A Prolific Spanish Author and the Seven Noble Knights

He should smile, with all the money he made from
writing! Maybe the mustache is too heavy. 

Manuel Fernández y González (1821–1888) used words to gain notoriety and to finance what his contemporaries considered a “bohemian” lifestyle. He wrote dramas, poetry, and more than 300 (300!) novels. Although he doesn’t quite reach the level of infamy of Edward Bulwer-Lytton in English (the “It was a dark and stormy night” author), his Spanish Wikipedia article describes his writing this way: “a feverish imagination, a certain Andalusian grace and genius, excessive verbosity, especially in dialogue… a defining lack of solid learning, bad taste, and a lack of self-criticism.”

Anyone who wrote (or in later years, dictated) 300 novels can’t be hampered by self criticism. King of the episodic novel (novels published in newspapers over the course of several weeks and, only later, bound as a book), Manuel Fernández y González put the words out there. Period. He worked in an atmosphere of incessant creation because he was paid per page. Of course he wrote a lot of dialogue—it fills up a page faster than anything else. Revision or even just reading over what he’d written wouldn't have contributed to the bottom line. It’s unlikely if not impossible for great literature to come out of such an atmosphere, but I can’t help but stand in awe before that way of doing business.

It's inspiring, in a way. The words are out there for the writer to seize!

Some might consider the current self-publishing atmosphere to be similar to the nineteenth-century word machine. I haven't found a way to follow the volume model, so instead I do a lot of revision in an attempt to ensure that the writing is actually good.

The only reason I've heard of Manuel Fernández y González is that one of his 300 novels was Los siete infantes de Lara (1853), based loosely on the same legend I took inspiration from to write Seven Noble Knights. The novel is almost 150,000 words in the original, many of them uncalled for. But within that haystack, there are plenty of exciting and amusing needles. Twists and turns and surprises. It was first released to the reading public chapter by chapter in a Madrid newspaper that cost one peseta per issue. 

If I had a lot more time on my hands, I would do an edition of Los siete infantes de Lara and present a "good parts" translation (à la The Princess Bride) here in installments, just like the first time it was published. 

As things stand, there already exists in English a much more carefully researched and developed version of this tale with fewer words, a modern storytelling pace, and irresistible medieval details: Seven Noble Knights. You can get it December 11, or you can preorder it now, while it's the cheapest it will ever be, or, if you're into that kind of thing, pick it up at NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. 

Thanks for sharing my excitement!

Short and Sweet Radio Interview on Chat & Spin

These people in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
are listening to oldies from the 1280s. 

Click here to listen to the Interview with J. K. Knauss on Chat and Spin Radio. Fast forward to 1:36:00 to skip an hour and a half of awesome 80s music to just hear the chat. 

Chat and Spin Radio is an indie Internet radio station based in the UK and broadcasting to 750,000 listeners daily. They play the best music, which is to say 80s jams (they take requests!), and have little chats with an astonishing variety of literary personalities. Ron Clark was kind enough to sit down with me for a short spell (less than ten minutes) yesterday evening. As I mention above, click here and fast forward to 1:36:00 to listen. 

Here's a transcript in case you have technical issues: 

Ron: And the time now on Chat and Spin Radio in the UK is 7:36 pm, and we've got our next guest on the line right now. Who's calling and where are you calling from?

J. K.: My name is Jessica Knauss. I'm an American, and I live in Zamora, Spain. 

Ron: Jessica, you've written books, you're an author, and you want to mention a book that's coming out in December.

J. K.: Yes, so, my medieval epic novel, Seven Noble Knights is going to be released by Encircle Publications on December 11. 

It takes place in Spain, in the year 974. Gonzalo, a brave but hotheaded knight, unwittingly provokes tragedy at his uncle’s wedding to beautiful young noblewoman Doña Lambra: the adored cousin of the bride dead, his teeth scattered across the riverbank. Coveting Gonzalo’s family’s wealth and power, Doña Lambra then sends Gonzalo’s father into enemy territory to be beheaded, unleashing a vengeance that devastates Castile for a generation.

A new hero, Mudarra, rises out of the ashes of Gonzalo’s once great family. Raised as a warrior in the opulence of Muslim Córdoba, Mudarra must make a grueling journey and change his religion. Then, he chooses to take his jeweled sword to the throats of his family’s betrayers. But only when he strays from the path set for him does he find his true purpose in life.

So, as you can hear, the book is in two parts. It's a substantial read, and that’s because the feud that starts at the wedding continues for years, with the villain laying waste to the beautiful land, never knowing that the hero is just waiting for the right moment to stop him and put things right. Mudarra does this at great personal cost. He’s perfectly competent to avenge his family, but he has a lot of doubts about whether he’s doing the right thing. 

I personally really like to get lost a book, and feel transported to another world when I’m reading. Seven Noble Knights, is, I’m happy to say, one of those books. You can let it absorb you into its sights, sounds, smells. So, if you’re looking to escape from this dismal year the whole world is having, Seven Noble Knights could be a great option. 

Ron: It certainly can. The book is is great thing to read during all this. It's a form of escapism to read the book, and possibly to write it, as well. 

J. K.: Yes, indeed. In times of great anguish, we always to turn the artists, and so we should appreciate them. 

Ron: Seven Noble Knights is coming out on December the 11th. Just tell me how can people purchase that book, and also if anyone wants to get in touch with yourself, how do they do that?

J. K.: Seven Noble Knights is now available for preorder in both ebook and softcover at Amazon. It will be available at many more outlets on December 11. 

Preorders are very helpful to the book and the author, so if you’re interested at all, order Seven Noble Knights now and receive it on December 11! The ebook is specially priced at only 99 cents for preorder in America, that's only 77 p in the UK. And December 11, the price goes up! It won’t be on sale after that, so take advantage of the bargain. 

You can find much more information about Seven Noble Knights and my other books, which are a world apart, at my website, JessicaKnauss.com.

Ron: Okay, Jessica. Is there anything else you want to mention?

J. K.: I thought I would mention what inspired me to write this book, if that would be of interest. There I was, innocently studying for my PhD in medieval Spanish literature, when my thesis advisor handed me an article she’d written about the meaning of the bloody cucumber incident in a lost medieval epic poem. I’m naturally attracted to the bizarre, and this was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard. So of course I had to read the historical records of the legend, and it turns out, throwing random vegetables at your enemies was a common enough occurrence in the Middle Ages in Spain that there are a couple of laws against it. And this ended up being one of the least interesting things about the legend. 

I didn’t get to focus more on this material until long after I’d finished my PhD, when it seemed to me that the best way to handle the exotic locations and complex characters would be to write a novel. The legend has had many adaptations in the Spanish-speaking world, including comic books and movies, in the hometown of the main characters, they have a rock opera that they do every year, but I strongly felt that readers in English would love this story, too. 

Ron: Okay, then, Jessica. Thank you very much, and the very best of luck with the books as well. 

J. K.: Thank you very much for having me. It's been a pleasure. 

Ron: That was Jessica on the line from Zamora, Spain. Thanks very much for coming on. 

A Legendary, Epic Road Trip

Lara. I took this photo through the car window because 
it was too cold to open it. 

It's only two months until Seven Noble Knights becomes available from Encircle Publications! What better way to celebrate than by remembering a "legendary" road trip where I unexpectedly met my characters. 

In January of this year (that nostalgia-inducing time before the pandemic arrived), I went to beautiful Burgos to visit my friend Daniel. Burgos in January is not for the faint of heart. But at least they're used to the cold there, and build their apartments accordingly. 

As you might imagine from previous posts, Daniel and I are far too intrepid to let a little freezing temperatures keep us inside the apartment staring at each other. "Let's take a drive through Lara, where your novel Seven Noble Knights is set," he said. 

Formidable hills in Torrelara 

I'd seen a little bit of Lara on a few occasions, but my friend was ready to show me "deep Spain" as I'd never seen it before, so I put on all the layers I'd brought and borrowed a couple more, and off we went. 

This rings a bell... 
Mambrillas de Lara 

We were minding our own business, looking for things like Romanesque architecture and dinosaur tracks, when there appeared to be a random scene from Seven Noble Knights painted on the side of a building. My frisson of recognition was confirmed when we saw the other corner of the building: 

It couldn't be anything other than the scene with the foreboding flights of birds before the heroes head off into battle. I was practically out of the car before it stopped. 

My heroes and me in Mambrillas de Lara 💖 

All the "Legendary Murals" in one photo
in a pub in Cubillo del Campo 

Wonder of wonders, when we read the informational plaque beside the mural, we discovered that this beautiful two-sided mural is part of a series that tells the entire legend upon which Seven Noble Knights is based! 

I snapped a photo of the map of the mural route, and we were off. We had inadvertently started at mural 5. Geography, hunger, and cold kept us from finding all ten, and we didn't find them in order, but I will present the legend in order (except mural 5) to you here. Subtle spoilers ahead! 

The tip of Los Ausines 

We found mural 1 on the edge of Los Ausines. When I say the "edge," I mean it: Los Ausines is a picturesque town wrapped around an oblong rocky outcrop. The photo doesn't do it justice. 

