Hello!

This week I really enjoyed the unusual historical fantasy tale Divine Heretic by Jaime Lee Moyer giving us an alternate look at the woman we now know as Joan of Arc. Jaime kindly agreed to answer a few questions on the book.

So how would you book tempt someone into reading Divine Heretic?

By making it as clear as I could that this isn’t a traditional Joan d’Arc story, and that the “chosen one” fights to have her own life. One of the first tag lines I wrote was “Not everyone is destined to be a hero. Sometimes you don’t have a choice.” That was a key point I kept in mind while writing, and that fighting the creatures who’d taken away her choice and autonomy would make her life very, very difficult.

What was the attraction of Joan of Arc as a main character?

Actually, my editor asked me to write a book about Joan. I sent a list of possible ideas and stories for my second book, and at the very end of the list I’d written “something about Joan of Arc.”

That was the entire idea at that point. My computer hard-drive had just died a horrible death, so I sat at my desk typing in hundreds and hundreds, and more hundreds of words into my phone, sent them all to my agent, and he passed them on to my editor. It took a very long time and the eyestrain was epic. I’d reached my limit when I was asked for one more idea, and added Joan to the list.

So of course, she chose Joan of Arc. I’m laughing as I type this, because I knew almost nothing about Joan, other than the popular pop culture stories and a movie I saw as a child. Once I started digging into the history – the real history, not what I think of as the Disney Princess version – I knew I had to come up with a story that did her justice, and maybe right some of the wrongs done to this poor girl.

There is an entire body of speculation about why the real Joan, a shepherd’s daughter, claimed to hear heavenly voices, had visions, and knew things no one else could know. That speculation ranges from different forms of psychosis, such as schizophrenia, to Joan being a clairvoyant who saw the future, to truly being touched by God.

No matter what the truth is, everyone who came in contact with Joan used her in one way or another. The more I read, the madder I got. She was everyone’s means to an end, and she died a horrible death as a result.

Another character I really enjoyed what you did with was Ethan, a black man in medieval France and close to the nobles. What led you to that choice?

The Moors were hugely important to European history, introducing innovations in science and architecture, established universities and libraries, and had a sophisticated and diverse culture. They invaded – and ruled – portions of Southern Europe for centuries, including Spain. Many Moors were Christians, both in North Africa and Europe, but more of them were Muslim.

To say the Church hated the Moors, and considered them godless heathens is putting it mildly. Accounts of the Crusades call the dark-skinned people occupying the Holy Land Muslims, which they were, but they were also Moors, and the Church set about driving them out. Even so, there were dark skinned people in Europe all through the middle ages, and well beyond.

As the son of a Moorish princess and a French earl, Ethan was as much out of place among the French nobility, and an outcast, as Jeanne. The color of his skin marked him as not belonging in Charles’ court as surely as Jeanne’s status as a peasant.

I thought long and hard about who would fill the role of Jeanne’s champion and protector, and help guide her. Ethan lived on the fringe of what was acceptable in French society, remembered everything his mother taught him about the world she grew up in, had the experience to navigate the factions in court, and enough power as an earl’s son – and Charles VII friend – to protect her.

He was the perfect protector, honourable and kind, patient, and just cynical enough. Ethan became everything I wanted in the character, and a little more.

The fantastical elements are there but very ethereal and unexplained in this novel – what is the attraction in that type of fantasy?

When I wrote Brightfall, I had the whole Celtic Isles tradition and folklore to draw from, and a mythology full of magic, witches and wizards, and magical creatures. I could use fairy rings, standing stones, and even a dragon in Sherwood Forest. Not so much in Divine Heretic.

An entirely different set of folklore and mythology exists in France to base this story on, largely grounded in animism, and most of it was very subtle. Animism is the belief that literally everything – rocks, trees, water, weather, plants, flowers – has a soul and is alive. This can extend to mountains and rivers, or other natural features, and you get tree spirits, water sprites, and all kinds of nature and geographical spirits.

If you want a good harvest, you make offerings to the guardian of the fields when you plant in spring, and give offerings of thanksgiving when you have a good crop. A farmer or a shepherd’s life is a day to day series of small offerings to all the spirits that keep their land fertile, their family safe, etc. If everything is alive, you don’t want to anger anything, or seem ungrateful.

Because this a kind of folk magic that is woven into everyday life, it’s a lot harder to write; that magic is always there, but not surrounded by flashing neon arrows shouting “look at me!”

There are some very powerful Fae in this tradition, but they are dark, brooding land guardians, largely amoral or even down right evil, and indifferent to the people who live on the land they protect. If any of these Fae, such as the Dames Blanches or the ancient guardian goddesses known as the Matres, involve themselves in your life, they do so for the benefit of the land they guard.

It’s all magic, but I don’t think it’s as well known or as flashy as the Fae court gathering to dance, and calling maidens and yeomen to dance with them. Really hard to write psychological warfare between a shepherd’s stubborn daughter and a trio of ancient land guardians, but worth it.

In researching the period, any surprises you found while exploring?

No happy surprises or anything fun. Because Joan of Arc was accused of witch craft as well as heresy, I needed to research what happened to women taken into custody by the Church. Most of it gave me nightmares.

The depths of cruelty inflicted on these women in order to get a confession did surprise me. It shouldn’t have, but it did.

What story is calling to you next?

I’m almost 55,000 words into a sword and sorcery novel with the working title of Talen: City of Jewels. This book started as a joking conversation on Twitter between me, Liz Bourke, and author Harry Connolly about fantasy clichés, and writing Princess Mary Sue.

When I finished Divine Heretic, this novel turned into a serious project, and I’m deeply in love with it. A princess thought lost, her mage lover and best friend, an ancient sword housing two cursed souls, and a struggle to win back her throne. Toss in an ancient evil, a dying God slowly going mad, and I’m having fun – in a serious way.

If you could get everyone to read one book (not your own) what would it be?

A novel by the late author John M. Ford titled The Last Hot Time.

Gangster elves at war in an alternative 1930s Chicago. An utterly amazing book, and one of the few books I’ve ever reread.