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Interview
A Victorian girl discovers she can see the future at sunset; amazing friendships, forbidden romance, and beautiful disasters arise therefrom. (Hahhaha, I totally used therefrom!)
From other interviews you've done I've seen that you are a history lover. What draws you to history?
I'm fascinated by the fact that time is infinite, but life isn't. That every person, eventually, is dead longer than they were alive. Cheery, right? But it's not a dark consideration for me-- I find it extraordinary that I can stand in the exact same place that someone else stood 200, 1000, 2000, 10000 years ago. That we all walked the same land, and loved with the same hearts, and breathed the same air. And that someday (hopefully!) someone else will stand in my place, and live and love and breathe, 200, 1000, 2000, 10000 years from now. Extend that out, and that's why I love to learn about what the people standing in this place a millennia ago were doing; it makes me feel connected to the past, and my present, and someone else's future.
Nathaniel is an fourteenth, a hired dinner guest in order to not have an unlucky thirteen. How did the superstitions of the time help or hinder you in writing The Vespertine?
They helped quite a bit, actually. In fact, I originally tried to write this book set in a contemporary time, and it never gelled. But the Victorians, they were on the cusp of so much science and progress, but still fascinated by the unseen world. All the superstitions, the willingness to believe in the supernatural-- those elements really made this book possible!
Amelia and Zora fall into an easy friendship. Was this connection one that was easily identifiable within yourself?
Yes. Amelia and Zora's friendship is a love letter to my best friend. We hit it off just as easily, and more than a decade later, we still play together every day, push each other when we need pushing, and provide the reality check slaps only a best friend can give. I'm so lucky to have her in my life (and so pleased to sneak bits of her into my books!)
What is your current WIP (Work in Progress)? Can you tell me a little about it?
I'm actually waiting to find out what my current WIP is. I have a goofy little side project I plan on playing with at some point, but right now I have chapters with my editor and I'm waiting to find out if they'd like that to be my next book. I don't want to say too much in case my editor doesn't fall in love, but it's set in contemporary Maine, and involves a cursed lighthouse.
The Springstreet is the second in the series and is set in Oklahoma? What about the history of Oklahoma drew you to it? Btw...I'm originally from Oklahoma myself.
Woohoo, an actual Sooner! And that's part of why I chose Oklahoma. I have a private goal to write about specific American places in my book; to make the setting part of the story. When I sent my character into the Victorian west, I wanted the land runs to be part of the story. Oklahoma has a particularly unique relationship with the land runs, since it hosted one of the last ones. The last Ghost Dance took place near Watonga; the linguistic shift from "Indian Territory" to "Oklahoma Territory" happened entirely without comment in the media and in people's minds. THE VESPERTINE was very much about agency- THE SPRINGSWEET is about privilege, and Oklahoma Territory was exactly the right place to discuss that in that time period.
Do you have a favorite place to sit and write? Where is your favorite place to read?
I write at my desk, in my bedroom and I have a hard time writing anywhere else. Everything is exactly where I want it, all my reference materials are within reach, the lights are the way I like... it's my writing cave. I have a laptop, and I could probably write essays or screenplays or blog posts elsewhere, but when I write fiction, I really need to be at my desk with my computer. I'm completely indiscriminate about reading, though. Anywhere I can hold my book is my favorite place to read!
As a reader do you write in the same genre as you write? What is your current paranormal obsession?
I do- I write what I write because I enjoy it, so natch, I read about it as well. I just recently read DIE FOR ME by Amy Plum, which comes out in May, and I really enjoyed that. I'm about to start reading DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins- I loved the first book like whoa, so I can't wait to dig into this one. And finally, I'm dying, dying, dying to read THE REVENANT by Sonia Gensler, which comes out in June. Which, as a native Oklahoman, you should probably check out! It's set in 1896, in the Cherokee Female Seminary in Talequah, Oklahoma.
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It was an honor to have you with us today, Saundra Mitchell.
Categories: Author Interviews, Random
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