I know one or two writers who claim writing is – or should be – fun. While it has wonderful moments – a vivid image comes to mind, a surprising simile, a perfect line of dialogue, and I think yes! – mostly, for me, writing is work. Work of the best kind, work as serious play, but work nevertheless.
Jill MacLean – 24 October 2025
The Back Flap
A campaign in France that began too late in the season, a rebellion in London that paralyzed king and Commons, and a young serf named Haukyn caught up in both: therein lie the seeds of The Arrows of Fealty.
This standalone sequel to The Arrows of Mercy tells the story of Edmund of Flintbourne’s son. Haukyn is a serf who owes fealty to the lord of the manor and whose life is tied to the soil, yet he craves adventure beyond the boundary stones of his village. In 1373, he leaves for John of Gaunt’s campaign in France. There, during five months of combat and loss, futility and atonement, he learns how armour-clad knights can be brought as low as any serf.
Home again, he is caught between two women, pretty Annabel and Ilotte of the sloe-black eyes. Neither marriage nor fatherhood tames his restless spirit. When a knight who was his sworn enemy in France becomes the new lord of the manor, Haukyn leads his neighbours in rebellion against ancient custom and unjust taxation.
England’s southern counties march in open revolt on London, where Haukyn witnesses the king grant freedom to every serf in the country. Unimaginable freedom. A freedom that will bring consequences.
About the book
What is the book about?
Aristocrats fight, priests pray and serfs work: such is the long-established social order of 14th century England. Restless, fiery-tempered Haukyn loathes farming and clashes daily with his father Edmund (the protagonist of The Arrows of Mercy), who cherishes every furrow of their fields. Through new-met friends, Haukyn discovers the exhilarating challenges of horse archery, of loosing his arrows from the back of his galloping mare until each time he can hit the target. Archery leads him to war, and war to the first inklings that pain and hunger attack knight and serf in the same way, that the social order is not as immutable as he’d thought. How far is he prepared to go to undermine the rule of custom and law in his village, and what will it cost him if he succeeds?
When did you start writing the book?
Late in 2022. Much of the research was well underway by then.
How long did it take you to write it?
Until the spring of 2025, including revisions (my middle name should be Revise).
Where did you get the idea from?
While I was researching The Arrows of Mercy, I’d come across John of Gaunt’s 1373 chevauchée from Calais to Bordeaux, a campaign that ended in the dead of winter, and knew I wanted to write about it. By adding the tumultuous revolt of 1381, when hordes from Essex and Kent descended on London and its fourteen-year-old king, I had more than the makings of a story.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Parts One and Three had historical scaffolding, so were somewhat easier to write than the second part, the longest of the three. I always find beginnings and endings tricky, because I so want them to be “right.”
What came easily?
I know one or two writers who claim writing is – or should be – fun. While it has wonderful moments – a vivid image comes to mind, a surprising simile, a perfect line of dialogue, and I think yes! – mostly, for me, writing is work. Work of the best kind, work as serious play, but work nevertheless. Revision, with its reassuring pile of printed copy, is always easier than facing that horribly blank screen.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
I never fashion a character directly on someone I know. Since I don’t believe that the basic human emotions change over the centuries (even though their cultural expression may vary), I go on the assumption that most of my characters are composites of people I’ve encountered, in the flesh or by word of mouth or through the written word.
Do you have a target reader?
I don’t write with a reader in mind, I’d find that inhibiting. For my last two novels, I’d hope for readers who love historical fiction, but also for those who aren’t at all sure they like history but are willing to venture into new territory.
Such ventures – would you agree? – are the task of all writers all the time.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
Once the germinating idea has struck for a novel, I do a lot of what I call “brooding,” indoors and out, walking around with a notebook in my hand gazing vacantly at the ceiling or the sky, then dashing down a line of dialogue, the germ of a scene, the description of a so-far elusive character. When I find myself vacuuming the apartment from end to end, I know it’s time to face that first blank screen. I’m a morning person, so I usually write for three or four hours five mornings a week, beginning at the beginning of the novel (even though the beginning may turn out to be two chapters later) and going all the way to the end. Or what I hope is the end.
I say I write five mornings a week. But when I’m “into” a story, living it, in effect, it circles in my head 24/7, and often at 2 a.m. I’ll wake up and the scene that was stuck in the mud the day before is now miraculously rolling along.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I have a general idea of the arc of the story, a sense of the main characters, some scenes that are aching to be written, others being skittish – but no, no outline. I discovered a long time ago that I can’t write in chapters, only in scenes. Dividing the manuscript into chapters and figuring out their headings comes late in the revision process; and isn’t always easy.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
Both. I begin the morning by re-reading and revising the previous few days’ work, which gets me back into the story. I’m a slow writer, preferring to hone sentences as I go. And if I suddenly wonder if I’m writing myself into a corner, I’ll stop, print out the manuscript and read it from beginning to end (more of that brooding may be called for).
Did you hire a professional editor?
Absolutely. For both my medieval novels, I’ve been lucky enough to have the same editor from The Literary Consultancy, in London UK. He does substantive editing (not one of my strengths). I’m okay at copy editing – in fact, I love it.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
Silence is essential. I’m fortunate in my apartment building to have very quiet neighbours.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
I did with The Arrows of Mercy, way too soon as it turned out – so by the time I’d cut the book back from its initial sprawl of 154,000 words to the 113,000 words it needed to be, I’d run though all the options – and ended up self-publishing it with Tellwell Publishing in British Columbia. I didn’t try for an agent with The Arrows of Fealty.
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
The wait can be lengthy with a traditional publisher. So when I found a local hybrid publisher who would bring out The Arrows of Fealty by September of 2025, I jumped at the chance.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
Professionally done – I wouldn’t have a clue how to design a cover myself.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
I’m so grateful that my hybrid publisher, OC Publishing, offers a virtual book tour and a lot of help along with way.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
Apart from social media, you need to spend time selling your book, doing readings and signings and attending book clubs: extroverted activities that aren’t always suited to a writer’s temperament. Give it your best – we love our readers!
About You
Where did you grow up?
I spent my younger years in Berkshire, England, on the River Thames west of London. We immigrated as a family to Nova Scotia in Canada, a move I’ve never regretted. Having said that, it gave much pleasure to set both my medieval novels in Berkshire – oddly, it felt as though I’d come home.
Where do you live now?
Although I’ve lived in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba, and spent a lot of time in Newfoundland with my grandchildren, I now live in Nova Scotia, outside Halifax. When I walk to the grocery store I can see the sea.
What would you like readers to know about you?
My poetry collection and five novels for young readers (three middle-grade and two young adult, the first one written at the request of my then eight-year-old grandson) were all traditionally published. They won four awards and received numerous nominations, several of them international. Two of the novels are in the Nova Scotia school system.
I love canoeing. Once a year we stay at Milford House, where each cabin has its own dock, and I can paddle solo in my Mad River Malecite towards the sunrise through the early morning mist, the lake a mirror of granite and spruce – with, on occasion, the very Canadian addition of a loon wailing or a beaver’s tail slapping the water.
I also love gardening (perennials) and reading, although I can’t read novels when I’m actually writing because I start to write imitation whoever-it-is-I’m-reading. I live surrounded by my family, all eleven of them, including my son and grandchildren, and consider myself very lucky.
Oh, and chocolate-covered almonds help the writing process.
What are you working on now?
Dare I use the word “trilogy”?
End of Interview:
Get your copy of The Arrows of Fealty from Amazon US or Amazon UK.