Author Interview: Xina Marie Uhl on WHITER PASTURES

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Xina Marie Uhl with her latest release, WHITER PASTURES (Icebound series). Here's the blurb about the novelette.

A romantic novelette in the Icebound series, an ongoing collection of polar delights.

Behold dogsleds and penguins. Howling winds and cold, pitiless wastes. This is Antarctica, where the intrepid inhabitants of the frozen ends of the earth battle the terrain, and each other, to find love—in a past much like that of the  early 1900s. 

Reluctant spinster Florance Barton fled to the British Antarctic base to escape a scandalous love affair. Amidst the handful of other women there, Florance is the perfect chambermaid, meek, mild, and forgettable. No one has a clue that she’s also a novice spy. 

When handsome young Handy McHanagan arrives at the base, he sets everyone agog. He’s charming, artistic, and ... an accomplished gardener. His arrival may be a mistake on the part of naval command. Or is it something more sinister?

Killer seals and subzero ice storms and aren’t the only danger in Antarctica: a enemy spy is on the loose. Florance has been ordered to choose between queen and country and her heart. Because penguin is off the menu now—and murder is its replacement.

Get your copy:

Ebook (Amazon: Kindle Unlimited or $1.49 purchase price)
XC Publishing / ISBN-13: 978-1-930805-91-0 / 41 pages
Author website / Amazon book page / Goodreads book page

**Q&A with Xina Marie Uhl**

Before we get started, I have a matter of confusion to clear up. What’s with your name? Did you make it up, or were your parents just weird?   

No, I did not make it up, although you are not the first person to ask me that question. My name is pronounced Zeena, though it is spelled X-I-N-A. When I was growing up, I would always know when the teacher got to my name due to the pause and stumbling pronouncement. After Xena: Warrior Princess came out people began to say my name correctly for the most part. I have met a few Zinas - who spell their names with a Z. Also a few people have admitted that their dogs were named Zina. Since I love dogs I find that a compliment. 

Your latest release, Whiter Pastures, revolves around a maid in Antarctica who must overcome her timidity to carry out a distressing mission from faraway England. Dashing young Handy McHanagan is the object of attention and it’s unclear whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy until the resolution. In the course of the adventure, there are many unusual elements such as spinsters, bribery, drunkenness, explosions, panic attacks, hysteria, art exhibits, and special varieties of snuff. How on earth did you combine all these?

The question might better be asked: why did I combine all these? Alas, the answer is unknowable. I have one of those restless minds that is forever googling faraway places and reading explorers’ log books and, when I’m tired of that, watching dark comedies. Somehow that all meshed into one strange, but I hope diverting and amusing tale.

Don’t worry about that, Xina--I can safely say that the answer is yes. Tallyho, then! I can’t recall ever seeing a historical romance set in Antarctica before. When does the story take place and what caused you to set it there?

The story takes place in 1900, which is just prior to Robert Falcon Scott’s first Antarctic expedition, the Discovery, in 1901. The idea is that the British Antarctic Base at Hope Bay exists to support the explorers who come later as well as conducting their own scientific and military endeavors.

As for why I set the story there, I’ve long been curious about the frozen reaches of the earth, probably because I was raised in the desert and have never lived anywhere that falls below 32 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. I’m an avid traveler and I love to read about explorers as well. It took such grit and determination and sheer physical strength to scale mountains, ride rapids, and sail iceberg-choked seas, alone and in fear for one’s life. As a soft hearted landlubber I marvel at such deeds.

I can trace my fascination with Antarctica to an official beginning when I read Endurance by Alfred Lansing, the true story of Ernest Shackleton’s incredible voyage for the South Pole in 1914. When he and his crew became stranded the real adventure began. The book is full of more twists, turns, and excitement than any fictional thriller, and it is all the more mind-blowing because Shackleton and his men braved the most difficult circumstances to triumph in the end. Since then, I’ve done a lot of reading about Antarctica, and I’m first in line to see documentaries like the recent A Year on the Ice, which shows some stunning photography of the Antarctic winter, the first time that’s been done in a movie.

