WomensHistoryReads interview: Erin Lindsay McCabe

It feels fitting to wrap up the first month of #WomensHistoryReads interviews (that's right, it's not over!) with Erin Lindsay McCabe, one of the first authors I bonded with over our love for telling women's untold stories from history. Erin also hosts the quarterly Twitterchat #HistoricalFix, which is one of my favorite ways to spend time on Twitter. If you love Twitterchats, keep an eye out in April for #WomensHistoryReads to follow in #HistoricalFix's footsteps...

Erin Lindsay McCabe

Greer: If you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?

Erin: This is such an impossible question for me, because I really want to answer ALL OF THEM. But because I'm biased, I'm going to say I'd love to see Sarah Rosetta Wakeman in every history book and the reason why is because she -- along with many of the other female Civil War soldiers -- was an ordinary woman who served our country in a way that women were not supposed to, and she served in our military with complete equality. But she did it, not to prove a point or to make history, but because it was something she wanted to do. I would have been so inspired by her story as a kid -- because the way I was taught history pretty much made it seem like hardly any women were ever on the frontlines of any of our country's history, like they weren't taking active roles in shaping our country, and that's just not true. 

Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

Erin: What I find most challenging is also what I find most exciting, which is that there is often so little in the historical record about women. I always want my research to be as accurate as possible, so that no one can discount the truth of the story I'm telling just because I got some historical detail wrong. But because women are so often absent from history, it can make hunting down accurate information about their lives incredibly difficult, an idea that Jill Lepore explores really beautifully in her non-fiction book about Jane Franklin, The Book of Ages. Luckly, being a fiction writer, those same gaps -- the questions the historical record will probably never be able to adequately answer --are what spur my imagination and give me the space I need to imagine. But it's also incredibly thrilling when I uncover some little historical tidbit that unlocks a woman's past and places her where I had only imagined she might have been or clarifies what she might have done. 

Greer: Play matchmaker: what unsung woman from history would you most like to read a book about, and who should write it?

Erin: I would love to read a novel about Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. In college I read her letters to the bishop who had ordered her books be taken away, and she just astounded me. Her ideas, her passionate argument for women's rights, seemed so modern. I feel like maybe Isabel Allende could get the historical and cultural details right, and that her playfulness could bring Sor Juana's passion and anger at injustice and misuse of power to light in a way that would be deep without being too heavy, that would render Sor Juana in a complex and sympathetic way.

Greer: I'm in.

Erin: And my question for you is: In each of your novels, you've told stories about women who have taken on one form of disguise or another (a magician who deals with illusions in The Magician's Lie, a spy in Girl in Disguise, and a young woman feigning insanity in your forthcoming book Woman Ninety-Nine). What is it you find so compelling about women who take on alternate identities in order to create opportunities for themselves?

Greer: I've always loved the idea of slipping out of your own identity like a dress that doesn't fit you and slipping into a new one instead. I grew up in a very small town, where you pretty much get locked into one identity from the get-go, and it's very difficult to change the perception other people have of you. Once I got to high school, I'd go away for camps or conferences or other activities, and I started meeting other people for the first time and having the chance to build a new perception with them. It blew my mind when I wasn't just seen as "the smart girl" anymore. I actually won a popularity contest at language camp when I was 16 and you could've knocked me over with a feather! That wasn't how I thought of myself at all!

Then I went away to college, all the way from Iowa to Boston, and I rebuilt my identity from scratch again. Five years after that I moved to Washington DC to start graduate school, where I knew no one at all, and the process repeated itself. So I have some experience with the idea that you're only who you say you are, that the choices you make can remake you. And when I do book events I get a taste of what it's like to flip the switch more quickly. I might start out my morning at home, where my three-year-old is in tears complaining that there are "holes in [her] oatmeal" (true story), but by evening I'm in red lipstick and black Gucci boots with 30 people leaning forward in their chairs to hear me speak. It's crazy and I love it.

For more on Erin and her books, visit: 

www.erinlindsaymccabe.com

@ErinLindsMcCabe on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ErinLindsMcCabe)

@ErinLindsMcCabe on Instagram (https://instagram.com/ErinLindsMcCabe)

https://www.facebook.com/ErinLindsayMcCabe

WomensHistoryReads interview: Karen Abbott

30 days of March so far and 30 #WomensHistoryReads interviews! To mark the milestone, I'm sharing the Q&Q&Q&A from one of my favorites, Karen Abbott, author of LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY. (It's nonfiction that reads like a novel -- a really, really good novel.) Truth really is stranger than fiction sometimes, and it's extraordinary when someone undertakes painstaking research into that truth, then arranges it in a compelling narrative that unspools with energy and urgency. That's what Karen Abbott does. You'll love her talent, her books, and her answers below.

