Meet My Protagonist: Aurelia Mitela - woman and warrior

Older Aurelia

Fifteen hundred years after the end of the Roman Empire, one last (imaginary) part still survives in the 20th century – Roma Nova. Its people are tough, uncompromising in defending their country and guard their Roman cultural values tightly. However, due to the grim times of their early history, women had to take up gladius and scutum (shield) and fight by the side of their menfolk. And they never lost the status this struggle gave them. In the late 1960s in this egalitarian yet still Roman society, Aurelia Mitela is the archetypal Roma Novan... 

Aurelia came to life when I was writing the first Roma Nova thriller, INCEPTIO. Then, she was the clever experienced grandmother of Carina, the book’s heroine. Let Carina tell you in her own words of her first impression of Aurelia:
“She’d been so concerned for me, but not in a soppy way. Direct and ‘no-nonsense’ fitted her perfectly, but her smile had been warm. I couldn’t help speculating how it would have been to grow up with her instead of the Browns.

 I started tapping the keys, surfing for 'Roma Nova' while I was drinking and thinking. I couldn’t leave it alone. My grandmother’s name shot out at me. Fascinated, I loaded the English translation. The screen displayed a list of her business interests. Sketchy on detail, it gave some personal stuff at the end: head of the influential Mitela family, senator and government advisor, cousin to the current imperatrix. She really was a big hitter.”

In PERFIDITAS, we see Aurelia, the cool ex-Praetorian, holding the family together after they’d been falsely arrested:
“[Aurelia to Carina] ‘I’ve been through a great deal worse. I’m not a little old lady out of some genteel novel.’ 

 No, she truly wasn’t. She’d been Praetorian Guard Special Forces in her time, even led the attack to retake the city during the civil war. Although now in her mid-seventies, she definitely belonged to the“tough gals” league. She gave me a close description of the arresting party. What a difference it made when the victim was a trained professional and could give you precise, detailed information. She’d printed off her statement and signed it already.”

Throughout the first three books, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO, set in the present we catch references to Aurelia’s early life, but more intriguingly, a whole range of questions are thrown up. What did she do in the Great Rebellion nearly twenty-three years before the time of INCEPTIO? Why is she so anxious when she compares the villain in SUCCESSIO to Caius Tellus, the brutal ‘First Consul’ who instigated the rebellion all those years ago? Who was the great love of Aurelia’s life that Carina only learns about in SUCCESSIO?

1960s Berlin

In AURELIA, the fourth book which takes us back to the late 1960s, we watch Aurelia as a young woman. She's 28 years old and is accused of murder during a mission to Berlin.While on remand in a Prussian prison, she has to undergo a hostile psychological assessment. Here’s the report on her:

Subject is highly rational, quick-minded and a natural leader. She sees nothing is impossible given enough time and resources. Subject has the confident personality and willpower to pursue and implement her goals, easily bringing others with her. A dominant personality.

Strategic thinker, curious, innovative, able to grasp and deal with problems with determination and precision. Energetic and excellent communication skills, happy to confront and negotiate with others. Intelligent enough to recognise other people’s talents, and work with them. Requires challenges and even failures, or her self-confidence could easily turn into arrogance and condescension.

Personalities of this type cannot tolerate inefficiency or those whom they perceive as lazy or incompetent. They can be chillingly cold and ruthless when the situation arises, operating purely on logic and rationality. 

They interact very well with others, often charming them to their cause, and paying attention to other people’s feelings – or at least pretending that they do. Most mature and successful personalities of this type are genuine in this aspect to some extent, even though their sensitivity may hide a cold and calculating mind.

This is a slant on the classic ENTJ personality  profile from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychometric test system popular in business to indicate psychological preferences about how people perceive the world and make decisions. I needed to make the report negative for the story, but positive aspects of this type of personality are that they are conceptual and global thinkers, able to see connections where others don’t, and to think ahead. Couple this with the intuition and sense of fair play many ENTJs possess, it  can make life frustrating for this personality when people around them don’t  grasp things the way they do. Of course, this conflict is a gift for a writer…

In essence, Aurelia is a blood-and-bone Roma Novan whose values are based on traditional ancient Roman ones; tough, loyal with a strong sense of duty and fully aware of her responsibilities as head of a great family. But her desire to keep all the balls juggling in the air with precise timing leads to her being riven by guilt if she doesn’t perform a hundred percent.

