1. What do you think makes a good story?
A good story touches the heart. If it makes me laugh and cry at the same time, it’s brilliant.
2. Are there therapeutic benefits to modeling a character after someone you know?
I must admit that I gave my heroine Geneviève, star of both Her Own Revolution and Her Own War, my stubbornness and perseverance. I also gave her the courage I hoped I would possess. However, a frightening event forced me to realize there were other qualities I’d neglected to include.
I was on a crowded Paris train with my luggage, and, as the train came to a jolting stop, I felt a hand reach into my belt bag. I followed the six-foot hulking man out onto the platform, ran after him, grabbed his jacket, spun him around and demanded, “Did you take something from my bag?”
He acted like I was crazy, which, I was. Going after a thug is the stupidest thing I’ve done in my lifetime. I stood on the platform, realizing how I had risked my life. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I also realized that my actions were automatic. I had acted without thinking. As the magnitude of the situation dawned on me, I had, I’m ashamed to admit, a meltdown.
I had not yet finished editing Her Own War, and the experience made me realize I had not made Geneviève a fully rounded character.
Geneviève’s biggest weakness is acting without thinking. Wonder who she got that from? But that trait is also the source of her courage, for, if she took the time to realize how she was endangering herself, she might not have the courage to act. As I reviewed my final draft, I saw that I did not give Geneviève the opportunity to experience what she would perceive as a weakness: vulnerability.
I returned to my manuscript. After a heroic feat, this time I allowed Geneviève to have a meltdown. She cries, “I can’t do this. I can’t. Everything I do is futile.”
Writing the scene in which Geneviève embraces her vulnerability was very healing to me.
3. Have you ever traveled for research for your book?
I traveled to France three times to research my three historical novels and once for my contemporary later-in-life love story. After my first trip to Paris, I realized I needed to research the Loire Valley as the Château de Verzat is located there. My characters told me their stories, making me realize I needed to research Nantes, the port of their departure.
While in Nantes, I visited the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery. This museum takes you below deck of an eighteenth-century slave ship. Recordings of the sounds of the rattling manacles, creaking wood, splashing waves, moans and cries of human beings brought me to tears. At that moment I realized that a formerly enslaved character would appear in the next book of my series.
4. Why is visiting the place important to your writing?
No museum or online publication or book can imbue me with a sense of place that I must write for my readers if I am going to immerse them in the story. Reviewers often say, “I was right there…” I would not be able to convey the muddy aromas of the Loire River, the heady air of a wine cave, or the cloying odor of anise in the Christmas markets of Alsace without being in those places myself. I could not describe the joy of watching sunlight dazzling a frost covered vineyard or the fear a dank dungeon provoked in me, and hence my characters.
5. Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
Yes, one of my beloved characters who appears in all three books of my Château de Verzat series. I cried through every rewrite.
6. How do you come up with character names for your stories?
I try my best to make the first letter in every name different for clarity for the reader. Although I could not avoid Louisa, daughter of Louis. I watch French films, write down names I like, and then research when that name appeared in French to be sure it was used at that time. I then look up the meaning of the name.
Geneviève means woman of the family or tribe, and family and community are paramount to her. Geneviève is also the patron saint of Paris.
I was inspired by a name embossed on a briefcase I saw at the Mueée Carnavalet in Paris. But I didn’t want to use a real name, so I changed “Vieuzac” to “Verzat” and did a search to be sure there were no famous people with that name. Not long after the publication of Her Own Legacy, I received an email inquiry from a man with the last name of Verzat. He told me it was a very old and rare name and asked how I came up with it. There is now a technology company that bears the name.
7. How important was professional editing to your book’s development?
Professional editing is extremely important to me because I want my work to be the best it can be. Every editor I’ve ever worked with has helped me become a better writer and therefore, I have improved my skills. I am deeply indebted to Lorin Oberweger who edited my Château de Verzat series.
8. If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?
I wasn’t planning on writing another book in the Château de Verzat series. However, many loyal fans are insisting upon it. As my main characters have pretty much completed their character arcs, the next series is up to the kids, which I find most entertaining. The next book takes place during the Napoleonic wars when Bonaparte crowns himself emperor of France. Louisa is not happy to have to learn embroidery, but that is how she will transport code to Royalists intent on dethroning Napoleon. I think this will be great fun.
9. Why did you choose to write about common people during the French Revolution rather than the famous ones?
We all know that Marie Antoinette never said Let them eat cake and that she was guillotined. Because I’m not famous, I wanted to know how the common people, like me, survived one of the bloodiest revolutions in history.
I wanted to understand what would drive a woman into prostitution. How did people live in fear of being reported by their neighbors who need the reward money to feed their children? Would I turn in my neighbor? Would I risk my life to save another?
10. Would you and your main character get along?
I think Geneviève and I get along because we respect one another. And I allow her free reign. When she risks her life to save a man she hates, I really wondered about her sanity. And I also wondered how I’d get her out of facing the guillotine for her crime.
It was in the writing of her story that I realized she was a far greater woman than I. We get along famously in fiction, but in real life, I think we might be a bit competitive.
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