INSIDE THE MIND
OF A NOVELIST
A Casting Couch Book Interview by Sheila Claydon:
A Most Ineligible Suitor by Sarah Richmond
What prompted the idea for this book? While on a visit to Lucca, Italy, we
visited Puccini’s home. I wanted to write about a heroine who lived in the same
era. Puccini wrote in the ‘verisimo’ or realism style. His plays show brutality
and violence, poverty and want. My heroine has been sheltered. She knows
nothing of the world outside her small circle of wealth and privilege. Her trip
to Italy is an eye-opener for her. Another inspiration came from a painting by
John Singer Sargent called ‘Group with Parasols’. The light he used reminded me
of Italy. The ladies in the scene are dressed in white linen and are enjoying
an outdoor picnic, something my heroine would love to do.
Did you work through the plot first and
then cast the characters, or was it characters first? I
decide on the story I want to tell and then pick the characters who best help
show the elements of the story.
In A Most Ineligible Suitor, the heroine is
on holiday with a distant cousin. She is very much a free spirit who has
escaped to a country with fewer social restrictions and a decorum different
from English society. She is having the time of her life.
The hero is an
Englishman. He is in disguise and his purpose for being in Italy—to catch an
international jewel thief--is complicated by her antics. He is not comfortable
being dishonest with her, and yet he has a duty to his profession to pretend to
be someone he isn’t.
What she teaches
him about life and love is the theme of the story.
Which characters were the hardest for you
to develop and why? The male POV is more difficult for me. The
challenge is to make the hero strong without being brutal, decisive without
being unkind. The reader must understand his motivation, even sympathize with
his flaws, but he can never be pitiful or weak.
How did you decide how your characters
should look? There are
many wonderful websites that show pictures of the ladies in the late Victorian era.
I especially took note of the couture dresses and bridal dresses of the times,
which are a delight. www.Victoriana.com is one of my favorite websites to visit.
How did you develop your characters’
traits? I rely on Heroes and Heroine by Tami D. Cowden,
Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders. When I have a heroine in mind, I look through H
and H and find the worst possible traits in a hero for her to fall in love with
which leads to all kinds of delicious conflict.
I also use
people I have met on my travels. Some characters are a combination of traits of
the people I have known.
Marjorie is a
misfit in some ways and doesn’t realize why until she comes to Italy. Edward,
having been raised in a strict household with no mother, doesn’t know how to
express love. He may not even know, in the beginning, what love is.
All characters have goals. Can you sum
your characters’ goals in a word or two, or are they multi-layered? There are the short term external goals:
he is trying to catch a thief, she is on vacation and wants to see the sites.
There are the long term internal goals: To love and find love.
Do you like the characters in your book?
Are they people you would want to spend time with and if so, which one is your
favorite, and which one would you most like to meet and why? Marjorie
introduces herself this way: “My name is Marjorie Mayweather and people tell me
I have a sunny disposition. Who wouldn’t with a name such as Mayweather?”
I like a heroine
who can be at ease with people, probably because I have always been rather shy.
She’s smart. She knows in her circle she must act totally defenseless so that
the suitor will feel manly. This does not bother her until she meets the hero. He
understands her better than she understands herself.
Meeting the
right man makes all the difference!
As for who I’d
like to meet, the villain of the story is my favorite character of all. The
villain is so much fun to read about, trying to figure out a motivation, or
what possible reason there must be for such bad behavior. I could have such a
good conversation with my villain, I think.
Thank you for this
opportunity to talk about A Most
Ineligible Suitor. I had so much fun writing the book.
Best wishes to
all.
Sarah Richmond