Aurelia has one vulnerability, her love for her frail daughter, Marina. But along with her determination to serve her country, Aurelia's willingness to sacrifice everything for Marina is also her greatest strength. It motivates her even when she's experiencing her darkest moments.

Is she sympathetic? Yes, because under all that resolution and toughness, she is still a human being who experiences fear, love, despair and grief. She bitterly misses the strong comradeship of her earlier military career and is exhilarated when going back into action. And then there is her devotion to her life-long love, elusive though he sometimes proves to be...

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Discover more about AURELIA

Late 1960s Roma Nova, the last Roman colony that has survived into the 20th century. Aurelia Mitela is alone – her partner gone, her child sickly and her mother dead – and forced to give up her beloved career as a Praetorian officer.

But her country needs her unique skills. Somebody is smuggling silver – Roma Nova’s lifeblood – on an industrial scale. Sent to Berlin to investigate, she encounters the mysterious and attractive Miklós, a known smuggler who knows too much and Caius Tellus, a Roma Novan she has despised and feared since childhood.

Barely escaping a trap set by a gang boss intent on terminating her, she discovers that her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles. She pursues him back home to Roma Nova desperate now he has struck at her most vulnerable point – her young daughter.

Available as
- eBook from Amazon,  iBooks,  Kobo,  B&N Nook
- audiobook from Audible
- paperback, author signed paperback and from other retailers

HNS indie Editor’s Choice Autumn 2015 
Shortlisted for the 2016 HNS Indie prize, then Finalist (one of four)
B.R.A.G. Medallion, October 2015 
Discovered Diamond January 2016

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Alison Morton is the author of the acclaimed Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and the latest, INSURRECTIO. 

Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova site: http://alison-morton.com

Facebook author page  https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison-morton

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton

My Characters Live In Roma Nova - an alternative place to live

By Alison Morton

What if Harold had won the Battle of Hastings in 1066? Or Julius Caesar had taken notice of the warning that assassins wanted to murder him on the Ides of March? Or the Spanish Armada had defeated and conquered England in 1588? Suppose Christianity had remained a minor Middle Eastern cult?

“Alternate history” stories give us the opportunity to explore such ‘what if’s. Sometimes they’re infused with every last detail of their world but have a simple plot, other times the alternative world is used as a setting for an adventure or complex thriller. Some stories rework important events of history, others focus on ordinary or imagined people. Whichever type they are, three things shape these stories: identification of the point of divergence when the alternate timeline split from our timeline; how that world looks and works since that divergence; and the historical consequences of the diversion.

In my Roma Nova series, the premise is that a tiny remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the modern era, but with a twist – a big twist.

How did Roma Nova come into being?

In our real timeline, the Western Roman Empire didn’t ‘fall’ in a cataclysmic event as often portrayed in film and television; it localised and eventually dissolved like chain mail fragmenting into separate links, giving way to rump states, local city states and petty kingdoms all facing the dynamic rise of the new peoples of Europe particularly the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians and Alamans. The Eastern Roman Empire survived, albeit as the diminished city state of Byzantium until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Empire.

Some scholars think that Christianity fatally weakened the traditional Roman way of life; certainly, Emperor Constantine’s personal conversion to Christianity in AD 313 was a turning point for the new religion. By AD 395, his several times successor, Theodosius, banned all traditional Roman religious practice, closed and destroyed temples and dismissed all priests. The sacred flame that had burned for over a thousand years in the College of Vestals was extinguished and the Vestal Virgins expelled. The Altar of Victory, said to guard the fortune of Rome, was hauled away from the Senate building and disappeared from history.

All the above really happened, but AD 395 is the point of divergence in when Roma Nova originated. Three months after Theodosius’s last decree banning all pagan religions, over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods, and so in danger of execution, trekked north out of Italy to a semi-mountainous area in the middle of Europe. Led by Apulius at the head of twelve senatorial families, they established a colony based initially on land owned by Apulius’s Celtic father-in-law. By purchase, alliance and conquest, this grew into the mini state of Roma Nova. 

Roma Nova rises

Twenty years before Apulius and the twelve families founded Roma Nova, he’d met Julia Bacausa, the tough daughter of a Celtic princeling, when he was serving as a young officer in Noricum (roughly present day Austria).  After Apulius had been ordered back to Rome in AD 375, Julia had taken to her horse and with a few retainers followed Apulius to Rome and married him on the day of her arrival.