Karen Abbott

Greer: If you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?

Karen: I’m going to cheat a little bit and name two, but they worked so closely together that it would be unfair to choose just one: Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Bowser, who are two main characters in LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY. Elizabeth was a Richmond-born society matron who sympathized with the North, which was a very dangerous position for her to have while living in the Confederate capital. Mary was born a slave to the Van Lew family; when she was about four years old, Elizabeth freed her (along with all of the family slaves). She sent Mary abroad for schooling and developed a sort of mother-daughter relationship with her. With the onset of the Civil War, Elizabeth concocted a scheme: she would get Mary a job as a servant at the Confederate White House, waiting on Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his family. Bowser pretended she couldn’t read or write, but in reality she was highly educated and gifted with a photographic memory.

So when she was dusting Davis’s desk or cleaning up the children’s nursery, she was also sneaking a peek at military papers and eavesdropping on confidential conversations. She passed all of the information back to Elizabeth, who had organized a Union spy ring that stretched into neighboring states. The “Richmond Underground,” as it was called, was responsible for passing the most important intelligence of the war to Union General Ulysses S. Grant (in a letter to Elizabeth, he said so himself). The North would not have won the war without the efforts of Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Bowser. They should be household names on the same level of Grant, Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson, and I think it’s a travesty that they have mostly been lost to history. 

Greer: It's really a spectacular story, and I totally agree with your choice(s). Generals aren't the only people who make things happen in wartime -- far from it. So, what's your next book about and when will we see it?

Karen: My next book is about the most successful bootlegger in American history (and his name was NOT Al Capone). He was wildly innovative, eccentric and brilliant, and made an estimated $40 million (in today’s money) in just two short years. He threw lavish parties and was reportedly Fitzgerald’s inspiration for Jay Gatsby. My other main character is a pioneering woman lawyer, who, at age 32, was appointed by Warren Harding at the Assistant Attorney General for the United States. She was in charge of all bootlegging cases in the country. Harding, whose administration was notoriously corrupt, figured that a young woman just five years out of law school with no prosecutorial experience would not impede their business with bootleggers. Well, of course she went in there and started kicking some ass. There’s a great narrative arc: a sordid love triangle, a murder, a sensational trial, all set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and don’t want it to end! The tentative publishing date is January 2020, timed for the 100th anniversary of Prohibition. I envision quite a few events in speakeasies…. 

Greer: I like how you think. Last question: Do you consider yourself a historian?

Karen: Not in the traditional sense of the word, no. I don’t have a history degree and I am not an academic; I have no interest in writing, say, a feminist analysis of prostitution or the Civil War. I’m a selective historian; I find a story that fascinates me and then I exhaustively educate myself about that topic, those people, that place and time. I notice language in letters. I discover what items were selling at the corner store and for how much. I research the proper way to lace a corset—those sorts of details that bring long-dead tales and people to live. I like to say I’m in the business of time travel, and I aim to tell a good story that illuminates a forgotten slice of history. By the end of a book, I am always jealous of my characters, and wish I could have lived their lives. Writing about them is the next best thing. 

Greer: Love it.

Karen: Your most recent (and excellent novel), GIRL IN DISGUISE, is based on the true story of Kate Warne, America’s first female private eye. I came across Kate Warne in my research for LIAR TEMPTRESS SOLDIER SPY and was fascinated by her, so I am glad you wrote this book. I’m curious about your research process. I don’t believe there is much information about Kate, and certainly not much primary source material. Did you find anything surprising that shed light on her character, or is she mostly a figment of your imagination? Did you rely on diaries and other primary source material to make the dialogue so authentic and true? What is your secret trick for turning an obscure historical figure into such a complex, three-dimensonal and relatable character?

Greer: As it happens, I didn't really know there was so little information on Kate in the historical record when I decided to write a book about her. Lucky for me I'm not a biographer. I would have really been up a creek. But as a historical novelist I decided to take the gaps in her story as invitations. We don't have any letters or diaries from her, so I had to come up with a voice for her, and I gave her the personality I thought she must have had in order to do the things she did: march into Allan Pinkerton's office in 1856 asking for a job as a detective; be so good at her job Pinkerton established a Bureau of Female Detectives and put her in charge; help talk Abraham Lincoln into changing his route to DC for his inauguration to avoid an assassination attempt in Baltimore. And that's just what we know she did. Imagine all the other things we don't know about!

