© 2007- 2009 Susanna Kearsley

Made by Serif

January, 2009

Kerstin from Germany asks: How were you inspired to create the Roman legionary ghost in your book Rosehill (The Shadowy Horses)?

Thanks for your question, Kerstin. When I was a little girl I read a book for children called The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff (I see that this same book is available in German as Der Adler der Neunten Legion). It tells the story of the lost legion, and I was fascinated by it. When I came to write Rosehill I knew I wanted the characters to be working on an archaelogical dig, and I wanted Peter Quinnell to be something like Schliemann, devoted to finding the proof of a legend. I remembered the lost Roman legion then, and thought that it would make a perfect and romantic thing for Quinnell to be searching for, the sort of thing a man might dedicate his life to finding. The dig, I knew, was in the Scottish borders, which have seen so many battles through the centuries that they feel full of ghosts. And to many people there the gift of second sight is seen as something normal. So the character of Robbie started forming in my mind, this boy who claimed he'd seen a Roman ghost out walking on the hill. And then of course I started seeing in my mind the ghost as well, and I began to wonder where he'd come from, what had happened to him, and why he still walked there all alone. Few people know that, while I was searching for a British publisher for Rosehill, one editor asked me to rework the book to include the Sentinel's own story in flashbacks at the beginning of each chapter, and I did this (which took me some weeks), but in the end that editor did not want the book after all, and the publisher who finally did buy it liked the book better the way I had written it first, so the Sentinel's story was never included. Perhaps one day I will try to re-write it into a separate short story, when I have the time.

 

November, 2008

Many, many fans have asked me recently: Why is the same book being published under two different titles – The Winter Sea and Sophia’s Secret?

I know it’s confusing, and my apologies to any of my British fans who bought Sophia’s Secret when they had already read The Winter Sea last spring. My British publishers, Allison & Busby, originally brought the book out in trade paperback and hardback as The Winter Sea in March, 2008, and of course that’s how you’ll find it here in Canada. But the mass market paperback release was scheduled for the summer, and all the big book buyers (the people who place orders for the bookstore chains and retailers) let Allison & Busby know in no uncertain terms that a book called The Winter Sea would be difficult to market in the summer, so the title was changed for the paperback. Publishers don’t make decisions like this on a whim. Like their choice of a cover, the title they use for a book is the one that they hope will best serve that book’s interests by appealing to the readers who might like it. And it’s very, very common for a book be called different names in Britain and America. One of my favourite novels, Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice, was re-titled The Legacy by its American publisher. A lot of Agatha Christie’s titles were changed, as well (her 4.50 from Paddington was published in the States as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!, for example). And you likely won’t find Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander in a UK bookstore, because it’s called Cross Stitch over there. Experience has taught me that the marketing departments of my publishers know best, so in most cases I will happily defer to their best judgement.

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October, 2008

Chadwick Ginther, of McNally Robinson Bookstore in Winnipeg, asks: One common theme in your work seems to be the past intruding upon the present. Rather than writing a straight historical novel, the events of the past are shown to have ramifications to our modern world. Do you do this to keep a point of relation for readers not necessarily versed in the period of your work?

Not really, no. Unlike those stage directors who think Shakespeare has to be performed in modern dress and out of context for a modern audience to “get it”, I’ve always trusted that my readers – even those who may not know the history when they start a book – are smart enough to grasp the parallels themselves. My blending of present and past likely comes from my own fascination with history, and my personal belief that the past does intrude upon the present, that you cannot separate the two, that we are what and who we are because of where we come from. The British psychologist Havelock Ellis once said that “Man’s destiny stands not in the future but in the past.” I’d agree with that, just as I’d argue that what we do now will have lasting effects that we cannot foresee, in the future. So my mysteries are most often rooted in things that have happened before, and my characters have to dig deep and look back for the cause of a present-day conflict before they can find its solution.

To read Chadwick’s entire interview with me, click here.

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September, 2008

The members of the Ajax Chapters Book Club, with whom I spent a lovely evening last month in discussion of The Winter Sea, are asking this month’s question: When you wrote The Winter Sea, were you already making plans to write a sequel?

