Freya Marske is the inventive author behind the new captivating fantasy novel Swordcrossed. Set against a backdrop of arranged marriage and high-stakes intrigue, Marske’s tale follows Mattinesh Jay, an heir desperately seeking to save his family’s fortunes, and Luca Piere, a charismatic swordsman with a shadowy past. As the wedding day approaches, their reluctant partnership plunges them into a web of deception and danger, forcing both to confront their deepest secrets. Join us as we delve into Markse’s creative process, the inspiration behind her richly layered characters, and the thrilling twists that make Swordcrossed a standout read
What inspired you to write “Swordcrossed,” and how did you come up with the idea?
This book began as a self-indulgent attempt to unstick myself when I was mired in writing something completely different, which I thought would be my first completed novel. Turns out I was wrong!
The actual idea had been sitting at the back of my mind since I read an online listicle about the origins of modern-day wedding traditions, such as the roles of the maid of honour and the best man in the wedding party. What made the best man the best? He was the best with a sword. Very important if someone decided to attack your wedding and abduct the bride, which I imagine as being a known environmental danger, like seagulls with chips.
The dynamic between Matti and Luca is central to the story. How did you approach writing their evolving relationship?
I enjoy a huge number and variety of potential romance arcs, but nothing sells me on the long-term potential for happiness more than a couple of people who genuinely delight in one another. I gave Matti and Luke a couple of initial reasons for dislike, and a couple of much larger reasons why they couldn’t immediately fall into either bed or a long-term relationship (…for example, one of them being engaged to someone else), but let them grudgingly find one another attractive, compelling and downright fun from the word go. After that, the romance was a folded-up box which pretty much unfolded itself once I undid the first tab and gave it a hard flick.
Can you tell us more about the world in which “Swordcrossed” is set? What elements were most important for you to highlight?
The worldbuilding all grew outwards from needing an interesting reason why you might need to hire someone to stand guard at your wedding, and what sort of society would consider that normal. The most vital elements for the story were the need for arranged business marriages, and the belief that the gods would indicate their favour or disfavour through the outcome of a sword match.
So I threw the old legal tradition of trial-by-duelling, busy pantheons of multiple patron gods, and the powerful trade guilds and merchant houses of Florence and Amsterdam in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries all into a blender, poured it into an attractive cup, and then filtered out the heteroessentialism and added a large dash of research into the history of the British wool industry.
What was the inspiration behind the title “Swordcrossed”?
Swordcrossed is the third title this book has had during its lifespan, and it was the brainchild of acquiring editor Ruoxi Chen. It’s a play on the idea of star-crossed lovers, but also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the romance genre parlance for a book — usually a book starring one woman and two or more men — where the swords of the men cross. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Look, I have a smidgen more class than to slap a label on the cover that blares THIS BOOK CONTAINS GAY SEX!! But only a smidgen. It’s good for a reader to know what they’re getting into.
The book features themes of intrigue and sabotage. How did you craft the mystery elements in the story?
…with comparative difficulty. The romance came first; the mystery and intrigue were necessary to give the romance something to grow around. There’s nothing like a shared project to bring a couple together! And once I got started giving them clues to uncover and some realistic, interesting opponents and villains to be working against, I did find it a lot of fun, even if I complained the whole way about how difficult it is to reverse-engineer a plot like that. Luckily, I’m a natural planner: if I’d had to improvise it as I went along, I would have thrown myself into a lake in a fit of frustration by the time I hit Chapter Four.
How did you develop the supporting characters in the story, and what roles do they play in Matti and Luca’s journey?
It was important to me that we got a good grasp of Matti and Luca’s families — though Matti’s plays a larger role — in order to understand how they came to be the way they are. Neither of them had unhappy or unkind upbringings, but I find it interesting to look at the ways in which even the most loving and well-meaning families can still intersect with individual flaws and personalities to Fuck You Up A Bit.
Matti comes from a family of people who are too like him; Luca from a family of people who are too different to him. A big part of their romance journey is how they help one another to grow away from these expectations and into the confidence of their true selves.
As for the other supporting characters, I made sure that I understood exactly what they wanted out of life and at least a little bit of what they were doing when the book’s attention was pointed in the other direction. Everyone in the world is fighting a fight of some kind! Everyone is invested in their own version of happiness! I want the reader to feel like I could swing the spotlight onto any character at any time and, if we followed them for long enough, dig up a story as dramatic and interesting as Matti and Luca’s.
Luca’s secrets are a pivotal part of the story. Without giving too much away, how do these secrets shape the narrative?
I love writing secretive characters who lie and perform instinctively. Violet in A Restless Truth was my most recent example, and Luca is another. Luca keeps secrets out of shame and out of habit, and because it’s both easier and more fun than having to expose vulnerable truths to people. He has a deep desire to be liked and admired, and an even deeper conviction that his real self is not going to be liked or admired. There’s a line we get very early in his POV: Being himself was a failed experiment.
And of course as soon as you have lies and secrets existing between two people in a narrative, especially a romance narrative, they hold enormous potential energy. They’re a sword held aloft. The reader is constantly waiting for the moment they’ll plunge down and cause a lot of damage.
What do you hope readers take away from the relationship between Matti and Luca?
A good relationship makes you feel like the best version of yourself, and also like you’re being accepted, admired and supported for precisely who you are. A good relationship is a good team.
Also, maybe don’t start off with crime and lies. Just a hot tip.
Are there any particular scenes or moments in “Swordcrossed” that were especially challenging or rewarding to write?
One of the self-indulgent things that I did when planning the book — which I recommend to any author — was make a list of microtropes that I always love to see in stories, and choosing some to play with. Top of the list was ‘stuck in a small space like a wardrobe for Plot Reasons, but really for Sexual Tension reasons’. That scene was enormous fun to write, because it’s a legitimately stressful situation for the characters but also an amazing opportunity to force them to smell one another’s hair and feel one another’s heartbeats. What more can a romance author ask for?
Finally, can you share a favorite quote or scene from the book?
In my life I’ve done only a brief course in fencing, but I’ve done a lot of dance, figure skating and yoga, all of which make you very conscious of where your body is in space and how to make small corrections. I’m proud of this quote from early in the book, where Luca’s assessment of Matti’s looks gets tangled up with a similar ingrained awareness:
When the coat came off and the man tugged his shirtsleeves awkwardly up, Luca realised that Jay was both taller and more solid than he’d appeared the previous night. The coat was near-black and tailored to fit like a possessive pair of hands, giving an illusion of a slimmer build, and Jay’s round-shouldered posture pulled him in on himself. Luca itched to get in close and curl his hands around those broad shoulders, like his own sword master had done for him, tugging them back and straight. He could spider his hand between the man’s shoulder blades, dig in his fingertips, and say, now imagine a piece of string.