Interview with Historical Mystery Writer Priscilla Royal

This week it's my pleasure to interview historical mystery writer, Priscilla Royal, whose books feature the 13th century lives of English religious. Her books are some of my favorites!

1) "A Killing Season" is the 8th book in your Prioress Eleanor/Brother Thomas series. What inspired you to write about medieval England?

We see what we are taught to see, which is not always the same as reality. We think the medieval period was an era of violence, bigotry, religiosity, plagues, and ignorance. Those words might depict it—or perhaps they describe our own world best. It was also a time of thoughtful people, great literature, fine music and complex human relationships that often ran counter to conventional wisdom. The more I read about the era, the more it seemed to resemble our own time. Perhaps it has much to teach us. Why did I choose medievalEnglandin particular? The short answer is that I grew up inCanadaand got a lot of English history.

2) You must do a tremendous amount of research to capture the era so well in your writing. Tell us how you do it?

I have a large library and read a lot. I am not a professional historian, but the word amateur means "one who loves". I do love history and respect those who spend their lives studying the details. Since I have a fondness for the little known, often quirky, facts, I love finding the unexpected. The Order of Fontevraud, for example, was a double house of monks and nuns run by a woman in a world that said women were an inferior design and ought not to rule any man. When I find something like this, my curiosity sparks. I want to know why this was allowed and what it meant about the society. Of course, people haven't changed, only their language, symbols, and superficial fashions. When the unacceptable has a practical purpose, we will always find a way to justify it.

3) I think you said you had never been to the area inEnglandthat is the setting for your stories. How do you imagine it so accurately?

I don't fly. Writing historicals makes it easier to get around this. East Angliatoday is not East Angliaof 700 years ago. There was the Little Ice Age and subsequent climate changes. Coastlines, riverbeds, flora, fauna, the smell of the air, and general landscapes are quite different. Friends have provided details for me, especially in "Justice for the Damned" which takes place in Amesbury. I love the Weather Channel and Google Earth. People also post their vacation photos online which often provides vivid images of historical places. But the most important thing to remember is that we all experience our environments in the same way. I just finished a Finnish novel where the characters were miserably hot in summer. Hot in Helsinki? I also grew up in the 1950s above the 49th Parallel, saw the Northern Lights, understand long summer days and short winter ones, saw the night sky without the disruption of city lights, and experienced a world with almost untouched wildlife and forests. Yes, I have to spend more time researching, but I also use my own experience of a lost world to make another lost world real.

4) What did you do before writing historical mysteries?

I majored in World and Comparative Literature with the plan of teaching in college. To my horror, I found I have severe stage fright, not a good thing if one wants to teach. So I dropped out of graduate school and spent the next 30+ years working for the Social Security Administration in claims, appeals, disability, staff work, and some management. (A fine literary tradition: both Pushkin and Trollope were civil servants.) When I realized my career had ended, I chose to go back to my life passions of reading, writing, and the study of history. Publication was an unexpected delight.

5) What are you working on now?

Many know that Edward I expelled all Jewish families from Englandin 1292. As was true with the twentieth century Holocaust, however, there was a steady and escalating promulgation of anti-Semitic policies preceding that event. In 1275, he signed The Statute of the Jewry, which required everyone of Jewish faith to relocate to certain cities, called archa towns. He also ordered them to wear yellow badges, banned them from practicing usury, and said they must become merchants, farmers, craftsmen or soldiers. My next book deals with this event.

Thank you for your time and I'll look forward to reading the next one!