With Lucy’s new Sisterhood, it seems that the members (Liza, Olivia, and Gil) live a very consequence-free lifestyle. Lucy seems apprehensive throughout. She seems tentative to make the leap of faith in joining the group. Is that why the others in the group seem to be so relaxed? Does this lifestyle require a leap of faith initially?
Lynn: There definitely don’t seem to be a ton of external consequences for the Heartbreakers’ actions, but I wouldn’t say their lifestyle is consequence-free. In the next book some of the internal consequences will be revealed.
It absolutely would require a leap of faith to join the Heartbreakers. They’re so secretive!
In regards to the old adage of art imitating life (or vice-versa), is Lucy a reflection of you (the author) or an amalgamation of characters and heroines from other stories? Or can it be that she is a little of both?
Lynn: Lucy isn’t me, but I have felt every feeling she feels in the book. I can absolutely relate to a lot of what she goes through (well, except maybe not the meeting a group of semi-witches part.
What will come of Tristan after he gets his heart broken? Should we pity him?
Lynn: Definitely don’t feel sorry for Tristan! He plays an even bigger role in the second book. Tristan accepts that happiness and sadness are both important and necessaryparts of life.
Queen Hereaftertells the story of Margaret of Scotland, queen of Scots in the 11th century—a Saxon princess, Hungarian-born, she was descended from Alfred the Great and became a refugee from the Norman Conquest. Shipwrecked with her escaping family along the Scottish coast, she married her protector, King Malcolm Canmore, who had defeated Macbeth for the throne of Scotland. Margaret succeeded Lady Macbeth as queen of Scots, and so she seemed a perfect subject for a sequel to my novel about Lady Macbeth—and Margaret was an intriguing woman in her own right.
A good deal is known about Margaret, which is unusual in an early medieval queen and made the research and the writing easier in some ways than my novel about Lady Macbeth—and in some ways more complicated, as so much was known that some, inevitably, had to be cut from the novel. The contrasts in Margaret’s life and character were fascinating—piety and worldly power, gentleness and temper, obedience and mischief, saintliness and temptation: all those angles were part of her. She emerges from history as a real young woman thanks to a rare medieval biography written by her friend and confessor, Bishop Turgot—who seemed a pretty dry character in history until I discovered that Turgot, or Thorgaut, was a Viking name, and that this priest and monk had previously escaped from a Norman prison and had been shipwrecked and rescued by monks, so that he joined their order after his recovery. Tor, as he’s called in the novel, idealized his friend Queen Margaret, but in his biography of her, he left tantalizing hints of a vital, fascinating young woman.
Her biographer seems to have fallen under Margaret’s spell—which says something about her personality. Reading between the lines of Turgot’s biography, Margaret comes across as a very real and fascinating character. And there is a lovely fairytale element to her true story that has such naturally romantic elements that a story was easy to develop: a beautiful, exiled young princess, a shipwreck, love at first sight (so says Turgot!), a brawny royal husband who adored her, eight healthy children, and enough charm and determination in this foreign queen to win the affection of the resistant Scots and then change them, bringing them from the Dark Ages, basically, into the Middle Ages. Margaret’s influence in that transition was quite significant, as medieval historians note about her. Yet some inner torment kept Margaret from being truly happy despite all she had – her story was hard for a historical novelist to resist.
Margaret is a crucial part of Scottish history at a critical moment, the period of the Norman Conquest of England, which threatened Scotland’s well-being too. She had a cosmopolitan upbringing in Hungary and then the English court; Edward the Confessor was her uncle, and after his death, when the Normans invaded England, she and her mother and siblings fled. Their ship wrecked on the Scottish coast and they came under the protection of Malcolm Canmore – and Margaret’s contribution to Scottish history, and to the history of women in power, began.
Turgot created an amazing document in his Vita S. Margaretae, written for Margaret’s daughter—it’s full of wonderful anecdotes about her, insights into her character, and verifiable facts. Other sources mention Margaret and her family, such as in annals and charters. The rest of the picture is provided by historical events and the actions of her husband, Malcolm Canmore, her brother, Edgar the Aetheling, and others.
Despite the amount of information available about the real Margaret, writing a novel about her required filling lots of historical gaps, extrapolating and leaping in order to bring history to life. I wanted Margaret to emerge in the novel as a real, vulnerable, sympathetic character. Part of the challenge was that she was represented as perfect and virtuous in her lifetime, a woman who later was named a saint. But along with the perfection were hints of flaws and quirks, such as her temper, her sharp intelligence, her impatience, her tendency to be very hard on herself and others, all revealed by her biographer along with her more idealized qualities. I was looking for the real Margaret, a young woman in a strange land, who was not always so sure of herself—a young woman who fell in love with a man who was very nearly her complete opposite—a love match that even the earliest historical sources attest—and a woman who loved deeply, passionately, not only her husband and children, but her loyalties, her causes and charities, and her adopted country of Scotland. I discovered that Margaret of Scotland was a complex woman who seemed very real to me—and I hope she seems that way to readers of Queen Hereaftertoo.
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This guest post was written by James Lander, a contributing writer for daily deals site, Couponing. The site offers tips for entering the couponing world as well as daily deal breakdowns for top retailers.
The fable of the Tortoise and the Hare contains a valuable message – it’s the slow-starters that make the biggest impact over time. Concepts that seemed mediocre upon conception can become incredibly influential, creating ripples in all aspects of our culture. Amazon.com is the result one such concept. Initially a tiny company, it has grown to influence our society in a major way – for better and according to many, for worse.
How it all began
In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded one of the first online book retailers and began selling stock in the company for a mere 18 dollars a share. After a few slow years, many stockholders began to protest, complaining that the business wasn’t growing quickly enough to their liking. They needn’t have worried. Today, Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer, having diversified their stock from books to all forms of media and practically anything else you might imagine. The site receives over 615 million visits monthly and enjoyed profits totaling over 30 billion in 2010. This kind of enormous success always elicits criticism, but unfortunately in the case of Amazon.com the majority of it appears to be warranted.
The Angel of Amazon’s shoulder
E-books are rapidly consuming the publishing industry. Amazon has kept up with and even fed our new obsession by not only inventing one of the first dedicated e-book readers, but allowing literally anyone to publish their work for free on the Kindle site. Whereas previously an author had to struggle with rejection for years in order to be noticed, writers today can simply submit their work on Amazon and have it available for purchase immediately. Voices that previously might have been silenced by publishing industry politics are now being heard, allowing freedom of speech, artistic expression and income potential for absolutely everyone.
The company can also be credited for the new ‘reading renaissance’ that is currently underway. We are obsessed with technology and convenience. Therefore, when Amazon introduced the Kindle, it became an immediate status symbol for those who wished to be entertained while staying on the cutting edge. After Oprah Winfrey spent almost an entire program singing its praises, the Kindle became the next ‘must have’ item. As a result, e-book sales have been consistently breaking records with gains as much as 145% in one year. One might go so far as to credit Amazon for creating a generation that will be much more well read than any before it. Angelic indeed.
Meet the Devil
During the first week of November 2011, Amazon released ‘Flow’ (pictured above): an app for mobile devices that would cause many consumers and merchants to lose a great deal of respect for the company. Flow allows shoppers to scan the barcodes of items they are interested in and receive information pertaining to it almost instantly on their device. It certainly sounds useful. However, just as quickly as they receive the product details, they learn about how much Amazon is selling it for and are given the option to purchase it online, right then.
Paul Constant, Seattle’s The Stranger book editor and contributing blogger, reprimanded the company severely: accusing it of “taking advantage of (merchant’s) high overhead by treating them as product showrooms without giving them a cent of subsidy.” Obviously, Flow and the Amazon website itself poses a major threat to brick and mortar bookstores. Not only are they swaying customers away with a superior selection of titles but they are now exploiting these companies by using them as free advertising.
One might even go so far as to equate them with spies – making their way secretly into every corner bookshop via customers’ iPhones and Androids, gathering as much information about their competitors as possible. What’s worse is that Amazon has incentivized the use of the Flow – offering users $5 (Constant points out, also, that it’s actually only $5 if you spend $100, 5% off).
