INTERVIEW WITH PRISCILLA ROYAL

I am delighted to be able to interview my friend and fellow historical novelist, Priscilla Royal, whose newest mystery, Satan’s Lullaby, is now available for sale on-line and in brick and mortar bookstores, assuming you can find one; you can buy it in hardcover or paperback and it will be out as an e-book, too, very soon.    This is the eleventh novel in Priscilla’s series set in 13th century England, so for any of you who have not yet read one of her books, you have a book-lover’s blessing awaiting you; what is more fun than finding a new, wonderful author and then discovering that they have an extensive backlist waiting patiently for you?   I have been reading Priscilla’s books since the first one, Wine of Violence, but I remember how excited I was when I read the fifth book in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series, Death of Kings, and then realized I could read the first four books without having to endure those interminable delays between books.

One of the joys of a historical series is that we get to escape into a fictional world that is both familiar and foreign.  We have come to care about Prioress Eleanor, highborn and high principled, Brother Thomas, the kind-hearted, conflicted monk, Sister Anne the healer, the prickly crowner, Ralf, and his new wife, Gytha, the cocky Arthur, the feline king of the convent.    But there is much about the thirteenth century that is alien to us; we never forget for a moment that these are men and women of another age, and better than any other author I know, Priscilla is able to demonstrate how important religion was to medieval people, how closely their faith was integrated into their daily lives—even the sinners, and every mystery has sinners.

I am also pleased to announce that Priscilla has generously agreed to donate a signed copy of Satan’s Lullaby to one fortunate reader.  As with past book drawings, anyone who posts a comment on this blog is eligible to win.  Good luck!

But it is always better to let authors speak for themselves.   And so here is Priscilla Royal, a kindred spirit who shares our fascination with the past.

Tell us about your newest book.

Satan’s Lullaby was born of a discussion I had with another reader at an author’s tea at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale AZ. She asked if I had ever read the 13th century Archbishop Eudes Rigaud of Rouen. He recorded his tours of monastic houses in Normandy where he examined the state of their infrastructure as well as their obedience to vows and rules. I knew I had to put Prioress Eleanor through this wonderfully annoying investigative review. She has won great repute, not only as a solver of crimes, but also as a successful priory business manager. This was bound to make someone jealous enough to want to damage her reputation. In addition, she always traveled with Brother Thomas. The question might be asked: was she sleeping with him? Oh, joy, I thought, she will be so miserable and have to solve murders too! There was a difference between most Orders and the Order of Fontevraud, however. Fontevraud was under the authority of Rome so no local archbishop would do this investigation. The Abbess was allowed to arrange them herself, which meant, if the few surviving records are correct, not many were done. This fact made it even more troubling when Abbess Isabeau sends her own brother, soon to be a bishop, to do the review. I also threw in that Crowner Ralf and his wife, Gytha, are expecting the imminent birth of their first child; Gracia is settling into her role as maid to the prioress; and Eleanor’s nemesis, Sub-Prioress Ruth, is suffering from gout. If anyone wants to kill in this book, it should be the latter, but I promise she doesn’t.

You have written eleven books in your series. Some authors begin to get bored with their characters. I hope you aren’t.

None of my characters, major or minor, have begun to bore me. But authors are always concerned that the characters are starting to bore readers. Long series can remain fresh. I don’t think anyone ever found Brother Cadfael boring, and Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks is as exciting today as he was 23 books ago. But I have read series books where the main character has become a talking shell. Successfully or not, I try to make sure my characters change with their experiences and as they get older. That may bother some readers, for example, who liked Prioress Eleanor as a 20 year old, falling passionately in love with Brother Thomas, but don’t like how she is learning to deal with this love. Others enjoy the evolution. But no one stays exactly the same, and, if the person is a dear friend, we love them just as much (if not more) at 60 than we did at 20. So I have chosen to replicate real life in the series and hope there are others who find the evolution just as much fun as I do.

Have you considered where you might end the series?

I am trying to come up with a contract arrangement with some attorney, specializing in afterlife rights, so I can continue these books after my death. If I am successful, I would like to take Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas into, perhaps just through, the reign of Edward II. They would be in their late 70s at that time, but monastics often lived longer than seculars and in pretty good health. But I suspect both would want to retire from murder and mayhem after that! In the meantime, I have many more ideas on what to put my two beloved sleuths through.

You often include medical issues in your books. In Forsaken Soul you have an older woman with osteoporosis. In The Killing Season, it was leprosy. Sanctity of Hate has a description of a difficult childbirth. Now you talk about gout. Is there a reason?

I love medicine. At one point in my naïve youth, I considered becoming a doctor or a medical researcher, then realized in high school that I would never pass the classes required for any of that. So now I devour books by such authors as Professor Carole Rawcliffe. It is fun debunking some of the assumptions about medieval medicine, although I do show how people suffered without the treatments available today to those who can afford care. Medieval medicine was often barbaric and they knew nothing about sterilizing or bacteria, but careful observation produced some surprising results. The accurate diagnosis rate by physicians for leprosy surprised me. There was a remedy for gout, although it was dangerous to use. Battlefield physicians learned a lot about wound treatment, and Christian doctors gained much from the Muslims during the crusades. Were it not for curious medieval men and, yes, women who bucked entrenched ignorance and rampant prohibitions to seek facts, we would not be benefiting now from our greater knowledge of illness.

What are you working on next?

This new book, Land of Shadows, takes place in early 1279 and involves a generational change. Until now, Eleanor and her eldest brother, Hugh, have been defined as the children of Baron Adam, who was a close friend and advisor to Henry III. But Edward I has been king for seven years. It is time for Hugh to take on his own hereditary responsibility, a change that will also increase Eleanor’s influence as a baron’s sister, not his child. My other sub-plot is the coin-clipping pogrom against the Jewish community. For a king called “the lawyer king” or “the English Justinian”, this episode points out the flaws of such marketing. When it came to hanging members of the Jewish community, Edward showed little interest in fair trials or the likelihood of false accusations. Needless to say, other murders happen in this story and at the worst possible time for my prioress. She is beginning to hate me…

How can readers contact you?

Should anyone have questions about my books, they can reach me through my website at www.priscillaroyal.com. It has just been redone, and I am delighted with it. I am also one of several mystery writers blogging on The Lady Killers at www.theladykillers.typepad.com.

Thank you so much, Sharon, for so generously inviting me to post on your blog. Had it not been for your beautifully written and well-researched books, I would not have been inspired to try historical fiction.

Thank you, Priscilla, for agreeing to this interview and for giving so many of us so many hours of reading pleasure.   The Book Giveaway is now officially open.    And for those who want to read Satan’s Lullaby straightaway, here is a link to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Satans-Lullaby-Medieval-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/1464203563/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423250285&sr=1-1&keywords=priscilla+royal+medieval+mysteries

February 6, 2015