Author Interview: Mercedes Rochelle / The King's Retribution
JMR-Welcome to the Books
Delight, Mercedes. Tell our readers where you live, what you do for fun and
what does the perfect day look like?
MR- Good afternoon, Jeanie.
Thanks for having me! I live in rural Central New Jersey near the Delaware
River in a log home we designed ourselves. Between my Real Estate business and
my writing, I don't have a lot of free time, and I usually relax in my
garden—at least in the nice weather! When the weather is bad, I have my nose to
the proverbial grindstone. I my ideal day I sleep late, read a history book
with my morning coffee, spend a few hours marketing or writing, a few hours
gardening or hiking, and my last few hours watching a movie then reading a
novel before bed. Not very exciting, am I?
JMR- What is your favorite
historical time period? Why? Have you traveled to historical sites tied to that
period? Where?
MR- I adore the middle ages in
Europe. I spent the first two decades of my writing life in eleventh century
England, and now I've jumped forward to the late fourteenth century. In my very
early days (the late '80s), I went to northern England and Scotland to scope out
the sites in my first novel, hoping to find some remnants of Macbeth. I was so
disappointed! Nobody seemed to care about all that stuff, and I found precious
few memorials or ruins. Of course, I went to the Battle of Hastings site, but
even that location is in dispute. These days, with the internet, I don't even
have to leave the house to get the layout of the land.
JMR-Who is your favorite
historical female? Why? If you could ask her one question, what would it be?
MR- I hate to jump on the
bandwagon but I find myself gravitating toward Queen Elizabeth I. She was such
a mass of contradictions and yet she managed to keep all her tempestuous nobles
in line. That was a huge accomplishment for any monarch, much less a female
one. Of course, my question would be a common one, so I would have to ask her
in private: Was she really a virgin?
JMR-In your bio, you say you
do historical reenacting? What time period? How did you prepare for the part?
MR- For thirty years I was a
member of the Society for Creative Anachronism—SCA for short. This group
recreates the middle ages as they "should" have been—without the
plague, starvation, that sort of thing. I found them by accident at a
Shakespearean Festival and jumped right in, more for the social experience than
the historical angle. But that soon changed and I discovered that living
history has a real connection with everyday life, and it totally inspired my
writing. I leaned so much about arms and armor, costuming, cooking… actually
the list goes on and on. In fact, it wasn't until after I joined the SCA that I
discovered Historical Fiction as a genre.
JMR-What is the biggest
misconception about your favorite time period? Silliest question asked by
visitors?
MR- Oh, horns on Viking helmets!
That drives me crazy. We can blame the costume designer for that one: Wagner's
Norse saga, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The opera
was such a hit that the horns became part of our mistaken heritage.
JMR- Tell us about your latest
book, The King’s Retribution.
MR- This book covers the second
half of Richard II's reign and is part two of The Plantagenet Legacy. In Part 1, Richard almost loses is throne
to a group of antagonistic nobles including his uncle the Duke of Gloucester.
When he is ready ten years later he wreaks revenge in a swift and merciless
manner. He might have gotten away with it, but he went too far and
underestimated the courage and perseverance of Henry Bolingbroke. Actually, I
was inspired by Shakespeare's Richard II,
which covers the last two years of Richard's reign. But Shakespeare left so
much out…he had to, of course. My books fill in the details.
JMR- I’ve always found Richard
II to be an interesting character, crowned at a young age, controlled by his
powerful uncle, John of Gaunt, and other self-serving men, but his reputation
is a bit tarnished. What’s your take on him does he deserve it?
MR- Well, that's a good question!
There is so much controversy and so many contradictions that the real story probably
can never be discovered. Just like with Richard III, his usurper went to great
lengths to darken the name of his predecessor. Depending on which historian you
read, Richard was either a deeply disturbed man, wicked, and possibly insane,
or he was terribly wronged by the usurper. In my humble opinion, Richard never
had a real childhood, and hence never had the opportunity to develop
friendships that would last a lifetime and support him—like his grandfather
Edward III did. What few friends and advisors he had were destroyed during the
Merciless Parliament (book 1). I think he was so worried that it would all
happen again that he was "frightened into tyranny", as one historian
so aptly put it. Once Queen Anne died, he lost the only person that could restrain
his destructive tendencies.
JMR- What project are your working
on now?
MR- I have three or four books
left in the series, depending on how much history I dig up. My current WIP,
about Henry IV, is called The Usurper
King, giving us Henry's point of view during the usurpation, and takes us
through the first three years of his reign. So much happens! Henry soon
discovers that kingship is much more onerous than he ever suspected, and his
reign is soon hampered by terrible money problems and repeated revolts.
JMR- Tell our readers how to
find you on social media and the web.
JMR- What question were you
hoping I’d ask but didn’t?
MR- One of my favorite questions
is this: In historical fiction, how much
can you stretch the truth?
My answer? I think an author can get away with stretching the truth —to an
extent—if the story is entertaining enough. I don't mean putting characters in
the wrong period (unless it's a time travel) or falsifying the outcome of a
battle. That's too much for me. But I don't have a problem incorporating a
legend into a story, if it's been believed for hundreds of years (usually the
legend is more interesting than the truth). Or putting the character in a
country he probably wasn't visiting at that time (you can always explain in the
author's note). Since we are writing fiction, the story comes first. To
paraphrase Stephen King, your first job is to entertain someone who had a hard
day at work and just wants to relax. There are always going to be nit-pickers
out there who will castigate you for the wrong piece of clothing or an
incorrect word. Forget about them! If your story is good enough, the average
reader won't care.
JMR- This is a very interesting point, I agree, you can only stretch so far before you find yourself writing fantasy. But, the readers entertainment is paramount.
JMR- Thank you, Mercedes, for this fun and informative chat. Good luck with your new books and take care. Readers if you are interested in Mercedes books, I know I am, click the Amazon button below.
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