WomensHistoryReads interview: Alyssa Palombo

Historical novelist Alyssa Palombo has two wonderful novels out in the world, and I'm thrilled to say that her next one, coming this fall, is even better. As I mentioned in a previous interview, I love being asked to blurb (I can't always say yes, but I try) and I especially love it when the book I'm reading for blurb consideration is so good I forget I have any purpose in reading and just enjoy. That's what happened with Alyssa's THE SPELLBOOK OF KATRINA VAN TASSEL, so romantic and eerie and compelling, which you are going to love when it comes out this fall.

Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?

Alyssa: I just finished AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS by Kat Howard, and I am completely obsessed with it. It's a brilliantly crafted fantasy novel about a secret world of wealthy, powerful magicians going about their business in secret in modern-day New York City, and a magical competition to determine who has control over this Unseen World. The writing and worldbuilding are both lovely, but what I loved most is the strong feminist narrative in the novel. Women band together to help one another, to remake the world for the better, and to punish the men who prey on them. It's an extraordinary book and an engaging story -- I couldn't put it down!

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

Alyssa: Madame C.J. Walker. I remember learning about all the white male business tycoons while I was in school -- Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, etc. -- but why aren't we taught about the country's first black woman millionaire, indeed, one of the first American woman millionaires of any race? Her story, about how she rose from a very difficult early life to become an extremely successful entrepreneur, is truly what that American dream is all about. I didn't learn about her until I was an adult, but I think hers is a name every American should know. (Also, would LOVE to read a biographical historical novel about her!)

Greer: Excellent choice! (And ditto! I haven't read it yet, but Tananarive Due wrote one.) So, I kind of know the answer to this, but readers will want to know too: what’s your next book about and when will we see it?

Alyssa: My next novel is called The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel and will be out on October 2nd, 2018 from St. Martin's Griffin. It's a retelling of Washington Irving's classic short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from Katrina's point of view. I love that story, of course, but the sexist way that Katrina is described always got under my skin. I decided to give her a voice and let her tell her own story, and boy, did she have a story to tell!

Greer: Did she ever! I believe my blurb says something about "will haunt you in all the best ways."

Alyssa: My question for you: Who is a woman from history whom you feel has been unfairly vilified?

Greer: I love this question and the one who springs immediately to mind is Alexander Pushkin's wife Natalia Goncharova, although I didn't know much about her until I read Jennifer Laam's THE LOST SEASON OF LOVE AND SNOW, which tells the flip side of her story. Apparently she's been widely vilified throughout history for causing the duel that killed her husband, but Jennifer's book beautifully lays out the impossible situation Natalia was in -- the expectations of women at the time, the catch-22 that came from being cursed either for accepting or rejecting the advances of men of high rank who weren't one's husband. 

My broader answer is that so many women in history have been blamed, cursed, dismissed, or vilified for their actions that I feel we owe it to them to explore their stories. I mean, all the way back to Eve, it's been the woman's fault when something bad happens. From Eve to Anne Boleyn to Mata Hari to Yoko Ono. I gladly delve into any book, fiction or nonfiction, that tells a woman's story in all its complexity.

For more on Alyssa and her books, visit alyssapalombo.com. 

WomensHistoryReads interview: Sophie Perinot

You're in for a treat with today's #womenshistoryreads interview -- it's a deep dive with novelist Sophie Perinot, who has a fascinating way of connecting the past with the present and the issues that still concern us today, up to and including #metoo. Welcome, Sophie!

Sophie Perinot

Greer: How would you describe what you write? 

Sophie: I am so glad you asked ;) I write stories set against the past, but exploring issues and feelings so essentially human that they transcend any particular era.

Why do I pick the past as my setting? Two reasons: first and foremost I am an incurable history geek. I was actually the first member of my college graduating class to declare a history major, and I come from a family absolutely full of people who consider visiting historical locations to be the making of every dream vacation (I only go to the beach every other year because my husband is a beach vacation guy).

Beyond my personal addiction to history, I believe that books set in the past can allow readers to confront very difficult issues by providing “safe distance.” The most important issues, emotional and moral, that people struggle with in their very 21st century lives are not new and, though this might surprise people, they are not, at their core, different than the issues people struggled with 500 or even 800 years ago. These emotionally freighted issues are also often the hardest to approach in “real-time.” But “the past is another country” (sorry—don’t have a handy citation for that quote). I think setting complex “big issue” situations in the past can allow people to more comfortably approach them.

For example, even with 2017 wrapping up as a year of #metoo, there continues to be a strong thread of “victim blaming” when women are sexually harassed or assaulted. Quite often young women in particular blame themselves for what has happened to them to a point where they do not report incidents. In my novel, Médicis Daughter, my main character falls into that trap, and across more than 400 years the injustice of her experience is a heartbreaking slap in the face. I expect that portion of the novel to generate recognition and deep thought in readers, perhaps causing them to confront patterns in their own lives and in our modern society.

Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?

Sophie: No. Let me start by saying that I have a background in history, having graduated with a BA in that subject. And I have a sister who is a tenured professor of history. She is the historian in this family, and has published a number of historical non-fiction books. I write historical fiction which is absolutely NOT the same thing. Let me explain . . .

My work is not driven by the overt goal of educating readers on a particular period, or presenting an overview of a historical issue. Instead, my writing is driven by considerations of plot and theme—by the desire to tell a universal story that is set in the past but transcends it. For example in my novel, The Sister Queens, the driving theme was the relationship between my sisters, Marguerite Queen of France and Eleanor Queen of England. There was a lot of important 13th century history that did not get discussed in my book—for example the English Baron’s rebellion in England—that would have been included if I had a different focus or a different set of main characters.

Historical novelists have some freedoms that historians don’t. We get to move things. For example, in my 16th century novel, Médicis Daughter, I relocated the signing of Marguerite de Valois’ marriage contract to Catherine de Médicis private study at the Chateau of Blois because I wanted the imagery of the paneling—very distinctive gold paneling covering secret cubbies—in that room. And, unlike historians, historical novelists even get to make things up. Academic Historians speculate, of course, because they can’t know everything even about the best-documented events of the past, but they do not make up events or people and insert them into history. In contrast, it is perfectly acceptable for novelists to create fictional happenings and characters. Characters are the most common. For example, in A Day of Fire the group of authors I worked with used historical figures—Admiral Pliny, the aedile Cuspius Pansa—about whom historians do have solid facts. But our cast of characters also included the fictionalized and the entirely fictitious. In creating fictionalized characters, some of our inspiration from the graffiti that peppered Pompeii. The hero of my story, Sabinus, was inspired by historical graffiti. Someone of that name ran for aedile shortly before destruction of the city. From his name and that fact I built a character.

So, to come full circle, my work isn’t driven by history, or entirely limited by it.  BUT if I write first rate historical fiction—and I’d like to think I do—then in telling my story I want to be true to historical facts as we know them.  How do I achieve that? 

I don’t wing it. In writing my historical fiction I use the same sorts of resources that a historian might use—scholarly journal articles, primary sources (for example in Médicis Daughter I used the memoirs of Marguerite de Valois as well as other primary sources like a political pamphlet published contemporaneously with events in the story), and secondary sources (biographies, prior histories).

And when I make a change from history or when I am faced with a choice of competing facts/dates I use my author’s note to let readers know that I have made a deviation, inference or choice.

Greer: A good author's note is essential! I agree. Last question: unlike many historical novelists who stick with a time period or region, you seem to wander -- you’ve been everywhere from ancient Rome to 16th century France. Do you plan to keep roaming?

Sophie: I am absolutely going to hop around like a bunny. I feel privileged as a writer—I feel that we are given extra lives. We get to live in different skins, travel to different places, and bring those experiences alive for readers. I don’t want to limit those travels either geographically or temporally. I am limited in my so-called real-life, in a way that my author alter-ego doesn’t have to be.

I completely understand those historical writers who want to go deep into a single era and become experts in a cast of characters. But I am generally drawn to a story by an “ah ha” moment—by an event that inspires, or by the discovery of someone I feel history has maligned or neglected—and those events are too serendipitous to stick to one setting or era. 

For example, I discovered the sisters at the center of my novel, The Sister Queens, in a footnote while research Notre Dame for another purpose. The idea that these two women had become Queens of two of the most powerful kingdoms in their era and yet had since been largely forgotten in the telling of history rankled me. Theirs was a story of influence, adventure and sisterhood that I just had to tell. 

More recently, a marvelous baroque song—a daring tarantella about death—got me wondering who might have written it and why, and the quest to find that person or invent him took me to the 17th century Papal Court of the Barberini, and led to a manuscript I just turned over to my agent. Similarly, something that always puzzled me about the Great Fire of London inspired me to begin writing my first dual timeline novel—yes I am actually working on something partially set in 21st century London. In another twist, this WIP has a thriller aspect, with not one but two investigations going on more than 350 years apart.

Sophie: My question for you: Which of your two main characters—Pinkerton detective Kate Warne, or illusionist the Amazing Arden is the most (or least) like you and in what way(s)?

Greer: Great question! I'm afraid that in my everyday existence -- as you put it so aptly in your own answer, my "so-called real life" -- I'm far more boring than either. They're both bold and fierce, ready to take on anyone who thinks they can't succeed. But I'm probably more like Arden, in that I grew up in a small town with a certain set of expectations and limits that I eventually outgrew, taking on bigger challenges in the wider world. I redefined myself and who I was, who I am. Arden has trauma that drives her from home, whereas for me it was insatiable curiosity, but there are some similarities in our journeys.

Sophie Perinot is an award-winning author of female-centered historical fiction. Her novel, The Sister Queens delves into the compelling bond between sisters Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence, 13th century queens of France and England. While her novel Médicis Daughter takes readers to the intrigue-riven French court, to consider issues of conscience and independence within the complicated mother/daughter relationship between princess Marguerite de Valois and the dangerous, powerful Queen Catherine de Médicis. Sophie was one of six historical novelists in the ground-breaking historical novel-in-six-parts, A Day of Fire: Stories of Pompeii, telling the story of the final days of that doomed city through the eyes of a cast of characters each written by an individual author but moving through multiple writer’s stories.  

To learn more about Sophie and her work, visit her website or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

WomensHistoryReads interview: Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Today on #womenshistoryreads I'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, who you may already know as the author of SCANDALOUS WOMEN, or as a vibrant, lively presence at the Historical Novel Society Conference (which is where I know her from.) My jaw dropped about five times while reading her informative and eye-opening interview answers -- scandalous indeed! You're in for a delightful read.

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

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

Elizabeth: Josephine Baker is one of my favorite women in history. Not only was she a singer, dancer, and actress but also a civil rights activist and a spy during World War II for the French resistance.  Not to mention that she was incredibly glamorous, as well as hard-working. There is a reason that she’s a legend. Growing up poor in St. Louis, married twice before she was even out of her teens, made her way to New York to Broadway and then to become the toast of Paris? The stories of her walking her pet cheetah down the Champs-Elysees, and her triumphant return to the stage in the 1970’s.

When I wrote Scandalous Women, I spent way too much time reading biographies and watching the few movies that she made. I just wanted to know more and more. I’m still trying to learn more about her work during World War II. I’ve been trying to find a copy of the memoir written by Jacques Abtey, who worked with her during that time. If I do find a copy, I’m going to have to break out my rusty French! Even "Gossip Girl" was fascinated with Josephine Baker. There’s a whole episode where Tyra Banks plays an actress who plays Josephine Baker in a movie about the French resistance but her part is cut out before the movie premieres in favor of Hilary Duff’s character.  I remember watching that episode and thinking that it was absurd, everyone knows that Josephine Baker is one of the most fascinating women in history.

Greer: Agreed! Next question: Do you consider yourself a historian?  

Elizabeth: I am definitely not a historian; I’m would say that I’m more of a story-teller.  I majored in English and Drama in college, but I have always loved history, ever since I was a child. I’m most definitely a history geek. My favorite books as a child were the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder; I read those over and over. Later I moved onto to Jean Plaidy and Philippa Carr. Even when I was acting, most of the plays that I performed were historical, Shakespeare, Shaw, Chekhov, and Schnitzler. I think I did one contemporary play in 15 years of acting. I started Scandalous Women because I was reading about so many fascinating women in history and I wanted to share their stories with readers. Ten years ago, there weren’t many blogs or books out. Now, of course, there is an explosion of interest in women’s lives and history. To this day, my friends and I talk about women in history such as Anne Boleyn, The Brontë sisters, and Mary Wollstonecraft as if we actually knew them. They are so real to us.

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

Elizabeth: One of the biggest challenges is when there is either too much research or too little.  I wrote a book proposal for a non-fiction book about Juliet d’Aubigny, better known as Mademoiselle Maupin.  Fascinating woman, she was a 17th century cross-dressing, bisexual swordswoman and opera singer. But there is so much that we don’t know about her, in particular how many of the stories about her are true.

There was one story that was particularly outrageous. Apparently she entered a convent as a postulant in order to pursue a young woman that she had fallen in love with. One night after an elderly nun died, Juliet stole the body, placed it in the girl’s cell and set fire to the convent, and escaped with her lover. They were on the run for three months and Juliet was sentenced to death in absentia by the parliament in Provence as a man, because the judges refused to believe that a woman could abduct another,  let alone from a convent. She apparently fought duels with men and won. There are so many stories or myths about her but they were all hard to corroborate. I found it really difficult to write the proposal. In hindsight, I should have pitched the book as more of an investigative piece: does this woman really exist? 

For Scandalous Women, I had the opposite problem, too much research. I must have read more than seventy books, and I could have read another seventy. The research was just so fascinating, but at a certain point I had to stop and write the book! Otherwise, it would never have been finished.

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

Elizabeth: One of the most interesting women that I wrote about in Scandalous Women was Jane Digby.  She was an English aristocrat born just before the Regency period in England and died during the late Victorian era. She had four husbands (she divorced three of them) and many lovers, including King Ludwig I of Bavaria (she’s featured in his Hall of Beauties) as well as his son King Otto of Greece. Her last husband was an Arab Sheikh who was twenty years her junior! Finally, she’d found the happiness that she was looking for. They were married for almost thirty years before she died. Men just couldn’t help falling in love with her, and if you look at her portraits, you can see why. She is the classic English beauty, blonde hair, big blue eyes, and porcelain skin. I’m amazed that no one has written either a book or done a miniseries about her life. As to who should write it, I would have to say Leslie Carroll would be the perfect author. She’s already written about Eliza Hamilton and Mary Robinson, Jane Digby would be right up her alley.

