My story ideas always start with a place that resonates at some level and my international travels have driven the ARKANE series so far. The pandemic changed so much in our lives, including the ability to travel, so I had to set aside my book research plans and find an idea closer to home for this one.
Morgan and Jake will be back in another adventure and next time, I am determined to travel further afield for my book research!
You can see some of the pictures behind the book at www.pinterest.co.uk/jfpenn/tomb-of-relics/
Canterbury and the martyrdom of Thomas Becket
In October 2020, I walked the Pilgrims’ Way from London to Canterbury following the route Becket took when he became archbishop and the paths that pilgrims traveled to his shrine after the martyrdom.
It was during a break in the pandemic lockdowns, and I was desperate to get out of the house. Walking outside for six days seemed like a good option and I hoped to find the thread of a story on the trip.
When I visited Canterbury Cathedral and attended sung Evensong, I decided to use the story of Thomas Becket, but not in the way that others have done. The historical details of Becket’s martyrdom are correct, but of course, the exploits of the knights after their banishment are fictional.
You can follow my path along the Pilgrims’ Way at www.booksandtravel.page/pilgrims-way/ and listen to a solo podcast episode (or read the transcript) about the pilgrimage at www.booksandtravel.page/pilgrimage-canterbury/
Religious relics
Regular readers of my ARKANE novels will know of my obsession with religious relics. They continue to fascinate me and feature in many of my stories.
I went to the (delayed) exhibition about Thomas Becket at the British Museum in June 2021 and the final display case held the reliquary described in the book. I wondered whether it was really a piece of Becket’s skull inside and if it wasn’t, then whose could it be — and was it really medieval?
I also read the following books as part of my research:
- Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe — Charles Freeman
- The Relics of Thomas Becket: A True-Life Mystery — John Butler
Processing of dead bodies
Human corpses provide an important service to the living and although there are strict laws around payment for body parts, the processing still needs to be done. I wrote Kelley’s disassembly scene based on the following books:
- Insider Trading: How Mortuaries, Medicine and Money Have Built a Global Market in Human Cadaver Parts — Naomi Pfeffer
- Technologies of the Human Corpse — John Troyer
- The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers — Scott Carney
To be clear, I am a registered donor and I want my physical body to be used after my death — ideally to help other people or advance medical science, but I wouldn’t object to being turned into a relic!
Other aspects
I have not been to Cologne Cathedral or St Mary’s Basilica in Kraków, but I spent many hours on various websites and virtual tours in an attempt to make my descriptions as exact as possible. They are both on my list to visit, as they are extraordinary places.
The quote on the tapestry in the citadel, “God will know his own,” is attributed to the massacre at Béziers, France, in July 1209, when thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered indiscriminately as part of the Albigensian Crusade. I felt the phrase captured the spirit of the Crusades in general when so many were killed under the banner of faith regardless of their allegiance.
Why didn’t I mention the COVID-19 pandemic?
Although I’ve set the story in present time, I decided to ignore masks, social distancing, vaccination, or any mention of the pandemic. My fiction is an escape from real life and hopefully, the complications of these few years will fade with time.
Use of AI and other tools
In an age where more and more text is generated with AI tools and creatives are increasingly AI-assisted, I think it’s important to state usage in my books. I’m a techno-optimist and believe that AI tools can help authors become even more creative.
For Tomb of Relics, I used Google Search in addition to books for research; Sudowrite as an extended thesaurus to add to sensory description, although not for copying and pasting chunks of text; and ProWritingAid as part of my editing process. I also use Amazon for publishing, and Amazon auto-ads as well as Facebook for marketing.
If you’re interested in AI and creativity, I have articles, interviews and resources at www.TheCreativePenn.com/future