New comparison of legend to novel for The Flower of Chivalry
Greetings readers and exceedingly fine people!
I hope you are doing well and surviving okay. I am fascinated by all the different phases of this pandemic, and it seems right now we’ve moved into “I’m ready for the crisis to be over–so it IS over! (even though it’s still going strong).” Quite a strange time. But I hope that you are well and taking care of yourself and the ones you love–and also the ones you don’t love, and strangers, too.
I am very happy that the reviews coming in for Book 4: The Flower of Chivalry are so overwhelmingly positive. I was hoping they would be, since the tone is so light and happy (until it turns dark and terrifying) and there are some good surprises, so I’m really thrilled that it is being well-received so far.
For each book this far I have written a “Legend to Novel” piece that compares what’s in the actual Arthurian legend to what’s in the novel, calling out what is new or enhanced, but I didn’t think I would do that for this one, since this book is 95% original. The only thing that is in the legend is that Arthur pulls the sword at the end, and the way in which he does it. But then it occurred that even so, there are characters from the original legend that appear, and also themes that will blossom in future novels that are being set up here, so I have written Legend to Novel: The Flower of Chivalry.
This novel also has another female character (after Merlin’s mother) who doesn’t receive so much as a name in the original that has been fleshed out into a maor character here, and that is Arthur’s adoptive mother. I call her Nerida.
Can you believe that a character who raises Arthur as her own child is barely even mentioned in the story of his life? Of course the foster father, Sir Ector, is a major character and receives much coverage in the legend, but his mother is a giant void.
It goes to show how women in the legend are treated as just largely irrelevant. I am not making a giant feminist statement by giving the women of the story equal weight and complexity to the men, I am just evening out the telling and trying to be realistic. Nevertheless, it’s great that readers are responding and I am proud when people say that this filling out of the female characters is one of the distinctive features of the series. People look at me funny when I say that the real Medieval Arthurian legend is largely about gender relations, but when you fill out the women’s side of the story it becomes more prominent.
All right–time to me to sign in to my real job–the one that pays the bills! Again, I wish you peace and patience through this crisis, and if you’re up for a rollicking good time, go read Legend to Novel: The Flower of Chivalry.
Writers in their Landscape Author Interview
Hi there folks–
First of all, I hope all of you are doing well and keeping yourselves safe. I know that it is an incredibly trying time and some of you, like me, may have lost or be in danger of losing someone close, and I hope for your safety and wellness.
How things have changed. I did not write my latest novel in the midst of this, but I am starting writing Book 5, and wondering how it might be affected by this particular time. That one will cover the period between Arthur pulling the sword and his being coroneted king, and one thing that occurred to me and has already affected the course of the novel is… he is a boy and not yet coroneted king–of course people would be trying to kill him. So at least the first part will be filed with the tension that someone might spring out to kill our young King at any time, and it makes me wonder… how much of this is inspired by the feeling that something is constantly out there waiting to kill us, and might strike when we least expect it.
I have also been remiss in not posting that Book 4 was released on April 3rd… and has, to my great happiness, received two glowing reviews. I was going to cover both in this post, but I decided just now to make that a separate one. Anyway, it’s out! King Arthur’s childhood! It’s very sweet, lyrical and fun (until it gets dark and terrifying), so it’s a good antidote to these times, and even though Arthur pulls the sword from the stone at the end, you will not expect the ending. It’s The Swithen Book 4: The Flower of Chivalry!
Which brings us to the actual subject of this post: A wonderful interview by Steve Gladwin, druid bard of Wales, author of novel The Seven, Fragon Tales and The Raven’s Call, and healer through storytelling and drama at Stories of Being and Feeling, and all-round lovely and wonderful guy.
The interview is for the writer’s collective blog An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, and is part of a series focusing on writers and the ways in which nature and landscape inspire them. I actually had quite an affinity for this, because so much nature makes it into the novels, and nature is very important to me to include as a major force in the novels, as I discuss in the interview. Plus, I sent several formative years exploring the wild and hike fields and forests a great deal now, constantly trying to soak in the descriptions and sensations in order to include them in my books. There are at least four of my real-life nature experiences in The Flower of Chivalry, in fact.
Thanks so much to Steve–who made contact with me through this blog, btw–for his patience and hard work, and also his interest and insightful comments on my work. This is by far my most insightful and literary review I have done thus far, and I really appreciated Steve’s thoughtful examination of my work and penetrating questions. OH, and by the way, this is only Part One, and Part Two (next week) gets much deeper into the process of writing and creation.
Read the interview Writers in their Landscape with Scott Telek by Steve Gladwin
Excerpt from The Flower of Chivalry
Greetings friends, I hope you are all doing well in the midst of this crisis. I am working from home and will be for the remainder of the month (at least), but luckily where I am is not as dense with cases as other places. I wish the best for you and hope that you and your loved ones are all right.
While you’re stuck at home, want to read an excerpt from my forthcoming novel? This is the fourth book of my series The Swithen, which tells the real legend of King Arthur as found in the Medieval sources of 1136-1485. The whole schtick of the series is that I cannot change anything from the old legend, but this period–Arthur’s childhood–is not covered at all in the original sources, so this novel is 95% original by me.
I think, as you read this, that you can also see how my series is different from what most of think of when we think “epic fantasy” or even “King Arthur.” This series focuses on character, emotion and psychology, and there’s not a “Forsooth, Milady!” to be found. There is also no “Fie on thee, foul enchantress!” or anything of that sort. I really just want these to be real people with real, relatable emotions.
As I thought about what Arthur would be feeling at this time, it occurred to me that the fact that he is adopted–and yet his parents won’t tell him anything about it–would be an issue for him, and you see him expressing his frustrations here. I wanted to capture this future leader as a young, confused boy, completely unaware that he will soon be chosen as king and living in the last few years before he is called by destiny.
The book is out April 3rd. Take a look at the excerpt and lock down a copy during pre-order, when it is only 99 cents. It will go up to $2.99 or perhaps $4.99 upon release (I’m thinking about it). Enjoy it, let me know what you think, and hey–don’t touch your face.
Get a preview of Book 4!
Greetings! Basically everything I’m doing this month is preparing for the release of Book 4 of my Swithen series, which is exciting for me because… this is the book in which Arthur himself joins the story, and becomes the main character from here on out. I’ve always found it a bit of a hard sell to have a King Arthur series without any King Arthur in it, so I’m hoping that this will be an important moment for the series. I’m also just very proud and think—in my own humble opinion—that it’s a fantastic book!
It’s a very sweet and lyrical (until it goes dark and horrifying) story of childhood with the future King Arthur at the center, and I can’t wait to get reader’s reactions to it. All that said, I’ve just posted a Preview of Book 4 over on the site proper, so if you want to know what to expect from the novel, where the title comes from, who’s on the cover and which of your favorite Arthurian characters make appearances, get over there and take a look at it.
In the meantime, I’ve already started on Book 5, which I’ll discuss in a future post. Book 4 is with the proofreader right now, and I’m putting finishing touches on formatting and etc. for an April 1st release. Go over and check out the Book 4 preview!
New Audiobook for Our Man on Earth
Greetings, friends, I have great news, or at least, a great relief for me. The new version of my audiobook for Book 1: Our Man on Earth is finally available. Which means that The Swithen Podcast will also soon be starting again. Here’s the backstory.
You may recall that I thoroughly revised Our Man on Earth from its originally-published version when I realized that I was selling its main character, Meylinde, way short. When I started, I thought that everyone would be eager to get to Merlin, so I kind of rushed through the Meylinde sections. I was also just finding my way in the series, and unsure about how to handle the tone and balance the stuff I made up with the stuff from the real legend. So eventually I realized that Meylinde is really the main character of that novel, and furthermore, she’s kind of the Virgin Mary of the entire series, and I really needed to flesh her out and make her an interesting character. So I went back and revised the book, adding fifty pages in the process, most of it deepening and enriching Meylinde’s character.
Unfortunately, this made the existing audiobook, a reading of the first version, obsolete (although still for sale, offering a poor impression of my series to anyone who chose to join through the method). Adding to the injury, my narration was, in the words of one reviewer, “Terrible!” And it was. I was pretty much just reading the book straight, and the result was godawful–I can’t believe anyone made it through. I have recorded much more of my own writing in the meantime and get it about telling the story, and giving an indication of how I hear each of these characters speaking. Anyway, I am much happier with the new recording, and I think you’ll agree it’s much better if you decide to listen.
Finally, perhaps you know that I had a podcast of this series going, which was a serialized version of the story, a few chapters of the novel every week. It made it through this first book and was midway through the second when I just couldn’t find enough time to make it work, along with writing new novels and working full time (not to mention trying to promote the books). And not to be mercenery, but if I don’t have a full audiobooks available to send people listeners of the podcast to, then I’m just giving away my work for free–it’s not promoting anything. So now that I have the audiobook of Book 1 up (and am almost done with the one for Book 2: The Sons of Constance, then I can revive the podcast, and have another great way to bring people into this series… especially in a world where most people no longer read printed works.
So there we are. Big milestone for me, and the opening up of two new venues to bring my work to people, especially since so few people read books anymore. I’ll be sure to let you know when the podcast is back up and running. In the meantime, check out the audiobook.
