Paula's People: A Conversation With Manda Scott

Manda Scott

PAULA: Hi Manda, thanks for agreeing to chat with me about your writing career and your books.

MANDA: Thank you, I'm honoured and very glad indeed you enjoyed The Emperor's Spy. Did you read the Boudica books? Or did you come to The Emperor's Spy cold, so to speak?

PAULA: I came cold but I'm thinking I must now read the Boudica books.

MANDA: it's a very different style of book [The Emperor's Spy ]- in Boudica, I was laying out who we were before the Romans came, exploring the nature of a culture.  The Rome books arose because I wanted to look at some of the surviving characters, but they're much more in the style of a thriller, and there are 4 of each, which might be a tad too much!

PAULA: OMG i think i just fainted lol; trouble is there is not enough time in the world to read all the books I want to but I could make an exception here. I was really interested in finding out what actually happened to Pantera in Boudica as he reflects on the torture he received.

Paula Lofting

MANDA: Ah - he's not in there.   Various of the others are, but he was a new character, created for The Emperor's Spy.  He goes on through the rest of the Rome series, but he's not back in the history (although there are people who could have been him...) The people who are there are Math and his family, Ajax (under another name) and Valerius. In The Emperor's Spy, Pantera is reflecting on a past that is real to him, but it's not in the Boudica books - it's in that universe, if that makes sense... and similar things happened to Valerius, but there isn't anything I've written (yet) that takes you in more detail into Pantera's past in Britain - in the other Rome books, we find more of his past in other ways, though...

PAULA: Ah I see.Well it all sounds very intriguing! Right now to get down to business with the questions. What influenced you to start writing.

MANDA: Good question. I read obsessively as a child, and was always planning to write: I wrote my first 'book' when I was about 9 years old (and found it recently: first person narrative from the perspective of one of the owls at home - my mother ran a rehab centre for birds of prey... If we looked at specific authors: James Fenimore Cooper - his 'The Last of the Mohicans' was the first thing I bought with my own money. I was obsessed with Alan Garner, Rosemary Sutcliff, Mary Sewart's 'Crystal Cave' trilogy, later, Dorothy Dunnett and Mary Renault. My life was reading. And veterinary medicine. But I always planned to do both.

PAULA: Hey that sounds like something out of my life. My earliest influence was Rosemary Sutcliff and when a bit older the Arthurian books by Mary Stewart. I also remember the Owl Service by Alan Garner - I loved anything mysterious and the Romano/British were an excellent conduit for that. I haven't read Rosemary Sutcliff for many years but i definitely noticed an influence in your writing style. Is that a conscious thing, has anyone else ever said that or have you not noticed it before?

MANDA: Really? I re-read 'Eagle of the Ninth' before I wrote 'Eagle of the Twelfth' and I have to say, I didn't notice any similarities, though it was definitely her writing that put me on the spiritual path that I follow - I was not so impressed with the Romans, but I was *desperate* to know what happened behind the goat skin curtain when the priests of the horned moon made their rites. She never showed us, but it's been my life's work to understand it in a way that is real and makes sense and is applicable in the 21st century. I think my more obvious influences are Dorothy Dunnett and Mary Renault.

PAULA: Well you certainly have an erudite style which is how I once heard someone refer to Rosemary S's work.

MANDA:  Thankyou

PAULA: You’re welcome.

MANDA: I wasn't suggesting you were wrong - I read her in my very formative years... so it may be there, I just don't see it.

PAULA: Perhaps I am wrong - but like I said the erudite style is definitely there. As Elizabeth Chadwick recently said something similar about another author, its like painting a picture with words.
 I understand that your first books were crime thrillers. Can you tell us about them?

MANDA: Hen's Teeth, Night Mares, Stronger than Death were a trilogy, first person, told from the PoV of Dr Kellen Stewart who is a medic and (briefly) a therapist. They are set in Glasgow and the first two plots derive from PhDs I didn't do (genetically engineered eggs with insulin in the albuim and Ketamine in horses). The third came from a newspaper article. The fourth book was a stand alone, 3rd person thriller, much more fast-action, again set in Scotland, but the protagonist is an undercover police detective, Orla Mcleod, who has a past history in the Troubles in Ireland. This one is a whole different league to the first three - and the first one I'd written where the main protagonist is heterosexual.

PAULA: Those all sound like fantastic reads. which one is your favourite?

MANDA: That's really hard... I tend to be in love with the last really good book I read - at the moment, 'Maquis' by George Millar which is an autobiography of his time spent with the French Resistance in '44. Of the ones we've discussed... Mary Renault's 'Fire from Heaven' is one of my desert island books, for sure, tho' I think Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall or Robert Wilton's 'Spider of Sarajevo' might eclipse it as the final pick...

PAULA: Haha, I actually meant which of your crime books was your favourite but I was going to ask that question sooner or later anyway. So which one of your crime thrillers did you enjoy writing the most?

MANDA: That question is impossible to answer anyway - I love each book when I'm writing it - each one feels like 'The One' - and then afterwards, I go through a period of loathing it, but always that passes and I can see the bits that were worthwhile and appreciate the process

PAULA: You used to be a vet before turning to writing. Do you ever miss that job?

MANDA: That's easy: no. Or actually, there have been brief flashes - when my step-daughter's dog needed an MRI scan and I went to the clinic run by people with whom I went to college... there was a moment when I saw where I could have been if I'd stayed in vet med. But no. I love the life I have now with ever fibre of my being. I wouldn't swap it for anything. That said, I"m immensely glad that I did it - I can have my own animals and know how to care for them, and the discipline of research has been immensely useful.

