Kate Heartfield

Kate Heartfield is the author of the historical fantasy novel Armed in Her Fashion and two time-travel novellas from Tor.com Publishing, beginning with Alice Payne Arrives. She has also published several dozen short stories and an interactive novel for Choice of Games. A former journalist, she lives in Ottawa.

From Heartfield's Q&A with Paul Semel:

To start, what is Alice Payne Arrives about?

It’s about a highwaywoman in 18th century England who gets tangled up in a war between rival factions of time travelers from the future.

Where did you get the idea for Alice Payne Arrives and how did that idea evolve as you wrote it?

The mystery element of the story came first: I had an idea about a highwaywoman leading a double life who has to solve a crime before the parish constable does, so that said parish constable doesn’t discover her secret while he’s poking around. That element is still what kicks off the story in the book, but the answer to the mystery creates bigger problems for Alice.

It sounds like Alice Payne Arrives is a science fiction story. Is that how you see it, or is there a better way to describe this story?

Absolutely. The time travel in the book is technological, and some scenes in the book take place in the future.

When it came to describing how time travel works in Alice Payne Arrives, did you base it on a specific fictional depiction or did you look into real-world theories?

I’ve...[read on]

Visit Kate Heartfield's website.

The Page 69 Test: Alice Payne Arrives.

Writers Read: Kate Heartfield.

--Marshal Zeringue