She came from a society in which, although Romanised for several generations, women made decisions, fought in battles and managed inheritance and property. Their four daughters were amongst the first Roma Nova pioneers so had to act more decisively than they would have done in a traditional urban Roman setting.  While men concentrated on defending the new colony, women worked the fields, traded, ran the families and, in the absence of fathers and brothers on the front line, made decisions in the governing council.

Given the unstable, dangerous times in Roma Nova’s first few hundred years – this was the time of the Great European Migrations – eventually the daughters as well as sons had to put on armour and wield swords. Fighting danger side-by-side with brothers and fathers transformed women’s status and roles. Moreover, Roma Novans remained loyal to the traditional gods and never allowed the incursion of monotheistic paternalistic religions.

Photo courtesy of Britannia,
www.durolitum.co.uk

In today’s Roma Nova women, especially senior and more experienced ones, hold social and economic life together. The Senate, People’s Assembly, and above all the Twelve Families council support a (female) constitutional ruler, the imperatrix. Although women head families and descent of name and property is through the female line, men are not disadvantaged in this ‘egalitarian-lite’ society. Men are numerically stronger in the military and police services, women more in politics, law and commerce. That’s a generalisation, of course. Nothing is ever that simple…

Service to the state is supposed to be valued higher than personal advantage, echoing Roman Republican virtues; it drove Roma Nova’s survival through the centuries. However, as we see in PERFIDITAS, not everybody subscribes to this.

Roma Nova’s continued existence has been favoured by three factors: the discovery and exploitation of high-grade silver in their mountains, their efficient technology, and their robust response to any threat. Today, although tiny, perhaps the size of Luxembourg, Roma Nova has become one of the highest per capita income states in the world.

So has Roma Nova’s existence changed the rest of the world?

Remembering their Byzantine cousins’ defeat in the Fall of Constantinople, Roma Novan troops assisted the western nations at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 to halt the Ottoman advance into Europe. Nearly two hundred years later, they used their diplomatic skills to help forge an alliance to push Napoleon IV back across the Rhine as he attempted to expand his grandfather’s empire.

Prioritising survival, Roma Nova remained neutral in the Great War of the 20th century that lasted from 1925 to 1935. The Greater German Empire, stretching from Jutland in the north, Alsace in the west, Tyrol in the south and Bulgaria in the east, was broken up afterwards into its former small kingdoms, duchies and counties. Some became republics. There was no sign of an Austrian-born corporal with a short, square moustache.

And the New World that features in the first few chapters of INCEPTIO? New York, where we find Karen living and working, is an Autonomous City in the Eastern United States (EUS) that the Dutch only left in 1813 and the British in 1865. The New World French states of Louisiane and Québec are ruled by Gouverneurs-Généraux on behalf of Napoléon VI. California and Texas belong to the Spanish Empire and the Western Territories are a protected area for the Indigenous Peoples.

If this has glimpse has intrigued you, you can find out much more at The Roma Nova Story [http://alison-morton.com/roma-nova/roma-nova-history/] or read gossipy travel writer Claudia Dixit’s quick Visitor Guide to Roma Nova [http://alison-morton.com/roma-nova/claudia-dixits-tourist-guide-to-roma-nova/]

Bio

Alison Morton is the author of the acclaimed Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA (finalist in the 2016 Historical Novel Society Indie Award). Her fifth book in the series, INSURRECTIO, was launched at the London Book Fair on 12 April 2016. 

Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova site: http://alison-morton.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison-morton

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton

Read about INSURRECTIO, Alison’s latest book, here: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/

INSURRECTIO book trailer

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Alison Morton on AURELIA

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Alison Morton with the fourth in her Roma Nova series, AURELIA. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of Aurelia. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

Suppose a tiny part of the Roman Empire has survived into the 20^th century? And suppose it had changed to a more than egalitarian society, in fact, one ruled by women?

It’s the late 1960s in Roma Nova. Aurelia Mitela, a member of a leading family is alone – her partner gone, her child sickly and her mother dead. More than that, she’s forced to give up her beloved career as a Praetorian officer and live as a civilian.

