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Interview with M J Porter

I recently read The Earl of Mercia’s Father, first in the Earls of Mercia Series by prolific author MJ Porter, and I thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into the the early roots of the House of Leofwine. This family would be associated with the Anglo-Saxon earldom of Mercia from the late 10th Century and through most of the 11th Century and would eventually produce Earl Leofric, husband of Godgyfu of Coventry and one of the three main point of view characters in my own Beheld: Godiva’s Story. I had the chance to ask MJ Porter some questions about her book, about Angl0-Saxon England generally, and about her wider writing. Read what she had to say below…

Why do you think you’re drawn to write primarily about the Anglo-Saxon period in England?

I grew up in the shadow of a strange little building which was said to house the bones of long-dead kings in the heart of Mercia. This was obviously not true—the building was made of good old-fashioned Victorian bricks—and the kings were actually British kings, not specifically Mercian, but when I went to university, my eyes were opened to the whole Saxon England aspect and, for me, not very good at geography, having places that I knew about and could place in my mind, helped enormously.

When it comes to your Earls of Mercia series, am I correct in my understanding that you wrote some of the later books first—books following Leofwine’s sons Northman and Leofric—and you then went back to write about Leofwine’s early life when you wrote The Earl of Mercia’s Father, which became book 1 in the series. Tell me a little bit about that experience of jumping backward in the timeline of this family; what special challenges or rewards, constraints or freedoms, did you find when it came to writing a part of the story whose later parts you had already written and published?

I wrote the books in order, starting with The Earl of Mercia’s Father, in its original title of Ealdorman. And I carried on writing chronologically, but then I made the mistake of jumping back in time to write about Lady Elfrida, England’s first queen, in the 960s, and I developed a relationship between her and Leofwine (a political one) and realised I needed to mention it in the books about Leofwine. So not so much writing backwards as then weaving a new narrative through two existing books. It was an interesting experience. The frustration of doing it was only beaten by the book I’ve written on Lady Estrid, Cnut’s sister, where I had to weave known ‘facts’ with events in the Earls of Mercia series to ensure it gelled together. I thought my head was going to explode at one point.

In The Earl of Mercia’s Father, you suggest many of the other nobles, including King Æthelred, seriously underestimated Leofwine’s worth early in his career and only later came to see that worthiness. Is this something that arose out of your research into the period?

I’m very perplexed by Ealdorman Leofwine. The more I’ve studied the period, the more I’ve considered whether he’s been retrospectively added into the narrative because of the success of his son, Leofric. But that’s just my personal thoughts. If everything happened as it seems to have done, Leofwine was very unusual in Æthelred’s and then Cnut’s court because he remained an important individual. No spoilers here, but he’s not named and shamed as Eadric Streona is. He doesn’t die in battle against Swein or his son Cnut. He lives through the unease of Cnut’s first years as England’s king. I just think there must be a reason for thisone that we can’t glimpse through the haze of the past but one there all the time. I determined to present him as honourable and fiercely loyal at a court riven with factionalism and over-mighty men.

Leofwine didn’t marry into Æthelred’s family, which is also quite unusual. We think that three of Æthelred’s daughters were married to ealdormen or military commanders during this period. I assume it might be because Leofwine was too old, but then what of his sons? Northman (Leofwine’s eldest son) did fall foul of the political intrigues taking place, but this doesn’t seem to have dented Leofwine’s place at court, or if it did, not for very long. Some suggest that Leofwine’s father died fighting beside Ealdorman Byrnthnoth at the Battle of Maldon in 991 and that he was related to the ealdormen of Mercia. As such, his pedigree could be even longer, but if that’s the case, he was ‘other’ to the Wessex men who came to dominate much of the reign. Many of the ealdormen were ‘imposed’ over the area they commanded for the king. They weren’t necessarily members of the local nobility, but Leofwine might well have been, and if not him, then his wife. It might, therefore, have taken some time for Æthelred to trust him.

