The King’s Furies Blog Tour

Today on the blog I have the great pleasure to welcome author Stephanie Churchill. Stephanie has been a long-time fan of the Bernicia Chronicles and it is always a joy to read her review of each book. Her reviews are long, thoughtful and insightful in ways that make me wonder if she doesn't know more about my books and characters than I do myself!

Like me, Stephanie is also writing a series of novels (Crowns of Destiny), which started back in 2015 with The Scribe's Daughter.

Stephanie’s writing draws on her knowledge of history even while set in purely fictional places existing only in her imagination. Filled with action and romance, loyalty and betrayal, her writing relies on deeply drawn and complex characters, exploring the subtleties of imperfect people living in a gritty, sometimes dark world. Her unique blend of historical fiction and fantasy ensures that her books are sure to please fans of historical fiction and epic fantasy literature alike.

The Scribe's Daughter was followed by The King's Daughter.

The third novel in the series, The King's Furies, is out on 30th July.

MH: Welcome to my blog, Stephanie. Before we start the interview, something to drink?

SC: I’d love a nice craft beer, thanks. What do you have on tap?

MH: I don't have any craft beer on tap, but how about a pint of Wadworth Game of Stones? It is brewed just down the road in Devizes and I think you'll approve.



SC: Thanks, that sounds great. And thanks for letting me stop by for a chat finally. Looks like all that harassment has finally paid off.

MH: Well, it was either give in or face a legal battle, but I decided this was easier. But before you get all smug about it, can we talk about genre for a minute? You and I have talked about this a few times in the past, but I know you like to be clear for readers on the topic of the genre of your books. They are categorized as fantasy, but they are lacking in magic, creatures, and other fantastical elements.

SC: Yeah, thanks for bringing this up. It’s as good a place to start as any.

I love history. Always have. I know a lot of historical fiction authors, and I read a lot in the genre. For people who know this about me, it’s very common for them to ask me why I didn’t just write historical fiction since it seems the most obvious choice. The answer I’ve given most often is that, quite honestly, I am scared off by the research. I know what it would take to do the kind of quality research I’d demand of myself, and I don’t feel like I want to commit to it.

But as I’ve thought more deeply about what motives me to write, I’ve discovered another reason. As much as I love history, the history itself isn’t what draws me to writing; it’s the storytelling. Story moves me more than the history, and I think I knew this intuitively when I started off. I wanted to be free to tell a story any way that worked without being constrained by facts. I read a lot of historical fiction (and much less sword and sorcery fantasy), so a historical-feeling setting became the narrative device that felt most comfortable to me.

Sorry to be so long-winded about it. It’s just a good question.

MH: So historical-feeling. Got it. Let’s talk about your world a bit since there isn’t any real history in your books. What were your influences for the setting?

SC: I’m most comfortable with medieval history and culture, so that was definitely the period I drew upon to create most of the world for my characters (medieval with a smattering of early Tudor). A couple of locations in the books, Elbra and Pania, have some Eastern European influences in language and social ranks of aristocracy as well as some vaguely Mediterranean settings. I created an entire people group in The King’s Furies based on Ethiopian culture. Generally speaking, the worlds will feel familiar to people in Britain and North America. I live in Minnesota, USA, and we have brutally cold winters with comfortable but humid summers. Like Britain, it’s temperate, though quite a bit more extreme on either end of the seasons. It’s easy for me to imagine my characters bundled up in furs and cloaks while tromping through the snow just as much as it is to have them bake in the sun.

MH: How about historical influences on plot and characters?

SC: Historical events and individuals definitely inspired some of the characters and events in my books. Nothing original here, but I’ve always been interested in the Wars of the Roses and the idea of York vs. Lancaster. I know that history has inspired a lot of books, and I can’t say I’m much different. I also can’t help but admit that many of the historical novels written by Sharon Penman have influenced me: the historical events, her characters, her descriptions, and settings, etc.

MH: You’ve made it no secret that you love Beobrand. Are there any similarities between him and any of your characters so that my own readers might find him or her familiar?

SC: Yes, I might love Beobrand. But that’s supposed to be a secret. Can’t we just keep that between the two of us? So… Beobrand tends to brood a bit. He’s dark and moody and broody and conflicted. Just like the main character in my new release, Casmir Vitus, King of Agrius. Like Beobrand, leadership rests uncomfortably on Casmir’s head. He never wanted to be king, but the job is his, and he has to make the best of it. Unlike Beobrand, Casmir was raised to the role forced upon him though, so he performs the task admirably when he remembers he’s not meant to do the job alone. It’s when he acts out of a spirit of entitlement typical of kings (contrasting to Beobrand’s more plebeian upbringing) that he lapses into his imperious and haughty tendencies. Nothing extreme, but readers will sense it. I used this part of his character to explore the dark places of his soul as the events in the book push Casmir to the limits of his strength and test his character.

MH: I’m guessing Casmir doesn’t wield a sword and smite his enemies in the same way Beobrand gets to?

SC: Casmir lives in a peaceful time. Or at least peaceful in the sense that there is no warfare. Agrius has been at peace since his father took the throne. Well, all is peaceful on the surface anyway. Even if Agrius had been at war, kings in his time don’t actually get to fight. So no, he doesn’t get a chance to show off his combat skills except at the pell. His book has more relational tension and political intrigue rather than violence. Courtiers can be very deceitful, so the palace is more viper pit than a gladiatorial arena.

MH: Before I let you finish your [craft beer brand], can you give us a little snippet from The King’s Furies?

SC: Certainly! Here’s a short scene that demonstrates part of the beginning of Casmir’s inner conflict. From the King’s Furies, chapter 53:

“Mathiasen.”
It took a moment for me to realize it was the scriptstóri who had spoken. I swung around, taking a menacing step toward him. “What did you say?”
The young man backed up, nearly colliding with the wall at his back. “A-Anton Mathiasen... Your Grace.”
“Irisa, who is this?” I asked, not breaking my visual hold on the scriptstóri.
“This is Annor, the one I told you about. He has been helping me in the evenings while you were away.”
“How do you know that name?” I asked Annor.
Irisa must have sensed my rising fury and reached out a hand for my sleeve. A pallor of sickness washed over the young scriptstóri, and he cast terrified eyes on Irisa. Rather than step in to help him, Irisa stood resolute, waiting for his answer.
“I... I overheard it.”
I pounced like a cat on a mouse. “Where? Where did you overhear the name?”
“In the Bibliotheca.” Annor struggled to find air, grimacing as he sought the words while fighting off his terror. He fumbled with his hands, his fingernails digging into his palms in his anxiety. He could not bring himself to look me straight-on.
“Where in the Bibliotheca? Is it conspiring scriptstórii again?” Annor blanched once more as I grasped a handful of his robe in my fist and twisted, pressing my face so close to his that he had to turn to the side to avoid having his nose crushed. “Who has betrayed me?”

SC: Thanks again for letting me stop by. Now that we’re done here, I’m going to go play with Blue. He’s the real reason I wanted to come visit.

Blue says Hi!

Next on her blog tour, Stephanie is chatting with the fantastic Sharon Kay Penman. Don't miss that!

You can find Stephanie's books on Amazon.

Purchase The Scribe’s Daughter: mybook.to/thescribesdaughter
Purchase The King’s Daughter: mybook.to/TheKingsDaughter
Pre-order The King’s Furies: mybook.to/TheKingsFuries

Find out more about Stephanie:

Stephanie’s website: https://www.stephaniechurchillauthor.com/

What Stephanie Churchill Learnt while writing The Scribe's Daughter

Today, I am pleased to host a guest post from Stephanie Churchill, an author whose work I have talked about before on my blog. I reviewed her debut novel, The Scribe's Daughter, and later discussed her use of fantasy that is firmly embedded in historical reality.

Stephanie Churchill is a talented new voice, writing reality-based fantasy that reads like historical fiction. She is currently working on the sequel to The Scribe's Daughter, The King’s Daughter, which she hopes to release by the end of 2017.

