So, you might be wondering, where have I been since June 18th? (Yup, this blog has been dark for that long!) The short answer: I finished my novel THE LILY MAID. The amount of work involved was all encompassing—the final draft came to 113,000 words or 392 pages. The manuscript was handed into my literary agent Monday. Hopefully she’ll like it! So far, she’s only read a synopsis of it.

Since finishing the manuscript, I’ve been engaging in lots of staring at walls and all around decompression and trying not to obsess about What’s Next. Writing THE LILY MAID has been one of the more intense creative experiences of my life. For now, it’s good to have a break to let the creative wells refill before I embark on further book revisions and other projects.

It’s perfect timing that my guest for today’s Creativity Friday is an author who’s been through the novel-writing experience twice—Catherine Delors. She’s generously agreed to answer some of my questions about her creative process. I originally “met” Catherine when my book DOOMED QUEENS was published and she interviewed me on her wonderful blog Versailles and More. I’m thrilled to host her in return.

The focus of my interview today is Catherine’s just-released novel, FOR THE KING (Dutton Books). FOR THE KING takes readers through the dark alleys and glittering salons of post-revolutionary Paris. It is a romantic thriller, a tale of love, betrayal and redemption. On Christmas Eve 1800, a bomb explores along Bonaparte’s route, narrowly missing him but striking dozens of bystanders. Chief Inspector Roch Miquel, a young policeman with a bright future and a beautiful mistress, must arrest the assassins before they attack again. Complicating Miquel’s investigation are the maneuverings of his superior, the redoubtable Fouché, the indiscretions of his own father, a former Jacobin, and two intriguing women. (Full disclosure: I worked with Catherine to create the book video for FOR THE KING. You can watch it on YouTube here.)

We’re giving away a copy of it to one lucky blog commenter. Rules are posted after the interview.

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Kris Waldherr: One of the things which has most impressed me about FOR THE KING is the amazing amount of historical detail you interweave within it. It’s quite astonishing! Your late father was a history professor. I can’t help but wonder about your own research methodology—was it influenced by him? How do you approach researching your novels? Do you do a lot of research in archives?

Catherine Delors: Thank you, Kris! Fortunately, my father lived long enough for us to discuss on many occasions my first novel, MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION, before his death. He always emphasized the importance of researching archives. I now realize how right he was on this point. And I would have loved to discuss FOR THE KING with him, in particular what I discovered about Fouché’s involvement in the Rue Nicaise bombing.

KW: As an author, I find that there are certain types of scenes that I find easier to write, others less so—for example, since I’m also an artist, I can get totally lost in writing visual descriptions! What was your favorite part of FOR THE KING to write? Favorite character to write scenes for? (I assume that would be your protagonist, Roch, but maybe not?)

CD: Well, I write descriptions because I cannot help it, but I much prefer writing dialog. In FOR THE KING, my protagonists, Roch and Blanche, were the most difficult to write. I really had fun with two of my villains, Fouché and Short Francis.

KW: You are French yet your novels are written in English. What are the challenges involved in doing this—especially since you’re writing about French history? Do you have a preference for writing in either language?

CD: I write French legal briefs, but have never penned any fiction in my native language! I should like to do that someday.

KW: Both MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION and FOR THE KING are set during volatile periods in history, before and after the French Revolution. Like your fellow historical fiction author Sandra Gulland, French history appears to be your métier. Do you have ever have fantasies of writing about a different historical period or even a different country? If so, what and why?

CD: Oh, yes! My next two projects are firmly rooted in the 18th century, but I have a long-cherished dream of writing about certain medieval historical character. A very important, yet now very obscure man…

KW: MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION was your first book; FOR THE KING your second. Did you find it easier the second time around? What are the difficulties of writing a second novel? Did you feel pressured after the wonderful reception of MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION?

CD: I found my second novel more difficult to write than the first. I believe it is not an unusual experience. Your first novel has a feeling of innocence about it. You simply go for it. With the second novel, you have learned much about both the craft of writing and the business of publishing. You worry whether the readers who loved your first book will follow you with this one. You wonder whether is it as compelling.

To give you an example, Kris, the initial draft of MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION was 315,000 words long. I had no idea of standard word counts at the time. (Editor’s note: Publishers expect historical fiction novels to be 90,000 to 120,000 words in length.) In retrospect I feel the novel was better in its long version (but then I love to read very, very long books myself.) Yet, to be blunt, in the real world a debut novel of this length is not publishable. So I had to cut it down to less than half of its length. Some parts may feel rushed now, especially the beginning. So be it, it was the price to pay to get it published.

So with FOR THE KING I paid much attention to my word count from day one. I did not want to have to cut into the flesh of the novel this time around. When I reached 80,000 words, I knew I had 20,000 words to wind down the story, and I stuck to that limit. It was an excellent exercise in writerly discipline for me, though it made it less of a spontaneous adventure. The upside was that, when it landed into my editor’s inbox, there was no more talk of cutting for the sake of cutting.