Elizabeth: And my question for you: Have you watched the TV series about The Pinkertons? If so what did you think of the portrayal of Kate Warne?

Greer: I didn't have the right channel to watch it when it was on TV, but the timing turned out to be fortuitous -- it came to Netflix shortly after I'd turned in GIRL IN DISGUISE. Of course I was curious about overlap between their Kate and my Kate, but as it turns out, there isn't any, time-wise or plot-wise. Their story begins in 1865, just after mine ends. Of course both my book and the TV series had the same scant facts from history to draw on, so we made some of the same decisions about the personality Kate must have had: bold, fiery, and constantly battling the pervasive sexism of the day. I never saw any sources that would indicate she was solving cases in Kansas City with William Pinkerton in 1865, as she does in the show, but I'm happy for anything that gets Kate's name out there, frankly!

Want more about Elizabeth and her knowledge of scandalous women? Here you go:

http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/scandalwomen

WomensHistoryReads interview: Michelle Gable

If you haven't read Michelle Gable's bestselling novels, now is a great time to start! As she describes in today's #womenshistoryreads interview, her work is inspired by history, using facts as a jumping-off point to spin compelling narratives that will keep your attention until the last page and beyond. (And if you've spent any time in a bookstore in the past few years, you'll probably recognize the iconic blue script that sets her books apart -- it's beautiful.)

And the woman who inspired her next book sounds particularly fascinating. Read on for more...

Michelle Gable (photo credit: Joanna DeGeneres)

Greer: How would you describe what you write?

Michelle: This is a great question, and one I’m asked all the time. It usually happens in some random setting, like on the tennis court. My partner will announce, “hey, she’s a writer!” Then the inevitable: “what do you write?” “Novels” is not a satisfying answer, I’ve learned.

Generally, I describe my books as a combination of historical and contemporary fiction, or historical fiction with a contemporary thread. All of my books are based on real people or events, so I hope my writing results in a lot of googling.

Greer: What’s your next book about and when will we see it?

Michelle: My next novel is called The Summer I Met Jack and it comes out on May 29th. Yes, it is that Jack…Jack Kennedy. The main character was a woman he was engaged to briefly in 1951. Alicia Corning Clark—one of her many names—was a Jewish Polish refugee and Papa Kennedy forbid the marriage. She was a firecracker and led a fascinating life in her own right, as an artist, a B-movie actress, and paramour to a number of leading men and even a leading lady or two (hello, Katharine Hepburn!)  

Greer: Sounds fantastic! Can't wait. Last question: what book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?

Michelle: Well, I’m going to go with a podcast because I’m obsessed with them. Most people are shocked when I tell them how much I love the True Crime/Comedy podcast My Favorite Murder. 

Greer: I'll have to check it out!

Michelle: And your question: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to uncover or confirm a historical detail? This can either be straight up insane or crazy as in the time/energy/stress/money far outweighed whatever information you gleaned. 

Greer: It took me a while to think of an answer for this question, so I think maybe I haven't been crazy enough! But I did seek out a private magic library in Manhattan while I was researching THE MAGICIAN'S LIE -- I'd heard rumors about it, and seen a few mentions here and there on the internet, so I went waaaaaay down a rabbit hole hunting for more information. Finally I figured out where it was located, and even better, an e-mail address for it. I wrote a very nice letter begging for access to their materials, and I had all these visions of paging through dusty old playbills and artifacts. I was so excited when they wrote back! And then they told me that pretty much the whole collection was digitized and I could have access to it through the website if I just paid a monthly fee. Somehow, that sucked the glamour right out of the whole business. (I ended up not really using anything I found there, either.)

THE SUMMER I MET JACK comes out May 29. Is Michelle's book tour bringing her to your neck of the woods? Find out that and more with these links:

www.michellegable.com

facebook.com/michellegable

@MGableWriter on Twitter and Instagram

For a change of pace, tomorrow's #WomensHistoryReads interview will take us into the world of nonfiction. Tune in, won't you?

WomensHistoryReads interview: Meg Waite Clayton

Today I'm thrilled to welcome to the blog Meg Waite Clayton, who wows critics and readers alike with her insightful, entrancing books. Not only a New York Times bestselling author, she was also honored by the Langham Prize committee for THE RACE FOR PARIS (which I adored.) Read more about Meg below!

Meg Waite Clayton

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

Meg: As a group, the enormously talented and courageous women war journalists and photojournalists, including Lee Carson, Helen Kirkpatrick, Iris Carpenter, Ruth Cowan, Lee Miller, Dot Avery, Virginia Irwin, Margaret Bourke-White, and Martha Gellhorn, have inspired me. My first novel, The Language of Light, about a woman who aspires to be a photojournalist, has roots in Margaret Bourke-White's autobiography. And all my work has in some sense flown from that first novel.

