{"id":15734,"date":"2014-10-05T17:43:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T06:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/?p=15734"},"modified":"2014-10-05T17:43:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T06:43:57","slug":"20-questions-with-wendy-j-dunn-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/2014\/10\/05\/20-questions-with-wendy-j-dunn-giveaway\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Questions with Wendy J. Dunn & Giveaway!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am delighted to welcome back author Wendy J. Dunn, <\/em>whose latest novel ‘The Light in the Labyrinth: The Last Days of Anne Boleyn’ was recently published by Metropolis Ink.<\/p>\n

Be sure to leave a comment after our interview, for your chance to win a copy of ‘The Light in the Labyrinth’, kindly donated by the<\/strong> author.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conditions of Entry<\/strong><\/p>\n

For your chance to win a copy of The Light in the Labyrinth: The Last Days of Anne Boleyn<\/em> you must be subscribed<\/strong> to On the Tudor Trail\u2019s newsletter <\/strong>(if you are not already, sign up on our homepage).<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0simply leave a comment after this post between now and 12 October 2014<\/strong>. Don\u2019t forget to leave your name and a contact email.<\/p>\n

This giveaway is open internationally<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A winner will be randomly selected and contacted by email\u00a0<\/strong>once the competition closes. Please ensure you\u2019ve added natalie@onthetudortrail.com to your address book to avoid missing my email.<\/p>\n

Good luck!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

20<\/span> Questions with Wendy J. Dunn<\/span><\/h2>\n

When did you realise that you wanted to become a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew I wanted to be a writer at eight, Natalie. Two years later, I won, for a poem, my first writing contest, and only a few months before that, a friend had given me a child\u2019s book of English history for my tenth birthday. Powerfully, I connected to one of its chapters, the chapter telling the story of Elizabeth Tudor. Only months after that, I watched Anne of The Thousand Days, a film that struck deeply into my psyche.<\/p>\n

But claiming a writer\u2019s mantle meant walking a hard, long and challenging road. My father and mother, both from working class backgrounds, did not encourage me to write \u2013 or even to complete High School. The best narrative offered for my future life was marriage and children.<\/p>\n

My family moved to the country just after my thirteenth birthday. Country life nourished my imagination and allowed me time and internal space for daydreams. On my frequent, long walks as a teenager, I found myself stopping in my path to listen to the wind\u2019s voice, kilometres away, as it whined its way through legions of trees to finally reach where I stood. On hills, I watched the fury of storms from afar \u2013 lightning cracking apart the sky before my eyes.<\/p>\n

Treading upon dirt tracks marked by signs of wild life and the slithering passage of a snake, I paused in awe before deep valleys turned into pale oceans of dawn-kissed mists and became swept away by the beauty of the moment.<\/p>\n

An important part to the development of my imagination was the fact the bus journey to my High School took about one hour. I always had a serial daydream to tap into during the morning ride, either constructing possible life scenarios for myself or building up fantasy worlds.<\/p>\n

The summer I turned sixteen I disappeared in my bedroom and attempted my first novel. But at the end of Year 11, my English teacher shattered my confidence about pursuing a career in writing. I left school at seventeen and found work in a shoe shop. I met my husband during this time, married him at eighteen and had our first child ten months later. Not only a lack of confidence kept me from writing, but also a culturally imposed belief that I couldn\u2019t write as a wife and mother. I was twenty-two when my second son\u2019s traumatic birth awoke me from that half-life. I returned to writing, seizing on it as my preferred form of communication, my way to make sense of life.<\/p>\n

But writing had to fit into my busy life, a life that saw me in vital roles as a wife and mother of four children, as well as working as a teacher. Like many women writers, I have struggled to find the time and energy to write. \u00a0I also see my family as far more important than any writing I will ever do, so writing always plays second fiddle to my family. Still, I write because I have to; I have also found it very true that perseverance furthers.<\/p>\n

What sparked your interest in Anne Boleyn?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My interest in Anne was first fired through my interest in her daughter, Elizabeth. As a child and teenage girl, Elizabeth\u2019s story of survival helped me surmount and survive what I can only describe as my difficult early years. But once I became a wife and mother, I turned more and more to Anne\u2019s story. Completing my PhD really brought home the reasons why her story speaks so deeply to my own experience as a woman. I believe Eric Ives was very right to describe Anne Boleyn as a feminist icon. She was a woman who seized her voice in a time when a virtuous woman meant a silent woman. \u00a0I have always loved Anne\u2019s spirit and sharp intelligence \u2013 as Henry VIII once said, just before he murdered her, she was a woman who possessed a stout heart.<\/p>\n

<\/em>Tell us about your book, The Light in the Labyrinth: The Last Days of Anne Boleyn.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Light in the Labyrinth<\/em> tells my imagined story of Katherine Carey, the teenage niece of Anne Boleyn, during the months leading up to Anne Boleyn\u2019s execution. \u00a0It was a story very much birthed from that vital question used by writers to birth their fiction: What if? \u00a0<\/em>The \u2018What if\u201d <\/em>question that drove this work was: \u201cWhat if<\/em> Anne Boleyn\u2019s execution was witnessed by her niece, Katherine Carey?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years of researching the Tudors, I had regularly come across the suggestion in history books that Katherine Carey had accompanied Anne Boleyn to the Tower. A few historians have also suggested that she remained with Anne Boleyn during the days of her imprisonment and was a witness to her death. For years, I had discounted this because most historians claim Katherine was born in 1524, which meant she was no more than twelve at the time of Anne Boleyn\u2019s execution. I could not believe Anne Boleyn would have as one of her witnesses to her execution a girl of twelve. Even sixty-seven years in the future, a girl of thirteen was \u201cheld too young\u201d<\/em> to sit by the body of Elizabeth I during the nights and days of \u2018Watching over the Dead\u2019 <\/em>(Cressy 1997, p. 428).<\/p>\n

But then I read Varlow\u2019s \u2018Sir Francis Knollys\u2019s Latin dictionary: new evidence for Katherine Carey\u2019<\/em>. This article increased the uncertainty of Katherine\u2019s birth year, and I found myself considering the possibility Kate Carey was indeed fourteen at the time of Anne Boleyn\u2019s execution. That was the point I could free my imagination to begin this novel in earnest. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Light in the Labyrinth<\/em> is also a work that came out of my desire to make sense of Anne Boleyn\u2019s murder \u2013 why did Henry VIII kill a woman he had loved so much he turned his kingdom upside down in his efforts to marry her? My first Tudor novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This?, brought me to a belief that it was far too simple to say that it was purely because she failed to give him a son. I hoped revisiting the life and death of Anne Boleyn through the eyes of her teenage niece Katherine Carey in this novel would help deepen my understanding about this time. And it did\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Why did you decide to write a young adult novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2009 I received, from my then agent, the twelfth rejection for my second Tudor work, the first book of a planned trilogy on the life of Katherine of Aragon.\u00a0 My agent’s email made it clear that this was the last time she would be sending out this particular work to publishers. However, my agent also wrote that the themes of this novel had made her wonder if I should be writing for young adults. She encouraged me to target this age group because she had editors interested in young adult historical fiction. It was late 2010 before I took her advice. By then, I no longer had an agent, but had started on my PhD. I decided to work on a young adult historical for my Phd artefact.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What makes a great YA novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smile, I think that is a question for young adults to answer!\u00a0 But as someone who has tried her best to write for this audience, I not only constructed a character of similar age to my target reader, but also constructed a story that engaged with many familiar, and timeless experiences of young adults, problems like mother issues, a broken home, an absent father, sexual awakening, et cetera. It was my hope that by doing so my young adult reader would empathise with my Kate.<\/p>\n

What three new skills would you like to learn?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to direct a play one of these days, as well as be brave enough to act on stage. The third thing is to make a reasonably authentic Tudor gown!<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is something surprising that you learnt about the Tudors during your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I discovered Katherine of Aragon was just as fascinating as Anne Boleyn.\u00a0 That really only came home to me during the time I researched my first novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This<\/em>?\u00a0 Before that novel, I was so fixated on Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth I didn\u2019t really see or care about Katherine of Aragon.\u00a0 Nowadays, you could say I love Anne and Katherine equally.<\/p>\n

