I’m excited to let you all know that the e-book version of The Borgia Confessions is currently on sale for $2.99 across all platforms! If you’ve been wanting to read the book, now is a great time! Links below.
Happy reading!
Tag: historical fiction
The Borgia Confessions is OUT NOW!
Today is the day, at long last! The Borgia Confessions, my fourth novel, is finally out in the world!
After living this with book for so long, and putting so much work into it, and (lately) doing a lot of promotional stuff for it, it’s a little hard for me to believe that this book is finally out and on bookstore shelves!
I am so, so deeply proud of this book, and know without a doubt that it’s the best thing I’ve written to this point. It was inspired by so many things: the political situation in the United States the last few years and my desire to speak to power and its abuse, my own complicated feelings about Catholicism, my love of villains and villain origin stories, and perhaps most importantly, the fact that I’ve been kind of obsessed with the Borgias since I was a teenager. Infused in this book is my love of shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, as well as my love of metal music. And, perhaps most of all, my love of and fascination with Italy and its incredible history can also be found in the pages of this book – and the fact that it is my first novel to be published in Italy (it was released there on November 5th, 2019) is so incredibly meaningful to me as well. I really fell in love with Rome in particular while working on this book, and I like to think that love comes through.
Tonight I’m having a book launch party (details on the Events page; if you’re in the Buffalo area, come on out!), and I’m so excited to share this book with everyone. I’m looking forward to celebrating tonight, and tomorrow I have a day off to relax and chill and decompress from the craziness of launch day and the lead up to it.
I’m SO happy this book is finally available and making its way into the hands of readers, and I hope that you enjoy it!
Buy The Borgia Confessions:
The Borgia Confessions Playlist
Somehow, there is now only ONE WEEK TO GO until the publication of The Borgia Confessions! Therefore today I’m releasing the final playlist for the book, the full The Borgia Confessions playlist! This one has both Maddalena and Cesare’s playlists combined (in story order) along with a few additional songs as well. Hope you enjoy, and I so can’t wait for this book to be available next week!
Maddalena’s Playlist
Today marks only TWO WEEKS until the publication of The Borgia Confessions! As promised, I have another playlist to share with you all today: the playlist for Maddalena Moretti, the second narrator of the novel. If Kamelot was kind of Cesare’s signature artist, then Halsey is Maddalena’s. Hope you enjoy!
Cesare’s Playlist
The Borgia Confessions will be out exactly THREE WEEKS from today! To help count down to publication day, today I’m releasing the first of three playlists for the book: Cesare’s character playlist. (There is…so much Kamelot). Check it out on Spotify!
15 Facts About THE VIOLINIST OF VENICE
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, The Violinist of Venice! It totally does not seem like it’s been four years since I first became a published author – it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long at all. So much has happened since then (including the fact that I’m somehow gearing up for the publication of my FOURTH BOOK – WHAT EVEN), and yet it still seems like it just happened.
So in honor of the fourth anniversary of this book I love so much, and that anniversary falling on December 15th, I decided to share fifteen fun facts about The Violinist of Venice:
1.) The working title was Maestro. On my first revision/second draft, I changed it to The Violinist of Venice. Before going on submission, my agent and I kicked around a few other title options to see if there was something we liked better than The Violinist of Venice, and there wasn’t, so we went with it. I love that title because it can refer to either Adriana or Vivaldi, or both.
2.) I retyped the entire book twice. My agent loves to tell this story: for each of the two revisions I did before querying, I printed out the whole manuscript, put it in a binder, and manually retyped the entire thing as I revised. This forced me to consider every single word and whether or not it was necessary, or if it was the best word. My agent found this admirable, but the two of us joined forces to break me of this habit – it’s definitely not efficient or practical time-wise, which I quickly found out when doing revisions on more of a deadline.
3.) Each version of the book got shorter. The original, very messy first draft was almost 600 pages. It got shorter (and, more importantly, tighter) with each revision it went through, from the ones I did on my own to the revisions my agent and I did before going on sub to the line edits my editor did.
4.) I first got the idea for the book from a dream I had. The dream was essentially the first chapter of the book. And the date on which I woke up from that dream? March 4th – Antonio Vivaldi’s birthday. I started writing the book that same day.
