The Historical Novel Society UK 2024 conference

Rebekah Simmers has been interviewing writers who are presenting at the HNS 2024 UK Conference

RS: We are so thrilled that you will be joining us for the HNS 2024 UK Conference! What are you looking forward to about the conference? Can you share a teaser for your presentation?

GP: I can’t wait to meet other authors and readers, huddled round the bar (there is a bar, right?) and talking books. Our presentation will be steeped in Hollywood glamour. Why not come dressed as your favourite icon?

HNS has launched the First Chapters Competition with the conference. What is a novel you’ve read over your life that unexpectedly grabbed you from the opening lines and whose words stayed with you? 

“Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris.” From Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife. This was the book that first encouraged me to write biographical fiction back in 2012.

From following you on SM, you frequently offer (much appreciated) valuable and varied writing advice in your posts. Looking back on your own writing career, what would you say was the most influential writing advice you received from another author? How have you made that work for you?

There’s so much… just recently I heard Ariel Lawhon say that when deciding what to write next, she always chooses the subject that scares her the most, and I think that’s true of me too. I want to challenge myself to learn something new about this craft of ours.

Of the wide cast of characters in your novels, who has been your most surprisingly challenging character to write? Why? What strategies did you / do you use for these types of characters? 

Jackie Kennedy was difficult, because everyone has an opinion about her but in fact she was incredibly closed as a person. I began to feel that no one truly knew her, not her sister, not Jack, certainly not Onassis. I read all I could find then took the plunge.

What do you think it takes to have longevity across a writing career? Sanity? Fun? What’s an unexpected joy that came into your life from such a successful career?

You definitely need to be emotionally resilient because every author experiences setbacks. For me the true joy comes not from reviews and sales figures but from writing itself. There’s nothing better than being immersed in a new novel when the words are flowing and the magic is happening.

Where do you typically begin your research? Do you have a go-to resource? Has there been anything that you’ve researched for your writing over the years that made a huge impact on you or a novel or series that you were writing? That changed how you write or what you write? 

If I’m writing a biographical novel, I’ll start with biographies, but it’s important to assess the biographer’s agenda when dealing with controversial figures like Helena Rubinstein, Maria Callas or Wallis Simpson, who have all been done a disservice by male biographers. I think my two Russian novels, The Secret Wife and The Lost Daughter, had a bigger impact on me than most of my others. Learning about 20th-century Russian history, especially the appalling, random cruelty of the Stalin years, gave me an understanding of the Russian people that I carry with me. I want to write about them again some day, but clearly not right now.

How do you organize your story details across your series? (character details, scene research, story lines, etc.) 

I’m not very organized: random scraps of paper, poorly labelled files, and lots of post-it notes is my go-to system.

Is there a specific scene that you’ve written over the years that you feel especially connected to? If not a specific scene, a secondary story line that was a favorite to write?

I always aim to have a Prague café moment somewhere (if you’ve read The Secret Wife, this will make sense). It’s a scene that turns around the reader’s expectations about where the story is going.

As a historical writer, if you could stand witness to a historical event or walk through a specific time / scene / building or have a frank discussion with one historical figure, which would you choose and why?

I’d like to visit the Algonquin Round Table when Dorothy Parker was holding forth, and have a frank discussion with her about men and life and liquor. I’d love to get her take on the social issues that concern us in the 21st century. I’m sure she’d have a hilarious take on them.

What three books do you feel are necessary for any book collection to feel complete? What additional one would you add for an author’s library?

Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. And my Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion is particularly well-thumbed.

What can you share about what you are writing now? Or an upcoming release?

Scandalous Women is coming out in August 2024, just before the conference. I call it ‘Mad Men set in the world of publishing’ because it’s about two trailblazing authors, Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann, and the abuse they took for writing about sexually liberated women in the 1960s.

What was the last great book that you read? (Can simply be author and title)

Kristin Hannah, The Women.

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Online tickets for the conference are available:

https://historicalnovelsocietyuk.regfox.com/online

Rebekah Simmers is a member of the HNS UK 2024 conference organisation team. Find out about her novel, The King’s Sword, on her w