In the past, the CEOs of Barnes and Noble have accused Amazon.com of being more of a book ‘broker’ than a seller. This accusation suggests that the business is soulless and more concerned with profit than literary passion. This is terrible press for Amazon because purchasing something off the site is raising ethical questions. For some, the morally questionable ‘Flow’ may be enough to sway them away from Amazon entirely but for others the promise of extra money in their pockets may override any objections. Nevertheless, as always it is up to the consumer to choose where they spend their money. It might be wise for Amazon to take into account that these consumers are becoming just as concerned with the where as they are with the why.
This December 1st marked the 250th anniversary of Marie Grosholtz’s birth. And while that name may not be immediately recognizable, Marie’s married name – Madame Tussaud – is probably one of the most famous in French history. It comes as a surprise to many people that the name behind the famous wax museums actually belonged to a real woman.
Born in 1761, Marie grew up in a middle-class family on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. As the daughter of a prominent wax artist who had friends in every walk of life, her family entertained impoverished young lawyers and hobnobbed with royals like the Duc d’Orléans. It was a rich and incredibly varied existence for Marie on the Boulevard. One day she might be dressed in a towering white pouf for a visit with the queen, while the next she might be working in a dirty artist’s apron. She knew how to curtsy and how to spice venison for stew, and was as comfortable in her uncle’s Tuesday evening salons as she was in his workshop, where she modeled wax figures of the rich and famous (and sometimes infamous) for their museum.
But when discontent began to spread throughout Paris, evidenced by the heated debates which took place in her family’s weekly salons, Marie had a choice to make. Would she side with the revolutionaries who were calling for fair taxation and an end to nobility, or would she support the royal family whose patronage had turned her Parisian museum into a must-see event for both French and foreigners alike?
While writing Madame Tussaud, I tried to imagine what I would have done in Marie’s place. I imagined that I was an acquaintance of Marie Antoinette’s, and that I was good friends with the king’s sister, Madame Elisabeth. As the Revolution gathers support from the masses, I witness firsthand the panic gripping the Palace of Versailles. At first, the king dismisses the uprising as a few discontented rabble-rousers. But as the protests becomes more violent, he begins to realize that this is something serious – something dangerous, in fact. Still, no one around him is telling him the truth. Not about the anger, or the violence, or even the state of his own treasury. Should I risk my place at court to speak up? If so, would he even believe me? And even if he did, what would it change at this late stage? There are also my three brothers to consider, all of whom are employed in the king’s Swiss Guard. Yet for all of my royal ties, I can see the revolutionaries’ point as well. People are starving in the streets, jobs are scarce, yet the rich are exempt from taxation.
So do I wear the black and white cockade to symbolize my support of the Bourbons, or do I wear the red, white and blue for revolution? It turns out that Marie did both. As the Revolution gained steam, anyone dressed in clothing that was deemed too “fancy” was subject to arrest. To be seen in public without a tricolor cockade meant literally risking your life. And at a time when nearly 40,000 people were guillotined (more than 80% were commoners), execution was a very real threat. So while Marie kept her ties with the royal family – even when it was dangerous to do so – she was also a very public (and unintentionally influential) figure in the French Revolution.
I can’t imagine the horrors Madame Tussaud lived through during this time, but I can empathize with the very difficult choices she eventually made in an attempt to survive. I didn’t always agree with them, but Madame Tussaud is – without a doubt – one of the strongest women I will ever write about.
What do you do with all the memorabilia you collect (other than make it into a fun work of literature) do you display it (how)? Keep it for craft projects?
Caroline: It’s proving a challenge to figure out what to do with boxes and boxes of 1920’s ephemera I collected for The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt. I have limited storage space in my studio and I have to make room for my next project, so I am winnowing down.
