Today it is an absolute pleasure to welcome author Steven McKay to the blog. Steven has written the wonderful Forest Lord series, chronicling the adventures of everyone’s favourite legend, Robin Hood. With the final book, Blood of the Wolf, out this month, Steven talked to me about his writing, inspiration and what’s coming next.

Hi Steven, thanks so much for agreeing to be a guest interviewee on my blog, History…the Interesting Bits. So, here’s the questions …

What made you become a writer?

I always wanted to write stories, ever since I was a child. I would write little daft things in my school books and things like that. I think some people are creative and have a need to let their imagination run a bit wild be it through writing or art or music or whatever. I love to create songs on my guitars, and obviously write novels now but, sadly, I’m a terrible painter.

Who are your major writing influences?

Boringly, Bernard Cornwell is number one, just as he probably is for 90% of the people you talk to! The great thing about Cornwell is, he covers so much ground and so many periods. I don’t have any interest in his Sharpe stuff, for example, but his Arthurian and Saxon books are right up my street. And he does it so well that it always gives any writer inspiration and hopes of someday being that damn good!

Apart from that, I love Tolkien’s world-building, Philip K. Dick’s ability to get right inside a reader’s head, and David Gemmell’s great heroes.

How long do you spend researching a novel before you start writing?

Well, I had to do a lot of research for my debut novel, Wolf’s Head, since I wasn’t really very clued-up on the middle-ages OR the Robin Hood legend. So I spent a good year or so, on and off, getting a feel for the period and the characters but, once I had that solid foundation I didn’t really need to do any more research before writing the other books in the series.

Now, though, I’m going to start a brand new series, set in post-Roman Britain, and again, I’m going to have to find out how the people lived and what the whole culture and landscape was like.

Hopefully I can learn quickly…

What comes first, your storyline or your research?

As above, it rather depends on what the book will be about. I just wrote a new short story with my characters from the Robin Hood books and I didn’t have to do any research prior to coming up with the plot. I obviously had to check certain facts once it was done but that happens at the end of every book, when you’re proofreading and editing.

For my new series I will need to do some research to figure out what directions the story might go, but I have a vague idea of what’s going to happen in the first book at least.

Do you know how a book is going to end when you start writing, or do your characters ‘surprise’ you?

Generally, yes, I know what will happen. And, of course, with Robin Hood the story is well known and has to be stuck to fairly closely or it’s not Robin Hood any more. So in that respect I’ve always had an idea how each book will pan out, although along the way certain things happen when I’m writing that I didn’t expect. The characters really do come to life and take things in their own direction sometimes, without the writer’s prior knowledge! Friar Tuck always seemed to do that when I was writing his scenes – it was his idea for Robin to travel to London in Rise of the Wolf, the thought had never even crossed my mind originally!

Have you always been interested in Robin Hood?

No, not at all. I’m not really sure why, as I did always love that other great British hero, King Arthur, but Robin Hood never interested me until I decided to write a book about him. I think I never really engaged with the legend because there hadn’t been a great, modern interpretation of it the way there had been with Arthur. Bernard Cornwell had written great books about that as had Stephen Lawhead, and there was the movie Excalibur which I enjoyed, not to mention the whole mythology of Merlin…Robin, on the other hand, wasn’t really so well-known, to me at least. Had I been just a couple of years older I probably would have got into the TV series Robin of Sherwood when it came out in the 80’s and developed an interest from there but nope, I only started watching that as research for my own novel.

Needless to say, the Robin Hood legend is much deeper and more interesting than I first thought!

There are 3 Forest Lord books so far, Wolf’s Head, Rise of the Wolf and The Wolf and The Raven how many more adventures are there to come? Did you know how many books would be in the series when you started writing the story?

The fourth book, Blood of the Wolf, will be published on October 14^th 2016 and this will be the last in the series. I planned it to be a trilogy but the second book took itself off in unforeseen directions and I needed to add an extra volume to do everything I wanted with the story. Incidentally, that second book, The Wolf and the Raven, was probably the most fun to write of all of them, perhaps because I let the characters go where they wanted without forcing them to stick to my plan!

