Creativity Friday: Interview with Beverly Swerling, author of BRISTOL HOUSE
For today’s Creativity Friday post, I’m delighted to have as my guest the renowned novelist Beverly Swerling. Her many books include the bestselling City of Dreams series, which is set in historical New York. However, the topic for our conversation today is her new novel BRISTOL HOUSE, which was released yesterday. (Congratulations, Beverly!)
BRISTOL HOUSE has a riveting dual period setting that blends the supernatural and the historical. In modern-day London, architectural historian Annie Kendall hopes to restart her career by locating several long-missing pieces of ancient Judaica. Geoff Harris, an investigative reporter, is soon drawn into her quest, both by romantic interest and suspicions about the head of the Shalom Foundation, the organization sponsoring her work. He’s also a dead ringer for the ghost of a monk Annie believes she has seen at the flat she is subletting in Bristol House. In 1535, Tudor London is a very different city, one in which monks are being executed by Henry VIII and Jews are banished. In this treacherous environment of religious persecution, Dom Justin, a Carthusian monk, and a goldsmith known as the Jew of Holborn must navigate a shadowy world of intrigue involving Thomas Cromwell, Jewish treasure, and sexual secrets. Their struggles shed light on the mysteries Annie and Geoff aim to puzzle out—at their own peril. Read the opening pages of BRISTOL HOUSE here.
In our interview, we talk about the inspiration behind her books, ghostly experiences, and the realities of being a multi-published novelist.
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Kris Waldherr: What was your initial inspiration for BRISTOL HOUSE? Can you describe the moment that made you say, “I must write this”?
Beverly Swerling: This novel has been lying in wait for me for over twenty years, since the first time I walked in to No. 8 Bristol House on Southampton Row in London. I saw what Annie, my heroine, sees on page one – high ceilings, fireplaces, a long corridor with rooms that look out on busy Southampton Row where big double-decker red buses go north and south to Chalk Farm and Covent Garden… The flat belongs to my son’s in-laws and for years, every time I visited, I knew one day I’d put it in a novel.
KW: Your earlier historical novels are set in New York—CITY OF DREAMS, SHADOWBROOK, and others. BRISTOL HOUSE is set in London. Did your research process differ for BRISTOL HOUSE than for your New York-set books? if so, how?
BS: The process was not particularly different. I always have characters before anything else. Then, after I have much of the plot clear in my mind – and only in my mind; despite being known for complex plots I never outline – I set out to learn as much as I can about the period and the place that underpins my story. With BRISTOL HOUSE I had three characters from the beginning. There was Annie, the contemporary woman, an historian and a recovering alcoholic, whom I knew would be living in the flat, and two men – both speaking to me in first person voices coming from beyond the grave – whose period I was at first not entirely sure of. Because I’m a great fan of Virginia Woolf and Bristol House is in fact a stone’s throw from Bloomsbury Square, I thought perhaps those two men were speaking to me from the twentieth century period between the wars. I soon realized that wasn’t so. One was a monk and one a goldsmith, and I knew their names right away: Dom Justin and the Jew of Holborn. Pretty soon I realized they were speaking from the time of Henry VIII, and that what I needed to research was Tudor London. I was some 40 or 50 pages into the novel by then. I’m sure that sounds quite mad, but it’s how I function. A great deal happens on the page and I often don’t know what I’m writing about until I’ve written it. I’m a constant rewriter, however, draft after draft after draft. No doubt this is necessitated by my process, but I also think it’s what gives my work depth and texture.
KW: BRISTOL HOUSE is quite a departure from your previous historical novels in that it has a supernatural thread woven through it: your twenty-first century protagonist Annie Kendall experiences ghostly visitations from a long-dead sixteenth century monk. Have you ever had a supernatural encounter, such as what Annie experiences? If you haven’t, what would you do if you did?
BS: Well, since you ask… One of the first times I stayed at Bristol House, in the early 90′s, I was walking through nearby Bedford Square and heard a group of women behind me, laughing and chattering in very plumy English voices. I turned to see who it was – I’d thought myself entirely alone until then – and no one was there. I did however notice that according to a plaque on the wall that I only then noticed, I was standing beside a house that had once belonged to Lady Ottoline Morrell. She was a patron of the arts and close to many of the people in the so-called Bloomsbury Group that had coalesced around Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell. I was – and am – absolutely convinced that what I heard was Virginia and Ottoline and some of their friends saying goodbye after tea. I had walked into or across a wrinkle in time. Around that same time I heard a story from my daughter-in-law’s brother about a friend who was stripping wallpaper from a wall and uncovered the picture of a monk and a cat, who only appeared at night. I suppose the moral is that everything is part of the mix. Always. [KW: I totally agree!]
