Now, you asked me what the ‘North America’ of my alternative
Roman world looks like. World building is essential in any novel, whether
romantic, a thriller, a swords and sandals epic, space opera or pirates on the
high seas. We ask readers to abandon Real Life and enter a different world for
several precious reading hours, so as writers we’d better get it right!
Key principles of world building are plausibility and
consistency. Characters need to act as if their world is perfectly natural to
them. This is where they’ve grown up, got their first job or date and the place
they have to make sense of by finding their own path through it. In other
words, they have the same challenges, opportunities and disappointments we have
in our world and time.
Whatever whizzy gadgets the characters use or back-breaking
rural work they have to perform, their normality has to be credible and this is
done by them interacting with their environment, the structures and people
within it in a consistent way. In an Ancient Roman society, your characters
would need to make connections with others more powerful than them who would
protect them. If not, plan for those characters’ life chances to be cut short
in all senses! On a larger scale, characters’ activities are regulated by the
way their government works (or doesn’t) and by who holds the power.
The Roma Nova of my books is based on the foundation of
small fiefdoms and city states established at the time the Roman Empire was
fragmenting. My heroines’ ancestors, who worshipped the traditional Roman
deities, left Rome in AD 395 to protect themselves from Christian persecution.
You can read the full
story here. Their presence as a tough little country robustly
dealing with all-comers changed the face of Europe and later the rest of the
world. The effect can be compared to ripples after a stone is thrown in a pond
or the famous
‘butterfly of doom’
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| Roma Novan village |
Roma Nova itself is ‘somewhere in central Europe’ but has
borders with the Italian Confederation (Confederatio
Italiano) and New Austria (Neuösterreich).
As members of the European Economic Area based in Berlin, Roma Nova enjoys
friendly relations with Bavaria and Prussia in the German Federation and ‘most
favoured nation’ terms with the United Kingdom.
Speaking of which, in the Roma Novan world, the last British
Governor-General didn’t leave North America until 1867 and in Carina’s time,
Britons still own considerable stretches of land and business interests. The
British and Dutch co-ruled Manhattan and the surrounding area from the 1600s,
with Britain the junior partner. But in 1813, due to economic and political
problems at home, the last Dutch Governor-General sailed out of New York in
1813, leaving the British to rule for another fifty years.
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| Roma Nova - Constantine Arch |
The other colonies on the American continent? The rebellion
in the 1770s was a ramshackle affair and the leaders squabbled too much to form
a united movement. Wisely, the British granted parliamentary representation,
full trading and civic rights equal to those in the mother country. The
colonies known as the Eastern United States (EUS) were permitted to expand west
to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes with Georgetown (later
Washington) as their capital. The territories beyond the original colonies were
supposed to be called the Western United States, but the name faded away as the
Easterners become dominant.
New York became an autonomous city, although staying within
the EUS. Further west lie the Indigenous Nations Territories and the Spanish
Empire lands. Louisiane gained autonomy from France under Napoleon V after the
Great War of 1925-35 and the République Québecoise shortly before the time of
INCEPTIO (Book I in the Roma Nova series), English-speaking Canada is more or
less where it is in our timeline. Phew!
INCEPTIO itself starts in New York and from the first
sentence you know you are in a different place:
The boy lay in the
dirt in the centre of New York’s Kew Park, blood flowing out of both his
nostrils, his fine blond hair thrown out in little strands around his head.
Kew Park, not Central Park
Beyond the trees
behind it, the windows in the red-brick Dutch highthouses along Verhulst Street
threw the full sun back.
There is no Verhulst Street alongside Central Park.
(In 1625, the real Willem Verhulst oversaw the decision to locate a main fortress and town, New Amsterdam, on the tip of Manhattan Island in the colony of New Netherland. It was the first permanent European settlement, later the city of New York.)
There is no Verhulst Street alongside Central Park.
(In 1625, the real Willem Verhulst oversaw the decision to locate a main fortress and town, New Amsterdam, on the tip of Manhattan Island in the colony of New Netherland. It was the first permanent European settlement, later the city of New York.)
‘If you want to be a real tourist,
you could take a trip around the harbour,’ I said. ‘You know, Fort Amsterdam,
Hudson statue, Franklin Island. Or a comedy club or a show. Maybe Jonas
Bronck’s zoo or a walk around the old Dutch Quarter in Manhattan, or the
Georgian lanes.’
