Kathleen Tessaro-Interview and Giveaway with the Author

TRC: Hi Kathleen and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the success of The Perfume Collector.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

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Kathleen: I’m fairly dull; I was raised in Pittsburgh, a very poor and rebellious student, managed somehow to get into drama school then traveled to England to study acting in the middle of the second year of my drama program. I stayed in London for the next twenty-three years, married and divorced several times, had numerous odd jobs, realized I was not cut out for the life of an actress (I’m appalling), and was at a very dead end in my life when someone suggested I put pen to paper. Then, clearly, I got lucky. I’ve published five novels now and am working on my sixth.

TRC: You lived a good portion of your adult life in England and in 2009 returned to the USA. If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would you like to live and why?

Kathleen: I’d move back to London. It’s an amazing, very eccentric, sophisticated and culturally vibrant place.

TRC: THE PERFUME COLLECTOR is your latest release in the historical fiction genre focusing on two women-one from the 1920’s and the other from the 1950’s. Would you please tell us something about the premise? (See my review below)

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Kathleen: The story concerns a young woman in 1950’s London who receives a letter one day from a law firm in France informing her that she’s the sole beneficiary in a will by a woman she’s never heard of, Madame Eva D’Orsey. Convinced there’s been a mistake, she travels to Paris only to learn the inheritance is real. In searching for clues as to her connection with this woman, she discovers that Eva was a muse to a very talented but difficult perfumer, Valmont. The rest of the story is revealed in the three distinctive fragrances Valmont created to honor her.

TRC: What or who was the inspiration behind The Perfume Collector and the leading characters?

Kathleen: I knew that I wanted to write a book where perfume and the connection between scent and memory was a central theme. The basic premise came from a conversation I had years earlier with a friend of mine, a woman in her fifties and a member of the English aristocracy who confided in me that when she was twenty-one, she suddenly inherited a flat in Paris from a man she’d never heard of and the impact that event had on her life and identity.

TRC: Are any of the characters or situations in the storyline based in reality or an amalgamation of your imagination and current headlines?

Kathleen: The main storyline I’ve just described came from real life but I also discovered a lot of inspiration about perfumers and perfume creation during my research. The character of Madame Zed, who created Mon Peche (My Sin) for Lanvin in 1924 was a real person – a mysterious Russian woman who formulated perhaps as many as fourteen perfumes for Lanvin before disappearing completely after the success on My Sin. Who she was and what happened to her were two questions I couldn’t leave unanswered in my novel.

TRC: If you could virtually cast the leading characters in the series, which models or actors would be represent your projected image?

Kathleen: When I imagine Lambert I think of Michael Fassbender, Roman Duris for Valmont, Marion Cotillard for Eva, and Claire Foy for Grace.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Kathleen: I tend to start out with a strong situation and the characters grow out of that. For example, what if you inherited a flat from a stranger? What if you were a female alcoholic in 1933? What if you found a book in a second hand book store that promised to transform your life?

TRC: Are you a plotter or a pantster?

Kathleen: I think of myself as a flounderer or perhaps a stabber-in-the-dark. I start out with an idea and a fairly clear plot and then as I write the book, things shift completely. That’s part of the fun but also the scary bit. The story you end up with is often different from the idea you had in the beginning. You have to be willing to go along for the ride.

TRC: What challenges or difficulties (research, logistics, historical) did you encounter writing this particular story?

Kathleen: I wrote a completely different ending that no one liked. Then I had to go back and unpick it and start again. It was a bit demoralizing but a lot of writing is like that – you try and fail and then try again. Constructive criticism is hugely valuable. You have to be willing to sacrifice whole chapters, characters and themes in order to make a book function, and trust that there’s more where that came from.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors or friends and family. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Kathleen: I have a number of writer friends I depend upon and of course my editors and agents.

TRC: How do you keep the plot unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?

Kathleen: I don’t think about it from that point of view. After you’ve done a fair amount of research, you realize that real life is far more outrageous than any plot you can come up with. So I simply focus on telling the story. And of course the story alters as you go along. For example in my new book, set in Boston in 1933, one character has a hangover at work. She opens a desk drawer of one of her colleagues and finds a Benzadrine inhaler. Before my research, I didn’t know that amphetamine inhalers were sold over the counter to clear nasal passages and of course were highly addictive. As soon as I found that out and put one in a desk drawer, I had a whole new plot line to thread into the story – of a young woman who becomes addicted to an over the counter medication. So you see, it’s all a crap shoot!

TRC: How do you handle the pressures and anxiety of deadlines while still having time to raise a family?

Kathleen: I fail at both.

TRC: If you could be a contestant on a reality television program, which program would you chose and why?

Kathleen: Maybe Project Runway….I can’t sew or design but I’d like to meet Tim Gunn. I often wish he would visit me at my desk while I’m writing and tell me to “make it work”.

TRC: If you could select a decade or ‘era’ other than NOW, at which time period would you have liked to have lived and why?

