Meet and Greet Monday: K M Weiland

K.M. Weiland writes historical and speculative fiction from her home in the sandhills of western Nebraska. She is the author of the historical western A Man Called Outlaw and the recently released medieval epic Behold the Dawn.

~ Interview with K.M. Weiland ~

BRC: How would you describe your book?

Behold the Dawn is a medieval epic, set against the backdrop of the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century. It tells the story of Marcus Annan, a renowned competitor in the brutal tourneys—the huge mock battles that remained wildly popular despite being banned by more than one pope. Annan, haunted by the secrets of his past, is confronted by a mysterious monk who demands that Annan help him seek vengeance for a wrong committed sixteen years earlier. Against his will, Annan is drawn into the conflict, and he journeys to the Crusade in the Holy Land, where he rescues the widow of an old friend and attempts to deliver her to safety in Constantinople. But he soon discovers that the past he’s been running from is finally catching up, and if he hopes to survive, he has no chance but to face it.

BRC: What message do you hope it conveys?

It’s ironic (or maybe not!) how often God takes the themes I’m writing about and puts them to work in my own life at that same time. The theme of Behold the Dawn is finding the new beginning in each day. Life was a bit chaotic while I was writing Behold and I really did have to learn to take each day as it came. At one point, I was even questioning whether writing was something I was supposed to be pursuing at all. I just had to keep giving my writing to Him on a daily basis. And, day by day, He kept giving it back to me.

BRC: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I simply love the characters. Marcus Annan, my main character, dominated every page and absolutely took charge of the story. His strength, his courage, and his haunted past… he was a blast to write. In fact, he’s easily one my favorites out of all the characters I’ve ever written. And that’s saying something, because this story, in particular, gave birth to quite a cast, including Annan’s smart aleck servant Peregrine Marek, the fugitive countess Lady Mairead, a conflicted Templar named Warin, and a triad of very scary bad guys!

BRC: What did you dislike most about writing this book?

The beginning. The first fifty pages of any project is almost always the most difficult part for me. Even though I outline extensively, everything changes when I sit down to begin that first chapter. Acclaimed short story writer Josip Novakovich explains it well when he says, “The plot outline is like a game plan in basketball or football. It can look good on a chart, but once the ball flies, it does not suffice…. The plan is not sacred: it shifts, depending on the position of the players on the field and on the flight of the ball in the wind.” As my writing journal bears out by way of a whole month’s worth of disgruntled, frustrated entries, it took me awhile to settle into the story’s rhythm. For a while there, I even despaired of ever making it work. But, eventually, things started falling into place. Ironically, from about the fifty-page mark on, this was one of those stories that just flowed.

BRC: What inspired you to become a writer?

Stories have run amok in my brain for as long as I can remember. I started writing them down when I was eleven or twelve. Novels were just a natural progression. I’ve written hundreds of short stories, but I prefer the novel as a form, simply because it allows a longer, fuller arc. I wrote four truly horrible (although still dear to my heart!) novels before finally hitting a new stride and churning out my first published novel, A Man Called Outlaw.

BRC:  Tell us about your writing process.

I write for two hours every day, usually from four to six in the afternoon. The first half hour of that time I spend “warming up”: scribbling in my writing journal, reading an article on the craft, and proofreading what I wrote the day before. Then I choose a soundtrack and start writing (which translates to “staring at the blinking cursor for at least ten minutes”).

My perfectionist nature forces me to edit as I go. If I know I have a plot problem in the previous chapter, I have to go back and fix it. Otherwise, it niggles in the back of my mind and drives me crazy. So I edit a page at a time, a chapter at a time, and fifty pages at a time. Once I’ve finished my first draft, I go over it thoroughly two or three times and then send it off to my first round of beta readers. I may go over the manuscript again after receiving their corrections, but then I’ll just let the book sit in the closet for a few years while I start the process all over again with a new project. I’ll pull the manuscript out every couple months and tweak it (or majorly overhaul it, as the case may be), but not until I’ve finished my next project will I have gained enough distance from Project #1 to really see its faults.

BRC: What are you working on now?

I have several projects in the works. I have a completed fantasy, Dreamers (about a man who discovers that his dreams are really memories of another world), waiting for another round of edits. I also just started the first draft of a historical novel called The Deepest Breath about the passion, betrayal, and vengeance that dog two men and the woman they both love through the trenches of World War I, corruption in colonial Kenya, and the criminal underbelly of London.

BRC: What books do you enjoy reading?

If it’s good writing, I’m interested in it, regardless of genre, but my tastes do tend to run to historical, literary, and speculative fiction. Patrick O’Brian and Orson Scott Card are perennial favorites.

BRC: Where can readers find you online?

Website: http://www.kmweiland.com/index.php
Blogs:
Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors: http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/
AuthorCulture: http://www.authorculture.blogspot.com/


BRC: Where can readers buy your book?