Historians have not been kind to Æthelred, often depicting him as an inept and ineffectual king, perhaps owing to his nickname Unraed (‘ill-advised’), which is a pun on his actual name, which means ‘well-advised.’ But at least in The Earl of Mercia’s Father, I thought you portrayed him in a more balanced way than is often seenflawed but earnest, well-meaning, and in fact willing to listen to good counsel when it’s given. Do you agree or disagree with those less flattering assessments? Why?

I’m a bit of an apologist for Æthelred. I don’t think he deserved his nickname, and I don’t think he deserves his reputation. I think he was faced with something that no one had faced before. We talk of Alfred ‘saving’ England, but he just saved Wessex. Æthelred was king of all of England, and the Viking raiders were persistent. The events of Æthelred’s reign are known as the Second Viking Age. There had been up to fifty years of relative ‘peace’ before the return of the Viking raiders in the 980s, and if you look closely, much of the warfare after about 910 was concerned with reclaiming the Danelaw, Jorvik, and Mercia than with fighting new invaders. Much had changed in that time. 

The narrative of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, on which we very much rely, is not a contemporary chronicle. All the events were written after Æthelred’s reign, with the benefit of hindsight. The more and more research I do, the more I think he’s tainted by the reputation of his father, as a serial womaniser, of his mother, deemed a regicide for what happened to Æthelred’s step-brother, Edward the Martyr (again unsubstantiated), and the imposition of a Danish king over an uneasy English populace. Even his ‘paying’ off of the Viking raiders seems to be something that happened during the reign of Alfred, and Alfred doesn’t have a bad reputation because of that. I think poor Æthelred was a scapegoat for what happened. Yes, it is possible it could have been avoided with a more concerted approach, but I don’t think the bishops helped with their call to prayer. What they needed was warriors, not prayers. Æthelred II, as he should be known, was the English king who ruled for the longest period of time before the Norman Conquest (979-1013/and then 1013-1016) he was reinstated after the death of Swein.) There must be a reason for this, lost in the mists of time. After all, he had enough sons that one of them could have replaced him after Swein’s death, but this didn’t happen. As the murder of two previous kings shows (Edmund and Edward the Martyr), the English were not above killing off a consecrated king. They not only chose not to do this with Æthelred II, but the witan also restored him to the kingdom. That needs some serious thought.

You’ve written quite a bit of historical fiction set in England in the 7th century and the 9th through 11th centuries (particularly about Mercia), as well as novels and stories set in other times and places. Are there other aspects of Anglo-Saxon England you’re eager to write about? What about other periods of history or other locations? What are you working on next?

I have also written three twentieth-century mystery books, which were a lot of fun, but I intend to write as much as possible about the near-enough six hundred years of Saxon England. To put that into context, that would take me back to just before the Wars of the Roses in today’s money. I haven’t yet touched the 8th century, and I need to do more on the 7th, but I also want to write about the events between the end of Roman Britain and the beginning of Saxon England, and so much more… At the moment, I am writing non-fiction on the royal women of the long tenth-century, and then I’m returning to the world of The Eagle of Mercia Chroniclesearly 9th centuryand then, hopefully, I’ll make it back to the Earls of Mercia, later 11th century. I’ve left my readers hanging for too long already. 

For more about M J Porter, visit her website: https://www.mjporterauthor.com

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Interview With Karen Essex

Karen Essex headshot

Karen Essex is the national and international bestselling author of five historical novels, including Leonardo’s SwansStealing AthenaDracula in Love, and the two-volume biographical novel that reimagines Cleopatra, Egypt’s infamous queen: Kleopatra and Pharaoh. Earlier this year, Essex reclaimed worldwide rights to these two novels and decided to reissue them with striking new cover art. The new edition of Kleopatra released on September 15, with an October 1 release date for the new edition of  Pharaoh.

Back when I was publishing Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction, I interviewed Essex about her Kleopatra books shortly after they were first released. The interview appeared in issue 5 of the magazine (Summer 2004, pictured here), and I thought it might be fun to reprint that interview in the September 15 issue of my author newsletter to coincide with the books’ re-release. As a bonus, the text of the interview includes some new notes [in brackets] where Essex adds updates to her original answers. Enjoy!

What drew you to Kleopatra as the subject of your historical novels?

