Tell us about your latest book
I’m going to tell you about the latest two, if that’s ok! My latest two books are
The Narrowness of Death, book four of the Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine (part of The Heirs of Anarchy Series) and
All the King’s Bastards, book one of the A Succession of Chaos series.
The Narrowness of Death is the final book in my series on Eleanor of Aquitaine, dealing with the end of her life. It was such a compelling book to write because Eleanor led a fascinating, extraordinary life.
Even if we forget she was twice a Queen, a Duchess in her own right, that she was the mother of the famous Richard the Lionheart and Bad King John, this still was a woman who went on crusade, who survived imprisonment by not one, but two, husbands, who crossed the Alps when she was around twenty-five on crusade, then again in her seventies, then also crossed the Pyrenees twice when she was in her seventies.
She rose with her sons in rebellion against her husband and rode out to defend her homeland from invasion when she was around eighty years old. Quite remarkable, by any standards. She started out life being generally disregarded, and certainly slandered, and ended her life as a respected woman men of power turned to for advice, and a woman who dared to write letters of fire and brimstone to the Pope, demanding that he aid her son when Richard was taken prisoner by his enemies.
Many people have never heard of her or know her only as a femme fatale of the medieval world, but this was a woman with a powerful mind who led rebellions and her country, who marched out into conflicts for her husbands and her sons, who became a politician, a leader and a woman of great wisdom. I think Eleanor deserves to be remembered for her own life and deeds, not just added as a sidenote within the lives of her husbands and sons. I hope, in my series of books, I have done her some justice in this regard.
All the King’s Bastards was a bit of a different project for me. It is speculative fiction, a “what if” of history, if you will. It deals with the idea of what would have happened if Henry VIII had died in the jousting accident of January 1536.
The book was actually rather taxing to write, since I’m accustomed to relying on a map, as it were, of historical events and this was a departure from that, but although there were some exhausting mental gymnastics involved, I adored writing this book! The idea came about when I was having an email conversation with a reader of my books, and we were discussing our favourite “what-ifs” of history. When I said this was one of mine, since it was such a pivotal time in the Tudor age, the reader told me I should write about it. Initially I said no, I wasn’t a writer of speculative fiction, but the idea just would not go away. I started making notes, then writing, and the book was born. I’m working on book two at the moment.
What is your preferred writing routine?
In general, I’m a 9-5 writer. I try to have some downtime in the evenings (reading time, really!) because my brain is often a bit fried if I’ve been wandering about in Tudor times, the middle ages, or researching all day. Sometimes I’ll end up working into the evening, though, if I’m racing a deadline!
I usually get up at 6am and do social media marketing, emails, and anything else that will be distracting if I’m trying to write (I hate having tasks hanging over my head). Despite the fact I wake up early, I’m not a morning person. I need peace and quiet to work through everything in the morning. Sometimes I’ll listen to an audiobook as I work, and sometimes the only noise is my elderly cat, snoring away!
Once the morning work is all done, I head to the writing chair for the day, but I try to get out for a run or a sea swim (very chilly this time of year in Wales!) most days, otherwise the body starts to seize up from sitting in a chair all day. I’m a keen, if slow, runner and I also do archery and kung-fu.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Read. Read, read, read. Read books you know you’re going to like and ones you think you might hate. Read all genres, read non-fiction, re-read, listen to audiobooks.
The more you read, the more you will find the words flow when you come to write.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
The hardest scene I ever had to write was at the end of Judge the Best, which was my last book on Anne Boleyn. It wasn’t her death scene which was the hardest to write, but rather her thoughts before she walked out to the scaffold. I was in tears and honestly considered altering the book so she could get away, but this series was historical fiction, not speculative, and so I knew I couldn’t change it.
I was quite concerned about making this section of the book both dignified and entirely human, wanted to try to capture what Anne’s thoughts might have been and what her mental state was like. It was the chapter I went over more than any other, I think, because I didn’t want to let the book, or my character, down by having that part sound corny or foolish.
That last book actually took a bit of a toll on me. Anne was in my dreams and my thoughts all the time. She’s always fascinated me and the five-book series, told in first person, was such a personal journey through her life. I hope I did her justice, but yes, that last scene of her coming to terms with her own death, it was hard. It felt like losing a friend, and perhaps worse, as if I was the person sending her to her death, because I was the one writing it.
What are you planning to write next?
I’ve always got a new book on the go. I find not writing a vastly uncomfortable experience, in all honesty. If not writing I feel low, depressed and at a loose end, so I write all the time (hence the extensive catalogue!).
I have a book, an imagining of the early life of Cleopatra, with my proofreader. This novel is called The Last Queen, and I’m hoping to have that out in perhaps a month or so, and I’m writing the second book in the A Succession of Chaos series, A Son of England, so I’m having another round of mental gymnastics of trying to work out what’s about to unfold for Anne Boleyn, Mary Tudor, Magpye Grey and others!
Thank you!
Gemma Lawrence
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