Author: elizabethcaulfieldfelt

An Interview with Stephanie Barko

elizabethcaulfieldfelt books, interview, marketing, writing

Stephanie BarkoToday I welcome  Stephanie Barko to my series of interviews. Stephanie will be presenting at the Historical Novels Society Conference as a literary publicist. In the workshop Building an Effective Platform for your Historical, Stephanie will lead attendees through her proprietary exercises that coax a book’s platform to the surface.  Welcome, Stephanie.

Q: What does a typical day look like in your job as a literary publicist?

A: My day begins with black coffee, a lit candle, a gratitude list and soul writing (a la Janet Conner).

After listening to a guided meditation through a headset, I clean up my email before beginning to execute client deliverables. During my day, I may be shipping galleys for pre-pub review, pitching radio producers, subcontracting for a colleague in Manhattan, or arranging a virtual tour. Depending on the season of the year, I will be working in some yoga, aqua aerobics, Tai Chi or walking to keep my brain oxygenated during the work week. I break to cook dinner and then get right back to it during the evening unless there’s something I can’t bear to miss on PBS.

Q: What do you like most about promoting historical novels and nonfiction?

A: My favorite task during a contract is research–researching journalists for a media list, researching the top Technorati book bloggers, or researching the best endorser candidates for a client’s book. The pre-pub phase is when I can add the most value, and that’s the part of a campaign I enjoy the most.

Q: What do you like the LEAST about your job?

A: Redirecting stray prospects who have queried for my services without doing their homework.

Q: What can historical novelists and nonfiction authors do to help you help THEM?

A: A good start would be to approach me with a publisher already on board, a release date, an edited manuscript, and professionally designed cover still in progress, and a list o potential or actual endorsers.

We’ve now reached the time in our interview for the let’s-get-to-know-the-interviewee-better, nearly-pointless, sort-of-silly, rapid-fire questions:

Coffee or tea?  Organic French Roast

Ocean or Mountain: Mountains of the American West

Hiking or shopping? Hiking

Violin or piano? Piano

Mystery or fantasy: Mystery

Darcy or Heathcliff? Darcy

Love scene or death scene? Death scene

For more information about Stephanie Barko and her work, visit her website www.stephaniebarko.com, read about her at Literary Marketplace or visit her in your favorite online milleu:

www.twitter.com/steffercat

www.facebook.com/stephaniebarko

www.pinterest.com/stephaniebarko

www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniebarko

www.goodreads.com/steffercat

www.librarything.com/home/steffercat

Thanks, Stephanie!

Author Interview: Anne Easter Smith

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, interview, reading, writing

Easter SmithToday I welcome Anne Easter Smith to my series of author interviews. Anne is the author of the highly acclaimed historical novels, A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, The King’s Grace, and Queen by Right. Her recently-released Royal Mistress is the story of Jane Shore, the final mistress of King Edward IV of England. Anne will be speaking on the To Trump or Trumpet: the History Police panel at the Historical Novels Society conference.

Q: What got you first interested in historical fiction?

A: A great teacher in boarding school hooked me on history, and so when I went home during the holidays I would go to the local library and read every historical novel I could get my hands on. I was not interested in any books that did not have women in long dresses. Even today, if a book cover, TV show or movie is period, I’m instantly interested.

Q: For you, what is the line between fiction and fact?

A: I’ll be talking about this on my panel at the conference. I fall into the “don’t mess with history” camp. To be honest, the people I have written about couldn’t have had more dramatic lives, even if I’d wanted to embellish them! I was mortified recently that a reader caught an egregious historical error that I cannot imagine not catching during the editing process. I feel a certain responsibility to my readers to not fudge the facts. After all, it was fact-fudging by Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More that got my favorite protagonist, Richard III, such a bad reputation.

Q: Do you have an anecdote about a reading or fan interaction you’d like to share?

A: Imagine my surprise when, at a reading near Albany, New York, a woman turned up dragging an 11-year-old boy with her. When I went to greet her, talking over the boy’s head, and said how brave she was to come when her son was surely not there of his own volition, she said: “Oh, I’m not here to see you, Jason is. He’s your biggest fan and his room is covered in English royalty genealogy charts!” Jason and I have kept up a correspondence ever since.

Q: What book was the most fun for you to write?

easter smith roseA: Definitely A Rose for the Crown. It’s not that I haven’t adored all my other protagonists, but I wrote that in my own time without any intention of letting anyone but my family read it and believed it would be my only attempt at writing a book.

