Blog | Alison Morton's Thrillers

Writing a prequel - revealing secrets

AURELIA, the fourth Roma Nova thriller, is out in the world now and drawing lovely compliments and reviews in the UK and from the US. Keep ‘em coming!

One question I’ve been asked as a guest on blogs during May is why the story of Aurelia Mitela, and why the 1960s?

Two things, really. Firstly, we meet Aurelia as an older woman in INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO and as I was writing her scenes I found myself becoming fascinated by her common sense, toughness and her loneliness. In INCEPTIO, Karen struggles to visualise her grandmother Aurelia twenty plus years before as a military commander leading a unit to retake a war-torn city. And then there’s the mystery of Aurelia’s single life – there is no husband, lover or companion in the family circle or memory, yet she is Karen’s grandmother. Plenty to chew on there.

Secondly, I wanted to write about the terrible events twenty-three years before INCEPTIO that scarred Conrad – the heroine’s love interest in the first three books – and threatened the destruction of Roma Nova itself. AURELIA is the first of the three books dealing with that period.

And the 1960s? Well, to see Aurelia as a woman in her mid to late twenties, I had to set the story when she was that young. It was a fascinating period to research.

When writing a series, one of the biggest pluses is being able to develop characters, especially as they get older, change their ideas and take a more mature view on life. You can also introduce another generation which both freshens the stories and brings additional conflict for the original characters. Readers tell me they love plunging back into Roma Nova and seeing what has happened to their favourite character since the last book.

Writing a prequel is quite a discipline because we know where it has to end! On the other hand, if you’ve laid a few clues in previous books, you can reveal past secrets and expand backstory. As a reader, I love finding out what happened to favourite characters in the past.

The other benefit is that you can draw contrasts between that period and now, especially social and technological changes; I had to remind myself about overt chauvinism, faxes and telex! You can also nudge history along at the same time. For instance, the police in Carina’s time are called the custodes, literally ‘guardians’. In Aurelia’s 1960s, they’re called vigiles, the traditional Roman name for law enforcement officers. So what happened for the name to change after nearly 1500 years?

Well, you’ll have to read the next book to find out…

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. The fourth book, AURELIA, is now out.

Find out Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways by signing up for her free monthly email newsletter.

Rossiter Books - an evening of writing alternatively and fun!

Liesel Schwarz and I had such a fun evening last Thursday in Ross-on-Wye enthusing with a great audience about steampunk and alternative history that we haven’t been able to stop talking about it!

Very well attended, there was even had a 13-year old aspiring author who came up and ask us about writing which, as Liesel says, is “always awesome”.

And we had wine and cake – key factors to success!

Andy Rossiter, the owner gave a brief introduction. After a bit of background about ourselves and and our books, we spoke about writing in extraordinary settings; enticing the reader to share those different worlds was an enjoyable challenge. Liesel had found her inspiration in two characters arguing in a London Tube carriage; mine came from Roman mosaics, then clicked decades later after listening to bad dialogue in a terrible film. I thought I could do better.

Making the imaginary world consistent and keeping it plausible for the reader are the twin guidelines for success world building in science fiction and fantasy; ditto for historical fiction.

In these days of fast reading, authors should write succinctly without inflicting pages of description or over-detailed explanation – inelegantly called the info dump – on the reader.

In answer to a question on how to keep hold of the alternative world, I simply replied that I lived in Roma Nova. Well, in my head, anyway. 😉

We both admitted to the blank stare moments, when ideas were bubbling away in a soup of brain cells and imagination. Liesel retains her ideas better than I do; I’m the “write a note at 3 a.m.” type of writer if an idea pops into my mind.

Smiles and nodding heads as we spoke were very encouraging and the questions that followed about writing inspirations (Robert Harris’s Fatherland was one of mine), airships, strong heroines and Rome were proof we hadn’t bored the audience.

And as we signed books afterwards, the questions still came. Nothing is more pleasurable for a writer than talking about books and writing to engaged readers.

With Christina Courtenay, Andy Rossiter and Liesel Schwarz

With RNA Chair Christina Courtenay, Andy Rossiter and Liesel

In Hollywood Oscar-award style, I’d like to thank the Rossiter Books team who made the evening flow so well. For several weeks before, Carol, the events manager, had been in frequent email contact with me about the practical, PR and marketing aspects and I truly valued her consistent guidance.

The courtesy and warmth of our welcome made us feel at home from the moment we walked into the shop. Everything was beautifully organised; Andy, the owner, and Richard, the manager, couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful if they’d tried.

As you can see from the photos, it’s a beautiful shop. If you’re in the area, go and find out for yourself…

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. The fourth book, AURELIA, is now out.

Find out Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways by signing up for her free monthly email newsletter.

Speaking at Foyles Bristol

With Debbie Young and Liesel Schwarz at Foyles

With Debbie Young (ALLi) and Liesel Schwarz at Foyles

Never have your event on the sunniest and balmiest evening of the year! We were a small, but select, group that met in Bristol Foyles to talk about ‘Writing Alternatively’.

We had the most fascinating conversations about steampunk, alternative history, constructing a completely artificial world and enticing the reader into it.

Chatting with a reader

After a glass of wine, and some chatting with readers and colleagues including Helen and Emily from SilverWood Books, we got down to business!

Both steampunk and alternative history stories are reversals of standard ideas; Roma Nova is essentially Roman which in the ancient world was strongly patriarchal, but by the 21st century developed an ‘egalitarian plus’ society. Steampunk mirrors the late Victorian/Edwardian world, but where technology and engineering are steam-powered and society still based on traditional values. Readers enjoy following characters acting out the story rather than wading through long descriptions; this is the challenge for authors today, particularly for authors being extra inventive or even alternative.

Liesel and I stressed the need to weave our ‘world building’ into our books; setting must be reflected by the characters, their actions and the effect they have on that world, and vice versa. We need to remember to keep the stories and their world plausible and consistent and do this by making the characters’ lives natural within that world.

Goodness knows what I was saying!

Then we passed on to strong women characters whom we had given multiple problems – personal conflict, professional struggles and inner flaws and sometimes severe lack of judgement, but women who drove the plot forward and toughed it out. Historical and background research was essential for writing in steampunk and alternative history genres. You have to get your facts and historical logic a hundred per cent correct to maintain plausibility.

We were finished with mentioning our latest books (*coughs*). Liesel’s Sky Pirates ins now out in paperback. I expect you’d expect me to say this but I will anyway – it’s a rattling good read! It’s the third in the Chronicles of Light and Shadow and features, of course, a strong female protagonist.