I have participated in Sci Fi November for the past two years, as it happened that when I created my blog on the 31st of March, 2013 (my blogoversary!) I did not launch Jorie Loves A Story to the world until the 6th of August, 2013. Therefore, I indeed gave myself plenty of time to prepare for Sci Fi November 2013! Each year, I seek out a way to read Steampunk, and sadly, for the past two years, I have faltered a bit in my reach to hit this mark of my SFN event plans. I even re-queued the notion to read a bit of Steam during this year’s Sci Fi Experience (another annual event I participate in!) except to say, I only made it through the lovely appendix of Ms Elliott’s icepunk/steampunk novel! A bit more on this will be revealed at a latter time!
I like to keep my eyes peeled for upcoming Steampunk authors as I am looking towards uncovering a particular ‘type’ of steampunk novel. Previously I have discovered the Dystopian Steampunk styling of J.L. Muvihill’s The Boxcar Baby inasmuch as the mech insects and mech-tech steam world of A MidSummer Night’s Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet (based on a Shakespearean play!). Both novels were published by Indie Publishers who are dedicated to wicked quality and the craft behind world-building which gives a reader a firm grounding of where they are exploring once they pick up their books.
In this, I discovered the same dedication from Month9Books, and as I discover each new novel which whets a thirst of an appetite to read their selections, I endeavour to host their authors for special guest features in lieu of reading their novels for review (as at this time they only provide e-books). I must say, between the cover-art (which is eye-popping bang-on brilliant!) and the synopsis, this novel definitely held my attention! So much so, I am hoping my local library might take a chance and respond to a purchase request I submit for it in April!
My local library has a small collection of Steampunk novels, most of which I have explored or mentioned during one of the Sci Fi events I referenced above and/or on other exploratory blog posts such as my Library Loot where I discussed my hit/miss love affair with Steampunk! I am quite eager to continue my search for stories which invigorate my mind as much as capture my attention within the Victorian Steam worlds writers are happily creating for me to devour! If you haven’t picked up The Clockwork Man by William Jablonsky I highly suggest that you do! I read this one in conjunction with a steampunky event a book blogging friend of mine created, thus giving me my first foray into reading Steam!
I am hopeful as you go back through the links I’m sharing to see where and how my travels in stream have led me to traverse thus far along, you’ll be a bit closer to understanding how wicked happy I am to be hosting this lovely author interview on behalf of Ms Statham!
Lady Marguerite lives a life most 17th century French girls can only dream of: Money, designer dresses, suitors and a secure future. Except, she suspects her heart may be falling for her best friend Claude, a common smithie in the family’s steam forge. When Claude leaves for New France in search of a better life, Marguerite decides to follow him and test her suspicions of love. Only the trip proves to be more harrowing than she anticipated. Love, adventure and restitution await her, if she can survive the voyage.
{ Read Chapter One : via the author’s blog }
Published By: Month9Books (@Month9Books), on St. Patrick’s Day, 2015
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Public Library | Add to Riffle
Converse on Twitter via: #NotSoInnocuousGirl, #YALit & #Month9Books
What initially inspired you to create a story set within 17th Century France and bend it into a steampunky world where an adventure awaits your young protagonist as much as the reader who picks up the novel?
Statham responds: I first discovered Marguerite’s story while doing genealogy research. She is one of my great-great grandmothers. I knew I wanted to write her story, but when I started to do it straight up historical fiction, I was soon bored to tears. I had just finished reading Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan, and I thought – wait a minute, who says I can’t make something steampunky out of 17th century France? And that was all it took. I was in love once again.
I must say the more I research my own ancestral lines, the more inspiration I am finding to curate ideas based upon the relatives I am discovering hold within their histories such a breadth of curiosity to explore inside of fiction! It is quite impressive how the lives those who lived before us can give us such a welcome folly to our writings! I loved how your double great grandmothers gave you the impetus for this novel! I believe Westerfield is one author I decided to bypass reading, which I explained on my Library Loot post (linked above!). I know he’s generally the ‘go-to’ author for steam appreciators but for me it was a bit too hard-core. In regards to creating your own niche in Steam — I say, rock on Ms Statham! You’re only limited to what you can imagine being plausible!
What is the most challenging part about writing a story hinged to the historical past and curates an intriguing mystery for historical fiction lovers to draw themselves into as if our era and the era your writing are not so far apart? As whilst you created a story rooted in steampunk and science fiction, your story feels wholly true to a historical novel?
Statham responds: I think research is very important. I don’t even begin to claim complete historical accuracy, obviously, but there is a lot of fact woven into my novel. I think the best steampunk is still rooted in fact of one sort or another; an actual person, or event, or staying true to a time period. I fudged my time period, and technology (which all steampunk does) but I stayed true to the story and many of the details, both political and social.
I think you took the right approach, as despite where research can take any writer, there is always going to be a measure of liberty taken for where historical facts and data cannot re-create the actual life who lived the hours within the back-story research. In part, that is the beauty of writing because we get to have our fanciful dreams overtake our imagination and thereby present a historically inspired story yet completely re-spun in a new way of ascertaining the information on a level that is both soundly inventive and altogether intriguing to the reader! Politically and socially I think the bar is set where it will fall per era, but oh! To see how you or any other steampunk author has re-envisioned the ‘essence’ of Steam into their individual novel, why that’s the best appeal by half!
You’ve had such an interesting life thus far, from your roots in Idaho to your sojourn to New York City prior to settling down in North Carolina. What would you consider the best of each state you’ve lived in and how did living where you did enable you to discover the freedom to write the stories that give you a lot of joy to pen?
Statham responds: Every place I’ve lived has added to my well of experience that I draw from for my books. Idaho is still a very wild and rugged place. You can hike into the mountains there and imagine you are the only person alive on earth very easily. It’s very surreal. I loved the red deserts of Southern Utah and Nevada. There is something magical about that quiet, seemingly barren place, that is actually teeming with life. New York City is truly the city that never sleeps. The first time I visited I remember feeling like I was finally home.
I still consider New York City a hometown for me. All the best parts of my life started there. I love going back. I hope to live there again someday. And North Carolina is just the best of everything. I have the beach on one side, which we spend as much time at as possible, an the mountains on the other, and enough of a big city in between that we are rarely bored or lonely. Plus you can’t been Carolina BBQ. Holy cow, or maybe I should say holy pig? Ha! Sorry.
I love your descriptions of the different places you’ve called home; you can take us visually to each of these locales and we can instantly gather a direct impression based on what you’ve revealed. I’d love to hike the mountains and/or rock formations out in the Western half of the states; especially as you said in Idaho or even Utah. I have only seen pictures, but Utah I must confess draws me and one day I know I’ll have to explore the national parks & canyons!
Your right — those red rock formations are in part why I ache to visit! I love thinking about being in a place where it feels as though time has stopped or stood still; just for the moment your present, allowing you to drink in your surroundings without interruption or feeling as if your one in a million. Carolina is a favourite state of mine to visit, I must say, as they are definitely living true to Southern hospitality! They should get the award for ‘most friendliest’ and ‘the cheerfulness spirit of true Southerners’. I’ll take your word on the BBQ! I’m a vegetarian at heart!
As Steampunk is such a cutting edge slice of science fiction (as the genre is still defining itself) how did you seek to establish your niche inside a genre that truly is without limits of where you can take your stories? What drew you into the world of Steam technology and the wardrobe of the Victorians?
Statham responds: I like all things new and exciting but I also love history. It’s the perfect marriage of two of my favorite things. How could I resist?
What are readers going to be surprised about when they pick up “The Perilous Journey of a Not-So-Innocuous Girl”? Especially as the title itself is quite uniquely different, can you share a bit about how the title was created and what hint about the story within it’s chapters is being revealled?
Statham responds: The title is actually a funny story, and I’m glad you asked me about it. The working title was “Daughters of the King”, but there were already a few nonfiction books written about the subject with the same title, so I knew I needed to pick something else. When I was getting ready to query, the title was literally the last thing on my list. I kept trying to think of a catchy one word title, which seems to be all the rage, but I couldn’t sum the story up well in one word. So I decided to just pick my favorite word. At the time that word was innocuous. I just like to say it. It feels good in my mouth.
But it didn’t fit the story at all either. If anything this is a Not-So-Innocuous Girl and book. The whole train of thought made me laugh out loud so I threw on Perilous Journey and called it a day, fully expecting the editors to change it later – but they loved it! I think most readers will be surprised to find out this adventure is based on a true story and real people.
I was thinking about your response to this and came up with a way to talk about the novel on Twitter, by using only the “#NotSoInnocuousGirl” part of the title! Mostly because that’s the cheeky bit of the title to me! It’s the part that self-identifies the girl and separates the story outside the title whilst giving it foundation within the story. These little back-stories are the kinds I live to hear about because they provide such a key towards understanding how we each have our own well of creativity and methodology for creating not only our characters or narratives but the titles therein! Besides most books drop the “the” from the titles, so that’s become a bit of a habit of mine now, and limiting the characters in the tag, I felt it might ‘catch on’!?
What unique bits of technology did you illuminate inside your novel that steampunkers might find wicked sweet to find inside?
Statham responds: In my world, a new element was discovered that has the power to harness sunlight and turn it into energy. Basically, we have solar power about 250 years early. I love that about steampunk. It’s all about the “what if?”
Now see! This is exactly why I find Steam as a genre so very stimulating because it begs you to ask the questions about how modern advanced tech could have been pre-empted to the Victorian era and established as ‘part of the everyday life’ module that we 21st Centurions would thereby take for granted! Laughs. If only it were possible to have used more natural resources and fossil fuel saving sources of energy, where the dirty bits of the industrial revolution could have been avoided!? Classy!
What gives you the most exciting joy to write a Steampunk centered story?
Statham responds: The technology, the era of choice, the setting of locale, or the clothes!? In this book it was definitely the characters (my ancestors), the setting, and the technology. I’m a huge Francophile and science nerd. Clothes are fun to look at (love me some Downton Abby!) but when I’m writing, I’d rather spend time on the people and gadgets than the gowns.
I came into Steampunk through the art (i.e. Fine Art, Collage Art, Independent Artists & Illustrators on Etsy, etc), fashion (i.e. not the costumes, the everyday Steam fashion!), and the lore of what Steam could translate into via motion picture, tv serials, and music exploits! The very last thing I considered doing (or so it would have been the impression you would have perceived!) was to pick up a NOVEL of Steampunk! lol I love science — I grew up surrounded by science activities and events, my mind has genuinely been lit alive with the curiosities of where science starts, ends, and begins.
As far as France is concerned, I love reading stories set in France but I’m definitely a bonefide Anglophile moreso than a Francophile; something I’ve only just learnt about myself! Ooh, Downton, the serial which breaks my soul, wrenches my heart, and still I give it a second go round! Oy vie! I think I’m a hybrid of influence — I’d be keen to visualise the clothes whilst having bang-on accurate gadgetry and uniquely different characters who are ideally a fusion of quirkiness, eclecticism, and forward-focused individuals.
Can you share a bit about your secondary project Quantum Fairy Tales!? And, are you the Clockwork Queen!?
Statham responds: HA! You’ve found me out. Yes, I am the Clockwork Gnome, although some of my co-workers may agree with you that I act like a queen around the place. We are a nonprofit, all volunteer webzine featuring speculative fiction, art and poetry. Some of my college friends, Ninja Monkey & Quantum Fairy, wanted to create a place for writers and artists to publish their work and get REAL answers when that work wasn’t publishable.
All of the original founders have been rejected over and over again with no explanation. It’s very wearisome. After a while you just start feeling like nothing about your writing is good, when the truth could be anything from not the reader’s cup o’ tea, to vampires just aren’t selling anymore. Or you could suck. But how are you going to know if someone doesn’t tell you? It takes a lot of time and hard work, but every submission to QFT eventually gets a personal reply with suggestions for improvement or an offer for publication. We especially love featuring kids and teenagers. There is so much talent out there! It’s fun thinking we might be giving the next Neil Gaiman his first big break.
I definitely wanted to give a shout-out to your work with Quantum Fairy Tales, which is why I pitched this question to you, as I had a feeling it was a mecca for writers and those who felt downtrodden by the industry itself on their own writerly path of choice! I fixed the link inside your biography as well for easy clickablity for my readers! Yes, yes, I do have a way of ‘finding out’ things about the authors I host! Everything is fair game – especially when I uncover such a wicked sweet project like this where the collective community is giving back so much to the generations coming up as much as their peers!
What creative outlets inspired you as a child to become a creative economist as an adult?
Statham responds: My mother was an artist and my father was a welder/singer. They were both very creative people and I grew up in an environment that fostered and encouraged that. As I got older I realized that I have a creative soul and I’m probably not going to be truly happy unless I’m creating something, whether it’s art, music, or words.
I was so very thankful to read we had similar upbringings where our parents focused on encouraging our creativity and the pursuit of where our passionate hearts led us to travel! It is a rare gift indeed, and one that has left me with a heap of thankfulness over the years, as my parents have continued to support my creative endeavours (including this bookish blog!) and provided solid advice I am blessed to have been given! Here’s to our parents and to celebrating the inner light which inspires us to create! I definitely am a mosaic of the three mediums you’ve mentioned even if I am in various stages of pursuing all three!
I should have thought to follow-up this question to ask you which pieces of art and music you enjoy creating!
Have you had a penchant for Revolutionary France and/or other eras of French history which inspired you to set this novel in France rather than England or was it a different reason entirely that led you to this location?
Statham responds: As I said above, I love all things French. The food, the history, the region. Plus I felt like it was about time someone wrote some steampunk set somewhere other than London. But the real reason I wanted to write this story set in France, was because I wanted to stay true to my ancestor’s story. It all just came together very nicely for me.
I agree — there is a heap of stories set in Victorian London, however, it isn’t the only history we have of the Victorians, surely! Have you seen my dearly new beloved Canadian tv serial The Murdoch Mysteries wherein they have created this quasi-Victorian world set in the wilds of the West, but it is undeclared if you are in the states or Canada!? It’s quirky, but they have a heap of steam technology interspersed with the traditional Victorian hardware of technology too!
Plus, Murdoch himself prefers to bike everywhere rather than to do by horse or cab. I was even thinking of Australia to set a steam novel — or even the Far East, as I stumbled across a Victorian series set in Asia that was quite unique. Not necessarily steam, but evenso! I like finding ‘new places’ to set a story, same as you! France is quintessential next to England; so much folly for a vehicle within the framework of a story!
What was the impetus which gravitated you into writing? And, when did this occur? Who was your best cheerleader?
Statham responds: I wrote a lot as a child. I got my first journal when I was six and I still have it. My kids think it’s hilarious. I continued to write through junior high and high school, but that was mostly horror. I know it made my parents crazy, but my mother especially, encouraged me to keep at it and even helped me enter a few contests.
When I made it to college I felt like I wanted to write fiction seriously, but that I didn’t have enough life experience. So I studied art and was determined to live a bit before I started writing seriously. Then all the sudden I was thirty years old and had a house full of kids and no books to my name. I also didn’t feel any smarter, so I just sat down and started writing again. I never should have stopped.
Hmm, I am unsure why your children think having a journal is so very funny as it is quite the usual route those of us discover we’re writers. Except for me. I was an active tomboy who was out-of-doors more than in, off discovering this or that or such in the neighbourhood or off on an adventure in the city. When I would try to write down a bit of my hours in a journal, I was twisted up knowing what to relate and what to just keep living in the moment. My thoughts came to me best if I were putting them down in ‘stories’ but however which way to Sunday we approached it, writing was surely the muse which led you and I to our happy medium!
