Ask the Author: Sarah Ash
Answered Questions (5)
Sarah Ash
Hello, Rowan - and thank you so much for taking an interest in the Artamon trilogy (very much in my mind at the moment as I'm checking proofs for Book 4!) You're absolutely spot-on about the Russian vibe for the names (and the place names too) for the characters who come from Azhkendir and Muscobar. Nearly all their names come from historical documents or folk and fairy tales from Russia/Eastern Europe. Sadly, I haven't visited Russia or Eastern Europe but I've drawn on my travels to some off-the-beaten-track parts of Europe and some rugged mountainous country (getting snowed in in the Spanish Pyrenees for a couple of days)... I wrote one or two pieces for the publisher's blog when the books were first published - and I'll plan to reprint them on my website when Book 4 launches.
Sarah Ash
This is not so easy to reply to as favorites can come and go, according to new discoveries and coup de coeurs. I would probably still choose Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth from Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' as an enduring favorite relationship. Anne is a very relatable character; persuaded, against her wishes, to break off her engagement with Frederick Wentworth by her snobbish relations, she finds herself in her late twenties, unmarried, face-to-face with her onetime fiance, now a successful and eligible captain. But other potential partners - more young and attractive than spinster Anne - are showing a keen interest in the captain. Anne 's realization that she still harbors feelings for him make for a painful but believable narrative from the ever-subtle and observant Jane Austen.
Sarah Ash
(Ah, Em-nat, I see what you’ve done there – that’s three questions! (^_~) But all of them good ones...)
The truth is (this is not a cop-out, honest!) that I find it very hard to pick out one favorite above all the others (just like a mother with many children, or a teacher with a class of thirty-five to look after.) It also depends which novel I’m working on, because at the time those people shout the loudest for attention.
The Character(s) the Most Fun to Write - The Artamon Series
Lilias Arbelian – adventuress and unscrupulous social climber. Lilias has used her looks and (twisted) personality to become the mistress of the ruler of Azhkendir, Lord Volkh. She’s even convinced him that the child she is carrying is his – when the real father is someone who bears him a terrible grudge. Lilias’s self-serving machinations and her indomitable will to survive make her a joy to write. It’s impossible not to feel a certain admiration for her – but her increasingly outrageous behavior (and seeming lack of maternal feelings) never cease to astonish and perplex. Will she ever get her just deserts? (She hopes she will, of course, in terms of money and status...)
The Character Loved for Their Personality - The Artamon Series
Prince Eugene of Tielen – and would-be emperor – has an insatiable zest for life. A campaigning soldier at heart, he also has a genuine desire to bring the benefits of enlightenment and education to the countries he invades. He is eager to use the latest advances in scientific weaponry to boost his ambitions but is not averse to using the alchymical skills of his chief Ingenieur, Magus Kaspar Linnaius. Having lost his wife in childbirth, he cherishes his young disabled daughter Karila – but on the field of battle, he is a ruthless and skilled strategist, determined to restore the ancient empire of Artamon.
More will follow at a later date...
The truth is (this is not a cop-out, honest!) that I find it very hard to pick out one favorite above all the others (just like a mother with many children, or a teacher with a class of thirty-five to look after.) It also depends which novel I’m working on, because at the time those people shout the loudest for attention.
The Character(s) the Most Fun to Write - The Artamon Series
Lilias Arbelian – adventuress and unscrupulous social climber. Lilias has used her looks and (twisted) personality to become the mistress of the ruler of Azhkendir, Lord Volkh. She’s even convinced him that the child she is carrying is his – when the real father is someone who bears him a terrible grudge. Lilias’s self-serving machinations and her indomitable will to survive make her a joy to write. It’s impossible not to feel a certain admiration for her – but her increasingly outrageous behavior (and seeming lack of maternal feelings) never cease to astonish and perplex. Will she ever get her just deserts? (She hopes she will, of course, in terms of money and status...)
The Character Loved for Their Personality - The Artamon Series
Prince Eugene of Tielen – and would-be emperor – has an insatiable zest for life. A campaigning soldier at heart, he also has a genuine desire to bring the benefits of enlightenment and education to the countries he invades. He is eager to use the latest advances in scientific weaponry to boost his ambitions but is not averse to using the alchymical skills of his chief Ingenieur, Magus Kaspar Linnaius. Having lost his wife in childbirth, he cherishes his young disabled daughter Karila – but on the field of battle, he is a ruthless and skilled strategist, determined to restore the ancient empire of Artamon.
More will follow at a later date...
Sarah Ash
Persevere! Never give up! And write what you want to write, because if you're passionate about your subject matter, your characters, your theme, that enthusiasm will shine through in your words. (Editing can - and should - come later.)
And read. Keep reading. (And maybe listen too...I'm sure that my love of words began with the stories and poems my parents read to me when I was little. Even now, I'm more than happy to listen to Book of the Week on BBC R4.)
And read. Keep reading. (And maybe listen too...I'm sure that my love of words began with the stories and poems my parents read to me when I was little. Even now, I'm more than happy to listen to Book of the Week on BBC R4.)
Sarah Ash
The Japanese legend of the Tide Dragons, Flood and Ebb, intrigued me from the moment I first read it many years ago. But it was the image of a young man playing his flute to an empty moonlit sea...and charming one of the dragons closer to shore that came to me first. The bitter clash between warring clans, the Red Kites and the Black Cranes, followed later.
Which clan did the young man belong to? Why did the sound of his flute draw one of the Tide Dragons close to shore? What connected him to the dragon? All these questions and so many more demanded to be answered. That's the way stories begin for me.
Which clan did the young man belong to? Why did the sound of his flute draw one of the Tide Dragons close to shore? What connected him to the dragon? All these questions and so many more demanded to be answered. That's the way stories begin for me.
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