Zara Altair's Blog, page 17

The Author Behind The Story: Interview

First Author Interview
My first author interview. I am excited. Thanks so much to fellow author Katherine Hayton for inviting me to interview for her website. 
Enjoy the interview. If you have any questions, get in touch zara@zaraaltair.com. I love talking with readers and other authors.

Zara Altair - The Used Virgin
Please tell us a bit about yourself
Zara Altair combines mystery with a bit of adventure in the Argolicus mysteries. The Used Virgin is the first in a series of mysteries based in southern Italy at the time of the Ostrogoth rule of Italy under Theoderic the Great. Italians (Romans) and Goths live under one king while the Roman Empire is ruled from Constantinople. At times the cultures clash, but Argolicus uses his wit, sometimes with help from his tutor Nikolaos, to provide justice in a province far from the King’s court.
Zara Altair lives in Beaverton, Oregon. She is a fiction author writing in the historical fiction genre. Her approach to writing is to present the puzzle and let Argolicus and Nikolaos find the solution encountering a bit of adventure and some humor in their search. Her stories are rich in historical detail based on years of research. Zara is working on a historical novel Felix Ravenna: A Mosaic set in the same time period with Argolicus as the main character. To get on the reader list for Argolicus fans go here http://goo.gl/m5aL3E (copy and paste to your browser).
Zara loves reader feedback. Be sure to leave a review. Write comments here on the Author Page. Zara replies to all comments.
Author Q&A
What genre are your books?
Historical mystery. In Italy, giallo storico.
What draws you to this genre?
I’ve been reading in this genre since Nancy Drew for mystery and a gift subscription to monthly history books for kids.
Have you ever considered writing stories for other genres?
Yes. I’ve ghostwritten a number of steamy romance books and sometimes I write science fiction.
When did you first discover your passion for writing?
I’ve been telling stories since I was two when I sat on the back porch and told stories to Yoohoody, the owl who perched in the tree. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven.
What inspired your latest novel?
A phone conversation with my daughter. We were talking about how much we love the Italian day and she said, “Mommy, you should go to Ravenna.” Then she told me about Theoderic leading his people across the frozen Danube and eventually arriving in Ravenna. I thought, “I wonder what it was like then?”
I started researching and discovered a time of divided loyalties, intense theological differences, and a “barbarian” who lived like an emperor.
Do you have a teaser for  The Used Virgin?
After Rome, before the Middle Ages, Italy belonged to the Ostrogoths. A young magistrate of mixed ancestry retires to find people are just as corrupt and venal in the provinces.
A corrupt Governor. A young girl. And old man.
A ruined reputation is worse than murder in Italy. Argolicus and his lifelong tutor, Nikolaos, discover evil, greed, and extreme extortion.
Argolicus unravels the threads.
What is your least favorite word?
Nice.
Do you ever read your stories out loud?
Always. And in my writing group we read each other’s work. You can instantly hear the clunks or the stumbles over awkward phrasing.
What’s the first book you remember making an indelible impression on you?
Anna Karenina. I couldn’t stop. I read all night and finished just after dawn.
Do you have a favorite author?
In historical fiction, Robert Harris. My favorite is Pompeii. I love how his “Roman” is an engineer. And, the reader knows from the beginning that Vesuvius is going to erupt. From that moment on, it is a cliffhanger. Plus, for world builders, his alternative history, Fatherland, is a prime example of a character caught in the surrounding culture.
What are you currently working on?
Along with the next short story, The Peach Widow, I’m always at work on the novel Felix Ravenna: A Mosaic which takes place two years after the mystery series. Oh, and there’s that other contemporary mystery series that is percolating in my head with retired detective, Jake “Cozy” Cozzens.
If your book were made into a movie, who would you cast?
When I started, it was What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Write. Study story. Read in your genre. Start your author platform. It takes time. Have everything—author bio, book description, website, email autoresponder (emails written and sequenced), email opt-in—set up before you publish. Write. Edit. Keep writing. Connect with other writers. Plan you next book. Keep writing.
That’s all practical. Most importantly, believe in your story.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Katherine, thank you so much for the interview. Although writing is a solitary activity, sharing our individual stories is part of building a community.
Thank you, Zara. How can readers keep in touch?
Author Website, Author Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Goodreads,Amazon Author Page, THE USED VIRGIN Thank you for reading. 

