Q&A: Jeff Wheeler, Author of ‘Knight’s Ransom’

Article contributed by Yakira Goldsberry

In a world of knights and kings and lords, Ransom Barton is training to become a knight. What he soon discovers is that he holds a secret and dangerous power, one that saves him time and again on the battlefield. But it also earns him fear from his friends. When his unbeatable strength becomes legendary, he is hired by the queen to keep her son safe, but soon becomes embroiled in the world of the Argentines in Knight’s Ransom, the first instalment in The First Argentines series!

We got to chat with Jeff Wheeler about his new series, Medieval history, and some exciting news involving his Kingfountain series! 

Hi Jeff! Thank you for taking the time to answer questions for The Nerd Daily. Tell us a little about yourself and your writing journey!

My writing career has been an overnight success story, twenty years in the making. That’s true for many of us. I had a full-time job at Intel (so I’m a geek at heart) but my passion was always writing stories. To learn more about the craft and what I was missing, I founded an e-zine called Deep Magic with some friends and got to interview my favorite authors. After attending a writing seminar from Terry Brooks, I learned about the million words principle. It takes a lot of practice to master any skill. It was the novel I wrote after my first million words that ended up landing me with my publisher, 47North.

Can you tell us a little bit about Knight’s Ransom and what readers can expect from it?

I was a medieval history major in college and one of the things I loved about that focus was the tangled politics that happened in dynasties. My writing is more family-friendly than say, Game of Thrones, but there’s just as much intrigue and unpredictability in Knight’s Ransom. It is set in the world of Kingfountain, by most popular series, but it’s more an origin story and you don’t need to have read any of those books to understand it. I wanted to make it accessible to new readers as well as delight my long-time fans who have waited for years to come back to this setting. The magic in the this world revolves around the Fountain and people who are blessed with certain abilities from it. And, of course, there’s a love story in here too.

What first inspired you to write The First Argentines series?

After writing 8 books in the Kingfountain world, plus another 5 with the tie-in through the Harbinger Series, I knew I wanted to tell more of the story of how things came to be the way they were in The Queen’s Poisoner, which talks about the ending of the Argentine dynasty. What about the people who started it? Since that’s based on real history, I had some ideas. But then I came across a book that opened my eyes to the possibility. I won’t reveal what that book was or who the historical person was—I won’t reveal that until the end of the fourth and final book of this series—but let’s just say my editor, who shares my passion for knights and all things medieval, figured it out in book 1 and it’s made the story even more interesting for her knowing that many of Ransom’s adventures may sem like a fantasy novel but they’re grounded in moments that were real.

How does the series fit in relation to your Kingfountain series?

The debut novel, The Queen’s Poisoner, introduced the world of Kingfountain and its magic. But the events in Knight’s Ransom takes place about three hundred years earlier. From our point of reference in 2021, imagine the 1700s. It was a different world back then. The setting will be familiar—there are places like the palace of Kingfountain and the Sanctuary of Our Lady that sits astride a massive waterfall. But in this series, I’m going to take readers into places they’ve never been before. The Occitanian palace in the heart of the city of Pree. The island kingdom of Legault, which has a medieval Ireland essence to it, which was so fun to explore, including its own magic and beliefs which contract the Fountain. And, of course, there will be poisoners. The cast of characters is entirely new and I think my readers will fall in love with them, especially Ransom and Claire de Murrow.

Do you have a favorite scene/chapter that you wrote in Knight’s Ransom?

That’s so hard to answer! But one of my favorite scenes happens when Ransom joins another group of knights to escort an important noble to their destination in secret. They get ambushed by other knights who are determined to abduct that person and hold them for ransom. It was a great fight scene to right, it was based on a real event, and what happened to Ransom was really part of the forging of his identity and his beliefs. Things do not end up the way he expects, especially since he thinks he’s on the side of the “good guys”. But it’s true to life where we get curve balls thrown at us and have to learn resilience amidst excruciating hardships. I started writing this book back when the pandemic started. We’re still going through such a hardship right now and it brings out the best and the worst in us.

While reading Knight’s Ransom, I grew to love so many of the characters. What inspired the character of Marshall, a.k.a. Ransom?

No spoilers from me, but I can’t wait to reveal this at the end of the fourth book. And even though Ransom was based on a real person, someone I’ve come to admire so much after researching his history, I take so many liberties as an author to craft the story I want to tell. For example, back in the Middle Ages it wasn’t uncommon at all for someone to marry another half their own age. People didn’t live very long back then and marriage was about alliances and power, not love. Instead of having a twenty year gap between Ransom and Claire, I made them similar ages which suited the kind of story I wanted to write. That’s the best thing about being a fantasy author. I can steal what I like from real history and twist it any way I want to.

While I personally loved Knight’s Ransom, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Medieval fantasy, some saying that it’s overdone. What are your thoughts on this?

One of pieces of advice I got from Terry Brooks, the author of the Shannara series and someone who has had a profound influence on my career, comes by way of an analogy. As an author, we’re preparing a delicious sandwich and we bring the best ingredients we can. But we only bring half of the ingredients. The reader brings the other half of the ingredients. When both match well, the sandwich is delicious. I think any criticism about medieval fantasy or any type of fantasy is really just an expression that they’re looking to try a new sandwich. But not everyone is and some people bring the right ingredients to enjoy that kind of story. It’s ok. I’ve never wanted to write urban fantasy myself, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a story written in that style. And while someone might be tired of swords and knights, it doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy a story about a Fountain-blessed knight who has a gift for killing people.

One of the things I loved about Knight’s Ransom was the organic feel to the knights in your world. How much research did you do on knights and nobility? Was there anything you found particularly fascinating?

I always spend time during the research phase watching movies, documentaries, reading books, and even traveling to get a feeling for the era and culture I’m trying to write about. I watched several movies (A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger for the joisting, Ivanhoe for the costumes and old-fashioned acting, just to name a few) but there was a Germany documentary about knights that was really well done, especially because it included scientists that showed the effects of weapons against various types of armor. That was fascinating to me. I learned that they usually called on “barbers” to heal injuries after battles. And that, even back then, they discovered that moldy bread on a wound could help prevent it from being infected. I didn’t know they had their own version of penicillin back then and so I incorporated these ideas into the novel. I also had an opportunity to teach some writing classes at a military base in Germany and got to visit some real medieval castles and cathedrals while I was there. I also have my own medieval sword—a real sharp one—and used it to cut up pumpkins after Halloween in 2019 to feed to my neighbor’s cows. And that’s a scene which has ended up in this series as well. What I love so much about writing is being able to get into the mindset of my characters and try to describe how things would really feel.

How exciting that the rights to your Kingfountain series have been snapped up! How are things travelling with pre-production? And what are you most looking forward to seeing come to life on-screen?

I have really enjoyed this part very much and have enjoyed working with a new studio to prepare Kingfountain for television. I’m very involved and we’re hoping to be able to announce a network partner in the near future. I’ve been mentored by two award winning screenwriter and director and have met (by Zoom anyway) many people who might be attached to the project. I have high hopes that our team will be able to pull off the vision of making a family-friendly TV show. It’s really important to me that everyone will be able to gather around a TV and watch this together, just as I did as a kid with Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and Star Trek. My family is doing that right now with Avatar:The Last Airbender. We look forward to those times of shared experience. I want to discover that kids are dragging their grandparents to the TV to watch an episode about young Owen Kiskaddon being hostage to King Severn Argentine. I’m probably looking forward the most to seeing who gets choosing in casting to play the roles, especially the poisoner Ankarette. I’ve said in my author’s notes that I want Richard Armitage to play Severn. Fingers crossed that we can make it happen!

Are there any books you’re currently reading you would like to recommend?

I recently finished Charlie N. Holmberg’s book Spellbreaker. She’s a friend of mine and I love her work and it’s one of the best books she’s written. I can’t wait for the sequel to come out. Right now I’m reading Dragon’s Reach by indie author J.A. Andrews and really enjoying it. I’m also looking forward to Terry Brooks’ new collection of short stories called Small Magic which comes out soon. I’ve always loved the short story market, which is why I still publish the quarterly e-zine Deep Magic. I love giving new authors the chance to get their first publishing credit.

And lastly, what hints can you give us about the sequel?

The sequel, Warrior’s Ransom, definitely raises the stakes from book one. You’ll see Claire again, of course, as she plays an integral part of the story and a huge motivation factor for Ransom. The family drama that began to break the Argentines apart in book 1 will become even more complicated in book 2. Ransom’s loyalty to that family will be tested in ways he isn’t expecting. And there’s a scene, near the end of the book, about a face off between Ransom and one of the king’s sons. Oh my…it’s a doozy with such huge consequences! That book comes out May 18 and its sequel, Lady’s Ransom, comes out September 7. Three books in one year—it’s not a long wait. The final book will come out in early 2022.

Will you be picking up Knight’s Ransom? Tell us in the comments below!