Author Interview with Rosanne Lortz, author of Road to the West

Please join me in welcoming author Rosanne Lortz to The Musings of a Book Junkie. 

1.       The Crusades have a bad reputation. Why should we learn about the crusades?

One of the reasons that the Crusades have such a bad reputation is because we are so poorly educated about them. The real and diverse motivations of the Crusaders (as well as the back story of previous conflicts between the two sides) are largely ignored. Instead, we usually get the simplistic version: “Land-hungry European Christians aggressively attack Muslims minding their own business.” Another oversimplification is to apply the same “bad reputation” to all the Crusades indiscriminately. Nine crusades spanned two hundred years of time; they were fought on different battle fronts, by different characters, with different motivations. The way popular historians lump the Crusades together would be like if historians living a thousand years in the future took World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War and summarized them as one struggle for one purpose. Learning more about the Crusades can give us a newfound appreciation for this multi-faceted and fascinating era of history--and it can teach us to be more careful students of history by avoiding stereotyping and oversimplification.

2.       If you had to do penance, would you join a crusade like Tancred or join a monastery like his father?

Although I like to read (and write) about great adventures and faraway places, I’m more of a homebody, and quite attached to my large library of books. If I had to do penance, I think I would choose the contemplative life of the monastery and take refuge in its predictable routines and pursuit of learning rather than choosing the perils of pilgrimage and battle.

3.       Who is your favorite character? Who do you identify with?

My favorite character in Road from the West is definitely Tancred. Originally, Bishop Adhemar was going to be the protagonist of my novel, but as I did more and more research I realized that it was Tancred the marquis who most appealed to me with his courage, his brashness, and his idealism. My younger self of several years ago can really identify with Tancred, with his youthful insistence on seeing everything in black and white and his frustration with the more world-worn Crusaders who see the need for patience, politics, and temporizing. In my next two books, Tancred gets to grow up a little, as he progresses through the stages of tragedy, cynicism, and ultimately maturity in his thinking process.

4.       Why do you believe that women played such a vital but largely unrecognized role in the Crusades?

The importance you place on women in the Crusades depends largely upon your view of what is important in history. If council room decisions, negotiations with the enemy, siege preparations, and pitched battles are the meat of the matter, then women will, to a large extent, be marginalized. If daily camp life, relationships between the characters, and back stories between individuals is your interest, then women will play a more prominent role. The medieval chroniclers of the Crusades adopt the former view of what is important--and for this reason, very little is recorded about the role of women on the Crusades. We know that despite Pope Urban’s misgivings on the matter many women came--wives, daughters, sisters, camp followers. We know that they lived through long sieges, endured desperate famine, and traveled difficult roads along with the menfolk. But the story of individual women and what they did is mostly a blank page, leaving a lot of intelligent guesswork for the novelist who wants to include them.

5.       Will the culture clashes play a larger role in the next book?

The short answer to that question is: yes. In Road from the West, Tancred has fairly limited opportunity to interact with the Turks except on the field of battle. Book II of the trilogy, Flower of the Desert, gives him far more scope to relate to the Muslim characters as he improves his acquaintance with Erminia and finds a formidable adversary in Iftikhar, the governor of Jerusalem. I intend to switch POV for part of the next book and tell a section of the story through the eyes of Erminia, so that should provide a window into the Muslim perceptions of the Christian invaders.

6.       Tancred has more in common with Alexandra, but is drawn to Erimina. Who do you think he should end up with?

An excellent question...but one I’m afraid that I mustn’t answer in this interview. Road from the West introduces two possible love interests for Tancred: Alexandra, the Greek girl from Bari; and Erminia, the Turkish princess. At this point in the story, Tancred’s guilt over the murder of Alexandra’s father keeps him from desiring too close of a relationship with Alexandra, since she is a constant reminder of his need for remission of sins. Erminia, a mixture of the exotic and the unknown, interests Tancred more--although barriers of culture, religion, and war may prove too formidable for love to ignite. Will Alexandra’s dogged determination or Erminia’s bewitching beauty carry the day? You’ll have to read Flower of the Desert to find out the answer to that one.

Guest Post by Melanie McDonald, author of Eromenos

Horses and Hounds: Hunting as a Theme in Eromenos

            Thank you so much, Allison, for inviting me to The Musings of a Book Junkie, and today I’d like to discuss the theme of hunting in Eromenos.

Hunting for sport long has been a traditional pastime favored by royalty and the aristocracy, and in particular, hunting on horseback, hunting with hounds, and hunting for large game, all of which require more equipment, ammunition, and logistical support than hunting small animals such as, say, rabbits or squirrels (with certain exceptions, of course, such as the hunting of hares with hounds, or prey fowl with trained falcons—though that requires proper equipment as well). This is a different type of hunting altogether than that of the people, which most often simply has put food on the table, though game caught by royalty often has provided feasts for their own tables, as well.   

Hunting for sport provides a way to display one’s wealth, power, and status, as well as an opportunity to spend leisure time away from the stressful business of ruling; in some cultures and eras, certain prey even have been forbidden to any hunters except royalty, helping to reinforce the royal sport’s exclusivity. The animals used to assist in the hunt, most often horses and dogs, also require great resources to maintain, and the breeding of these animals traditionally has maintained the exclusivity of their bloodlines as well.

