Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

I have the pleasure of welcoming C.W. Gortner to the castle today to answer a few quick questions about himself and his latest release - The Tudor Secret.

The Tudor Secret is your first published novel (originally published in 2006 as The Secret Lion). What inspired you to write your own Elizabethan thriller?

Years ago, I was researching the Tudor era in preparation for a possible novel when I came across some information about the espionage system that was developed to protect Elizabeth I from her enemies. It sparked an idea in me; though I’d read a lot of different stories featuring the Tudor monarchs and their various wives and lovers, I’d not read anything about one of their spies. I started to think: What if an ordinary man with an extraordinary secret becomes Elizabeth Tudor’s intimate spy, creating a lethal rivalry with her favorite, Robert Dudley, even as he in turn must protect the queen from foes inside and outside her court? And what if he first met Elizabeth in the years before she became queen, when she was struggling to make her way to the throne?


Putting something that you have created “out there” can be a hard knock business full of rejections, negative reviews etc. What made you decide to take a chance in getting published and how do you deal with hard knocks?

I didn’t actually decide it :) ; my father did. In my mid-twenties I began to try my hand at writing my first historical novel. My dad kept asking me to let him read some of it, so I finally lent him the manuscript. I was writing for myself; but he told me he thought I should get it published. I hadn’t the faintest idea of how one went about getting published so I read everything I could about the business, sent out queries and after over sixty rejections, an agent signed me. She submitted the manuscript to St Martin’s Press. The editor loved my novel but thought it was too long and crowded—a common mistake—and so I edited it down. In the end, he did not acquire it (to date, no one has) but his personal encouragement gave me the will to persevere. I finished two more manuscripts and had three more agents before I came to the attention of my current agent, the incredible Jennifer Weltz of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, who sold my books at auction (The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici). Coincidentally, she also sold The Tudor Secret, and its two sequels to that very same editor at St Martin’s Press who first read me, all those years ago. Talent is important but writers also need to cultivate perseverance. You must develop a tough hide and keep at it. I took any hint of encouragement, any positive word, as a sign that I’d eventually succeed.


I've read that you have traveled quite a bit in researching your novels. What is your favorite place and why?

Of all the places I’ve visited for research purposes, the Château of Chenonceau in France, which once belonged to Catherine de Medici, is one of the most idyllic places I’ve ever seen. I also love the Alhambra in Spain; its sheer beauty and breadth dazzles the senses. And I always feel oddly at home at Hampton Court in England, as if I’ve lived there before.


Where is the one place you would love to go but haven’t yet?

Istanbul, Turkey. Its history fascinates me.

If you could have dinner with one historical person, who would it be and what one question would you want to ask them?

Catherine de Medici. Was she truly clairvoyant?

When you are not reading, writing or researching, what else do you like to do?

I like to watch movies. I also love to paint and browse second-hand shops.

My thanks to Christopher for taking a few minutes out of his busy schedule to join us.  Look for my review tomorrow!



The Tudor Secret.  The summer 1553 was a time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, is reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, Prescott finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the King Edward VI’s brilliant, but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth. But Brendan is soon compelled to work as a double agent by Elizabeth’s protector, William Cecil—who promises in exchange to help him unravel the secret of his own mysterious past.
A dark plot swirls around Elizabeth's quest to unravel the truth about the ominous disappearance of her seriously ill brother, King Edward VI. With only a bold stable boy and audacious lady-in-waiting at his side, Brendan plunges into a ruthless gambit of half-truths, lies, and murder.
Filled with the intrigue and pageantry of Tudor England, The Tudor Secret is the first book in The Elizabethan Spymaster Chronicles.