5.) I never had an edit letter for this book. By the time my editor bought it, the manuscript was pretty polished – I’d been working on it for five years (due to being in college at the time, as well as my very time-consuming revision process described above), and that was before the revisions my agent and I did. So my editor jumped right to a heavy line edit, and as this was my debut novel, I didn’t know any different. Only now do I realize how unusual this was. My books since then have all had edit letters, of course – they’ve all been much heavier lifts for my editor than the first one!
6.) There was one scene I worked on in the same place twice – sort of. The scene where Adriana and her father go to stay at the Foscari country house was originally written in my dear friend Lindsay’s dorm at Canisius College, our alma mater. I was a commuter student, and one day on campus I got caught in a MASSIVE downpour, got completely soaked through, and had to go to her dorm so that a) she could put my clothes in her dryer and b) I could borrow some of her clothes while mine were drying. So while waiting for my clothes to dry, I got out my laptop and did some writing. A couple years later, I was revising that scene in my last revision before querying while in her apartment in Maryland, where I was visiting her while she was in grad school.
7.) While I was working on the book, I only ever called it “The Beast”. I never referred to it by its title, or it’s working title – it was only ever “The Beast”, and all my friends knew it by that name, too. For a while after it sold, I kept forgetting that when people said The Violinist of Venice, they were actually referring to my book!
8.) My very favorite part of the book is Chapter 30, “Composition”. This is the scene where Adriana gives Vivaldi the first movement of a concerto she’s composed, and he tells her what he thinks and plays it for her. This didn’t get added until revisions (in the first draft, Adriana wasn’t a composer herself). I love it because I so understand all the nerves and feelings that come with sharing your work with someone for the first time.
9.) There’s a line in the book where Vivaldi says “We are both of us whores”. This is my friend and critique partner Caitie’s favorite line I have ever written to this day. When I signed her book, I wrote that line in caps across the title page.
10.) I finally went to Venice before starting the final revision before querying. At that point, I had done tons of research through books, the internet, and taking violin lessons myself. Seeing Venice and experiencing it was the last piece of the puzzle for me. It was completely magical, and Venice is my favorite place in the entire world – I’ve since been back twice more. While I was there, I went to see an orchestra perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life – hearing the music in the place where it was written.
11.) I make color-coded notes for all my books. I have one notebook I carry around to jot down story notes as they occur to me, and each book gets its own color pen ink, so I can tell at a glance what book the notes are for. The notes for The Violinist of Venice were in dark red.
12.) The character most like me in this book is Giuseppe Rivalli. There’s a lot of me in Adriana for sure – the love of music being the big thing we have in common – but I realized at some point while writing this that Giuseppe was actually the most like me. I’m the friend who will try to talk you out of bad ideas, and when I can’t, I’ll go along to try to limit the damage.
13.) I’ve performed some of the music described in this book. I’ve performed the aria “Cosi potessi anch’io” from Orlando furioso, as well as the first movement of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater. I’ve also sung in the choir and as a soloist for Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, which pops up a few times in the book.
14.) My favorite piece of music of all time is Vivaldi’s Concerto in B Minor for 4 Violins and Cello Continuo, which is Vivaldi and Adriana’s favorite piece in the book.
15.) There is a shout-out to one of my favorite bands in the first chapter. Chapter 1 ends with the line “I pulled my hood over my face and stepped outside into the late April rain, leaving him to think what he would.” This is a nod to the band Delain and their album April Rain, which I listened to constantly while writing this book. Most of the songs on the album are on the book’s playlist (which you can find here).
Bonus “fact”: If Adriana was a real person and around today, she would be first chair violin in a symphony orchestra and also playing electric violin in a symphonic metal band on the side.
A Bookish Gift Guide!
It’s time for the holidays again! I am of the opinion that books make excellent and thoughtful holiday gifts. So I’ve decided to put together a bookish gift guide that can help you pick out some great titles for the readers in your life based on other books, movies, TV shows, etc. that they like. Of course, I’ll also recommend which of my books would be the best fit for each reader based on interest! 🙂
Here we go:
If they like Game of Thrones:
My book: Gift them a preorder of The Borgia Confessions!