The story includes a few women who live and work on the British Antarctic Base in Hope Bay. How historically accurate is it?

Women weren’t part of the Antarctic bases. In fact, the British Antarctic Base wasn’t built until 1945. However, the Swedes discovered the area in 1902 and built a stone hut in 1903 which still stands in part today. The Norwegian Polar Institute has a great map of Antarctica to orient readers below, with the Hope Bay station located at the very tip of the Antarctic Peninsula near Deception Island.

Because the British base wasn’t actually established until 1945, I took liberties with that detail. I also took liberties with setting women there. I did give them roles that women would likely perform such as cooks, maids, and secretaries. The protagonist, Florance, is a maid. When she’s not spying for certain Scandinavians, that is. As you can probably tell, the story has a decidedly quirky bent, but besides that, and the liberties I took with characters, the story is accurate, but most decidedly fiction. In addition to writing historical fiction, I write historical nonfiction as a freelancer, and I have two degrees in history. So I’m a mean researcher. But good history does not always translate into good fiction so the narrative must always come first. Still, it was loads of fun researching Antarctic expeditions, and my favorite form of procrastination when I should have been writing. I even consulted supply lists to make sure that I was mentioning the correct foods. Can’t forget mockturtle soup and laxative vegetables, you know!

The main character’s name, Florance, is spelled in an unusual manner. There are also unusual names throughout the story - Handy, Gorge, and Electa. Is that intentional?

Yes, definitely.  I happened upon this article on the Mental Floss website about the least popular American baby names from 1880 through 1930, according to Social Security records. The names are, by turns, cringe-worthy and hilarious. It’s fascinating to see the diversity and the bad spellings, though really not terribly surprising, I suppose. We have some strangely spelled names today, too. Anyhow, a perfect storm formed in my mind - the explorer mania, Antarctic interest, bizarre names, and my silly sense of humor collided. I decided to write a series of stories called Icebound, which would focus on relationships at the frozen ends of the earth, and I would use names from this list. There are plenty to choose from and they should lead to lots and lots of stories.

The story is a mix of genres - historical, humor, romance, action. What does that mix say about your writing in general?

That I don’t like to color inside the lines, I suppose. I have fiction that is fantasy, humor, cat-related, romantic, and a mixture of all of the above. I want readers to be fully entertained and engaged by my work and to me, that means operating on a number of different levels, genre-wise. The heart and soul of the Icebound stories is relationships, though. That’s why I say they are romances with historical and humorous elements.

Last question: what’s next after Whiter Pastures?

That would be a novella in the Icebound series called All Mouth and No Trousers. It will be debuting soon - at the end of August. It’s a standalone story, but it takes place with the same characters--in different degrees of importance--as Whiter Pastures.

Thanks so much for having me here! I hope you’ll check out Whiter Pastures for yourself. I think you’ll agree that it earns its place here on Unusual Historicals!

About the Author

Xina Marie Uhl spends her days laboring in obscurity as a freelance writer for educational projects and dreaming of ways to scrounge up enough cash to: 1. travel the world, and 2. add to her increasing menagerie of dogs, cats, and other creatures. The rest of the time she writes fantasy, romance, historical fiction, and humor. She is the author of fantasy novel Necropolis, a collection of fantasy short stories called The Ruling Elite and Other Stories (with Janet Loftis), A Fairy Tail and Out of the Bag, a collection of humorous fantasy stories, and finally The Cat’s Guide to Human Behavior, a humorous self-help manual for cats struggling to understand their humans.

You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress, where she writes about historical research, writing, and whatever strikes her fancy. Join her occasional newsletter for character artwork, exclusive fiction, and up-to-date news on the release of her fantasy novel, The King’s Champion, and other projects.

Author Interview: Susan Wittig Albert on THE GENERAL'S WOMEN

This week, in partnership with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, we're pleased to welcome author SUSAN WITTIG ALBERT with her latest release, THE GENERAL'S WOMEN. Here's the blurb about the novel.