None of which exists in our reality, but all of which are
credible in the Roma Nova timeline.
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| Upper Bay near Manhattan the statue is, of course, Governor Benjamin Franklin (no Statue of Liberty...) |
In my latest book, a novella called CARINA, nearly half of
the action takes place in North America. Our heroine lands in Montreal in the
République Québecoise. I drew on my own visit there and to Quebec to flesh out
the location detail. It’s not entirely inconceivable that this French-speaking
part of Canada could have become autonomous by Carina’s time, although it was
still a French imperial territory in the 1980s when Aurelia led the action in
INSURRECTIO.
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| Montreal, where Carina and Flavius arrive on the first night of their mission |
We’d brought a supply of
Napoleonic louis as well as the livre québecois they’d recently introduced;
both were used at present. We had enough for our visit, but on the way back
from the supermarché on the Avenue du Mont-Royal we checked out the nearest
bank in case we needed more.
This is another essential part of world building. Time has
to pass; countries, treaties, governments as well as people should change.
Only about 10% of research should appear in the finished
novel; a historical note and links to an author’s website can provide more. Like
the Ruritania created by Anthony Hope, or the 1960s Germania of Robert Harris’s
Fatherland, I don’t go into too much
detail, just enough to set the tone and paint a sketch for the readers to fill
in.
I hope you enjoy the world of Roma Nova. Happy reading!
about Alison Morton
Alison Morton
writes the acclaimed Roma Nova thriller series featuring
modern Praetorian heroines. She blends her deep love of Roman history with six
years’ military service and a life of reading crime, adventure and thriller fiction.
All
six Roma Nova full-length novels have been awarded the BRAG Medallion.
SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO were selected as Historical Novel Society’s
Indie Editor’s Choices. AURELIA was a
finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. SUCCESSIO was selected as an Editor’s
Choice in The Bookseller. CARINA is a
novella set between INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS.
A ‘Roman
nut’ since age 11, Alison has misspent decades clambering over Roman sites
throughout Europe. She holds a MA History, blogs about Romans and writing.
Now she
continues to write, cultivates a Roman herb garden and drinks wine in France
with her husband of 30 years.
Social media links
Connect with
Alison on her
Twitter @alison_morton
Buying links for CARINA
Barnes & Noble NOOK
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| read the review HERE |
Carina Mitela is still a young inexperienced
officer in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces. Disgraced and smarting from a
period in the cells for a disciplinary offence, she is sent out of everybody's
way on a seemingly straightforward mission overseas.
All she and her comrade-in-arms, Flavius, have to
do is bring back a traitor from the Republic of Quebec. Under no circumstances
will she risk entering the Eastern United States where she is still wanted
under her old name Karen Brown. But when she and Flavius discover a
conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of Roma Nova, what price is
personal danger against fulfilling the mission?
---------
Set in the time after INCEPTIO but before
PERFIDITAS in the Roma Nova series, this thriller novella reveals hidden parts
of Carina's early life in Roma Nova. And North America isn't quite the
continent we know in our timeline...
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| Visit Discovering Diamonds during December for some Diamond-themed short stories - one of which is written by Alison Morton and features Carina. |
Leave a comment!
Alison is giving away
a free (ebook) copy to the person who leaves the most original comment!
Alison - I am absolutely in awe of the way that you have created this 'alternative' country giving it not only a history but also 'sights' of the city as we would know it today. The concept is not only brilliant but, above all, convincing, logical and plausible without ever going 'over the top'. Congratulations and thank you (also to Helen for publishing this account) and, oh, how I would love to see this on TV!!
ReplyDeleteYou've made me blush, Richard!
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled that you enjoyed CARINA and her world. I have had such fun creating it and exploring it along with the characters.
Everybody says Roma Nova is perfect for TV. Now to find a producer and finance...
well, I stand by every word and I know I'm far from the only one who thinks so! All we need now is to get Helen Mirren to play Aurelia!!!
DeleteHelen Mirren – yes, she would be fab in the older Aurelia role!
Delete*Drifts off in a dreamy mood, lost in the improbable*
I think you hear 'would be perfect for TV' a lot, but in all honesty producers are looking for something different, something easy to make (location & set wise) and something which will be immediately popular. Yours, Alison, fits the bill perfectly!
Delete