Insightful Interview with Delancey Stewart, Author of NYC Historical Short Story Collection

Hi, Delancey! So happy to meet you and have you come by the site today for an interview. I am looking forward to getting to know you. How are you?

Wonderful! Thanks so much for having me! I’m looking forward to getting to know you, too!

Let’s get started then, have a seat in my virtual café….

Q:  Your book, Through a Dusty Window, is a collection of short stories sectioned from each decade of mostly the 20^th Century.  Such a unique idea – where did your inspiration come from?

A:  When I lived in New York – first on the Upper West Side and then later down in Chelsea – I spent a lot of time wondering who had lived in my apartments before I did. The buildings were both pre-war buildings (in this case meaning pre-WWI), so both had seen plenty of history before I lived there. The building in Chelsea was especially interesting to me. I had a studio apartment, and the front door had been created on an angle, the same as the one across the hall. Between my apartment and that one, we split the first half of the second floor, and it felt quite obvious at some point those doors had been added, and the wall between us inserted. Since it was a brownstone building, I imagined that at one point it’d been a single-family home like the one that I wrote about in the book. I have never been able to find a history of that particular building, though.

The concept of the buildings standing as quiet sentinels above and around us while we lead our lives beneath and inside them was what got me started on the concept for Through a Dusty Window.

Q:  I like the idea of glimpsing out an upper city window and imagining how life was at different eras of time in a same locale. Why do you feel showing the phases of history is so important?

A:  Each story in the book tries to capture a mood that indicates a bit of what was going on at that time in history. For someone to really understand a city like New York, you have to learn about its history. How did it come to be the way it is today? I think every generation discovers things anew, but it’s important to look backwards and see what lessons we might learn from those who’ve come before.

Q:  Do you catch yourself daydreaming? If so, what do you imagine?

A:  Always. Usually about a quiet house. (I have two very noisy little boys!)

Erin Comments: haha! I have 3 children too and can relate!

Q:  What do you feel was the most creative and/or inspiring time in history?

A:  My grasp of history in its entirety is not great…I only really study the times that are interesting to me. That said, I read anything I can find about the 20s. I feel like in some ways it might have been a little like the 90s – a mad rage before a devastating fall. I love stories about flappers and Prohibition, anything about the scads of writers and artists working in Paris at that time.

Erin comments: Me too, I love 1900s in NYC and Paris and how that Paris culture crossed over to our culture, within the arts. Now people don’t realize how much French influence we have in American life.

Q:  What do you feel has been the most instrumental “window” in history for women?

A:  That is not an easy question to answer, but I think that for the US, WWII was an important period for women specifically. While the bulk of men went to fight, women found themselves in positions they’d never dreamed of. They replaced the men who left in all facets of professional life, and many learned that they were not only interested in professional achievement, but that they had talent and intelligence that allowed them to excel at it. I think that era changed what women went on to expect from life and started the movement we are still experiencing, where women believe that they might be able to have both a fulfilling professional life and a satisfying family life.

Q:  Which story, if any, is your personal favorite in the collection, and why?

A:  I’ve loved “The Harbinger” best since I wrote it. I think there’s a very relatable tragedy there – something that people might be able to identify with on several levels. That story hinges around the concept of feeling understood and being truly understood, and attempts to illustrate what a difficult thing it is, to really understand someone else. I think many of us take those around us for granted, believing that we know them well, and in the process of that belief we build boxes to put people inside that make it impossible for them to ever change – at least in our minds.

Erin comments: I said that in my review, that I liked “The Harbinger” the best. I agree, trying to categorize people, especially women, is a common trait and the world would be better if we didn’t do so.

Q:  On to writing, do you feel that women writers should “schedule” time for themselves to write?  Why do women feel so guilty sometimes about pursuing dreams?

A:  Writing, like any other profession or serious hobby, takes commitment and that certainly means time. I definitely never got any traction until I found a schedule that I was willing to commit to and held myself to it. With two boys under the age of six, and a “day job,” that means getting up at five so that I can get one full, uninterrupted hour to write. I do that at least five days a week, and it’s the only guaranteed time I get.

