Post by vilmarys on Mar 25, 2010 19:16:02 GMT -5
Check out the awesome interview with Russell Whitfield, author of Gladiatrix which was in our book challenge. Any questions/comments just post here. He'll be checking in to see if he can answer them. Enjoy!!!!
Bookreadertimes Interview for Russell Whitfield
1). Can you please tell us about yourself?
Ok…I’m 39 years old and I’m married to the very beautiful Sally – the brains and good looks of our particular operation. We have one daughter, Samantha and we live in Richmond, Surrey – just near the River Thames. I work as an online content editor for a big, bad corporate and I do some freelance work for Sci-Fi Now Magazine.
I’m just now getting back into the martial arts after a bit of a hiatus: I did Wing Chun for a number of years, but this time I’m going back to kickboxing. No real esoteric reason for that – just a club has opened up round the corner from my house, so that’s a “sign from the gods” I guess. That and though I want to be a certain weight, my body doesn’t want me to be that weight, so I have to do something about it!
What else – I’m a huge movie buff and spend a lot (too much) time watching DVDs. For me – I love stuff by Paul WS Anderson – Resident Evil, Event Horizon, DOA and so forth. Lord of the Rings is great, as is (naturally) Gladiator. I like low-budget movies that get slagged off in magazines because I think…well…there are only so many big budget movies, but there are loads of great B-Movies out there too – check out “The Arena” directed by a pre-“Wanted” Timur Bekmambetov.
Favorite “watch again and again and again” movies in our house are (believe it or not) Armageddon, Best of the Best and anything by our great hero, Steven Seagal – my mum (Gods rest her soul) loved him and we got kind of caught up in the silliness of it all. So we go through the Seagal back catalogue pretty regularly, watching him get fatter – makes me feel better knowing that you can be a chubster and still kick ass. We even saw him live in concert – twice.
I love Heavy Metal music – I used to be in a metal band in the 80s and the love of the genre has never left me. Saxon, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest and (ahem) Doro Pesch are the sort of things that I listen too all the time. Over and over again – as my wife will tell you. (EDIT: ADD ON BY RUSSELL WHITFIELD) But I now have a new favourite band. They're called Hysterica -they're from Sweden and they play good old fashioned NWOBHM style heavy metal but with a modern edge. It goes without saying that I love their image, its like "Gladiatrix Heavy Metal," but the band is about more than just image - these guys are brilliant musicians. Please do check them out at www.hysterica.se/ and/or www.myspace.com/hysterica.
2). What or who inspired you to become a writer?
That’s an easy one. The person most responsible for my amateurish endeavors is the Donna Gillespie. She wrote one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century - “The Light Bearer” – a gladiatrix story that’s infinitely superior to mine in every way. I picked up “The Light Bearer” for ten pence (I think that’s a dime) at the library in the early 90s and loved every page of it. At the dawning of the internet, Donna had a website and I wrote to her – you know – fan mail and she was kind enough to write back.
We began a correspondence that has lasted years and years and has seen us meet up in Rome and San Francisco – she was and continues to be an inspiration to me and gave me loads of tips when I was writing “Gladiatrix.” I’m such a huge fan of hers and I’m honoured to call her a friend. We spoke about our books once in the pub when we were a little the worst for wear and I reckoned on that her heroine Auriane and Lysandra actually lived in the same “universe.” I’m a big fan of cross-overs, so I mention Auriane a few times in “Gladiatrix” and indeed in the sequel. I don’t think the characters will ever meet, but many of Donna’s fans spotted mention of their heroine in “Gladiatrix” – which was really cool.
“The Light Bearer” and its sequel “Lady of the Light” are required reading: I’ve said before that Donna Gillespie is the Mary Renault of our times and I stick by that – here’s a link to her website: www.thelightbearer.com/
Another literary hero of mine is the late, great David Gemmell. I’ve always been into ancient history, so when I saw his “Lion of Macedon” in the bookshop…my goodness…must be twenty, twenty five years ago now, I couldn’t believe that there was a book…a novel…a modern (at the time) novel about Spartans. I devoured it in a day and was back down the book shop spending all my cash on his back catalogue. He was brilliant and it’s a catastrophic loss to literature that he’s no longer with us.
