The process of writing a trio of chronologically sequenced, scrupulously accurate historical novels presents a combination of challenges that are not present when an author tackles “pure history” or “pure fiction” or even a single-volume story.
This post touches on four major challenges that I encountered in writing my Ruby-Viper Trilogy.
My first challenge was to convey three things as correctly as possible:
- the key historical events,
- the wider cultural context, and
- the real lives of a set of significant men and women who actually lived through those events and in that culture.
For example, I couldn’t play fast and loose with the well-known facts and dates of the Roman-Jewish War (AD 66-74) or Rome’s civil war (AD 68-69) or the destruction of Pompeii (AD 79). And, frankly, I didn’t want to, because, after all, what writer possibly could invent plot twists to match The Great Revolt, or Nero’s suicide, or The Year of Four Emperors, or the eruption of Mount Vesuvius?
Furthermore, since so many fascinating real-life people — Vespasian, Titus, Flavia Domitilla, Nero, Otho, Poppaea Sabina, Yosef ben Matityahu (aka Josephus), Berenice, and others — lived during the twenty-six year arc of this trilogy (AD 53 to 79), I tried to respect them by telling their stories correctly and well.
My second challenge was to weave into and around that immutable timeline, that authentic culture, and those real people’s lives an equally fascinating set of fictional characters.
Many of the “invented people” who add so much interest and texture to this story — Theodosia, Alexander, Stefan, Doros (aka Dorus), Lycos, Myrine, Nikolaos, Iocaste, Nizzo, Xantho, Nicanor, Tavi, Adin, and others — came to feel like my own friends and family and thus could not be slighted or badly portrayed in any way.
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My third challenge was to choose the best alternative point-of-view characters — or “co-protagonists” — through whose eyes, minds, and experiences I could tell my extended tale.
Without question, this is Theodosia Varro’s story from start to finish, so she is one of the two co-protagonists in each novel. But by incorporating three other viewpoints into the series — each co-protagonist properly given his own agency (and, yes, they all are males) — I was able to push the overall scope of the “lived experiences” revealed in my story far beyond what any one woman (or any one person) possibly could have seen or done on their own at that historical time.
Once I made the decision to do that through the entire trilogy, I found it allowed each book to develop in its own organic way, both dramatically and historically.
So the reader experiences Rubies of the Viper through the equal eyes, minds, and experiences of Theodosia and Alexander.
And the reader experiences The Viper Amulet through the equal eyes, minds, and experiences of Theodosia and Nikolaos.
And the reader experiences The Ruby Ring through the equal eyes, minds, and experiences of Theodosia and Doros (aka Dorus).
I believe that approach makes the overall story better by incorporating many more fascinating people, places, events, and insights than a single point-of-view character like Theodosia Varro ever could have encountered, especially given the legal and social constraints imposed on first-century women.
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My fourth challenge was to conclude this trilogy in such a compelling and satisfying way that readers would feel rewarded for having plowed through all three lengthy, complex tomes.
Now, as I post this in the summer of 2025, having reached the final stage of this immense project, I fervently hope — and in my heart actually do believe — that I have done that. You, the reader, will have the final say!