This month I've got a medieval writer joining me for a little conversation, Sophia Johnson. Sophia's new book, Midnight's Bride, completes her trilogy of spunky women and powerful men, with a little bit of magical mysticism as well. However, you'll have to read closely in this trilogy, because the first book was the third, and the second should have been first and the third should be rightly second. I think. Sophia will straighten it all out for us below!
Caroline: Share some about your research; where did the 'Bareserker' come from?
Sophia: My hero in Midnight's Bride is the bastard half-brother to the Laird of Blackthorn. He is half Scot, half Welsh and is infamous for his legendary temper and ferocity in battle. I wanted a name passed down through the centuries that would give you an idea what his battle temper was like.
The Old Norse word for these men is berserkr, "a wild warrior", and one of the 'quasi-original' words for berserker: Baresark.
In pre-Christian Scandinavia, berserkers were members of a cult connected with Odin, the god of warriors. These men fought without needing armor, and when the berserker rage was upon a man, he was thought of as part man, part beast, neither fully human nor fully animal. Some called them were-bears or werewolves.
Mereck lost control and became like this especially if a child or woman were being mistreated.
Caroline: Your heroine poses as a maid (and other things) to avoid a marriage she doesn't want; why did you choose that tactic for her?
Sophia: Women had no control over who they married. I'd like to think there were women with spunk who would think of ways to rid themselves of unsuitable grooms, outside of poison, of course. Netta has many times tried different things to send horrified men scrambling across the drawbridge racing for home. The tale begins where her current suitor is older than her own father. Believing she has the perfect way to send him packing, she stuffs pillows under her tunic and waddles like she's about to drop a bairn at any moment. She sneaks down to the great hall to meet her current loathsome suitor. Unfortunately, her father finds her. He drags her to her room and locks her in. When she is in her bath, he cracks open the door and shoves the toothless, straggle-haired man into the room. When he spies the lovely Netta in all her soapy nudity, he blubbers and lurches eagerly toward her. As he nears the tub, he promptly leaves this world, slithering to the floor like a cracked egg.
Furious, her father decrees that Netta marry the first man through the barbican. The next morn, she sees a giant of a savage below talking to her father. He wears a blood-stained hide tunic with wolf skins about his shoulders as casually as her father would wear a fine tunic and cloak. Blue dye covers one side of his face and leather bands are around his arms. His long hair is unkept and knotted, and a tangled beard covers his lower face.
She isn't about to wait around. She trades clothing with her maid and flees to her friend at a nearby castle. Her friend is going to the Highlands, so it is the perfect means to escape what she believes will be a marriage that can only end in her death. When they depart for their journey, she doesn't recognize their escort Mereck as the bloodied barbarian, because he has bathed, scrapped off his beard and changed into normal attire.
Caroline: Well, you doesn't appreciate a man who cleans up well?
You portray medieval England and Scotland in all their primitive, muddy glory. What about that setting draws you?
Sophia: I've always been interested in medieval history, especially the eleventh century. I try to stay as near accurate as possible, but who would read a romance book that portrayed life as it really was? I started the trilogy having a lot more history in it, but author friends convinced me to take most of it out and use history as wallpaper. I had to take a lot of reality out, too, in order to sell to the romance market. I've often thought I should have kept to the historical side and sold it as historical fiction instead of romance.
For instance, men had lemans (mistresses) all the time, mostly living in the keep with them. They didn't give a rat's tookus whether their wife liked it or not. The men populated the castle with their bastards and no one thought anything of it. Also, in romance novels, you can't have the normal violence of the day in the story—you know, men got angry and took off another man's head without blinking. Have you read Timeline by Michael Crichton? He did all those things and more, and readers loved it. In fact, they loved it so much it became a movie. *sigh*
Caroline: And that's whay there's Netlix. There are some recurring characters in this book from your previous books; care to straighten out all the relationships and how the books relate?
Sophia: The way I wrote the Blackthorn Trilogy, Always Mine started the tales. It introduced Damron of Blackthorn, his bastard half-brother Mereck, his cousin Connor, and ConnorŐs sister Meghan. It's Damron and Brianna's story. Many readers have been intrigued with the mystic Bleddyn. Always Mine started with a Prologue where Bleddyn calls Brianna's matured soul back from the present century to medieval times to relive her life with Damron. It includes a lot of scenes with the mystic and is the most poignant story.
Midnight's Bride came next, and is Mereck and Netta's story. It takes place mostly at Blackthorn Castle. Connor is a strong secondary character, so it includes his love life as well. Connor was such a fun-loving, sweet man I had to find a docile mate for him. Mereck's story was a hoot to write, because Netta demanded a lot of humor to tell the tale. You'll love her idea of marital sex.
The third book is Risk Everything about Meghan and Rolf. Of the three, this was the most intense and hardest story to write. It had to be intense, because the two had loved each other for many years. But when Rolf thought Connor was responsible for Rolf's wife and son's death, he could only get his revenge by destroying the one person in the world he loved.
In fact, Meghan's story is so intense Kensington wanted to put her story out there first, so that's why they were published out of sequence.
Caroline: Ahhh, now I get it. So, share: who was your inspiration for Mereck?
Sophia: Viggo Mortensen. His hair is too dark for Mereck's, but that's all right. His portrayal of Aragorn is closest to what I pictured Mereck, especially when Viggo was scruffy. And I don't usually like men who are not groomed. I think a good looking man in a tuxedo or tails is beyond sexy, so a scruffy man has to be spectacular to get my eye.
Caroline: And Viggo certainly is spectacular…ahem. What are you working on now?
Sophia: The Raptor Series. There are four books in all, with characters introduced the same way as I did the trilogy, each book introducing characters in the rest of the series. But each book will stand alone as a particular couple's story.
The first is Forbidden. The main characters are Ranald of Raptor Castle on the border of Scotland, and Catalin of Hunter Castle in Northumbria. Its plot is very intense. Next comes Seduced, with Ranald's cousin Raik and Catalin's friend Letia. This plot is deep, also, and has been hard to write. Third is Ruthless, featuring a mysterious woman from Forbidden as the main character, a Highlander name Magnus who's been searching for her since the beginning of Forbidden, and other characters from both books. I haven't started it, but I have written the synopsis…
The last book is Fulfilled. This features Ranald's young sister Elyne and Graemme, Magnus's younger brother. As in Midnight's Bride, humor has taken over on this one. I've written the first 95 pages and am having fun.
And, yes, I hope to get these published in the right sequence.
Caroline: Sounds great, Sophia! Thanks so much for coming by and sharing that Viggo picture. And giving us the scoop on all your books, of course.
You can find Midnight's Bride in bookstores everywhere this month, and don't forget to look for Risk Everything and Always Mine from Sophia, too!
Return to the Contest page and enter to win something from Sophia!
