Interview with author Caroline Moir

 

A warm welcome to Caroline Moir, whose novel Brockenspectre will be published by Victorina Press on 12th November.

THE BOOK

Brocken spectre: the magnified and detached shadow of an observer; typically on a mountain
 

The peace of an isolated Lake District university campus is disturbed by the arrival of mature student, Hild. For Miriam and Ed, the newcomer brings darkness and disorder which reshapes every aspect of their lives, and strikes at the core of their relationship.

Miriam is determined to exorcise the shadow Hild has cast, but how? And can she justify keeping another woman out of the light, the education, she has enjoyed?

Brockenspectre was shortlisted for the Sceptre Prize in 2013

You can pre-order a copy here.

 THE INTERVIEW

Congratulations on the publication of Brockenspectre. There is an intriguing story at its heart, but this novel also feels like a love letter to the Lake District – how important is a sense of place in your work?

I am not sure it is a love letter. I have a love-hate relationship with the Lake District – it rains a lot! In my early life rain was an event – I remember ‘swimming’ in the rain on a verandah as a young child. In the Lake District you factor it in to whatever you do.  But a sense of place is hugely important in my work. My first novel was largely set in the New Forest, my most recent novel is set in British Columbia, and in my memoir-in-short-story place is crucial. I think it is because I was brought up until I was thirteen abroad, paid long visits to my father in the Middle East, and have lived and worked in the USA and Canada.  For me places are characters in my fiction, and even, I think, in my plays.

I believe you wrote the original version of Brockenspectre quite a while ago. Tell me a little more about where the idea originally came from and how it has developed and changed?

The original stimulus was twofold. My husband was being stalked by a parishioner and one day I wondered whether you could get rid of someone by ‘writing them out’. Originally I didn’t want Hild, the stalker, to have a voice in case she dominated Miriam. However I felt that was too one-sided and I gave Hild, and Miriam’s partner, Ed, voices, which makes the novel less partisan, more understanding and more balanced. I was astounded the other day to read the first version and realised it began with the Christmas ball where the published version ends.

Who is your favourite character in Brockenspectre and what do you love (and hate!) about him or her?

I don’t have a favourite character in Brockenspectre but I am really interested in the two main characters, Miriam and Hild, what makes them tick, and how, despite their antipathy, they are similar. You can’t have one without the other.

 

I’ve heard you mention that some readers think Hild is not a real character, but rather a figment of Miriam’s imagination. Did you deliberately set out to create this ambiguity and mystery?

No, I didn’t. Because I didn’t want Miriam to have a one-way street of antagonism towards Hild, then Hild becomes like her and yet not like her. Curiously when I was first writing Brockenspectre, I was also reading a lot of Nathaniel Hawthorne who is a very unsettling author. I came across his novel The Marble Faun which I hadn’t read and discovered it also had two characters at odds with each other called Miriam and Hilda. That, and the fact that I began the novel on the day I started Margaret Atwood’s Robber Bride, having had it on my shelf for ages, and found it had a similar theme and opened on the same date, sent shivers down my spine which may have led to ambiguity and an almost claustrophobic atmosphere.

Who are your favourite writers and have they had an influence on your prose style?

I don’t have favourite writers – I have enthusiasms for one writer after another and bore my friends with my discoveries! I read a lot of European and fiction from round the world, particularly from the Americas and Caribbean. At the moment I am hooked on Monique Roffey and Tessa McWatt, who are British and published in this country, but whose settings and themes stem from their ethnicity and upbringing. Saying that one of the books about which I am persistently enthusiastic and which has influenced me stylistically is Train Dreams by the sadly now dead American writer, Denis Johnson. I marvel at the transparency of his prose.

Brockenspectre is your second novel – the first being Jemillia in 2007 – and you are also a playwright and short story writer. What are the different challenges you face when crafting these alternative forms?

I am a playwright by commission. I have considerable experience of youth and community theatre and when I started writing short stories and novels I tended to write them as if they were plays – lots of dialogue and not much else. I had to flesh the fiction out. I still have difficulty writing at length I have had short stories published but I am not sure that I am a classic short story writer. Though I very much enjoy reading both, I find it difficult to close my fiction, which I think is demanded by the novella and short stories – and plays. I like the open-endedness of the novel form.

