I was very surprised to find out which time period Eloisa would like to drop into. It was also interesting to hear about how one of her latest characters is not behaving for her. :)
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| Photos courtesy of Publisher |
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1. A Kiss at Midnight is a very entertaining fairytale written especially for adults. What made you decide to re-write fairytales for adults?
My father, the poet Robert Bly, was always fascinated by fairy tales, and finally wrote the book Iron John, a rewriting of that tale, so in a sense it’s a family business. I wouldn’t say that my inspiration comes as much from Iron John itself, as from the fact that while Dad was working out the ideas behind the book he talked compulsively about fairy stories. He loved to challenge my siblings and me to “explain” such stories in cultural terms—to rewrite them in a way that made them socially relevant.
2. If you could drop into any period in time, where and when would you like to land?
I’d like to go the future. While I’m fascinated by the past (witness my job as a Shakespearean, not to mention all the historical novels), I spent a certain amount of time dreaming—sometimes fearfully—about what the world will be like when my children are my age. I hope Earth is a livable, happy place. I expect that technology will be in place that I can’t even imagine. I would dearly love to see that.
3. Where is your favourite place to write?
I’m a professor of English literature (teaching Shakespeare), so I write the bulk of my novels during the summer. My husband is Italian, and this summer we rented a little converted stable in Tuscany, in the middle of the vineyards. It was on top of a hill, and utterly silent except for sounds of farm work and birds. Writing in those surroundings is an absolute pleasure.
4. What are you working on next?
At the moment I’m finishing a version of the fairy tale The Ugly Duckling. The book has caused me unexpected problems—although my Ugly Duchess is a darling and very funny, my hero decided to be a pirate and for a while it looked as if he wasn’t coming back to England at all. I might as well add that before I was a writer, I found it very irritating when authors talked about their characters as if they were real people. Now I realize why: because we structure their inner selves, if we’ve made even the smallest mistake in that early work, “they” don’t want to do what we have decided they should—at least until the aspect of their personality making the action unlikely is edited. I had to change my duke’s childhood memories or he would have stayed on the ocean forever, skylarking in The Poppy, his pirate ship. My website, www.eloisajames.com, has a great deal of information about each of my books, including some advance chatter about this one.
5. What book/s is/are on your bedside table?
I just finished The Help, which offers a fascinating look at a part of America’s history I really knew very little about, having grown up in Minnesota, far from the South. At the moment I am reading a medley of books, all at once. My daughter and I are reading aloud from a book that will be published in the US in October. It’s a terrific young adult novel, written by an Englishman now living here: Andrew Hartley’s Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact. I highly recommend it to anyone with a YA reader in the household; we’re loving it. I’m also reading Thea Harrison’s Serpent’s Kiss, a new paranormal romance in a series that I absolutely adore. And finally, I’m reading an older book, Kingsley Amis’s The King’s English and much enjoying his scourge of “lazy and ignorant writers.” I’m trying to avoid that grim fate. I generally share all my reading adventures on my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/eloisajamesfans, and invite all readers to drop by and share what they’re reading!
Thank you, Eloisa for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions.
Thank you, Eloisa for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions.
A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James is published by Piatkus (paperback, £7.99)
When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James was published on the 1st September 2011 by Piatkus (paperback, £7.99)
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