What is in store for Robin next?

Nothing, I’m afraid. You’ll need to read Blood of the Wolf to see how things end for him. I do have a brand new short story, “The Stapleford Prisoner” featuring him and Little John but I don’t know when, or how, that will be published. I also plan on doing another novella, this time starring Will Scaflock but I haven’t started it yet. It will hopefully serve as a stopgap for my readers until I can get the next series underway.

I love the fact the stories are set in the reign of Edward II, rather than the more traditional Richard the Lionheart/King John era. What made you do this?

When I researched the legend the main thing I wanted to do was write about a realistic hero, so I tried to find out if there had been a real Robin Hood. I don’t believe there was one, single outlaw with that name, but there was a decent case for a Robert Hood living in the time of King Edward II having contributed to much of the early stories that became the legend we now all know. It seemed as good a starting point as any and certainly gave things a fresh slant since everyone always sets their Hood tales in a much earlier period.

Your Robin Hood has also moved from Sherwood Forest to Barnsdale Forest, is there are particular reason, or did Robin just fancy a change of scenery?

As above, the earliest ballads about Robin were actually set in Barnsdale and the real Robert Hood I mentioned came from Wakefield in Yorkshire. So again, that gave me a new direction to take the tired old tales and make them a little bit different. That said, much of the action in the books does take place in Nottingham as I believe any outlaw gang would have had to move around from place to place to avoid the law. The sheriff in my books, Sir Henry de Faucumberg was actually the Sheriff of Nottingham and Yorkshire in real life although I did use some artistic license with the dates he served….

A lot of actors have played Robin Hood through the years, do you have a particular image of Robin when you’re writing him?

No, not at all. I mean he’s tall and extremely well-built. Any good medieval longbowman would have been really muscular so that’s obvious but, other than that, I don’t really have a picture of him in my head and I don’t like to describe characters too exactly as I like to let the reader come up with their own image. Making the reader’s imagination fill in some blanks is the best way to draw them into the story I think.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

Just the way that I can pour out my imagination and make the stories in my head come to life. I’m constantly making up little stories in my head, imagining dialogue and actions and whatever, even about everyday events. My mind never seems to stop planning things, or imagining how some scene – even a completely mundane one – might pan out.

Planning and writing books is basically a way of harnessing that energy and making it useful.

What is the worst thing about writing?

Probably waiting to see what readers think of a new book. I can’t tell if a new one is any good or not, it’s impossible, so I have to rely on readers’ opinions. It’s a horrible, nail-biting time waiting on feedback from beta readers and reviewers and hard not to badger them constantly about whether they like it or not.

Apart from that, editing can be a pain – structurally editing a novel I mean. It can be a really daunting thing trying to rearrange certain scenes and events into a cohesive whole and I usually wish it would just happen by magic so I can get on with simply writing again!

How long does it take to do a project from start to finish? Do you write one book at a time, or have several on the go at once?

Well, I’ve been writing for about four years now and in that time I’ve managed to write four novels and a couple of novellas. Basically, I like to do a novel and a novella every year or so. I only concentrate on one thing at a time so I don’t get confused, especially now with this next series being set in a different era altogether. That will require a whole new mindset which is why I haven’t started on it yet, until Blood of the Wolf is done and dusted and out there for people to buy.

Who are your favourite personalities from history? Is there anyone you would particularly like to write about, but haven’t yet?

Jesus! Sorry, that’s not a blasphemous oath, that’s my answer to the question. I’m not a religious person but I think both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible have great stories in them and it would be interesting to write a realistic version of, in particular, Jesus’s life. I did start to research the project years ago but it never came to anything. I’m not sure if it would be a good or a bad thing because there’s so much potential to offend a huge amount of people, but it’s something I would like to do eventually.