 

Q: Can you tell us about your latest publication?easter smith royal mistress

A: Royal Mistress is the fifth in my series about the York family during the Wars of the Roses. It tells the story of Jane Shore, King Edward IV’s final and favorite mistress. I love that she was born into the merchant class of London, which allowed me to do a lot of research on the medieval guilds, and as she was called his “merriest” mistress by Edward himself, I knew she must have been quite a character. She had a roller-coaster of a life before and after Edward, but while she was his mistress, Jane was said to have truly been loved by the king. All the York family come into this book, including my Richard (III), although his treatment of Jane was rather harsh and forced me to look at him in a less saintly light than my first book A Rose for the Crown.

Thank you, Anne.

You can learn more about Anne Easter Smith and her books at www.anneeastersmith.com

Book Title Poetry

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, poetry, reading, writing

As soon as I looked through book title poetry by Nina Katchadourian, I  ran to my bookshelves to see what I could create.  Working for about 10 minutes (because I’m supposed to be working on my novel today!), with only the books in one room, I came up with these three poems.  I hope you like them.

(Click to make bigger.)

poem crime

 

(First book is Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick.)

poem ragged dick

And finally…

poem stranger

 

 

Now run to your bookshelves and put together your own poems!

Author Interview: Kathleen Kent

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, interview, reading, writing

kathleen kentAs part of my series of interviews with Historical Novels Society Conference Speakers, I today interview Kathleen Kent. Kathleen is the author of the bestselling novels, The Heretic’s Daughter and The Traitor’s Wife. At the conference, Kathleen will be participating in “The Witchcraft Window: Scrying the Past” panel discussion.

Question: What got you first interested in historical fiction?

Kathleen: When I was a child, my mother gave me a book on ancient Greek artifacts. Soon after, I started reading Mary Renault’s books and historical fiction became my time machine to the past.

Question: How do you find the people and topics of your books?

kent heretics daughterKathleen: My first two books, The Heretic’s Daughter and The Traitor’s Wife were based on my 9 times great grandmother, Martha Carrier, who was hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692. I grew up hearing stories of Martha and her family.

Question: Do you have an anecdote about reading or fan interaction you’d like to share?

kent traitors wifeKathleen: For the release of my second book, The Traitor’s Wife, I had a launch event in Salem, Mass. Over 250 fellow descendants of Martha Carrier—from all over the U.S.— attended to share their personal histories and stories that they had heard about Martha and her husband, Thomas Carrier.

Question: Can you tell us about your latest publication?

Kathleen: My third novel, The Outcasts, will be published this October. Set in 1870 Texas, the story follows both a young Texas State Policeman on the hunt for a serial killer, and a woman fleeing a life of prostitution to pose as a school teacher in a small Texas town.

Thanks, Kathleen!  For more about Kathleen Kent, visit her website, http://kathleenkent.com/

HNS Interview: Heather Webb

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, interview, reading, writing

Over the next few weeks, I will be featuring some of the speakers scheduled to present at the Historical Novels Society Conference  June 21-23 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Today I welcome Heather Webb, who will be on a panel discussing the “Virtual Salon: Historical Fiction Blogs” at the conference. This is my second interview with Heather Webb. You can read the first interview here.

Question: What got you first interested in historical fiction?

Heather: I’ve been fascinated by history all my life–the clothes, the gadgets heather webb(or lack there of), and the evolution of the human story. I credit my parents for much of this interest. My dad loved old epic movies like Ben Hur and Cleopatra, westerns, and war films, and my mom enjoyed museums, so my siblings and me spent loads of time learning about the past.

Question: How do you find the people and topics of your books?

Heather: My book topics are based on people who have always fascinated me. Also, I stumble upon new gems by accident during my research of a current project.

Question: Do you follow a specific writing and/or research process?

Heather: I research for at lease a couple months first and flesh out an outline and character maps. From there, I begin writing scenes and continue to research as I go.

Question: For you, what is the line between fiction and fact?

Heather: Gross errors of important dates that define a person’s life within the novel is the only thing I’d watch for. Otherwise, to me, fiction is fiction. Fact is fact. Writers are artists with their own interpretation of how events unfolded, the emotions and thoughts of the characters. It frustrates me to see people attack each other over differing elements in historicals. So what if the relationship may or may not have happened? It sure is fun to read and dream about. Factual accounts (which is impossible as none of us lived during these times that we write about), are nonfiction, not fiction.

Question: Where do you feel historical fiction is headed as a genre?

Heather: I think crossover elements will become more popular–fantasy elements, women’s fiction themes, mysteries and thrillers, rather than classic historical biographies or war novels.

Question: Is there an era/area that is your favorite to write about? How about to read?

