A Company of Roses
2016
Ms. Goodenough,
Thank you for
taking your time for me ~
Who are your
influences?
Whenever I hear
that question I think of The Commitments
by Roddy Doyle. They ask the drummer and he replies. Your man, Animal from the muppets.
But more
seriously, as a child I loved adventure and mystery stories by people like,
Leon Garfield, Robert Louis Stevenson, Conan Doyle. But of course, all the main
characters are men, so when I started my own mystery story I knew I wanted the
main character to be a girl.
Now I’m older I
love Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler, Ursula Le Guin, A.S. Byatt, David
Mitchell. And Mary Shelley and Agatha Christie – look out for them in the book!
When did you
begin writing?
I always wanted
to be a writer from the age of four. It drifted away from me as a teenager,
when being cool was more important, but I’ve now been writing fairly seriously
since I was about 20.
How do you come
up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc.?
Stories come
from concepts and questions, for A
Company of Roses it was, what if a piece of modern art held the key to an
ancient conspiracy?
POV depends on
the kind of story it is. With a mystery, I think it’s necessary to be able to
step away from the main character’s POV so you can show the reader the danger
heading towards them – when the main character is still unaware of it.
After I know
something about the main character, then the others arrive as I’m writing the
story. Character names are very important to me. The meaning of individual words
and the power in certain objects is present in the novel, so the meaning of
names is part of that. Sometimes it’s personal, but sometimes the characters
tell you about themselves, so the Saxon Princess in the story – Aethelgyfu –
the name means ‘gift’. She is a gift, and she both receives and gives important
gifts in the story so her name was deliberately chosen.
The main
character is called Cas – but this sometimes leads people to get her name wrong,
she’s called chastity but people presume Caroline. This is an important part of
her identity, she keeps herself hidden, is happy if people get her wrong, she
instinctively obfuscates, and all of these talents become useful to her on her hunt.
If you could actually
meet one of your characters, who would it be?
Why?
Probably one of
the minor characters, I’d love to have tea with Francine or Susan because
there’s still a lot I don’t know about them, whereas I know my main characters
a lot more. I’m sure the minor characters have stories of their own that would
come as a real surprise to me.
Do you work
from an outline?
Not really,
though I know what’s happening for a few chapters ahead. And sometimes I’ll
write something and realise this has an unexpected effect for the previous
chapters and so I’ll have to go back and rewrite. I like writing it as if it’s
an adventure that I’m going on too. So I discover things in the same ways my
characters do.
Tell me about
your favorite scene in your novel(s).
When Cas and
Reuben are planning their break-in, it’s just fun to imagine how you would do
it and then get to play it out in your imagination as you write. And I love
writing chase scenes, anything with a lot of movement.
Can you tell us
a little about your writing philosophy?
That’s a tough
one. I suppose I have characters and plots marching about in my head and want
to get them down. After that, I want to craft a story that people will want to
read and will enjoy when they read it. That means rewriting and rewriting to
make sure I’ve managed to communicate what I wanted to communicate. This is my
first novel, and I only published when it was ready – it took about four years.
Have you ever
tried writing in any other genres?
In different
forms, I’ve had plays performed, a short film is currently in preproduction,
I’ve written a radio play. My next novel will, I’m fairly sure, be YA.
Do you have any
interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?
A big theme in A Company of Roses is inheritance. So it
seems appropriate to share a story my Grandfather told me. He went to a writing
group held in the back room of a shop. Everyone talked through their writing
every week. Meanwhile, the shopkeeper was upstairs – writing – and had two
plays on the radio while the writing group talked about their writing. It made
my grandfather laugh – if you want to write, make sure you just write!
Do you listen
to music as you write?
No. Sometimes I
have the TV on in the evenings, then I’ll be typing up notes. Then at some
point I’ll put the TV on mute and just keep writing and writing and writing.
What or who was the inspiration behind your book?
You can’t write a book like this without acknowledging Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, so this is the The Da Vinci Code for girls, but cleverer because girls are cleverer ;)
You can’t write a book like this without acknowledging Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, so this is the The Da Vinci Code for girls, but cleverer because girls are cleverer ;)
It’s
an escapist thriller, a race across the beautiful English countryside, in the
company of a gutsy heroine and her charming sidekick. Cas’s journey brings her
into contact with an ancient conspiracy of British women, so this book will
appeal to readers who like historical fiction, even though the story is
contemporary. Cas is a character who starts out lost, and finds out what she’s
capable of, so I think the book will appeal to young women who are also on that
journey.
The book is set
in places in I’ve visited or lived, Brighton, the Castleton Caves in
Derbyshire, the City of London. I’m connected to all the landscapes in the
book. I was sent to York Minster library, where Cas finds an important clue, in
my first few days at York University, so the book has my own story woven into
it.
Any personal related
story compared with the world of your book?
The book is set
in places in I’ve visited or lived, Brighton, the Castleton Caves in
Derbyshire, the City of London. I’m connected to all the landscapes in the
book. I was sent to York Minster library, where Cas finds an important clue, in
my first few days at York University, so the book has my own story woven into
it.
Again, thank
you for taking your time for me Ms. Goodenough.
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| Megan Goodenough |
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