I am not moaning about the exigencies of publishing, by the way. Arbitrary material constraints have always ruled the business. English novelists in the 19th century were bound, so to speak, by the three-volume format. This did not prevent them from writing works we still enjoy today, long after the triple-deckers were consigned to the trash heap of publishing history.

KW: This is a question that I ask all my author guests: What advice would you give to writers working on novels (specifically historical fiction)? As the saying goes, hindsight is best sight: What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

CD: The only rule a writer needs to remember is to back up her work as often as possible. The best, most successful novels breach the rules you find in “how to” manuals. Once I completed the manuscript of MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION and began querying agents, I followed a well-respected site (no names named) for a few weeks, and believed its information, given in a very authoritative tone. Once I secured my own agent and got to know the real world of publishing, I realized how misleading the information was on that site. Yet I see many unpublished writers trust such self-appointed authorities. My advice: forget about “the rules” and concentrate on your writing.

As for historical novelists, they are no different from other writers, except on one point: they must thoroughly research their subject, and present an accurate version of the past.

KW: Another writing question: One thing you’ve also mentioned to me is the difficulties in finalizing a book ending. I know that you mentioned changing the ending to FOR THE KING. Can you tell us a little bit about that process? Were you happy with the final ending?

CD: No, I was not happy. The initial ending was more dramatic, darker than the one I eventually wrote. FOR THE KING explores some rather unsavory corners of the human soul, of politics, of 1800 Paris.  I felt the novel needed a happy ending of sorts to balance that. It simply felt right, it left things more open. Come to think of it, I only did that in my last rewrite, but misgivings about the ending had been lurking on my mind for a long time.

KW: Your “From Unpublished to Published” is a wonderful resource on your website detailing your journey to publishing MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. I especially appreciate that you included the successful query letter that netted you your agent—a very generous gift. Now that you’re a bit further down the road with FOR THE KING, is there any new advice you’d add to this mix?

CD: Oh yes! Unpublished writers focus a tremendous deal of energy on the dream of publication, rightly so. But they should know this is only a first step in a literary career. The hard work begins AFTER your book is completed and you find a publisher.

KW: I follow you on Twitter. Several months ago, you had mentioned that you have two new books underway, just as I do. (Indeed, we joked that it’s like being pregnant with twins!) Is this still the case? Or has one book “won” out over the other? Can you share with us what these books are about? Will they also take place in French history? What can we look forward to reading next from you?

CD: Yes, we are both pregnant with twins. I am writing the prequel to MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. It too is a historical thriller, the story of a serial killer in the mountains of Auvergne, twenty years before the French Revolution. And I am also working on a book on Jane Austen. The latter requires a tremendous amount of sleuthing in far-ranging archives, so the thriller/prequel will probably be completed first.

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Thank you, Catherine, for this wonderfully inspiring and generous interview! As I mentioned above, Catherine and Dutton Books have offered us a delctable copy of FOR THE KING to raffle off here. To win it, simply leave a comment by midnight, July 29, 2010.

The rules: Only one comment per person. Small print: Book can only be shipped to U.S. or Canadian mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here July 30.

Good luck to all!

Tomorrow evening marks the world premiere of composer Robert Paterson’s new music composition The Book of Goddesses. It will be performed by by the MAYA trio in a free concert that includes live video by Mark Alan Johnson incorporating images from my book of the same name. (The composition is based on my book of the same name.) There is a free wine reception after the concert — it should be a great evening!

Here’s information about the concert:

Date: Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Time: 8:00pm – 9:30pm
Where: Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South (West 4th St bet. Sullivan and Thompson Sts.), New York, NY

MAYA, the trio of John Hadfield, percussion; Jacqueline Kerrod, harp; Sato Moughalian flute, will be presented by JudsonArts, at 55 Washington Square South, New York, in a program of new works, featuring four world-premiere performances on Tuesday, June 8 at 8 PM. Admission is free.

The concert is a co-presentation of JudsonArts, Michael Conley, Director, and Perspectives Ensemble. Generous support for these commissions came from The New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum, and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Additional support for the performance comes from the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and The Foundation for Iberian Music.

PROGRAM

different voices together (2010) • Premiere • Yotam Haber
(commissioned for MAYA by the Jerome Foundation) (b. 1977)

The Book of Goddesses (2010) • Premiere • Robert Paterson
(commissioned for MAYA by the NYS Council on the Arts) (b. 1970)
I. Sarasvati
II. Xi Wang Mu
III. Aphrodite
IV. Brigit
V. Estanatlehi
VI. Xochiquetzal
VII. Oya
VIII. Yemayá
IX. The Muses

Theoretical Wall (2010) • Premiere • John Hadfield
Sisters (b. 1976)

ASKLEPIOS (2010) • Premiere • Gabriel Erkoreka
(commissioned for MAYA by the Spanish Ministry of Culture) (b. 1969)
Bolgar Gypsy Horo trad. Hungarian Romani/
Kalman Balogh
Arr. Gregg August/MAYA

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If you live in the NYC area, I hope you can make it! I plan to attend with my family — exciting!

