Kate Furnivall: Loaded Questions with the Author of The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf

We first interviewed Kate Furnivall last year and since then not only has her first novel The Russian Concubine become a bestselling hit, her interview here at Loaded Questions has become one of the most read of all the interview's we've conducted. Furnivall's first novel, The Russian Concubine, is an enthralling tale that is both entertaining and educational. Fans of her first book will find a great deal of joy in her second novel, The Red Scarf. Furnivall returns to Russia to explore the lives of two very different women who find themselves united in their unfortunate situation, prisoners in labor camp in Siberia . . .

Read my first interview with Kate Furnivall in September of 2007, here.


Kelly Hewitt: The two main characters in The Red Scarf first meet in 1933 while being held at the Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia. I have been looking around the net for any information about this particular labor camp but have not been able to find anything. Is there a real life Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia?

Secondly, what kind of resources did you study in order to prepare yourself to write about such a harsh, stark environment?

Kate Furnivall: Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia is a fictitious name but the camp itself is typical of many of these brutal places where prisoners worked in terrible conditions during the Stalinist years. To learn about these camps I read numerous accounts recorded by those who survived, the most famous of which was Alexander Solzhenitsyn's heartbreaking Gulag Archipelago. This provided a real insight into the way the prisoners were treated and the effect it had on them, both physically and mentally. The main difference is that most of these accounts were written by men, but my Davinsky Camp was a women's prison. So I created more of an emotional support network among the women prisoners because I believe it is important to women to function more on that level. Sofia and Anna's friendship is what keeps them alive.

Kelly: Sophia and Anna, the central characters of this book may have both landed in the same labor camp but it is clear that you have written two characters that come from distinctly different backgrounds. One is the daughter of a Russian Orthodox preist who witnesses her father's death by whipping brought upon by his beliefs. The other is the daughter of a doctor and part of a family that was prosperous and amoung the elite of Leningrad before the Revolution began. The reader finds out through the course of the novel that these two young women are also very similar. While reading The Red Scarf I couldn't help but wonder whether or not you think that, beyond being opposites, Sophia and Anna serve as archetypes, each represent the fate of a great many young Russian women during the Russian Revolution. What do you think?

Kate: Though Sofia and Anna are two young women with very different characters, they are similar in the way they both possess a core of inner strength which enables them to survive. Anna comes from a petted and pampered background and many of these elite young women died because they were unable to cope with the terrible conditions they faced after the Revolution. One of the reasons Anna survived was because of Vasily - not only did her love for him give her strength but also he had prepared her mentally. He had turned her into a fighter. Sofia, on the other hand, was raised in a village and was accustomed to a harsher life. Seeing her father whipped to death put steel in her soul and she was determined not to see another person she loved die before her eyes. So she set out to save Anna.

I agree with you that they are archetypes in that they represent in their different ways the new soviet woman, one who must rely on herself to get things done. The beginning of the Communist regime was ironically the beginning of female equality.

Kelly: I happened upon your blog the other day (click here to visit) and read an interesting post in which you discuss doing research and finding gems like "discovering about the Krokodil, the Russian Communist propaganda aircraft in the 1930s that was painted to look like a crocodile." You went on to tell your readers that you, of course, worked the Krokodil into your work because you couldn't pass up on the image, which is a great one by the way. It made me wonder what kind of resources (movies, books, etc) you frequently turn to while researching Russia during the 1920's and 30s. A lot of your readers appear to be just as enthralled in this time period as you are, where would you send them to do research if they wanted to know more?

Kate: Fortunately in recent years far greater access has been permitted to information within Russia about the Stalinist regime, and many books have been published which proved extremely helpful to me. I strongly recommend everyone to read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's whole body of work which is very revealing, not only about the facts of the time but of the mindset of its people. Sheila Fitzpatrick also wrote two detailed and invaluable works, Stalin's Peasants and Everyday Stalinism, in which she includes many first-hand personal stories.