A compelling story of love, betrayal, and ambition by New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert, The General’s Women tells the story of two women--Kay Summersby and Mamie Eisenhower—in love with the same man: General Dwight Eisenhower. Set during the chaotic years of World War II, The General’s Women tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. Told from three alternating points of view (Kay’s, Ike’s, and Mamie’s), the novel charts the deepening of the relationship as Ike and Kay move from England (1942) to North Africa (1942-43) to England, France, and Germany before and after the Normandy landing (1944-45). At the end of the war, Ike is faced with the heart-wrenching choice between marrying Kay and a political future. The story continues into the post-war years, as Ike (returning to Mamie) becomes Army Chief of Staff, president of Columbia University, Supreme Commander of NATO, and president of the United States. Kay, meanwhile, struggles to create a life and work of her own, writing two memoirs: the first (Eisenhower Was My Boss, 1948) about her war work with Ike; the second (Past Forgetting, 1976) about their love affair. An author’s note deals with the complicated question of the truth of Kay’s story, as it finally appears in the posthumously-published Past Forgetting. 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Chapters | IndieBound | iTunes | Kobo

 
Praise for The General's Women

"The General's Women is an engrossing and humanizing account of a love that blossomed during wartime and scandalized a nation... A historical novel that is sympathetic, satisfying, and heartbreaking." —Foreword Reviews 

"A mature, gripping emotional drama... The arc of this multifaceted novel follows the three main characters [Ike, Kay, and Mamie] and a host of secondary ones through the war and back into civilian life. At every point Albert smoothly incorporates an obviously vast amount of research into a tale of raw emotional conflict that can make for some wonderfully uncomfortable reading." —Kirkus Reviews 

"A brilliant work of biographical fiction that will fascinate WW2 history fans. It tells the remarkable true story of General Dwight D Eisenhower and his relationship with his Irish-born driver and secretary, Kay Summersby, and with his longtime wife Mamie. It faithfully shines a light on the hidden relationship of the man behind the D-Day landings and what he got up to while 3,000 miles from his wife. A must read!" —Kieron Wood, author of Ike's Irish Lover: The Echo of A Sigh

**Q&A with Susan Wittig Albert**

We'd like to thank Susan for being a guest this week at Unusual Historicals as she shares details about her latest novel, The General’s Women.

What was the inspiration behind this novel?

Years ago, I happened on Kay Summersby’s memoir, Past Forgetting. Not long after, I saw the TV mini-series, Ike: The War Years, which starred Lee Remick as Kay. I loved her for her bravery. I wanted to know more about her than either the memoir or the film could tell me. I especially wanted to understand her relationship to Eisenhower and know more about what happened after the war. Did Ike really intend to divorce Mamie and marry Kay, as President Truman insisted? If that was his intention, why didn’t he follow through? What compelled her—and him—to do what they did?

I had a lot of questions that needed answers—and for me, the best way to answer a question, always, is to tell a story about it. This story just begged to be told.

How long did the research take and when did you know you had compiled enough to finish this novel?

The story I wanted to tell is a true story about real people, so I felt I needed to know what happened, in as detailed a way as possible. I spent five or six months reading the basic source material, as background. I started with Kay’s two memoirs, one written right after the war (Eisenhower Was My Boss), the other (Past Forgetting) published posthumously in 1976; for her postwar life, I used newspaper archives.

For the war itself, I read the dramatic and detailed Liberation Trilogy, by Rick Atkinson. For what went on in Eisenhower’s command, I relied heavily on the chatty, gossipy contemporaneous diary kept by Harry Butcher, Ike’s naval aide (My Three Years with Eisenhower)—fascinating reading. For Eisenhower, Jean Edward Smith’s Eisenhower in Peace and War seemed to tell the most coherent story—and to portray Ike’s flaws as clearly as his strengths. For Mamie, I read her granddaughter Susan’s biography, Mrs. Ike, plus contemporaneous newspaper reports. My sources are documented in the book’s notes.