Reminder: Tomorrow night is journalist Sharon Lerner’s reading for her new book, THE WAR ON MOMS: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation. Sharon is a fellow mom in my neighborhood, so I can testify from personal experience that she walks the walk as well as talks the talk. Her book has been garnering much attention — this is a hot button issue for many. I’m so pleased to be having Sharon at the gallery!

More about Sharon’s book: THE WAR ON MOMS is battlefield reporting on the widespread, brutal realities facing most American women today: the lack of paid maternity leave, the dearth of decent part-time work options, and the shortage of good, affordable childcare options. While there are many recent books about high-earning professionals mothers, this book focuses instead on the vast majority of women who can’t buy their way out of these dilemmas. It tells the truth that overworked, stressed-out American moms need to hear: that they’re not alone — and they’re not to blame.

Praise for THE WAR ON MOMS:

“A stinging account of how public policy and private businesses have failed to adapt to working mothers. Read it and weep at European family-friendly policies, like Sweden’s guarantee that parents can work reduced hours until their child is 8. Or read it and be grateful, perhaps, that you have it a lot easier than many others.”
— Jennifer Ludden, National Correspondent, NPR

“Sharon Lerner has turned her guns on the futility of the swanky “Mommy Wars” to reveal that the real war on mommies has little to do with wealthy women who opt-out or the quest for the perfect au pair…. Every mom who worries about managing a workload, a home, and a family needs to read this book. The laundry can wait.”
— Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor, Slate

Live in the NYC area? Here’s the info to attend the reading:

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7 pm
AUTHORS AT THE GALLERY: Sharon Lerner
Book Event and Author Q&A
Free admission. Refreshments provided.

Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811
subway to Newkirk Avenue: Q 0r B train
street parking is available.

If you don’t live in NYC, we’ll be livestreaming this event starting at 7:15 pm EST at this link. We’ll be able to take your comments and questions for Sharon on this important and sometimes polarizing subject.

As a mother of a small child who struggles to balance everything myself, I’m excited that my gallery will be providing a forum for Sharon’s book.

On a related note, we have other author events coming up online and at the gallery. Journalist Sharon Lerner (THE WAR ON MOMS) will visit the gallery June 4th for the next installation of our Authors at the Gallery series. Don’t live in the NYC area? This event will be livestreamed and archived. In July, we’ll have a blog interview and book giveaway with Catherine Delors, author of the upcoming novel FOR THE KING which is already garnering rave reviews. I’m really looking forward to hosting Sharon and Catherine.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, The Novel now has a title, THE LILY MAID. Since it’s set in 1880’s Victorian England during the Aesthetics Movement, I’m having a lot of fun describing the clothes. How did Aesthetic (also known as Artistic) dress differ from the rest of Victorian society? Think of an upholstered sofa and the many permutations they can take on.

You can have this:

Or this:

Now translate these into women’s clothing. Here’s the typical 1880’s Victorian woman’s silhouette, complete with bustle and corset:

And her Aesthetic dress companion:

Costume photographs © Victoria and Albert Museum.

Note the lack of corsets and stays, the loose hair. Imagine how freeing — and transgressive — this must have felt to ladies of that era! They could breathe and move! In many ways Aesthetic clothing was a predecessor to the Rational Dress Society, though the two movements do overlap in time. Interestingly, another inspiration for Aesthetic dress was the Italian Renaissance, which also fed the imagery of the Pre-Raphaelites. Note the high waistline, the drape of the sleeve.

In Victorian England, the foremost purveyors of Aesthetic-style clothing was Liberty & Co, now still in business as Liberty of London. I was deeply amused to recently come across ready-to-wear Liberty of London dresses at Target; I immediately snapped up two of them so I could dress in character as I write. How could I resist?

Here’s a description of Aesthetic dress from THE LILY MAID:

[The gowns] were all cut in the loose, quasi-medieval Aesthetic manner without stays or bustle, like many of the clothes I’d gaped at from afar at Liberty & Co. They were a revelation; I felt as though I could breathe and move unconstrained. Two were decorated with embroidery, mainly of a floral nature. Another bore beading around the necklines and elaborately smocked cuffs. As I viewed myself in the mirror, I felt transformed into another milieu, another class. I felt strange and was mildly embarrassed at my display – I looked more akin to those peacock feathers she kept in a vase than myself.

…. Several ladies ceased their conversation to stare at us. We stared back. Compared to myself and Nessa’s aesthetic-style dress, these women looked like upholstered sofas, tucked and draped and padded from their generous bustles to leg o’ mutton sleeves.”