​Zara Altair

Ancient Hooligans Fought Over Religion

Factions For A TimeToday football (soccer) fans go wild in the street causing disruption, injury, and even death. Every era has its fanatics. In the time of Theoderic religious interpretations of the nature of Christ caused the same kind of eruptions. My favorite fictional description is from Lest Darkness Fall  by  L. Sprague deCamp, a time-travel fantasy about the time of Theoderic.

​"That so? How do you like Rome?" The man had very large and very black eyebrows.
"Fine, so far," said Padway.
"Well, you haven't seen anything," said the man. "It hasn't been the same since the Goths came."He lowered his voice conspiratorially: "Mark my words, it won't be like this always, either!"
"You don't like the Goths?"
"No! Not with the persecution we have to put up with!"
"Persecution?" Padway raised his eyebrows.
"Religious persecution. We won't stand for it forever."
"I thought the Goths let everybody worship as they pleased."
"That's just it! We Orthodox are forced to stand around and watch Arians and Monophysites and Nestorians and Jews going about their business unmolested, as if they owned the country. If that isn't persecution, I'd like to know what is!"
"You mean that you're persecuted because the heretics and such are not?"
"Certainly, isn't that obvious? We won't stand-What's your religion, by the way?"
"Well," said Padway, "I'm what in my country is called a Congregationalism. That's the nearest thing to Orthodoxy that we have."
"Hm-m-m. We'll make a good Catholic out of you, perhaps. So long as you're not one of these Maronites or Nestorians-"
"What's that about Nestorians?" said Thomasus, who had returned unobserved. "We who have the only logical view of the nature of the Son-that He was a man in whom the Father indwelt-"
"Nonsense!" snapped Eyebrows. "That's what you expect of half-baked amateur theologians. Our view-that of the dual nature of the Son-has been irrefutably shown-"
"Hear that, God? As if one person could have more than one nature-"
"You're all crazy!" rumbled a tall, sad-looking man with thin yellow hair, watery blue eyes, and a heavy accent. "We Arians abhor theological controversy, being sensible men. But if you want a sensible view of the nature of the Son-"
"You're a Goth?" barked Eyebrows tensely.
”No, I'm a Vandal, exiled from Africa. But as I was saying" -he began counting on his fingers-"either the Son was a man, or He was a god, or He was something in between. Well, now, we admit He wasn't a man. And there's only one God, so He wasn't a god. So He must have been-"
About that time things began to happen too fast for Padway to follow them all at once. Eyebrows jumped up and began yelling like one possessed. Padway couldn't follow him, except to note that the term "infamous heretics" occurred about once per sentence. Yellow Hair roared back at him, and other men began shouting from various parts of the room: "Eat him up, barbarian!"
"This is an Orthodox country, and those who don't like it can go back where they-"
"Damned nonsense about dual natures! We Monophysites-"
"I'm a Jacobite, and I can lick any man in the place!
"Let's throw all the heretics out!"
"I'm a Eunomian, and I can lick any two men in the place!"
Padway saw something coming and ducked, the mug missed his head by an inch and a half. When he looked up the room was a blur of action. Eyebrows was holding the self-styled Jacobite by the hair and punching his face; Yellow Hair was swinging four feet of bench around his head and howling a Vandal battle song. Padway hit one champion of Orthodoxy in the middle; his place was immediately taken by another who hit Padway in the middle. Then they were overborne by a rush of men. As Padway struggled up through the pile of kicking, yelling humanity, like a swimmer striking for the surface, somebody got hold of his foot and tried to bite it off. As Padway was still wearing a pair of massive and practically indestructible English walking shoes, the biter got nowhere. So he shifted his attack to Padway's ankle. Padway yelped with pain, yanked his foot free, and kicked the biter in the face. The face yielded a little, and Padway wondered whether he'd broken a nose or a few teeth. He hoped he had. The heretics seemed to be in a minority, that shrank as its members were beaten down and cast forth into darkness. Padway's eye caught the gleam of a knife blade and he thought it was well past his bedtime. Not being a religious man, he had no desire to be whittled up in the cause of the single, dual, or any other nature of Christ. He located Thomasus the Syrian under a table. When he tried to drag him out, the banker shrieked with terror and hugged the table leg as if it were a woman and he a sailor who had been six months at sea. Padway finally got him untangled.

