Sunday, March 17, 2024

Sydney Leigh

Sydney Leigh has had a myriad of jobs, from running a small business to teaching English across the globe. She has travelled the world solo, where her daring spirit has led her to jump out of airplanes, dive with sharks, and learn she would never master a surfboard. Leigh served on the Board of Directors for Crime Writers of Canada from 2019-2021. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

Leigh's new novel is Peril in Pink.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title of my book, Peril in Pink lets the reader know two key things. First, that something bad is going to happen. It’s a murder mystery, so that’s a plus. Second, that the book has a fun vibe. This is a story about Jess, a woman who quits her job and partners with her best friend, Kat, to open a Bed & Breakfast. Jess and Kat paint all of the doors of the B & B pink to help establish their brand (and the title of the book!). Of course, when someone is murdered during the opening weekend, Jess feels compelled to get involved and becomes an amateur sleuth in the process.

No one is going to read the title and think this is an angst-fueled spy novel or a literary thriller (two genres I love to read but cannot write). Like the story, the title is light and playful.

My working title as I wrote the book was Petty in Pink, a play off of the 1980s movie, Pretty in Pink. The publisher changed it and I was okay with the change since Petty in Pink could imply a variety of genres. I want readers to know this is a crime fiction novel, albeit one without graphic violence. Known as a cozy mystery, the title suggests no tissues will be needed while reading this book.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

My teenage self would be very surprised by my novel. In high school I was a horror fan, through and through. If I had to predict which genre I’d write, it would be horror without a doubt. But adult me doesn’t have the stomach to write such things. While I still enjoy reading and watching horror, I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I was thinking about things that scared me all night.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I love to write the beginnings. It sets the tone, and kicks off the fun. My favorite part of writing is the banter between characters and the start of my books are full of that. Ensuring all the loose ends are settled and solved is trickier. Not that I mind it, either. But it’s tougher for me to write and I definitely end up changing it more.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

The funny thing is the more I write the more I become like my amateur sleuths. I don’t mean getting involved with murder investigations, but I ask more questions and allow my curiosity space to bloom and grow. I love asking people questions that I may not have had the courage to ask before. Nothing mean-spirited or too personal, but I’m curious to understand people’s reactions and feelings.

I also love trying new things which is what got me into writing in the first place. My characters, on the other hand, are more set in their ways. Also, I’d say I’m more reserved than Jess. Although we both have a goofy side. When I’m not writing, for example, I enjoy taking improv classes. To have a space where silliness and imagination runs free appeals to me. Not so sure Jess would enjoy doing something so out of her comfort zone.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love reality TV. There, I admitted it. Selling Sunset, Love is Blind. Yes please. That’s not all. I love seeing movies in theatres because I’m completely absorbed into the story. All genres. And TV has lots of great stuff I enjoy. I love Murder, She Wrote, The Goldbergs, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Never Have I Ever, to name a few. And my favorite podcast, My Favorite Murder, is definitely an influence.
Visit Sydney Leigh's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Friday, March 15, 2024

