I'm delighted to welcome Charlene Newcomb to the blog today, to talk about her new release, Rogue:
Tell us about your new book…
Rogue is a tale of Robin Hood, but one that will offer a different take on the origins of the legend most know as Robin Hood and the Merry Men. In my tale, Allan a Dale has been leading the outlaw gang I call The Hood, since King Richard’s death in 1199.
After years of knightly service to Richard, Robin who-is-not-yet-Hood has [mostly] led a quiet life with Marian in Yorkshire. Both Robin and Allan are old enemies of King John - they helped thwart John’s attempt to usurp the throne when Richard was king.
The year is now 1216. Allan is captured and thrown in Nottingham Castle’s dungeons to await execution upon the king’s arrival. Robin will not leave his former squire to the noose. But when your estranged son Robert is in the Sheriff of Nottingham’s household, a rescue attempt could get ugly. If you like stories of fathers and sons, knights and outlaws, spies, and a bit of romance, then Rogue may be right up your alley.
Does the new book fit in with your other books? Are they related or linked?
Rogue is a standalone but is related to my Battle Scars trilogy where many of the characters were introduced as secondary players. Rogue’s main character Sir Robert, son of of Marian and Robin, was 12 years old in For King and Country (Battle Scars II). Now, in 1216, he is 34… which makes his da Robin 53.
Let’s go back a minute… you said Robin has mostly led a quiet life with Marian. Can you elaborate?
Ah yes, so I did. Robin went into self-imposed exile after King Richard’s death because he knew that John, once crowned king, would seek revenge. Many assume he is long dead. He spends his days training squires at Castle l’Aigle. But Allan’s Hood gang gets help from him. Robert recalls Robin’s regular trips to Nottingham supposedly on business for the lord of l’Aigle. As Rogue opens, he has no idea Robin’s extracurricular activities included pilfering supplies from the castle undercroft with Allan for those in need.
In the original ballads, Robin and Marian did not have children. In Rogue, they are married. You’ve noted their son Robert is a main character, but do they have other children?
Two more: their daughter Lucy is 19, and son Richard is age 15 (and yes, named in honor of King Richard). Young Richard managed to talk me into giving him a bigger role in the novel.
How and/or when did you get hooked on history? What role has history played in your personal life?
I was the kid in school who always liked to study history when everyone else found it boring, well, and honestly, the way it is taught - dates, event, a person - yeah, boring. But I would hear something and want to know more. Back in the dark ages (the 1960s), my parents had a set of World Book Encyclopedias. I would pull a volume out and dive into it.
Most summers when we traveled hundreds of miles from South Carolina to visit relatives in New York or Iowa, my Dad would make a point of stopping along the way (or slightly out of the way). We visited Lincoln’s birthplace, Amish country, famous Revolutionary War and Civil War battlefields, Washington, DC, Williamsburg, VA, and dozens more places of historic interest.
I wanted to teach high school history until I learned I needed more college credits in education/how to teach rather than in history. (How can you teach a subject when you haven’t been immersed in it?) So I majored in US History. Never have written that 1776 time-travel novel…
Where do you get ideas for your books?
I wish ideas just sprang from my brain to the keyboard without effort, but that isn’t the case. I guess most have come from an event - like the Third Crusade, which I studied up intently on after seeing it referenced in the television series Robin Hood (BBC). There is such rich material about the crusades, Lionheart, King Philip of France, Prince John - translations of contemporary chronicles were priceless gems. Rather than write about the well-known real people, I decided to focus on two fictional knights who served King Richard. I followed those knights and their close friends through 3 novels until the end of Richard’s reign.
*****
Enjoy this excerpt from the opening chapter of Rogue:
Chapter 1
Sherwood Forest
Nottinghamshire
September 1216
Wooded hillsides hugged the holloway along the Old North Road. Sir Robert Fitzwilliam eyed the steep slopes soaring to ridges as high as the stone curtain surrounding Nottingham Castle. A prime spot for an ambush, barely wide enough for a wagon.
Robert rode knee-to-knee with a mail-clad knight in the rearguard of Sheriff Marc’s mesnie. The men and their ten companions carried swords, maces, and shields, outfitted for war. Pounding hooves and clinking mail masked the sounds of birds and tree branches swaying overhead. The remainder of the troop shadowed them a few miles back.
The road narrowed, barely a trail, and the horses slowed. The knight beside Robert ran his hand along the scabbard attached to his sword belt. “God willing, Allan and his Hood gang are clever enough not to rob the sheriff again.”
Robert glanced over his shoulder, and then towards the ridge. If it’s the Allan a Dale I remember, you don’t know him well. The chance of an outlaw attack could explain Marc’s tactic of splitting his troop. An ambush. But for whom?
Sweat soaked into Robert’s short-cropped beard, and not from the heat of the day. He dreaded the thought of crossing swords with Allan.
He’d a grudging respect for the man, and that long before stories of Allan of the Hood and his gang in Sherwood Forest became near legend. From king to peasants, everyone had heard them told in great halls or around campfires.
They’d met twenty-some years ago when Robert was a boy, Allan barely one himself. It had been ages since their paths crossed.
Allan had served the late King Richard as squire to Robin du Louviers—Robert’s father.
Robert’s jaw tightened. Father? The man hadn’t bothered to meet his son until Robert was twelve summers…
But his connections to Robin and Allan could never be shared. It would place people he cared for—family and friends—in danger.
But here he was now, part of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s household. The sheriff who answered to King John. The king who would see Robin dangle from a gibbet…if he knew he still lived.
What had he been thinking when he joined the sheriff’s troop?
He should have known better.
A king who seeks revenge.
A daring plan to save one life…or condemn many.
England 1216AD. Sir Robert Fitzwilliam faithfully serves the English crown, but when the outlaw Allan a Dale, a childhood friend, is captured and thrown in the sheriff’s dungeons beneath Nottingham Castle, trouble is certain to follow.
Allan’s days are numbered. Nothing would please King John more than to see an old nemesis hanged. Nothing except watching Robert’s estranged father, Robin, dangling dead from a rope beside him.
When his father joins forces with the Hood gang to rescue Allan, enlisting the aid of friends and even the girl he loves, Robert must decide where his loyalties lie.
TALES OF ROBIN HOOD
Before there was Robin Hood, there was Allan of the Hood. You know their story – in Sherwood Forest, they rob from the rich and give to the poor. Rogue is a retelling of the origins of the Robin Hood legends set during a time of a rebellion and invasion near the end of King John’s reign. It’s a thrilling adventure of loyalty, love, sacrifice, spies, and intrigue.
Available on Amazon
About the Author:
Charlene Newcomb, aka Char, writes historical fiction and science fiction. Her Battle Scars trilogy is set in the 12th century during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. It’s filled with war, political intrigue, and a knightly romance of forbidden love. All 3 books are indieBRAG Medallion honorees; Book II is a Historical Novel Society Editors Choice, a finalist in the Chaucer Awards for pre-1750 Historical Fiction, and received an Honorable Mention from Writer's Digest.
While medieval historical fiction has her under its spell at the moment, her writing roots are in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known as Legends) where she published her first short story in 1994 in the Star Wars Adventure Journal. She published a scifi/space opera, Echoes of the Storm, which was awarded 1st in category in the Chanticleer International Book Awards in 2021.
Librarian (retired).
US Navy veteran.
Mom to 3 grown, amazing people, grandma to 3 adorable boys.
She spends most of the year in Louisiana, but escapes summer heat and humidity visiting family in Washington and Colorado.
Social Media Links:
Website https://charlenenewcomb.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/charnewcomb
Instagram https://instagram.com/charnewc
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