I was interested to read Anne Beggs’s interview last week with her fictional character Lady Aine of Dahlquin, and particularly the point Anne Beggs makes about how it’s her characters that dictate their stories to her – rather than she freely makes them up.

I feel the same about my swashbuckling kick-ass Tudor heroine, 20 year-old Mary Fox. To me Mary has become a real person, and the more time I spend in her company, the more I get to understand her. I first met her as a 17 year-old in The Broken Sword, when she escaped from her abusive stepfather and an arranged marriage. In her next adventure, The Tudor Prince, I became more aware of her emotional motivations and her deeper fears. I am now writing her third adventure The River of Fire, so I feel there are more revalations to come.

I have taken a break from writing to have a little chat with Mary. I let her ask me some questions about my writing process, and what it means for her as a character. And seeing as she is somewhat feisty, the interview did not go quite as I expected…

Mary Fox
You are Jonathan, the man who tells my stories?

Jonathan
That’s me. Yes.

Mary Fox
And you’re currently writing the third of my adventures – The River of Fire?

Jonathan
Yes. I am about a quarter of the way through the first draft.

Mary Fox
And I assume, like the first two books, I will be doing lots of fighting with my sword? Lots of dispatching of evil men to meet with Satan in hell? Lots of pretending to be a boy and wearing boy’s garb?

Jonathan
Of course – it’s what makes you… you.

Mary Fox
Oh, and what exactly am I? Since you have the power to make me whatever you want?

Jonathan
Actually, I don’t think I do.

Mary Fox
I beg your pardon? Please explain.

Jonathan
Well, I started you off with only the expectation that you would be brave, honourable, principled, kind and generous. That sort of thing. Oh, and handy with a sword. That always helps with a leading character in the 1530s.

Mary Fox
(Shrugs) Well, I am happy to be all those things. But why do you feel they constrain you?

Jonathan
Because once I start you off on an adventure, you seem to take over. As I say, you are who you are and I can’t change you. I – and my readers – have expectations!

Mary Fox
Expectations?

Jonathan
Exactly. A Mary Fox adventure has action and danger on almost every page. It’s you getting out of impossible situations by the skin of your teeth. It’s you challenging the male-dominated society, because you’re a girl who does what she pleases, without ever submitting to a man like other girls of her era. That’s exciting for modern readers. It should be exciting for you too.

Mary Fox
It is, but it means I have to be clever and quick witted. Otherwise how could I find a way out of all the life-or-death situations you seem so keen to put me in? Like the time you put me in a pitch-black box cart with a squeaky wheel for a journey of many hours over the roughest of roads? Or the time you had me sword-fighting for my life on top of said cart? Or when you had me needing to escape from a courtyard by leaping my horse over the highest wall? Shall I go on?

Jonathan
No, no. That’s enough. I get the picture.

Mary Fox
I do not think you do, actually. I am forever having to think my way out of the danger you put me in.

Jonathan
You think that’s easy for me?

Mary Fox
(Drawing sword) What do you mean? I am the one in danger!

Jonathan
(Holding up hands) Put that thing away! What I was going to say is; it’s me that has to get you out of danger!

Mary Fox
No you do not. You are sitting comfortably with your cup of hot drink that you call ‘coffee’, plus a packet of some confection you call ‘Chocolate Hobnobs’ – while you tap most loudly with two fingers on the brightly-lit ‘laptop’ contraption. Whereas I am the one who is forever facing the most extreme peril.

Jonathan
Exactly. But you don’t find your way out of any peril, unless I come up with the answer. The truth is, Mary, my fiesty young heroine – the clever, resourceful ideas that take you a moment to think of, actually take me days of pondering and scribbling alternatives in my notebook. Any many, many, MANY Chocolate Hobnobs to help me think. Not a clever, scheming thought passes through your head unless I put in there.

Mary Fox
Oh charming. Charming! So I’m a Tudor girl who cannot think for herself, but has to have some crusty old man scratching his chin and thinking for me? Oh, per-lease!

Jonathan
A crusty old man who created you in the first place. I think a little gratitude wouldn’t go amiss, young lady. A little ‘thank-you’?

Mary Fox
(Pause) I think you and I both know that is not going to happen.

Jonathan
Please yourself (sighs and takes bite of Hobnob).

Mary Fox
Anyway, you said that once you start me off on an adventure, I take over. How does that square with what you just said about having to think for me?

Jonathan
Hmm. Good point. I think it’s because danger, action and adventure always seem to happen around you. But then you need to find a way out and that’s where I come in. I have to help you be the clever schemer I know you are.

Mary Fox
You clearly get a thrill from seeing just how far you can push me.

Jonathan
Yeah. Sorry about that.

Mary Fox
And this latest adventure; The River of Fire. You say you are around a quarter the way through. How many near-death experiences have I had so far?

Jonathan
That would be telling. But I will say there’s an angry widow with a crossbow determined to shoot you and bury you in an empty grave.

Mary Fox
And how do I get away? I assume I do?

Jonathan
(Smiles) Always like to keep you guessing, Mary Fox!
Fancy a Hobnob?*

* Other modern-day chocolatey confections are available.

Mary Fox adventures are available in eBook, print and Kindle Unlimited.
For more info, see here.