"The Red Lily Crown" by Elizabeth Loupas~Author Interview!

 

SUMMARY :

 

Elizabeth Loupas returns with her most ambitious historical novel yet, a story of intrigue, passion, and murder in the Medici Court...

April, 1574, Florence, Italy. Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici lies dying. The city is paralyzed with dread, for the next man to wear the red lily crown will be Prince Francesco: despotic, dangerous, and obsessed with alchemy.

Chiara Nerini, the troubled daughter of an anti-Medici bookseller, sets out to save her starving family by selling her dead father’s rare alchemical equipment to the prince. Instead she is trapped in his household—imprisoned and forcibly initiated as a virgin acolyte in Francesco’s quest for power and immortality. Undaunted, she seizes her chance to pursue undreamed-of power of her own.

Witness to sensuous intrigues and brutal murder plots, Chiara seeks a safe path through the labyrinth of Medici tyranny and deception. Beside her walks the prince’s mysterious English alchemist Ruanno, her friend and teacher, driven by his own dark goals. Can Chiara trust him to keep her secret s…even to love her …or will he prove to be her most treacherous enemy of all?

ABOUT THE BOOK :

Published by:  Penguin Group
Pages:  448
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Elizabeth Loupas
Website:  http://www.elizabethloupas.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Elizabeth Loupas held various positions in radio and television, and worked as an editor, writer, and marketing consultant.  She holds degrees in literary studies and library/information science.  She lives with her husband and two beagles. She is the author of The Second Duchess and The Flower Reader.

 

INTERVIEW:

 

The Bookish Dame is delighted to host Ms Loupas today with an author interview.  Thank you so much for joining us, Elizabeth!  Love your interesting life, and it's so great to share it with our readers.  Let's get right to it...

 

 

1)      Tell us something about yourself, please.  How do most people describe you?

Most people would probably describe me as kind of solitary and stay-at-home. I suspect I’m the only writer in the world who grew up reading Little Women and wanted to be Beth.

                Briefly, from where did the idea for your novel come from?

When I was researching The Second Duchess, I learned that Barbara of Austria and her younger sister Joanna traveled south from Austria together and were married at virtually the same time—Barbara to Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Joanna to Francesco de’ Medici, Prince of Florence. This intrigued me, and in early drafts of The Second Duchess, there were actually scenes in which Joanna (in Florence called Giovanna) visited Barbara in Ferrara. Those scenes were cut (primarily because they would have been historically inaccurate), but I didn’t forget Giovanna. A little reading about Francesco uncovered the fact that he was historically obsessed with alchemy, and the story pretty much exploded from there.

2)      Who first told you that you could write well, and how did it affect you?

The first person who encouraged me to write stories (as opposed to school “reports”) was my junior high school home room and English teacher, Maida Dugan. How I adored her! I wrote rambling romantic tales (even then I loved historical fiction) for her and she commented on them very kindly and patiently. I wish I could talk to her today and coax her to tell me what she really thought!

She also assigned us poems to memorize, and I always chose the long story-poems—Poe and Browning and Longfellow. To this day I’ll start reeling off lines and lines of poetry when something jogs my memory, much to the amazement of my husband.

3)      Which contemporary authors do you most admire?

This will vary from day to day, depending on my mood. Some contemporary authors I’m reading at the moment are Deanna Raybourn, Lisa Brackmann, Kate Quinn, Sharon Kay Penman, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Kate Morton. I hate making lists like this because I want to include hundreds of authors!

4)      Who are your favorite classical authors?

This is another case of wanting to make a huge list of thousands of names. The swashbucklers, of course—Dumas, Baroness Orczy, Sabatini, Shellabarger, Dunnett. My beloved comfort reads—E.F. Benson, Angela Thirkell, Miss Read, E.M. Delafield, Flora Thompson. Jane Austen, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Nathanial Hawthorne. The Pre-Raphaelites—the Rossettis, Swinburne, and Browning, of course, although he wasn’t technically a Pre-Raph. Oh, and now that I’ve strayed into poetry, Edwin Arlington Robinson. Sorry, I’ll stop now.

5)      What was your first book as a child?  What’s your all-time favorite book?

