Behind the Scenes: How Amy Maroney Brings History To Life

For me, there are three integral steps to writing historical fiction: travel, research, and writing.

Travel is the magic—the pixie dust that sparks my imagination and gives me story and character ideas. Doing research is endlessly fascinating to me. I love disappearing down rabbit holes, following footnotes deep into the past, discovering bits and pieces of interesting lore. When I finally tear myself away from the research, I’m ready to plot out my story and write.

My novels focus on the medieval and Renaissance eras of Europe. I’m American, but I’ve lived in Europe four times. The first experience was during middle school, when I discovered castles, fine art, and historical fiction. I always gravitated toward stories of strong women, and my interest in art developed into a lifelong drawing and painting hobby.

I worked as a writer and editor of nonfiction for many years and dreamed about writing fiction one day. It wasn’t until I hit my mid-forties and was traveling in Europe with my husband and our two young daughters that I resolved to combine my passions for history, art, and books by writing my own historical fiction.

My first trilogy, The Miramonde Series, tells the story of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day scholar on her trail. I got the idea for the series in 2012 when I saw a painting at Oxford University of a sixteenth-century woman, painted by a woman. I wanted to bring to light the real women artists of the era who were lost to history while their male counterparts got all the wall space in museums and, too often, the credit for those female artists’ work. But I still didn’t know quite how to tell the story.

A few months later, the answer came to me through travel. I got the setting for my forgotten woman artist’s world when I journeyed to the Pyrenees and stayed in a restored medieval tower in the tiny Spanish village of Oto.

Not long after that, our family went to the Greek island of Rhodes. It captivated me. I knew deep in my bones I would write about Rhodes one day. Nearly ten years later, I began researching The Sea and Stone Chronicles, which features ordinary people living under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller in medieval Rhodes and Cyprus.

All of my novels have talented, ambitious, courageous heroines, among them artists, a scribe, a healer, a businesswoman, and a historian. What the books also have in common is the fact that these heroines are all fictional. Some of my characters are real historical figures, but my protagonists are always invented people.

When I began to plan out The Queen’s Scribe, my latest novel, I had a decision to make. In 1458, Queen Charlotta of Cyprus took the throne alone, held off her power-hungry half-brother’s massive siege and—when her second husband Louis of Savoy proved a weak leader—sailed around the Mediterranean entreating allies to help save her crown. This story was too good not to write. But should I write it from Queen Charlotta’s viewpoint, a diversion from my usual approach?

I was torn. I wanted this book to tell the queen’s story. But I also wanted to write the best book I could possibly write. And using fictional heroines to bring the past to life is what I love. It’s what I do best.

I ultimately decided to tell Queen Charlotta’s tale through the eyes of fictional Estelle de Montavon, daughter of a French falconer. In The Queen’s Scribe, Estelle, a talented scribe and linguist, offers unique value to the Lusignan court of Cyprus, which steadily lost touch with its French roots all through the late medieval era.

Estelle’s language skills become critical when the royal court retreats to Kyrenia Fortress in anticipation of war. As Queen Charlotta voyages across the Mediterranean Sea beseeching allies for help, Estelle is at her side as scribe and interpreter, witnessing every triumph and disaster along the way.

I hope The Queen’s Scribe plays a role in bringing Charlotta of Cyprus back into the light. But most importantly, I hope the story transports people to another world and gives them an immersive escape from their everyday lives. That’s the power of great fiction, in my view. And it’s what I’m always aiming for when I write.

A broken promise. A bitter conflict. And a woman’s elusive chance to love or die.

1458. Young Frenchwoman Estelle de Montavon sails to Cyprus imagining a bright future as tutor to a princess. Instead, she is betrayed by those she loves most—and forced into a dangerous new world of scheming courtiers, vicious power struggles, and the terrifying threat of war.

Determined to flee, Estelle enlists the help of an attractive and mysterious falconer. But on the eve of her escape, fortune’s wheel turns again. She gains entry to Queen Charlotta’s inner circle as a trusted scribe and interpreter, fighting her way to dizzying heights of influence.

Enemies old and new rise from the shadows as Estelle navigates a royal game of cat and mouse between the queen and her powerful half-brother, who wants the throne for himself.

When war comes to the island, Estelle faces a brutal reckoning for her loyalty to the queen. Will the impossible choice looming ahead be her doom—or her salvation?

With this richly-told story of courage, loyalty, and the sustaining power of love, Amy Maroney brings a mesmerizing and forgotten world to vivid life. The Queen’s Scribe is a stand-alone novel in the Sea and Stone Chronicles collection.

Universal Link: https://mybook.to/QueensScribe

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Queens-Scribe-Sea-Stone-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0BX8857Z5/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Queens-Scribe-Sea-Stone-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0BX8857Z5/

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Queens-Scribe-Sea-Stone-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0BX8857Z5/

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Queens-Scribe-Sea-Stone-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0BX8857Z5/