Today I am welcoming Suzanne Adair to an author interview. I first came across Suzanne’s writing at the end of last year, and have been getting more familiar with it since. I have previously reviewed Hostage to Heritage and Camp Follower.

She writes about the American War of Independence, so an interview for July 4th seemed perfect!

Q. Suzanne, what first attracted you to write about the war of independence?

A. Thanks for inviting me to be your guest today, Richard. What fun, talking about the American War of Independence on the Fourth of July—on a Brit’s blog, of all places!

Although a number of wars have been fought on American soil, the War of Independence has always resonated the most with me. I’m fascinated with the changes in Western people’s heads during the late eighteenth century. They were exploring with telescopes and microscopes and even periscopes. The printing press made it possible for many to own books and become better educated than their forebears. Middle-class people could find leisure time. Government and religion weren’t as tightly bound as they’d been in previous centuries. And the stirrings of the women’s rights movement can be found during this period.

For over two hundred years, history scholars focused almost exclusively on the northern theater of the American War (especially New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). About fifteen years ago, they finally began researching the southern theater (the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida) in earnest. As new documents come to light, and field researchers shift their efforts southward, it’s changed the shape of this war. Scholars now believe that the colony having the most battles was South Carolina. My series is set in the southern theater, so I find all this quite exciting. It helps make the historical background fresh for my readers and me.

How has the shape of the war changed? A few years ago, my cartographer friend John Robertson (who has created the maps for most of my books) plotted each military action from the War of Independence as a yellow square on this map of the world. It’s clear that this war wasn’t confined to the northern theater. Nor was it confined to America. In fact, it looks like a world war. What do you think?

Q. As a Brit, this is a subject I knew very little about except for some anecdotal tales, such as the Boston Tea Party. It comes across in your books as a troubled and confusing time in which allegiances were uncertain and often shifted. Could you tell us a little about the background here?

A. Certainly. In wars throughout history, almost never do you find that all people in an affected civilian population give their allegiance to one of two sides. That’s the way it’s often written by the victors, and thinking of it that way makes it simpler for history students. But what you actually find is that a third to a half of the civilians are neutral. They have no strong feelings about which side should in charge as long as they can carry on with their lives.

Unfortunately when an army comes into an area, neutrals don’t fare well for the reason that they haven’t given their allegiance to either side. During the American Revolution, neutrals were often regarded with suspicion and had their belongings (livestock, crops, etc.) seized for an army’s use without compensation. They were also forced into military service and, if captured by the army’s opponent, might be forced to switch and fight for that side, all the while wondering if they’d ever see home again.

Q. You describe your writing on your web site (http://www.suzanneadair.net/) as “historical crime fiction.” What drew you into the crime/mystery side of writing? Do you see your main audience as enthusiasts of historical fiction or mysteries?

A. The solving of a fictional crime such as a murder or caper often conveys tighter structure upon a novel, and I definitely take advantage of that structure. In addition, the idea of having a protagonist solve such a crime without the benefit of modern forensics is a challenge that appeals to me.

My main audience is a blend of readers who enjoy historical fiction and historical mysteries. A few have told me that they were initially drawn to my work from the mystery angle but somewhat apprehensive about the historical element, fearing that they’d be overwhelmed by period detail. Then, after reading my books, they compliment me for weaving in the history unobtrusively and not smothering them with details. “Not at all like sitting through history class!” said one reader. (Huzzah!)

Q. You bring in to your books other cultural elements such as religious and social diversity. The period comes over as a real melting pot of personal background. Does this reflect the written sources of the age?

A. Many readers don’t have a solid foundation in history. From high school history classes, they’ve come to believe that Revolutionary America was populated almost exclusively by white Protestant Christians. What a boring place the colonies would have been to live, if true.

Fortunately, when you do the research and check the sources, you find out that there was quite a diversity of religious and cultural backgrounds found among people living in the thirteen colonies and surrounding territories. (Take a look at an essay I wrote about this amazing diversity, http://www.suzanneadair.net/2014/07/09/religious-diversity-in-america-during-the-revolution/) For example, you learn that Thomas Jefferson read the Qur’an, probably incorporating ideas from it into the Declaration of Independence, and that a Jew named Haym Solomon gave a big loan to the Congress for the war effort. Integrating this kind of background into my fiction makes my Revolutionary universe a vibrant, interesting place.

