Author Interview: Deborah Lawrenson

Deborah Lawrenson, author of Songs of Blue and Gold, sitting on the balcony of the White House in Kalami, Corfu, where writer Lawrence Durrell lived in the 1960s.

Songs of Blue and Gold is about a young English woman, Melissa, who sets out to the island of Corfu to find out the truth about her mother and the writer Julian Adie, a character inspired by the life of British writer, Lawrence Durrell.
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Interview

Q: I see that you did extensive research for Songs of Blue and Gold. How long did it take, and how much travel did you have to do?

Deborah: I'd been reading about the writer, poet and traveller Lawrence Durrell and his famous zoologist brother Gerald for about six months when I realised that I wanted to explore the way the same story could appear differently in separate biographies. After that, I read everything I could find about Lawrence while I was writing Songs of Blue and Gold, which took about two years.

Naturally I had to travel to Corfu - no hardship there! I'd wanted to visit the island ever since reading Gerald's book My Family and Other Animals as a child. I went twice for research, the first time actually staying at the White House in Kalami where Lawrence lived in the 1930s. I also spent several days wandering around Sommieres in southern France with my notebook.

I really loved writing it (the novel) because I was so fascinated by Lawrence D. I had a wonderful time on Corfu doing what Melissa did, trying to see what he would have seen - and there's plenty still there.

Q: How would you describe the novel?

Deborah: It's a book that combines several genres: there's an element of mystery combined with a personal journey of discovery; I tried to make it a transporting read with a strong sense of place, of the Greek island; and it also holds the ideas of biography and memoir up to the light, and asks whether either can claim to tell the whole truth about a life.

The title describes the lapis lazuli effect of the sun on the Ionian Sea around Corfu. Songs, in Greek tradition, were not only words and music but histories too. Durrell himself described Corfu, in his book Prospero's Cell, as "all Venetian blue and gold".

Q: What prompted you to become a writer? Did your journalism experience make it easier to make the transition?

Deborah: I love words and language, and always wanted to be a writer. I became a journalist because I didn't have the confidence or experience to start writing books straight out of university! Having said that, I had some wonderful times as a journalist and learned so much, knowledge that really has been invaluable - everything from how to handle tricky encounters with new people successfully, to how newspapers publicise books.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add about this or your previous novel?

Deborah: Like my previous novel The Art of Falling, this one is concerned with very personal mysteries - and the psychology of why people act the way they do, often unaware of how their actions will affect others. In Songs of Blue and Gold, the reader's reaction to Julian Adie (based on Lawrence Durrell) and his possible guilt is all to do with how he or she reads his contradictory character, and whether in their judgement the flaws outweigh the gifts and charm.

Q: Are you planning another book at this time?

Deborah: Yes, I'm about halfway through writing a novel set in the south of France. It started off as "A modern Rebecca set in Provence" (Rebecca as in Daphne du Maurier's book, and the Hitchcock film). But as I've gone along it's become more mysterious, with gothic touches and a sense of dark history. Again it's a novel with a strong evocation of place, and sensuous descriptions: the heat and the scents of herbs on the hillsides, the light and colours.

Thanks for the interview, Deborah.

"After reading English at Trinity College, Cambridge, Deborah Lawrenson worked as a journalist and magazine editor. She has written four other novels: The Art of Falling, published by Arrow in 2005, The Moonbathers (1998) and the newspaper satires Hot Gossip (1994) and Idol Chatter (1995)."

See the review of Songs of Blue and Gold in the post below.

Book Review: Songs of Blue and Gold by Deborah Lawrenson

Songs of Blue and Gold is set in the lovely Greek island of Corfu. Corfu has been associated with Prospero's island, the island in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The connection was also made by the British writer, Lawrence Durrell, in his travel book, Prospero's Cell.

This is the story of a young artist Elizabeth Norden and a writer Julian Adie, two people who met in Corfu in the 1960s, had an affair there, and parted under tragic circumstances. The larger-than-life character Julian is based on the writer Durrell, who lived in Corfu in the late 1930s and again around 1968.

Plot
The novel begins many years after the Corfu affair ended. Elizabeth gives her daughter Melissa a book of Julian's poems which he had inscribed to her. The inscription reads:

"To Elizabeth, always remembering Corfu, what could have been and what we must both forget."

Elizabeth is unable to explain the meaning of the puzzling inscription; she is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. After her mother's death, Melissa decides to go to Corfu to search into Julian Adie's life there, and to piece together the story about what happened between her mother and the writer. (Durrell's many wives, affairs of the heart, and complex but magnetic personality are also Julian's).

Melissa visits the White House in the town of Kalami on Corfu, the place where Julian had stayed when he met her mother in the 1960s. She talks to people who knew and remembered Julian and Elizabeth but comes away with more questions than answers. In the meantime, she meets Alexandros and begins her own love story on Corfu. Eventually, Melissa's search for the true story of her mother takes her to Sommieres in France, where Julian had spent his last years.

