What's next?

A reader writes: "Are you going to write more stories about the court of the Sun King? You did such a great job with the historical details and as I have studied Louis XIV and his court — there are plenty of interesting stories to tell (including the adventures of the Princess Palatine, even La Grande Mademoiselle and Lauzun, a couple that united even after a prison term and old age only to break up over greed). You could even do a trilogy of Louis XIV's Mistresses — you've done La Vallière, next could be Montespan, then Maintenon (the king's mistress, then second wife). Or a novel on Princess Henrietta as she has a tragic back story with her father being killed, her brothers Charles and James, and she had several romances during her marriage to her cousin Monsieur that are interesting reading, including one lover who was her husband's boyfriend who falls for Henrietta and became a master of disguise to see her at any cost (De Guiche--who visited her as a fortune teller, a litter bearer and in a domino so he could romance her in Philippe's presence at a masked ball).

What wonderful suggestions! I am considering writing a novel about Athénaïs (Montespan), but it might focus on her first engagement more than her relationship to the king. I'm not sure. It could also be a story told from the point-of-view of Des Oeillets, her maid who was the go-between between Athénaïs and Voisin, the convicted poisoner.

I love the De Guiche stories, and in fact wrote many scenes of him hiding in the fireplace and disguised as a fortune-teller, etc., but these scenes, like many, many others, now lodge in my cut file.

As this reader points out, there is a wealth of wonderful stories to be told. The hard part is choosing.

About Josephine B.

For a Q&A about Josephine B., see this article on my website.

About my research method

How do you go about your research?

First, every document I consult is assigned a number. (See my Sun Court bibliographies here.)

I begin with recording facts — what happened when — to a timeline. Over the years I've evolved a fairly complex method, colour-coding and staggering the entries from the point-of-view of the main character: her personal timeline at the far left, then her family and friends, moving across the page with events in the world coming in on the far right. This way, on any day, I can see more or less what is happening to my character, her loved ones, her enemies, on the political front, etc. Here is a clip from a page:

On this page, the black type relates to Petite, the red to the King's cousin, La Grande Mademoiselle, the blue to the King. My own thoughts, questions, etc. are in grey type, and events of particular interest are highlighted in yellow. I reference each item by document number and page number.

The timeline for Mistress of the Sun grew to over 600 pages! There were times when I thought I was writing a timeline, not a novel.

For facts about daily life and individuals, I use Notebook, a Mac outlining software program, again referencing details with book and page number.

An outlining program such as this one is useful because I can search it easily. The important thing about a research method — any research method — is evolving a way to store facts so one can easily find what one needs to know.

And then, of course, there is what I call experiential research: the travel and other research (such as taking a Baroque dancing class, traveling on horseback, or spending a week in a silent monastary). I generally begin with the academic research; then, once I've written a draft and know what I need to know, I begin the travel and other research. I write many drafts, continuing to research as I go. If I hit a dry spell, research will invariably replenish me.

(Note: see also the research page on my website.)

Questions I'm most often asked

How much is fact and how much fiction?

This is a difficult question to answer. I usually ask: "For example?" Specifically, I can say yes, Josephine owned a disagreeable dog named Fortunè, or that yes, she escaped Martinique under cannon fire, but in general…?

In general, the facts are the bones of the story, the fiction flesh. I tend to be obsessive about accuracy—so my novels are based on fact as much as is possible. Aside from the details of daily life, the specific dialogue, much of what happens in the novels has a basis in some historical text. I comb journals, memoirs and letters collecting nuggets of information much in the same way some people collect stamps. When Josephine and Alexandre marry, for example, and one of the men in Alexandre's regiment is unable to attend because of "an indisposition" going around Versailles, there is, in fact, "an indisposition" going around Versailles at that time.

Facts can be misleading, however. Many accounts are contradictory, suspect, or difficult to judge. When Josephine was in prison, for example, did she in fact tell her cellmate that she would not die, that she would become Queen? Did a woman outside the prison window signal that Robespierre was dead? This is a story Josephine liked to tell, so I'm inclined to believe it, but to what extent might she (and others) have created fictions of their own?

Robespierre said, "History is fiction," and I have to agree. The line between fact and fiction is a very difficult one to define. The more one delves into the past, the more fact sometimes resembles fiction and fiction fact. My intent has been to use fiction as a tool, as a means of knowing Josephine and experiencing her world. It is important for me to feel that my fictional history could, in fact, have happened. While writing, I think of my evolving novel as one might view an archaeological dig: with each draft I want to dig down closer to "the truth." To that end I have respected facts as welcome signposts in a wilderness. In the process I have also come to regard certain "facts" as fiction. In the realm of scholarship on the subject of Josephine, many questions remain.

