INTERVIEW WITH LUCINDA RILEY
BY AGNES A. ROSE
Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland and she lived for the first six years
of her life in a tiny village called Drumbeg. Lucinda and her family moved
across to England where she started school. Being a child, if she wasn’t
reading and writing stories or at ballet lessons, she was dressing up in her
mother’s old ball gowns the moment she came home from school and becoming a
princess, with a storyline that could last for weeks. When she was nine years
old, she played a child murderess in “The Bad Seed”. At fourteen, she went to
London to full-time dance and drama school. At sixteen, she got a leading role
in the BBC television series called “The Story of the Treasure Seekers”. And for the next seven years, she acted professionally
in theatre and TV. She also got married to an actor. At twenty-three, she fell
ill. Then she turned to her imagination to help her through and while in bed,
she wrote her first book, “Lovers and Players”. One of her friends read it and
passed it onto an agent. Finally, she was offered a three-book contract. So far
she has written many books but the most popular seems to be “The Seven Sisters
Series”. A few weeks ago “The Butterfly Room” was released in Poland.
Agnes Anne Rose:
Thank
you so much that you accepted my invitation to take part in this interview. I
am very honored that I can host you here and talk to you. As most of authors
you also started writing stories when you were a child. Could you tell us
something more about it?
Lucinda Riley:
Writing has always been a passion of mine
since I was a small child — I was always making up stories, and when I later
worked as an actress, I would re-write my character’s plot in my head. However,
I didn’t start writing in earnest until I was 22.
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| © Roni Rekomaa |
AAR: As I mentioned above, “The Seven Sisters Series” seems
to be the most popular of all your books. How did you come up with the idea for this series?
LR: In January 2013, I was
searching for my next story but wanted to find an overarching angle to add
another element to my past/present writing, something that would challenge and
excite me – and my readers. I had always watched the stars – especially the
Seven Sisters in the belt of Orion, and on that frosty night in North Norfolk,
I looked up to the heavens, and, thinking also of our own children, came up
with the idea for a seven book series based allegorically on the legends of the
Seven Sisters constellation.
AAR: Which part of the above novel series did you
write the easiest and which one was the most difficult to write?
LR: The easiest book in the series was the first – Maia’s
story. The most challenging has been the most recent one, ‘The Sun Sister’,
Electra’s story. With each book, the series gets more complex, not only in
terms of the themes and the historical content, but also in terms of the plot
itself – there are so many strands that I have to mentally keep hold of, and
now at Book 6, the mysteries are all beginning to come to a conclusion…
although I can’t give any secrets away just yet. You’ll have to wait for Book
7!
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This is the Polish edition of
The Girl on the Cliff
Published by ALBATROS
Translated by Marzenna Rączkowska
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AAR:
I have read most of your books published in Polish.
The first one was “The Girl on the Cliff”. What inspired you to write such a
moving story?
LR: My inspiration is always
sparked by an evocative location that begins the 'feeling'. I was born in Ireland
and lived in West Cork and loved its windswept rawness. Extreme locations are
always exciting to me because they are dramatic and of course, romantic. The
thought of a vulnerable child, barefoot and alone during the Atlantic storms
that used to break with such fury when I lived there with my own small
children, gave me the character of Aurora, the narrator of the book.
AAR: Your next book that left the greatest
impression on me was “The Angel Tree”. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a
very long time. In this book, you focus on very difficult relationships between
a mother and a daughter. Why did you decide to tell your readers this kind of
story and how much difficult it was for you to create Cheska?
LR: I met some fascinating characters during my time as a
young actress, on the London stage and in film and television. Actors, in
particular, tend to be a tortured bunch, with the ‘public’ face often very
different to the reality of the human being behind it. Unless of course, they
start to believe their own myth and the fantasy world they inhabit, as Cheska
does. When I met my husband Stephen some years after I wrote the book, I found
out that he had known someone very much like Cheska… I’d also experienced being
in the spotlight and have a number of close friends who are famous in their
field or married to someone who is, so I’ve learned first hand how fame can
affect people. The whole concept of fame terrifies me, so when I was writing
about Cheska and the extremes of her fame and lack of freedom, I put a lot of
my own fears into that. To be honest, I have no idea why anyone would go out of
their way to seek fame for its own sake like today’s reality TV stars seem to
do. I treasure and protect my private life and my family – they’re what keeps
me sane.
AAR: Your first book “Lovers and Players”
you wrote as Lucinda Edmonds. It tells about the lives and love of three young
women. What made you write your first book? Can your readers still buy it even
though it was published almost thirteen years ago?
LR: I began to write ‘Lovers and Players’ at
22 when I became ill with glandular fever. As I was not able to work, the novel
was completed in one fell swoop and was mainly inspired by my experiences of
living in London and the people I had met. It’s currently out of print,
although I do have a copy of it on my shelf… perhaps one day I’ll take a look
at it again and re-write it.
AAR: Why did you stop writing books under
the name Lucinda Edmonds?
LR: I got married in 2000 and decided to focus completely on my family
of four children… although that didn’t stop me from simply writing for myself!
During that time, I wrote a few manuscripts, some of which eventually became
‘The Olive Tree’ and ‘The Butterfly Room’, and used my married name of Lucinda
Riley from that point.
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This is the Polish edition of
The Butterfly Room
Published by ALBATROS
Translated by Anna Esden-Tempska
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AAR: A few weeks ago “The
Butterfly Room” was released in Poland. I read on the Internet that some of
your readers even compare it with “The Forsythe Saga”. In their opinion, your
novel is layered, complex, fascinating and deeply satisfying. How do you
remember your work on this book?
