Blog Tour, Author Interview: C.W. Gortner (and Giveaway, too!) – GIVEAWAY CLOSED

I am pleased to welcome C.W. Gortner, who wrote The Queen’s Vow to Always With a Book.  You can read my review of her book here and be sure to enter the giveaway below for a chance to win a copy of The Queen’s Vow along with a painted Spanish fan – see below for details!

About the author:  C.W.
Gortner is the author of The Last Queen, The Confessions of Catherine
de Medici and The Tudor Secret.  He holds an MFA in Writing with an
emphasis in Renaissance Studies from the New College of California.

In
his extensive travels to research his books, he has danced a galliard
in a Tudor great hall and experienced life in a Spanish castle. His
novels have garnered international praise and been translated into
thirteen languages to date. He is also a dedicated advocate for animal
rights and environmental issues.

He’s
currently at work on his fourth novel for Ballantine Books, about the
early years of Lucrezia Borgia, as well as the third novel in his Tudor
series,The Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles (US) or Elizabeth’s
Spymaster (UK).

Half-Spanish by birth, C.W. lives in Northern California.

 

Fore more information about C.W. Gornter, please visit his website at: http://www.cwgortner.com/.
 

He can also be found on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/christopher.w.gortner

 

Also, be sure to check out all the other stops on the blog tour and follow the tour on Twitter (hashtag:  #QueensVowVirtualTour). 

What inspired you to write this book?

I first became interested in
Isabella while growing up in Spain. Later, when I was writing my first novel, The Last Queen, about her daughter,
Juana, I re-discovered my fascination with her. In that book, Isabella is the
triumphant, middle-aged queen of legend, who has just conquered Granada and set
the stage for Spain’s emergence as a modern Renaissance state. My focus was
more on the woman she became after she’d won the crusade against the Moors.
Nevertheless I got so many e-mails from readers telling me they thought I
should write more about Isabella that I decided to write THE QUEEN’S VOW and
explore how Isabella became queen. She
had a humble beginning as the ignored daughter of an exiled royal widow; no one
expected her to become queen. Her love affair with Fernando of Aragón is a
rarity in history, as well, because she chose her husband in an era when
princesses rarely did and her decision to marry him started a civil war. As I
researched her, I realized that, as with most legends, there’s far more to
Isabella’s story than we’ve been told. She is, in essence, a perfect choice for
me as writer.

What gets you started on a new book?

The first thing must be curiosity. I must want to know more
about the subject or era that I’m thinking of writing about; I have to feel that
special spark which sends me on a research spree. It doesn’t always work out.
Sometimes, I start to research an idea only to discover that I’m not actually
going to bring anything new or exciting to the table and so I back off. But
other times, I realize: Yes, this is a place where I want to be. I want to live
here for the time it takes to tell this particular story. Writing a historical
novel is a long and often challenging process; after the research, it can take
up to 18 months of my life to complete the actual work. I have to have that special
‘mojo’ for it.

As a child, did you ever dream that you would be a published
author? As a child did you like to read and write and if so, what were your
favorite books?

As a child, I always wrote. My mom recalls that I’d write
down stories in spiral-bound notebooks and illustrate the covers. I was always
imaginative and I loved books, but I never thought while growing up that being
a writer was a career choice I could make. Writing was just something I felt
compelled to do. I went to college and got a marketing degree; it was many
years before I actually began to consider publishing my work. My favorite
authors when I was growing up included Enid Blyton, Richard Adams, Hans
Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, as well as L. Frank Baum. Later on, I
developed an insatiable appetite for Daphne Du Maurier, Jean Plaidy, Alexander
Dumas, and anything historical.  

What’s your writing routine? Do you write every day or just
when the mood strikes?

I write every day but Sunday, for at least four hours,
sometimes more. Often, the work is rough, but my philosophy is even the worst
draft can be improved. My goal is to get those initial words out and shape the
story; for me, the fun part is in the re-writing. That first draft is always a
monster, but writing is like any craft: the more you do it, the better you can
get. I’m also a little superstitious about not writing. I have this weird fear
that if I go too long without doing it, I’ll somehow lose my affinity for it.
So, from around 10:30 am to 3:00 pm or so, I shut off my internet connection
(essential for focus) and face the blank page.

What are you reading right now?

Lots of non-fiction about Renaissance Italy.

Are you currently working on another book?

Yes. I’m currently writing the story of Lucrezia Borgia, from
her indulged youth as the illegitimate child of an ambitious Spanish churchman
to her thrust into notoriety as the pope’s daughter and dangerous struggle to
define herself as a woman as she battles the lethal ambitions of her family.
Once again, I’ve found myself drawn into the life of a woman who’s been
vilified by history. The book will be published by Ballantine.

I’m also preparing the outline for the third book in my
Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles; the second book (after The Tudor Secret) is titled The
Tudor Conspiracy and is scheduled for publication by St Martin’s Press in
the US and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, in 2013.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Learn as much as you can about our craft and the business of
writing. These are two very distinct things and the former can be as
intoxicating as the latter is daunting. But in order to reach that stage where
one’s work is ready to be read, we have to master the actual art of sentence
structure, point of view, description, narrative, dialogue, setting the scene,
etc. There are no fast-tracks or ways to cut corners: becoming a published
writer requires practice, discipline, perseverance, and willingness to learn.
We all start with that urge to put our story on paper; but in order for others
to enjoy our words and experience the story as we do in our heads we need to know
how to tell it. As for the business
end, there are so many options open to us nowadays; it’s a rapidly evolving
world and writers can publish in a variety of ways. Having choices is
fantastic, but that doesn’t mean our work can go straight from our fingertips into
book form. There’s a reason we have editors and agents; there is an entire
professional side to being an ‘author’ that can be very rewarding but also
requires patience, diligence, and willingness to learn. What’s good for one
writer may not be right for another. Precisely because of the choices we face,
it’s more important than ever to consider how you want your work to be
perceived and what you hope to achieve from it.

Thank you so much for having me. I sincerely hope your
readers enjoy THE QUEEN’S VOW. I’m always available to chat with book groups
via Skype or speaker phone; to learn more about me and my work, please visit me
at: www.cwgortner.com

Thank you to C.W. for taking the time to answer these questions and thank you to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for coordinating this.

 

 

Giveaway Information (CLOSED):

Thanks to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours I have one copy of The Queen’s Vow  and a painted Spanish fan (see above) to give away to my readers.  Giveaway is open to US/CANADA only.

To enter please leave a comment below and include your email address (only comments with email addresses will be entered in the giveaway). 

– +1 additional entry – Who is your favorite historical figure – let me know who it is and why in your comment.

– +3 additional entries become a follower of Always With a Book. If you are already a follower you will automatically receive the bonus entries (just leave the name you follow under). 

– +1 additional entry
each, please help spread the word by
blogging, posting on sidebar, tweeting or posting this
giveaway on Facebook. 

 

All entries can be in one comment but the comment MUST include your email address or it will not be included in the giveaway.

Thanks to everyone for entering! Good luck!

GIVEAWAY ENDS JULY 22nd