I’m also a huge fan of Simon Scarrow, Scott Oden and Bernard Cornwell – and I’ve got emails from those guys in my inbox – which is beyond cool. Simon and Scott provided me with cover quote for “Gladiatrix” – it’s so amazing when you get mail and can chat with your heroes.
And I should also mention that my wife is a constant inspiration – because she puts up with my crap.
3). What books are you currently reading?
Hah – I’m not even making this up – I’m reading Simon’s latest – “The Gladiator” – which is great.
4). What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Actually writing. Finding the time to write, getting it down and being in the mood. I work full time, so writing time is less and less frequent these days…that’s why it’s taking so long to finish this d**n sequel! I read a quote once that said “most writers don’t enjoy writing – they enjoy having written” – and that’s certainly true of me.
I don’t struggle with plot (well, I don’t think I do, but reading some of the reviews, people would beg to differ), it’s just a question of quality time as I say. I’m not big into notes or anything like that – it’s more like I write vague directions on the back of a cigarette packet and go from there.
5). Tell me about Gladiatrix. How did you come up with the story?
Like most people, I’ve tried to write a book any number of times. And like most people, about six chapters in, I have a “better idea” for something else – then, three chapters into that I have a “better idea” for something else. And four chapters into that…well, you can see where I’m going.
With “Gladiatrix” I made a pact with myself – I would finish one book if it killed me. I’ve never had any delusions about being a full time novelist who makes gazillions of pounds, but I figured that I was an ok writer and a muso mate of mine said “Russ – all you need to do is finish something: even if its nuts, there will be a publisher out there who’ll go for it.” Armed with this knowledge I decided to throw everything that I liked, knew about and crucially…what I thought would appeal to readers…at a book and see where it would go.
So – Ancient History: yep, I’m pretty grounded there. Warrior women: ever since Ripley charged around the Nostromo with her flame-thrower, strong women have been a staple of all the good action movies. Vasquez in “Aliens”, Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2”, Angelina Jolie in “Tomb Raider”, Milla Jovovitch in “Resident Evil”…the list goes on, but I knew that this would appeal to people cos guys like hot chicks who can kick ass and women can identify with strong female characters. So that’s where the germ came from.
My real area of knowledge was Ancient Greece, but I knew that I couldn’t really do a feasible historical fiction in Classical times about a warrior woman (I could if I made it a fantasy, I guess), but I was well aware of the Roman gladiatorial shows and I knew there were female gladiators too. When I looked into this a bit more and discovered the Halicarnassus frieze it was a done deal. We know nothing about “Amazona and Achillia” other than their stage names, so I had a nearly blank canvass on which to write.
Just on that, I saw on your forum that some of your members wanted Sorina (or Amazona) to bite the dust at the end. Well, the thing about the Halicarnassus frieze was that it says “They were freed” – so if I had killed off Sorina, I’d have had the history nerds on my case (they are anyway, come to think of it…).
So I had my base idea, then I had to start putting a story together: I found this ace book called “Hellenistic and Roman Sparta” by Paul Carteldge – because I knew I wanted my main character to be a Spartan – for no other reason than I thought that it was cool. But the book gave me loads mortar to pack into my spurious assumptions. Sparta really did enjoy a special status at the time, so it all fitted with Lysandra’s ludicrously blinkered world view.
I got heaps of crap about the book “not being accurate” from who Simon Scarrow calls “the would-be savants.” But the stuff about Sparta being a client-state and not conquered by the Romans is actually true – though there was no question of “independence” or anything like that. What I did make up was Lysandra’s sect – but I reckoned it was plausible (at a stretch) and I wanted her to be ready before she started in the ludus.
I knew what I didn’t want to do with “Gladiatrix” and that was to rehash “Spartacus” in some form or another. I wanted the women in my story to look at themselves as professional athletes – they all want to be the best and the rivalry is between gladiatrices – not with the Roman Empire who they all regard as just something that’s there. Think of it like America today – no one can imagine a world without America and it was much the same in Roman times – even for their enemies.