Fiction: From Unseen Fire by Cass Morris; An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir; The White Queen by Philippa Gregory; Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King; The Cruel Prince by Holly Black; Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake; The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George.
Non-fiction: The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women and Power in Renaissance Italy by Leonie Frieda, Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood, Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine by Barry S. Strauss; The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones; The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici by Elizabeth Lev.
If they like visual art or movies like Shakespeare in Love or shows like The Tudors:
My book: The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence
Fiction: The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper; Portrait of a Conspiracy by Donna Russo Morin; The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant; The Lost Season of Love and Snow by Jennifer Laam; Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough; I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis; Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth; The Painter’s Apprentice by Laura Morelli.
Non-fiction: Bella Figura: How to Live, Love, and Eat the Italian Way by Kamin Mohammadi; The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Greed, Violence, and Depravity in an Age of Beauty by Alexander Lee; Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson; Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. Edsel.
If they like music (especially classical music/opera) or The Phantom of the Opera:
My book: The Violinist of Venice
Fiction: The Mermaid’s Daughter by Ann Claycomb; Bel Canto by Ann Patchett; Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid; Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell; And After the Fire by Lauren Belfer; Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones; Prima Donna by Megan Chance.
Non-fiction: Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque by H.C. Robbins Landon; The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 by Harvey Sachs; The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer by Renee Fleming; Piece by Piece by Tori Amos and Ann Powers; The Violin: A Social History of the World’s Most Versatile Instrument by David Schoenbaum.
If they like Halloween, spooky stories, Tim Burton movies, and Hocus Pocus:
My book: The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel
Fiction: The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox; The Witches of New York by Amy McKay; The Hunger by Alma Katsu; Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo; The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw; The Diviners by Libba Bray; The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry; The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe; The Family Plot by Cherie Priest; The Devil and Winnie Flynn by Micol Ostow and David Ostow.
Non-fiction: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey; Spooked: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach; The Witches: Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff; I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara.
I hope this gift guide gives you some ideas for your holiday shopping! If you do buy anything you found on this list, do let me know – I’d love to hear what you picked. Happy holidays to all!
Announcing My Fourth Book, IN THE SHADOW OF SAINTS!
I know I’ve been teasing book 4 quite a bit on social media, so I am SO THRILLED to finally be able to tell you ALL about it! My fourth novel, entitled In the Shadow of Saints, will be coming in Winter 2020 from St. Martin’s Griffin!
Of course, I was always going to write a book about the Borgias 🙂 They’ve been my favorite historical family since I first stumbled on a novel about them as a teenager. They’re often referred to as Italy’s first crime family, and while historically that isn’t really technically true, their story does indeed have all the things that such a moniker suggests: scandal, corruption, politics, shady dealings, wealth, sex, violence, power, murder. It’s rich ground for any storyteller, and I am certainly not the first nor the last to cover it.
My novel, though, does take a bit of a different perspective on the infamous Borgia family. It’s told in alternating points of view, by two different characters: one being Cesare Borgia, the eldest of Rodrigo Borgia’s children, and the second being Maddalena Moretti, a maid who works for the family and is a fictional character of my own invention. My agent has been calling this my “upstairs/downstairs” look at the Borgias, and it is very much that. However, there are several reasons I chose to tell this story from two points of view, and from the points of view of these two characters in particular.
Cesare Borgia (pronounced CHEH-sah-reh – “ce” in Italian is pronounced like “che” in English; think “cello”) is the member of the Borgia family who has always fascinated me the most – perhaps because he was the most brilliant, manipulative, and wicked of the bunch. Most of the novels about the Borgias that I’m aware of usually focus on Lucrezia, as the only sister and most unfairly maligned member of the family. I wanted to really dig into Cesare as a character because, after all, villains don’t tend to start out as villains – they become so over time. I’ve been thinking of Cesare’s portion of this book as his villain origin story, and it was both a lot of fun to write a baddie and at the same time could get rather dark. I definitely drew inspiration from Walter White of Breaking Bad fame when working out Cesare’s character arc: I wanted him to be someone readers would sympathize with and root for in the beginning, then have that sympathy slowly start to erode over the course of the story as his actions become increasingly more awful. It was a challenge that I set myself, and one I embraced eagerly. I’m very pleased with how his character turned out. You all will have to let me know whether I’ve succeeded in my aims!
