author of
A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower
- What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
In 2003, I tried to follow the wanderings of Leopold Bloom around the city of Dublin on June 16, 1904, as described in the novel Ulysses. I missed the Centennial celebration of what Dubliners call “Bloomsday” by one year.
I visited Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, MA, where Little Women was written and set.
I took a cruise up the Atlantic coast to see Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables house on Prince Edward Island off the coast of Canada.
I rode horses at Jack London’s Valley of the Moon Ranch in Glen Ellen, CA.
Q What is your favorite underappreciated novel?
One is The Man on a Donkey by H.F.M. Prescott, which drops the reader directly into the time of Henry VIII and doesn’t let you climb out until the very last word of the book. It’s a brilliant and deeply sad portrayal of how a time of great upheaval and social change affect a handful of main characters. Most touching is the portrait of Robert Aske, leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, which opposed Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Aske was betrayed and then horribly executed by the king.
- What is your favorite childhood book?
I read Little Women every year from the time I was nine until I was 16. I knew whole hunks of it by heart. I can still recite the opening lines: “’Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,’ grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.” Of course, I imagined myself as Jo. I’ve never met anyone who read Little Women and imagined herself as Meg or Amy!
Q: Do you try to be original or to deliver readers what they want?
I can’t imagine trying to write something formulaic that I didn’t respect but thought would sell. I make my living by another means, so when I write books and articles, that’s on my own time–it has to be something I care about. When I write a book, I know I’m going to be living with it for a while. I have to be sure it means enough to me that I won’t lose interest and that the subject, whatever it is, let’s me say something that I think is important.
- What do you owe the real people on whom you base your characters?
Do we owe real people fairness? The farther back we go in time, the greater the temptation is to exaggerate a real character or to make him/her a one-dimensional cardboard cutout or a being quite unlike what we know of the original person. After all, the farther back we go, the less we actually know about the real person anyway.
Can we really find out what William the Conqueror ate for breakfast? Or what Henry VIII said to any of his many wives just before he turned out the light? What about a writer who goes so far as to depict Ivan the Terrible as an essentially gentle soul who was just misunderstood?
Or Napoleon Bonaparte as a guy who never intended to make war on anyone. His invasions were just reluctant reactions to the foul deeds of neighboring countries. Or, what if the main character of a novel is not a famous historical figure, but rather a wife, a mistress, a key advisor, a valet, a court jester even, who is given credit for being the force behind all the things the famous person did?
- What kind of research do you do?
I dearly love research and could happily spend my life just doing that—learning stuff I didn’t know before! For me, when I write a book, I get the dessert first, which is the research, and then I have to eat my broccoli—that is, write the book. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the writing, but it’s much more demanding of all my faculties.
- Name one of your biggest challenges as a writer.
I am still working full-time and have a very active life outside of work, including singing with a small opera company and keeping up with the exploits of three grown daughters. And now also trying to market my novel on social media, my website, etc. I feel like I have to claw time to work on my next novel several days ahead to arrange a block of time to write.
Visit Patricia at