Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone!

This week I have a bonus interview to put up. I’ve talked to novelist Mary Simonsen who wrote the novel Pemberley Remembered. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming her here to the site.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Simonsen. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Northern New Jersey very near to New York City. It was a great place to live as we were close to Broadway, the concert venues and the museums. While working in an engineering office, I met my husband, Paul. We’ve been married for 31 years and have two grown daughters and a granddaughter.

Before having children, most of my career was as a legal secretary, but after my girls were old enough to go to school, I reinvented myself and became a special education assistant. I retired two years ago to pursue my own interests which are travel and writing a novel.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I always enjoyed writing, but it wasn’t until I had to write papers for college that I realized that I had some talent in that area. I have written for neighbourhood newsletters and a genealogical society, and I always got positive feedback. Like Jane Austen, much of my writing was for the “amusement of my family� and for the joy of writing.

You’ve recently published your novel Pemberley Remembered. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

The story’s setting is postwar England. Maggie Joyce, a young American, is working in London when she learns that a country house in Derbyshire might possibly be the real home of the characters who inspired Jane Austen’s Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.

Maggie, a fan of the novel, goes to Derbyshire and meets Jack and Beth Crowell who have ties to the estate and who share stories with her of the family who occupied Montclair, the novel’s Pemberley. She is befriended by the Crowells and learns about the effects that the First World War had on them and their families. She also meets Rob McAllister, a man who served as a navigator on a B-17 bomber during the Second World War. They fall in love, but there are difficulties because of his wartime experiences.

What inspired you to write Pemberley Remembered? Where did the idea begin?

I’ve had numerous plot lines about Pride and Prejudice swirling around in my head for years, but it was only after seeing the latest film production with Keira Knightley that it all come together. I wanted to expand on what we know about the characters, especially Mr. Darcy, who I think is underdeveloped. I never thought I’d be able to combine my interests in World Wars I and II and Austen’s England all in one book, but that’s what I did in Pemberley Remembered.

What kind of research did you have to do for the book?

Tons of research which I love. A few years ago, I wrote a history about my ancestors who emigrated to America from the West of Ireland and the conditions they found when they relocated to Minooka, a small coal-mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. Minooka became the hometown of my main character, Maggie Joyce.

I also had to do massive amounts of research on World Wars I and II, especially the Battle of the Somme and the Eighth Air Force which flew from bases in England, and conditions existing in England right after the end of the war. For example, some food items and petrol continued to be rationed in the United Kingdom until 1951, six years after the war ended.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

Definitely, Maggie Joyce. Like Maggie, I was brought up in a large, Irish-Catholic family with five sisters where our church was central to our lives. Maggie and I both came of age at a time when everything was in a state of flux. For her, it was the Second World War. For me, it was the radical 1960s. When she moves to Washington, D.C., and later to Germany and England, Maggie is able to spread her wings, but she remains tethered to the values that she was taught as a girl.

What is your favourite part of the book?

Maggie’s personal growth. Maggie is a very curious girl—a sponge soaking up everything she hears or sees. She grew up in a little town buried in the mountains, and once she puts distance between her and her hometown, she wants to experience everything she can. When Maggie falls in love with Rob McAllister, she learns about someone who grew up in the wide-open American West and who flew 30 missions on a B-17 bomber over Nazi Germany.

After working in Washington, D.C. and Frankfurt, Germany, she relocates to London, a city that endured The Blitz, dislocation, and food shortages. Remnants of Jane Austen’s England, with its elegant manor houses set in beautiful parks and occupied by the privileged few, remain, but she also sees evidence that England’s rigid class structure is disintegrating under pressures from two world wars.

What draws you about writing about history and love?

I’ve been hooked on the history of America’s role in the two world wars ever since my mother bought a red poppy from a veteran on Memorial Day when I was about ten years old. I wanted to know what it symbolized, and I started reading everything on the war that I could get my hands on.

Virtually everyone from my parents’ generation was impacted by World War II, and I listened to their stories. As for the love story between Maggie and Rob, wartime romances have always grabbed me. Think Casablanca. All our responses and actions are heightened in wartime and times of trial, and that’s why my novel is set in postwar England.

Are there any authors who have inspired you in your writing?

Definitely, Jane Austen. Her use of language and rich vocabulary are brilliant, and she is an excellent model for writing novels with intricate characters and complicated story lines. I also like Carrolly Erickson who wrote biographies of the Tudor monarchs. Although her work is non-fiction, it reads like a novel and, as a result, holds your interest. My novel is loaded with history, but I don’t want the details to weigh the story down. I think I learned how to do that from Ms. Erickson.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on the sequel to Pemberley Remembered. I enjoyed writing the first book so much that I actually changed the ending so that I could write a sequel. I’ve finished the first draft of the manuscript.

What are your dreams for your writing?

I want to share my knowledge of history in an entertaining way. When someone tells me that they “loved� my book or that they learned something from reading it, it’s the most gratifying thing in the world.

When you’re not writing novels, what do you do? How do you find time to write?

I enjoy travel, especially to America’s national parks and Europe. Finding time to write is a challenge because my four-year old granddaughter Kaelyn is often with me. She’s always offering to “help me type.� She climbs up in my lap and says, “I want to see Grandma’s book,� and I have to go to my blog or the Amazon site. She’s my biggest fan.

Do you have any advice for writers?

Find a good editor or at least someone who can check your spelling, grammar and syntax. Also, understand that promoting a book is a major undertaking. The internet makes it easier to network, but it is still a lot of hard work. I found a group of writers on the internet who formed the Independent Authors Guild, and without them, I wouldn’t have had a clue. It is through them that I learned of Fiction Scribe.

Thank you very much for your time.

**Pemberley Remembered will be reviewed on The Book Stacks