Heather: I love to write about late 18th-19th century France. Revolutions, whether through war or in ideologies are fascinating to me and France’s history is rich in revolts of every kind. I love to read any era, as long as I fall in love with the characters. Right now I’m on an early 20th century kick.

Question: What are your favorite reads? Favorite movies? Dominating influences?

Heather: Favorite reads change over time for me and they aren’t all historical, but right now I’d say: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan. As for favorite films, my list is long, but I love artsy French films and most versions of those based on Jane Austen’s books. I could throw in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Silverlinings Playbook and the like, or the odd superhero film and I’m happy as a clam.

Question: Is there a writer, living or deceased, you would like to meet?

Heather: Josephine Bonaparte! But so so many more! I couldn’t possibly name them all.

Question: Can you tell us about your latest publication?

Heather: My debut Becoming Josephine be lead title for Plume/Penguin in January 2014 and has already been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal. I can’t tell you how excited I am! After years of hard work, it’s a dream come true! I bet Empress Josephine would be so pleased. 🙂

 

Discovering Georgette Heyer

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, reading

Georgette Heyer

 

A few weeks ago a member of a historical novels group I belong to asked the question, “Which author first turned you on to historical fiction?” Because I read all genres and always have, I don’t have anyone who made me want to focus on historical fiction as some readers in this group do. It wasn’t a good question for me. However, a lot of people in the group answered the question, and many said Georgette Heyer. I’d never heard of Georgette Heyer, but so many people said so many good things about her novels, I decided I better read her.

Georgette Heyer published in the 1940s and 1950s, and my public library has about twenty of her books. I checked out two at random and was delighted with what I found. Heyer writes Regency romances—romances in the way of Jane Austen, figuring heavily on character and manners, with hand-kissing being a daring show of affection. Her women are spirited and fun, her men easy to fall for. Many of her plots end in imbroglios that belong on the French stage.  My family is getting used to me laughing out loud while reading Heyer. Her stories are humorous and warm-hearted.

For me, there is a bittersweetness to reading Georgette Heyer. The stories are sweet, without any darkness, and they take place in England: my mother would have loved Georgette Heyer. Maybe she DID love Georgette Heyer! She most likely read her as a teenager. If my mother were alive, we would be talking about Georgette Heyer. Maybe she did not know her, and I would be able to recommend the books to her. More likely, she would remember how much she loved Georgette Heyer and begin to re-read her. We would have long telephone conversations about each book.

Each time I finish a Georgette Heyer, I have that floating-on-a-cloud feeling you get at the end of a well-crafted romance. I want to pick up the phone and call Mom. I can’t, of course, so I think about the many wonderful phone conversations about books we did have, and I feel lucky. Lucky and unlucky. I miss her like a lost limb.

Today would have been my mother’s 71st birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom.Betsy Caulfield

Syncopation’s Corner of the Book Fair

elizabethcaulfieldfelt Adele Hugo, author, blog hop, books, reading, Syncopation, writing

book fair graphic

Welcome to my corner of the Historical Novelists’ Four-Day Book Fair. About forty authors are participating, so be sure to visit many of the fair’s books.

This is the stall for Syncopation: A Memoir of Adèle Hugo

syncopation coverWriter. Composer. Seductress. Liar.

For humans there is only memory, and memory is unreliable.

In nineteenth-century France, a woman’s role was explicitly defined: she was a daughter, then a wife, then a mother. This view was held by novelist and poet Victor Hugo, but not by his daughter, pianist and poet Adèle Hugo. Under such constraints, what’s a woman of passion to do? Syncopation breathes life into the unconventional thoughts of this controversial female figure. An elderly Adèle recounts her desperate attempts to gain personal freedom. Her memoir blurs the fine line between truth and madness, in a narrative that is off-kilter, skewed, syncopated.

Order your copy of Syncopation, from Cornerstone Press.  Want to know more about the story?  Read on:

Prologue

To life there is a rhythm one knows from the womb. It begins as the beat of a mother’s heart–slow and steady and safe. An infant finds the pulse in its own heart and continues the rhythm in its needy sucking. The toddler pitter-pats to the rhythm, and the sound of the servants starting the day carry it through.  The pulse is in the wind and the laps of the waves from the Seine; birds sing it and squirrels chitter it; the very soil under out feet moans and groans to its pounding.