I had always wanted to write from Cesare’s point of view, but Maddalena’s perspective came about in something of an interesting way. I had written a few chapters from Cesare’s point of view that I showed to my agent at various times – I had actually initially anticipated this being my second book, then my third book (obviously, that didn’t happen). Each time she saw it, she liked what I had so far, but felt like something was missing, and that this project wasn’t quite ready. I agreed with her but didn’t really know where else to go with it, so it continued to sit on the back burner.
Fast forward to the fall of 2016. I had just handed in The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel to my editor and was working on drafting something new. You may have seen me refer to me “sexy opera book” on social media; well, that’s what I was writing, and I was having a blast. It was a book that I was just having a lot of fun writing, and at that point I anticipated that it would be my fourth book, as it was going really well.
Then the 2016 U.S. presidential election happened, and suddenly a fun, sexy book didn’t seem like the thing I should be writing, or the thing I wanted to write just then. I wanted to dig into something darker, something about power and corruption. It seemed like the best way for me to explore all that was to return to the Borgias book. And suddenly I found the missing piece, which had actually been there all along. In college I’d written a short story from the point of view of a maid who becomes involved with Cesare Borgia, and this, I realized, needed to be my second POV in the novel. I needed an outside perspective on this infamous family, someone who was of a completely different socioeconomic class than they, someone who could get entangled with and dragged into their power struggle, so that we might see how an everyday person could be harmed and compromised by the actions of the powerful and also by their potential proximity to that power. It all felt like something important, exciting, relevant, challenging, and interesting to explore.
So I added Maddalena’s POV, and it really was what the book had needed all along. Of course, that didn’t make any of it easier to write. Maddalena is by far the main character who has given me the most difficulty to date: it took me a long time and many rounds of revisions to really get a handle on her voice, to really get to the heart of who she was. She slowly revealed herself to me bit by bit, and as a result she’s a character that I’m really proud of. I hope you all love her like I do.
This is by far the most ambitious book I’ve written to date – I blogged a bit about getting started with it in this post. There were lots of times it felt like it was going to eat me alive. There was so much history to balance, so many tangled politics to keep in mind, dates and timelines to keep straight, lots of plot threads and character arcs to flesh out and bring to completion. I made and wrote from an outline for the first time, which I blogged about in this post.
The title has been another struggle – it had several just on my end before I ever handed it in to my editor, and then she and I changed it a few more times. We had a big Google doc going of title ideas, and would throw them back and forth to each other, but it took us MONTHS to find one we both liked and felt fit well and that the marketing/sales folks at St. Martin’s would go for. I’ve never had this kind of problem with a title before – even if I didn’t have the final title right off the bat, I usually found it without too much trouble – and boy, was it a challenge. This is such a big, sprawling book that it felt difficult to find just one title that encompassed everything, and that fit with both Maddalena and Cesare’s very different characters. I really love In the Shadow of Saints, though – ironically it was a title I first thought of a while ago, but it took me a while to see that it was the best one. I think it’s fitting and contains different layers of meaning that will inform the story as one reads on.
As difficult as writing this book was at times, though, I really did love doing it. I got to write about political dealings (shady and otherwise), a fascinating and large cast of complex characters, war and negotiations, murder, the glory and filth of Renaissance Rome, and a lot of drama that actually happened. So much of that was fun because a lot of it was new for me (especially the politics – I’ve always wanted to write a book that was very “let us sit in this room and plot politics”, and I’ve done it!). And, of course, I got to write about my favorite historical family, and my favorite era of history. I just love writing about Renaissance Italy, and I can promise you that I’m not done doing so.
Because of the many challenges of this book, in some ways perhaps it’s the one I’m most proud of. It’s something different, and it’s definitely my darkest book so far. It’s taken a lot of revision and edits and smoothing over of rough edges, but it is finally the book I always wanted it to be, the book I always knew it could be. A lot of credit goes to my editor as well, for her amazing, spot-on notes and feedback, and always being there for me to bounce ideas off of as I revised. It’s been such an amazing feeling, to keep working at it and see it improve each day. I really believe it’s my best book so far. And I can’t wait for all of you to read it.