Perhaps.

Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you get around it?

No, not really. I don’t sit down to write unless I have something planned. I like to think about what scene I’ll be working on next and have it ready in my head so when I start writing it just flows out.

Do you find social media – such as Facebook and Twitter – a benefit or a hindrance?

I don’t see how anyone can say they’re a hindrance – they’re basically free advertising and an amazing way to engage with your readers. I try to do my “social media admin” smartly – so if someone retweets me, I’ll reciprocate, but I do it on my phone as it’s much faster and I can do it when I have a spare minute during the day.

Don’t make the mistake of sitting down for an hour every day and interacting with people on a kind of schedule, because it will soon become boring. Fit it around your day, use every tool you have, from phone to tablet and laptop. Free apps like Hootsuite are also a massive help.

What is your next project, once Robin Hood is complete?

The working title for the next book is The Druid. Rather than a large cast of well-known, iconic characters that I was working with in the Hood books, this time I want to create one single warrior druid living in Britain just as the Romans have left. I love this land and it will be great to explore the geography of it through the eyes of a druid. It also has the added bonus that not much is known about the druids so I can have a little more freedom than I did with my Forest Lord series.

I’m really looking forward to writing it!

Thank you so much for agreeing to an interview, Steven, and for taking the time to answer my questions – I hope they weren’t too onerous.

Not at all, thank you for having me! It’s always great to chat about my work to people.

More about Steven:

Steven McKay was born in 1977 near Glasgow in Scotland. He live in Old Kilpatrick with his wife and two young children. After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree with the Open University he decided to follow his life-long ambition and write a historical novel.

He plays guitar and sings in a heavy metal band when they can find the time to meet up.

You can check out his website here. Steven also has an Amazon Author page and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

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My book, Heroines of the Medieval World,  is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK and worldwide from Book Depository. It is also available on Kindle in both the UK and USA and will be available in Hardback from Amazon US from 1 May 2018.

Be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter.

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©2016 Sharon Bennett Connolly.

Hi Karen, congratulations on the release of your book, The Nevills of Middleham: England’s Most Powerful Family in the Wars of the Roses and thank you so much for agreeing to an interview. Welcome to History…the Interesting Bits.

Tell me about your book – how did it come about?

My name was very kindly passed to History Press by my friend, Amy Licence, when they first came up with the idea of a book about the Nevills. Of course, despite doubts and nerves, I jumped at the chance.

Chronicling an entire family is a huge undertaking, what made you write about the Nevills? What is it about them that fascinates you?

“Warwick rose toweringly. His rose-dappled mantle swirled; black hair curled on his brow. Everything of him was puissant and challenging and might have said: Behold us! We of the blood royal, of Edward the Third.”*

I read that paragraph when I was about fifteen and was intrigued. I wanted to know more. Who was this guy? I’ve spent years – decades – since then trying to find out! It hasn’t always been easy. Before the internet, books weren’t always easy to come by and primary sources next to impossible. The whole family fascinates me, as you say. I think any 15^th century family has the potential to fascinate and intrigue but it was the Nevills who claimed me.

*Hawley Jarman, Rosemary, 1973, The King’s Grey Mare, Collins, London, p53

Who is your favourite Nevill? And why?

Well, that changes depending on my mood! They all have something to recommend them. The one I’ve got to know best over the last few years is Thomas so he might be my current favourite. I’ve also got a huge soft spot for Alice and her husband, Henry Fitzhugh. I have no idea why! The Fitzhughs didn’t live that far from Middleham and Alice and Henry would have grown up together, though I’d hesitate to even suggest the ‘childhood sweethearts’ thing. They knew each other all their lives and while her sisters all married men who lived far away, Alice remained close to her old family home until Henry’s death.

And which Nevill do you like least?

There isn’t one!

The Nevills were involved in some of the greatest events to shape English history, but eventually lost everything, do you see them as heroes or villains?

