Writers and Their Soundtracks - Author Interview: Elizabeth Chadwick

Author Interview: Elizabeth Chadwick

11/04/08 • -1 min

Listen to the interview here!

Tell me a little about yourself and your writing.
I'm an award-winning writer of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages and just about to have my seventeenth novel, THE TIME OF SINGING, published in the UK. In the USA I have recently agreed a deal to have two of my novels published – THE GREATEST KNIGHT and LORDS OF THE WHITE CASTLE.

I began by writing near the historical romance end of the genre and have gradually moved along the line to mainstream historical fiction, telling the life stories of people who actually lived in the Middle Ages. I guess I'd be on the same author page list as Sharon Kay Penman, Philippa Gregory, and Anya Seton.

As far as my personal writer's journey goes, I have been telling stories since I was old enough to talk. My earliest memory is of being three years old and making up a story one light summer evening when I'd been put to bed. I wasn't sleepy, so I opened out my handkerchief and I made up a story about the fairies printed on it. It's quite a vivid memory. I loved adventure stories as a child, both the historical kind and the ones that covered myth and legend. I loved folk tales from around the world and the ancient stories such as the Illiad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. If I hadn't taken to writing historical fiction (after falling in love with a tall, dark handsome knight on a TV programme when I was fifteen), then I'd probably have taken to fantasy writing instead. Indeed, I still have a slight yen to rework some of the Scottish Border Ballads into new branches!

Tell me about the story for which you’ve created a soundtrack.
I create soundtracks for all my stories; it's an integral part of the writing process, so I guess I'll go with my most recently completed novel, THE TIME OF SINGING. This is about a twelfth-century lord called Roger Bigod whose father, through treachery, lost the trust of King Henry II. The latter razed the family castle at Framlingham and took away many of their lands. After his father died, Roger had to work his way back up fortune's ladder. While at court doing this, he met Ida de Tosney. She was King Henry's young mistress (reluctantly so) and had borne him a son. She and Roger got together after a few hiccups and married, but that didn't mean they left their problems behind. Far from it. Roger was still struggling to regain his inheritance and Ida was grief stricken over some things in her past (not to give the plot away). Her sorrow, combined with Roger's long absences on business for the Crown meant that their relationship was in danger of foundering. Both had to fight battles on several fronts - physical, political, emotional. The history of England at this period is woven into the story of Roger's and Ida's struggle.

What is your playlist?

1. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS - Apocalyptica
This is an instrumental that runs as a general theme throughout the novel. The bittersweetness of the tune and arrangement are perfect for starting out Roger and Ida's story.

2. THE PROMISED LAND - Bruce Springsteen.
This is the hero's viewpoint as he faces up to his father. His feelings of desperation and anger. His grit to do something about the situation, especially the last verse. 'Gonna be a twister to blow everything down, that ain't got the faith to stand its ground.'

3. PRAYER OF THE REFUGEE - Rise Against.
Roger burns his bridges on the eve of a battle.

4. THE MONSTER IS LOOSE - Meat Loaf.
The battle of Fornham.

5. BEAUTIFUL GIRL - INXS
King Henry sets eyes on Ida de Tosney and her vulnerable innocence is irresistible to him.

6. THE MAN WITH THE CHILD IN HIS EYES - Kate Bush
Ida encounters Roger at court for the first time.

7. A GOOD HEART - Feargal Sharkey
Roger is attracted to Ida but wary because she is the King's m...

Previous Episode

Author Interview: C.C. Humphreys

Listen to the interview here!

Tell me a little about yourself and your writing.
I am an actor/writer/fight choreographer - though mainly focusing on novels these days. I began writing plays and had two produced, in London, Calgary, and Vancouver. But I always dreamed of being an historical fiction novelist. I had the idea for French Executioner in a gym when I looked ay my neck and thought how easy a target it would be for the executioner's sword. Six years later I began writing it... and a career was born!

I have written nine novels in eight years: six adult and three young adult. People read my work and say: Ooh, I can see the film! My acting background I suppose - big on visuals and character.

Tell me about the story that you've created a soundtrack/ playlist for.
I used the following playlist as I wrote my latest novel, VLAD: THE LAST CONFESSION. I was at a retreat on the west coast of Vancouver Island, overlooking the pounding Pacific in a remote cabin and these tracks seemed to fit for reasons that are largely unexplainable. Taking me to other places, other times.

What is your playlist?
I call the whole thing after one song: 'Please read the letter.'

Love Her Madly - The Doors. Used to live in LA. Loved it, hated it. Same goes for her. This is love.

New York, New York - Ryan Adams. Ditto NYC

In These Shoes - Kirsty MacColl. Sexy, funny, great horn section.

Sultanas de Merkaillo - Ojos de Brujo. Parents lived in Spain. Wanted to be able to say I was into Acid flamenco. I am.

Nothin' - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I love stories in songs. This is tragedy.

I'm Set Free - The Velvet Underground. Theme music that closed my first play. Set free to find a new illusion? Yupp!

