Ask the Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Answered Questions (24)
Jennifer Chiaverini
Thank you for your support, Lorri!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hello, Valerie! You can find a list of the sources I consulted for CHRISTMAS BELLS in the acknowledgments section at the end of the book. Thanks for asking!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hello, Diana! Thank you for your kind words. There are real quilt camps and quilt retreats out there! Please consult your local quilt shop or quilt guild for suggestions, or check out the advertisements in quilt magazines.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hello, Danielle. Writers must first and foremost be passionate, voracious readers. Reread the magical books you read in childhood that sparked your love for stories and inspired you to become a writer. Ask librarians and independent booksellers for recommendations, their favorite books of all time and the best books of those they’ve read recently. Read outside of your usual genres. And think about what you read. What did you absolutely love about a particular book or story? What left you utterly indifferent? Why, and how? Read not to criticize but to discover. Wholeheartedly embrace your community’s literary culture. Attend touring authors’ events and buy their books, especially if they’re first novelists. You’ll want aspiring writers to do the same for you someday.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hello, Diane. Thanks for being a loyal reader!
When writing historical fiction, I try to adhere to the historical record as closely as I can where significant events and people are concerned, but I’m usually comfortable taking liberties with lesser-known historical figures and situations. That said, the historical record isn’t as strict and straightforward as you might imagine. I examine letters and memoirs in my research, but who hasn’t absently written the wrong date on a check or remembered events out of order when reminiscing years afterward? Newspapers of the era often yield wonderful descriptions of scenes and events, but they sometimes also contain erroneous or deliberately misleading information, creating bewildering puzzles for researchers to sort out decades later. The historical record is also by its very nature incomplete, especially where intimate conversations and private thoughts are concerned. Whenever I invent such scenes and exchanges for my historical fiction, I do my best to remain true to what I know of the real person while scripting an imagined life to depict all that I don’t know.
When writing historical fiction, I try to adhere to the historical record as closely as I can where significant events and people are concerned, but I’m usually comfortable taking liberties with lesser-known historical figures and situations. That said, the historical record isn’t as strict and straightforward as you might imagine. I examine letters and memoirs in my research, but who hasn’t absently written the wrong date on a check or remembered events out of order when reminiscing years afterward? Newspapers of the era often yield wonderful descriptions of scenes and events, but they sometimes also contain erroneous or deliberately misleading information, creating bewildering puzzles for researchers to sort out decades later. The historical record is also by its very nature incomplete, especially where intimate conversations and private thoughts are concerned. Whenever I invent such scenes and exchanges for my historical fiction, I do my best to remain true to what I know of the real person while scripting an imagined life to depict all that I don’t know.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hi, Lisa. Thanks for your kind words about my Civil War historical fiction. Keep FATES AND TRAITORS and CHRISTMAS BELLS in mind if you want to read more of my work set in that era. I haven't considered writing about Andrew Jackson, but that's an interesting idea. I do have another Civil War novel in mind, but the challenge is convincing a publisher to publish it. I'll keep trying!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Thank you, Diane!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Please submit your request through my website at https://jenniferchiaverini.com/contact/
Jennifer Chiaverini
The Bergstrom family apple strudel recipe is included in my recipe collection published in October 2008, The Quilter's Kitchen. https://jenniferchiaverini.com/books/...
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hi, Lisa. I won't be expanding "The Fabric Diary" into a novel because to me that story feels complete, but if you'd like to read more about Adele, she also appears in my novel THE NEW YEAR'S QUILT. Thanks for your question!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hi, JoAnne. At twenty novels, six pattern books, a reader's guide, and one e-short story, the Elm Creek Quilts series is complete. You definitely will see more books from me, but they will not be in the series.
Jennifer Chiaverini
I haven't read the review so I can't comment on it, but as I've written elsewhere and emphatically, most historians agree that there never was nor could have been one "quilt code" used throughout the South to guide slaves along the Underground Railroad.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Thanks for your question, Selena! My next novel after MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE, CHRISTMAS BELLS (October 2015), will be set during the Civil War and the present day. Another novel in progress, to be published in early 2016, will be set during the mid to late nineteenth century, including the Civil War years. After that, it's difficult to say, although I have several ideas I'm excited about.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hi, Kim. I'm happy to know that you enjoyed MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE. I'm not currently writing a series, but rather several stand-alone historical novels. It's true that some characters appear in more than one of my books, but that's usually because they were historical figures whose paths crossed in real life. In researching my historical fiction, I've been surprised and often delighted to discover what a small world Washington, DC truly was in the antebellum and Civil War eras.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hello, Mary-ann. You're right—I did say that in an interview several years ago! While both ideas still interest me, I don't have any immediate plans to write any young adult books or stories set during the American Revolution. I'm very happy with and engrossed in the Civil War era historical novels I'm writing now. Thanks for asking!
