AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT WITH PRUE BATTEN

I am thrilled to announce that author Prue Batten features next in the series. As you may be aware I asked authors on my facebook page if they would like to appear in a series of *interviews*. I wanted to connect with other writers, find out what they write about, why they write, their thoughts about the writing process, their drives, and learn a little more about them.Please find the full interview below (also linked to my twitter, tumblr, facebook, Goodreads, and google + account).

Please do share with your circle of book friends and leave me a like/comment - thank you very much.

Prue, are you self-published or traditional?

Self-published.

 
How many books have you written?

I’ve written eight.

Four are historical fantasy, a quartet called The Chronicles of Eirie.

This is followed by historical fiction, a trilogy called The Gisborne Saga.

And then the first in a new hist.fict trilogy called The Triptych Chronicle, a novel entitled Tobias.

 

What are you currently working now?

I am currently writing Guillaume, Book Two of The Triptych Chronicle – my ninth book.

 

Any future projects?

The final in the afore-mentioned trilogy, then a collaboration about transportation and the convict days of Australia. The setting will be partly UK, partly Tasmania, where I live.

And I have a collaborative partnership with a miniature press in the USA called bopressminiaturebooks.com where I write short-stories for bespoke publication.

 

Who is your favourite character of your books and why?

Oh Tobias! Hands down! He’s courageous, loyal, witty and writes the most perfect chansons.

 
Where can readers find your books?

As of this month, only on Amazon as my novels are taking part in a marketing campaign for a week from March 8^th and then perhaps further campaigns.

 

Which authors have enthralled you?

So many.

But off the top of my head – in my youth, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece, and Monica Edwards.

Then in adulthood, an eclectic group – for downright wit and irony, Jilly Cooper.

For the most superb fantasy, JRR Tolkein (I carried all three of LOTR right across Asia). More recently in my life, I discovered Juliet Marillier and she remains my only other all-time favourite fantasy writer.

For breadth of the contemporary family condition, superb characterization and settings, Rosamunde Pilcher and to a certain extent, Joanna Trollope and Joanne Harris.

And then, for excellence beyond reproach in historical fiction, Dorothy Dunnett. No one surpasses her.

In classics –  Elisabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen and Joseph Conrad.

In poetry and prose everything written by William Shakespeare and by WB Yeats.

And then there are the fine independent authors of the last eight years of my life – SJA Turney, Gordon Doherty, Matthew Harffy, Ann Swinfen, Anna Belfrage, Alex Martin and Jan Ruth to name just a few.

 

Just a few, but, boy what a brilliant few! 

What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?

The Lymond Saga and The House of Niccolo by Dorothy Dunnett. The literary and historical breadth of the work is breathtaking.

 

What book are you currently reading?

Praetorian – the Price of Treason by SJA Turney, set a hundred years-ish after the birth of Christ in what seems to be a diseased Rome. I know little to nothing of Roman history so the works of the new writers are catching me by surprise.

 

It's an era that never interested me. Then, I went to Bath in my teenage years, spent a summer holiday in Somerset and went to a museum and saw Roman mosaic's and artefacts for the first time. It was a life that I had never imagined here in Britain. I was dazzled. And I was hooked.

Where do you read mostly?

In bed at night. 

Where do you do your writing?

In bed in the dark hours or else on the window seat.

Do you agree with the statement: write about what you know?

No. Historical fiction writers learn what they know from research. Is that really writing about what we know? If we only wrote what we know, we would be writing about the mundane life we lead in the 21^st century.

 
What challenges do you face when writing? Are you easily distracted?

Yes. I’m essentially an outdoors person and feel short-changed if my daylight hours are not spent outside in the fresh air.

What has surprised you most about writing?

How time flies…

Yes, I'm with you on that one!
What are the best and worst things about being a writer?

Knowing I can do it is the best. The feeling of creating – it’s a God-given art form. The worst thing about being a writer is finishing a book. It’s a form of loss.

