I cared more about some of the side characters than I did for Ella - Mathilde, Sylvie, Jacob, Susanne. Which isn't true - I did, but became sort of disillusioned with the characters in the end. I realize this sounds like I didn't like it at all. It just didn't make sense, and didn't develop the story any more. I liked Ella a lot in the beginning, but didn't understand why the author gave her the relationship she did with Jean-Paul. But there were parts of it that added nothing to the story and made the characters less likeable. I loved the idea of what was happening - the same land, same family, a modern day version of the character trying to solve a puzzle or a mystery of what had happened to her long-ago counterpart. Tired, because it was so odd and unbelievable, and I'd really stopped caring for Ella, the modern-day main character. However, by the end, I was pretty much tired of it.

I actually had a hard time putting the book down in the first three quarters or more.

The story of the 1500 Isabelle was very interesting, although could have been developed a little more, I think. So this book started off strong - very strong. With Girl With a Pearl Earring (written in 1998), I became a full-time writer, and have since juggled it with motherhood Started writing short stories in my 20s, then began first novel, The Virgin Blue, during the MA year. Talked a lot about becoming a writer as a kid, but actual pen to paper contact was minimal. Eventually I wanted to fix my own sentences rather than others’, so I quit and did the MA. (Yup, still nerdy.) Learned how to research and how to make sentences better. Even have dual citizenship – though I keep the American accent intact.ġ English husband + 1 English son + 1 tortoiseshell cat.īefore writing, was a reference book editor, working on encyclopedias about writers. I’m still in London, and still not entirely serious. I had studied for a semester in London and thought it was a great place, so came over for fun, expecting to go back to the US after 6 months to get serious. Moved to London after graduating from Oberlin in 1984. Why doesn’t anyone ask that of professional singers, painters, dancers? That year forced me to write all the time and take it seriously. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not you can be taught to write.

MA in creative writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, 1994. No one was surprised that I went there I was made for such a progressive, liberal place. Montgomery.īA in English, Oberlin College, Ohio, 1984. Book I would have taken to a desert island: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Favorite authors back then: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madeleine L’Engle, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander. Spent a lot of time lying on my bed reading. Father was a photographer for The Washington Post.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier