I'm thrilled to show you the cover for my next novel,
I began thinking about writing this book back when I was planning my trip to hike along Hadrian's Wall. I thought it was going to be set along the wall. I even wrote out an outline in which everything happened along the wall. But my main character told me differently.
I know that sounds a little psychotic. Enica Flavia Servula is a fictitious character. I made her up. So shouldn't she do what I planned for her to do? It doesn't work out that way. Ask any author and they will tell you that characters develop minds of their own.
Originally, my story began in Eboracum, which is the Roman city that now lied under modern day York. I began there because that was where the Ninth Legion was stationed. If you believe the theory that British author Rosemary Sutcliff posits in her historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth, the destruction of the legion may have been the cause for the wall's construction.
When I created Enica, I made her a potter in Eboracum who wants to rise in Roman society. She has a few things against her. First, she is a Briganti, and they may be allied with the Romans but are still considered barbarians and outsiders. More importantly, she is a former slave of questionable parentage. However, she believes that her artistic pots will help her gain notice among the rich and powerful. She also plans to marry a Roman citizen to help her status.
I expected Enica to achieve her goals by going up to the wall once it was begun, and to produce pots for the hundreds of encampments of Roman soldiers who would be building the wall. I had her steps all plotted out. But Enica told me she wanted to meet the man whose pottery is found all along the wall. And he didn't live anywhere near northern England.
Eventually I stopped fighting and followed Enica on an adventure I'd never planned. I let Enica's plans direct the story. But Enica's plans didn't work out, either. Because God had a different plan than either Enica or I had conceived of.
