Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I am wicked thrilled to bring to you this riveting conversation I had with Ms Garriston – whose written an engaging Historical narrative set during war where the women who were codebreakers truly impacted all of our lives & redirected History one code at a time. I was instantly keen to read this lovely due to my love of the new series #BletchleyCircle which is rooted in the original series which laid down the foundation of the new serial via BritBox which takes place in San Francisco after the war has ended.
The actresses who portray the women bring history to life in such a way as to prove how difficult it was to be a woman who had an intellectual mind in a day & age where using your mind to fuell your career was not acceptable nor understood by men. Or, in many regards by fellow women who felt a woman’s place was in the home and not in the workforce. This series also highlights how hard it was for these women who were on the cutting edge of breaking codes during the war who had to step back into civilian life as if their work during the war years *never happened* and how that impacted their spirits and minds after they tried to resume life as if nothing had happened at all.
Having seen the first few episodes of #BletchleyCircle and one of the original episodes – I knew I was keen to enter into the world of spies, codes and the Historical backdrop Gerriston was going to give us in her story “All Is Fair”. As the tour only had ecopies available for review (as you know as a migraineur I can only read print or listen to audio) I opted instead to host a conversation with her as I wanted to tuck into her writerly process, the components of the story itself and how Historical Fiction illuminates such an enriched knowledge of humanity’s past, present and future.
All is Fair
by Dee Garretson
Lady Mina Tretheway knows she’s destined for greater things than her fancy boarding school, where she’s being taught to be a proper English lady. It’s 1918, and war is raging across Europe. Unlike her father and brother, who are able to assist in the war effort, Mina is stuck sorting out which fork should be used with which dinner course.
When Mina receives a telegram that’s written in code, she finally has her chance to do something big. She returns to her childhood home of Hallington Manor, joined by a family friend, Lord Andrew Graham, and a dashing and mysterious young American, Lucas. The three of them must band together to work on a dangerous project that could turn the tide of the war.
Thrilled that she gets to contribute to the war effort at least, Mina jumps headfirst into the world of cryptic messages, spycraft, and international intrigue. She, Lucas, and Andrew have to work quickly, because if they don’t succeed, more soldiers will disappear into the darkness of war.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1250168696
Published by Feiwel & Friends, Swoon Reads
on 22nd January, 2019
Published by: Swoon Reads (@SwoonReads)
a publishing subsidiary of Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
Formats available: Hardback and Ebook
Converse on Twitter via: #YALit & #HistoricalFiction; #CodeBreakers
as well as #HistFic & #HistNov or for readers who love #BletchleyCircle
Brew your favourite cuppa & enjoy this Wickedly Lovely Convo:
What is your favourite aspect of writing Historical Fiction for Young Adults? And, how do you approach writing one to differ from the adult market?
Garretson responds: I love the research. I’ve always been interested in history, especially the small details of how people lived. Women’s lives are so often overlooked in the broad descriptions of historical events and I want to know more about their influences and contributions. I’m also interested in how young people lived in various time periods. They too are ignored in most history books. In writing young adult fiction, I think of it as more about finding out who you are in your particular time and place, whereas adult fiction is more about how a person can overcome what life throws in their way.
I love how your new novel involves a telegram – what other artifacts of the war era did you enjoy researching or using in your novel ‘All is Fair’? What stood out to you the most from what you uncovered?
Garretson responds: It’s interesting you bring up the telegram-I love writing historical fiction because I don’t have to include cell phones. Cell phones are the bane of adventure writers writing anything contemporary. It’s so easy to get your characters out of difficulties when they can just call up someone on their phone. In 1918 there were land lines but they still weren’t common, so I had to decide whether or not Mina’s family would have one in a house in the country. I finally decided they would, because of her father’s wealth and role in the government. Making those decisions are one of the more interesting aspects of writing historical fiction.
I researched the airplanes at the time since they play an important part in the story. I knew a little already because my father was a pilot, but of course planes back then were very primitive compared to modern planes. It was fascinating to me that they were relatively easy to learn to fly if you had the nerve to go up in such a fragile structure.
Is this meant to remain a one-off or will it begin a series about code breakers and spies?
Garretson responds: It’s not meant to be the start of a series, though I’ll keep writing historicals that center around dramatic periods in history.
How did you insert yourself into the spycraft practices of the early 20th Century and what surprised you about how clever women had to be to become spies?
Garretson responds: I researched the people who were known spies of the time period and how they were caught, which told me about how they communicated. One of the best books I read was written by a Henry Landau, a British officer who directed some of the espionage activities in Belgium during the war. It’s called Secrets of the White Lady and it provided a wealth of detail.
What do you feel is the hardest part of writing Historical Fiction narratives – concurrently having your characters live alongside real historical events or writing the realism into the fictional settings you’ve created?
Garretson responds: I like writing characters into real historical events because the people who actually participated in the events at the time were ordinary people much like anyone today so it’s easy for me to envision my characters there as well. The hardest part is making sure the fictional settings are realistic down to the small details. I’d feel like I was cheating the reader if I didn’t work hard to get the settings right for the time period.
Of the two boys in the story, Andrew and Lucas – which was your favourite to create? The American or the Brit? And, why?
Garretson responds: It was easier for me to write Andrew, partly because I’ve known far more people like him than I’ve known people like Lucas. I’d also read quite a bit of history about the young British men who went off to war, including the wartime poetry that many of them wrote. I was very aware that so many lives were cut short, and how those who survived would view what had happened to their generation. It was of course more fun to write Lucas, who at that point in his life wasn’t burdened by the weight of the world. It was harder to get the right balance of showing him as light-hearted while not making him seem shallow or obnoxious. I don’t know how many times I revised scenes with him in them.
