Black Ships

About the Author

Jo Graham

Jo Graham lives in Maryland with her family, and has worked in politics for many years. Black Ships is her debut novel.

An Interview with the Author

What kind of research did you do for Black Ships?

I’ve been interested in the period of the Trojan War since I was in high school, when I read The Aeneid in Latin and fell in love with Virgil and his storytelling. The thing about initially reading a book in a foreign language is that you have to go very slowly. The story really sinks in when you’re doing thirty lines a day. I already knew at the time that it wasn’t possible for Aeneas to actually visit Carthage, because Carthage didn’t exist yet. So in my mind I mentally transported the action to Egypt.

Long before I started writing Black Ships I was reading about the period, and so the actual research was more brushing up on things and checking dates here and there.

If you could have dinner with one of your characters, who would it be?

Xandros, without a doubt. He can cook! And also I think it would be wonderful to spend time with him. He’s genuinely a nice person, and also interesting and intelligent.

What interests you about this period in history?

It’s a period of change. It’s a crisis. Up until this point, things have been improving for a lot of people—more food, more sanitation, more trade. But something’s wrong, and the world is crashing down. Historians and archaeologists are debating endlessly what caused the crisis around 1200 BCE, and nobody knows for certain. Was it a chain of events set off by earthquakes and the eruption of Santorini? Certainly that didn’t help, but it seems unlikely to be the cause of economic disruption hundreds of miles away. Was it technology? Crop failures? Migrations of peoples in response to climate change? We don’t know, any more than Gull does. But it happened, and it’s fascinating to look at how people coped with that.

How long did it take you to write Black Ships?

A year. I started just before Christmas in 2004 and finished on New Year’s Day, 2006.

What were other titles you considered for Black Ships?

Interestingly enough, I never had any others. My publisher debated a few, but it was Black Ships to me from the first chapter. It’s from the haunting tablets from Ugarit, the last words of that doomed city. “The fleet is away. Black ships have been sighted...” That was an image that struck me and that came long before I started writing—looking toward the sea from a high place (the mountain road), looking toward the sea and seeing the black ships in the slanting dawn light and knowing what that meant.

What do you do to keep yourself inspired and motivated while working on a long project?

When I need to put it down, I do. I’ve found that pushing myself to work on it when I’m not ready just produces terrible work. So I go back and read original source material. Or I read or watch things that connect in some way in my head. Or listen to music that connects to the story for me. For Black Ships, the song that is absolutely Gull to me is Enya’s “Book of Days.” Go listen and see if you don’t hear Gull there! And more than that, the entire tone of the book.

What was the first story you ever wrote?

A Star Wars fanfic about Han Solo as a child. I wrote it while waiting for my dance class when I was nine.

What do you hope readers will take away from your stories? What is it that you want them to think about?

That realism and enchantment are not mutually exclusive. That the world is a numinous place. That said, that there are different kinds of heroics—Gull’s quiet faith and courage, Neas’ physical bravery and determination to do the right thing, Xandros’ solid, generous doing what he has to without bitterness. And that all of them are within reach of real people. That we don’t have to be the victims of big things happening around us in the world—we can overcome them and build something new out of even the most dreadful tragedy.

In what important ways is the era in which Black Ships is set different than our own? In what ways is it like our own?

It’s different in many obvious ways, technology, etc., but it’s similar in some very important ways. Politically, the Mediterranean has had a number of very developed civilizations with a balance of power—the Hittites, the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, the Egyptians, etc.—who have had various conflicts over the past couple of centuries without a great deal of territory changing hands. And then, in the past hundred years, one after another major player has fallen into ruin. Egypt is left as the only superpower, an incredibly rich nation where there hasn’t been a war on Egyptian soil for three hundred years. It’s a volatile situation. And one that can’t last.

What’s on your bookshelf? What are the books you’ve read over and over?

Oh, great question! There are so many! But I suppose these are the ones I reread just about every year.

Which other writers do you think had an influence on your work and whose was the most important?

The obvious first answer is Mary Renault, whose books about the ancient world inspire me. I think also Judith Tarr, Mika Waltari, and Pearl Buck are obvious influences. In terms of my approach, I would have to say Marion Zimmer Bradley is a big influence, and also Katherine Kurtz.

Which of the main conflicts in the book is the one you are most interested in and why?

One of the things I find most interesting is Neas’ conflict between being the person he feels he ought to be, the son of Anchises, and the person who can get everyone through this, someone with less rigid honor and more faith. Faith is not exactly a virtue of the Homeric hero. And neither are flexibility, kindness, or mercy. He really doesn’t know what to do, for example, when he marries Lavinia. Kindness to his young bride is not something anyone has ever taught him was important, and yet he wants her to not hate him and he wants to not scar someone as badly as Basetamon was scarred. He’s a better person than his time teaches him to be.

What first interested you about ancient history?

I can’t remember when I wasn’t interested in ancient history! The first thing I remember being wildly interested in was when I was five. My mother watched the Elizabeth Taylor version of Cleopatra on broadcast television after my bedtime, and I snuck downstairs and sat on the steps and watched. Total love! My mother really encouraged my interest—it’s an interest of hers, and we’ve always enjoyed talking about it.

What texts did you use for research/inspiration?

The one I recommend wholeheartedly for people who don’t know a lot about the time but are interested is Michael Wood’s In Search of the Trojan War. It really inspired me to see how to put the story together and how to place it in the context of the crisis around 1200 BCE. And that’s where I first encountered the tablets from Pylos, listing the women who are flax slaves, including “the woman of Troy, the servant of the god.”

Who or what influenced your characters?

I see the characters in the context of the entire story I’m telling, from the Trojan War to the modern day—the same major characters, weaving in and out of events, working together or against one another in different constellations. (Neas was telling the truth when he said he’d remember!) So sometimes I look at something ahead and work backward. What are the things that would need to have happened for this person to have reacted this way?