As soon as I have a release date, cover, etc., I will be sure to share it all here!
Authors & Inspirations: Chanel Cleeton
Welcome to my first Authors & Inspirations post of 2019! To kick off the new year, I’m thrilled to have historical fiction author Chanel Cleeton. Chanel’s most recent novel, the USA Today bestselling Next Year in Havana, was Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick for July 2018. I was honored to have given a blurb to this stunning and powerful dual timeline novel, which follows the story of a Cuban woman whose wealthy family is forced to flee during the revolution, and her granddaughter who returns to Havana years later. Cleeton’s upcoming novel, When We Left Cuba (which I also loved!), continues the story of the Perez family in the aftermath of the revolution, and will be out on April 9, 2019. Welcome to the blog, Chanel!
Do you listen to music while you write? Why or why not?
Yes, music is a huge part of my writing process. I usually create playlists that fit the mood/tone of the book I’m working on and I tend to listen to those on repeat. I usually share my playlists on Spotify leading up to a book’s release. For example, when I was writing Next Year in Havana I listened to a lot of Buena Vista Social Club.
If you do listen to music while writing, share a few songs on your current writing playlist:
I just turned in a book to my editor and while I was working on it, I listened to Lord Huron’s The Night We Met, Falling Water by Peter Oren, If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, River by Leon Bridges, and Back to Autumn by Tall Heights.
What was the last live concert you attended?
I was just in Miami a few weeks ago and I saw Marc Anthony in concert. My father had never seen him perform live and he really wanted to go so I tagged along.
What are your all-time favorite TV shows?
That’s a tough one! Gossip Girl, Corazón Salvaje (the original version), Seinfeld, Veronica Mars, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Stranger Things, Jane the Virgin, Sex and the City, One Day at a Time, The Nanny, Frasier, Sons of Anarchy, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are some of my favorites.
What TV shows are you loving lately?
I’ve really enjoyed Glow, Jane the Virgin, One Day at a Time, Stranger Things, Peaky Blinders, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Making a Murderer, and Younger. I also really loved the sadly now cancelled Good Girls Revolt which was amazing! I also watch all of the Real Housewives franchises.
Do you ever draw on visual art in your work?
Photography is really helpful to me and I spend a lot of time looking at photos of the places and from the time periods I’m writing about.
Has a place you’ve traveled ever inspired you in your writing?
Definitely! I draw a lot from my real-life experiences. For example, I have a series set in London at an international university that was inspired by my own time at university.
You can go on a two-week, all-expenses paid writing retreat to the location of your choice. Where would you go, and why?
I’d probably go to Koh Samui, Thailand. I spent a week there a few years ago and it was one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I’ve ever been.
What authors have most inspired you in your own work?
There are so many. Some of my favorites include Carlos Eire, Beatriz Williams, Tana French, Rhys Bowen, Judith McNaught, Nora Roberts, Ahdaf Soueif, Elizabeth Kostova, Anita Shreve, Sophie Kinsella, and Jane Austen.
What was the last book you read?
I just finished China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan and dove immediately into the last book in the trilogy, Rich People Problems. They’re the ultimate binge books and my favorite series I’ve read this year.
What are your very favorite kinds of scenes to write?
I enjoy writing scenes that are high-emotion where I really learn what my characters are made of. They’re often a bit draining to work on, but I find that when I pull back the layers on my characters I connect to them the most.
When you need to recharge your batteries/refill the well as a writer, what forms of media do you most often turn to?
I watch a fair amount of television, and looking at storytelling from a slightly different perspective both refills the well and often inspires me. I also read nightly and it recharges me and gets me in the mood to write.
What artistic/creative talents do you have outside of writing?
I’m not sure how talented I am, but I really enjoy interior decorating which has been sort of a surprising development in the past few years. I’ve also always been drawn to fashion. Handbags are my weakness 🙂
Let us know what’s coming up next for you: new books, new projects; what are you working on?
My next release is When We Left Cuba, which will release on April 9, 2019. It’s set in Palm Beach in the 1960s and highlights the tumultuous Cuban-American relations of the time period including events like the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy assassination, and the many assassination attempts on Fidel Castro’s life.