I have framed some of the most beautiful magazine covers (from Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, McCall’s and Ladies Home Companion) and sheet music to hang in my studio. I am keeping the best 1920’s scrapbooks for my vintage scrapbook collection. The rest of the Sears Catalog pages, fashion spreads, and vintage postcards I am matting and giving away to family and friends. I have birthday, graduation, baby, house warming and wedding presents covered for the next decade.
Caroline: It took me about 20 months from the first crazy “Why don’t I make a novel that is actually a vintage scrapbook” idea to a finished manuscript. It took me a few months to figure out how I’d go about making a graphic novel and then to work out the details of Frankie’s story. Then I had to go about collecting the vintage ephemera for each chapter of Frankie’s life—from a New England village, to Vassar College, Greenwich Village, and Paris. In all, I collected 600 pieces of vintage ephemera from antique store and eBay. It turned out that making a 1920’s vintage scrapbook novel was a much more complicated and laborious process than I ever imagined—which isn’t surprising.
Have you thought about making more scrapbooks? Maybe of Frankie’s friends??
Caroline: I am planning to make a whole series of scrapbook novels set in different time periods. My next one is a scrapbook kept by a bride during her first year of marriage, 1959-1960. I think of it as a prequel to Mad Men. I don’t have any plans to return to Frankie Pratt, but I’m very fond of her, so maybe I will.
What is your favorite piece of memorabilia you have discovered?
Caroline: I can’t single out one single favorite discovery. There have been a few: a 1925 Sears catalog, a 1918 foldable portable typewriter, a bi-plane-shaped badge handed out on the streets of Paris when Linbergh landed, a flapper’s Bakelite cigarette holder, a luggage ticket from the Mauretania, a pair of cardboard eclipse glasses that allowed you to stare directly at an eclipse “in perfect safety.”
Do you scrapbook your own life?
Caroline: Like a lot people, I intend to scrapbook my own life, sometime, someday. For now, I just collect things about my family and kids in boxes. I have about 25 years of boxes right now…
Check out our review of The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt
The inspiration for Delayed Flightbegan when I was stranded in an airport during a snowstorm—believe it or not, I couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop—and as we were waiting to board, I noticed a couple talking, but it was more their actions and reactions to each other that intrigued me. It was obvious they knew each other, and from their expressions, I felt this was more than two old friends seeing each other after a long time, so to speak.
From the expressions, she showed a little pain and he held an expression of sorrow. Naturally, I nonchalantly leaned in a bit and focused a little closer, and then realized that they in fact had known each other, and I got the impression it was of an intimate nature.
From the conversation—what I could hear—they had not seen each other for quite some time. Then to my surprise the conversation sounded as if he wanted to pick up where they left off but I don’t believe she did, she looked angry, evidently the pain had turned into anger, but her voice remained pleasant, even soft, probably not wanting to embarrass each other. After all, we’re in a crowded airport.
As I eavesdropped on the conversation, (I know, not good but sometimes the best material is right in front of you) I sensed that she was even more upset than I first thought and there would be no way that the relationship would pick up. She left me with the impression after a couple minutes that she couldn’t wait to walk away, and she did, and she never looked back.
I sat back and wondered what could have happened, then felt sorry for the both of them and thought, I wonder what would happen if they were thrown together into a situation where they had to see each other, maybe on the same flight, what would be the outcome? Would he continue to pursue her? Would she change her mind? Could they even pick up from where they left off or would it be better to start anew?
Then I took a step forward and wondered, what would happen if there were secrets that neither wanted the other one to know? A secret that, due to embarrassment, caused one to walk away and not say why. Then, what about the other side, what if the other person had their own secret that would stop them from looking for the reason the other person stepped away. I could not get those thoughts out of my head, and began to jot down my notes. Boy meets girl, girl leaves, boy chases girl, she wants to but she cannot. Of course, you know where I had to go with this. Then, out of each other’s control, the secrets are revealed.
Since I love reading and have a passion for writing, and really enjoy love stories, I knew I had to write this.
Eleanor of Aquitaine and Duke William X, by Christy English
In my historical novel, To Be Queen, I explore the childhood and young life of the great medieval queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. A woman of power in a time when women had little of it, Eleanor is unique both in her own era and ours. But behind every woman, there is a strong man, a teacher who educates her, who trains her to follow the path of power. In Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life, that man was her father, William.
