Interview with Natalie Murray for Emmie and The Tudor Queen
Emmie and the Tudor Queen (Hearts and Crowns Book 2)
Release Date: August 25th 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance
Synopsis:
True love has never been more deadly in this lush sequel to the best-selling Emmie and the Tudor King.
For an extraordinary love, Emmie Grace has given up her life in the modern world to move to the sixteenth century and marry the Tudor king she bravely saved from a dreadful fate. However, not everyone is pleased to see the glorious King Nick betrothed to the unknown and uncultured Emmie—especially the noblemen commanded to protect her.
As Emmie is drawn deeper into Nick’s sumptuous and savage world—where beheadings are way more popular than time travelers—the Tudor court heads on progress across the country, and a growing rebellion against the promised queen looms.
With life and love at stake, Emmie must face the cost of changing the path of history and realize that her greatest sacrifice is yet to come.
Can you briefly describe EMMIE AND THE TUDOR QUEEN and its characters?
Sure! Emmie and the Tudor Queen is the sequel to Emmie and the Tudor King. These are the first two books in the Hearts & Crowns series, which follows an eighteen-year-old girl called Emmie Grace back in time to sixteenth-century Tudor England, where she meets a dreamy, but ill-fated, Tudor king. Emmie is about to graduate high school and has college plans, while the Tudor king (Nick) is trying to keep his country under control in Renaissance Europe, which is on the brink of a holy war. Other characters who join this star-crossed love story include Emmie’s mom who has no idea her daughter is a time traveler, a dangerous duke who’d like to see Emmie’s head on a pike, and the nobles of the Tudor court who can make Emmie’s time there either delightful or deadly.
Could you describe your story with emojis?
💏✈🏰😈😦💏✈🏙✈🏰🍽💃😈😭🧙🔫😡😢😘👰🔥👑⚔😱🧙🤒⚰💔💂🔫😭😳🤴☹😡😓😘💏✈
Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?
It’s hard to get past Emmie and Nick, but I think the character I would hate to lose the most apart from those two would be Alice Grey, Emmie’s best friend in the Tudor world. I adore Alice for her feminist tendencies (as feminist as a sixteenth-century girl can be!), fierce devotion to Emmie, and her witty banter.
How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?
The story came to me from a dream I had, in which I basically was Emmie Grace: I was a girl from the twenty-first century who had the ability to travel back and forth in time to the Tudor era. I was also heavily inspired by my interest in this dramatic period of history, and the hot mess that is the Tudor family tree, but I didn’t want to write a book about Henry VIII, his wives, or Elizabeth I. There are enough of those already! I wanted to create a fictional Tudor king in a reimagining of the dynasty, but one who was inspired by a young Henry VIII (Henry VIII wasn’t always the obese, grouchy king so many people think of – in his younger years, he was known to be incredibly handsome, athletic, and charismatic).
If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?
It would undoubtedly be the song ‘The Beauty and the Tragedy’ by Trading Yesterday, which perfectly captures the tortured angst between Nick and Emmie. To give you an idea, some of the lyrics are: “Watch your step, our love is broken. I am every tear you cry. Save your breath, your heart has spoken. You already have my life. For I am finding out that love will kill and save me. Taking the dreams that made me up, and tearing them away. But the same love will take this heart that’s barely beating… and fill it with hope beyond the stars.” I thoroughly recommend listening to this gorgeous song about love and heartbreak.
If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?
This changes, but at the moment it would be Cailee Spaeny as Emmie Grace, Louis Hunter as Nick Tudor, Daisy Edgar-Jones as Alice Grey, Frank Dillane as Francis Beaumont, Pierce Brosnan as the Duke of Norfolk, Olivia Holt as Lucinda Parker, Ellise Chappell as Bridget Nightingale, Toni Collette as Carol Grace, Vera Farmiga as Jane Stuart, and Raffiella Chapman as Princess Catherine. J
What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?
I think the perfect place to take Emmie and the Tudor Queen for a book date would be a Tudor or Elizabethan palace! It would be lovely to sit reading it on a stone bench within one of the courtyards of Hampton Court Palace, or on a grassy hill overlooking Kenilworth Castle. For a drink, perhaps I’d have a glass of red wine because the Tudors did enjoy their wine (and ale). One thing they didn’t drink was tea! That quintessential English beverage was introduced nearly one hundred years after this story is set.
Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish EMMIE AND THE TUDOR QUEEN?
If you enjoyed Emmie and the Tudor Queen, my first suggestion would be to read Emmie and the Tudor King if you haven’t already! This is the original book in the series that explains how Emmie and Nick come together in the first place. If you’ve already finished and liked them, that probably means you’d appreciate some time travel romance or Tudor romance. If you haven’t read Outlander, that’s a must-read, or you can also delve into some romantic Tudor books, of which there are many. You can explore some of the Philippa Gregory novels or My Lady Jane, a fun book set in the sixteenth century that has a contemporary feel.
What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?
I’m tempted to say the time involved (there are too many hours to count!), but I think the plotting is the most challenging part for me. It’s no easy task to make it through eighty thousand or more words while keeping the reader engaged. This requires complex thought and clever planning to keep the story moving forward cohesively and convincingly without losing the reader along the way. I get heart palpitations just thinking about it! Ha.
What’s next for you?
I’m undecided! I have a contemporary romance that’s been brewing in my mind for some time, and I’d like to get it down on paper before the idea shrinks away. However, there is one more book in the Hearts & Crowns series that I’d like to write to bring the story to a conclusion, but bets are currently on as to which book I end up completing first. :)
Thank you very much for having me!
Natalie Murray is the author of EMMIE AND THE TUDOR KING (June 11, 2019) and EMMIE AND THE TUDOR QUEEN (August 25, 2020). A fast-paced YA time-slip romance, the Emmie and the Tudor King trilogy follows an American high school girl to a reimagined Tudor England, where she meets a doomed, but utterly dreamy, Tudor king. Emmie and the Tudor King has already received acclaim from Foreword Reviews, YA Books Central, and popular YA authors Brigid Kemmerer (A Curse So Dark and Lonely) and CJ Flood (Infinite Sky), among others. You can visit Natalie at nataliemurrayauthor.com.
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