The supernatural is very much to the fore in BRISTOL HOUSE, but there’s a prominent thread of that same sensibility in the City books about early New York. I think we are all who we are as writers and as people, and the two are closely intertwined and probably indelible.
KW: On your blog you mentioned that you have a number of earlier books released under the names Beverly S. Martin or Beverly Byrne. I sense an interesting backstory here. Can you share the history behind your other author names?
BS: Both Byrne and Martin were my legal names at the time I used them (now there we have a story for another time!), but when I started writing and publishing in the 80′s, historical fiction was out of favor. Everything was marketed as historical romance. I love that sort of thing, but I don’t write it. Sometimes readers who thought they were getting one thing and found they’d bought another were not happy. I was always having to look for a new start and hopefully a new genre on the spine. By the time I wrote City of Dreams, which came out in 2001 from Simon & Schuster, historical fiction was again popular. I decided I would use Swerling, which is my birth name. When I switched to Viking Penguin for BRISTOL HOUSE I fought hard to keep using that name. Recently I wrote to someone that I’d always known women shouldn’t change their names when they get married – I just didn’t know it forty years ago.
KW: You are a multi-published novelist. As someone who’s been there, done that when it comes to publishing, what advice would you give to writers starting on the path?
BS: Be aware that you must be your own marketer. Even when you are fortunate enough to have a lead title and the publisher is working very hard for you – advertising and publicity budgets are ridiculously tiny in our business. Face that fact and accept that it’s not enough to write the best book you know how then move on to the next. You have to spend a great deal of your time and probably some of your money promoting your name and your work. Social media makes this a lot easier than it was, but not if you don’t use it.
KW: Finally, what are you planning for your next novel? Will it be another novel set in London with dual period settings? Or something completely different?
BS: Actually I’ve written dual time narratives before, and I love that concept and intend to stay with it for the next book. Only it’s going to be the same but different. Nothing to do with Annie or Geoff or London – Tudor or contemporary. Let’s say you’re a Jewish woman, young and beautiful and living in Prague just before WWII. Then everything starts to change and you realize that terrible times are coming. And – this is the important bit – astonishingly and purely by chance, you have a chance to kill Adolf Hitler. But there’s a risk and you let the moment pass. And terrible is too tame a word for what happens to Jews in Nazi dominated Europe. You, however, don’t simply survive – you come out of it all stable, secure, and enormously wealthy. Then some seventy years later your thirty-year-old granddaughter is living in New York city and she’s being hunted for a secret she does not know she has, and is plagued by soul-destroying existential guilt she does not understand.
KW: Thank you, Beverly, for a very inspiring interview! Again, you can read the delectable opening pages of BRISTOL HOUSE here or purchase it here. Beverly also has an active Twitter feed at @BeverlySwerling.
Publishing Monday: Owen King on renaming a novel
So true and hilarious. Novelist Owen King on the process of writing—and renaming—a novel:
“It generally takes awhile to write a novel. Although there are authors who can write a quality book every year, they’re the exceptions; it’s more typical to spend three, five, or even seven years to complete a draft. If you’ve never attempted to write anything of a novel’s length, imagine having a friend or relative visit you for roughly that length of time, for three or five or seven years…. Let’s be honest: even if it was your favorite cousin, and even though you sort of invited him, after a year or so, you would owe it to yourself to give, at minimum, tacit consideration to murdering this person. This is the unique affliction of writing books: the endeavor is such that you can never entirely stop thinking about it.”
I suppose it’s safe to say that this speaks to my condition today, as I obsess over my new novel: Who—or what—am I inviting to become my new roomie for the next year and beyond? Are they dark and bothered? Or easy-peasy? Will they drive me crazy? More importantly, will they steal the secret stash of good chocolate hidden in my studio?
Read the rest of King’s post at The Weeklings.
And in other publishing news, here are several of the funnier April Fool’s jokes crossing the internet today:
- The Big Six Become One, via Shelf Awareness.
- The Debutante’s Ball is now sponsored by Amazon.
- Another Amazon-themed one: Amazon Announces Purchase of English™, via The Millions.