What is the most exciting experience you've had as a result of writing?

Apart from all the new friends I have made, and the kindred spirits from across the globe? Very consistent rankings in Top 100’s on Amazon.co.uk. A silver medal for fantasy from the USA and sundry other awards for my work.

Wonderful achievement's, Prue.
So what do you like doing when you aren't writing?

I’m a gardener, a swimmer, a lover of boats and a kayaker and I have a demanding dog… 

 

Have you attended any writing courses?

No, I haven’t. However, with my first novel, The Stumpwork Robe, I sought the editorial advice of a London consultancy called Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. They worked with me right through to the POD publication of that novel and at one point, I was listed as one of their Hot Twenty Five (new authors with a future). The grounding given to me by more than two years’ work with Cornerstones has stood me in good stead.

Could you give us a sentence/short para of your books.

Here are two of the nine.

Byzantium stretches a weakening grip across Eastern Europe, trying in vain to hold onto all that has made it an empire. Tyrian purple, the unique dye that denotes its power, is held under close guard by the imperial house.

However a Jewish merchant from Venice has sourced an illegal supply and Tobias the dwarf minstrel and his twin brother, Tomas, begin a dangerous journey to retrieve the purple and deliver it into the merchant’s eager hands.

But is this supply as secret as they had hoped?

Trade is cut throat, men are expendable, money is power and Constantinople provides the exotic backdrop during a time of scimitars and shadows.

This is Tobias – the story of a minstrel and a broken life…

 And for Guillaume:

The Church – powerful and moneyed.

The Heretics – zealous and poor.

Mercantile endeavour – merciless and cut-throat .

Lyon – a city that might claim to cast the seeds of reformed thinking upon the world.

Guillaume of Anjou, formerly an archer fighting with other Angevins in the Third Crusade, is now the business manager and guardsman for a successful merchant house. In his new position, he perhaps not so unwittingly steps into and out of the shadowed world of trade and secrets in Lyon.

Guillaume carries a weight in his hands – a weight that may well light the flame of the greatest philosophical and spiritual change Europe will experience, so that word and sword will cut a swathe through the fabric of life in Lyon.

Very nice, thank you for sharing.
If you don't mind me asking... how do you structure your work - do you start with an outline, plot each chapter or just write and see where it goes from there?

An outline. A one page plot line made of thoughts. I am essentially a ‘write by the seat of my pants’ kind of person. Dot to dot writing is not for me.

How do you market your books?

Via social media, the media and advertising.

What social media platforms do you use?

 

www.pruebatten.com My blog is part of my website.

www.facebook.com/prue.batten.writer I love to chat on Facebook on my professional page and my private wall.

www.pinterest.com/pruebatten I am a visual person. Pinterest is a vast visual resource for the medieval era and for my private interests.

Hmmm - I think I need to use pinterest a little more. I like visuals too.
What is your favourite genre?

Hist.fict and myth and legend-based fantasy.


How old where you when you first started writing?

Grade Three – so six?

What scene in your writing has made you laugh the hardest or cry the most?

Shall we go with cry? In Dorothy Dunnett’s Pawn in Frankincense, set in the court of Roxelana Sultan in Constantinople (16^th century), there is a chess game, with people as the pieces. As each move is won, so that person is put to death. Amongst the pieces are defenseless little children who are the keys to the plot of the story.

My heart was in my mouth the first time I read that piece. I sobbed at the end. Dunnett wrote more than twenty pages of agonizing pain and yet it is not once overly-emotive in its wordage. But the pathos hits one in the belly like a train. I have read that same piece time and again and whilst I no longer cry, I am in awe of Dunnett’s skill.

Do you believe in writers block?

No. I believe in slow periods which may be caused by outside influences. My advice is to write anything at all because this too shall pass.

Lastly, what advice can you give to other writers?

There are greater writers than me with far more eloquent words to say on the craft of writing. Google them.


Thank you for your time, Prue, it was an absolute pleasure to speak to you.