Jerelyn’s  (I-F-Letty) Interview with C.W. Gortner

C.W. Gortner has to date three published works.  His first The Secret Lion has been republished as The Tudor Secret, an excellent mystery set in the Tudor Court of Edward VI.  The Last Queen is about the little known (in this country at least) Juana, daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, their most Catholic Majesties of Spain; she was the elder sister to Henry VIII first queen, Catherine of Aragon. Also, he has written The Confessions of Catherine De Medici, who was Queen of France, mother to three kings of France, and two queens.

Jerelyn: First I would like to thank Mr. Gortner for agreeing to be interviewed for the PBS blog.

I first heard of you while reading the blogs of favorite authors Sharon Penman, and Susan Higginbotham to name a few. They praise your work.  It must be gratifying to have such support from these ladies. How important to you was their support?

C. W.: It’s always marvelous when other authors like and support your work; I do it myself. Sharon Penman in particular has been a long time favorite of mine, so her praise has meant a lot to me. Authors can be competitive by nature, but I’ve found that in the historical fiction community, by and large we tend to cheer each other on. Maybe because most of us are also devoted readers of the genre and we welcome its growth, rather than see other authors as a threat.

Jerelyn: What drew you to this time period?

C.W.:  I’ve always been fascinated by the Renaissance. It’s a time of great upheaval, tragedy, glory, and accomplishment, when we cast off medieval restrictions and bask in the classics of antiquity, as well as forge new directions in art, science, and religion. It’s not an easy time by any means, but it gave birth to some of history’s most fascinating characters as well as some of the world’s most famous artists. A multi-faceted genius like Leonardo da Vinci, for example, could only be a product of this time. It’s no wonder that even today we refer to people with diverse talents as a “renaissance” man or woman. This is an era when we begin to re-define ourselves as individuals and recognize the infinite realm of possibilities within us.

Jerelyn: It is a said that this is a notoriously difficult time period to write about.  Did you find this to be true?

C.W.:  I think recreating any era of the past is difficult. The research alone can be staggering, with volumes of books and documents to get through, and even the most reliable sources can contradict each other or be maddeningly obscure on something of significant importance to you as the writer. Also, the act of bringing to life people who lived over five hundred years ago carries a weight of responsibility, in that you need to make them accessible to the modern-day reader without betraying the time in which they lived in. It can be a delicate balancing act, to say the least.

Jerelyn: I have to admit to you that Secret Lion/The Tudor Secret sat on my shelf for nearly a year, before I read it.  Quite frankly I was Tudor-ed out, and the inundation of mediocre novels about this time period had also turned me off.  So I was a bit surprised and relieved at how fresh I found the The Tudor Secret to be.  Will you tell us about it?

C.W.:  Sure. I wrote it years ago, after my first two historical novels were rejected repeatedly by publishers. My agent at the time had grown doubtful about her ability to sell a straight historical by me—the genre hadn’t yet regained its popularity—so she suggested I try my hand at a mystery. Evidently, the historical mystery/suspense arena had more male authors and she thought it might be a good area to break me into. I wasn’t that interested, to tell you the truth. I was so depressed over having been rejected by thirteen publishers that the wind had gone out of my sails. I took several months off to research, however, and started to re-discover my childhood fascination with the Tudor era. I’d always loved the foibles and extravagances of the English court, and larger-than-life personalities who inhabited it, but I’d also felt it was overwritten. I started searching for something unique to build my story upon; as I explored the oft-neglected period between Edward VI’s demise and Mary Tudor’s coronation—a mere footnote in history—I got excited. Then I came across information about the spy system set up to protect Elizabeth I and that got me to pondering what such a system might have looked like before Elizabeth became queen. Thus, was my story born. It proved my most challenging book to write because of the intricacy of its plot but also one of my most rewarding.

Fast-forward five years. No editor wanted to publish my so-called mystery, so I ended up leaving my agent and publishing the book with a small independent press that only had online distribution. As time went by, the book gained notice. Eventually, it attracted the attention of my current fabulous agent, who called me out of the blue to see what else I had stashed in my desk. She went on to sell The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici to Random House at auction, as well as the now-titled The Tudor Secret and next two entries in the series to St Martin’s Press and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. Ironic, huh? Just goes to show, perseverance is key in this business. You never know when things will turn around.