For the benefit of everyone who wasn’t at our book club meeting, I should point out that you asked this question because some of you thought certain situations in the book would lend themselves to a continuation of the story. But the answer’s no, I wasn’t thinking of a sequel when I wrote it. I thought it would stand on its own. But the characters seem to have other ideas. I still hear them talking; I’m still seeing snippets of scenes that involve them, and I’m getting thoughts on how that may shape into a book that will follow them all through another less-known-about Jacobite intrigue (which might satisfy Colonel Graeme, who’s one of the characters talking the most to me, wanting to get himself back in the action.) For more of my thoughts about sequels, read “What Happened Next...” on my Hodge-Podge page.

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August, 2008

Sandy from Alberta writes: My reading partner and I both read The Winter Sea and were hooked. We have both tried to find copies of your other novels, but with no success. We live in Edmonton and if Chapters or Indigo do not have copies, we are out of luck. I have tried second hand book sellers, with no success. Ordering your books is not a problem, but I feel strongly about supporting Canadian writers and if books are not visible in the stores, other potential first time readers will miss a good read. Do writers have any influence re: this issue?

Hi Sandy. Thanks so much for your email, and your kind words of support. The only other novel of mine that you might be able to find in your local Chapters or Indigo stores would be the one I wrote as Emma Cole -- the thriller Every Secret Thing, which might be in the mystery section.  Failing that, the only one of my books still in print in Canada is Season of Storms, which came out back in 2001 and so probably isn't widely stocked anymore, even though it's still technically available. The other books have fallen out of print, which is why you don't see them, though you can often still find second-hand copies online. In answer to your question, no, writers don't have any influence at all in where or how our books are sold, not really. Most readers don't realize that in this day and age, to get that coveted "front of store" placement in a big chain store, a book's publisher actually has to pay a fee for it, and even then the placement only lasts for a couple of weeks.  I was very lucky that my Canadian distributer, Georgetown, which is very, very small in comparison to the big publishers, thought enough of The Winter Sea to scrape up the money to pay for the front of store placement I did get from mid-May to June.  But now, of course, it's August and my book will be back at the back of the shelves! I am, however, very glad you found it and enjoyed it while it was at the front of the store.  And I hope you're able to track down a few of the others.  It's always possible my current UK publisher, Allison & Busby, will choose one day to reprint my earlier books, if they feel there's a demand for them, but till then you’ll have to rely on the wonderful second-hand bookshops that keep me in stock.

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July, 2008

Judy from Grandview, Missouri, writes: Hello, I just finished The Winter Sea and loved it. I saw that you are working on November Eve. Do you know when it will be published? I love Cornwall as a setting. Could you give me a brief synopsis about what November Eve is about? Any information will be appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for your patience, Judy, in waiting for me to answer this! First off, I’d better clarify things by saying that ‘November Eve’ is only a working title for the book I’m now writing. You’ll notice I don’t mention it by name anymore in My Writing Room, because it suddenly struck me that people would assume that title was set, even though there’s a fairly good chance it will change (maybe a few times!) before final publication. So for now, to keep things simple, I’ll just call it ‘The Cornish Book’. What’s it about? Well, the short answer is it’s the tale of a woman who comes to an old house in Cornwall and finds herself sharing the rooms and the grounds with a man living there in the 1700s. (Well, more than one man, only he’s the important one). I’m reluctant to say more than that, partly because I’m still writing the book so I don’t know where the characters will choose to take the story, and partly because I don’t like to jinx a book by saying much about it till it’s done, which I am hoping will be sometime before Christmas. When you’ll actually see it on the shelves will be up to my publishers. Assuming they like it and want to publish it, they’ll need at least nine months or so to bring it out - to do the editing, and set the proofs, and choose a cover, put it in their catalogue and send their sales team forth to drum up orders from the booksellers, and...well, you get the picture. It’s a complicated dance for any publisher, and it takes time. If everything goes well, then, you might see the Cornish book in stores in autumn of next year. By which time, with a bit of luck, I should be midway through the next one!

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June, 2008

Leslie from Ontario writes: I am a big fan of your writing, you are my favourite author. I once told my husband, if a fire was to happen in our house, here are my Susanna Kearsley books on my top shelf; make sure to run quickly and grab these books! I find that your books totally draw me into the story where I don't want to put the book down, I want to savour each line and I don't want the story to end. I was wondering if you had a favourite author(s) that you feel the same way about?

Wow. Thanks so much for your letter. I’m humbled. And I’m pleased we had the chance to meet in person when I came to sign in Burlington last month. In answer to your question, yes, there are three authors, actually, who I feel the same way about, all of them old favourites whose books I’ve loved for many years (and all of them, I’m sure by no coincidence, old favourites of my mother’s). The first would, of course, be Mary Stewart. I still only have to read the first sentence of one of her books and I’m lost for the afternoon, happily elsewhere, neglecting the house and the kids and the dog. The second is Nevil Shute, for the same reason. I’ve purposely left a few books of his unread so I’ll have something that I can look forward to! And the third would be Jan Cox Speas, whose books were likely the source of my own love of Scotland. (I’ll be posting a tribute page to her here shortly). When you’re a writer yourself, it’s a little like working backstage at a theatre - you see all the tricks and trapdoors and special effects, and a lot of the magic is lost, so I treasure those writers who still have the power to sweep me away with their stories, and make me believe in the magic again. And I’m really so honoured and happy if my books can do that for you. Thanks for writing.

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May, 2008

Jean from AncestorStuff asks: Why is your new book, The Winter Sea, not listed on Amazon.com in the US? It is listed on the Amazon site in both the UK and Canada. I would love to order it but not from Canada or England. Could you please get it listed on the US site? Thanks.

Thanks so much for your letter, Jean (and by the way, as an amateur genealogist myself, I love your site!)

I’ve been getting A LOT of mail lately from fans who are asking this question. The Winter Sea isn't listed on amazon.com because the American rights to the book have not yet been sold. It’s a question of territory. The reason you'll sometimes see the German translations of my books listed on amazon.com is that my German publishers have the legal right to sell German translations of my books worldwide, but my British publishers (Allison & Busby) are only licensed to sell the English-language version in the countries that make up the British commonwealth. If it's any consolation, ordering the book from Canada isn't at all difficult - I've had a number of my American fans do this, from either amazon.ca or Chapters/Indigo. Or, if you prefer to shop American, you can always try one of the independent bookellers who carry British imports. One of my favourites is The Poisoned Pen, in Scottsdale, Arizona, and they usually keep my books in stock. To order The Winter Sea from them, click here. And if The Winter Sea is ever published in the States, I will be sure to post it here!

Thanks once again for taking time to write.

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March, 2008

Susan asks: I have been desperately looking for your book, Rosehill for months now and can't seem to come up with a copy in English. I did, however, find several in Germany, in German. Could you please tell me where in Canada or US I might find a copy?

Susan, you’re not the only person with this problem! Many fans have written now to ask the same thing. Rosehill is actually the title of the German translation of The Shadowy Horses, which is why you’ve only been able to find German language copies of it. My German publishers are re-releasing the book this summer under the new title Die Geister von Rosehill - that may help to end the confusion! (But be warned, my British publishers are considering changing the title of The Winter Sea to something else for their mass market paperback edition, coming out in the autumn. I’ll post details when it’s all confirmed, so you won’t think I’ve snuck another book out onto the shelves without telling you...)

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February, 2008

This month I’ve got a question for YOU:

A number of fans have been writing me recently expressing their concern about the thought of Mariana being made into a movie. And although the movie, if it’s ever made, is still a long way off, I thought I’d take this opportunity to ask YOU, for a change...What are your favourite scenes from Mariana - those that in your view would have to be part of the movie? Here’s your chance to help the writers shape the screenplay, and increase the odds your favourite moment makes it safely to the screen! You can email me your thoughts at susanna_kearsley@yahoo.ca

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January, 2008

Nikki from Ontario asks:

I was wondering with regards to the artist of the cover of the book being published. The person that draws the cover for you, do they get a percentage of the profit per book sold?

