An Interview with Authors Simon Turney & Gordon Doherty – Nerds That Geek

Authors Simon Turney and Gordon Doherty have a new book out today entitled, Sons of Rome, and they took a moment to sit down with us and discuss their new novel, among other topics!

Nerds That Geek: Let’s talk a little bit about what got you into writing?

Simon Turney: For me it was I think a natural thing that required a trigger. I was always a voracious reader, and always a lover of history. I played Role Playing Games such as Dungeons and Dragons throughout my formative years and so spent my time creating plots, building worlds and forming characters. I wrote my first tale, a parody of James Bond, at 9, and continued to dabble, writing Star Trek fan fiction at university. That all sort of faded when I went into full time employment, but when I found myself in an IT position where 20% of my time was fraught and busy, but 80% just monitoring and waiting, I started writing to fill the time. The writing overtook the day job very conveniently at the time redundancy struck.

Gordon Doherty: As a kid I enjoyed retreating to a quiet corner to draw cartoon strips and sketch maps. This evolved into short stories and poems. It was just a hobby really – a form of meditation and relaxation. What better way to get away from your troubles than by creating another world to escape to! I too pursued a “sensible’” career, studying physics then IT at university. Those qualifications bagged me a good job in technology. Good… but ever so boring. Like Simon, I found myself spending a shameful amount of time at my work desk reading about Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Belisarius and Charlemagne, and wanting to escape to those times. I began writing again around then, and the literary floodgates have remained open ever since.

NTG: What inspired your new book?

Simon: Sons of Rome and the trilogy to which it belongs came about from a wild idea. Gordon and I found ourselves at a history event that was cancelled due to critical weather, and accompanied by a few beers we theorised about how possible it would be for the two of us to write a book together, each taking a character and trying to tell a smooth story from two different angles. We knew each other well enough to know that our writing styles were similar and we had a certain crossover in fan-bases, so it seemed likely we could manage to create something together that flowed.

Gordon: The one thing that we weren’t sure about was where, or rather when, our story should be set. At the time, Simon was focused on his Marius’ Mules series, set in the Roman Republic of the 1st century BC, whereas I was absorbed in my series, Legionary, set in the 4th century AD – when the Roman world was a very different place. Thus, it felt natural to look for a middle ground, to “bridge” our respective areas of expertise. And that’s when we hit on the perfect time period: the late 3rd & early 4th centuries AD – the age of Constantine the Great and his rival for the imperial throne, Maxentius. It’s a pivotal turning point in history, linking the earlier empire to the later empire.

NTG: What are you most excited for readers to discover in this novel?

Simon: For me it is the character I portrayed. Maxentius is virtually unknown to most people. At least nine in ten people will never even have heard of him. He is a character largely lost to history because of the propaganda produced against him after his death. He has been consigned to the collection of damned emperors. The truth, though, has to be far different from what history tells us. Maxentius initiated a great building campaign in Rome that suggests that he was seen, and saw himself, as the last of the true Roman emperors, identifying himself with the great men who made the Roman forum. He is the very end of a traditional line, for after him no emperor will ever again be based in Rome. Constantine and Maxentius together are responsible for one of history's great turning points, and it could only have happened with both men. I cannot help but look forward to readers finding out about Maxentius.

Gordon: It’s all about the character for me too, absolutely. In most literature and debate, Constantine is one of two things: a saint, the thirteenth apostle who bestowed Christianity upon the world of Late Antiquity; or a political monster, bloodthirsty, manipulative, ambitious and determined to make the world his own. I’ve long been unsatisfied with such unrealistically polarised opinions. No man is all good or all evil. So if there’s one thing I want readers of this trilogy to come away with, it’s a more balanced view of Constantine. To understand Constantine the man as opposed to Constantine the Great, if you will. During my research, I found some very, very telling details about him, about choices he made that are not well-known, that shine a very much more nuanced light upon him.

NTG: What can you tell us about your new book?

Simon: Sons of Rome is a book unlike any you've ever read. It is the story of two men, each of whom ruled the world, and each of whom could not do so while the other remained - two men who would change the world with their conflict. But it is a story told by both men. Neither is a hero. Neither is a villain. They are both complex individuals, with both of whom the reader will find sympathy and parallels. The book tells their story from youth to manhood, and the trilogy of which it is a part takes us throughout their whole lives to one of the greatest and most critical battles in the history of the world.

Gordon: You’ll see parallels, most definitely. Equally, you’ll experience the very different lives of each protagonist. With Maxentius, you will walk the marbled halls on the Palatine Hill and look over the sprawling wards of Rome during its sweltering, dog-hot summers and frost-bitten winters. You’ll hold court with some of the most deviously cunning men and women in the imperial world, all the time wondering if they are with you or against you. With Constantine, you will march alongside the legions to every corner of – and beyond – the empire. You will hear the sound of the whetstone scraping against the sword, taste the hard tack and sour wine rations, smell the smoke of the campfires and the sweat of the mules. And when it comes to battle, you will be there, at eye-level with Constantine and his most trusted soldiers.

NTG: What’s a unique story or genre that you haven’t tackled yet, that you’d love to write?

Simon: I have several lined up, but there is one that some day I will deal with. I wrote a short story years ago called Onna Bugeisha, which deals with something few people realise existed: female Samurai. Though rare, there are tales with historical facts that tell of women of Samurai clans who took up the sword to defend their lands while their husbands were away, but even more, some became almost legendary warriors in their own right. In a world we tend to see with power being purely within the male sphere, strong female characters, even swordswomen, are just simply too cool not to have their tale told. And as far as I know, nobody has yet tried.

Gordon: Alternate history appeals to me. I’m always drawn to the premise of ‘If such and such hadn’t happened, what would the world be like now?’ Imagine Constantinople had somehow weathered the Ottoman siege? Or if Belisarius had been given stauncher support and had managed to consolidate and fully reclaim the Roman West? Or, if the empire had reached the Americas? The ideas on that kind of front are limitless. Unfortunately, my writing time is not!

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