RebeccaGood day dear readers! I have a HUGE treat for you!! Samantha Wilcoxson and I met through a reading group on Facebook, and struck up a friendship first started on our love of books and medieval history. I have read all three of her books, and LOVED them all! She manages to bring her characters to life, in such a way that has been missed by so many other writers. She has graciously agreed to provide us with an interview, and share how she gets her ideas! I hope that ya’ll enjoy getting to know her! She is a fabulous writer, and an all around fantastic person. We can expect great things from her in the future! Happy reading my friends!
Hi Samantha, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Thank you for inviting me to your blog! I am excited to share my passion history with your readers. It has been wonderful to turn a love of history into a writing career. When I am not buried in books, I am mom to three amazing teenagers, and we love to travel to historic places together.
What are your ambitions for your writing career?
I’ve not gone into this with a lot of planning and ambitions, just stories that I wanted to tell. Focusing on the business side of writing is a challenge for me, but I do want to work on expanding the distribution of my books since most of my sales currently go through Amazon. I also hope to skip back a few centuries and begin writing some stories of women who lived early in the Plantagenet dynasty.
Which writers inspire you?
In historical fiction, I have no greater inspiration than Sharon Penman and CJ Sansom. Their stories truly transport the reader to another time. I also write to dig into the emotions of the women I write about. In that, I have classic authors Charlotte Bronte and Edith Wharton for inspiration. Their emotive novels grip my heart each time I read them.
What have you written?
(*Include books, novellas, short stories, poems, blogs, awards or anything of interest.)
My most recent, and most popular, work is the Plantagenet Embers trilogy. These novels take a look at the birth of the Tudor dynasty and the fate of the York remnant through the eyes of Elizabeth of York, Margaret Pole, and Queen Mary I. Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen was named an Editors’ Choice by the Historical Novel Society in 2015, and Faithful Traitor has received the Discovering Diamonds award.
I have also written two middle grade novels. My first, No Such Thing as Perfect, is inspirational fiction featuring a girl beginning seventh grade. Over the Deep is the story of a young boy on the Titanic.
I frequently blog on historic topics on my own blog and as a guest at others. Readers can find links to those articles here.
What are you working on at the minute?
I am currently working on a series of novellas exploring some of the secondary characters in the Plantagenet Embers series. These short stories will complement the existing trilogy and be available on Kindle for 99c/p each. The first will feature Margaret Beaufort during the readeption of Henry VI. This is one of her brief times with her son Henry Tudor, who is, of course, a major character in Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen. Three more novellas will follow, taking peeks at more intriguing women of the era.
What genre are your books?
Plantagenet Embers is historical fiction beginning in the late fifteenth century and ending in the middle of the sixteenth century. Each book is biographical fiction focused on the life of the particular woman featured.
What draws you to this genre?
I have always loved history, and writing historical fiction allows me to explore how women lived in different times. We share timeless emotions and truths with these women, so I hope that I take readers to another time while helping them connect personally with each one.
Do you write full-time or part-time?
I am a full-time mom and part-time writer for a few more years. I am enjoying the time I have with fantastic teenagers!
Where do the ideas come from?
The idea to write about Elizabeth of York came from my love of the Wars of the Roses era and desire to explore the life of an often dismissed woman at the center of it all. Elizabeth did not scheme like her mother or raise troops like Margaret of Anjou, but she demonstrated a quiet form of strength that enabled Henry Tudor to bring peace to England. Writing about Margaret Pole seemed the natural next step to explore the fate of those with York blood under the Tudors. Mary was more unexpected. She snuck up on me after Faithful Traitor was published and I had no intentions of taking that storyline further. It was actually a beta reader and good friend of mine who pointed out that I had left readers wondering what happened to that little princess in Margaret’s care. Suddenly, Queen of Martyrs came to be.
For future novels, I plan to continue looking for women who have been ignored or misunderstood and investigating their personal story.
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I work with a timeline of historical facts but let the personalities and motivations develop as I write.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
Sometimes writing when the mood does not strike can be a challenge, but it is nothing like the difficulty of marketing my work and managing the business side of being an author. I wish that I could simply research and write all day, but being a successful writer involves so much more. I have had to become comfortable with social media, public events, and making decisions about how to best distribute my books. I am still learning.
What is the easiest thing about writing?
Maybe I shouldn’t say that research is the easiest part of writing, but I do enjoy it the most. I love reading, taking notes, and feeling the personal story forming in my mind.
How can readers discover more about you and you work?
Website:
Blog: https://samanthawilcoxson.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlantagenetEmbers/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carpe_librum
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/samantha_wilcoxson
Pinterest:
Amazon Author Page: Author.to/SamanthaWilcoxson
Smashwords:
Book Links: (* American, UK, etc.) Universal links will automatically take person to appropriate Amazon site:
Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen myBook.to/PPTQ
Faithful Traitor myBook.to/FaithfulTraitor
Queen of Martyrs myBook.to/QueenOfMartyrs
No Such Thing as Perfect myBook.to/NoSuchThingAsPerfect
Over the Deep myBook.to/OVERtheDEEP
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/samanthajw
For a chance to win a FREE COPY (two available), tell me which one of these lovely royals you would like to spend the day with and why! You can comment on the blog below, or email your answers to bookclub@mymilitarysavings.com
