April 25, 2008

I adore, absolutely adore Roberta Gellis's books.

I discovered the Roselynde Chronicles in the early 1980s, around the time I had just finished reading John Jakes's  The Kent Family Chronicles. I was delighted to find a similar sort of family saga (but much heavier on the romance) set in medieval England by Ms. Gellis. This after I had recently seen Becket and A Lion in Winter and fallen in love with the Platagenets.

So not only did I read the Roselynde Chronicles, but then every other Gellis book I could get my hands on over the years.

Gellis has a masters in biochemistry and another one in medieval literature–and it shows. There's not one bit of a crack in her historical settings. You're there, transported back into those times not only in the clothing and technology of 12th century England, but also, firmly and without excuse, into the mindset of that time.

My favorite Gellis book, which also ranks as one of my all-time favorite books (and is an annual re-read), is Alinor, the second book in the Roselynde series. I have also recently begun to read her Magdalene la Bâtarde mystery series–a medieval-set mystery series.

So when I had the chance to hear her speak on two different panels at RT, I made sure not to miss them. I'd never seen her speak before, and indeed had only met her for about thirty seconds five years previously.

I was lucky enough to snag her after the second panel and offer to buy her a cup of tea (selfishly, of course, wanting to just talk to one of my idols). She accepted and off we went.

We had a cuppa and chatted and I was quite the fangirl. I did control myself for the most part, but I did rave and go all googly-eyed when we talked about Alinor and Ian, and Magdalene and Bell.

I also had the chance to ask some questions and find out a few things I'd always wondered about.

Here are some of the little nuggets I got:

"Roselynde" is pronounced "Rahz-a-lynde" (I had been saying "Rose-a-lynde" all these years!).

Ian di Vipont, the hero in Alinor and one of my all-time favorite heroes ever, was inspired by Tyrone Power. Now, I didn't know who Tyrone Power was any more than the Mr. Romance guy knew who Tom Hulce was, but that's the beauty of Google. I present to you Tyrone Power, aka Ian di Vipont.

And, yes, I'm all over this. Definitely Ian.

I asked Ms. Gellis about King John, who appears in all of the Roselynde books and is portrayed as quite the villain. She describes him as having a lovely, mellow voice, almost hypnotic in its beauty, and I wondered if that was true, or if she'd given him that characteristic on her own. 

She said she'd given him that voice because it seemed to fit–he was a very persuasive man and could be very charming, and she felt that a voice like that would fit. Brilliant, hmm?

She also believes he was as much of a lecher as she portrayed him.

I asked about Richard the Lionheart…did she think he was really gay, or simply asexual. Ms. Gellis's response was that she thought that Richard, like Alexander of Macedonia, was simply not very interested in sex–with either gender. That he got his rocks off (my words not hers, lol), so to speak, through battle and being a soldier. I'd buy that too.

Sigh. So what else.

The Magdalene la Bâtarde mysteries (which one of my other idols, Bertrice Small, pic below, also thinks is brilliant)….

I have really enjoyed those medieval-set mysteries and since there are only four (Ms. Gellis, at Ms. Small's insistence, is working on the fifth), I have had to control myself from blazing through them.

I had to ask Ms. Gellis, though, about the setting. She had every single street down, gave directions from place to place like she'd been there in twelfth-century London–even down to which tradesman's shop was where. She had to have a map, didn't she?

Yes, she did. Whew. I felt better after hearing that, even though she told me that the map wasn't always clear. 

We talked about the ongoing romance between Magdalene and Bell, and whether/how it would ever be resolved.

And we talked about a lot of other things too…like that she bought her first computer in the early 1970s and it cost $5000 for the big clunky thing…but she's been writing on the computer ever since. Wow.

And then, I released her from my clutches (mwahahahaaa) and let her head upstairs for a much-needed rest before the Vampire Ball that night. But I walked around the rest of the day with a huge smile on my face. What fun. 

I had hoped to have the chance to fangirl all over Ms. Small as well, because her books were a great inspiration to me over the years too…but unfortunately, our schedules didn't mesh. I did have a few moments to tell her how much I enjoyed her books, but that was all. Maybe next year. 

So…have you ever read Roberta Gellis? Or Bertrice Small? Inquiring minds want to know.