Hunting became an important theme in Eromenos not only because such hunting was a frequent activity of the imperial court of second-century Rome, but also because history records several expeditions in which Hadrian and Antinous hunted together, the three most well-known being a boar hunt, a bear hunt, and, most infamous, a lion hunt during which the emperor saved the youth from attack by a wounded lion, an incident which inspired several artistic renditions of its sequence of events, including a poem by Pancrates and several sculptural representations (including reliefs on the Arch of Constantine, originating in Hadrian’s era but later reworked by the first Christian emperor), as well as factual accounts, and in my novel these three hunts became scenes that also help trace the progression of the relationship between Antinous and Hadrian.  

The hunting of these large animals took place on horseback, and Hadrian had an imperial stable of hunting horses at his command. These horses were trained to be just as fearless as war horses in combat, able to stand their ground in the face of wounded boars, angry bears, or lions prepared to strike. Imperial owners regarded these mounts of theirs with great admiration and affection, and some of their steeds have been paid lasting tribute in stories, song, and memorials. Hadrian even commissioned a statue for his favorite horse, Borysthenes, after its death, similar to a famous work once commissioned by Alexander the Great in tribute to his mighty racer, Bucephalus. The young men of the imperial school at Rome also might serve as grooms for the imperial stable and learn to ride and train these royal animals, and also participated in hunts at invitation of the emperor, as did Antinous.

Another member of Hadrian’s court, Arrian of Bithynia, once wrote about the esteem and affection with which men regarded their favorite hunting dogs in a work entitled On Hunting with Hounds*, and I couldn’t resist quoting a few lines of this work:

“For I myself reared a hound with the greyest of grey eyes, and she was fast and a hard worker and spirited and agile, so that when she was young she once dealt with four hares in one day. And apart from that she is the most gentle (I still had her when I was writing this) and most fond of humans, and never previously did any other dog long to be with me and my fellow-huntsman Megillus as she does.

“If she sees one of us even after a short period of time, she jumps into the air gently, as if welcoming him, and she gives a bark with the welcome, showing her affection. When she is with one of us at dinner she touches him with her paws alternately, reminding him that she too should be given some of the food. And indeed she makes many different noises, more than any other dog that I think I have seen; and she shows audibly what she wants.

“And because when she was being trained as a puppy and she was punished with a whip, if anyone to this day should mention a whip, she goes up to the one who has said it and crouches down like one beseeching, and fits her mouth to his as if she is kissing, and jumps up and hangs from his neck, and does not let him go until the angry one gives up the threat. And so I think that I should not hesitate to write down the name of this dog, for it to survive her even into the future, viz. that Xenophon the Athenian had a dog called Horme, very fast and very clever and quite out of this world.”

Arrian has recorded for posterity how Xenophon the Athenian adored his canine companion, in an ancient display of affection as touching as the more recent and familiar one given by Sir Walter Scott to his own beloved Scottish deerhounds, “the most perfect creatures of heaven,” and so Horme’s name survives her still, even today.

Melanie McDonald has a website, www.melaniejmcdonald.com, and Eromenos now has its own page on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/Eromenos-by-Melanie-McDonald-a-novel-about-Antinous-and-Hadrian/177668218934051#!/pages/Eromenos-by-Melanie-McDonald-a-novel-about-Antinous-and-Hadrian/177668218934051?sk=info  

*On Hunting with Hounds, Arrian of Bithynia, translated by Malcolm M. Willcock in Xenophon and Arrian on Hunting, ed. A.A. Phillips and Malcolm M. Willcock (Wiltshire, UK: Aris & Phillips Ltd.), section 5.1-6 and sections 33-34.

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'd die to meet!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. 
This week the topic is ten authors I would die to meet. 
These authors are in no particular order, but here they are.

• Michelle Moran. I fell in love with Michelle's writing when I read Nefertiti. Then she sealed my love with the Heretic Queen. And this love blossomed even more with Cleopatra's Daughter and Madame Tussaud. Read them all!
• Jean Plaidy. This woman wrote so many wonderful books. She is his fic royalty! 
• Diane Haeger. I loved Courtesan and she recently wrote a book focusing on the life of Bessie Blount, The Queen's Rival. 
• Brandy Purdy. I read and loved her books on Piers Gaveston and Mary and Elizabeth. She and I have emailed back and forth, and I can genuinely say I like her! 
• Stephanie Dray/Draven. Stephanie writes historical fiction and fantasy romance. And she excels in both genres. I've also emailed her and she is wonderful! Plus she runs a kick *** blog. 
• Kate Quinn. Mistress of Rome and Daughters of Rome. Enough Said. 
• C.W Gortner. This man can take a misaligned woman like Catherine de Medici and make her human. He writes with the best!! 
• Karen Essex. This woman has such range. From Dracula, to the Renaissance, to Kleopatra.  
• Colin Falconer. I love his books and like Karen Essex, he writes about vastly different topics.
• Arthur Japin. I have only read one of his books, but it was gorgeous. Like hauntingly gorgeous.   

The honorable mention goes to Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books. These books are my guilty pleasure!