I love how you encouraged a spunky attitude in Mina, where she doesn’t want to be a wallflower to history and take a more proactive role in what is happening round her. Similar to the characters in “Foyle’s War” who did their bit whilst the war went on. What do you think is inspiring Mina to stand her ground and also become more active in contributing to the war effort? Was it rooted in something specific or an instinct she naturally evolved into having?
Garretson responds: I thought a lot about the lives of young sheltered women at the time. There was a big emphasis throughout society about how everyone should do their part but I’m sure it was very frustrating for girls from privileged families to be told there were no real parts for them to play beyond rolling bandages and providing musical entertainment. It must have been particularly chafing that the young men of privilege, the girls’ friends and relatives, were expected to go off to war, and the girls knew that an enormous number of them would never came back.
As you write for younger readers – what is the main takeaway you want young girls to recognise in themselves from having read Mina’s story?
Garretson responds: At some point every person must break away from their family’s vision of who they are and experiment with the person they think they want to become. You aren’t locked into someone else’s vision of you.
Were you influenced at all by the tv series The Bletchley Circle (not the newer one on BritBox, the original from 2013) or others like it? If not, what are your thoughts about women in science and mathematics finally having a spotlight on them due to recent tv series and films?
Garretson responds: I love The Bletchley Circle! I always wondered if I’d be able to keep such a secret. I don’t know. The women who worked at Bletchley were incredible. I’m delighted women’s past contributions in science and other fields are finally being highlighted. It’s so inspiring to learn about them though I wish I would have learned about them when I was much younger.
Which fellow authors of Historical Fiction for YA readers do you enjoy reading and/or consider your colleagues in the field?
Garretson responds: I’m in awe of Elizabeth Wein. Her world-building ability is astounding. While I’m writing in a particular genre, I don’t read much in that genre because I don’t want to be influenced by someone else’s book, so I haven’t read many that have come out in the last three years. Every once in a while I do let myself read some YA historical fiction if it’s set in either a place or a time period far from what I’m writing. I recently read Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Which historical time period do you want to explore next or will you be re-visiting the war era even if you do not return strictly to the setting and characters within “All is Fair”?
Garretson responds: I’m working on a story set only a few years earlier than All is Fair, but since it’s during the Russian revolution and set in Petrograd, it’s a chance to do all new research.
What would surprise readers to know about your writing journey with “All is Fair”?
Garretson responds: I wrote the first draft of the story back in 2013 and my agent at the time was going to submit it, but then she left the agency before she could. I can’t even remember now why I then decided to rewrite as a middle grade, but I did, though that did not work well with some aspects in the book. After that I rewrote it yet again as young adult, changing from third person to first person and changing several aspects of the plot. I don’t know if there is even a single sentence in the published book that was in the original draft.
When your not researching and writing your stories what uplifts your spirit the most?
Garretson responds: Spending time with my family tops the list. When the weather is bad, I love watching movies, and going out to browse in book stores and antique stores. If it’s nice outside, I like to garden. Before writing fulltime, I worked as a landscape designer and taught landscape horticulture at a technical college.
I would like to thank Ms Gerriston for such a wicked lovely conversation about a niche of literature I am wicked addicted to reading! Historical Fiction gives me the chance to not just travel through time but to step into the threshold of lives which could have lived in our composite time-line and thereby, strengthen our empathy & understanding of the past but also our trajectory through history’s arrow as well. Historical Fiction is a beautiful way of endeavouring to seek out the past, understand the present & move into the future with a sturdier understanding of where we’ve been and where we’re yet to go next.
This blog tour is courtesy of:
Be sure to visit the rest of the tour for more guest author features & a lovely array of insightful observations by the bloggers who’ve reviewed the story & shared their key takeaways on behalf of “All is Fair”.
Find others hosting via @XpressoTours!
I am enjoying being a hostess for:
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. This also extends to Book Spotlights & Book Blitzes which I choose to highlight which might have content inclusive to the post materials which I did not directly add a contribution but had the choice whether or not to feature those materials on my blog.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “All is Fair”, author photograph of Dee Garretson, author biography, blitz tour banner and host badge were provided by Xpresso Book Tours and are being used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
Comments via Twitter:
Author Interview | #JorieReads a healthy array of #HistFic but it is a rare treat of golden blissitude to find such a hearty entry for #YA #HistoricalFiction such as “All is Fair” by Dee Garretson https://t.co/TP8pOGC5yX pic.twitter.com/C90jqyCHx2
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter?? (@joriestory) January 23, 2019
Women’s lives are often overlooked – I completely agree! I’m currently in college, but I’ve found myself drawn to history classes that primarily talk about women and their roles in history that are never found… especially after being randomly tossed into a Women in American history class. I think they opened a box of books for me doing that, haha. I feel I’ve learned so much from those classes that I never learned about before college and I’m grateful that I’ve been introduced to that, however random the class selection may have been.
I am definitely interested in reading Garretson’s newest WIP when it publishes though! The Russian Revolution is something I was briefly introduced to in history class in high school, but they didn’t go further than, “Well, the Czar’s family got killed and there were conspiracy theories about the youngest daughter surviving, but we’re just going to focus more on the Soviet Union. That’s the nutshell version and we will now dive into the Cold War.”
This was a lovely interview, Jorie, and I do hope you’ll get the chance to read All Is Fair (even though I did mention some drawbacks)!
Thanks for being on the tour! :)
Hallo, Giselle,
Thanks for giving me such a lot of joy in being able to ask Ms Garretson a heap of lovely questions which not only spoke to the story at hand but our mutual love of these kinds of Historical narratives! I loved bringing this convo to my readers and it was a delight of joy to find a book I can’t wait to be reading!