PAULA: Now on to Boudica. Where did your ideas come from for the Boudica series?

MANDA: OK, I"m in the middle of the heavy phase of the new book, so my brain space is limited, but in essence: I wanted to find out who we were before the Roman invasion, which is, to my mind, the point when our culture/civilisation began to fall apart, when we lost our connection to the land and became its enemies. So I needed a figurehead and the woman who led the armies of resistance against Rome, was that figure. At least in Britain, if nowhere else in the world, people knew roughly who she was. They may not have known anything else about her, but the name has resonance. So the Boudica books grew out of that.

PAULA: I'm pleased that you didn't call her Boadicea! Lol.
I understand what you mean about losing our respect and connection for nature. And i never thought about it being then. The missionaries who came over to convert the pagans had their part to play in turning people away from nature, but I like to think that some of the old customs that still carried on reflected that time in our history.

MANDA: If Rome had not conquered Britain, or at least, if the conquest had failed at the time of the Boudican revolt, then Nero would have fallen, very likely Seneca would have taken his place and the expansionism that followed would, I think, have halted. Added to that, the resurgence of the druids in Western Europe (there was a Druidic revolt in Gaul in the 70s, which failed for lack of input) would have driven Rome out of Britain, Gaul, maybe Belgium, the north countries - and already half of Germany was non-Roman. So Rome would have shrunk, druids would have flourished - and I think Christianity would have withered as did so many other tiny, irrelevant blood cults. Without it, the Norse invasion would more likely have been repelled and the whole concept of the Anglo-Saxon would not have existed. No Norman invasion. No imposition of feudal society. No Empire. No invasion of the Americas, no genocide. All because one battle when the wrong way...

PAULA: Wow, thats an amazing concept for alternative history. No Norman invasion would have been good - lol, not so sure about no Anglo Saxonism though - lol. But I think eventually Christianity would have risen again somehow.
How much do we actually know about Boudica as a person. Can you tell us what your research turned up for her?

MANDA: That's easy. There are 2 paragraphs in Tacitus. And that's it. We know *nothing else at all*. Still, it's contemporaneous and relevant because his father in law a legate in the legions she fought against. So there's more than there is, for - say- Christ - but still not very much.

PAULA: Sorry Manda can you explain that last sentence?

MANDA: There is at least a contemporaneous 'living eye to living eye' account of Boudica where we know that the people giving the accounts were a) real people b) when they existed and c) what else they wrote/thought/said. And there are coins marked with 'the Eceni' and there are layers of ash in London, Colchester and St Albans all of the same era, consistent with the Boudican revolt that burned all 3 to the ground. Which is massively more evidence for the existence of *someone* who led a revolt than there is for Christ, who, as far as I can tell, didn't actually exist and for whom there is *no evidence at all*. (I think we have one myth made of out the life stories of 3 different people). Make sense now?

PAULA: So onto the next question, your Rome series, Ive read the first one and am looking forward to continuing with the sequels.  I loved the characters and the way they interacted with each other. I especially liked the relationship between Pantera (such an awesome name) and Math. Have you based Pantera on anyone particular or is he entirely of your own imagination?

MANDA - He's entirely my imagination - although his name - Pantera - comes from 2 sources: One of the earliest Christian texts says that the man we know of as Christ was the 'son of Pantera' and nobody knew what that meant until a grave stone was found on the banks of the Rhine detailing 'Julius Abdes Pantera' who was an archer in Syria and then moved to Germany: so this is Pantera's father and his son - whom we get to know is named for the emperor Augustus: Sebastos is the Greek equivalent.

PAULA: Yes I love the inclusion of the Christian thing, very spiritual and mysterious Another character I particualrly grew to like was Ajax. His character development made the story really interesting. Did Ajax's personality develop as you wrote or did he take hold of his own story?

MANDA: Ajax is Cunomar [in the Boudica books]... so I knew him intimately anyway. Part of the reason for writing it was to give him the space to grow that he hadn't had in Britannia.

PAULA: Ah yes! Well he is a great character.
You write your scenes vivdly, especially the ones with the chariot racing. What research did you undertake to create such amazingly enthralling scenes?

MANDA: I was a horse vet for 15 years? Other than that... I have friends who drive horses, so I know the basics. The rest is pure fiction.

PAULA:Wow that's pretty awesome then .
Right, were nearly at the end
How do you take your Rome characters forward in the next books without giving too much away?

MANDA: I follow the timeline of what was happening in the Roman Empire at the time - with a focus on the obvious next moves of Pantera's sworn enemy, Saulos (aka St Paul, one of the most obscenely spun individuals in the history of our civilisation)

PAULA: Ah yes the dastardly Saulos. Every good novel needs a villain. He plays his part well.
 Righto, finally Manda, Where to now for you?

MANDA: The Jeanne d'Arc book needs one more edit for the American market (actually, I've said that before. I said it last July, and that was 6 edits ago) but it's basically done. Next is ACCIDENTAL GODS which is another dual time line novel, with the contemporary thread following on the time line of the surviving characters from The Girl Who Walked Through Fire and the historical thread is based in the latter phases of WWII and on into the cold war. I am in the reading phase now and am completely obsessed. Of all the historical periods I've looked at this, is by far the most accessible, has the most depth of reading available, and it the most complex. Added to that, the events of then have a direct impact on now in ways that are far easier to tease out than the more nebulous impact of the Roman invasion and colonisation of Britain. So this one could take a while, but the end result should be pleasingly incendiary.