Q. Your author profile on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suzanne-Adair/e/B003WH8Q36/) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1188958.Suzanne_Adair) mentions that you have taken part in reenactions (just like Paula Lofting, who I interviewed in March). Which came first, the writing or the reenaction? Do you find that the two activities help each other?

A. Great question! The writing came first, but not by much. What happened was that I wrote several chapters of the first manuscript in the series and realized that I was unable to get into the head of my eighteenth-century protagonist. I wasn’t part of that culture; we were separated by two centuries. Thus I had no idea what shaped my characters’ decisions or what constituted their daily challenges.

That brought me to reenacting. The weekend events I attended recreated the history and immersed me in the social and political culture of the time. Of course, there’s nothing like living the real history. However reenacting is a sort of time machine to help me receive a good approximation of life in eighteenth-century America. As a result, my sensory impressions of that life found their way into my writing. My characters seem right for their time. Many readers say that I made them feel like they were actually there.

[Note from Richard – in fact Suzanne is taking part in a period costume reenactment on the day this goes live]

Q. I had imagined that the events you write about – so recent in comparison to my own storytelling – were quite thoroughly documented. However, your author’s notes suggest that there are large areas of uncertainty, especially for actions in the Carolinas. How easy have you found it to find sources of information to underpin your writing?

A. The ease of finding source materials depends upon what you’re seeking. Most battles are very well documented, as are the lives of the more famous and/or wealthy people. It’s also easy to find information about the big cities and larger towns as well as common trades.

Step outside that, though, with the goal of showing how war affected middle- or lower-class men, and especially women, and you spend a great deal more time chasing down details. Sometimes vital information has vanished into the chaos if war, and a precise answer cannot be found. And in my answer to your first question, I explained why there hasn’t, until recently, been as much documentation available for the Carolinas. While all that is often frustrating to a history scholar, it can be a boon to a historical novelist.

Q. So far as I know you have only written to date about this single historical setting. Are you planning at some point to branch out to other places and times, or are you committed to this one?

A. I’ve only been published in historical crime fiction so far. However I’ve also written a science fiction series set during the twenty-fourth century and a paranormal suspense series set during current times. Those series will be published.

Q. What is coming up later in the year for you? Are you able to share any plans? Can we expect another Michael Stoddard thriller?

A. October 2015, I expect to release Deadly Occupation (Michael Stoddard #0).

Finally, is there anything you would like to add which we have not touched on so far?

You’ve provided a purchase link to my five books on Amazon. In electronic format, they’re also available for Nook, Apple, and Kobo.

Thanks Suzanne for taking the time today to talk with me. All the best for you in the future.

Thanks again, Richard.

---

Bio:

Award-winning novelist Suzanne Adair is a Florida native who lives in a two hundred-year-old city at the edge of the North Carolina Piedmont named for an English explorer who was beheaded. Her suspense and thrillers transport readers to the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, where she brings historic towns, battles, and people to life. She fuels her creativity with Revolutionary War reenacting and visits to historic sites. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, dancing, hiking, and spending time with her family. October 2015, look for the release of her next Michael Stoddard American Revolution Thriller, Deadly Occupation.

Social media links:
Web site: http://www.suzanneadair.net
Blog: http://www.suzanneadair.net/blog
Quarterly electronic newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/Suzanne-Adair-News
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Adair.Author
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Adair
Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1188958.Suzanne_Adair
Amazon profile: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suzanne-Adair/e/B003WH8Q36/

Today I am delighted to welcome Paula Lofting to the blog, who has kindly answered a number of interview questions. Some while ago now I reviewed Sons of the Wolf, but as you read on you will find out lots of other things about Paula.

Q. Hi Paula, could you first give us a little introduction to yourself.

A. Yes, indeed, well my name is Paula Wilcox, but I use my maiden name of Lofting as my author’s name. I decided to use it because I didn’t want people thinking that the actress Paula Wilcox was writing my books lol, plus there is an old famous author called Hugh Lofting of Dr Dolittle fame and I am a distant cousin, so it seems appropriate to use it – *laughs.

I am a psychiatric nurse by day and in my spare time I love to write. I’m working on my second novel at the moment but time is at a premium, especially as I help run The Review blog and also re-enact Dark Age history. So finishing a book takes me a lot of time as I have to fit my writing into my daily life where I can.

Q. I first came across you via a copy of Sons of the Wolf. This was your debut novel, I believe. What first gave you the inspiration for writing this book?

