Getting Medieval

Interview with Historical Author Katherine Ashe (and Simon de Montfort)

We have an interview today with historical author Katherine Ashe. I included Simon de Montfort in the title because I didn't want readers to confuse this author with another of bodice rippers. Not that Simon de Montfort didn't rip...er...a bodice or two. But our Katherine is the author of the Montfort series, historical novels on the life of the man who founded England's Parliament in 1258 and created modern democracy. She's also a playwright and producer of the Jefferson Radio Theater.

THE INTERVIEW

Jeri: Your write about the 13^th century, I about the 14^th, what attracted you about the Middle Ages?

Kathernie: I write about the time before the plagues, when there was a large population living on the land, with a relatively small migration to the cities. Life had a stability built on the seasonal cycle and the class structure.

We cringe at the idea of such a structured society, but in Christian countries there was no shame in being a ploughman, a servant, a butcher. The fief, and God’s universe, had a place for everyone that was honorable for each kind. There was some social mobility, but chiefly through the Church. A merchant’s son like Thomas Becket could rise to be Chancellor of England, and from there to Archbishop, able to challenge the power of the king. But normal expectation was that you would do what your father or mother did, and that constituted a blessed life.

The promise of wide open opportunity that we live with now carries with it an element of judgment: if you haven’t accomplished great things you are a lesser person than those who have. We worship celebrity – those who have fulfilled the “promise.” But the strain of modern life’s demands is great. I think in many people there is a yearning toward a less challenging time, not a golden age, but an age of a quieter order and simplicity that the Middle Ages seems to represent.

J: What do you feel the 13^th century has to say to the 21^st century reader?

K: As I said, it suggests a less challenging social order. But you and I both write about the code of chivalry – the imperative of personal honor regardless of social pressure. Mark Twain thought Walter Scott so glorified chivalric honor that he entranced the American South with notions that were socially suicidal. And that may be true. Mary Doria Russell deals with this in her book about Doc Holliday, who seems to have been afflicted with a sense of honor that was self destructive in the extreme. Your hero, Crispin Guest, behaves according to his sense of honor, even while living in a state of deep dishonor.

A rather simplified view of Simon de Montfort, the man I write about, accords him the position of a model of chivalric honor because he would not retreat from his sworn commitment to uphold the principals that created Parliament. I believe there were more aspects to his persistent support of the Parliament, and such simplifications created the idea of a rigid chivalric code that much later generations regarded as the essence of honor – to their own undoing.

Nevertheless, I think your writing and mine hold up the value of personal integrity, regardless of external pressures. Such integrity is a virtue in short supply in our time and needs every encouragement. The holding of individual moral integrity as of prime importance -- despite risks of wealth, security, public opinion, status – is a message from the values of 13^th and 14^th centuries that needs to be heard by the modern reader. Not to deny that such integrity might have been honored more in theory than in practice in the Middle Ages – but it was present in even the worst criminal’s mind.

J:  You write about Simon de Montfort. Tell us about him. What drew you to him?

K: I was writing a book, a fantasy about fairies actually, that kept gravitating to the year 1258 in England. My Britannica’s article on England in 1258 briefly described The Barons War, led by Simon de Montfort. Looking up the article on Montfort, I found a peculiarly critical tone, I thought. A couple of weeks later when I accidentally came across a description of Simon’s death, and the writer was favorable to him, I decided to research just what was going on here. The more I learned, the more I felt compelled to write about this much maligned man as he might want to have his life described—if he were in a particularly confiding mood.

Quite simply, I find it mind-boggling that a person so pivotal in the development of modern democracy is so little known on the one hand, and so blaggardized on the other. It is as if hardly anyone had ever heard of George Washington, and those who had, knew only that he didn’t free his slaves and that he was perpetually short of funds and complaining about it (which is true.)

J: How did you approach your research?

K: The primary source of information on Simon is the Chronica Majora, a history from the first day of Creation to -- today (whatever that day was.) It was written nearly daily by the monk Matthew Paris at Saint Albans. The particular virtue of the Chronica is that, while it was regarded as the principal daily record in its own time (early to mid-13^th century), it was closed off from view. Brother Matthew could write whatever he wanted without fear the King would see it and punish him.

Saint Albans was one day’s ride north of London, and Simon passed there every time he came or went from his home at Kenilworth. At first Matthew was very critical of the foreigner Lord Montfort, but he came to be an intense partisan of Simon and his populist movement. That they were in direct communication is evidenced by a letter sent to Simon by his nephew in Germany describing “the Golden Horde” of Genghis Khan. The letter is bound into Matthew’s book and it is from it that we get the term “the Golden Horde.” Even more telling of the closeness between Simon and Matthew is the description of King Henry’s inadvertent visit to Simon’s garden tent during a rainstorm in 1258. Such scenes, where there were few witnesses present other than Simon and the King, turn up in the Chronica with some frequency.

The biography of Simon de Montfort by Charles Bemont is excellent, particularly for Simon’s years as viceroy in Gascony. And there are of course official sources: the records of royal charters which show who was present at Court on any given day, as well as what royal actions were taken; the Great Roll of the Pipe that records the king’s expenses.

 Along those lines, amazingly enough, Simon’s wife’s rolled up expense list from the months just before and after Simon’s death survived because it fell into a crevice of the wall of the monastery where she had retreated. When the monastery was destroyed during the French Revolution, out tumbled the account roll, filled with minute details of the Montfort household down to the leather riding chaps the Countess ordered (would you have guessed such a garment was under a lady’s skirts?) and the names of her footman, Gobehasty, and the kitchen boys, Garbage and Slingaway.

