Interview with Jules Watson, author of Song of the North

Overlook is proud to be publishing Song of the North, a historical fantasy set in western Scotland, by Jules Watson, author of the critically acclaimed The White Mare and The Dawn Stag. Jules's books have gained a cult following among fans of Celtic fantasy and has been compared to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mist of Avalon and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Song of the North hits stores tomorrow. Jules, an archeologist and writer who lives in western Scotland, talked with us about her inspiration for Song of the North and her interest in the kingdom of Dalriada, the western Scots about whom she writes. We'll be posting her responses to celebrate the publication of Song of the North.

Overlook: You write about Dalriada, a kingdom based in the western Scottish and eastern Irish isles during the second, third, and fourth century. The freedom struggle of the Dalriadans is a fascinating story, but not many people are familiar with Scottish history of this period. What first got you interested in Dalriada and inspired your books?

Jules Watson: A major starting point was my great love for The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The combination of Celtic romance and adventure, coupled with the priestess/spiritual aspects was the perfect book for me and obviously for millions of other readers who thirsted for that, too. Afterwards I sat waiting for years for someone to bring out another Mists of Avalon - and no one did, so eventually I thought "I'll have to do it myself,
and write what I want to read."

So I knew any novel of mine would have to be about the ancient Celts, as I had been obsessed with them from childhood - their fierceness and love of freedom, beauty, art, song and tales, and their deep connection to nature and their gods. I had also studied archaeology which triggered a fascination for prehistoric cultures. And as all novelists know, the key to gripping
plotlines is conflict. When writing historicals it's therefore a good idea to focus on conflict points between different cultures and peoples, and so this is what I did. The great enemy of the Celts was always the Romans...I had by this time fallen in love with the rugged beauty of Scotland...so I thought, "The Romans invaded Scotland - this would be a good framework for
my novels!" And of course this brought up the theme that made the movie Braveheart so compelling - a proud people attacked by an enemy force who have to fight for their freedom.

The people in the east of Scotland in the early first century AD were the Picts, but I also knew that there was another people based on the west coast in an area called Dalriada, supposedly settlers from Ireland. So this gave me another layer of conflict - what if I had Pictish and Dalriadan characters thrown together and all joining to fight the Romans?

The last piece of the puzzle is that the Kilmartin valley in Argyll in western Scotland has the greatest collection of ancient standing stones, tombs, forts and stone circles of anywhere in Scotland and as writer I had to ask, why? I wondered what had drawn people over thousands of years to build all these religious monuments, what was so special about this place? The valley also holds the fort of Dunadd which was the seat of the Dalriadan kings, so it all came together.

Now I had the time, the place, and the historical events - I just had to mix those in with the characters, romance, adventure and mystical aspects that drive my books and make them my own.

Jules Watson will answer more questions about Dalriada over the month of January. Check out her latest, Song of the North, in stores and libraries on January 10th.