Triskele Author Feature - Liza Perrat

Once in a while, we like to remind ourselves of why we're an author collective. Five individuals in three countries bound by a love of writing. People often ask how it works, but rarely why.

Here's the first in our Author Feature series, on why we appreciate Liza Perrat.

Liza’s Bone Angel trilogy captures moments of upheaval in French history – the Revolution, the Nazi Occupation, the Black Death. But we view them through the lives of ordinary people – the people largely forgotten by the history books. - Catriona Troth

Jane Dixon Smith: As a huge fan of history, and a writer of historical fiction myself, I love getting lost in Liza's work. For me she invokes a real sense of era and I love how she's adapted to different centuries in her Bone Angel series, from a French village during the 1348 Black Plague, to the French Revolution and WW2 Nazi-occupied France. I found the descriptions and setting of Lucie-sur-Vionne particularly vivid and real; unsurprising as it is based on a real rural village, Oradour-sur-Glane. When you begin to flick back and forth between centuries, reading stories based in the same village, you suddenly realise just how much history these places have seen, and when you look at them through fresh eyes. They don't just hold a story they are most remembered for, but many other stories too. Liza's work really made me realise just how rich the past is. A great achievement.

What readers say about Spirit of Lost Angels:
“This was definitely a book that will leave you swirling with emotions ... I would definitely recommend the book as a suspenseful and historical tale of a women. Liza Perrat weaves a great story and if you are into historical fiction this a book just for you!”

“The character betrayals are very strong and realistic as are descriptions of the locations. A well-researched novel from this début author who writes in a way that will draw you in, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction.”

“The author has researched the period meticulously and effectively evokes the spirit of the age, whether she is writing about life in a French village or in the melting pot that was Paris in the revolutionary era. Liza Perrat is particularly strong when writing about the role and lot of women at the time. She also cleverly weaves well-known incidents, such as the diamond necklace affair or the storming of the Bastille, into Victoire’s story. This is a compelling and vivid story with strong characterisation, and I can recommend it highly to anyone who likes historical fiction.”

Gillian Hamer: Liza’s writing was one of the first historical fiction books that I remember reading in the online writing group where we met. I fell in love immediately with what was to become Spirit of Lost Angels, loving how she evoked the sense of time and place in her writing. Some aspects of the story echoed with what I was writing at the time, and I remember being so impressed by the ease she seemed to create her chosen world. She has a fluidity to her prose that is almost lyrical, especially in descriptions and sensory details. Her characters come to life, big and bold and ready to star in the production. I’ve learned a lot from reading Liza’s novels over the past decade about myself and my own writing – that in itself is an invaluable tool for a writer.

What readers say about Wolfsangel: “Liza Perrat's writing is full of passion and realism, the reader is drawn into the action and becomes part of the village from the opening chapters. The lead character; Celeste, has many difficult situations to deal with during the course of the story - her predicaments and her decisions are harrowing at times and leads the reader to consider how one decision can change the course of a life. Entwined into the story are true events, and it is this that adds authenticity and also the shock factor. The brutality of war, and of human behaviour is laid bare by the author who is not afraid to include the full horror of events that really happened.”


“Perrat draws the village characters deftly and highlights the high level of resourcefulness, inner strength, and sometimes lies, that were essential if you were to survive. It was a tension-loaded read. We know from education and reading other work that it was dangerous, often fatal, speaking and acting against the occupying forces; you had to be exceptional to attempt these. We have read stories of deportation and execution, so we know the worst that could have happen. Yet I was still on the edge of my seat reading Wolfsangel.”

JJ Marsh: It's no surprise we work so well as a team. We liked each other's writing long before we ever met. Liza's sensuous use of language has taught me a lot, and her emotional engagement with our work makes us focus on our strengths. If we under-use our talents, she gives us a swift kick. Her attention to detail shines in her own writing and she insists we do the same. I can point to lines, images, characters and scenes in my own books which owe their origin to Ms Perrat.

What readers say about Blood Rose Angel: “I can't begin to describe how much I enjoyed reading this novel. It caught my attention from the very first page and held me in its grip until the fabulous ending … If you like tales with strong, determined, and moral women at the helm, then this tale is sure to please. There is never a dull moment as the story unfolds and I can honestly say that it is unputdownable. This is a must read for those who love medieval historical fiction. You won't be disappointed.”

