Before I get to the final portion of my interview with Lisa Bergren, discussing The Begotten, first of The Gifted trilogy, I wanted to make a comment about yesterday’s portion of the interview.

As most of you may have noticed, Daria is Lisa’s main character. Yup. Daria–a woman. At the risk of sounding extremely sexist, which I am clearly not, having the utmost respect for my incredible wife and all the woman who have helped mold and shape my life, I must say that I can’t remember the last time I felt so connected to a leading lady.

I want my sword fights. I want my blood splattering, intestinal spilling, wound gashing heroes of old!

But a lady?

As Lisa said yesterday (doing her best to keep is a secret from her husband), she had crushes on her warriors her warriors in this book. And Daria would be no exception for me. Hi, Jenny! (waves sheepishly)

But the way in which Lisa painted the picture of a noble woman surrounded by a host of valiant knights did equally as good a job at hooking her familiar female audience as it has her new male one. Perhaps as a man it was me yelling at Gianni and Hasani to keep track of her, not letting her out of their sight, frustrated when Daria went off by herself and upset when she was nearly killed.

You got me, Lisa! I’m now a chick-lit pansy.

Without further delay, here is the rest fo the story…

CH

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CH: I thought it was neat how you named two characters after the old man you met on the plane (as per your acknowledgments); any other instances of that?

LB: Not that I remember. I usually just go through an international name book and choose names that “feel” right for the character in my mind–and hopefully are ones that readers can pronounce!

CH: Sites you’d recommend for people to see when visiting (for me, really!)? lol

LB: When you go to France, go kayaking under the Pont du Gard and stay in L’Orange on the square in Avignon–a wonderful city with a huge, papal palace. Venice…we talked about a couple of my favorite stops–but go to a Vivaldi concert in one of the old churches (held most evenings) and go one street away from the Grand Canal and you’ll find some great trattorias (for half the cost). Tuscany…consider a rental at an agriturismo, a farm house, where you can cook your own food and absorb what it really feels like to be in Tuscany. Florence–you have to go to the best trattoria ever, Il Latina, in the north quarter. Amazing steaks 3″ high and fun waiters and family-friendly atmosphere. But just go to Florence for a day or two and by train! I think the best of Italy is really outside the cities. Ah, but Roma…wow, I could spent a couple weeks there. Check out the Beehive–cheap place to stay, which is hard to find there. But you’ll want to spend all day walking/exploring anyway. ContextRome has great historical/political tours that helps you put everything together. Be sure to check them out.

Okay, you convinced me. Forget ContextRome. I’ll go back with you and play tour guide. Our travels have so inspired us, we’re building a family travel web site. Check it out at www.familytripster.com. Every time a person posts a report thru April, they get a chance at a whole set of my books, retail value $170 and a year’s subscription to BUDGET TRAVEL magazine! We’re just populating the site now, so we’d really appreciate everyone jumping on and at least posting a paragraph or two on their home town under “A Local’s Advice”: http://www.familytripster.com/tripadvice.html (all you need is one picture you want to share that shows a bit of your home town) or “A Perfect Day in…” Come on over and check it out!

CH: Where are you going next?

LB: My next series is an 1880s trilogy set in Colorado–so I’m currently staying closer to home (I live in Colorado Springs). But I have sea-faring warriors and pirates on my brain, so we’re heading to Nevis, in the West Indies, as soon as the kids are out of school, with a few days on an island off of Puerto Rico too. After that, we’d love to explore Ireland (we could hang in a pub together!) or cruise the Nile or see the amazing peaks of Patagonia. So much of the world to see! Such a sad state for the American dollar! Please buy my books, faithful readers, so I can go see more! It will undoubtedly inspire me to write more…

Thanks for the opportunity to share, C!

LTB

So anyone that knows me knows that if I am comparing something to Stephen Lawhead’s work, somthiing I don’t think I’ve ever done on this blog before, it means I like it a lot. It’s a pretty big deal around these parts.

And Lisa Bergren’s The Begotten, the first of a trilogy called The Gifted, is a pretty big deal.

From chapter one, she tapped my love for church history especially during the time of the Inquisitions. Set during the time of the Iconoclasts, the book opens with two very haunting scenes; one of an illuminated Bible being sentenced to burning, along with its creating priest, and the very next of a valiant band of knights chasing a child-sacrificing sorcerer through the catacombs beneath Rome.

If that’s not enough to hook you, I don’t know what it.

The book so captured my imagination that I couldn’t help but write Lisa. And to my surprise, not only did she reply, but agreed to do an interview for you all!

I’ll post the second and final segments tomorrow. Enjoy!

CH

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CH: What cities in Italy (and elsewhere) did you find of particular interest, especially when crafting The Begotten? For instance, did you spend time in Siena? Likewise, how did your actual visitation of those areas play a part in shaping your novel?

