Book Report - The Mark of the King

(originally posted to GoodReads August 15, 2017)

Oh, loveys. I've been waiting and waiting to tell you about this one. I received an advanced reader copy a month ago and I DEVOURED it. Seriously, the dishes were in the sink, the children were jumping on the furniture, the poor Husband came home to squalor. It's that kind of read.

Jocelyn Green is a new author to me, but she's been on my radar for some time. I jumped at the opportunity to review her book.

Not only did she flawlessly handle the midwife's perspective by using language descriptive enough to know what was going on, but she also balanced it with tact and grace and dignity.

Childbirth aside, the tale was also woven with heartache, violence (we're talking about the settlement of a fledgling colony and all the trappings here), false accusations, living conditions we're just not accustomed to these days, and the seedy side of humanity.

Then the story showed a pinhole of hope that radiated through the lives of the characters and I was just so impressed at the real life feel of it. This is no glossy tract of faith. This is a rubber-meets-the-road kind of story that I could identify with because I, too, have been at a loss at times.

Julianne is a brilliant character and her story was painted with brilliant strokes of color, bravery, real life, and depth.

Jocelyn was kind enough to do some Q & A as well!

ON The Mark of the King

What drew you to tell the story of The Mark of the King?

First of all, the history was both fascinating and new to me. There are many excellent books set in the British colonies, but the French colony of Louisiana seems to be much lesser known. The years of forced immigration, whereby Paris cleaned out its prisons to populate a floundering wilderness, was just too rife with story potential to ignore. It’s a story of incredible hardship and courage, fear and hope, judgment and redemption. It also offered an opportunity to unlock a slice of American history most of us know little about, which appeals to me a great deal.

What is the “mark of the king”?

The mark of the king, as referenced in the title, has two meanings. The first is very literal. It’s the fleur-de-lys symbol of the French monarchy that was branded on certain criminals during the time the novel takes place, to permanently mark them with judgment. In the novel, this mark plays a big role. But there is a spiritual layer to the phrase, as well. As believers, we serve a higher King than any authority here on earth. Our lives are marked by His grace, no matter how scarred we may have been by judgment from others—whether that judgment was deserved or not. God’s grace covers all of it. Grace covers all of us.

What was your favorite part of the process when it came to writing this novel?

Research breakthroughs literally make me shout for joy. For instance, my French sister-in-law translated a document I found in New Orleans for me, giving me a critical piece of the puzzle. Another challenge I ran into was just understanding the topography of the region. Visiting New Orleans still left me with questions as to what my characters would have encountered, geographically, in the year 1720. When I found an article online that hinted at the information I was looking for, I emailed the author, a professor at Loyola University. I jumped up and down when he wrote me back, with a goldmine of details! We ended up exchanging about six emails, question and answer style. With his help, I finally got a handle on the lay of the land between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain in the 1720s, with all its sand ridges, bayous, swamps, marches, including types of trees and vegetation that grew in each region. Being able to paint the scenes with accurate details is really important to me, so this was definitely a research highlight!

Did anything surprise you during your research?

Oh, plenty. The biggie, and one that readers will see depicted in the novel, was a mass wedding ceremony in Paris, in September 1719, between 184 female convicts and the same number of male convicts who had only just met. I was also shocked to discover that of the seven thousand Europeans who entered the Lower Mississippi Valley between 1717 and 1721, at least half of them either perished or abandoned the colony before 1726. Other surprising things I learned:

Early eighteenth-century French midwifes regularly gave birthing mothers plenty of wine to relax them during labor, and performed bloodletting to supposedly ease the delivery.
In Louisiana, European settlers learned from the natives to use bear grease as mosquito repellant.
Since I have a pug in the story, I researched the breed to make sure they were around in the early 1700s. Along the way, I learned some fun and fascinating things that didn’t fit into the novel at all, but surprised and delighted me, as a former pug owner myself. For example, before her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte, Joséphine had her pug Fortune carry concealed messages to her family while she was confined at Les Carmes prison, it having alone been given visiting rights. In nineteenth century England, Queen Victoria bred pugs named Olga, Pedro, Minka, Fatima and Venus, and she helped establish the National Kennel Club. Here’s my favorite though: in seventeenth-century Italy, pugs rode up front on private carriages, dressed in jackets and pantaloons that matched those of the coachman. Ha!


Which character do you most closely identify with in The Mark of the King, and why?

The world Julianne Chevalier inhabits—Paris, then New Orleans in the 1720s—is vastly different from the world I live in. But of all the characters in the novel, I relate to her the most. I share her strong desire to find purpose and use one’s skills and gifts wherever life leads. I also identify with her devotion to her brother and the pain of separation from him, since I greatly missed my own brother when he was a missionary—in France, in fact, where he met his beautiful wife, who grew up outside of Paris! On an even more personal level, my former tendency to withdraw from community when experiencing pain is represented in Julianne’s character, as well. I once learned the hard way that isolation breeds depression. So even though Julianne and I share very few circumstances in common, these deeper parallels are quite timeless.

Why do you write historical fiction?

History still matters today. We can learn so much from the people who lived before us, and how they shaped and were shaped by the events of their generations. Not only can we find inspiration from them, but also a much better perspective as we look at the world today. Unfortunately, so often, history is distilled into a list of dates and names—not interesting at all. The vehicle of historical fiction allows us to explore segments of the past through the lens of the people who lived it. We get to explore the full spectrum of the human condition through the novel.