PAULA: Well. it all sounds amazing Manda. Thanks so much for your in depth answers. I've really enjoyed chatting with you and wish you well for the future. Is there anything else you would like to tell us before we wrap up?

MANDA: I think that's about it - I'm immersed in 1943/44 and will emerge in due course with a book that will, I hope, cause people to think about where we are, how we got here and if it's where we want to be...

I hope you have enjoyed my conversation with Manda Scott. Here is a bio of Manda's writing career as MC SCOTT

M.C. Scott (also known as Manda Scott) Novelist, columnist and broadcaster  trained as a veterinary surgeon in Glasgow and worked at the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin, specialising in anaesthesia. A brief three year stint as a Director of the computer games company, Frontier Developments (Elite, Frontier First Encounter, Wallace and Gromit; Elite: Dangerous) bridged the gap from veterinary medicine to writing.

Her novels have been short listed for an Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar Award and translated into over twenty languages. She was a long term columnist for the Glasgow Herald, is a reviewer for the Independent and has contributed to the Telegraph, Times, Daily Express and BBC History Magazine. She has appeared on Time Team as an expert on the Boudican era and contributed to Radios 4 & 5.

She is honoured to be Founder and current Chair of the HWA and looks forward to the association's continued growth. When not writing, or writing about writing, (or blogging, facebooking and tweeting about writing), she competes at canine agility and teaches shamanic dreaming courses and, of course, the occasional Arvon week somewhere beautiful in the UK countryside.

Her latest novel is Rome: The Art of War. In preparation is a dual timeline novel of Jeanne d'Arc which lifts the lid on centuries of spin: whatever & whoever else she was, she absolutely wasn't a peasant girl who happened to get on a horse and found she could carry a lance.

Twitter name hare_wood and click here for her website.

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The First Blast of The Trumpet (The Knox Triology)

Please see below for info about giveaway!

Set in the turbulent midst of 16th century Scotland the book takes you deep inside the daily lives and loves of three young women who as childhood friends and rivals will face wildly different fates as they grow older. From unwanted marriage, to being mistress to the king or being chosen to be prioress of an abbey, their struggles and triumphs are recorded in a growing tapestry of emotion and colour conveyed through a masterful use of Scots and English language, which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the time.

What I particularly enjoyed about this tale is that the author has not attempted to create a rose-tinted version of this historical Scotland but rather portrays a warts-and-all depiction where the poor can be trampled into the mud by the wealth of church potentates with as little thought as standing on a snail. Life is cheap!

A recurring theme throughout the book is just how little control any of the characters have over their lives. One girl will be married, one will become prioress of Haddington's St Mary's Abbey on orders from her uncle! Family duty must come before all else!

It is only with the introduction of John Knox as he grows from infancy to teenage years that this predetermined, unchangeable fate is challenged. Appalled by the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, where salvation can be purchased wholesale from priests, which he has been chosen to serve (again, choices made by others forcing people to follow a pre-ordained route in life), young Knox starts to be drawn towards the 'heretical' ideas of the Protestant reformers. When the Church responds to the challenge of reform by becoming ever more entrenched in blind dogma and lashes out in a frenzy of show trials and public burning of heretics, Knox, along with more and more of the common folk is drawn further and further from the control of Rome until Knox turns from the church completely.

Having rejected his assigned fate of being a priest, he is reluctantly at first persuaded into preaching the reformed Word of God with a fiery passion which dismays those who love him. His public defying of Church authority cannot go unpunished and so it will prove to be. For Knox, who has rejected all notion that he must follow a course laid out for him by others, and wishes to spread the truth of the Reformed Religion, he knows he must 'dree his weird'!

Marie Macpherson has produced one of those books which once you start reading, sinks its hooks deep in you and won't let go until you reach the end. I look forward with anticipation to reading the next instalment of this fine tale. This book is but the first blast of the trumpet for what looks sure to become a triumph.

Marie MacPherson has so graciously made available TWO copies of First Blast of the Trumpet, and all you have to do to get your name in on the draw is comment below~~simple as that! Facebook users may also comment on this review's associated thread. 

Available for purchase at Amazon and Amazon UK. 

About the author...

Marie Macpherson (nee Gilroy) was born in the Honest Toun of Musselburgh, six miles from the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. After gaining an Honours Degree in Russian and English, she spent a year in Moscow and Leningrad to research her Ph.D. thesis on the work of the 19th century Russian writer, Lermontov, said to be descended from the Scottish poet and seer, Thomas the Rhymer.

The rich history of East Lothian - especially the Reformation period - provides the inspiration for her first fictional work, based on the early life of the Scottish reformer, John Knox.

Prizes and awards include the Martha Hamilton Prize for Creative Writing from Edinburgh University and 'Writer of the Year 2011' title awarded by Tyne & Esk Writers.

She is a member of the Historical Writers' Association.

Book Review: Tom Blake on Strange Metamorphosis by award-winning children's novelist P.C.R. Monk (and giveaway)

Strange Metamorphosis by P. C. R. Monk
Review by Tom Blake

This book is an
indieBRAG winner

Please see details at the bottom of post for a giveaway!

This book is the story of a boy, intelligent and eccentric, called Marcel. He has a difficult decision to make about his life: to take the apprenticeship at Villeneuve and follow his father’s footsteps, or to take the scholarship at a renowned technical college in Paris, without any guarantee of success. Quite a predicament.

After much deliberation, Marcel confides in the alleged magic oak tree. The decision seemingly becomes less important after something magical happens to Marcel, throwing him into an unexpected buggy world.

