now you see her...
Bestselling author of historical fiction including THE ARCTIC FURY and the Five Queendoms epic fantasy series (SCORPICA, ARCA).
Oh, this was so much fun. I put together a list of 13 new releases for readers who want to spend Women’s History Month reading historical novels about fascinating women of the past. These books cover everything from 17th-century Dutch master painters to Korean diving collectives to groundbreaking documentary photographers — all of whom happen to be women.
I’m so pleased to be kicking off another Women’s History Month with another batch of #WomensHistoryReads interviews! I’ll be a bit more modest in my goals than last year — not running a new interview every day for two months (what was I thinking?) — but we’ll be serving up the same Q&Q&Q&A format, the same great quality content, and a whole new batch of smart, articulate women talking about the women from history who’ve inspired their work.
First up for 2019: the fantastic Amy Stewart, who shifted from nonfiction to historical fiction a few years back, launching Girl Waits With Gun in 2015. She’s been tearing up the bestseller charts with her Kopp Sisters books ever since. The fifth is slated to publish in 2019.
Amy Stewart (photo credit: Terrence McNally)
Greer: How would you describe what you write?
Amy: I think of my Kopp Sisters novels as historical fiction that happens to be about crime-fighting and detective work. Constance worked, in real life, as a deputy sheriff, but the point of the novels is never to figure out whodunit. It's her life, her family, the world she lived in. On one hand it's this historical, multi-book family saga, but I also want these books to be quick and fun and lighthearted.
Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?
Amy: I adored Nell Stevens' THE VICTORIAN AND THE ROMANTIC. I generally don’t like novels that weave between a historical story and a modern day researcher/historian trying to figure her own life out as informed by this other past life (how is this a genre, much less one I know well enough to have an opinion about?) but actually this is a memoir and a lovely depiction of a real person grappling with a subject she’s trying to write about and understand—and I do relate to that!
Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?
Amy: This isn't specific to researching women, but for me there are a couple of challenges specific to historical fiction: language and cultural values. I spend so much time working on the language and trying to make it true to the time and the characters. I read old letters, newspapers, transcripts of speeches, Congressional testimony--anything that gives me an idea about how people actually spoke in the 1910s. The language of the 1910s is pretty modern, so it's not a super-obvious style on the page. It's subtle, and I tinker with it a lot, and I'm sure I still don't have it right.
The cultural values are a bigger, more complicated issue. I don't want to just take 2019 values and dress them up in period costume. But what do I do about values and beliefs that we find abhorrent today? Think about your own grandparents. How would their beliefs, their stereotypes, and their language stand up today? I'd rather show the 1910s as it was, but if I had a character say something that didn't align exactly with our beliefs today, I feel like I'd need to somehow reassure the reader that OF COURSE those beliefs are wrong, and we don't feel that way today, but it is sadly true that in the past, people used to think....etc. etc.
Of course, the ideal solution would just be to sidestep all those issues, but I'm writing about a woman in law enforcement. She's dealing with inmates who might be poor, immigrants, mentally ill--I mean, it was her job to work with disenfranchised people, so she would've been immersed in all these cultural issues, damaging beliefs, and stereotypes.
Historical fiction has to work on two levels--it has to be true to the past, but it also has to satisfy modern readers. I'm always trying to figure that out.
So I'm going to end with that question to you: How do you grapple with characters and situations that don't align with our modern values?
Greer: You’re spot-on: there’s some serious grappling. I’m very conscious of not wanting to just take modern characters with a current mindset, plop them down on some cobblestones and call it a day. I always come back to a great line I once heard from Mary Doria Russell: “The past is not just now, with hats.” People of the past were raised in an entirely different culture and belief system. The more we understand what that system was like, the more accurately we can portray the time and its people.
I try to approach it by including characters who fit on a spectrum of belief. Which is how things are in real life, right? Even if the dominant cultural beliefs of the day dictate X or Y, there’s always someone out there who believes Z. My new novel WOMAN 99 is set in 1880s San Francisco, and there are characters whose beliefs were all too typical of the day: believing that the Chinese should be ejected from America, that sex workers should be institutionalized against their will, that a woman’s only value is in securing a good marriage to benefit her family’s social standing. But there are also characters who see these beliefs as abhorrent. So the modern reader can see things in context, without feeling like the offensive behavior is coming from the author and not the characters. At least I hope that’s how it comes across.
For more on Amy, her Kopp Sisters series, and her other books, check out:
Well, this was an exciting find on the last day of February! The Professional Book Nerds podcast from Overdrive came out with their monthly recommendations, and for March, here are the books they’re most excited about:
So delighted to see WOMAN 99 on the list! (Also super-looking forward to Daisy Jones & the Six and The Island of Sea Women, among others.)
I am SO excited — the March 5 release date for WOMAN 99 is only one short week away.
I’ve been doing lots of fun guest posts, interviews and other fun things to prep for release, and starting on launch day, you’ll be seeing links to those with a vengeance.
