Category Archives: Inside Historical Fiction

The Alice Network with Kate Quinn

08 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Books I've Read, Historical Fiction, Inside Historical Fiction, Writing about WWI, Writing about WWII, writing historical fiction

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What book am I recommending these days when friends ask? The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. Why? Because it grabbed me from the very start and wouldn’t let go. And what special ingredients does it have? Flawed, heroic, and intriguing characters – check. Tension that builds and builds – check. A superb sense of history and setting – check. Strong writing – check. An immersive experience – check. A flawless weaving of two timelines – check. What more could you ask for?

Better still, Kate Quinn has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about The Alice Network and her writing.

Can you tell us a little about the inspiration for The Alice Network?

I first came across the historic Alice Network in a fantastic non-fiction book called “Women Heroes of WWI” by Kathryn J. Atwood, and was astounded that I’d never heard of this spy network or its brave operatives before. It was a story that begged to be told.

Eve and Charlie are powerful characters – do you use any special techniques to outline your characters in advance? And if so, how did you decide on the attributes for these two women?

I do a lot of outlining with Scrivener in advance, tracing character arcs, background, inner wounds, etc. I knew I wanted Charlie to be pregnant and unmarried, because that was an effective catalyst to get her to Europe and because it gave her story emotional ballast–being an unwed mother is a huge problem to overcome in the 40s! And it was my husband’s idea to give Eve a stammer; he has a similar speech impediment, and has faced many of the same struggles Eve does. I loved the idea of having a heroine with a speech problem–taking what could be a weakness, and weaponizing it into an advantage as she lets people underestimate her.

Writing a dual-timeline novel is challenging. How did you keep your plot organized and ensure that the pacing flowed effectively back and forth?

I plotted out each timeline separately first, A-Z, then intercut them as I wrote, going back and forth from chapter to chapter. Plotting each timeline out separately kept them organized, and then going back and forth as I wrote made it easier to tease out the parallels between plotlines.

What did you leave out of the novel – scenes that went by the wayside? Characters you discarded?

Quite late in the editing process, I came across some wonderful information about real life members of the Alice Network–all through letters discovered in family archives by their modern-day descendants. These real-life figures make tiny cameos in the book, but I’d have loved to make them bigger characters with more story and plot. If I hadn’t been 5/6 finished with final edits, I would have!

You’ve previously written about ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance – what made you change time periods? Were WWI and WWII easier eras to tackle?

I’ve never been a one-era-only writer; I’ve always had potential story ideas set all the way from the ancient world to the 20th century. So when I saw the recent boom in 20th century war fiction, it made sense to revisit some of those ideas (“Book about a female spy…? Use a real spy…?”) and see if anything took off in my imagination once I started researching. And it did!

Many thanks for answering my questions, Kate. I’m sure both readers and writers will find your experiences fascinating.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the “queen of spies,” who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. That is until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth . . . no matter where it leads.

 

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

Writing historical fiction with Kathryn Gauci

03 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Inside Historical Fiction, Researching historical fiction, Writing about WWII, writing historical fiction

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Kathryn Gauci is the author of Conspiracy of Lies – a novel set in WWII – and The Embroiderer, inspired by her years working as a carpet designer in Greece. Now how’s that for a unique career? I asked her about her writing.

What compelled you to write historical fiction?

I have been interested in history for as long as I can remember. As a child, I grew up in an English village and loved to wander through churchyards and the many historical ruins in the area. My imagination ran wild and so when I did decide to write I never even considered another genre. I needed to be steeped in history. Walking with the ghosts of a bygone era is how I describe it.

When and how did you begin your writing career?

I began just over eight years ago. Until then my career had been as a textile and carpet designer. It was wonderfully satisfying and I travelled a lot but I felt a need for a sea-change. During the latter part of those years I put out trend directions for the buyers and it necessitated transporting them into another world for inspiration, motifs and colour; anything from the Baroque, Regency, Art Deco through to ethnic, tribal, and urban living. I loved doing those story boards. That was when I realised I wanted to expand my writing and turn it into a career. In a way, the mental process is similar and I haven’t really left the old life. Indeed, I have carried it through into my writing.

Conspiracy of Lies employs the ‘female as spy’ concept – what research sources did you use to make this as believable as possible?

I read biographies and history before I began writing, especially modern history. Quite a bit of the research for Conspiracy of Lies came out of the previous novel, The Embroiderer – spy networks and agents working for the Cairo office of the Special Operations Executive was a part of that story which was set in Athens under the German Occupation. When I came to write Conspiracy of Lies, I did further research, especially into the female agents in the field. Although the men’s stories also appealed as in the end everyone worked together and everyone’s story is unique. I also delved into code-breaking, radio transmitting and the politics pertaining to the setting. The main story of Conspiracy of Lies is set in Brittany and politics there had evolved differently to other parts of France. The Breton National Party wanted to break away from France and had reached out to Fascist Germany for support. Many were fanatics and so our protagonists not only had to deal with the Germans and Vichy France but the PNB also. And then there is daily life. It was important to know how the average person coped to help set the scene.

WWII has been a perennially popular time period. What aspect of that war are you trying to illuminate with your writing?

Conspiracy of Lies involves an emotional conflict between a genuine love affair and a woman’s duty to her country. I look at women who were either killed or ostracized by their fellow countrymen because they fraternized with the enemy and I felt that as human beings we are all vulnerable. War does not stop us loving someone, even the enemy. Circumstances throw people together in ways that we cannot imagine or comprehend. It is the contradiction and the stoicism of the human spirit that intrigues me. I wanted to bring that out and I am beginning to see that is an important element in my writing style.

What techniques do you use to make history come alive and to create a world that is authentic as possible?

I am a stickler for reading and researching the era and place. I have been to most of the places I write about. If not, I will pour over maps and read about the geography of the area. In the end it’s not what you know but how you convey that knowledge that is important to me. It’s the human spirit again; the psychology of why we do something at a particular time. To do that I have to inhabit the characters completely, even the minor ones. They are all there for a reason. I need to breathe the same air as they do, sit in the same coffee bar, etc. All the senses must be alive. And I also strive for a strong emotional pull.

Where do you get your inspiration for the strong female characters in your novels?

My inspiration is from real people, whether famous or not. In The Embroiderer, the Greek women were strong and feisty because they have had to cope with running homes and businesses alone when so many of their menfolk died in a string of wars and revolutions. In Conspiracy of Lies it was the real-life agents who were my inspiration. To volunteer and put your life on the line takes immense courage. They had to think on their feet and stay one step ahead. Many never survived. Ultimately, my female protagonists are strong because I believe that women in conflict are just as strong and capable as men.

Many thanks for your thoughtful answers, Kathryn. I’m sure readers will be intrigued at the unique settings you’ve chosen for your novels and your focus on the human spirit.

Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci – 1940. With the Germans about to enter Paris, Claire Bouchard flees France for England. Two years later she is recruited by the Special Operations Executive and sent back into occupied France to work alongside the Resistance. Working undercover as a teacher in Brittany, Claire accidentally befriends the wife of the German Commandant of Rennes and the blossoming friendship is about to become a dangerous mission.

Knowing that thousands of lives depended on her actions, Claire begins a double life as a Gestapo Commandant’s mistress in order to retrieve vital information for the Allied Invasion of France, but ghosts from her past make the deception more painful than she could have imagined.

Part historical, part romance and part thriller, Conspiracy of Lies takes us on a journey through occupied France, from the picturesque villages of rural Brittany to the glittering dinner parties of the Nazi Elite, in a story of courage, heartbreak and secrecy.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

Babe Ruth’s Movie Came First – by David O. Stewart

20 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by in Connecting Readers & Writers, Guest Posts, Inside Historical Fiction, Researching historical fiction, writing historical fiction

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babe ruth in headin' homeDavid O. Stewart is President of the Washington Independent Review of Books – a nonprofit website dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books. I’ve had the privilege of writing articles and reviews for WIROBooks and I’m delighted to have David on the blog with a post on his novel The Babe Ruth Deception. Thanks for being here, David.

Babe Ruth’s Movie Came First! – By David O. Stewart

Most historical novels get written because the author is dissatisfied with the standard historical accounts of a time, or an episode, or a person.