Once I finished studying the background material, I knew enough to write the first page. For me, that’s when the serious research begins, because the writing forces me to confront what I don’t know. When I’m writing, I go from the page to the sources and back again, adding detail, fact-checking, adding more detail. And all the time, of course, I discover new sources by reading footnotes and bibliographies. In that sense, the research is never finished until the novel is finished.

Did you discover any surprises during your research?

I was nearly done with the book when I accidentally discovered a recently published biography of Kay, published in Ireland and written by Kieron Wood, an Irish lawyer who lives not far from Kay’s family home in County Cork. Kieron and I became email friends and he shared several enlightening insights into Kay’s life—things he had learned from his Irish sources. I was glad to have his information in time to incorporate it into the story itself. And glad that he agreed with the way I told Kay’s story.

Another surprise grew on me as I worked through the book and began to realize the enormous efforts made by Ike’s postwar staff and his family to cover up his relationship with Kay. They tried—pretty successfully, as it turned out—to erase Kay from his life and to discredit her account of their affair. For instance, I learned that the affair threatened to become an issue in the presidential campaign of 1952 and there was some interesting behind-the-scenes maneuvering to keep it quiet.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at that, given the cover-ups we’ve seen in politics over the years. But I was.

What makes your major characters most compelling?

Wartime love affairs are probably a dime a dozen. Men and women are away from home and seeking comfort wherever they can find it under the urgent threats of war. But Eisenhower was not just any soldier: he was the top military commander in both the North African and European theaters of war. He had an unequalled reputation for integrity and square-dealing, and when he went to the White House his approval ratings would be higher than any other president. Mamie Eisenhower was widely admired for her staunch support of Ike during the war and an irreproachable icon of middle-class values during her eight years in the White House.

Brave, beautiful, and intelligent Kay Summersby was the quintessential Other Woman. During the war she was a threat to Mamie. After the war, she was a threat to Ike’s presidential ambitions.

As a love triangle, this is classic—and pretty darn compelling.

Who is your favorite author and why?

One of my favorite writers of biographical/historical fiction is Tom Mallon—and my favorite work of his is Watergate: The Novel. We all know the Watergate story: there is no longer any mystery about the plot. There’s Dick Nixon, of course, on his way to total collapse by the end of the book. And Pat Nixon, who is having a (fictional) affair that steadies her enough to survive the holocaust of her husband’s second term. But there’s also Howard Hunt and Rose Mary Woods, Elliot Richardson, Fred LaRue, and (my absolute favorite) Alice Roosevelt Longworth, an iron-willed old broad who will steal your heart. We know the plot, of course. But it turns out that we don’t know any of these characters until Mallon gives them to us, in all their many contradictory dimensions. I reread Watergate regularly, just to remind myself that such books can be written.

What advice would you offer other authors of fiction?

It’s the same advice I have for anyone who wants to write anything. Find a story, stay with it until you know it better than anyone else in the world, then write it. Do that again. And again. As many times as it takes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NYT bestselling author, Susan's books include biographical fiction (A Wilder Rose 2013, currently under film option; Loving Eleanor 2016; and The General's Women 2017). Her mystery fiction includes the bestselling China Bayles mysteries; The Darling Dahlias; the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter; and the Robin Paige Victorian/Edwardian mysteries written with her husband, Bill Albert. Working together, the Alberts have also written over 60 young adult novels. Susan's most recent nonfiction work includes two memoirs: An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days and Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place. Her earlier nonfiction work includes Work of Her Own, a study of women who left their careers, and Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul's Story, a guidebook for women memoirists. That book led to the founding of the Story Circle Network in 1997. She has edited two anthologies for the Story Circle Network: With Courage and Common Sense (2004) and What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest (2007). She currently serves as editor of StoryCircleBookReviews and co-coordinator of SCN's Sarton Women's Book Awards. She and Bill live in the Texas Hill Country, where she writes, gardens, and tends a varying assortment of barnyard creatures. For more information, please visit Susan Wittig Albert's website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Goodreads, Amazon, and BookBub.  

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Jeffrey K. Walker on NONE OF US THE SAME

This week, we're pleased to welcome author JEFFREY K. WALKER with his latest release, NONE OF US THE SAME (Sweet Wine of Youth, Volume 1). One lucky winner will receive a copy of the novel in Kindle format. Here's the blurb about the novel.