Your publishers, Victorina Press, believe very strongly in the principles of bibliodiversity. What does this mean to you personally and was it a factor in your decision to submit your work to them?

For me bibliodiversity represents an opportunity to publish all kinds of authors and all kinds of genres from many different countries. Bibliodiversity is not restrictive. I submitted Brockenspectre to Victorina Press for precisely that reason. The novel doesn’t fit the current bill, because in it I examine what happens when ambitious women are in competition. I also submitted the novel and Brockenspectre is set in the English Lake District and Argentine and Chile. I greatly admire what Victorina Press is doing.  

What can we hope to see from you next? A new novel, another play, or something else?

I am working on a prequel to my very short novel – not a novella! – Hunting Jenet Nish which is set in British Columbia between 1914 and 1971, and which recounts Jenet Nish’s search for her mixed-race namesake

Thank you for talking to me today, Caroline. Good luck with Brockenspectre – I hope it flies off the shelves!

 

MORE ABOUT CAROLINE

Caroline Moir was born in the Sudan and has lived and worked in places as far apart as Newfoundland and Syria, Italy and Argentina. 

She is re-writing her first novel Jemillia, set in a future New Forest and Edinburgh, and has just completed Hunting Jenet Nish, set in British Columbia, the first of a historical trilogy.

As a playwright she was commissioned to write St Wilfrid of Ripon 2009, by Ripon Cathedral, and by Kendal Community Theatre A Passion for Kendal 2012, Lady Anne Clifford – a woman cast out 2013, and The Wednesday Play ~ plot to kill Jesus 2015. She was Literary Director for Kendal Yarns Festival of New Plays in 2016.
 
She has read her work for the BBC, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and at ‘Aye Write’ in Glasgow, and most recently at Lancaster LitFest 2019 and online with Yvonne Battle-Felton. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Glasgow University. 

Her memoir in short stories, the swaying corridors of the wagons-lits, was long listed for the Cinnamon Literature Award in 2020.

You can pre-order Brockenspectre here.

Interview with Rhiannon Lewis

 

Today, I am delighted to be talking to award-winning novelist and short fiction writer, Rhiannon Lewis. Her new collection, I Am the Mask Maker, comprises eleven of her compelling short stories, and will be published by Victorina Press on 30th October.

 THE BOOK

A collection of award-winning short stories which transport us from plague-ridden Renaissance Venice to a failing antiquarian bookshop in inner-city London, from a struggling family farm in 1960s West Wales to a soon to be discontinued Heaven where the angels are packing up to leave. Vividly-drawn, with wit and subtlety, Lewis’s characters are determined not to be pawns in worlds where the odds are stacked against them; to survive they often come up with solutions which are unconventional and unexpected. Includes the William Faulkner Literary Contest winner, ‘Piano Solo’.

THE AUTHOR 

THE INTERVIEW

Congratulations on this brilliant collection. Many of the stories have won awards or been shortlisted for writing competitions. You must have been particularly thrilled to win the William Faulkner contest last year?

Thank you. Yes, I was thrilled, particularly as I was the first UK winner since the competition was established in 1997. I still can’t get over the fact that my story meant something to a judge from as far away as New Albany, Mississippi. The competition is held annually in William Faulkner’s hometown. Under normal circumstances the prize would have been awarded at a dinner for over a hundred guests. Because of Covid-19 I wasn’t able to travel there to accept the prize. One day, when things are safer, I’d love to go there to see William Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak, and his hometown of New Albany. 

Who are your favourite short story writers and have they had an influence on your writing style?

I don’t have a favourite as such. I think you can learn something from every writer and there are so many good writers to choose from. I would have to mention Raymond Carver. His stories seem so banal on the face of it, but utterly striking – the way they get under your skin. 'The Fox' by D H Lawrence is one of my favourite short stories of all time. I go back to it time and time again. I love the way he creates a feeling of impending disaster right from the start. Lately, I’ve been reading the work of Jean Rhys. She breaks ‘the rules’ all the time, which I love. Though you shouldn’t read Jean Rhys if you’re feeling in the least bit depressed.

Your stories are set in many different countries and locations – how important is a sense of place in your work?

