Marci is the author of BRITANNIA THE BEAUTIFUL, a historical fiction novel that covers the life and loves of Frances Stuart, a prominent member of the Court of Restoration. Anyone who is a lover of sweeping historicals will love Marci's novel.
Thanks for joining us today, Marci!
Take it away.................
When did you start writing?
I wrote a short story in high school that never felt right no matter how much I tinkered with it. In college I majored in Nursing and, in the midst of surviving pharmacology and anatomy and physiology, let go of creative writing. Then marriage, career, and kids took over for a while. About four years ago, my love of the past drove me to start writing the type of history I like to read.
Tell us how you got interested in Historical Fiction.
I moved a lot as a kid but spent about thirteen years in Yorktown, Virgina, where the Revolutionary War was won. Talk about history-rich! I spent days roaming battlefields, rubbing headstones, and visiting old plantation homes. When my interest skipped to the British end of the conflict I had to travel to England and Europe to satisfy my curiosity. Travel is enlightening, and I came home with a thousand new topics to research! One thing that makes history so exciting to me is the many different points of view’s to discover about a single event.
Who is your writing inspiration?
I must credit the Queen of Historical Fiction, Phillipa Gregory, with reawakening the writer within me. When I read, "The Other Boleyn Girl", I was simply flabbergasted that Anne Boleyn actually had a sister. Seeing the Tudor Court through Mary Boleyn’s eyes was one of the most exciting things I’d ever read. When I put that book down, I searched for more like it. Eventually I knew I would start writing again; I simply had to create my own Historical Fiction. The adventure began!
What inspired your work in progress?
It’s a funny story. Some people sneer at doing touristy things while traveling- which I understand to a point. But, when you are a tourist, I think it’s okay to actually tour. I like to see everything, to get the scoop. Thus, I climbed atop one of those red double-decker busses in London for some sightseeing. When we tooled past the Banqueting House someone indicated the window from which King Charles the First had emerged for his beheading in 1649. Huh? I thought kings ordered the beheadings! So, of course, I had to immerse myself in the complicated English Civil Wars and the Stuart Royal family. Eventually I found my heroine.
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| Frances Stuart |
