Copperfield Review Quarterly A Journal for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction HOW DO YOU HANDLE RESISTANCE? An Interview with Steven Pressfield WELCOME, DEAR READERS From our executive editor
POET SPOTLIGHT: ANN TAYLOR One of our favorite living poets
WHAT IS HISTORICAL FICTION? There are different ways to tell a story
THE HISTORY QUILL Historical fiction writers should know about it
HISTORICAL FICTION Iván Brave Peter Bridges William Delancey Georgina Jeffery Minglu Jiang Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi Michael May Paul C. Rosenblatt Cecily Van Cleave
HISTORICAL POETRY Cassandra Armstrong Mark B. Hamilton Denise O’Hagan Ann Taylor
Summer 2021 The Inaugural Edition
Staff
Summer 2021
Founder and Executive Editor Meredith Allard Deputy Editor Susan Arenstein Senior Editor Paula Day
Contributors Cassandra Armstrong Iván Brave Peter Bridges Brendan Carr William Delancey Mark B. Hamilton Georgina Jeffery Minglu Jiang Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi Michael May Denise O'Hagan Paul C. Rosenblatt Ann Taylor Cecily Van Cleave EDITORIAL OFFICE 2654 W. Horizon Ridge Pkwy Suite B5-364 Henderson, NV 89052 For advertising, contact: copperfieldreview@gmail.com For submission guidelines: www.copperfieldreviewquarterly.com ISSN: 1533-3736 Cover Photo Credit: Mona Eendra Contents Photo Credit: Thom Milkovic www.copperfieldreviewquarterly.com www.copperfieldreview.com. The Copperfield Review © 2000-2021. All rights reserved.
Copperfield Review Quarterly A Journal for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction
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CONTENTS 8 WHAT IS HISTORICAL FICTION, ANYWAY?
59 4 You Should Know About The An Interview with Steven Pressfield History Quill by Brendan Carr
Jessica Wilde shares how 2toWelcome, overcome writer's block. Allard Story on p. 20
Dear Readers by Meredith
HISTORICAL FICTION 10 Grozny / Грозный (Ivan Murders Ivan) by Iván Brave 15 Blue Men and Last Lion by Peter Bridges 18 The Spanish Summer by William Delancey 24 Denizens of the Deep Dark by Georgina Jeffery 27 Pride of Carthage by Minglu Jiang 34 Goya’s Muse by Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi 40 Last Day by Michael May 44 First Cat in New Amsterdam by Paul C. Rosenblatt 46 The Turncoat by Cecily Van Cleave HISTORICAL POETRY
50 Poet Spotlight Ann Taylor
53 A Day in the Life of Henry VIII by Cassandra Armstrong 54 Captain Clark is Very Sick by Mark B. Hamilton 56 The Longest Journey by Denise O’Hagan 58 Inside the Trojan Horse by Ann Taylor
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Welcome, Dear Readers As I write these words, more than 20 years have passed since I came up with the crazy idea of putting together a magazine that focused solely on historical fiction. The concept for The Copperfield Review came by accident, as most good things tend to happen to me. I was writing my first historical novel and thought I would try to get the word out by publishing a few pieces as short stories in literary journals. Much to my surprise, I couldn’t find one literary journal that published historical fiction. Around this time I was teaching creative writing classes at Learning Tree University in Southern California. As I read the LTU catalog I noticed a class about how to create an ezine, a fairly new concept in 2000. The class sounded interesting so I signed up. Before the six-week course was over, I knew I wanted to create an online journal of historical fiction. I even had a name—The Copperfield Review, yes, named for Dickens' novel. I commissioned a website, I created the logo, a drawing of Dickens' hand holding a quill, and I set about finding writers to contribute. I also landed interviews with two of my favorite historical novelists, John Jakes and Jean M. Auel. "Who is even going to read this?" I asked myself as I pieced the journal together. But Copperfield, which I refer to as the Little Journal That Could, had become important to me. I sensed that there were readers and writers who loved historical fiction as much as I do. I believed that there was a place in the literary world for The Copperfield Review, so I pressed on despite that nay-saying voice making noise in my head. I love that we’re featuring an interview with the beloved historical novelist Steven Pressfield in our inaugural edition of Copperfield Review Quarterly. Pressfield is also known for his books The War of Art and Turning Pro. Both books are essential reading for writers. In his books, and in his interview in CRQ with Brendan Carr, Pressfield talks about the concept of Resistance, a creative block that every artist has to deal with in one form or another. Whenever you feel as if you’re giving into fear-based decision-making, whenever you stop yourself from trying or creating something new, you’re struggling against Resistance. Man, have I struggled with Resistance over the years. In my initial conception of The Copperfield Review, I thought I would use the e-zine format until I could find a way to make bound copies. I had a lot of plans for Copperfield, and even as the journal gained in popularity (within a year we were receiving far more submissions than we could ever publish) I held back on growing it too much. I had excuses galore, some of which were legitimate, and some of which were pure Resistance. The years passed and The Copperfield Review continued to grow in popularity. The truth is, we have a strong reputation because of the writers we’ve been lucky enough to publish. Crazytalented authors and poets have sent their work our way, for which I’ll always be grateful. Even the works that we don’t publish are special in their own ways, and it’s a privilege to read them. Fast forward to 2019. I wanted to do some fun things in 2020 for Copperfield’s 20th anniversary. And then. I don’t need to explain what the pandemic did to all of our lives. We’re still coming to terms with what it meant and what it still means. Some of us were sick, some had friends and family who were sick, others lost jobs, and too many lost loved ones. Even though I'm writing about the pandemic in the past tense, COVID-19 is still very much here and more waves are rising every day. We have some soul searching to do as we make sense of this volatile disruption of what we knew to be true. While some artists were prolific in 2020, I know others, who, like me, spent weeks staring at the wall. It took a good few months of living through the pandemic, especially when we were in the strictest lockdowns, for me to find my creativity again. I also did a lot of thinking about my life and where I was putting my attention. What did I really want? I asked myself that question countless times throughout 2020 and into early 2021. Really, what did I want? The answer came back that first, I wanted to devote more time to my own writing. While I have had a wonderful career as a writer, I know there is more I can do. Perhaps I hadn’t been giving my writing the attention it deserved. Photo Credit: Henry Be
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Second, I decided that 2021 would be the year that The Copperfield Review became the digital and print journal I always meant it to be. Yes, it would be a lot of work, and yes, I still felt Resistance, but I also had a sense that, you know what? It’s time. Fortunately, I gained enough resilience over the years that I can now mostly fend off Resistance. I haven’t eradicated it completely (no one can), but now I can lower the volume of the noise and be productive anyway. And in the 20 years since I began Copperfield, technology has evolved and it’s easier now to create digital and print versions of journals and magazines. I’m a big believer that everything happens in its own time. Even though this is what I wanted for Copperfield 20 years ago, it feels right that it’s happening now. Now I’m coming to the experience of creating a magazine with two decades of running a literary journal under my belt. Now I have a better sense of what I’m doing. I still have a lot to learn, and I’m always looking for ways to improve my writing, my editing, and myself, but I’m excited about this new venture in a way I wouldn’t have been even a year ago. Instead of shying away from challenges, I’m learning to look them in the face, see them for what they are, and try new things anyway. I hope you’ve had similar discoveries that are pushing you in new, wonderful directions. Now that the inaugural edition of Copperfield Review Quarterly is ready for its close-up, I’m spending some time this summer hanging out by the swimming pool, reading some good books, and writing the next draft of my latest historical novel. And then it’s back to work getting the next edition of CRQ ready for its October release. I hope you enjoy this first edition of CRQ. We have the interview with Steven Pressfield that I mentioned, and we have a feature and a new poem from one of my favorite living poets, Ann Taylor, who has been a long-time contributor and friend of Copperfield. We also have a wonderful selection of short historical fiction and poetry for you. Whether you’re reading a digital or bound version of CRQ, I welcome you to this new incarnation of The Copperfield Review. What have you learned as a result of the pandemic? Has Resistance been a factor for you? Let me know your thoughts at copperfieldreview@gmail.com. We can all learn from each other. I wish everyone some fun in the sun this summer. I’ll see you in October for CRQ’s Autumn 2021 edition.
