Let us take a look, today, at Wendy J Dunn's Falling Pomegranate Seeds series, and while you're here, have a read of an interview with Wendy!
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters
Beatriz Galindo.
Respected scholar.
Tutor to royalty.
Friend and advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile.
Beatriz is an uneasy witness to the Holy War of Queen Isabel and her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon. A Holy War seeing the Moors pushed out of territories ruled by them for centuries.
The road for women is a hard one. Beatriz must tutor the queen’s youngest child, Catalina, and equip her for a very different future life. She must teach her how to survive exile, an existence outside the protection of her mother. She must prepare Catalina to be England's queen.
A tale of mothers and daughters, power, intrigue, death, love, and redemption. In the end, Falling Pomegranate Seeds sings a song of friendship and life.
Buy HERE!
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things
Winter, 1539: María de Salinas is dying. Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England.
Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – love wins out in the end.
Buy HERE!
Watch the trailer HERE!
INTERVIEW
Writing interview questions.
Why did you choose to write your book in this era?
I’ve always loved history, but the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries really fascinates me. I am especially fascinated by many women from this period. I hear their voices through my research. Sometimes, the voices of these women command me to tell their stories.
Did you find researching this era particularly difficult? What was the hardest thing to find out, and did you come across anything particularly surprising?
Research is another passion of mine - so I would not say difficult. It becomes a mission - or an obsession to find the answers I need. The things that have surprised me all resulted from my times of field research. Alas, books have often misled me. I’m renowned for reading maps the wrong way, or reading into a text something I want to read, rather than stop and question the truth of what I am reading; that is, at first. I do my best to double check any research I feel uncertain about when I’m editing my final draft. Experience has showed me that this is the wisest course. Years ago, I once thought Westminster Abbey was near the Tower of London because a primary document gave me the wrong idea. Walking for hours from the Tower of London to the Abbey taught me otherwise.
3. If you had to describe your protagonist(s), in three words, what would those three words be and why?
Loyal, empathetic and evolving.
For my stories, I believe my protagonists need to be these three things for readers to engage with them.
What was the most challenging part about writing your books?
LOL - the actual task of writing them? My life is not just writing. I am blessed to have a family and also work as a writing tutor at Swinburne University, in Melbourne, Australia. I have to work out how to move forward with my writing projects in ways that keep all my juggling balls in the air. Being an Australian also presents challenges. I live far away from the settings of my stories. I wish I could have more opportunities to spend time in the UK - to see with my own eyes the places I am writing about. But I have managed five research trips to England and two to Spain, so I also count myself as extremely fortunate.
Was there anything that you edited out of these book that would have drastically affected the story, should it be left in?
The published version of ‘The Duty of Daughters’ is not my original vision for this work. I wrote the first version through the point of view of Maria - but through her child’s eyes. Twelve rejections made me face I had to change the child’s point of view to the adult Beatriz de Galindo - which meant a complete dismantling of that first version and rebuild it into a far different story.
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on two works - another novel, and the biography of Catherine Carey, which is under contract with Pen and Sword. Catherine Carey was my point of view character in The Light in the Labyrinth. I am really enjoying the task of writing a nonfiction account of her life.
What would you tell an aspiring author who had some doubts about their writing abilities?
I believe most writers doubt their writing abilities. Smile, I know I do. I bless the readers who have let me know about their enjoyment of my work. That helps me overcome my doubts. I also remind myself of the words of Samuel Beckett. He once said: “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better”.
But failure often makes us doubt ourselves. I wrote in my first novel that it was easier to roll up and play hedgehog rather than face what you fear. I think that line birthed after another rejection for that work. I believe now failure is not to be feared. What is to be feared is allowing fear to rule our lives. For me, failure is a powerful learning experience. It feels like my particular personal life quest to unpack an experience of failure and come out stronger for it.
What sorts out writers from the stayers and the wannabes is the stayers do not give up on their craft. Work rejected? All right – that means revisiting it, looking it over with critical eyes once again, maybe even doing a total rewrite.
Want to be a writer? Don’t give up.
Personal Interview questions.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Reading – of course – and spending time with my family. I also like to draw and yearn to have time to return to my paint brushes.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Big smile - a writer!
What’s for dinner tonight? What would you rather be eating?
Mushroom risotto. Since I am the one who cooks at home, I cook what I also like to eat. Mushrooms risotto is actually one of my favourite dishes. Always happy to eat it.
What would be a perfect day?
Perfect day? Down by the sea, on a not too hot day, watching the clouds scud past in the sky. The sea breeze caresses my cheek as wet sand squeezes between my toes and gentle waves splash over my feet.
Either or!
Tea or coffee: Coffee
Hot or cold: cold – better for a writer’s brain!
Movie or book: book
Morning person or Night owl: Morning person. Unlike Elizabeth I!
City or country: country.
Social Media or book: book
Paperback or ebook: paperback!
Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author, playwright and poet who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of three Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and her Falling Pomegranate Seeds duology: The Duty of Daughters and All Manner of Things.
While she continues to have a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channeling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.
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