I’m joined today by Thaddeus White, one of my favourite
comic-fantasy writers (check out his Sir Edric series). As well as comedy,
Thaddeus also writes epic fantasy and he has a new fantasy, Kingdom Asunder, with a pretty divine cover,
which released on 24 November.
I took the chance to ask a few questions about the world
Kingdom is set in. Firstly, I wanted to know about writing the project.
You have written other books in this world (Bane of Souls,
and Journey to Altmortis) – how did it
feel to work in a parallel story, rather than in the more conventional series
format?
A: I like the approach of having independent books (or, in
this case, trilogy) set in the same world. It means you can keep the advantages
of past world-building and, when desired, pick up old characters without
needing to worry about constantly keeping a very long story thread running
(which can also cause delays, as we’ve seen with some mega-fantasy series).
You have a number of
female characters in the book – how do you find writing females in fantasy and
what approach did you take to it?
A: I was acutely aware before I started that medieval war is
a very masculine environment, so I was keen to create the female characters
first to ensure they were strong, distinctive but still fit into a world which
(magic aside) is recognisably medieval. Writing the women first had the
unexpected side effect of making them (particularly Karena, Sophie and
Charlotte) the most interesting characters.
In terms of psychology, I think the differences between men
and women can be overestimated. However, when dealing with a medieval mindset,
the social attitudes lead to great differences. There have always been
exceptions (Adea and Olympias were women leading opposing armies in the 4th
century BC, and Sichelgaita, Robert Guiscard’s second wife, commanded soldiers
in the 11th century), but generally women had advisory political
roles in unofficial capacities (relatives or wives of rulers). I slightly
stretched that to give more agency/authority to the major female characters.
KA is very epic in
tone and approach – what is it about the epic fantasy world you enjoy most?
I like mingling things that are broadly in line with history
(castles, swords, knights, executing people for cutting down oak trees etc)
with the fantastical (sea serpents and magic). The scale is something else I
enjoy, it’s almost akin to writing your own history. There’s also the intriguing conflict between an accurate (in a
fantasy-based context) portrayal of medieval morality rubbing up against a more
open-minded [for most of us...] modern approach.
Inclusive with
writing epic fantasy is a huge amount of worldbuilding – what did you start
with first, in terms of the world, and how has it grown. In terms of keeping
track of continuity etc, do you have any tools or tips you could recommend?
A: This is one of the major advantages to returning to a
world I’ve written two novels in already. Although I did have a spot of work to
do adding to my background info, most of the ideas for the world were already
either outlined or fully fleshed out back from when I did the world-building
for Bane of Souls.
I adopted the approach of having a document full of major
character profiles, and another with world information (religion, patron gods
of cities, lord names etc). The one tip I’d give is not to overdo it. Try and
create information that’s only useful for telling the story. At one point I was
looking at writing about which drinks were favoured in each major city, took a
step back, realised that was tosh (I was either time-wasting or creating
something unnecessary that would be crowbarred in and look clunky) and stopped.
Your job when world-building is to create the background for the story, you’re
not putting together a travel guide to showcase your wonderful world.
As Lao Tze never said, world-building for fantasy is like
cooking a small fish. Don’t overdo it.
You have a number of
battle scenes in Kingdom Asunder – how do you go about capturing battle and
ensuring the scene is both easy to follow and engaging?
A: The action fixes on one character and stays with her (or
him), I didn’t attempt to tell a whole battle’s story at once but let the
reader see it through the eyes of one participant. This was also a great
theatre for letting rip with magic, or the horror of medieval warfare.
Then, being nosy, I wanted to delve a little deeper into the
world and its characters.
Your tag-line is
‘What crime is more unforgivable than treason?’ which does rather beg the
question of what themes you hoped to pull on within the novel.
A: One theme I enjoyed was on precisely that point. Being
vague to avoid spoilers, there’s a group that betrays their lord, but who end
up as his captives. There’s then a conversation between the lord and his
advisers about what to do, which picks out why both mercy and brutality make
sense in medieval morality. Some advise him to be merciful, on the basis that
sparing the soldiers strengthens his forces and if he doesn’t people may be
reluctant to surrender to him in the future. Others advise him to execute them
all, pointing out that if anyone can rebel and know they’ll be forgiven, it’ll
encourage rebellion because it’s safe even if you fail. In a world without
police and firm law and order, actions which today may seem tyrannical were
often welcomed in the past as strong leadership.