But her country needs her unique skills. Somebody is smuggling silver – Roma Nova’s lifeblood – on an industrial scale. Sent to Berlin to investigate, she encounters the mysterious and attractive Miklós, a known smuggler who knows too much and Caius Tellus, a Roma Novan she has despised and feared since childhood.

Barely escaping a trap set by a gang boss intent on terminating her, she discovers that her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles and pursues him back home to Roma Nova...

**Q&A with Alison Morton**

Welcome back, Alison. Now, you’re here to tell us about your latest alternate history thriller, AURELIA. We saw the blurb and an exciting extract on Thursday, but today I’d like to dig a little deeper into the background…

This time you’re setting your story in the late 1960s. What attracted you to this period?

Well, in a way, it was a natural choice. I wanted to tell the story of Aurelia Mitela, the grandmother of Carina, the heroine of the first three books, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. As I wrote Aurelia in those books, I became more and more intrigued by her. What had she done as a young Praetorian officer? And what part had she played in the Great Rebellion twenty-three years before we met her in? How was that connected with Conrad, Carina’s love-interest, whose family was ruined as a consequence of the rebellion? To write the younger Aurelia in her mid to late twenties, I needed to go back to the 1960s.

Was it easy writing in a period that some readers can still remember?

I’ll let you into a secret – I can just about remember a few things myself! However, there is a huge trap with ‘young’ history; you think you know when things were invented or in use, but you don’t really. You can only recall the things directly relevant to you at that time. For instance, I can remember every aspect of my school uniform which I wore every day – beret, cotton shirt, gymslip, striped tie – but I had to look up when central locking (power door locks) was invented! (They were introduced on the luxury Scripps-Booth in 1914, but were not common on most high-end cars until Packard reintroduced them in the US in 1956.)

How do you keep the Roman theme relevant?

Roma Nova is a strong society based on Roman values so the characters have a moral and social framework probably more robust and demanding than our own. This value system has been the guide to their survival throughout the centuries so I keep this to the forefront. Writing about Saturnalia customs, funerals, weaponry, senators, the forum and imperatrix flavours the stories as do Latin terms, e.g. for money or cops, and Roman-style names for the characters. And like any people, they refer back to their past when making a point about the present.

AURELIA is both a thriller and historical fiction. How do you keep a balance between the two?

Aurelia, the eponymous heroine, is an officer in the Praetorian Guard, so we know she’s tough.  She’s faced with pressures from family, her duty and a manipulative and skilled antagonist focused on obtaining power by any means. This is not an unknown scenario in a Roman setting! The thriller is the backbone of AURELIA, but the tension and conflict is interwoven with, and indeed dependent on, the historical vision Roma Novans have of themselves.

What so you think makes a good story for a reader?

As a reader, I like a story which grips emotionally and with characters who resonate with me. I like an unusual setting, whether in time, place or both, plus plenty of twists and turns and an electrifying denouement. But that’s just me. I’ve learnt that my readers vary enormously; around 40% are male and 60% female, the youngest reported age is 16 and the oldest 87!  Conjuring up my ‘ideal reader’ is quite hard! But I’ve noticed that people want clarity, snappy dialogue, plenty of interaction, enough description to set the story, but not so much it weighs the action down. And they are all intrigued by the Roman-ness and the slightly more than egalitarian nature of Roma Novan society. Some readers want to book a long holiday there and even emigrate to Roma Nova permanently!

Writers who take the dare of high concept stories must deliver and, for me as a writer, this is a powerful motivator to work hard to produce a truly entertaining result.

What are the larger issues behind AURELIA?  

Depression – although not named in the book – threatens Aurelia. She accepts her duty to her family when her mother is incapacitated, but when forced to give up her beloved career as a soldier, she is resentful and frustrated. Bored and guilty, she works herself into the ground, and becomes quite ill at one stage.  She also wonders if she is becoming paranoid about the threat from one of the other characters and whether this is colouring her judgement. However, as we know, Roma Novan heroines are nothing if not resourceful.

Another conflict is that of being a mother of a vulnerable child who isn’t the usual tough Roma Novan. Aurelia doesn’t understand how her daughter can be so unseeing and innocent, but she knows she has to protect her against everyone and everything.

And lastly, individual ‘noble’ motivation resonates with even the most cynical reader, but in the Roma Novan society it’s expected as a matter of course. This harks back to collective survival as well as core Roman values. My heroine knows and accepts this, but heartache caused by impossible choices between personal wishes and duty nearly tears Aurelia apart.

And next?

We jump forward thirteen years into the 1980s and the rebellion that nearly destroyed Roma Nova. Familiar characters and new ones are at the front of the action including the parents of INCEPTIO heroine, Carina, when they first meet...

Thank you for joining me today and warm thanks to Unusual Historicals for inviting me to talk about AURELIA.

About the Author

Even before she pulled on her first set of combats, Alison Morton was fascinated by the idea of women soldiers. Brought up by a feminist mother and an ex-military father, it never occurred to her that women couldn’t serve their country in the armed forces. Everybody in her family had done time in uniform and in theatre – regular and reserve Army, RAF, WRNS, WRAF – all over the globe.

So busy in her day job, Alison joined the Territorial Army in a special communications regiment and left as a captain, having done all sorts of interesting and exciting things no civilian would ever know or see. Or that she can talk about, even now…

But something else fuels her writing… Fascinated by the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain), at their creation by the complex, power and value-driven Roman civilisation started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by strong women…

Now, she lives in France and writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with tough heroines.

Fact file:

Education: BA French, German & Economics, MA History

Memberships: International Thriller Writers, Historical Novel Society, Alliance of Independent Authors, Society of Authors

Represented by Annette Crossland of A for Authors Literary Agency for subsidiary and foreign rights.

  

INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series

– shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– finalist in 2014 Writing Magazine Self-Published Book of the Year

PERFIDITAS, second in series

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– finalist in 2014 Writing Magazine Self-Published Book of the Year

SUCCESSIO, third in series

– Historical Novel Society’s indie Editor’s Choice for Autumn 2014

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– Editor’s choice, The Bookseller’s inaugural Indie Preview, December 2014

Links 

Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova blog: http://alison-morton.com/blog/

Facebook author page  https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison-morton

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton

Amazon UK author page:   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/

Amazon US author page:  http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/

  

Buying links (multiple retailers/formats):

INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/where-to-buy-inceptio/

PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/where-to-buy-perfiditas/

SUCCESSIO: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/where-to-buy-successio/

AURELIA: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/where-to-buy-aurelia/ 

Excerpt Thursday:AURELIA by Alison Morton

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Alison Morton with the fourth in her Roma Nova series, AURELIA. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of Aurelia. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

Suppose a tiny part of the Roman Empire has survived into the 20^th century? And suppose it had changed to a more than egalitarian society, in fact, one ruled by women?

It’s the late 1960s in Roma Nova. Aurelia Mitela, a member of a leading family is alone – her partner gone, her child sickly and her mother dead. More than that, she’s forced to give up her beloved career as a Praetorian officer and live as a civilian.

But her country needs her unique skills. Somebody is smuggling silver – Roma Nova’s lifeblood – on an industrial scale. Sent to Berlin to investigate, she encounters the mysterious and attractive Miklós, a known smuggler who knows too much and Caius Tellus, a Roma Novan she has despised and feared since childhood.

Barely escaping a trap set by a gang boss intent on terminating her, she discovers that her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles and pursues him back home to Roma Nova...

** An Excerpt from AURELIA**

I left my side-arm in the safe box in the vestibule and walked on past the marble and plaster imagines, the painted statues and busts of dead Mitelae from the gods knew how many hundreds of years. Only the under-steward was allowed to dust them; I’d never been allowed to touch them as a child.

My all-terrain boots made soft squelching sounds as I crossed the marble floor. This was the last private time I’d share with my mother and daughter for three weeks. A glance at my watch confirmed I had a precious hour.

Through the double doors, the atrium rose up for three storeys. Light from the late spring sun beat down through the central glass roof on to luxuriant green planting at the centre of the room like rays from an intense spotlight.

My mother disliked the vastness of the atrium and had partitioned a part of it off with tall bookcases, to make a cosier area, she said. Unfortunately, because of the almost complete square of tall units with only a body-width entrance at the far corner, and the way the shelving inside was arranged, you couldn’t see who was there until you were on top of them. I’d been trapped by some of her tea-drinking cronies more than once.

My mother, sitting on her favourite chintz sofa facing the entrance, looked up as I appeared in the gap. Two tiny creases on her forehead vanished when she stood and walked towards me with her arms extended. She greeted me with an over-bright smile.

‘Aurelia, darling.’

