Guest Post: Marina Julia Neary, Celto-Slavic disaster writer‏

Available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

1830s Bermondsey, London’s most notorious slum, a land of gang wars and freak shows. Dr. Thomas Grant, a disgraced physician, adopts Wynfield, a ten-year old thief savagely battered by a gang leader for insubordination. The boy grows up to be an idealistic opium addict who worships Victor Hugo.

Author Interview

America's most Irish author to come out of Eastern Europe - that has become Marina Julia Neary's tagline. A privileged albeit maladjusted only child of classical musicians, she came to the US at the age of thirteen. Her literary repertoire revolves primarily around the Anglo-Irish conflict, namely the events around the Easter Rising. She has a day job in foreign exchange. Today she joins me for a brief interview.

Q: You mentioned having to defend and explain your interest in Irish history.

A: When people find out I'm not Irish by blood, they ask me, "Why do you write about Ireland? You're not Irish." But then, does one need to be a vampire to write about vampires?  Does on need to be a serial killer to write a murder mystery? My parents were a mixed couple, ethnically and ideologically, so I have first-hand experience of tension.  With a Russian pro-imperialist mother and Polish nationalist father, the atmosphere in the house was always heated.  It's both humorous and dramatic.  My Irish last name is from my husband.  I've been with him since my late teens.  We met at the height of Celtic revival in the late 1990s. He's my hero and my muse, the most exquisite other-worldly male specimen. 

Q: Your debut novel Wynfield's Kingdom set during the Crimean War took you 16 years to write.

A: I often joke that the novel has been through more revisions than Michael Jackson's nose.  I wrote the first draft at the age of 15 and set it aside.  Then more than a decade later, I revisited it and made some significant changes to the storyline.  It was published by Fireship Press when I was 31.  The main character stayed the same.  It was my goal to create an iconic Victorian child-hero.

Q: You dub yourself as a disaster writer.

A: They say "write what you know".  I say, you should write what comes naturally to you.  I am a very tense, aggressive, negative person, and writing about disasters is second nature. You can tell from my picture. Each of my novels features some sort of disaster, be it political, military, natural or psychological.  I've written about the Irish Famine, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Easter Rising, and, last but not least, the Chernobyl explosion.  

Q: Tell us about your latest novel, Saved by the Bang: a Nuclear Comedy. I understand, it's autobiographical?


A: Correct. My friends and readers have been begging me to write something autobiographical.  So I have to give people what they want, even if it's something they are not ready to palate. Set in the radioactive swamps of Belarus in the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion, Saved by the Bang is tagged as a nuclear comedy.  Like I said before, I believe that tragedy and comedy go hand in hand.  If you hear a boo-hoo, chances are, there's a ha-ha around the corner. Some readers find my sense of humor disturbing. I've been called heartless and insensitive.  And yes, there is a lot of unsavory material in the novel: second trimester abortion, cancer, birth defects, rape. I don't depict those things to shock the reader. I write them because that's how it was in a society where human life is not valued.  I know I come across as a cynic, but actually I have profound respect for God and life.  I'm staunch pro-life activist, even though the tone of my works is not always life-affirming. 

Marina Julia Neary 

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About the Author

Marina Julia Neary spent her early years in Eastern Europe and came to the United States at the age of thirteen.  She now lives in Stamford, Connecticut with her husband and young son. An award-winning historical essayist, multilingual arts & entertainment journalist, she is a published poet, playwright, actress, dancer and choreographer. A specialist on the obscure works of Victor Hugo, Marina's novel Wynfield's Kingdom is a narrative version of Hugo in London. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals such as First Edition, Alimentum and The Recorder. In addition to her writing career,Marina has starred in independent art and horror films, and she is currently working on an adaptation of one of her novels. Find out more at Marina's blog.

Historical Fiction Spotlight ~ The Banneret's Blade - Revenge is Sweet, by Nick De Rothschild

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The year is 1339, King Edward III is on the throne, French and Genoese warships continue their attacks on the English coast, and Sir Roger de Bohun, the Banneret, has been asked by the king to steal back his crown from the Prince-Bishop of Mainz and replace it with a counterfeit.

