Art In Fiction

Join me as I chat with Margaret Ann Philbrick, author of two novels listed on Art In FIction: House of  Honor listed in the Visual Arts category and A Minor listed in the Music category.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vUuYVDmYdDQ

• Genesis of House of Honor
• Obession with the life and work of Caravaggio
• Heist of Caravaggio's Nativity (still unsolved) as inspiration for the novel
• Use of color plates of Carava...

Join me as I chat with Margaret Porter, author of four novels listed on Art In FIction, including A Change of Location, The Limits of Limelight, and Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr listed in the Film category, and The Myrtle Wand listed in the Dance category.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ijPu_SVzY1c

• Why switch to a new genre: "romcom" from historical fiction?
• Writing fiction as a &quo...

Join me as I chat with Zoe Disigny, author of The Art of Traveling Strangers, listed in the Visual Arts category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dYPEJThuFqk

• Inspiration for The Art of Traveling Strangers, based on an experience Zoe had while hosting art tours of Europe in the 1980s.
• How her background as an art history professor helped her write her novel
• Making art accessible in The Art of ...

Join me as I chat with Barbara Quick, author of Vivaldi's Virgins and What Disappears, both listed in the Visual Arts category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nYq1nLL4xv4

• Inspiration for What Disappears going back several decades to when Barbara was just 22 years old.
• Revisiting old work after it's "ripened."
• The role of idential twins in What Disappears.
• Writing a great v...

Join me as I chat with Linda Moore, author of Attribution and Five Days in Bogotá, both listed in the Visual Arts category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X33FE57ZDk4 

• How Linda's background as the owner of an art gallery and her experience at an art fair in Colombia in the 1990s helped inspire her to write Five Days in Bogotá.
• The political situation in Colombia and how it's chan...

Listen in as I chat with Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight, co-authors of Can't We Be Friends: A Novel of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe listed in the Music category on Art In Fiction.

View the Video on YouTube

• How Denny & Eliza decided to write their novel about Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe
• Research tidbits that led them into the story
• How both Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe changed the face of enter...

Join  me as I chat with Daisy Goodwin, author of Diva listed in the Music category on Art In Fiction.

View the Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dYCDxSyXwAU

Highlights include:

• Why Daisy chose to write a novel about Maria Callas, the great opera singer
• The nature of the female genius
• What's a Diva?
• Writing about a real person -- getting into their head
• Maria Callas's difficult relationship with her mothe...

Join  me as I chat with Nancy Bilyeau, author of several arts-inspired novels on Art In Fiction, including The Orchid Hour about a speakeasy in 1923 Jazz Age New York and listed in the Theater category on Art In Fiction.

View the Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CvIYJYb-PfQ

Highlights include:

• Why Nancy set her latest novel in Prohibition-era New York
• The role played by the Italian American immigrant community...

Listen in as I chat with ReShonda Tate, the best-selling author of dozens of novels including The Queen of Sugar Hill, ReShonda's first historical novel. It's listed in the Film category on Art In Fiction.

View the Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aIofW073t_U

Highlights include:

• Why write a novel about Hattie McDaniel, famous for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind and being the first Black person t...

Natasha Lester, the New York Times best-selling author of nine novels. joins me on the Art In Fiction Podcast to chat about her latest novel, The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard, listed in the Textile Arts category.

NEW on The Art In Fiction Podcast: Watch my interview on YouTube!

Highlights include:

• Summary of The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard - role played by the Battle of Verseilles in November 1973
• Challen...

Listen in as I chat with Susanne Dunlap, author of more than a dozen historical novels for adults and teens. Susanne joins me on the Art In Fiction Podcast to discuss one of her newest novels, The Courtesan's Daughter, listed in the Film category on Art In Fiction.

NEW on The Art In Fiction Podcast: Watch my interview on YouTube!

Highlights include:

• Inspiration for The Courtesan's Daughter - Alice Gu...

Listen in as I chat with Madeline Martin, the New York Times bestselling author of novels set in World War II along with dozens of romance novels. Madeline joins me on the Art In Fiction Podcast to discuss her three novels listed in the Literature category on Art In Fiction:  The Last Bookshop in London, The Librarian Spy and her newest novel, The Keeper of Hidden Books. 

Highlights include:

• Why Madeline chose books as ...

In this episode, I'm chatting with Pip Williams, author of two novels featured in the Literature category on Art In Fiction: The Dictionary of Lost Words andThe Bookbinder. 

Highlights include:

• The Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford University Press as inspiration for both novels.
• Finding treasure in the archives of Oxford University Press.
• Inspiration for The Bookbinder and an examination of women's work befo...

In this episode, I'm chatting with Nicola Harrision, author of two novels featured on Art In Fiction: Laguna Beach in the Visual Arts category and The Show Girl  in the Theater category. 

Highlights include:

• Origins of Laguna Beach as the story of a woman who had been a Rosie the Riveter in WWII only to be thanked and sent on her way at the end of the War.
• The Pageant of the Masters--a unique art event that's b...

I'm chatting with Liza Nash Taylor, author of Etiquette for Runaways and In All Good Faith.

Highlights include:

•  Origins of Etiquette for Runaways (Hint: don't text and talk!)
• Moll Flanders as inspiration for the main character May Marshall
• Finding Easter Eggs to inspire plot
• What happens when a fully formed character pops into your head and just won't go away
• Prohibition-era moonshine in Etiquette for Runawa...

Join me as I chat with Samantha Silva, author of Love and Fury and Mr. Dickens and His Carol.

Highlights:

• Origins of Love and Fury
• Why Mary Wollstonecraft--her life, her writing, and her ongoing contribution as the "first feminist"
• Structuring Love and Fury - the use of ten plot points
• Sense and sensibility in Love and Fury
• Mary Wollstonecraft's long road back into public consciousness a hundred years after h...

Join me as I chat with Finola Austin, author of the award-winning debut novel Brontë's Mistress.

Highlights:

• Origins of Brontë's Mistress
• Investigating Lydia Robinson, rumored to have had an affair with Branwell Brontë, the n'er-do-well brother of the famous Brontë sisters
• Inspiration from Mrs. Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë
• Contrast between Lydia Robinson and the typical Brontë heroine
• Using Re...

Join me as I chat with Lauren Belfer, author of several riveting historical novels including And After the Fire and A Fierce Radiance.   

Highlights:

• Genesis of And After the Fire
• Learning about the music of Johann Sebastian Bach
• Salons of 19th-century Berlin and Fanny Mendelsohn
• Role of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach in the novel
• Fanny Mendelsohn's fraught relationship with her brother Felix Men...

Join me as I chat with Lynn Cullen, author of several novels including Mrs. Poe and Twain's End.   

Highlights:

• Genesis of Twain's End
• Shocking truths about Mark Twain
• Hal Holbrook, Mark Twain, and Isabelle Lyon
• How would we label Mark Twain in this age of psychological profiling?
• Francis Osgood and her relationship with Edgar Allen Poe in Mrs. Poe
• Poe and the popularity of The Raven
• Depicting the complexity of roma...