Jennifer Chiaverini
Hi, Mary Ellen. Thanks for your question. At this time, I don't plan to continue the Elm Creek Quilts series.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Great question, Laura! I first became intrigued by Julia Dent Grant when I was researching the wartime experiences of Mary Todd Lincoln for my novel MRS. LINCOLN'S DRESSMAKER. In March 1865, Mary had accompanied her husband to General Grant’s headquarters at City Point, Virginia, and according to the searing descriptions many witnesses provided in their memoirs, the visit was an absolute disaster. Mary Lincoln apparently had a very public meltdown, probably sparked by a toxic combination of illness, stress, and jealousy of any woman that spoke to her husband alone. Julia Grant and her youngest son were living with the general at headquarters at the time, and Julia had taken on the thankless role of the First Lady’s hostess. She tried to soothe Mary out of her terrible tempers, but she only succeeded in making herself the target of Mary’s abuse. When I read that Mary accused Julia of wanting the White House for herself, I was struck by the irony of the charge, as Julia had no desire to be First Lady and had no idea that she nevertheless would be someday.
I also was surprised to discover that throughout the war, Julia often lived with her husband at military headquarters, traveling by steamer or railroad to join him whenever he considered his location safe enough. Then I happened to read an article in which, almost as an aside, the author noted that Julia often brought “her favorite slave” along on these excursions. I was absolutely astonished by the utter incongruity—from my modern perspective, at least—of a Union general’s wife owning a slave. Who was the enslaved woman, I wondered, and what had it been like for her to live in the camp of the Union army in the war that was supposed to end slavery forever? From that moment, Jule had a firm hold on my imagination, and I wrote MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE in part to satisfy my curiosity.
I also was surprised to discover that throughout the war, Julia often lived with her husband at military headquarters, traveling by steamer or railroad to join him whenever he considered his location safe enough. Then I happened to read an article in which, almost as an aside, the author noted that Julia often brought “her favorite slave” along on these excursions. I was absolutely astonished by the utter incongruity—from my modern perspective, at least—of a Union general’s wife owning a slave. Who was the enslaved woman, I wondered, and what had it been like for her to live in the camp of the Union army in the war that was supposed to end slavery forever? From that moment, Jule had a firm hold on my imagination, and I wrote MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE in part to satisfy my curiosity.
Jennifer Chiaverini
MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE will be published on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Have you inquired at your library to find out where you stand on the waiting list? I know my local library makes that information available online.
Jennifer Chiaverini
Thanks for your question, Jackie. The Civil War era was a tumultuous and transformative period for our nation, showing the best and worst of humanity in stark contrast. Looking back, we discover great moral failings alongside true heroism in the struggle for justice, equality, and freedom. My personal heroes are people who face adversity with moral courage and dignity, whose hunger for justice and compassion for others lead them to stand up for what is right even at great risk to themselves. My favorite characters to write about either possess similar qualities, or are given the opportunity to summon up these qualities and do what is right but fall short. What the Civil War says about our country—that we are capable of both great moral failings and tremendous goodness—resonates strongly even today, and as a creative person, I’m drawn to explore and try to understand that conflict.
Jennifer Chiaverini
I feel obligated to my readers to adhere to the historical record as closely as I can where significant events and people are concerned. I won’t move the date of a Civil War battle because it would be more convenient for my plot, for example, or transform Julia Grant into an abolitionist to make her more appealing to modern readers. However, I’m usually comfortable taking liberties with lesser-known historical figures and situations. Some characters appearing in MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE are entirely my own invention—Jule’s husband Gabriel, for example—and I omitted numerous friends, family, and servants who passed through the Dent and Grant households through the years rather than weigh down the story with a vast array of characters fated to surface only briefly and disappear soon thereafter.
But that's what I do—that doesn't have to be what YOU do. If you're writing fiction, you can recreate and reinvent history as much as you like. (As a courtesy to your readers, though, you might want to add an Author's Note at the end explaining where you deliberately diverted from the historical record.) Good luck with your writing, Augusta!
But that's what I do—that doesn't have to be what YOU do. If you're writing fiction, you can recreate and reinvent history as much as you like. (As a courtesy to your readers, though, you might want to add an Author's Note at the end explaining where you deliberately diverted from the historical record.) Good luck with your writing, Augusta!
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