Nearly everything in Kate's character uses that scarce information from the historical record as a jumping-off point. We know she was a good enough actress and mimic to pass as a native Alabaman with other Southerners -- how did that come about, I wondered? We know she was a widow, or at least Allan Pinkerton says she was a widow, so I added that to the list of things to explain. Bit by bit I built a character from what little information the record offered up, and wove together plausible -- and hopefully interesting -- ways to fill in the gaps. The result isn't necessarily the Kate Warne, but she's my Kate Warne, which is the freedom inherent in fiction. I just want to honor history and deliver the best possible experience for the reader, whatever that takes.

For more:

https://karenabbott.net/

https://twitter.com/KarenAbbott

https://www.instagram.com/karen_abbott/

WomensHistoryReads interview: Lauren Francis-Sharma

We're nearing the end of Women's History Month -- but not the #WomensHistoryReads Q&Q&Q&A project! The more I thought about authors inspired by women from history, I realized that I'd started out with too narrow a definition. Famous women are far from the only ones my fellow authors find inspiring. So I began reaching out to authors who draw inspiration from any women from history, not just the famous ones. Today's interviewee, Lauren Francis-Sharma, puts it so beautifully below: the women she celebrates in her writing "weren't forgotten as much as never seen." You'll love her insights and answers -- and you'll be dying to read her next book (I know I am!)

Lauren Francis-Sharma

Greer: Play matchmaker: what unsung woman from history would you most like to read a book about, and who should write it?

Lauren: What a question! So, I'm fascinated by this impending marriage between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Yes, because she is bi-racial but also because she's American. It's a standard American fairytale, of which I am often dismissive, but this idea of Harry spending time with Meghan's African-American mother and perhaps one day fathering little afro-wearing redheads both tickles me and frightens the hell out of me.

After the engagement was announced, there was some talk of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, being the real first Black member of the British royal family. Queen Charlotte was considered very unfair, "ugly" is the word some of her contemporaries used and there seemed to be more talk than usual about this. I've traveled all over Europe and have been on those horribly long old palace visits and I have seen some "ugly" people in those paintings! And when I put a painting of Queen Charlotte next to say Anne of Austria or Marguerite de Valois of France, I don't see any of them more fair or more "ugly" than the other.

So, this has me convinced that perhaps some of those historians suggesting that she is a descendant of a Moor may be, in fact, correct.  Because this is what Europeans were apt to do with a woman who had negroid features--call her ugly. What was her life like as talk swirled around her of her ugliness and her blackness? King George III was known as "Mad King George" so Queen Charlotte, while looked down upon by the court, was also dealing with this husband who by all accounts she loved very much and his declining mental health and the thirteen or so children they had together! Perhaps there's no story there, but if I could have Hilary Mantel's gift for researching, her dogged pursuit of historical data, added to my sensibilities as a Black woman and somehow meld both our approaches to storytelling, we might have one heck of a novel!

Greer: Yes! I would read that novel every day of the week and twice on Sundays. There's got to be a story in Charlotte's perspective. Next question: How would you describe what you write?

Lauren: I have this nagging itch to write women back into history. The New York Times recently began this series where they go back to look at all the obituaries of women who were overlooked by them. And I stress "overlooked by them" because I believe many of those women were and still are celebrated despite being ignored by the Times. With that said, this series reminded me of all the women of color in history who people don't even know to celebrate. Women who weren't forgotten as much as never seen. My grandmother was one of those women. She came to this country, fleeing an abusive husband, leaving her children behind in Trinidad, and within a year, making only $50/wk, managed to save enough to pay airfare for two of the six and then the year after for two more. This was remarkable for an uneducated woman from the rural countryside of Trinidad! And yet this story hadn't been told until I wrote about her in my first novel 'Til the Well Runs Dry. She didn't win any awards in her life, she scrubbed toilets in a New York hospital until she retired, and yet, she is my definition of resilience and fortitude. I write about ordinary women who find ways to joy and hope even while living under remarkably difficult circumstances. 

Greer: Fantastic. What's your next book about and when will we see it?

Lauren: My next project, currently titled One True Place is set between colonial Trinidad and what was then known as the Louisiana Territory in North America. It spans nearly thirty-five years and tells the story of a proud and dignified family whose journey is upended by the arrival of both the English settlers and a gold-scavenging stranger.  I love the idea that I've written my own kind of Western. I absolutely adore this book and I think my readers will too. It has all the elements I look for in a good book--community intrigue, a strong-willed woman at its core, it takes readers to a place they haven't been, there's love and betrayal, an unrelenting familial bond and of course, good history! Grove/Atlantic is publishing it and with any luck, they will have it in stores by Fall 2019. 

Greer: Can't wait!

Lauren: Aah..question for Greer--When you're riddled with self-doubt and maybe you feel like your book didn't do as well as you'd hoped or the reviews weren't as good or maybe your agent and editor don't love a part of something you've written as much as you, to what or to whom do you turn?

Greer: First of all, I love that your question isn't "if" I'm riddled with self-doubt, but "when." Because aren't we all like that? When I'm writing a new book, I am completely convinced one day that it's genius, and the next day I'm equally convinced it's trash. So I definitely have those self-doubt moments, and those moments of "Why is this person getting a review in the Times and I'm not? Why is someone else's book I didn't personally love getting tons of attention? Why doesn't my agent think my book is ready to send out on submission yet when I am just so freaking tired of rewriting it?" Basically every stage of the process has infinite potential for self-doubt. Yay, publishing!

And it's honestly my fellow authors I turn to. Sometimes explicitly, to ask a question about how to go forward, to ask advice: "Have you ever been in this situation? What did you do?" And sometimes just reaching out to them, celebrating the good stuff when it happens -- theirs or mine! -- gives me the confidence and strength to move forward when the stuff is not so good. Some would call it a network, but I feel like that makes it sound a little mercenary, when it's not. It's a community. None of this would be worth doing if it weren't for that community.

For more about Lauren and her books, visit http://www.laurenfrancissharma.com.

WomensHistoryReads interview: Theresa Kaminski

As a historical novelist, I realize my #WomensHistoryReads interviews have tended to lean in a fiction-y direction, but I also love to read writers who stick more closely to documented history, like today's guest. (Plus, she actually gets to answer "yes" to the historian question!) Enjoy today's Q&Q&Q&A with Theresa Kaminski, author of ANGELS OF THE UNDERGROUND and one of the moderators of the excellent Facebook group Nonfiction Fans: Illuminating Fabulous Nonfiction.

Theresa Kaminski

Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?   

Theresa: Yes, and I have a diploma to prove it! I could never get enough history classes as an undergraduate so I went on to graduate school. I've been a university professor for 25 years, and I specialize in American women's history.

Greer: Tell us about a woman from the past who has inspired your writing.

Theresa: Anne Frank. I read The Diary of a Young Girl when I was in 8th grade, and it was the most compelling book I'd ever read. I think that's why I became a historian. I had to know the why and how of the larger forces that drove her family into hiding. Although I ultimately ended up specializing in American history, I am still drawn to stories about captivity. Because of that, I ended up writing three books about American women in the Pacific theater during World War II. 

Greer: If you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?

Theresa: Pauli Murray (1919-1985) She was a lawyer and a civil rights and women's rights activist. During the 1930s, she took a job with the WPA, and she began a long correspondence with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Patricia Bell-Scott wrote a wonderful book about that called The Firebrand and the First Lady. Murray served on President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women and she helped found the National Organization for Women. In 1977, she became an ordained Episcopal priest, the first African American woman to do so. Anyone who wants to know more should read not only Bell-Scott's book but also Rosalind Rosenberg's Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray. 

Greer: Definitely sounds like someone we should know!

Theresa: My question for you: What piece of advice would you have given Kate Warne, the real-life woman detective who inspired your book GIRL IN DISGUISE, had you been her contemporary? Would you have wanted to hang out with her?

Greer: I would have been a terrible contemporary -- I'm sure I would have discouraged her from going to Allan Pinkerton's office to apply for a job that was clearly meant for men only, and advised her it was too risky to become a detective, let alone a Union spy. The good news is I wouldn't have been able to discourage her. We don't know much about what she thought or why she took on this incredibly challenging role, but we know that she did -- so she had to be bold and daring and unconcerned with what people thought of her. I probably wouldn't have been in her social circles. I'm a pretty boring person. And as they say, well-behaved women rarely make history. Thank goodness for misbehavers like Kate!

More about Theresa and her book ANGELS OF THE UNDERGROUND at her website, theresakaminski.com. 

#WomensHistoryReads interview: Ariel Lawhon

A delightful day in #WomensHistoryReads! When I first started planning this massive interview project, one of the first people I reached out to was Ariel Lawhon, whose work I love. (Many, many people have heard me tell the story of how I shouted DAMMIT ARIEL in public when I reached a certain reveal toward the end of Flight of Dreams.) Her highly-anticipated latest novel, I Was Anastasia, is out today. Welcome, Ariel, and all best to you on your fabulous new release!

Ariel Lawhon

Greer: How would you describe what you write?