I think women are taught to be caregivers, and in our efforts to pursue our dreams we are only taking care of ourselves. It’s easy to decide to feel guilty about that, but I really believe that guilt is a choice. The only person who can make you feel guilty is yourself. If your dreams are not important enough to you to stand up for them and declare that you will pursue them without feeling that you are hurting someone else in the process, then that is a choice as well. My mother always taught me to take care of myself first. She loves to quote the adage, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” and at my house, it’s absolutely true. (P.S. My mother doesn’t use the word “ain’t” except when saying this. She was an English teacher!)

Q:  What advice do you have for other writers?

A:  If you want to be a writer, then write! Put aside everything that you believe is stopping you, including your own critical voices. I cannot guarantee you success – because that is determined by your individual definition of the word and also by any number of outside factors depending on that definition. But I can guarantee that you will fail if you never try.

Q:  Lately I’ve interviewed several journalists and/or PR people who’ve transitioned to fiction writing. How do you feel your transition has been – does it make it easier or harder to write fiction with a non-fiction writing background?

A:  I think it helps in some ways. If nothing else, you have the experience of having sat down regularly to write. The blank page becomes less intimidating. It also helps to have had to think in a linear fashion about telling a story – whether truth or fiction. And having a PR and marketing background can only be a help in this day when authors are also the biggest promoters of their own work!

Erin comments: I always say, the more you write, then the more you write!! And having all that background myself, I certainly agree.

Q:  What other interests do you have in addition to writing?

A:  I am a ballet dancer and love spending time in the gym or going for a run. I have to move regularly or life doesn’t work for me. I’m kind of a wine snob, and I’m definitely an ice cream snob, if there is any such thing! I also love gardening, and I tend to read a lot, but that probably goes without saying!

Erin comments: Yes, I am also an ice cream snob. We can start a club. Except I don’t run mine off. lol

Q: What authors have inspired you?

A:  It depends on what day you ask. Lately I’ve been blown away by Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, and Katja Millay’s The Sea of Tranquility. I have a growing fondness for Hemingway, who I used to say I despised. I love Fitzgerald, admire George Saunders, and enjoy Philippa Gregory.

Q:  Favorite television shows or movies at the moment?

A: I am in love with Game of Thrones, and am enjoying Revenge as well. I watch The Vampire Diaries, though feel like it’s losing steam, and think I’ve finally given up on Grey’s Anatomy, which was a constant for the past few years. I watch Gossip Girl as a study in plot twists! I was hooked on Breaking Pointe when it was on, and if we subscribed to cable, I’d be glued in front of HGTV at all hours.

Q:  Where can readers connect with you?

A:  I have a blog at: delanceystewart.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delancey.stewart

Twitter: @DelanceyStewart

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6581742.Delancey_Stewart

Thank you so very much for coming by and talking with me today. I look forward to keeping in touch with you and sharing writing stories and wish you continued success!

I had a great time – thanks for such thoughtful questions! This was lots of fun!

Through a Dusty Window, Synopsis~

Publication Date: November 15, 2012
CreateSpace
Paperback; 108p
ISBN-10: 0615731023

It’s impossible to live in a city like New York without feeling the presence of those who have preceded you – on those streets, in those subway cars, in that apartment. The city thrums with vibrations of lives and eras passed, and traces of that history are left imprinted in tangible ways everywhere we look.

Through a Dusty Window is a collection of ten short stories spanning a century of lives inhabiting one New York City brownstone on the Upper West Side. They are the culmination of the author’s experience in that city, during which she wondered constantly who had occupied her apartment before her, and what stories they might have lived.

Ten vignettes offer historical perspective on real events from Prohibition to World War II; the Vietnam-era Summer of Sam killings to John Lennon’s murder.

Through a Dusty Window allows us to be voyeurs, seeing the fascinating lives of others as they experience the history that New Yorkers today hear whispers of around every corner.

Delancey Stewart, Biography~

Delancey Stewart is a fiction writer living in Southern Maryland. She’s a military spouse and the mother of two small boys. When not writing, she can be found ballet dancing, eating ice cream, playing video games or building with Legos.

For more information, please visit Delancey Stewart’s website. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

 

 

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/throughadustywindowvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #DustyWindowVirtualTour

Creating Dialogue with Characters: Guest Post by Historical Fiction Author Anna Belfrage

Today you have the opportunity to read an excellent guest post by author Anna Belfrage, author of The Graham Saga series, with A Rip in the Veil and Like Chaff in the Wind currently published. I reviewed Life Chaff in the Wind yesterday, and you can see that by clicking HERE.

Anna has an amazing writing voice and you’ll really enjoy this guest post, as it talks about how she came to write her series and how her characters talk to her…..pesky friends in our heads sometimes aren’t they? I hope you enjoy it, I know I did!

How I Have Come to Know My Characters Really, Really Well…..
by Anna Belfrage

First of all, thank you very much, Erin, for participating in my blog tour and giving me the opportunity to post on your blog. This is the second guest post on the blog tour, and for those of you interested in reading the first, in which I introduced my female lead, I recommend a visit to Bippity Boppity Book.

In retrospect, I suspect my subconscious had been doing its own little things for years before I finally sat down to write the Graham Saga. Since well over a decade, I had nursed an interest for the seventeenth century, and in particular for the religious conflicts that dominated this period in history. Why, you might ask, and the reason for that is quite personal.

My husband comes from a family old as the rocks (most of us do; it’s just that the majority of us spring from families that were illiterate and dirt poor, ergo leaving nary a trace in the historical documents) that emigrated to Sweden in the early seventeenth century. In actual fact, the only ones that emigrated were a twelve-year-old boy called John and his mother Joneta. This woman with her most unusual name was of Stuart blood – albeit a cadet line – but for whatever reason she was compelled to flee Scotland, citing religious persecution as her reason. Hmm. Not entirely sure I buy that… Whatever the case, the interest in my husband’s family sort of lead on to reading more and more and more about this turbulent time in European history.

When I began writing A Rip in the Veil – the first book in the Graham Saga – it therefore had a clear setting in time and place (Scotland, seventeenth century), a dramatic beginning, a number of very detailed scenes that I could recite verbatim should someone wake me at three a.m., and a rather vague ending. Fortunately, as it turned out, because my dear characters decided to have a major say in how things turned out, and so the original plot line (however dotted) did a ninety degree turn at one point, doubled back a couple of chapters later and then set off at full speed in a direction not intended by yours truly.

I mostly blamed it on Alex. Well, no; on Matthew.

“On me?” Matthew protested. “It wasn’t me who came up with that idiotic idea in chapter 11, was it?”

“No,” Alex agreed, “that was you, Anna.” She flexed her arms and grinned. “But I liked it.”

Yeah, sure you did, I smiled. Alex enjoys showcasing herself as a strong woman. Matthew muttered something about it not being seemly, not at all, but the way he smiled at his wife sort of took the edge out of the rebuke. 

Anyway, the consequence of all this re-plotting is that I got to know my characters really, really well. (It was almost like those all night sessions while at University; me, wine, and instead of a lot of partying friends a notebook and my imaginary best friends. Somewhat weird…)

Now and then Alex would wink at me and wonder if I didn’t want to know the rest of their story – oops, stories. Of course I did! For some reason, Matthew seemed discomfited, and it was only through insistent wheedling that I came to understand why. My old-fashioned hero had something of an issue with the leading lady coming to rescue him – as she does in the second book of the series, Like Chaff in the Wind.

“I’m not old-fashioned,” he sort of growled when I pointed this out to him. “But I’m the man, she’s the woman. If anyone’s to do any saving it should be me!”

“You do that all the time,” I replied, “if it hadn’t been for you, poor Alex would have been dead – or worse – days after having dropped through the time chute.” He liked that, I could see, angling his head so that he could throw his wife a look. “She can’t live without you,” I said.

He raised a brow. “Of course she can.” 

“You know what I mean! Something inside of her would shrivel and die without you, and so …” I shrugged. There’s no choice really. In Like Chaff in the Wind Alex has to set out after her husband, the rock on which her entire existence is built on.

Yet again Matthew looked at Alex. “She’s something, isn’t she?”

As if she’d heard him, Alex lifted her face in our direction. She smiled, raised a hand to touch her neck, her hair, in a way that made Matthew fidget.

