A huge thank you to fellow Paper Lantern Writer Jilliane Hamilton for these thoughtful interview questions!

What drew you the medieval world when writing your debut novel, Watermark?

The Middle Ages have fascinated me since I was a child. I remember quite clearly a weekend historical immersive put on by my school where we learned about The Unicorn Tapestries, listened to medieval music, and were introduced to the elegant but very difficult art of calligraphy. I was enchanted, and it was the start of a decades long fascination with the Middle Ages, trumped only by my older love of paper. Add my interest in all things French, and you have the start of my brainstorming process that led to Watermark.

How do you balance the historical accuracy with creative liberties when crafting a fictional story set in the past?

While I adore researching historical settings and events, I typically stay away from populating my work with well-known figures. For me, the fun of writing historical fiction comes from bringing to life those moments that are mentioned in history, but which are not explored in popular works. For example, Watermark explores how the introduction of paper into a largely illiterate society affected different individual from varying circumstances. My current project is set in a French Indian colony, where the Indians had very mixed opinions of their French overlords. Digging into the nuances of how different people reacted to Independence has been a ton of fun but also let me bring to life parts of history that aren’t well known.

How has your background or education shaped your perspective as a writer?

I am trained as a PhD scientist and as a creative writer and I find that novel-writing allows me to exercise both skillsets in unique ways. I am many years outside of working in a lab as a bench researcher–what I do for a day job is much more strategically focused on how to analyze and uplift other people’s scientific works. It involves a ton of reading and a ton of researching—not much different than the skills needed to write an authentic novel! Knowing how to research broad ideas and dig into details without sacrificing focus is something my scientific life has translated into my creative life quite nicely.

Who/what has been your greatest inspiration as an author?

If we are talking about writers, my greatest inspiration would undoubtedly be Madeleine L’Engle. Her ability to weave fiction, science, and faith made me want to be a writer and a scientist. My next project is one modeled after her thought process, not a historical but one with elements from ancient legends and how they come to life in a world that is breaking due to climate change. I’m excited to dig into it!

What had been my biggest inspiration is a different question. I would say there that having the ability and privilege to travel the world has given me the opportunity to learn more about unsung places that often translate into creative works. Like many writers, I have many journals filled with pages of reflections, often, in my case, filled with details of facts and descriptions about things I might want to write about later. My current project is full of details from a recent trip to India, where I visited the locales from my story. Being able to add that authenticity is so rewarding, to me but also, I hope, to my readers!

You can learn more about me and my writing by visiting my website.