A Conversation with Mystery Author Anna Castle

with Anna Castle

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Anna Castle to Omnimystery News today.

Anna is the author of the Francis Bacon mystery series, the first of which is Murder by Misrule (Anna Castle; March 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), chosen as a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month for July 2014.

We recently had the chance to talk with Anna about her book.

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Omnimystery News: Into what genre would you place your Francis Bacon mysteries?

Photo provided courtesy of
Anna Castle

Anna Castle: Murder by Misrule is an historical mystery featuring Francis Bacon as the main sleuth. Unlike most novels set in the Tudor period, my book is light in tone. My characters are are bright, aspiring climbers, not cynics with dark pasts. A welcome change of pace, I hope, and very much in tune with the exuberant Elizabethan era.

OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the synopsis.

AC: Thomas Clarady is the main actor, although he doesn't instigate the investigation or solve the crimes. He's an Elizabethan Archie Goodwin to Bacon's Nero Wolfe. So Tom's relationships are important, both to him and to the plot. His oldest friendship is fractured in this book, while his newest one takes an unexpected turn.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?

AC: Everything I've got goes into the writing of every book, which is probably true for most writers. You're always rummaging around in the old memory bin, looking for people who have something in common with a character or a time when you faced some difficult decision or setback. It doesn't have to be exactly the same trait or experience, just enough to give you a handle in your imagination. And then I'm a linguist. I've always got my well-trained ears open, listening to meter, assonance, connotations, nuances, and watching out for the ever treacherous semantic drift (changes in the meanings of words.)

OMN: Describe your writing process for us.

AC: I'm a plotter. I have a complete list of scenes, structured in acts and sub-acts, before I start the first draft. Then as I approach a particular scene I do some pre-writing — sometimes a lot. I work through structure, emotional transformations, specifics of the setting. Once I know my scene is well-crafted, I can dive into the sensory envelope and focus on dialog and feelings.

OMN: Why did you choose to write Murder by Misrule as the first in a series?

AC: My ideas come in series form, probably because I've been reading mystery series since I was a wee slip. I'm also a Trekkie and have watched all five series many, many times. (Deep Space Nine is a major influence on my writing. It's a subplot laboratory!) And I get very attached to my characters. I miss them when I'm not writing about them. I couldn't bear to just abandon them, wherever they happen to be, at the end of a book. Book 1 is set in 1586. Francis Bacon lives until 1626. I won't live long enough to write 40 books, but I can darn well write a dozen.

OMN: Tell us more about the book's setting.

AC: Elizabethan London was one of the greatest confluences of time and place in the history of the world. Anyone — people on the street — can name three or four larger-than-life persons from that period. How many can even remember who the monarch was a century later? Everyone was striving boldly towards the future, determined to build a great nation. Shakespeare and Bacon deliberately coined new words to enrich the English language. Raleigh and Drake spent months in tiny ships, seeking to extend the reach of their Queen. London was rapidly growing into the largest city in Europe. I love being able to drop into that world in my imagination whenever I find myself at a pause.

OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a story, where would it be?

AC: I've been to England many times to do writing research. It is enormous fun, if hard on the feet. I've never been in the winter, though, so I would love to spend a month on someone else's shilling. I'd hire a driver and stay in pricey renovated Tudor-era buildings. I'd go to Stratford-upon-Avon again, since it's a museum of the sixteenth century, and then I'm not sure where. Not London so much, because I've seen everything from my period that's still standing. I need to spend time in the northern reaches of Middlesex, Hampshire, around Gorhambury, where Bacon grew up and the coast of Dorset, where Tom is from.

OMN: If Murder by Misrule were to be adapted for television or film, who do you see playing the key roles?

AC: Thomas Clarady looks astonishingly like a young Heath Ledger. I don't know young actors that well, but that would be a good guide.

OMN: Have any specific authors or titles influenced how and what you write today?

AC: I've read The Lord of the Rings every year since 6th grade. That's got to to do something to my sense of language and story. I read P. G. Wodehouse before starting a new book, to limber up my vocabulary. The movie Shakespeare in Love was a major inspiration for this series.

OMN: Do you have any favorite series characters from books you've read?

AC: Marcus Didius Falco by Lindsay Davis; Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters; Bertie Wooster by P. G. Wodehouse

OMN: What is the harshest criticism you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?

AC: Criticism: The standard rejection line, "I just didn't connect with the characters." I adore my characters, so that one hurt like billy-o.

Advice: Write every day and write at the same time every day.

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Anna Castle holds an eclectic set of degrees: BA in the Classics, MS in Computer Science, and a Ph.D in Linguistics. She has had a correspondingly eclectic series of careers: waitressing, software engineering, documenting an indigenous language of southern Mexico, a short stint as an associate professor, and managing a digital archive. Writing historical fiction combines her lifelong love of stories and learning. She physically resides in Austin, Texas, but mentally counts herself a queen of infinite space.

For more information about the author, please visit her website at AnnaCastle.com or find her on Facebook.

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Murder by Misrule
Anna Castle
A Francis Bacon Mystery

Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder.

Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss — and in danger — until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.