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Sara,
congratulations on the publication with Avon of your new
novel. Can you give prospective readers a glimpse of
what they can look forward to when settling down to read
The Lily and the Sword?
Sure!
The Lily and the Sword is a medieval romance, set
in the dark days just after the Norman Conquest. The
Sword is Lord Radulf, a Norman knight who has been
ordered by the king to put down rebellion in the North
of England. The Lily is an English lady, the widow of
the rebel Vorgen, who is fleeing for her life.
Radulf,
who believes Lily to be an evil, manipulating she-devil,
catches up with her, but doesn’t realise this is the
woman he has been pursuing. Lily knows who Radulf is,
but discovers he’s not the frightening monster she
feared. They fall in love. And then Radulf learns who
Lily really is . . .
How
did the story and the characters in The Lily and the
Sword first come to mind?
I
wrote a story that I would love to read. I think that’s
what writers do, isn’t it? I can’t see how a writer
could write something they hated, you just couldn’t do
it. So I wrote one of my favourite stories, about
enemies who fall in love and then have to sort out their
problems. Radulf is my favourite kind of hero, strong
but wounded, tough but vulnerable, and Lily is a gentle
lady who bends but never breaks.
How
did you research the time around 1070 for The Lily and
the Sword?
When
I was in England on holiday, many years ago, I spent
some time in York, and the North of England, so I had a
picture of it in my mind. Then, of course, I had to find
out how things looked in 1070. I did research on the
political situation, and the way people lived, how they
felt, how they thought. I do most of my research from my
own collection of books, or my local library, and some
from the internet. I know the internet can be a
wonderful tool for research, but there’s still
something about holding a book in my hands that I find
hard to beat.
What
about history draws you to write romances set in the
past?
I
don’t really know. I’ve always loved history, any
sort of history, whether it’s the story of a building,
a place or a person. I’m the sort of person who would
love to take part in an archaeological dig, or would be
perfectly happy spending days in a library tracking down
a single historical detail. I find it fascinating to
dream about how our ancestors lived, what they felt, how
they loved. And writing historical romances is a bit
like time travelling. You can put yourself (through your
characters) back into the time periods you are most
interested in. You can be there - and still have all the
mod cons.
Can
you tell us what a day writing consists of for you?
My
days vary, but usually I’ll try to start writing
around ten, after I’ve been for a walk or done my
shopping or whatever else needs doing. Then I try and
write through to three, when I have to pick up my
daughter from school (my son’s school is close enough
for him to walk home). After school there are music
lessons or sport or visits to the doctor/dentist,
whatever. I sometimes don’t get back to the computer
at all, but if I am on a deadline, or at a stage in the
story where I really want to keep writing, I’ll go
back to the keyboard in the evening. When I’m nearing
a deadline and running late (which is most of the time)
I can write until early morning, but I try not to do
this too often.
Can
you tell us how your writing career developed?
I’ve
been writing for a very long time. As a child I used to
make up stories, and as I grew older the stories got
better. Being a writer is all I have ever wanted to do,
but I didn’t imagine I could make a career out of
writing. So I went to school and wrote in my spare time,
and I went to work and wrote in my spare time, and I had
a family and wrote in my spare time.
My first success
was a short story published in the Australian Women’s
Weekly, and that was a big thrill. I was 17 and I think
they paid me about $250, but it seemed like a fortune to
me. I remember, when I opened the acceptance letter, my
parents were there, laughing and hugging me, and my
sister-in-law happened to arrive and, hearing the
racket, ran in. Next thing she was screaming and hugging
me, too. I don’t think I realised until then just how
much support I was getting from my family. Believe me,
it was a memorable moment!
What
do you enjoy most about your writing career?
The
feedback, when it’s good. Doing what I love doing and
actually being paid for it!
What
helps you to write?
Peace
and quiet! Unfortunately I don’t seem to get much of
that, so I’ve had to learn to write when I can. When
the children were very young, I used to write at the
kitchen table with one hand, while I held a baby in the
other arm. Music is good - for some reason each book I
write seems to have a different set of songs as its
theme. I don’t know why, but if it helps I do it!
Avon
has an email group that has been a tremendous help, and
I get to talk to all those authors who were just famous
names on books before I became an Avon Lady myself. RWA,
also, has been a wonderful help to me. In a roundabout
way, it was RWA who decided me on trying to write for
the US market. I was a mentor in their Isolated Writers
Scheme, and the writer I was mentoring was looking to
the US single title romance market. I began reading
those books to try and understand what she was aiming
at. I should mention the camaraderie at RWA, too -
writing is such a lonely profession, and although you
have your non-writing friends and family they don’t
really get it, do they?
Is
it possible to chart some of the causes for changes in
direction or genre you have made?
After
writing a number of truly awful books, I was fortunate
enough to have a manuscript accepted by Mills &
Boon, in London. I wrote for them for some years, five
books in all, under the name Deborah Miles.
In the early
1990s, I felt as if I had run dry when it came to
category romance - I was pushing the boundaries and
neither of us was happy. I really wanted to try
something different. I sent a partly finished manuscript
called The Glass House to Pan Macmillan, a story
that I had been working on for years, and it happened to
be just what they were looking for. I was offered a
contract for two books with them, and later I moved to
Random House.
I wrote five books for the mainstream
market under the name Lilly Sommers, and learned a great
deal about writing and publishing. Perhaps, most
important of all, I learned to be disciplined and write
within the publisher’s guidelines, and yet still write
from the heart.
I
think one of the major things I have learned about
myself, is that I really enjoy writing romance. It is
what I do best. When my contract with Random House ran
out, and it came time to find another publisher, I
realised I was ready to return to romance.
At that time,
I was reading lots of romance from the USA, and found I
particularly enjoyed those published by Avon. The US
single title romance market is very different to the
Australian mainstream market-so much to learn! But I
felt as if I had to try, even if I failed. I wrote The
Lily and the Sword and sent the first three chapters
to Avon. Again, I was lucky. Micki Nuding read those
chapters, loved them, and asked for the full manuscript.
Since then, I have written a second book, The Rose
and the Shield, due out in September, and am
currently writing a third book, due out in May next
year. I have even written a new book for Mills &
Boon in London, after ten years of silence on the
Deborah Miles front. So I suppose, in a way, I’ve come
full circle, but the choices have been mine and I am
very happy with the direction my career is taking me.
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The
Lily and the Sword
Sara
Bennett is an
Australian who lives in an old house in
an old gold rush town in the state of
Victoria. She is married to an
accountant and they have two children
who are growing up all too quickly. The
household is ruled by three cats, who
all arrived without an invitation and
decided to stay, and a dog who believes
it’s a person.