Slavery was an accepted part of life in those days – slave revolts were rare and I really do think that these women would have had a better life than many of their contemporaries out in the “real world.” So the conflict is all about being the “best of the best” in the ludus. I also didn’t want there to be any overtly “bad” gladiatrices. Lysandra and Sorina just come from different worlds and have such opposite viewpoints - that’s what sets them against each other really. Sorina’s way of life, the freedom of the steppe, love of nature and all that stuff is pretty admirable I think.
So yeah – the ideas came from all over the place, but the core was so-called civilisation against so-called barbarism, youth against age, discipline against “artistic” (or combat) freedom, the role of women and their attitudes…and that there had to be loads of fights and some steamy scenes. I’ve copped it from some people who thought that the nudity and naughty scenes were needless. All I can say is that we know that gladiatrices fought near nude – it was a sexy side show and not taken in any seriousness (except by Nero and Domitian which is why all the gladiatrix books are set in one or the other’s reign) and…well…I didn’t really think the lesbian scene was that gratuitous. I put it in to highlight a softer side of Lysandra…and well – I also thought that people would expect it. So maybe it was a little gratuitous.
6). Who is your favorite character in Gladiatrix?
Lysandra – it was hard work writing her a lot of the time because she’s so up herself, so naive and blinkered. But she was great fun. Her and Stick – he was funny as well.
7). If you could be any character in Gladiatrix , who would it be and why?
I don’t know – that’s a hard one to answer. Everyone in “Gladiatrix” has pretty rough time, don’t they? Maybe Sextus Julius Frontinus – he was the governor and had it easy. Him or Valerian, the drunk guy at his party. Actually, yes – Valerian. Sorry, I can’t say Lysandra, Catuvolcos or anyone like that cos I was pretty mean to all of my characters in the end. Whereas Valerian just gets hammered at a party and makes an not a very nice person of himself, which I’ve done more than once…
8). Have you ever been to the Coliseum?
Yes. It was big – but not as big as it looks in the movies.
9). Will Varia be in the sequel? Will her character play a bigger role?
Yes she will. And yes…well, sort of. Roma Victrix takes place six years after “Gladiatrix” and everything has changed. Including Varia, who’s now twenty/twenty-one.
10). We know there is a sequel, can you give us any hints about it? Pleease ;D
Sure. As I say it takes place six years after “Gladiatrix” and everything has changed. Lysandra is no longer fighting and as turned Balbus’s old ludus into a pantheon for the gods. She has all these priestesses working there for the different deities and is making a fortune from the various “cottage industries” that have sprung up there. You know, the Priestesses of Hephaestus make ironworks, the Priestesses of Ares and Athene are still in the arena, the Priestesses of Aphrodite are…highly sought after for different reasons. Lysandra’s also started investing in trade where most of her money comes from.
But she’s has changed too – I can’t really go into how she’s changed, though.
However, she receives a summons from Rome to fight in a spectacle against the Roman Champion Aemilia Illeana – who fights under the name of Aesalon Nocturna (in a nod to David Gemmell – it means “Midnight Falcon” and that was the title of one of his gladiatorial books), so she has to go off to Rome and fight once again. Hence – the title “Roma Victrix.” It’s really Illeana’s story as much as it is Lysandra’s to be honest.
What I can say is that it’s a lot different to “Gladiatrix.” I couldn’t have a story with Lysandra as the champion now and a young barbarian girl comes to the ludus to challenge her and basically rehash the first book.
Not sure if that’s a good idea, but I’ll find out when I get it to the publisher!
11). If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be?
“Blind luck and hangovers.”
12). What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?“So Russ – it must have been amazing to find out that you’d won the lottery for the second time in a row on the same day you get a call from Paul WS Anderson saying that Milla Jovovitch wants to play Lysandra in a three picture deal that will have Michelle Forbes as Sorina in the first one, Angelina Jolie as Illeana in the sequel and an as yet unnamed co-star for “Imperatrix.””