LB: I did a ton of in-depth historical research on politics, daily life, etc, and “coffee table gift book” research for visuals of Italy. I had the rough draft written before I went the first time. But there’s nothing like actually being there…The novel begins in the ancient Christian burial grounds that were truly “lost” for 500 years–very cool to be able to explore the catacombs for myself!

And I realized the piazza (plaza) outside the Duomo (church) in Siena was totally different than I had it pictured–much smaller and oddly shaped, so it impacted what transpired there. And being able to walk the streets, pick out several key buildings as those that appear in The Begotten–marvelous. Siena has one of the coolest piazzas in Italy–shell-shaped and with bands of brick that represented the Nine, their governing body. When you go, be sure to climb the campanile (bell tower)–marvelous views over picturesque, rolling green hills.

Six months later I returned to Venice with my eldest daughter (11), and we spent ten days largely exploring twenty different churches, looking for the peacock in the mosaic floors–an ancient Christian symbol (adopted from pagan mythology) for everlasting life, and also my heroine Daria’s family crest and part of the whole trilogy. We learned that Venice really began on a tiny island called Torcello (another must-see) and that the church across from Venice called San Giorgio, once was toppled in an earthquake. You can see my on-location research more clearly in that book, and was a fab mother/daughter experience to boot.

Six months after THAT (I know, I know, my life is SO hard!), we returned with the whole family and my parents too for a Rome-Tuscany-Venice trip, and then I went on to France. The trilogy’s climactic ending takes place in France (where the pope set up shop for 70ish years) and then back in Tuscany at an abandoned church with it’s own amazing sword-in-the-stone legend that predates Arthur.

CH: Your knowledge of their ancient economy, specifically the guild system and its politics, seems to be very thorough. Inspiration?

LB: Necessity more than inspiration. At the time, Tuscan cities were hugely political and constantly battling one another–the reason for all those big walls and towers. And since Daria is a woman before her time–with means and education–she had to be born of the working class or nobility. I liked that fringe of wealth…and the gifts–as well as pressures–that applies for a person. For instance, both Daria and her “uncle,” Vincenzo, are in dire need of an heir to pass along their family fortunes. The guild and politics of the day gave me tons of opportunity for temptation and sin and heartache and all the fabulous pathos of a great novel. In all my novels, the actual research gives me texture for the characters. Love that.

CH: You have some pretty cool warriors in The Begotten–Hasani and Gianni especially. Did you do any research on knights while overseas or was it just shooting from the hip?

LB: Oh, I love a good, classic hero, and these boys certainly fit the form–I fell a little in love with all of them (but don’t tell my hubby). I certainly had the men of LOTR-on-film heavily in my mind when I began. There wasn’t a lot of research to be done–mercenaries were common, given the politics of the day. But this was before the jousting/court era that we think about, so like so much of my “medieval historical mindset,” I had to toss out what I thought I knew and get back to the basics. It was much more primitive, not so glorious as what most of us think about when we think “medieval.” But the foundation was being laid for what we have in our collective consciousness.

(To be continued…)

Disclaimer : Normally I like to have attractive looking headers, authors pics and images of the book covers for my CSFF Blog Tour posts. However, my server is acting up and we’re researching a bug so you’ll have to do without them this time around. In the mean time you can see Lisa’s beautiful face and book covers on her website. Thanks for your patience!

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Lawhead fans, this one’s for you…

So when I slipped The Begotten out of the shipping envelope onto my kitchen table, I immediately thought, “Oh no. Another Da Vinci Code wanna’ be.” The cover seemed too perfect and the name, Lisa Bergren, was unfamiliar. But as before (with Andrew Peterson’s book ), I could not bear to let myself be waylaid by falsely judging a book by its cover. So I flipped open to the author bio on the last page…

“‘Millions of books in print’?” I read aloud. “How come I’ve never heard of her?”

After jumping on her website I realized why; the majority of her 20+ other books are all for women . Not my preferred genre.

But while browsing her bio I noted her self-proclaimed love of travel and the resulting inspiration to write The Begotten. Italy. France. Israel and Egypt. “Hmmm…” That at least got me thinking that anyone who loves ancient Europe and the Middle East has got their head screwed on straight (as far as I’m concerned).

“And if she’s a successful author with years of experience in the publishing industry,” I went on to muse, meaning it must be well written (especially if Penguin/Berkly is pressing it), “…and this is about Christians in the pre-middle ages, the arts, political unrest in the church and a face paced adventure novel with a Christ-centered focus…”

Suddenly the light went on. “This is my kind of book! ”

And boy is it ever.

I devoured this one from the first to the last page. Not since Lawhead have a I loved a fictional/historical work so much. Knights, gifts of the Holy Spirit, mystery, intrigue, love triangles, the occult, political upheaval, amazing settings, castles, guilds, conspiracy and so much more…

…this book is everything The Da Vinci Code wanted to be, but never could be. (Because Brown forgot about the real Jesus).

Tomorrow I’ll explore more about her writing and introduce the first part of my interview with her.

Lisa, well done.

CH

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