Jerelyn: I love the story about dancing at Hampton Court, would you share?

C.W.:  Oh, yes. That was an experience I’ll always treasure. During my research, my partner and I visited Hampton Court. We happened to arrive on a day when the palace had costumed entertainers demonstrating different dances of the era to tourists in the great hall. After several demonstrations, they called for volunteers. Naturally, no one obliged. If you’ve seen a sixteenth century dance, you’ll understand why. But my partner leaned to me and whispered, “Are you kidding me? You’re standing in the very place where Anne Boleyn danced with Henry VIII and you’re not going to volunteer?” He was right, of course. I adore Anne Boleyn and the thought of somehow following her footsteps proved too seductive to resist. My hand shot up. I’m afraid I was rather clumsy, but the smiling lady in costume with whom I danced looked just as I imagine Anne must have, with flowing dark hair and a marvelous laugh, so I could have fallen on my face and not cared!

Jerelyn: I understand there is a second book in this series.  When is that scheduled for release?

C.W.:  In 2012. I’m in the process of writing it now. It begins a few months after the end of The Tudor Secret. Brendan returns to court at Cecil’s behest to protect Elizabeth from a web of intrigue being spun around her by the Spanish ambassador, Renard, and her own sister, Queen Mary. This time, Brendan is more experienced and thinks he knows how to handle the treachery, but he’s in for quite a surprise, not the least of which is at Elizabeth’s own hands. It’s a darker, more suspenseful tale and I hope readers enjoy it.

Jerelyn: Your second novel and first biographical fiction novel is The Last Queen about Juana of Spain.  I found her fascinating. Will you tell us about her?

C.W. : She’s an intriguing character, in that she’s truly the last queen of the medieval Spanish bloodline to inherit the throne and yet she’s been completely obscured by lurid myths that really downplay her importance both as a woman and a queen. I heard about her while growing up in Spain (I’m half-Spanish by birth) and was fascinated by the stories of Juana la Loca, the mad queen who dragged a coffin around with her and ended up locked in a castle. Years later, when I decided to write about her, my research led me to discover a very different and untold story, one of passion, betrayal, and immense courage.

Jerelyn: You seem to be drawn to, and very sympathetic to the plight of these royal pawns, both in The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici.  Why did you feel their stories deserved to be told?

C.W.:  As a culture, we often only get to hear the sides of the victors in history, and mostly, from the voices of men. It’s getting better, but many women, particularly those like Juana and Catherine, who’ve been saddled with unsavory reputations, suffer from the verdict of history because of relentless stereotypes. Their complexity is diluted both by a rush to pigeonhole them (oh, she was mad and that one was evil) and by a male-dominated view of history. For example, I found no evidence that Catherine de Medici poisoned anyone; I found little evidence to suggest that Juana was mentally unbalanced from childhood, yet these fallacies persist, almost to this day, in part due to the legends constructed around their personae. I felt it was important to give them a chance to tell their side of the story, to unfetter them from their own dark legends and set them as women within the context of their time. I’m always intrigued by the untold stories under the veneer of history and what these women might have said, had they been given the chance.

Jerelyn: Male writers do not always write convincing women, but your women are so well written, so I can tell you really identified with them.  Where does this come from, this empathy?

C.W.:  I can’t really say. Perhaps it comes from being in Spain with a lot of strong women around me—my mom, my grandmother, my aunts, my cousins. They used to gather in the kitchen to gossip and tell stories and I was always among them, wide-eyed and big–eared. I loved hearing them behind closed doors, while the men napped or drank or watched television; they had a world apart, where secrets were revealed. I think I absorbed some of their sensibility; I certainly to this day have more women friends than men. I invariably find women more interesting.

Jerelyn: Catherine De Medici is one of the more maligned historical characters.  A bit like say Richard III or Edward II.  Do you think she was a victim of her enemies’ propaganda?

