Q&A with Sara Sheridan, Author of On Starlit Seas

Please join me in welcoming Sara Sheridan to Let Them Read Books! Sara is celebrating the release of her newest historical fiction novel, On Starlit Seas, and I recently had the chance to ask Sara a few questions about her heroine, real-life historical figure Maria Graham, her inspiration for the story, and how chocolate came to take center stage. Read on and grab your own copy of On Starlit Seas!

A breathless tale of adventure, love, and chocolate set at the height of the British Empire

Chocolate. Smuggling. Secrets and Lies. Brazil and London, 1824: charged with a mission by the Empress of Brazil, celebrated writer and the toast of Georgian London Maria Graham sets off for England with the Brazilian civil war at its height. Newly widowed and a woman traveling alone, the stakes are high and when she accepts roguish smuggler Captain James Henderson's offer of passage on his ship, she gets more than she bargains for . . .

Henderson is on a journey of his own, back to his childhood home in Covent Garden. Onboard Maria discovers both a dangerous secret concealed in a chocolate bar and an irresistible attraction to the mysterious captain. But falling in love with a smuggler is almost unthinkable for a woman of Maria's social standing. Though Henderson tries his utmost to abandon his life of crime and forge a new identity as a London gentleman, he is caught in a dangerous tangle with a deadly aristocratic smuggling ring. The only chance he has to save himself and prove worthy of Maria is to unmask the gang and break free from their clutches, but will it be enough?

Hi Sara! Welcome to Let Them Read Books!

I had never heard of Maria Graham until I saw your book. What a fascinating life she lived! How did you first discover her, and what inspired you to write a novel about her?

I’m a nerd! In Edinburgh where I live, the National Library has an archive of papers from the John Murray publishing house. The Murrays published Maria (along with most notable Georgians and early Victorians from Jane Austen to Lord Byron) and they hoarded notes, papers, letters, journals—everything that came through their hands. I was in the library one day when the archivist showed me Maria’s journal (or one of them). I was hooked. A lot of archive material is dull content, but Maria’s tone was immediately engaging—I loved her straight off!

Is Captain Henderson based on a real historical figure?

No. Not AT ALL. I made him up. Dishy, isn’t he?

What kind of research did you do for this story? Did you get to do any traveling? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Most of the material was in the John Murray Archive and the rest was in the library. Maria wrote detailed descriptions of everywhere she went and also made sketches—she was a lifelong traveller—and those places aren’t as she described them any more so there was no point in visiting. I love this period—I’ve written two other books set at the same time, so I already had a working knowledge of what London was like in the early 19th century but Brazil was new to me. I love the research stage—it feels like a luxury.

How did chocolate come to play such an important role in the story? (It certainly plays an important role in my life!)

ME TOO. Well, Captain Henderson had to have an expertise and Brazil grows lots of chocolate so it was either chocolate or coffee, and I picked chocolate. Obviously I had to research the subject thoroughly! Interestingly chocolate was a drink in the period, and didn’t come in edible bars. It was also very strong compared to our chocolate now. I’m addicted to 80% dark chocolate cocoa as a result of writing this book. I have a local chocolatier, just down the road from where I live. She helped me a lot.

Excerpt: Dark Sun, Bright Moon by Oliver Sparrow

Dark Sun, Bright Moon, by Oliver Sparrow, was published in July 2014 and is available for sale on Amazon in both paperback and ebook.

“Dark Sun, Bright Moon describes people isolated in the Andes, without the least notion of outsiders. They evolve an understanding of the universe that is complementary to our own but a great deal wider. The book explores events of a thousand years ago, events which fit with what we know of the region's history,” says Sparrow.

In the Andes of a thousand years ago, the Huari empire is sick. Its communities are being eaten from within by a plague, a contagion that is not of the body but of something far deeper, a plague that has taken their collective spirit. Rooting out this parasite is a task that is laid upon Q’ilyasisa, a young woman from an obscure little village on the forgotten borders of the Huari empire.