So here’s a fun little tidbit to get started! A Q&A with the delightful Melissa Amster at Chick Lit Central — and it comes with a giveaway.
Learn who I’d cast for Charlotte & Phoebe, my secret 1970s inspiration for my 1880s novel, and much more.
Enjoy the Q&A by clicking here.
(The ChickLitCentral giveaway ends March 3. The Goodreads giveaway of 25 copies is still going until March 4. So enter anywhere and everywhere!)
First, I thought the most exciting thing that would happen today is that a giveaway for WOMAN 99 was posted on Goodreads. Fun stuff!
But then something else even cooler came down the pike.
Turns out the coolest thing that happened today is that more than ONE THOUSAND readers signed up for the WOMAN 99 giveaway. On the FIRST DAY.
(The grand total is actually about 1100 right now. And it’s not even midnight. I’m kind of tempted to stay up until midnight just to see what number we get to today. Because I’m a month from launch date and already kind of losing both my perspective and my mind.)
Anyway, see what number it’s up to now! And join in. The more, literally, the merrier.
Looking for a particular #womenshistoryreads interview? Or not sure if your favorite author has been interviewed for my #womenshistoryreads Q&Q&Q&A series? Search no more! Below is the full list of interviews alphabetized by last name. I’ll update the index as we go along so it includes 2019 and 2018 Q&Q&Q&As in one easy-to-find place.
(And yes, seeing this huge list of names in one place kind of blows me away too. Huge thanks to all the fabulous authors who’ve made it possible.)
Blum, Jenna new!
Butterfield, Paula new!
Chance, Megan (coming soon!)
Cleeton, Chanel (coming soon!)
Deaderick, Jen (coming soon!)
Fay, Juliette (coming soon!)
Jenoff, Pam new!
Kelly, Julia (coming soon!)
Robson, Jennifer new!
Willig, Lauren new!
Wilson, Kip new!
Wiseman, Ellen Marie new!
As I said on Twitter, I can’t believe it’s already February because that means my book is coming out next month. And February is THE SHORT MONTH.
But there is so much goodness on the way for March! Of course I’m terribly excited that WOMAN 99 is coming out March 5 (in both the US and Canada) so that’s a big focus. If you’re excited too, you can:
mark WOMAN 99 as to-read on Goodreads
follow me on BookBub for announcements and deals
follow my #99daycountdown and other posts on Twitter and/or Instagram
pre-order WOMAN 99 from an independent bookstore, Barnes and Noble, BAM or Amazon (handy links here!)
recommend the hardcover, e-book and audiobook editions of WOMAN 99 for purchase at your library
check out my Events page to see if I’m coming to a bookshop, festival or library near you
The other big thing to get excited about in March: I’m picking up the #WomensHistoryReads banner again and will be featuring Q&As throughout the month. Will be kicking off the month with Amy Stewart (!) and I’ve got lots of other delightful names on the docket. These will run mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
More — lots more! — to come!
The wonderful Kate Quinn, author of the runaway bestseller The Alice Network and the upcoming The Huntress, put together a fabulous list of historical fiction recommendations for book clubs at BookBub. And of course I was thrilled to see WOMAN 99 on the list.
Great books like Kris Waldherr’s The Lost History of Dreams, which I’ve read and blurbed, are here, as well as some that are new to me and now I’m desperate to read. (Historical fiction except with Aphrodite? Sign me up!)
Check out the whole list on BookBub here.
(Also, if you’re not following me on BookBub, please do! I regularly share recommendations for my favorite reads, and it’s a great way to find new authors and books you’ll love.)
Yay! As a celebration of hitting 1000 followers on Instagram, I got to give away an advance copy of WOMAN 99. That giveaway is now over, but as of this writing, there are two more Instagram giveaways going on that I know of. The more you enter, the more chances you have to win!
@Sourcebooks is giving away an advance copy of WOMAN 99 and a copy of GIRL IN DISGUISE to one lucky winner. Enter by 11:59pm Central on Thursday, January 17.
@thoughtsfromapage is giving away ARCs of three highly anticipated books: WOMAN 99, Wendy Walker’s THE NIGHT BEFORE, and Kaira Rouda’s THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER. This giveaway ends at 9:00pm Central on Saturday, January 19.
Stay tuned for non-Instagram giveaways as well…. I know there will be some soon.
Good luck and good reading!
Ah, this makes me so happy. A great review from a major trade publication always makes my day, and this one for WOMAN 99 from Publishers Weekly totally made my week!
The bottom line: “Macallister sensitively and adroitly portrays mental illness in an era when it was just beginning to be understood, while weaving a riveting tale of loyalty, love, and sacrifice.“
I also particularly loved this part, which really sums up so much about the book: “Though Charlotte narrates, Macallister also gives voice to a motley crew of women who, at the mercy of male whims, hide multitudes.“
The whole thing is available right here. Yay!