I bent and kissed her cheek in a formal salute then looked over her shoulder to where my daughter, Marina, was sitting on the sofa, her small figure almost drowned by the large flowers. She was twisting her hands together and glancing in as many different directions as she could.

‘Marina, whatever is the matter, sweetheart?’ I strode over and crouched down by her. She stretched one hand out to grab mine and with the other pointed at the chair in the far corner.

Caius Tellus.

Hades in Pluto.

‘Aurelia, how lovely to see you,’ he said in a warm urbane voice. Taller than his brother Quintus who nearly topped two metres, Caius was well built without being overweight. Sitting at his ease, one leg crossed over the other, he ran his eyes over my face and body. His hazel eyes shone and his smile was wide, showing a glimpse of over-white teeth through generous lips. Nothing in his tanned face with classic cheekbones would repel you on the surface. Others considered him very good-looking with almost film star glamour and charm. I knew better what kind of creature lay underneath.

Even as a kid he’d had a vicious streak; I’d never forget his hand clamping my neck, forcing my face down into the scullery drain, him saying he’d drown me in filth. I’d retched and retched at the smell of animal blood, the grease and dirty water. In the end, the cook had found us and hauled Caius off. I crouched there sweating and trembling; only horseplay, Caius said and laughed. The cook had given him a hard look, but the other servants were won over by Caius’s boyish smile. But when he’d stuck his hand up my skirt and tried to force me at Aquilia’s emancipation party, I’d kneed him in the groin so hard he couldn’t stand up for hours. I’d been in the military cadets for a year by then. But the others, woozy from wine and good spirits, gave him more sympathy as he writhed around on the terrace, playing to the audience.

After I joined the guard at eighteen, I hardly saw him except at formal Twelve Families events and even there, he’d smarm his way to the head of the food queue or make a beeline for the most vulnerable in the room, be it male or female. He was a taker in life, a callous one, and I loathed him with all my heart and soul.

I stood up, shielding Marina behind me. ‘Dear me,’ he said, ‘are you off playing soldiers again?’

I should have been given top marks for not slapping the smirk off his face.

‘Caius,’ I said, keeping my voice as cool as possible. ‘We’re having a private family lunch before I go on an extended operation, so I hope you’ll excuse us.’

My mother cast a pleading look at me. I closed my eyes for a second. She’d invited him to join us. How could she have?

I chewed my food slowly to try to reduce my tension. I was irritated Mama had chosen the breakfast room – a private family place – to eat in rather than the formal dining room. The servants flitted in and out with the food, and I said very little except to Marina, who pecked at her food.

‘Aurelia, you’re quieter than usual. I hope nothing’s wrong?’ my mother said too cheerfully.

Before I could answer, Caius intervened. ‘She does look a little pale. Don’t you worry, Felicia, that she takes too much on sometimes?’ He tilted his head sideways and pasted a concerned expression on to his face.

I speared a piece of pork and sawed through it like a barbarian, scraping the plate glaze below. I knew Caius was trying to make me rise to his bait, but I refused to play. At least my work as a Praetorian soldier was serving the state. He served himself with his gambling and whoring. He put in just enough hours at the charity committees he nominally sat on to appear to be contributing to Roma Novan life.

My mother smiled at him. ‘Yes, I do wonder. She was so exhausted after that last exercise abroad. You really understand, don’t you, Caius?’

He extended his hand and grasped hers and smiled. I was nearly sick. 

About the Author

Even before she pulled on her first set of combats, Alison Morton was fascinated by the idea of women soldiers. Brought up by a feminist mother and an ex-military father, it never occurred to her that women couldn’t serve their country in the armed forces. Everybody in her family had done time in uniform and in theatre – regular and reserve Army, RAF, WRNS, WRAF – all over the globe.

So busy in her day job, Alison joined the Territorial Army in a special communications regiment and left as a captain, having done all sorts of interesting and exciting things no civilian would ever know or see. Or that she can talk about, even now…

But something else fuels her writing… Fascinated by the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain), at their creation by the complex, power and value-driven Roman civilisation started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by strong women…

Now, she lives in France and writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with tough heroines.

Fact file:

Education: BA French, German & Economics, MA History

Memberships: International Thriller Writers, Historical Novel Society, Alliance of Independent Authors, Society of Authors

Represented by Annette Crossland of A for Authors Literary Agency for subsidiary and foreign rights.