Ariel: I’ve always said that I write Literary Historical Mysteries but I’m not sure that this is entirely accurate. Or perhaps I should say that not everyone agrees with this description. Most readers seem to have a different take on my writing and that’s okay. What I do know is that I love to find a person or a moment in history—preferably one at the heart of an unsolved mystery—and build a story around them. Whether it’s a missing judge in 1930s New York (my debut novel The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress), the doomed last flight of the Hindenburg (Flight of Dreams) or the lingering questions about the final days of Anastasia Romanov (my new novel, I Was Anastasia), my goal is to write a book that drops the reader right into the heart of an historical mystery.

Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?

Ariel: That is a great question and don’t really know how to answer it. I’ve always thought of myself as a temporary expert in the subject of my current novel. I immerse myself in that subject, learning everything I possibly can. But—and this is important—the file that holds all of that information gets deleted as soon as I move on to my next book so that I can fill it with new information (think Benedict Cumberbatch’s “mind palace” in Sherlock—except without the…ahem…chemical stimulants). There was a time that I could tell you anything you wanted to know about Tammany Hall and mob activity in early twentieth century New York City. A few years later I could recite facts about Zeppelin aircraft in general and the Hindenburg specifically on demand and with great enthusiasm. And I spent the last few years up to my eyeballs in Romanov history. But I’ve just started another novel so those details are starting to get a bit fuzzy now. To answer your question, I think I am disqualified from being a historian simply because I’ve always imagined historians to be experts in one subject and to retain what they learn for a lifetime. But who knows, maybe my definition is wrong? If I do qualify, please let me know so I can add that to my bio.

Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

Ariel: Simply put, in terms of the challenge, I want to get it right and that is very, very hard. Especially when you are working with limited information or the information you have comes from a slanted viewpoint. Keep in mind that when women write about women they do so in a very different way than when men write about women and most of the biographies and articles available from the last hundred years or so were written by men. Twice now I’ve written about women who published their own autobiographies and it has been fascinating to compare those books with what has been written about them by men. That said, I love the process of unraveling an historic figure, of discovering who she really was. The women who came before us are identical to the women we know and love today. They are complex and difficult and passionate and inspiring and deeply human. And it is that humanity that I try to put on the page.

Greer: And you're so, so good at it.

Ariel: My question for you: I recently saw the announcement for your next novel, WOMAN NINETY-NINE (Congratulations! It sounds amazing!) and I’m curious why you decided to write this particular book and why now?

Greer: Thank you! My initial inspiration for writing a novel set in an insane asylum was a weird confluence of the Nellie Bly episode of "Drunk History" and the Elvis Costello song "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," but the specific shape it took was very much influenced by our current political and social environment. It's set in 1888 and I've been describing it in all sorts of ways. The flip one is "a 19th-century 'Orange is the New Black.'" But I also think of it as the story of a group of angry, brave women fighting a rigged system, and I wouldn't think of it that way if I hadn't been inspired by women who fit that description today. One of my favorite things about writing historical fiction is that it's never really just about the past.

Learn more about Ariel and her amazing books at these links:

http://www.ariellawhon.com/ 

www.twitter.com/ArielLawhon

Instagram: ariel.lawhon

Newsletter

my review of AMC's The Terror premiere up at CHIRB

While it may feel like I've been a full-time #WomensHistoryReads interviewer lately, I've also been working on other things, including book and literary adaptation coverage for The Chicago Review of Books. (The good news is I'm already done with copyedits on my next novel, WOMAN NINETY-NINE, so at least that's not on my plate! Just 83 other things, ha.)

Here's a link to my review of AMC's "The Terror," which premieres tonight, mixing history and horror. Is it for you? Read here to find out.

WomensHistoryReads interview: Kristin Harmel

What better way to ease into a Monday morning than with a delightful #WomensHistoryReads Q&Q&Q&A? You'll love today's answers (including an adorable childhood photo!) from Kristin Harmel, whose latest novel THE ROOM ON RUE AMELIE will be hitting bookstores tomorrow. Welcome, Kristin!

Kristin Harmel

Greer: What book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?

Kristin: For those of you who don’t know me yet, there’s probably no better (or more embarrassing) introduction to me than hearing me admit my lifelong passion for Superman—the 1978 version with Christopher Reeve, which I was wholly obsessed with as a child. I still watch it with embarrassing frequency. I even wonder, in the back of my mind, whether my decision to become a journalist (and later a novelist) was somehow rooted in a latent desire to actually be Superman—or Lois Lane.

All joking aside, though, I think my obsession with Superman has some common threads with the writer I’ve become. First of all, I do best with stories that are rooted in the issues of family, legacy, and the struggle of good vs. evil, all of which Superman certainly explores. I also like to write strong heroines who are on a journey of discovery, and let me tell you, I think Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane was a pretty amazing heroine, especially considering that she appeared on screen forty years ago. She was a good female role model who had learned to work hard and to not fear asking for what she deserved in life, and I think that’s a journey many of my characters are on too. And now, before I delve too insanely into an essay about why Superman is amazing or how I still swoon over Christopher Reeve’s beautiful blue eyes in that film, please allow me to distract you with a photo of my childhood best friend (Jay Cash) and me, wearing our matching Superman shirts. In case you were wondering, we also owned capes. Naturally.