Blood Wedding by artists 9 Mil Siete 

The doughty knight cutting a handsome figure in mural 1 is meant to represent Álvar Sánchez, beloved cousin of the antagonist, Doña Lambra, whose wedding turns bloody. She wishes she were marrying Álvar, but no, she's obliged to marry Ruy Blásquez, the uncle of the seven noble knights. The blood starts to flow when Lambra's new nephew accidentally kills Álvar Sánchez, who in my book is a little annoying, but certainly doesn't deserve to die. 

The map only indicated which town each mural could be found in, but actually seeing the art often required significant digging. We found mural 2 wrapped around a small building in Quintanalara only after we'd given up and decided to have a hot tea to warm up in the town pub--which was directly across from the mural. 

Death at the Feet of Doña Lambra by RAF-ART

Daniel moved the chairs so I could get a better photo. The fact that there's an electrical grid and a bench stuck right into the painting points to the way the people of Lara live with this legend every day. 

This painting shows the second affront suffered by our antagonist, Doña Lambra, when a huge misunderstanding results in the death of her servant at her feet. I like this painting very much, but feel this mural series missed a great opportunity to portray the most bizarre scene in the legend, the bloody cucumber incident. It's what caused the "misunderstanding," after all. Not to worry, no scenes are missing in Seven Noble Knights. I included it all. 

Church of San Millán, Torrelara 

Mural 3 eluded us for some time, until we asked a resident of Torrelara where to find it. We had to climb one of the town's many hills, where it looks out at the landscape from the summit. 

Shouts of Revenge by Rodrigo 

This painting portrays our villainess crying out in grief and rage for the crimes the noble knights committed against her. She demands her husband, Ruy Blásquez, take revenge on his own nephews. What can he do? He promises he will. 

Quintanilla de las Viñas 

Quintanilla de las Viñas is a town I've been in before, spectacularly, never knowing that it participated in the mural retelling of my favorite epic legend. It's very pretty with its parish church against the backdrop of the bluff, though in the photo, it may be a little too forthcoming with its farming heritage. 

Don Gonzalo's Lament by Carlos Colio 

It's quite moving, up close. 

We missed mural 7 as we entered the town, and drove around and around, examining the sides of every building. A resident told us there was a mural as you enter the town, and after a couple of tries, we said, "Oh, that's it!" It's so very modern, it was hard to connect the disjointed art to a medieval legend, and it didn't help that neither of us expected it to be on the side of a corrugated aluminum warehouse. But there it was, symbolically telling of the devastating grief of Don Gonzalo, father of the seven noble knights. 

Mudarra by María José Castaño,
Cristino Díez, and Rubén Arroyo 

Although mural 8 sits unassuming on the side of a residence in Cubillo del César and is partially obscured by a children's playground, its imaginative composition portrays the some of the most complex imagery in this series. Called simply "Mudarra," the painting introduces the hero of the second part of the legend with details only the initiated would recognize while suggesting his person in silhouette. 

The chessboard and pieces portray his skill in that most intellectual of medieval games even while they suggest that the characters in the legend may be pawns at the mercy of a bigger story. The arches represent where Mudarra grows up, the fantastical palace complex at Medina Azahara. The silhouettes show Mudarra and his mother joined by the broken ring that will lead Mudarra back to his father. Even the hawk swooping in from the upper right is intentional and shows up in my Seven Noble Knights. 

Mudarra Faces His Destiny by Pedro López 

Mural 9 can be found on your way out of town in Cuevas de San Clemente, and it's the most fun, as it pays homage to classic comic books. The comic book form has a lot in common with medieval manuscript illustration, and it's an efficient, attractive way to tell an exciting story. The legend of Seven Noble Knights has been adapted into comic books on more than one occasion. Here, Mudarra finds his father, fuses the halves of the ring, tells his new family he's going to help them, and sets off to save the day (accompanied by many classic Spanish comic book characters). 

Mural 10, the grand finale, was the most extensive piece of art in the series. It's on the side of a tennis(?) court in Cubillo del Campo, and tells practically the entire plot of Part Two of Seven Noble Knights (without the psychological and historical warfare subtleties I put into the novel). We felt we were trespassing as we climbed along the uneven ground in some hearty freezing wind to look at the whole story. 

The Revenge by Susana Velasco 
I didn't manage to fit the entire piece into the shot. 

The heroes arrive in Burgos. 

After a confrontation, the bad guy, Ruy Blásquez, flees. 

Ruy Blásquez meets his end. 

Although the artistic quality of each piece varied, what we were able to see of the mural series was a delight. I love to see the way this legend is portrayed in the land where it took place, to see it outside of my head and heart and having an effect on the world. 

Daniel and I said we'd pick up the murals we'd missed, specifically 4 and 6, in better weather, but, you know, COVID. They're still in their lovely towns in Lara, and I hope to see them some post-pandemic day. 