The first books I owned were Little Golden Books. (Am I dating myself?) I remember The Pokey Little Puppy and one that had a fuzzy yellow cat—the pictures of the cat were flocked with velvety stuff so you could actually pet them. I was enthralled. I don’t think I have one all-time favorite book. Perhaps the six books of the Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett—it’s all one story, so that would count as one book, right?

6)      Best book you’ve read in the past 6 months?

The one I got lost in most deeply was a re-read, ...And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer. It’s enormous and reading it is like living a whole alternate life.

7)      What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

The one (which shall remain unidentified) where I was shouted at repeatedly by my boss (who shall remain nameless). Or even worse, was trapped into sitting by while he shouted at someone else. I don’t do shouting well at all. See above about me wanting to be Beth March.

8)      What’s your earliest memory?

Being sick with the measles (according to my mother I was about three at the time) and “coloring”—scrawling all over with a bright red crayon—a drawing my older brother brought home from Sunday School. I swear I can still see all those loopy red scribbles. My brother was not amused.

As a child who liked to draw and color, in a family with musical talent, I called myself the “artical” one. I suppose now I’d describe myself as “writacal.”

9)      What’s your most treasured possession?

Barring the beagles—and I’m probably more their possession than they are mine—the first thing I’d grab in a fire would be a banker’s box filled with pictures, including the baby book my own mother lovingly created, and my own scrapbooks through the years. Oh, and I suppose the external hard drive I use for computer back-ups, so I’d have all my digital pictures and documents.

10)   Are you working on a new novel?

I am! It’s still in very early stages, so I don’t want to talk too much about it, but it will have something to do with the introduction of chocolate to Europe, and a priceless casket of cacao beans that was a Spanish princess’s betrothal gift to a French king...

 

Oh, so delightful!  You certainly are the "artical" one, Elizabeth.  I look forward to the next book in your cache.  I'm a huge fan!

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

This is a delicious book of intrigue, mysticism and glamour.  Ms Loupas never fails to pull us into a story.  She had me from the first chapter with her brave and brazen young Chiara, and her introduction of the strong and stand-offish Englishman, Ruanno.  The chemistry in this book isn't just alchemy!!

Brilliant in details about the time and place of the Medici in Florence, this novel is vivid and engaging.  I couldn't help visualizing as I read. Elizabeth Loupas is an alchemist herself with the use of color-effects and characterization.  These characters are fiery and beautiful to read about.  It's a sophisticated novel, not fluff.

The plot of the story is well-developed with intrigue and mystery.  I learned a great deal about the tools and mystique of alchemy, the House of Medici, and the culture of Florence.  And the enchanting love story had me turning pages, as well.

This is a "must read" for historical fiction aficionados.  You will love the depths the story brings you into.  I dare you not to identify with Chiara! I dare you not to be obsessed with the House of Medici in all its glory and madness!

 

5 stars                Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

GIVEAWAY!! "A THING DONE" by Tinney Sue Heath ~ Florentine Mystery

SUMMARY :


Florence, 1216: The noble families of Florence hold great power, but they do not share it easily. Tensions simmer just below the surface. When Corrado the Jester's prank-for-hire goes wrong, a brawl erupts between two rival factions. Florence reels on the brink of civil war. One side makes the traditional offer of a marriage to restore peace, but that fragile peace crumbles under the pressure of a woman's interference, an unforgivable insult, and an outraged cry for revenge.

Corrado is pressed into unwilling service as messenger by both sides. Sworn to secrecy, he watches in horror as the headstrong knight Buondelmonte violates every code of honor to possess the woman he wants, while another woman, rejected and enraged, schemes to destroy him.

Corrado already knows too much for his own safety. Will Buondelmonte's reckless act trigger a full-scale vendetta? And if it does, will even the Jester's famous wit and ingenuity be enough to keep himself alive and protect those dear to him?

This is Corrado's story, but it is also the story of three fiercely determined women in a society that allows them little initiative: Selvaggia, the spurned bride; Gualdrada, the noblewoman who both tempts Buondelmonte and goads him; and Ghisola, Corrado's great-hearted friend. From behind the scenes they will do what they must to achieve their goals—to avenge, to prevail, to survive.