C.W.:  Absolutely! And a victim of her own mistakes, which she didn’t set out to make, yet caused horrific ramifications in at least one case. We must remember that Catherine de Medici was not a princess trained to rule; she was expected to bear the children of the king’s second son and fade into comfortable obscurity. Her tenacity and zeal to defend France and her sons’ throne from a rapacious nobility and horrific religious conflict catapulted her into the spotlight, but she was still seen as an Italian, a Medici, a parvenu— and she was not loved. I find it sad that to this day, there is almost no reminder of her anywhere in Paris. There’s a great memorial to those who died in the Massacre of St Bartholomew but she has been erased. She forestalled the French Revolution by nearly two-hundred years; she almost single-handedly preserved the monarchy for the accession of one of France’s most beloved kings, Henri IV, but she’s still looked at askance, a foreigner, not really a patriot. She’s been relegated to the shadows, the reptilian Madame Serpent who would do anything in her lust for power. Now, that’s enemy propaganda at its best.

Jerelyn: You write about the humanist education she received, and in turn gave her children.  Do you think this was one of the reasons she was much more religiously tolerant, than other Catholic rulers of that time?

C.W.:  Yes, and I believe that during her early years in Italy, as a Medici who knew her own family had vied and bribed their way to the Holy See, she learned that faith and religion are two very different things. She didn’t harbor the fanaticism of Philip II or entrenched fear of Catholic reprisal of Elizabeth I; she truly “did not wish to make windows into men’s souls”, to use that famous catch phrase of Elizabeth’s. Catherine remained Catholic in her observances but her own letters and numerous public declarations confirm she sincerely believed that the two faiths should, and could, co-exist, as they shared a basis in the same fundamental teachings. In this, as in other aspects of her personality, she was ahead of her time.

Jerelyn: I admit that I always felt that she was horribly wronged by Henri II and his mistress Diane de Poitiers.  Modern sensibilities get in the way some time, a 43 year old woman, mistress to a 14 year old boy.  How do you get past such things when writing?

C.W.:  By looking at it through the prism of the age; this goes back to what I said earlier, about how historical fiction writers have to make these characters accessible to modern-day readers yet never betray the era in which they lived. In the sixteenth century, especially at court, a fourteen year-old prince was considered nearly a man. There was no acknowledged prepubescent period; boys and girls went from childhood to adulthood directly. However, it doesn’t say much for Diane’s scruples and I took that into account while crafting her character.

Jerelyn: What was the most surprising thing you discovered in your research?

C.W.:  That Catherine de Medici loved animals and espoused a nascent animal rights movement at court. Her apartments were filled with birds and dogs and she even had bears and monkeys; she couldn’t tolerate cruelty to animals and she really did have the decrepit lion cages at Amboise renovated. When she traveled, she brought her animals with her. It must have been quite a sight, to see the queen-mother ensconced in her carriage with her bears ambling behind.

Jerelyn:I read about your travels, what are your favorite places from each of your characters’ lives?

C.W.:  From Juana in The Last Queen, the spectacular medieval city of Toledo in Castile; from Catherine in The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, the sublimely feminine chateau of Chenonceau; and from Brendan in The Tudor Secret, the Tower of London for its history and impregnability.

Jerelyn: What are you reading now?

C.W.:  Research for my next stand-alone historical, which I have to keep under wraps until I get the okay from my editor and agent to announce it. I’m also reading Margaret George’s excellent Elizabeth I.

Jerelyn: Who are your favorite authors?

C.W.:  There are too many to cite here and I don’t want to leave anyone out 😉 Suffice to say, I’m a fan of most of the historical fiction authors writing today. I love the energy and diversity in our genre right now.

Jerelyn: Do you think sites like PaperBackSwap are helpful to authors?

C.W.:  Any place where writers and readers can meet is helpful. I’m always intrigued by the many ways in which the internet has facilitated communication with readers and vice versa.

Jerelyn: Do you think that social media has helped you in marketing your books?

C.W.:  Very much so; word-of-mouth recommendations are, in the end, the best way to sell a book. If I tell you, “Wow, I loved this!” and you trust my opinion, you’re far more likely to pick up that book the next time you’re looking for something to read. Despite all our fancy technological advances, we’re still human and we still need to talk to each other. Talk markets books. It’s that simple.

Jerelyn: What are your feelings about Amazon and Barnes and Nobles customer reviews?