"Woe is me. I think I'm turning into a god."

Contrary to the suggestion of Vespasian’s famous last words, no, I am not dying, and no, I am not turning into a god.  The quote is useful however, because it points to a very significant thing I learned while writing The Scribe’s Daughter, and its follow up, The King’s Daughter.  Or rather something I learned that I still need to learn.  That is, the problem of how to write effectively from the perspective of a limited character or reader while simultaneously being an omniscient, omnipotent author.  How do authors know how to unroll the scroll of mystery, doling out just enough clues along the way for the satisfaction of the reader while not giving too much away?

I didn’t set out to write a mystery.  I set out to write a character-driven, pseudo-historical book about a young woman who had a bad hand dealt to her.  (And if I’m honest, a series of bad hands repeated over and over through the book.)  The series of hardships and traumas she experiences grow her, develop her, turn her into a better version of herself than she was at the beginning of the book.  Never mind that writing a mystery was not a conscious decision.  The mysteries driving the plot became the tool to accomplish my main goal, the river in which Kassia swam in order to develop her character.  As Henry James said, “Plot is characters under stress.”

Since the element of mystery in my book caught me off guard, I wasn’t prepared to know how to approach the unraveling of those aspects as I wrote.  When I first sat down at my computer, I anticipated that the craft of writing involved nothing more than telling the tale as it unfolded before my eyes.  I found that it was much more complicated than this.  I realized that as the author, I know more than anyone else, and this knowledge had to be doled out slowly, carefully, and with much deliberation.

How subtle could I be?  How much could I rely on readers to catch?  If I made things too obvious, astute readers would grow bored.  I didn’t want to insult their intelligence.  On the other hand, if I remained overly obscure, readers on the other side of the spectrum might finish the book scratching their heads wondering how in the world that just happened, feeling blindsided and cheated.  As an author, you risk alienating one or the other audience.  Thus the necessity of careful, thoughtful deliberation.

It is difficult to know the beginning, middle, and end of a story as an omniscient author while writing it from the perspective of a person who is discovering the story as it unfolds – either as one of the characters or as a reader.  As the author, I had to constantly jump between broad plot arc, being the only one who could see the full parade from the helicopter above, and the “boots on the ground” parade float which can only see what’s just ahead.  I had to maintain notes along the way that reminded me who knew what at any point in the story.  At times I found myself writing dialogue only to delete and try again once I realized that this or that character couldn’t possibly know the thing I’d just made them say.  Not yet at least.

From a certain perspective, this job was slightly easier because I was only ever writing from the perspective of one person, Kassia.  I chose very deliberately to write this book in a first-person narrative.  This made the business of keeping straight who knew what at any given point much easier, I think.  But it still didn’t mean that other characters might not give things away in their conversations with Kassia.  How to realistically and authentically write dialogue for a character who knows a secret they are not willing to tell was one of the most difficult things I faced in the drafting and editing process.  How could Kassia quell her curiosity in the presence of the tight-lipped knower-of-things without wanting to throttle him or her to loosen their lips?  If you’ve read the book, you know Kassia would have been quite willing to throttle people!

I suppose authors who write primarily in the mystery genre handle the unraveling of a mystery in their prose often enough that it comes easily.  Maybe authors of formulaic stories do too.  But for me, holding a vast cosmos of an idea in my head – playing at being a god – while trying to mimic the more limited mind of a mere mortal, was a challenge that never left me.  As I write the second book, The King’s Daughter, the challenge is the same, and I’m not confident it will ever get easier for me.

To quote Disney’s 1992 animated movie Aladdin:

Aladdin: You're a prisoner?
Genie: It's all part and parcel, the whole genie gig.
[grows to a gigantic size]
Genie: Phenomenal cosmic powers!
[shrinks down inside the lamp]
Genie: Itty bitty living space! 

