Q&A with Madeline Martin

  

Photo by Tori Stauffer Photography

 

 

Madeline Martin is the author of the new novel A Time of Witches. Her many other books include The Last Bookshop in London. She lives in Florida.

 

Q: You note that the idea for A Time of Witches came from a recurring dream. Can you say more about that?

 

A: When I was in high school, I had a recurring nightmare that I was being burned alive at the stake. Being an overly dramatic teenager with a wild imagination, I immediately assumed it was either me from a past life or possibly an ancestor who had suffered that fate.

 

It has stuck with me and for the last 25 years has been percolating in the back of my mind. I have wanted to write this book since then.

 

That question became the seed for A Time of Witches, which opens with Lilith having this same recurring dream, not yet realizing that she’s connected to ancestors across nearly 400 years.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I love research and utterly lose myself in it for months before I even begin coming up with the characters in drafting the book. I generally use over 100 nonfiction books for every historical fiction that I write. This one is no exception.

 

It’s important to me to try to be as historically accurate as possible and I try to create my fictional characters from amalgamations of a lot of different firsthand accounts.

 

One of the things that surprised me most was learning that Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, did not view what he did as torture. He employed methods such as sleep deprivation, forced walking, isolation, and relentless interrogation to extract confessions, all things definitely considered torture that produced false confessions.

 

I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Bury St Edmunds, where much of the historical timeline takes place. Being able to walk the medieval grid-patterned streets, visit the Abbey ruins, and walk in the footsteps of my characters was invaluable.

 

The story opens in Savannah, Georgia, and I went there as well. I have visited Savannah many times, but this was the first time I had done it for research. It’s a completely different experience. While there for research, I was more mindful of all my senses, noting how things smelled and how everything felt, paying attention to what specific plants in the squares.

 

These are the kind of experiences that allow me to paint a vivid picture of what my characters are living through and create what I hope is an evocative experience for the reader.

 

Q: The author Eliza Knight called the book a “timely reminder that women who refuse to be silenced are the ones who change everything...” What do you think of that description, and how did you create your characters Sybil and Lilith?

 

A: I absolutely love Eliza's description because it captures one of the most important themes in the book. While researching the witch trials, I was struck by how little control women had over their own lives and how dangerous it could be for women who stepped outside what society considered the norm. Women who were outspoken, independent, knowledgeable, or simply different could make themselves vulnerable to suspicion.

 

This became an important part of creating Sybil. She has wealth, independence, and property and is considered dangerous as a result. She struggles with being silenced when she’s arrested and accused of witchcraft. Lilith lives nearly 400 years later, but her journey is also about learning to trust herself and not make herself smaller for others.

 

Ultimately, both women are learning that their voices truly matter.

 

Q: The book also includes animal characters—how did you create them, and what do you see as their significance in the story?

 

A: I love incorporating animals into my books. They are such a big part of my life and so it makes sense that they would be a big part of my stories as well. And writing witches, I had to include familiars.

 

I used my own black cat, Gunner, as inspiration for the cat in the story. He’s just the sweetest little guy who chirps and coos and is the best snuggler. I also wanted to incorporate black cats because I wanted to remind people what wonderful pets they are. They are often the last adopted in shelters and need loving homes.

 

During the witch hunts, something as innocent as a woman's relationship with an animal could be twisted into evidence against her. This is something I definitely had to incorporate into the story. I wanted to play with that history while reclaiming the idea of the familiar as what my animals are to me — sources of companionship, loyalty and love.

 

The animals also bring warmth to the story when some of the historical subject matter becomes quite dark. Including a skunk named Lord Wimbledon the third.

 

And because I am an animal lover myself, I will reassure fellow animal lovers: the familiars do not die or get hurt! Your heart is safe in loving them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next novel is The Forgotten Pages, which is scheduled for fall 2027. It’s set in the Yorkshire moors in a women’s reformation home in Victorian England. I describe it as a blend of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, but for grown-ups.

 

I traveled to Yorkshire earlier this year for research and spent time walking the moors around Haworth, which was so incredibly atmospheric and inspiring. This book is part Gothic and part whimsical, with a touch of magic.

 

The tagline I’ve been using is: The women history wants you to forget. The magical books that record their history. It’s the adult fairy tale you didn’t know you needed.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think one of the most important things I’d want readers to know about A Time of Witches is that, despite its subject matter, this is ultimately a hopeful story. This is a story about the importance of self-love, the strength of a woman’s voice, and the power of friendship.

 

On that note, as a fun little aside, there are some spells and charms in the back of the book that you can either do by yourself or with friends or with your book club. After all, there’s a little witch in all of us.

 

I hope everyone enjoys A Time of Witches.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Madeline Martin. 

Q&A with Rebecca Wait

  

 

 

Rebecca Wait is the author of the new novel I'm Sorry You Feel That Way. Her other books include Cry Havoc. She lives in Buckinghamshire, UK. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write I’m Sorry You Feel That Way?

 

A: My great aunt suffered from schizophrenia, back when the treatment was even more rudimentary than it is now, and I grew up with a strong sense of the devastating impact her illness had not only on her but on her family.

 

Then I was very depressed as a teenager, and became morbidly worried about a genetic link, the idea that mental illness ran in our family. So it had been on my mind for many years, this sense of the ripple effect an illness like that can have within a family.

 

I was also very interested in the dynamics between siblings, and especially twins – there’s such an expectation of closeness there that I thought it would be interesting to explore what happens when the opposite is the case.

 

Q: The story features two pairs of sisters--how would you describe the dynamic between Alice and Hanna, and also between Celia and Katy?

 

A: Both sibling pairs have damaged relationships in the book, and in each case it’s probably more down to the overall family dynamic and circumstances rather than the individual personalities.

 

Alice and Hanna have been pitted against each other by their mother since they were very young; Celia has a need to be everyone’s emotional priority, so she doesn’t want her daughters to ally with each other. She takes a “divide and conquer” approach. Part of the novel’s arc is the question of whether there’s any hope for Alice and Hanna’s relationship as adults.

 

And then, going a generation back, I wanted to suggest how Celia herself was messed up first by the comparisons with her “perfect” sister, and then later, more devastatingly, by the impact of Katy’s illness, which sidelined Celia further.

 

It’s a dynamic that played out in my own grandmother’s life, and the repercussions aren’t confined to a single generation. Everybody is reacting against everybody else, all the time. And of course you can get stuck in those dynamics from childhood, and it derails your relationships as an adult. 

 

Q: The review of the book in The Guardian says that “this sharp, wise comedy explores difficult family dynamics, from all-too-relatable emotional patterns to the inexplicable agonies of mental illness; yet it's also one of the funniest novels you'll read this year.” What do you think of that description, and what do you see as the role of humor in your novels?

 

A: I really appreciate that description (thanks, Guardian). Writing this novel was a strange experience, because I was about halfway through it when Covid hit and the UK, like many places, went into a pretty stringent lockdown.

 

Like most people, I was very anxious. I was worried about my students (I was teaching high school English at the time), I was pregnant and anxious about the baby, I was worried about my mum, who has some health conditions, and worried about my brother, who was an ICU doctor on the Covid wards – I was just a big ball of worry, really.

 

But I noticed that the more anxious I felt, the more jokes seemed to creep into the book. I hadn’t set out to write a comedy at all, but it just got more and more absurd as it became an escape for me, and eventually I was sitting in my tiny, hot flat in London that had started to feel like a prison, staring at my screen, and thinking, “What this party needs is a ferret on the loose.”

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I wanted a funny title, and I love how this phrase is so steeped in passive-aggression. It captures the dysfunctional family dynamic perfectly.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve just finished a novel set in Gloucester, UK, during the 1990s, at the height of the Fred and Rose West investigation – this was one of the largest serial killer investigations in English history. That’s only the backdrop, though. Mainly, it’s an unconventional love story between a Jehovah’s Witness and a sociopathic ward of the state.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My previous novel is called Cry Havoc and is a dark comedy set in a failing English boarding school. If you like dysfunctional women and buildings on the brink of collapse, it might just be the book for you.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Rebecca Wait. 

Q&A with Haley Neil

  

 

Haley Neil is the author of the new middle grade novel Greta Grimsdark and the Normal New Neighbor. Her other books include the YA novel Planning Perfect. She is also a children's librarian.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Greta Grimsdark and the Normal New Neighbor?

 

A: Greta Grimsdark and the Normal New Neighbor is dedicated to my best friend growing up. When we were little, we lived two houses away from each other. I was the one who got to be the not-so-normal new neighbor in that case. I moved down the road when I was 5 and she was 6 (a whole grade ahead of me, which at the time seemed like a big deal at the time).

 

Greta lives in a very different world. Human things are confusing to her. Though I would argue that human things can be awfully confusing to a lot of kids, even if they don’t have parents who are dragons. Agnes is a touchpoint into what a reader might think of as “normal.”

 

But even if they come from different backgrounds, they can still go on adventures and have fun and possibly even save the world together. Friendship is a magical thing, for any kid.

 

There’s something so special about growing up with someone else, with discovering the world together. I was lucky enough to have a partner, someone to learn and grow with, living right on the same street.

 

And while we no longer live two houses apart, we still get to grow together. I was the maid of honor at her wedding, next month she will be the matron of honor at mine. A friend like that is worth writing a book about.

 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Greta and her family members?

 

A: I love these two questions back-to-back, because the answers are different! Greta and her family members came first. So, the idea of Greta and her world was around for YEARS before this particular story took shape.

 

This might be silly, but sometimes, as a writer, it feels like you can tap into some otherworldly place. I remember the beginning feeling a bit magical. I remember thinking this one, this idea, is special.

 

I honestly can’t remember if it was around Halloween when I started to write the original version of the story (at the beginning, it was called “The Children of Grimsdark Castle”). The root of all this is a bit muddled in my mind. Was it because of the season? Was it because I was working with kids?

 

At the time, I was working one-on-one with a little boy in Manhattan, who loved listening to stories. I had just left a position as a preschool teacher so I could go to graduate school and study writing for children and young adults. The very first version of this story was told to that little boy and then submitted as a grad school writing assignment.

 

I remember sitting in the Starbucks in Union Square, writing the opening to that old version of the book, which introduced the Grimsdark family. A ghost, a part-zombie, a possible vampire, and, scariest of all, a human child.

 

They were the core of the story that I loved. So much evolved in the editing process, the characters grew, gained depth and texture; the story shifted and changed. But that foundation remains.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Greta and Agnes?

 

A: Greta and Agnes complement each other in such great ways. They come from two very different worlds, but ultimately that doesn’t prove to be an obstacle. Sure, it leads to some fun shenanigans. But I think that is what you need in a friend. Someone who makes life interesting.

 

I think they are often on the same page, but they got to that page in wildly different ways. The plot lives in the ways that they navigate those differences.

 

Q: You’ve written for different age groups--do you have a preference?

 

A: What a great question! Writing for different ages can be so different. I feel like I’m working a different part of my brain.

 

I have to say, there is a special place in my heart for writing for kids. In addition to being an author, I’m also a full-time children’s librarian. I absolutely adore working with kids and writing for them, too.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m editing the second book in the Greta Grimsdark series! I can’t wait for readers to see what Greta and Agnes get up to next.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Visit your local library and talk to your librarian! Librarians want you to talk to them. They want to help you find just the right book or a bit of fascinating information or connect you with a free program or resource.

 

As a children’s librarian, I’ve seen many kids hesitate to talk to whoever is on desk. I want them to know that they don’t have to be worried. Your question is not silly, we probably can find a book or series based on a vague description, and we definitely want to help you discover your next read. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Haley Neil. 

Q&A with Charlotte Parent

  

Photo by Justine Latour

 

 

Charlotte Parent is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Muriel and the Mystery. She lives in Montreal. 

 

Q: What inspired you to create Muriel and the Mystery?

 

A: In the weeks before writing this story, I had been thinking about the unknown, uncertainty, and risk-taking (in my life and in my creative work).

 

I read a long-form interview with Anne Herbauts, a Belgian picture book author and illustrator, who talked about creating with one’s head “in the hedge”: she says, “It's the fact, in one's own work, of not staying in the middle of the garden, in one's known, where one risks getting bored and repeating oneself. You have to rub up against the hedge, to go into the hedge.”

 

The idea of the hedge is so wonderfully weird; it feels so true to my experience of creativity. The hedge around a garden is both a domestic and a liminal, slightly scary space.

 

The evening after reading the interview, I sketched a mouse having tea with what I thought of as “the Unknown.” I’m pretty sure this was my way of exploring the limit between the domestic and the mysterious, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

 

The mouse became a shrew and the unknown became a mystery, but that scene is at the heart of Muriel and the Mystery!

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Parent’s enigmatic work promotes the open-minded embrace of the unknown.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: That sounds right to me. I don’t know if Muriel truly embraces the mystery in the end. She certainly makes room for it in her life, but her expression in the last spread is a little inscrutable; I’m not sure she is at the “open-minded embrace of the unknown” level yet. She’s working on it, though! 

 

I appreciate that they called the book “enigmatic” – with this book, I tried to leave just enough strings untied, and to make interpretation a true collaboration between the reader and the book. I am a firm believer that children can handle weird, open-ended stories.  

 

Q: Why did you decide to make Muriel a shrew?

 

A: Actually, the shrew came first! I drew a shrew one night, just because. She looked tense. I remember thinking right then that her name could be “Murielle.” Murielle is my grandmother’s name, and I think the apparent nervousness of little shrew I drew reminded me of her.

 

In French (my first language), a shrew is a “musaraigne,” and I liked the alliteration in “Murielle la musaraigne.” The name stuck, and so did the shrew. 

 

My agent, Jennifer Laughran, would later tell me that shrews are notoriously very fearful animals that can apparently die from fright when startled. (She specified that she did not recommend incorporating this into the book.) It seems very fitting for Muriel, a nervous character who loves nothing more than a consistent routine, to be a shrew.

 

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first--or both simultaneously?

 

A: I wrote the text first. I was lying in bed with a Covid-induced fever. It took me 15 minutes to write– that’s not a huge feat in itself considering that it was a little over 300 words, but it felt huge because I had been laboring over the same picture-book texts for months before this story came to me!

 

Once I had the text, I drew a storyboard. Throughout the whole process, as I worked on the illustrations, I tweaked the text to make sure both elements worked well together. That’s one benefit of being both the author and illustrator!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on the final illustrations for an Early Reader series written by my brother, Félix. They tell the story of a large dog and a tiny mouse living together in a small apartment. I’m using watercolour for this project, and I am learning a lot!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Sept. 4

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Sept. 4, 1908: Richard Wright born.

Q&A with Hank Phillippi Ryan

  

Photo by Iden Ford

 

 

Hank Phillippi Ryan is the author of the new novel Mother Daughter Sister Stranger. Her many other books include All This Could Be Yours. Also a journalist, she lives in Boston. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, and how did you create your character Eliza?

 

A: The core of a new novel comes from a sort of Rubik’s Cube of ideas. A little bit from here, and a little bit from there, and then I click-click-click and twist-twist-twist in my writer's brain at some point, the ideas change into a completely different entity.

 

So the bits of Mother Daughter Sister Stranger: how my mother used to read stories to me when I was a child, and I was always so frustrated when she said the end. I knew there must be something that happened after that. Something beyond the covers of the book.

 

Also: As a writer, I am fascinated by the conversation between editor and author in the margins of a manuscript—what gets left out, what gets changed, what themes emerge. That conversation is really what creates the book, but readers will never see it.

 

Another bit: As a true crime reporter, I have often been flown to cover stories in small planes. Twice in my experience I had moments where I was not quite sure we would land safely. That deep emotion is profound.

 

And finally, I was thinking about how I had, in the past, lied to my mother. About little things, like whether I did my homework or where I was at a particular time. I'm sure she didn't believe a word I said. But maybe she did. And then I began to wonder: what if she was lying to me, too.

 

So put that all together and it becomes: A missing mom. A terrified daughter. And a sister who will stop at nothing to find the truth about their secret family legacy.

 

Q: Getting back to the idea of “The End”: In the novel’s acknowledgments, you write that you never type those words at the conclusion of your manuscripts. Can you say more about that?

 

A: Isn't that so funny? Because it never feels like the end to me. Not the final end at least. There are always changes, there are always tweaks, there are always edits, there are always ways I can make the book better. 

 

So when I write a first draft, I am thrilled that I have uncovered the true story of my novel! But that's not really the end at all, and every writer knows that, right? The end of the first draft is only the beginning.

 

I will confess, though, that even when I'm finished with the final draft, I still don't write The End. It feels too final. That moment is actually the beginning of the next phase.

 

Q: The writer Lisa Scottoline said of the book, “Ryan is a master of the domestic thriller, mapping the emotional terrain of the family, as well as a brilliant observer of the ties that bind and stretch, sometimes to the breaking point.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I fell off my chair with delight. Lisa Scottoline is an absolute icon, and one of my heroes in the industry. Of course that description of my book is everything anyone could ever ask for, and she is such a wise and careful reader.

 

True story: when I was interviewing agents early on, one of them asked me what author I wanted to “be.” And I said Lisa Scottoline. That was 20 years ago. And now she is reading my books, and her endorsement is on the cover. How fantastic is that?

 

Q: The novel is set in Massachusetts--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Oh, it is everything! This book could only take place in Massachusetts. In the gorgeous historic cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill, and the elegant expensive brownstones in Back Bay, and the gorgeous rolling hills of the mysterious Berkshires.

 

Even the long stretch of highway they call the Massachusetts Turnpike—Eliza’s terrifying and suspenseful midnight drive in Mother Daughter Sister Stranger could only take place on the Mass Pike. And Mallard Cove, the site of Eliza’s family’s summer cottage, is a real place. Of course I tweaked it for the novel. More I cannot say.

 

It's so funny, I am often on Beacon Hill and Back Bay and every summer in the Berkshires. It is so familiar to me, of course, from the way your heels catch in the cobblestones to the opulent interiors of the brownstones, to the chilling but beautiful isolation of the Berkshires. And when I am there in real life, sometimes I feel like I am in the pages of my book.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am on word #70,049 of book 18. It is on its fourth title, and its third structure, and it’s due in 45 days. I’m sure it will all be fine.

 

What’s it about? A mom and her two kids in a situation we’ve all experienced—that turns terrifyingly dangerous. All I can say is there is a yellow sticky on my computer that says: “It’s cold.” (Writing a winter book in the sweltering summer is a challenge, so I need a reminder.)

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I didn't start writing till I was 55 years old, and after 40 years as a true crime reporter for television, this second career as a bestselling crime fiction author proves I am truly the poster child for following your dreams.

 

I have been through so many ups and downs, and moments when I thought whose idea was this writing thing anyway? But I love it, and am full of joy every day of my computer

 

And now I'm going on book tour! And I am so excited—I am packing, organizing, and so looking forward to seeing friends and readers on the road! Click on my website HankPhillippiRyan.com for the official events list. Will I be near you? I truly hope so!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Hank Phillippi Ryan. 

Q&A with Roger S. Gottlieb

  

 

 

Roger S. Gottlieb is the author of the new book Nature Spirituality and Environmental Crisis: Embracing a Sacred, Wounded Earth. His many other books include This Sacred Earth. He is the William B. Smith Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write Nature Spirituality and Environmental Crisis?

 

A: My own experience of grief about what has been lost; of fear about the future; of anger about people who can really do something about the pollution but don’t, the extinguished life forms, the vast accumulation of plastic on the beaches and in the bodies of every living thing.

 

And the sense that I was not alone in seeing nature, this age-old source of spiritual nourishment, so deeply changed and wounded.

 

I wanted to work out in my own mind how to think and feel about this, and perhaps help all the other folks who don’t have the luxury of a professor to sit around and think and write—but who are feeling what I am feeling as well.

 

Q: The scholar Morgan Shipley called the book “a powerful meditation on what remains of nature spirituality and how it might still guide us toward compassion, resilience, and a renewed capacity to heal a wounded world.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think Shipley got what I was trying to do. The point is that nature spirituality cannot take its traditional form any more. We can’t be confident that nature as we love it today, as it helps us be more calm, accepting, compassionate and grateful, will be here tomorrow or in five years.

 

So, how can we think about it in a way that still nourishes us spiritually despite the wounds?

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

 

A: That they are not alone. That what they feel is real, important, and vital. But that along with the grief and fear and anger, there are still ways to feel grateful, to be in solidarity with the rest of life, to feel compassion for all our weaknesses and suffering, to believe and act with the understanding that “all life matters.”

 

Q: How do you think the spiritual relationship between humanity and the earth has changed over the years, and what do you see looking ahead?

 

A: Take one example. A lot of us would like to help our children enjoy nature, as a relief from all the pressures kids face now—about their bodies, what they say, how “cool” they are, their sexuality.

 

So we say  “No matter how bad things get, you can always go to the forest, the beach, the meadow, the mountain—and that will make you feel better.” 

 

Only now, we don’t know if the forest won’t be clear cut, the beach covered in plastic waste, the mountain torn down for minerals. There is no longer any future we can be confident of. And right now, when the forest fire smoke is making the air bad, we have to say: “You can’t go out to play, we broke the air.”

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A collection of short stories in which people on different sides of the political/moral/spiritual divides in this country come to understand people from the “other” side.

 

They won’t magically become best of friends, but perhaps in a setting when they come to understand how the other formed their beliefs and what their lives have been like, they would no longer have to be complete enemies.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There is always a way to show love to life. Grief and fear are real and should be acknowledged, but love is always possible as well. In the neighborhood, at work, in a church, in a group that works locally, regionally, or internationally.

 

As long as life exists—human, animal, vegetable, fish, reptiles, birds—we can try to care for it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb