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Book Blurb
In Allison Rushby's Heiresses, three triplets--estranged since birth--are
thrust together in glittering 1926 London to fight for their inheritance, only
to learn they can’t trust anyone--least of all each other.
When three
teenage girls, Thalia, Erato and Clio, are summoned to the excitement of
fast-paced London--a frivolous, heady city full of bright young things--by
Hestia, an aunt they never knew they had, they are shocked to learn they are
triplets and the rightful heiresses to their deceased mother's fortune. All they
need to do is find a way to claim the fortune from their greedy half-brother,
Charles. But with the odds stacked against them, coming together as sisters may
be harder than they think.
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Guest Post
Crashing Downton Abbey
You can always
pick people's happiest memories by the photos they stick up as backgrounds on
their desktops. One of my happiest memories from the year my family and I spent
living in Cambridgeshire happened quite by accident, but now takes pride of
place when I start up my laptop each morning.
Knowing we
would only be living in England for a year, we were active weekend and holiday
travelers. On this occasion, we had just spent the weekend in Oxford and were
on our way back home to our converted flour mill beside a lock in the little
village of Buckden (yes, the word 'idyllic' springs to mind…).
I was, and
still am, a huge Downton Abbey fan and remembered reading that the village
scenes were shot in a real village in Oxfordshire. Thus, before we set off home, we planned a
quick detour to the village of Bampton.
Before long, we
reached the outskirts of the village, which was when we began to see little
neon production signs – all sorts of arrows and codes directing the production
team to different surrounding fields and areas. It was a cold Sunday in
February and already quiet on the roads, but it became quieter still as we
navigated our way into the village itself, because it started to snow in a very
nasty, rainy, sleety kind of way (sorry, Australians aren't great at describing
these things. Let's put it this way: you were far better off being at the pub).
By the time we got to the heart of the village, it was truly miserable weather.
Even before we
parked the car, my mouth was on the floor. There was the church, complete with
huge cameras wrapped up in red plastic and security guards sitting in their
cars out front. There was Downton Cottage Hospital, complete with its sign.
There was the pub. And the post office. The highlight, however, had to be the
white bunting, strung up all over the village. Someone was getting married, I
realised!
As my husband
and two children looked on, somewhat amused, I spent the next hour running
around like an absolute mad thing in the sleet, insisting they take my photo in
front of this and in front of that. They put up with me for some time. Until
the point where I insisted on having my photo taken on the stairs of the
portable female loos, because Dame Maggie had probably been there.
Yes, we all froze
half to death, but it was worth it (or at least I thought it was…) for those
desktop photos that will last forever!
Q & A
The
Heiresses Q&A
Q. Where did you get the inspiration for
The Heiresses?
A. This is extremely embarrassing, but I
think it was actually from watching a Dr Phil show, years ago. I can't say too
much as it will spoil the plot completely, but I saw a segment that involved a
family and their genetic makeup and asked my husband (a medical specialist)
about it all that evening. This led me to wondering how this family's scenario
might have played out if genetic testing was not available to them, which is the
case in The Heiresses, set in 1920s London.
Q. What other novels in the New Adult
genre would you compare The Heiresses to?
A. I think the obvious comparison is
Anna Godbersen's The Luxe series, because of the historical setting and
the saga-like plot. I love all her books!
Q. What's The Heiresses about?
A. The Heiresses revolves around
triplets Thalia, Erato and Clio. Estranged since birth, they are thrust
together in glittering 1926 London to fight for their inheritance. They quickly
learn they can't trust anyone in their new lives – least of all each other.
I
had an absolute ball writing The
Heiresses with all its dramatic highs and lows. I was even lucky enough to
be living in Cambridge at the time, so had the advantage of being able to
research in London whenever I needed to.
Q. Who are
your favourite authors?
A.
My very favourite author is P.G. Wodehouse. So much so that for Christmas I
received the five book The Jeeves Omnibus set because I'd worn my old five book
set out! Some other favourites are Stella Gibbons and anything at all Mitford.
Q. How long did it take to you to
complete The Heiresses?
A. The
Heiresses was a
little different for me because it was contracted from only a short writing
sample and a series guide. I wrote it very quickly, in under nine months
(altogether, it's roughly 120,000 words). Usually I wouldn't be anywhere near
this fast!
