I’m attached to all of my characters. They’re like my children—I love each one of them for who they are, even if they are flawed, maybe especially for their flaws. It takes me about a year and a half to write a first draft of a book, so I get to know them very well. But I’ll write here about Juana of Castile, the main character in REIGN OF MADNESS.
Juana has come down in history as Juana la Loca, the mad Queen of Spain and wife of a man so beautiful that he was called Philippe the Handsome. According to both legend and history books, she had been driven mad by her husband’s unfaithfulness. She was a mess--she tried to chase away his lovers, even cutting off their hair, and when she was locked up, she threw bricks at her keepers. When Philippe died, Juana was so grief-stricken that she refused to give up his body. She roamed Spain at night, opening his coffin often to assure herself that her wandering husband was hers at last.
This legend is still current in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries.
It is also a pack of lies. It was a smear job started by Philippe to steal his wife’s rightful throne and perpetuated by Juana’s father and son, so that they in turn could usurp her power.
My mission in REIGN OF MADNESS was to discover the real Juana of Castile.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
Juana was a bright and well educated sixteen-year-old when sent to marry the sixteen-year-old Duke of Burgundy. What caused her downfall was that she was completely blinded by passion. She was sixteen! Her husband was a hottie! Her feet didn’t touch ground until she had children several years later. Her children caused her to grow up and become the compassionate, wise woman that was her true self. But choices she made while young—to allow her husband complete power over her—haunted her for the rest of her life…which happened to be spent in a prison in Tordesillas, Spain.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
I just read THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides and recognized that his main female character, Madeleine, created the same problem for herself as Juana had. As a very young woman, she married a man because they had great sex. It worked out badly for Eugenides’s character, too.
To what extent did you use any pre-existing character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
I had a real person upon which to build my character. I read everything about her and her family and Spanish history that I could, and made six trips to Spain to ferret out any additional information on her. But I purposely choose characters from hundreds of years past so that I can build a character of my own making. I was very conscious as I developed Juana’s character that I wanted to show her as a smart young woman who didn’t come into her own identity until she was a mother. In this respect, I think of REIGN OF MADNESS as a modern novel which happens to be set in Golden Age Spain.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
During Christopher Columbus’s triumphal return visit to the Spanish court with treasures from the “Indies,” thirteen-year-old Juana learns that her parents’ famed marriage is not all that it seems when she discovers her father dallying with another woman.
Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?
In REIGN OF MADNESS, Juana stumbles onto a couple copulating in a chapel when everyone is supposed to be out welcoming Columbus back to court.
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
In this way, the reader sees how Juana feels about marriage and infidelity, which become central to the story. The reader is also afforded a look at Juana’s relationship with her mother, important because the book is also about mothers and their relationships with their grown daughters.
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
Juana has to decide what sacrifices she will make for the good of her children and herself.
How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how the respond them?
Philippe the Handsome is a man who “grows hungrier from the eating.” Unlike Juana, who matures because of the responsibilities of parenthood, he remains a spoiled boy. He gets his way by charming and lying, and sees no dishonor in either.
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
There would be no story without them. Juana’s actions are reactions to the people in her life.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
I love to take a historical figure and explode the myths that have been built up around them. At the same time, my aim is to develop a character who struggles with issues that are still part of the human condition.
Author website: www.lynncullen.com
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