- Borders to Re-Launch as a ‘New Adult’ Line, also via Shelf Awareness. (You’ll need to scroll down for it.)
THE CHALICE book giveaway! And author interview!
To commemorate the release of Nancy Bilyeau’s THE CHALICE, I’m reposting an interview with author Nancy Bilyeau that was conducted for her previous novel, THE CROWN. O, The Oprah Magazine wrote about THE CROWN, “Bilyeau deftly weaves extensive historical detail throughout, but the real draw of this suspenseful move is its juicy blend of lust, murder, conspiracy, and betrayal.” It was also short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Ellis Peters Award for Best Historical Crime Fiction in 2012—quite the coup for a first novel! I have no doubt THE CHALICE will receive similar accolades.
While THE CHALICE is a stand-alone novel, it continues the story of ex-Dominican novice Joanna Stafford, the protagonist of THE CROWN. In 1538, England is in the midst of bloody power struggles between crown and cross that threaten to tear the country apart. Joanna Stafford risks imprisonment when she is caught up in a shadowy international plot targeting the King. As the power plays turn vicious, Joanna understands she may have to assume her role in a prophecy foretold by three different seers, each more omniscient than the last. Joanna realizes the life of Henry VIII as well as the future of Christendom are in her hands—hands that must someday hold the chalice that lays at the center of these deadly prophecies.
This interview offers the backstory for THE CROWN, THE CHALICE’s predecessor. In addition, Nancy spills the skinny on the Tudors versus the Cambridges, how she stumbled into writing a novel, and why lightning needs to strike twice for a book.
Good news: Simon & Schuster is generously offering a copy of THE CHALICE to one commentor on this blog. Information on how to enter the giveaway is at the end of this post.
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Kris Waldherr: What inspired you to write The Crown? Was there a defining moment you can describe?
Nancy Bilyeau: It is my first novel and I came up with the idea in a writer’s workshop. What happened was the workshop, which met every Monday night, was led by a novelist/teacher and needed four people minimum. One dropped out and I was recruited to be the fourth so the group could continue. At the time I was a magazine editor who hadn’t written fiction since high school, although I wrote two screenplays. But I wanted to try. So I walked into the room, but without an idea—all I had was a century to set my story in, the 16th. Because I have been obsessed with the Tudors since I was very young. I didn’t know if I wanted to write a mystery or a historical novel—I adore both genres. I decided to do both. I struggled with my novel until I decided to write it in the first person. No one suggested that—most thrillers are written in the third person. But that was my moment. I connected to the writing in a real way when I went inside my protagonist’s head. I thought: “Maybe this will work.”
KW: Books, movies, and more featuring the Tudors are ubiquitous these days—from Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl to HBO’s The Tudors. However, you’ve found a fresh spin on the proceedings by making Joanna Stafford, the protagonist of The Crown, an aristocratic nun. What led you to this unusual approach?
NB: When I decided to make the story a mystery/thriller, I wanted to write a woman as the protagonist. I didn’t want to even consider making a real queen or a princess the character trying to solve the mystery. Instead, I created the main character from my imagination, although I placed her in a real family: the Staffords. A couple of the secondary characters are from history and some of the minor ones too. That was fun!
But back to Sister Joanna. I had never met a nun in my life, and I was not raised Catholic. But I was baptized in the Catholic Church and I suppose I’ve always felt intrigued by it. I thought that to write the story of a nun in the midst of the Dissolution of the Monasteries would be interesting. There would be inherent conflict. I felt a great deal of sympathy for Sister Joanna and the other sisters in my novel, who wanted to follow a spiritual way of life that the king—the government—sought to deny them. At the same time that I wrote The Crown, our country, and my city of New York, was going through a serious recession. It was frightening. I think I put some of my fears into the novel. A friend of mine said, “You’re dealing with disintegration by writing about dissolution.”
KW: You’ve written and edited for many magazines, including InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. How would you compare celebrity culture now to celebrity culture in Henry VIII’s time? Would the average citizen then be aware of the comings and goings of the Tudors as we are now with the Cambridges and the Windsors?
NB: It is absolutely astounding how much the ordinary people knew of the Tudors’ lives. There was no news media, yet it seemed that everyone heard that King Henry VIII wanted to annul his marriage to his queen of 18 years, Catherine of Aragon, and marry young Anne Boleyn. And they weren’t following it passively. Anne Boleyn was unpopular and people spoke out. Ordinary Londoners called out “We don’t want Anne Boleyn!” and some even called her a “goggle-eyed whore.” One time a crowd of over 1,000 Londoners, most of them women, heard that Anne Boleyn was in the area and they formed a mob and tried to chase her down. She fled onto the Thames in a barge. Later there was a spontaneous women’s march in support of Catherine’s beleaguered daughter, the Princess Mary. Henry VIII threw some of the marchers into prison.