Comments
I gave this book five stars for the skillful blending of fact and fiction, the sympathetic description of the fictional characters, Elizabeth and Melissa, the excellent prose, thoughtful and descriptive, which evokes the "spirit" of the island and Lawrence Durrell/Julian Adie's complex personality. Through Julian Adie, Durrell's life is analyzed and sifted through via his works and the events in his life, real and fictionalized. We are left with more questions, but Lawrenson give us a list of Durrell's works and a list of biographical books to continue our own research on the real man.

Songs of Blue and Gold was published in 2008 by Arrow Books, Great Britain. For more information, visit the website, http://www.deborah-lawrenson.co.uk/

Book provided by the author, for my objective review.

Teaser Tuesdays: Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein

TEASER TUESDAYS is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences at random from your current read, and add the author and title for readers.
Here are my two sentences:

"Have you seen them?" I called up to Walid.

"The ghosts?" he asks.

from p. 61 of Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein, an historical mystery published by Pocket Books, 2009.

Who and where am I?

I am an American archaeologist excavating an ancient site in Israel. A young Arab couple has asked me to explore underneath their house, which they say is haunted by the spirits of two lovers.

Here is my review of the book: Drawing in the Dust.

Book provided by the publisher for my objective review.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: a comment

I skimmed over the Los Angeles Times' review of The Angel's Game, that much touted second book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon of The Shadow of the Wind fame.

But I didn't read too closely as I want to make up my own mind about the book.

I found the setting of the first chapter familiar and contemporary - the inside of a newsroom, with a typical scenario of young wannabee writers trying to avoid jaded reporters. I decided to continue reading the book though I missed the Baroque setting and brooding atmosphere of old Barcelona in The Shadow of the Wind.

I guess that kind of atmosphere is to come, as the Devil comes by later to tempt young writer David Martin (and he doesn't even have a Spanish name!)

In any case, if you are not planning to read that thick, heavy tome, here's a substitute, a nice review by Nick Owchar, today's LA Times: The Angel's Game.

Book Review: The Devlin Diary and Author Interview with Christi Phillips

Christi Phillips of San Francisco, author of "The Devlin Diary," has her blog tour today, June 29, organized by Pocket Books Blog Tour. Christi is also author of "The Rossetti Letter," an historical mystery set in 17th century Venice which has been translated into six other languages.

Welcome, Christi. We're glad to hear more about your second historical mystery, "The Devlin Diary," and its setting in the politics of 17th century England.


Interview

Q: How and why did you choose this particular incident in history - the 1670 secret treaty between the English and French kings - to write a book?

Christi: I knew that The Devlin Diary would be set in England, because Claire Donovan, the main character in the present-day story, has moved to Cambridge to teach at Trinity College. Even before I began the novel, I was pretty sure I wanted to set it during the Restoration. It was such an intriguing time, especially in comparison to the Puritanical decade that preceded it. The Restoration era—which begins in 1660 and ends in 1685, essentially the reign of Charles II—can be thought of as the 1960s of the seventeenth century. Both eras ushered in sweeping social changes, a heightened creativity in the arts and sciences, and greater freedom for women. There was also lots of sex, drinking, drugs, and really, really bad behavior, which makes for great stories.

Then I read about the secret treaty in Antonia Fraser’s remarkable biography of Charles II, Royal Charles, and felt that it had the same sort of dramatic possibilities that the Spanish Conspiracy against Venice had provided for The Rossetti Letter. It was a real event that involved people at the highest levels of government and yet was still somewhat shrouded in mystery, so that I felt comfortable constructing a story that included fictional characters along with the real ones.

Q: I was impressed by the amount of research it took to write the novel. Could you tell us a little about what it required and the time you spent?

Christi: Primarily, it involved reading a great many books. This wasn’t really by choice; there just aren’t many other ways to learn about the seventeenth century. I spent six to eight months reading and outlining the story, then went to London and Cambridge for two weeks to tour the sites I would be writing about.There’s very little of seventeenth-century London left, but I found two small museums that were enormously helpful: The Old Operating Theatre in Southwark, and the Dennis Severs House near Spitalfields Market. At the first, you can learn about early medicine and the apothecary’s art; the second is a recreation of an eighteenth-century house in one of the most historic areas of London. I highly recommend both.

I also went to Trinity College, Cambridge. I was graciously shown around the college, allowed to lunch with the fellows at High Table, and generously provided with insider information about the college, which I share in The Devlin Diary.

Q: This is your second novel. How would you categorize/describe your two novels? Could you tell us about your background and your decision to become a writer ?

Christi: They aren’t easy to categorize, are they? When pressed for time, I call them historical mysteries. While not completely accurate, I think both The Rossetti Letter and The Devlin Diary will appeal to people who like historical fiction and people who like mysteries, so it’s a good working description.

As a child, I loved books and read voraciously (still do). I never really made a decision to be a writer, but by the time I was ten or so, I felt that I was one. So I wrote. Throughout my teens I wrote terrible poetry; in my twenties I wrote bad short stories. I didn’t write anything even remotely decent until I was thirty. I’m almost entirely self-taught. I’ve taken only one writing class, and I’ve never had a mentor. Happily, I had good friends who read what I wrote and commented on it.

