Backstory Other than MC
Why I Wrote Cloak and Stola
recently finished a serial, Samyuzot, about an exiled warrior. The warrior was a character in his WIP who wasn’t the main character, but who had a back story Eric needed to write. Check it out – it’s a great story.
The same thing actually happened to me with my novella, Cloak and Stola. In my Roman WIP, Procerus is the decanus of the century of my main character, Illeus. See Capernaum. While I was writing my WIP [still working on it], I found out about the marriage ban for Roman soldiers, which threw a wrench in the works. As a result, I did a lot of research and wrote the story of how Procerus bought Sophie to make her his wife, which became Cloak and Stola.
There is no fighting: everything starts after that’s just ended.
I specifically wrote this to try to figure out how normal, non-elites would handle this situation. Procerus is 24 years old and has no special categorization, and comes from a family that can’t afford slaves. Sophie is the daughter of a tenant farmer who just lost her entire family and became part of the loot of the battle. There is no “love at first sight” or “warrior woman” [not that there’s anything wrong with those, done right]. Neither of them are unusual in any way.
I have seven reviews on Amazon. They all “get it”.
Reviewer Dick points out how alien the culture is. “I don't think I've ever read anything this good at explaining how an alien culture works. Certainly nothing this brief.”
I originally categorized it as a romance, but my reviewers, although they liked my story, told that wasn’t what it was.
Reviewer Dormouse23 said: “I didn't want to put the word "romance" in the headline because it isn't quite applicable to this story. Nevertheless, I found myself hoping that the two protagonists would earn their happy ending. Plainly told, this is a story of a soldier who purchases a wife after her home was conquered and she was sold into slavery.”
The AI blurb generated by Amazon misses the point:
“Amidst war-torn Syria, a Roman soldier and a displaced woman forge an unexpected bond, defying societal norms and finding solace in each other’s company.”
They do not defy societal norms at all. That’s the whole point of the story – that everyone is following the norms of their society. And yes, she sure is displaced. Becoming a slave will do that.
And finally, Upstream Reviews did a review of this, written by , although it doesn’t have the action that they usually look for there.
Link to buy: Cloak and Stola
Interesting that the same thing happened to you, Mary. Sometimes that's how it is: you need to tell a whole story before you start to realize the characters that are so fascinating. I think about Star Wars and how so much of the Star Wars media after the old 2001 prequels focused on individual Clones. They were meant, literally, as giant, disposable, faceless soldiers... but people were fascinated by them... so their stories needed to be told.
That sounds like a fascinating story, by the way. I wish more fiction looked at ancient slavery more firmly in the eye.