KW: The process of writing historical fiction is as much research as it is literary. What was your process like? What was the most fascinating detail you unearthed during your research which made it into The Crown?
NB: Some authors research first, then write. I already had a base of knowledge of Tudor England, so I plotted the book and as I wrote I would stop and dig into an area as needed, and then start up again. Questions would jump into my head—“How long would it take someone to get from London to Malmesbury?”—and I’d figure that out through reading books. There were many details that made me shake my head and wonder about what it was really like to live back then. For example, the daily life of a nun in a priory in the 16th century. Obviously there was no central heating. But they didn’t have fireplaces in the priory, either, certainly not in the rooms they slept in at night. There could be a calefactory, one room with a fire, where nuns could gather to warm up. But at the same time, there was usually a cloister garden in the center of the priory with passageways around it in a square. Outdoors passageways leading into other parts of the priory. So here you are, in winter, walking outside in your nun’s habit, and then down passageways that are unheated. All the time. In my magazine job, if the temperature drops a couple of degrees, we’re all on the phone or sending emails to the office manager: “We’re cold!”
KW: The Crown is your first published novel. Was it your first foray into writing fiction? What is the best advice you wish someone had given you when you began to write The Crown?
NB: I’d written screenplays so I had some experience with story telling, but the only fiction I’d written since high school were two short stories, neither of them any good. What is the best piece of advice I wish I’d heard? To feel good about ignoring a lot of advice. Like “Write what you know.” I’m not a 16th century half-English, half-Spanish nun.
KW: The external world of publishing is extremely different than the internal world of writing a book—apples and oranges. As a first-time published author, what surprised you about the experience of getting published? What would you tell a writer seeking to break into publishing?
NB: Many things surprised me and continue to surprise me. I am familiar with the magazine publishing business and how it works. I love everything about the book world but it’s hard for me to figure out some days. In books, when it comes to acquiring fiction, the editors want to fall in love with the book. You hear that with agents, too. A book is of course longer than a magazine piece and the process of traditional publishing is meticulous and intense and also magical.
So how this relates to an aspiring author is, first you have to find an agent who falls in love with your manuscript and then your agent has to find an editor to fall in love with it. Lightning has to strike twice. Oh and also the independent booksellers talk about falling in love with a book. It all sounds romantic. Yet this is a business and authors can be quite challenged by the financial shifts and demands. You’re dancing with this romantic and handsome partner—you’re partnered by Mr. Darcy—and then suddenly you’re in the arms of Gordon Gekko. I mean, I’m joking but at the same time, as much as possible, I would urge writers to not take the business of being published personally and to try to be patient and flexible. You will need a sense of humor. And a well-stocked bar. [KW's note: I agree!]
KW: Finally, I’m excited that The Chalice, a sequel to The Crown, will be published soon. Can you tell us more about it?
NB: It’s the same main characters, but I’ve added new ones too. I’d say it’s darker. The stakes are higher. Everything is more: more action, more executions, and more romance too.
KW: You’re on Twitter as @TudorScribe. Does this mean you have other books in store set in this era? Do you ever envision writing about other historical periods? Or a contemporary novel even?
NB: Oh sure, I have several adventures in mind for Sister Joanna. And yes I would love to write about other historical periods, from ancient Rome to 10th century England to the time of the American Civil War. I’d like to write an epic historical novel, like a Gone With the Wind or Forever Amber. Also, a taut, terrifying ghost story.
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Nancy’s publisher Simon & Schuster is giving away one copy of THE CHALICE. To enter the raffle, leave a comment on this post by midnight, March 14, 2013. Only one comment per person. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here on Friday, March 15, 2013. The small print: U.S. or Canada mailing addresses only, please. For an extra entry, tell me which one of Henry VIII’s six wives is your favorite and why.
To leave a comment, click here and scroll to bottom of the page. Good luck to all!