  

INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series

– shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– finalist in 2014 Writing Magazine Self-Published Book of the Year

PERFIDITAS, second in series

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– finalist in 2014 Writing Magazine Self-Published Book of the Year

SUCCESSIO, third in series

– Historical Novel Society’s indie Editor’s Choice for Autumn 2014

– B.R.A.G. Medallion

– Editor’s choice, The Bookseller’s inaugural Indie Preview, December 2014

Links 

Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova blog: http://alison-morton.com/blog/

Facebook author page  https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison-morton

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton

Amazon UK author page:   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/

Amazon US author page:  http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/

  

Buying links (multiple retailers/formats):

INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/where-to-buy-inceptio/

PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/where-to-buy-perfiditas/

SUCCESSIO: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/where-to-buy-successio/

AURELIA: http://alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/where-to-buy-aurelia/ 

Guest Author: Denise Agnew

This week on Unusual Historicals we're welcoming Samhain author Denise Agnew as she celebrates the release of her ancient world-set romance, FOR A ROMAN'S HEART. Here's the blurb:

His scarred soul knows no vulnerability--except her touch.

Trapped between cruel parents and the need to hide her gift of second sight from suspicious villagers, Adrenia Tertia Brigomalla walks a line as thin as the threads she weaves. The need for independence burns fierce in her heart, but not as hot as her unexpected attraction to a Roman soldier who comes to the village in search of a deserter.

Though hardened by war, Centurion Terentius Marius Atellus defies any man to harm an innocent. Nothing shakes his relentless determination to track down a murderous legionnaire with a taste for young women. Yet Adrenia's spirit and vulnerability spark a protective instinct stronger than duty...and temptation that could be his downfall.

Fragile trust built on stolen kisses and a premonition saves his life and drives his offer of the ultimate protection--marriage. While she revels in the feral passion he awakens within her, Adrenia would sooner brave the fires of Hades than trade one yoke for another.

It's a decision that could leave them both dangling above a precipice they may not survive...

***

What do you consider unique about the historical romances you write?

I've never been too interested in writing the soup du jour when it comes to historical romance. For example, Regency era sexy romances are very popular right now. But if I tried to write one when I wasn't interested in writing one, it would be a square peg into round hole situation.

Do you like the research required to write historical novels?

I never write a book set in a time period I'm not interested in writing about so there are no dull moments for me. The research is fascinating to me. I love it.

Do you write historicals exclusively?

No. I've written in every genre of romance except for inspirational. I have to change things up to keep my inspiration moving. Writing too much in one area of romance plugs up my ability to create at all.

Tell us about some of the historical romances you've written in the past and the ones coming up in the near future.

BRIDGE THROUGH THE MIST
This story is a time travel at the heart, but I throw it in there as historical because it's set mostly in 1318 Scotland, and I still had to do a ton of research.

LOVE FROM THE ASHES
2001 EPPIE winner for Best Historical Romance. It's set during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. The research on this book took a long time, but it paid off. I've had so many people read this book and tell me they felt like they were really there experiencing the time, place, and the earthquake and fire.

DARK, DEADLY LOVE
This novel is set during the Jack The Ripper murders of 1888. The original title was Midnight Rose. This is definitely a favorite of mine. I'd been reading about Jack the Ripper since the '80's, and when I buckled down to the right the book, it just sucked me right inside and wouldn't release me. It's one of my darker books, and though it is most definitely a romance, I feel it stretches the boundaries of what readers often expect from a romance. Of you don't mind being scared and enjoy a gritty read, this might be for you.

BEFORE THE DAWN
(Samhain Publishing; June 2011)
Before The Dawn is set in 1850's Pennsylvania, and a good portion of the story takes place on the Trans Allegheny Railroad route.

"ASYLUM TRILOGY"
(Colorado mountains, fictional town)
The trilogy is a definite work in progress, and I don't have good titles for the books yet. All three stories are set in a fictional Colorado mountain town and revolve around a very haunted insane asylum. The stories deal with more disturbing subjects, but I feel like they also deal with people in bad circumstances working their way toward a better life and finding that strength within themselves. And yes, they are also romances. I don't know whether I'm calling these stories horror/romance or gothic romance yet. I just finished the first draft of the first story, and I'm right into the next one with the research. The first story is set in 1908, while the second is set in 1918 during the end of the World War I, and it deals some with the Spanish Influenza, too. The last story in the trilogy is set in modern day.