When you write a short story or a novel, it is necessary for you to want to be in that place for a while. I’ve started many stories and then thought, oh, I really don’t want to spend too long in this place – it’s not interesting enough or it’s too close to something I know too well and can’t be objective about. Often, taking a story and transposing it to a different place altogether, perhaps even somewhere you have to make an effort to research, can give a story a new lease of life and a better perspective. A sense of place is very important but so is imagination. Writers are told all the time to write about what you know. But don’t forget your imagination! That’s the most useful thing of all.

Who is your favourite character in your stories and what do you love about him or her?

I love all my characters! Saying that, I would rather be stuck on a desert island with some rather than others. One or two would know exactly how to build a tree house and find something to eat. Others would just curl up under a palm and be of no use whatsoever unless they had a piano with them, which would be unlikely on a desert island. Of all the characters I’ve written about, Aeronwy in 'The Significance of Swans' is the one I admire most. She manages to stay sane in a situation which would defeat most of us, including myself. Davy, the lead character in My Beautiful Imperial is the one I would want to have with me on a desert island, however. He’d know how to build a boat and how get us home in one piece, no matter what the conditions. And he’d probably make me laugh quite a bit on the way.

You write novels as well as short fiction. What are the different challenges you face when crafting these alternative forms?

I think of a short story as a sprint and a novel more like a marathon. Or to use another analogy, when you’re embarking on a novel, it is a bit like boarding a ship that’s bound for another continent. You have to be prepared to be there for a long time. You know there will be hardships and challenges, as well as adventures and excitement. You have to have faith that you’ll get there in the end. Some short stories come to you fully formed. Others start with a single line and you go from there. With a longer work, I don’t like to plan too much. I’m not one of these writers who outlines everything on a pin-board and knows exactly what they’re going to be writing in each single chapter. What would be the fun in that? I will have a vague idea of where the book is going – especially if I’m writing historical fiction and I’m trying to stay faithful to the facts – but on the whole I like to start off not knowing too much about what’s ahead. That way, the story and the characters can grow through the story. Writing a short story or a novel should feel like an adventure not a chore. 

Your debut novel, My Beautiful Imperial, was based on the experiences of your great-great uncle who inadvertently became involved in the Chilean civil War of 1891. It must have been fascinating to dig deep into your family history? Was his story something you had been wanting to write about and explore for some time, or did you learn about it more recently?

I spent over twenty years researching the story of the steamship Imperial and my great-great uncle’s involvement in the Chilean civil war. At the time, I was working full-time so there was no possibility of writing a novel. And in any case, the research was something I was doing for my own interest. Gradually, it became clear to me that the whole story would be completely forgotten if no one wrote about it. At around 4am on 11 April 2011 I scribbled the date on the top of a school exercise book and began writing, thinking that I wouldn’t stop until I’d told the whole story. It took me three years of writing in my spare time but now it’s there for everyone to read.

Your publishers, Victorina Press, believe very strongly in the principles of bibliodiversity. What does this mean to you personally and was it a factor in your decision to submit your work to them?

I’d never heard of the principle of bibliodiversity before I met the founder of Victorina Press, Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, but it means a great deal to me. When you start writing, people are desperate to put you into a particular box or category. I was a woman, writing about a man who had taken part in a civil war on the other side of the world. I was also Welsh, but writing in English. Neither I, nor my work, seemed to fit into any convenient box. Consuelo was prepared to look beyond these things and to read my work on its own merits. I was so pleased that My Beautiful Imperial was recommended by the Walter Scott Prize Academy soon after it was published because it was the best way to repay Consuelo’s faith in my story. I love the fact that Victorina Press is publishing books by such a diverse and ever-expanding group of voices.


What can we hope to see from you next? More short stories, a new novel, or something else?

This autumn, I really want to get my teeth into another longer piece of work. I’m researching a few different ideas at the moment. There’s nothing like the feeling of being immersed to the point where the work and the characters sometimes feel more real than what’s around you, day to day. But we’ll see. The short stories have way of butting in when you least expect them!

Thank you for talking to me today, Rhiannon. Good luck with I Am the Mask Maker – I hope it flies off the shelves!

You can pre-order I Am the Mask Maker here.