Greer: An unforgettable introduction! And quite possibly the cutest thing ever. Love it. What’s your next book about and when will we see it?

Kristin: Although it feels as if I’ve been waiting about a thousand years for this book to come out (I suspect every writer feels that way about new releases!), you’ll actually be seeing my next novel tomorrow! (3/27)! I actually can’t believe that the publication day is finally here! It’s called THE ROOM ON RUE AMÉLIE and is the story of an American newlywed, a French Jewish teenager, and a British Royal Air Force pilot whose lives collide in Paris during World War II. It’s based, in part, on some real-life stories of Allied escape lines running through France, including the Comet Line and the Shelburne Line, both of which relied heavily on women.

I had the idea for the book a long time ago, while researching my 2012 novel, THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING (which takes place partially in WWII Paris), and I really liked the idea of placing an American woman in Paris at the start of World War II to see how she’d get involved (not least of all because I was an ex-pat in Paris myself during a portion of my twenties). But I was unsure of how realistic it would be to have an American woman living in Paris AND helping out on an Allied escape line without calling attention to herself—until I read about Virginia d’Albert-Lake, an incredibly inspiring woman who was just thirty and living in France in 1940 when the Germans invaded. She helped save the lives of more than sixty American and British airmen before being arrested and sent to a concentration camp. THE ROOM ON RUE AMÉLIE isn’t her story, but she became the jumping off point for Ruby, my plucky American main character, who summoned her courage in the face of danger, just like Virginia did. For both of them, it was about standing up for goodness in the face of evil.

Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

Kristin: Because Ruby Benoit, the main character of THE ROOM ON RUE AMÉLIE is fictional (and is simply inspired by the real-life Virginia d’Albert-Lake), I think I had a bit of an easier time with researching the character herself. The things she did and said just had to be true to her personality, and historically accurate, rather than having to mirror every single detail of a real woman’s life. But because I’m setting stories in the past, there are so, so many details to juggle to make sure I’m getting things as accurate as possible. For me, the bigger details—movies the main character might have watched, music she might like, a car she might have driven, the operational details of an escape line—are easy. It’s the little details—the color of her lipstick, the way she heats her apartment in the winter, whether she can make phone calls or send mail during wartime, etc.—that are so much harder. I find that as a writer, I have to go through volumes and volumes of information, combing through hundreds of pages of research to find a little detail here or there that can bring a scene alive. And as a former journalist—who was always conscious that fact errors were fireable offenses—I am always incredibly paranoid that I’ve gotten details wrong. I seriously have knots in my stomach even thinking about it now! Writing historical fiction is hard, but I love every second of the journey.

Greer: Agreed, and agreed.

Kristin: Thank you very much for inviting me to answer a few questions today!

Greer: My pleasure!

Kristin: And my question for you: As a writer, do you find it easier to base characters directly on real women from the past? Or do you find it easier to create characters rooted in the past, based loosely on real people?  I’m curious to hear your take on the pros and cons of each approach! 

Greer: Well, I often struggle with coming up with names for my characters, so at least with real-life people we get to skip that step if we want! But I think loose inspiration is easier in most ways. In a way I had the best of both worlds with GIRL IN DISGUISE, given that Kate Warne was a real-life figure from history but there wasn't really that much information on her in the historical record. We know a few cases she worked on, we know she claimed to be a widow, we know she helped save Abraham Lincoln's life, and that's pretty much it. So I still had plenty of freedom to develop character and plot in almost -- ah, that almost -- any direction I wanted.

My next book was even more loosely inspired by history, in that I used intrepid newspaperwoman Nellie Bly's undercover trip into a notorious mental asylum as a jumping-off point. I felt like I wouldn't bring anything new to the story of a journalist, so instead my main character feigns madness to rescue her sister from the asylum where she's been sent by their parents. That opens a huge number of doors but still grounds my characters in a specific time and place.

Of course the problem with real-life inspiration is that it's so often unbelievable! Apparently it was not that hard to get thrown into a mental asylum in the 1880s, especially if you were poor, or pretending to be. As Nellie put it, "The insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.” And that's what my main character Charlotte is up against in Woman Ninety-Nine. She impulsively gets herself committed to the asylum without realizing what she's risking: her future, her sanity and her life.