Where can we find information on your historical romances and all your other books?

You can find pretty much everything you want to know at my website. You'll find links to all my books, excerpts, my blog, and monthly contest. Plus, you'll find me on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Thanks so much to Unusual Historicals for having here today! I very much appreciate it.

***

You're very welcome, Denise! Readers, if you'd like to get your hands on an e-copy of FOR A ROMAN'S HEART, just least a comment or question for Denise. Maybe answer this: What appeals to you about romances set in the ancient world? I'll draw a winner at random next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!

Tragic Tales: How Poppaea Sabina Thought She'd Conquered the World

By Michelle Styles

Herein lies a tale of the perils of being a WAG in Rome.

In the early days of the Roman Empire, in 30 AD, a young woman named Poppaea Sabina grew up around the Pompeii area. The exact location of her family house has been lost but it is supposed to be the House of Menander. Her family had wealth and she had extreme beauty with flame-coloured hair and a winning manner. She had also inherited her father's drive. Some commentators like Josephus describe her as a deeply religious woman, possibly with Jewish sympathies. But others such as Tacitus describe her as the ultimate schemer.

Her father was an ambitious man from a humble background. According to Tacitus, her mother was one of the most beautiful women of her generation. In 47 her mother committed suicide, the innocent victim of the intrigues of the Empress Valeria Messalina. Her mother had been accused of having an adulterous relationship. It is not known how this affected the 17-year-old Poppaea Sabina, as she had been married to Rufrius Crispinus when she was 14.

Rufrius was a much older man of humble origin, possibly Egyptian, who had risen to become head of the praetorian guard under Claudius and was a great friend of the Empress Messalina. Poppaea bore him a son before they divorced. The reasons for the divorce are not known but Poppea was determined to succeed. For her next marriage, she married Otho, the boyhood friend of Nero. Seven years younger than Poppaea, Nero in the early years of his reign was considered to be a good emperor and indeed the hope of a new dawning of Roman brilliance.

There is speculation that she married Otho so that she could become close to Nero, as she was a girl with an eye on the main prize. Otho was bandy-legged and had a horror of hair on his body, but he was a close friend of Nero's. Other accounts state that Otho brought her to Nero's notice when he boasted of his wife's beauty. It doesn't matter how the affair started but it did. And it was an all-consuming affair. In 58 Poppaea became Nero's acknowledged mistress. Otho was divorced and sent away to govern Luisitania. Poppaea now had the world at her feet, but the position of a mistress is precariously and Poppaea wanted more. She wanted her younger lover to prove his devotion to her rather than to his mother. She encouraged him to think for himself and to live like an Emperor should do.

Nero's chief claim to the Roman throne was through his then-wife, Octavia, the daughter of the late Emperor Claudius. In 59, due to Poppea's urging, Nero divorced Octavia and broke with his mother Aggrippina. Some historians claim that Poppaea organised the murder so she could marry Nero and consolidate her own power. Others state there were political motives and Poppaea was an easy target.

Nero and Poppaea married and she became empress. Nero gave her the title of Augusta after their daughter was born. Not bad for a girl from Pompeii who didn't have any connections. Having achieved her ambition, Poppea set about spending the entire Roman treasury. What is the point of being Empress unless you can flaunt it? However, this tale does not have a Happily Ever After.

Her triumph did not last as Nero began to spiral into madness. She began to worry about losing her looks and having another take her place. She and Nero fought bitterly over many things, including the time he spent at the races away from her. Things came to a head in 65, when heavily pregnant, Poppaea began to scream at Nero. A knock-down drag-out fight occurred. He apparently kicked her in the stomach. Although some accounts state he repeatedly jumped on her stomach until she was dead, modern historians think she might have had a late miscarriage. Shortly afterward Nero had her son by Rufrius put to death.

After Poppaea's death, Nero descended into complete madness, including dressing up a male slave as Poppaea and pretending that she remained alive. Monteverdi later made the tale into the tragic opera Poppaea which scandalised Venetian opera goers in the early 17th century.
The tale of Poppaea does go to show that the Romans really did know how to do scandal well.

Michelle Styles writes in the Roman, Viking, Regency, and early Victorian era for Harlequin Historical. Long-ago gossip is one of the bonuses of doing research. You can read more about her books on her website.