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madrobinsSherwood Smith (aka our own ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias) tagged me to be part of the Blog Hop that's going around. The idea is for many writers (see the list at the bottom for many of the other writers who are participating!). Sherwood herself is posting today, too, so don't forget to head over there.
I wasn't sure if "current work" meant Work That is Finished But Not Yet Published or Work That is Currently Eating My Brain, so maybe I'll answer for a little bit of both. The questions are:
1) What is the working title of your next book?
Sold for Endless Rue will be coming out in May from Forge. I suppose that counts as still in progress. And I'm working doggedly on a fourth Sarah Tolerance mystery, currently titled The Fate of Women (though that's going to change as soon as I can think of a better title).
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
For Rue, the idea came when I was reading a picture book of Rapunzel to my daughter (she was 6 and is now 23. These things take time). The illustrations, by Paul Zelinsky, are gorgeous, and one--of the witch taking the newborn infant away from her parents--struck me in particular. The scene: mother in childbed, exhausted; the father sits to one side, head in hands; the witch stealing from the room with the baby tucked under her arm. It made me wonder what the father said to his wife when he came home from fetching her rampion and had to explain the deal he'd struck. That would be a conversation worth writing. Then I began to wonder why the witch wanted the baby (that's one of those Fairy Tale conventions that never really get challenged). The rest slow-cooked for a decade or so...
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Rue is historical fiction, set in Salerno, Italy in the early 13th century, centered around the medical school there. No fantasy, no magic, but that Fairy Tale underpinning. Fate of Women is alternate-Regency-noir-mystery...a genre I think I may have invented.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I'd like Emma Thompson to play everyone. Including me. Failing that... I have tried to figure out who could play Sarah Tolerance, but have never quite pinned it. Any suggestions?
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Rue is a story of three generations of women-healers in and around the Medical School in Salerno, the first medical school in Europe, and a truly remarkable institution. In Fate of Women, Miss Tolerance seeks a con-artist who preys on elderly whores, and finds herself involved with girl gangs, Gypsies, and her Aunt Dorothea's increasing instability.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Rue will be published by Forge; Fate of Women will, I hope, be published by Plus One Press, who published the most recent Sarah Tolerance novel, The Sleeping Partner. I am currently represented by Shawna McCarthy of the McCarthy Agency.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Sold for Endless Rue had a huge, steep, daunting learning curve, since I knew very little about medieval Italy or early medical education. Initially I thought it would be set in Renaissance Italy (per the Zelinsky illustrations in that edition of Rapunzel I mentioned above), but when I learned that the Scuola Medicinae not only admitted women, but had women teachers, I suddenly knew that my "witch" had to be something more than a traditional Black Hat, and that the tower she hides her stolen daughter in was the ivory tower of academe. So I had to learn a lot (and I read no Italian or Latin or Arabic, any of which would have been useful) working from reliable secondary sources. The whole thing probably took me six years. As for The Fate of Women...I'll let you know when I finish the first draft.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Rue: maybe Gregory Maguire's The Ugly Stepsister?
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I've already answered that, haven't I? I do find that the more I write, the more what interests me is the lives of women, now and in the past.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Um...things that I find fascinating? Medical history. Historical women. Cosmopolitan society in medieval society. The mean streets of London. The legal status of women in England (did you know that a married woman could have herself declared "feme seul" in order to free herself from supervision and financial entanglement from her husband?). Sword-fighting. Venereal disease.
Okay, maybe I'm weird.
Now: some other writers who are playing Blog Hop!
Steven Gould http://eatourbrains.com/steve/?p=1007
Kathi Kimbriel http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/661783.html
Patricia Burroughs http://planetpooks.com/the-blog/
Jeffrey A. Carver http://starrigger.blogspot.com
Pati Nagle http://patinagle.livejournal.com/
Steven Harper Piziks http://spiziks.livejournal.com
Deborah J. Ross http://www.deborahjross.blogspot.com/
Sherwood Smith http://sartorias.livejournal.com/
Laura Underwood http://laurajunderwood.livejournal.com/
Go have some fun!
sartorias) tagged me to be part of the Blog Hop that's going around. The idea is for many writers (see the list at the bottom for many of the other writers who are participating!). Sherwood herself is posting today, too, so don't forget to head over there. I wasn't sure if "current work" meant Work That is Finished But Not Yet Published or Work That is Currently Eating My Brain, so maybe I'll answer for a little bit of both. The questions are:
1) What is the working title of your next book?
Sold for Endless Rue will be coming out in May from Forge. I suppose that counts as still in progress. And I'm working doggedly on a fourth Sarah Tolerance mystery, currently titled The Fate of Women (though that's going to change as soon as I can think of a better title).
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
For Rue, the idea came when I was reading a picture book of Rapunzel to my daughter (she was 6 and is now 23. These things take time). The illustrations, by Paul Zelinsky, are gorgeous, and one--of the witch taking the newborn infant away from her parents--struck me in particular. The scene: mother in childbed, exhausted; the father sits to one side, head in hands; the witch stealing from the room with the baby tucked under her arm. It made me wonder what the father said to his wife when he came home from fetching her rampion and had to explain the deal he'd struck. That would be a conversation worth writing. Then I began to wonder why the witch wanted the baby (that's one of those Fairy Tale conventions that never really get challenged). The rest slow-cooked for a decade or so...
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Rue is historical fiction, set in Salerno, Italy in the early 13th century, centered around the medical school there. No fantasy, no magic, but that Fairy Tale underpinning. Fate of Women is alternate-Regency-noir-mystery...a genre I think I may have invented.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I'd like Emma Thompson to play everyone. Including me. Failing that... I have tried to figure out who could play Sarah Tolerance, but have never quite pinned it. Any suggestions?
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Rue is a story of three generations of women-healers in and around the Medical School in Salerno, the first medical school in Europe, and a truly remarkable institution. In Fate of Women, Miss Tolerance seeks a con-artist who preys on elderly whores, and finds herself involved with girl gangs, Gypsies, and her Aunt Dorothea's increasing instability.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Rue will be published by Forge; Fate of Women will, I hope, be published by Plus One Press, who published the most recent Sarah Tolerance novel, The Sleeping Partner. I am currently represented by Shawna McCarthy of the McCarthy Agency.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Sold for Endless Rue had a huge, steep, daunting learning curve, since I knew very little about medieval Italy or early medical education. Initially I thought it would be set in Renaissance Italy (per the Zelinsky illustrations in that edition of Rapunzel I mentioned above), but when I learned that the Scuola Medicinae not only admitted women, but had women teachers, I suddenly knew that my "witch" had to be something more than a traditional Black Hat, and that the tower she hides her stolen daughter in was the ivory tower of academe. So I had to learn a lot (and I read no Italian or Latin or Arabic, any of which would have been useful) working from reliable secondary sources. The whole thing probably took me six years. As for The Fate of Women...I'll let you know when I finish the first draft.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Rue: maybe Gregory Maguire's The Ugly Stepsister?
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I've already answered that, haven't I? I do find that the more I write, the more what interests me is the lives of women, now and in the past.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Um...things that I find fascinating? Medical history. Historical women. Cosmopolitan society in medieval society. The mean streets of London. The legal status of women in England (did you know that a married woman could have herself declared "feme seul" in order to free herself from supervision and financial entanglement from her husband?). Sword-fighting. Venereal disease.
Okay, maybe I'm weird.
Now: some other writers who are playing Blog Hop!
Steven Gould http://eatourbrains.com/steve/?p=1007
Kathi Kimbriel http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/661783.html
Patricia Burroughs http://planetpooks.com/the-blog/
Jeffrey A. Carver http://starrigger.blogspot.com
Pati Nagle http://patinagle.livejournal.com/
Steven Harper Piziks http://spiziks.livejournal.com
Deborah J. Ross http://www.deborahjross.blogspot.com/
Sherwood Smith http://sartorias.livejournal.com/
Laura Underwood http://laurajunderwood.livejournal.com/
Go have some fun!