Hello, friends! Inspired by some of the recent memoirs - and one novel - I've been reading, this week I'm talking about the hazy line between memoir and fiction. Specifically, I'm thinking again about Freddy Spencer Chapman, Nona Baker, and my newest fascination, the Chinese-Belgian novelist (and physician) Han Suyin. My post is up now at The History Girls. … [Read more...]
On re-reading
Hello, friends. One morning last week, as I was still waking up, I had a moment of intense clarity about my work-in-progress: its shape is wrong. I need to restructure the first third of the novel. As I'm less than halfway through a first draft, I did not welcome this insight. Indeed, I spent a couple of days squinting at the corpus-thus-far-assembled, giving it a poke here and a jab there, as … [Read more...]
My Year of Non-Fiction
Hello, friends! 'Tis the season for guest-blogging, apparently. My weekly post is up today at the Booksmugglers, where I'm talking about 2014 as My Year of Non-Fiction. If you read my History Girls post about Freddy Spencer Chapman last week, some of this will be familiar but you might hang want to in there for a little about Fanny Wollstonecraft/Godwin/Imlay, the firstborn daughter of the … [Read more...]
Freddy Spencer Chapman
Hello, friends. I've blogged before about my research for my novel-in-progress, Monsoon Season, but I just realized that I haven't said much about one of my favourite historical figures (and new historical boyfriend), Freddy Spencer Chapman. Let's change that! My blog post today is over at the History Girls, and it contains more adventure in two paragraphs than you and I will probably ever … [Read more...]
To read: perchance to sleep
Hello, friends. Most nights, before I sleep, I read. This is a constant tension: I always want to read more. I know very well that I should sleep more. And the two seem mutually exclusive. That aside, I thought I'd share my current stack of books with you. From the top: Fancy Cycling, by Isabel Marks. This is a delightful photographic catalogue of the kinds of tricks Edwardian … [Read more...]
5 Things About My Work-in-Progress
Hello, friends. The other day on Facebook, my friend Stephanie Burgis posted her answers to a meme, "Five Things About Your Work-in-Progress". I was delighted! I read it, thinking, "Oh, it's so great to hear more about what she's up to!" Then I realized that I, um, NEVER talk about my work-in-progress. One reason is because I'm constitutionally secretive and vaguely superstitious about unpolished … [Read more...]