I just finished drafting my 2020 release, tentatively titled Our Side of Paradise, which is set in the Florida Keys in the 1930s and is centered on the lives of three heroines (one of the heroines is related to the Perez family from Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba) whose paths cross on one fateful weekend in September.
I’m currently researching a book that I will begin drafting soon which will release in 2021. The working title is The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and it’s set during the Gilded Age and the New York newspaper wars between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, and features a real-life Cuban heroine who was an infamous revolutionary in her time.
Chanel Cleeton is the USA Today bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana. Originally from Florida, Chanel grew up on stories of her family’s exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London and a master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.
Authors & Inspirations: Meghan Masterson
Today I have historical fiction author Meghan Masterson on the blog for an Authors & Inspirations interview! Meghan and I met at the Historical Novel Society conference last summer in Portland, and have kept in touch since. Her debut novel, The Wardrobe Mistress, is a fascinating, insightful, and well-researched look at the French Revolution through the eyes of one of Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe ladies. I personally couldn’t put it down! Welcome to the blog, Meghan!
Do you listen to music while you write? Why or why not?
I do! I often listen to albums, so it always feels very opportune when one of my favourite artists comes out with a new one while I’m working on a new book. I do make playlists sometimes, and once I listened to the same song on repeat (I don’t even want to think how many times) because it fit the mood of the scene I was writing perfectly. In the interest of full disclosure, it was ‘Navigate’ by Band of Skulls and I was writing a tragic execution scene.
If you do listen to music while writing, share a few songs on your current writing playlist:
Hysteria, Supermassive Black Hole, Citizen Erased by Muse (I’ll stop there but I often put a lot of Muse on a playlist for writing)
New Ways, Flaws, and Witches all by Daughter
Madman Across the Water by Elton John
Fast Fuse by Kasabian (actually most of that album usually ends up on the playlist)
On a Slow Night by Metric
The whole Art of Doubt album by Metric also
Lies and Hell of a Season by The Black Keys
Three Wishes by The Pierces
You Belong to Me by Cat Pierce
Wanna Wanna by Dear Rouge
Dark Side of Night by Foxboro Hottubs
9 Crimes by Damien Rice (the demo version)
Smoke and Mirrors by Imagine Dragons (I initially listed the song, but I like the whole album too)
Glory and Gore by Lorde
What was the last live concert you attended?
The Black Keys. It was a few years ago. For some reason I don’t go to a lot of concerts even though I always enjoy them when I do! I need to plan better.
Your favorite band is going to write a song based on one of your books. What band is it, and what should the song be about?
I’m twisting this question around a bit, but I actually have a new book idea (very new, fragile still) that sparked from ‘Seven Rules’ by Metric. So, that.
You are magically going to be granted the ability to be a virtuoso on one instrument. Which do you pick?
Guitar. My dad is a luthier, and he gave me a guitar when I was about nine. I often regret that I didn’t play consistently (I tended to get into it for a few months, and then drop it for a year, then repeat) because if I had stuck with it, I’d probably be decent by now.
What TV shows are you loving lately?
I am eagerly awaiting season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and also Disenchantment.
Is there a TV show that’s had an impact on you as a writer?
I think Justified inspired me a little on my last book, which I just finished writing. Completely different settings and time periods, but I really wanted to explore complex characters with intricate relationships and weird obligations to each other. I wanted my characters to be sympathetic and understandable, but still sometimes do bad things.
If Netflix were to option one of your books for a TV series, which book would you choose, and who would play your main characters?
I feel like I’m supposed to say The Wardrobe Mistress since it’s my only published book at the moment, but I think the one I just finished writing would be amazing as a mini-series. It’s a dual narrative that takes place in the present as well as 1856-7, partly set in America, partly in Paris and Turin. It’s a tale of secrets, poison, and Nazi art-looting and I’d love to see all the costumes, settings, poisonous plants, and art on the screen. However, the costumes and sets would also be amazing for The Wardrobe Mistress, and I once shared some casting thoughts over on my agent’s blog, which is kind of funny now because I’m not sure I agree with these choices anymore. Good thing I’m not a casting person.
Do you ever draw on visual art in your work?