I was intrigued by the fact that the historical Kleopatra had little do with the Kleopatra brought to us by playwrights, popular culture, and Elizabeth Taylor. I wanted people to reexamine the very idea of Kleopatra, down to the spelling of her name. (I use the original Greek spelling because she was, as far as we know, Macedonian Greek, and that is how she would have spelled her name.) She’s been co-opted by every generation as an object and symbol of its own fantasies. I realize that in fictionalizing her once more, I have done a bit of that myself. But I want people to know that far from the sexual and treacherous archetype of feminine evil, Kleopatra was one of the ancient world’s most brilliant and powerful rulers.

She survived blood-curdling family rivalries for the throne, was queen by the age of eighteen, exiled by her brother by nineteen, and had regained her throne by twenty. She single-handedly ruled a rich nation with an eye for turning a profit, and kept Egypt independent while all its neighboring countries had been annexed to the Roman Empire. She spoke nine or ten languages, patronized art, drama, athletics, sciences and other forms of scholarship, and had the loyalty of her subjects—rare for the members of her dynasty. But like almost all women of power, she was reduced to her sexuality by historians and artists.

What sources did you find most valuable when researching Kleopatra’s life?

My bibliography is available on my website (karenessex.com), which might give you an idea of the breadth of the research. I researched for five years before I wrote a word. Then I continued the research through the writing of the two books and the screenplay [the book has been optioned many times, and in fact, is under option now but contractually, I can’t discuss it]. Everything was valuable. To give an idea of my process, I enrolled in an interdisciplinary graduate program at Vanderbilt University so that I would have access to all the right scholars, not to mention, a tremendous university library. For my tastes, anyone writing about history in any way can’t do without this latter resource.

After I did the academic research, I traveled to the actual locations so that I could breathe the air, which enabled me to breathe life and authenticity into the books. I traveled to Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and Rome, walking in Kleopatra’s footsteps. I studied not only Egyptian culture, but also Greek history, Roman history, and the history what is now the Middle East because Kleopatra’s story stretches over all those lands and cultures. I read what they were reading, studied the theater they saw, looked at their art, and studied the canon of what they were learning in the academy at the time.

Frankly, I got completely lost in the research for long periods of time, but I loved every minute of it. I am a perennial student. I cannot say that some of this research was more important than the rest of it.  I threw it all into this incredibly large stew pot and then allowed it to come out dramatically in the novels.

Did you come to think of Kleopatra differently at the end of the research process than you did when starting out?

The character is still evolving in my mind, constantly informed by my own evolving point of view. I would say that the major realization I had about her as I researched was just how powerful and strong she was. Kleopatra was the only ruler of Rome’s “client kingdoms” that negotiated a partnership with Rome. The Romans simply did not do that. They didn’t negotiate. They came into a country, installed a Roman governor, and proceeded to collect huge taxes. Often, they allowed a country’s ruler to remain as a figurehead, but there was no Roman governor in Egypt while Kleopatra was alive. She was the only ruler able to negotiate with Rome, and to keep her country free.  Roman propaganda written after she was dead would have it that she did all of this with her sexual charms. That is absolutely ridiculous. I think a huge treasury and a strategically located nation might have had a little more to do with her partnerships with both Caesar and Antony than that she was a vixen in bed.

To read the rest of the interview, subscribe to my newsletter!

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Upcoming Events & Appearances

August 31, 2022: Waterstones Coventry

From 5–7PM: I’ll be giving a reading, answering audience questions, and signing copies of Beheld: Godiva’s Story at the Waterstones bookshop in Coventry (UK)—the very place where Lady Godiva is said to have ridden naked through town nearly a 1000 years ago!

September 2–4, 2022: HNS Conference

I’m attending the Historical Novel Society’s 2022 conference in Durham (UK) as a guest speaker, giving a talk entitled “Myth, Legend and Faith in Historical Fiction: Challenges and Approaches.” Beheld: Godiva’s Story will also be available at the conference bookshop, and I’m participating in the mass author signing events.

November 3–6, 2022: World Fantasy Convention

I’ll be attending this year’s World Fantasy Convention, taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’ll provide more details about my participation on programming when it becomes available. Looking forward to getting back to WFC for my first time since the 2018 convention in Baltimore!