Next weekend, I’ll be off on a writer’s retreat in an attempt to tie up the remainder of THE LILY MAID’s first draft. I don’t know how successful I’ll be, but I’m excited to try. Wish me luck!

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* This is part of an ongoing occasional series of posts about inspiration for the two books I’m working on right now. The first is THE LILY MAID, a novel. The second book is a nonfiction follow up to DOOMED QUEENS. Read previous posts here, here, and here.

…in Tarot Tips, the official newsletter of The Tarot School. Art and Words is their featured blog for their May 15th issue.

I’m very pleased by this honor! Here’s what was written:

Creator of the Goddess Tarot, The Lovers Tarot, and illustrator of the Anubis Oracle Deck and several new decks on the way, Kris Waldherr is a prolific artist and writer. Her blog and site features her personal journey of the creative process. Very cool for all aspiring authors!”

If you don’t already subscribe to Tarot Tips, you can do so here.

In other news:

~ There’s just one more day to enter Stephanie Cowell’s CLAUDE & CAMILLE book giveaway.

~ Related note: I’ll have reviews of CLAUDE & CAMILLE and DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL on this blog in June. They’re both wonderful novels — I highly recommend them!

~ I’m pleased to have worked with C. W. Gortner on the video for his new historical fiction novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI. It comes out May 25th. Publication day is almost here — congratulations, Christopher! I hope it sells gazillions of copies. (Watch the video on YouTube here.)

~ On the work front, there’s lots going on as usual. My main project right now: I’m hunkered down in an attempt to finally finally finish the first draft of The Novel. Toward that end, I’ll be going away on a writer’s retreat Memorial Day weekend (similar to what I did in January when I went to Montreal). A very generous and kind friend is loaning me her house outside Boston for the weekend. Wish me luck!

~ And The Novel finally has a title: THE LILY MAID. It’s a quote from a poem in Tennyson’s IDYLLS OF THE KING, one of my inspirations for The Novel.

Maybe I’ll see you there tomorrow?

Here’s the information:

Friday, May 14, 7-9:30 pm
CREATIVE WOMEN’S NETWORKING SALON
Suggested admission $5. Refreshments provided.

Our fourth salon! Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation,inspiration, and wine. At our previous gatherings, we were joined by photographers, crafters, editors, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. We also had a lot of fun.

This event takes place at:
Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue
(entrance on Marlborough Road, across from the Rite Aid)
347-406-5811
http://www.artandwords.com/events.html

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PS: The CLAUDE & CAMILLE giveaway has been extended for another week! You can enter to win a copy of this wonderful novel by Stephanie Cowell here.

For today’s Creativity Friday, I’m thrilled to have as my guest acclaimed historical fiction novelist Stephanie Cowell. Stephanie’s luminous novels feature the passions and struggles as well as the intimate daily world of artists, writers and musicians of the past: Claude Monet half a century before he painted the water lilies (CLAUDE & CAMILLE), the unmarried Mozart choosing between four musical sisters (MARRYING MOZART), Shakespeare leaving his resentful family in Stratford to try make it as a playwright in London (THE PLAYERS). She is currently writing a novel about a much-loved writer from the nineteenth century — but more about that below.

Stephanie was also a guest at the gallery last month as part of our as part of our ongoing Authors at the Gallery series. It was so inspiring to meet her in person! (Her reading is available to watch here.)

My interview today is about her just-released novel, CLAUDE & CAMILLE (Crown Books). CLAUDE & CAMILLE relates the not-so-well-known tragic love story of the young, unknown Claude Monet and his great love and muse Camille Doncieux. I thoroughly enjoyed it and think you will too. So we’re giving away a copy of it to one lucky blog commenter. (Rules are posted after the interview.)

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Kris Waldherr: You’ve mentioned viewing the Impressionist paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as an inspiration for CLAUDE & CAMILLE. Was there a particular “eureka” moment that led you to discovering the story of Monet’s first wife and muse, Camille Doncieux?

Stephanie Cowell: Well, not, actually! I fell in love with the friendships of the men there. Of course my husband-to-be was with me, his hand on my shoulder (which was a most entrancing feeling as we had just recently met), so the feeling of love was in the air. I had a sense Monet had loved passionately but I don’t remember a picture of Camille there. Someone just told me they had “Women in the Garden.” How could I not recall it? I recall the strong feeling that he was about to fall intensely in love.

KW: CLAUDE & CAMILLE is quite the delectable tearjerker — Camille is such a quicksilver, tragic muse of a character! What was the hardest part about writing about her? What did you find most compelling? Most difficult?

SC: Camille was the most difficult character in the book and the last to develop into a full, complex character. In an early version she was just a sweet young thing from a poverty background, but when I learned her background was upper-class it made a difference. When I was in my early 20’s I knew a few girls, one who kept lying because she wanted to appear fascinating and then didn’t know truth from fiction and a few (me too) who threw away good homes to live in poverty and wash diapers by hand, feeling we were among the genuine people. My editor kept coaxing Camille from me during the editorial stage and she just grew into something we both didn’t expect. Her terror of growing older, her secret letters to an unknown man…that sort of all came to flower (so to speak) towards the end of the writing process.

KW: One of the things I loved about CLAUDE & CAMILLE is the visceral sense of nineteenth century Paris you’ve evoked — the artists’ gatherings with their rough red wine, the scrounging for oil paint, the renting of model’s clothing, and so on. It’s all very La Bohéme. Can you describe your research process? How long did it take? Do you research before you begin to write?

SC: Research takes place before, during and then after in a way. You keep adding things. I love to find bits of daily life and stick them in. I guess I was researching the whole time. Various biographers had different opinions of the characters, and of Camille herself there was very little known at all. I worked with old photographs and paintings and many books. I walked the streets of Paris where Claude had walked and I went to Giverny. At one point in the book, I only had Claude young in the years before he had heard of Giverny (he did not rent that house until he was 43, after Camille dies); a close friend said, “You must go there to see what he became.” And I did and oddly…I felt so proud of him! I murmured under my breath, “Claude, see what you managed to achieve with your work!” I hope no one else heard me.

KW: Before you became a novelist you spent years as a singer and musician — I’m sure this must have been useful to you in your previous novel, MARRYING MOZART. For CLAUDE & CAMILLE, was your arts background helpful when it came to writing about visual artists? Or was it a challenge? Did you find yourself making certain assumptions about their artist process that turned out to be not as applicable as you first thought?

SC: I had grown up with art, with the smell of brushes and the shape of the easel against the window, but I had no gift to paint or draw. I have been fascinated all my life with changing light and shadow and perspective. Light across a field or above a river can send me into tears of joys, as can peeled stucco on an old Italian house. In the winter I watch as the stone drinks the light. So I had seen other painters and one day I went to hang out in the Art Students League where my mother had taught and listened to the conversations. I had a few painter friends read the book to make sure nothing was too off. I understood Claude’s compulsion. As to music, I had sung parts of Mimi and Musetta in La Bohéme and particularly the scene where Mimi loses her key and the young writer and seamstress fall in love in the shabby studio to some of the most glorious music ever written for lovers. I wanted to create that kind of unreasonable passionate love.

KW: Mozart and Monet are such iconic men — it’s hard to imagine them as anything but great artists influencing much of European culture. What similarities did you find writing about Claude Monet and Mozart? Differences?

SC: Oh goodness! Well, they were both very impractical about money; they wanted to live like lower nobility or at least, in Monet’s case, petite bourgeois. They both had compulsions. I think Mozart had more of a sense of humor and was used to presenting himself before kings dressed in gorgeous clothes since the age of six. Mozart’s father devoted himself to him and guided his son’s genius.  And in the 1770’s there were good jobs for musicians/composers. Every good church needed one; every nobleman or archbishop had his orchestra and wanted a new symphony for a wedding or something; they needed new operas like we need new movies (and books, one hopes!)  Monet’s father was against his becoming an artist and by then there were no guaranteed places or incomes for new artists. The photograph had come and all the churches were already painted the century before. And Paris was flooded with a thousand artists. There were very few patrons. Mozart had lots of rich patrons; it took Monet until his forties to find any.

Then of course Mozart was surrounded by the happy family of his wife, even though his father wished he had not married. At thirty he was making a fortune and surrounded  by those who loved him. At thirty Monet was near destitute and about to go into exile to London where thing would be worse.

KW: I’ll ask the same question that I asked Mary Sharrett last month: What advice would you give to writers working on novels (specifically historical fiction)? As the saying goes, hindsight is best sight: What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

SC: I wish I had known how hard it was! I mean, what diligence you need and what a challenge the actual business of writing can be. But I’d say if a writer wants to do this, what a joy it can be! Forming a  few characters, a place, a dish, warm weather, a hat, a quarrel maybe and there is something living on the page. And when someone else reads and loves your story, it is indescribable. I have not quite taken it in…and I can’t really, because each reader has their different ways and reasons for loving a story. It’s a shared intimacy.

KW: I’ve heard that your next book is a novel about the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. What inspired you to feature a female protagonist after several books featuring male historical figures? How has writing this book differ from writing CLAUDE & CAMILLE? And, finally, when can we expect to read it?

SC: I have wanted a female protagonist for a long time. I found it easier to write about men and maybe more fascinating, as I always like to know what makes each one tick! And in historical times when a woman is brilliant, so much of the book is about her defying the system to express herself.  Of course each book is different than another book, but in CLAUDE & CAMILLE, Camille can’t wait to defy her loving patents and live the life she wants; Elizabeth has a hard time even marrying because she does not want to displease her father or desert her family. And their moral standards! I am dealing with Victorians here where propriety is everything, not the Bohemian French world where they live as their hearts tell them.  When will the novel be expected? With good luck it will be in bookstores in two years. We’ll see!!