Neither. Both. Sometimes one and sometimes the other but mostly, I think, they inhabited the shadowy in-between of moral ambiguity. Enlightened self-interest is one of the more interesting driving forces of change, and Warwick certainly operated from that principle when pushing for reform and regime change, but he could also be unconscionably self-interested in a most unenlightened way. To use a rather tired phrase often trotted out to cover a multitude of sins, they were of their time. But, at times, Warwick could be far more ruthless than that. The executions in Calais in 1460, the extra-legal killings of earl Rivers and the Herberts, the bloodbath after the battle of Hexham (which wasn’t Warwick’s responsibility alone, his brother John and Edward IV were also behind this orgy of executions that lasted days and stretched from Hexham to York) all point to a man with scant ability to forgive. Handing out second chances was not something Warwick tended to do. I think those people who wandered into Warwick’s unreality field certainly saw him as a hero. To the people of Burgundy, he has gone down in history as one of the vilest villains of all time. Like a lot of things, it depends where you stand.

You have written both history and historical fiction – which is the easiest and which the most fun?

Non-fiction is easier to write. While you can speculate some – indeed, you kind of have to from time to time – you don’t have to dream up motivations and relationships. If you don’t know where someone was for six months, you just make a note of that and move on. There’s no gap filling to be done. But it’s that very difficulty that makes writing historical fiction so stimulating. You can’t (always) just leave a six month gap, you have to find somewhere for them to be and something for them to do, you have to establish how they felt about the various other people in the story, you have to give them a voice. I think the exercise of researching more rigorously and writing non-fiction will make me a better writer of fiction but the proof of that will be in the pudding.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

It’s a bit like breathing. I’ve never stopped to ask why I do it. I just have to. Thinking about it now… when everything’s flowing and the words are just pouring out (good or bad), when every sentence sparks the next, when fictional characters pick up their story and take off with it, when a sudden realisation hits you that this is why someone did something, or that is what drives them… those are the best bits.

What is the worst thing about writing?

The loneliness.

How do you organise your writing day?

I don’t! I get up, sit down at my desk and maybe I start work. Or I get up again and do something else. Or I put on some music, crank it up and dance until my dog tells me to stop. Organising isn’t my strongest suit. It’s probably why it’s taken as long as it has before I’ve got serious about writing. I’ve been writing all my life. I couldn’t wait to start school coz they were going to teach me how to write and that would mean all the little stories that were locked in my head could be set free. But I had to work for a living for years and that became my focus and my priority, along with growing my children up. Since making the decision that, if I didn’t get something happening soon, it was never going to, I have the freedom just to let it all flow. I can write for hours one day and faff around for hours the next. No self-discipline, that’s my problem! Writing The Nevills changed that to a large degree, as I had a deadline imposed from without. That meant more days writing and fewer faffing.

How long have you spent researching the Nevills?

Years! Decades! For a long time, it was pretty desultory. I bought books when I could, though they weren’t always easy to come by. For the longest time, I didn’t even know what was available. Then along came the internet! The decline of bricks and mortar bookshops is lamented by many but I can’t quite feel the same hostility towards Amazon (and the like) I know others do. Living where I do, a long way from bookshops of any kind, online book stores have been an unalloyed blessing. And there’s so much primary source material on the internet! I’ve spent hours and hours tracking down a reference to some obscure text and, nine times out of then, I’ve found it. So, in the last few years, particularly since I started writing The Nevills, the research has got more intense and deeper.

Do you find social media – such as Facebook – a benefit or a hindrance?

Oh, definitely a benefit! The support I’ve had from friends is incalculable. Discussions and debates, someone pointing out a source I hadn’t come across before, the flourishing of ideas… it’s been great! If I hadn’t stumbled across Susan Higginbotham’s blog several years ago now I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, a book about the Nevills would probably have been written but not by me. I cannot stress enough how much facebook friends like Susan, Amy and you, Sharon, have helped me on this journey.

What is your next project?