Personally, I love learning while being entertained with drama, and studies show that when we’re curious about something—such as what will happen to our heroine in the next chapter—we’re far more likely to remember surrounding details, such as the historical context. To me, that’s the icing on the cake. When readers care about characters and learn about history at the same time, I’m thrilled.

ON WRITING

Do your characters stay with you in your day to day life? Do you mourn, rejoice, etc when they do?

Yes and yes. I think of them all the time as I'm writing and editing the story, and get very emotional. I have even listened to a sermon and thought, "Oh, Silas [character from Widow of Gettysburg] really needs to hear this!" I become completely immersed not just with my characters, but with the time period itself. Once, while writing Wedded to War, a boy scout came to my door selling popcorn for his troop. When I wrote a check, I accidentally wrote 1862 as the year! Woops!

Do you know the ending of the book and all that will happen to each character when you write the first page or does it evolve in your mind as the characters become more alive in your mind?

I have an idea, a direction for how I want things to go, but sometimes as I write, the characters and the story both evolve. So my outline is something that helps me get started and keep moving, but it’s completely subject to change.

Do you have a specific routine or habit you use when you write a novel?

Yes. Sometimes I will buy myself a new pair of writing pants (aka pajama pants, but I wear them while working, not sleeping) or a writing T-shirt. Then I binge read as many novels as I can because I know once I start writing, the only reading I’ll have time for is of the nonfiction, historical fact-checking variety.

By this point, I’ve already got a synopsis nailed down (otherwise I wouldn’t have a book contract). But then it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and outline my novel. This can take a few weeks. Once, I tried saving time by skipping this step, but the results were disastrous. About 30 percent into the first draft, I realized a major plotting error and had to start over.

After I outline, it’s time to write. During this stage my goal is between 1500-2000 words a day. I usually edit the previous day’s work before starting on the current day’s word count too, so by the time I reach “The End,” it’s not exactly a first draft anymore, but it still needs a lot of work. My critique partner reads it and weighs in while I’m going over it again, and then by the time I make changes based on her feedback, I’ve worked it over at least four times. It’s really hard to say, since some chapters require a lot more work than others.

On deadline day, I turn it in, celebrate, and then hold my breath until hearing from my editors. Then together we begin several months of editing, first macro-changes, then the small, line by line edits, and finally proofing, which is just checking for typos.

What do you do to overcome writer's block?

If I’m really stuck, with no words coming at all, I'll take a break from my computer and start writing with pen and paper. Some of my best, most creative writing started this way. I'm not sure what it is, but the brain thinks differently when hand-writing, as opposed to typing.

But what I get more than writer's block is writer's remorse, which is a concise way of saying I will write something, hate it, and delete it entirely. I go through this process over and over, especially in the first chapters. It's not uncommon for me to try seven different ways to write chapter one. To make it less painful to delete words that I've slaved over, I have a file called "chopped copy" for every book I write. So when I delete a section, it's not actually gone forever. I cut it from the working document, and then paste it into the chopped copy file. That way, if I ever decide I wanted to use a line or paragraph from the "trash bin" I can easily retrieve it. This little trick makes me much more willing to part with words that aren't working.

When writing, what is your go to drink and snack to keep you energized and focused?

Favorite writing snacks include Greek yogurt with granola mixed in, or a small bowl of chocolate chips, almonds and craisins. I’ll have one or two cups of coffee in the morning, but in the afternoon I’ll opt for Oolong Tea. In desperate times, I will not turn away chocolate-covered coffee beans.

Where do you get your ideas for your stories?

I look for ideas everywhere. Books, online articles, Netflix documentaries, roadside markers, historical societies, museums, other people and their vacation photos! The impetus for The Mark of the King was planted when my sister-in-law and brother, who were living in France at the time, told me about the King’s Daughters, a group of girls sent from France to be wives to Canadian fur traders in the 1600s. I was intrigued, and started my own research. One click led to another, and I eventually learned about the French forced to immigrate to Louisiana.

Have you visited all the places you've written about? Which was your favorite?

So far, yes I have visited them all. It’s hard to compare and pick favorites, but Gettysburg is right at the top of the list. One of the reasons for this is that it’s so easy to imagine the history that took place there, whereas Atlanta and New Orleans, for instance, have changed so drastically over the years they look nothing like they did during the time frames of my stories. I adored visiting France, too, of course, but it’s been a while. Let me take another trip over to refresh my memory and I’ll give you an update. ;)

Where do you like to write?

I usually write best in my office, surrounded by my research books, because I'm constantly fact-checking as I write. It's a laborious process. But sometimes if I get stuck, I find a change of scenery to be helpful. A local coffee shop or the university library where my husband works are great places to get the creative juices flowing again.

When you fully complete a book and all is done but the printing, is it sad to move on or are you already developing your next story?

It’s bittersweet, for sure. By the time a book is ready to print, I’ve poured heart and soul into creating it. But I’m not really leaving the story behind when I move on, because when readers pick up the book, it comes to life all over again. I get excited about drawing new characters, too.

* * *

5/5 Do Recommend