LR: ‘The Butterfly Room’ began its
life as a manuscript I wrote almost ten years ago called ‘Red Admiral’, which
is a type of butterfly. I decided to revisit it after finishing ‘The Moon
Sister’ in 2018. At first, I thought it would be a ‘light’ summer project –
something to take my mind off the more challenging Seven Sisters series.
However, as ‘The Butterfly Room’ developed, I found myself rewriting the entire
manuscript, adding and deleting characters and plotlines. Since writing the
initial manuscript, I realized I had grown a great deal as an author, and many
of the characters gained more depth and complexity.
AAR: On the pages of some of your books,
you invite readers to visit some exotic countries. I mean “Hothouse Flower” or
“The Midnight Rose”. Could you tell us something about the research? Did you
visit Thailand and India?
LR: I travel to all the places that
I write about. In the case of ‘Orchid House’, we were actually living in
Thailand at the time – for a while, our family had a house on Koh Chang, the
island where a part of the book is set, and it is one of my favourite places in
the world. For ‘The Midnight Rose’ I travelled to India and visited the Moon Palace in Jaipur where
I’d imagined Anahita living. I also stayed at the amazing Rambagh Palace which
is now a hotel, still owned by the royal family of Jaipur and where they are
regularly seen playing polo. I also went to Mumbai, where Ari lives, Cooch
Behar up in the north and New Delhi. The architecture and landscapes in India
are truly breathtaking!
AAR: I know you have very close contact
with your readers living all over the world. How important for authors is to be
online?
LR: The world is becoming more
technology-based year by year and I think it’s incredibly important to find
different ways of reaching your audience. Social media allows direct contact with readers all over the
world. When I was an author twenty years ago, there was no such thing as
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even private websites, and I would do a lot of my
publicity in bookshops and during book tours. Today, however, my 2-minute
inspiration videos can reach readers all over the world, and the feedback I get
is amazing and is a constant inspiration to keep writing. I also did the first ever
live ‘Google Hangout’ Q & A in Brazil which was watched over 200,000 times.
AAR: What is the greatest challenge you
have faced in your career as an author?
LR: In 1998 I moved publisher to Pan Macmillan
with a two-book deal and released ‘Seeing Double’ (now re-written and published
as ‘The Love Letter’), a book which involved a story about members of the
British royal family, in 1999. At the time Pan Macmillan was going through
‘restructuring’ and it was not a good time for them to publish anything. In
addition, many people felt that the story was not welcome by ‘the
Establishment’, and the book did well in Ireland, but all the orders were
cancelled in the UK. We will never know what really happened!
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This is the Polish edition of
The Angel Tree
Published by ALBATROS
Translated by Jan Kabat
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AAR: When you are writing in your study, do you
imagine what your very large audience will think about a character or an
incident?
LR: When I am writing, I try not to think of anything
else except for the characters and the setting – I can’t allow myself to be
swayed, or to feel pressured by the knowledge that millions of people will be
reading what I’m writing! The characters live in my head and tell their stories
through me, so dictating the first draft into my trusty Dictaphone is a very
private process.
AAR: How long does it take you to complete a
book, from the time the idea for the book is conceived, to when you submit it
to your editor?
LR: I realised that from
conception to giving birth, all the books take nine months, just like a
pregnancy. Weird, but true. I start with the research process, which includes reading
all the books I can get my hands on and travelling around the location. Then I
dictate the first draft and pass it on to my editorial assistant to type up.
Once the first draft is complete, I begin the editing process, which is the
most intense part – I go over each sentence dozens of times, playing Rubik’s
Cube with the words to make sure everything is perfect.
AAR: You’ve achieved so much as a writer and
career woman. Is there any goal you feel you have yet to attain?
LR: I absolutely love what I
do, and having had my time in the wilderness as a writer, I appreciate every single
moment of what’s happened now. I work 24/7 and gain enormous satisfaction from
putting the stories in my head on paper and seeing them published around the
world – even if I get rich I would still always write. Currently, all my
energies are devoted to the Seven Sisters series, but I already have a lot of
ideas in mind for future projects. My goal is simply to write until I drop!
AAR: How can you be so productive with so many
outside and family obligations? How do you keep a balance between home and
work?
LR: I have to take myself off
for two or three weeks and live like a hermit, working eighteen hours a day
writing the first draft. Once this is finished and I’m onto the technical
editing stage rather than the ‘creative’ part, I’m able to work from home and
spend time with my family. However, like any working mother, I’m permanently
exhausted and perform the usual juggling act that any mother with kids and a
full-time job will recognize!
AAR: You told me that you are working on the
seventh part of “The Seven Sisters Series”.
Could you tell us something more about it? What can your readers expect from
this book?
LR: I’m very secretive about the
future of the Seven Sisters series – readers write to me all the time asking to
have their theories about #whoispasalt and the ‘missing’ sister confirmed. All
I can say for now is that I have just begun the research process on Book 7 – in
fact, I have recently been on a journey, following in the footsteps of the
‘missing’ sister…
AAR: Lucinda,
thank you so much for this interesting and pleasant conversation. This is very
important to me because I know you are very busy at work, so thank you very
much once again. Is it anything you would like to tell your Polish readers? In
Poland, you have a lot of fans who always look forward to each of your next
books.
LR: Thank you so much for all of your insightful
questions! And I’d like to say DZIĘKUJĘ CI to all of my Polish readers for your
support and kind words – I receive so many messages from Poland and they
motivate me a great deal in my writing. I’m wishing you all a peaceful winter
and a happy new year!
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This is the Polish edition of Seven Sisters series
(The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister, The Shadow Sister, The Pearl
Sister & The Moon Sister)
Published by ALBATROS
Translated by Marzenna Rączkowska &
Maria Pstrągowska
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If you want to read this interview in Polish, please click here.