“What I like about this author’s writing style is the way in which she allows both characterisation and plot to have equal importance, with neither one attempting to outshine the other. The medieval setting comes gloriously alive, with all the sights, sounds and smells of the medieval world, and yes, also the petty indifferences, which are so reminiscent of this dangerous time. However, Blood Rose Angel is also inhabited by vibrant and memorable characters who take command of their story and as they leap fully formed onto the page, we are allowed a tantalising glimpse into the intricacies and sadness of their daily lives.”

“It’s beautifully written and the dialogue is a joy too, which is rare in historical fiction. But it’s definitely not all sunshine and the sweet scent of lavender and beeswax. It’s set during the Black Death and the medical passages are spot on (couldn’t resist the pun) as are the midwifery details … I won’t divulge the story any further. Suffice to say there are some harrowing scenes, though I’m glad to report that Perrat delivers a satisfying and uplifting ending. Now I’m definitely going to read her other books.”

Catriona Troth: One thing I have always loved about Liza’s writing is her capacity to evoke the way landscape changes with the seasons. Whether she is writing about rural France in the middle ages or present day Australia, her gift for observation and her ability to see the world with fresh eyes immerses us in time and place.

Find Liza online:
WEBSITE
TWITTER

Puttin’ on the Lit Fest

By Catriona Troth

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

How do we get more readers to come to one of our pop-up bookshops? Panels of authors talking about books! Talking about the genres that readers love: crime, sci fi, romance...!

Little did I know that this was going to turn into six of the most intense, stressful, enjoyable and rewarding months I have ever experienced.

As the idea started to take root, and influenced by discussions that dominated the publishing environment in late 2015 / early 2016, we established a number of core principles.

We would:

- put trade and indie authors together on the same platform, but not talk about routes to publication

- include literary fiction – because, yes, that is a genre too!

- invite BAME authors to talk about their books, not about diversity

- pay all speakers a fee for appearing

- keep the festival free and accessible to all booklovers, not just those who could afford expensive entry fees

In short, the festival would be about building bridges – not barriers.

We knew it was going to be quite some challenge – especially financially – to satisfy all those aims, but we were determined to give it our best shot.

In the event, the easiest part was getting authors to participate. Trade and indie authors alike loved our pitch, and accepted our invitations almost immediately. As so often, it was niggling matters of money and admin that kept me awake at nights over the next few months.

So here, for anyone else who might be thinking of putting on a literary event, are a few hints and tips about what to do and not to do.

Plan your budget carefully. Think about your ‘must haves,’ which will determine the minimum amount you need to raise.

Consider your venue carefully. Size and acoustics of the room. How easy it is to get to. Accessibility. What else will be going on around your event? This is likely to be one of our major expenses, so you need to get it right.

Are you paying your speakers a fee? Expenses? The Society of Authors strongly advocates that authors should be paid, but many larger festivals are still failing to do so.

It can be the small things that catch you out. Many venues now expect you to have your own Public Liability Insurance. And when you look for insurance, the insurers are likely to ask that that any exhibitors (such as sponsors with a table at the event) have their own PLI!

Where is your income coming from? Sponsorship? Crowd-funding? Admission charge? How much will be committed before you need to start paying anything out?

You cannot start too early to look for sponsorship – companies plan their budgets before the start of the financial year, so you need to look that far ahead too. What are sponsors going to get out of the deal? Why should they back you? Remember you are going to have to knock on a lot of doors to before you get any responses.

In the UK, the Arts Council provides grants for artistic endeavours, including festivals and other live events. But again you need to plan a long way in advance. You also need to provide concrete evidence of artistic outcomes, public engagement and partnerships – not something you can bluff your way through, so think carefully and do your research.

The chairmanship of the panels is as important as the participants. They will have to be prepared to do their homework – to read books by the authors and work with you to develop questions that are challenging and geared to promoting a lively discussion.

Are you going to sell books at the event? If so, will you have a retail partner (in which case, they may take as much as a 50% cut, to cover their costs)? If not, how will sales be handled? How will books get to the venue, and how will you handle any not sold at the end of the day?

Consider filming / recording your event – potentially another major expense, but one that will give it a life beyond the live event, an attraction for authors and sponsors alike. If so, remember that sound quality is key for capturing discussions.

Publicity is vital – and hard to get for a new, untried event! Think about the balance of print v online, geographically local v targeted to interest groups. Think laterally about articles you can pitch that promote the event without being blatant advertising. (We got articles into blogs with Writers & Artists and The Bookseller by finding things they were interested in talking about that linked to the Lit Fest.)

Take care of your authors! Make sure they are kept informed in the lead up to the event, and know what to expect when they get there. Make them welcome when they arrive, ensure they have what they need to be comfortable, and that they have a chance to meet their fellow panellists.

And most of all, make sure they – and the audience – have FUN!

Bookclub Discussion: Our Endless Numbered Days

Triskele Bookclub’s October novel up for discussion is Claire Fuller’s Our Endless Numbered Days. 

I first became interested in this book when I read the review by Triskele author, Gillian Hamer on the Bookmuse review site.

About the Author ... Claire Fuller trained as a sculptor before working in marketing for many years. In 2013 she completed an MA in Creative Writing, and wrote her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days. It was published in the UK by Penguin, in the US by Tin House, in Canada by House of Anansi and bought for translation in 15 other countries. Our Endless Numbered Days won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize. Claire's second novel, Swimming Lessons will be published in early 2017.

About Our Endless Numbered Days ... Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons.

When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly begins to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost.

After Peggy's return to civilization, her mother learns the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.

Along with fellow Triskele colleague, Gillan Hamer, reader Claire Whatley and book blogger, Linda Hill joined in the discussion of this book.

Liza: Personally, I found this book a 5-star read, and whilst it has garnered mostly excellent reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, it also has a few not-so-great reviews. I put this down mainly due to the novel’s disturbing and depressing themes of mental illness, kidnap and child abuse. “Disturbing … horrifying … just plain wrong… nauseous…” were some of the comments. However, in my view, the author deftly handled these dark themes through captivating, lyrical prose and by creating a sense of realism, despite the apparent incredibility of this “adventure”. For example, the deep forest in which Peggy’s father takes her to live becomes a third, very well-rounded character: a dark and threatening but very beautiful thing. Indeed, the Chicago Tribune’s review states ... Fuller weaves a hypnotic intensity of detail into her narrative that gives every lie the feel of truth.

So, how do you rate something so disturbing but so well-written?

Gillian: I don't think I considered the book disturbing at all, there are worse things out there in routine crime procedurals. The book stayed with me for a long time after I'd read it and I rated it 5 stars. To be honest the cleverness of the writing comes from writing this through a child's eyes so the naivety and perception we see masks the real horror of the situation. As an author I know how difficult this is to achieve so I have nothing but praise for the author and the writing. I'm actually about to read her next book 'Swimming Lessons.'

Claire: Overall, I’d give it 4 and ¾ stars. It’s very much a novel in three acts: one - life before Peggy is taken to the forest, two - the forest years, and three – what happens after. Acts Two and Three are definitely 5-star whereas the first part of the novel (before their years in the forest) has quite a slow build-up and it is occasionally quite hard to see where the story is leading. I think this is to some extent because we’re seeing mysterious adult behavior through the eyes of a child. However, I would say to any potential reader it’s absolutely worth persevering with what might seem a slow start. Fuller’s prose is definitely 5-star and all in all, it’s a brilliant debut.

Linda: I found it hard to rate Our Endless Numbered Days highly enough. When I read it I didn't realize that the author had been a sculptor and that doesn't surprise me in the least. The attention to the most essential detail in this pared down novel was perfect. I felt there was a deceptive simplicity in the prose that was almost hypnotic.


Liza: Given the disturbing themes, I would hesitate to recommend this novel to certain friends I know would not enjoy the story, however I would definitely recommend it to most reader friends. Would you recommend Our Endless Numbered Days and why?

Gillian: Yes, I would. Maybe it isn't the book for everyone, but I'm afraid there isn't a book out there to suit absolutely everyone's tastes - and nor should there be! I think you would have to be very thin skinned to find anything about this book distasteful - the six o'clock evening news is probably more graphic! But I think as human beings, we need to explore everything humanity throws at us in order to understand there are so many layers of what it is to be human and how important it is to be open to all of them.

Claire: I’m one of those readers who avoids graphic violence, cruelty or abuse in fiction, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Our Endless Numbered Days, perhaps with a caveat that the ending is pretty grim and dark. I loved Claire Fuller’s exploration of both the physical challenges of survival in the forest and even more so, the psychological elements. The ‘dark’ scenes were sensitively handled, in my opinion.

Linda: I don't agree entirely, Liza. I would recommend it to all readers, even those who have experienced similar themes in real life as I feel it would help them realize they are not alone and others can understand what they are suffering. For those of us for whom Peggy's experiences are way beyond our knowledge I feel Our Endless Numbered Days provides such emotional insight into these topics and themes that we become better able to understand the world around us and to empathise with those like Peggy.

Liza: Narrating a story entirely from the point of view of an eight-year-old girl might be cumbersome for authors as well as readers. As in Emma Donoghue’s Room, I felt the author handled this expertly. Do you think Claire Fuller handled this well?