Clare McHugh

Clare McHugh is the author of two historical novels, A Most English Princess and The Romanov Brides. After graduating from Harvard College with a degree in European history, she worked for many years as a newspaper reporter and later magazine editor. The mother of two grown children, McHugh currently lives with her husband in London and in Amagansett, New York.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I feel so lucky to have landed on the perfect title for this novel! What better title than The Romanov Brides for a book that brings to life on the page the momentous decisions made by two German princesses, the sisters Ella and Alix of Hesse, to marry into the Romanov family, imperial rulers of Russia.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I think that my teenage self would be delighted to see that I achieved my dream of publishing an historical novel. In fact, The Romanov Brides is my second. In 2020 I published A Most English Princess, about Vicky, Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are so challenging. So much about a story’s scope, intention, and tone is established in its first chapters, and must be perfectly rendered in order to draw the reader in and retain his or her attention. I find it particularly difficult to choose where in a character’s life to begin, because I love to write childhood scenes. But a little of that can go a long way for readers! For The Romanov Brides I ended up removing 15,000 words from the book’s first section so as to “cut to the chase” of the action more rapidly. I must have rewritten the initial chapters twenty times over. By contrast, I find the second half of any book easier to write because once the first half is in good shape, one is set up unspool the action deftly and end it.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Both Ella and Alix are characters with whom I share personality traits—inevitably so, I believe! They are my creations, although I depended on their letters and the contemporaneous memoirs written by others to render them historically accurate. Like Ella, I tend to be a people pleaser (even more so when I was younger.) I am attracted to an artistic temperament, as she was, and once I love a person, I am, like Ella was, loyal to the hilt! Ella has a capacity for faith that I lack and a kind of pride that comes with royal status which is both out of reach to me, and, I fear, unappealing. But characters are never perfect, and if they are, they are flat and boring. I share Alix’s longings for love and security, and her desire to be understood. Her stubbornness, her iron will, and her insistence on being right I certainly relate to—although having lived much longer than Alix did, I hope I have learned to soften these tendencies!
Visit Clare McHugh's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Romanov Brides.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Rachel Lyon

Rachel Lyon is author of the novels Self-Portrait with Boy—a finalist for the Center for Fiction's 2018 First Novel Prize—and Fruit of the Dead. Lyon's short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing at various institutions, most recently Bennington College, and lives with her husband and two young children in Western Massachusetts.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Fruit of the Dead came to me through researching the myth of Persephone. While in the underworld, Persephone eats six pomegranate seeds, sometimes referred to as "fruit of the dead," an act that, without her knowledge, binds her to the place for eternity. Every time I revisit the myth I'm offended on Persephone's behalf that nobody tells her, on entry, "Hey, just be aware, the food here is cursed, stay away from it," or, like, offers her any paperwork to look over, any fine print. In my book, the 18-year-old Cory, an analogue for Persephone, is given an NDA to sign, but becomes hooked on a (fictional) drug that her employer, a pharmaceutical CEO, has yet to bring to market. He describes it as, "a highly effective, highly popular, highly pleasant, highly safe, frankly groundbreaking painkiller. Greater efficacy. Fewer side effects. Longer relief. Plus, you know, between you and me, it’s a good time. Not too good. Just good enough, let’s say. Granadone is so safe we used it in a cocktail at the company Christmas party. Vodka, soda, bitters, a splash of pomegranate juice, a slice of lime. Tasty—kind of plummy—and so potent you felt like you’d transcended this earthly sphere. We called the cocktail Fruit of the Dead. I mean, come on. Irresistible, right?" So the titular phrase refers not just to the mythical seeds, but also to this fictional, drug-spiked cocktail, which Cory very much enjoys.

What's in a name?