A. There are a lot of factors that inspired that book. These are just some: a visit to an English Heritage re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings at Battle Abbey for one, the book 1066-The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth and a desire to know more about the Anglo Saxons and why Harold took the throne from the so-called rightful heir. I thought about writing about the story of Hastings from the point of view of the two protagonists, Harold and William, but that has been done a few times now, so I had this idea from reading David Howarth’s book. He shows the events of that year through the eyes of a village and its inhabitants. It was the major factor that spurred me on to write the story.

I found David Howarth’s little gem 1066 The Year Of The Conquest at a medieval fare. He tells the story of 1066 from the standpoint of a Sussex village. He chose Little Horsted, a tiny village near Uckfield, as it was his own home and describes the holding as it was in the Domesday Book. I already had the basis of a story that I wanted to write, I just needed a character. I had thought to invent my own village and my own thegn but here was Wulfhere, Thegn of Horstede, according to the Domesday Book, just waiting for me to find him.

A blood feud between Wulfhere and his neighbour Helghi, forms the basis of the story which also encapsulates the politics and historical events of the time, drawing on what primary sources are available. So it’s a mixture of facts and fiction, and because the sources for this time are scarce in their entirety, it is an author’s dream to fill in the gaps with plausible possibilities. The novel has a large cast which includes fictional and historical characters which I had fun playing around with. Don’t you just love torturing the bodies and minds of your characters?

Q. I gather you have participated in historical reconstruction events, a level of research that few of us have braved. Indeed, your Amazon author page photo shows you taking part in such an event. Can you tell us a little about that? Does it feed directly into your writing or indirectly? Which came first – the writing or the participation?

A. Well, once I had decided I wanted to write this novel, I contacted Regia Anglorum (www.regia.org) after finding them on the internet and applied to join. I had always been interested in this kind of hobby but I had never been in a place where I felt confident enough or in the right time. It was the same with the writing. It had been a childhood dream to write a book, now I was at a time and place in my life where I was able to do both and because I wanted to write my story as authentically as possible, I thought it would be an enjoyable way to gain the knowledge needed to enhance my writing, for example, those little details you struggle with are often the simple things, like what they ate, how they made their food, how did a village community function, what did they wear and what did they NOT wear, and it is so important for this period I believe, that one gets it right.

I’m a bit of a stickler where clothing is concerned. It’s very annoying to read about women running around with their hair tumbling over their shoulders in public instead of wearing head coverings, or men wearing breeches instead of trousers or mantles instead of cloaks. I thought in the beginning that I probably would stick around Regia for as long as I needed to learn stuff but I enjoyed it so much, that I’ve stayed there ever since and am now in my 8th year of being a member. I am so grateful to the society for the stuff I’ve learned which I feel has given me the gift of insight into life in those days – it’s not a perfect tool, because there is still a lot of research that is being done at the moment and some things just have to be interpreted because there isn’t enough evidence. But long days standing around in wet wool under shelters that pour water on you because of the rain, or days sitting in the hot sun, getting smoke in your eyes and up your nose have been so worth it, because I can actually feel what I am writing, especially when I am doing battle scenes.

When I first joined I wondered what could re-enactment do for my writing, nowadays it’s more like what can my writing do for my re-enactment?

Q. Some authors prefer to specialise while others spread themselves between several periods. Which is it for you? Do you see yourself as firmly wedded to that particular place and time for writing?

A. That’s a really good question, because I have toyed with ideas. I can see myself writing about the Last Days of Roman Britain or just after. I’ve always loved that time – Arthur and Ambrosius have always intrigued me and I have some ideas scooting around in my head. I also long to write a story for Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians and am also interested in a 1st WW novel and a Victorian Gothic horror and a modern day psychological thriller. If I could ever find the time to write them it would be so cool!

Q. Many people will meet you online through the Facebook Review Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/398549953570025/ or http://thereview2014.blogspot.co.uk/) and its associated links. Tell us a little about the group, your dreams for it, and how far along the road it has reached. What prompted you to put time and energy into this?

A. I just had this thought one day that I wanted a group where authors and readers could come together to celebrate books using the forum of reviews. I had been in a lot of groups where people posted their buy links several times a week, rarely interacted with each other, nor did they share each other’s stuff. It just seemed so impersonal and I just thought, I want people to have fun, to share each other’s stuff, to interact and have discussions and support each other. I wanted people to share the reviews that they believed enticed them to read a book, to share their favourite reviews that their readers had written about their book, or share reviews they’d written themselves for others. So I came up with this idea that I would start a facebook group where the aim was to create a forum where we could do all of those things and invited some friends to help me admin it. As time went by, we came up with a Do list as opposed to a Don’t list because we decided that to keep it spam free, we would need some boundaries, such as no posting buy links and that links to reviews should be posted and not just copied and pasted. We all became experts in posting permalinks form Amazon lol! Then we added two days a week to share blog posts and so we grew like that until we created our own blog which you have linked above, to review books. We also recruited a reading team and found some more admins.