The legend will be available to enjoy in all its novelistic complexity in Seven Noble Knights in just two more months! December 11, 2020, from Encircle Publications. 

Happy Book Birthday to a Great New Escape into Another World

I'm pleased to announce that my author friend Hunter S. Jones has gotten together with loads of other great authors to bring you Once Upon Another World: A Twisted Fairy Tale Box Set. 

Not all fairy tales are as they appear.

Was it actually Red who hunted the wolf? What if the prince was the one in distress? Did the straw really get spun into gold? How well did those glass slippers truly fit?

Where princesses do their own rescuing, princes aren’t who they first appear to be, and beasts are friends, not foe—and maybe something more…

With stories spanning from true love’s kiss to reverse harem, skyscrapers to ancient castles, sweet romance to steamy nights, these alluring tales will satisfy readers of fantasy and romance alike.

Discover 22 twisted fairy tales with a happily ever after unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

Authors included in the box set are: Monique Singleton, Joel Crofoot, Zack Hacker, D.E. Chapman, Erin McFadden & K.L. Bone, Jaclyn Roche, L.R.W. Lee, JB Trepagnier, Silvana G. Sanchez, Cassidy K. O'Connor, Jude Cocaigne, M.L. Garza, Hunter S. Jones, Aldrea Alien, Amari Ara Dreamer, D.C. Gambel, Krista Ames, K.A. Fox, Christa Ann, Iris Sweetwater & Chandra Trulove Fry, and Lianne Willowmoon & Phillip Shadowdragon. 

You're sure to find something you like for the generous price of $1.99. 

Get it in your choice of digital formats here. 

Stories of Plague in the Time of COVID: A Live Event (You Can Now See a Replay)

The New York City chapter of the Historical Novel Society cordially invites you to a live internet event you can attend for free on Tuesday, October 6, at noon Eastern Time. Please adjust for your time zone--I'll be joining from Spain, so 6 p.m. for me.

UPDATE: This event took place as planned, and it turned out great! See the replay on YouTube. 

Stories of Plague in the Time of COVID will unite eight of the nine international bestselling authors from the We All Fall Down anthology for the first time ever! Although the title might sound like a bit of a downer, the overwhelming takeaway from these stories is that the human spirit has survived even the darkest times... and it will survive these dark times. 

The authors attending will be: 

* David Blixt

* Kristin Gleeson

* Jean Gill

* Yours truly, Jessica Knauss writing as J. K. Knauss

* Laura Morelli

* Deborah Swift

* Melodie Winawer 

* Lisa J. Yarde 

You're sure to find a new favorite in historical fiction. 

Sign up here to join via Zoom, where you will be able to ask the authors your own questions during the session! 

Register here to watch on Facebook live and submit your questions ahead of time. 

You'll receive a link to the event the day of. Our NYC chapter of the HNS has lots of experience with these events and things are all set to go smoothly. 

At the end of the meeting, three attendees will be chosen to receive a free copy of We All Fall Down in Kindle or epub. 

So join us for a chat about hope and resilience! See you there!  

Map It Out! Seven Noble Knights' Hand-Drawn Artwork

When the first publisher accepted Seven Noble Knights for publication, they asked for a map showing the locations mentioned in the novel. It seemed natural, as the medieval sources of Seven Noble Knights were obsessed with geography, and during the writing, I could often be found hunching over a finely detailed Spanish road map or trying to calculate distances with Google Maps. 

I had always hoped to have something cartographic and beautiful in my book, to orient the reader and because I love maps. I knew I wouldn't be able to cobble together anything that met my artistic standards or that was specific enough to Seven Noble Knights, so I looked for a map artist who could include everything I wanted.

Nuno Alexandre Vieira has a lot of impressive artistic credentials under his belt. He won me over when he said he was from Portugal and knew the Iberian Peninsula well. 

Nuno very generously sold me the license to do whatever I wanted with it in perpetuity, so I get to use it in the new edition, too! 

It's exciting to see the places in Seven Noble Knights, to have this artifact in the real world that attests to the presence of my beloved story. One of the first things I did was print a copy, and it's decorated my writing area ever since. 

It's black and white because the book won't be printed in color—that may contribute to the aged feel. The lettering was done by hand and I can't imagine anything about this map being any better. The artist should win an award for it.

Looking at the places mentioned, I'm proud to say the only one I haven't yet visited personally is Covadonga. I write about it as an almost mythic place in the novel, though no scenes take place there. Covadonga is in Asturias, which at this moment has the pandemic under control. What better time for a visit? 

What places on this map have you visited? 

Seven Noble Knights will be available December 11 from Encircle Publications. Thank you for sharing in the excitement with me.