Q&A with Penny Vincenzi discussion
Questions I’m often asked
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I recently discovered the Lytton trilogy at my Local book store and I loved particularly the first one centered around world war I,I do so love a big fat book that is well written and takes me into a different era.I enjoyed Sheer Abandon because I too have read about babies who are abandoned and I wonder at the desperation that would cause a mother to do that and then how can they return to their "normal" life but people are amazing!
Whats next for Penny Vincenzi? Any family sagas?
The amount of research must be staggering when you set a book in a different era how do you do it all?
Mod
I'm very glad you liked the Lytton trilogy; they became as real to me as my own family. There was a lot of research to do, but as for the most part and wherever possible I find real people to talk to, one thing and piece of information leads to another and like Topsy it just grows, And then I use old newspapers (on microfiche in libraries) ; they bring it all very much to life.
Thank you for writing, Dee
Penny
A. I get the ideas for most of my books either from those long conversations you have sitting over a glass of wine (or several glasses of wine) putting the world to right or from something in the media; in the case of Sheer Abandon, it was a story in a magazine about a baby that had been abandoned in a hospital doorway. The authorities were appealing for the mother to come forward, but after four days there was still no trace of her. And I thought: why on earth, in this day and age, should anyone feel they had to do that? And then I got that tingling down my spine that means “this is a great plot!”
Q. Many of your books feature American families and locations. Why is this?
A. Why do I so often have American bits to my books? That’s an interesting question. In fact I do in most of them. I think the answer is I fell in love with America when I was a little girl, via the movies and when I was a grown-up for real, both the place and the people…and I simply love writing about it. I’ve seen much more of it than I would have done if I hadn’t visited it for research so often. Boston--well I do adore Boston, it’s one of my favorites, so charming and pretty and small and walk-able and quite a new discovery. So—it just adds to the pleasure of writing the books, as far as I'm concerned.
Q. What are your tips for making it as a novelist?
A. Go out and buy a pen and a block of paper and sit down and start. You don’t need a lot of time or a fancy word processor. People have a fanciful view of writers that they wait for inspiration, which is a load of old toot. You get an idea and then work like a demon. When you’re ready to send a book out, get yourself a really good agent. They know all the editors and you’re less likely to end up on the slush pile.
Q. How did you first get into magazine work?
A. I went to a smart secretarial college in London and then got a job as a junior secretary at Vogue. It was a very snooty place; I was an unsophisticated, badly dressed 19 year-old, while everyone in the office wore hats all the time. But I did get a terrific feel for how to put a magazine together, doing it physically with paper and glue.