

The book was originally called When The Sky Falls because a famous Celtic chieftain was quoted as saying that he did not fear death or anything on this earth, only “the sky falling”, presumably referring to the end of the world. That perspective (and most of my first draft) just seemed too negative and pessimistic, so I changed it. The “silver wheel” refers to both the goddess Arianhrod, who is associated with the moon and the silver wheel of the night sky that affects human destiny, and also the magic Sirona uses at the end of the book to save her people.

What advice do you have for writers who have not yet been published?

The publishing world is very competitive and getting more so all the time. You have to faith in your vision, your unique voice, viewpoint and stories. That’s really the only thing that can set you apart from other writers and bring you success. You also really have to have a passion for writing, as well as tenacity and determination.

Excluding family, name three people who either inspired you or influenced your creativity. 

Jim Morrison was a huge influence on me as an adolescent. He was a poet as well as a singer/songwriter and his passion for words inspired me to read even more widely than I already did and to take my first steps as a writer. Morgan Llywelyn and Mary Stewart both influenced me a great deal because of the time periods and worlds they wrote about. 

If your book were chocolate, what kind would it be and why?

It would be dark chocolate (which I don’t personally like). It is an intense and often dark story, but also (I hope) rich and satisfying.

Tell us about your main character’s psyche or personality. What led her (or him) to be the person s/he is today?  

Because of something mystical that happened to her when she was a toddler, Sirona ends up training to be a Learned One/Drui from a very early age. She is also born with a special connection to the spiritual world and magical abilities, although those gifts don’t start to manifest themselves until she reaches adolescence when the book begins. 

Describe your protagonist as a mash-up of three famous people or characters.

She’s a seer and has magical abilities like Merlin, a priestess like Morgaine and the savior of her people like King Arthur.

If you could host a magical dinner party, who are the six people (living or otherwise) you’d include?

The three writers who influenced I mentioned previously, plus F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe (I think she had a great spirit) and William Shakespeare. Three men and three women, a nice balanced dinner party.

What are you working on right now?

I’ve almost finished the first draft of a reincarnation romance set mostly in modern Denver, but with characters who also lived in 6th century Ireland.

Learn more about Mary at http://marygillgannon.com

Posted on

Interview with S.P. Hendrick, author of The Glastonbury Chronicles

When I saw that S. P. Hendrick had written a series called “The Glastonbury Chronicles,” I was so happy to have more to read about one of my favorite sacred sites in the world, so I invited her to drop by and tell us about the series, the latest book in it and her other work. Please welcome S.P. Hendrick.

Would you please tell us a little about yourself?

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English from San Fernando Valley State College which is now California State University at Northridge.  I also studied at UCLA Extension, taking classes in Television writing.  My first TV script, which was for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., was on the story editor’s desk when the show was cancelled.   Under the nom de plume Jennifer Starkey I did publicity for such rock groups as Buffalo Springfield (you can find my photo with Neil Young, Stephen Stills and the rest of the group in their boxed CD set) and others.  During that period and under that name I was a columnist for Teen Life, a national magazine, and my first novel, Sunset Offramp was published. 

In 1991 my husband Jay Mayer and I went to a gathering in Millom, England and met my future publisher, Peter Paddon (Pendraig Publishing).  I returned to Britain in 1994 to research the first volume of “The Glastonbury Chronicles”, Uneasy Lies The Head, and visited him in Luton while I was there, sending him a draft of the book when it was finished.  He replied that if he ever got around to publishing fiction, he would love to publish it.

A few years later he came over for a visit, fell in love with our housemate, Linda, and moved over here to marry her.  By 2010 he had decided to begin publishing fiction and took on not only that book, but my other series “Tales of the Dearg-Sidhe” and its first Volume, Son of Air and Darkness. The two series dovetail, though one takes place in the future and the other begins in the distant past, for the heroes of one series keep reincarnating together , while the hero of the other series is an immortal, and their lives are constantly crossing.

Would you please tell us about your latest book?

Volume VI of The Glastonbury Chronicles, The Barley And The Rose, finds the protagonists as Arthur and Gavin, son of the King of Britannia and Lord Tyrell, Prime Minister.  After the first five volumes in which they and the King’s Companions, Knights of the Order of the Sword and the Rose (an ancient Pagan Order which preserves the arcane history of the lineage of the Sacred Kings whose blood and bloodline preserve the Land and its people) this volume finds them far in the future on the last outpost of the British Empire, a distant planet called Britannia.  This time they are born remembering all that has gone before them instead of the way it has been in the past, when something triggers their Awakening.  The two are telepathic with each other, their bond stronger than that of brothers, for they have lived and died together throughout history, throughout legend. 

