From
The Author's Desk
January
2008: Happy 2008 from Admin, the Webmaster and me. The past
few months have been a time of exciting change. Hodder & Stoughton
decided that ten Hawkenlye Mysteries were sufficient for them
but I hadn't finished with Josse and the Abbess at the end of
The Enchanter's Forest and to end the series there would, from
my point of view, have been most unsatisfactory. Happily, very
quickly another house offered to publish the last two titles
and now number 11, The Paths of the Air, is in production
with Severn House, who will publish it in April this year. I
am now well into number 12, The Joys of my Life, which
will come out a few months after number 11.
Many correspondents have asked why I'm finishing the series,
and the answer is that I'm ready for something new. Fortune
Like the Moon came out in 1999 and in the eight years since
then I have written eleven (and a quarter) more books in the
series. I've loved it and grown very fond of my characters but
I never intended to go on for ever and my aim now is to provide
as well-rounded a conclusion to the various strands of the series
as I can.
I'm pleased to report that Severn House have expressed interest
in another medieval mystery series, to be set in a different
time. I'm very excited at the prospect and I will report back
once the publishers and I have come to a decision.
With best wishes
Alys
Clare
June
2006: Time seems to have flown since the autumn and I have
had a most productive six months; the first draft of Hawkenlye
10 is finished and I shall return to it later in the summer
to polish it up before it goes off to my publishers. I have
also been branching out into other areas of fiction, writing
a book for the teenage market and also a psychological thriller,
both of which have been exciting firsts for me. All writers
have their own methods of working; after 20 years of writing
and some 25 full-length novels, I have evolved the one that
seems to suit me best, which is to write a first draft quickly
and then set it aside for a month or so, after which I read
it straight through, noting any inconsistencies and any areas
where the narrative needs expanding or editing. This combination
of a swiftly-written first draft and a month or more away from
the story has the effect of distancing me from what I've written
so that, with any luck, I see the story as a new reader might
and I'm therefore able to appreciate what is and isn't clear.
When I was starting out as a writer someone passed on the age-old
advice don't get it right, get it written, and this has
certainly proved valuable for me. It's much easier to see where
your work is in need of amendment when you're looking at the
whole novel and not just a chapter or a few problem pages in
isolation. Girl in a Red Tunic will come out in paperback
in August and Hawkenlye 9, Heart of Ice, in hardback
in November. Except to say that no. 9 will also be jacketed
in the new style, I'll say no more about it until nearer the
time of publication.
October
2005: Next month sees the hardback publication of Hawkenlye
8, Girl in a Red Tunic. The title reference (taken,
as are they all, from Carmina Burana) is to Helewise,
and the red tunic was a garment that she made from a bolt of
silk given to her as a wedding present by her new father-in-law.
From that you will gather that there's a certain amount of flashback
in this book. Those who have read the series right from the
beginning will recall that the Abbess had a very different life
before entering Hawkenlye; Girl in a Red Tunic fills
in the story.
As can be seen in the illustration on this site, the book has
a new style of jacket design. It's very exciting for us to have
a change and I hope you will agree that the illustration is
most appealing.
I have had a summer of research, reading about people, places
and historical facts and visiting some sites of interest here
and in northern France, all with a view to thinking about future
titles in the series. I am in the process of turning vague ideas
into definite novel outlines; perhaps one of the most exciting
times in a writer's working life. I'm off later this month to
revisit Chartres cathedral, which, along with Amiens cathedral,
is meant to possess the richest examples of medieval mystical
symbolism. Chartres is definitely a place for Josse to see in
the not too distant future.
February
2005 : With Whiter than the Lily now out in hardback
(and the completed manuscript of Hawkenlye 8 with my publisher)
I am taking some time out from writing to have a think about
the future direction of the books. It has been most helpful
to receive so many e.mails from readers because your comments
give the valuable feedback that authors need, particularly those
engaged in writing a series. For example, the allied subjects
of Joanna and the Forest People attract a lot of attention and
many people have asked what will happen to her, especially with
regard to Josse; this is gratifying because I'm just planning
number 9 and she's going to feature strongly. I have decided
to broaden the scope of the novels (to an extent a necessary
step since after May 1194 neither Eleanor of Aquitaine nor Richard
the Lionheart set foot in England again and I haven't finished
with them yet) and, in addition, widening the field of view
is giving rise to a great deal of ideas for future plots. If
you do decide to contact me via e.mail, please make sure that
the return address is clear; I've been trying to reply to a
young reader (also called Alys) but my e.mail keeps getting
bounced back. So if you're out there, Alys, do try again and
I'll be sure to reply.
September
2004: I'm pleased that the paperback edition of A Dark
Night Hidden (Hawkenlye 6) is coming out in holiday time,
although some of the dark subject matter may appear inappropriate
for sunny beaches. Many readers have written to me concerning
Joanna and her involvement with the Old Ways, and those of you
who are intrigued by this aspect of the Hawkenlye novels will
find more food for thought. Because of the timetable of publication,
it now seems a long time ago that I wrote A Dark Night Hidden.
Hawkenlye 7 (Whiter Than The Lily) is now in production,
coming out in hardback in December, and I will keep you posted
regarding the details later in the year.
With best wishes,
Alys
Clare
April
2003:
The latest news is that I have just signed a contract with
Hodder & Stoughton for a further three titles in the Hawkenlye
series. The titles are Whiter than the Lily
(book 7), Girl in a Red Tunic (book 8) and Heart
of Ice (book 9). The titles, as always, are taken from
Carmina Burana, a set of twelfth century song lyrics
written by a German monk. The songs, like the Hawkenlye novels,
have a distinct pagan element and it appears that the author's
mind frequently wandered from his devotions: 'If I owned the
whole world from the sea to the Rhine, I'd joyfully give it
all away if the Queen of England would lie in my arms'. The
queen in question was Helewise's distinguished visitor, Eleanor
of Aquitaine. Turning to more immediate matters, book 5, The
Faithful Dead, is due to come out in paperback in June.
I'm happy to say that there is already quite a lot of interest
in it; I was recently asked where the idea came from, and the
answer is that the storyline grew out of a wartime experience
of my father's in the North African desert. He was driving past
a long column of Italian prisoners of war being taken into captivity
and, noticing a straggler some way behind the others and clearly
suffering, stopped to give the man water and something to eat.
The story made me think about how being a soldier affects a
man's humanity and so I put the idea into a medieval setting
and sent Josse's father (my own dad Geoffrey's namesake) off
to the second Crusade to see how he would get on. Another main
element of The Faithful Dead is the magical jewel
called the Eye of Jerusalem. The idea for this came from a browse
through Doreen Valiente's An ABC of Witchcraft, where she mentions
a talisman called the Lee Penny. Having introduced the Eye into
the plot, it seemed to take on a life of its own, setting off
a trail leading right back to Old Testament times and beyond.
Unlikely territory perhaps for a medieval mystery, but I found
it quite fascinating.
With
best wishes from Alys Clare.
April 2003
October
2001. The Hawkenlye Novels came about by a happy combination
of events. I had come to the natural end of an earlier phase
in my writing career, and was looking for a new challenge, when
Hodder & Stoughton suggested a medieval mystery series.
To be presented with the task of choosing my own period, setting
and characters within the medieval age was a daunting task.
However, one particularly flamboyant person sprang to mind:
Eleanor of Aquitaine. In an age when the female role was usually
behind the scenes, if not right off the set altogether, she
was a remarkably intelligent, well-educated, clever, capable,
fertile and, one suspects, sexy woman (she certainly tired very
quickly of the aesthetic and tediously devout Louis VII of France,
her first husband). The tale of her tempestuous marriage to
Henry II of England is a fascinating study of two passionate
people who both loved and loathed one another (I recommend two
books about them and their eight children: Alfred Duggan's The
Devil's Brood and Alison Weir's Eleanor of Aquitaine.)
Eleanor's
two most famous children (out of nine - she also bore two daughters
to Louis) both became kings of England: King Richard the Lionheart
and King John. I have always found Richard Coeur de Lion as
riveting as his mother. I first saw that wonderful statue of
him outside the Houses of Parliament when I was at an impressionable
age and, also, there's that lovely 1066 And All That
reference: Whenever he returned to England he always set
out again immediately for the Mediterranean and was therefore
known as Richard Gare de Lyon.
For
the opening novel in the Hawkenlye series, I chose the moment
when Richard, a total unknown quantity to the English, was about
to ascend their throne. Good old Eleanor, going above and beyond
the call of maternal duty, set out on what was an early example
of spin-doctoring, touring England, telling everyone what a
great fellow Richard was and carrying out merciful acts in his
name (one of which gave rise to the plot of Fortune Like
the Moon).
I decided to set the novels in the place where I now live. Here
in the south-east of England, we are rich in history; there
was a road from the coast to the capital from earliest times.
I don't think there really was a medieval abbey just here, but
a novelist can always pretend. The great advantage, incidentally,
of siting a novel where you live is that if, for example, you
want to know what the weather would be like on an October morning,
what trees would be losing their leaves, what birds might be
seen, you have only to put your head out of the window and look.
I'll explain how the fictional characters in the Hawkenlye series
came into being in another note.
Best wishes from Alys Clare
October 2001