Argolicus has divided loyalties because his father is Roman (Italian) and his mother is of The People (Ostrogoths). Romans were Trinitarian (three natures) while the Ostrogoths had been converted under an Emperor several centuries before to Arianism (two natures).  So, he finds himself on a tightrope between the two cultures.
King Theoderic established edicts to create a climate of religious tolerance as mentioned in the story. Nevertheless, feelings ran high. Riots happened in Ravenna, the capital, and Rome, the center of established Roman patricians, not to mention very wild riots in Constantinople, the new Rome, center of the Roman Empire.
​These undercurrents run through the Argolicus Mysteries and are a dominant theme in Felix Ravenna: A Mosaic (WIP).
Conflict is essential to fiction and whether large street fights involving hundreds of people, circus factions of Greens and Blues assigned specific places along Theoderic's progressions through Ravenna to keep them from fighting, or Argolicus meeting a slave or a patrician, conflicting beliefs create tensions within scenes. 
There was also tension between the poor (rustico)  and wealthy landowners and rich ecclesiastical centers. These tensions are a background for The Peach Widow coming this summer. 
Join the Argolicus Readers Group to receive a publication notice.

​Zara Altair

StoryShop: Better Stories Faster, Beta Test

The beta version of StoryShop, an online application for building a story, is out. The aim of the application? Here's what the creators have to say.

The better you know your characters, your plot’s key points, and your world before you start writing, the better and faster the story will pour out of you once you begin … and, honestly, the more fun you’ll have while telling that story.
​Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David Wright

With that in mind, I decided to do my beta testing by creating a new world, with new characters, and an outline for each story in the world. I started by creating a new story world. Story Outline (s) The creators plan on providing a variety of pre-formatted outlines for quick story creation. For now, you need to outline the beats of the story on your own. If you are planning a series, you can set up a unique outline within the story world for each of the stories in the series. Elements of the Story World The green circle is for Elements in the story world. These can be settings, magic spells, laws, cooking utensils, recipes--anything that pertains to the unique world. Although the Elements look simple this is a great place to hone in on the details of the unique world of the story. Your hero's home. Your heroine's garden. You can flesh out the details so that when you are writing you have a true sense of place for each scene. Characters You've probably guessed that the teal blue circle is for characters. Here you can collect details and background about each character in the story world. I plan on marking mine as characters who continue through the series and those who appear in only one story. You can see from the bottom example that you can add images for each character. When you click on a character, a page opens up for details. Character Deep Dive Features StoryShop has some built-in features, to get you started with you character development. Each character has a header image, plus an image for the character. Attributes allow you to quickly add descriptive elements like height, hair color, distinguishing characteristics, magic powers, or anything else.
The Character DNA questions are prompts to get you started thinking about the deeper character elements like biggest fear, likes, beliefs, etc. You have the option to skip a DNA question. 
Below what you see in the image is you place to expand as needed in a section simply titled Notes.
Beta is Straightforward, but More to Come The first two days the software (yep, this is SaaS, Software as a Service) had some access and usability bugs. Beta testers send feedback and the responsive development team works to make adjustment. I sent some questions to the team on future plans. Seth Atwood, Co-Founder, CTO, StoryShop replied.

We're planning to release the first of our tutorial videos next week, and it will include a lot more detail about how to use all the various bits of the app.

As to character names - yes, they are editable. You should be able to click on the name in their profile and edit it directly. Saving happens automatically most places in StoryShop when a user stops typing for a second.

Our current plans are to control collaboration at the World level. We'll be allowing two types of shared access to Worlds: "Read Only" and "Read+Write". Our thinking is there may be a case, like when working with a content editor, where we may want people to be able to see our Worlds without making changes. On the other hand, there are many cases, like at Sterling & Stone, where users want to fully share the ability to co-create a World.

I'm looking forward to the power of this creation tool. I see StoryShop as a writer's super tool to do all the planning and detail work that comes before actually writing the first sentence of a story.

Series creators will find this tool especially helpful because the entire series is contained, outline by outline, within the one Story World.

For now there are instabilities, including the possibility of losing everything. Beta testers are advised to make a copy of all entries.

StoryShop will be available after this first beta testing by subscription currently at a base price of $9.99/month, or $99/year!  Affordable! 

If you'd like to read a short story created without StoryShop, get your copy of The Used Virgin on Amazon. 
​
Zara Altair