My latest, The Race for Paris, draws directly from the experiences of all these World War II correspondents, who defied military regulations and gender barriers to cover the “race for Paris,” vying to be among the first to report from the liberated city in the summer of 1944. They did so by stowing away in bathrooms of Channel-crossing boats, going AWOL, hopping fences meant to contain them, struggling to get their photographs and stories out, and risking their lives. Despite being confronted with red tape and derision, denied access to jeeps and to the information and accommodations provided to their male colleagues at press camps, pursued by military police intent on returning them to the States, and even arrested and stripped of credentials, they proved that women could report from the front lines, and opened the way for generations of women to do things previously forbidden us.

Greer: And the way that you weave those truths with fiction makes for a fantastic story. How would you describe what you write?

Meg: My novels take place in different time periods, but they share a common thread in that they are--or at least are meant to be--inspirational stories about women finding the strength to overcome societal barriers unique to women. But I hope they are first and foremost not "message" but story. I like a great read that leaves me both laughing and crying, and that's what I try to write.

Greer: Yes. I've definitely done both while reading your novels! What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

Meg: Both challenging and exciting is the fact that there are so many amazing women in history who are not yet known, or known well enough. Exciting because that is so much story possibility. Challenging because there are only so many hours in a lifetime, and I want to write them all! 

Greer: Ditto!

Meg: And for you: I'd love to know about a woman (or group of women) from the past who've inspired you. That is such a great question!

Greer: With a near-infinite number of answers, right? I'm always running across new names, but only one has inspired me enough to center an entire novel around -- Kate Warne, 19th-century detective and total bad-ass. If I were a biographer, it would have been intensely frustrating to discover that the information about her in the historical record is basically skeletal. But since I'm a historical novelist, I felt like the gaps in her story were the perfect invitation. I've said since the beginning that part of the reason I wrote the book was so more people would know her name, but only lately have I been able to articulate why her lack of name recognition bothers me so much: why do we all know the name of the man who assassinated Lincoln in 1865, but not the woman who saved his life by foiling an earlier assassination attempt in 1861? How different our country's history could have been. Get this woman into the history books!

Read more about Meg, her books, and her advice for writers at the links below:

www.megwaiteclayton.com
www.facebook.com/novelistmeg
Twitter: @megwclayton

And as always, tune in for another #womenshistoryreads review tomorrow!

WomensHistoryReads interview: Renee Rosen

Today's #WomensHistoryReads guest is Renee Rosen. She's an author of many talents, particularly skilled at bringing Chicago history to life in books like DOLLFACE (1920s), WHAT THE LADY WANTS (1890s), WHITE COLLAR GIRL (1950s), and WINDY CITY BLUES (1960s). Her next project is a departure from that pattern -- which she talks about in her interview below. Welcome, Renee!

Renee Rosen (credit: Charles Osgood Photography)

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

Renee: I know some authors hand off the research aspect of their work to an intern or assistant but I can’t imagine not doing the research myself.  That's something I truly love about my job. The most exciting part is the element of discovery. You just never know what you’ll stumble upon and some seemingly insignificant detail could end up greatly impacting your story. 

I love discovering courageous women, especially the lesser known women, and find myself deeply humbled after learning about their struggles and the difficulties they overcame. Though we still have many of our own obstacles today, it’s easy to take for granted the sacrifices they made in order for us to lead the lives we do. I get absolutely lost in another time and place. Getting the details right, down to the clothing and social mores right is especially challenging. 

My last few books have been set in the '40s, '50s and '60s and many readers were alive and well during those time periods and they know it well. If you don’t get your details right, you’ll lose them right there on the page. I think that’s why I especially love hearing from readers who say I took them back in time and reminded them of their childhoods. 

Greer: How would you describe what you write?

Renee: I would say that first and foremost, I write historical fiction, usually (but not always) centered around strong female characters—both real and fictional. I tend to do a blended type of writing where I weave my fictional characters into stories based on real events and real people. It’s always gratifying when readers tell me they googled my fictional characters because they thought they were real. Making that aspect seamless is a real challenge. It’s really important that they don't feel plugged in. And because I tend to mix fiction with non-fiction, I always include an extensive author’s note at the end of each book, explaining where I took creative license so readers can separate facts from fiction. 

Greer: Always a good plan. What’s your next book about and when will we see it?  

Renee: My upcoming book, PARK AVENUE SUMMER, is a historical novel coming from Penguin Random House /Berkley in May 2019.

I’m super excited about this novel for many reasons. Here’s a brief description:
New York City in 1965 is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss who leaves her small Midwestern town and lands the job of a lifetime working for the first female Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.

Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone asks Alice to help sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed. While pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she’s quickly learning that in Helen Gurley Brown’s world, a woman can demand to have it all.

Greer: What a fascinating premise!

Renee: And now a question for you. Can you describe your writing process? For example, are you an outliner, do you write longhand first, do you conduct all your research up front or do it hand-in-hand with your writing? 