In mythology, Persephone is also known as Kore, or "The Maiden,” so the name Cory felt like a close contemporary cousin of that moniker. I named her mother Emer for its assonance with the word Demeter. Their last name is Ansel, which is a Germanic name that has some relationship to the idea of divinity. Rolo Picazo is probably the most outlandish name in the book. He's my proxy for Hades, but his name is actually a relic of a much earlier version in the book, when it did not yet have any relationship to the myth. In that version of the book, my antagonist / romantic interest was a writer. His first name is derived from the candy, because he's seductive, a sweet-talker, if you will. I gave him the last name Picazo, which some think may be derived from the Latin "pica," or magpie, as a nod to an idea I got from my dad. My father is also a writer, but works in the realm of art history and criticism; he has a thing about magpies, who are supposed (according, apparently, to folklore alone) to be great collectors and hoarders of things, particularly bright and shiny objects. I toyed with other names for Rolo once it became clear that there was no turning back from incorporating the myth, but I kept referring to him as Rolo Picazo accidentally, so, in the end, it just felt right to leave him that way.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I find this a really compelling question, and not just because my main protagonist is a teenager herself. I hope that my teenaged self would feel seen and respected by my treatment of this fictional teenaged girl. But I fear she'd feel embarrassed, overexposed. Cory is a vulnerable character. She makes poor decisions, lacks some self-awareness, fumbles socially, and is written intentionally as a girl with a healthy sex drive. I imagine teenaged Rachel would probably be mortified by all that. Then again, I loved lush, highly descriptive books when I was a teen—Nabokov, Gabriel García Márquez—and, in the sections written from Cory's perspective, my book does, I think, reach or at least intend to reach a similarly luxuriant, elevated register. So, if she didn't know it was written by the woman she'd someday become, maybe she'd enjoy it. I hope so.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Oh, endings, for sure. But in this case, I think I revised the opening of the book more obsessively. I was clearer on how the book would end than I was on where, precisely, to enter the story.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I drew on my own experience to write both Cory and Emer. Personality-wise I don't know if I'm very much like either of them, but they are certainly derived from me. For instance, I was not a failure in school, as Cory is, but when I was in school I certainly blew off the odd assignment, and sometimes took for granted that the consequences of whatever minor slackage I was guilty of just would not be that bad. Nor am I the type-A executive director of an international NGO, as Emer is—I am not obsessive, as she is, or damaged beyond repair by trauma—but I do love a spreadsheet, and I do, sometimes, perseverate on things, and I've certainly experienced some unpleasant things. I think of fictional characters, in general, as, kind of, cherry-picked, finite distillations of certain traits and experiences belonging to the author. Real people are, you might say, infinite. We are always changing; a character—who is made merely out of a few thousand words, who is subject to the constraints of a constructed plot—cannot change.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This book was influenced by many things. The trials of Jeffrey Epstein and the Sackler Family. The #MeToo movement. The births of my son, and then, two years later, my daughter. My sobriety. The pandemic, of course. Non-literary inspirations are as infinite as we are, I think.
Visit Rachel Lyon's website.

The Page 69 Test: Self-Portrait with Boy.

My Book, The Movie: Self-Portrait with Boy.

The Page 69 Test: Fruit of the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Melanie Maure

Melanie Maure holds a Master’s in Counselling Psychology and lives in central British Columbia. She is second generation Irish and spends a great deal of time in Ireland, which is an enduring source of inspiration for her work.

Sisters of Belfast is Maure's debut novel.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title Sisters of Belfast encompasses the story quite well. If anyone is interested in stories set in Ireland and or the complex connection between sisters, then they will know what to expect to a certain extent. This was not the original wking title, which was far more obscure—lovely but obscure. And thanks to my brilliant editor, who knows the world of books and the importance of a title, especially for a debut novel, we came up with Sisters of Belfast to draw the reader in. Perhaps the original title will work for a second or third book!

What's in a name?

I adore the lyrical sound of an Irish name. Aelish was initially Aoife, but I knew from my experience as a reader that a tricky name can cause a reader to stumble, disrupting the flow if they are unfamiliar with the pronunciation. Aelish, like her name, is a subtle yet complex character. She is soft and still holds an internal power. Looking back now, I cannot see her with any other name. Izzy, on the other hand, is straightforward with sharper edges. And so the sound of the name suited her. Choosing names is the most fun part for me as a writer, and it is how I meet them and form them in my mind. I’m not sure if other authors are this obsessed with the names, but I certainly am. It is where I begin.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

As a diehard Stephen King fan, I know my teenage self would be surprised. And she would probably have something snarky to say about the book’s exploration of spirituality, seeing as I thought I had it all figured out at that age. I was a know-it-all little punk who wanted to be as far away from her mother’s religious beliefs as possible. Hmm? Sounds like Isabel.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Endings are more difficult as I love a book that wraps things up nicely and with respect to the story. This can be difficult to do when you have so many characters in the story. I also don’t like to feel rushed into an ending when reading. You can feel it when a writer is rushing to finish, and it can be dissatisfying. I understand the need for a great beginning to bring a reader in, and I feel that a great ending will keep them coming back for more.

While the beginnings are easier to write, they definitely get more editing and tightening. By the time I get to the end of a story, I am deeply intimate with the story and its characters, and so the beginning needs a deeper polish to reflect this depth of intimacy that has grown over several years. It is like bending a straight line into a circle and ensuring the ends match up.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music is and always has been central to my life. I am one of those freaky people who can hear a song once, maybe twice, and will remember the lyrics. If I could choose any other form of written expression, it would be to write song lyrics. This pertains to my writing because I adore a song that immediately throws me into an emotional state. This is what I strive to create in my writing. I hope my readers feel deeply and remember the characters after leaving this fictional world.

Just like songs have a unique feel, I believe a great book has the same power. There are certain books I have read through the years, and although I may not be able to recall specific details, I remember well how it felt to be in the story.
Visit Melanie Maure's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sisters of Belfast.

My Book, The Movie: Sisters of Belfast.

--Marshal Zeringue

Friday, March 8, 2024

S. E. Porter

S. E. Porter is a writer and artist. As Sarah Porter, she has published several books for young readers, including Vassa in the Night. Projections is her adult debut. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title Projections takes readers into the heart of the story, but through the side door. The projections of the title have a double meaning: they’re primarily the magical recreations of his young self that the sorcerer Gus Farrow sends back to the ordinary world. But they’re also his fantasy version of the protagonist Catherine, his inability to see her for herself. I wanted the title to be The Projections, but my publisher thought it was more dynamic without the article!

What's in a name?

I loved picking the names in this book! Angus and Gus are named, ironically, for the Celtic god of love; they consider themselves great romantics, but their version of love is utterly corrupt. Anura, the giant frog immigration officer in the city of sorcerers, has the scientific name for the order of frogs. Madame Laudine, a magical artist who makes enchanted fountains, is named after the Arthurian Lady of the Fountain. And Nautilus, the city of sorcerers, is named that both because the spiral of a nautilus’s shell follows a universal order, and also because the magic of the assembled sorcerers creates the city the way a nautilus makes its shell with its secretions.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

When I was a teenager I wanted to be an artist, so my teenage self would be a bit surprised I’d written a novel at all! But my great loves as a reader were fantasy and modernism, then and now. A work of literary fantasy like Projections is exactly what she would have wanted me to write.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Writing a beginning tends to feel like magic, as if a voice from somewhere beyond was suddenly flowing through me. It’s intoxicating, but as the story reveals itself I often realize I didn’t get everything right in those opening pages, and I go back to fix them. Endings are harder in a way, because there isn’t that delirious sense of a new adventure. But by then everything is pretty dialed in, so they don’t need much revision.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

In the case of Projections, some of the influences include the history of Spiritualism in America, which I had to research for the book. I was amazed by everything I learned about it. The aesthetic of Nautilus is reminiscent to me of women surrealist painters, especially Leonora Carrington. I’m also a member of a longtime Burning Man camp, and the portrayal of Nautilus is both a homage to Burning Man and a critique of its problems!
Visit S. E. Porter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Angela Crook

Angela Crook is a novelist and mother, from Cleveland, Ohio, who loves writing dark thrillers that often involve the exploration of the inner workings of family relationships.

Her new novel is Hurt Mountain.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Originally the title for my book was called Hurt Farm, but, much to my surprise, I learned that farm provokes a negative response in reader, so it became Hurt Mountain. Considering all actions lead to the mountain, I'd say it does quite a bit of the heavy lifting to take the readers into the story.

What's in a name?

Delilah was a significant choice for a name because of the biblical connotations. Hurt is a religious fanatic, his whole world view is based on his religious beliefs, so him choosing the name Delilah was important to highlight that part of his character as well as to convey his obsession for the girl.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

As a teenager, I was well into my life-long love of all things Stephen King, so my teenage self would find my novel very on brand. In fact, my teenage self would urge me to push harder and go further into the dark side of my writing.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Since it seems most of my story ideas begin with a character, beginnings are often easier for me. It more than anything else stays pretty much the same throughout the editing process. I tend to actually have a pretty good idea where the book starts and how it ends, before I start writing. It's the middle that changes the most. This tends to be where new characters come out to play, and those nasty inconsistencies seem to hide so well. The middle is all about finding my way to that ending that I started with. But I always try to have an open mind when it comes to changing the ending, because you don't really know, until you get there.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I am happy to say, that me and my characters are worlds apart.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My writing has always been influenced by music, family, and what's going on in the world around us.

I love a good soundtrack to a book and even if there is not music throughout, it'll always show up in one form or another. Whether it's the song playing over and over on the car radio in the car Delilah was rescued from, or the song that reminds Brandon and Lisa of their love, music definitely has it's place in this book and any other book I've written.
Follow Angela Crook on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: Hurt Mountain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monday, March 4, 2024

Gwendolyn Kiste

Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, Pretty Marys All in a Row, The Invention of Ghosts, and Boneset & Feathers. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin and Ignotus awards.

Originally from Ohio, Kiste now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts.

Kiste's new novel is The Haunting of Velkwood.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I feel like the title of The Haunting of Velkwood definitely sets the stage for what sort of book this is. You immediately have the imagery of The Haunting of Hill House, to which this novel definitely pays homage. Plus, the word Velkwood isn’t immediately recognizable, so it establishes a little bit of mystery right away.

This book was very different for me because usually, I know exactly what I want to call a work fairly early in the process. With this novel, however, I never quite clicked with a title during the writing process. I believe the working title that I sent to my publisher was The Velkwood Girls. It was decided that was a little vague, so we went back and forth on some options before The Haunting of Velkwood was suggested. Since I’m such a huge Shirley Jackson fan and this novel owes such a great debt to her work, it really seemed like the ideal title for the book. So big thanks to Jela Lewter at Saga Press for suggesting it!

What's in a name?

For me, names are always such an exciting part of the writing process. For the eponymous Velkwood, I remember coming up with that one very early on. It was a word I’d never heard before but somehow felt familiar at the same time. In particular, I wanted something that sounded unusual and earthy and maybe even a little spooky. Plus, with the title of the novel being an homage to The Haunting of Hill House, Velkwood is bit of a nod to the Blackwood family from Jackson’s other classic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

As for my main character Talitha, I briefly knew someone years ago with that name, and I always thought it was so unique. I don’t know that I’ve come across it again since then. Talitha seemed like such a singular character in the novel, someone who’s become isolated from the rest of the world, so it seemed appropriate to give her a name that also didn’t fit the mold and separated her from other people. As for Brett, I’ve always thought it was such a lovely name for a girl. More specifically, Ava Gardner played the character of Lady Brett Ashley in the Hemingway adaptation, The Sun Also Rises, and I couldn’t help but imagine that my character of Brett has some of that fiery Ava Gardner energy, so that felt like the perfect choice for her.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Probably not too surprised. I’ve always been a huge fan of horror, so the fact that I’ve written a novel about a ghostly neighborhood would probably be right up my alley during adolescence.

Mostly, though, I think my teenage self would just be so incredibly thrilled that I’m a writer for a living. It felt like a difficult, nebulous goal when I was young. I wasn’t sure how you could even navigate the publishing industry and make that career a reality. It’s been so exciting to be able to become a writer. Even with its ups and downs, it’s such an incredible honor to spend my days like this.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I probably change my beginnings a bit more than my endings. Especially with The Haunting of Velkwood, I tinkered with that first chapter a bit to make sure that the reader gets to know Talitha right away and also to ensure that you’re pulled into the central mystery of what happened to her and the neighborhood where she grew up.

