The Next Big Thing

Great Chalfied Manor by Derek Harper
Creative Commons

I've been tagged by acclaimed author Nancy Bilyeau (whose novel The Crown has been well-received in the historical fiction world) in a blog game called The Next Big Thing. The game involves answering questions about my work-in-progress or a piece that I would like to be come the next big thing! After the questions, I will tag five more authors.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

1.) What Is the title of your book?

For the Skylark

2.) Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was always so intrigued and in awe of Charles Dickens' character, Miss Havisham. I wanted to write a story about a reclusive woman like her. I had no idea what would happen in the story when I started, but within a page or so, her adult twins, Dante and Evangeline came into being. It turned out to be them I loved. They had been raised on an estate in isolation and have psychological consequences of that situation. The story took off.

Walter O Briggs House
by  Andrew Jameson Creative Commons

3.) What genre does your book fall under?

Historical Suspense. It might end up in YA.

4.) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Evangeline: I cannot find someone in the right age. Perhaps a younger Emily Blunte.

Dante: Dan Stevens If he could look 21....

Lady Charlotte: Rachel Weisz (yes, she is old enough at 40)

Molly: Gemma Arterton in blonde hair

Becker: Brendan Coyle (yeah!)

Hampton the butler (antagonist): Hugh Bonneville

5.) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Yikes! One sentence? Querying skills condensed even more?

Twenty-one year old Evangeline goes from content and happy secluded with her dear twin-brother Dante on a strangely functioning estate since birth to distraught and panicky as life normalizes when the world encroaches upon the estate and threatens to pull them apart.

For information on writing a "log-line", see Kristen Lamb's Blog. Kristen is the author of We Are Not Alone- the Writer's Guide to Social Media.

6.) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I do not plan to self publish the book. I may query agents or will go with a small publisher.

7.) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? And read the intro.

I have been working on it for fifteen months. This is the beginning of the prologue:

"Rules of the House were reviewed on Sunday mornings. The sound of distant church bells meant meetings in a study under the stern watch of nobles in frames. Twenty-one year-old Evangeline and her brother Dante were always on time. Lady Charlotte read out a number, and one of the twins would recite the corresponding Rule."

8.) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Great Expectations

9.) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Miss Havisham made me do it. :)

10.) What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

Evangeline goes from content and happy in her strange circumstances to distraught and panicky as they normalize. Dante, her beloved twin and only friend, wants to break the Rules, go through the gates and see outside the estate. He even falls in love. Evangeline feels she must keep him for herself. She withdraws even more, sitting for days with her mother in the tower. And then everything goes wrong.

You can meet the twins HERE.

Pitzhanger Manor Gates
by P.G. Champion  Creative Commons

Thanks to Nancy Bilyeau for sending you here! I will nominate five others. I do have to have their consent, so please return to see the rest of my list. Each of these will put up their posts as they can get to it.

David William Wilkin
M.M. Bennetts
Sandra Byrd
Deborah Swift
Sue Millard