This impossible mission is imposed on her by a vast mind, a sentience that has ambitions to shape all human life. Her response to this entails confrontations on sacrificial pyramids, long journeys through the Amazonian jungle and the establishment of not just one but two new empires. Her legacy shapes future Andean civilization for the next four hundred years, until the arrival of the Spanish.

Dark Sun, Bright Moon takes the reader on a fascinating adventure that includes human sacrifice, communities eaten from within, a vast mind blazing under the mud of Lake Titicaca, and the rise and fall of empires cruel and kind.

EXCERPT:

Chapter 1

A Small Sacrifice at Pachacamac

A priest knelt before her, a feather from his head-dress tickling her face. His musky odour of old incense and stale blood was rank, even here on the windy summit of the pyramid. Four other priests held her body tipped slightly forwards, and the pressure that this put on her tired old joints hurt far more than the fine, cold bite of the knife at her neck. Quick blood ran thick down her chin and splashed into the waiting bowl. Then the flow weakened, the strength went out of her and she died, content.

Seven elderly pilgrims had set out for Pachacamac, following their familiar river down to the coast and then trudging North through the desert sands. Two of the very oldest of them needed to be carried in litters, but most were able to walk with no more than a stick to help them in the sand. Lesser members of the community had been delegated to carry what was necessary. These would return home. The elderly would not.

Blog Tour Character Interview with Mary Catherine, Star of Confederado do Norte by Linda Bennett Pennell

Please join me in welcoming author Linda Bennett Pennell to Let Them Read Books! Linda is here today with an interview with Mary Catherine, the heroine of her new historical fiction novel, Confederado do Norte. Read on to learn more about this fascinating woman and enter to win a paperback copy of Confederado do Norte!

After surviving war, young Mary Catherine is torn from her home and thrust into a strange new life when her family decamps for Brazil rather than live with the terms of Reconstruction. Shortly after arrival in Brazil, she is orphaned, leaving only maternal uncle Nathan to care for her. He hates Mary Catherine, blaming her for his beloved sister’s death following a childish mistake. He is also a man with an incredible secret that he will go to great lengths to protect. When the opportunity for Nathan to be rid of her arises, Mary Catherine faces either forced marriage to an unsuitable man or flight into the wilderness containing jaguars and enclaves of people with much to hide. Mary Catherine chooses escape.

Finding refuge among strangers who become her surrogate parents, she matures into a beauty who marries the scion of a wealthy Portuguese family. At last, Mary Catherine has happiness and security until civil unrest brings armed intruders with whom she has an inexplicable connection. When the thugs murder her husband for failing to meet their demands, she directs them to her uncle and his secret in order to save herself and her in-laws. With the danger passed, however, her husband’s family demands that she is arrested for complicity in her husband’s murder. Innocent and betrayed by family for a second time, Mary Catherine must now fight for survival.

Mary Catherine is rescued from the gallows by friends, but cannot remain in Brazil. She boards a ship bound for New York with little money and without a home to return to, a family to welcome her, or a nation from which to claim citizenship. Her father never took the loyalty oath required of all former Confederates in order to have their citizenship restored. Once again, she must recreate herself in order to survive.

In old age, Mary Catherine is still haunted by the long ago events for which she feels responsible. After a lifetime trying to forget, she seeks peace, understanding, and the ability to forgive through writing her story, Confederado do Norte.

Character Interview with Mary Catherine
of Confederado do Norte

LBP: Would you introduce yourself and tell us where you were born?

MC: My name is Mary Catherine MacDonald Dias Oliveira Atwell and I was born January 1, 1857 in Washington County, Georgia on a farm overlooking the Oconee River.

LBP: We know that you left Georgia in 1866 because your father didn’t want to live under Reconstruction. You must have been quite small when the Civil War began. Do you have any memories of life before the war?

MC: It’s sometimes difficult to recall that there was ever a time before the war or that  anything existed prior to our world’s being reduced to ashes. That period for me is really only impressions and shadows because they are my very earliest memories, those of a child of less than five years.

LBP: Would you mind sharing what you do remember?

MC: I suspect my memories are, as is the custom with very young children’s recollections, somewhat mixed up and jumbled together. Nevertheless, I will do my best to explain how it once was and then how it became.