Are you ever criticized by historians?

Surprisingly enough: no. When The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. — the first Josephine B. title — was published I braced myself for an attack by what I thought of as the historical police. But silence. In fact, to my very great surprise, when the first of the Trilogy came out in France, a French historian called my publisher to congratulate her on publishing it. Years later my work was recommended by French historians to a PBS producer of a documentary on Napoleon, which lead to me being interviewed for that series along with historians I admired so much. It was pointed out to me at the time that it was unusual for a novelist to be included as an "expert" in such a program.

Who is your favorite character: Josephine or Louise?

It's like choosing between children to select one character over another. I'm terribly fond of both Josephine and Louise. Of the two, I would love to have Josephine as a friend or a dinner-party guest, but I think I would prefer to be Louise, because of her passion for horses and the wild.

What is your next novel going to be about? Do you envision more than one book about Louise? You must have discovered so many interesting people in your years of researching Mistress of the Sun. Do you plan to focus on one of these characters in future novels?

There are so many fascinating characters — so many fascinating stories — in this period, I will definitely be writing more about them. Louise will be in these novels, but as a secondarly-character. (For a more detailed answer on the specific possiblilities, see the answer to the question "What's next?")

How do you work? (Do you work on computer or do you write long-hand? In the morning or at night?)

I write first thing in the morning, beginning before dawn. I'll break at 8:00 or so to dress and have breakfast, then return to my desk. I'll carry on as long as the demands of life will allow, which is usually until 1:00. I write on computer, but edit on the page ("hard copy"). There is never enough time.

What interested you about Louise de la Vallière?

A reader recently wrote: "I enjoyed the book very much--you did the near impossible--you brought Louise Vallière to life and made her a comprehensible and touching character to modern eyes. Usually in most histories on Louis XIV, she is presented as crying ninny who goes off to a convent when Louis moves into Versailles, but you actually made her life interesting."

For me it was the contrast of the conventional portrait of Louise as, as the reader says, a "crying ninny" and wall-flower, together with the accounts of her amazing ability on horseback and as a hunter that provoked my curiosity. "What's wrong with this picture?" I thought. And thus began my consuming interest in her.

About historical fiction

Are you generally a fan of historical novels? If so, which are your favorites?

I am a fan of what I would call literary historical novels—slow, gritty but poetic novels that often end unhappily. I love Rose Tremain's work—my favorite is Music & Silence. Sarah Water's Fingersmith is brilliant. Hans Koning's A Walk with Love and Death is a spare, elegant historical novel I've read several times over. Geraldine Brook's Year of Wonder is a wonder, as is Tracy Chevallier's Girl with a Pearl Earring. I loved Enemy Women by Paulette Giles. More recently: The Hummingbird's Daughter by Urrea has to be one of the best novels I've ever read. Imposture by Benjamin Markovits is stunning, as is Coal Black Horse, by Robert Olmstead. Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants is irresistible. I read these authors with awe.

About Diablo and Bone Magic

How did you get the idea for Diablo? What does he represent to Petite?

Where do ideas come from? It's such a dream-like process.

In 1990, while I was first learning about the life of Louise de la Vallière, a friend told me a story about healing a horse nobody dared touch. I knitted this account into a short story about Louise—a passionate fable in which she ultimately kills the horse she loves. In this story—the kernel of what ultimately, many years later, became Mistress of the Sun—the King's horse, a dangerous black stallion named Hannibal, was dying. Petite is able to approach the horse and save it, thus beginning her relationship with the King.

I started writing the novel version of this short story in 1992. I had just finished writing The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., the first of what was to become the Josephine B. Trilogy, and my agent was looking for a publisher for it. The following year I was offered a contract, so I (rather reluctantly) put the novel about Louise away, planning to return to it once the trilogy was finished.

In 1999, I went to France, to Paris. It was my last research trip for Josephine. On a trip to the Louvre, I wept leaving David's magnificent painting, Coronation of Josephine, knowing that I would soon be leaving Josephine's world. On the way out of the Louvre, I bought a postcard of a painting of a white horse ("Head of a White Horse" by Theodore Gericault, above). This was my lifeline to the next book—something to draw me forward, something to help me leave Josephine behind. [I have written about this experience on my blog.]

This, then, is where Diablo began, with that horse portrait, which I put above my desk. What does he represent to Petite? I think Diablo represents connection with a true and wild animal spirit: her own wild, animal spirit.

