Ask the Author: Meghan Masterson
Answered Questions (2)
Meghan Masterson
Mostly I just cross my fingers that I won't get it! Of course, writer's block inevitably appears from time to time. I remember reading an interview with Bernard Cornwell where he talked about writer's block, and he said that writing is a job, so you have to push through. Other professions don't get to use a block as an excuse - there's no 'nurse's block', for example - so I try to keep that in mind to keep myself focused. I have learned, however, that a block usually happens when I'm writing the wrong thing. It helps to work on something else, whether it's a different scene or an entirely separate project, while I puzzle out the problem that's causing the block.
Meghan Masterson
I’d always been interested in the French Revolution and the way it forced loyalties to drastically change, and by how chaotic it was. In my reading, when I stumbled across the secret du roi, Giselle and her ex-spy uncle pretty much just showed up in my head with a story to tell. I also enjoyed writing about much-maligned Marie Antoinette.
Researching the fashions of the French Revolution really interested me as well, which is why I chose for Giselle to be one of the Queen’s undertirewomen. It brought her close to Marie Antoinette, but it also allowed me to explore the undercurrents of revolutionary fashion. Clothing became so complicated during this time, with people using colours and fabrics to carefully portray (or conceal) their revolutionary or royalist beliefs. At particularly tense times of the revolution, people could be attacked simply for wearing the wrong thing and that seemed scary and fascinating to me. As the patriotism increased, so did the popularity of tricolour, both for clothing in general and also for the famous cockades that people could pin to their hats or shoulders. At one point, it was even illegal not to wear a tricolour rosette. I found it so fascinating that colour could be a symbol of loyalty (a theme through The Wardrobe Mistress).
Researching the fashions of the French Revolution really interested me as well, which is why I chose for Giselle to be one of the Queen’s undertirewomen. It brought her close to Marie Antoinette, but it also allowed me to explore the undercurrents of revolutionary fashion. Clothing became so complicated during this time, with people using colours and fabrics to carefully portray (or conceal) their revolutionary or royalist beliefs. At particularly tense times of the revolution, people could be attacked simply for wearing the wrong thing and that seemed scary and fascinating to me. As the patriotism increased, so did the popularity of tricolour, both for clothing in general and also for the famous cockades that people could pin to their hats or shoulders. At one point, it was even illegal not to wear a tricolour rosette. I found it so fascinating that colour could be a symbol of loyalty (a theme through The Wardrobe Mistress).
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