Creativity Friday: Interview and book giveaway with author Nancy Bilyeau
I’m so pleased that historical fiction author Nancy Bilyeau is my guest for today’s edition of Creativity Friday! I was first introduced to Nancy by my neighbor and friend Faye Penn, the genius behind Brokelyn.com. She said, “You have to meet my friend Nancy. She’s written a novel which is The DaVinci Code meets The Tudors. I know you’d hit it off.” Fast forward to some months later, the paperback edition of Nancy’s bestseller The Crown (aka “The DaVinci Code meets The Tudors”) has just been published by Simon & Schuster to great critical acclaim. O, The Oprah Magazine said, “Bilyeau deftly weaves extensive historical detail throughout, but the real draw of this suspenseful move is its juicy blend of lust, murder, conspiracy, and betrayal.” It was also short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Ellis Peters Award for Best Historical Crime Fiction in 2012—quite the coup for a first novel!
In The Crown, Joanna Stafford, a Dominican nun, learns that her favorite cousin has been condemned by Henry VIII to be burned at the stake. Defying the sacred rule of enclosure, Joanna leaves the priory to stand at her cousin’s side. Arrested for interfering with the king’s justice, Joanna, along with her father, is sent to the Tower of London. To save her father’s life, she must find an ancient relic—a crown so powerful, it may hold the ability to end the Reformation. With Cromwell’s troops threatening to shutter her priory, bright and bold Joanna must now decide who she can trust with the secret of the crown so that she may save herself, her family, and her sacred way of life. This provocative story melds heart-stopping suspense with historical detail and brings to life the poignant dramas of women and men at a fascinating and critical moment in England’s past.
In our interview, Nancy spills the skinny on the Tudors versus the Cambridges, how she stumbled into writing a novel, and why lightning needs to strike twice for a book. More good news: Simon & Schuster is generously offering a giveaway of two copies of The Crown. Information on how to enter the giveaway is at the end of this post.
—————————————-
Kris Waldherr: What inspired you to write The Crown? Was there a defining moment you can describe?
Nancy Bilyeau: It is my first novel and I came up with the idea in a writer’s workshop. What happened was the workshop, which met every Monday night, was led by a novelist/teacher and needed four people minimum. One dropped out and I was recruited to be the fourth so the group could continue. At the time I was a magazine editor who hadn’t written fiction since high school, although I wrote two screenplays. But I wanted to try. So I walked into the room, but without an idea—all I had was a century to set my story in, the 16th. Because I have been obsessed with the Tudors since I was very young. I didn’t know if I wanted to write a mystery or a historical novel—I adore both genres. I decided to do both. I struggled with my novel until I decided to write it in the first person. No one suggested that—most thrillers are written in the third person. But that was my moment. I connected to the writing in a real way when I went inside my protagonist’s head. I thought: “Maybe this will work.”
KW: Books, movies, and more featuring the Tudors are ubiquitous these days—from Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl to HBO’s The Tudors. However, you’ve found a fresh spin on the proceedings by making Joanna Stafford, the protagonist of The Crown, an aristocratic nun. What led you to this unusual approach?
NB: When I decided to make the story a mystery/thriller, I wanted to write a woman as the protagonist. I didn’t want to even consider making a real queen or a princess the character trying to solve the mystery. Instead, I created the main character from my imagination, although I placed her in a real family: the Staffords. A couple of the secondary characters are from history and some of the minor ones too. That was fun!
But back to Sister Joanna. I had never met a nun in my life, and I was not raised Catholic. But I was baptized in the Catholic Church and I suppose I’ve always felt intrigued by it. I thought that to write the story of a nun in the midst of the Dissolution of the Monasteries would be interesting. There would be inherent conflict. I felt a great deal of sympathy for Sister Joanna and the other sisters in my novel, who wanted to follow a spiritual way of life that the king—the government—sought to deny them. At the same time that I wrote The Crown, our country, and my city of New York, was going through a serious recession. It was frightening. I think I put some of my fears into the novel. A friend of mine said, “You’re dealing with disintegration by writing about dissolution.”
KW: You’ve written and edited for many magazines, including InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. How would you compare celebrity culture now to celebrity culture in Henry VIII’s time? Would the average citizen then be aware of the comings and goings of the Tudors as we are now with the Cambridges and the Windsors?
