Special guest post by Gordon Doherty

Tell us about your latest book  

Clay tablets excavated from underneath the 3,000 year-old ruins in the highlands of central Turkey tell of a mighty empire - the empire of the Hittites - which thrived in the Bronze Age, dominating the region. They were the world's supreme power for a time... and then it all changed. The tablets tell of King Hattu and his son, Tudha, and of the absolute carnage they would face... when the Sea Peoples came and blew the Hittites and every other power of the Bronze Age into history. ‘Empires of Bronze: The Dark Earth’ tells the story of this catastrophic time from Tudha’s point of view. 

What is your preferred writing routine?  

Daily? Prize myself out of bed at 6:45, throw on some running gear and pelt around my home town (Falkirk, Scotland) for about an hour. This probably sounds really smug, but it’s a necessity – it blows off the physical and mental cobwebs at the start of every day, and I often hit ‘Eureka!’ moments about plot tangles when I’m running. Then it’s shower, coffee, breakfast & Radio 4 while spending an hour-ish with correspondence, before full laser focus on drafting or editing for a few hours till lunchtime. Out for a walk, bit of lunch, then another few hours of focused writing work. That’s my Mon-Fri routine, apart from Wednesday, which I set aside for doing things like writing the answers to this interview 😊 

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?  

Overreaching is one common pitfall. You don’t need to start with a Great American Novel. Start bite-sized, with flash fiction (just a paragraph or a page in length). It is a rapid and very powerful way to understand and tame the raw emotions that come out when you first try to write. 

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?  

Hmm, that is the golden question. I’m not sure there is a surefire winner out there. Really I just maintain a long list of websites/social media outlets that I try to visit and spread the word about my books at. Advertising, people tell me, is the way to go. However, I’ve been persevering with a few ad systems for a while now and have yet to crack it! I suppose the most time-served way of spreading the news remains word of mouth. If someone out there finds your books and loves them, they become an eager and willing salesperson for you for the rest of their reading days. Some lovely people out there have really helped me in this respect. 

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research  

Hittite oracles were known as “Old Women”, and they had some rather bemusing ways. If a couple were enduring marital strife, an Old Woman would lead a sheep into their house and command husband and wife to both spit into the sheep’s mouth… which apparently ended all the discord. 

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?  

Ah, death. A huge and famous name from the series (and from history), dies early on in this volume. I actually wrote of the moment of his passing and his descent into the Hittite underworld (known to them as ‘the Dark Earth’ – hence the book title), where he is reunited with the spirit of his beloved spouse, who had died long before that. But it left me a weeping mess… so I had to remove it.

What are you planning to write next?

I’m in the midst of penning the latest book in my Late Roman ‘Legionary’ series, which should be out late in 2022 or early 2023. After that, I have a brand new series all ready to go (not allowed to spill the beans just yet!)

Link to Empires of Bronze (6) on Amazon!