Meredith Meredith Allard Executive Editor, Copperfield Review Quarterly
Available now at https://copperfieldreviewcourses.teachable.com/p/an-introduction-to-writing-historical-fiction
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVEN PRESSFIELD By Brendan Carr
Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, a historical novel that has sold more than a million copies. Pressfield is also known for his much-loved books for creatives, The War of Art and Turning Pro. You can learn more at StevenPressfield.com. In this interview, Brendan Carr and Steven Pressfield discuss Pressfield's newest novel, A Man at Arms, along with Pressfield's writing process and what it means to overcome Resistance, that little voice that tells us to resist our creativity. Brendan Carr: Telamon of Arcadia is a mercenary in your newest book, A Man at Arms. What are you saying about warriors by making your archetypal warrior into a mercenary? Steven Pressfield: What I was hoping to do as far as characterizing Telamon was to present him as a guy who exhausted the warrior archetype. He fought under flags that he believed in, fought for commanders he believed in, and had that come to naught. He committed crimes and he committed honorable acts. But he was still a warrior, he was not going to leave that aspect of it and that brought him to become a soldier for hire, a man at arms. He was in it for the fight alone, like a samurai when they no longer fought for a particular noble house but were just freelance guys who were cast out on the road. In other words, it’s a dark place for him to be. I’m not holding that up as an ideal. In my mind, it’s the stage that a warrior or a hero is in when he’s trying to find his way and hasn’t found it yet, a kind of a lost place. That was why I made him a mercenary. B.C.: You’ve been wanting to write a book about Telamon for a while. What is it that draws you to him?
Pressfield's latest historical novel
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STEVEN PRESSFIELD CONTINUED
S.P.: That’s a great question! I feel like he’s a bit of an alter ego for me as a writer. The way he views himself as a soldier, he’s in it for the fight alone. He’s not in it for the money although he’s a mercenary. We don’t know what he does with his money, but he doesn’t have anything except the clothes on his back. It’s not like he’s getting rich; the money is really just an excuse for him. It’s a way to keep a distance between himself and his commander’s ambition. He says, “I’m just doing it for the money,” but he’s in it for the fight alone. I’m kind of in writing for the work alone. So, I think that’s one of the reasons why he appeals to me. He also has a kind of a dark view of life and I do too. B.C.: And lost characters are often depicted alongside a redemptive character. How did you develop the character of the young girl, Ruth, in your story? S.P.: I very much did that on purpose with the idea of juxtaposing archetypal characters on my mind. I knew for years that I wanted to do a book that was only about Telamon because I was curious about where he would go after appearing in two other books of mine. He was in The Virtues of War and Tides of War and I was fascinated by his odyssey, but I couldn’t find a story for years. I would take a shot at an outline asking, “What if I set him in Britain in the year 22 or something?” When I finally thought of this character of the young girl, it made a great dynamic of different archetypes. An innocent girl, that’s sort of the virgin archetype, and then this warrior archetype together created a lot of interesting tension and chances for growth on both sides as they interact with each other. B.C.: What draws you to Carl Jung’s archetypes? And how can writers use them? S.P.: Let’s talk about the archetypes for a second. The archetypes of the collective unconscious are these super personalities that we’re born with and that are Types, capital T, like the Wise Man, the Warrior, the Virgin, the Divine Child, like Jesus or Krishna. There are many archetypes and I believe that we don’t realize it but we’re being powered by them. Speaking of the Warrior archetype, when a young man and I think a young woman, too, hits the age of 12, 13, 14 they can feel that sort of thing. They’re not aware of it, but a young guy wants to try out for the
football team, wants to drive fast, wants to hang out with his homies. We think we’re choosing that but we’re not, we’re being driven by archetypes. Back to writing, a really interesting way to power a scene is to have a clash of archetypes. I’ve been watching Game of Thrones and last night one of the scenes showed the young girl Arya Stark serving as a cupbearer to her worst enemy, Lord Tywin Lannister. The scene between the two of them is a great scene because of the two archetypes. A better thing might be Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. A young Warrior archetype and the Sage archetype, and there’s a lot of great energy when you do that in a scene. If you look at practically any great movie or book, the characters are almost always archetypes. Think about the major characters of The Godfather and their enemies, the five families, they’re all archetypes. That gives the story its power. I’m also a big believer in just reading great stuff and watching great movies if you look at them through the lens of the archetypes to educate yourself. For example, with To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is sort of the archetype of the Knight, the upright and honorable man. The other characters are archetypes too. Try to educate yourself that way. Of course, you want to create nuanced real characters, but I do think that what gives characters power is that sort of archetypal energy. B.C.: After writing several non-fiction books, you’re returning to the craft of writing historical fiction. How do you make history feel so real in your books? S.P.: It’s the imagination. It’s trying to imagine yourself back in that world, whatever world it may be. Arthur Golden, a Jewish male writer, wrote this wonderful book Memoirs of a Geisha. It was a bestseller. Basically, he beamed himself in imagination back into the mind of a Japanese geisha female courtesan in the 1930s and when you read it you completely believe everything. So, I think he did a lot of research, he found out all the details of what the true world was like, but then he just used his imagination. In a way, that’s a quality of any storyteller. So, I think he did a lot of research, he found out all the details of what the true world was
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