By Alison Morton
“You should have trusted me. You should have given me a choice.”
AD 370, Roman frontier province of Noricum. Neither wholly married nor wholly divorced, Julia Bacausa is trapped in the power struggle between the Christian church and her pagan ruler father.
Tribune Lucius Apulius’s career is blighted by his determination to stay faithful to the Roman gods in a Christian empire. Stripped of his command in Britannia, he’s demoted to the backwater of Noricum – and encounters Julia.
Unwittingly, he takes her for a whore. When confronted by who she is, he is overcome with remorse and fear. Despite this disaster, Julia and Lucius are drawn to one another by an irresistible attraction.
But their intensifying bond is broken when Lucius is banished to Rome. Distraught, Julia gambles everything to join him. But a vengeful presence from the past overshadows her perilous journey. Following her heart’s desire brings danger she could never have envisaged…
Writing Interview questions.
Why did you choose to write your book in this era?
JULIA PRIMA was inspired by my Roma Nova series readers. They wanted to know how and why the modern Roma Nova, the imaginary country where my heroines have their adventures, was founded back at the end the 4th century. Who were the people who had stood up for their values in the face of lethal threats and eventually torn themselves away from everything they knew?
In the rest of the Roma Nova series, the modern-day characters often refer to their legendary ancestors – Julia Bacausa and Lucius Apulius – so when readers urged me on, I knew I had to tell their story. JULIA PRIMA tells how Julia and Lucius met and Julia’s choice between security and comfort in a loveless marriage or making the dangerous journey across a deteriorating Roman Empire to be with Lucius.
Did you find researching this era particularly difficult? What was the hardest thing to find out, and did you come across anything particularly surprising?
I’ve been a ‘Roman nut’ since I was eleven and clambered over much of Roman Europe but however well it seems to flow, every scene has its own needs and traps. Ancient Rome lasted 1,229 years and a lot changed over that time. For us, that number of years would take us back to the AD 790s!
To avoid the obvious gaps and anachronisms, I ruthlessly asked others for help. One author friend who has ridden since childhood and writes historical fiction herself stopped me making daft mistakes with horse details. All I knew about Roman horses was that there were no stirrups and that the saddles had four supporting horns. Another Roman fiction writer gave me some excellent advice about travel and recommended the wonderful Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson, a book full of information about road and sea journeys.
The most intensive work was checking the towns and way stations had existed in AD 370 and pinpointing their correct names at the time and locations so I could make maps for the readers. Some swearing and perspiration were involved at that stage…
Can you share something about the book that isn’t covered in the blurb?
Like all the Roma Nova stories, JULIA PRIMA is a standalone, although connected to the others, and it’s the most romantic of the series. All the books have a central love relationship, but there are probably more thrills in the modern stories! It was a true pleasure writing in the ancient past and exploring the mindset of a woman living in a frontier province, Noricum, in the fourth century at a time when there was so much change in the air.
If you had to describe your protagonist in three words, what would those three words be and why?
Passionate, impulsive, courageous. When Julia loves, be it her father, her lover or her country, it’s full throttle. She is emotionally driven, so is often impulsive. But when she acts, she doesn’t shirk the consequences, whether it’s defending herself or others, or owning up to making mistakes.
What was the most challenging part about writing your book?
Completing the first draft! Although you might know your characters and have researched the settings, then worked out how the story develops, it takes physical and mental effort to get 100,000 words on paper (or in a computer file). Once I write The End, I breathe a deep sigh of relief. Then I go back to the beginning and worki on it, sentence by sentence to polish and hone it before it goes to my editors.
Was there anything that you edited out of this book that would have drastically affected the story that should have been left in?
Strangely enough, my editors and I found that a few things had to be added! These were mostly minor tweaks, but I decided I needed a prologue. Authors and readers are divided about prologues, but this one set up the back plot, so I was very pleased with the way it made the whole story stronger.
What are you currently working on?
I’m about to dive into the sequel to JULIA PRIMA which covers the enormously important decision behind the foundation of Roma Nova in AD 395. We’ll meet Julia’s family and those of her friends and find out what their part in the story was.
What would you tell an aspiring author who had some doubts about their writing abilities?
Persist! You have a right to express yourself in writing. Practice really does make perfect. Everybody writes for a different reason: for pleasure, for publication, for recording family history, for recognition, to get a burning story out, or for a combination of any of these. Seek out courses and join a writing group or association where you can discuss your writing with others and learn from them. I’ll tell you a secret – no writer, however illustrious or successful, is ever satisfied with what they produce, but they learn to live with it. Then they go on to write the next story.
Personal Interview questions.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Sleep and eat! More seriously, I love swimming, gardening and walking around the French countryside where I live. And I’m often on a plane going to the UK, US or Ireland to give talks on writing and history.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
A princess! Yes, really. I ended up being a City worker, serving six years in the military and working as a professional translator and business owner before taking to writing – all rather a far cry from that fairy-tale princess!
What’s for dinner tonight? What would you rather be eating?
As I write this, I’m staying at my son and daughter-in-law’s in the UK and we’re having bacon and prawn risotto – delicious! I’m always open to offers of cake and chocolate…
What would be a perfect day?
5,000 easy flowing words in the morning, a light lunch followed by a swim in the sea, then a visit to an impressive Roman amphitheatre and finishing with dinner with Steve, my husband, overlooking the Bay of Naples and glass of Gavi in my hand.
What is the best part of your day?
Watching the sun rise at dawn or the sun set at dusk – both miracles of nature.
Either or!
Tea or coffee: Both, but mostly tea
Hot or cold: Warm
Movie or book: Book (but I love movies, too!)
Morning person or night owl: Mid-morning person
City or country: Country town
Social media or book: Book
Paperback or ebook: Both
As you can tell, I’m a fence-sitter. That’s the problem with being a Libra!
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her nine-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a sharp line in dialogue.
She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her latest two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit. Oh, and she’s writing the next Roma Nova story.
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Thank you for hosting Alison Morton today. What a lovely interview! x
ReplyDeleteI loved answering these questions! Thank you so much for letting me into the Candlelight reading room.
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