Barbara Kyle's Blog: The Rest of the Story - Posts Tagged "the-queen-s-lady"

Writing my first historical novel years ago, I discovered an eye-opening research resource: my husband.

The Queen's Lady is set during the reign of Henry VIII. Now, Henry and my husband share no similarity regarding tyrannical rule and beheaded wives; I married a thoughtful, peaceable man. He is, however, endowed with the standard issue male anatomy, and this helped my research. Here's how.

In a 1st draft I'd written a scene of a Midsummer Eve celebration in which boisterous revelers dance around bonfires, lovers steal kisses, and a drunk old man pisses as he staggers through the crowd.

Wait a minute, I thought. Can a man do that— urinate while walking?

I took the problem to my husband. "Can a man do that?" I asked.

"I'll go try it," he said, and walked out the door.

Thankfully, we lived on sixty acres of nothing at the end of a dead end road. Not a soul around.

Five minutes later he came back in. "Yup," he reported.

You can see why I value this resource.

At other times I've been grateful to have my husband set me straight on how men think.

For example, in The Queen's Lady I'd written a scene of high drama in which my heroine, Honor Larke, to save her friends' lives, takes a terrifying risk by hiding in the hold of a ship and ends up trapped there as her enemies roam the ship's top deck. If she is found it will mean her death.



I couldn't leave Honor there. Since the ship belonged to her business partner, Richard Thornleigh, who loves her, I wrote a scene of Richard coming on board and bargaining with her enemies.

"I wouldn't do that," said my husband with a frown when he read the scene. "If the woman I loved was trapped in the hold and facing death I'd burn the ship to the waterline and get her out."

I was agog. Of course Richard would do that!

Final draft: Richard swims to the hull at night, climbs aboard unnoticed, sets fire to the mainmast and yells, "Fire!" In the chaos of shouting men he slips down to the hold, frees Honor, throws her through a gun port into the bay, and dives in after her. Saved!



The Queen's Lady was my first novel in the Thornleigh Saga and Kensington Books published it in 2008. Five more have followed. The sixth, The Queen's Exiles, will be released in June 2014. In creating each story I've had my husband read the first draft, chapter by chapter, and he has often made suggestions of sheer magic:

- a trail of gunpowder laid inside hollowed reeds

- a rational way for the heroine to avoid a killer

- the need for my soldier-of-fortune hero to experience an epiphany, to crave a purpose for his life

- the real advice of a man to his friend who's treated his wife badly: "You're an idiot."

Did I use these suggestions? You bet. And many more.


I'm lucky. My husband is no rookie at storytelling. He's been doing it for years as a film producer/director/screenwriter and as a communications expert for progressive organizations advancing environmental and animal welfare issues. (That's him above, with an otter friend.)

After writing six historical novels (and three thrillers before that) I've learned this empowering lesson: it takes a team. I'm blessed with an "A" team. My husband, Stephen Best. My agent, Al Zuckerman of Writers House. My editor at Kensington Books, Esi Sogah.

So when you read my novels' acknowledgements pages in which I thank these people, you know my gratitude is heartfelt.

More on Al and Esi—the rest of the team— in my next posts.

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For info about the Thornleigh Saga books, please visit my website: http://www.barbarakyle.com/

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Most of us vividly recall a book that touched us deeply, whether as young adults or at a crucial moment later in our lives. The moment makes us feel a special kinship with the author. It's a meeting of minds, even of souls. It's a bond, and a potent one. (This lovely painting is by Daniel Gerhartz.)

For an author, it's always a happy day when a reader gets in touch to say how much a book meant to them. Sometimes the message is moving, like the Yarmouth museum curator who told me The Queen's Lady helped him as he mourned the death of his father.

Sometimes the message brings a laugh, like the lady who cheerfully told me she got The Queen's Captive because she'd loved a similar book, and then realized, as she was enjoying The Queen's Captive, that this was the very book she'd read and loved!

Here are three readers whose messages to me were very special.

The Colonel

Some years ago I was in England researching The Queen’s Lady and spent a day exploring Hever Castle in Kent. This was the home of the Boleyn family, and Henry VIII came here to court Anne. That tempestuous affair changed the course of England’s history.



As I strolled the grounds in a happy haze of imagination, I picked up an acorn. What a lovely feeling to hold in my hand something living from the so-called "dead" past. I squirreled the acorn away in my pocket and brought it home to Canada, and it sat on my desk beside my computer, a sweet reminder of its place of birth as I wrote The Queen’s Lady. The acorn was still on my desk when I wrote The King’s Daughter. It had become a touchstone that spirited me back to the Tudor world. I was very fond of it.

Then my husband and I moved, and in the shuffle the little acorn got lost.

A few months later I got a cheery email from a reader telling me he was on his way to England for an Anne Boleyn Tour during which he’d be staying at Hever Castle. There would be dinners in the Great Hall where Henry and Anne ate, plus lectures, plays, and demonstrations – “A once in a lifetime experience,” he said. I replied to wish him a happy trip and told him about my acorn. He is a retired air force colonel and lives in Tennessee.

Four weeks later a small package arrived in my mailbox. It was from the Colonel. Inside was a note: “I looked for an acorn to replace the one you lost but couldn’t find one. I did get you this.” Nestled under the note was a pine cone. He had scoured the Hever grounds for it. “It’s from the area where Henry courted Anne, according to the castle staff,” wrote the Colonel.

I was so touched. The pine cone has had pride of place on my desk beside my computer while I've written four more Thornleigh Saga books. Thank you, Colonel, for what you gave me. A once in a lifetime experience.


The Embroiderer

A music educator in Ontario emailed me with praise about my books and told me she was part of a sewing club of about three dozen ladies who get together at a shop with the delightful name The Enchanted Needle. She said they were working on Tudor period sewing techniques, and she attached images of historic Tudor-era embroidery. Now, I know little about sewing but I know beauty when I see it, and these works were stunning.



As she waxed lyrical about bygone sewing techniques like "stumpwork" and "Assisi," "blackwork" and "bargello," "cross-stitching" and "the morphing power of color," I could only, in ignorance, try to keep up, but when she said my books inspired her in this Tudor-style needlework I was moved again by how glorious and various are the connections between author and reader.


The Boy

That's what I'll call him, the gangly pale-faced kid who showed up at one of my public readings from The Queen's Gamble and listened so intensely. He looked about fourteen, the only person there who was so young. After the reading I saw him at the edge of the knot of people I was chatting with. The others all asked lively questions but he said nothing. He looked like he wanted to but he never took a step nearer. When I finished talking to the people, I noticed the boy was gone.

About a week later I found a package in my mailbox: a slender book and a note. The writer of the note said he'd been at the reading and was a high school student who loved history, and he hoped to one day be a history teacher. My novels were his favorites, he said. The book he'd enclosed was Bloody Tower by Valerie Wilding, a young adult novel in the form of a Tudor girl's diary. It had meant a lot to him when he was younger, he said, so he wanted to share it with me.



There, now I've shared it with you. That's what the writer-reader bond is. We share what moves us. And that connection is what makes the writer's work a joy.

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My new novel, The Queen's Exiles, will be released on May 27th. To read about it, and all my books, please visit my website: http://www.barbarakyle.com/