La Castiglione, an Italian countess and mistress to Emperor Napoleon III, is a central character in the book I just finished writing, and she was obsessed with photography. I pored over photographs of her, musing about her decisions for different poses and costumes – sometimes she dressed up as historical or literary figures – while I was writing. Obviously photography is a more advanced and accessible now, but there’s something magical about those old photographs from the 1850s – they’re a snap of a moment in time, but also took so much effort to get! So different from now when we can all take impromptu photos on our phones.
You can go on a two-week, all-expenses paid writing retreat to the location of your choice. Where would you go, and why?
Honestly, I should probably stay home and get someone to take care of all the cooking and cleaning for two weeks because I thoroughly explore every place I visit and I would spend those two weeks rambling around and not writing! Or else the writing retreat would have to be somewhere remote, where there’s not too much for me to see. Actually, now I want to say a writing retreat on the moors of Cornwall or something would be ideal, where I can walk all morning and then nap a bit in the afternoon and write into the night. Didn’t Agatha Christie do that once? I want to copy her now.
What authors have most inspired you in your own work?
Mary Stewart has been a huge influence, both her Merlin trilogy (I used to write more fantasy type stuff, then shifted to historical, and now I can feel a longing for some magic coming back around) and her romantic suspense novels. I’ve learned a lot about action in fiction from Bernard Cornwell’s books – those battle scenes! I dream of someday mastering an endless build of tension like Daphne du Maurier, or creating a perfectly immersive historical world like Sharon Kay Penman. A lot of historical authors have been profound influences because I read that genre so avidly, and I feel really lucky that I’ve been able to meet a few of them at conferences, like Kate Quinn, Kate Forsyth, Stephanie Dray, and of course you, Alyssa!
What’s your favorite book you’ve read recently?
A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee. I actually listened to the audiobook (still counts as reading, right?) on a road trip and it was the first time I didn’t want to get out of the car by the end, because I was enjoying it so much.
What’s a book you’ve loved that you feel more people should be talking about?
The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas is a beautiful, sensitive historical mystery and I want everyone to read it.
What are your very favorite kinds of scenes to write?
Scenes where a secret is revealed, particularly if it occurs during a confrontation or otherwise intense meeting between two characters. Morbid as it sounds, I also quite enjoy writing death scenes…but on the other hand, I swoon over writing a sweet first kiss, too.
When you need to recharge your batteries/refill the well as a writer, what forms of media do you most often turn to?
The usuals of music and TV shows, but I also kind of love playing games and letting my mind just wander. I like board games and I’m usually down for Mario Kart. Non-media, but I also find painting quite soothing and I will often spend quite a few hours painting when I’m between books. Going back to that question about being a virtuoso on an instrument, I think I’d almost rather somehow become an amazing painter instead… Lastly, and also not media, yoga and hiking are ways I like to recharge, too.
What artistic/creative talents do you have outside of writing?
I mentioned painting – I’m not that good, though. It’s just fun. I like playing with colours. I don’t know if it’s artistic, but I enjoy cooking and baking, and I’ll lump that into creativity because I’m sort of notorious for going rogue with the recipes.
What artistic/creative talent do you wish you had?
Sometimes I wish I could sing. I’m too shy to sing in front of most people, thank goodness, because I’m always off key.
Let us know what’s coming up next for you: new books, new projects; what are you working on?
I mentioned that I just finished writing a dual timeline novel that takes place in the present as well as the 1800s – it’s tentatively called A Bitter Remedy. Now I’m getting started on a new WIP that I’m not ready to talk about too much yet (I’m always scared I’ll fall out of love with a new idea if I talk about it too much too soon) but I’m really excited about it because it’s a shift into some more fantastical elements. There are witches. I really like my main character’s voice – she’s quite cooperative and chatty so far. Okay, that’s all I will say for now.
Meghan Masterson graduated from the University of Calgary with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies, and has worked several unrelated jobs while writing on the side. Her debut novel, The Wardrobe Mistress, about one of Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe women who spies on the queen during the revolution, was an RT Book Reviews Top Pick and a 2017 RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Nominee. When she’s not writing, Meghan can be found reading at all hours (even at breakfast), cooking, and going for walks with her dog.
Alyssa Palombo 