In Paris, the Bibliotheque Nationale houses the Montfort Archive. Back when I was doing my basic research, I sent in my request slip, as in any library, and out came a massive boxed book. Inside, the original vellum pages -- complete with their big wax seals -- were pasted onto strips of vellum that were then sewn into the book’s binding. There I found an autobiography in Simon’s own hand, written to describe decades of his experiences in England, for written testimony as he faced trial for treason against King Henry. (The trial was heard by Queen Margaret and the Peers of France.) And there were the actual trial notes as well. The experience of handling and reading these original documents was like reaching through time and touching the hand, the eyes, the mind...

I post copies of Simon’s documents, in their original old French and Latin, on the Simon de Montfort Facebook page. Amazingly, the site has some followers – people like myself I suppose who find the actual words thrilling.

J:  I always feel that there is a contract between author and reader that an historical will remain true to the time period. What do you feel about the balance of fiction and actual history in historical novels?

K: I happen to write as close to history as massive research can take me. If my findings differ from other historians, so be it, I stick with the early sources in preference over later histories. This happens to be the sort of book I’m writing. In the Historical Context section of each volume of Montfort I supply the reader with my sources and interpretations of those sources in light of supportive evidences. But that’s unique to what I feel are the needs of my writing about Simon de Montfort.

Most historical novel writing leans toward a mix, to greater or lesser degrees, of history and fiction. I personally don’t care for books that use a past period merely for color, while the characters are really modern people moved by modern ideas and attitudes. Much of late 20^th-21^st century publishing I think has gone in this direction in an attempt to create a women’s history, to counter-balance the mass of books, written over millennia, that have male heroes and nearly exclude women as active figures. While I can sympathize with the effort at social engineering these books represent, I feel they do no service in educating women in what the past was really like – and the stupendous achievement modern women have made in freeing themselves for a more active role in history.

Understood as fantasy, perhaps such books do no harm, but I often encounter readers who believe they know history from having read these popular novels.

One of the more harmful popular fictions, to my mind, is the stance that life in the past was brutal, miserable and short. Records prior to the plague years, and the crowding of work-bereft excess populations into cities, do not support that. The horrors of our own times: child pornography, the rape and murder rate, the fear of child abduction – these things we’ve grown to live with as common in the evening news would leave a 13^th century person unspeakably shocked.

The depiction of “the bad old times” leads us to be complacent, imagining that life has always been this bad. Your depiction of the back alleys of London in the 14^th century are probably quite accurate regarding urban life, but the homeless I’ve seen in New York City seem no better off, and possibly worse, as the virtue of personal charity operates far less now toward alleviating their suffering.

We prefer institutional assistance for the poor. Well, there was institutional help in the 13^th century also – and not the horrors of the 19^th century’s workhouses. King Henry III built a remarkable set of attached urban housing for nine homeless old men (there were only nine in that city at the time.) The building still stands and its nine apartments now are considered quite desirable. Assertions of “the bad old days: may feed our arrogance, but a truer view of the past as doing better in some ways than we do now might shame us into making more, and more humane, improvements.

I think I’ve drifted from the point. A book may be historical fiction and travel far from history while still being a fine work. Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is total time travel fiction, but brilliant writing – and it supplied Franklin Roosevelt with the phrase “The New Deal.” The card sharpie Yankee, observing that 90% of the wealth is in the hands of 1% of the population, says, “What these people need is a new deal.”

J: What do you like/ not like in historical novel writing these days?

K: Hmm. I think I’ve anticipated the question again. What I like is the vast array of books and research materials coming to be available as e-books or on line. In the not too distant future ominscience, at least of the written word, will be available to anyone with a computer.

What I don’t like: the limited categories of historical fiction. You can count them on the fingers of a maimed hand: historical romance, historical mystery, military/war time. This may be for ease in shelving in bookstores, but one would think a shelf could simply be labeled historical fiction: Ancient/ Medieval/Renaissance... etc.

I also don’t like the covers on most historical novels: women, and occasionally men, with part of their heads – or their whole heads, off the top of the cover.

Surrounded by such book covers in the ad hoc book shop set up for the Historical Novel Society conference in San Diego last spring, I asked the authors of these books (who were standing in line with me at the very slow check out) what they thought of these covers. There was a shout of helpless outrage. They hated them – but their publishers made the decisions and they had no say. One author observed that, while annihilating any look of intelligence that might be conveyed by the eyes, a nearly bare bosom was featured. Another called our attention to what actually was at the center of covers – though voluminously skirted, it was undoubtedly the crotch. I recalled my grandmother saying, “What she doesn’t show she points to.” Apparently these copycat covers had all been generated by the success of the cover of “The Other Boleyn Girl.”

What don’t I like in the writing of historical novels”? Blatant anachronism of language, or of elements of detail or behavior. “Firing” arrows for instance. Unless the arrow is tied with a rag that is dipped in some nicely flammable stuff that will keep it burning despite the breeze, and then is set alight, an arrow is not “fired,” it is “shot.” Guns are “fired.” That’s an anachronism that turns up frequently from hurried writing.

The worst case of anachronism, in my own experience, was when I was working with a screenwriter, early on, for an adaptation of Montfort for film. She had King Henry III traveling through London in a coach and leaving calling cards. The scenario was riddled with such stuff. Our collaboration was short-lived.

J: What writers have most influenced you?

K: I love the Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett. I re-read the first book, The Game of Kings, whenever I’m editing. Not that I want to write like Dunnett. No one but she would dare have her hero’s first utterance (he happens to be soaking wet after smuggling himself into Edinburgh by swimming the Loch Nor, “I’m a narwhale searching for my virgin.” Nor would anyone else dare to write in nine languages, including old Provencal and medieval Persian, without offering a hint of translation. But it’s precisely her spirit of daring that leads her to never use a common phrase, but always to find new, more vivid and exact words to arrest the reader’s eye and heart.

T.E. Lawrence writes with Arabic ringing in his ears, and his choice of words is breath-stopping. And there is Archibald Colquhoun’s translation of Lampedusa’s The Leopard. The chapter of the central figure’s gradual dying is perhaps the most exquisite  prose I’ve read. I’m left to wonder what it must be in Italian.

These are the writers I would like to claim as influences. The complexity of the actual, historical story I have to tell in Montfort requires clarity above all; a simplicity and directness that needs to seem artless. In my plays I’ve been able to play with language and color more freely.

J: You call it a series. Most historicals that aren't mysteries are standalones. How will this work as a series of books?

K:I call it a series, but actually it's a very big book in four volumes. The Montfort books are all in print. How it seems to be working is that people buy volume one, The Early Years, and go on to buy the rest. However, I've edited the books so that each can stand alone. Or a reader can pick up the series at any point -- though preferably not the last volume first, but that's a possibility, too.

Thanks for visiting today, Katherine. Your books sound most intriguing. You can read more about Simon de Montfort on Katherine's blog  http://simon-de-montfort.com/

Interview with Author Julia Spencer-Fleming!

Today I am pleased to bring you the wonderful bestselling author Julia Spencer-Fleming. She grabbed almost all the major mystery awards when she debuted with IN A BLEAK MIDWINTER back in 2002, the first in what was to be a successful mystery series with unlikely paired sleuths Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and local police chief Russ Van Alstyne and their even more unlikely romance. Readers were hooked and so was I. Millers Kill where the action of the books takes place, is a small town in upstate New York. And as you know, when you read mysteries set in small towns--when it comes to murder--they seem just as bad if not worse than the urban streets of any big city.

THE INTERVIEW   

Jeri Westerson: Tell us about the hiatus between your last book and ONE WAS A SOLDIER. We’ve missed Russ and Clare.

Julia Spencer-Fleming: Part of it was simply life happening. I had a bunch of health issues, none of which were life-threatening, but all of which affected my ability to work. (As they say in Monty Python, I got better.) Then there was the college search and application process with my oldest daughter, transitioning my son into high school, and switching my youngest daughter into a new elementary school.

I also spent far more time researching One Was A Soldier than I’ve ever spent on my other works. I felt a deep obligation to get the background and the experiences of my fictional veterans right, and I wound up taking some six months to read books, scour the internet for mil(itary) blogs, dissect newspaper and magazine articles, and interview vets. Honestly, I don’t know how you do the level of research the Crispin series takes and still manage to write a book a year!

I know the delay has been very frustrating to readers who’ve been following the series. I can only say that I think this may be my best book yet, because I took so much time to write, redraft, and revise.

Jeri: What do you think it is about a small town that interests authors—and readers—so much?

Julia: The sense of community? Even when living in huge cities, we live and work in our own small “villages.” So in that respect, everyone recognizes a small town. I also think the interest in fictional small towns stems from the way the reader can encounter the same characters over and over again, sometimes stepping to the forefront of the story, sometimes acting as a spear carrier. As an author, I love having this large cast of characters to use. We follow the residents of Millers Kill as they grow and change, as bad and good things happen to them. Finally, I suspect a certain nostalgia for small town life. I’ve lived in a town of 8,000 for 17 years now, and I still catch myself thinking, Wow, it’s just like Mayberry when I’m walking with my neighbors in the 4th of July parade or eavesdropping on ladies gossiping in the library. Although I can’t imagine anyone eager to live in Millers Kill - the per capita murder rate is appalling!

Jeri: Your minor characters are playing a larger role these days. Do you have plans for them?

Julia: I do. Several minor characters become significant viewpoint characters in One Was A Soldier, enabling readers to find out much more about their lives and backgrounds. One of the things I find useful about bringing minor characters to the foreground this way is the ability it gives me to reveal the main characters in a different light. The reader and I get to look at Russ and Clare through the eyes of the people around them - who may see our heroes entirely differently than they see themselves.

Two secondary characters are stepping up in a big way to become the next romantic duo. Officer Kevin Flynn has been in the series from the beginning; readers have seen him develop from a grass-green 21-year-old rookie to, in One Was A Soldier, a 26-year-old with quite a few experiences under his belt - including that of falling hopelessly in love with newcomer Hadley Knox. Hadley was introduced in I Shall Not Want, a thirty-something mother of two fleeing a bad marriage in California for the (to her) dubious pleasure of becoming a member of the MKPD. She doesn’t particularly want to be a cop, she doesn’t really want to become a part of the small-town society, and she more certainly doesn’t want to have a young puppy like Flynn panting after her. But there is this undeniable attraction...

Jeri: What comes first for you—the villain, the victim, or the murder method?

Julia: Of those three, the victim always comes first. Most of the time, I don’t know who the killer is until I’m halfway through the first draft. I have to write into it to uncover the twists and turns of the plot. The murder methods people use in my books are extremely straightforward - shooting, stabbing, bludgeoning. Although one victim did get defenestrated. Isn’t that a wonderful word? (Jeri note: It means being thrown out a window. One of my favorite words, too!) And I didn’t even use it in the book when it happened. At any rate, I’m trying to keep the crimes realistically small-town America, which mostly means guns.

However, if you’re talking about the book, I start with...I guess “the theme” or “the issue” is the right word. For instance, when I began teasing the threads of One Was A Soldier out of my head, I knew I wanted to write about returning veterans, the kind of mostly National Guard members who live and work right here in Maine. I had been reading articles about the deployments of various units and groups, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it must be like for them, coming back to their small rural towns, family and friends expecting them to be exactly the same as when they left. I knew, from friends who had been to Vietnam, that no one returns from war the same person. So that was my starting point, wanted to tell the story of a handful of individuals who came back. Then I had to think of a way to weave a mystery into their narrative.

Jeri: Tell us about ONE WAS A SOLDIER.

Julia: Can I quote the flap copy? I’m terrible at off-the-cuff descriptions of my own work.

On a warm September evening in the Millers Kill community center, five veterans sit down in rickety chairs to try to make sense of their experiences in Iraq. What they will find is murder, conspiracy, and the unbreakable ties that bind them to one other and their small Adirondack town.

The Rev. Clare Fergusson wants to forget the things she saw as a combat helicopter pilot and concentrate on her relationship with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. MP Eric McCrea needs to control the explosive anger threatening his job as a police officer. Will Ellis, high school track star, faces the reality of life as a double amputee. Orthopedist Trip Stillman is denying the extent of his traumatic brain injury. And bookkeeper Tally McNabb wrestles with guilt over the in-country affair that may derail her marriage.

But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die.

Since their first meeting, Russ and Clare's bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules the veteran's death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ.

As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad.

Jeri: What’s next? Tell us there is another Russ and Clare. Please? I mean, without giving anything away, I’m thinking there has to be.

Julia: Indeed there is! I’ve recently signed a three-book contract with the lovely folks at St. Martin’s Minotaur for another three Millers Kill mysteries. I’m already at work on the next book after One Was A Soldier. As is usual for me, I wanted to write a story that’s 180 degrees away from the most recent book, so this one is more of a stripped down thriller, taking place over the course of one week (and requiring very little research!) Think Russ and Clare trapped in an ice-bound cabin in the woods by a stone-cold killer. The working title is Seven Whole Days.

Jeri: A big thank you to Julia for stopping by Getting-Medieval. The book will be out in days. Go order it. Now!

Julia Spencer-Fleming is the Agatha and Anthony-award-winning author of the upcoming One Was A Soldier, the seventh Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery. You can find her on Facebook and on Twitter. One Was A Soldier is available for preorder at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Borders, Powell's Books and your locally owned independent bookstore.

Start at the beginning of the story with In the Bleak Midwinter, now only $2.99 as an ebook. And don’t miss Letters to a Soldier, a free ebooklet with exclusive content and an excerpt from One Was A Soldier.

LA Examiner Interview

Can you stand one more interview? Here is one with the Los Angeles Examiner.com.

Interviewed Today on Sharon Kay Penman's Blog

Sharon Kay Penman, amazing historical fiction author, was kind enough to give me an interview on her blog today.  http://sharonkaypenman.com/blog/?p=146

Crispin Answers Questions Today

The man himself, dashing ex-knight turned detective Crispin Guest, is on author Beth Groundwater's blog today. See what he has to say and ask him a question or two.

Romancing the Sword

Really great interview as the cover story for the Inland Empire Weekly. He "gets" me. Read it here.

Interview with Elizabeth Zelvin

Today, I'm interviewing author Elizabeth Zelvin. Liz is a New York City psychotherapist and author of a mystery series featuring recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler. Death Will Help You Leave Him, out in October 2009 from Minotaur Books, is a traditional whodunit about addictive relationships and hard choices. Liz's debut mystery, Death Will Get You Sober, was nominated for a David award for Best Mystery Novel of 2008 and for an Anthony award for cover design. Bruce also appears in three short stories, one in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (August 2009) one nominated for an Agatha award for Best Short Story, and a third in The Gift of Murder, the 2009 holiday crime anthology to benefit Toys for Tots. 

The Interview

Liz, you have a lot of sheepskin on your walls in the way of degrees. A social worker, an English major, a counselor. You started with poetry and now find yourself with murder. With many illustrious careers under your belt, what made you make the switch to writing mystery fiction? Did you set out to write a mystery?

Writing mystery novels is not a switch for me—it’s a return. I first said I wanted to be a writer when I was seven years old. And I think that for many of us, the most convincing proof that we are writers is to get a novel published. I was a college English major who couldn’t connect with poetry at all. I didn’t realize there was a good reason I couldn’t come to grips with Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane until I discovered Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton in my thirties. It was a revelation of what poets could write about and how accessible poetry could be. By that time, I had discovered mysteries. I wrote three that didn’t sell in the Seventies, took time out for clinical writing when I became a mental health and addictions professional, and went back to write Death Will Get You Sober as soon as I quit my last day job and had the time.

You work as a counselor to alcoholics. In your debut, Death Will Get You Sober, did you call upon your experience in counseling to get into the mindset of your protagonist, Bruce Kohler, an alcoholic? How does creating a fictional "patient" differ from the real thing?

The way you phrase this question is interesting, because it makes so many assumptions that are not quite on target. First, while I held a New York State credential in alcoholism and substance abuse counseling for twenty years, I never worked as a counselor. As soon as I realized a master’s degree in social work would give me not only a more sophisticated knowledge base but also better pay and status, I went for that. I held clinical social work jobs in alcoholism treatment programs for a couple of years and then went on to develop and direct such programs, including a women’s treatment program in Coney Island and a program for homeless men and women on the Bowery. At the same time, I started a psychotherapy practice, worked with all kinds of clients for many years, and then in 2000 started my online therapy practice at LZcybershrink.com, where I work with clients all over the world via chat and email.

Second, I don’t think of Bruce or of any alcoholic in recovery as a “patient.” As a social worker, I treat “clients” professionally, but Death Will Get You Sober is not about how people recover through treatment, although it starts out with Bruce in detox on the Bowery. What I wanted to present was the astonishing process of transformation that recovering alcoholics experience, especially through AA. And the idea for the series has always been not to show my protagonist climbing back on the same old roller coaster with booze, but continuing to grow and grapple with other addictive behaviors and life issues through other 12-step programs and his own unfolding self-awareness. The new book, Death Will Help You Leave Him, is about addictive relationships. All my characters are drawn from a huge number of people in recovery whom I’ve known professionally and personally. The only difference between them and the fictional Bruce is that I can guarantee with one hundred percent certainty that Bruce won’t drink again.

Alcoholism is a heavy-duty topic. Other mystery authors who have tackled addiction plotlines usually write darker stuff. How do you go about lightening up the topic while still giving it the respect it deserves?

I didn’t insert the humor into recovery. It’s already there. The world-class mysteries with recovering alcoholic protagonists—Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder and James Lee Burke’s Dave Robichaux—are indeed dark. I wanted to show that sobriety doesn’t mean you never laugh again, and that there’s a very special humor among people who are gradually becoming more and more honest about the appalling mess they’ve made of their lives. AA meetings can be hilarious. As for Bruce’s sardonic voice—and his sidekick Barbara’s very different and I hope equally funny struggles with codependency—they appeared out of that well of creativity that makes writers say we’re just a channel for characters who have a life of their own. When people can laugh at themselves, they become sympathetic as well as funny, and recovering people have that gift in abundance.

Did you find much opposition when you presented your manuscript to editors, given the subject matter?

I found that the topic of alcoholism acted as a kind of litmus test. Everybody has opinions about drinking, and one-third of American families are affected by alcoholism. Those who read it, including agents and editors, brought their own experiences and those of their families to the table, though of course they didn’t say so. There were certain clues. For example, some who found the book depressing rather than hilarious and hopeful may have had an alcoholic parent or spouse or sibling who never stopped drinking. They connected with the negativity and hopelessness at the beginning rather than with the recovery process that pulls Bruce along and gives him back his future by the end of the story.

Is alcoholism the true villain in your series or are you more pragmatic?

Not at all. How can a treatable illness be a villain? I’m writing mysteries, and the villains are the murderers, though even they may end up eliciting our understanding or sympathy. On the other hand, I could make a case for recovery itself—from addictive substances and compulsive behaviors, not only from alcoholism—being the true hero. ~What kind of book do you read to relax? I read what I write: character-driven mystery series and on occasion the same in other genres. When I most desperately need to relax, I’ll reread old favorites.

Death Will Help You Leave Him is the second in your series, releasing soon. What’s next on your plate?

The next in the series is Death Will Extend Your Vacation. Bruce and his friends Barbara and Jimmy find themselves in a lethal group house in the Hamptons.

Do you see a definite end to your series? Do you think at some point you’d like to branch out to writing a standalone? If so, what kind of story might that be?

I come from the generation of readers who expected a beloved series to go on and on. I would be happy to keep Bruce and Barbara and Jimmy going as long as they’re willing to talk to me in my head. But times have changed, and if that’s not possible, I don’t know what will come next. One of the strengths of this series is Bruce’s voice. I don’t know if I could create another series character who’s completely different but just as strong. And I really love whodunits with an endearing series character. Since I’m not crazy about standalones or thrillers—with a few notable exceptions—I’m not eager to write one. But you never know. Sometimes an unexpected theme or story or character takes a writer by the throat and demands to be written. That could happen to me.

Thanks, Liz, for stoppiing by. If you are going to the world mystery convention Bouchercon, you can see Elizabeth Zelvin, me, and award-winning author Louise Penny, on Saturday, October 17 at 2pm in front of the Book Dealer’s Room on the third floor. We willl be holding a cocktail/salon/conversation that we invite any and all to come to. See more about Liz on her website.

Guest Blogger Michelle Cameron

Today, I'm pleased to welcome my guest blogger author Michelle Cameron. Michelle Cameron is an historical novelist whose debut novel, The Fruit of Her Hands, was published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, on September 8, 2009. The Fruit of Her Hands tells the story of Michelle’s 13th Century ancestor, the renowned Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg. Michelle is also author of In the Shadow of the Globe, a verse novel about Shakespeare, published in 2003 by Lit Pot Press. She lives in Chatham, NJ, with her husband and two college-aged sons.  

 

Jewish Marriage and Labor Customs during the Middle Ages

Thank you, Jeri, for inviting me to pay a visit to your blog! In researching The Fruit of Her Hands, set during the 1200s in France and Germany, I learned a great deal about the customs of medieval Jewish women. For this, I am indebted to two books in particular – Elisheva Baumgarten’s Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe and Avraham Grossman’s Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe. I thought I’d share some of these customs – particularly as they related to marriage and labor – with your readers.

My heroine, Shira, is just eleven when receives her first proposal of marriage. Jewish girls were generally betrothed earlier than their Gentile counterparts. I was surprised to learn that the matchmaker was usually a man and the father, not the mother, was responsible to engage his daughter’s advantageously. After the betrothal ceremony, young girls were sent to their husbands’ family home to await puberty under the watchful eye of their mothers-in-law. Betrothal was considered as binding as marriage itself.

Weather permitting, the marriage ceremony would be held outside. The bride would wear an unlaced bodice, signifying that the only ties to bind her would be wedding bonds. The wedding ring was worn on the right finger, the one closest to the heart. To recall the separation from Zion, the bridegroom would often wear a cowl, the young couple would be strewn with ashes and ― in a ritual practiced to this day ― a wineglass would be smashed. The newly-wed couple would be taken off to a private room, to eat a small repast consisting of a chicken and an egg – signifying fertility, of course. 

With pregnancy a leading cause of death during the Middle Ages, it’s understandable that a plethora of superstitious evolved around keeping mother and baby safe. Throughout pregnancy, woman would wear her husband’s leather belt as an amulet, often decorated with red stones and protective verses. Before the mother was confined, an iron knife was kept under her pillow to defend her against ill luck. The knife was iron, because the letters of the word iron in Hebrew – BARZEL – invoked the names of the matriarchs Billah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah. The mother was confined for three weeks after delivery in the room where she gave birth. The sheets of the birth bed were not changed during all that time, which must have made for some uncomfortable sleeping.

The myth of Lilith frightened all medieval women. Lilith, Adam’s scorned first wife, was said to devour babies in revenge. She was committed to killing a hundred newborns every day. The newborn was never left unattended and amulets were hung on the door outside, inscribed with the names of three angels – Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof – who had the power to keep Lilith at bay.

In Germany, this custom merged with the Gentile custom of Frau Halle, who was said to bind newborns to her and who filled her pitcher with mother’s tears. To confound her, it became customary Jewish mothers to give their child a “baby” name (what we’d call a nickname) in a ceremony where young children raised the child’s cradle three times, exclaiming “Holekreisch, Holekreisch, what shall the child be called?”

Many of these customs (as well as others) found their way into my debut historical novel, The Fruit of Her Hands. I hope your readers will check it out!

Thanks to Michelle for stopping by. Her book sounds extremely interesting. Give it a try!

Interview with Author Louise Penny

I have the very great pleasure of presenting an interview with mystery author Louise Penny. If you are a Julia Spencer-Fleming fan, you will also like Penny's novels, set in the small town of Three Pines in Quebec. And like Spencer-Fleming's novels, Penny is a multiple award-winner. In fact, today we just got word that The Cruelest Month was nominated for an Anthony. Way to go, Louise!

Below is the interview, but if you'd like to learn more about Louise Penny head on over to her website.  

THE INTERVIEW

Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, yours truly, to name but a few, started out as journalists in some capacity to feed their writing habit. Tell us about your journalistc work in Toronto.

Love the company you've put me in - thank you! I was with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - the CBC - which is like the BBC only with way fewer listeners, and less prestige, and less money and less influence. So, not much like the BBC, really.

I started out as a National Radio News reporter then started hosting programs when one of the radio execs heard a report I'd done and told my boss I should be taken off the air. Annoyed me so much I decided to show him - and worked my behind off until I was offered a job co-hosting a morning show. Now, the CBC Radio morning shows are alot like the Today show, only not on television, with a far smaller audience, way less money and prestige and almost no make-up. So, not much like the Today show after all.

But I did learn to listen. To pay attention not only to what people said, but how they said it. To all the ways we communicate. And over 20 years I got to travel the country, listening to people's stories. And I got to witness some terrible events and some moments so divine they take my breath away even today. All that I use as a writer - as I'm sure you do too.

Your first book Still Life began your Three Pines series and won the first of your many awards. When I interviewed Julia Spencer-Fleming, we discussed a certain amount of “world-building” that goes into creating a small, closed community. Even though we might be well-acquainted with small towns and it might be inspired by someplace close, there is still a lot of invention that goes into it, not just geography but people. Tell us about Three Pines and its inhabitants.

Three Pines is a tiny, bucolic village in Quebec, close to the border with Vermont. It's part French and part English, as is Quebec. And when I came to create it all my decisions were selfish. I knew it would take about a year, and the chances of getting published were tiny so the writing of the book needed to be fulfilling enough on its own. So I decided to create a community I would choose to live in, with people I would choose as friends. Since I was going to spend so much time there, I wanted to enjoy it. More than that - I wanted to love it. Wanted it to become a sort of 'safe place' - a venerable old village with stone homes and a village green, that had survived disasters, and wars, loss and sorrow, and still turned its face to the sun.

The first thing I created was the new and used bookstore, and its owner Myrna. Then the bistro, with it's open fireplaces and mullioned windows and gay owners. Sarah's bakery and Monsieur Beliveau's General Store. And the B&B. None of the stores, none of the people, were created for dramatic purposes or with the thought they'd have to be able to carry a series. It was just dumb luck. Writing under the influence of gummi bears helps too. Mind altering. Just don't try to snort them. Trust me.

How heroic does a hero need to be? And how do you define “heroic” when it comes to Inspector Gamache?

He's a man with a moral centre. A man who, while flawed, will always try to do the right thing, not the easy thing. As we know, it's easy enough to be good and kind and decent when everything's going your way...the real test is to be a decent person when all hell is breaking lose. Gamache is that decent man. He was created because I never wanted to tire of my main character. He, uniquely, was created with the long view in mind. I need someone I would choose to spend perhaps the rest of my life with. And so I intentionally created a man I would choose to marry. I didn't expect anyone else to feel that way but it's been one of the great joys of the books for me, that others feel like that about Gamache. You know that wonderful line from Yeats - Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Gamache's centre holds.

What went into the creation of Gamache? Is he inspired by any one person or perhaps a conglomeration of people?

Oh, dear, I might have answered that above, but superficially he was inspired by the heroes I had growning up. My grandfather, who taught me poetry, Walt Disney, Ben Cartwright, Walter Cronkite. Middle aged men who have a calm, and a decency. If I was younger I would have without doubt made Gamache in his 20's or 30's...but I'm in my 50's, so he is too. He's also inspired by my husband Michael, who was a pediatric hematologist - a doctor for children with cancer...who had the worst job in the world, and yet is the most joyous man I know. Because he knows the difference between a bad day and a not bad day. Because he knows what a precious gift life is, and what a terrible shame it is not to enjoy it.

Since we’ve just talked about heroes, let’s talk villains. What is your favorite type of villain to write about and why?

Well, with the exception of CC de Poitiers in A Fatal Grace, all my villians are in fact regular people. I was very impressed by Hannah Arendt's book on the trial of Eichmann in Jerusalem. She called her book, A Report on the Banality of Evil. My villians are banal - they blend in, they're you and me and people we know. And that's the horror. Not that we're betrayed and attacked by perfect strangers, but that the attack comes from within.

There’s a level of darkness in your books that might leave them off the “cozy” list. How would you describe your mysteries?

Following on from what I just said in the previous question, I've always thought the village mystery was the most noir of any genre. To be killed by a friend. Et tu Brute. And then, for the rest of the community, to know one among them is a snake. And that growing dread as the police close in, as secrets are revealed. No one is safe. And all this happening in a perversely idyllic setting. That's also why I made Three Pines so beautiful - because then the darkness would be all the more stark.

I think it's possible to read my novels as village cozies and leave it at that. But I also know there are layers and levels. Like Bullwinkle. There, the truth is out...I was inspired by a cartoon moose. But I believe Emily Bronte was too.

I have heard that Canada is not an exotic enough locale for U.S. readers to be drawn into, but your books seem to do very well in the U.S. market. Can you comment about locales in novels? What is exotic anyway?

Great question. yes, one publisher said to me (while joining the cavalcade to turn down my first book, 'No one would be interested in a mystery set in Canada'. That, by the way, from a Canadian publisher! I had no idea what to say - except, 'So's yo mudda'. There are all sorts of brilliant Canadian mystery writers, from the great Giles Blunt whose books are set in northern Ontario to Gail Bowen and Mary Jane Maffini.

Having said that, I know I was VERY lucky to be living in Quebec and have that as the location. There is definitely something exotic about this area...the French fact. It's romantic and gracious, the food is different, the culture is different...and yet it's close enough and familiar enough that Americans can relate. I think - also - that a good writer can set their book in a single room and make it riveting. However, a great sense of place helps. I love reading about different places - and clearly other people do too.

Let’s back up a bit. Where did the decision come from to write mysteries, or was it something smoldering for a long time?

I actually had planned to write the best book ever, and win the Nobel Prize. Surprisingly, I then suffered writers block for 5 years and watched Oprah and ate gummi bears instead. Then I looked on my bedside table and saw all those Golden Age mysteries. Books by Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey. The books I actually read. And it came to me in that instant. I would simply write a book I would like to read. And that's what I've done ever since. Each book is for me.

You are very involved in literacy in Canada, and serve as the Patron for the Yamaska Literacy Council. Tell us a little about your activities in this organization.

Well, I wish I was more involved. I was also the president of our little local library for a few years but had to give that up when the writing and all that went with it got too absorbing. For Yamaska I mostly do personal appearances, readings, and have narrated a film.

The Brutal Telling, your latest Three Pines novel, will be released this October. What’s next for you?

Well, I'm now writing the sixth Gamache novel called Bury Your Dead - it's set partly in Three Pines but mostly in Quebec City during winter carnival. I've decided now to set every second book in Three Pines, and then let it lie fallow for a year or so...re-populate. Get some more villians moving in.

Jeri, thanks for this - these are among the most intelligent and fun questions I've been asked - and I'm MOST impressed and grateful! And enjoyed it. Thanks you!!!

And thank you, Louise. You are a hoot and I can't wait to meet you at Bouchercon this October! Happy reading, all! 

The SwordSmith Returneth

Here is a post from 2007. He was a bit reluctant to give me the skinny on how he made swords, sort of the point of this interview. Alas. But I ran a How-To in the next post, so, likely, I'll also rerun that here. 

Today we are talking with sword smith Paul Binns, a 38 year old bloke living in the county of Norfolk, England, who happens to make swords and other weapons for a living. He can be found at http://www.paul-binns-swords.co.uk/index.htm  

THE INTERVIEW

These days we're supposed to be making ploughshares, not swords. How did you get into making swords? Did you have a mentor?

I can’t remember why I started, probably because in the 70s there were no swords for sale so I started making them from a very early age, by hammering copper tube flat on kerbstones outside my house, later I progressed to flattening out leaf springs from cars to make rudimentary blades. I just picked up knowledge from where I could.