Given the quest to find royal jelly to change back into a human, Marcel is left to fight for survival as a small human but rapidly turning into a bug. The quest makes him learn about himself, make (bug) friends and fight the enemy.

When I chose the book, I didn’t quite know what to expect, being a mystery/thriller/horror author and reader. But I decided to give this book a chance to see if I could find a new genre to enjoy.

Beginning the book, I felt comfortable reading it, feeling it was a genre which I’ve missed out on. I enjoyed the setting of the South of France, and I liked Marcel’s unconventional personality: indecisive, shy and gullible, but with much potential in life. Which is very believable of a fourteen-year-old boy.

As I read on, I enjoyed the idea of Marcel being turned into a bug and fighting to turn back into a human, such an original idea. But as I read on, I couldn’t help but think of James and the Giant Peach and A Bug's Life and some other books and films. That point isn’t negative, because although similar in some ways, I felt Strange Metamorphosis has its own themes, an innovative story, different to all the other bug life kind of stories. I also liked the wide variety of bugs throughout the story. They were not obvious characters and type of bugs for Marcel to interact with; I think that is what I liked most.

The main objective of the story and for main character Marcel is pretty straightforward, with the occasional side track of a story. I didn’t dislike the simplicity of ‘boy searches for the royal jelly’ but I do think that there could have been more to it; then again I would think that being a mystery thriller reader.

Throughout the book, I could tell that the author P. C. R. Monk is a very intellectual individual and experienced within the writing industry. His writing flowed fluently and the tone of the book was also fun. But at times, I felt that the style was too formal as well as Marcel’s language. As I was reading I couldn’t imagine the Marcel in my mind uttering the words I read. This also questioned my initial thought that this was a book suitable to children as well as young adult. The plot and genre would be suitable for children, but the way in which it is written it is for YA.

Finally I would like to mention the front cover. It’s very interesting and having constantly taking a glimpse of the front cover as I read; it urged me to read faster to get to the part where he becomes a bug.

Overall I am glad that I took the time to read this book, it was a nice change from the usual genres I read. It was a book that was simple yet intriguing, with a wide range of characters and an original writing style from Mr Monk.

                                                                             

Author P.C.R Monk

Read about the author P C R Monk on his website and his bio here. Apart from winning a BRAG Medallion award for Strange Metamorphosis, Mr Monk has also been awarded a Children's Literary Seal of Approval.

The author is kindly giving away a copy of Strange Metamorphosis. Please leave a comment here on the blog if you would like your name in the draw. 

*Facebook users* may also comment here for a chance to be entered.

Tom Blake is the author of Endurance and The Author. His genre lies mainly in thrillers and horror. This is Tom's debut for The Review and you can follow him on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and on his website.

T. J. Blake

Anna Reviews: The Light in the Labyrinth

The Light in the Labyrinth
by Wendy J Dunn

If there is one period in English history that has been depicted, over and over again, it is Tudor England. There seems to be something utterly irresistible about Henry VIII and his glorious daughter Elizabeth I, some sort of fascination that attracts readers like flies to a honeypot. Personally, I am not a Tudor fan – I feel a certain fatigue when yet another book detailing the intrigues at the royal court makes an appearance. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy books set in the period – but I’ve had my fill, I think, of Henry and his hapless wives.

This is not to say that the sad end to the passionate affair between Henry and Anne Boleyn leaves me cold – beyond a doubt, this is one of the more scorching love stories in history – but it is a story where fiery passion turns to bitter ash, a spiteful, ageing king wreaking his revenge on his proud and wilful wife. Still: it is a tale all of us have heard, in one way or the other, so is it at all possible to set these sad events to a new, entrancing tune?

When The Light in the Labyrinth landed on my desk, I was therefore somewhat hesitant. Yet another book about Anne Boleyn, this enigmatic lady who so enthralled the king that he broke with the Holy Church for her sake – what new insights could possibly be offered? One chapter into the book, I no longer cared about new insights. I cared about prickly, confused Kate, Anne Boleyn’s fourteen-year-old niece.

Katherine Carey is a resentful, angry young girl. She considers her mother a fool for marrying beneath her, she is jealous of her new half siblings, condescending of her commoner stepfather and the only thing little Kate wants is to go to court and serve her adored aunt, Queen Anne. In Kate’s book, Anne is everything her own mother is not: fashionable, witty, powerful – and of course, extraordinarily happy, now that she has achieved her ambitions and become queen.

Kate’s mother, Mary, does not want her to go to court, but at long last she relents, even if her demeanour clearly shows Kate just how much her mother hates letting her go – or is it fear that causes her mother’s face to pale? Kate doesn’t care. She is going to London to live with the queen and to finally see her brother, Harry, who for the last few years has lived at court, despite being younger than Kate. She vaguely recalls her mother’s distress when Harry was taken from her – several years ago – to be brought up elsewhere, and she doesn’t quite understand why her brother was so brutally separated from his family, but conveniently blames her mother for it. In Kate’s opinion, everything is her mother’s fault – a typical adolescent reaction.

It is rather fitting that Kate enters London via London Bridge, having to ride below the garish display of the rotting heads of the king’s executed enemies. She is entering a dark world, a labyrinth of conspiracies and undercurrents, and very soon Kate’s entire universe will be severely rocked as she uncovers secrets about herself – and about the court. Even worse, it does not take Kate long to understand that her beloved aunt is far from happy. In fact, Queen Anne is distraught, living her days on a knife-edge of fear and hope – hope that she might yet give the king a son, fear of what he’ll do if she doesn’t.

