T K Roxborogh Part 2: Blood, Sweat and Tears

As promised here's the long awaited second part of my interview with T K Roxborogh, New Zealand author of Banquo's Son and Blood Lines. Here she talks about the challenges of writing a trilogy and offers some advice for the aspiring writer.


PART 2: BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS

DragonsPen: So T K, let's talk about trilogies. Having written stand alone novels and now a trilogy, would you say there is a big difference between the two when it comes to the writing process?

TK: Yes. Firstly, if everyone loves the first book, you have to make the second one at least as good as the first. There is that expectation now. You need the book to be complete in itself so that your reader is looking forward to the next one but is also satisfied. You don't want them to throw it across the room. You have go from who the character is and take them to another place, to who they will become. You can't just start with a fresh canvas. There is that pressure to get it right, to remain consistent. You have to keep the continuity.

DP: What would you say are the unique challenges of writing a trilogy and how did you overcome them?

The challenge was to make sure that this whole story – which is the trilogy – had a beginning, a middle and an end. So that at the end people will have tears in their eyes and go … “Ohhhh!” and then they'll live happily ever after. Though Bree will probably be growing up and making a real nuisance of herself somewhere. I haven't written the third book yet but I think that, by thinking about that story arch the whole way through, we'll get everything sewn up. I keep copious notes and there are lots of threads that need to be tied up. You don't introduce stuff if it's not going to be important to character development.

DP: What have been the high and low points in the writing of this trilogy?

TK: The high point was Banquo's Son being short listed for the Children's Book awards, being short listed for LANZA and winning the LANZA. That was wonderful.

The low points have been the sheer hard work: to make yourself sit there when you don't want to and you have to and it's long, tedious and boring. When you know what you're writing isn't good enough but you have to keep going because you have to at least have something you can work on. That's the hard thing.

DP: You told us at the launch that you had a year to write the book, but you wrote the first 60,000 words and had to scrap them, was that the lowest point for you?

TK: I think at that time we, as a family, were going through a really difficult time and I had to not beat myself up about that. We were already in the place of grieving and being angry, we were involved in legal matters and financially it was taking its toll. I know my publisher was worried I wasn't going to do the job. She was worried I was going to tip over the edge. I almost did. The stress of everything the family was going through, continuing to teach, the pressure of trying to write and trying to market the first book. It was a really hard time.

DP: Given all these pressures it is amazing that you managed to produce the book you did, Blood Lines is great!

T.K: I wonder if some of the deeper considerations in the book are because I personally went to some pretty dark places. I was pretty angry with God. I knew I was going to test Rachel, to send her to a pretty dark place. There is a quote on page 41. I had been going through this thing, asking “why, why, why?” And I wrote this almost automatically, so I don't really feel that this came from me.

The dowager's words came to mind. They had spoken often over the last month but always Rachel had tried to grasp an answer to this question of why.

“This is a dangerous question to ask, Rachel. For, after each answer, another question surfaces just like a weed in the garden. If you depend on knowing why, a good life, one that can makes a difference in this world, will be taken from you just as those weeds drain the goodness from the soil, leaving the plant gasping. If you why is to do with human behaviour, you must look only to the story of The Garden on Eden: why? Because someone had a choice and their choice has caused you pain.”

I finished writing that and I was sobbing. That was an answer for me. It didn't take away the pain but it stopped me thinking that I'd done something wrong. When I wrote Banquo's Son, I prayed every time I wrote. For Bloodlines, I didn’t because I was so angry with God, and yet the message is still there.

DP:What is the best piece of writing advice you've been given?

T.K: There are two things:

The first one is to do with the mechanics of writing. Bum Glue. Persistence. Not giving up. Go out there, do the hard yards. Just DO!

The other one is simple: Show don't tell. I see it creeping in, even in my drafts and I'll put a little highlighter to remind me to come back. Don't tell me that he is feeling guilty. I want to see it! Don't tell me she is cross. I want to see it!

I think it's really good to be part of a group of writers who are honest and supportive of you. People who have your back and want to see you succeed.

Writing is hard. I don't believe there are any born writers. You might be a great story teller but you still need to learn the craft of writing.

DP: So there you have it folks. Thank you so much TK for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. It's been fun! Congratulations too on how well Blood Lines is doing and we look forward to the next installment.

Chatting with T K Roxborogh, Part 1

Recently I blogged about the launch of New Zealand author T K Roxborogh's latest book BLOODLINES. At that time I promised I'd soon be posting excerpts of an interview with her.

Yesterday I enjoyed a couple of hours chatting with T K about books, authors, writing in general and, more personally, her writing journey and her trilogy. She's a lovely lady and shared quite openly about the difficulties she faced in producing Bloodlines (but you'll have to wait until the next installment to learn more about that *teaser*).

I'm going to post the interview in two parts. In this post, Part 1: Writing History (sort of...), we talk about the books and writing in general. Next time, in Part 2: Blood, Sweat and Tears we'll be talking about writing trilogies and T K will share with us some good writing advice. So do up your seat belts, here we go!


PART 1: WRITING HISTORY (sort of...)

DragonsPen: Hi Tania! Thanks so much for agreeing to chat with us about your books and writing in general.

TK: Hi!

DP: My first question is one I like to ask every person I know who writes, and that is:What is it about writing that really gets you? Why do you write?

TK: I really like reading. I love stories. I get these stories and these characters in my head. I think it's a bit on a knock on effect in that I wrote a story, someone really liked it, that gave me a buzz and then more stories came. I discovered writing was something I was quite good at and something that I could work on getting better at. Because it becomes easier (HAHA) I don't block the stories. The trilogy aside, I have lots and lots of stories in my head.

DP: You have had quite a few books published previous to Banquo's Son, haven't you?

TK: Yes. Twenty-five or twenty six. Most of them were designed to be used in schools. My first published work was a text book for drama teachers and I wrote little Shakespearean skits and they were published. Then I wrote couple of novels. I got a publisher who was very supportive and I made a name for myself. Because I was a secondary school teacher, the stuff I was writing really appealed to teachers and so my name got known and it flowed on from there.

DP: Do you think being already well known in this way helped you when it came to approaching a publisher with Banquo's Son?

TK: Absolutely. Vicki, my publisher, was already familiar with my work and full of praise for me. She had moved to Penguin and kept saying to me “I want to publish you” which was really wonderful. So I sent in something – a novel called G Force that I wrote when I was on residency at Otago - she didn't like it! That really annoyed me.

At that time I had this idea that I'd just scribbled down. Fleance's story. It was her passion and excitement that made me shelve all the other things I'd been going to do and start on Banquo's Son.

It was only going to be one book deal until I got to know the characters quite well and I realised that I'd created more problems for Fleance than I had room to solve in one book.

I've done the hard yards. I've been writing and publishing for fifteen years. It's not as though I've just become an over night success. I think in part it's being available to be involved in writing workshops and making myself available. It's in making a name out there, like you're doing with your blog. The online community is really, really helping people getting to know each other and supporting new writers.

DP: In a way Fleance's story is a 'sequel' to Macbeth. What was it that sparked or inspired the idea?

TK: About three of four years ago when I was reviewing for the ODT I reviewed a John Marsden book called Hamlet, the novel. In that review I said “Hmmm, it makes me want to dust of my plans to write a sequel to Macbeth”.

And then, I had this dream where I could see Fleance. I knew him who he was. I knew he was hiding but I didn't know why. I knew that there was a ghost or someone dangerous in the woods with him. It's like you get an image of something and you go, “I wonder what's going on here? Why is he here? Who was he staying with? How did he get there? Why is he not in Scotland? Why is he in England?

So I was thinking, if I'm going to say Fleance becomes King, how is that going to happen? How is he going to go from the Northern woods of England to Scotland? What is going to spur him and motivate him? As I started asking those questions the story came to me very quickly.

When I was about half way through the book, Vicki suggested that we make it a trilogy. So what I had to do then was to make three story arches. So I did the one, over-arching arch, from the beginning to the end of the trilogy, and then considered the story arches for each of the three books.

At the start, I had no idea what was going to happen in the third book. I was getting an idea of what might happen in the second book but I wasn't quite sure because I hadn't finished writing the first book. Things can often come up unexpectedly.

I have an idea of what my main characters are going to do but I have no control at the moment over the other minor characters. And I have a feeling that a couple of them are very dodgy and that some others are going to become very important. They haven't shown themselves to me yet but I'm sensing that they're there.

DP: One of the things that was very cool in Blood Lines was the intrigue you had going on. There were a few characters who you were never quite if sure they were really good or not. That was really great.

How scary was it for you to try to bring the historical figures, like Harold and William, to life? I know I 'd be really nervous of putting my stamp on a historical figure.

Well, yeah, but it's so long ago. One of my students gave me a CD of the History of Scotland by an archaeologist. It went from about 300AD but, dammit, missed the whole area that I'm writing. It jumped from 1020 to 1240 or something like that. Still, it was a great thing to watch,

Also, we have the Bayou Tapestry and a few others things like the Doomsday Book (which is, unfortunately, after the time I’m writing) and archaeological digs but that's all really. It was just so long ago. The written word was very laborious because it was before the printing press, but it's very hard to pick out the personality of man from these records. For example, it's well known - and backed up by the Bayou tapestry and other writings - that William the Conqueror had very long arms and very big hands and he was quite short. So, I have used such detail in some of the description of my story.

There is a measure of freedom. I try to imagine what a character is wearing? Is she wearing woollen garments? For instance, if I was her and I'm feeling unwell, how would that cloth feel against my skin?

DP: How long did it take you to write the first book, Banquo's Son?

TK: Three months.

DP: No way!

TK: I wrote the synopsis in September, a month later I began writing. Two months later I'd written 106,000 words. I was also teaching and marking NCEA in that time as well.

(I think my jaw was hitting the floor at this point :P)

TK: I really did nothing but write.

DP: How do you fit it all in? You're a wife, a mum, you teach full time. How do you find time to write?

TK: The kids are teenagers and I expect a bit of independence. I'll still cook and stuff like that but I don't mollycoddle my children. I don't garden and the dusting might get done occasionally. Plus, I type very fast. We all, particularly women, have something that we do. Some people knit and others have groups they attend.

DP: I'm curious ... who is your favourite character?

TK: In the first book, the one I killed. Duncan. I cried. After I killed him I said to Vicki, “I've changed my mind.”

At the moment, in the trilogy, I really like Henri. He intrigues me. I still haven't fully figured him out yet. I think he reminds me of me because I say the wrong thing or the right thing at the wrong time. Henri doesn't give a shit about procedure and protocol especially if he sees it as being pompous, but he isn't perfect. He gets it wrong. He can recognise when he has over stepped the mark.

DP: It's obvious in reading Blood Lines that you have done a lot of research in order to write the book. Which scene was your favourite to write?

TK: The nits! I had to research what natural remedies they would have used at that time. There were two things. Britain and Scotland used bacon fat and ash. That root, which is the method in the book, was used in Europe. It's made into a paste and had a sting to it.

The other scene I liked writing was where Rachel was getting the clothes off the dead bodies. I know, it's terrible. It's all the gross stuff that's the most fun to write.

DP: I have to admit I love the hard, gory stuff too. Thanks for sharing Tania!

Everyone join us again soon for the next installment!