One would think that re-enactment groups would not constitute enough work for a present-day sword smith. Who are buying your swords and what are they doing with them?

Mainly re enactors but also museums filmsets and individual collectors who want a well made blade, made properly, perhaps they have an original in their local museum they want a copy of etc.

Can you take us through the step by step process of making a sword, from raw material to finished sword?

Depends on what type of sword, the techniques vary considerably across time, also re enactors have a different set of requirements entirely. But to be truthful I keep a lot of it close to my chest, too many importer types out there looking for info to farm out to India/China etc.

How does the process differ from then to now?

The main difference is in material quality. Nowadays a craftsman can look up steel and read the mill specs on heat treatment etc back then the material varied in quality greatly; carbon content, mechanical properties in the grain etc all were different from batch to batch, even from billet to billet from the same batch. For example, a bar or rod could have a soft centre and a hard, brittle exterior, the smith would have to follow his nose, so to speak, when working to get the best finished product.

I think it would be pretty easy to become enchanted with things medieval while living in England. It's all around you. But why do you think people from all over the world want these things, (including, of course, folks in the U.K.)?

I really don’t know, the re enactors need a reliable product that does not fall apart in use. The collector also wants this, but demands traditional working techniques as well. I suppose the sword is a symbol of times past, an anachronism that is aesthetically pleasing, and also something that has been around in one form or other since the Bronze Age.

Do you also make mail and armor? If so, what is that process like?

Nope, totally different set of skills, I can’t think like a tailor and make stuff fit anyway.

Was there a resurgence of interest since the Lord of the Rings movies appeared, or has the Dungeons and Dragons set always brought interested buyers?

Not as far as I am concerned, the Lord of the Rings is a great story, but it’s just an echo of the old stories and sagas... I am not interested in fantasy swords.

Things are a bit different in England than they are in the U.S. For instance, you still have guilds that have survived from medieval times to the present. Do you have to belong to a guild?

Interesting question, as I understand it the guilds are in the city of London, they are descended from the medieval guilds that existed to control quality and unfair competition, normally from foreign merchants. I am not in any trade guild, but funnily enough I am a freemason, the origins of which lie in the guilds of travelling craftsmen that built the cathedrals of Europe, specifically who carved the ashlar stone which formed the linings and facings of the buildings, whilst no longer operative, I suspect some of the old craft ritual has survived into modern masonry.

What was the most interesting or noteworthy sword or object you ever made?

I don’t think I’ve made it yet! Though I like the technique of pattern welding which is earlier than medieval.

What were some clunkers? In other words, is there some object you will never attempt to make again?

The first re enactment swords were behemoths of doom! I have such a relic in my shed somewhere, over 5 pounds in weight, no fullergroove for lightness, the hilt wound with copper electrical wire the pommel a Victorian doorknob!.. priceless..

Do you ever use the swords yourself?

Used to, but one good hand or arm hit and I’m out of business.

Swords are still weapons, even if they don't have a trigger or a bullet. How do you caution your clients?

I don’t.. Maybe I should! Seriously, no sales of sharps to under 18s also I like to sniff someone out that they are sensible, or belong to an established group or society.

Do you ever travel to medieval fairs to display your smithing skills?

Used to, but I am a manufacturer rather than a trader, so I have bespoke orders to do.

Tell us about medieval sword smiths. Would they have specialized or were they expected to make a horseshoe as well? Did they stay put or were they itinerant?

I don’t really know.. this is a best guess. Please bear with me. Manufacturing trades tended to grow up near to the sources of their needs , in our case iron ores charcoal and water power for driving mechanical hammers and ore crushing machines, apart from people working on sites of construction, the masters would tend to stay put. Blade smithing was above general smithing ;a master smith of the time would not be asked to do anything beneath him, it would be a waste of his time, besides the guild would probably forbid him to make things which he was not entitled to.. it was not a free market as such. Journeymen smiths did exist and travelled, but they were probably not allowed access to the top forges for fear of departing with coveted secrets.

You also make axes and spears. Tell us about those. From what period do you derive your designs?

These are underrated, a good axe or spear was a far more commonplace and familiar object than a sword for the majority of people, they existed in all time periods.

If someone were starting out in the smithing biz, what kind of advice would you give them?

Wear ear muffs, for everything always.

Do you feel you are part of the larger history of "men behind the scenes" of great events; a long line of craftsmen?

No, I am a modern man who decided to make these things. " tradition is a meteor, which, once fallen, can never be rekindled" as someone more learned than me once said.. once upon a time somewhere...

How many years can a smith smith?

Until he is dead or disabled, check out metal work industrial injuries though…and do your best to prevent them.

Is the next generation ready to move into place? Is anyone apprenticing with you?

Again, apprentices are not a modern option, within a guild system yes, the law is laid out, but now it’s a minefield.

Are there many women smiths?

Don’t know of any, don’t see why not.

What is your next project?

I’m just coming to the end of a lot of stuff for the Isle of Man museum. Don’t know what’s next.

Others have written books about making swords. Have you ever considered it?

I’m a smith not an author; besides, mean as it sounds I think people need to keep their best concealed, too many traders wanting to cash in and using the resources of the 3rd world as the manufacturing muscle.

Thanks for sharing, Paul. Paul’s too shy to tell his secrets so in the next entry we’ll see some traditional techniques for making swords. And remember kids, a sword is not a toy!