While it is Anne Boleyn’s subsequent fall from grace that is the main theme of the book, this is really the story of how Kate grows from a truculent difficult child to a very young woman of integrity and courage – brave enough to confront the king, mature enough to see in him a confused and angry man who no longer knows who to trust.

In Kate, Ms. Dunn gives us a complex and credible character, one it is easy to love and care for, despite her initial despicable behaviour towards her mother and stepfather. Forced by circumstances to take on far more responsibility than she is ready for, Kate more than rises to the challenge, even in those moments when all she experiences is suffocating fear. The story is told in third person, consistently from Kate’s perspective, but here and there the author has inserted Kate’s own thoughts, taken from her secret journal, and these first-person passages add depth to Kate’s personality.

Had The Light in the Labyrinth only dealt with Queen Anne’s unhappy end, it would have made for quite the dreary read, no matter how much life Ms. Dunn blows into her cast of characters. Fortunately, she has added a sweet and innocent romance between Kate and her future husband Francis. All that teenager angst that goes in hand in hand with first love is excellently depicted – and quite, quite timeless, causing this reader to smile in recognition.

Ms. Dunn has obviously expended a lot of effort on her research. It shines through every casual description of rooms and gardens, clothes and pastimes. A myriad of characters populate these pages, but Ms. Dunn does a good job of only properly introducing the truly important, while the rest blend into the colourful background of scheming courtiers and invisible servants. Even more important – and especially in a book aimed at a young adult audience – all this information is expertly woven into the fabric of the tale, thereby avoiding any heavy-handed “info-dumps”.

All in all, The Light in the Labyrinth is quite the read – no matter the age of the reader. And yes, thanks to Kate, a new voice has been added to the well-known haunting melody – a voice that mellows and matures as the story evolves and yet retains a touch of bittersweet innocence right to the bloody, inevitable end. It is with regret I close the covers on Kate’s story, and I can but doff my cap and applaud Ms. Dunn for a work most well done!

About the author 
Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author quite obsessed with all things Tudor, as evidenced by her previous novel Dear Heart, How Like You This, which is about Sir Thomas Wyatt, a close confidante to Anne Boleyn. Recently, she has uncovered facts that give an indirect explanation to her fascination with the Wyatt and Boleyn families – it seems Ms. Dunn’s ancestors had business dealings with these two families and may well have known both Anne and Thomas. Somewhat creepy, but quite intriguing…

Ms. Dunn can be found on her website, and The Light of the Labyrinth is available both on Amazon and Amazon UK.

Anna Belfrage is the author of six published books, all part of The Graham Saga. Set in the 17th century, the books tell the story of Matthew Graham and his time-travelling wife, Alex Lind. Anna can be found on Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and her website. If you would like Anna to review your book, please see our submissions tab above.

Louise E. Rule Interviews Australian Author Wendy J. Dunn

From the cover of _The Light in the Labyrinth_

Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian writer who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of two Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, and The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel.

In the winter of 1535, fourteen-year-old Kate Carey wants her family home. She thinks her life will be so much better with Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII's second wife and the aunt she idolises. Little does Kate know that by going to attend Anne Boleyn she will discover love and a secret that will shake the very foundations of her identity. An attendant to Anne Boleyn, Kate is also swept up in events that see her witness her aunt's darkest days. By the time winter ends, Kate will be changed forever.

Wendy J. Dunn

While she [Wendy J. Dunn] has a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channelling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors - possibly over three generations - had purchased land from both the Boleyn and the Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. it seems very likely Wendy's ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Wendy is married and the mother of three sons and one daughter - named after a certain Tudor queen, surprisingly, not Anne.

Welcome Wendy to The Review Author's Interview. Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.

I would like to start by talking about your book cover.

Your book cover is impressive. Did you have any input into its design Wendy?

Close up detail of the picture from the cover

Thank you, Louise. Smile, I think the cover is impressive, too. The figure of the girl is taken from a painting called “The head of a Tudor Girl”, painted by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale in 1899.  I first saw and fell in love with this painting about two years ago. Ever since, I yearned to use the girl to represent Kate Carey on the cover of The Light in the Labyrinth. The other images on the cover are a symbolic peacock feather and, of course, the famous Anne Boleyn necklace. Can you see the blood on the necklace? That's the end result of trying to imagine how it would have looked after Anne Boleyn’s execution.

So, yes, I did have a lot of input into the design of the cover for my novel. But that’s also because Metropolis Ink is an extremely supportive publisher, made up of a wonderful partnership: Kurt Florman and David Major. David does the book layout and cover designs.  He, just like Kurt, always listens to his authors and works with them until they are completely happy with the look of their books. 

The title written in lower case ‘the light in the labyrinth’

The sub title written in upper case ‘THE LAST DAYS OF ANNE BOLEYN’

The colours of the lettering match the colours of Anne Boleyn’s English Gable Hood, making for a dramatic impact.

The main title colour matches the gold in her English Gable Hood, and the subtitle matches the red insert of her hood. This has a truly striking impact.

Background black with the symbolic peacock feather, which traditionally are linked to immortality and resurrection, and for this reason can be used in decorating a church at Easter.

There have been quite a few novels written about Anne Boleyn. She has proven to be a very enigmatic figure to many. What drew you to write about her Wendy?

