I have always loved knights. Like many kids, I grew up watching classic movies and one of the first I can recall was Ivanhoe. I adored Robert Taylor both in the TV series, The Detectives, and as the knight Ivanhoe, shunned by his father, but ultimately the hero of the story.
When my grandma took me to the movies for double-features each Saturday, I enjoyed the cartoons that came on first, but loved the intense costume dramas that followed. I fantasized I was Rebecca, the Jewish woman Ivanhoe really loved (played by the luscious Elizabeth Taylor), but would have settled for being the Lady Rowena, the one traditions at the time dictated he should marry.
Ah, love. Knights! Honor!
In 1982, while the rest of the world swooned over the amazingly successful Brideshead Revisted series and its teddy bear-hugging star, Anthony Andrews, I obsessed over his TV version of Ivanhoe. Once again I wanted to be Rebecca, but by then two things had happened. I’d begun to realize the men I picked were all deeply flawed and if my track record ran true to form I was more likely to land myself Wamba, the king’s court jester than Ivanhoe, or even the deliciously wicked Count de Bracy.
I’d also noticed that the racial tension had been toned down considerably in the apparently more conservative 1980s. Rebecca’s feelings had become one-sided, but still, knights just floated my boat. I even bought an odd little self-help book some years later called The Knight in Rusty Armor, thinking it would fan the chain mail flames in my heart. But it didn’t.
This led to a friend giving me a copy of Slay Your Own Dragons.
She was definitely trying to tell me something.
I felt passionately about the Knights of the Round Table, especially in the movie Excalibur. Lord I loved that movie! I also adored a few of the other knights who popped up from time to time - such as the wonderful medieval knight played by Jean Reno who accidentally gets transported to the present in the hilarious French film The Visitors. But for years I’ve wanted to write my own story. I liked the idea of a modern day man transported back in time where he discovers he was a knight and has somehow lost all his powers.
When Amber Allure suggested the Knight Moves PAX anthology, I jumped at the chance to write Out of Time.
I loved being able to research nineteenth century Mexico during its brief time of royalty and since it’s just over the border from California, I made a weekend trip down there to learn as much as I could. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it!
Here is the synopsis:
Biologist Arlo Perez has spent his whole life avoiding decisions, confrontations, anything concrete. Anything resembling a commitment. When his lover, Miguel, dumps him, a depressed Arlo decides to put down roots in Merced, a small California town nestled between Yosemite and the old gold-panning country region. There, he secures a new fellowship at a college and looks forward to adventure and fun.
But just as he’s getting used to normal, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.
One day when his car breaks down, Arlo winds up at the mercy of a deranged garage owner in Port Hueneme. And somehow, he finds himself tossed back in time to an era of knights, dragons, and pit fights. Suddenly, he’s in Mexico, 1867, and there’s only one way out—fight or die.
Can Arlo get himself out of this horrible and confusing mess? Can he stop feeling out of place and out of his senses? Or is he completely out of time?
For Purchase and/or excerpt please click this link:
But who is your favorite knight either in fact or fiction? I’d love to know! For the chance to win a copy of ALL FIVE Amber PAX™ Knight Moves stories, please post a comment to enter the draw to WIN!
Aloha oe,
A.J.
I am very fond of the film The Knights Tale and even though Chaucer features in the as a character in the film its not like the original tale of the same name. Its an enchanting story, slightly modern more by its use of music, about William Thatcher who pretended to be a Knight and eventually won the hand of the lady he loved and a loyal collection of friends. I do really like his character but by attraction actually went to Sir Thomas Colville (Edward, The Black Prince) as I loved how the actor played his role, well I actually like the actor very much as well ;)
ReplyDeleteHistorically I am very fond of Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur's knights, a compassionate loyal warrior, defender of the poor and also know as the 'Maidens Knight', defender of women.