Petite has such a love of horses. Do you have an affinity for them, or other animals, as well? If not, what is your great passion?

I am what is called "a horse person"—I have an elderly Thoroughbred, Finnegan, a noble gentleman, if ever there was one.

One of the reasons history attracts me is that is a world of horses. The greatest pleasure in researching Louise's story was learning about horsemanship in the 17th century. Bone magic really was something used to tame horses, and was believed to make men go mad, "Gone to the river."

About Mistress of the Sun

Tell us about your novel, Mistress of the Sun.

Set in 17th century France, Mistress of the Sun is a novel about Louise de la Vallière (pronounced valley-air), a name that will likely be unfamiliar to people outside of France. I love her, and think my readers will as well.

The novel was eight years in the making, but my passion for Louise's story began well over fifteen years ago. As mistress to Louis XIV, the Sun King (the rock star of kings), she was, in effect, the "real" wife to one of the most powerful and charismatic kings in history.

Like Josephine, Louise—affectionately called Petite—was an unlikely young woman to rise to such a prominent position. She was of relatively modest birth, an unambitious and, although cultured and intellectual, a somewhat unsophisticated young woman. Most notably, she was a tomboy. It was this last that most appealed to Louis, I suspect, for he was a passionate hunter and rider, and Louise was more than his equal in the wild.

The Sun King's mistress, a Carmelite nun, a Devil on horseback: Louise fascinated me. It was the contrast of these qualities in her that intrigued me: she was shy, yet daring on horseback; she was devout, yet France's official "fallen woman." Entwined with her story is that of magical Versailles, the one place where she and Louis could be freely together.

As well, it's a remarkable period, at the early stages of modernism, yet with strong elements of the Middle Ages. Witchcraft was no longer punishable by death, for example, but that didn't mean it wasn't practiced: and with dire results. What interested me most was the discovery of "bone magic," a type of witchcraft practiced on horses.

The plot

The novel opens in late summer of 1650, in a small town in the Loire Valley in France. The main character, Louise de la Vallière—known as Petite—has just turned 6, and she has just been smitten by a wild horse, named Diablo, which she secretly tames using Black Magic.

Over the next decade, Petite matures, ending up with her family in Paris on the periphery of the Royal court, where, ultimately, she becomes maid-of-honour to Henriette, the Sun King's sister-in-law, and she falls for the considerable charms of the charismatic Sun King.

One tragedy follows another and the novel ends in February of 1671, Ash Wednesday, when Petite flees. Some might call it a tragic ending, but although it is certainly not a happily-ever-after story, I feel that the ending is victorious.

How did you come upon Louise's story, and why did you decide to write about her?

I looked into Louise's story because a biography of her was popular in Josephine's time. I wanted to know more about what my own characters were reading, find out what interested them. And was swept away! Mainly I was intrigued by Louise’s horsemanship, which was extraordinary for a woman at that time. She is described as shy, something of a wallflower, and yet an Amazon on horseback. She was religious, yet the official mistress. The pieces of this puzzle didn't fit: I wanted to know more. And thus begins that long journey — writing a novel.

Why did you decide to write the epilogue from Louise’s daughter, Marie-Anne’s point of view?

Mistress of the Sun evolved through countless drafts: there have been many endings!

I had initially planned to write an afterword, explaining what happened, and to whom. I felt that the reader would want to know. Marie-Anne was, in fact, present at her mother's death: something I found very moving. I chose her first person point-of-view because it felt right, and because Marie-Anne was in a position to inform us of what happened to her brother, her grandmother, her uncle, her father—so I gave it a try.

I emailed Marie-Anne's account of her mother's death to my editors, and they loved it. Even so, I wasn't sure if it worked . . . and I didn't really know until I read the novel through from beginning to end (for the hundredth time). Marie-Anne's account made me cry: I knew then that it was the right way to end the novel.

How were the covers designed? Were you involved?

A number of people ask me whether or not I was involved in the design of my book covers—especially now, because the covers of the Canadian and the U.S. editions are quite different. One reader wrote: "What kind of role does the author play in choosing their cover art? Are you hands on, or do you go with the work the publishing house chooses?"

I don't know how it is with other authors, but I had a great deal of correspondence with both my Canadian and U.S. editors about the cover designs. Together we searched for ideas, brain-stormed, corresponded back and forth. I think both editions are handsome ; some readers love one, and some the other.

