Damnatio Memoriae is the final, emotionally raw, and beautifully written chapter of the Nero and Sporus saga. How do you feel now that you have completed Sporus’s story, and were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?

This is really one long novel, but now that I’ve reached an advanced age, I always worry about being able to finish things so I decide to do it as a trilogy so that even if I were to pass away, that would still be some parts of the book out as separate books. Because of this, I’ve lived with the characters for a very long time. One thing though is that we do know how the story ends, and we’ve always known it because it’s one of the few things that the historical record actually tells us. One problem with releasing the story in smaller chunks has been people getting the last chunk and complaining bitterly about the protagonist’s fate. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few things I couldn’t change without violating the whole idea of a historical novel.

What goals did you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

My largest aim was to truly inhabit the world of the first century and completely eschew any kind of moral or philosophical biases I might have as an inhabitant of our modern era. This is very difficult because so many things that were taken for granted are now shocking, and something that taken for granted today would’ve shocked the Romans. For example, the idea of people actually being equal would have been astonishing. Sex and violence, so much a cause of societal uproar today, were not only not that profound, they were even mostly entertainment. One reader complained bitterly that I didn’t use archaic language. But the Romans didn’t know they were ancient! I had to strike a balance between colloquialism and exoticism. Everyone doing what I do has to find their own happy medium. I hope that that which is exotic or horrific about the Roman world comes across most successfully when it is treated as completely commonplace.

What experience in your life has had the most significant impact on your writing?

Bringing up a child who was completely comfortable as either gender and had no qualms about switching whenever he felt like it. This book is actually dedicated to him. I use the word him because the language I usually speak to him in is Thai, a language in which most pronouns are gender-neutral. People who grow up in this culture simply don’t suffer any agony about pronouns.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?

I’m returning to science fiction and fantasy at the moment with a new post-holocaust trilogy set among wolves. I’m also doing a sixth novel in a series that I’ve been working on for over 40 years. It was very popular in the 80s and I’m reviving it. It’s one of those vast Galactic Empire kind of things.

Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon