Author Crush Friday: Patrice Kindl
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to Patrice Kindl, author of A School for Brides ( Viking Books for Young Readers; July 14, 2015). Thank you for talking to us today, Patrice! We’re honored!
GLITTER: For those who haven’t read your work yet, how would you describe your writing style?
PATRICE: Humor is important to me. I would rather make readers laugh than cry; I feel that comedy is greater than tragedy because tragedy is about endings and death, while comedy is about surviving, about coping and carrying on. I like a squeeze of lemon on my prose, but I am a sucker for a happy ending.
GLITTER: What is the main plot of A School for Brides?
PATRICE: Like my previous novel, Keeping the Castle, A SCHOOL FOR BRIDES is set in the small village of Lesser Hoo on the coast of the North Sea in Yorkshire, England, but features a (mostly) new set of characters.. Educating females in the early 19th century amounted to teaching them the practical skills they would need in running a household as well as applying a gloss of culture which would allow them to attract a husband. Sadly, Lesser Hoo has a superabundance of unattached young ladies (the students of the local finishing school) and a serious lack of eligible young gentlemen for them to marry. A SCHOOL FOR BRIDES follows the fortunes of the girls in their search for happiness – whether that includes matrimony or not. Mysteries abound, along with stolen necklaces, dubious suitors and a great shaggy dog named Wolfie.
GLITTER: What one message would you like readers to walk away with when they’re done reading A School for Brides?
PATRICE: In the last chapter I set out my own personal feelings about marriage. I have been very happily married for nearly forty years, so I naturally am kindly disposed to the state. However, I do realize that not everyone needs to be married to be content with life. Figure out what will work best for you, and if you can find a mate you will like as well as love, know that you are lucky, indeed.
GLITTER: Were you a reader of Jane Austen as a child? Did she influence your writing in any way?
PATRICE: Oh, yes, of course! I remember reading her as a teen and realizing that her work was as much about money as it was about love, which I thought was hilarious. My one criticism of many fine Regency novels and retellings of Miss Austen’s novels is that they lack her humor. I love Miss Austen, and she is the reason for my writing a Regency. I may be no Jane Austen myself, but I can pay tribute.
GLITTER: How would you describe your characters in A School for Brides? Who is your favorite character and why?
PATRICE: Hmm. I guess I would describe them as, ‘varied.’ With such a large cast it is essential that each character be different so you can tell them apart. Which is my favorite? I’d say it was a toss-up between the evil governess, Miss le Strange, and Wolfie, the dog. Wolfie is patterned after Boufe, my beloved and no-longer-with-us Newfoundland dog. I like Miss le Strange because she makes me laugh.
GLITTER: What one book of yours would you love to see turned into a movie or TV show?
PATRICE: Oh, dear, I have to pick? Any of them. It would be fascinating to see your own words made flesh. Of course, there is always the possibility you might not like the result, but such is life: you have to be willing to take the risk.
GLITTER: What jobs have you had in the past?
PATRICE: Paid jobs: actress, secretary, waitress, and bookkeeper. Volunteer jobs: Rape Crisis counsellor, museum docent, and monkey trainer (seriously – for eleven years I was a foster parent to monkeys who were being trained to be aides to quadriplegics).
GLITTER: What genre do you prefer writing?
PATRICE: It’s more a question of ‘What genre don’t I like writing?’ I have written, and enjoyed writing, fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, Regency romance, and my next book is contemporary fiction. What I like is to be allowed to write in many different genres and I am deeply grateful that I have had the chance to do so.
GLITTER: Who inspires you?
PATRICE: My contractor, Rich, who always seems to need more money for building and repair projects. Sorry! He is staring in at me as I type, rebuilding the leaky windows in our elderly (1830) Greek Revival house. Otherwise, like most writers, I’m a voracious reader, getting through about four books a week. The list of my favorite authors is long and ever-changing. One author who is always near the top of that list is, obviously, Jane Austen.
In addition to A School for Brides and Keeping the Castle, Patrice Kindl (www.patricekindl.com) is the author of four other novels, the best known of which is the acclaimed Owl in Love. She lives with her husband and a variety of animals in upstate New York.
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