Greer: I could describe my writing process in one word: sloppy. I make a mess, but I do it quickly, and then I spend months and months cleaning it up. I do usually start from a synopsis -- GIRL IN DISGUISE and my next book WOMAN NINETY-NINE were both sold on a synopsis and sample pages. I have a plan, and then as I write it, I change the plan. I write only on the computer because my fingers can't keep up with my brain in longhand, but at a certain point in the process -- usually once I have that first messy-but-complete-ish draft -- I have to print it out and mark it up. Then the multicolor Post-Its come out. There's something tactile about that stage.

Research goes in a few waves, and I try to do the most substantial work before I even start writing. So for example, with GIRL IN DISGUISE I read everything there was to read on Kate Warne. I watched movies and read books about the time period. I read up on Allan Pinkerton and the cases his agents were working at the time I was writing about. Then I began. But for Chicago street names, for example -- that kind of detail work -- I waited until I knew which scenes were actually going to make it into the final draft. Then I found a map from 1856 and went to town, so to speak.

For more on Renee and her books, visit her website at reneerosen.com.

WomensHistoryReads interview: Erika Robuck

Today I'm thrilled to welcome to the blog Erika Robuck, author of rich, enthralling historical fiction (FALLEN BEAUTY is my favorite) and all-around good person to know. As I've mentioned on previous interviews, one of the best things about getting to know other authors is watching their careers and readerships grow over the years, and I've been cheering Erika on, as she's been cheering me on, ever since the early days of HEMINGWAY'S GIRL. Welcome, Erika! 

Erika Robuck

Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?

Erika: There are so many books that stay with me, but the most recent that will not leave me is THE CHILD FINDER, by Rene Denfeld. It gripped me from the first page and would not give up its hold—even now. The story is about a private investigator hired to find a missing girl. The detective’s own past becomes entangled with the cases she works, and it builds to a terrifying, emotionally-charged climax. What makes THE CHILD FINDER stand above a typical mystery/suspense novel is the gorgeous writing and the deeply layered characters. Even the antagonists are complex, and it takes a writer of enormous empathy and understanding to be able humanize the inhuman and the fictional so completely. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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

Erika: I’d make sure every history textbook had a section on Mother Theresa of Calcutta—a woman who left every material comfort in her life to minister to the unwanted in society—the poor, the sick, and the dying. She faced opposition from without and within her own society and faith, but continued on in service to others, helping those who “lived like animals to die like angels.” What is most inspiring about Mother (now Saint) Theresa was that she experienced a “dark night of the soul” as soon as she entered into her deep vocation to the poor, which did not lift for the rest of her life. She was lonely, opposed, and full of self doubt, but in the name of her devotion to faith in God and in love, never stopped on the path she felt was laid for her. 

Greer: Who are some of your favorite authors working today?  

Erika: I find favorite author/book questions delightful and terrifying. There are so many—how to list them all? I’ll have to name the first who come to mind, whose books I buy without needing description because I know I will love them. A. S. Byatt, Kate Morton, Priya Parmar, Jojo Moyes, Toni Morrison, Tatiana de Rosnay, and Paula McLain. 

Erika: My question for you:  It might have been F. Scott Fitzgerald who said all writers have one story to tell. In spite of different time periods and places, what is the recurring story you find yourself confronting with each book, and why is it so important that you tell it? 

Greer: I think all of my books so far have followed a woman who discovers her inner strength when she's tested by extraordinary circumstances. Some of them start out fierce, like Kate Warne, and some only find their fierceness once they're in the thick of the action, like the protagonist of WOMAN NINETY-NINE, who most readers won't meet until next year. But I think it's an important theme. Most of us are stronger than we know. And these are historical women, faced with the constraints of the times they lived in. If the women of the past could accomplish so much in those times, what could we, women of the present, accomplish today?

WomensHistoryReads interview: Susan Meissner

Today's #WomensHistoryReads interview is a charmer -- just like Susan Meissner herself, author of more than a dozen novels, including SECRETS OF A CHARMED LIFE and A BRIDGE ACROSS THE OCEAN. Her most recent is AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, about a Philadelphia family reborn through love and loss during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. Be sure to check out her website for tour events to see if she's coming to a city near you on tour in March or April.

Susan Meissner

Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?

Susan: I just finished I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon and my first response when I read the last page was, “Wow!” The last imperial Russian tsar, Nicholas Romanov, was executed along with his wife and five children during the Bolshevik revolution in 1918, but mystery surrounded one of the daughters, when in 1920, a woman who later went by the name Anna Anderson claimed to be Anastasia Romanov. Anderson attempted to kill herself by jumping off a Berlin bridge two years after the executions. She carried no identification papers and refused to give authorities her name. When she finally did speak, she said she was Grand Duchess Anastasia, the only surviving member of the Russian royal family. This same woman spent her lifetime claiming she had survived the brutal execution of the rest of her family. Lawhon has constructed a cleverly engaging look at both Anastasia Romanov of history and the woman who claimed until her dying day to be the sole surviving daughter of the last tsar of Russia. It is a non-linear tale, in that part of the story moves forward and part moves backward, but I loved how the story played out that way. It was a very unique architecture that was probably not easy to pull off, but Lawhon is a master storyteller and she totally made it work.

