AD 370, Roman frontier province of Noricum. Staying faithful to the Roman gods in a Christian empire can be lethal. Half-divorced Julia Bacausa is condemned to an emotional desert and a forced marriage, Lucius Apulius barely clings onto his posting in a military backwater. Strongly drawn to each other, they are soon separated, but Julia is determined not to lose the only man she will love.
I'm pleased to welcome author Alison Morton back to The Writing Desk:
Tell us about your latest book
JULIA PRIMA was inspired by my Roma Nova series readers. They wanted to know how and why the 21st century Roma Nova was founded back in the 4th century. Most of all, they wanted to know about the people who had shown the courage to stand up for their values in the face of lethal threats and eventually leave everything they knew behind them. But first, who were Julia Bacausa and Lucius Apulius – the modern Roma Novans’ legendary ancestors and what was their connection with the Roman frontier province of Noricum?
As the first of a new strand called ‘The Foundation Story’ within the Roma Nova series, JULIA PRIMA hopes to answer some of these questions plus hint where that red hair of the modern heroines comes from! This first foundation story is set between AD 369 and 371 when the Roman world was riddled with religious strife and on the brink of transformation.
What is your preferred writing routine?
I’m glad you said ‘preferred’, Tony. I’d like to write 8.30 to 1pm, with a tea break. Sadly, that rarely happens, especially when getting a new book out.
Being an independent author means liaising with the editing and design team, contacting advanced and beta readers, creating ebook and print versions, scheduling upload to retailers for pre-order and drawing up a launch and promotion plan. Carving out an independent career also entails organising speaking opportunities, writing blog posts and guest posts, contributing to collective work with other authors, sending in my monthly magazine column, designing PR and marketing graphics and running social media accounts. Then, as with any historical fiction, there is a mountain, no, a universe of research. I love it all, but writing takes priority and somehow amid the organised chaos, it happens.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Four things: persist, hone your craft, collaborate with other writers and learn to take genuine critiques on the chin.
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
Lesson learned over ten years: there is no silver bullet. It’s harder now than it used to be to gain traction but being authentic and participating are the key strategies. Interact with others about common interests, e.g. I know and enjoy the company of many Roman fiction writers and historical fiction writers in general – they’re fun! And I’m getting to know a good number of crime and thriller writers.
Go to conferences, write posts about the background to your books, be visible on social media, offer to give talks, write articles – in short, be in as many places on and offline as you can. Sure, tell people about your book and be passionate about your story, but never, ever shove it in people’s faces.
Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research
I’d forgotten how often Roman towns changed their names! Over the twelve hundred years of Ancient Rome’s existence in the West, names often changed depending on the emperor, his pet project, his aim to obliterate his predecessor’s existence or as a reward. For instance, Pula in Istria, Croatia, was a major port and the administrative centre of Istria from ancient Roman times until 1991.
Known to the Greeks as Polai, the "city of refuge” and enjoying the prestige status of a Roman colonia for a long time, it was destroyed in 42 BC by Octavian (the future Augustus) for taking the wrong side in the civil war. Rebuilt at the request of Octavian's daughter Iulia, it was then called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea, short form Pietas Iulia. Two hundred years later during the reign of emperor Septimius Severus (AD 193 to 211), the name of the town was changed to Res Publica Polensis. By the time of JULIA PRIMA, that’s its formal name, but I bet the locals simply referred to it as Pola.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
None in particular, but however well it seems to flow, every scene has its own needs and traps. To avoid the obvious gaps, I ruthlessly asked other for help. The lovely Helen Hollick stopped me making daft mistakes with horse details; all I knew about Roman horses was that there were no stirrups and the saddles had four supporting horns. Fellow Roman fiction writer Ruth Downie gave me some excellent advice about travel and recommended the wonderful Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson.
The most intensive work was checking the towns and way stations had existed in AD 370 and pinpointing their correct names and locations so I could make maps for the readers. Some swearing and perspiration were involved at that stage…
What are you planning to write next?
As usual, I found I had too much story for one book. The happened with AURELIA which was just going to be a one-off novel taking in the late 1960s to early 1980s and not turn into the three full-length novels plus a novella that actually emerged. The foundation story of Roma Nova is only part told in JULIA PRIMA. Now we have many of the main characters in place, I’m going to start the other half of the story – the exodus.
Alison Morton
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About the Author
Thank you for hosting JULIA PRIMA and me today, Tony. It's a pleasure to be back especially on a new book's launch tour.
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