As the days build to the summer solstice, make the most of those extra hours of daylight to read about our Lantern of the Month, Ana Brazil.
Ana lives not far from me in the Oakland Hills where she lives with her husband and Cappy-the-Wonder-Cat. Seven years ago, we met through the local chapter of the Historical Novel Society and worked together to support and build the program. Though we write in different historic genres—she favors mystery, I tend toward literary fiction—we share a love of history and strong heroines. After attending the annual HNS meeting in Baltimore, we were inspired along with three other members to create Paper Lantern Writers.
A few weeks back I spent some time digging into Ana’s writing history. I think you’ll find her path to historical fiction writing fascinating.
KP: Did you write much as a child?
AB: I did! I won an award for writing a patriotic essay back in 2nd grade and remember writing a good chunk of our school Christmas play back in the 6th grade. In Junior High School I started writing both a diary and a lot of pretty painful adolescent poetry.
KP: Where did your love of history come from?
AB: My father had an affection for history and almost every weekend we’d set out in our car for a new Northern Virginia historical adventure. Museums, historical houses and gardens, and even battlefields seemed almost magical to me.
KP: You pursued a master’s degree in history. What was your emphasis?
AB: As an undergraduate I had a double major in History and Library Science at Florida State. For my master’s I majored in Post Civil War American History and minored in Europe from 1815 to World War.
KP: Why murder mysteries?
AB: It probably started with Nancy Drew! I loved how she solved problems and put order back into the world, and I couldn’t get enough of her. After Nancy I started reading Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Dorothy L. Sayers. I still love Sayers, and I’m currently one of the admins on The Lord Peter Wimsey Appreciation Society FB page.
KP: Has your taste in mystery writers changed? Who do you read today?
AB: I lean toward historical mysteries, and Anna Lee Huber and Deanna Raybourn have written some of my favorites. I also recently reread the four books in Jill Paton Walsh ‘s continuance of Dorothy L. Sayer’s series, and that’s because I can’t get enough of Lord Peter and Lady Harriet!
KP: Was it a bold leap to write mystery? How did you learn the tricks of the trade?
AB: Wanting to write historical mystery was very natural and easy. Writing readable historical fiction was really hard. There were very few “how to write historical fiction” books when I started to write. But I kept writing (badly!), went to conferences and seminars, and joined a lot of critique groups, trying to find both my voice and my tribe. What finally clicked for me was a four-woman online critique group I joined through Sisters in Crime.
KP: Do you still find group feedback helpful?
AB: Absolutely!
KP: Do you “channel” characters that already exist or conjure them out of thin air?
AB: If it’s either/or, then I “channel.” As a long-time student of history, I have a lot of respect for women who have lived in the past. I was inspired to create my 1889 heroine Fanny Newcomb because I really admired the women who started settlement houses in Gilded Age America. My 1919 heroine Viola Vermillion is inspired by ambitious Elsie Clark, a real-life vaudeville performer whose scrapbooks and memorabilia I inherited.
KP: What makes a compelling character?
AB: The most compelling characters—and maybe the most compelling people? —are the ones who have a strong goal and a flaw that keeps them from reaching that goal. A character with those qualities can drive a story and keep a reader guessing!
KP: You’re a polite and generous human being, one I would never suspect of foul play. Yet you write villains who regularly do people in. Is that fun or difficult to do?
AB: Ah, thanks! And it’s true; I’ve never killed anyone! But real villains are out there, and I’m always curious about what makes them tick. So, it’s kind of fun to create a villain, but it’s also difficult to delve into their broken natures.
KP: Can you share a piece of advice about writing mysteries that’s been especially helpful?
AB: If you’re writing a murder mystery, you must have at least one character who is devastated by the victim’s death. If there’s no emotional connection between the victim and a survivor—whether it’s family, friends, witnesses, suspects, or the amateur sleuth or professional detective—there’s no emotional core to the story.
KP: Along with novels you also write short stories. What’s appealing about writing shorter fiction?
AB: In a novel—especially a contemporary novel—there are so many paths a character can take! The more characters you have, the harder it is to make decisions on what’s right for your novel. It’s exhausting! Because a short story has fewer characters and probably just one primary idea, it’s easier to write.
KP: Any interest in writing something besides mystery?
AB: I’ve long had an idea for a non-mystery novel: It’s called Four Hearts, and it’s a World War I romance about a quartet of women and men who love, fight, negotiate, and finally claim their place in the world. It sweeps from New York City to London to Paris and beyond. I’ve written the opening scenes, but as with everything I’m interested in writing…there are so many possibilities!
KP: I started out this interview by extolling the longer days of summer and more time to read. What’s on your TBR list for the summer?
AB: I’m finishing up Rachel Callaghan’s Under Water and then moving on to Deanna Raybourn’s Sinister Revenge. Also, I need to see if Mary Kay Andrews has a new novel out, because after so many years of living in the south, I still love a southern summer read.
KP: And if you could mount an afternoon picnic to discuss these books with any authors living or dead, who would you invite along and why?
AB: I prefer to read more than discuss (which is probably why I’m not in a book club!), but if I could spend a summer picnic with any one writer it’d be Walt Whitman, and I’d make him read to me from Leaves of Grass all afternoon long.
It was a treat to learn moure about Ana – TY – keep writing those mysteries AND that WW1 romance.