This epic tale picks up where The Banneret’s Blade: Trouble Brewing left off—the early days of the Hundred Years’ War, on the eve of the all but forgotten great naval Battle of Sluys.

Full of mutinous sailors, great sea battles and land wars, pirate raids, double-crossing spies embroiled in political intrigue, passionate affairs, and men caught up in forces beyond their control, this meticulously researched novel brings the history of medieval Europe to life.

The Banneret’s Blade: Revenge is Sweet invites readers into a world seemingly descending into chaos and introduces them to fascinating and complex characters driven by all manner of motives. Fans of sweeping works of historical fiction by genre masters such as Ken Follett and Bernard Cornwell will delight in the emergence of another great new voice on the scene.

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About the Author

Nick de Rothschild graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Art. Despite being a scion of the famed Rothschild banking dynasty, he never became a banker. Instead he was a pioneer in the video industry in London, before moving to the New Forest in Hampshire to look after his family's estate at Exbury, where his grandfather created the world renowned Exbury Gardens. An avid filmmaker, Rothschild occasionally makes movies about the Gardens and likes to think of himself as 'the man who lives in paradise.' In his spare time, he enjoys collecting nerines and photographing South African flowering bulbs. Find out more at www.banneretsblade.com and you can follow Nick on Twitter
@rothschild_nick.

Authors: How to create a free smartphone optimised 'showcase' for your books

"Our behaviour as consumers is evolving." This comes from a recent report on the exponential rise in smartphone use, which predicts over six billion users by 2020. Research in the US also concludes, 'nearly two-thirds of Americans are now smartphone owners, and for many these devices are a key entry point to the online world.' 

I've been aware of the significant rise in smartphone use by book buyers for some time, (and I've even heard of people reading books on smartphones!) so was interested to experiment with the free facilities in WiX to see what was possible. In particular, I wanted to see how quick and easy it was to set up - and how well my promotional YouTube videos would run.

If you're not familiar with WiX, they are have grown to over 60 million users in 190 countries and claim to offer the only 'drag and drop' website building platform with HTML5 capabilities - and guarantee that your experience is simple, fun and code-free. Although you can pay for premium services, their business model allows WiX to provide full websites free of charge.

You can see what I created here:

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction

There are seven simple steps as follows:

1. Sign up for a free WiX account at WiX.com and choose a free layout template and background. (You don't need to pay as long as you don't mind having a small WiX advert in the corner)

2. Add your book cover images, with a short 'blurb' in a text box. (You can link the images to Amazon.)

3. Add alternative purchasing sites and your promotional videos from YouTube, if you have them:

4. Switch to the WiX Mobile Editor:

5. Now you can arrange your book layout by simply 'dragging and dropping' the elements:

(Purple guidelines appear as you move things, to make alignment easy)

6. Preview the results and test all the links to make sure they work.

7. Publish the new site and test on a smartphone.

You don't need any coding or technical skills, as it is all really intuitive and I didn't need to refer to the help files. Once you have the basic page working properly, you can add pages for an author bio etc. I also spent a few minutes improving the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by adding keywords and put some social media links in the footer.

The whole thing didn't take long - and like me, you would probably copy and paste the contents from your main website. Most importantly, this approach enables you to extend your author platform at no cost, which is always worth considering. I can't see myself switching from blogger to the still rather 'clunky' blogging features of WiX - but my new 'experiment' has already replaced my Wordpress author site as the main showcase for my books. 

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction

Book Launch - The Artificial Anatomy of Parks, by Kat Gordon

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

At twenty-one, Tallulah Park lives alone in a grimy bedsit. As Tallie grows up, she learns the hard way about damage and betrayal, that in the end, the worst betrayals are those we inflict on ourselves. This is her story about the journey from love to loss and back again.

A Family Secret

I think writing fiction is a great way to try to understand people. If you create a little world for your characters, and you make things happen to them, then they have to respond appropriately, and that really forces you to consider their perspective as opposed to your own, and how they might not only see but feel things differently to you, the writer, about these events, and about the world in general. So I think I’ve always been inspired by people, and in particular by families – which force you to look beyond your own point of view in a similar way.

Families are so important in shaping who we are, both in terms of genetic inheritance and environmental experience. Usually we feel that these people know us better than anyone else, so we feel able to act “ourselves” around them and free to say things to them we might not to others – such a gift for a writer!

Also, while we might look alike, or have similar character traits, we all tend to play different roles within our family unit. So in The Artificial Anatomy of Parks there’s the peacekeeper, the worrier, the drama queen, the loving figure, the bully, the figure of authority, etc. I decided to include a family secret, because I wanted to explore its knock-on effect on all the characters, and how their roles in the family can dictate their responses (and because it can make for great dramatic tension!). I’m sure, too, that every family has a secret. Especially when you look at people from my grandparents’ generation (born early 20^th Century): they were growing up in the aftermath of Victorian society and its particular set of morals, so illegitimate children, affairs, homosexuality, etc would usually have been hushed up in case of scandal.

I started off with the character of Tallie. When I knew her inside out, I knew the bones of the story. (I’m not sure I believe that your character can completely take over your writing, but I think there comes a point where the plot can only move in one direction because the character would only realistically react in a certain way to people and events.)

I always knew I wanted to write about a large family, including uncles and aunts and cousins. Mine is quite different – both my parents were only children, so I don’t have any extended family. That also decided for me that Tallie would be an only child, because in the absence of siblings, my mum and dad were both really close to their parents, and especially their mothers. Tallie’s relationship with Evie, her mother, is in honour of the bond between my mum and my granny.

I also knew from the beginning that I wanted two separate narratives – one in the present day that would take place over a period of a week or so, and one in the past, that would follow Tallie from age five until twenty-one (her age in the present-day narrative). I wanted to be able to write both from the perspective of a child and an adult – a child for the humorous possibilities (asking inappropriate questions, misunderstandings, etc), and an adult for the analytic possibilities (being able to really think about other characters’ actions, and their motivations).

I wrote the novel as it reads, alternating between the present-day and past storylines. It took me about two years to finish my first draft, and then another few years to edit. The story itself didn’t change too drastically throughout, because the main thrust was always going to be leading up to the revelation of the family’s secret, but parts of the story needed to be beefed up, or cut down, and one character disappeared altogether while another was brought back from the dead.

Something I found really helped me was drawing up a detailed synopsis, where every single scene was accounted for. Reading over that, I was able to make decisions about pacing, whether the revelations were happening at the right times, whether to give the secondary storylines more or less emphasis, and whether they had too much or too little “page-time”.  

It’s been a fairly lengthy process, but I’ve loved all of it: the writing, the editing, even the tearing-out-the-hair moments when I’ve realised that changing a scene on page 39 has affected something on page 290 and I have to think of a way around it. And I’m so excited that all my friends and family can read it now as a proper book! Although my dad did call me up the other day to say, “So hang on a minute... the story starts when she gets a call that her dad has had a heart attack....?”

    

Kat Gordon 

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About the Author

Kat Gordon was born and grew up London, attending Camden School for Girls. She read English at Somerville College, Oxford and worked at Time Out briefly after graduating, before travelling around America for three months then returning to Africa to travel and work as a teacher and HIV counsellor. Since finishing her MA in Creative Writing in 2009 she also worked as a gymnastics coach. She lives with her boyfriend (also a writer), and their cat. Find out more at https://katgordonwrites.wordpress.com/  and follow Kat on Twitter @katgordon1984.