PARTICULARS OF THIS BOOK :

Published by:  Fireship Press
Pages:  311
Genre:  Historical Fiction/Suspence
Find it:  Amazon
More about the book and author:  Tinney Heath


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Tinney Sue Heath has loved music and history all her life. Born near Chicago, she started college in Boston at the New England Conservatory with the intention of becoming a professional flutist, but after a rather abrupt change of direction she wound up with a degree in journalism from Antioch College. She worked as a staff reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education and later provided editorial assistance to University of Wisconsin-based editors of two professional journals.

Her musical and historical interests eventually merged, and she discovered the pleasures of playing late medieval and early Renaissance music on a great variety of instruments. Her historical focus is currently on Dante's Florence, so she and her husband spend a lot of time in Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany. They live in Madison, Wisconsin, where they enjoy playing music and surrounding themselves with native wild plants.  

 

 

 

GUEST POST FROM MS HEATH :

 

A Bookish Libraria is pleased to bring you the following Guest Post written for us by Ms Heath today.  Welcome, Tinney!  I wonder why you chose to write about a jester specifically and why place him in that century?

 

I didn't really expect to find myself writing about a jester in early thirteenth century Florence.  Not at all.  Quite the farthest thing from my mind, really.

 

Actually, I intended to write about a poet in late thirteenth century Florence.  But the jester, once I encountered his story in history books (nestled cozily in the footnotes), aroused my curiosity, and I just couldn't resist. 

 

As to why I found myself in the thirteenth century in the first place, and specifically in Florence, that has a lot to do with Dante.  His writings (and his life and times) fascinate me, because I believe they carry within them the seeds of the Renaissance. 

 

We all have a mental image of the Florence of the fifteen and sixteenth centuries:   the Medici, Michelangelo, Savonarola, Machiavelli, the powerful merchant guilds, the beginnings of banking as we now know it, the luxury cloth trade. 

 

But what went before?  What made Florence explode into the artistic center of the Western world?  What set the Florentines up to be bankers to kings and popes?  How did the city on the Arno manage to produce a body of art that has never been equaled?  How did it become the cradle of humanism?

 

What happened in that fabled city in the years before the Black Death struck?  When Guelfs battled Ghibellines in the streets, and the city's skyline bristled with forbidding stone towers, built of the ironically-named pietra serena (peaceful stone) to protect Florence's citizens from – well, from others of Florence's citizens?

 

Dante peopled his Divine Comedy with his Florentine neighbors, as well as with people drawn from history and mythology.  His Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso are chock-full of Florentines, each with his or her story and unique place in the afterlife. 

 

One of the stories he touched on in the Divine Comedy was the incident that drove the Guelfs and the Ghibellines apart in 1216.  It is that tale that forms the core of my novel.

 

Dante didn't write about the jester.  It's apparent that he's alluding to a story so well known to his contemporaries that he doesn't need to fill in the details.  It happened about two generations before Dante's own time, and he relied on the writings of chroniclers and on tales he had heard.

 

Several of the early chroniclers who recorded these events refer to a betrothal brokered to make peace and a betrayal that then destroyed the peace.  Some go back a step further and speak of a brawl at a banquet, an injury done, and a cry for retribution, which resulted in the negotiated betrothal.

 

But one of them, the earliest, says it all began when a jester snatched a plate of food away from two knights.  This enraged one of them, and a third knight, who was of the opposing political faction, took advantage of the moment to insult the furious knight.  A fight ensued, resulting in an injury to one of the knights.  The injury in turn led to the ill-fated betrothal. 

 

And nobody ever says another word about the jester.  I couldn't help wondering:  Who was he?  Who paid him?  How did he feel about the brouhaha that followed his prank?  Was he in any danger?  (It seemed likely that he was, if the knight was enraged, since knights tend to be armed with sharp objects and know how to use them.)  What did this do to his career? 

