Sharon Biggs Waller – A Mad Wicked Folly – Review and Interview

 

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Description:
Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London, 1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent, social class means everything, and women are taught to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl.
           
After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her muse—or may be the love of her life. As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out: just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dreams?

Review:

I am still in AWE after reading A MAD, WICKED FOLLY by Sharon Biggs Waller.  I love England and its rich history.  I was so impressed with the amount of research that went into writing this rich and unique novel concerning the Suffragette Movement in England that afforded us modern day women with so many opportunities. 

Our main character, Vicky is strong willed and vibrant.  She wants to be an artist more than anything in the world.  After posing nude at her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French Finishing School and shipped home to England in disgrace.  She was only taking her turn during class and what’s the big deal?  In Edwardian England, it was enough to ruin her chances for a proper marriage and her rights in society.  Her father made his fortune in toilets and her parents don’t want their position in society threatened!   Ironic, isn’t it?  They quickly find a “younger son” to marry Vicky and they work hard to repair her reputation.  Vicky doesn’t care about any of this and she only wants to go to the Royal College of Art.  She works hard on her portfolio and finds herself involved in the Suffragette Movement. 

The events captured this time in England splendidly.  I felt like I was with the women as they sang and marched to Parliament demanding equal rights.  Time after time, Vicky is saved by a police constable named Will Fletcher.  She is drawn to him and uses him as her art muse.  You know that Vicky’s world is going to come crashing down!  Society was very strict and her chances of becoming an accomplished artist are slim.  Will Vicky marry a man that she doesn’t love to please her family or will she work hard at achieving her dreams?  The women in the Suffragette Movement and a certain police constable are on her side! 

This is a brilliantly written novel, I felt like I was part of this great moment in history.  The world was changing, but it came at a high price for some women.  As a fan of a certain television program based on this time period, I have to say the details in A Mad, Wicked Folly are more accurate.  I know that my great, great grandmothers worked in America on getting equal rights for women.  Knowing the hardships that these women had to endure made me teary eyed in some parts of this novel.  Well done Sister Suffragettes!  I highly recommend this novel to all women and the men who love them! 

Reviewed by Jules

Copy provided by publisher

Hi Sharon.  Thank you for taking the time today, to answer some questions for our members at The Reading Café.  We are always looking forward to reading about the author behind the book.

Sharon:  Thank you!  It’s so nice to be here.

TRC:  Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Sharon:  Sure! I’m a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers and I’ve written three non-fiction books about horses.  My latest is called THE ORIGINAL HORSE BIBLE.  I’m a dressage trainer and rider and I live on a ten-acre hobby farm on the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana, just outside of Chicago.  I have two horses, five dairy goats, five geese, 35 chickens, a beehive, two dogs and four cats!  My husband is British, a former Metropolitan mounted police officer, and I met him when I interviewed him for an article. I lived in England with him for six years before we moved home to build our farm.  A MAD, WICKED FOLLY is my debut novel.

TRC: Did you always have an interest in writing?  When and how did you first start writing?

Sharon: I’ve loved writing ever since the first grade when I wrote a story about a little witch and her cat.  My teacher told my mother about it during a parent teacher’s conference and she came home and told me how much she loved the story.  I remember thinking how neat it was that I could make my mom smile like that.  I was an extremely bookish child and I hated not having a book with me. I was always happy when it was free reading period.  I never thought about writing books of my own until I had shoulder surgery in my 20s and my surgeon suggested another occupation besides training horses.  I’d written when I was a park ranger, so I started writing young adult and middle grade novels.  In the meantime I thought it would be great to get some publishing experience so I started querying magazines.  I’ve been writing for 17 years now.

TRC: Your first novel, A Mad Wicked Folly, was released in January.  How did you come up with the idea of this book?

Sharon: When I lived in England I used to walk past Emmeline Pankhurst’s statue in Victoria Gardens near Parliament.  It made me think about what it took to fight for rights when women were so restricted.  And then I thought about being a teen during that time.  What would it take to break free? FOLLY was originally a short story in a bigger novel that wasn’t working.  I loved the protagonist so much that I decided to spin her off into a story of her own.  It took me three years to research and write Vicky’s story.

TRC: Can you please give us a brief description of A Mad Wicked Folly?

Sharon: The story is about upper class Victoria Darling, an Edwardian teen who longs to become a fine artist but is restricted by society.  When she’s caught posing nude for an illicit art class, she’s expelled from her French finishing school and sent home in disgrace.  Her humiliated parents try to tame her by taking away her art and arranging a marriage to a wealthy young man.  Unwilling to give up her dream, Vicky tries to get into the Royal College of Art, despite the obstacles.  When she falls in with a group of suffragettes and meets a handsome young police constable who becomes her muse, and maybe the love of her life, Vicky has to decide whether to remain in a world where she feels safe or to step out into an unknown world where her voice is heard and her opinions matter.

TRC: This is considered a Young Adult genre. Can you please tell us what made you decide to do a Y.A. novel?

