L.J. Bonham's Blog: Author Insights with L. J. Bonham, page 3
February 18, 2014
Ready or Not Here it Comes
Author Insights: You’re noted for your fiction, what prompted you to write a nonfiction book like "Prepper Blades: Edged, Primitive, and Improvised Weapons for the Apocalypse?"
L. J. Bonham: As you might guess from my books such as Shield of Honor and The Debt, I have a deep interest in edged weapons. The preparedness movement is experiencing phenomenal growth, not just in the U.S. but around the world. I noticed a significant need for a concise, easy to understand guide to the selection of the right edged weapon for emergencies or wilderness survival.
AI: Are you a Prepper?
LJB: I suppose that all depends on one’s definition. Do I have a bunker filled to the rafters with guns and ammunition? No, although the James Bond in me thinks that might be fun. Do I think people should be ready to survive and prevail in unforeseen, difficult circumstances? Yes, absolutely. I have been caught up in a number of natural disasters and know that you do not get a second chance to be ready. Life has no pause button. You can't go get what you need and then restart a given emergency. Either you’re prepared or you’re not.
AI: What advice do you have for people who want to prepare for the unforeseen?
LJB: The first thing anyone must do is leave the state; the state of denial. I have what I call The Four “A’s” Rule. It states that anything can happen anywhere at any time to anyone. Once you admit you are at risk then you can analyze potential problems and develop solutions. Get Blades of the Apocalypse, it will help you be better prepared.
L. J. Bonham: As you might guess from my books such as Shield of Honor and The Debt, I have a deep interest in edged weapons. The preparedness movement is experiencing phenomenal growth, not just in the U.S. but around the world. I noticed a significant need for a concise, easy to understand guide to the selection of the right edged weapon for emergencies or wilderness survival.
AI: Are you a Prepper?
LJB: I suppose that all depends on one’s definition. Do I have a bunker filled to the rafters with guns and ammunition? No, although the James Bond in me thinks that might be fun. Do I think people should be ready to survive and prevail in unforeseen, difficult circumstances? Yes, absolutely. I have been caught up in a number of natural disasters and know that you do not get a second chance to be ready. Life has no pause button. You can't go get what you need and then restart a given emergency. Either you’re prepared or you’re not.
AI: What advice do you have for people who want to prepare for the unforeseen?
LJB: The first thing anyone must do is leave the state; the state of denial. I have what I call The Four “A’s” Rule. It states that anything can happen anywhere at any time to anyone. Once you admit you are at risk then you can analyze potential problems and develop solutions. Get Blades of the Apocalypse, it will help you be better prepared.
February 13, 2014
Youth and Skill vs. Age and Treachery
Author Insights: Why are many characters in Shield of Honor teenagers, is the book a Young Adult novel?
L. J. Bonham: It was not intended as a Young Adult book. The demographics of the time period were inescapable. Shield of Honor is set during the early fifteenth century. A Medieval European’s average life expectancy was roughly thirty five years and only a small fraction made it past fifty. Life was very precarious and death never far away. Disease, war, famine, and accidents were common occurrences. A person could wake up feeling fine and be dead before night fall. People’s limited control over their environment had a significant impact on the culture. You prayed hard and often because you were never sure if any given day was your last. Modern industrialized people are confident that, barring anything extraordinary, each day will end with them safe in their homes. One thing has not changed in five hundred years though, life expectancy was tied directly to socio-economic status. The rich tended to live longer than the poor, although disease was the great equalizer.
Childhood was short during the Middle Ages. Children were expected to act like adults at age seven. Girls were often married between twelve and fifteen, and boys could see battle in their teens. Edward, the Black Prince, fought at C’recy when he was seventeen and Henry V fought his first battle at fourteen. The protagonist, Edward de Clopton, would think it normal to follow his father on campaign in France at seventeen.