Greer: I am SO excited for that book! And Ariel will be a guest here the day it publishes, March 27. Next question: If you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?

During the writing of one of my older books, WHITE PICKET FENCES, I came across the life and times of Irena Sendler, a brave Polish social worker who helped smuggle more than two thousand Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. She was arrested on October 20, 1943, and sent to the notorious Piawiak prison. Here she was tortured when she would not give up the names of the other people in her smuggling network. Despite the cruelty of her questioners, she remained resolute and gave up no names. Irena was sentenced to death, but the German executioner who was to have killed her was bribed so that friends could help her escape. Posters were put up all over the city with the news that she’d been executed. She hid during the remaining years of the war. Irena was the only one who knew where the children who had been smuggled out were located. When the war was over in 1945, she dug up the jars that contained the slips of paper detailing the whereabouts of the 2500 children whose lives she had saved and began the job of trying to find a living relative.  She was so very brave, and few high schoolers know her name.

Greer: That's amazing -- both what she did and that it's not better-known. What’s your next book about and when will we see it?

My next book was just released in February, so it’s just a month old and I’m so glad that it is out in the wild. AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN is a novel set primarily in Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, which claimed an astonishing 50 million people worldwide. But it’s not just a book about an all-but-forgotten event, it’s also a story about what gives our lives beauty and meaning. It’s because we’re mortal that life is so precious, and the time we are given – however long or short – is always made more wonderful because of who we’ve loved along the way, and who has loved us. The point-of-view characters telling the story are an undertaker’s wife and the couple’s children – three daughters whose ages bring unique perspectives to what is happening all around them as well as around the world. Library Journal gave AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN a starred review and Romantic Times named it a Top Pick in their January issue and said it was “heart-wrenching, well written and unforgettable.” It has been likened to two favorite books I’ve read in my own book club, Barbara Kingsolver’s THE POISONWOOD BIBLE and THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS, by M. L. Stedman.

Greer: A wonderful book. (And catnip to fellow THE POISONWOOD BIBLE superfans.)

Susan: My question for you: You have been granted a lovely dinner with three literary greats – dead or alive. Who do you pick and what is on the menu?

Greer: I love it when fellow authors' questions give me superpowers! Let's go with some dead and some alive, to assemble a powerhouse salon of Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, and Agatha Christie. On one hand I think a classic afternoon tea spread with scones and Darjeeling would be most appropriate, but since it's my fantasy, I'm going with my favorite party food: Spanish tapas like marinated Manchego, garlic shrimp and chorizo coins, washed down with gallons of Rioja. Let's see what tipsy Jane would spill -- maybe her wine, maybe some secrets. 

Learn more about Susan and her books here:

http://susanlmeissner.com

Twitter: @SusanMeissner

Facebook: susan.meissner

Instagram: @soozmeissner

Tomorrow's #womenshistoryreads interviewee is Erika Robuck -- be sure to stop by again!

WomensHistoryReads interview: Heather Webb

Not only do I have a fabulous #WomensHistoryReads interview from a talented writer to publish today, I don't even need to write an introduction! Heather Webb's impressive bio speaks for itself:

Heather Webb is the international bestselling author of women’s historical novels Becoming Josephine, Rodin’s Lover, Last Christmas in Paris, and The Phantom’s Apprentice, which have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and more, as well as received national starred reviews. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was selected as a Goodreads Top Pick, and in 2017, Last Christmas in Paris became a Globe and Mail bestseller. To date, Heather’s novels have sold in multiple countries worldwide. She is also a professional freelance editor, and teaches craft courses at a local college. When not writing, you may find her collecting cookbooks or looking for excuses to travel. She lives in New England with her family and one feisty rabbit.

Heather Webb

Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian? 

Heather: I wouldn't call myself a historian, necessarily, as they spend years of dedicated academic study followed by intensive research in one area and era, typically, and truly become specialists. I would certainly say I'm a history-lover, and have always been one. My dad inspired that love in me with his old Hollywood films, "Little House on the Prairie," and endless westerns, and our dozens of trips to war or history museums all over the country and many in Europe as well. 

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

Heather: I find an awful lot of it exciting--the inexplicable and strange details that seem too weird to be real; the trail-blazing women who fought through so much to achieve their dreams, or even just to survive in a man's world; striking on a person or event in which a woman has done something so spectacular that it seems impossible she has been overlooked in the annals of history; spending time in a courageous woman's head. I adore getting lost in the research and in my characters' hearts and minds. What I find challenging? Publishing is a business, in the end, so the powers that be don't always believe a particular woman's story will resonate with enough readers to make it worth their while to purchase the book and put it on shelves. This is challenging to a writer who enjoys mining for nuanced stories and people. 

