Welcome to an awesome week brought to us by Triskele Books:Day 1 - Complicit by Gillian Hamer
Day 2 - Tristan & Iseult by JD Smith
Day 3 - Tread Softly by JJ Marsh
Day 4 - Gift of Raven by Catriona Troth
Day 5 - The Open Arms of the Sea by Jasper Dorgan
Triskele Books Day 6
Jasper interviews Liza Perrat.
Spirit of Lost Angels
by Liza Perrat
Paperback, 378 pages
Published June 2, 2012
What were the attractions of setting your story in 18th
century revolutionary France?
In the late 18th century, the world was changing fast.
Pre-revolutionary France was a time of great turmoil at all levels of society,
as people were, finally, questioning the old regime. I wanted to explore what
led the people to revolt, and how this affected the mass of the population: the
peasants and the poverty-stricken. More particularly, I hoped to show how women
were affected by this conflict; how they reacted, struggled and fought, and how
they changed in the face of this great upheaval.
Victoire is a very strong, brave and resolute young woman. Creating
her must have been both exhilarating and exhausting. She was part of you while
you were writing her, does she still live in you now that you aren’t?
Not really, perhaps only in that Victoire is an ancestor of the
present novel’s heroine, and a predecessor of the heroine of the next one. So,
just keeping in mind family traits, professions and character, to carry over to
preceding and following generations. But generally, once a novel is done with,
it’s time to immerse myself in the next protagonist.
There must have been a great deal of research to so expertly bring
the times, places and people of 18th century France to life on the
page, but you manage to wear such research very lightly. What’s your secret?
Oh that’s lovely of you to say so, Jasper, and many of my “beta”
readers were kind enough to point out instances where the narrative did stray
into “history lesson”. I then tried to weave all those areas more into the
narration.
One of the many interesting themes of the book is the fight for new
political and governance rights for the people interlaced with the emerging
fight for women’s rights as championed by Mary Wollstonecroft, who appears in a
cameo role in the narrative. Mary is obviously a heroine of yours but are there
problems in introducing real and well documented historical people into a
historical fiction?
Definitely. The writer must try to adhere, as much as possible, to
what we know about a particular historical figure, as well as imagine how and
why that person may have behaved in such a way. It’s a fine line.
If you had the choice to live in any historical time and place, when
and where would it be?
I’d love to go back to 14th century rural France, but only
for a day, to see how it really was. Then, before I caught the plague, smallpox
or tuberculosis, I’d like to quickly return to the clean comforts of the
present day.
What are you writing now?
I’m about a quarter of the way into the third novel in this
series––Blood Rose Angel––which explores the same family as the first two
books, in 14th century rural France.
Which favourite book on your shelf demonstrates a real sense of time
and place?
Ooh, that’s a hard one; that goes for so many of my favourite books.
But what comes first to mind is Kate Grenville’s Sarah Thornhill and The Secret
River. I really felt I was back in early 19th century colonial
Australia.
Spirit of Lost Angels is available now.
See Liza’s list of Indie-friendly book reviewers in the Triskele blog Toolbox.
Liza Perrat has visited Colorimetry - for an interview and a follow-up Guest Post on Writing Historical Fiction.
Liza Perrat has visited Colorimetry - for an interview and a follow-up Guest Post on Writing Historical Fiction.
Liza's website
Follow Liza on Twitter @LizaPerrat
Find Liza on Goodreads
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