C.W. : I think that except in cases of outright cruelty, everyone has a right to their opinion and everyone’s opinion is subjective. I browse customer reviews when I’m looking to buy a book but I’m rarely influenced by them. I’ve just read too many novels that other people disliked and vice versa. I prefer to make up my own mind, and the only way to do it is to read the work if I’m interested.

Jerelyn: What is next for you?

C.W.:  I’ve just finished I, Isabella of Castile, my next stand-alone historical novel about the youth and tumultuous early reign of Spain’s famous crusader queen, for publication by Ballantine Books in 2012. I’m currently writing the next book in the Spymaster Chronicles.

Jerelyn: Thank-you Mr. Gortner!

C.W.: Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure.

If you would like to learn more about C.W. Gortner visit his website http://www.cwgortner.com/

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici was published in trade paperback today, May 24 and Mr. Gortner has donated a copy to be given away in a drawing for those who comment. A winner will be chosen at random. Good Luck!

Author Interview with Kate Pearce by Misty (millywv)

Misty:  What inspires you to write?

Kate: It’s a combination of things. I need to write to get all the stuff out of my head to make room for the new stuff and I have this strange desire to communicate with people. The communication thing is weird because in real life I’m actually very quiet.

Like a lot of authors I started to write because a) I thought I could do it better than some published authors and b) because I couldn’t find the type of books out there that I wanted to read, especially back in the day for erotic romance.

Misty:  In your writing, you have tackled historical romance, historical erotica, contemporary erotica, paranormal romance, and sci fi/futuristic. Which was your favorite time period and/or genre to write?

Kate: The historicals are still my favorite, because I’m an ex-Brit history major. I’m just happiest in that time period. I also love writing the really dark edgy sexy books. Writing American contemporary is the hardest thing I do because despite having lived in California for 13 years, its not natural for me. LOL. Writing paranormal and futuristic is also fun because you get the pleasure of making up the rules and creating the world.

Misty:  Do you do much research about time periods or themes before you start writing?

Kate: Yes, I do a lot of reading and googling. Sometimes I spend a whole day researching and end up writing 2 paragraphs about that particular thing that end up in the book. But as a history major I’m good at research and I love it!

I never think about the theme of the book. I usually only see it after I’ve written the first draft and then I sometimes go back and elaborate in the rewrite.

Misty:  Writing a book is a huge undertaking and must be a labor of love. Are you sad when you finish a book and say goodbye to the characters after spending so much time with them or are you just happy it is over so you can move on?

Kate: I’m lucky that I’ve been able to write a lot of series. For me that’s ideal because I get to visit with some of my older characters in the new books. For example, I’m currently writing book #7 in the ‘Simply’ series and it features the son of one of the earlier couples featured in book #.3 I’m also the sort of person who daydreams about my characters and imagines their lives after they leave my books. (writers are odd, you know.)

Misty: As a working mother and wife, do you ever find it difficult to balance family and work?

Kate: Absolutely. I have 4 kids between the ages of 22 and 9 who all have different needs. Sometimes I’ll spend a whole day just driving kids places and get very little writing done. It can get very frustrating, however my husband knows the signs and usually steps up and takes care of the kids when I’m on a really tight deadline.

Misty: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if so, how do you over come it?

Kate: Not really. 🙂 Sometimes I’ll realize I’ve written myself into a corner and I’ll just think the situation or scene through and usually my brain comes up with a solution. I do try and read widely though and do other creative things to refresh my imagination. I find that helps to prevent burnout.

Misty: I like to think that those who are gifted enough to be writers must truly love books. As one of the the gifted, what books have you loved reading?

Kate: I am a voracious reader and I have thousands of dearly loved books. I could go on all day about writers that I love and who have influenced me, but I’ll stick to a few: Rosemary Sutcliff, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Dunnett, Ian McEwan, Linda Howard, Emma Holly and Mary Balogh. Just wonderful inspiration.

Misty: What future projects do you have planned?

Well, I have a contemporary erotic romance called Raw Desire coming out with Kensington Aphrodisia at the end of August, and book #3 of my Tudor Vampire Chronicles, Mark of the Rose, comes out the first week of September. Next year in February 2012 will be Simply Carnal, book #7 of the House of Pleasure series.

