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 My first novel remains unpublished.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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