Killing My Darlings--The Execution of Anne Boleyn

On May 19, 1536 at 9 a.m., Anne Boleyn was executed on the Tower Green by an expert swordsman imported from Calais in France.

The events leading up to this are complicated and far too numerous to go into here, but please check out the Anne Boleyn Files if you want to know more.  Today, I just want to talk about Anne.  And writing.

Miniature of Anne Boleyn, attributed to John Hoskins,
In the Collection of Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry 

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, talks about "killing your darlings".  This is the excision of characters/scenes/sentences/chapters that don't contribute to the forward motion of the story.  No matter how much you love them.  It's hard to kill your darlings.  That waiter who steals the single scene he's in, the lush description of a setting you never use, a chapter full of clever repartee that really has nothing to do with the plot.  But none of it is ever wasted.  If nothing else, you can blog about it later.

But what about actually killing off your beloved characters.  Or worse, knowing they are going to die?

I had a very difficult time writing TARNISH.  Especially the final few chapters.  Because--surprise surprise--Anne Boleyn chooses to pursue a relationship with King Henry rather than the man she loves.  Every single revision, I would get to those scenes and slow down. Stutter to a halt.  Rant and rail and rage.  And then make her do it anyway.  There's no getting around history.

You'd think I would have learned a lesson.  Unfortunately not.  My third book in the series covers the time period from 1533 through 1536, thus encompassing all of Anne's time as queen--and her execution.  The book is not about Anne.  She is not the narrator.  But still, every time I came to that fateful day in 1536, I slowed down.  Stuttered to a halt.  Ranted and railed and raged.

You see, over the course of writing TARNISH, I fell in love with Anne Boleyn.  With her cleverness and drive, her unique way of seeing the world and her desire to be part of changing it.  She was an amazing woman.  Truly, historically.  It's possible she was ambitious and manipulative.  It's possible that she could be ruthless.  But that doesn't mean I have to believe it or she wasn't an amazing person and a powerful influence on life in the 16th Century.

One of the reasons I love writing historical fiction is because I get to dive deep into the psychology and motivation of these incredible people.

And one of the reasons I struggle with it is because I already know the outcome.

For today, let's just say Rest in Peace, Anne.  You deserve it.

Two Months 'Til TARNISH Teaser

Thanks goodness for Jessica Spotswood, author of the brilliant BORN WICKED and upcoming STAR CURSED.  Our second books release on the same day, and I just noticed that Jess is celebrating today on her blog.  She's giving away some fabulous books (including her own!), so go check it out.

I've been in manic deadline mode, so I barely know what year it is, much less the date.  But when I saw Jessica's post, I had to do a little celebrating myself.  So I'm going to share with you a few behind-the-scenes snippets about TARNISH.

• My Anne Boleyn doesn't have a sixth finger.  She isn't a poisoner.  She doesn't sleep with her brother.  But she isn't boring.
• There is some love geometry.  Not exactly a triangle.  More like a...pentagon.  Fun stuff.
• It was especially fun to write Henry VIII as a charming, sexy younger man--more like Jonathan Rhys Meyers than Ray Winstone.
• Though all of my characters are based on actual people, my interpretation of them is influenced by people I've known or see around me.  Including ex-boyfriends, Benedict Cumberbatch and my husband.
• My playlist for this book included songs by No Doubt, Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men, Coldplay, the Spin Doctors, KT Tunstall and the Dave Matthews Band.
• I was terrified to write about Anne Boleyn.  But when the voice grabbed me on a long car journey, I couldn't say no.  I'm definitely a fangirl now.

And just because I feel like it, here's a little hint of that voice.  If you want to see more, check out the Tudor Tuesdays Blog Tour that will be run by A Glass of Wine beginning May 7 (the date of the GILT paperback release!) 

“Well, if it isn’t George’s little sister.”

The duchess jerks her gaze to find the speaker at the table of gamblers who have been slapping down cards and groats and boasts and bets at the far end of the room. And I whisper a blessing before I turn as well.

George looks how I feel, surprise glimmering for an instant on his face and then vanishing behind welcome. His hair is expertly tousled, his inky velvet doublet smooth and clean, his soft hands no indication of the dirt he gets into. He sits with Henry Norris, who appears to be paying more attention to my bustline than to the conversation around him. James Butler, my future spouse, is next to him, glowering, his hair thick and coarse over his beetling eyebrows. And at the far end of the table sits the speaker, dressed in green like a modern-day Robin Hood, his gold curls sporting a hint of red at the temples—the Kentishman from the king’s disguising.

He leaps from behind the table to approach me, moving with the hidden strength and lissome grace of a cat. I get the feeling this man will always land on his feet.

“Haven’t seen you since I broke my toe climbing the courtyard wall at Hever.”

I swallow a knot of vanity, and it sticks in my throat. Because he has seen me. He just doesn’t remember.

Or perhaps I just made no impression.

He stops and crosses his arms. Leans back and appraises me with his devastatingly blue eyes. He is still several strides from me, so we face each other like players on a stage, our audience all around us.

I glance at my brother, who expects my silence, and then back at this Robin Hood, who expects my response. He expects me to know him.

“Forgive me, sir. But I do not recognize you.”

He laughs.

“Thomas Wyatt.”

I do know him, or of him. His exploits are infamous in the maids’ chambers. Word is, he’s incomparable in bed. And he’s shared many. He’s a poet. An athlete. A miscreant.

“Your neighbor, from your days in Kent? We used to play naked in the fountain at my father’s castle at Allington. Without our parents’ knowledge, of course.”

He winks at me.

The other men laugh, and I hear a rustle of skirts and whispers from the duchess’s confederacy. I twitch a glance at George, who is glaring at me as if this man’s innuendos are somehow my fault. Wyatt smiles like a gambler who has laid down a hand full of hearts. I can’t let him get the better of me. I can’t let this man win.

“It’s no wonder that I don’t remember you, Master Wyatt, for we must have been much smaller.” I pause, blink once, and then open my eyes into blank innocence. “Though for all I know, some things might still be quite small.”

10 Reasons Why I Love British History

My first novel, GILT, will be published in the UK and Commonwealth on the 28th of February, and I'm celebrating this week with my love of Britain and British history.  And on Thursday, I'll be hosting a little blog party and giveaway (including chances to win the British paperback of GILT and an ARC of TARNISH!)

But today, I have to tell you why I'm such a history geek (though the reasons are countless, I've managed to nail down a few...)

10.  Blackadder.  History and quirky, irreverent British humor all rolled up into a sneering anti-hero, written by some of the funniest writers working today (Richard Curtis of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Rowan Atkinson, Ben Elton) and Britain’s best comedic actors (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and the fabulous Tony Robinson of Time Team).  I have a cunning plan to write a book starring Elizabeth I, just so I can have her say, “Who’s Queen?”

9.  Errol Flynn.  I know he’s Australian.  But my first introduction to history was through Robin Hood and Captain Blood and for years I expected history to be populated by handsome rogues. 

8.  Castles.  Crenellated walls, stone towers, clammy dungeons.  From motte and bailey structures of Norman England to the pretty, showy palaces of the Tudors.  I especially love the ruins—like Corfe Castle, destroyed by Parliament during the English Civil War.  There’s real history in those walls, my friends.

7.  British television costume dramas.  Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey, Vanity Fair, Call the Midwife…I could to on and on and on.  But that will have to be a blog post of its own.

6.  Archaeology.  After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist (but ended up studying cultural anthropology instead).  I totally dig Time Team.  And the recent discovery of Richard III’s bones in a Leicester car park?  Made.  My.  Year.

5.  Costumes.  I spent part of my college career studying costume design for the theater.  I love those flat Renaissance bodices, 1920’s dropped-waist dresses, the elegant lines of Edwardian fashions (think Mary in Downton Abbey), Marie Antoinette’s hair, Joan of Arc’s armor…

4.  Shakespeare.  Richard III is my favorite history play, though old Will put a lot of fiction into his historical fiction.

3.  Murder and mayhem.  Why does this entice us so?  The Gunpowder Plot.  The execution of Anne Boleyn and all of the men accused of treason with her.  The Blitz.  I think it’s because in the midst of all the violence and injustice, we see who we really are and what side we’d take.

2.  Romance.  Not necessarily in the Romeo and Juliet, boy-meets-girl sense, though I love that, too.  But in the chivalry of King Arthur, the beauty and humanism of the Renaissance, the way Windsor Castle looks from the far end of the Great Park.  Blake’s vision of romance.

1.  Characters.  Kings and queens and commoners.  Matilda, Henry V, Francis Drake, T. E. Lawrence, Emmeline Pankhurst, Oliver Cromwell, and, of course, Anne Boleyn.  Fascinating people who lived in fascinating times.  I love to find the story in history, and story is all about the characters.

Anne Boleyn

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago, Jaime Arnold over at Two Chicks on Books announced that Book 2 will be titled TARNISH and will be narrated by a young Anne Boleyn.  Jaime asks fabulous questions, so if you're interested in knowing a little more, please see the whole interview here.

One thing Jaime didn't ask was why?  Why Anne Boleyn?  If anything, I'm treading over already well-trodden ground with this character.  The number of biographies (by such greats as Eric Ives and Alison Weir) and historical novels (The Other Boleyn Girl, anyone? Not to mention the amazing Hilary Mantel) are daunting.  Plus innumerable extensive chapters in every history of Tudor times, from Starkey's Six Wives to books solely about Anne's daughter Elizabeth.  We know all of this already, don't we?

The decision was a daunting one.  Anne is iconic.  She fascinates - her charisma transcends 450 years.  It's not just the tragedy of her story that captures the imagination - not like Romeo and Juliet.  I believe it's her strength.  She was an opinionated, outspoken woman in a time when women were meant to be seen and not heard.  In a time when even queens (including Mary I) believed they should be ruled by their husbands, Anne Boleyn believed in telling her husband exactly what she thought - and sometimes disagreed with him when he did the same.  So not only would I be fictionalizing the life of a beloved figure, I had to be true to her spirit. (kind of like Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe or Katie Holmes playing Jackie Kennedy).

I have to admit, I was afraid.  I never intended to write a book about Anne.  But on a long drive one day, a voice came to me.  Not a Joan of Arc, "the saints are speaking to me" kind of voice.  But a fictional voice.  A strong, opinionated, snarky, emotional, teenaged voice.  The voice of a girl who speaks without thinking - often ending in regrets.  A girl who can love, but is afraid of it.  A girl who doesn't fit in, who isn't well-liked, but is, ultimately, likable.  Even lovable.  And once I started thinking in that voice, it wouldn't let me go.

I wanted to write a book about a girl who could become the tragic, iconic, lovable-hatable figure history has handed us.  And in the process, I, too, fell under her spell.

I'm still afraid.  I hope I do Anne's character justice.  I hope the other Anne Boleyn fans out there agree with my portrayal.  I hope, above all things, that I get it right.  Because I think she deserves it.