On the other hand, I knew very early on how I wanted the book to end. To me, it felt like the last chapter, even the last two chapters, were the only place these characters could end up. So writing the ending was much easier for me, even if it’s a fairly emotional finale. I was really dedicated to seeing these characters through the last of this ghostly mystery.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I definitely see a lot of myself in my characters. I sometimes think that most of my characters are segments of my own psyche in one way or another. In The Haunting of Velkwood, Talitha definitely represents how much I’m always trying to move forward from the past, even if I don’t always succeed as much as I’d like. Brett represents my determination to keep going, no matter the odds. And the supporting character of Enid is the part of me that always felt like an outcast growing up.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I’m a big fan of photography, so I definitely look to people like Cindy Sherman, Bill Owens, William Eggleston, and Jo Ann Callis for inspiration. I’m also a tremendous fan of film, so I’m always watching movies for inspiration as well. I adore David Lynch, Sofia Coppola, David Cronenberg, and some of Terence Malick’s early films as well as lots of horror cinema, including Hammer horror, the Universal horror movies, and Val Lewton’s films. Truly, though, I can find inspiration anywhere—from a walk in my backyard or a trip to the art museum or just a drive to a new place. There’s so much inspiration lurking everywhere; sometimes, I feel like I just have to open my eyes and find it.
Visit Gwendolyn Kiste's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Haunting of Velkwood.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Claire Coughlan

Claire Coughlan has worked as a journalist for many years, most recently for publications such as BookBrunch and the Sunday Independent. She was a recipient of the Words Ireland National Mentoring program, funded by Kildare Arts Service and the Arts Council. Coughlan has an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin, and she lives in County Kildare with her husband and daughter.

Coughlan's new novel is Where They Lie.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My husband came up with Where They Lie, the title of my novel. I knew it would work the moment he said it. It evokes the essence of the book, which is a crime story, a mystery. The action starts when a young female journalist, Nicoletta Sarto, answers the phone at the Irish Sentinel newsroom in Dublin just before Christmas in 1968. The bones of a missing woman, Julia Bridges, an actress who vanished twenty-five years earlier, have been found, and Nicoletta starts chasing the story. So, where they lie refers not only to the recovered human remains, but also to the secrets and lies that have been buried for a quarter of the century, which Nicoletta is about to pull out into the light.

What's in a name?

I love naming characters, and I think names are very important. Nicoletta Sarto, my main character, is Irish-Italian, so she has an Italian first and last name, which sets her apart from her contemporaries. She has become wary about the explanation she’s expected to give well-meaning people when they ask her where she’s from. There’s a road near where I live in Naas, a town in Co Kildare, Ireland called Sarto Road, and I walk past it all the time. Sarto was the surname of Pope Pius X and was presumably given to this stretch of housing by an Irish Catholic builder many years ago. Sarto is also an Italian profession originated surname and means ‘tailor.’ I named Nicoletta’s on/off boyfriend Barney King, as a nod to Stephen King, of whom I’m a massive fan.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I don’t think she’d be very surprised at all. Though I hope she’d be proud - teenage me wrote a lot but didn’t show it to anyone. I think this is exactly the type of novel she would devour as a reader.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are harder, definitely. I change them constantly, right up to the moment of turning in a draft to my publisher, as there are thousands of entry points into a story, it’s almost impossible to find the one that’s just right. You know where you are with an ending. What I found with my debut novel was that the end scene came to me quite early on. I wrote it out, and it stayed pretty much as a guiding true north all the way through the drafts.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

There’s probably a bit of me in all my characters; I don’t think I’d be able to write them otherwise. Though the beauty of writing fiction is that your characters can say and do outrageous things you’d never get away with in real life, and I’m actually a fairly quiet, reserved person. To write fiction convincingly takes a leap of faith and imagination, this is a given. But it also takes empathy to create vivid, flesh and blood characters that the reader wants to spend time with.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Too many influences to name! But the main ones for this novel would be Twentieth Century Irish history, the Italian language and culture, rock music of the late 1960s/classical pianists of the 19th Century, feminism.
Follow Claire Coughlan on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: Where They Lie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Valerie Martin

Valerie Martin is the author of twelve novels, including Trespass, Mary Reilly, Italian Fever, and Property, four collections of short fiction, and a biography of St. Francis of Assisi. She has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Her novel Mary Reilly was awarded the Kafka prize, shortlisted for the Prix Femina (France), and made into a motion picture directed by Stephen Frears and starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovitch. Property won Britain's Orange Prize (now called the Women's Prize) in 2003.

Martin's new novel is Mrs. Gulliver.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title of my novel Mrs. Gulliver is the narrator’s name. She is the madam of a legal brothel on the fictional island of Verona, somewhere in this world. This title wasn’t my first choice, which was Carità, the name of the young, beautiful, formerly wealthy but now destitute blind girl who arrives with her sister at Lila Gulliver’s door looking for work.

After much back and forth it was decided that Americans dislike titles with accents in them. Also, as the book progressed, it became clear that in telling the story of her most interesting employee, Lila Gulliver was telling as much or more about herself. Carità is something of a mystery to Lila, who doesn’t expect a blind girl to be both willful and astute. At their first interview, when Carità says something very rude about her own limited options, and her sister scolds her, she responds, “I don’t think Mrs. Gulliver is shocked.” Nor is she. Mrs. Gulliver is intrigued.

What's in a name?

The character named Carità is a beautiful, blind, destitute, nineteen-year-old orphan, intelligent, capable, and determined to succeed. Her mother died when she was born, and she was raised by a wealthy uncle who provided her with an expensive and extensive education. Her mother, an Italian, lived only long enough to name her sightless daughter Carità.

In Italian, carità means charity, as well as mercy. I’ve seen Italian men press the index finger to the thumb, wag the hand and say “per carità.” For mercy’s sake. Carità’s dying mother could have been begging for her sightless babe or assigning her a mission. A plea or a command. Mercy. It’s a virtue.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Mrs. Gulliver takes place in a brothel, hence there is sex. However, there is also a good bit of Roman Catholic doctrinal detail, as well as a kitchen table discussion of Karl Marx vs. Adam Smith. Still, I doubt the open-minded nuns who guided my teenage self would have found it suitable. When these nuns, after a long, serious, heated discussion, decided to teach The Catcher in the Rye to the senior class, the uproar from the parents was considerable.

I would have been forbidden to read Mrs. Gulliver. I would have had to sneak it off the shelf in the public library and read it inside another book on the patio. I would have been shocked. I would have loved it.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Oh, it is always easy to hoist the sail and cruise out of the harbor, but not such a simple matter to get back. There are storms, there are doldrums, there are sullen companions, unreliable instruments, even whales. I like not knowing where I’m going for a while, just taking in the sights, enjoying the ride, but at some point, there must be a destination. Do we end where we began, or somewhere unexpected and strange, or do we, sadly, fall overboard and drown?

My problem is making the choice. I can always think of many endings, including the dreaded open ending, which I know readers dislike, but I enjoy. The world dotes on a happy ending, yet who doesn’t love a weeper. When I was in college, we all marveled over the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman. John Fowles gave it two endings!

So of course no one can ever do that again.

Endings are hard.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

My poor characters! They are my prisoners. I put them in the direst physical straits, plunge them into impossible moral quandaries. I bring them right to the door of success, of love, of triumph and then slam it in their faces. If they could escape the fictions in which they find themselves they would doubtless cry out, as Bette Davis does when her lawyer refuses to help her in The Letter, “How could you be so cruel?”