On a related note, a thread that runs through all three
books (I’m redrafting the second and currently writing the third at the moment)
is how far it’s legitimate to go to win power or preserve the kingdom. Is it
acceptable to tell lies and betray people if that gets you victory? Or to kill
innocent people if it gets you allies and ends the war months or years sooner?
In a medieval world, these are very much Machiavellian grey areas and I tried
to paint them as such and avoid a more modern, black and white approach to such
horrendous acts.
Let’s delve a little
deeper – in terms of the world did you base it on any other world or, indeed,
on anything historical in our own world?
I read a fair amount of medieval history to try and get the
flavour right (and because I like it). Kingdom Asunder doesn’t aspire to be
spot on with 13th or 14th century history, but I wanted
to avoid any glaring errors. As well as biographies of William Marshal, Edward
I, Roger Mortimer, John Hawkwood and Edward III, and the works of Allmand and
Contamine on the Hundred Years’ War, I also read a fascinating and very useful
book by Sean McGlynn, entitled By Sword and Fire. It does a fantastic job of
explaining morality and cruelty in medieval warfare, and how that made sense
for the time (which usually involved being extremely harsh, but could also
sometimes be surprisingly merciful). I can highly recommend it (but note it
isn’t for the faint of heart).
Favourite characters?
Anyone you really enjoy writing, or just love the world view of?
Karena and Sophie. Karena’s a cross between Tywin Lannister
and Livia from I, Claudius: clever, ruthless and utterly single-minded when it
comes to victory. Sophie’s a bit of a tomboy, a little more conflicted by morality
and burdened by trying to balance doing what’s right against the risks she runs
thereby.
An honourable mention goes to Sir James Seidmore, a
secondary character. He’s a cross-dressing knight, an idea I got when I read in
the Knight: The Medieval Warrior’s (Unofficial) Manual of Sir Ulrich von
Liechtenstein, who was a genuine medieval transvestite (and expert jouster). He
(James) also adds an elegant and wry sense of humour which helps off-set the
generally laconic or grim jokes most of the other characters prefer.
If you had to choose
a scene that you felt encapsulated the book or world, could you? If so, would
you like to share it?
There’s a short chapter in a church which has just two
characters in it. I can’t go into much detail because it’s near the end, but it
highlights the undercurrent of treachery running through the book (and its
sequels). After all, it takes a friend
to betray you.
And, because I am the nosiest of the nosiest, I wanted to
ask the elusive Thaddeus some questions about himself.
You’ve been writing a
number of years now, with a huge output of short stories, longer work, novels
and series – what is it about writing that appeals to you?
‘Huge output’ sounds good (I was filling out an author bio
for another blogger and realised between March 2016 and January 2017 I’ll have
contributed to five books [three anthologies and two solo books] which is quite
a lot). I’ve always loved writing, ever since I was four or five. I had some
difficulty speaking as a child, so my verbal skills were a bit poor and I threw
myself into literacy instead. The escapism and satisfaction of writing cunning
and brutal men, moral ambiguity, twisting plots and ruthless she-wolves is
something I really enjoy.
If you had to choose
a favourite medium/genre from those you write, what would it be and why?
In terms of writing a first draft, probably Sir Edric
(fantasy comedy). It’s just a totally self-centred git cocking about, aided by
a heroic manservant who’s crippled by pathological loyalty to a man who
absolutely doesn’t deserve it. When comedy writing’s going well, it’s literally
spending the day making yourself laugh.
However, you can’t do everything with comedy. There’s more
depth and subtlety possible with larger scale, multiple POV stories, as per
Kingdom Asunder (and you can still have levity in serious books). It’s more
satisfying to tie together multiple plot strands and have inter-weaving
character arcs (not to mention redrafting comedy is hell, because you end up
reading every joke a dozen times so by the final proofread none of them seem
funny).
Is there anywhere I
can follow you and keep in touch with your books?
Many places. There’s my Twitter account @MorrisF1, my
website (best place for updates): thaddeuswhite.weebly.com and my rambly blog
which has things like book reviews, interviews and occasionally interesting
mutterings about history: thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.co.uk
And, of course, here are some Kingdom Asunder purchase links
(NB in the first week of release, the price is $2.99, as a thank you to early
buyers. After that it’ll go up to $4.99):
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