Fiery Deirdre Brannigan had opinions on everything. She certainly hated the very idea of war in 1914. Childhood pals Jack Oakley and Will Parsons thought it a grand adventure with their friends. But the crushing weight of her guilty conscience pushes Deirdre to leave Ireland and land directly in the fray. Meanwhile the five friends from Newfoundland blithely enlist. After all, the war couldn’t possibly last very long… 

They learn quickly how wrong they are and each is torn apart by the carnage in France.

What began with enthusiastic dreams of parades and dances with handsome young soldiers turned into long days and nights in the hospital wards desperately trying to save lives. And for the good and decent young men in fine new uniforms aching to prove themselves worthy on the field of battle, the horrors of war quickly descended.

But it is also the war which brings them together. Deirdre’s path crosses with Jack and Will when they’re brought to her field hospital the first day of the slaughter on the Somme. Their lives part, their journeys forward fraught with physical and emotional scars tossing them through unexpected and often painful twists and turns. But somehow, a sliver of hope, love and redemption emerges. And their paths cross again in St. John’s.

When the guns finally fall silent, can Deirdre overcome her secret demons through a new life with battered Jack? Can shell-shocked Will confront his despotic father’s expectations to become the man his young family deserves?

**Q&A with Jeffrey K. Walker**

So let's find out more about the story behind the novel...

Why and how did you become a writer?

I’m a latecomer to fiction, having started this first novel at age 56. However, as an attorney and consultant and professor, I’ve written for a living most of my adult life—most of what lawyers do involves complex research and writing. So I came to fiction with a full tool box for doing the mechanics. It’s the world-building and storytelling that’s new and challenging for me, so None of Us the Same taught me a lot of the craft of writing.

None of Us the Same is set during and after the First World War. How did you come to that time period for this historical novel?

Two reasons. First, I’ve always been fascinated by this period in history, much more so than the Second World War. That might seem odd for an American. I spent a lot of my legal career in public international law—treaties and law of war, that kind of thing—and the period before and after the First World War was the golden age of international law. World War II was really the final act, the denouement of the First World War—the international order was fractured by the conflict and not very effectively put back together, leaving space and oxygen for fascism, Nazism, Stalinism.

Second, I set out to write a book about the terrible damage war does to the young men and women drawn into it and how they struggle with putting their lives back together after the war. Initially, I assumed I’d set the book present day, using Afghanistan or Iraq. As I dug into the project, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was appropriating the stories of young men and women struggling real time. To a guy like me who spent 20 years in uniform, it felt a little wrong. So the First World War offered a compelling alternative setting, yet with many of the same problems that young veterans face today. I guess you can say I was a bit of a coward and that landed me in 1914 rather than 2014.

How did you approach researching the book?

I’ve been a big historical fiction fan since I was 11 or 12 and read one of my parents’ completely age-inappropriate Book of the Month Club selections. It was something by James Michener. I can’t exactly remember which one, maybe Hawaii. Ever since, perhaps because Michener was such a meticulous researcher, I don’t like books with a lot of historical groaners in them—and my wife will attest that I actually groan out loud when I read inaccuracies—so I was a little neurotic about research for None of Us the Same. Among other things, this included a research trip to Newfoundland during iceberg season and you'll see its gems in the book. (Everyone should put Newfoundland on their Bucket List. Beautiful land with genuinely friendly people.)

I’m really drawn to social and intellectual history, so spent a lot of time reading ‘Lost Generation’ poets, novels written by veterans of the War, newspapers and magazines of the period, as well as a mountain of more traditional historical sources. Memoirs and letters were very important to me so I could get period-appropriate voices in my head. I also visited some amazing museums, like the Imperial War Museum in London and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum in St. John’s. I hope it was all worth it, but I’ll leave it to readers to check their own level of groaning.

Did you rely on actual historical persons or are your characters 100% fictional?