Kathleen: I’m researching the 1930’s right now, so that era is interesting to me. But as a woman, the idea of living in the past is very mixed. I can’t help but feel blessed to be alive in an age when I have ready access to health care, contraception, freedom of choice, education, career opportunities, political power….the more I study women’s positions even in the recent past, the more I’m struck by the huge limitations they were forced to live with and the enormous battles we’ve had to fight to get where we are. So, despite the nostalgia of the past, I don’t want to got back – only forward.

TRC: What are your thoughts on book reviews-good or bad?

Kathleen: No book is perfect. That said, the more you’re exposed to reviews, the more you realize that readers bring their own agendas to the experience, an agenda that often has little to do with you or your work. In that respect, its quite freeing. You have to find your own value and believe in your work independently of what others think.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Kathleen: It’s a novel set in an antiquarian shop in Boston in the early 1930’s during the Depression, called Rare Objects. I’ve got a struggling young woman with a secret to hide, some extremely rare Greek artifacts that have been smuggled into the country and a very dangerous love triangle.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Kathleen: Thank you for having me and for supporting my books! Of all the reviews I encounter, the ones from genuine readers (who read for the sake of reading) are the most helpful to me and the most enlightening.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food: tomatoes

Favorite Dessert: ice cream, any flavor

Favorite TV Show: Sherlock

Last Movie You Saw: The Way Way Back

Dark or Milk Chocolate: Milk, preferably with hazelnuts and raisins

Favorite Flower: white sweet peas, white roses, white hyacinth

Last Vacation Destination: London

Pet Peeve: people who spit in public

Secret Celebrity Crush: Helen Mirren

TRC: Thank you Kathleen for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the success of The Perfume Collector. We wish you all the best.

Kathleen and Harper Collins are offering one hard cover copy of THE PERFUME COLLECTOR to five (5) lucky readers at The Reading Cafe.

NOTE: There will be up to  5 (five) winners with this giveaway

1. Please register using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

2. If you are using a social log-in please post your email address with your comment.

3. Giveaway runs from August 22 to August 27, 2013.

4. Giveaway is open to USA only.

Please note: This is a reposting of my review of THE PERFUME COLLECTOR by Kathleen Tessaro

THE PERFUME COLLECTOR by Kathleen Tessaro

ABOUT THE BOOK: Released May 2013

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London, 1955: Grace Monroe is a young newlywed, eager to make a success of her marriage. However, with her intellectual curiosity and her unladylike talent for advanced mathematics, she finds the routine of elegant luncheons and exclusive parties among post-war London’ s social set more tiresome than exciting.

When Grace receives an unexpected inheritance from a woman she’ s never met, she finds herself suddenly in Paris, embarking upon a journey to discover not only the identity of her mysterious benefactor but also the hidden secrets of her own past.

In a story that takes us from New York in the 1920s to mid-century Monte Carlo, Paris and London, Grace discovers a world filled with the evocative, intoxicating power of perfume; an obsessive, desperate love between muse and artist; and a trail of dark memories that may mean she isn’t the person she thinks she is at all

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REVIEW: THE PERFUME COLLECTOR is a fictional storyline that covers a tumultuous time in the lives of two women: Grace Monroe is a newly married woman in the 1950s whose sole purpose is to support her husband at social events and business parties. The other is Eva-a young teen in the 1920s who will learn first hand that there are people willing to take advantage of a naïve and innocent girl. And in the end, lives will be destroyed, reputations ruined and one woman will discover that her entire life has been a lie. Starting over will bring about a new set of ideals and revelations where she will discover the real person inside. The Perfume Collector is one woman’s story of self-discovery and independence brought about by a stranger with a gift and a story that has yet to be told.

We follow Grace as she embarks on a journey that will question the direction of her current life. When an unexpected inheritance from a stranger is thrust into her possession, Grace sets out to uncover the mystery surrounding the money and the woman from whom it was bequeathed. Most of the storyline premise is told in flashbacks and recollections from two specific eras.

The storyline alternates smoothly between the 1920s and 1954; from New York to London to Paris. Eva is a young girl, barely a teen, who must grow up quickly when life presents many opportunities and choices. She will find herself in debt to a man who neither loves her nor wants her, but a man who is in desperate need of something only Eva can supply. Hoping to repay the debt, Eva learns that she has lost so much more than her freedom but herself. This particular part of the storyline is darker in content and premise.

The character and world building are fluid and reflects the ideals and beliefs/emotions of the eras. Kathleen Tessaro pulls the reader into a storyline that tantalizes the senses: from sight and sound to the scents of rain and seduction-you can almost smell the very essence of the perfume. We watch as two women grow into themselves but one will eventually lose the battle when the sins of the past catch up rather quickly.

The Perfume Collector is a well-written, colorful storyline with a predictable plot but one that will keep your interest until the very end. The story builds on the premise of Grace’s hunt for information regarding the woman who named her as soul beneficiary and heir to a large estate. Along the way, we are introduced to a number of characters from past and present whose very existence has affected Grace’s life in 1954 and the one woman who is able to connect the timelines and stories together.

Copy supplied by the publisher.

Reviewed by Sandy