Interview with Sandra Worth, author of Pale Rose of England + GIVEAWAY

It is such an honor to bring you an interview with the talented and delightful Sandra Worth, author of the new (and phenomenal) book Pale Rose of England!   

A huge thanks to Sandra for taking time out of her busy schedule to spend some time with us!  She has also graciously offered up a copy of Pale Rose of England to one of you lucky readers, so make sure you enter the giveaway at the end of the interview!

All of your books are set during the time of the War of the Roses, what is it about this time in history that compels you to write about it?

Amy, thank you for having me on Passages to the Past!

The Wars of the Roses is rich in the universal themes of love, hate, greed, justice, vengeance, idealism, friendship and heroism, and it impacted our modern age in dramatic ways, both culturally and politically. Human nature – good and bad – is writ large on the stage that was the Wars of the Roses, making it a very colorful era. To me, it has an Arthurian feel, maybe because Sir Thomas Malory wrote his tales of King Arthur’s court during this period, and probably drew on the news of his day to enrich his tales.

As an example of cultural impact, take the play we all love, Romeo and Juliet. I believe Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous play by the romance of John Neville, Lord Montagu, with his beloved Isobel that took place during the Wars of the Roses (Lady of the Roses). Then there is Prince Richard of Gloucester. I find an uncanny similarity between Richard’s love affair and the fairy tale we all cherish, Cinderella, where a prince rescues the girl he loves from the kitchen where she’s being held captive. (The Rose of York: Love & War).

I’ve even noticed shades of Harry Potter hovering over the period. Like Harry Potter, Richard of Gloucester was an orphan of famous parentage, alone in a dangerous world, facing choices from an early age. Thanks to the situation he found himself in, those choices had to be made without guidance; he had no one to rely on and he had to find his answers within himself. Like Harry Potter, the choices he made would affect his own life, and those of many others, changing the course of human history. Only in Richard’s case, it’s not fantasy; all true.

As for how the Wars of the Roses impacted our modern age politically, our U.S. democracy has its roots in this period with the laws protecting the innocent that were enacted by Richard III. (The Rose of York: Fall from Grace)

Catherine Gordon's life was a fascinating one, yet not one that was documented. How did you overcome this obstacle to write such a compelling portrait of such an enigmatic woman?

Only ten words that Catherine spoke were ever recorded for posterity. From these ten words and her refusal of a king’s gift, I had to derive my portrayal of her. I knew that she had to have been an incredibly spirited and remarkable woman to attract the love of a cold-hearted king, a dashing, romantic prince, and three powerful men, and to win the admiration of the nation that kept her captive. Beyond that, I had nothing. To be truthful, this was my most difficult book, because there was so little to go on. A great deal of my portrayal came from my own instincts about Catherine and the kind of woman she was.

You make a pretty convincing argument that Perkin was actually Richard of York, the lost prince. Do you think the mystery will ever be solved for certain?

Unfortunately, no. Too much information has been destroyed, and too much time has elapsed. We know where the Pretender was buried but his remains are lost to history, so there can never be any DNA testing. A seventeenth century chronicler went to his burial place and found no trace of him. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t buried there. It might simply be that Henry VII did not identity his grave, just as he didn’t identify the grave of his other enemy, King Richard III. The bottom line is unchanged. The mystery of the identity of “Perkin Warbeck” will forever remain speculation.

The best we can do is to perform a proper forensic examination of the bones in the urn that are said to belong to the little princes in the Tower. The 1934 examination that was done is flawed. The examiners didn’t even test for gender! By their own admission, they “knew” these were the bones of the princes and set out to prove their conclusion. If a DNA test is permitted on the bones in the urn, I expect it will show either 1) that these are not the bones of the two princes, or 2) that the results will come back inconclusive.

In either case, it wouldn’t solve the mystery, but it could give a new direction to the thrust of the speculation: namely, instead of saying they likely did NOT survive, it will be said that the princes—or one of them—may indeed HAVE survived, and that the Pretender known as “Perkin Warbeck” could really have been who he said he was—Richard, Duke of York.

What can we look forward to next from you?

For my Work-In-Progress I’ve gone further afield to a different time and different place, but one that is fraught with as much drama and turbulence as the Wars of the Roses in England. I’m dying to talk about it in more depth! My problem is that I’m superstitious. The time is not right until I complete my wip. That should be soon, though—I’m almost finished!

Who were/are your greatest writing influences?

For sure it was Anya Seton. What a wonderful writer! I loved her KATHERINE, and read everything she wrote. It “speaks” to me, as I imagine it does to many others because it’s a phenomenally successful book.

As a child, I loved the poems of many English and Latin poets—Coleridge, Keats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Tennyson, Virgil, Horace, Catullus. I memorized my favorites, and can still recite some lines.

Have you always been a fan of historical fiction? What was the book that sealed your love of the genre?

I was always a fan of reading in general. But I became a fan of Historical Fiction when I discovered Any Seton’s KATHERINE. That book captured my heart like no other, and from then on I was enamored of HF.

And lastly, do you have words of wisdom for aspiring writers?

Revise, revise, revise! Keep writing. Never give up! The more you write, the better you become at writing. Persistence is the key. May the Force be with you!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Pale Rose of England

by Sandra Worth

SYNOPSIS

It is 1497. The news of the survival of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, has set royal houses ablaze with intrigue and rocked the fledgling Tudor dynasty. With the support of Scotland's King James IV, Richard-known to most of England as Perkin Warbeck-has come to reclaim his rightful crown from Henry Tudor. Stepping finally onto English soil, Lady Catherine Gordon has no doubt that her husband will succeed in his quest.

But rather than assuming the throne, Catherine would soon be prisoner of King Henry VII, and her beloved husband would be stamped as an imposter. With Richard facing execution for treason, Catherine, alone in the glittering but deadly Tudor Court, must find the courage to spurn a cruel monarch, shape her own destiny, and win the admiration of a nation.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

- To enter, please leave a comment below and include your email address.

- Giveaway is open to US entries ONLY.

- For +1 additional entry each, please help spread the word by blogging, posting on sidebar, tweeting or posting on Facebook.  You can use the SHARE buttons below and please include the info in the comment section below.

- Giveaway ends on February 11th.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!