Sharon: I love this age group; it’s such an amazing time of life.  It’s when you’re discovering who you are and trying new things and really forming your own opinions.  I love writing for young women in particular because they have so much to say and so much to give.  They are important and wonderful, and I want them to know they should never dismiss themselves.  Who they are is so important.

TRC: Can you please tell us what you working on now, and what you have upcoming in 2014?

Sharon: I’m revising an 18^th century/contemporary mash-up, and researching a mid-Victorian.

TRC: What is your writing process?  Do you like to outline your story before you start? Do you have a specific place you like to write?  Is there a special time of day that works best for you?

Sharon: I have a writing studio in the back of my house that my brother just restored for me.  We brought it over from England with us and it needed some work, so he finished that in the fall.  Otherwise I write in my library in front of a window that looks out onto my farm fields.  I have to have a window when I work because half the time I’m staring out into space!  I try to write in the morning for two hours (I set a timer) at least. But I’m constantly living with the story in my head, mulling plot lines over and thinking about my characters.  After I work I head out into the woods near my house to walk.  I live on the border of a national park and there’s a four-mile walking trail that hardly anyone uses apart from me.  So I take the dogs and put in my iPod (usually set to the story soundtrack I’ve made) and start walking.  It’s such a great way to sort through ideas and issues I’m having.  I also daydream and imagine scenes, which is really fun.

As far as outlining goes, I do outline a bit, nothing formal, but there are “signpost” scenes that I know will be in, and it helps me think about how I’m going to reach the scenes.  I also have a pretty good idea about the story before I start. I have to know where I’m going, and what my characters want.  I also keep a notebook where I jot down plot ideas, maps, characters, brainstorms, etc.  It helps to hand-write things.  After I write the first draft I make a scene tracker and a plot planner and hang those on the wall.  I use stickies and I can move scenes around and see where the fit.  This is a Martha Alderson thing, and I highly recommend it.  It stops you getting lost in your book.

TRC: Many authors have friends or family, that they bounce ideas and information back and forth.  Do you have anyone you like to discuss your story with? 

Sharon: Great question.  I have some friends in New Jersey, Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, Lisa Reiss, and Melissa Azarian, who are fabulous critiquers.  They are amazing writers (Jen has published two YA novels) and I know I can trust them to push me when I need it!  I also have a nice group of SCBWI writers here in Indiana that I meet with a few times a year who are very supportive.  But I also work with Martha Alderson, the plot whisperer.  She wrote several books on plot and she does phone consultations.  She is simply amazing.  I worked with her a lot with FOLLY and she really helped me deepen the story.  She’s a writer’s oracle, she really is.  And of course there’s my awesome agent, John M. Cusick.

TRC: On your website you talk about your love of horses, and that you do horse training, and specialize in dressage.  You write magazine articles and have written non-fiction books pertaining to this. Are you still active in training, and what does dressage involve?

Sharon: Dressage is a French word meaning “training,” and it elevates the communication between rider and horse to an art form.  The highest example of dressage is the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.  It’s also one of the three Olympic equestrian disciplines (eventing and showjumping are the other two). I train very rarely now, only the occasional student.  Before I moved to England in 2000 I used to ride around eight horses a day and work with a trainer every week. Dressage is a discipline much like ballet where you have to work at it daily, and right now my writing and my farm take up a lot of my time. But I know I’ll get back to it again someday.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Sharon:  I’d love to hear from readers, so if anyone has a question or comment please feel free to drop me a line.  There’s a contact me form on my blog www.sharonbiggswaller.com. Also there are lots of background and behind the scenes stuff about FOLLY on my Friday blog post called Folly Friday.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food: Gotta love pizza!

Favorite Dessert: Cake—especially red velvet.

Favorite TV Show: Anything on Masterpiece Classic and the Big Bang Theory.

Favorite Actor & Actress (TV or Movies):  Carey Mulligan & Colin Firth

Last Book You Read:
Fiction: FAULT LINE by Christa Desir
Nonfiction: CAT SENSE by John Bradshaw

Favorite Fictional Character (not your own):  Gosh, this is a tough one. For adult books I love Jamie Fraser from the OUTLANDER series by Diana Gabaldon.  For juvenile fiction I’ll choose Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Princess.

Milk or Dark Chocolate:  Both, but I tend to lean toward milk.

Dog or Cat:  Both, but if I could have only one animal (perish the thought) I’d choose cat. But it would be a really hard choice.

TRC: Thank you Sharon, for taking the time to answer our questions.  We wish you the best of luck with A Mad Wicked Folly.  Please keep us informed about your upcoming new releases, as we look forward to working with you again.

Sharon: You’re welcome!  Thanks for having me.

 

Sharon Biggs Waller grew up around artists and developed a passion for Edwardian history and the Pre-Raphaelites when she moved to England in 2000. She did extensive research on the British suffragettes for her novel, A MAD, WICKED FOLLY when she wasn’t working as a riding instructor at the Royal Mews in Buckingham Palace and as a freelance magazine writer. She also writes non-fiction books about horses under her maiden name, Sharon Biggs. She is a dressage rider and trainer and lives on a 10-acre sustainable farm in Northwest Indiana with her British husband, Mark.

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