Masterworks: Blood on White Mountain - E.M. Swift - Interview

  Today is the third of a series on nine interviews I'm sharing on the Crowvus Book Blog. These are from the authors of the short stories included in the Masterworks anthology by the Historical Writers Forum. We're running through chronologically, some are video interviews, others are written.

This Friday, it is my pleasure to welcome E.M. Swift to share a little about her story, Blood on White Mountain, her writing process, and a little bit about her inspiration...

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you write (besides Masterworks!), and what inspired you to begin writing.

I would love to be able to tell you what inspired me to begin writing, but I truly have no idea. I have written stories for as long as I can remember and maybe even before that. According to my mother, I was writing my tales from the moment I learned to write - and often illustrating them too, albeit with much less success.

It undoubtedly helped that I was encouraged by my mother, who still has some of my very early writing efforts from age four or five. I would take the time to create little books for my (Incredibly short) short stories. Then, at school I had the habit of filling my rough-work book with poems and paragraphs. Far from telling me off for doing so, my school gave me a separate exercise book to write in. I was the only one in my class to be given such a book and that made me realise that there had to be something good about what I was doing. 

Unfortunately, I was not able to build on such a promising start. Life intervened as it often does and writing took a back seat to other things for many years.

All that aside, what inspired me to write historical fiction is easier to pin down. 

It was a mix of enjoying reading it, inspiration from great authors such as Dorothy Dunnett, and a passion for 17th century history which had been sparked in my university days when I joined the English Civil War Society reenactment group.

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Introduce us to your chosen artwork

The artwork is a painting called ‘Young Soldier’ by Frans Hals Junior. It presently resides in The Hermitage collection.  It was painted about thirty years after the time when my story was set, at the end of the war of which my story describes the beginning. It shows a young man, his face mostly concealed by the fall of his long, light brown hair, cradling a musket against his body. On the table beside him are a helmet and cuirass and other items of a soldier’s equipment.

To me it sums up the unbearable burden placed upon so many young men during this turbulent time. White Mountain was the first battle of the Thirty Years War. In those decades millions of young men from across Europe would be like this one, taking up arms and armour to fight each other.

It resonated with me in particular, as one of the characters in my Lord’s Legacy series had been young and in love with just such a youthful soldier at the very start of that conflict.

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This story is set amid the conflict for the throne of Bohemia. Which side would you have been on?

The root of the war was religion, so had I lived at the time my support would have depended one hundred present upon my religious affiliation.

From a modern perspective it is always very difficult to unpack the rights and wrongs of such things. Both sides were motivated by values I couldn’t really relate to, however I think the thoroughly modern principle of self-determination might place my broader sympathy with the Bohemians rather than the emperor.

To explain: Bohemia was technically an elective monarchy. However, it had become a given that the king who would be elected each time would be a Habsburg who was also the (elected) Holy Roman Emperor.  

When the Emperor Matthias fell ill and named his nephew Ferdinand to be his successor, the Bohemians only agreed to elect him as their king once Ferdinand had promised to uphold their religious freedoms. But it quickly became clear the ferociously Catholic Ferdinand had no intention of doing so. That led to the Bohemians throwing Ferdinand's representatives out of a window in protest, and electing a Protestant prince to be their king instead.

My story looks at the consequences of that act and where it eventually led as well as telling the very personal tale of one young woman caught up in the events.

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The main character, Kate, has a real rollercoaster of a story! If you were in your own story what words of wisdom would you give her at the start?

I’m not sure taking advice is Kate’s strong point! 

That said perhaps I’d remind her that one should always take care to obtain a young man’s name and address…

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At the end of Blood on White Mountain you included an Historical Note. How important do you think it is that readers of historical fiction are presented with the facts?

I strongly believe that historical fiction is, and should be, what it says on the can - fiction in a historical setting. An author should be free to write whatever and however they want, to interpret events and historical figures as they choose and insert their own characters into the mix if appropriate. Whatever it takes to make a thundering good story. Not everyone will agree with how an author might interpret events and historical characters, but that should never restrict the author’s fundamental freedom to write what they wish to write.

That said, when a reader’s first encounter with an era is through historical fiction it can shape and even distort their view of the period. That is why I think it is a good idea to provide notes which both establish the full context of the story and make clear where it has in any way breached or overturned the known historical record.

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Have you got a favourite line from Blood on White Mountain of which you felt particularly proud?

There is one point where one of the characters is feeling lost and hopeless and it comes out in the way he speaks:

‘His voice had an edge to it, as if he was witnessing time itself running through a broken hourglass and spilling out into nothing.’

I like to think this captures that moment of despair when we feel our very life shattered by a terrible event and running away beyond our control.

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What do you hope readers will take away from your story?

I hope it might offer some insight into the origins of one of the darkest and most brutal wars Europe has ever endured. Also for those who have read or may go on to read my Lord’s Legacy books, it explores the formative experiences of one of the major characters in the series.

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If time travel were possible (perhaps it’s only a matter of time!) would you choose to go back to 1620, or another year? Why?

I would only travel in time if I was certain of my return ticket, and even then I might think twice! 

There is a tendency to romanticise the past and not just in fiction.  Popular imagination often builds myths around major events or important people which are far from the reality. I think if I could go back to see what really happened I would be disappointed or horrified more often than inspired. 

What would inspire me more, perhaps, would be the quiet, day-to-day heroism and resilience of ordinary people trying to live their lives despite the often devastating impact of those great events and the heavy footfall of those prominent people. So perhaps if I could go back on a brief visit to 1620 it would be to see that.

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What’s next for your writing? Any projects in the pipeline?

Amongst other things, I have been working for some time on a series of books set in the midst of the Thirty Years War, covering key historical events both in England and more widely in Europe. I have no idea when this will see the light of day or in what form, but it does tell much more of Kate’s story.

You can find Blood on White Mountain in the Masterworks anthology, which is available on #KindleUnlimited HERE!

Now, let's meet the author!

Eleanor Swift-Hook enjoys the mysteries of history and fell in love with the early Stuart era at university when she re-enacted battles and living history events with the English Civil War Society. Since then, she has had an ongoing fascination with the social, military and political events that unfolded during the Thirty Years’ War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. She lives in County Durham and loves writing stories woven into the historical backdrop of those dramatic times.