I was very fortunate in that my friends were always kind and encouraging (even when, in my opinion, there was little reason to be). Although I don’t think I would have been daunted much by criticism; my need to write was too strong. I simply kept working at it until I got better at it, and could serve as my own best (or worst, depending on the day) critic.

Thanks for the interview, Christi. (See my book review of The Devlin Diary in the post below.)

You can visit Christi Phillips at http://www.christi-phillips.com

Book Review: The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips

Book Review
I gave five stars to this wonderfully interesting historical mystery written by Christi Phillips, whose blog tour will be June 29, sponsored by Sarah Reidy of Pocket Book Blog Tours.

Background of the novel
In 1672 London, Hannah Devlin continues her father's profession of treating and healing the sick, even though women physicians are frowned on in those days and not sanctioned by the Royal College of Physicians. Her life changes when she is summoned to court to secretly treat the king's mistress, Louise de Keroualle.

Plot summary
Hannah keeps a coded diary of the strange and devious events that she witnesses and discovers while she is there. Her diary reveals secrets that involve Charles Stuart, the king, and his beloved sister, Princess Henriette-Anne. It is rumored that Henriette-Anne died in extreme pain, poisoned by her husband, the Duc d'Orleans, brother of King Louis XIV of France, or by his lover. If this is true, why has King Charles remained totally silent on this issue?

Claire Donovan, a visiting lecturer in history at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2008 tries to find the 17th century diary and the answers. However, Claire is not the only one interested in the diary. And at least one other person in 2008 is desperate enough to want to kill to suppress the information in the Devlin diary.

My Comments
I enjoyed the skillful storytelling and plot - royal intrigue and realistic characters from 17th century London, and from Cambridge, England in 2008. I was impressed by the double story line, of Hannah in the 1670s and Claire in 2008 -and how their separate stories were interwoven into a seamless plot. History and mystery, plus women's rights in academia and in the world of science - these themes and topics grabbed and held my interest.

Book provided by the publisher, for my objective review.


Author Interview: See Interview with Christi Phillips

Blog Tour: J. P. Daly, romance novelist

Welcome to Jennifer P. Daly, author of Black Hole: A Novel, a romance published in 2008.

"Jenna" is here on the sixth stop of her book tour to tell us about her novel, a book about a stay-at-home mom whose life changes when her husband mysteriously disappears on a trip overseas.

The author has a B.S. in written communications, works for a software company, and has two young sons. Black Hole: A Novel was written on a dare and begun in 2007. Jenna has also written children's stories.

Interview

Q: Can you tell us how you chose the title of your novel?

Jenna: The title originally was "Unexpected." But as I wrote I realized that black hole references kept coming up. One of her sons was fascinated by them, and her life drops into an emotional one. It clicked. There are so many things science does not know about them - that cannot be explained - yet.

Q: Did you use personal experience to write the novel - about a stay-at-home mom who has to return to the workplace?

Jenna: I was out of the workforce for 2.5 years with my younger son, so, although my experience was shorter than the character in the book, yes. I remember coming to work the first day in 2005 and wondering, "Can I do this," and thinking someone was going to find out I was some sort of big fat faker. It never happened.

After a month, juggling the kids and a career felt oddly familiar (I had done it from 1999-2002 with one child). I had intended to go back when my son was three. My brain needed more stimulation than I got as a full-time mom and I had always worked. I intensely disliked feeling dependent on anyone, even for that short time.

Q: Do you plan to write another book with Allison as the main character?

Jenna: No, Allison's story is "done." The sequel is about another character in Black Hole: A Novel. I realized halfway into it, I had a sequel and wrote the first chapter of the second book while working on the first one! The sequel has no title yet, and I am about 100 pages into it. The beginning and ending are finished. That's the same way I wrote the first one - and then I filled in the middle.

The only way to explain how I write is I get entire chapters in my head, sometimes out of order. I write them, and then figure out where they go.

Q: What is your favorite genre of books?

Jenna: Genre can be a bit limiting. I have never liked mysteries. Which is odd since I like movies like that. I remember reading a few mystery books that had so many characters I could not keep them straight, I had to back up and re-read sections. That can be frustrating.

If I had to, I'd say contemporary fiction (rather than historical, fantasy, etc) and self help. Genre does not really matter as long as they are stories in which a character discovers something about themselves, someone else, or the world, that changes them forever, yet they also entertain the reader. I finished reading "Broken for You" and "Lucky" and felt like something in me had shifted, in a good way.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

Jenna: Yes. Black Hole: A Novel was an odd experience. I never thought to myself, I think I’ll take a stab at writing a novel and self publish it. Instead, I started it after a friend dared me. When I complained about my job being to restricting writing-wise, she insisted I could write about anything. I told her my creative skills had died when I took on corporate copy writing. "Okay," she said, "Write two pages about a woman in an elevator." I did in less than 15 minutes. She read them, handed them back, and asked with a grin, "Then what happened?" 400 pages later…

The oddest part? After the book was done, I realized things in it happened to me, AFTER I wrote about them. I think every time I pick the book up I find another one. That's something I cannot explain.

Please visit my Website at http://www.dalybookstore.com to learn more about me and my book.

Thanks for visiting, Jenna.