By contrast, the older characters are scarred, stiff, sore, and suffering from various diseases in their thirties. Edward’s uncle, Sir Thomas, is the oldest at sixty and he is a rarity, all his contemporaries are long dead.
AI: Is your point that medieval people were tougher than us?
LB: In many respects they were, but that wasn’t the book’s point. Just because it was normal for teenage children to fight wars doesn’t mean they shrugged off the terror and stress, and Edward shows that he as vulnerable as anyone else. I also drew a contrast between the sixteen year old Lady Claire and Edward’s mother, Lady Valeraine, who is near twice that age. Claire is not a giddy girl, but she is not in the same league as Valeraine when it comes to intrigue, love, and sex.
Shield of Honor’s characters may be young but their youth provides ample external and internal conflict. They struggle in a difficult time, make life or death decisions, and grow up fast and hard.
L. J. Bonham: It was not intended as a Young Adult book. The demographics of the time period were inescapable. Shield of Honor is set during the early fifteenth century. A Medieval European’s average life expectancy was roughly thirty five years and only a small fraction made it past fifty. Life was very precarious and death never far away. Disease, war, famine, and accidents were common occurrences. A person could wake up feeling fine and be dead before night fall. People’s limited control over their environment had a significant impact on the culture. You prayed hard and often because you were never sure if any given day was your last. Modern industrialized people are confident that, barring anything extraordinary, each day will end with them safe in their homes. One thing has not changed in five hundred years though, life expectancy was tied directly to socio-economic status. The rich tended to live longer than the poor, although disease was the great equalizer.
Childhood was short during the Middle Ages. Children were expected to act like adults at age seven. Girls were often married between twelve and fifteen, and boys could see battle in their teens. Edward, the Black Prince, fought at C’recy when he was seventeen and Henry V fought his first battle at fourteen. The protagonist, Edward de Clopton, would think it normal to follow his father on campaign in France at seventeen.
By contrast, the older characters are scarred, stiff, sore, and suffering from various diseases in their thirties. Edward’s uncle, Sir Thomas, is the oldest at sixty and he is a rarity, all his contemporaries are long dead.
AI: Is your point that medieval people were tougher than us?
LB: In many respects they were, but that wasn’t the book’s point. Just because it was normal for teenage children to fight wars doesn’t mean they shrugged off the terror and stress, and Edward shows that he as vulnerable as anyone else. I also drew a contrast between the sixteen year old Lady Claire and Edward’s mother, Lady Valeraine, who is near twice that age. Claire is not a giddy girl, but she is not in the same league as Valeraine when it comes to intrigue, love, and sex.
Shield of Honor’s characters may be young but their youth provides ample external and internal conflict. They struggle in a difficult time, make life or death decisions, and grow up fast and hard.
February 3, 2014
Taboos
Author Insights: Should there be any taboo subjects in Literature?
L. J. Bonham: No. If something happens in life it should happen in literature. You ignore a subject at your own peril. Once society places certain things off limits in the public discourse it has begun the long road to thought control and totalitarianism. It is much easier to hide the unspeakable atrocity if it is indeed unspeakable.
AI: So anything goes?
LJB: Anything is fair game, but how the author treats a subject makes it either an integral story component or just so much prurient shock. There is a place for titillation on a certain level but if the author does not use it to advance a character or the plot, it is worthless. If the author can do no better than continually stimulate the reader’s morbid curiosity they have transformed into a simple panderer. Shock has its place but it must shake the reader from complacency. Shock for its own sake is sophomoric.
AI: So how graphic should an author write?
LJB: Whatever it takes to get your point across.
AI: How graphic is your work?
LJB: I like to walk that razor edge. My immersion technique requires that I rub readers noses in some things, the carnage of battle is a good example. I don’t want to pay glib lip service with a sentence like, “Bodies were strewn about the field.” Instead, I want them to smell the entrails and excrement, slip in the blood, feel the bones snap, etc. Anything less removes the reader from the experience and belittles the subject. However, the author has to know when enough is enough and the point’s been made. One word beyond that insults your reader and they lose the moment you tried to create. In answer to the question, my work can be quite graphic but you’ll thank me for it.