Actually, Nikki, I don’t have a whole lot of say in the covers the publishers use for my books, so I’ve never had an artist draw a cover just for me, not in the way you mean. The publisher decides the cover. Sometimes it’s their art department who creates the image, or sometimes they use an existing image, or even commission an artist specifically for the project. It’s my understanding the artist is paid a flat fee for the use of their work, whether it was commissioned or whether the art department found it in a file somewhere and thought that it might suit the theme of the book. I rarely have an influence on what they choose. When Transworld Publishers first brought out Mariana, they commissioned artist Gary Blythe to paint the house, Greywethers, based on photographs I’d given them (I later bought the painting, which is beautiful). And for The Splendour Falls they used a painting I suggested by my friend Paul Rhoads, who lives and works in Chinon, where the book is set. But otherwise my input on the covers of my books has been...well, let’s just say I’m happy if I get to see the covers of the books before they’re published! Which is probably the way it should be. Covers are a marketing tool, like the packaging of any product, and the marketing and sales departments are the ones best suited to decide what will appeal to readers. Covers that look good to British readers might have a different effect on Americans - each  market has its own tastes. For a sense of this, just take a look at a few of the different ways publishers have dealt with Mariana’s cover through the years, by clicking here!   

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December, 2007

As a museum curator you once “worked” a lot with history and you still pursue this interest while writing your novels. Is our present not exciting enough to you?

My love of history began with my mother, who read us the tales of the Greeks and the Romans, the stories of Troy and of Hannibal crossing the alps. My parents loved history themselves, and they passed this love on to my sister and me, introducing us both to historical novels and Shakespeare’s plays, so when I first saw the Tower of London I already knew of the young princes murdered there, and Hampton Court was alive with the shadows of Henry VIII and his wives. As I grew, my interest in history expanded to take in the lives of the everyday people whose struggles and triumphs weren’t always recorded in schoolbooks, whose actions were affected by the laws of Kings but who, in their turn, could affect the lives of those who ruled them. I am fascinated by the past. That doesn’t mean that I would choose to live there. As a woman of opinions with a strongly independent mind, the present is without a doubt the safest place for me to be! But there is always something lost, whenever our society advances, as it must, and it is human to be always looking back at what has gone before. As Mrs Hutherson tells Julia, in my book Mariana: ‘The past is very seductive. People always talk about the mists of time, you know, but really it’s the present that’s in a mist, uncertain. The past is quite clear, and warm, and comforting. That’s why people often get stuck there.’ Just like Julia, and all the rest of my present-day heroines, I try to visit the past with my eyes fully open, and not become lost in it.

(This question was taken from an interview with Katja Menzel to promote The Winter Sea in Germany. To read the full text of the interview, click here.)

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October, 2007

Jennie from Jennie’s B(ook)log asks:

How do you balance the importance of the romance vs. the suspense in your novels? Is it something you consciously manage as you write, or is it more a function of the particular plot and characters in each specific work?

(Note from Me:  Jennie’s blog has long been one of my favourites - not just because she’s done nice reviews of a few of my books (and no, she doesn’t let them pass without a bit of well-aimed criticism!) but because we share a lot of common likes and dislikes when it comes to books and writers, so I invited her to ask me this month’s question.)