NB: It is absolutely astounding how much the ordinary people knew of the Tudors’ lives. There was no news media, yet it seemed that everyone heard that King Henry VIII wanted to annul his marriage to his queen of 18 years, Catherine of Aragon, and marry young Anne Boleyn. And they weren’t following it passively. Anne Boleyn was unpopular and people spoke out. Ordinary Londoners called out “We don’t want Anne Boleyn!” and some even called her a “goggle-eyed whore.” One time a crowd of over 1,000 Londoners, most of them women, heard that Anne Boleyn was in the area and they formed a mob and tried to chase her down. She fled onto the Thames in a barge. Later there was a spontaneous women’s march in support of Catherine’s beleaguered daughter, the Princess Mary. Henry VIII threw some of the marchers into prison.
KW: The process of writing historical fiction is as much research as it is literary. What was your process like? What was the most fascinating detail you unearthed during your research which made it into The Crown?
NB: Some authors research first, then write. I already had a base of knowledge of Tudor England, so I plotted the book and as I wrote I would stop and dig into an area as needed, and then start up again. Questions would jump into my head—“How long would it take someone to get from London to Malmesbury?”—and I’d figure that out through reading books. There were many details that made me shake my head and wonder about what it was really like to live back then. For example, the daily life of a nun in a priory in the 16th century. Obviously there was no central heating. But they didn’t have fireplaces in the priory, either, certainly not in the rooms they slept in at night. There could be a calefactory, one room with a fire, where nuns could gather to warm up. But at the same time, there was usually a cloister garden in the center of the priory with passageways around it in a square. Outdoors passageways leading into other parts of the priory. So here you are, in winter, walking outside in your nun’s habit, and then down passageways that are unheated. All the time. In my magazine job, if the temperature drops a couple of degrees, we’re all on the phone or sending emails to the office manager: “We’re cold!”
KW: The Crown is your first published novel. Was it your first foray into writing fiction? What is the best advice you wish someone had given you when you began to write The Crown?
NB: I’d written screenplays so I had some experience with story telling, but the only fiction I’d written since high school were two short stories, neither of them any good. What is the best piece of advice I wish I’d heard? To feel good about ignoring a lot of advice. Like “Write what you know.” I’m not a 16th century half-English, half-Spanish nun.
KW: The external world of publishing is extremely different than the internal world of writing a book—apples and oranges. As a first-time published author, what surprised you about the experience of getting published? What would you tell a writer seeking to break into publishing?
NB: Many things surprised me and continue to surprise me. I am familiar with the magazine publishing business and how it works. I love everything about the book world but it’s hard for me to figure out some days. In books, when it comes to acquiring fiction, the editors want to fall in love with the book. You hear that with agents, too. A book is of course longer than a magazine piece and the process of traditional publishing is meticulous and intense and also magical.
So how this relates to an aspiring author is, first you have to find an agent who falls in love with your manuscript and then your agent has to find an editor to fall in love with it. Lightning has to strike twice. Oh and also the independent booksellers talk about falling in love with a book. It all sounds romantic. Yet this is a business and authors can be quite challenged by the financial shifts and demands. You’re dancing with this romantic and handsome partner—you’re partnered by Mr. Darcy—and then suddenly you’re in the arms of Gordon Gekko. I mean, I’m joking but at the same time, as much as possible, I would urge writers to not take the business of being published personally and to try to be patient and flexible. You will need a sense of humor. And a well-stocked bar. [KW's note: I agree!]
KW: Finally, I’m excited that The Chalice, a sequel to The Crown, will be published soon. Can you tell us more about it?
NB: It’s the same main characters, but I’ve added new ones too. I’d say it’s darker. The stakes are higher. Everything is more: more action, more executions, and more romance too.
KW: You’re on Twitter as @TudorScribe. Does this mean you have other books in store set in this era? Do you ever envision writing about other historical periods? Or a contemporary novel even?
NB: Oh sure, I have several adventures in mind for Sister Joanna. And yes I would love to write about other historical periods, from ancient Rome to 10th century England to the time of the American Civil War. I’d like to write an epic historical novel, like a Gone With the Wind or Forever Amber. Also, a taut, terrifying ghost story.
——————————————-
Nancy’s publisher Simon & Schuster is giving away two copies of The Crown paperback edition. To enter the raffle, leave a comment on this post by midnight, October 4, 2012. Only one comment per person. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here on Friday, October 5, 2012. The small print: U.S. or Canada mailing addresses only, please.
Good luck to all!
Creativity Friday: Interview with author Roberta Rich-and a book giveaway!