L. J. Bonham: No. If something happens in life it should happen in literature. You ignore a subject at your own peril. Once society places certain things off limits in the public discourse it has begun the long road to thought control and totalitarianism. It is much easier to hide the unspeakable atrocity if it is indeed unspeakable.
AI: So anything goes?
LJB: Anything is fair game, but how the author treats a subject makes it either an integral story component or just so much prurient shock. There is a place for titillation on a certain level but if the author does not use it to advance a character or the plot, it is worthless. If the author can do no better than continually stimulate the reader’s morbid curiosity they have transformed into a simple panderer. Shock has its place but it must shake the reader from complacency. Shock for its own sake is sophomoric.
AI: So how graphic should an author write?
LJB: Whatever it takes to get your point across.
AI: How graphic is your work?
LJB: I like to walk that razor edge. My immersion technique requires that I rub readers noses in some things, the carnage of battle is a good example. I don’t want to pay glib lip service with a sentence like, “Bodies were strewn about the field.” Instead, I want them to smell the entrails and excrement, slip in the blood, feel the bones snap, etc. Anything less removes the reader from the experience and belittles the subject. However, the author has to know when enough is enough and the point’s been made. One word beyond that insults your reader and they lose the moment you tried to create. In answer to the question, my work can be quite graphic but you’ll thank me for it.
January 27, 2014
The Good Lady Valeraine
Author Insights: Lady Valeraine de Clopton is a very interesting character in your novel, "Shield of Honor." How is she special and why did you put her in this book?
L. J.: I love Lady Valeraine. I fell in love with her character the moment she appeared. I like to write strong female characters and I wanted her to embody the many strong women who lived during the Middle Ages. However, the Middle Ages was also a time when a few people wielded near absolute power over most of the population and I wanted to explore that sub-theme through her character.
Valeraine is Edward de Clopton’s mother. She comes from a powerful Norman family and was married to Edward’s father, Sir William, to cement an alliance. Arranged marriages are seldom noted for their love, and Valeraine’s is no different. She pushes society's boundaries to obtain her goals. I also use her to dispel some myths about Medieval women.
Any character must have strengths and weaknesses to be real. Valeraine is intelligent, stubborn, ambitious, and a clever player in court politics, but she has a profound weakness for other men.
Power and wealth are the greatest aphrodisiacs in human history, both men and women find it difficult to resist. Valeraine symbolizes power's corrupting effect. She uses her position to feed her sexual addiction, but like all addicts, her behavior just drags her into a web of denial, manipulation, and paranoia. One particular indiscretion creates a weapon for the de Clopton’s enemies. The consequences of this action begin to close in on her and sets the stage for the second book in the series, "Bond of Honor." Once you meet Lady Valeraine, you won’t soon forget her.
L. J.: I love Lady Valeraine. I fell in love with her character the moment she appeared. I like to write strong female characters and I wanted her to embody the many strong women who lived during the Middle Ages. However, the Middle Ages was also a time when a few people wielded near absolute power over most of the population and I wanted to explore that sub-theme through her character.
Valeraine is Edward de Clopton’s mother. She comes from a powerful Norman family and was married to Edward’s father, Sir William, to cement an alliance. Arranged marriages are seldom noted for their love, and Valeraine’s is no different. She pushes society's boundaries to obtain her goals. I also use her to dispel some myths about Medieval women.
Any character must have strengths and weaknesses to be real. Valeraine is intelligent, stubborn, ambitious, and a clever player in court politics, but she has a profound weakness for other men.