Jennie, if you’d asked me when I first got published what my genre was, I would have said ‘romantic suspense’ - meaning that broad genre that included everyone from Winston Graham to Mary Stewart, where the mystery and the love story were intertwined to varying degrees. But as you know, the genres have shifted a bit and the label ‘romantic suspense’ now means something a little, um, steamier, shall we say, than what I write, and I know that my books sometimes disappoint readers who pick them up looking for stories that fit the newer definition of the genre, so when I’m asked now I just say I write ‘suspense’. That said, the love story is an inextricable part of the main story, in all my books (as it is, I’d argue, in most fiction). But you’re right, the balance changes with the book. It’s not a conscious thing I do. As you’ve suggested, it’s determined by the characters themselves. In Named of the Dragon, for example, which I know you’ve just read, the main love story is actually between the heroine and her lost child, and because of the emotional intensity of that, and the short time she has in Wales, she couldn’t realistically do more than start to make a meaningful connection with the hero. The last scene in that book, really, marks the beginning of their romance, and not the end of it. And in Every Secret Thing, the book I wrote as Emma Cole, I have a heroine who’s on the run, who’s just lost someone close to her and has to keep her guard up every minute just to stay alive, so once again she doesn’t have a lot of time to fool around. The main love story in that book happens in the past, and doesn’t involve the heroine herself, although she does meet someone on the run who manages to catch her interest, and who will become a stronger force in later books within that series. At the other end of the scale, you have Mariana, where the love story is the story, and next year’s The Winter Sea, in which the romance between two of the characters rises above the suspense of their story and travels down three hundred years to inspire the romance of my present-day heroine. Everything depends upon the hero and the heroine, and how they interact - what baggage they’re carrying, what constraints their work puts on them, whether they’re outgoing or reserved. And I never know this until the character begins to move on the page and come alive for me. Alex, for example, in Season of Storms, always kept to the background no matter how I tried to bring him forward, as though he knew that Celia should be paying more attention to other things, that she’d get round to him in time, while David in The Shadowy Horses was much more sociable - two very different men who each demanded different levels of attention in the storylines. It isn’t just the men. The women, too, have things to do, things on their minds, goals to achieve. So every story has a different blend of romance and suspense, and I just have to write it down the way it comes, and hope that readers like yourself won’t be put off each time the balance shifts, and that you’ll let me write within the broader boundaries of the genre as it used to be, when ‘Marnie’ and ‘The Moonspinners’ were still considered romance.

 

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September, 2007

Susan from Canada asks:

What qualities do you look for in a heroine/protagonist?

That’s an interesting question to answer, because while I usually write in the first person (meaning I’m always saying ‘I did this’ or ‘I felt that’) my heroines aren’t me.  They all have their own personalities, part of which comes from the lives that I’ve given them, and part of which develops as I write.  A book will take me at least a year to write, working nearly every day, so above all a heroine has to be somebody I can spend that kind of time with - the kind of a person I’d choose for a friend.  She has to be intelligent (a thing I measure not in years of formal education, but in how she faces problems), and she has to have a sense of humour, preferably dry.  Her opinions can be different than my own, but her core values about right and wrong and how we should treat other people have to be the same - she might do things that I’m not brave enough to do, but she would never step outside my moral boundaries.  And she has to keep an open mind about the world around her.  If she has all of that - especially the sense of humour - then I know that she’ll be someone I can live with for the time that I’ll be writing, and that she in time will join the rank of “friends” now on my shelves.  

 

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August, 2007

Liz from England asks:

Why do you make references to or include some of the characters in Mariana in some of your books but not all of them?  And why do you choose Mariana in particular?

First of all, you’ve got good eyes - not every reader notices the cameo appearances of characters from other books!  It started innocently enough, with Named of the Dragon, when I needed an author for my literary agent heroine to manage.  And there was Bridget Cooper, who’d been mentioned but not seen in Mariana, as the famous children’s author whose books Julia had illustrated.  Bridget already had a personality of her own (think of Julia’s first encounter with Geoff, when she thinks of what Bridget’s opinion would be of the man), and when I put her at that lunch table with Lyn in the opening chapter of Named of the Dragon, I knew she was right for the book.  A similar process took place in Every Secret Thing, when I needed a vicar for the funeral scene, and it occurred to me I already had the perfect vicar waiting for the job - Julia’s brother Tommy.  And of course, once Tommy got into the story, he required a larger role than I had planned for him...  It isn’t only Mariana, by the way.  Gareth, from Named of the Dragon, has a play opening in the West End at the beginning of Season of Storms, which again seemed a logical thing to be happening, since he wrote plays and that book was about one.  It’s not that I go looking for a way to bring these characters back into other stories, but each time I write a book I add more people to the world that I’ve imagined, and I guess it’s only natural that, as they go about their lives, they’re bound to come in contact with each other now and then.  I never know, when I sit down to write a scene now in a book, who might be sitting at a table near my characters, or coming round the corner...