Misty:  How long have you been a member and what is your favorite thing about PBS?

Kate: I’ve been a member for a couple of years. As I mentioned, I’m a voracious reader and it is a great way to get rid of books and get some of the older ones I’ve been after. I also like the discussion groups. Some of those ladies are FUN!

Misty:  Lastly, who is hotter, Gerard Butler or Colin Farrell?

Kate: I usually prefer Irishmen to Scots, but in this case, I’d go for Gerard, because he was so perfect as a Spartan. LOL

To find out more about Kate Pearce, you can go to her web-site: www.katepearce.com

Kate has generously offered to provide 2 books as prizes to members who comment on this interview.  2 winners will be chosen at random. Good Luck!

Simply Sexual

And

Kiss of the Rose

I’ll give away a copy of Simply Sexual and a copy of Kiss of the Rose because both of those are special and start the series. 🙂

Thank you Kate and Misty for a great interview!

Jerelyn’s (I-F-Letty) Interview with Celeste Bradley and Susan Donovan

Jerelyn: I would like to thank and welcome Celeste Bradley who is the author of 15 historical romance novels and Susan Donovan who has 13 contemporary romance novels under her belt to the PBS blog.   This is a unique experience for me interviewing two authors.

They are co-authors of a new novel, A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man, which will be released May 24, 2011, by St Martin’s Press.

Hi PBS! We’re very happy to blog here!

Jerelyn: Will you tell us how you became writers?

Celeste: I became a writer by accident. I’ve always been creative and I worked as a professional artist for years before writing my first page, but I’d given up my studio to stay home with my darling babies–and I lost my tiny little mind with boredom. Love babies, don’t love Baby-Land! I read a wonderful romance and wondered if I could create something so rewarding. That book, FALLEN, sold within a year and was nominated for a Best First Book award by the Romance Writers of America. I suggest that everyone who loves words and stories give writing a try.

Susan: I majored in journalism in college and worked as a newspaper reporter for many years, but I’d always told myself I’d have my first novel written by the time I was forty. (Which, when you’re twenty-five, sounds like it will never actually happen to you.)  Anyway, one day I was thirty-nine and figured I better get to typing.  I am not a patient person – just ask anyone close to me – so I gave myself one year to get a publishing contract and an agent. Looking back, I suppose I was a bit hard on myself, but it worked. Within a year I’d written close to three novels and had an agent and a two-book contract with St. Martin’s Press. I’ve been writing ever since.

Jerelyn: How did this collaboration come about?

Celeste: Susan called me up with a great idea about two women in different times and how the lessons of the past can teach us to live in the present. We ruled out magic antique shoes and haunted houses and decided that what we needed was a diary, a shocking, secret expose of a life lived without boundaries and without fear.

Jerelyn: Would you tell us about A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man?

An uptight young museum curator, Piper Chase-Pierpont, uncovers the secret memoirs of a famous Boston abolitionist and discovers that this respectable local icon had a past that would set the historical record on fire! This diary offers an intimate entry into our courtesan, Ophelia Harrington’s soul and provides a way to tell the raw and scorching truth about an astonishing life. For our modern character, Piper, this truth causes a paradigm shift of tectonic proportions!

Jerelyn: You both write very strong but quirky characters that are in no way perfect. What draws you to write about such women?

Are there any other kind? All women are strong–we are wired to take on the world, not to mention feed it and diaper it as well! And I think everyone is quirky–some of us just do a better job of hiding it. We are inspired by ourselves, each other, our friends, our families and sometimes even our pets!

Jerelyn: Are you funny in real life? Does it just pop out in your writing?  I can’t imagine you sitting down to write and saying “funny time”

Celeste thinks Susan is flat-out hilarious. Susan thinks Celeste is funny in a sly way. We keep each other thoroughly entertained!

Jerelyn: I would like to ask you about some of my favorite characters.

Jerelyn: Susan, I must admit to you that I had never read your books, I am a history girl after all.  But I went out and bought a few my first one was Take a Chance on Me.  I read most of this out loud to my husband because he kept asking me what’s so funny.  I loved Hairy he has to be the most unique character I have come across for a very long time.  Where did Hairy come from?

Susan: Ah, my man Hairy. I loved that little Kotex-wearing dog. He was a particularly homely Chinese Crested with skin allergies and incontinence, and he witnessed a murder. I made him up, of course, but in order to get his personality right I spent a day at a Chinese Crested dog rescue in Maryland. Yes, they are the ugliest creatures God ever put on this earth, but by the end of the day, I actually started to think of them as cute. Hairy was crucial to the story in “Take a Chance on Me.” Despite his many outward flaws, he was sometimes downright Zen compared to the human characters in the book.

Jerelyn: Celeste, I loved Button from your Liar’s Club series, but Melody from your Runaway Bride’s series stolen my heart.  I read parts of this out to my husband for the same reasons I stated above.  Where did she come from?  BTW my favorite scene is when she comes out in her Pirate get up.  Oh and Gordy Ann hysterical!

Celeste: I love Button! I think he needs his own fan page.

Melody was inspired in part by my own beautiful daughters, who were the most angelic little nightmares you could imagine! Since they were in their teens, I brushed up on my toddler knowledge with the child of some friends. Little Frankie Jean IS Melody–incredibly smart and darling and destined to give her parents a heart attack!

Jerelyn: Do you have a favorite character?

Celeste: My favorite character will always be Izzy Temple, from my first novel Fallen. She was like a best friend!

Susan: Hairy, of course!

Jerelyn: Do you think sites like PaperBackSwap are helpful to authors?

Absolutely! We love it when people swap books! Being able to test-drive a new author through swapping or using the library might create a life-time reader for that author. The discussion forums are full of great information on old favorites and new releases. We have lost much work time to browsing PBS!

Jerelyn: How do you feel about the role of social media in the marketing of your work?  Is it helpful or just another distraction, from what you really want to be doing?

Celeste: Before I became used to Facebook, for instance, I thought it must be a terrible distraction and I couldn’t understand how people could spend so much time on it. Now, however, I can’t wait to visit with my FB pals! So, yes, it is a huge distraction, but I have never been in such close touch with my readers before.

Jerelyn: What do you read?  Do you have an auto-buy author?

Celeste: I read everything. I read biographies, romance, sci-fi, crime, a little horror, history . . . I could go on for hours. Auto-buy author: Kate Atkinson, a UK mystery author. Her characters are so rich and real.

Susan: I love Darynda Jones! I can’t wait for her next book!

Jerelyn: Thank you both very much!

You’re very welcome! If your visitors would like to test drive A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man, our publisher, St. Martin’s Press, has rereleased two of our novellas (Celeste Bradley’s “Wedding Knight” and Susan Donovan’s “Have Mercy”) in e-book form for $1.99 — and it includes a WHOPPING big excerpt of A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man!

If you would like to read more about Celeste Bradley and Susan Donovan you can go to their web sites at http://www.celestebradley.com/ and http://www.susandonovan.com/.

Celeste Bradley and Susan Donovan have generously offered a copy of their book, A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man to a member who comments on this interview. A winner will be chosen at random. Good Luck!

Author Interview with Angus Donald by Jerelyn (I-F-Letty)

Jerelyn: Angus Donald is the author of the novels “Outlaw” and “Holy Warrior”.  This telling of the Robin Hood Story isn’t your Granny’s Robin Hood or Hollywood’s.  It is a gritty, violent, and frankly is a riveting view of the legend.  As it states on the front cover, “Meet the Godfather of Sherwood Forest”.  They are not kidding!

I would like to thank-you Mr. Donald, for agreeing to be interviewed for the PBS blog.

Angus: Absolutely my pleasure!

Jerelyn: I think that the term “A worldly man” describes you very well.  Will you tell us about yourself?

Angus: Well, I’ve certainly knocked about the world a bit, if that’s what you mean. I was born in China (my parents were British diplomats) and as a child I lived in Greece, Hong Kong, Zaire and Indonesia – and when I became an adult I lived and worked in Greece, Hong Kong, New York, India – all over the place really. I did six months field work as an anthropologist in Bali – studying magic and witchcraft.  I became a journalist in Hong Kong, writing for newspapers and magazine, and traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. And later I was a foreign correspondent in New Delhi, and Pakistan and I did a brief stint as a war reporter in Afghanistan. But I stopped all that junketing around when I was approaching 40 – I sat down and thought hard about what I really wanted out of life and decided that I wanted a family and an old house in the English countryside – and to write historical novels for a living. I feel I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been able to achieve those aims.