Gillian: I thought the author handled Peggy perfectly in all aspects and I think for anyone considering writing from a child's POV reading this book is a must! I found the voice solid and believable throughout and the inner thoughts and feelings of a girl of her age, in that position, were handled superbly. Because of that I found I connected with her, despite the age gap, I understood what she was going through.

Claire: Yes, I do. I found Peggy’s narrative voice convincing throughout and at no point did the author lose the authenticity of that. Peggy’s trust, anger, confusion were all very real to me. If anything, I would have been interested in a deeper exploration of how she dealt with the challenges of puberty without any reliable adult to explain or assist her with that. It’s an aspect of the story that was rather skimmed over, I felt.

Linda: Absolutely. In fact, as I read I completely forgot Peggy's age, but just immersed myself in the narrative. This wasn't a character of any age, this was a real human being to whom I felt an emotional attachment. There is a clear 'voice' behind the writing, but it isn't Claire Fuller's, it's Peggy herself, regardless of age. I loved the fact that Peggy's voice wasn't a contrived childish one, but was simply that of an individual who had a story to tell.


Liza: Throughout the story, we flit back and forth between Peggy as a child before the “event”, her time with her father in the woods, and 1985, when she is found, an adult back home with her mother. I enjoyed reading each timeline as it gave insight into Peggy’s life before, during and after, as well as the consequential effects of the kidnapping and abuse. Did you enjoy it too, or did it disrupt the rhythm of the story?

Gillian: I thought it added extra depth to the story and I had no problem keeping track of the story. I think flashbacks, if handled correctly, work really well - and the author got it spot on here.

Claire: Hmm. Initially I found myself having to keep up with the time swaps but once I was engrossed in the story I accepted them and had no problem with them. However, I think it could be argued that a more straightforward chronological narrative might have worked just as well and would have given fewer clues to later outcomes.

Linda: I'm not usually a great lover of novels that switch between different time scales, but I loved this in Our Endless Numbered Days. I felt I was being given real insight into the characters - and indeed into a psychological world I'd never normally encounter. I also think that the iterative image of music helped draw the strands together so that transitions felt seamless and fluid.

Liza: There is one scene towards the end of this book that I won’t forget in a hurry, but I don’t want to give anything away! Was there any particular scene that remained with you, after you finished reading?

Gillian: Not so much one scene maybe for me - but the location in the woods. It was so vivid to me, maybe because it was Peggy's whole world for so long that she knew every tree, every knot of wood in the cabin. It became very real to me and I think that was one thing I recalled long after I finished the book.

Claire: Oh yes – the scene you’re speaking of! Grim as it was, it needed close and careful reading to be sure of what was going on as the author clearly wanted to retain a degree of ambiguity. It’s a clever piece of writing, but I won’t say any more than that…

Linda: There isn't an individual scene that sticks in my mind especially, rather a resonance of feeling and emotion that is still with me some 18 months after I first read Our Endless Numbered Days. I can still picture the cabin and the woods in my mind's eye incredibly clearly.


Liza: And lastly, the end of this novel had me wondering whatever became of Peggy. How could anyone mature into a “normal” functioning adult after this kind of experience? Any thoughts on that?

Gillian: I think it probably very much depends on the person. It's amazing what a human being can go through and come out again the other side. I would like to meet a grown up Peggy actually. I feel she would be a very determined and driven person as an adult, who would find it hard to trust anyone but when she finally did give her heart, she would give it for life. I think some people (and I'd probably include myself here) have a way of packing away the 'bad stuff' and 'bad memories' into a far corner of their brain - and if Peggy was able to do that I think she would mature into a good person who refused to be a victim of her past and went on to achieve great things.

Claire: It’s a good question. And of course, it begs another question: what is ‘normal’? Over the years there have been several real life cases of young people being kidnapped and locked away from society for years. As far as ‘normal’ functioning is concerned I suppose it depends on a) the individual’s predisposition, b) on the quality of counselling they receive, and c) most importantly, the support network they have around them. It would be a long hard adjustment but I think anything is possible.

Linda: I think it's surprising just what the human psyche can live through and still behave and appear 'normal'. We are incredibly resilient. Had I been Peggy, I doubt I would have dealt with the situation so well, but then until we are in certain situations we don't know just how we will respond. I certainly have taught youngsters whom I can't believe are so well balanced when I've discovered their past and their home lives. I could see Peggy developing problems in the future, perhaps having difficulties with relationships, but equally I could see her becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist to help counsel others!


Liza: Thanks everyone for your comments! If anyone else would like to say anything about Our Endless Numbered Days, please feel free to comment below.