William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, traced his ancestry from the Emperor Charlemagne who lived and reigned hundreds of years before. Just as Charlemagne united France and Germany under one man, William and Eleanor hoped to unite the kingdom of France with Aquitaine and Poitou to make the most powerful force Europe had seen in a hundred years. To continue the legacy of Charlemagne was William X’s wish, and he passed that intention on to his eldest daughter, Eleanor. (in the picture on the left you can see Eleanor and William’s Palace in their capital of Poitiers)
Eleanor was not always the heir to Aquitaine. Her brother died when she was eight years old, and she was raised by her father from that time on to follow in his footsteps and to become a ruler that, while only a woman, could hold more than half of modern-day France in thrall. That kind of plan called for more than ambition. It required strength, intelligence, ruthlessness, and the ability to put aside her own needs for the good of the higher goal: power.
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s betrothal to the King of France was arranged by her father, but William died before the marriage contract was signed. It was up to Eleanor to see the marriage through, and at the age of fifteen, she sealed the alliance with France. Though she never got the son she longed for to rule both France and Aquitaine from her first husband, Louis, she wore the crown of France for fifteen years and learned what it meant to be queen.
Vera, thank you so much for hosting me on your blog. Please feel free to visit me and hear more about my obsession with Eleanor of Aquitaine and all things literary on my blog http://www.ChristyEnglish.com.
Giveaway I have 1 signed copy of To Be Queen to give away, courtesy of Christy English!
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This giveaway is open to US, Canada and UK residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on January 5,2012.
Giveaway copy was provided free of any obligation by Christy English. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Like most writers, I’m often asked where I get my ideas from. In truth, the big secret about inspiration is that there’s no secret at all. A writer’s job is to pay attention–to what’s going on in the world around them … as well as the world within. We watch the outside world to carefully collect those tiny details of real life that make our fictional scenes come alive. And we listen closely to the stray strands of thoughts that pass through our minds in case there’s something that can be spun into a story.
That’s how I got the idea for my latest book, The Other Life. I was alone in the house, contemplating the notion that each day, after my husband left for work and the last of the three children headed off to school, I got to escape into this fantasy world I was creating with my fiction. For a moment, I wondered what would happen if a married woman like me had the ultimate escape–the ability to slip through a portal to the life she would have had if she hadn’t made the choice to get married and have children.
Almost immediately, I pictured a crack in the foundation of her home, a fissure she could slip through to her other life. I thought that was a deliciously literal interpretation of a metaphorical image. But I needed something concrete that could create havoc in my character’s emotional life, because I understood that it would take something monumental for a happily married woman with children to consider leaving her family, even temporarily.
I lived with the idea for quite a while before it all started coming together. However, it wasn’t until I realized that her mother was dead in one life and alive in the other that I knew I had a book.
The Other Lifehas been an exciting journey for me. It was such a departure from my previous novels that I didn’t know if my agent would want it or if the publishing industry would be interested. But in February it came out in hardcover and it is now available in paperback. It has made several best of the year lists, was nominated for the Best in Women’s Fiction, and it was even optioned by HBO for a television series.
But perhaps most exciting of all is the response I’ve been getting from readers, including those in book clubs. I love spending time with these groups via speakerphone or Skype, and if your book club would like to schedule an appearance, I’d like to meet you, too! Just visit my website and use the book club form. You’ll also find a surprise in the Book Club Guestbook!
Ellen Meister is doing something really fun for Book Clubs!
She just launched a program to thank book club members by name in the acknowledgments section of her next book. She has a Book Club Guestbook on her site now and anyone in a book group that read or plans to read The Other Lifeis free to sign up. All you need to do is visit her site at and fill out the form. That’s it!
Welcome! The ultimate luxury for me is curling up with a good book and a warm blanket. The next best thing is reviewing books and sharing them with others.
Please welcome Lynn Weingarten, author of The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, who took the time to answer our interview questions!
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