MD Bread and Salt, this is the third in the My Lost Country series of books.
AW What first got you into writing and why?
MD I have wanted to write since I was a little girl. I finally managed my first novel when I took early retirement from teaching.
AW You write historical fiction. Is it all imagination or do you do research?
MD I do masses of traditional academic research and I also use anecdotal material from friends and family. And then, I use my imagination to spin my tale.
AW And what about other types of writing? Have you dabbled with other genres, short stories or flash fiction?
MD Yes, I belong to Fosseway Writers and we have written a collaborative novel, Burning Old School Ties and we also produced a collection of Gothic stories called The Brinwade Chronicles. I have dabbled with short stories and flash fiction, although the novel is my first love.
AW Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing shed of your own?
MD I have a study above the garage and a more wi-fi friendly space on the large landing. It’s less private but my husband bought me a beautiful oak desk so there are compensations.
AW And finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead, or a character from a book, who would it be and what would you discuss?
MD It would have to be Shakespeare. I would try not to ask him the silly question of where do you get your ideas from! I think I might just let him talk.
AW Thanks Maria and I have to confess that, if I were answering that queston, I would give exactly the same answer!
about the author... Maria was born in Lincolnshire and studied Philosophy at Nottingham University before becoming an English teacher. She taught for several decades in Nottinghamshire and then retired from teaching to focus on her writing.
When Sorrows Come is her first novel and it won The Big Bingham Book Read in 2015 and was one of the finalists for the Historical Novel Society Indie Award in 2016.
Driven Into Exile is the second book in Maria’s My Lost Country series and is linked to the first novel by its minor characters.
The sequel, Bread and Salt, was launched in November 2018.
Will Natalya and Taras be able to stay together while trying to navigate the rules of this strange land? And, left behind the Iron curtain, how will her two young sisters cope with the NKVD's* bullying? Will they manager to avoid the deportations and summary executions?
Unable to communicate with one another, the three sisters live in hoipe of one day being re-united, but will this ever be possible?
*NKVD - The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, a federal agency of the Soviet Union established in 1917
Nice to meet Maria. The covers of her novels are great and I'm sure the stories are too.
ReplyDeleteThey are, I'm part way through the first one and can't wait to get back to the story this evening.
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