I have been introduced to so many fabulous historical fiction author since becoming a tour host with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Today it is with the greatest of pleasure that I was given the chance to interview historical fiction author Keira Morgan. But first, let's check out Keira's book!
Although the French court dazzles on the surface, beneath its glitter, danger lurks for the three women trapped in its coils as power shifts from one regime to the next. The story begins as Queen Anne lies dying and King Louis’s health declines. Their two daughters, Claude and young Renée, heiresses to the rich duchy of Brittany, become pawns in the game of control.
Countess Louise d’Angoulême is named guardian to both girls. For years she has envied the dying Queen Anne, the girls’ mother. Because of her family’s dire financial problems, she schemes to marry wealthy Claude to her son. This unexpected guardianship presents a golden opportunity, but only if she can remove their protectress Baronne Michelle, who loves the princesses and safeguards their interests.
As political tensions rise, the futures of Princess Renée and Baronne hang in the balance, threatened by Countess Louise’s plots.
Will timid Claude untangle the treacherous intrigues Countess Louise is weaving? Will Baronne Michelle and Claude outflank the wily countess to protect young Princess Renée? And can Claude find the courage to defend those she loves?
Praise for The Importance of Pawns:
Love, revenge, deceit, valour, struggle and bravery. These are the keystones of Keira Morgan’s fascinating new novel, The Importance of Pawns. Historical fiction at its best.
What inspired you to start writing?
I began writing less from inspiration than from a desire to escape reality. I was not an athletic child and found little pleasure in outdoor activities. Moreover, I hated being cold, and Canada has a lot of cold. I learned to read young and quickly became enchanted with the worlds I found between the covers of books. Soon tales of adventurous children like the brothers and sisters in Enid Blyton’s Adventure series and Rosemary Sutcliff’s stories about Roman legions and King Arthurian filled my imagination. I read and reread the books in their series until completely immersed in the characters, setting and time period. Historical novels became my favourites, because their worlds seemed furthest from boring everyday life. It was a small step to imagining myself in them..
After Grade One, I found school dull. We were not allowed to read after we’d finished the assigned task. In fact, the reward for working rapidly was more of the same boring activity. I became adept at secret daydreaming — what I called imagining.
I created new scenes in the book I was reading and wove myself into the plot as the heroine. After a time, I began to write down some of these “imaginings.” Even in my secret writing I wouldn’t use my own unusual name, which I hated, so I changed the heroine’s name to one I wished they had given me. Although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate the concept, the name change created a distance from myself, and my stories developed more independence from the book I had based it upon. But I rarely finished any stories, because I would get stuck somewhere, lose interest and abandon it. Still, that was how I began.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
I almost completed a doctorate in history. When my advisor died, the need to search for a new advisor made me face an unwelcome truth. I no longer cared about my dissertation topic or wanted a future as a professor. So, I jumped off the speeding train. Despite a few bruises, I have never regretted the decision.
This is not a digression. The time I served left me a marked woman. To create readable fiction, your characters must have compelling motivations and they must live in your readers’ imaginations.
Academics frown upon speculation. Unless your subjects specified their motivations, heaven help you if you suggest any. If your subjects did you the favour of explaining their reasons, a footnote after each sentence to prove you have not fabricated your claim drains the sparkle from a dazzling sentence. Chaining your writing to ‘only the facts’ is as confining to the creative imagination as wearing an electronic tracking device is to your physical liberty.
Moreover, as you may have acknowledged if you have perused scholarly articles when conducting your investigations, academics favour abstract constructs, the passive voice, and long, complicated sentences composed of much extraneous yet hackneyed prose, all pernicious habits to be avoided at all cost when devising comprehensible, stimulating narratives.
So, learning to write like a storyteller was the hardest part of writing this book.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
That is like asking a parent if they have a favourite child. Each of my characters has a special place, but each for a different reason.
Louise had a miserable childhood. Her mother died when she was only seven, her father abandoned her, and the aunt who was her guardian did not show her any affection. She survived by using her native intelligence, her undeniable beauty, and her willingness to learn the skills she believed she needed to prosper. She was a tigress as a mother. While her flaws do not make her likeable, she has virtues. Besides, she was a fighter. I admire that in her.
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| Louise de Savoy anonymous, Wikimedia Commons |
Baronne Michelle is steady, loyal, kind and good. She is intelligent too and extremely well educated, both of which were rarely rewarded qualities in the 16th century. And she has a solid ethical base, so she does not buckle when it would benefit her to do so.
But I cannot deny that I feel most for Claude. She suffers most. She is the poor little rich girl. Yes, she is the daughter of the king and queen and the richest heiress in all France. But she is plain and chubby and has a limp. Then as now, because she was plain, the man she loved did not notice, much less value, her sterling qualities. All the historical records agree that she was generous, soft-spoken, witty, charitable, intelligent, thoughtful, merciful, loyal, loving... I could go on. But she was shy and retiring, so she lived in the shadows then and still does today. She did not start as the heroine of the novel; she emerged. I believe that is how she lived her life.
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| Claude de France Corneille de Lyon, Wikimedia Commons. |
If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
Frankly, I know very little about movies or movie stars. To arrive at these castings, I spent a good deal of time searching the IMDb. So, I have little knowledge of these actresses and actors besides the short write-ups in the source. I used appearance and age, two prohibited grounds I believe, to make my choices. After reading the novel, I invite my readers to visit my website to message me about who would be better choices.
Maisie Williams for Claude — but she would have to make up to look young and plain
Carrie Mulligan for Louise
Glenn Close for Queen Anne
Vivian Lyra Blair for Princess Renée
Martin Freeman as King Louis
Tom Riley for King Francois
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
I hope that when readers finish the book, they have that satisfied feeling that the ending is perfect for the story — that it is both surprising and inevitable. When Claude faces difficult and painful situations, I want my readers to feel as she does because they have experienced problems like hers and have suffered too. When Louise behaves snobbishly, or underhandedly towards her victims, I want her behaviour to feel so real that my readers feel as angry, betrayed and frightened as her targets do. Yet when she talks with her son, I hope they admire her as he does. And I want my readers to be so immersed in the setting — the sound of galloping horses, the stink of Paris streets, or the taste of baked pigeon at a court feast — that they are there at the French Renaissance court.
If readers come away having learned something about what it was like to live at the period and what happened at the time without ever feeling that they were told what they should know, I will feel satisfied. And I hope they found the characters, events and flow of the story so absorbing they couldn’t put it down once they started reading. That is how I feel about books I love.
And I hope it leaves them wanting to know more. When I finished, it left me with questions. What caused the deep enmity between Anne and Louise? If Louise’s son was next in line to the throne, why was her husband so poor? My next novel will answer some of those questions.
I am eager to learn the questions my readers want answered after they finish The Importance of Pawns. I invite them to visit my website [https://kjmorgan-writer.com/] to ask!
Buy this Book
Keira J. Morgan
She also maintains a non-fiction website, All About French Renaissance Women, [https://www.keiramorgan.com] where she writes about the lives of Frenchwomen during the era. She plans to collect their biographies into a book.
Social Media Links:
Author Website • Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram
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