As 100% fictional as any character can be, I suppose. I’ve never been a big fan of “fictional biographies” in general because so few authors do them really well. I mean, there’s Hilary Mantel and then there’s the rest of us mere mortals, isn’t there? So I went to some effort to avoid using real persons. For example, my two male main characters are from Newfoundland and join that Dominion’s regiment in 1914. The First World War was a traumatic and emotional right of passage for the Newfoundlanders—they sustained huge losses for a very small place and the regiment is highly revered to this day. To not offend anyone, there is no one named in the book above the rank of captain nor above the position of platoon commander. I pulled last names for characters from the regimental roster and from old St. John’s city directories, but that’s as far as I went. My female main character, an Irish nurse you met in the excerpt, is completely fictional albeit her hospital did exist, as did her casualty clearing station on the Somme. So I wove my fictionalized characters between the seams of real people, places, and events.

That said, the second volume in my trilogy does incorporate a historical person or two because I really needed them for narrative purposes.

So None of Us the Same is the first volume of a trilogy? Was that a challenge your first time out—three books all at once?

Yeah, a little crazy wasn’t it? I wanted to approach the theme of “war changes everyone and everything” on three different levels: individual, social/cultural and political. That lended itself quite naturally to a trilogy. All three are—or will be—heavily character-driven, but the overarching themes track these three aspects of change. None of Us the Same focuses on the wide range of individual traumas and struggles. The second book—Truly Are the Free, should be out in the Fall. It looks at the enormous social upheavals and change caused by the War and is partly set in post-War Harlem and Paris. (It features a main character from the storied 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment—the “Harlem Hellfighters.”) The third book, No Hero’s Welcome, will look at the violent political upheavals in Ireland in the wake of the British Empire’s widespread exhaustion caused by the War.

The alternative to a trilogy would have been a Michener-esque doorstopper of a saga, 800 pages long. I had serious misgivings about anyone giving a new fiction writer that much benefit of the doubt.

  

About the Author

JEFFREY K. WALKER has worked as a stock broker, bomber navigator, criminal lawyer, international consultant, and law professor. He’s lived in ten states and three foreign countries. Although None of Us the Same is his first novel, he’s written his entire life, including undergraduate sports coverage, an opinion column in his law school newspaper, hundreds of trial motions, a losing Supreme Court amicus brief, and several scholarly chapters and articles. He dotes on his family and has never been beaten at Whack-a-Mole.

  

Connect with Jeff on his author page and blog at http://jeffreykwalker.com/  or:

             On Instagram at https://instagram.com/jkwalker.author 

             On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jeffreykwalker 

             On Twitter at @jkwalkerAuthor

             Or Email him at jeff at jeffreykwalker dot com

  

None of Us the Same is available at the following:

 www.amzn.to/2qvJSJm  (Amazon)

 http://bit.ly/2qxoMd3  (Barnes& Noble)

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: J Tullos Hennig on SUMMERWODE

This week, we're pleased to welcome author J TULLOS HENNIG with SUMMERWODE, from the Books of the Wode series. One lucky winner will receive a copy of the novel in e-book format. Here's the blurb about the novel.

The Summer King has come to the Wode...

Yet to which oath, head or heart, shall he hold?

Once known as the Templar assassin Guy de Gisbourne, dispossessed noble Gamelyn Boundys has come to Sherwood Forest with conflicted oaths. One is of duty: demanding he tame the forest’s druidic secrets and bring them back to his Templar Masters. The other oath is of heat and heart: given to the outlaw Robyn Hood, avatar of the Horned Lord, and the Maiden Marion, embodiment of the Lady Huntress. The three of them—Summerlord, Winter King, and Maiden of the Spring—are bound by yet another promise, that of fate: to wield the covenant of the Shire Wode and the power of the Ceugant, the magical trine of all worlds. In this last, also, is Gamelyn conflicted; spectres of sacrifice and death haunt him.

Uneasy oaths begin a collision course when not only Gamelyn, but Robyn and Marion are summoned to the siege of Nottingham by the Queen. Her promise is that Gamelyn will regain his noble family’s honour of Tickhill, and the outlaws of the Shire Wode will have a royal pardon.

