Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Jo-Anne Blanco

What inspired you to write the “Morgan le Fay” series?

Blanco: I am very much inspired by folk tales, legends, and mythology from all over the world – be they Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, Persian, Indonesian etc. However, many of my ideas also come from my imagination and my own experiences, as a child, teenager, adult and so on. With these first novels in my Young Adult book series, Fata Morgana, in which Morgan is a young child, I draw a lot on my own experiences as a child and my research into childhood throughout history. Historical research is another essential well of inspiration. Although my novels contain many magical and fantasy elements, I do try, as far as possible, to maintain a sense of historical accuracy as well. Mythology, legend, folklore, history, psychology, religion, philosophy, personal experience – all of these fire my imagination, and provide me with never-ending sources of inspiration and ideas. Writing for me is as much an educational experience it is a creative one.

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process, or your book?

Blanco: I've mentioned a little here about delving into ancient mythology, legend and folklore, and how I relish revitalising and reinventing powerful tales and characters for a modern readership, all while creating my own original stories around them. I love the fact that there is a seemingly endless wealth of material to draw upon and adapt, much of it ignored, forgotten or belittled by today's mainstream culture. With my Young Adult book series, Fata Morgana, one of my goals is to ignite an interest and fascination in these stories and characters among readers; to inspire them to seek out more obscure yet resonant legends and learn about them for themselves.

I’ve also talked a bit about history and how important it is to my creative process. One of the things I found fascinating while doing research for my books is how our idea of childhood today is largely a Victorian/Edwardian concept. Prior to this, particularly from what we know of the medieval period, children were sent out to work early and had to grow up fast. Children did have toys and games they would play, but the children of nobility were taught Latin and statecraft from the age of around four or five, while the children of peasants were apprenticed to a trade or sent out to work in the fields at an equally young age. I wrestled with whether or not to go for historical authenticity in my books, or to portray children and their childhoods in a more modern, recognisable way. Eventually, I chose the former. I know it can be jarring for contemporary readers, but I felt I had to go with historical realism as a way of grounding the more fantastical aspects, and with the knowledge that originally inspired me.

People have asked me why I chose Morgan le Fay as my protagonist rather than inventing a new character who could have embarked upon a similar journey. It’s an interesting question. I’ve always loved Morgan and feel very defensive of her. I think, ultimately, the reasoning behind Morgan as the central figure of the series is her place in literary history as a much maligned character, the target of an excessive amount of fear, vitriol and venom. She’s basically a template for how women who step outside of social norms have been depicted from the early Middle Ages onwards. You can almost literally trace the history of misogyny and how women were perceived at different times during the centuries through the portrayals of Morgan le Fay in literature. I want to set the record straight, reinvent her, give her her own inner life, and approach her from an enlightened, 21st century perspective.

While there are a number of books about Morgan, she is almost always seen through the eyes of others, and is pretty much always either an appendage to Arthur and/or Merlin’s stories, or is inextricably linked to them in some way, even when she’s ostensibly the novel’s protagonist. There are novels which occasionally focus on her outside of an Arthurian context but they seem to be few and far between. Morgan is portrayed sympathetically in some of these books, but in the last decade or so, I’ve noticed the portrayal of Morgan in literature and popular culture reverting back to the one-dimensional villain and an age-old, medieval-like misogyny once more – again, I feel, a sad reflection of our time.

To counter this, I am giving Morgan her own epic tale, as the multi-dimensional heroine of her own life and adventures. It is a story which will be the equivalent of any Arthurian or Norse saga, but centred and focused entirely upon her, and more often than not veering completely away from genre expectations and literary tradition. In this modern era, a very bleak dark age for women and girls in many parts of the world, I aim to do for Morgan what T. H. White did for Arthur in The Once and Future King, and Mary Stewart did for Merlin in her wonderful Merlin trilogy. While centering a known, mythic character, I plan to tell a unique, exciting, inspiring, and thought-provoking ongoing story that has never been told before, and to reinvent my heroine for a new generation and a new age.

Sorry, I appear to have given a rather long answer to this question!

Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?

Blanco: I don’t feel that I’m really qualified to give other writers advice just yet. I’ve been publishing for four years and still feel that I’m learning on the job! What I will say, though, is what works for me: write what you love. And if love isn’t necessarily the feeling you have about your subject, write what you feel strongly about. Writing should be a joy and/or a solace; something uplifting and heartening that you look forward to and can’t wait to get back to when you have to be away from it. It should never be a chore or something that you dread.

If the “Morgan le Fay” series were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?

Blanco: This is such a great question! I’m a huge film buff (I did a postgraduate Master of Philosophy in Film Studies), and I love sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV shows, so this is a great exercise of imagination. How wonderful it would be!

