I am convinced that my feisty Tudor heroine Mary Fox hates me.

Why? Because I keep putting her into ever more desperate situations, and watching to see how she can possibly extricate herself.

In her first adventure, The Broken Sword, one of her many challenges is to find a way out of a locked box-cart that’s taking her to a life of servitude at the hands of her vindictive stepfather.

In the second book The Tudor Prince she has to masquerade as Henry VIII’s young son Henry Fitzroy, knowing that to be unmasked as an imposter would mean certain death.

So when I started writing The River of Fire, the third book in Mary’s series (launching March 7th), I needed to think of some exciting new dangers to throw at her – and some ever-more ingenious ways for her to get out of them. And I think I succeeded – which is why she definitely hates me!

What‘s the story?

After teaming up with handsome Neapolitan Angelo di Luca, she leaves England on a mission to return a precious family heirloom to Angelo’s mother in a small town called Pozzuoli near Naples. That’ll be the Pozzuoli where a volcano erupted in September 1538, throwing out so much fire and rocks that it created an entire new mountain in just a week.

Danger enough for Mary?

Not at all. On their way down through Holland, Switzerland and the Italian peninsula, she and Angelo are chased by a mysterious adversary; a master of disguise who is a deadly shot with a crossbow. In Florence, Mary becomes an unwilling player in the (real life) assassination of Duke Alessandro de Medici, and encounters the evil (again real life) assassin Piero di Giovannabate, also known as Scoronconcolo.

Each of the perils tests Mary’s ingenuity and fortitude – and there are plenty more besides. From a conniving Dutch girl determined to trap her, to a Florentine murderer who wants Mary to take the blame for his crime, there’s no shortage of people aiming to put her into a no-win situation.

And it’s not just Mary’s bravery and cleverness that I focused on in this new book. The more I write about her, the more I come to understand Mary Fox. As a motherless girl brought up by her cold, unloving stepfather, she is always seeking the love of a family, and particularly a mother. And because she only has older brothers, she has no real idea of what it means to be a woman. All of which makes better sense of her tomboy behaviour and dress.

If you want to find out how Mary manages to come to terms with her background, as well as to slide out from each danger (if she does?), then you can pre-order The River of Fire, and be first to get it when it launches on 7th March.

In the meantime, why not read books one and two in the series, so you’re ready for book three when it comes out?
The Broken Sword
The Tudor Prince

There’s even more for Mary Fox fans too! I was asked to write something for the latest Paper Lantern Writers anthology Destiny Comes Due, and decided it was the perfect opportunity to tell the story of how Mary’s stepfather came to hate her so deeply. I wrote this as a short story called The Tenth Commandment. Get your copy here – and there are nine other great stories to enjoy with it, too!

Crafting Stories from the Past

In last week’s Tuesday blog, Edie Cay mentioned how proud she is of the new Paper Lantern Writers educational publication, Crafting Stories from the Past: A How-To Guide for Writing Historical Fiction, and the three chapters she has written for it. I have also written three chapters for the book, and am immensely proud of how the whole publication has come together. If you’re a historical fiction writer – or would like to be – then this is definitely the book for you.

Pre-order The River of Fire.

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