And I’d say. “Yeah – it’s wicked.”
Bookreadertimes Interview for Russell Whitfield
1). Can you please tell us about yourself?
Ok…I’m 39 years old and I’m married to the very beautiful Sally – the brains and good looks of our particular operation. We have one daughter, Samantha and we live in Richmond, Surrey – just near the River Thames. I work as an online content editor for a big, bad corporate and I do some freelance work for Sci-Fi Now Magazine.
I’m just now getting back into the martial arts after a bit of a hiatus: I did Wing Chun for a number of years, but this time I’m going back to kickboxing. No real esoteric reason for that – just a club has opened up round the corner from my house, so that’s a “sign from the gods” I guess. That and though I want to be a certain weight, my body doesn’t want me to be that weight, so I have to do something about it!
What else – I’m a huge movie buff and spend a lot (too much) time watching DVDs. For me – I love stuff by Paul WS Anderson – Resident Evil, Event Horizon, DOA and so forth. Lord of the Rings is great, as is (naturally) Gladiator. I like low-budget movies that get slagged off in magazines because I think…well…there are only so many big budget movies, but there are loads of great B-Movies out there too – check out “The Arena” directed by a pre-“Wanted” Timur Bekmambetov.
Favorite “watch again and again and again” movies in our house are (believe it or not) Armageddon, Best of the Best and anything by our great hero, Steven Seagal – my mum (Gods rest her soul) loved him and we got kind of caught up in the silliness of it all. So we go through the Seagal back catalogue pretty regularly, watching him get fatter – makes me feel better knowing that you can be a chubster and still kick ass. We even saw him live in concert – twice.
I love Heavy Metal music – I used to be in a metal band in the 80s and the love of the genre has never left me. Saxon, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest and (ahem) Doro Pesch are the sort of things that I listen too all the time. Over and over again – as my wife will tell you. (EDIT: ADD ON BY RUSSELL WHITFIELD) But I now have a new favourite band. They're called Hysterica -they're from Sweden and they play good old fashioned NWOBHM style heavy metal but with a modern edge. It goes without saying that I love their image, its like "Gladiatrix Heavy Metal," but the band is about more than just image - these guys are brilliant musicians. Please do check them out at www.hysterica.se/ and/or www.myspace.com/hysterica.
2). What or who inspired you to become a writer?
That’s an easy one. The person most responsible for my amateurish endeavors is the Donna Gillespie. She wrote one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century - “The Light Bearer” – a gladiatrix story that’s infinitely superior to mine in every way. I picked up “The Light Bearer” for ten pence (I think that’s a dime) at the library in the early 90s and loved every page of it. At the dawning of the internet, Donna had a website and I wrote to her – you know – fan mail and she was kind enough to write back.
We began a correspondence that has lasted years and years and has seen us meet up in Rome and San Francisco – she was and continues to be an inspiration to me and gave me loads of tips when I was writing “Gladiatrix.” I’m such a huge fan of hers and I’m honoured to call her a friend. We spoke about our books once in the pub when we were a little the worst for wear and I reckoned on that her heroine Auriane and Lysandra actually lived in the same “universe.” I’m a big fan of cross-overs, so I mention Auriane a few times in “Gladiatrix” and indeed in the sequel. I don’t think the characters will ever meet, but many of Donna’s fans spotted mention of their heroine in “Gladiatrix” – which was really cool.
“The Light Bearer” and its sequel “Lady of the Light” are required reading: I’ve said before that Donna Gillespie is the Mary Renault of our times and I stick by that – here’s a link to her website: www.thelightbearer.com/
Another literary hero of mine is the late, great David Gemmell. I’ve always been into ancient history, so when I saw his “Lion of Macedon” in the bookshop…my goodness…must be twenty, twenty five years ago now, I couldn’t believe that there was a book…a novel…a modern (at the time) novel about Spartans. I devoured it in a day and was back down the book shop spending all my cash on his back catalogue. He was brilliant and it’s a catastrophic loss to literature that he’s no longer with us.
I’m also a huge fan of Simon Scarrow, Scott Oden and Bernard Cornwell – and I’ve got emails from those guys in my inbox – which is beyond cool. Simon and Scott provided me with cover quote for “Gladiatrix” – it’s so amazing when you get mail and can chat with your heroes.
And I should also mention that my wife is a constant inspiration – because she puts up with my crap.
3). What books are you currently reading?
Hah – I’m not even making this up – I’m reading Simon’s latest – “The Gladiator” – which is great.
4). What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Actually writing. Finding the time to write, getting it down and being in the mood. I work full time, so writing time is less and less frequent these days…that’s why it’s taking so long to finish this d**n sequel! I read a quote once that said “most writers don’t enjoy writing – they enjoy having written” – and that’s certainly true of me.
I don’t struggle with plot (well, I don’t think I do, but reading some of the reviews, people would beg to differ), it’s just a question of quality time as I say. I’m not big into notes or anything like that – it’s more like I write vague directions on the back of a cigarette packet and go from there.
5). Tell me about Gladiatrix. How did you come up with the story?
Like most people, I’ve tried to write a book any number of times. And like most people, about six chapters in, I have a “better idea” for something else – then, three chapters into that I have a “better idea” for something else. And four chapters into that…well, you can see where I’m going.
With “Gladiatrix” I made a pact with myself – I would finish one book if it killed me. I’ve never had any delusions about being a full time novelist who makes gazillions of pounds, but I figured that I was an ok writer and a muso mate of mine said “Russ – all you need to do is finish something: even if its nuts, there will be a publisher out there who’ll go for it.” Armed with this knowledge I decided to throw everything that I liked, knew about and crucially…what I thought would appeal to readers…at a book and see where it would go.
So – Ancient History: yep, I’m pretty grounded there. Warrior women: ever since Ripley charged around the Nostromo with her flame-thrower, strong women have been a staple of all the good action movies. Vasquez in “Aliens”, Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2”, Angelina Jolie in “Tomb Raider”, Milla Jovovitch in “Resident Evil”…the list goes on, but I knew that this would appeal to people cos guys like hot chicks who can kick ass and women can identify with strong female characters. So that’s where the germ came from.
My real area of knowledge was Ancient Greece, but I knew that I couldn’t really do a feasible historical fiction in Classical times about a warrior woman (I could if I made it a fantasy, I guess), but I was well aware of the Roman gladiatorial shows and I knew there were female gladiators too. When I looked into this a bit more and discovered the Halicarnassus frieze it was a done deal. We know nothing about “Amazona and Achillia” other than their stage names, so I had a nearly blank canvass on which to write.
Just on that, I saw on your forum that some of your members wanted Sorina (or Amazona) to bite the dust at the end. Well, the thing about the Halicarnassus frieze was that it says “They were freed” – so if I had killed off Sorina, I’d have had the history nerds on my case (they are anyway, come to think of it…).
So I had my base idea, then I had to start putting a story together: I found this ace book called “Hellenistic and Roman Sparta” by Paul Carteldge – because I knew I wanted my main character to be a Spartan – for no other reason than I thought that it was cool. But the book gave me loads mortar to pack into my spurious assumptions. Sparta really did enjoy a special status at the time, so it all fitted with Lysandra’s ludicrously blinkered world view.
I got heaps of crap about the book “not being accurate” from who Simon Scarrow calls “the would-be savants.” But the stuff about Sparta being a client-state and not conquered by the Romans is actually true – though there was no question of “independence” or anything like that. What I did make up was Lysandra’s sect – but I reckoned it was plausible (at a stretch) and I wanted her to be ready before she started in the ludus.
I knew what I didn’t want to do with “Gladiatrix” and that was to rehash “Spartacus” in some form or another. I wanted the women in my story to look at themselves as professional athletes – they all want to be the best and the rivalry is between gladiatrices – not with the Roman Empire who they all regard as just something that’s there. Think of it like America today – no one can imagine a world without America and it was much the same in Roman times – even for their enemies.