Read more about Kristin and her books at the links below:

Web: KristinHarmel.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/kristinharmelauthor

Twitter: Twitter.com/kristinharmel

Instagram: Instagram.com/kristinharmel

WomensHistoryReads interview: Jenni L. Walsh

I'm pleased as punch to interview Jenni L. Walsh for today's #WomensHistoryReads Q&Q&Q&A. Jenni's novel BECOMING BONNIE is a fascinating fictional spin on how Bonnie Parker might have gone from churchgoing teen to compromised moll, with her journey to notorious criminal due to be explained in the upcoming sequel, SIDE BY SIDE. And good timing -- the e-book of BECOMING BONNIE is on sale for a limited time for $2.99. So make like Bonnie and snap it up! Read more about Jenni and her inspiration below.

Greer: How would you describe what you write?

Jenni: I'd like to think my books are a mashup of historical fiction and women's fiction.  Women's Historical Fiction, if you will. My novels are set in the 1920s and 1930s (so far!), but more than just the era, I strive to bring my real-life protagonists to life. In Becoming Bonnie and Side by Side, both featuring Bonnie Parker of "Bonnie and Clyde" infamy, the story is very much about Bonnie's personal journey and life experiences.

Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

Jenni: You know that feature in US Weekly? "STARS--THEY'RE JUST LIKE US!" Well, I often have that thought when I'm researching historical women. Their lives may be very different than my own (i.e. I've never raided a prison like Bonnie Parker), but they still have many of the same emotional and physical struggles we all face. I find that aspect exciting, intriguing, and humanizing. The challenge, I've found, is trying to bring the woman's real voice to life. Sometimes it can take a while for the voice to fully form in my head.

Greer: What book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?

Jenni: Gold Rush! And I'm #TeamParker all the way. If you haven't seen the show, it's set nowadays, but I find the gold rush from the 1800s so interesting. Methinks I'd love to write about it someday! In fact, I see Wikipedia has a page on "Women in the California Gold Rush"!

Jenni: Question for you: How would you describe your next novel's leading lady in three words?

Greer: Great question! If I had four words, I'd say "In over her head," but with three, I'll just give you three adjectives: loving, loyal, and unprepared.

ebsite: www.jennilwalsh.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jennilwalsh

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jenni.l.walsh

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jennilwalsh

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/jennilwalsh

Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/jennilwalsh

WomensHistoryReads interview: Eva Stachniak

So many wonderful #womenshistoryreads authors, so many wonderful #womenshistoryreads books! The series continues today with Eva Stachniak, most recently the author of THE CHOSEN MAIDEN. I could tell you about her amazing inspiration for this book, a forgotten woman whose story needed to be told -- but will let Eva do that directly with her answers below. And I love her term for what she writes: "archival fantasies."

Eva Stachniak

Greer: Tell us about a woman from the past who has inspired your writing.

Eva: I’ve always been drawn to strong women who defined themselves in opposition to the prevailing expectations society had of them. So far my characters have been inspired by an 18th century Greek peasant girl who married into Polish aristocracy, a minor German princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst who became Catherine the Great, and—most recently—extraordinary Bronislava (Bronia) Nijinska, a younger sister of the brilliant 20th century dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.  The Chosen Maiden, my last novel, tells the story of her life and art.

It was Bronia’s indomitable strength that captured my heart. Strength to fight for her own place first in the Imperial Theatres of St. Petersburg and then in the predominantly male focused Ballets Russes. Strength not to give up when she was told she didn’t have the body of a ballerina or that she should interpret her brother’s visions and not bother with her own. Strength to resist the repressive regimes determined to engineer her soul, and, in the end, to pick herself up after each paralyzing loss life dealt her and to keep on fighting. 

Greer: How would you describe what you write?

Eva: I write historical fiction based on research. I like to call my novels archival fantasies, for although I stay true to existing sources, I allow myself my own interpretation. 

I write about women whose lives have touched me on a personal level, with whom I can identify. My characters—like me—are immigrants who have to redefine themselves in another culture, rebuild their lives from the ground up. 

Greer: What do you find most exciting about researching historical women?

Eva: The realization how much has changed in our understanding of history, how important and fruitful it is to seek the once forgotten or overlooked points of view. I love researching the lives of servants or palace spies, those on the margins of power, whose voices have to be pried from the official accounts. I love examining the circumstances of their lives, seeking what it is that I can learn from them, in spite of all the differences between us.

I believe that we have a lot to learn from this forgotten past… 

Greer: Agreed. Most historical novelists I know are drawn to writing about the past precisely because it can help us gain a better understanding of our present.

Eva: What literary pilgrimages have you gone on or hoping to go on?