 

So one reason I chose to write from the jester's point of view was to satisfy my curiosity.  To think it through and try to see what I could figure out about this man, who was real, who did work as a jester in that year of 1216, and who we know absolutely nothing else about because almost nobody thought he was worth mentioning.  What would his life have been like?  What would have been the personal consequences for him of snatching that plate of food?  What – or who – caused him to do it?  Did he think it was a good idea?  Did he have any choice? 

 

It seemed to me in so many ways that it was the jester's story to tell.  Seen through his eyes, it would be very different than just another tale of two squabbling nobles and their factions.  I was off and running, looking for answers.  Finding some, making up others.  (That's why it's historical fiction.  I'm not claiming that I've rediscovered this obscure man of so many centuries ago – only that my version of what happened is plausible.)

 

But I had another more personal reason for wanting to write this story from the jester's angle.  He was a performer.  He would have juggled, tumbled, jested, made music, and engaged in rough slapstick.  He probably had some reliable performing tricks, which could have been anything from sleight-of-hand to working with trained animals.  He would have had to think on his feet, to improvise, to please his employers whether they were being reasonable in their expectations or not.  In short, he had to be talented, quick-witted, and ingenious, and the only power he possessed lay in his wit and his skills as a performer.

 

Performers appeal to me, because I'm a musician.  I play various medieval and Renaissance instruments, and I've been the leader of a group of musicians in a historical reenactment group.  We've played at feasts, Renaissance faires, tourneys, and the like.  And I know a little something of what it feels like to have to make it all up as you go along. 

 

I've been told by the organizer of an event, “This is a very laid-back, relaxed situation.  You're on at 7:32.”   (Our group's idea of “relaxed” was more along the lines of  “We're probably playing sometime after dinner.  Anybody remember what we're doing?”) 

 

I've had somebody unexpectedly tell me, “Play NOW!” when I was holding a bone-dry shawm reed that needed five minutes of soaking before it would produce a sound.

 

My group, having already played a wedding processional, has had to scramble (quietly, and during the ceremony) to find another piece of music when we realized the bagpiper who was supposed to play the recessional hadn't shown up, and we would have to fill in. 

 

At a banquet, I've been told “First the fettuccine, then the entertainment, then you.”  I had no illusions about the fettuccine, though I did rather flatter myself that our group was part of the entertainment.  But there you go.  It's not a high-status occupation.

 

I've played in rain, wind, extreme heat, close conditions, and – time and time again – in situations where the ground rules kept changing.  I've led my group in a shopping-mall Renaissance exhibition while we were crammed in next to an armorer who was noisily banging a hammer on an anvil.  (We just asked him to keep a steady beat, and used him for the percussion.) 

 

It requires a certain flexibility when you're poised to begin a six-part Venetian ceremonial motet and some guy at the back of the crowd cups his hands around his mouth and bellows, “Do you know 'Greensleeves'?” 

 

I like performers.  I like improvisers.  I like creative people, and when it comes to historical fiction, I tend to find creative people much more interesting than their employers.  So it was natural that the jester captured my attention, even though the historians have, for the most part, ignored him.  I know how much you can observe when you're only the hired help, and no one remembers you're there.  If there is a story to be told, it will be a clever man like the jester who is in the best position to tell it. 

 

And that's why the jester, and why the thirteenth century. 

 

Tinney,  You've answered my question beautifully, and I'm delighted to know, now!  I've always had a special fondness for jesters, myself.  Always felt they were actually the wise men of courts under disguise. It's great to see how you captured the imagination with your work, Tinney.   I read your book with great joy and anticipation.  Your grasp of the 13th century, its historical setting and the characters of the times was wonderful.  I loved your characters!  I'm particularly fond of Ghisola...a gentle spirit and perfect mate.

Highly recommended for those who love a historical fiction that reaches out of the ordinary.  This is one by a gifted writer -- a Renaissance Woman personified. It will elevate and illuminate you.

 

Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 

Many thanks to Deb for hosting me on her wonderful blog, and for suggesting such a rich topic for this post.

 

 

 

 

THIS POST IS PART OF A TOUR HOSTED BY HISTORICAL FICTION VIRTUAL BOOK TOURS :

 

 Please click on this link to follow the tour and find other reviews and interviews:  http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/?p=230

 

 

 

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Thanks for stopping by!  Deb