Anne Boleyn

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago, Jaime Arnold over at Two Chicks on Books announced that Book 2 will be titled TARNISH and will be narrated by a young Anne Boleyn.  Jaime asks fabulous questions, so if you're interested in knowing a little more, please see the whole interview here.

One thing Jaime didn't ask was why?  Why Anne Boleyn?  If anything, I'm treading over already well-trodden ground with this character.  The number of biographies (by such greats as Eric Ives and Alison Weir) and historical novels (The Other Boleyn Girl, anyone? Not to mention the amazing Hilary Mantel) are daunting.  Plus innumerable extensive chapters in every history of Tudor times, from Starkey's Six Wives to books solely about Anne's daughter Elizabeth.  We know all of this already, don't we?

The decision was a daunting one.  Anne is iconic.  She fascinates - her charisma transcends 450 years.  It's not just the tragedy of her story that captures the imagination - not like Romeo and Juliet.  I believe it's her strength.  She was an opinionated, outspoken woman in a time when women were meant to be seen and not heard.  In a time when even queens (including Mary I) believed they should be ruled by their husbands, Anne Boleyn believed in telling her husband exactly what she thought - and sometimes disagreed with him when he did the same.  So not only would I be fictionalizing the life of a beloved figure, I had to be true to her spirit. (kind of like Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe or Katie Holmes playing Jackie Kennedy).

I have to admit, I was afraid.  I never intended to write a book about Anne.  But on a long drive one day, a voice came to me.  Not a Joan of Arc, "the saints are speaking to me" kind of voice.  But a fictional voice.  A strong, opinionated, snarky, emotional, teenaged voice.  The voice of a girl who speaks without thinking - often ending in regrets.  A girl who can love, but is afraid of it.  A girl who doesn't fit in, who isn't well-liked, but is, ultimately, likable.  Even lovable.  And once I started thinking in that voice, it wouldn't let me go.

I wanted to write a book about a girl who could become the tragic, iconic, lovable-hatable figure history has handed us.  And in the process, I, too, fell under her spell.

I'm still afraid.  I hope I do Anne's character justice.  I hope the other Anne Boleyn fans out there agree with my portrayal.  I hope, above all things, that I get it right.  Because I think she deserves it.

Five Things About Book 2...

I'm struggling to contain myself.  And I'm going to get a chance to talk more about Book 2 very, very soon.  In the meantime, a few hints:

1.  Book 2 is one of the most fun, but also the most difficult book I've ever written (and no, GILT was not the first book I wrote!)

2.  It opens at Greenwich Palace in the spring of 1523.

3.  Henry VIII is much younger and much sexier than he was in GILT.  But is he the main love interest?  You'll have to read it to find out.

4.  There will be dancing, hunting, kissing, lies, betrayal, gambling, indifference, mistakes and redemption.  But no beheadings.

5.  It's scheduled to be published next summer.  I wish I didn't have to wait that long to hear what you think!

The Next One

A few days ago, I wrote a post asking for topic suggestions and readers came back with some very intriguing ideas!  But one has been echoed by Facebook messages, Twitter replies and interview questions, so I thought I'd address it here.

Anonymous commented: I want to know what your next book will be about!


Well, let me tell you, I am dying to talk about it.  I wrote the first draft of Book 2 last summer and fall, and struggled with it.  I think most published writers talk about the dreaded Sophomore book, the Book 2 curse, the horrible fear of being a one-hit wonder.

I was terrified that GILT was a fluke.  That I didn't know how to write a book.  That my agent and editor were deluded.  That I would let everyone down - agent, editor, myself, and (worst of all) readers.

But I wrote it.  And that first draft was not pretty.

However, I loved my character from the very beginning.  My husband teases me when I tell people this, but her voice just came to me. (Oh, so now you're hearing voices?)  It was a six-hour drive to see my family, everything was quiet in the car, the road curved around a river and bam!  The book started.  This girl was funny.  Snarky.  Self-assured but vulnerable.  So different from Kitty in GILT.  It was her voice that carried me through the first draft.  And her voice that made me able to sustain the revisions.

I have a couple of revisions left to go (a novel's path to publication is a long process!), so I am not yet ready to talk about this character.  I know I sound cagey, and I'd rather not be.  But I want to retain the freedom of writing this character without other voices intruding.  Without comments or suggestions.

Writing historical fiction based on real people naturally invites opposing opinions - we don't know what these people were really like!  This is what makes them so much fun to read and write about!  And I love it when people question my take on an historical character - was Catherine Howard really such a manipulative cow?  Was Katherine Tylney really so loyal? Because I don't know!  These are real people, but my characters are fictional!  I'm just not ready to face these questions yet about Book 2.  I need the book to be complete, to put the character to rest, and then I'll tell you all about it.

Promise.