My vision for the blog was for us to produce high quality reviews of high quality books and I had this principle that we would never post a bad review. We had some guidelines where the reader was supposed to stop reading a book if they didn’t like it, but it was really difficult for them to adhere to that but gradually we weeded out the teething problems and came up with an idea that in order to not have to give good reviews to sub standard books, we would have a submissions process so that the admins team could preview the books and if approved, we sent them out for reviewing to our reading team. Those that don’t make the grade are nicely and respectfully let down, and given a brief overview of what our findings are and they have the opportunity to resubmit if they make changes.

So, what we aim for now on The Review is more of a showcasing rather than a review. We like to be analytical and give examples of what it was about the book that we enjoyed so much. We share, tweet, promote and support the book for around a week or so and this really gets the book out there to a wide variety of readers. All we ask from the author in return is a copy to giveaway to a lucky winner. Some authors have been very generous and it is to their advantage as we get a lot more draws to the post if we have a giveaway attached than if we don’t.

But it all hasn’t ended there, because in January this year, we launched our Book of the Month awards for Independent and self published authors. This has been a real exciting extension of what we do on The Review and it has been so well received. As for what’s next for The Review – I have some ideas, however our main joy and our main aim is to support and help authors of any type, whether they are indie, self published or traditional.

Q. You must have built up some great friendships through The Review and related activities. How important do you think online connections are in comparison with real-world ones? Do you get different kinds of input from online friends as opposed to those close at hand? Do you entertain thoughts of actually meeting some of your online friends for real one day?

A. I am very good friends with all of my admins, reviewers and members, however, I have met up with lovely Louise Rule who lives about an hour and a half’s drive from me, and Jayne Smith who lives nearby and there are loads of people I’d love to meet up with. The friends I have that have been in my life before I started writing and joined the literary world are not really booky people, well not in the same sense and not to the degree that I am involved. However, I am so lucky that in June of this year, I shall be travelling out to Alaska to meet with the person I call my ‘other head’ Lisl Zlitni, who works with me and our other head, Louise Rule. We call ourselves Three Heads on One body! I am absolutely stoked to be going to Anchorage to meet up. This is such an amazing opportunity and I am so grateful to have been given this chance to meet up with my friends in such an awesomely intriguing place.

Q. I’m aware that there is a sequel The Wolf Banner coming towards release. How much would you like to tell us about this? Do you think there will be others following on in the series or is this a conclusion?

A. Well, The Wolf Banner follows on from Sons of the Wolf, checking in with what is going on for Wulfhere’s family in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy that occurs as a result of the blood feud between the two main families. We also see new threads entering the story and cameo characters from Sons are further developed and drawn deeper into the story. Sons of the Wolf covers the years from 1054-55 and The Wolf Banner 1056-59 and so there will be another two or three books at least as we have yet to reach The Battle of Hastings, which will be a devastating turning point for Wulfhere’s family and the other characters. Then I plan to take the story beyond the Battle of Hastings to the rebellions that arose in the wake of the invasion. And who knows, after that, I may even go backwards from the first book!

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us before we finish…

A. Well, I hope to have The Wolf Banner ready for publication later this year and then I shall be revising Sons of the Wolf as it is currently out of print due to me breaking ties with my assisted publishing company. However you can obtain a signed paperback or a kindle copy through my website, www.paulalofting.com . All you have to do is go to the My Books section of my site and click on the paypal buttons.

I would also like to take this opportunity that myself and my Review colleagues Lisl Zlitni and Louise Rule will be exploring Book Marketing packages which we are hoping to get off the ground in conjunction with The Review at some point.

Thank you Richard for this opportunity to talk about my books and The Review. It has been a lot of fun talking to you!

The pleasure is mine, Paula! Find out more about Paula through the following links…

• Web site http://www.paulalofting.com/
• Review Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/398549953570025/
• Review Group blog http://thereview2014.blogspot.co.uk/
• Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/paula.lofting
• Twitter https://twitter.com/Paulalofting
• Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/117639870039897885187/posts
• Amazon author page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paula-Lofting/e/B007IWFIIM/
• Goodreads author page >https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6444571.Paula_Lofting