Guest Post ~ Researching The Doctor's Daughter, by Vanessa Matthews

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

It’s 1927, women have the right to vote and morals are slackening, but 23 year old Marta Rosenblit is not a typical woman of her time. She has little connection with her elder sisters, her mother has been detained in an asylum since Marta was born and she has spent her life being shaped as her father Arnold’s protégé. She is lost, unsure of who she is

and who she wants to be. 

RESEARCHING A NOVEL

‘An ounce of fact is worth a pound of controversy.’ Arthur Schomburg, Historian, Writer & Activist

There are lots of different ways to write your way through history, but if you are working on fiction it can be tempting to throw caution to the wind and ditch historical accuracy in favour of a heap of artistic license so that your plot can move along in the way you want it to. Does it really matter if my femme fatale is wearing nylons pre 1940? 

Who cares if I shift the date of that war by a year or two so I don’t have to weave in details of a battle that will detract from the mystery? Readers do!  A little historical accuracy goes a long way when creating a believable story that feels authentic to its setting. Research is as important for fiction as it is for non-fiction. So, by now you might be wondering how I tackled the twenties in my own novel.

Let me start with a little confession. I didn’t intend to write a historical novel. I just sat down and started to write a story that intrigued me, featuring characters that appealed to me. I didn’t plan to set it in 1927, but that became my chosen year. The Doctor’s Daughter travels through Vienna, Budapest and London. Did I know that’s where it would take me when I started? Not at all!

I know that is not the way all writers approach their work, but I can only talk about my own journey from first paragraph through to final draft. I may not have started with much of a plan, but once I got going I most certainly wanted to ensure that I did everything I could to keep the reader in my historical world. One outdated slang word or use of a modern medicine and I knew I would pop the bubble and my readers would tumble right out of the pages.

What I lacked in the planning, I made up for in the writing, reading, redrafting and rereading later. For the locations, I spent hours researching the cities my characters passed through. I tried to ensure that any landmarks, important buildings and street names existed, or were at least based on similar ones. It wouldn’t do at all to mention a library or a hotel that had been built in the last 50 years! The flora and fauna too, the food and even the dining habits of people at that time. All vital if I were to create authentic scenes.

As for the timing, I had to consider the literature, communication methods, education system, transport, clothing, social context and so much more. It would have been easy to ramble through a bunch of roaring twenties clichés, but my story is very much driven by character. Marta, Elise, Leopold and Arnold are living in the late 1920s, but they are also human beings affected by their experiences and bearing flaws that still resonate in people’s lives today. 

Whilst there is a sprinkling of speakeasy culture, The Doctor’s Daughter is no Gatsby. My characters are imaginings of real people with hopes and dreams, doubts and fears, highs and lows. They can be both warm and austere. They cry, they suffer, they hurt and get hurt, they have compulsions and dark secrets. They are the best of people and the worst of people.

It took almost as long to research as it did to write it, and I hope the reader’s experience will be richer for it. Thanks so much Tony for inviting me to write this post for you, I could talk about writing for hours so it’s nice to be able to share at least some of my thoughts with your audience.

Vanessa Matthews 

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About the Author 

Vanessa Matthews has been writing since her teens and has had feature articles printed in the national media. In 2012 she started a 30-day writing and blogging challenge during which she won two poetry contests. Vanessa lives in Cornwall, England with her husband and four children. Find out more at Vanessa's website and find her on Twitter @VanessaMatthews.

Guest Post ~ the inspiration behind Roman Mask, by Thomas M. D. Brooke

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Rome AD 9: Augustus Caesar rules Imperial Rome at the height of its power, as the Roman Empire stretches across the known world. Cassius, son of one of her most powerful families, is the personification of Rome's imperial strength: wealthy, popular, a war hero with a decorated military career - none of Rome's fashionable parties are complete without him - except, he hides a secret.

Turning a negative into a positive – the inspiration behind writing Roman Mask

It was an October night, and I was returning home from a night out with a few friends in my local pub in London, when something happened that changed my life dramatically.  The nights were closing in, so it was already dark by the time I left the pub, but I was in a good mood.   I’d recently returned from a trip to Pompeii , so I’d been telling everyone of my excitement at walking through the Roman streets, marvelling at the murals and depictions on the well preserved houses, and laughing about the seedier aspects of the ancient city – the brothels and street graffiti that had also survived the great volcanic eruption of AD 79.

It was probably because I was so preoccupied with these thoughts, that I didn’t see the guy who came out of an alcove and wrapped an arm around my neck.  My first thought was, ‘Am I being mugged?  Who’s going to mug me??’ – I’m a big guy, over six foot tall and I keep myself in pretty good shape, so I’d always thought the chance of this happening in London were pretty remote.  But I was wrong. When the second guy came out from behind a car, then the third from behind a bush I knew I was in trouble.  This was no ordinary street robbery; these guys were out for blood, and the three of them surrounded me and between them punched, kicked, and smashed me to the ground, beating me to an inch of my life.

Afterwards, as I tried to hobble home – one of them had crushed my foot, to prevent me from getting up – another passer-by saw me covered in blood and called an ambulance.  I was lucky, I got to live another day.  And within a few weeks, my bruises healed, and I began to walk without a limp, all physical signs of my encounter disappeared.  But that was just the start of my nightmare.

I was completely unprepared for the mental-trauma that such an incident inflicts on you.  That winter was torture for me.  After any night out, I was terrified to go home; I found I was scared of the dark, constantly thinking that people would jump out of the shadows at me.  I’d never previously been a heavy drinker, but over that winter I found I needed to drink a lot just to give me the courage to walk home.  I could have called a taxi, but then people would wonder why I was taking a cab for such a small journey – this became another all-encompassing fear:  that others would find out about my terror. This might seem irrational, but at the time, that fear was almost as great as being mugged again.

Those first six months were very difficult, but then as the nights started getting lighter, an idea came to me.  After visiting Pompeii I’d been searching for a character to be a lead in a novel set in ancient Rome – someone who fully embraced the entirety of Rome, its seedier aspects as much as its magnificence.  Why not put my experiences to good use, rather than having it a weight bearing me down, let it be something that produces something positive. 

At the time, the news on the television was full of stories of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress and it made me think how soldiers dealt with such issues in the ancient world.  My experiences had shown me the power that traumatic events can play on the mind, and I quite simply didn’t believe anyone who claimed that in the ancient world such a thing was not a concern because life was different back then.   The human mind was biologically exactly the same then as it is now, and just as fallible to conditions we now diagnose and understand the importance of.

So I came up with the character Cassius, a great soldier, but someone who’d been affected by a terrible battle a few years before in the forests of Germany.   I knew from my own experiences how easy it was to fall into a trap of blaming yourself for your own perceived weakness, and I knew how living a lie to hide that same weakness became a part of life.

I then started my novel in Rome so I could show Cassius being seduced by the many vices of that city – something that is all too easy to do under such circumstances.  I then returned Cassius to the forests of Germany where he learns to understand and come to terms with his fears, just as I did whilst writing my novel.

I’m now pleased that fateful night in October happened.  It was a terrible experience, but it gave me something so much more – I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Thomas M. D. Brooke

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About the Author

Thomas M. D. Brooke lives in London where he works in the exciting, and sometimes crazy, fashion world.  He is also a committed writer and he spends as much time as he can in his beloved Northumbrian hills, where up until recently could be seen walking with his black Labrador Fergus, who sadly passed in January 2015.  Fergus was a constant companion to the writing of the novel and prevented many writers’ tantrums. Roman Mask is Thomas Brooke’s second novel, although this will be the first available for sale. As well as writing novels, he also writes a blog on both historical and fantasy genre novels.  For more information please visit www.thomasmdbrooke.com and you can follow Thomas on Twitter
@ThomasMD_Brooke.