Power and wealth are the greatest aphrodisiacs in human history, both men and women find it difficult to resist. Valeraine symbolizes power's corrupting effect. She uses her position to feed her sexual addiction, but like all addicts, her behavior just drags her into a web of denial, manipulation, and paranoia. One particular indiscretion creates a weapon for the de Clopton’s enemies. The consequences of this action begin to close in on her and sets the stage for the second book in the series, "Bond of Honor." Once you meet Lady Valeraine, you won’t soon forget her.
January 22, 2014
Religion in Wolves of Valhalla
Author Insights: In Wolves of Valhalla you seem to place Christianity at odds with Norse cosmology and beliefs, what did you intend to say about Christianity?
L. J.: First off, Wolves of Valhalla is not intended to disrespect Christianity, or any religion for that matter. The Eleventh Century was a period of great change in the Norse culture and many Christians believed the year 1000 AD would bring about the end of the world. Christianity was rapidly displacing the traditional Norse beliefs but this was still a time when both existed side by side. The century also saw massive political upheaval as rulers in Northern Europe fought to expand their dominions. Although most Kings and Jarls had converted by this time, and had commanded their followers do likewise, people do not just wake up one day and say, “Well that’s it for everything we’ve believed for the last thousand years or more.”
Human societies evolve; the changes are often gradual, and people hold on to the familiar for a long time. The old ways hang on, often in disguise. Names of deities are changed and their legends are transformed and folded into the fabric of the new order, familiar yet acceptable.
In Wolves of Valhalla, Thorolf, the Chieftain, has converted, but struggles to reconcile the new faith with what he was taught as a child. He stands with one foot in each world and it causes conflict, both within himself and with other people in his community. This duality is echoed in his fight against his nature as a lycanthrope. Does he reject all he has known and his very nature, or can he find a way to cope with the changes all around him? I invite you to find out.
L. J.: First off, Wolves of Valhalla is not intended to disrespect Christianity, or any religion for that matter. The Eleventh Century was a period of great change in the Norse culture and many Christians believed the year 1000 AD would bring about the end of the world. Christianity was rapidly displacing the traditional Norse beliefs but this was still a time when both existed side by side. The century also saw massive political upheaval as rulers in Northern Europe fought to expand their dominions. Although most Kings and Jarls had converted by this time, and had commanded their followers do likewise, people do not just wake up one day and say, “Well that’s it for everything we’ve believed for the last thousand years or more.”
Human societies evolve; the changes are often gradual, and people hold on to the familiar for a long time. The old ways hang on, often in disguise. Names of deities are changed and their legends are transformed and folded into the fabric of the new order, familiar yet acceptable.
In Wolves of Valhalla, Thorolf, the Chieftain, has converted, but struggles to reconcile the new faith with what he was taught as a child. He stands with one foot in each world and it causes conflict, both within himself and with other people in his community. This duality is echoed in his fight against his nature as a lycanthrope. Does he reject all he has known and his very nature, or can he find a way to cope with the changes all around him? I invite you to find out.
January 17, 2014
Mortal Fear and Battle Scenes
"Shield of Honor" and "The Debt" have a different feel to the characters in your battle scenes than most adventure fiction, why?
L.J.: Most fictional depictions of battle concentrate on the swashbuckling and minimize or completely avoid one crucial reality of combat, raw fear. Most people in the modern, industrialized world seldom experience mortal fear, a situation in which they are in genuine danger of being killed any second. I work very hard to instill this in my readers. I want them to have a visceral reaction through my characters. There is no courage unless every sinew in your body is demanding you run away. Before you prevail over an enemy, you must first prevail over yourself.
L.J.: Most fictional depictions of battle concentrate on the swashbuckling and minimize or completely avoid one crucial reality of combat, raw fear. Most people in the modern, industrialized world seldom experience mortal fear, a situation in which they are in genuine danger of being killed any second. I work very hard to instill this in my readers. I want them to have a visceral reaction through my characters. There is no courage unless every sinew in your body is demanding you run away. Before you prevail over an enemy, you must first prevail over yourself.
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