But King Richard has returned to England, and the price of his mercy might well be more than any of them can afford...

**Q&A with J Tullos Henning**

What are you currently working on?

The fifth novel, Wyldingwode, to complete the Books of the Wode. I'm also working on several new speculative fiction short stories, and researching a new historical novel.

Speaking of the Wode Books, when will the next one be out? And how many books are planned?

The 4th book, Summerwode, releases 16 May, 2017. It's on preorder now!

There are five novels planned in the story cycle. The duology of Shirewode and its prequel Greenwode are available began it all. A trilogy that begins with Winterwode will continue with Summerwode, and will end with Wyldingwode (#amwriting).

Why the LBGTQ slant on Robin Hood?

Why not?

Don't just take my word for it, though; several scholars have explored the possibility. There are many excellent essays and non-fiction studies of Robin’s role as a cultural--and changeable--icon. The Robin Hood Project at The Library of Rochester is an excellent place to begin an acquaintance with the ever-morphing facets of the Robin Hood/Robyn Hode mythos.

But I think it really comes down to this: respect. Whenever you take an old warhorse of a legend, you owe it to the Story to respect its legacy, but its purpose in existence. Which means you question it, turn it over and inside out and re-imagine it, shape it to the best of your ability into a vital continuation of its Story. To just rehash a tired trope is disrespectful to not only the power of legend, but your own talents.

Why Robin Hood (okay, Robyn Hode) as a Druid? Why the fantasy element?

Again, why not?

There are so many reasons to explore Robin/Robyn as Green Man of the Forest. Legend and Myth cling to him, and rightfully so. And myth has its own truths, sometimes stronger than what is considered “fact”. All too often the term fantasy is used to dismiss someone else’s belief systems. No question, I’m a great whopping history geek, but also, I’m hyper-aware (no doubt due to my Choctaw heritage) that history is suspect. Speculative, even.

Not to mention, I adore speculative fiction, and am a SF/Fantasy fan from waaaay back. Eons before it was considered cool.

Do you do a lot of research?

Yes, indeed. I love research; have done and still do, ever on. It's not just about long hours in closed stacks, but even more the hands-on trial/error and life experience which, I hope, shall continue for some time. Most of that research never ends up as prose, granted... but it shouldn't. Having knowledge and authority speak through the storytelling is sooo much better than overwhelming an audience with "see what I know?" (Not to mention that for me, Story often trumps Fact. Because Facts can be so... chancy.)

When did you start writing, and what are some major influences on your writing?

I’ve been writing and drawing my own worlds for a very long time; basically since I could hold a pencil. I had an abortive writing career in the 80s, but it’s all part of the process. The books I’m writing now are much better, anyway. *grin*

Influences...On the subtextual level, it's all about the myths, folklore, ancient stories, cultures, and possibilities. Listening to the elders share stories, and to the ideas children express before some of the less palatable aspects of culture start trying to shut them down.

As to specific works/writers: I hail the 3 Marys: Mary Renault, Mary Stewart, and Mary O'Hara. Parke Godwin, Louise Erdrich, Ray Bradbury, Paula Gunn Allen, Starhawk, Leslie Marmon Silko, Albert Payson Terhune, Colleen McCulloch, Taylor Caldwell, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert Heinlein, Virginia Woolf. There are others, but these come soonest to mind. No one should regret reading any of these author's works.

THANK YOU!

BUY LINKS:

DSP Publications 

Kobo 

Barnes & Noble 

Amazon 

E-books 1 & 2 in the series are currently on sale through most retailers until the 16 May release: GREENWODE is free, and SHIREWODE is $2.95!

About the Author

J Tullos Hennig has always possessed inveterate fascination in the myths and histories of other worlds and times. Despite having maintained a few professions in this world—equestrian, dancer, teacher, artist—Jen has never successfully managed to not be a writer. Ever.

Her most recent work is a darkly magical & award-winning historical fantasy series re-imagining the legends of Robin Hood, in which both pagan and queer viewpoints are given respectful voice.

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