The missing scenes:

A reader writes: I enjoyed the book very much--you did the near impossible--you brought Louise Vallière to life and made her a comprehensible and touching character to modern eyes. Usually in most histories on Louis XIV, she is presented as crying ninny who goes off to a convent when Louis moves into Versailles, but you actually made her life interesting. My only quibble is that you left out some of the more dramatic stories on Louise--like her riding to the front to see the king without his permission, the queen refusing to feed her, the queen remarking on La Vallière's earrings, the queen tormenting La Vallière for being pale after her secret birth, Montespan hypocritically taunting La Vallière publicly for being the king's mistress when she was also involved with him at the exact same time, etc.

I knew that readers who knew Louise's story well would note that there are some scenes missing. These are dramatic scenes and I thought of them at length, and wrote them. I wrote the scene of Louise riding to the front, and her humiliation after several times over, but I could never seem to get it right. Plus, historically, the accounts are somewhat contradictory. My own feeling is that Henriette may have urged Louise on (Voltaire claims that Henriette provided a carriage and horses), and certainly the sister-in-law may have been insistent. It's also possible that Louis sent for Louise (he needed a cover, after all, for his affair with Athénaïs). As for the horses bolting across the fields in front of the Queen: I can't understand it. It is so out of Louise's character.

As for Athénaïs scorning Louise to the Queen—Louise was not present when this happened, and for this novel I've held to either Louise's point-of-view or the point-of-view of someone who was near her. If I write about Athénaïs, these scenes will likely be part of her story.

The painful part of writing historical fiction is that so much must be taken out for the story to work. My cut files are three times the length of the novel!

About Louise de la Vallière

Why did you choose to focus on Louise de la Vallière?

Louise captured my interest because of her horsemanship, and the romance of her relationship to the Sun King. She was unsophisticated, a tomboy, from the lower nobility—an unlikely young woman to capture the heart of a powerful and charismatic man like the Sun King (the rock star of kings). How did this come about?

Most of all, I wondered how a young woman at that time would acquire such a high level of skill riding horses. Today she would be considered at an Olympic level of accomplishment.

There were so many unanswered questions. She is described as timid, something of a wall flower; yet how did does jive with her prowess on horseback? She was a daring horsewoman, a mistress to the Sun King, a Carmelite nun. The combination of these qualities intrigued me.

When did you first learn of Louise de la Vallière?

I became interested in Louise de la Vallière while doing research on Josephine Bonaparte. There was a biography of Louise published at that time. I was curious, so I looked into it. As with Josephine, I was swept away.

Initially, I wrote a short story about her, and then I decided that it had to be a novel. I began that novel after finishing The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., but put it aside about six months later when I was offered the contract for the Josephine B. trilogy. I put all my notes, my initial drafts, into a box to be opened when I finished The Last Great Dance on Earth. Little did I know that it would be almost six years later.

About the research for this novel

You go into great detail in this novel—the descriptions of the clothes, jewelry, palaces, food, parties, etc. paint a very vivid picture. How did you research Mistress of the Sun? Was there anything about 17th Century France that surprised you?

I love studying the details of daily life more than any other aspect of the research. It's an endlessly fascinating subject.

I use the Net a great deal, although my main source of information continues to be books—both memoirs and accounts written during the period as well as historical texts. I record notes on computer, which makes it easy to search and find what I need, when I need it.

It was a difficult period for me to come to understand, in large part because of the intensely spiritual—as well as superstitious—out-look that was fairly universal at that time. Even the mathematician Descartes, founder of the empirical method, believed bad dreams were planted in his head by demons. This was a surprise.

Perhaps the hardest part of "time travel" is understanding the ways in which perception was very different from our own—as well as the ways in which it was very much the same.

What was the greatest challenge in writing a novel based on real people and events from the 17th Century?

Any novel based on fact faces a number of challenges: the greatest being crafting a story, a narrative arc out of random events. One has to find the story in the facts, and then allow that story to flower. Often that means letting go of the facts. It's difficult to be true to both, and ultimately the story is what matters most in fiction.

On another level, I feel that truth can be revealed in this way—an emotional truth that may not be evident in the bare facts.

On a practical level, logistics in the 17th century were never simple. Getting from point A to point B could prove to be extremely complex (at least from our perspective). Ideology, perspective: these were challenging to come to grips with. Intimate details of daily life: these are very hard to uncover. And what in fact did happen? There are, invariably, differing accounts. One has to become a sleuth.

Have you ever been to France yourself? If so, did you visit any of the locations mentioned in Mistress of the Sun?