An ancient evil, one they recall from the far past on long-lost Earth, one they had believed to have died with their home world, has begun to make its presence known on a planet once more peaceful following years of revolution.   Can they, aided by Dubhghall, the immortal foster-son of the ancient Goddess Morrigan, stave off this new threat, or will their foe put an end to everything they have known and sink the Universe into eternal darkness?

What inspired you to write this novel?

I had no choice.  These characters announced they were back, they had a new adventure, and it was time for me to start writing it down as they dictated it to me.

What does a typical writing day look like?

There is no typical writing day.  Each day is different.  It is not unusual for me to be awakened in the middle of the night with “The Lads” as I have learned to call them, chattering away in my head and chiding me for sleeping when I should be at the keyboard writing.   Sometimes it is in the daylight, sometimes the TV is on in the background, sometimes it is dead silence.  The first book was written with black pen on lined yellow paper.   Somewhere along the line I learned to compose on the computer and it now flows more easily that way.

Can you describe your writing process?

There is an initial “What if” and an examination of history for odd facts and people my characters might have been in prior incarnations.  Then there’s the connecting of the dots in the same manner an ancient astronomer might have looked at the night sky to form pictures associated with mythology.  And then I listen to the characters, most of whom I have been living with since about 1994 in some form or another.

How did you prepare to write about the book’s specific area or field of study?

I read history and mythology, then try to visit as many of the places which actually exist as I can.  For the future history I try not to step on the toes of the past, but to echo it, as cycles keep repeating themselves over and over throughout time.  And I look for quirks in mythology…folks who are mentioned perhaps once and then never heard about again, and try to give them lives.

How did you come up with your title?

Barley and Roses have been symbolic throughout the series.  Barley is the symbol of the Sacred King and is used in several rituals in the books.  It comes from the old notion of John Barleycorn Must Die, which is in itself a reference not only to the making of beer and whiskey, but to the sacrifice of the King.  The Rose is the symbol of secrecy, and has also been used in the books to symbolize the women in the book.

What advice do you have for writers who have not yet been published?

Never give up.  It was about 30 years between the publication of my first book and my second.  If the ideas are good, you will eventually find yourself in the right place at the right time with the right publisher.  Just keep writing.

Excluding family, name three people who either inspired you or influenced your creativity.

Robert Heinlein, Robin Williamson and William Shakespeare

If your book were chocolate, what kind would it be and why?

Dark chocolate, about 85% cacao.  Rich, sweet, but somewhat bitter, complex and for an adult palate, because that’s the way my characters and their relationships are.

Tell us about your main character’s psyche or personality. What led her (or him) to be the person s/he is today?

There are really two protagonists, the King, in this case Arthur, and his Knight, Gavin, who is so close to him that in one life they were born conjoined twins, both the firstborn son of the King of England.  One cannot exist without the other.  They are the two sides of the same coin.  The King must die and the Knight must slay him, usually taking his own life soon after.   They are Hamlet and Horatio in the scene in which Horatio tries to drink the poisoned cup.  They are who they are and what they are because they have been through that scenario countless times over millennia, each time trying to stay alive until the proper time and place, no matter what the Gods or their fellow man have thrown up against them, and when the time is proper and the place is right, they complete the cycle and are at peace for a time, until the Need arises once more.   They have died unknown and unseen, behind their own lines at Ypres to bring about the end of The Great War, in the Tower of London to precipitate the end of the Wars of the Roses, in a sealed cave as the Revolution surrounded them to bring the blood of the Sidhe to a blue world to make it green and fertile.  They have not always been seen as King and Knight, but their Order knows who they are and so do they, and so will they always.

Describe your protagonist as a mash-up of three famous people or characters.

Hamlet, Valentine Michael Smith, and King Arthur

If you could host a magical dinner party, who are the six people (living or otherwise) you’d include?

Robert Heinlein, J. R. R. Tolkien, Robin Williamson, Peter Jackson, J. K. Rowling and Joseph Campbell.

What are you working on right now?

A deck of Tarot cards which are based upon the characters in my novels, Celtic Mythology, and British folklore.  I am hoping to get to Britain next fall to work on the physical research of the next couple of books in the “Tales of the Dearg-Sidhe” series, and working on a third companion series “The Glastonbury Archives” which will have a lot of back story on other characters and the Order of the Sword and the Rose, and there’s a detective novel I have written the first three chapters on, which I would really like to finish.  Also a novelization of a modern mythological rock and roll screenplay I wrote some years back called The Midas Chord.

 

Posted on

Podcast–Reading from Beneath the Hallowed Hill

Listen to Megan’s trip to visit the fae in Beneath the Hallowed Hill with a couple of new paragraphs not in the current edition.