It is only by reading accounts like these that we can understand the Russia of today. I also immersed myself in Russian literature by writers such as Dostoevsky and Pushkin, and loved to get my hands on as many old photographs of the period as possible because a picture can tell more than a thousand words. But traveling to rural Russia and seeing the villages which have barely changed since the 1930s also gave me a real sense of what it was like for Sofia in Tivil.

Kelly: It is fascinating that you have only recently become aware of your largely Russian heritage and even more amazing that you have written The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf as a way of connecting with such a big part of your family's past. How is it that you just recently found out about your Russian roots? What would you consider to be the ultimate experience of your heritage.

Kate: It was about ten years ago that I discovered that my grandmother was a White Russian who fled from the Bolsheviks in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. I knew that my mother had lived in China for many years as a child where she had an English step-father, but she had never revealed that her mother was Russian.

It came about like this. I was going through her boxes of old sepia photographs, writing the names of the people on the back, and when I wrote "Valentina and Lily" on one (Lily was my mother's name), my mother commented, 'I was called Lydia then'. Astonished, I asked for more and out it all came like unplugging a dam. All the secrets kept for so many years. How they had fled across thousands of miles of Siberia, surviving by eating tree bark and worms, travelling by night until they came down into China where they were penniless refugees. The shame of it had kept her silent for so many years.

It was an amazing thing to discover and made me re-think myself and who I am. As I delved into research to discover more, I have been powerfully affected by the inner resilience of my ancestors in the face of brutal hardship and I hope that a small part of it still remains within me. In The Red Scarf I try to convey something of this inner strength in the characters of Sofia and Anna. To walk through the streets of St Petersburg, as I did last year, gazing down at the Moika Canal or up at St Basil's Cathedral, the knowledge that my grandparents did the same so long ago touched me deeply and forged a connection that I cherish.

Kelly: Your readers certainly aren't complaining but do you ever foresee writing a novel about a different region of the world or a different time period?

Kate: Yes, most definitely. I already have something totally different planned out in my head. But first there will be at least one more book set in Russia.

Kelly: I know that your mother played such a large role in inspiring your first novel The Russian Concubine. Are there traces of her life and experiences in The Red Scarf?

Kate: There are no specific references to my mother's life in The Red Scarf, except the hardship of the journey that Sofia undertakes which echoes the hardship of my mother's escape from Russia. But it was very much my mother's interest throughout her life in different philosophies and religions that influenced my decision to use the clash of belief systems - between Communism, Russian Orthodoxy and superstition - as a background against which the story is set.

Kelly: The Red Scarf has been getting stellar reviews, especially from regular readers who were big fans of The Russian Concubine. That's two books in a row that have been met with much deserved acclaim. Do wake up in the morning sometimes and pinch yourself?

Kate: Do I pinch myself? Absolutely yes! Every morning when I pick up my pen. The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf have become bestsellers in the US and the UK, and also in many other countries. They have so far been translated into 16 languages. Yes, their success has taken me by surprise, but to know that my stories are being read and discussed and argued over by so many people is what every writer dreams of. I regard it as a privilege. To prompt further thought about the situations and issues I describe in my books is important to me, to encourage readers to probe further. I like to think my characters help people to open doors they haven't been through before.

Kelly: I noticed that your new book has two different titles, The Red Scarf in the United States and Under a Blood Red Sky in the UK. Was there strategic decision made in having two different names?

Kate: Titles can be difficult. The decision to use two titles was taken by my publishers. My UK publisher, Little Brown, and my US publisher, Berkley, could not agree on one title, so it was decided to use two quite different ones. I admit this can be confusing. Readers sometimes think they are two separate books, but I do my best on my website to point out that they are the same. Nevertheless I still have horrible visions of readers buying them both on the internet without reading the story descriptions, and ending up with the same book between different covers.

Kelly: The last time we spoke you made a great many of your fans (myself included) very happy by sharing with us the fact that there would be a sequel to The Russian Concubine. I am sure that this is the last thing you want to be asked right after the release of a new book but how is that sequel coming along?