I went to France three times while writing this book. I saw the chateau in which Petite grew up, saw where she was born in Tours, visited the convent (now a school of music) where her aunt Angélique was a nun. In coming to understand her life, I went to Amboise, Blois, Fontainebleau, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris (touring the Louvre, the Luxembourg and Vincennes), Vaux-le-Vicomte, and—of course, several times over—Versailles. On-site research is essential when writing historical fiction—but it is also one of the great pleasures of the work.

What interests you most about this era in history?

The era of the Sun King is enormously fascinating. Under the rule of Louis XIV, France emerged as a world super-power, politically, economically as well as culturally. Of special interest to me, are the more domestic details: the fact that the concept of being "in fashion" began at that time (and of course it had to be French).

You must have discovered so many interesting people in your years of researching Mistress of the Sun. Do you plan to focus on one of these characters in future novels?

There are so many fascinating characters—so many fascinating stories—in this period. I will definitely be writing more about them.

About this, another reader writes: "Are you going to write more stories about the court of the Sun King? You did such a great job with the historical details and as I have studied Louis XIV and his court — there are plenty of interesting stories to tell (including the adventures of the Princess Palatine, even La Grande Mademoiselle and Lauzun, a couple that united even after a prison term and old age only to break up over greed). You could even do a trilogy of Louis XIV's Mistresses — you've done La Vallière, next could be Montespan, then Maintenon (the king's mistress, then second wife). Or a novel on Princess Henrietta as she has a tragic back story with her father being killed, her brothers Charles and James, and she had several romances during her marriage to her cousin Monsieur that are interesting reading, including one lover who was her husband's boyfriend who falls for Henrietta and became a master of disguise to see her at any cost (De Guiche--who visited her as a fortune teller, a litter bearer and in a domino so he could romance her in Philippe's presence at a masked ball).

What wonderful suggestions! I am considering writing a novel about Athénaïs (Montespan), but it might focus on her first engagement more than her relationship to the king. I'm not sure. It could also be a story told from the point-of-view of Des Oeillets, her maid who was the go-between between Athénaïs and Voisin, the convicted poisoner.

I love the De Guiche stories, and in fact wrote many scenes of him hiding in the fireplace and disguised as a fortune-teller, etc., but these scenes, like many, many others, now lodge in my cut file.

As this reader points out, there is a wealth of wonderful stories to be told. The hard part is choosing.

About writing

How long have you been a full-time writer and what did you do before you were a novelist?

I've been a full-time writer for about twenty years. (Yes: do the math. I wrote quite a bit before getting published.) I was a book editor before that, thinking that "some day" I would write my own book. When I turned forty—yes, I'm over sixty now—I realized that "some day" might well be never if I didn't actually begin to...well: write.

Tell us about your writing process.

Didn't Michelangelo say something about creating David by cutting away what David was not? The process of creating historical fiction is like that. I begin with a wealth of history, as teeming in facts and fancy as daily life, and slowly, over may drafts, cut it away to reveal the essential story.

The first thing I do is go through the timeline from my main character's perspective. (See my post "On research.") I note all the events that seem significant. Then I begin to prune, taking out side-paths. One can't include everything. The important thing is to look for the arc of a story.

Your female characters are so multi-dimensional and engaging. How much of yourself do you infuse into them?

(I think they infuse me.)

It takes countless drafts to reveal a character's emotional reality: What was it really like for her? How did she feel? Often it's not until I delve into the details of a scene that the emotional reality becomes apparent. For example, in Mistress of the Sun, the birthing scene at Vincennes was abstract, emotionally distant until I researched 17th century midwifery. The details made it possible for me to feel the scene.

In terms of creating multi-dimensional characters—this, too, is something that develops over time, through all the many drafts. A character may be quite wooden and one-dimensional in early drafts, and then slowly begin to round out, to flower.

Which famous woman throughout history do you find the most remarkable?

I am most interested in women who are plunged into a role for which they were not raised and are ill-prepared. Josephine, daughter of impoverished nobility, becomes Empress. Louise, a devout, rustic, tomboy daughter of minor nobility becomes the Sun King's official mistress. I think I'd likewise be interested in the story of a princess turned pauper.

Joan of Arc truly was remarkable—but there would have to be something about her that provokes my curiosity for me to be drawn to write about her. "Remarkable" is not enough to make a good story—there has to be more, at least for me. I'm very fond of La Grande Mademoiselle, the Sun King's cousin, for example, a bumbling early feminist who completely (and foolishly) lost her head to love. Athénaïs interests me, as well. What made her turn to the Devil?