And I’m not sure how to answer that charge. They wouldn’t believe it, but I do love them. How could I not? I made them up, set them adrift, gave them desires and ambitions, fears, failures of courage, a will to power or a proclivity for self-destruction. I try not to force them but to follow them, and to understand why they might make that wrong choice they are destined from all time to make.

Maybe I’m mellowing as time goes by. My most recent book has an indisputably happy ending. A reviewer described it as “surprisingly cheerful.” I expect a thank-you note from the narrator any day now.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music, though I don’t play it all the time, as some writers I know do. I generally pick something that has the mood I want. For my novel Mary Reilly, which takes place in London, I wanted something rainy and full of shadows, so I chose Philip Glass piano music. For Property, I wanted something that would set my nerves on edge. My partner directed me to a few Penderecki selections that were like a million screeching insects. For Salvation, my biography of St. Francis, I wanted music that was both poignant and triumphant. Philip Glass’s magnificent String Quartet #5 more than filled the bill. I listen to the music for a while when I sit down at the desk. Once a scene is underway, I turn it off.
Visit Valerie Martin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Mrs. Gulliver.

My Book, The Movie: Mrs. Gulliver.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monday, February 26, 2024

Robin Oliveira

Robin Oliveira grew up just outside Albany, New York in the town of Loudonville. She holds a B.A. in Russian from the University of Montana, and studied at the Pushkin Language Institute in Moscow, Russia. She worked for many years as a Registered Nurse, specializing in Critical Care and Bone Marrow Transplant. In 2006 she received an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives outside of Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Andrew Oliveira. She has two children, Noelle Oliveira and Miles Oliveira. All three are the loves of her life.

Oliveira's new novel is A Wild and Heavenly Place.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My agent thought of the title, as she does most of my novels. A Wild and Heavenly Place represents the book well because it hearkens to the deepest desires of Samuel Fiddes, one of the protagonists. Orphaned and caring for his younger sister in the tenements of 19th century Glasgow. Samuel and Alison have already suffered a great deal, and they possess no agency to better their lives. Alone and in need, Samuel falls in love with Hailey MacIntyre, a wealthy young woman of privilege who nonetheless shares a similar desire for a life different from the one she is leading. When tragedy befalls Hailey's’ father, the two young lovers are torn apart, and ultimately voyage separately to the deep wilderness of early Seattle, in hopes of more.

What’s in a name?

A minor character in the novel is a black man, a former slave, named Pruss Loving. I came across his name while exploring the coal mining past of Roslyn, Washington, where black men from the south were brought in not as new recruits, but as strikebreakers, unbeknownst to them. I was immediately attracted to this unusual name, and tucked away in my memory to use in a future novel. Rather than hoping to convey an aspect of character, I wanted to honor all the black coalminers who came to Washington to work, many transported to the state under false pretenses.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

This story is in fact written for my teenaged self, the girl who fell in love with sweeping, continents-spanning love stories in novels that celebrated place. I grew up reading. I loved to read. That I now write books is an accomplishment that I think would astonish her.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I know very little about a story when I begin, just the bare outlines, and very little about how the story will end. It is always an exploration as I write, and therefore not hard—though it is—but a journey of discovery. I did have an image this time around, writing my fourth novel, of my ideal ending, based on the ruins of a stone house on San Juan Island. That kept me going even though how I was going to get there remained elusive.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

One of the inspirations for this new novel was a new-found hobby. My husband and I, through the influence of some kind friends, have taken up boating on Puget Sound. Because of that, I’ve not only had to learn navigation and seamanship and how to captain a boat, but it’s also given me a vantage point of Washington geography that I would not have had. I doubt very much that one of my main characters would have become a shipbuilder without that influence, nor would I have been able to write the geography in such a specific, detailed way.
Visit Robin Oliveira's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Name Is Mary Sutter.

The Page 69 Test: Winter Sisters.

--Marshal Zeringue