Anne Boleyn has been part of my life since I was ten-years-old. As a very shy child, I was always drawn to Anne’s courage, her determination, her sharp intelligence and her strength of character that refused to wilt before strong men like Henry VIII. Her story, and that of her daughter, Elizabeth, lit a light of inspiration during all my growing up years.  But I never quite understood why her story spoke to me so deeply, or so loudly, until I started the journey of my PhD in 2010. Now I clearly see that I am drawn to historical feminist narratives, like that provided by the story of Anne Boleyn, because these stories connect deeply to my own experience of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Tudor women were educated that a virtuous woman was a silent woman. If they didn’t toe the line, they suffered the consequences. Sometimes, as in Anne’s case, the consequence was death.  I really believe Anne died because she refused to be silent.

The Light in the Labyrinth is my second novel that imagines Anne Boleyn’s story. Both this novel and my first, Dear Heart, How Like You This?, have left me questioning how much things have changed for women over the centuries. Women today are still punished because they refuse to be silent. In Australia, every week one woman dies through domestic violence. The story of Anne Boleyn has become a tool for me to critique my own society, and also opened my eyes to why the narratives of our world need to be rewritten so men and women walk side by side as equals. Until that happens, I don’t think the world will be able to find true healing.

It’s extremely interesting how you bring the reader into the story in media res, with Mary and Kate, and Kate angrily thinking:

 ‘Tis my mother’s fault. She’s the one who has brought shame on us. A sister of the Queen of England should know better than to wed a commoner.”

Thus achieving in one thought, just where we are in history. So, Wendy, would you like to tell our readers what gave you the inspiration to write this novel?

I wrote an essay about this very subject, which is included in The Light in the Labyrinth, Louise! A shorter version of the answer is that I believe writers grow by continually pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. 

Late in 2009, I went to a ten-minute play competition with a friend. The competition left both of us very inspired – and we challenged ourselves to write a play to enter in the 2010 competition. I really wanted to write a comedy – but I found all my ideas just went nowhere. Finally, with time disappearing on me and a new school term about to start, I picked up a copy of my first novel and found myself thinking about “Anne Boleyn in the Tower”, the painting used for its cover. Next thing I knew, I found myself writing a play that imagined the last night of Anne Boleyn’s life.

Remembering the hints from history that Katherine Carey may have been with her aunt, Anne Boleyn, during the lead up to her execution and also a witness to her death, I decided to include Kate Carey as one of my characters. After writing that play, I kept returning to the thought that Kate would make a great subject for the young adult novel I planned to write for my next major work. But before I could commit to writing another novel, I first had to do a lot of research to reassure myself that there was enough evidence to suggest Kate Carey was fourteen-years-old when her aunt was executed. Like Anne Boleyn, Kate is another woman from history with her birth year shrouded in uncertainty. For years, I believed she was most likely only twelve at the time of Anne Boleyn’s execution – too young, I thought, to be included as a witness to her aunt’s death, and one of the women responsible for ensuring that Anne Boleyn’s body was interned with all proper respect. But my research showed it was possible that Katherine Carey was fourteen in 1536 – a far more interesting age than that of a girl of twelve. Once I could believe that, I could begin my novel, which also became my PhD artefact, in earnest. 

You say that you have been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor history since being a child of ten-years-old. What drew you to this point in history Wendy?

I received a child's book of English history for my 10th birthday. In that book was a chapter about Elizabeth I. As Elizabeth Tudor was wont to do in her own lifetime, she hooked me - and I have stayed hooked ever since. From that point of time, I started to read and seek out everything I could find that would help me learn more about Elizabeth. That quest led to her mother, Anne Boleyn. Both these two remarkable women have been responsible for my lifelong study of the Tudors. 

As the history of Anne Boleyn is known by many, even if it’s only the fact that she was one of Henry VIII’s wives, what was your inspiration to making this novel new and fresh for your readers?

There are three parts to this answer. The first part has to do with Kate Carey. Very little is known about Kate Carey’s early life – and that offered a gap for my imagination to use to create a new fictional character, a character also based on a real person from history. The second part of this answer concerns the fictional construction of the last months of Anne Boleyn’s life. I think most people interested in Anne Boleyn wonder about the reasons for her tragic death. For myself, writing this story was my way to try to understand the real reasons Henry VIII murdered, yes, I see it as murder, a woman who he had turned his kingdom upside down to marry. I had mulled over this question for years, ever since I finished my first Tudor novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This? It seemed far too simple to blame the events of 1536 on Anne Boleyn’s failure in the birthing chamber. The third involves my imagined Anne. She is not the Anne of The Other Boleyn Girl or Wolf Hall. My Anne is not perfect. She makes mistakes, like all of us, and says things out of anger, jealousy and heartbreak. But my Anne is also an extremely intelligent, very human woman who deserves love and respect. I have researched Anne for decades now. The more I study her, the more I respect her, and recognise that Elizabeth I is very much her mother’s daughter. 

I thought I would concentrate here a little on Kate, the daughter of Mary, their relationship of which is palpable in its intensity. How much of their relationship comes from perceived knowledge, and how much is from your inspired imagination?

From both: perceived knowledge and imagination. I constructed my imagined Kate through my knowledge of her mother and her aunt. But as I have already mentioned, very little is known of Kate’s early life. So the relationship of mother and daughter was very much a product of my imagination.

Kate is a very strong character in your book. It’s quite revealing of her thoughts to show her writing in a journal. Given this aspect, what gave you the idea to have Kate writing in this way, or was it a well know aspect of life in that time?

This also came from my knowledge of both Anne and Mary Boleyn. We have in existence a letter written by the young Anne Boleyn to her father when she was in service to Margaret of Austria. We also know Anne Boleyn wrote poetry – and then there is that heart wrenching letter from “the Lady from the Tower”. Whilst it is debated whether this letter is indeed from Anne, I believe it rings with too much truth and bewilderment for it not to be from Anne’s own pen.

