Some of the dialogue and expressions come across as quite modern. There's a 'Gotta go' at one point. Is that intentional?

Now and then I've been criticized for sentences or quick exchanges of dialogue that seem out of key. I've been rather sensitive to that. On the other hand, I don't want to get caught up in writing stillborn language. I want it vibrant, alive, but I would hate it if it sounded jarring. I have a brilliant medieval stepmother who made dead sure that I did not sue phrases or words that were wrong. She sent me my manuscript littered with comments. 'You're using terms from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries - make up your mind. You can't use this phrase, it was first used in 1617.' On the one hand I wanted to be reasonably accurate, but the truth is that some of our modern phrases have their roots in medieval phraseology.

Did you read any other contemporary children's historical fiction before writing this?

Certainly not while... and I don't think before, at least for some while. The truth is I don't read a very great deal of fiction. Either for children or adults. That may show in the writing of this novel, and I don't know if that's bad or good.

So you've not read books by Karen Cushman?

I would say that Karen Cushman, if there were one author I wanted to acknowledge as having had some bearing on The Seeing Stone, she's the author. Her books gave me a real shot in the arm. I think Catherine Called Birdy especially had an influence in various ways. And I put in a little sly tribute to her. There's a little list of saints and I slipped in Saint Cushman, who certainly didn't exist!

Can you give us an idea what's to come in books two and three?

The theme of quest comes right to the fore. The grail can't really be achieved by anyone, except one or two bloodless individuals who are a bit too perfect for their own good. But it is necessary to quest for the grail. Each of us, in our own ways, to give it a meaning. It's no good just living a two-dimensional life without any regard for the life of the spirit, whatever we understand that to be. And the second and third volumes will take Arthur on crusade. The disastrous 4th Crusade, which became a bloodbath. The second book has Arthur going to Venice joining the famous group who went in the year 1201 to discuss with the elderly Doge, who was as wily a man as ever inhabited the earth (90 and blind)... Really the whole of the second book is preparation for the third book which begins with a bang, in Venice, and the launching of the Crusade, but pretty rapidly, because the crusaders can't pay for all the boats, gets into horrible trouble, satisfying the Doge's requirements, that all the crusade fleet go over to the Croatian coast and start recapturing towns before going on to the Holy Land. The one thing I've got to be careful about is that there must not be too much historical... not too much of the actuality level because there are a great deal of legends to retell. I would think it will be 40% actuality and 60% legend.

continue...