Jerelyn: Jeanne wonders if your upbringing contributed to your story telling abilities.  She calls you a prodigy.  How does it make you feel when your fans say such things?

Angus: A prodigy? Absolutely not! Mozart was a prodigy, writing and playing exquisite music by the time he was six. It took me until my mid-forties before I’d written even a single novel – my first book Outlaw. And I am very aware of its shortcomings as a novel and my own as a writer. I hope, though, that I’m getting better as I hone my craft with subsequent books.

Jerelyn: You have a wicked sense of humor, it is something that always attracts me to an author’s work, and I promised Jeanne to ask you about it.  Where does it stem from?

Angus: Some people think that life is either tragedy or comedy – I believe it’s actually always a bit of both. My hero Alan Dale is appalled by the horror of warfare, and yet he finds that there are always moments of comedy even in the bleakest situations. I am reminded of the dark humour of the troops in the First World War, who quite often faced certain death with a quip or a joke shared between comrades. I like to use humor in my novels to lighten the mood after a particularly bloody battle.

Jerelyn: As a journalist was it always your intent to one day take up writing novels?

Angus: Yes, I felt that I was learning to write as a journalist but my goal was always to leave the ephemeral world of newspapers and write something with a bit more longevity.

Jerelyn: Who are your influences, as far as writing goes?

Angus: I’m a huge fan of Bernard Cornwell – I think he more or less invented this genre of writing. I’ve read some of his books four or five times. Actually, I have included a little homage to Mr. Cornwell in Outlaw, it’s just a line in the middle of the book, but I wonder whether any readers will be able to spot it?

Jerelyn: Why tackle Robin Hood?

Angus: I’ve always been interested in Robin Hood as a character – the good man who is an outlaw; a man who stands outside of society and who defies it. There is something about living in the wilderness of Sherwood, away from the town, away from the constraints of law and church morality that appeals to me deeply.

Jerelyn: Who was Robin Hood, or maybe I should ask who is your, Robin Hood?

Angus:  I think Robin Hood is a myth, not a real person. There may well have been a man called Robert who lived in the middle Ages and who became an outlaw and a folk hero, but I don’t believe we will ever satisfactorily identify him. And even if we did, we would not recognize him as the fellow we love from the tales. If he did exist, I think he would have been a pretty rough customer. We have a way of whitewashing criminals over time – look at Billy the Kid or any of the other Western outlaws. They often did terrible things and yet we idolize them – I don’t fully understand why. I have tried to make my Robin Hood a little more realistic than the sanitized Hollywood version of the man, so I have made him a gangster, more or less. He does have a very specific code of honour but it doesn’t chime with the codes of the rest of society. Basically, he favours clan over country – he will give his life for anyone inside his family circle (in the medieval sense, which includes those who serve him and whom he serves). But anyone outside that circle means nothing to him: they are quite often prey.

Jerelyn: What do you find so engaging about this time period?

Angus: I hate to admit it, but it was a time when might was right. And I find myself sneakily fascinated that. It was a time of strong men, and women, and a knight had to hold his land against all comers – again there are echoes of the Wild West to medieval England. One has to remember that in England, only a hundred or so years before my story begins, William the Conqueror has basically stolen the whole kingdom. He declared that all the land was his, to dispose of as he wished. His barons disposed the Saxon lords and held the land much as an occupying army might do. Every time I meet an English aristocrat, I remind myself that his great-great etc. grandfather was basically an armed thug who stole a piece of land from its rightful owners.

Jerelyn: What made you chose Alan a Dale as the voice for your books?