We also have a letter to Thomas Cromwell by Mary Boleyn, then Mary Stafford. So, in a time when many in nobility struggled to put pen on paper (reading was a far easier skill to learn), we have physical evidence that Anne and Mary wrote letters. It is such a shame we have lost Anne Boleyn’s letters to Henry VIII, but the very fact we have his love letters indicates a correspondence between them. It was this simple fact that Anne and Mary wrote letters, added to my knowledge of the Devonshire Manuscript, a shared book passed around a group of men and women at Henry VIII’s court, many of them also Kate’s kin, that gave the idea of that Kate would likely know how write as a teenager. That helped me decide on using the device of the journal to help to tell Kate’s story.

As the reader scans the page, it is evident when Kate is writing in her journal by the change in the font, which is an extremely effective device for the reader to recognise that moment. I read her journaling almost as though it were a soliloquy, an aside to the reader. Was this your intention?

Thank you, Louise – that was my exact intention, and I’m utterly delighted that you, as a reader, connected to the journal in this way. I saw the journal as a device to deepen the connection between Kate and the reader – and a way to include sections of first person narration, which research suggest is more appealing to the young adult reader.

Many readers are keen to know the routines of writers. So to that end, may I ask you if you have a set routine to your writing day? If so, could you tell us how your day runs please Wendy?

At the moment, I’m taking a break between The Light in the Labyrinth and submitting my PhD before starting in earnest my next novel. My family is the centre of my existence, so it is lovely to have more time available for them. But I also need to write. For big novel projects, I make a habit of going away to writing retreats so I can focus utterly on my work. Varuna, The Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains in Australia is perfect for this. Writers write in their rooms from 9 am to 6 pm. There is no phone in the house, and all mobiles have to be switched to silent. After 6 pm, everyone emerges from their rooms and eat a wonderful Varuna dinner together, cooked by a very special woman. (I miss you, Shelia!) Writers share their daily triumphs or frustrations, and sometimes read from their work-in-progress.

At home, I generally work when my family are not around– between 9 am to 3 pm. When I am deeply in a project, I will often return to my study around 7.30 and work until 9.30. 

   

The editing and proofreading process is a very meticulous task, as I’m sure you will agree, Wendy, so it would be interesting to know how you tackle your proofreading/editing process?

Writers of fiction need passion to dig out the clay to make the bricks of narrative. Passion gives writers drive and purpose – the reason to write. Second, third and fourth drafts call for more and more objectivity until your creation is ready for the eyes of publishers.

I always write the first drafts of my work for myself. That’s my time to experiment, and play around with ideas. It is when I arrive at later drafts I turn my thoughts to what needs to be done to ensure I engage readers other than myself.

When I arrive at second or third drafts, the task of writing begins to feel more like a collaborative project. I don’t believe writers can do their best work in the vacuum of isolation. I am fortunate to have critical friends who I can go to for feedback about my work. For The Light in the Labyrinth, I not only had my PhD supervisors as critical friends, but a group of fellow writers and dear friends who also critiqued my work through its various stages. Of course, the writer of the work is always in the driver’s seat. I take full responsibility for all the decisions made in writing this novel.

One thing I have found very useful to help proofread my work is to read it out loud. My brain has a terrible habit of seeing words in sentences I’ve really left out, but reading it aloud helps me catch those missing words. Another useful technique is to put your work away for a time and then come back to it to read it with fresh eyes. When we have just been working on something, it is difficult to see it clearly and objectively. I also think that every new draft pushes a work to the next stage because the writer becomes more and more certain of the direction of their story.

Writing fiction is all about surrender. To arrive at that point needs discipline, and the mental space to dream stories onto the page. My creative habits continually change. Nowadays, I need a fair amount of silence to write a first draft. I need to hear my thoughts and take them to a place where I can turn them into words on a page. My whole body is involved in the creative process. I am forever testing out my text, tasting, savouring words, to see if they make me vibrate. I put myself in the same space as my characters, to feel their pain, their joy – their experience of being. 

Finally, Wendy, is there anything else that you would like to tell our readers about your writing process?

Probably not so much about the process, but a final word about why I write. Writing has taught me that I use historical fiction as a way to tell my own story, as a woman who has lived the experience of being shaped by her culture, who also has known oppression and – in her growing up years – being deemed to have less value than the males in her world.  A woman who believes in writing as a space that creates and builds empathy – not only for the reader, but for the writer, too. 

Wendy, it has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you, and extremely interesting and very informative too. Thank you so much for joining me at The Review today, and may I wish you all success with your new book, _The Light in the Labyrinth_

Wendy's book is published by Metropolis Ink

Wendy J. Dunn is also author of _Dear Heart, How Like You This?_ 

Wendy can be found on Facebook,  and Twitter and on her blog and Goodreads

Louise E. Rule is the author of Future Confronted

Louise can be found on Facebook and Twitter,

and on her blog and Goodreads

Louise E. Rule

Lisl Reviews: Forty Years in a Day

Forty Years in a Day

By Mona Rodriguez and Dianne Vigorito

Please see below for giveaway information of two copies of this fantastic novel

History is a fascinating mirror and perhaps none is more so than the people who lived through it. Adding to the layers of intrigue are oral traditions passed down within families that lend new angles of perception and understanding to previous events, not least of them being the awareness that these are one’s own people.

