We are honoured to work with as many authors as we do at Pegasus Publishers – each with their own stories to tell. Their worlds are singular, their characters are relatable and their creativity truly knows no bounds.

This is Author Life, a feature on the Pegasus Blog, that opens the door to each of our author’s creative process and previous literary experience, offering you – the reader – an opportunity to learn a little about the mind behind the novel.

Meet Alexander Marriott, author of the crime novel THE SCHOOL OF HOMER.

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What are three interesting factors about yourself?

I lived abroad as a child, when I was nine to about twelve and a half years old. We were in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) and I went to a private British School. Aside from the ambiance of the Red Sea, the position allowed the family to travel to places we never would have gone to—Europe, Egypt, etc. It changed my life in profound ways and shaped all sorts of things about my outlook on life, culture, religion, politics, etc.

It also embedded the second (what I think is) interesting thing about me—my passion and love for history. Traveling to Paris, London, Scotland, Belgium, the Pyramids, and Rome really kindled a deep and abiding love for the human past I’ve never been able to shake, not that I’ve ever tried. It is nice to blend my academic/professional passion with my fiction writing; I hope my love of the past comes through to readers in a way that brings them along.

Lastly, I love the written word and have since I was about 9-10 (sensing a theme here?)—I’m always trying to read something and read widely. Not always easy given my research interests and professional duties, or my family commitments, but I link it’s really important to also read travel books, novels, poetry, short stories, comedy books, memoirs, etc., and not just the stuff of my trade (biographies, monographs, etc.) There is so much out there and you’re never gonna get to all of it, but we live with knowledge and art resources at our fingertips that the geniuses of antiquity or even a century or so ago would have achingly envied, be a shame not to sample it as much as one reasonably can!

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Believe it or not, a historian! When I saw the battlefield at Warterloo—I must have been 10?—I knew I wanted to do something with history. I’m still not entirely sure why that place so triggered it (and it wasn’t totally sui generis, the Indiana Jones movies had thrilled me as a boy as well), but after conferring with my mother about the limited money and career prospects pursuing history, I knew it was for me all the same. I have never regretted it.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Also, very early. As a very small child, as soon as I could scrawl letters and spell in a rudimentary fashion, I would write and illustrate my own ridiculous stories and then present them to patient and loving family members. I wrote creatively into early adolescence, began writing more polemically as a teenager—culminating in my undergraduate stint for the College newspaper. The work of the historian, outside of the classroom, is largely the work of the written word in some form or fashion, so I never truly got away from the writing bug. However, writing a novel was always a vague notion floating in the background that might never have had its moment in the sun of my imagination until the pandemic.

Can you tell me about the book?

Sure! It’s a detective story at heart. My sleuth, Virgil Colvin, is a man running away from grief and trauma—he just watched his wife die a slow and agonizing death. He wants to be as far away from that memory as he can get. But how easy/possible is it to run away from yourself? In a place like Ithaca though, as far from everything as it is—you would end up being very much alone with yourself. Finding purpose and renewing oneself in that kind of environment is difficult enough, but you throw in some catastrophes and it gets more complicated very quickly. That’s the character (first among many), but what about the setting? I knew I wanted to set a murder in Ithaca, Greece—but since I’m not Greek, my detective needed to be something I know a little better (a guy from Chicago)—the question was why/how? My research on the island, it’s history, and the historiographical debate over Homer’s geography—as well as a real-life murder on the island very shortly after I visited the first time—convinced me there was a story to be told. I hope the resulting effort is good both as a detective story but also as a bit of travel/escape writing. I, of course, would be thrilled of a great review from a reader, but I would be more thrilled still by knowing someone actually made it out to Ithaca to see it for themselves because of the book. I went again after writing The School of Homer, and I was even more in love with the place and the idea of having my retired grieving widower from the windy city stuck there solving a bizarre little killing. I could go on—but I don’t want to give too much away!

How long did it take you to write your first book?

I started outlining and researching as the pandemic lockdowns got underway. The first completed draft was done at the end of summer. Editing stages with friends (who are writers and storytellers themselves) then lasted through the Fall. So a little less than a year from inception to shopping it to publishers and agents—which is another story altogether!

What do you think makes a good story?

Characters, setting, plot—doesn’t get more complicated than that does it? I think a great story can emphasize any of the three more or less, but all need to be there and be strong. You have a compelling plot set in an interesting world with interesting people that I can invest in? Then I’m ready to go on a journey with you, you know?

What inspired you to write your book?

Oh, a number of things—the crush of time the pandemic lockdown brought on was one thing. I wrote this book, I began taking modern Greek classes, I reformed my eating and workout habits radically, I got divorced—it was a real life reset in a lot of ways. I also made new friendships and deepened others. It was a really great time for me spiritually and this book was a major part/consequence of it. Stephen Fry was a tremendous revelation, for the third or fourth time in my life—I’m always discovering some new facet of that guy! As for the other more specific inspirations—some are mentioned in the book itself, but I will say the mutual novel pact I made with my partner in fictional crime, Dan Roberts, was really critical. We both agreed during the lockdown to write murder-mystery novels to enter into a contest by January 1, 2021. I made it to the end while he had a beautiful baby girl in December 2020. But I know he’s going to write his own great novel someday soon (I know because he’s already read parts of it to me)!

What did you learn when writing the book?

So much! The outlining, research, and workshopping for/of the novel was such a fun learning experience full of hard work, reading, notetaking, drafting and redrafting, drinking, and staying up until weird hours of the following day to finish a train of creative thought. I learned a lot about archaeology and Mycenaean history for this novel; I learned a lot about Homer and ancient geography; I learned a lot about Greece and the Greek people, so much so that I planned a three week holiday while I was writing (and taking classes in modern Greek over Skype) for July 2021 (one of the most amazing times of my life); I learned a lot about myself and my friends, things that I won’t ever forget, things that have really made life much better in ways tangible and intangible.

What surprised you the most?

What surprised me the most was how rare it is to find someone close to you willing to put in the time and effort to not only read a rough piece of writing, but to keep rereading it and being willing to spend time talking to you about it ad nauseum—and still be interested! To that end, I must pay homage to Dan Roberts again. If you’re fortunate to know someone like that, don’t ever let them out of your life.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I would say make sure you have a firm and clear vision for plot, setting, and characters. What’s the theme of the work and who is the audience? After you nail those down and the answers to those questions in your own mind, don’t shirk on outlining and necessary research. We all try to write what we know to some extent, but hopefully your work is also taking you to places you don’t know. Dumas wasn’t a vengeful faux aristocrat, Rand wasn’t an architect, etc., so use the opportunity to learn more about the human experience. Let your imagination explore a bit—it’s fun and, I think, necessary. Lastly, surround yourself with as many honest and dedicated readers and editors as you can—the more, the better. The more honest, the better. Having people blast away at your work is really helpful, and they sometimes also chip in really creative and constructive ideas and solutions that they gladly allow you to appropriate and use! And its important they be independent readers—because they will often have book suggestions for you that you never would have considered or heard of before. Double lastly, remember to get outside and step away—you really need to take breaks every once in a while. Walks, hikes, gym visits, socializing, going to a movie (I was in Texas, so a lot of those things did come back in later 2020)—all are very useful distractions for your mind, which will continue to work on your writing in the background anyway. OK, finished!

THE SCHOOL OF HOMER is available now in paperback and on the Kindle Store.