Research: Going Deep for Details

The First Round Leaves Gaps
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​Even though 80% of research doesn’t make it into your story, sometimes in the middle of writing a scene you know you don’t have the exact detail you want. Then, it’s back to scouring for infomation. I was getting ready to write a dinner scene near the beginning of the novel Felix Ravenna: A Mosaic when I found that I didn’t know the seating arrangement for the small dinner party.
Even though at the time of the beginning of the 6th Century C.E. most people sat on chairs or benches, high level events for rulers and the pope still held to the old Roman dining tradition of the triclium. I needed to know where each character was placed in the room so lears, salacious glances, and downright glares would be obvious to the main character, Argolicus.
Not only did I need to know exactly how people were placed, but I needed to know the etiquette for how people were seated around the table. I never did find an answer that would translate to Ostrogothic Ravenna, but I had an understanding of how people ranked in Theoderic’s court system, so I was able to get all the characters placed in the room.
At the same time, working on the short story The Peach Widow the ubiquitous fish sauce garum plays a role not only at the table but in the plot of the story. I researched how the sauce was made then. Here’s a factory from the time. Imagine fish guts fermenting in the sun and you’ll get an idea of how this place must have smelled and why the garum factories were always outside of town. The best sauce was made from mackerel offal.




If you’d like to approximate how the sauce tastes, here’s a quick way to reproduce the sauce. It is an acquired taste.
1 bottle of Thai fish sauce (approx. 24 oz.)
1 liter of white grape juice
In a large saucepan simmer the grape juice until it is reduced to a least half. Cool and store. When you are ready to make your garum mix the reduced grape juice with the fish sauce in proportion: 1/3 grape juice to 2/3 fish sauce. This will even out the saltiness of the anchove based fish sauce to the approximate sweetness of garum made from fresh makerel. Try it on vegetables, salads, and grains and legumes like rice or lentils.

80% of Story Research Doesn’t Show

Research is background, not the story
Historical research, especially for a time when not much original material from the period survives, can be daunting. At any given time my desktop may be covered with notebooks, maps, and reference books. Or I may be looking at a collection of photos I took at the Domus dei tappeti di pietra (House of stone carpets). Or rereading a passage from Henry Chadwick’s  The Early Church  for a quick review of heresies.
When I went to Ravenna to walk around and experience, I noted down times to walk between various places in the city in order to get a feel for how the protagonist, Argolicus, would get from place to place. When a character moves from place to place in the city I may not write, “Ten minutes later he arrived at the palace.” But I may know how long a conversation will last before the character arrives at the palace door and the conversation ends.
Here’s an example of how walking around gave me a sense of getting from where The People (Ostrogoths) lived outside the walls of the city to the western “Roman” section of town.
By the time they funnelled through the north gate of the wall around the city he was cranky. He just wanted to get back. At the second road after the gate Argolicus turned west out of the throng. The street here in the north of the city were calm. Everyone had already left for the first day of the Circus. They crossed the bridge over the canal and he heard music. Not everyone had gone to the Circus. The music got louder as they came to a large building. Women leaned out of the windows. Some stood along the wall. A few soldiers and merchants laughed, flirted, and went inside. As they passed the door Argolicus noticed two tall, well-muscled men slip through the door surrounded by four giggling women.
At the same time he realised he really didn’t know where he was or how to get back. He couldn’t call it home, he’d been here less than 24 hours.
Rufus the bodyguard noticed his confusion and nodded left at the next corner. With subtle head nods and eye movements he guided them left, right, left again, over a bridge on another smaller canal, down another road, a right. Then Argolicus saw a huge house. A mountain of form. He could hear fountains behind the wall. The mere size was opulent.
After two more houses, they were at the portico of his house.

FROM ON-SITE RESEARCH TO STORY DETAIL
​
Oh, and the tavern. My inspiration came from a walk to Theoderic’s tomb. On the way back I took a short cut across the northern part of town. Something was wrong with my foot. It hurt. I needed to take a break from walking and I saw a slight indentation in a wall where I could rest for a minute. Across the street loud music came out of a building. A young woman was in the street and she was glaring at me. Harsh stares were outside of my Italian experience–this was my fourth time in Italy. I was confused, and then…I got it! She was a prostitute and I was interfering with her space. From her point of view I was keeping trade away. OK, there was no one else on the street at that time, but that was not her concern. I limped away. Yep, research can lead to some interesting experiences well outside of books and still make it into the story.

New Beginning: Writing after a long hiatus

Over a year ago I thought I was moving and packed up most of my books. Now I'm finally in my new home and slowly unpacking as I manage various contractors to bring the house up to safety and comfortable living standards. Although I kept my notes and some research papers, most of my research books were among the things in storage. I'm so happy to be reunited with all the reference material I managed to collect while I was in Italy doing research.
I love working in a fictional world because while historians may disagree and try to prove their point to colleagues I can pick what is most useful to further the story and go from there.
Tonight, for example, I went through the catalog of Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra which is Argolicus' home in the story. I went through room by room, thought about the garden where his tutor Nikolaus grows herbs.
What a pleasure to dive in to the story again.