When Cassandra Clark publishes a new book in her Abbess of Meaux series, medievalists rejoice. The ten-book series was sparked by a dream, and it focuses on the remarkable Cistercian nun Hildegard, during the turbulent reign of the boy king, King Richard II.

Hi there. I’m your host Jenny Wheeler

and today Cassandra talks about how the victors write history and being in New

York on September 11.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The dream that sparked a seriesThe shock of September 11The role of street theater and romance Her passion for the "wronged-King" Richard IIHer staunch support of women's agencyWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Cassandra Clark: 

Website: http://www.cassandraclark.co.uk/

Facebook: @authorcassandraclark

 Twitter: @Nunsleuth

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: And now here's Cassandra. Hello there Cassandra and welcome to the

show. It's great to have you with us.

Cassandra: Hi, Jenny. Thanks for inviting me.

Cassandra Clark, historical mystery author

Jenny: I'm sure that when one of your books is published, you could

probably hear the cheers from your kitchen window! People who are passionate

about the period shout “Medievalist’s rejoice!” whenever a new one comes out.

 So I

wonder - was there Once Upon a Time moment when you felt” I must write fiction

or my life will not have been fulfilled.” If there was such a moment, what was

the catalyst for it? 

Cassandra: Well, that's really funny question because someone else asked me

that a few days ago. I thought gosh, the first time I knew I wanted to be a

writer was when I was five.

I just felt it was magic. I'd learned to

read and every book was like walking through into a new world and I just loved

it so much. I didn't get around to thinking about writing a novel until I was

nine and strangely, I wrote one called Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse

because I've been reading a lot of Enid Blyton at the time.

The magic of entering new worlds

So that's when it started, but it took a

long time to start writing properly because I was also interested in theater.

I'm mad about theater. I really love it. It’s got the same magic when the curtain

rises. It's just like opening a book. It's another world.

So I wanted to write for theater and that's

what I began with. I wrote a dozen plays, performed in different ways - on the

stage, television, radio and so forth. Then I needed to make some real money

and I for the next 15 years I simply wrote for money.

I wrote contemporary romance, which I'd

never heard of until I met a romance novelist.

And she said yes, it's quite well paid but

it's very hard. They get 30,000 submissions a year, so you haven't much chance.

But I was immensely lucky. My first one was accepted and from then on I wrote

about one or two romances a year, which was brilliant because I was divorced

and I had two small children.

With no other means of support so it was it

was a lifesaver to me.

A career as a romance novelist

Jenny: You sound as if you are very modest. I’m sure it took more than “luck”

to break into that field. I guess that was a publishing house like Mills and

Boon or Harlequin?

Cassandra: Yes, and then I took a year out when both my girls had left school.  One was at drama school in London, and the other one was at Cambridge and I thought "huh. My daughter's are students. I think I'll be a student again."

So I did Malcolm Bradbury's creative writing degree, an MA at Norwich,  and I re-found my love of theater. So I thought right. I'm going to change direction. I'm going to be a playwright.

But then I had 10 years of disaster, which

I won't go into too much, but I thought I was going to lose my sight. My mother

was in a wheelchair and she died. My father had a stroke which meant he