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The Rollright Stones – A Photo Tour

Yesterday’s issue of my author newsletter features a photo tour of the Rollright Stones, a group of three megalithic monuments on the border of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, England. The site—particularly the monument known as the Whispering Knights—provides the setting for an important scene near the end of my novel, Beheld: Godiva’s Story. I took these photos while visiting the stones in 2016, and that visit directly inspired my decision to have the aforementioned scene take place there.

The most famous of the three Rollright sites is the so-called King’s Men Stone Circle, pictured here (photo copyright © 2016 by Christopher M. Cevasco). Thought to have been erected around 2500-2000 BC, it is not nearly as large or impressive as Stonehenge, but the circle nonetheless possesses a quiet, powerful beauty.

To view the rest of the photo tour, subscribe to my newsletter by filling out the sign-up form on my website. When you receive your welcome issue, follow the link to the 25 April 2022 newsletter, wherein you can see all the photos and learn more about the stones!

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Historical Novel Society Interview: Beheld

I was recently interviewed for the Historical Novel Society about my new novel, Beheld: Godiva’s Story. I really enjoyed discussing the book, its characters, and my research with interviewer Martha Hoffman. Click the button below to read our entire discussion….

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Book Giveaway – Beheld: Godiva’s Story

Starting today, you can enter for a chance to win 1 of 10 Advance Review Copies of Beheld: Godiva’s Story, coming in April 2022 from Lethe Press! The giveaway runs through March 15 at Goodreads. Click here or in the box below for more details or to enter.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Beheld by Christopher M. Cevasco

Beheld

by Christopher M. Cevasco

Giveaway ends March 15, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

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The Danish Kings of England

With my novel Beheld: Godiva’s Story coming soon, I recently began a new semi-regular feature in my author newsletter. The feature is called “Godiva’s World” and provides interesting tidbits or snippets of history about Lady Godiva’s world—i.e. 11th-century England and its neighbors.

In the January 3, 2022, newsletter, I thought I’d provide a little insight into the complexities of the royal succession in England during Godiva’s lifetime. Beginning when the English King Æthelred II temporarily lost the throne in 1013 and ending with the return of Æthelred’s son Edward “The Confessor” to the throne in 1042, England saw a tumultuous period during which the crown passed back and forth between Danish invader kings and kings of Æthelred’s line. While writing Beheld: Godiva’s Story, I prepared a color graphic that charts this history and genealogy, mostly for my own reference and to help me keep the complex succession straight in my mind. I’ve now shared that chart with my newsletter readers both in the hope that they might find the history fascinating in its own right and as a bonus supplement some might want to reference while reading my book. 

If you’d like to receive the chart, along with additional giveaways, exclusive maps, short stories, and other bonus materials I’m sending out in the weeks leading up to my novel’s release, sign up for my newsletter today by filling out the form on my website. You can access the royal succession chart itself by clicking through to the January 3 issue under the list of back issues in your welcome email. I hope you enjoy it!

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Cover Reveal – Beheld: Godiva’s Story

As promised, presenting… the cover of my forthcoming novel Beheld: Godiva’s Story, coming in April 2022 from Lethe Press.

Beheld Cover

Cover design by Matthew Bright of Inkspiral Design.

A darkly twisted psychological thriller exploring the legend of Lady Godiva’s naked ride

Having survived a grave illness to become one of 11th-century England’s wealthiest landowners, Godgyfu of Coventry remains forever grateful to the town whose patron saint worked such miracles. She vows to rebuild Coventry’s abbey and do all within her power to better the lives of its townsfolk. But the wider kingdom is descending into political turmoil, and her husband, Earl Leofric, starts to break under the strain. Godgyfu finds her own plans unravelling the moment she meets Thomas, a Benedictine novice with a dark secret. Three lives become dangerously entangled in a web of ambition, lust, and horrid obsession. Can Godgyfu escape the false monk’s wiles and Leofric’s betrayals to secure her future in a changing kingdom? Perhaps, but first she faces a dark test of wills leading her perilously closer to a legendary ride…

Available now at a special pre-order price!

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