Angus: I wanted a counterpoint to my rather brutal Robin, and Alan provides that. He is quite often bitterly disappointed in the amoral way that Robin behaves. Alan is a Christian and yearns for a just society, united under God, in which all men are free. Robin only believes in looking out for himself and his family. I find these two opposing principles intriguing: we all feel the tug of our duty to our families and friends and sometimes it comes into conflict with our duty to the country and society in general. When I was a child, I remember asking my father once if he would turn me in to the police if I had committed a murder. We discussed it for a long while, agonized over this hypothetical question, but finally my father said that he would have to turn me in as his duty to society had to outweigh his duty to me as his son. I was a little outraged, to be honest. But that conversation was the germ from which the characters of Robin and Alan sprung.

There is another more prosaic reason why I wanted Alan Dale to be the narrator: as a trouvere, he is able to travel about the country, visiting different castles and entertaining people with his music. Trouveres (the northern French word for troubadours) were diplomats, spies and messengers as well as musicians and I thought this might be very useful career for my main character. Also I am interested in troubadour culture. There was a great cultural shift during my period in Europe, which is sometimes called the 12th century renaissance. Music and poetry flourished, chivalry was born, and knights made the shift from being well-armed brutes on horseback to seeing themselves as noble and a force for universal good.

Jerelyn: Quite honestly, I find Alan as interesting a Robin.   Do you have another favorite character?

Angus: My favourite other character is Alan’s musical mentor Bernard de Sezanne: cowardly, drunken, lecherous, vain – and very good fun. Quite a lot of the humour in the books comes from him. I absolutely love him.

Jerelyn: Alan has a genius for music, is this a trait you share?

Angus: Not really. I used to sing in a church choir when I was a boy, but now I only warble in the shower. My lovely wife Mary is very musical, though, and I hope our little two-year-old daughter Emma inherits that trait from her.

Jerelyn: You have described this book as more of a guy’s book.  What makes you think that?

By the way I don’t think that.  But then again I like Cornwell and Iggulden.

Angus: I’d say it is a guy’s book mainly because of the high body-count. It really is quite gory in some places, as I’m sure real medieval battles were. But I’m glad if women enjoy it too. And there are some tender moments and a nice love story evolves in later books.

Jerelyn: Holy Warrior will be released in July 2011 in the U.S.  Will you tell us about it?”

Angus: Holy Warrior carries on the story of Robin, Alan, Little John et al as they head off on the Third Crusade with Richard the Lionheart. Robin behaves despicably, Alan heroically . . . but you’ll have to read it for yourself when it comes out in the US in August 2011.

Jerelyn: I happen to know there is a third book, when will it be available in the U.K. Is there any word when it will be available in the U.S?

Angus: The third book is called King’s Man (in the UK version, which is being published here in August 2011). I don’t know what my US publishers will call it. And I’m afraid I don’t know when they are publishing it. Sorry. You guys are about a year behind the UK publications, but I think that you can probably get hold of it when it comes out on this side of the Atlantic, if you really want to, that is. I’m in the middle of writing Book 4, at the moment, and I have Book 5 all planned out, too. There may be as many as ten Robin Hood books ultimately – fingers crossed!

Jerelyn: You have said you want to write five Robin Hood books, what then?

Angus: After Book 5, I’m planning a series about Restoration England (17th century) with a new even more rascally hero. Don’t want to say more at the moment. But I would like to return to Robin Hood after a while – you will notice that there is a reference to Runnymede in the first few pages of Outlaw and I would like Robin and Alan to be present (and instrumental) in the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 – the foundation stone of our democracies.

Jerelyn: I always ask this, but I wonder how you, as an author, feel about sites like PaperBackSwap?

Angus: Hey, first and foremost I’m a book-lover and any institution that promotes reading and books is a Good Thing as far as I’m concerned! So I’m definitely a fan of PBS.

Jerelyn: Who do you read?

Angus:  Everyone: I love Bernard Cornwell, Robert Low, Giles Kristian, Lee Child, Patrick O’Brian, Mary Renault . . . I could go on forever.

Jerelyn: Thank-you again Angus!  If you would like to read more about Angus Donald visit his web site at http://www.angus–donald.com/ .  It is highly entertaining peek into the writers life.

I also want to thank Jeanne L. (bkydbirder), for turning me on to Angus’s books.

Angus is offering a copy of his novel Outlaw to be given away to those who comment on the blog!A winner will be chosen at random. Good Luck!