 

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July, 2007

Why are your books set in Europe, not Canada?

I’m asked this a lot.  As it happens, my first novel was set in Canada, on the east coast, but it’s now out of print, as is my third novel, which was set in South Carolina.  But both were straightforward romantic suspense, with no historical element.  With all my other books, the mystery comes not only from the present, but the past.  When it’s the recent past, as in the thrillers I’ve begun to write as Emma Cole, the stories can - and do - use North American settings as well as European ones.  But when I’m writing of the distant past, there aren’t too many places here in Canada that have the layered depth of history I would need to tell that kind of story.  Halifax might, or Quebec City, since both are long-established and have witnessed much upheaval, but for the most part the ideas for my books demand a setting where the presence of the past is stronger.  (And of course, that means I have to travel there myself, to do the research...)

 

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June, 2007

Which of your books is your favourite?

I always used to say I didn’t have a favourite, and I meant it.  I had favourite characters...Adrian in The Shadowy Horses made me laugh, and Gareth in Named of the Dragon was one of my favourite heroes, and Vivien in Mariana was the perfect best friend...and while in honesty I’ve always had (and always will have) a special fondness for Mariana, because that story seemed like such a gift while I was writing it, for the most part my books were like children, all different but equally loved.  Until I wrote The Winter Sea.  Now, for the first time in my writing life, I have to admit that I do have a favourite.  It is, I think, the finest thing that I have ever written, and I grew so fond of several of the characters that even though the book is finished now they seem to live within me still.  The few people who’ve read the book in manuscript so far have also told me it’s my best work, though I’ll have to wait until next spring to see if you, the fans, agree!

 

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May, 2007

Why aren’t your first two books, Undertow and The Gemini Game, featured on your Web site?

Undertow was the first book I wrote, and the first to be published (by Avalon Books in 1993).   But The Gemini Game was actually my third book.  It took time to find a publisher for Undertow, and by then I had finished writing Mariana.   Avalon Books published short mystery romances for the library market, and Mariana was far too long to fit their guidelines, so instead I sent the manuscript to England to be judged in the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize competition, a process that took several months.  In the meantime, I had my first ideas for The Splendour Falls - another book that I suspected wouldn’t interest Avalon - and I knew I’d have to go to France to do the research properly.  And so, to help raise money for that trip, I asked my editor at Avalon if she would like another shorter mystery from me.  She said yes, and that summer, while waiting to hear back from England about Mariana and planning my French trip, I wrote my short novel The Gemini Game.  While I’m proud of both the  books I wrote for Avalon, I’ve left them off the site for now because they’re long since out of print and very hard to find, and given the prices they sell for these days I didn’t feel comfortable encouraging people to go out and buy books that, in fairness, really aren’t in the same league as my other novels.  Still, if they’re ever reprinted, or if enough people want to see them on the site, I may change my mind in the future.  Meantime, if you want to find out more about these early books, you can check out the Web site of Karen the Kearsley Fan.       

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April, 2007

What advice do you have for people who want to try writing or want to get a book published?

Believe in your work and believe in yourself.  Don’t listen to voices that say you can’t do it.  Just sit down and start and stick with it, no matter what happens.  And don’t worry about what people might or might not want to read.  Write to please yourself first; write the story that you want to tell, not the story that you think will sell.  In the meantime, learn all that you can learn about the industry, so you can send your book out wisely.  There’s no magic route to publication, but when you’re discouraged just remember what the French writer Flaubert once said:  ‘Talent is nothing but long patience.’  Don’t give up.

 

 

The Question of the Month is chosen from the emails I receive. If you have a question you’d like to see answered here, feel free to contact me.