I’m so pleased that historical fiction author Roberta Rich is my guest for today’s edition of Creativity Friday! Roberta’s international bestseller The Midwife of Venice has just been published in the United States by Gallery Books of Simon & Schuster in the United States to much critical praise. Elle Magazine called it, “A lavishly detailed historical novel.” In our interview, Roberta offers wonderful advice for writers struggling with the creative process and the publishing world. My favorite piece of advice: “Selling a manuscript is a lot like selling a house. In a boom market you might be able to sell a ‘fixer-upper’— a house that needs re-wiring and a new roof and a good paint job. But in a volatile market like this one, make all those repairs yourself before you go to market.” So true!
In The Midwife of Venice, Hannah Levi, a midwife in the Venetian ghetto, has gained renown for her skill in coaxing reluctant babies out of their mother’s bellies using her “birthing spoons”, a rudimentary form of forceps. One night a Christian nobleman, Conte Paolo di Padovani appears at Hannah’s door in the Jewish ghetto with an impossible request. He implores Hannah to help his dying wife and save their unborn child. But a Papal edict has made it a crime, punishable by death, for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians. And that’s just the start. You read the first chapter here.
More good news: Simon & Schuster is generously offering a giveaway of one copy of The Midwife of Venice. Information on how to enter the giveaway is at the end of this post.
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Kris Waldherr: What inspired you to write The Midwife of Venice? Was there a defining moment you can describe for us?
Roberta Rich: The inspiration came when my husband and I were on a walking tour of Venice and happened upon the Jewish ghetto. I was transfixed by the wide open campo, the tall rickety buildings some as high as seven stories. I tried to imagine people going about their day-to-day lives. Then I visited the Jewish Museum of the ghetto and saw two silver soup ladles in a display case. The image of ‘birthing spoons’ came to me, the rudimentary form of forceps that my heroine, Hannah, invents.
KW: I suspect you’re as enthralled as I am with sixteenth century Venice—my illustrated book The Lover’s Path is set in 1543 during the time of the sumptuary laws. What is your favorite aspect of this era? Least favorite? (Personally, I love the clothes and the art.)
RR: I love the elegance and frivolity of the era, the graceful architecture, the watery elegance of the city and the rich food. There is much, however that the modern person recoils from: the rigid class structure, the sense of entitlement of the nobility, the assumption that women were second class citizens to be used and abused and worked to death, and cruelty to animal as evidenced by pitting dogs against tethered bulls and bears. One of the worst of these ‘sports’ was a game that required a man to catch a live eel in his teeth from a tub of blackened water. No hands allowed.
KW: Historical fiction involves so much research to bring the past to life. What is your process like? Did you spend a lot of time in Venice?
RR: I have been to Venice twice—the first time to fall in love, the second time to see if the love would endure the fiery cauldron of daily life. It did. I rented a small studio at the foot of the bridge leading to ghetto and walked around a lot at night, absorbing the sounds and shadows and smells of the district.
I read many books on Venice, including the wonderful History of the Jews in Venice by Cecil Roth. I am also fortunate to have a friend who is an early modern historian and who is generous with her time and ideas.
KW: What was the most fascinating detail you unearthed during your research which made it into The Midwife of Venice?
RR: The poor worry about how to feed their children; the rich worry about how to preserve their wealth. As a former lawyer, I was intrigued by how noble families in 16th century managed to keep their estates intact.
The Renaissance Venetians, the shrewdest of shrewd when it came to trade and commerce, devised a unique method to pass wealthy from one generation to the next. Their law of succession came to be known as the ‘Venetian system’. While the English ruling class applied strict laws of primogeniture―the male heir inheriting the entire estate, leaving his younger brothers to join the military or the church―a Venetian family with many sons, designated the heir by agreement. It was sometimes, but not necessarily, the oldest son. The heir would be selected by his brothers or by his father before his death. This had the effect of a limited meritocracy allowing the son most suited for business to take over the family firm and other sons to hold public office, considered a high honor for the family.
The son, who took over the running of the family enterprise, generally a merchant trading business, was the only one permitted to marry. His unmarried brothers would continue living in the family palazzo (so huge that many are now hotels or museums) along with unmarried sisters. Only one or perhaps two daughter married each generation because of the ruinously high dowries. Unmarried girls remained at home or entered convents. As a result there were a large number of unmarried randy young nobles which might explain the famous Venetian courtesans, said to be the most beautiful and educated in all of Europe. It is this law which incited the uncles in The Midwife of Venice to attempt to kill the Contessa’s new son, Matteo.