I really want to get the first Nevill novel finished. It’s nearly done but I think my imminent trip to the UK will feed into that beautifully. Apart from that, I have a zillion ideas waiting to be explored – a fantasy series I’m about halfway through writing, a science fiction idea that refuses to go away, a crime novel with a BDSM theme, a book I’ve been working on for decades that needs either to be dusted off and looked at again or shelved permanently, the rest of the Nevill fiction… then, the other night, a news story about North Korea sparked yet another idea. I either need a guaranteed next life or a dedicated team of offsiders!

A huge ‘THANK YOU‘ to Karen for taking the time to chat and answer my questions. I wish her every success with the book.

About Karen’s Book

The Nevills of Middleham: England’s Most Powerful Family in the Wars of the Roses: In 1465, the Nevills must have thought they’d reached the pinnacle of power and influence in England. Richard Nevill was the king’s right-hand man and married to the richest woman in the kingdom; John Nevill was an accomplished soldier who’d done much to stabilise the new dynasty; and George Nevill was not only chancellor but newly enthroned as Archbishop of York.

The Nevill women were as active as their male counterparts. As sisters and wives, daughters and daughters-in-laws, they had the ears of the elite in England and were not afraid of wielding their influence. And they were not always on the same side.

Cracks in the stability of the most powerful family in England began to show. Rivalries led to serious conflict that worsened when King Edward IV impulsively married Elizabeth Wydeville, a choice of bride that did not please everyone. The Nevills had already lost a great deal for the Yorkist cause. Within six years, as the Wars of the Roses turned into one of the bloodiest periods of English history, they’d lose even more for the Lancastrians.

The Nevills of Middleham is available now from the History Press.

About Karen

K.L. CLARK’s research of the Nevill family and the Wars of the Roses spans over a decade and she is currently working on a series of novels about the Nevills. She has presented two papers on the Wars of the Roses to the Richard III Society, writes the popular blog A Nevill Feast and is an active member of the Facebook history community. She lives in Australia with her family. http://www.nevillfeast.wordpress.com.

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My book, Heroines of the Medieval World,  is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK and worldwide from Book Depository. It is also available on Kindle in both the UK and USA and will be available in Hardback from Amazon US from 1 May 2018.

Be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter.

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©2016 Sharon Bennett Connolly.

Today, History…the Interesting Bits is delighted to be the final stop on Susan Higginbotham‘s amazing Blog Tour. Susan’s latest book, Margaret Pole; The Countess in the Tower was released earlier this month. It tells the fascinating story of Margaret, countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV and Richard III and cousin of Henry VIII.

The book has just arrived on my doormat, so look out for a review shortly. For now, Susan was kind enough to sit through an interview and answer my grueling (not really, I hope) questions…..

Hi Susan, thank you for joining us today – and welcome to History…the Interesting Bits.

Congratulations on the release of your new book, Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower. I can’t wait to read and review it. In the meantime…

I believe you are a qualified lawyer, what made you become a writer?

I actually became a lawyer late in life–I was in my thirties when I went to law school–but I’ve been writing since I was a child. I piled up a modest stack of rejected contemporary-set novels until around 2005, when I became intrigued with the history of Edward II’s reign and began to read up on the subject. This led me to his niece, Eleanor de Clare, and I decided her life would be a wonderful subject for a historical novel. I ended up self-publishing it as The Traitor’s Wife. Sourcebooks here in the United States picked it up, and I’ve been writing historical fiction for that publisher ever since.

After writing historical fiction for a few years, and researching the Wars of the Roses, I became frustrated that there was no nonfiction book focusing on the Woodville family, except for a self-published book by an author who hated the whole lot of them, so I decided to write one myself. That led me into writing nonfiction for publishers in the U.K.

What made you write about Margaret Pole? What is it about her that fascinates you?

It was actually my publisher that suggested her as a subject, but as I researched her story I found a number of things that intrigued me about her, one of which is the way her story straddles the transition between what we think of as “medieval” and what we think of as “Renaissance.” And her life intersects with that of larger-than-life figures such as Henry VIII, his first and second queens, and Thomas More.