Greer: What a great question! I wasn't able to visit the grave of Kate Warne, the real-life inspiration for my novel GIRL IN DISGUISE, before the book came out, so I was thrilled to visit while on book tour promoting the hardcover. She's buried in the Pinkerton family plot in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. I took Kate some flowers and said thanks. It was a really powerful moment. And her name is spelled Kate Warn on her tombstone, so I took her an E. That was one of my favorite book tour experiences, and I love book tour, so there's a lot of competition.

Official web page  www.evastachniak.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/EvaStachniak.Author

Twitter:  @EvaStachniak

Instagram: estachniak

WomensHistoryReads interview: Fiona Davis

I'm thrilled to welcome bestselling author Fiona Davis to the blog today for a fun Friday #WomensHistoryReads Q&Q&Q&A! Especially because I'm currently devouring her debut novel THE DOLLHOUSE on audio and I am hooked. She talks about THE DOLLHOUSE below as well as her follow-up, THE ADDRESS, both of which will send you into fits of envy over classic New York City real estate. And I can't wait for her upcoming THE MASTERPIECE, inspired by an art school once hosted within Grand Central Terminal! Don't miss her answers about the iron-clad rules of the Barbizon Hotel For Women (no pants!) and a chance to see Cousin Matthew like you've never seen him before.

Fiona Davis photo credit: Kristen Jensen

Greer: Tell us about a woman (or group of women) from the past who has inspired your writing.

Fiona: I got the idea for my first book, THE DOLLHOUSE, after looking at an apartment for sale in what used to be the Barbizon Hotel for Women and is now a condo, here in New York City. I learned that a group of older women who’d been residents for decades – back when boys weren’t allowed above the public areas and you couldn’t wear pants to cross the lobby – had been grandfathered in to rent-controlled apartments on the 4th floor during the renovation. I was curious about their perspectives, how they’d seen the building and the city change over time. For example, in 1966 you could stay at the Barbizon Hotel for Women for a week for $6.75, while today the penthouse is going for $17 million. I couldn’t shake the idea, and decided I had to write a novel about it. While the characters in the novel are fictional, the ladies of the fourth floor continue to inspire and fascinate me.

Greer: And thank goodness for that. Do you consider yourself a historian?

Fiona: I’m more of a fiction-writing journalist with a love of the past, I’d say. I use my journalism background when I research my novels to uncover historical nuggets that may have been lost to history, and then embed them in the story. For example, for THE DOLLHOUSE, set at the Barbizon Hotel, I tracked down and interviewed women who’d lived there back in the day. Their stories were both hilarious and sometimes shocking. For my second book, THE ADDRESS, which is set in the Dakota, one of NYC’s oldest apartment houses, I was able to get a couple of amazing tours of the building by current residents, from the basement to the top floors where the servants used to live. For my third book, which takes place in Grand Central Terminal and comes out in August, I discovered that an art school existed at the very top of the building’s east wing from the 1920s to the 1940s. During an interview with an architecture historian, I learned of a female artist who made a huge splash during the Jazz Age and then disappeared, and she became the inspiration for one of the protagonists.

Greer: What book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?

Fiona: High Maintenance is a series I adore. It’s about an affable, bicycle-riding pot dealer in Brooklyn. Each episode focuses one or two of his clients, and are narrative gems featuring quirky twists – the perfect embodiment of a visual “short story.” I really enjoy the diverse cast, which includes some of New York’s best actors and actresses. Be sure to check out the early, ten-minute versions that appeared on Vimeo before it got picked up by HBO. For example, there’s one of Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens as a cross-dressing stay-at-home father. Moving, funny, and smart.

Greer: Okay, definitely intrigued enough to give it a shot!

Fiona: My question for you is: If you were told you could time-travel back to a different time and place for a couple of weeks, where would you go, and in what era?

Greer: So many possibilities! I just finished doing boatloads of research about Northern California, including San Francisco and the Napa Valley, in the 1880s, so the temptation to go there might be too strong to resist. (Especially if I could go now, while I still had time to fact-check my next book before it comes out in 2019! Wouldn't that be a lovely opportunity?) But San Francisco was so interesting then, when they were really coming out of the wild frontier period post-Gold Rush, trying to establish the city as a major capital of culture, society, all the things the East Coast cities had in spades. And most of the architecture from that period was wiped out in the 1906 earthquake, so it's one of the harder places to recreate how it must have looked then, based on how it looks today. You still have the hills and the Bay, those have always been there, but the buildings and people and traffic over that topography, I'd love to see how it all fit together in those years.

Fiona Davis’s most recent novel is THE ADDRESS (Dutton); her website is fionadavis.net.