Ask the Author: Mark Richard Beaulieu
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Mark Richard Beaulieu
I've never been satisfied with anyone's account of Eleanor of Aquitaine's life and originally wrote it as a motion pictures script, filed with the WGA. The idea for my current series stemmed from writing a book so actors would understand the times, and filmmakers would understand the sets, costumes, locations. This turned into a series. The Eleanor Code could not be told in a single book. There is too much intimacy of detail and progression of character, memory, and life's calling that is better told in a longer format. Let me get back to the idea for telling this story.
Forced to take Medieval Studies in college – forced – for what could I learn from the Middle ages. There was this thin red book - The Art of Courtly Love written by a chaplain in the 12th century about the goings on in Eleanor of Aquitaine's and later her daughter Marie's court. Tens of years and girlfriend's later, walking about Los Angeles my date and I walked into an obscure collector's book store. A book by Amy Kelly leapt off the shelf. I read a few lines speculating on this court of love, the subject of the fine art of love of immense interest. I bought it and things started to take root in my mind. Books and years later, I was satisfied I'd read everything about Eleanor, but there was this great emptiness. This emptiness was the idea for this book, scenes, phrases, songs, and the web of interactions that authors missed about Eleanor's life and family. It needed a good telling, this queen of two countries, a crusade leader, mother of ten, erotic, struggling and with a rather triumphant ending.
Forced to take Medieval Studies in college – forced – for what could I learn from the Middle ages. There was this thin red book - The Art of Courtly Love written by a chaplain in the 12th century about the goings on in Eleanor of Aquitaine's and later her daughter Marie's court. Tens of years and girlfriend's later, walking about Los Angeles my date and I walked into an obscure collector's book store. A book by Amy Kelly leapt off the shelf. I read a few lines speculating on this court of love, the subject of the fine art of love of immense interest. I bought it and things started to take root in my mind. Books and years later, I was satisfied I'd read everything about Eleanor, but there was this great emptiness. This emptiness was the idea for this book, scenes, phrases, songs, and the web of interactions that authors missed about Eleanor's life and family. It needed a good telling, this queen of two countries, a crusade leader, mother of ten, erotic, struggling and with a rather triumphant ending.
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