Guest Post ~ Writing Sword of the Gladiatrix, by Faith L. Justice

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

      

 Two women. Two swords. One victor. An action-packed tale that exposes the brutal underside of Imperial Rome, Sword of the Gladiatrix brings to life unforgettable characters and exotic settings. From the far edges of the Empire, two women come to battle on the hot sands of the arena in Nero's Rome: Afra, scout and beast master to the Queen of Kush; and Cinnia, warrior-bard and companion to Queen Boudica of the British Iceni. Enslaved, forced to fight for their lives and the Romans' pleasure; they seek to replace lost friendship, love, and family in each other's arms. But the Roman arena offers only two futures: the Gate of Life for the victors or the Gate of Death for the losers.

Writing Sword of the Gladiatrix:

An Exercise in Frustration and Creative Breakthrough

By Faith L. Justice

First up: thanks to Tony for inviting me to guest post on The Writing Desk. Writing Sword of the Gladiatrix was a challenge and I appreciate the opportunity to share my journey. Second: you have to know a little about me to understand why this book was so difficult (at first) to write. I’m not a “must write or die” kind of person. I’ve been perfectly happy with a number of day jobs that paid quite well, thank you, and didn’t need to take on the mantel of starving artist. What I do have is a drive to share my passionate love of history through stories. Most people hate history, and rightly so, given how it’s taught in public schools: dull facts, lists of dates, wars and pestilence, and the stories of elites (mostly white men). I want to make history accessible to anyone who enjoys a good story and spotlight some little known people along the way.

I write fact-based historicals primarily set in the late Roman Empire. Selene of Alexandria features Hypatia, a famous (in her time) woman mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher as a major supporting character. Twilight Empress (coming out later this year) tells the story of Galla Placidia, who rules the Western Roman Empire just before its fall. A companion book Dawn Empress (out next year) deals with her niece Pulcheria who rules in the Roman East and sets the stage for the Byzantine Empire. These three books were relatively easy to write. History dictated events and plot points. I created the personalities and motivations of historical people who would do what we know they did. As a bonus, I got to do what I love: study the culture, religion, dress, laws, food—all the everyday details that make history come alive and transport readers to a different time and place. All of this went into a detailed outline which allowed me to write quickly and easily.

Sword of the Gladiatrix was a different beast. Set in the first century AD and featuring fictional characters—Afra and Cinnia, two women gladiators—I had to create my characters and plot from scratch. I knew what my ending would be and had my first scene, but the vast middle taunted me with its infinite possibilities. I had to write “into the dark” (some call this “pantsing”) without an outline. I wrote and rewrote the first several chapters a dozen times experimenting with point of view, starting the story in different places and times, adding and taking out subplots and supporting characters. I couldn’t get past a certain point. I had too many choices. Every time I opened the files my creative mind shut down. I tried several tricks to break writer’s block, but none of them worked. I finally shelved the project, thinking I didn’t have the chops to write this story.

But the characters haunted me. They wanted me to tell their story: two women from the far ends of the Roman Empire fighting loss and finding love in this strange land and culture. Finally, I had my mental breakthrough. Afra and Cinnia, although fictional, were rooted in a time and place just as my historical characters were. I hit the research books. What was happening during this time? The Boudican uprising in Britain. A scientific expedition to Kush. Women introduced into gladiator games. An earthquake! Plenty of juicy history to fuel my plot while developing my characters. It clicked. I put together a sketchy timeline and I finished the book in just a couple of months.

Writing Sword of the Gladiatrix was initially a frustrating slog, but it stretched me as a writer. I learned how to take skills I already had and use them in a new and satisfying way. I’m no longer intimidated by “writing into the dark” and look forward to writing the sequel.

Copyright © Faith L. Justice, June 2015

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About the Author

Faith L. Justice writes award-winning novels, short stories, and articles in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in Salon.com, Writer’s Digest, The Copperfield Review, the Circles in the Hair anthology, and many more. She is a frequent contributor to Strange Horizons, Associate Editor for Space and Time Magazine, and co-founded a writer’s workshop many more years ago than she likes to admit. For fun, she digs in the dirt—her garden and various archaeological sites. For more information visit Faith L. Justice's website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.