KW: The Midwife of Venice is your first published novel, but you have two earlier books which you chose not to allow the light of day. (I suspect all authors do—I have a file of them!) What did you learn from this experience? How did you know it was time to move on?
RR: I wrote what I knew. I thought this was what writers were supposed to do. I wrote about a smart-mouthed Vancouver divorce lawyer who chased a client down to Mexico. I knew a lot about both topics, having been a divorce lawyer who had traveled extensively Mexico. The book didn’t sell although my agent and I thought it was pretty good. Since I wanted to get published, it was clearly time to try something else. So I wrote a historical thriller, The Midwife of Venice. However, this makes me sound more calculating than I was. The truth is that I just fell in love with Venice and the Jewish ghetto and wanted to write about it.
KW: What is the best advice you wish someone had given you when you began to write fiction? What do you wish you knew then that you know now?
RR: Find your genre. Writing teachers say you should write what you know. I don’t agree. Write what you can imagine. Write what turns your crank. You can fake it for a while. Years ago I tried writing Harlequin romances. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it because I rarely read them and don’t connect with them. You can write what you think will sell just as you can fake orgasms but by doing so, you are depriving yourself of the pleasure of experiencing the real thing.
Hone your craft. There was an article a few months ago in the Globe- ‘Writers—Twitter Less, Write More.’ Excellent advice. Don’t worry about promoting yourself until you have something wonderful to promote. Take courses, go to conferences, talk to people who are better and more experienced than you are, hire a book doctor. Take advantage of the expertise of friends, family and colleagues. Develop a thick skin and learn to accept criticism.
The Marketplace. Selling a manuscript is a lot like selling a house. In a boom market you might be able to sell a ‘fixer-upper’- a house that needs re-wiring and a new roof and a good paint job. But in a volatile market like this one, make all those repairs yourself before you go to market. Your manuscript must sparkle. Most importantly, it must entertain. That’s your only job as a writer.
Sitzfleisch. This is a Yiddish word meaning the ability to keep the flesh in the chair. Fortunately, I am a creature of habit. In fact I have to be careful what I do- because if I do something- anything from brushing my teeth, to buying a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone at the gelato store in my neighborhood, it is likely to become a life-long habit. This is one of the many reasons why I haven’t tried hard drugs—that and the fact that the narcos are invading our previously peaceful town in Mexico and turning it into a war zone. But that is another story.
KW: The external world of publishing is extremely different than the internal world of writing a book—apples and oranges. As a first time published author, what surprised you about the experience of getting published? What would you tell a writer seeking to break into publishing?
RR: Once you have achieved your goal of getting published- enjoy it. The Midwife of Venice came out in February 8th 2011 [in Canada; U.S. publication was February 14, 2012]. It hit the bestseller list right out of the starting gate. Thank you, Costco and Indigo Chapters and Wal-Mart. Enjoy the speaking engagements, the congratulations from old friends, the fanfare and hoopla.
Then get back to writing. Write an even better book. At one of my very first events in Toronto a woman in the audience asked when the sequel was being published. It took me a year to write The Midwife of Venice. Then I went through three major revisions with my wonderful editor, Nita Pronovost at Random House. Then I went through two further revisions with line editors. I said to this woman-heckler, “This is a little like asking a woman who has just given birth to triplets when she is going to have her next baby.” But she was right. You must be prolific. If you aren’t by nature fast, you have to put in longer hours. Boring advice, I know. Like the one about losing weight: eat less, exercise more. Who wants to hear that rubbish?
KW: Finally, I understand that your next novel is set in Constantinople. Can you tell us a little about it? When can we expect to see it in print?
RR: The sequel follows Hannah and Isaac to Constantinople where Isaac owns a silk business. Hannah is midwife in the Imperial Harem. All is well until a certain sister in law arrives from Venice.
My editor and I are hoping for a spring 2013 publication date.
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Thanks, Roberta, for a wonderfully inspiring interview! As I mentioned above, Simon & Schuster has offered one copy of The Midwife of Venice to raffle off. To win, simply leave a comment by midnight, March 18, 2012. The rules: Only one comment per person. Small print: Book can only be shipped to U.S. mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here on Monday, March 19, 2012.
Good luck to all!
Kris Waldherr is an author, illustrator, and designer whose art has been exhibited in the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is the acclaimed author of DOOMED QUEENS, THE BOOK OF GODDESSES, and other publications which celebrate beauty, imagination, and wit. Her upcoming books include THE LILY MAID, a novel set in the art world of late Victorian England.