Greer: Who are some of your favorite authors working today?

Heather: I learn of new favorite authors every single year as there are always so many glorious new books to read. My current favorites are Paula McLain, John Green, Jessie Burton, Jo Baker, and Jennifer Donnelly. I also adore Sena Jeter Naslund, Tom Robbins, and Elizabeth Gilbert. 

Greer: Lots of great names there!

Heather: My question for you:  How did you discover your love for historical fiction?

Greer: Totally by accident! I'd always been a historical fiction reader, because I read just about everything, but I didn't write historical fiction until I had an out-of-the-blue realization: I'd always seen images of male magicians cutting women in half, but never anything about a female magician cutting a man in half. And I wanted to write a book about a woman who would. But it would have been a very different book with a contemporary setting, and I wanted it to take place in the golden age of magic, so my fictional illusionist could make front-page headlines. So I wrote THE MAGICIAN'S LIE, which is set primarily in 1905. And for several years after that, every idea I had was a historical fiction idea, and right now those are the stories that move me enough to dedicate hours, weeks, years to writing them down.

In this re-imagining of Phantom of the Opera, meet a Christine Daaé you’ve never seen before…

Christine faces an impossible choice: be a star at the Paris opera as Papa always wanted, or follow her dream—to become a master of illusions. First, she must steal the secrets of the enigmatic master who haunts her, survive a world of treachery and murder, and embrace the uncertain promise of love. To succeed, she will risk her life in the grandest illusion of all. 

Here's where you can find out more about Heather and her books:

Website:  www.HeatherWebb.net

Twitter:  @msheatherwebb

FB: https://www.facebook.com/msheatherwebb/ (Heather Webb, Author)

Instagram: @msheatherwebb

(And as always, stay tuned for another #WomensHistoryReads interview tomorrow! We've got a lot more March to go...)

WomensHistoryReads interview: Kate Quinn

Two very exciting things today! One, GIRL IN DISGUISE is now out in paperback -- now you can get it in hardcover, paperback, e-book or audio. Yay! Two, I'm thrilled to welcome to the blog Kate Quinn, NYT bestselling author of THE ALICE NETWORK, one of my favorite reads of the past year. If you haven't read this book yet, you must, and Reese Witherspoon agrees with me. What more recommendation do you need?

Welcome, Kate!

Kate Quinn

Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?

Kate: AFFINITY by Sarah Waters--a well-to-do Victorian girl pays mission of mercy calls to a women's prison, and finds herself drawn by an enigmatic young spirit medium. A budding love affair between two complicated women, a sharply-drawn portrait of the Victorian justice system, and a creepy Gothic mystery all tied into one! 

Greer: Ooh, that sounds fantastic. And you know how much I loved THE ALICE NETWORK, so I'm really looking forward to what comes next from you. What’s your next book about and when will we see it?

Kate: My next book is untitled so far, tentatively scheduled for February 2019. A team of Nazi hunters in post-war Vienna is tracking down a Nazi murderess gone to ground in America, even as a budding teenage photographer in 1946 Boston begins to have serious doubts about her father's demure German fiancee. And intertwined with those two storylines is Nina, a Russian female bomber pilot who flew against Hitler's eastern front in the all-female regiment known as the Night Witches...

Greer: Can't wait. For your last question, play matchmaker: what unsung woman from history would you most like to read a book about, and who should write it?

Kate: I'd love to read a book about Leonora d'Este: the second wife of Renaissance lord and composer Gesualdo, a musical genius who famously murdered his first wife...and was maybe murdered in turn by Leonora! What kind of woman was she, to have lived with such a dangerous man and come out alive? That's nerves of steel for you. And I'd have Elizabeth Loupas write it; I adore her work. Though in her novel "The Second Duchess" she tackles the similar domestic situation of Duke Alfonso and the first wife he possibly murdered, so E.L. probably wouldn't want to do such a similar re-tread!

Greer: I'd read it for sure. So intriguing.

Kate: And as for a question for you, if you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?

Greer: Most readers of GIRL IN DISGUISE can probably guess the answer I'll give -- definitely Kate Warne, first female Pinkerton detective. She broke new ground by walking into Allan Pinkerton's office in 1856 and applying for a job as a detective at a time when women rarely worked outside the home at all -- the ad hadn't specified that only men could apply because it was so unthinkable. Then she was so good at it, they hired more women and put her in charge of the Bureau of Female Detectives. Plus, the role she played in foiling an 1861 assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln should be better known. What does it say that we all know the name of the man who killed President Lincoln but not the woman who saved him from being killed before he even got to his inauguration? I wrote GIRL IN DISGUISE to try to get her name out there in one small way; I'd love to see it everywhere.

Find out more about Kate and her books at www.katequinnauthor.com.