I’ll start with the child characters, as they are the most important in Morgan’s life since she is a child herself and they are her friends. They would have to be cast a little older than the children in the books, simply because kids in the early Middle Ages were a lot more mature in their education and thinking than they are today. For now, I’ll just list the characters appearing or mentioned in Book I. Some of the child actors listed here are already too old for the roles now, but they would have been perfect at the right age and thus the casting director would need to find actors of that calibre and similar looks. My ideal cast for Book I would be as follows:

Morgan – Konstanza Firth-Radford

Merlin, Ganieda’s twin – Felix Jamieson (with darker hair) & Ganieda, Merlin’s twin – Pixie Davies (again, with darker hair)

Safir – Alana Mansour (at the age she was when she was in Terra Nova)

Fleur – Siena Agudong (at the age she was when she was in Killer Women)

Taliesin – Billy Jenkins (with very blond, almost white hair)

Anna, Morgan’s sister, Blasine’s twin – Violet Hicks & Blasine, Morgan’s sister, Anna’s twin – Kate Moyer

The adult characters:

Gorlois, Duke of Belerion, Morgan’s father – Kevin McKidd  Igraine, Duchess of Belerion, Morgan’s mother – Romola Garai  

Sebile, Morgan’s tutor – Charlotte Rampling Cadwellon, Druid Grand Master – Jonathan Pryce

Myrddin, young Druid – Jack Huston Elfodd, Christian priest – Richard Madden

Halwynna, lady-in-waiting – Vanessa Kirby Elffin, a fisherman, Taliesin’s father – Riz Ahmed

Aldan, mother of Merlin and Ganieda – Catrin Stewart Blaes, a Christian monk – Hugh Bonneville

Arcile, maid – Ruby Thompson Dyonas, a herald – Noah Jupe

Diana, the Moon Goddess, leader of the Wild Hunt – Gemma Arterton Cernunnos, The Horned Man – Jason Momoa

Smertullos, a Stag Pooka – Julian Rhind-Tutt, part CGI character Dando, a Dog Phouka – Eddie Marsan, part CGI character

Bormovo, a spirit – Marc Warren Twadell, the Piskie King – Andy Serkis voice over; CGI character

Yallery Brown, Piskie – Toby Jones voice over; CGI character  Caelia, the Muryan Queen – Tamzin Merchant

Kevnys, spider – John Rhys-Davies voice over, CGI character Agnes, the kidnapped girl – Rafiella Chapman

Aynia, the blue-black Elven – Aiysha Hart Cleena, the white Elven – Imogen Poots

Una, the red Elven – Karen Gillan

Characters mentioned in Book I, future casting:

Ambrosius Pendragon – Richard Armitage

Uther Pendragon – Damian Lewis

High King Vortigern – Joseph Fiennes

High Queen Rowena, Igraine’s sister and Morgan’s aunt – Rosamund Pike

When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?

Blanco: Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet. I seem to suffer from the opposite: an overwhelming surfeit of ideas, stories, and plans for Morgan and her adventures which I have to curtail within the limits of the novel structure. I love both reading and writing long books. Book III, the longest so far, is actually only part of the story I intended to tell in it, but, in the end, I had to divide it into two so that the story continues in Book IV. If I ever do encounter writer’s block, I’ll probably fall back on what inspired me in the first place and keeps me going: reading and researching legends, fairy stories and folk tales.

What is your favorite book, genre, and/or author?

Blanco: The most difficult question of all! To quote Drew Barrymore in Ever After, “I could no sooner choose a favourite book than I could choose a favourite star in the heavens.” I am a great fan of classical English novelists such as Charles Dickens (my favourite author); George Eliot; Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë; Jane Austen; William Thackeray; and Wilkie Collins. Among 20th century authors, particularly those in my own genre, some of my favourites are listed below:

Hilary Bailey, Katherine Briggs, Roald Dahl, Ursula Le Guin, C. S. Lewis, Astrid Lindgren, L. M. Montgomery, E. Nesbit, Pat O’Shea, Mary Renault, Mary Stewart, Rosemary Sutcliff, J. R. R. Tolkien, Sylvia Townsend Warner, T. H. White, Persia Woolley, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Katherine Arden, Gillian Bradshaw, Terry Brooks, A. S. Byatt, Susanna Clarke, Raymond E. Feist, Neil Gaiman, Margaret George, Laurell K. Hamilton, Deborah Harkness, William Horwood, Juliet Marillier, Melissa Marr, Rosalind Miles, Madeline Miller, Naomi Novik, Philip Pullman, Diane Purkiss aka Tobias Druitt, J. K. Rowling, Peter Beresford Ellis / Peter Tremayne, Marina Warner

What are you working on next?

Blanco: Book IV! Its title is Morgan Le Fay: Hireth and the Missing Moon and publication is scheduled for 2022.

Learn More About the Author the “Morgan le Fay” series here:

https://www.jo-anneblanco.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JoAnneBlancoBooks/

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