The latest Broad Pod, September 2011: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, is available for you to enjoy!

http://broadpod.posterous.com

Thank you, L.C. Hu, writer, artist, and all around geek, for hosting and assembling this episode.  Dragons and magical beasts, peasants and princesses, heroes and tricksters­—fairy tales are some of the first stories many of us hear as children; is it any surprise that they continue to inspire us into adulthood? This month brings us five new interpretations of the fairy story, as varied and wonderful as the tales that enchanted us as children.

Catherine Lundoff  tells us of Vadija the Merry, whose laugh inspires a talespinner to begin a life-changing journey.  Shauna Roberts gives us a
science fiction retelling of the old tale Maid on the Shore.  Theresa Crater leads us down beneath the Tor to meet the fae, as we follow a young woman’s initiation to become a priestess. Vonnie Winslow Crist spins us a tale about a young man who makes a deal involving death, deceit, and
devotion with a swan maiden. And Trisha Woolridge enchants us with the story of  a young woman wandering her uncle’s manor, who discovers a curious portrait in a dusty side room.

So sit back, and let yourself be swept away by these five fantastic fairy stories.

Posted on

Guest Blogging at Genre Author

A.J. Walker was kind enough to let me drop by and blog about the Red and White Springs of Glastonbury. In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, White Spring is failing. Anne and Michael must discover why and restore the flow. In this blog, I talk about why these two springs are so important.

 

Posted on

Guest Blogger Sue Burke on Spanish Arthurian Romance

Since my latest novel is set in Avalon, it partakes of the rich mythology of that land, particularly the Arthurian romance and Grail quest stories. In this post, Sue Burke talks about what happened when the Arthurian legends came to Spain and how attitudes toward romance made a once popular novel almost disappear.

Written out of history

By Sue Burke

Who loves a love story? Literary critics don’t when they can label it a romance novel, especially if it includes sorcerers and magic. As a consequence, Europe’s first best-selling novel has been almost completely forgotten.

That book is Amadis of Gaul by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, published in 1508. Never heard of it? Maybe you’ve heard of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1605. That book made fun of Amadis and the hundred other novels of chivalry that were its sequels and spin-offs. But the whole thing started much earlier.

Tales of King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table were brought from Britain to France by Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1170, and from there they spread across Europe. In Spain in the early 1300s, troubadours fused the virtues of the knights Tristan and Lancelot into Amadis, the greatest knight in the world, who lived well before King Arthur but in the same medieval fantasy world.

Amadis loved Princess Oriana, the most beautiful woman in the world, in a story filled with sorcery, enchanted weapons, giants, monsters, and magical locales, along with lots of blood-spattered jousts and battles. Rodríguez de Montalvo collected older versions of the story and created a “corrected and polished” edition for the newly developed printing press. It soon became the most popular book of its time, a favorite of kings, New World conquistadors, and illiterate peasants who attended public readings of books the way we now go to movies.

But even before then, it had critics whose complaints still sound familiar. Around 1380, Spanish chancellor Pero López de Ayala wrote a poem against “books of idle pursuit and proven fictions, Amadis and Lancelot and invented falsities, in which I wasted long hours of my time.”

As novels of chivalry became more popular, the criticisms increased until King Phillip II of Spain banned their printing in 1590, although he had been a fan of them in his youth. Cervantes wrote in the preface to Don Quixote that his aim was “the destruction of the ill-founded machinations of the books of chivalry.”

Still, they remained popular, and though they couldn’t be printed or reprinted, old copies were passed from reader to reader, and new books were written by hand and entered circulation — at least 20 new longhand novels of chivalry, neatly bound like printed books, appeared in the 17th century. They had dashing heroes devoted to beautiful princesses, but not always the “correct” morals. Amadis himself was conceived outside of wedlock, as was his son with Oriana. Later novels became even more racy.

Women loved these books, which made them especially dangerous. A Spanish friar called them “golden pills that, with a delicious layer of entertainment, flatter the eyes to fill the mouth with bitterness and poison the soul with venom [and ruin a young woman’s] honest estate of modesty and shame.”

I don’t think women loved these books for the sex — that’s a male fantasy. Renaissance women loved them because in these fantasies, and in contrast to their real world, women were important. Ladies and damsels appear on every page. There are damsels in distress, of course, but so much more: powerful queens and sorceresses, schemers, healers, best friends, brave errand-runners, witnesses, assistants, lovers, temptresses, and beloved wives — even female knights.

How could self-appointed arbiters of literary quality take such books seriously? Amadis of Gaul and the century of chivalric literature that it inspired were too subversive to include in the official history, and when they were mentioned, they were vilified as trash by people who had never read them.

Even today, genre novels — fantasy, science fiction, and romance — remain ridiculed as sub-literate and childish. And yet, like Amadis of Gaul, they sell well, proof that someone loves them. I hope we never forget them, new and old. That’s why I’m translating Amadis of Gaul from medieval Spanish to English, a chapter at a time, at http://amadisofgaul.blogspot.com/