Marching on – Alison Morton on women making history as we speak

We are reaching the end of an entire month focused on the women of the past and I hope you have enjoyed the eclectic selection of “heroines” as presented by all my lovely guests. But history is not done–it is written every day as exemplified by Alison Morton in her post below. And the events of today can be just as much of an inspiration for a good read as the events of yesteryear, even if Alison’s Incepio has an extra little twist to really make things interesting! (I just love her Roma Nova series!)

Women making history now

 The 21^st century is our time now. Overloaded with information, every type of media screaming for our attention, our ability to choose those making history now for the future is nearly impossible: Gisèle Pelicot, raped by fifty-one men while sedated as arranged by her husband and who has caused a revolutionary storm in France by her courage; or Elizabeth II whose reign spanned the post 1939-45 war period into the AI era and who exerted significant soft power; or Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate who overcame an assassination attempt by the Taliban at the age of fifteen and who campaigns for women’s rights and children’s rights to an education. History makers, all of them.

Unlike all women in Ancient Roman times, the medieval, Tudor or Victorian times, most 21^st century women have the right to choose. She can own property, decide who to marry, if at all, whether to have children or not. She can choose any career path, subject to working at it, even become a frontline soldier.

Unfortunately, there are countries such as Iran or Afghanistan where freedoms are curtailed or stripped from the female half of the population. Equally sadly, even in more liberal countries old-fashioned historical attitudes persist; some men (and even women) overtly continue to state women’s roles should be confined to kitchen, bed and nursery. No power, no politics, no property.

But women have always been subtle influencers and some became public figures in the past, defying norms of their times. But these have been the exceptions – be they sovereigns, saints or entrepreneuses. Regrettably, both contemporary and modern historians have often treated them in a derogatory way as hysterical, mannish and subversive. Women were often seen as whores or madonnas, whatever their skills, competence or achievements.

Now, due to good research and new interpretation of old texts and archaeology excellent accounts such as Emma Southon’s highly entertaining A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women are increasingly written about ‘herstory’.

We are all conditioned by history and our personal stories have strong links back into the past whether we like it or not. My father’s generation all served in uniform in the Second World War, his father in the First World War and as a boy soldier (He lied about his age) in the Boer War. My mother taught by day and drove an ambulance by during bombing by the Luftwaffe while her two sisters served in the WRNS, one in Dover Castle. Their mother, brought up as a child in a Victorian household, ran her own furrier’s business in Newcastle – very unusual in the 1900s.

All these people made their own history as we are making ours today. Let’s hope the future appreciates our impact on our own age.

But suppose at a pinch point in the past, events had gone a different way?

Would the women in our history have had entirely different lives in that other timeline? Would they have had more or fewer rights and responsibilities? This is where my worlds of Ancient Rome, a liberal upbringing and military life combined to imagine stories in a different world where women do have the upper hand. Not only is mirroring gender roles fun, but it’s also challenging, and what writer resists a challenge?

In the subtly altered timeline of my books, a small country in central Europe exists that was founded sixteen hundred years ago by Roman dissidents against forced conversion to Christianity. Only a few hundred people making a decision in the late fourth century caused a new country to emerge, but one that retained many of its Roman values. However, they ran out of men to defend their new home, so women had to take up weapons  for many years to help defend it. And no woman is going back in the kitchen after that. (Read more about the why and how.)

Fast forward to the 21^st century… In INCEPTIO, our heroine Karen, descendant of those Roman pioneers and who reverts to her birth name of Carina, has been brought up in the Eastern United States. Her father and Roma Novan mother moved there in the early 1980s to be safe when Roma Nova’s Great Rebellion was brewing. (See INSURRECTIO in the Aurelia strand of stories.)

However, when a very unpleasant government enforcer pursues her, our heroine flees to Roma Nova in Europe. Here, women head families, men take women’s surnames when they marry, the ruler is an imperatrix. But men are not disadvantaged and Carina discovers some of them are both tough and attractive, especially a certain Conradus Tellus…

Carina, as she is now, seems to be an average young woman, although she enjoys keeping fit and being outdoors. She has a snappy, sometimes defensive, way of speaking when she considers she or others are being treated unfairly.  Adapting to her new home steeped in Roman values and culture and finding her place in, is not straightforward even though she’s protected by her Roma Novan family. But after a few months, a brutal, near-death encounter forces her to face up to her pursuer. I won’t spoil the story for you, but she reaches into herself and discovers strength and resilience she never dreamt she had. If you enjoy a story of female self-empowerment, you may like INCEPTIO.