Loose Change - Bruce Springsteen. An obscure track from the best storyteller.

Constellations - Jack Johnson. A stargazer/storyteller's song.

Nocturne in C Sharp Minor - Chopin. Heartbreak. And what cello!

Picture This - Blondie. Just because its my favourite ever romantic pop song. 'I would gve you my finest hour/the one I spent, watching you shower'

The Raggle Taggle Gypsy - The Waterboys. Explosive Celtic lust.

Seven Nation Army - White Stripes. One to march to.

Please Read the Letter - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Heartbreak again. The misunderstandings of love and the difficulties of words.

What does music mean to you? To your writing? What kind of music do you like to write to?
I use music as an escape from writing. I never write to music. That's why, even though I am immersed in 15th century Romania, I can escape to 20th Century LA with The Doors. Or I need to calm after a hectic battle. Chopin works!

If this story was made into a movie, who would you want to do the soundtrack?
The guy who did the music to 'Last of the Mohicans' [Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman]

To learn more about Chris, visit his website.

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Next Episode

Author Interview: Mark Teppo

Edited to add 1/19/10: The follow up to Lightbreaker, called Heartland is coming out soon and true to form, Mark has posted a soundtrack. Check it out!

Listen to the interview here!

Tell me a little about yourself and your writing.
I'm more of a long form writer than a short fiction guy. Farrago's Wainscot serialized my hypertext novel, The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin, in 2007 (and the expanded edition of it can be found here), and the print arm, Farrago Press, will be putting out the sequel/resolution, Psychobabel, in 2009. In September, my first print novel will be out from Night Shade Books. Entitled Lightbreaker, it is the first part of Codex of Souls, a multi-book romp through Western esoteric thought and occult history in an urban fantasy setting. Both are ambitious projects for the early part of a writer's career, but they seem to be the way my brain wants to tell stories, and I'm going along with it.

I'm just a delivery vehicle for the Muse, really. Yes, that's my excuse. Though, honestly, I am at that point in my career when I still have a full-time job, and so I have the luxury of producing material that excites me foremost without necessarily being beholden to market forces. This is the way new writers find their way in, I think, by creating material that is filled with the passionate excess of their naiveté. Or, at least, that's the other excuse I keep using.

Tell me about the story that you've created a soundtrack/playlist for.
Lightbreaker is divergent from the nominal definition of "urban fantasy." There are no werewolves or vampires, and the magick is based more in actual occult history and practices than Dungeons & Dragons rules. I've never been comfortable with the reliance upon vampires and werewolves as fantasy tropes because their historical definitions don't hold up well in a modern setting. They are predators, really, and we are cattle, and I could never quite world-build them well enough that humanity wouldn't have gotten their shit together and wiped them out. It's a blind spot for me, and I didn't try to make it work. Besides, I'm fascinated with mythology, magico-religious belief structures, and whatever it was that Aleister Crowley was really trying to accomplish with all of his writings. He was either a complete nut or he knew something special, and I think his efforts--like a lot of metaphysical and religious thought--are worth examining. If I can do that while providing an entertaining story with lots of sex and death, then everybody wins.

The book itself, in a few words, is the story of a guy, Markham, who has returned to Seattle, searching for a girl, Katarina, who, a decade ago, touched his soul and left it . . . damaged. What he stumbles upon when he gets to town is the girl's new friends, who are playing with very dark magick. These guys are a secretive cabal who are attempting to punch a hole through heaven, and make mischief with what they find. Markham must (to quote the marketing copy) "delve deep into his past, calling on every aspect of his occult training for there to be any hope of a future. But delve he must, for Markham is a veneficus, a spirit thief, the Lightbreaker . . ."

Just so everyone has some reference points. I am, after all, about to geek out on a bunch of songs no one has heard in reference to a book no one has read, and I'm going to try to do so without offering spoilers. Yeah, good luck with that, I know.

What is your playlist? (Why did you choose these songs?

01. "Our Solemn Hour" - Within Temptation
02. "Collide" - Detritus
03. "Missing Link (Screaming Bird mix)" - Curve
04. "Voiceover" - Darrin Verhagen
05. "Acidburn Aesthetic" - Stone Glass Steel
06. "." - Darrin Verhagen
07. "Black Star" - Peccatum
08. "Lethe" - Detritus
09. "Agnus Dei" - Shinjuku Thief
10. "Quest" - 302 Acid
11. "Greater Than The Sun" - Covenant
12. "Shadow Path" - Shinjuku Thief
13. "The Great Destroyer" - Nine Inch Nails
14. "With Small Shards of Glass" - E.P.A.
15. "Uthul Khulture" - Sephiroth
16. "Colorless" - Venetian Snares
17. "Heaven's Blade" - Coil
18. "Procession of Souls" - Shinjuku Thief
19. "Shroud (Exordium") - Fields of the Nephilim
20. "Straight To The Light" - Fields of the Nephilim

Playlist Discussion

1. "Our Solemn Hour" Within Temptation (The Heart of Everything)