Q&A with Margaret Dilloway

Margaret Dilloway's books include the novels Sisters of Heart and Snow, The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, and How to Be an American Housewife, and the middle-grade novel Momotaro: Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters. She lives in California.

Q: Sisters of Heart and Snow follows women in two different time periods. How did you come up with the idea for the book and for its structure?

A: My mother was from a samurai family so I knew I wanted to write something along those lines.  I looked up "samurai women" and found Tomoe Gozen, who lived in the 12th century, and wanted to write about her. She was a female captain, said to be the best archer in Japan, an incredible swordswoman, and stunningly beautiful.

Q: You've written that your own family history connects with that of your historical protagonist, Tomoe Gozen. What more can you tell us about that?

A: Tomoe fought for the Minamoto clan. My mother's family line became an offshoot of the Minamoto clan in the 15th century. 

Q: The relationship among sisters is important to the novel. Why did that interest you as a topic, and why did you write Rachel's sections in first person and her sister Drew's in third person?

A: Sisters of heart is a term for two women who are so close they're like sisters. In real life, Tomoe was Yamabuki's lady-in-waiting, and they would have been very close.

I wanted the historical to inform the contemporary but not be exactly parallel. So I have two contemporary sisters who used to be close but are not any longer in the parallel story. 

I wrote Rachel in first person and Drew in third because it came the most naturally.

Q: You also include the issue of mail-order brides. Why did you focus on that topic, and how did you research it?

A: When I lived in Hawaii, someone told me about a lady who was a mail order bride, a young woman who married an older man.

There's always a lot of judgment about these women, and they're generally viewed as little better than prostitutes; but the reality is that this situation works for some. Unless you can wave a magic wand and change the economics and cultural realities of the places where these women come from, you shouldn't judge.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm working primarily on my new children's series, Momotaro, published by Disney-Hyperion. 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb