Blog tour: Song of the Sea Maid by Rebecca Mascull
In the 18th century, Dawnay Price is an anomaly.
An educated foundling, a woman of science in a time when such things are
unheard-of, she overcomes her origins to become a natural philosopher.
Against the conventions of the day, and to the alarm of her male
contemporaries, she sets sail to Portugal to develop her theories. There
she makes some startling discoveries - not only in an ancient cave
whose secrets hint at a previously undiscovered civilisation, but also
in her own heart. The siren call of science is powerful, but as war
approaches she finds herself pulled in another direction by feelings
she cannot control.
Today I'm delighted to be welcoming the very lovely Rebecca Mascull to my blog to answer a few (okay rather a lot) of questions as part of the Song of the Sea Maid blog tour.
Did you
always want to be an author?
I was a
pretty good liar as a kid, so I guess that was good practice for being a
storyteller! I have been writing stories from an early age – my first serious
attempt was a total rip-off of the cowgirl story from Romancing the Stone! I
was a teacher for many years and wrote in my spare time. I realised that
writing would always be my Plan B, if I didn’t devote the proper time to it. So
I decided to leave full-time teaching and make writing my Plan A instead.
Around about 12 years later, I secured my first publishing deal with The
Visitors. So, I got there in the end! I think in stories and live in the past
inside my head, so it really is the best job for me.
If so,
did you always want to write historical fiction, or did you ever have a
different genre in mind?
I never
had a particular plan to write in a specific genre actually. I wrote three
novels before The Visitors was published and two of these were reasonably
contemporary. The third novel I wrote was historical - set during the Second
World War in London and Warsaw - and it taught me a huge amount about how to
research historical periods and how to structure the narrative of an historical
novel. It didn’t secure a publishing deal but I learned so much from it, and
I’m still very fond of it. One day, I hope to rework and improve it. It was
such a joy to bury myself in an historical period that way, that I realised
this was the thing for me. I’ve always been drawn to history and the escapism
of imagining life in a different period, wearing a different frock! So, I think
I will stay there for a while. I’m very interested in modern life, I watch the
news every day and try to keep up with current events – but in my fiction, I
want to be somewhere else.
Do you
have a favourite author?
Such a
tough question for any writer! But if I am forced to choose only one, it has to
be Charles Dickens. He does this wonderful thing of writing page-turning plots
and brilliant, memorable characters, whilst also making serious and important
points about society and life. He is also fantastic at mixing comedy and
tragedy, so you always feel at the end of one of his books that you have lived
a life, with David Copperfield, or Pip, or whoever. I aspire to be a tenth of
the writer he was, and then I’d be happy.
Is there
anyone that particularly inspires you – literary or otherwise?
Dickens,
as I say, but also many writers who I admire for their versatility and skill.
Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Emily Brontë and short story writers
Raymond Carver, Lorrie Moore and Katherine Mansfield. I’ll also read almost
anything by Amy Tan and Isabel Allende, as they are brilliant at taking you on
adventures. I’m inspired by poets too, and the way they can give you a shiver
up your spine, like the poem Here by Philip Larkin or Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, and the First World War poetry of Wilfred Owen.
All of these poets, I feel, are reaching for something just beyond human grasp,
something indefinable, the great mystery. I salute them for that.
Other
than writers, I am inspired by my partner and my daughter, who are generous and
hard-working, lovely people who believe in me and my work and keep me going.
I’m blessed with some wonderful friends and family, many of whom have been
through hard times, and have faced them with grace and patience. They inspire
me too and I’m so grateful for them.
If you
could have written any novel what would it be?
Oh, you
do ask the trickiest questions! Can I have two? Great Expectations or Wuthering
Heights. Just genius and timeless, both of them.
Do you
have any peculiar writing habits or quirks?
I always
take up a new notebook for each new project, usually bought for me by my lovely
fella. Other than that, I do sometimes cock my head and close my eyes to listen
to the voices of my characters when I’m sitting at my desk, so I probably look
a bit peculiar when I’m doing that! Luckily, I’m usually on my own, so nobody
can see me…
What are
you reading at the moment?
I just
finished The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin and I was so impressed
by this novel. I thought it was beautiful, complex and profound. I’m still
reeling from it a little bit, as with every great novel. Next, I have a TBR
pile of urgent reads with 8 desperately urgent books on the top (for
interviews, articles etc) and about 20 not so urgent. It’s all a bit
frightening…
Have you
read anything that made you think differently about how you write?
A seminal
novel for me in that way was Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. It was all
about storytelling, at the heart of it, and showed me how to use viewpoint,
delay and flashback beautifully to deepen the story. I read Moon Tiger by
Penelope Lively recently too, and that had a similar effect on me. Another is
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, which I read as a teenager, and showed me
the power of first person narrative. John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s
Woman taught me a lot about the theory and practice of writing an historical
novel. But to be honest, every single novel I read, even if I don’t like it,
teaches me about the possibilities of this amazing, varied and endlessly rich
form of writing.
Do you
prefer an E-book or a physical book?
Physical
book, every time. End of.
Is there
another novel on the cards? If so can you give anything away yet?
I am
working on Book 3 for Hodder, but I can’t say much about it at the moment. I
can tell you that it begins in 1909 and is set near where I live in
Cleethorpes. The Edwardian period is one of my absolute favourites, so I’m
really enjoying myself.
Is there
any particular period in history that you would like to write about in the
future?
I’d
definitely like to revisit that World War II novel of mine and/or any story set
during that conflict – it’s such a huge topic, with so many tales and settings,
you could of course write about the Second World War for the rest of your life
and never get to the end of it. Other than that, I’m open to suggestions!
History just fascinates me, whenever it was. Also, I was born and grew up in
the 1970s and I would like to write about that one day, but I have a suspicion
that I will wait until I’m an old lady, and then it will be properly historical
in itself! I just hope I don’t forget it all by then.
Is Dawnay
Price loosely based on a real historical figure or is she purely a work of
fiction?
I looked
at a range of female scientists throughout history – you’d be amazed how many
there are but we just don’t know about them. Particular inspirations were
Emilie du Chatelet, Sophie Germain, Anne Conway, Mary Somerville and Margaret
Cavendish, to name but a few. All of these women battled against the times they
lived in and preconceptions about their abilities based on the fact they were
women. But all of them were reasonably well-to-do, and it was important to me
that Dawnay be poor, orphaned and basically a nobody, so that she had even more
obstacles to fight against.
Was there
always the possibility of her having a love interest, or did that come
secondary to the plot?
One of
the themes of the novel came to me very early and that was the idea of science
versus faith. I liked the idea that she would be quite a cool-minded person, to
whom love and passion would seem rather irrelevant. And then she could be
wrong-footed and taken completely by surprise by love. I wanted to show that
fact and emotion could exist side-by-side in the mind, and also that for women,
work and family can coexist and be fulfilling, rather than be essentially at
odds.
She is
very inspirational - is there any of you in Dawnay?
Not much,
I don’t think! She’s much braver than me and I don’t have a scientific bone in
my body. Yet, thinking about it, I suppose I do have a little bit of her
determination, in my long journey towards becoming a published writer. And I
like a good argument and can be a right bolshie cow sometimes!
Would you
ever base a novel on a real historical figure? If so, is there anyone in
particular you have in mind?
That’s a
really fascinating question. I have considered it, but at this point I have
rejected it so far. The reason is that I don’t want to be too constrained by
the true facts of a real person’s life. I very much like to set my stories
within authentic settings and events – the way I look at it is that I take up
my characters and place them in a real historical moment in time and let my
fictional constructs walk through real history. Therefore, it has an
authenticity to it but I can decide (or at least, my characters can) on the
outcome of their fate. However, never say never and who knows, I might go down
that path one day. If I were to be tempted at all, it would probably be a
writer or artist, like Dickens maybe…(*thinks*…) :)
Song of the Sea Maid is available to buy now from Hodder and Amazon online.
Hunted by Carla Norton