Name 5 people\/accounts you follow on Twitter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course I follow your twitter account, Natalie,\u00a0 @OntheTudorTrail<\/a>, @QueenAnneBoleyn<\/a>, @AnneBoleynFiles<\/a>, @HNSAustralasia<\/a> and @UNICEFEducation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Describe a day in your life when you are writing. Do you follow any rituals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clean kitchen. Get washing sorted out for the day. Make coffee and settle down to write.\u00a0 Try not to mind interruptions. Many, many, many interruptions.<\/p>\n

What women in history do you most admire?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beatriz Galindo, Anne Boleyn, Katherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I, Saint Teresa of Avilla, Caroline Chisholm, Helen Keller \u2013 so many, really\u2026<\/p>\n

What does your writing space look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The way I like it: I\u2019m surrounded by books!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What is your favourite film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smile, beside Anne of the Thousand Days? Hmmmm \u2013 in recent times, I really loved Agora \u2013 truly it is a film that presents a powerful story of history that speaks to our own times.<\/p>\n

What is something most people don\u2019t know about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a thing about the number 13. Silly, I know.<\/p>\n

What are a few of the books on your TBR list?<\/strong><\/p>\n

OMG \u2013 completing a PhD has resulted in a tower of books on my TBR list! I really don\u2019t know where to start\u2026Hmmm\u2026I am still waiting for my local bookshop to ring me and tell me that \u201cLove Never Dies by Karina Machado\u201d has finally arrived. I\u2019m really looking forward to reading that! Then I have Neil Gaiman\u2019s novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I received as a Christmas present and only now have put on my bedside table to read. I also reading The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville and the Age of Chivalry by Christopher Wilkins.<\/p>\n

Describe your perfect Friday night.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A candle lit dinner party with good friends! I\u2019m very much a past-time with good company kind of woman!<\/p>\n

What characteristic do you admire most in others?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ability to stand up for your convictions, no matter what.<\/p>\n

Are you currently working on any new books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. Kind of. I have two book projects in mind for my next major work, but I can\u2019t make up my mind which one to commit to.\u00a0 I am also suffering burn out from completing a PhD. I\u2019m thinking it might be best to catch my breath, catch up with my TBR list \u2013 and then start working in earnest on a new project in the new year.<\/p>\n

What gives you hope?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children. I was very blessed to have four of my own, and I am not yet an empty nester. Smile \u2013 my youngest has just turned eighteen and is now looking forward to 2015, when he finishes High School and considers his future options. I also feel very privileged to have worked as a primary teacher for over twenty-five years. \u00a0All during my teaching career, children have given me great hope for the future.<\/p>\n

What do you like to do outside of writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love reading, learning about the Tudors, going to the movies, mentoring beginning writers, spending time with family and friends, and travelling to new places.<\/p>\n

If you could swap places with a person from the past for one day, who would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d swap places with Mary I on the day of Lady Jane Grey\u2019s execution. As Mary, I would stop the execution, and live in hope that Mary returned to her own time, place and body would reconsider letting this terrible event go ahead. Mary had a very good heart and history provides evidence that she was fond of Jane. I believe Jane\u2019s death was the final end of Mary\u2019s hope of ever finding true happiness in her life. How could she find happiness with a man like Philip of Spain? \u00a0Mary\u2019s life became a wasteland of dead hopes for children of her own, and a man who truly loved her. She also died knowing she had failed England as its Queen.<\/p>\n

And of course my heart breaks thinking about Jane, a girl of only sixteen, and her tragic life and death.<\/p>\n

Visit Wendy J. Dunn’s official website: http:\/\/wendyjdunn.com\/<\/a>
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I am delighted to welcome back author Wendy J. Dunn, whose latest novel ‘The Light in the Labyrinth: The Last Days of Anne Boleyn’ was recently published by Metropolis Ink. Be sure to leave a comment after our interview, for your chance to win a copy of ‘The Light in the Labyrinth’, kindly donated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,25,9],"tags":[4472,566,4357,272,371,4359,4358,31,119],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15734"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15756,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15734\/revisions\/15756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthetudortrail.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}