As an author, I often feel like I have phenomenal cosmic powers.  As a writer of fantasy I am not constrained by the historical record.  My characters can go and do what they want.  However, there are days that those powers must be tamed and subjected to the itty bitty living space of the plot and the necessity of pacing and good storytelling.  I don’t claim to have mastered this, but I have learned that I will need to work hard at it with every book.

“Woe is me.  I think I’m turning into a god.” – Vespasian 

To learn more about Stephanie, follow her on Twitter, like her Facebook page, or visit her webpage at www.stephaniechurchillauthor.com.

Twitter: http://bit.ly/2ChurchillTwitter
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2ChurchillFacebook

To History or Fantasy? That is the question!

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of The Scribe's Daughter by Stephanie Churchill in which I questioned the author's decision to create a fantasy world for her novel. I posed the question that if there was nothing overtly different from our world, why not set the story within a specific period of Earth's history?

I think my question was actually a bit disingenuous. If a writer wants to set their story on a fantasy world, then so be it! They can set it on any planet, as similar or different to our world as they want. That is the joy of creativity. It is hard enough to write a novel without having reviewers question your decisions. 'Write what you feel passionate about' is what writers are always told. Not 'write what people want you to write'.

Since writing the review, I have been wondering why I even mentioned it. But I suppose that as a reader, I am at the whim of my preferences and dislikes as much as anyone and for some reason that particular decision on the part of Stephanie Churchill just niggled at me.

Well, it seems that either Stephanie read my review, or others have asked her the same question, for she has recently posted on author Samantha Wilcoxson's blog answering the very question I raised.

It is an interesting piece in which Stephanie examines why she chose to write the book she did. It is well worth a read, so get on over there and read it!

Why Historical Fantasy? by Stephanie Churchill

REVIEW: The Scribe's Daughter by Stephanie Churchill

The Scribe's Daughter by Stephanie Churchill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With The Scribe's Daughter, Stephanie Churchill gives us the foundations for a compelling fantasy series, with a sassy, engaging heroine.

The book is written in first person, from the perspective of young Kassia, who becomes embroiled in all manner of political intrigues, fights and flights from pursuits, as the novel progresses. There is a lot of action with Kassia's backstory slowly revealed as the plot unfolds. The world that Churchill has built is believable and interesting, though I have to admit, I don't really understand the creation of a different world where nothing is substantially different from a pseudo-medieval Europe. If there is no magic or dragons or something else that doesn't exist on Earth, why not set it in the real world at some interesting point in history? This felt at times like historical fiction masquerading as fantasy, or perhaps vice versa. Having said that, the setting did not detract from the story or my enjoyment of the book, and Churchill has created a rich world, with a real sense of realism.

The plot trips along at a fair old pace, with Kassia being confronted with one obstacle after another. Churchill's writing is excellent, with many an elegant turn of phrase. The writing seemed to get more assured and the characters stronger in definition as the book progressed, but speaking from my own experience of writing, I think that is often the case with debut novels.

The Scribe's Daughter is a great debut from a very talented new author. The story is fast-paced and exciting, with enough twists and turns to keep readers entertained, but Stephanie Churchill's outstanding achievement is her protagonist, Kassia, a heroine with a uniquely sarcastic and lively voice who you will root for and feel like you know after the first few pages of the novel.

View all my reviews

Being compared to the great Bernard Cornwell is not such a bad place to be!

In the last couple of days, I have featured on the websites of two talented historical fiction authors.

First, I wrote a guest post for Samantha Wilcoxson's blog on what it's like to be compared to the great author, Bernard Cornwell.

Second, Stephanie Churchill has written a great piece about THE SERPENT SWORD and THE CROSS AND THE CURSE  and my writing in general, where she also compares me (favourably!) to the historical fiction master himself!

Meanwhile, THE SERPENT SWORD is currently on special offer in the US and UK - only 0.99 for a limited time only!

Buy it here: getbook.at/TheSerpentSword

And THE CROSS AND THE CURSE is available for pre-order. (Release date 22nd January 2016)

Finally, if you're looking for a present for someone special, you can order a signed paperback of either book from www.matthewharffy.com.