Q. What was the hardest part about
writing The Heiresses?
A. The most difficult part was the
historical research. Although I love to read historical books and watch
documentaries and historical dramas on TV, I hadn't actually written anything
historical before. When I started writing, I found myself stopping after every
second sentence or so to research this point and that point. After a while, I
realised I had to write on and put little 'x' signs where I needed to research
and go back later to do all my research in one session, or I'd never get
anywhere!
Luckily, I wrote The Heiresses
while living in Cambridgeshire in the UK (I usually live in Australia), so
could pop on a fast train and be in London in under an hour to research
anything I liked. Being so close to London was an enormous bonus – from the
London Transport Museum, to simply walking around Belgrave Square, it really
brought the story to life for me. I even managed to crash the village set of
Downton Abbey, which was a hugely exciting day, despite the fact that it snowed
(Australians don't do snow well…)!
Q. Why New Adult?
A. I think it's just a
fascinating time in life -- a time that's difficult to bridge and often scarier
than any other change you've been through. You don't necessarily feel like an
adult, but you have sudden adult responsibilities (working, studying in the
kind of way where no-one cares if you go to classes or not, maybe being a
parent if you have children early…). Everyone has a different experience and
everyone deals with that experience differently. There are endless
story-telling opportunities!
Q. What do you feel the major
differences are between New Adult and Young Adult?
A. For me, it's all about bridging that
gap between childhood and adulthood and the more I see people discuss New
Adult, the more this is firmed up in my mind. I do think people focus too much
on the sexual content of books when talking about the New Adult genre. For me, The
Heiresses is New Adult because of how the girls deal with the sex they are
having in the book (and, to be honest, there isn't a whole lot of sex) and how
it changes them from girls into women, along with all the other happenings in
their new lives.
Q. So much New Adult work is self-published. Is there a reason you chose
the traditional publishing route?
The Heiresses was a bit
of a different publishing experience for me as my agent approached me and
mentioned St Martin's Press was actively looking for New Adult ideas that could
work in serial form. I had the basis of an historical idea that I'd been
thinking about for years and the timing was great as Downton Abbey (set in a
similar time period) was really taking off. Thus, The Heiresses began to
take shape very, very quickly. I'd love to say all my ideas pull off so easily,
but unfortunately that's not quite true (I sold my first chick-lit novel
out of the slush pile and agent-less in 2000 and have many a manuscript in my
bottom drawer)!
Q. Most New Adult books seem to be set in college. Can you tell us more
about writing historical New Adult?
A. As it happens, when I first had the idea for what
would become The Heiresses (years ago), there was no such term as New
Adult. The idea itself meant that the story required three 18-ish year-old
heroines (they needed to be able to inherit money, be of marriageable age, live
away from home and be generally young and fabulous in 1920s London etc.), so it
simply happened to fall into the New Adult genre naturally. As for the world,
I've always adored reading about London in the 1920s and it's a perfect fit for
the New Adult genre -- the years between WWI and WWII were a very heady,
unstable time to be young in England, with death looming and a 'live for the
moment' motto.
Q. What are you reading at the moment?
A. I'm actually on a short New
Adult/Young Adult reading break (might have gorged myself a little there) and
am reading Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which
is absolutely fascinating and horrifying all at the same time.
Q. What
are you writing now?
A. I've just finished a contemporary New
Adult novel. While it's set in the present day, it's not college-based, but is
about a charismatic modern artist and a young woman who becomes his muse. It's
set in Paris, London and New York. My next New Adult novel will most likely be
historical, though.
Q. Do you have any advice for aspiring
New Adult writers?
A. Read
widely and write what you'd love to read. I think it always shows if you're
writing something you're excited about, rather than trying to write to a trend.
Author Info
Having failed at becoming a ballerina with pierced ears (her childhood
dream), Allison Rushby instead began a writing career as a journalism student at
The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Within a few months she had
slunk sideways into studying Russian. By the end of her degree she had learned
two very important things: that she wasn't going to be a journalist; and that
there are hundreds of types of vodka and they're all pretty good. After several
years spent whining about how hard it would be to write a novel, she finally
tried writing one and found it was quite an enjoyable experience. Since then,
she has had nine novels published. She keeps up her education by sampling
new kinds of vodka on a regular basis.
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