Finding the Hook to Write by VEH Masters
VEH (Vicki) Masters, whose fourth in series, The Familists, has just been released explores what inspired her to write historical fiction.
When I was twelve our history teacher took the class on a visit to the ruined castle tucked away in the corner of my home town. St Andrews is on the East Coast of Scotland and is mostly famous for golf and having the third oldest university in Britain. It also has lots of ruins which, as schoolchildren, we paid little attention to and which simply formed the backdrop to our daily lives. I wasn’t even sure where the castle was until that day and had been told nothing of its history. In we went and crept down the long, narrow, claustrophobic siege tunnel dug out of rock in 1546. If you ever find yourself in St Andrews I would urge you to go down the tunnel, it’s one of the most atmospheric places I’ve ever visited, and its story certainly had me hooked.
The group who had taken the castle and held it against all comers, including those trying to break the siege by tunnelling in, called themselves The Castilians and I knew, even then, it was the perfect title for a book. What I didn’t know was how long it would be before I wrote it!
The Castilians is told through the eyes of Bethia and Will, a sister and brother who are caught up on opposite sides of the siege. Will is fighting for the Protestant cause (Scotland is a Catholic country in 1546) from within the castle while Bethia is outside in the town where the family are likely to lose all if Will’s heretical activities are discovered. Her parents insist she must make a most unwelcome alliance with a older man to save them all. You’ll need to read The Castilians to discover if Bethia escapes the marriage and Will the castle.
Will and Bethia are fictional characters placed in the centre of real events and I follow the actual history very closely. Having finished The Castilians I never intended to write anything further about them but readers wanted to know what happened – always an excellent pointer to what an author should write next!
And yet I was dubious. I had written about the siege because I felt a strong, almost visceral connection to this significant piece of history which had taken place in my home town. I wasn’t certain I could manage the same drive to write a sequel.
Nevertheless I started on the next book in what has become The Seton Chronicles. The second in series The Conversos is set mainly in Antwerp, the richest city in the Western World at the time and Conversos – who were Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity – were fleeing there in increasing numbers from Portugal.
Quite how Bethia, a Catholic, becomes involved I’ll leave you to discover. However what drew me to write about Conversos was learning that some of my husband’s Jewish ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492, went to Portugal where again things became impossible and finally ended up in Amsterdam. And there it was – a hook to draw me in because of the family connection.
Soon I found myself, alongside my characters, travelling through a Europe where your safety depended on sharing the faith of the inhabitants of whichever city you found yourself in. It has been an illuminating and edifying journey and the fourth in series The Familists has just been published.
When I wrote the first book, I was writing of a single dramatic event but it’s also a story of the emergence of the Reformation. In the second in series we have Bethia a Catholic, Will a Protestant and Bethia’s husband a Converso whose sister is secretly practising the religion of her ancestors, Judaism. Practising any one of those religions in the wrong place at the wrong time would lead to a cruel death – at one point they find themselves in Calvinist Geneva, which for Will is a safe haven but for Bethia, a Catholic and her sister-in-law a secret Jew, is perilous.
Yet when they reach Venice, it’s Will who’s in danger, for Jews could live openly in this most Catholic city but Protestants most certainly not. And so a theme emerged about religion, tolerance and survival – which I found fascinating.
The Familists, released on November 5th 2023, is set partly in Constantinople where Conversos, who’d fled Antwerp through Venice, were now settling in increasing numbers. Within the Ottoman Empire both Christians and Jews could practice their faith without fear of retribution. They were taxed more heavily and had other restrictions but still some Jews ended up in incredibly powerful positions as advisers and physicians to the sultan. The most famous is Don Joseph Nasi on whom both Marlowe’s Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice are said to be based. He’s an interesting fellow but much more fascinating is his aunt, the remarkable Dona Gracia Mendes who ran escape routes for Conversos and Jews for years. I have used the stories of both these real people extensively in The Apostates and The Familists.
Yet, by the current book the underlying theme has shifted again and I would say now the whole series is about the strength of family connection and how family love and loyalty is the most important thing of all – regardless of which faith family members adhere to.
The history of the era in which The Seton Chronicles is set is so remarkable as to need little embellishment. I write almost to explain to myself how ordinary people of the times survived and made sense of it all. And I also write thinking of the current times and my own family. There is one final book in the series which I am beginning to turn my mind to and we’ll come full circle back to Scotland – which is definitely the hook for me.
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V E H Masters has published four historical fiction novels which are regularly on the Amazon Bestseller Lists and she’s the Winner of the Barbara Hammond Trophy. She has BA in History and an MSc with distinction and has lived in Scotland for most of her life. For many years she ran her own business as an executive coach and team development specialist. She now writes full time and, when it’s going well, enjoys it very much
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Artwork by Mike Masters
Image of Geneva with kind permission of the Bibliothèque de Genève.
Geddy Map, Maps of Venice and Constantinople reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland and Deutsche National Bibliothek