“She most certainly is,” I agreed, thinking that he wasn’t too bad himself, what with that slow smile that always makes my heart flutter, those large, warm hands that glide so gently down her back.  I turned back to him. He was no longer there, hastening towards Alex.

“It’s not the last book,” he called over his shoulder. “There’s plenty more to tell, aye?”

I can imagine; next time round he’ll be the hero, the order of things properly re-established.

 Like Chaff in the Wind is an adventure, a journey from one end of the world to the other. It is a story that invites you to shut down your computer, turn off your phone and drift off into a time when life was so much simpler than today.

“Simpler?” Alex and Matthew say in unison. Matthew frowns at me, absentmindedly rubbing his shoulder.

Oh dear. “I didn’t mean it like that,” I say. And, dear reader, they’re right. It’s not an easy life they lead those two, not at all. But it does make good stories, let me tell you, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading Like Chaff in the Wind as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 My next post in this blog tour, in which I introduce Matthew Graham in a lot more detail, will be published on March 26 on Flashlight Commentary . I hope you’ll be joining us there.

Anna Belfrage, Biography~

I was raised abroad, on a pungent mix of Latin American culture, English history and Swedish traditions. As a result I’m multilingual and most of my reading is historical – both non-fiction and fiction.

I was always going to be a writer – or a historian, preferably both. Instead I ended up with a degree in Business and Finance, with very little time to spare for my most favourite pursuit. Still, one does as one must, and in between juggling a challenging career I raised my four children on a potent combination of invented stories, historical debates and masses of good food and homemade cakes. They seem to thrive … Nowadays I spend most of my spare time at my writing desk. The children are half grown, the house is at times eerily silent and I slip away into my imaginary world, with my imaginary characters. Every now and then the one and only man in my life pops his head in to ensure I’m still there. I like that – just as I like how he makes me laugh so often I’ll probably live to well over a hundred.

I was always going to be a writer. Now I am – I have achieved my dream.

Learn more about Anna and her work at:  www.annabelfrage.com. She has some great extras that go with her stories that you’ll love.

Like Chaff in the Wind Synopsis~

Matthew Graham committed the mistake of his life when he cut off his brother’s nose. In revenge, Luke Graham has Matthew abducted and transported to the Colony of Virginia, there to be sold as indentured labour – a death sentence more or less.

Matthew arrives in Virginia in May of 1661, and any hope he had of finding someone willing to listen to his tale of unlawful abduction is quickly extinguished. If anything Matthew’s insistence that he is an innocent man leads to him being singled out for the heaviest tasks.

Insufficient food, grueling days and the humid heat combine to wear Matthew down. With a sinking feeling he realises no one has ever survived the seven years of service – not on the plantation Suffolk Rose, not under the tender care of the overseer Dominic Jones.

Fortunately for Matthew, he has a remarkable wife, a God’s gift who has no intention of letting her husband suffer and die, and so Alex Graham sets off on a perilous journey to bring her husband home.

Alex is plagued by nightmares in which her Matthew is reduced to a wheezing wreck by his tormentors. She sits in the prow of the ship and prays for a miracle to carry her swiftly to his side, to let her hold him and heal him before it’s too late. God, however, has other things to do and what should have been a two month crossing becomes a yearlong adventure from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

Will she find him in time? And if she does, will she be capable of paying the price required to buy him free?

See more on Anna’s Tour at the Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/likechaffinthewindvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #ChaffInTheWindVirtualTour

Featuring Author Deborah Harkness: Under the Cover of Her Novels

Deborah Harkness, author of New York Times Bestselling novels A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night, emanates a warmth and poise that made me want to immediately sit down and chat with her about history, science, books and life all by a warm fire, with a glass of wine in hand for her and a cup of coffee for me, as if she was a long-lost friend.  Of course that didn’t really happen even if she made me feel it could, but I did meet her on Sunday as part of a presentation she gave that was hosted by the Cuyahoga County Public Library.  She spoke about her books, her writing, and her author/life balance.

Pictured above: 
Deborah Harkness and I together during her book signing on a hot day in Ohio. My glasses were sliding slowly down my face, while Deb looked radiant!

Harkness was an amazingly confident public speaker. I suppose that comes from all her years as a university professor. She’s also very witty and knowledgable and connects with readers and an audience in a very sincere way.

After patiently signing books from an extended line of people on a very hot Ohio day, while being so very kind, thoughtful, personable and accommodating to the many fans, she was introduced to a thundering of applause as the crowd cheered for the announcement that Shadow of Night had just hit the #1 spot on the NYT bestseller list. I smiled when I saw her discreetly do a “hand pump” as she waited in the wings behind the stage curtain.  The amount of whirlwind international success must be very exciting indeed, even though she already has accomplished so many academic accolades.

She spoke about how her vision for the books came to her and I had to admit I chuckled. It reminds me of something that would happen to me.  She had been in an airport with her family to head on vacation when she saw row after row of books that had to do with vampires, fallen angels, witches and the like. She thought in her head that if these entities were real, where would they be? She laughed to herself as she told us she started to follow her family around asking repeated questions because she wanted to figure out, basically, that if all these supernatural types are getting front page news, then where are they? What do they do for a living? Of course, I know myself that any person who loves education will most likely ask a million questions until they get the answer. Given my own personality, I could relate to her incessant need to understand where these entities come from and where they reside. Readers can be glad that she kept pursuing her questions and created her trilogy. Sometimes we just can’t find concrete answers and that is why fiction is so wonderful and important in our human lives. I was happy to see an academia-type person step outside the non-fiction “box” and take on novels.

In talking about her novels then, what makes them so overwhelmingly popular and successful?  People are intrigued by the unknown and love to use their imaginations to vicariously live through these characters created by fiction writers. While these types of characters dominate the Young Adult reading genre, Harkness noted that many of these aren’t really for serious adult readers with adult characters. With her first book, A Discovery of Witches,  she wrote it because she thought “Why should teenagers have all the fun?” With this mantra she created a fairy tale for grown-ups that included adults falling in love as well as a more detailed mystery that kept us wanting more. For the second book, Shadow of Night, she describes it as her characters delving beyond the initial stage of falling in love and that the book moved on to show how two people can stay in love and accept each other through major change and turmoil. ” That is true magic,” she stated.  For the third book in the trilogy, she said she will take readers back to the present day, tracing what happens to her characters after no one is the same after Shadow of Night.  Though she is still writing it, she tells us that by completion we will find out the real secrets of the magical book Ashmole 782.

When asked if the past will affect the future in book three, Harkness said, “We learn things from the past you can only learn in the past.” She certainly knows how to keep her readers guessing.  However, the books and characters have kept Harkness herself guessing, such as Hamish appearing to her then knocking on the door in A Discovery of Witches. She said though he wasn’t planned, Hamish is one of her very favorite characters.  In Shadow of Night, there are two such characters as well, but I don’t want to spoil who they are. She never fully knows for sure where her book will take her, stating that, “Books act like children, they don’t all behave the same way.” 

And what about considering Ashmole 782 as a character? The alchemical manuscript is quite real in so many ways isn’t it?  In academic libraries the books are cataloged by a person’s name and number. Ashmole 782 is actually the library call number for the book in the real Bodelian library at Oxford. In doing some of her research, it was an item Harkness really wanted to take a look at and honestly, she told the audience, it really is missing. Since she couldn’t find it, she thought, “Ok then, there is that annoying missing book. I’ll throw that in, too.” I’m sure readers are glad she took on the task of fictionalizing an answer to where this book might really be because it gave all the characters a purpose and kept us turning page after page.  It has the answer we all are seeking, doesn’t it? Where do witches, vampires, and daemons come from?

Another question she addressed that many people seem to have is why does her character Matthew Clairmont have to know EVERYONE? She laughs at this thought and proceeds to explains that Matthew is actually based from a poem by George Chapman, circa 1594, that was dedicated to Matthew Roydon, who appears historically to be a man that everyone knew, but one not much is recorded on. Harkness tried to research him, coming up with references of him in relation to many other famous men of the late 1500s-early 1600s, but nothing directly about him. In fact, when he was called to testify in the trial of Christopher Marlowe’s death, he was never found. She said she thought “ummm….vampires would be like Matthew Roydon. Always adjacent to the spotlight, but never actually in it.”

