Deborah Swift's Blog, page 54

Here's my interview with Jessica Donaghy on Goodreads in their December Newsletter.

And here is the view from my window today!

Just about manged to get out to my Tai Chi class in the neighouring village, followed by coffee at Zeffirelli's Cafe. No Lady's Slippers for me only Wellington Boots.The snow keeps coming and going, so its a lovely excuse to light the wood fire and sit down to my third novel. I'm now in Chapter Three and buried under research books and notes.

The Daily Mail had an article on Monday about how publishers are paying PR agencies to write favourable reviews and put them on Amazon. Nathan Barker of Reputation 24/7 offers a service starting at £5000. "We'd say we like this book but add a tiny bit of criticism and compare it to another book." Barker claims this is common practice in the publishing industry.

Well, I'm pretty sure none of my Amazon reviews have been paid for by the publisher. And I'm glad. If my publishers were to think the book so bad that they need to pay someone to write me good reviews then they can't have much confidence in the book!

I have the usual mix of reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Librarything - some love it, some like it less. This is normal as the public has idiosyncratic reading tastes. The women in my book group don't all love the books I do, even if they are well-written, thoughtfully edited and brilliantly marketed.

I usually click on the reviewer to see what else they have reviewed if I am reading a review. Some reviewers review up to twenty books a month. Are they reading all these? Big Warning Bell.

However - I am grateful to the readers who have made the time and effort to review The Lady's Slipper with their genuine thoughts, particularly in the US where I know not a soul. I am grateful for anyone who raises its profile and opens debate about it, whether the review is good or bad, and don't take it too personally. We can't all like the same books!

More debate on a similar topic can be found at a post by writer Eliza Graham at  Macmillan New Writers

My guest post about how I researched The Lady's Slipper is at Passages to the Past

There is also a giveaway running of the book.

You can find an interview with me at Tanzanite's Castle. I enjoyed answering Daphne's questions in between house-hunting and working on my next book. I think house-hunting must be like being a publisher - lots of possibles, some sound fantastic from the agent's blurb, but there's nothing I actually love yet.

The virtual world of Tanzanite's castle full of books has much more appeal than the houses we have seen so far! Not that we're after turrets or dungeons, but some period features would be nice - oh, and good views, bit of a garden, room for a campervan somewhere outside. And a library, and a writer's studio........

Guess I'd better start buying those books on how to write a best seller. (Do they help, I wonder?)

You can find out which historical figure I'd like to have dinner with in our new house, when we find one, on the link below

Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books: Author Interview - Deborah Swift

Stacy from Chapter Chicks uploaded this review to Youtube. If you haven't heard of Chapter Chicks video reviews, check them out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pQCvPzGhI

I am also at Historical Tapestry today with my post about the character of Richard Wheeler. Thanks to Marg for hosting me.Click over there for details of the giveaway.

Stacy from Chapter Chicks uploaded this review to Youtube. If you haven't heard of Chapter Chicks video reviews, check them out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pQCvPzGhI

David Isaak has spotted The Lady's Slipper in the wild in Barnes and Noble in California.




Thanks so much to David for his recce into the wilds of the Californian Superstore!

You can check out David's book, and also his great post Historical Accuracy...and the Joys of Inaccuracy on his  fantastic blog Tomorrowville

The Lady's Slipper is out today in the US and the lovely big box of books has just arrived!


You can see that my cat Tabby was fairly impressed by the whole thing and has begun to read it already.

To coincide with the launch two lovely bloggers are featuring my book:

An interview about my writing life at Tanzanite's Castle


and a competition and giveaway at Historical Fiction to win a signed limited edition hardback (open worldwide).

Thanks to Daphne and Arleigh for posting today.

You can find my post about how to be slightly more professional at the Historical B&B's

This interview is reproduced courtesy of the Macmillan New Writers Blog. Aliya Whiteley asked me how I came to write historical fiction.


Before I came to write The Lady's Slipper, most of my writing was contemporary. I read a lot of contemporary fiction as well as historical fiction. A few years ago I would have been surprised to find I had produced a historical novel. So why write one?


The answer is that it wasn't a case of me deciding on a period and then setting the novel there, it was more that my characters demanded certain conditions to flourish and tell their story. I started with a character who wanted to paint an orchid - I had seen the rare lady's-slipper orchid myself and wanted to write (initially) a poem about it. This desire was subverted into my character's desire to capture it in paint. From then on the character grew and developed. I thought for the flower to have impact I needed a time when ideas about botany and images of flowers were new and fresh. Perhaps a time before mass printing, a time when herbs and flowers were used for healing. This led me to the 17th century when herbalists such as Nicolas Culpeper were just making their mark on history and the science of botany was in its infancy.


The idea of the medicinal use of the lady's-slipper then sparked the character of Margaret the herbalist, whose views on "the web of the world" were a very different religion from the conformist view of the time. I am interested in the different ways that faiths have shaped the world and this tied in nicely with the burgeoning Quaker movement, viewed in the 17th century as radical and dangerous. I couldn't resist having a Quaker character, so Richard Wheeler was born. In addition, the Quaker movement started close to my home in Westmorland, and visits to the still surviving historical sites fascinated me.



I was also keen to exploit the enmity between two men, and needed an atmosphere of unease where people felt unsafe so that the developing plot would be credible. The English Civil War where the King had been beheaded by his own people supplied the background disturbance I needed.

My second book, The Gilded Lily (on the editors desk) is set in the same period through necessity as it features Ella, one of the characters from The Lady's Slipper. It is a very different book as it is set in restoration London, a choice made so that I could exploit the desire for wealth and luxury which is a part of Ella's character. I will have to apologise to readers though, as the book features the Thames frozen over, which in fact happened in 1662 and not in 1661 as my book would suggest. This is because I didn't know I was going to write The Gilded Lily when I began The Lady's Slipper and unfortunately I cannot bend history - only apologise when I have had to do so.

The one I am working on now will be set in a different period. As with the first two I am looking for a time and place where my characters and ideas will collide in the most satisfying way. At the moment that seems to be turn of the 16th century in Spain. I can't tell you much more about it because I want to keep the excitement about it inside and not let it dissipate until I have a first draft in front of me.



Now though, I find I enjoy the researching period such a lot, and the wonderful excuse it gives me to hang around museums, historic houses, art galleries and libraries. And I have discovered some fantastic writers in the historical fiction genre, who have given me further insights into our rich heritage. So I cannot imagine that I will run out of ideas from the wealth of our history, and I guess that will keep me writing historical fiction for a while yet!



Aliya asked how I communicate my passion for the period to the reader, but I've really no idea. I just loved writing about the seventeenth century, and my revelling in it I hope will somehow be transmitted, maybe through the language of my characters.



Thanks Aliya for your questions.

Deborah