Slavery was an accepted part of life in those days – slave revolts were rare and I really do think that these women would have had a better life than many of their contemporaries out in the “real world.” So the conflict is all about being the “best of the best” in the ludus. I also didn’t want there to be any overtly “bad” gladiatrices. Lysandra and Sorina just come from different worlds and have such opposite viewpoints - that’s what sets them against each other really. Sorina’s way of life, the freedom of the steppe, love of nature and all that stuff is pretty admirable I think.
So yeah – the ideas came from all over the place, but the core was so-called civilisation against so-called barbarism, youth against age, discipline against “artistic” (or combat) freedom, the role of women and their attitudes…and that there had to be loads of fights and some steamy scenes. I’ve copped it from some people who thought that the nudity and naughty scenes were needless. All I can say is that we know that gladiatrices fought near nude – it was a sexy side show and not taken in any seriousness (except by Nero and Domitian which is why all the gladiatrix books are set in one or the other’s reign) and…well…I didn’t really think the lesbian scene was that gratuitous. I put it in to highlight a softer side of Lysandra…and well – I also thought that people would expect it. So maybe it was a little gratuitous.
6). Who is your favorite character in Gladiatrix?
Lysandra – it was hard work writing her a lot of the time because she’s so up herself, so naive and blinkered. But she was great fun. Her and Stick – he was funny as well.
7). If you could be any character in Gladiatrix , who would it be and why?
I don’t know – that’s a hard one to answer. Everyone in “Gladiatrix” has pretty rough time, don’t they? Maybe Sextus Julius Frontinus – he was the governor and had it easy. Him or Valerian, the drunk guy at his party. Actually, yes – Valerian. Sorry, I can’t say Lysandra, Catuvolcos or anyone like that cos I was pretty mean to all of my characters in the end. Whereas Valerian just gets hammered at a party and makes an not a very nice person of himself, which I’ve done more than once…
8). Have you ever been to the Coliseum?
Yes. It was big – but not as big as it looks in the movies.
9). Will Varia be in the sequel? Will her character play a bigger role?
Yes she will. And yes…well, sort of. Roma Victrix takes place six years after “Gladiatrix” and everything has changed. Including Varia, who’s now twenty/twenty-one.
10). We know there is a sequel, can you give us any hints about it? Pleease ;D
Sure. As I say it takes place six years after “Gladiatrix” and everything has changed. Lysandra is no longer fighting and as turned Balbus’s old ludus into a pantheon for the gods. She has all these priestesses working there for the different deities and is making a fortune from the various “cottage industries” that have sprung up there. You know, the Priestesses of Hephaestus make ironworks, the Priestesses of Ares and Athene are still in the arena, the Priestesses of Aphrodite are…highly sought after for different reasons. Lysandra’s also started investing in trade where most of her money comes from.
But she’s has changed too – I can’t really go into how she’s changed, though.
However, she receives a summons from Rome to fight in a spectacle against the Roman Champion Aemilia Illeana – who fights under the name of Aesalon Nocturna (in a nod to David Gemmell – it means “Midnight Falcon” and that was the title of one of his gladiatorial books), so she has to go off to Rome and fight once again. Hence – the title “Roma Victrix.” It’s really Illeana’s story as much as it is Lysandra’s to be honest.
What I can say is that it’s a lot different to “Gladiatrix.” I couldn’t have a story with Lysandra as the champion now and a young barbarian girl comes to the ludus to challenge her and basically rehash the first book.
Not sure if that’s a good idea, but I’ll find out when I get it to the publisher!
11). If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be?
“Blind luck and hangovers.”
12). What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?“So Russ – it must have been amazing to find out that you’d won the lottery for the second time in a row on the same day you get a call from Paul WS Anderson saying that Milla Jovovitch wants to play Lysandra in a three picture deal that will have Michelle Forbes as Sorina in the first one, Angelina Jolie as Illeana in the sequel and an as yet unnamed co-star for “Imperatrix.””
And I’d say. “Yeah – it’s wicked.”