This is the first in a series of blog posts in which I introduce my readers to the main characters, setting, and history of Breaking the Silence ahead of its release, which I am pleased to announce will be early this summer!
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Meet our Main Character
Breaking the Silence, and really the whole Music of the Spheres trilogy, follows Stephen, an orphaned son of King Lothar II whose kingdom was absorbed into those of his two brothers when he died. The story opens with Stephen in his twelfth year, hiding out in the village of Turnuntum, which rests in far in the north of East Francia on the edge of Viking territory. Right away, you learn two things about Stephen: he has a natural talent for math and handwriting, and he loves music and dancing.
Breaking the Silence finds Stephen sent for safekeeping to a Benedictine monastery in Trier where there is neither music nor dancing. Stephen has his instrument – a cythara, which was an eight-stringed medieval precursor to the modern guitar – but no opportunity to play it. Most of the time, the monks and nuns of St. Maximinus work, pray, and eat in silence. Stephen’s only saving grace is the Divine Office, regular gatherings in the chapel at set times of day and night when the monks and nuns sang hymns and psalms. This is not the kind of music Stephen was used to from Turnuntum, but it is music just the same.
An Interview With Stephen
Want to get to know him more? Here’s an interview with Stephen from the beginning of the novel when he first begins to settle in at St. Maximinus.
Question: What are some bad habits that you’ve either overcome, or are hoping to overcome? How did you, or will you, achieve this?
Stephen: I have this bad habit of giving a shout or clapping my hands together when it gets too quiet. I don’t like the feeling of silence on my ears. I have to get used to it, though, being in the monastery, where we’re supposed to be quiet most of the time. I’ve started rubbing my ears when it gets like that, and that helps a little, I think.
Q: What do other people compliment you on the most?
S: My tutor Father John used to compliment me on my drawing and my handwriting, and now the monks here do, too. But I don’t really understand it. I don’t spend time on any of that stuff. I don’t practice. It just comes naturally, so it feels really weird to be praised for it, like I did something good myself.
Q: Who or what do you fear losing more than anything else? Why?
S: My cythara, definitely. It’s the only thing from my past I have here at St. Maximinus. It’s my only possession, really, and I can’t even play it.
Q: What about yourself are you most proud of?
S: I’m most proud of how quickly I learned cythara. Father John only gave me short lessons after I finished my school work, but I picked it right up. That’s something I worked hard at, because I love it. I wish he would complement me on that rather than my handwriting.
Q: What is your biggest fear or anxiety point about your future?
S: All I have is anxiety about my future right now. I’ve been put in this monastery for safekeeping, and I don’t know how long I’ll be in here. I wish I could leave, but then I think of the danger that awaits me on the other side of these walls. But then I think about what it’s like in here -cloistered and silent – and wonder if it might be better to risk the danger.
Q: Tell us about the main comfort food that you seek when you are doing poorly. How did that food become a source of comfort?
S: My foster mother Elena used to make the most delicious stews with vegetables from the garden. Those vegetables tasted so good in spring after a winter of eating hard bread and whatever was left over from last year. I don’t know what Elena seasoned them with, but it was divine. I don’t think they use any seasonsings here at the monastery. Elena’s cooking is one of the things I miss most about home. I mean Turnuntum.
Many thanks to Jenai of the Rogue Writer’s Network for supplying these character interview questions.
Tiggy McLaughlin 
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