Both Behold the Dawn and A Man Called Outlaw are available in hardcopy and ebook versions on my website or through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Alibris.

Whistlestop Wednesday Book Review: Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft

Geoffrey Hindley covers the mechanations, psychology, rules, art and finally -- the horror -- of medieval siege warfare in MEDIEVAL SIEGES & SIEGECRAFT. The writing, although sometimes cumbersome, is not dry. Geoffrey's passion for his subject comes through and the text is enlivened with examples and quotes taken straight out of history. Even those who dislike reading about war may find interest in the story of an earl's son forced to swim across a lake in his nightshirt, the woman whose husband refused to take her back after her captives released her, and the invaders who dressed in female garb and followed the town's women from a well located at the edge of town back through the gates.

A chapter covers the various tools of war and provided interesting information. For instance, siege towers were huge and might reach a height of 60 feet. One gigantuan siege tower even capsized the boat meant to transport it. Of interest, too, were the various incindiary weapons, especially Greek fire, which I'll use as an example of the detail in this book. A secret formula of combustibles perfected by the Byzantines ignited upon contact with water. It was used primarily in naval warfare (although it did show up in castle sieges). It burned with ferocity, even as one account claims, beneath the water. One eyewitness account of a lighted barrel catapulted toward a besieging army describes it as a fireball with a long tail that lit up the night as if it were day and roared like a dragon. Not surprisingly, its deployment ended more than one siege. The formula for Greek fire has been lost in the mists of time. While some believe it contained naphtha or petroleum in some form, and also oils and resins, no one today knows for certain what was in it.

The book covers both the strengths and vulnerabilities of castles and names the measures taken by miners and masonry sappers to topple towers and bring down walls. We learn of the formalities, the trickery employed and, yes, even the chivalry found in medieval warfare. Sadly, too, we learn of man's inhumanity to man. A chapter discusses the surprising role of women in medieval warfare. Another chapter deals with the problem of logistics.

Illustrations scatter throughout the book, and a more-organized section of photographs enliven the center pages. Color illustrations and photographs would be preferable than black-and-white, however the scope and execution of this amazing resource redeems this flaw.

I recommend this book for adults who enjoy reading nonfiction historicals written in a personable style.

Meet and Greet Monday:Author K M Weiland

Dear Reader,

For me, writing has always been a creative itch I must either scratch — or go crazy ignoring! Stories have rattled around in my overactive imagination for as long as I can remember. In fact, my first memory is of my three-year-old self sitting in a tree house at a family reunion in Colorado, making up stories in which I was the superhero who saved the day. I like to think my stories have gained a little in sophistication since then!

I grew up chasing Billy the Kid and Jesse James on horseback through the sand hills of western Nebraska, at least in my mind. Aside from a few dreams of training horses and barrel racing, writing has always been my all-consuming passion. God gives each of us a gift (or gifts), and it’s our responsibility to give it back to Him. I write because I love it and because it’s part of who I am. I write because I believe this is what I'm meant to do with my life - and so I write to the best of my ability for His glory.

Epic tales of history have always thrilled me. It was a natural step for me to dive into historical fiction. My first book, A Man Called Outlaw, set in the 19^th century during the land wars that rocked Wyoming Territory, allowed me to write the inevitable western saga brewing in my imagination since childhood. Three years after Outlaw’s publication, I’m ecstatic to announce the October 1^st release of my medieval novel Behold the Dawn, set during the 3^rd Crusade.

Behold the Dawn is a tale of vengeance and romance, guilt and redemption, sacrifice and deliverance. Knights, fair ladies, indentured servants, *Templars, monks, and **Saracens all race across the pages, some of them fleeing a tragic past, others attempting to carve out a future. Marcus Annan, a knight famed for his prowess on the battlefield, thinks he can keep the secrets of his past buried forever. But when Gethin the Baptsti, a mysterious crippled monk, demands Annan help him find justice for the transgressions of sixteen years ago, Annan is forced to leave the tourneys — the infamous mock battles long condemned by the Church — and join the Third Crusade.

Wounded in battle and hunted by enemies on every side, Anan rescues Lady Mairead of Keaton, an English noblewoman, from an infidel prison camp. He flees to Constantinople but, try as he might, Anon cannot elude the past. Amidst the pain and grief of a war he doesn’t even believe in, he faces long-hidden secrets and sins. Anon bares his soul to the mercy of a God he abandoned years ago.

Although my representation of such an immense topic as redemption and grace must necessarily be flawed, I hope readers can see past the dross and take away a few flakes of gold from the story’s heart. And perhaps Marcus Annan and company will leave their impact on your life, as they most definitely have on mine.

—K.M. Weiland

*Templar: A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land.
**Sacracen: A member of a pre-Islamic nomadic people of the Syrian-Arabian deserts.

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