An excerpt from INCEPTIO

Still in New York in her ad agency job at the beginning of INCEPTIO, Karen is working on a marketing campaign for new Roma Novan clients, Sextilius Gavro and his interpreter, Conradus Tellus.

 After putting it off a few times, I eventually grasped the telephone and called the commercial section at the Roma Nova legation on the pretext of getting biographical details for Sextilius Gavro. When I slipped in some questions about Conrad, I knew I sounded ditzy, but he checked out as Gavro’s interpreter. As I replaced the handset, it struck me that the commercial officer had stonewalled me, giving me nothing else about Conrad but that one fact.

I buckled down and produced outlines, plans and graphs, irritating a bored Amanda by grunting in reply to her needling. But, by late afternoon, I’d finished most of it and sat back, sipping a well-earned coffee. My browser was still open and I couldn’t resist searching the Internet about Roma Nova; meeting Conrad had thrown some type of switch inside me.

The images showed mountains and forests, a lot like the Helvetian Confederation, and a big river, cute stone buildings with curled tile roofs, and old monuments. On one site, the writer conceded Roma Nova’s high-tech and financial services economy gave them a standard of living exceeding most Western economies but criticised them as ‘hidden and discreet’. He didn’t think much of them staying neutral during the Great War.

I leaned back in my chair. Who wouldn’t have sat out that ten-year savagery if they could have? Although it ended in 1935, it had taken most countries until the sixties to recover. But the writer admitted that the rebellion and civil war twenty-three years ago in Roma Nova had torn the country apart. I counted that through in my head; that horror happened just after my mom had come to the Eastern United States.

I scrolled down, fascinated, not sensing the time sneak up on me. Interpedia gave the usual historical stuff: the Western Roman Empire had fallen, and Roma Novans had retreated to cold, fortified villages in the mountains north of Italy. Protected by political truces and economic links with their Byzantine cousins, they had fought to recover the lower-lying parts of Roma Nova, holding against all comers, even after the Eastern Empire was overcome by the Ottomans. The key had been knowing more secrets, having more money and striking back hard when attacked. Now they sat on the precarious frontier between the eastern Reds and the free West.

I sat back and stared at the screen. Who were these tough people? Could I really be related to them?

As they traded their silver, financial acumen and knowledge across Europe and the rest of the world, they spread their philosophy of female leadership. I knew foreign countries like Louisiane and Québec had elected female presidents and, I thought, some European ones. Our own president was on her second term; now she was supporting her husband’s campaign to get into the Presidential Mansion. Would it have been any different, then, without Roma Nova?

Buy INCEPTIO here:

E-book all retailers (includes Amazon): https://books2read.com/INCEPTIO

10^th anniversary special edition hardback: https://mybook.to/INCEPTIOHardback

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. In her eleven-book Roma Nova series, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and JULIA PRIMA have been selected as Historical Novel Society’s Editors’ Choices.  SUCCESSSIO was also picked by The Bookseller as Editor’s Choice in its inaugural indie review. Double Identity from Alison’s new contemporary series was selected as one of BookBub’s Best Books for March 2021. Her latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4^th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova.

She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.  She now lives in France.

Connect with Alison

Alison’s main website and blog: https://alison-morton.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@alisonmortonauthor

 What’s INCEPTIO about?

“It’s about Roman blood, survival and money. Mostly yours.”
New Yorker Karen Brown is running for her life. She makes a snap decision to flee to Roma Nova – her dead mother’s homeland, and last remnant of the Roman Empire in the 21st century. But can Karen tough it out in such an alien culture? And with a crazy killer determined to terminate her for a very personal reason?

Stifled by the protective cocoon of her Roma Novan family, deceived by her new lover, she propels herself into a dangerous mission. But then the killer sets a trap – she must sacrifice herself for another – and she sees no escape.

A thriller laced with romance and coming of age, this is Roman fiction brought into the 21st century through the lens of alternative history and driven by a female protagonist with heart and courage.

Check out the previous Marching Through History post HERE!