Tell
us about your latest book
I’ve had some
hiccups with the current wip. Usually, I manage to get a book out a
year but what with Covid etc. this one is running late. It is the
second of my Henrician
Trilogy. Written
in the voice of Henry VIII, the story we all know and love emerges
quite differently. It isn’t always comfortable living with Henry in
your head but I will miss him when he leaves. Book one:
A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years
has been well received and readers are drumming their fingers waiting
for book two, but I am working hard now, making up for lost time.
What
is your preferred writing routine?
My
main priority is finding time to sit down and write without
interruption. Once I have typed a few words I am away, the hard thing
is beginning. It doesn’t always happen these days but I like to
work in the mornings when I am most alert, then in the afternoon I
garden, or sew, or go to the beach depending on the weather. I live
on the Welsh coast, so I like to take my research books onto the
cliff and give everyone the impression I am working – lol.
What
advice do you have for aspiring writers?
You
must be 100% certain that you are beginning the book you want to
finish. Before you are done there will be times when you wish you
hadn’t started.
Research
everything your character would have heard, smelled, touched, and
then start to think of them as people – warts an’ all. Try not to
make them too nice, or too nasty, it is better to have a mix of both,
that way they will seem real.
Don’t
expect your first book to be a bestseller – or your sixth for that
matter. When we write our first novel, we are totally in love with it
and excited to be authors. It can be hard to realise that other
people aren’t particularly bothered. My first novel remains
unpublished. I keep it to remind myself how terrible it is and how
much my writing has improved. I am proud of it but it has many
errors.
Do
not skimp on editing. Find a way to afford a decent editor, but don’t
be ripped off either. Get recommendations from other authors, there
are reasonably priced, very competent editors out there. You can
learn to do everything else yourself but an author is blind to errors
in their own writing. There is nothing worse than buying a novel with
a lovely professional cover and then finding multitudinous errors in
the text.
Always
strive to be better than your last book.
What
have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
Oh,
this is hard, especially is you are self-published. People seem to
assume that self-published authors are sub-standard in some way but
this is not true. I find just as many typos and bad grammar in
traditionally published books.
Marketing
is a minefield for new authors, especially as they are usually in a
hurry to be ‘seen.’ I find the best response come via Twitter,
the writing community is supportive and generous. If you tweet their
post, they will return the compliment.
Good
promotional images are important, you can do these yourself for free
on sites like Book Brush and I set up tweets in advance, using
Hootsuite. I very rarely pay for promotion, it eats into your profit
and, in my experience, has negligible effect. I promote a lot of
authors on my blog and via twitter and my Facebook page – word of
mouth is the best way but it is slow and can be frustrating.
We
all suffer from imposter syndrome and sometimes feel like giving up
but if you are a dyed in the wool author, you will carry on
regardless. If, like me, you are shy to the point that even
interaction on social media is difficult it is just a case of
gritting your teeth and pretending to be an extravert.
My
readers are invaluable, they support me by telling their friends
about my books, going into shops and asking if they have my books on
the shelf and if not, why not. Every day, I have emails from readers
saying how much they like my work, how it has helped them during
tough times. This encourages me to keep going. I can never repay them
for that or thank them enough.
Tell
us something unexpected you discovered during your research
When
I was at university my studies included monastic history. Until then
I’d only ever seen nuns represented as living an impoverished yet
gentle lifestyle. My studies however revealed that not all nuns lived
in fabulous religious houses, most were small, and some were
positively primitive. Years later when I came to write Sisters of
Arden – set during the Pilgrimage of Grace – I remembered the
nuns of Arden I had read about and focused the novel lightly on them.
The
nuns at Arden were a group of half-starved women living on the edge
of civilisation, closed off from the world, from family and friends
and all comforts. Assisted by just a few servants, the women
undertook all manual work themselves, caring for livestock, cooking,
cleaning, nursing … everything. Even today, with the luxuries of
glazing and heating, life in rural North Yorkshire can be hard; in
1536 it was extreme.
At
the time of dissolution there were just six sisters at Arden, three
of whom received pensions of twenty shillings each, two of ten
shillings and one six shillings and eightpence. Sister Elizabeth
Johnson, who was an octogenarian with limited hearing was granted
forty shillings ‘toward her sustenance.’
The
church ‘treasure’ that the king’s men seized when the house was
dissolved consisted of a gilt chalice weighing 14.5 oz and a flat
piece of white silver weighing 8oz, and two bells valued at ten
shillings. According to the ‘Valor Ecclesiasticus’ the value of
Arden in 1536 was £12. 0s and 6d. It is noted that the nuns also had
an image of St Brigid to whom they made offerings for cows that were
ill or had strayed.
This
points to a reality vastly different to the reports circulated in
1536, tales of corruption and ungodliness. Motivated by his favour of
the new learning, Cromwell and his men put forward stories of nuns
indulging in sexual misconduct with monks, murdering their own
infants, enjoying lewd and promiscuous lives. Even if they had the
inclination, I would be surprised if the nuns of Arden found either
the time or the energy for such practices.
What
was the hardest scene you remember writing?
Considering
my choice of era, you might think I’d be accustomed to writing
about death by now. My characters are always popping their clogs,
either in battle, childbirth, or execution. The death of Elizabeth of
York and its impact on the young Henry (later VIII) was particularly
difficult to write in A
Song of Sixpence
but I think the most gut wrenching was in one of my earlier books,
The Song of
Heledd. I can’t
go into too much detail without revealing a huge spoiler. Needless to
say, I struggled with the first draft, deleted it, and rewrote it
again, this time imaging it was one of my own sisters suffering and I
was Heledd offering the only help I could, which in the end didn’t
prove much help at all. I don’t cry very often, I am not an
over-emotional type but boy, did I cry when I wrote that scene. I
wanted to hug all my sister afterwards, but they live too far away.
What
are you planning to write next?
I’ve
just submitted a top secret, non-fiction manuscript to the publisher
which I hope won’t be sent back with red pen all through it. While
I wait for it to be returned, I am busily catching up with A
Matter of Faith, book two of The Henrician Chronicle.
It has been going rather well for the last month or so and if I keep
it up, I will soon be back on track with it.
It is just a
case of gluing my bum to the chair.
Mybook.to/amoc
A lifelong history enthusiast and avid
reader, Judith holds a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in
Medieval Studies.
She
lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and
non-fiction based in the Medieval and Tudor period. Her main focus is
on the perspective of historical women but more recently is writing
from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.
Her
novels include:
A
Matter of Conscience:
Henry VIII: the Aragon Years
The
Heretic Wind: the life of
Mary Tudor, Queen of England
Sisters
of Arden: on the
Pilgrimage of Grace
The
Beaufort Bride: Book one
of The Beaufort Chronicle
The
Beaufort Woman: Book two
of The Beaufort Chronicle
The
King’s Mother: Book
three of The Beaufort Chronicle
The
Winchester Goose: at the
Court of Henry VIII
A
Song of Sixpence: the
story of Elizabeth of York
Intractable
Heart: the story of
Katheryn Parr
The
Kiss of the Concubine: a
story of Anne Boleyn
The
Song of Heledd
The
Forest Dwellers
Peaceweaver
Judith
is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called
The Fyne Companye of Cambria
and makes historical garments both for the group and others. She is
not professionally trained but through trial, error and determination
has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly HA,
clothing. You can find her group Tudor
Handmaid on Facebook. You
can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.
Webpage:
www.judithmarnopp.com
Author
page: author.to/juditharnoppbooks
Blog:
http://juditharnoppnovelist.blogspot.co.uk/
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