Manhattan Island's Hell's Kitchen c. 1890,
shortly before our story begins
Photographed by Jacob Riis

I’ve been fortunate recently to have made the acquaintance of several books written about authors’ relatives and ancestors, amongst them Forty Years in a Day, a family story told to one woman by her immigrant father on his 90^th birthday. Having journeyed to Ellis Island, scene of so many immigrant beginnings on our shores, the pair pass through the interior of a building that “exploded with thousands of personal stories of hardship and hope.” Clare sees her father’s face in those lining the walls, these images reflecting the “disquietude of an era.”

She understands already that the comfortable life she lives now is in debt to those who came before, including her father, Vincenzo. His childhood journey from an Italian village to New York's Hell's Kitchen was marked with a near-death experience and instances of degradation his mother, Victoria, tried to pass off as ordinary in the hope he would forget. Whether Vincenzo recalls those earliest instances or retrieves them from his mother's diary is not articulated, but Rodriguez and Vigorito lay out an understanding for Clare to absorb that is much larger than any of it, suggesting that even had Vincenzo remembered, he is beyond it. As father and daughter sit outside the island’s museum, silently taking in the beauty of the crisp autumn afternoon, Clare remarks on the beauty of the day.

“My father simply replied, ‘Clare, every day you’re alive is a beautiful day.’

Throughout his life, the phrase ‘it’s a beautiful day’ had become his mantra. I had always thought of it as cordial chitchat used to fill the uncomfortable gaps of silence in conversations, but only now did I comprehend the depth of his penetrating words.”

As they sit on the bench, Vincenzo Montenaro tells his daughter Clare the story of his life and his family, more precisely that of his mother, forced to leave an abusive husband and board a ship alone with several small children. The language is straightforward and accessible, but never simple, and the authors clearly work well together, possessing a talent for relating details that elapse over a long and arduous period of time, without overburdening the reader. We get a clear sense of how awful is the journey and its inherent pains, terrors, humiliations, discomforts, even cruelties.

This, in fact, is the style of the entire novel—many years encapsulated in much the same way the elder Montenaro would have done when taking only a single afternoon to describe forty years of his life. It is part of the authors’ craft that one never really knows for sure whether each individual segment is shortened by necessity or because suggestion is more powerful than a full-on witnessed account. Indeed, certain details are too wrenching to lay openly on the table, so to speak, and in fact would not do them justice. Some things, as is oft repeated, are best left to the imagination.

Vincenzo takes Clare—and us—through his mother’s story, her journey with the children to America and the years in which her life is essentially on hold because she mistakenly believes the husband she fled lives on. As time moves forward, Victoria, and her family as well as society, experiences growth and the awkward, inspirational and even ordinary moments informing and directing decisions pertaining to children, careers, dating, friendships, recreational activities, marriage and children, crises, illness and death, war, struggle, failures and triumph, and looking towards the future while remembering dreams of the past.

Mission House in Hell's Kitchen
c. 1915

Somehow the myth pertaining to this era’s more “innocent” time has managed to stay afloat in our own society,  though Rodriguez and Vigorito attempt no such fluff. Life at this time was difficult, even nightmarish for some, though there were opportunities as well. New York City in the first half of the 20^th century was no playground: Irish mafia wars rivaled disease and poverty and though many emerged intact, very few escaped at least some contact with both.

But, like life in any era, there existed also the beauty of the ordinary, perhaps what Vincenzo, even in childhood, reveled in the most as he passionately embraced his appreciation for life:

Victoria knew the smell of the fresh baked bread and sauce simmering on the stove were ones the children looked forward to six days to Sunday. The minute she and [sister-in-law] Genevieve left the kitchen to ready themselves for church, Vincenzo would rip a loaf of the warm bread into pieces, dunk them into the sauce, and dole them out to his cousins and siblings. By the time Victoria returned, washcloth in hand, one of the loaves would have inconspicuously disappeared. Smiling to herself, she would casually wipe away the residue of red that rimmed their lips, pretending she was unaware of their weekly ritual.

Perhaps one of the novel’s greatest strengths is the manner in which it balances understanding of one realism within history: from the beginning human beings have always loved to be told stories, and it is no accident that our own histories resonate so deeply within us. The series of stories told throughout the book, as Vincenzo and his siblings—and the enlarging cast of characters—journey though teen years and young adulthood, as they enter into middle age, these stories satisfy a need to know about life for others and at other times, told by two with the eye and instinct of keen storytellers who know exactly when to divulge, when to pause and hold onto secrets and twists. They also embody the mirror image of those who love to be told a tale by fully displaying the seeming human satisfaction in telling one. Effortlessly weaving through time and connections within the characters’ own era, neighborhood and circles, they also touch our own. 

So much happens in this novel, really a memoir of sorts--beginning in first person and shifting away as Vincenzo picks up--but readers are moved forward, perhaps a reflection of Vincenzo's own perspective and the manner in which he habitually looks forward, rarely dwelling on past events Here, too, the authors, who are in fact cousins telling their own family's story, bring us to witness exactly how much the patriarch values the future and those who will occupy it. Like Clare who learns so much that afternoon, readers will be "exhausted and inspired from the journey[,]" and wouldn't have it any other way. 

Mona Rodriguez and Dianne Vigorito have so graciously offered two copies of Forty Years in a Day for giveaway. To become eligible, simply comment below or at this review's associated Facebook thread. 

You can learn more about the authors and Forty Years in a Day at their website or blog, or follow on Twitter or Pinterest. You may also find Forty Years in a Day for purchase at Amazon.