She survived some of the greatest events to shape English history, but eventually lost her life, how do you see her, as a victim or a heroine?

I would say a heroine, because she had strong beliefs which she maintained in the face of pressure, and she conducted herself with courage and dignity throughout adversity. I don’t think she would like to be remembered as a victim.

Margaret Pole’s story happens across two eras – the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors – which is your favourite period of history?

I love them both!

You write both history and historical fiction – which is the easiest and which the most fun?

Historical fiction, definitely. I research them both similarly, but the sheer mechanics in writing history–the references, the citations–is daunting. And whereas with history, we often have to say simply “we don’t know” (which readers hate to hear!), with historical fiction we can supply an answer.

Do you feel that, as a historian, you have a duty to get the history right – even in your fiction?

Yes, definitely.  Like it or not, many people get their history exclusively from historical fiction, and bad history has enormous staying power.

What do you enjoy most about writing as a career?

I love it when I’ve touched a reader’s emotions, or given a reader information that has intrigued or excited him or her.

What is the worst thing about writing for a career?

It’s not particularly lucrative except for a few people. Most writers have to either keep a full-time job (as I do) or rely on another source of income to pay the bills.

How do you organise your writing day?

Not very well. I work full-time during the day, so most of my writing is done at night, but it’s hard to keep myself from goofing off after a hard day’s work! Fortunately, I work at home and have flexible hours, so if I’m feeling inspired, I can drop what I’m doing on my work computer and move to my writing computer.

How many projects do you have going at once, or do you concentrate on one at a time?

I’m working on two at the moment–one fiction, one nonfiction.

How long do you spend researching your subject before you start writing? How long does it take to do a project from start to finish?

I tend to do the ground research for a couple of months, then supplement my research as I go along, since questions always arise during the writing process. It usually takes me about a year to do a project.

Who are your favourite personalities from history?

My historical hero is Abraham Lincoln, and my literary hero is Charles Dickens. Pretty much anyone I’ve written about in the medieval and Tudor eras are among my favorites.

What era that you haven’t yet written about, would you like to get your teeth into?

Maybe revolutionary-era France and revolutionary-era America. The latter especially has interested me more as of late, and I’m getting ready to move to a part of the country that will give me a lot more opportunities to improve my knowledge of the era.

A lot of your work has been about women in history? What attracted you to writing their stories?

I’ve never really made a conscious decision to focus on women instead of men, but I’m attracted to people whose stories are less well-known, and I can’t write battle scenes for squat, so I’ve gravitated more toward women’s stories over the years.

Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you get around it?

I don’t get writer’s block so much as I get just plain lazy or distracted by other things. Having a deadline hanging over my head helps me to get around it.

Do you find social media – such as Facebook – a benefit or a hindrance?

Both, really. I love connecting with people on social media, especially since it’s a chance to discuss topics I don’t get to discuss very often with people face-to-face. But it can be a tremendous distraction from the writing process.

How do you pick your subjects? What is be your next project?

I look for someone who intrigues me and who hasn’t been done to death–I’ve always been fascinated by Anne Boleyn, for instance, but I really can’t imagine that I would have anything to say about her that hasn’t been said already. My next fictional project will be about Mary Lincoln, wife to the President of the United States, and her half-sister Emilie Helm, married to a Confederate general. My next book for Amberley will be about Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, a much-maligned lady who lived through the reigns of all of the Tudor monarchs.

Thank you so much for agreeing to an interview, and for taking the time to answer my questions – I hope they weren’t too onerous.

Margaret Pole; The Countess in the Tower is available from Amazon in the UK and US.

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My book, Heroines of the Medieval World,  is now available in hardback in the UK from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon UK and worldwide from Book Depository. It is also available on Kindle in both the UK and USA and will be available in Hardback from Amazon US from 1 May 2018.