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Thank you, Stephanie, for an amazing interview! As I mentioned above, Stephanie has generously given us a copy of CLAUDE & CAMILLE to raffle off here. To win it, simply leave a comment by midnight, MAY 20, 2010.

The rules: Only one comment per person. However, to spice things up, for an extra entry tell me who is one of your favorite artists and why. He or she doesn’t have to be an Impressionist or nineteenth century artist. I’ll start off: Though it’s difficult to choose just one, one of my favorite artists is Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Why? Not because he’s such a great draftsman — his drawings are seriously wonky. Nor are many of his later paintings particularly tasteful (Bocca Baciata anyone?). But I can’t resist the over-the-top passion he brought to his paintings and drawings. I’m also enthralled with the stories associated with him and his Pre-Raphaelite cohort.

Small print: Book can only be shipped to U.S. or Canadian mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here May 21. Good luck to all!

This Creativity Friday, I am fortunate to have acclaimed author Mary Sharratt as my guest. Mary’s novel DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL was recently released to a bouquet of glowing praise included a coveted starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. I’ll be posting a review of it soon. Short version: DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL is a spell-binding novel, rich and evocative and very moving. Frankly, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in some time. As I read it, I found myself tearing up at the beauty of her writing as well as at the unrelenting hardness of her main characters’ lives.

DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL is Mary’s fourth novel. She is a writer who traffics in myth and magic and folklore — in other words, the manna of my existence. DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL is set during the infamous Pendle witch trials of 1612. It reveals the true story of Bess Southerns, aka Old Demdike, cunning woman, healer and the most notorious of the Pendle witches, and of Alizon Device, her granddaughter, struggling to come to terms with her family’s troubling legacy. Last month, I was thrilled to host a reading for Mary during her and Jos’s recent visit to New York City — we had a wonderful time. (BTW, the reading is available to watch here as part of our ongoing Authors at the Gallery series.)

In this interview, Mary generously shares with us her experience writing DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL —a process inspired by the Lancashire area in which she lives with her husband Jos and horse Boushka: the story of the Pendle Witches unfolded almost literally in her backyard. She also offers wonderful advice for aspiring authors.

More good news: we’re giving away a copy of DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL to one lucky blog commentor. Details at the end of this post. You can also read an excerpt from the novel here; there’s also a wonderful YouTube video featuring Mary and her horse here.

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Kris Waldherr: DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL offers a revisionist version of the Pendle witch trials. I know you spent a lot of time researching and examining the original documents from the trial. How close is your novel to history? How much was invented? Was there any plot point which you changed for the sake of creating a stronger book?

Mary Sharratt: All the major characters and events in this novel are drawn from the primary source material, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, court clerk Thomas Potts’s account of the 1612 Lancashire Witch Trials. I also drew on recent scholarship on historical cunning folk and witches in Early Modern Britain, and on the sweeping social changes emerging from the Reformation. Owen Davies’s Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History, Emma Wilby’s Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, Ronald Hutton’s The Rise and Fall of Merry England, and Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars were huge inspirations to me. All the charms and spells mentioned in the book are based on documented Lancashire folk magic, taken either from the primary source material or from John Harland and T.T. Wilkinson’s book Lancashire Folklore.

I remained as true to history as I could while trying to craft a dramatic plot structure. But I have taken some fictional liberties. There were so many different Nutter families involved in the story, that I had to change the surnames of all but accused witch Alice Nutter’s immediate family to avoid confusion. I also had to change some first names since there were so many Annes and Johns and Elizabeths that even I became confused. Perhaps the biggest liberty I took was making Mother Demdike the illegitimate offspring of the Nowell clan—this is pure fiction on my part with no known basis in fact.

KW: Many fiction writers talk about the challenges involved in crafting the right voice for their characters, especially when a novel is written in first person. In DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL I found the individual voices you concocted stunningly evocative and heartbreaking, especially for Bess Southerns, or Mother Demdike. I could really sense her physical limitations, her struggles. What was your process in creating these women of Pendle? Did you struggle with individuating them?

MS: Before the actual writing of the first draft came months of research and note taking while I tried to work out who the narrator would be. After much reflection, I concluded that Mother Demdike was the catalyst, the one whose personality stood out most strongly. As I wrote the first draft, her voice just seemed to emerge organically from the primary source material and even from the land itself, her native land that I walked each day, mulling over her story in my head. Her voice came very clearly as I wrote down the tale. Later I encountered a hitch when her voice suddenly stopped and the writing process stalled. And then Alizon’s younger, more uncertain voice took over and I realized that if Old Mother Demdike started the tale, young Alizon would spin it to its end.

KW: Of these characters, who was easiest to write? Who was your favorite, or that you identified with the most? Why?

MS: Both voices, once I had “found” them, just seemed to flow with a will of their own. I passionately love both women for different reasons. Bess for her indomitable strength and will and love. She is the epitome of a woman whose character was so strong that others found her scary. Alizon was more hesitant, uncertain, and doubtful, and I identified with her uncertainties, her questing for the deeper meaning of all her family had to endure.

KW: These women’s lives are incredibly difficult — toward the beginning of the book, Bess begs for food until she becomes aware of her healing gifts, which brings her a better life for a while. So much of her family’s rise and fall was tied into King James’ obsession with the occult. Did other women (or men) have similar experiences (whether or not they were practicing witchcraft)?

MS: Whether or not common folk had reputations as witches or cunning folk, they had a hard struggle for survival in East Lancashire. One bad harvest could result in famine and starvation.

East Lancashire had long been a poor backwater, never very prosperous as far as agriculture was concerned—the land was better for grazing than for farming. This was why, in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was born here. There were many hands and not enough paid work. These common people, struggling to feed their families, provided the cheap labor for the world’s first industrial cotton mills.

KW: Bess has a rather intense relationship with her familiar, a seductive male named Tibb who also appears as a hound. Only she can view and hear him, though. What did you make of Tibb? Did you think he was real? Or a hallucination? What parallels, if any, are there between Bess’s relationship with her familiar and the shaman’s relationship with the spirit world as healers?

MS: Modern people are allowed their skepticism, but for people in Bess’s era, the spirit world seemed very near—an active presence in daily life. Tibb was real indeed, as far as Bess was concerned.

In traditional English folk magic, no cunning man or cunning woman could work their charms without the aid of their familiar spirit—they needed this otherworldly ally to make things happen. Emma Wilby’s book, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, is a comprehensive scholarly study of cunning folk in Early Modern Britain and their perceived relationship with their familiar spirits. She has drawn some interesting parallels between cunning folk and shamans in tribal societies, and has even compared a cunning person’s life-long relationship with their familiar spirit to that of Siberian shamans’ relationships with their spirit wives or spirit husbands. The spirit was generally, but not always, the opposite gender of the spirit worker, and the familiar spirit often appeared in a very intimate, seductive guise.

Wilby also links the belief in familiar spirits to the Fairy Faith, the lingering belief in fairies and elves that existed alongside Christianity. This connection was also noted by scholars in the Early Modern Period. In his 1677 book, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, Lancashire author John Webster mentions a local cunning man who claimed that his familiar spirit was none other than the Queen of Elfhame herself.

KW: You’ve written other novels — THE VANISHING POINT, which was also set in the seventeenth century, THE REAL MINERVA, and SUMMIT AVENUE, which uses fairy tales as part of its structure. How did your process for writing DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL compare to them? Easier or harder? Better or worse?

MS: My goal in writing fiction is to spin tales with much truth in them, hence interweaving my narratives with myth and fairy tale. I once did a storytelling seminar with Hugh Lupton who said that, “Myths are timeless stories and their function is to tell the truth.” SUMMIT AVENUE draws on dark, raw fairy tales mirroring a young woman’s coming of age in early 20th century Saint Paul. THE REAL MINERVA is a female retelling of The Odyssey—in small town Minnesota. The teenage protagonist’s name is Penelope and she is both the one who makes the journey and the one who waits. Set in 17th century Maryland, THE VANISHING POINT, a tale of star-crossed sisters and their quest for love, drew on the lore of the Green Man and the Vanishing People—the fey folk.

DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL was a departure for me because it was based not on folklore intertwined with fiction but on historical events and the lives of real women and men—a tale of heroism and tragedy that unfolded where I now live. My truth-telling mission here was to right ancient wrongs, to allow these unjustly maligned women to speak through me and finally tell their story in their own voices.

KW: Many of the people who read my blog are also writers. What sage advice would you give to them about the creative process of writing a novel? What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

MS: The primary rule of sustaining a career as a writer is that you’re in it for the long term and you won’t get any reward out of it unless you love the process of actually writing. The end result may bring nothing but rejection letters and rewrite after rewrite. You may have to put aside entire manuscripts before you come up with the one that speaks to a larger audience that finally lets you break through into publication. But even then, this is a highly competitive and volatile business. Great books often get mediocre sales for no particular reason. Love what you do and do your best to support other struggling authors. Buy their books and go to their readings. Help create the kind of writing community that will also welcome you when you get your first book published.

KW: Finally, I understand that you’re working on a novel about Hildegard von Bingen. Can you tell us a little about it? How does it compare to writing DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL with its female healers and cunning women? When can we expect to read it?”

MS: My current novel-in-press, KNOW THE WAYS, will reveal the dramatic life of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Benedictine abbess. She was an incredible character, a polymath who composed an entire corpus of music and wrote books on subjects as diverse as natural science, medicine, and human sexuality—she’s credited as the first person to describe the female orgasm in depth. A mystic and visionary, her prophecies earned her the title Sybil of the Rhine.

Her story arc is amazing. Her parents offered her as a tithe to the Church at the age of eight when she was enclosed—literally walled into a claustrophobic anchorage—with another young girl, Jutta von Sponheim, who probably would be diagnosed with anorexia if she were alive today. Yet Hildegard triumphed to become one of the greatest voices of her age. And she’s not so far removed from my historical witches as people might think. She healed with herbs, crystals, and gemstones, and was guided by visions. I suspect that if she had been born a few centuries later, she might well have been burned as a witch.

I think it will take me another year to finish the novel.

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Thank you, Mary, for an amazing interview! As I mentioned above, Mary has generously given us a copy of DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL to raffle off here. To win it, simply leave a comment by midnight, April 29, 2010.

The rules: Only one comment per person. Book can only be shipped to U.S. or Canadian mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and announced here April 30 next Friday. Good luck to all!

Here is the first iris of the season. I spotted it during my walk to the studio yesterday morning, nested within a small brick-bound pocket garden. Isn’t it glorious! It reminds me of my wonderful mother-in-law, Joyce Iris Miller, now that she’s been gone these past few months.

I offer this beautiful flower in lieu of a proper post this week. I’ve been backed up in the studio — all good, just  bottlenecked with an unending to-do list — as well as waylaid by the particulars of kindergarten registration. Anyone familiar with school-age children in New York City will understand the time and stresses involved, but the final outcome has been well worth it. I’m pleased with the school Thea will attend, an arts-based magnet school within walking distance from our home. An added plus is that she’ll be attending it with a number of friends, some she’s known since she was a baby.

(As a side note, can you believe that Thea is old enough for kindergarten?)

In blog-related news, I have a special treat planned for tomorrow’s Creativity Friday. I’ll be interviewing author Mary Sharratt about her luminous new novel DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL. Mary incorporates history, myth, magic, and folklore into her writing — all the things I love — as well as offers writing advice. Those of you might remember that she stopped by the gallery last month to give a reading, a real treat.

Oh, and there’s a book giveaway involved too! So I hope you’ll stop by. The fun commences at 9 am EST.

PS: We have author Stephanie Cowell’s wonderful reading livestreamed here for her Monet-inspired novel CLAUDE & CAMILLE.

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2010/04/out-and-about-in-brooklyn-and-a-giveaway/feed/ 4 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2010/04/authors-at-the-gallery-stephanie-cowell/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2010/04/authors-at-the-gallery-stephanie-cowell/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:15:14 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1056 Here in Art and Words land, I’m getting back up to speed in the studio. Thea was off from school last week, which reduced my hours here. There’s so much going on these days: iPad apps, e-books, The Novel (which now has a title), book videos (working on a new one for C. W. Gortner, author of the upcoming THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI) and another delectable piece of news which is too early to reveal.

Let’s just say that I’m impersonating Elastigirl again.

On the gallery front, I’m delighted that author Stephanie Cowell will be visiting us this Friday to give a reading from her highly acclaimed new novel CLAUDE AND CAMILLE. I’m in the midst of reading it right now –  it’s wonderful! The good news is that whether you live in NYC or in places far flung, you can join us. We’ll be livestreaming this event again, just as we did for Mary Sharratt’s reading last month.

Hope to see you here or there! Here are the details:

Friday, April 16, 7 pm
AUTHORS AT THE GALLERY: STEPHANIE COWELL
Book Event and Author Q&A
Free admission. Refreshments provided.

WATCH IT: We’ll be livestreaming this event on April 16 starting at 7: 15 pm. Watch it here.

EXCLUSIVE: Meet bestselling author Stephanie Cowell (MARRYING MOZART) as she presents and signs her new novel CLAUDE & CAMILLE. Monet is one the world’s most esteemed painters, known as one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. But what is known of Monet before he was “Monet,” when he was simply “Claude”—a handsome, obscure, twenty-five-year-old painter, loyal to his friends and in love with an enigmatic upper-class girl? In Stephanie Cowell’s CLAUDE & CAMILLE: A Novel of Monet, she tells the tragic love story of the young, unknown painter and his great muse, Camille Doncieux.

This is the second of a series of book events at Kris Waldherr Art and Words gallery. Our first one was for Mary Sharratt’s DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL. Watch the livestream here.

Advance Praise for CLAUDE & CAMILLE:

“To be swept up by this novel which reveals the man and woman behind–no, in, the waterlily paintings, the seascapes and landscapes, is a heartbreak. The story is lovely, touching, delicately written, and extraordinarily compelling. Read it with a book of Monet’s paintings by your side, and be prepared to marvel, and to weep.”
— SUSAN VREELAND, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Luncheon of the Boating Party

“A convincing narrative about how masterpieces are created and a detailed portrait of a complex couple, Cowell’s novel suggests that a fabulous, if flawed, love is the source of both the beauty and sadness of Monet’s art.”
— Publisher’s Weekly

This event takes place at:
KRIS WALDHERR ART AND WORDS studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811
B or Q to Newkirk Avenue Station; street parking is available.