Ask the Author: Cassandra Clark
Answered Questions (6)
Cassandra Clark
I think I've already answered this. It was the Merciless Parliament of 1388 that made me want people to know something about it and about the courage of real people who had to face such injustice at that time. How would we have acted if we'd been living then? I like to think we'd have done the right thing, but who knows?
Cassandra Clark
I go to the places where the story is to be set and then I walk around and get a feel for what it would have been like in the fourteenth century. Place is very important to me. We're lucky to have so many wild and beautiful locations which Hildegard could have visited. Sadly, the once great and famous Abbey of Meaux exists no longer but its location, beside a small river in the middle of a marsh, is still there much as it would have been in Abbot de Courcy's day. I also listen to music that Hildegard might have heard - that of HIldegard of Bingen, for instance, or one of the early music groups like the Dufay Collective. You can hear some dance music called a salterello on my website.
Cassandra Clark
I'm writing the next in the Hildegard of Meaux series set in Salisbury. The cathedral had just been finished and its steeple was one of the wonders of Europe. In January 1388 Richard II turned 21 and immediately faced one of the most hideous years of anyone's life when all his closest friends, including his guardian, best friend, and all his ministers and anyone who had ever defended him were dragged before the lords and charged with treason. Those who didn't escape were beheaded at the Tower or hung, drawn and their bodies butchered and put on show around the city of London. Richard and Anne only escaped because their enemies knew there would be civil war if the king was harmed. Hildegard and Abbot de Courcy become involved in a plot to release one of the prisoners from the Tower, on pain of death.
Cassandra Clark
Read, read, read. Then write, write, write. Finally, never give up.
Cassandra Clark
Oh this is easy! I simply love the period I'm writing about. The fourteenth century has everything. Richard II is such an under-rated king. He must have been very attractive as a human being because everyone who was ever close to him seemed to adore him. This includes the love of his life, Anne of Bohemia, his very young child-bride, Isabella of France, and his enemy's son and heir, later Henry V. Those who didn't love him were driven by envy - his over-ambitious uncle, Thomas Woodstock, and his hate-filled and ultimately murderous cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, later the disastrous monarch Henry IV.
Cassandra Clark
It's not so much a question of not being able to write because of a lack of ideas. For me it's more a question of how to get all the necessary chores done to make space to write. Working at home means that I'm on call most of the time and it's very hard to say no. Writers have too many related tasks to do these days, writing a blog, going on twitter, having a look at Good Reads and so on. It eats into the time and takes energy out of the creative process. My best solution is to set aside specific time for these things and then find a good cafe where they're friendly to writers. What do other writers do, I wonder?
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more