Charles Coleman Finlay Interview
By: Staff |
Thursday April 09, 2009 |
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| Traitor To The Crown is a new fantasy series set during the American Revolution by author Charles Coleman Finlay. The first book, The Patriot Witch (A Del Rey Paperback Original out April 28, 2009), is set in the year 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. However, Proctor offers much more than anyone can imagine. You see, magic is in his blood and this dark secret needs to be protected or he will be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope. Thrust into the adventure of a lifetime, as resistance sparks rebellion and rebellion becomes revolution, he fights alongside his fellow patriots from Lexington to Bunker 1-lill, only to finds himself enmeshed in a war of a different sort—a secret war of magic against magic, witch against witch, with the stakes not only the independence of a young nation but the future of humanity itself. This highly-anticipated series will continue in May 2009 with the publication of A Spell for the Revolution and in June 2009 with the publication of The Demon Redcoat. Here, Finley talks about the book and reveals a dark secret or two of his own. What inspired you to write the Traitor to the Crown series? And why did you use the American Revolution as the backdrop for the series? C.C. Finlay: I was working as a research assistant on a history project about the minutemen, and I started to think about what if the witches at Salem had still been around for the battles of Lexington and Concord. The concept was so great I knew I had to write it. I love history in general, and especially the Revolutionary War. But the Revolution has become almost myth-like in its qualities. By adding the element of magic to the history, I wanted to recapture the real magic of the period. I could tell an original story and teach people true facts at the same time. It doesn’t get any better than that. What was the appeal to use witches? The Revolution started in Massachusetts, in towns and villages that had been racked by witchcraft accusations only eight decades earlier. It was intriguing to think about witchcraft going underground during those years. In that sense, the story starts with Proctor Brown. How does a young man--a witch-- raised to hide his true nature respond when that true nature is needed most? It takes all the personal and public conflicts, mixes them together, and raises them to a greater level of intensity that is a lot of fun for a writer like me. How would you describe the book? It’s a secret history filled with magic. There are so many things about the Revolution that are still unexplained, starting with who fired the shot heard round the world at Lexington. The basis for the series is a secret war for control of magic and the world, and the Revolution is only part of that larger conflict. The element of magic makes these fantasy novels, but they are set firmly in our world. I didn’t change the outcome of any historical events. Instead I tried to fill in the holes in the history books, and make familiar stories and events feel fresh and exciting again  Did you have to do extensive research in order to write the series? I did graduate work in early American history, so I was already familiar with the period. When I started writing these novels, I went back to the research books and looked for things too cool not to use. For example, in May 1781, near the end of the war, the sky over New England turned black--a day without a sun. No light could get through; people had to use candles at noon to see. Americans thought it was the end of the world, Judgment Day. That’s historical fact. It’s fun to explain that, to make it the main part of a secret history and not just a weird footnote. And did you have to conduct research in order to capture the period of Colonial America? Yes. After the “too cool not to use” research, I do more reading for the things that are too ordinary to ignore. What kind of clothes did people wear, what kind of food did they eat (the Revolutionary era garden was far more diverse than ours), what kind of Bible did they read, what songs did they sing, what were their buildings like, what was the geography like, and so on. I hope that readers come away from my books with some sense of the historical period. And also a little more knowledge about some real historical events. Do legendary historical characters of the American Revolution play a role in the series? They do, and more so as the series goes on. Figures like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or Betsy Ross cast such a long shadow. Readers feel they know everything about them already. So I wanted to establish Proctor Brown and Deborah Walcott and the secret world the witches live in before introducing the major historical figures. Paul Revere appears in the first book, alongside lesser known people like the Reverend Emerson or the British Major Pitcairn. George Washington plays a major part in Book 2, A Spell for the Revolution. In some ways, he’s the focus of the story just because he’s the focus of the enemy’s magic. The third book takes place in France and England, so Benjamin Franklin and King George III both have a significant effect on events. In addition to these major figures, I hope I introduce readers to some important people they’ve never heard of--men and women who were brave, foolhardy, and sometimes obsessed with magic--who also changed the course of history in their own way. What authors have had an effect on your fantasy writing? Edgar Rice Burroughs was very important to me when I was young. Although he’s most famous for the Tarzan books, he also wrote some fast-paced and entertaining historical novels--The Mad King, The Outlaw of Toni--which made an impression on me when I was ten or twelve years old. J. R. R. Tolkien was also a huge influence. I’ve reread The Lord of the Rings so many times I’ve lost count. I love Tolkien’s complex world-building and the epic scope of his books, the way these ordinary hobbits, not so different than us, start out in someplace homey and familiar like the Shire but end up in the desolation of Mordor with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. More recently, I’ve enjoyed J. K. Rowling’s novels. By introducing magic into a perceptively observed version of our own world, she’s made a lot of old fantasy tropes feel new again. And she’s done all of us a favor by drawing so many people back to reading fantasy for entertainment. After Traitor To The Crown, what’s next for you writing wise? These books were so much fun to write that I want to tell more stories about the Salem Circle--Proctor and Deborah and the other witches who band together during the Revolution. From a historical perspective, interest in magic seems to be highest during periods of crisis, whether it’s President Lincoln holding séances in the White House or Nazis collecting occult objects of power. And history is full of unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions. So I’m eager to follow this group of witches and their descendants through time. How are they divided by the American Civil War? Do they expand across oceans like the group they oppose in the first book? What mysteries can be explained when magic is involved? There are so many stories to tell, so much great material to work with.
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