I must say, I never felt I lacked experience in order to write, but I have felt the ‘time’ for me to write has not yet become recaptured. I believe in the seasons of our lives, which is why I am focusing on the season of book blogging & book cheerleading! Writing and publishing can take a back-seat for now. You did yourself a favour; by diversifying your mind’s focus into art, you opened yourself up to a rebirth of creativity. Sometimes the best thing we can do is ‘not to focus’ on our trade.
What were your early influences and wanderings in literature!? Which authors spoke to you as far as a style of story-telling endeared itself to you ahead of creating your own stories? Are there any titles you could share which are still brought forward to mind in fond affection?
Statham responds: As a kid I loved Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare (especially the tragedies!), Ray Bradbury, Tolkien, Madeline L’Engle, and Harper Lee. I still frequently read all of those authors and relish them. I feel like they are my childhood friends. I feel affectionate about all of their works.
Did you enjoy reading L’ Engle I wonder for seeing the dimensional space within the structure of quantum physics!? For me, this was the appeal as it lead me to read Flatland! Rather than the tragedies, I preferred the comedies of Sir William! Tolkien is easily spied on my Classics Club List, along with Bradbury & Lee. I do share your sympathies, the characters I knew as a child were my best friends; I would re-visit them often and cherish the time spent within their worlds. Writers were very much a part of my childhood even if I struggled to read in the beginning, in the end, they were a saving grace towards unlocking my own imagination.
What are your favourite contemporary or classic science fiction writers whose stories light your mind with a fever of excitement to read? Which writers do you feel drawn inside their worlds because you found they capture an element of your own writing style?
Statham responds: I’ve recently started reading Brandon Sanderson. He is a master at world building and character development. I also love Beth Revis’ novels, and Orson Scott Card’s short stories. I don’t see my writing in theirs, however, I try to bring some of their style into my own.
What are your favourite tools to use whilst writing? And, where do you write to gain the most inspiration? (as I had read you enjoy creating as you walk, do you take a tape recorder with you?)
Statham responds: I like to sit in a cafe or coffee shop to write. Any quiet sunny place is good. And I always crave chocolate. ALWAYS! When I say I plot while I run, I mean I make mental notes. I’ve tried taking a tape recorder with me before, but I can’t help but laugh at all the huffing and puffing that comes out when I play it back. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Better to make a mental list and then try to write it all down when I get back.
Ooh, I must have misunderstood this, as I was trying to imagine how you would record and run at the same time! I thought maybe you had one of those headphone gadgets where it was voice activated and the recorder was strapped to your arm or some such? I definitely see why you amended the routine! Cheers!
What centers your joy when your not creating or working professionally?
Statham responds: My family. Absolutely. I love being a mother more than any other job I’ve ever had. That said, they do suck me dry emotionally sometimes, so it’s good to have a writing career that’s all my own, but yes, my children and husband center my joy.
Family is the center of our lives and I agree, the most important blessing we can all experience. Next to fulfilling our creative passion and seeking out ways to make a contribution to the art which fuells our worlds with words.
This blog tour is courtesy of Chapter by Chapters Blog Tours:
{ Click-through to visit the virtual road map of the tour }
NOTE:
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Journey of a Not-So-Innocuous Girl”, book synopsis, author photograph of Leigh Statham, author biography, the blog tour badge were all provided by Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours and used with permission. Conversations with the Bookish Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Comment Box Banner made by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2015.
Comments via Twitter:
{ Kindly share if your inspired }
.@Month9Books interview #NotSoInnocuousGirl by @LeighStatham http://t.co/IRUhvagA4n #Steampunk Indie writer’s life pic.twitter.com/3GTfMfuhPg
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) March 26, 2015
@JLovesAStory love the hashtag and the interview! Thanks again! #notsoinnocuous #notsoinnocuousgirl
— Leigh Statham (@LeighStatham) March 26, 2015
@LeighStatham <3’d hosting you too! I had a heap of fun responding to your replies! When I get to #amreading #NotSoInnocuous I’ll tweet back
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) March 27, 2015
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