How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
I think it's too early to tell, though everything filters through eventually.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
Getting my books supported by book-selling chains. The chains are reducing their range of books in favour of greater quantities of titles they know they can sell, such as biographies of famous football stars or fashionable authors. This means that a lot of published books simply do not get into the chain shops at all. Since Waterstones took over Ottakars (in the UK) at the end of this year, the choice has become even narrower.
How do you deal with these?
I have no control over this.
What is your latest book about?
I am the Great Horse is the epic story of Alexander the Great, told from the point of view of his war-horse, Bucephalas. I first came across Alexander while researching my Seven Fabulous Wonders series. He was always there in the background, sometimes a hero, sometimes a villain. I knew I wanted to write a book about him, but didn't want it to be just another Alexander novelisation. The horse's viewpoint seemed obvious since I'm so keen on horses, and Bucephalas' "voice" came to me fully formed. He isn't meek and mild like Black Beauty... he's a battle-scarred war stallion with attitude!
How long did it take you to write it?
About five years. I wrote the first chapter from my memory of what I knew about Alexander, to capture Bucephalas' voice. Then I started collecting research material. During this time, I was still working on my Seven Fabulous Wonders books, so I was writing some of a Wonders book one day and researching Alexander the next. I used ancient Greek horsemanship books such as Xenophon's Art of Horsemanship, classics such as The Greek Alexander Romance, and two very good modern biographies of Alexander - Peter Green's Alexander of Macedon and Robin Lane Fox's Alexander. I also used my own experience of being a racehorse groom.
When I started writing, I researched the history in a lot more detail as I wrote the first draft, so that my first draft became a journey of discovery for me as much as it must have been for Alexander, keeping some of the excitement... I was determined to deliver my manuscript before Oliver Stone's film came out, and managed to do so in 2004, just a few weeks before its release. I then went to see the film and loved it.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!