Kim Rendfeld, one of my favorite authors (The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar is coming August 28!) tagged me in the Meet My Main Character Blog Hop. I’m taking the
opportunity to introduce the point of view character from my current
work-in-progress, the final book in the Providence Trilogy, at my author blog.
Here, meet Mudarra.
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| One idea of what Mudarra might look like. |
1)
What is the name of your character? Is he fictional or a historic person?
Mudarra
González ibn Zaida is a fictional character with a lot of history. He’s the talented
but reluctant hero who rises up in the second part of Seven Noble Knights, which is based on the lost medieval epic poem,
Los siete infantes de Lara. The first
part of the story includes some verifiable historic characters, such as the
Count of Castile, García Fernández, and the members of his court, Gonzalo
Gustioz and his wife Sancha (Prollina in the history books). The inciting
incident also has a whiff of truth to it. It leads to such widespread destruction
that in the second part of the story, no historical person remains to carry on
the cause and complete the revenge. Because a sense of eye-for-an-eye justice
was so important to medieval storytellers, they resorted to making up a
character from (semi-)plausible circumstances in order to deliver the ending
their audience craved. Mudarra is that semi-plausible hero.
In
the medieval epic, Mudarra is one-dimensional, so it has been my pleasurable
task to make him complex and sympathetic. In the end, his doubts and decisions cast
new light on all the events of the first part and make it, I hope, worthwhile
and enjoyable.
2)
When and where is the story set?
It might have been interesting to try and transfer the
characters and worldview to another time period, but because I love medieval Spain
so much, I researched what the most likely year for the inciting incident was
in real life, and settled on 974. I’ve since done more research, and that date could
be a tad too early, but in planning the sequel, it actually works better for
the story than a more accurate historical date would have.
In 974, Castile was not yet the dominant kingdom on the Iberian
Peninsula. In fact, it wasn’t a kingdom at all. The most powerful earthly authority
was the count, and technically he owed allegiance to the Kingdom of León. Other
kingdoms battled for dominance in the north at the same time that they
maintained complex, on-again, off-again diplomatic/warring relationships with
al-Andalus, the unified Muslim caliphate that occupied more than half the
peninsula in the south.
3)
What should we know about him?
Mudarra grows up in the Andalusian capital, far from the
Christian lands he’ll have to take a vested interest in during the course of
the second part of Seven Noble Knights.
Although intensely trained in the arts of war from both the theoretical and the
practical standpoint, his life of sensuality, peace and privilege has not
prepared him for the trials that await in the barbaric north.
4)
What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?
The overarching conflict in the second part is the feud that
started in the first, which insinuates itself into Mudarra’s idyllic life. He
must reconcile whether or not to answer the call to revenge with his own sense
of right and wrong, and puzzle over exactly how these decade-old events have
affected his life.
The conflict becomes intolerably complicated when Mudarra
meets the daughter of his supposed enemy and falls head over heels in love with
her.
5)
What is the personal goal of the character?
Once
he meets Blanca Flor, Mudarra’s only real goal is to be with her. His life has
been turned upside down, and he’d like to start over again with his true love
by his side. He needs constant reminders of his obligation, what should be his goal, to take revenge against
her family. It’s all tremendously confusing for him. In the end, only one of
these goals is accomplished, and I’m working out how he’ll overcome obstacles
to meet the other one in the sequel.
6) Is
there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
Seven Noble Knights is the second version
of the title that I’ve come up with, and more changes may be in store. You can
read much more about it and how I came to write it and complete it here and at my main blog.
7) When
can we expect the book to be published?
If it were up to me, it would have been published already.
I’m currently making the painful decision not to pursue literary agents any
longer. This book always belonged at a small press, I think, so it’s now a
matter of finding a press and an editor who believes in the book almost as much
as I do. I’m not sure how long it will take to find that needle-in-haystack,
but stay tuned for updates.
Be sure to check out these other historical authors who’ve already introduced their main characters, all in their own special way:
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