In perfect time, from an especially forceful contraction, the baby fell into waiting hands. She screamed in blows staccato and clear, slowing rhythmically to a docile cooing more in tune to her station in life. Adèle was born an angel to a family of gods. Her father, Victor, was a poet, playwright, and politician, brilliant and beloved by his countrymen. She was named for her mother, the first Adèle,the most beautiful woman in France. Her brothers, Charles and François-Victor, were handsome, strong, and clever. And her sister, Léopoldine, was a model eldest sibling—doting and tender, never scolding or haughty. Her skin was a translucent mountain stream: cool and fresh and clean; her generous black hair captured the light and returned it in a blue sheen which mocked the night sky; the moon would hide when Léopoldine went out at night, the orb’s beauty waning in her glow. She was sweet like marzipan, gentle like a summer breeze, flexible like a reed, warm like an old Bordeaux. Léopoldine was perfect like a pearl.

Firecrackers exploded and people shouted when Adèle was born. It was July 28, 1830, the middle day of Les Trois Glorieuses, the three-day revolution protesting the tyrannies of King Charles X. With such a birthday, one knew at once that Adèle was born for glory and fame.

The Hugo house was the first on the newly constructed rue Jean-Goujon, with the wide fields of the Champs-Elysée as their backyard. The family had everything one could desire: parkland to explore, books to read, a small black piano, and each other.

And then one day, as a unit, this perfect family gasped. Those who survived missed a half-beat from the breath of life. If it had been a whole note, they could have perhaps fallen back into the rhythm, but it was a half-beat. They syncopated. They moved out of step, off-kilter. Forever more, they would run and jump and dream and scream, but they would be unable to slip into that easy rhythm, that regular beat that keeps time for the world.

—What are you doing, Dédé?

—I’m writing my memoires, Didine.

—You’ve not written them in first person, Dédé. Why do you write Adèle as if you are not Adèle?

—It is necessary. I will have more freedom in third person. I can explore the minds of others; I can write about places I have not been.

—Do you think that is a good idea?

—If I thought it were a bad idea, I would not do it.

–Au contraire, responded Didine.  You would do it exactly because it is a bad idea. I see a sparkle in your eye at the idea of committing mayhem. These “memoires” will surely make people angry.

—Who will become angry? All of the people who might become angry are dead.

—They have left behind children. The children will surely try to stop you.

—Stop the truth? I feel an obligation to let the truth be known.

—Whose truth? asked Didine.

—Is there not but one truth? responded Dédé.

—Perhaps for God. For humans there is only memory and memory is unreliable.

Thanks for visiting my virtual book fair stall.  From here, I recommend visiting Cornerstone Press and checking out other authors’ virtual stalls.

Interview with Victor Hugo

elizabethcaulfieldfelt Adele Hugo, author, books, interview, poetry, reading, Syncopation, writing
Victor Hugo portrait by Leon Bonnat
Victor Hugo portrait by Leon Bonnat

Today I’m welcoming Victor Hugo to my series of author interviews. Victor is the French author, playwright and poet of many works, such as the plays Hernani and Ruy Blas, the novels, Les Misérables and Notre Dame de Paris (sometimes called The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and many collections of poetry, including Feuilles d’automne, Châtiments and des Contemplations.

Elizabeth: Welcome, Victor.

Victor: Thank you for having me.

Elizabeth: Your novel, Les Misérables, was converted more than twenty-five years ago into a very successful musical play and most recently into a movie. What do you think of these adaptations?

Victor: It’s an honor for my work to be sought out in this way. I feel that Les Misérables is one of my greatest achievements and for it to be brought to new generations is rewarding. I think it might have been more effective, though, if it had been done as a serious play. As many of your readers may know, I don’t care for music as an art form. Making my characters sing and dance creates an aura of superficiality and flightiness, making it seem as though these events could never have happened in real life, which is disappointing. It lessens the message of the novel.

Elizabeth: Did you realize that many who view the play Les Mis believe the stand at the barricades was a part of the French revolution?

Victor: Is this true? Pathetic. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But don’t quote ME on this. I’m not really the one who said it.

Elizabeth: Which authors do you see as having influenced your writing?

Victor: Goethe is the first name that comes to mind. He revolutionized what it meant to be a writer; he understood the depth of ideas and emotion that could be transferred through a written work. Who else? I’m quoted as saying, at age fourteen, “I must be Chateaubriand or nobody,” although I don’t remember saying it. I met Chateaubriand once.  He was a belittling, arrogant man.

Elizabeth: You’ve written plays, poetry, novels and essays. Is there a format you prefer?

Victor: Not really. Each has a distinct purpose. A writer should know his purpose before writing and then choose the format that will help him accomplish it. A play has an immediacy not found in other genres; it creates a community of the audience who can be moved all together. A novel can create a depth of emotion difficult to sustain in other formats, and its ability to thoroughly express and share complicated ideas is unparalleled. I find, in my old age, that poetry most suits me now. I’m more reflective than I was in my youth, and I don’t feel the need to make grand, passionate statements that move a people to action. Through poetry I can thank God and my family for what I have and what I’ve learned about live. Hopefully others can read my poems and glean some small wisdom.

Elizabeth: If I may, I’d like to ask you some questions about your daughter.

Victor: Yes, of course. Léopoldine was perfection. I think I always recognized her as an angel, but I didn’t realize her time with us would be so short. I never fully recovered from her death.

Elizabeth: I didn’t mean Léopoldine. I want to ask you about Adèle.

Victor: Adèle? Who put you up to this? I refuse to talk about Adèle. In fact, you can consider this the end of —

Elizabeth: We don’t have to discuss Adèle; I’m sorry for bringing her up. In fact, I believe its time for the let’s-get-to-know-the-author-better, nearly-pointless, sort-of-silly, rapid-fire questions:

Elizabeth: Coffee or tea?

Victor: Coffee. Tea is for wimpy Englishmen.

Elizabeth: Forest or mountain?

Victor: Through forest I will walk, o’er mountain I will fly

Elizabeth: Hiking or shopping?

Victor: Hiking. I’m always telling my wife and daughters that they shop too much.

Elizabeth: Violin or piano?

Victor: I’d rather silence.

Elizabeth: Mystery or fantasy?

Victor: Fantasy. This may surprise you, but I wish that I’d written the Lord of the Rings. Perhaps in another life I am J.R.R. Tolkien.

Elizabeth: Hester Prynne or Scarlet O’Hara?

Victor: Both.

Elizabeth: Love scene or death scene?

Victor: In real life, the love scene; I’m working to avoid the death scene.

I’d like to thank Victor Hugo for joining me today.

Wait!

Victor Hugo died on May 23, 1885. This isn’t a real interview: it is an April Fools’ Day interview!

Thanks for playing along.  I hope you enjoyed meeting my Victor Hugo character. Although this interview was a piece of historical fiction, Victor did indeed write the books, plays and poems named above. He was the father of four children, all but one of whom he outlived. His “crazy” daughter Adèle stars in my novel, Syncopation.

I’ve been studying Victor Hugo and his work for several decades, and so for many of his answers I allowed myself to “channel” his thoughts. If you want accurate information about Victor Hugo, I suggest going somewhere more credible than a blog!

I recommend: Johanna Richardson’s Victor Hugo, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1976.

Leslie Smith Dow’s Adèle Hugo La Misérable published by Goose Lane Editions in 1993.

My favorite quick source for all things French is my Petit Larousee Illustré, 1987.

Thanks for joining me today and have a Happy April Fools’ Day!

Publishing a Story Before It’s Finished

elizabethcaulfieldfelt books, reading, writing

Ack!

I just finished another unfinished series.  I find it so frustrating to become engrossed in a story only to have the last page not be the end of the story.

Ack!

Forgetting for a minute my frustration as a reader, I have to ask,

“How do writers do this?”

When I write, I often return to earlier parts of my story to add or delete or change things so that they will work with later parts of the story.  I can’t imagining publishing the first half and being unable to alter it.

I am amazed by writers who have their stories so well constructed in their heads that they can publish the first parts without having finished the later parts.  I’d be petrified.

As a reader, I hate this system!!  I read a book, I love the book–but it isn’t finished.  I have to wait a year?  I won’t remember the story in a year!  Re-read the books, get the new book, and it isn’t finished either??!!?

Ack!

Knowing all this, I still some how can’t stop myself from picking up a recommended book and getting into this predicament.  My most recent frustration is the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (which I highly recommend, despite the fact that is a series of four books with only two currently available).

cinderCinder is the first book, a sci-fi, young adult Cinderella-story.  Obviously marketed to the young adult female reader, I’m working to get my sons to read them.  There’s a lot in here for boys to like too. Action-packed with really cool technology and humor too.

The second in the series just came out in February and is called Scarlet.  This story continues the Cinderella story, but also introduces us to Scarlet and an altered Little Red Riding Hood story. scarletWolf is as hard for us to figure out as he is for Scarlet.  He’s genetically altered and scary, but sometimes kind and gentle. Cool story.

I’ve read that the third book will be called Cress and feature a Rapunzel-like character.

My advice to Marissa Meyer?  Hurry Up!

Need I remind anyone of The Name of the Wind series by Patrick Rothfuss and how frustrating that wait has been….continues to be…..