Knights of the Roundish Table Author Interview

You may recall my interview with A.E. Chandler and how she masterfully blends true history and new stories. (You can see that interview here.) Now she's back with a fresh twist on Arthurian legend with her newest book, Knights of the Roundish Table.

Tell us a bit about Knights of the Roundish Table?

Knights of the Roundish Table contains eight tales spoofing the King Arthur stories, written by a historian specializing in medieval England, its literature and legends. Humour, history, and fantasy combine in this reimagining of the most popular myth of the Middle Ages.

Invaders are pouring into Xander’s kingdom. If he can’t recruit knights able to stop them, Britain will be lost. Fortunately, there’s Sir Dwain, whose life’s ambition is to be a nightclub comedian; Keesh, who giggles whenever faced with making a decision; Robin, whose horse is actually a sheep; and Longfellow, whose temper may doom them all. Together with an incompetent magician, a terrifying queen, the warrior Gene of Arc, and a minstrel who might just have more common sense than the rest of them combined, King Xander faces the worst foes the sixth century has to offer, and fights for the freedom of turnip growers everywhere against the Questing Beast, dragons, and the sinister Green Knight.

What inspired this collection of parody stories?

My previous book, The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood, is a serious historical novel that incorporates research from my time living and travelling in England during my medieval studies MA at the University of Nottingham. It seemed natural to go from Robin Hood to King Arthur. I also have a humour book called Questionable Quizzes that has silly versions of magazine or online quizzes. Knights of the Roundish Table combines the humour and historical fiction of these previous books into one package.

As a historian specializing in medieval England, how did your studies influence these stories?

Medieval Arthurian literature that I studied, like Gawain and the Green Knight and The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Chaucer, are satirized in Knights of the Roundish Table. Reading Chrétien de Troyes’s twelfth century Arthurian tales may have had the largest influence. Seven of the eight stories in Knights of the Roundish Table follow Xander and his council, while the eighth story is a humourous retelling of Chrétien’s Knight with the Lion. The medieval work is hilarious (at least to me) and I wanted to bring out this aspect for others, too.

Studying chivalric culture was very interesting. Our modern conception of it is oversimplified to the point of being outright incorrect. The intricacies of the medieval view of knighthood and its values gives the final tale in Knights of the Roundish Table its emotional gravitas, amidst the general silliness. While everything going on around him is chaos, Longfellow, for all his bursts of temper, behaves according to how an ideal knight would have been expected to conduct himself. While still characteristically gruff, he serves and defends without ego, especially when it comes to Gene, as she comes to grips with her new role in the kingdom.

What does the reader need to know about the original King Arthur stories before reading your book?

No previous familiarity is necessary to enjoy the book. If readers want to learn about which medieval stories inspired which jokes in Knights of the Roundish Table, there is an introduction at the back. (Introductions, though well-intentioned, tend to include spoilers and delay diving into a story, which is why this one comes at the end.)

This is your second novel. How was the writing and publishing process similar or different from when you wrote The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood?

The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood was written straight through, in one year and one week, and then gone back through and edited, with chapters deleted or added as benefitted the narrative. Knights of the Roundish Table was written out of order, and over the course of several years; there were always other writing projects going on at the same time. I really enjoyed writing about these characters – King Xander and his council – and getting to be a fly on the wall watching the chemistry they have together, especially when conversing as a group. Each story I wrote about them felt like the last, but then a few months or a year later I would get another idea. When I wrote the last story, it felt like there would still be another one – which I figured meant this had actually been the last one, and the series of tales was complete.

Where can people order Knights of the Roundish Table?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL9LN5RK

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/knights-of-the-roundish-table/id6749662910

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/knights-of-the-roundish-table-a-e-chandler/1148003106

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/knights-of-the-roundish-table

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1826904

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Knights-of-the-Roundish-Table-Paperback-9781777287771/17676751250

Where’s the best place to follow you?

The best place is my e-newsletter (every six weeks), which comes with exclusive special access to the original, deleted second chapter of The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood. You can sign up on my author website here: https://aechandler.wixsite.com/author

Another good place is Goodreads, where I post reviews and some blog posts: https://www.goodreads.com/aechandler 

There’s also YouTube, where I post videos about history and travel: https://www.youtube.com/@original_history

And Zazzle, where I post merch related to my books: https://www.zazzle.com/aechandler?rf=238081821650934675