Difficulties between Diana and Matthew in Shadow of Night come from their needed adjustments to the time period that they time walked to. They had to learn things about each other, while also dealing with all the changes that come from living in a time where there was no expectation of privacy. Harkness describes it humorously as a “never-ending family vacation.”  Diana is dealing with being thrown into Matthew’s world in 1590 where Harkness says “it is difficult to not only be a witch, but also a woman.” They deal with Matthew reverting to old ways, not always grand in that time period, and his friends, dubbed in history books as members of the School of Night.  Also, Diana doesn’t know the old magic, she barely was learning her new magic, and beyond that it is almost a death sentence to be public about being a witch. The pair emerge from the tight cocoon of new romance into chaos. In the end, they must learn to value each other and find acceptance while staying alive and fighting for their future.

Pictured above: Deborah giving her presentation on July 22, 2012.

There are so many discussion facets that make this trilogy such a success. Harkness’ background to the books and her outline of all the different threads running through them makes the books even more interesting.

Not only do we get a wonderful book series, but the rights to the All Souls Trilogy have sold to Warner Brothers Pictures.  The Pulitzer and Tony Award winning playwright David Auburn (Proof) has written the screenplay. I can only imagine how amazing these movies are going to be. But Harkness won’t given any indication of who she pictures playing Matthew or Diana, though those are frequently asked questions. A testament to her kind heart, she doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if they cast someone else.  “If you were an actor how would you feel if someone said to you, ‘do you know Deborah Harkness really wanted so and so to play your part?'” she stated.

Harkness said that she never really had much intent to write fiction and that the last she remembers of writing fiction was a piece from her sophomore year of high school. Although she thought of writing an Elizabethan mystery many years ago, she really couldn’t get into it.  She has, of course, written numerous scholarly articles and two non-fiction works.  She’s worked in numerous libraries all over the world and currently teaches European history and the history of science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  With her historical researching, teaching and writing behind her, she is right when she states, “I am a historian, and what are historians if not story tellers.”  Of course, historians are the most natural of story tellers and the most inquisitive of people as well.

So when asked what she’ll write when the All Souls trilogy is done, she states that she is not entirely sure. She has lots of ideas always running around her head, including some non-fiction ideas such as a book about the relationship between Elizabeth I and her father, Henry VIII.

Pictured above: This photo shows Shadow of Night on NYT Bestseller List this week. I stole the photo from Deborah’s fan page…so she gets photo credit. I hope she doesn’t mind.

She attributes her fiction success to what she calls quite simply, “pixie dust.”  She said, “What happened to me wasn’t supposed to happen but it did.” Her advice to other writers is “write the book that speaks to you and then take one day at a time.”

Most aspiring authors want to know how other authors get it all done. What is Harkness’ writing routine?  While writing A Discovery of Witches, she wrote two hours each morning and about two pages a day.  I was writing, teaching and living, she said.  “Write 2 pages a day for a year and you have A Discovery of Witches,” she continued. But balance can be hard.  This Fall, she is taking a leave from teaching because she had to throw in a fourth component, which is book promotion.  She didn’t feel it fair to her students to come in “looking like her hair was on fire and try to teach the italian renaissance” after a summer of major book touring all across the U.S.

From my view point up close her hair is certainly is not on fire yet, even if her books are. Her warm heart is certainly something that will keep heating up her success as she tours around the country. If you haven’t read A Discovery of Witches yet, or Shadow of Night, I urge you to do so just for the sheer fun of a good magical adult read full of romance, mystery, history, supernatural elements, and intrigue. You can’t go wrong when you put all those details together with excellent writing.

To read my previous review of Shadow of Night, click HERE.  To read an interview with Deborah Harkness, click HERE. Please note the giveaway is now closed, though the information on the books is always relevant.

To keep up on news about Deborah Harkness and her books, go to www.deborahharkness.com. And talk more to Deborah on her Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Deborah-Harkness/163048101811. 

It began with a discovery of witches…..

how will it end?

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And THANK YOU to the Cuyahoga County Public Library and the Berea Branch for hosting Deborah and for moving the location to accomodate more of her fans. THANK YOU to Deborah for coming to Ohio!