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Today, I am chatting with author Alison Morton about AURELIA, part of her acclaimed Roma Nova series.
But first, let's check out AURELIA
Publication Date: 5th May 2015
AURELIA introduces readers to a new heroine within the Roma Nova universe. What made you want to tell Aurelia Mitela's story, and what qualities make her the ideal lead for this stage of the series?
My curiosity was triggered when I was writing SUCCESSIO, the fourth of Carina’s adventures. Her grandmother, Aurelia, is a powerful, clever woman and takes the role of the ‘elder stateswoman’ guiding a younger main character. But she is very self-contained with an air of keeping secrets about herself locked away. I wanted to explore those secrets. So I wrote her story as a young woman in the late 1960s. It was only going to be one book, but there was too much story…
Roma Nova is one of the most distinctive settings in modern fiction – a surviving remnant of the Roman Empire that has evolved into the twentieth century. How has this unique world developed over the course of the series, and what new aspects of it do readers discover in AURELIA?
Thank you – I have tried to make it distinct, yet plausible. The first four books featuring Carina are set in the ‘present’ ranging from 2010 to 2026 in a modern European environment familiar to readers.
In AURELIA, we’re back in quasi-historical times of the 1960s which resembles our 1960s a great deal. CCTV works on videotape, people send faxes, there are no mobile phones and central locking is rare on cars. Outside Roma Nova, sexist attitudes towards women are normal. Readers can discover (or rediscover!) how people behaved, travelled, ate and interacted in that time.
The novel opens with an unforgettable life-or-death moment before plunging into a web of stolen silver, organised crime and political intrigue. How did you balance the fast-paced thriller elements with the rich alternative history that underpins the story?
A story in any genre must be strong and engaging to potential readers. The Roma Nova novels are thrillers, so crises, conflicts and danger are must-haves. Weaving in the setting must be an essential part of the story. And vice-versa.
Alternative history stories can’t merely rely on “I’ve made up this different world – aren’t I clever?” As with any story, the characters must act naturally within their world and it’s the writer’s job to drip in enough detail to show that world without writing pages of worthy but redundant description. The ultimate test is to imagine yourself in the character’s head and look at the world through her eyes.
What drew you to the late 1960s, and how did it shape the challenges your characters face?
Practicalities! I keep a spreadsheet of all the characters’ ages, so I calculated that as Aurelia was seventy at the time of INCEPTIO (Carina’s first adventure), I would need to go back to the late 1960s for Aurelia to be a young woman. She would have been twenty-eight in 1968, so her own first adventure had to start then.
At the heart of the novel lies an impossible dilemma – choosing between duty to country, the safety of a child and the person you love. Why was it important for you to place Aurelia in such a deeply personal conflict?
We thriller writers are horrible people! Well, we’re horrible to our characters and enjoy putting them in impossible dilemmas. And if we can make it personal, then so much the better. The poor put-upon character must wrestle with choices that few of us would like to face in reality.
We can learn from watching how even the strongest characters falter and then how they make the hard decisions they must. Hopefully, readers will engage closely with characters’ fears, joys and hopes as they struggle through.
Your background includes military service and a master's degree in history. In what ways have those experiences influenced Aurelia's character, her decision-making, and the authenticity of the novel's action and strategy?
Knowing a little about how history flows always helps when writing in any historical genre. I’ve found that the research techniques learnt during formal study are invaluable to ensure background details for each story are verifiable and authentic.
My military service helps me describe the responsibilities, comradeship and processes operating in a military environment. A definite case of ‘write what you know’.
Berlin provides a dramatic backdrop for much of the story. What made it the perfect setting for this particular adventure, and how did you approach recreating the city?
I’ve always been fascinated by Berlin and its post-Second World War story. And studying German as my second foreign language at university increased that curiosity. I was lucky enough to visit Berlin as a student during the Soviet period, again as a young lieutenant and thirdly, after the Wall had fallen, as a civilian with a thirteen-year-old son who was equally entranced.
In the 1930s, it was a beautiful, grand city, full of great architecture, advanced transport, high culture and a louche, vibrant nightlife. Today, it’s thriving, prosperous and full of culture as well as counter-culture again, although still with post re-unification challenges.
In the Roma Novan world, there was no Second World War destruction to Berlin, so I had to recreate a potential 1960s one untouched by bombing. That entailing a lot of poring over maps!
Readers often praise your heroines for being both resilient and compassionate. How do you ensure that characters like Aurelia remain emotionally relatable while facing extraordinary dangers?
Aurelia is a ‘blood-and-bone’ Roma Novan, brought up to be resilient and to serve her country, but she’s also a normal woman. She has a failed marriage, is a single, if privileged, mother caught between the requirements of her professional and her love for her child.
I’ve also made her impatient and socially slightly inept – she finds small talk pointless and difficult. She’s much happier in her military environment. But later as a diplomat, she has to do what she has to do, even if it means smiling and being polite to people she doesn’t want to talk to.
She can be unemotional in some circumstances, but is never unkind. Like most perfectionists, she is mortified when she makes a mistake – just like us!
AURELIA is the first in a sequence that continues through NEXUS, INSURRECTIO, and RETALIO. Without giving too much away, how does this opening novel lay the foundations for Aurelia's journey across the series?
Aurelia’s stories are set from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and, with the exception of NEXUS, features her lifelong struggle with her nemesis, Caius Tellus. Each story is complete in itself, but the overall arc shows the development of this relationship; he wants to dominate her or, if that’s not possible, to destroy her as she stands in the way of his thirst for power by any route possible, legal or illegal.
For readers discovering the Roma Nova books for the very first time through AURELIA, what do you hope they will take away from this blend of alternative history, political intrigue and high-stakes suspense?
The buzz from an exciting read, perhaps a story that intrigues or even provokes them, but most of all one that nudges them to consider that there are always alternatives in our lives. Other timelines are available, as they say.
A huge thank you to Alison Morton for joining us today and for taking the time to answer our questions.
It has been a pleasure learning more about AURELIA and gaining an insight into the imagination, research and experience that goes into bringing the world of Roma Nova to life.
If you enjoy alternative history, strong characters and thrillers packed with intrigue and suspense, then AURELIA is certainly one to add to your reading list.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx