The Writing Journey with Eva Stachniak

I’m delighted to have author Eva Stachniak on the blog today talking about her writing and the path she’s taken. Eva is an award-winning, bestselling author of six novels. Born in Poland, she taught in the English Department of the University of Wrocław. Then, in the summer of 1981, on the eve of the Solidarity crisis, she received a scholarship to McGill University ultimately graduating with a PhD in literature. She has lived in Canada ever since.

MKT: How do your more recent novels differ from earlier ones?

ES: My first novel, Necessary Lies, was published in 2000, almost 20 years after I arrived in Canada and found myself cut off from my native Poland by the Solidarity crisis. It is much more autobiographical than my other books, born out of my experience of leaving one world and assimilating myself into a new one. [Note: Solidarity began in the early 1980s and had its roots in trade unionism. This movement ultimately delegitimized the Polish communist regime by exposing its ideological but false claims of being a free “workers’ state”.]

Like my protagonist, Anna, I came to Montreal in August of 1981 to McGill University. Like Anna, I chose to stay in Canada. I gave Anna my own thoughts on the transformations necessary to live in another culture. Losses and gains. 

For Anna this transformation meant a confrontation with her old Polish life. 

For me, it meant becoming a writer. 

MKT: But you didn’t continue writing contemporary novels. Has there been something that pushed you to change your focus?

In multi-cultural Canada I found very few novels with Eastern European themes. I saw it as an opportunity to tell stories that resonated with my experience of immigration. And so for Garden of Venus (also under the title Dancing With Kings] I picked up the story of Sophie Glavani, a poor Greek girl who arrived in 18^th century Poland and married into Polish aristocracy. Count Potocki, her besotted second husband, built a magnificent garden for her near Uman, in today’s Ukraine known as Sofievka Park. 

The heroines of my later novels also embody many aspects my immigration experience. They are bi-cultural, always aware of alternative ways of being. They believe that displacement, however painful, offers transformations impossible to imagine if one never leaves.

What were some of the challenges of writing novels based on the lives of historical women?

With Catherine the Great (The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night) my biggest challenge was to forget that she was the Russian Tsarina I was taught to hate in my Polish childhood for her role in the political annihilation of my country. 

I began with Catherine at 14, arriving at the Russian court as a pawn in the dynastic game. I discovered Catherine, an unloved wife of an unstable and dangerous husband, a Prussian princess who became more Russian than the Russians, a brilliant politician, one of the best rulers Russia has ever had. In the end I’d catch myself wishing that Poland had a ruler like her! 

Bronislava Nijinska The Chosen Maiden presented another challenge. A younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, the brilliant and troubled God of the Dance, she was a talented dancer and choreographer in her own right. Vaslav choreographed the Chosen Maiden dance from The Rite of Spring for her. Alas, she didn’t dance it during the famous Parisian premiere in 1913 only because she was pregnant.

Historical authenticity was no challenge. At The Bronislava Nijinska Collection at the Library of Congress I found enough material about her art, the political upheavals she lived through, the personal tragedies she endured. The real challenge was how to write about dancing from a brilliant dancer’s perspective. To do it I immersed myself in ballet. I shadowed dancers, watched them on stage, backstage, during rehearsals. Talked to them about ways dancing transformed  and informed their lives. 

It was hard, fascinating work, but every time a dancer praises the novel’s authenticity I beam!  

And your last novel? How does it fit in?

In The School of Mirrors, two main characters are fictional, though inspired by real events. Veronique is a poor young girl groomed at Versailles for Louis XV’s pleasure. Veronique’s daughter, Marie-Louise, is a midwife in revolutionary Paris. Historical characters, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, George Danton take back seats and the novel’s plot is powered by my vision of how their lives could have unfolded.  So this is a departure. I found it invigorating but also harder than following the facts of existing lives. So many decisions! So many possibilities to consider! 

How has your writing process evolved since your first years as an author?

It has remained essentially the same. I don’t consciously plan my novels. I wait for one to sprout, take root, draw me in. I shape my books as I’m writing them, which means many drafts and re-writes. Outlining doesn’t work for me. I need the messy process of discovering my characters, listening to them as they speak. I live with them, I travel in their wake, until, for the time of writing, I become them. 

What has changed is the research, thanks to the technology at my fingertips. A quick search locates a once rare book, which I can download to my computer. Social media connects me with experts and history aficionados, ready to do sleuthing for me and answer my questions. 

With my current novel I’m also experimenting with AI. A chatbot makes a very capable research assistant. It’ll summarize an article I need to consult, provide details of a building I’m describing, suggest sources I might have missed. Still not perfect, but I’m getting better at fine-tuning my prompts.

What kind of historical fiction appeals to you as a reader?

I look for a rich, immersive, visceral world. For complex, multifaceted characters who draw me in. I look for emotional depth, for details that show the author’s grasp of history. I love being astonished, amazed. Some of my favourite writers are Hilary Mantel, Maggie O’Farrel, Penelope Fitzgerald.

What advice would you offer aspiring authors aiming to write compelling historical fiction?

Try to understand and visualize the world your characters live in. Not just the big history, but the small, everyday one. Picture the rooms they walk into, drawers they open, dresses they put on. Record all smells, sounds, and colours. Comb through historical sources for details that make your skin tingle. The Russian maid with a bowl of ice for her mistress to rub her cheeks with every morning, the way untreated diabetes ravages a human body, especially if the imperial doctor treats it with a daily glass of sweet red wine …

Many thanks, Eva. What a fascinating journey you’ve been on with your writing and your life. Best wishes for the one you’re working on now – as someone who does an outline, the idea of writing as you do is daunting! Perhaps I can persuade you to return with a post on using AI!

For more about Eva Stachniak, you can read her post on Illuminating Today through Historical Fiction. You can also find Eva on her blog, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Goodreads, and Amazon.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page. 

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.