Sometimes the author thinks that history got it wrong. That’s the message in Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, which proclaims King Richard III entirely innocent of killing the little princes in the Tower of London. It’s also the reason I wrote my first historical mystery, The Lincoln Deception, about the John Wilkes Booth Conspiracy.

Sometimes the author thinks that history swept past something really interesting that warrants a close look. That’s the genesis of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, which places the spotlight squarely on a single regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg (the 20th Maine) and the experience of the private soldiers in that regiment.

That second reason gave rise to my most recent novel, The Babe Ruth Deception, which considers the Babe’s first two years with the New York Yankees, a time when Ruth reinvented baseball by hitting home runs at a rate no one thought possible.

I came to Babe Ruth because I knew that the third novel in my series should be set in the early 1920s, since the last one (The Wilson Deception) was set in 1919. The era seemed a natural: Prohibition, bootlegging, votes for women, radical terrorism and the usual backlash, rising hemlines and drooping moral standards!

I swiftly decided that the Babe was the perfect avatar of the era. He changed baseball forever, charming the nation while indulging heroic appetites for liquor, food, and female companionship. And in the process he created an American culture of celebrity that still infects us. Perfect.

But, wait, what was the story?

That was when I found the movie. While poking around on the Internet, I stumbled upon an hourlong silent feature that the Babe filmed in the summer of 1920, his first season in New York with the Yankees. He “acted” in the mornings then hustled to the ballpark in time to take the field for the 3 p.m. starting times.

The film – called Headin’ Home, which you can watch here – was pretty forgettable, except for the chance to see the young Babe. So many of our impressions of him come from clips of the potbellied middle-aged Babe Ruth, pigeon-toeing his way around the bases in the last years of his career. But Headin’ Home showed the young, vital guy who changed the world of sports and celebrity.

So I kept poking around, looking for more, and came upon something amazing. The principal financier of Headin’ Home was Abe Attell, who coughed up $50,000 for a film that bombed across America. In the old Hollywood phrase, people stayed away in droves.

Who was Abe Attell? Only the former featherweight champion of the world, whose second career was. . . . gangster and racketeer.

Be still my heart.

The more I dug into Attell, the better it got. He was the righthand man to America’s leading gambler, Arnold Rothstein. Fans of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire know that Rothstein was the Man Who Fixed The 1919 World Series, the infamous “Black Sox” scandal that almost ruined baseball.

But wait! There’s more! Not only did Rothstein bribe eight players on the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series, but he used Abe Attell to deliver the cash. Attell got indicted in Chicago in September 1920 along with the White Sox ballplayers, but in the way that things sometimes happened in Chicago, his indictment was dismissed.

So at the same time that Attell was bankrolling Babe Ruth’s movie debut, he was hip deep in baseball’s biggest scandal ever.

Babe Ruth. Arnold Rothstein. Abe Attell.

Now that could make a story.

Many thanks for sharing the story behind the story, David. I know a friend of mine who would love your novel! And it’s truly intriguing to hear another author’s process of inspiration.

The Babe Ruth Deception – Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, is having a record-breaking season in his first year as a New York Yankee. Larger than life on the field and off, Ruth is about to discover what the Chicago White Sox players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series are learning—baseball heroes are not invulnerable to scandal. With suspicion in the air, Ruth’s 1918 World Series win for the Boston Red Sox is now being questioned. Under scrutiny by the new baseball commissioner and enmeshed with gambling kingpin Arnold Rothstein, Ruth turns for help to Speed Cook—a former professional ballplayer himself before the game was segregated and now a promoter of Negro baseball—who’s familiar with the dirty underside of the sport.

Cook in turn enlists the help of Dr. Jamie Fraser, whose wife Eliza is coproducing a silent film starring the Yankee outfielder. Restraint does not come easily to the reckless Ruth, but the Frasers try to keep him in line while Cook digs around. As all this plays out, Cook’s son Joshua and Fraser’s daughter Violet are brought together by a shocking tragedy. But an interracial relationship in 1920 feels as dangerous as a public scandal—even more so because Joshua is heavily involved in bootlegging. Trying to protect Ruth and their own children, Fraser and Cook find themselves playing a dangerous game . . .

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION follow A WRITER OF HISTORY (using the widget on the left sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.