It is with the greatest of pleasure that I welcome author, Alison Morton onto the Whispering Bookworm.
Exile – Living death to a Roman
AD 395. In a Christian Roman Empire, the penalty for holding true to the traditional gods is execution.
Maelia Mitela, her dead husband condemned as a pagan traitor, leaving her on the brink of ruin, grieves for her son lost to the Christians and is fearful of committing to another man.
Lucius Apulius, ex-military tribune, faithful to the old gods and fixed on his memories of his wife Julia’s homeland of Noricum, will risk everything to protect his children’s future.
Galla Apulia, loyal to her father and only too aware of not being the desired son, is desperate to escape Rome after the humiliation of betrayal by her feckless husband.
For all of them, the only way to survive is exile.
Book Title: EXSILIUM
Series: Roma Nova
Author: Alison Morton
Publication Date: 27 February 2024
Publisher: Pulcheria Press
Page Length: 364
Genre: Historical Fiction
Join me in a cosy chat with Alison.
What inspired you to start writing?
Throughout my working life I’ve written¬ – government papers, PR copy, corporate documentation, economic analyses, military reports, and lastly millions of words as a professional translator – but none of it was fiction. (Unless you count any of the work in the previous categories as made-up!)
Back in 2009, I saw a beautiful but terribly badly scripted film. I thought I could do better, so I started tapping away on my computer and produced 90,000 words in 90 days. It was a rough manuscript hot off the keyboard, but a story that had been brewing in my head for years. A woman hero, Romans, hidden heritage and bags of thrills and twists. After much refinement and me learning how to be a professional writer, INCEPTIO, the first book in the Roma Nova series, was published in 2013. Readers seemed to like it. ;-)
The books are set in the 21st and 20th centuries in an imaginary country, Roma Nova, which developed from a remnant of the Roman Empire that struggled its way through to the present. But they live by Roman values of toughness, law and technology, but with a difference ¬– women lead in many areas with an imperatrix at the top.
Eight more books in the series followed, then my readers started pushing me to write the origin story of Roma Nova, set back in the late 4th century. I was going to write just one book then leave it, but inevitably, there was too much story. JULIA PRIMA, set in AD 370, focused on the love story of two of Roma Nova’s founders. Now EXSILIUM takes us on the journey, mentally and emotionally, that led a group of Romans, including Julia’s daughters, to leave everything behind and to search for a new home.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
The first few scenes. I was emotionally wrung out after writing them!
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I loved being in the heads of all three narrators. Maelia has to face grief and the threat of confiscation and being thrown out of her home. She also distrusts her emotions. Even for a strong character, the threat of being alone without a male head of household in the Roman Empire was a daunting one; women had no political or legal power, and financial and economic capacity to act was often limited. Lucius is a confident, but thoroughly nice man, driven by duty although carrying a deep grief in his heart.
Galla is the one who stands out. She grows from a girl to a young married woman and mother and on to a capable and clever councillor and ultimately the one who will serve her new community with the highest responsibility.
If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
If you have Netflix’s number, please let me have it! If there was an unlimited budget for casting, I’d choose Rosamund Pike as Maelia, Anton Lesser as Lucius and Carey Mulligan as Galla.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
An urge to buy the rest of the series! More seriously, a little more knowledge of the Roman Empire in its last decades. Sadly, the late 4th century with its religious and political conflicts and how they impacted on people living at the time is little known. But a story is about the characters, how they manage their lives and make their decisions, so I hope I’ve entertained people as well as provoked a few thoughts about how we make decisions when the world around us can be so difficult.
Buy this Book
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her ten-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. The latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova.
She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit.
Website, World of Thrillers
Thank you so much for hosting EXSILIUM today. I loved talking about history, characters and Netflix possibilities!
ReplyDeleteYou are more than welcome.
DeleteThank you so much for hosting Alison Morton today. What a fabulous interview!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club
You are more than welcome.
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