Kate: I am happy to announce that I have just completed the sequel to The Russian Concubine and that it will be published in June 2009. But with conflicting titles again! In the US it will be called The Girl From Junchow and in the UK it will be called The Concubine's Secret. It has been exciting getting involved with Lydia once more and discovering where she would take me this time. To all The Russian Concubine fans out there I want to say, "The emotional journey continues. And yes, Chang An Lo does ..." No, no, my lips are sealed.

Read my first interview with Kate Furnivall in September of 2007, here.

News and Notes: Wally Lamb, Kate Furnivall, A Game of Thrones

Update:

Below you will find the links to part one and two of our exclusive Loaded Questions interview with Wally Lamb, bestselling author of She's Come Undone, I Know this Much is True and The Hour I First Believed.

And don't miss the conclusion of this great interview.
Click below to read Part Two of the Wally Lamb Interview.

• Wally, Wally, Wally: You faithful readers may be wondering, first of all, where the interview with Wally Lamb (author of She's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True and the brand new The Hour I First Believed) that I gushed about two weeks ago is. The interview is still very much on. We have suffered a few set backs in the form of rescheduled conversations and missed phone calls. Lamb and his publicist can hardly be blamed, they have been trying to find time for Wally and I to talk while he is in the midst of his book tour and so every day he was at a different number in a different city. The good news? Wally will be home in a few days and we're scheduled to chat with him on Monday morning! So, the interview is on its way.

• Upcoming Interview: Our second interview with Kate Furnivall author of the highly praised The Russian Concubine in which Kate and I discuss the release of her second novel The Red Scarf which begins in a labor camp in Siberia during the Russian Revolution. Kate will also share some news about the sequel to The Russian Concubine that she's been working on. Interview should be up in a matter of days, stay tuned.

• Fantasy TV: Here's some more good news: HBO has green-lit the filming of the pilot of George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. The series is set to include a total of seven novels each of which, producers have said, would be made into a single season if the show is picked up by HBO. This is very good news for fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire", especially because the brilliant yet chronically late R.R. Martin is at least two years behind on the release of the next novel with no due date in sight. Read more at Hollywood Reporter.
  

• Loaded Domain: Noticed any changes here at Loaded Questions? We've gotten ourselves a real domain name. If you haven't already discovered the domain name for this site is now www.Loaded-Questions.com!
  

• Support This Site: Want to know how you can help Loaded Questions keep up the author interviews and book giveaways that we've been bringing to you for the past year and half? Click the ads (all of which lead to great sites about publishing, author resources and book trading websites) to the left of your screen to ensure that Loaded Questions will be around for many years to come. One click is a tremendous help.
  

New Author Interview: Kate Furnivall author of "The Russian Concubine"

Loaded Questions with Kelly Hewitt

KATE FURNIVALL
author of The Russian Concubine


I was enthralled by The Russian Concubine by the time I finished the first chapter. The beginning scene offers a harrowing look at life in post-revolutionary Russia after the fall of the last Tsar, Nicholas II. Valentina, her husband, and their young daughter Lydia arrive via a train in the blistering cold Russian countryside. What follows is a heart-wrenching scene of death and separation in which the war-hungry men of Stalin herd those who prospered under the old regime like animals.

Kelly Hewitt: The beginning chapter of this book is beautiful in it's imagery of ice and snow amidst the freezing landscape and yet terrifying in the desolation and uncertainty experienced by the passengers of a train, starving and ill. It is so emotionally draining, senseless murder, the harshness of revolution exposed, that I can remember taking a break after reading it to gather my thoughts.

When in the process of writing The Russian Concubine did you write that chapter? Was it something that you wrote first or did you approach that chapter later in the writing process?

Kate Furnivall: The first chapter of The Russian Concubine was crucial to me in setting up the world from which my main characters emerged and it was essential to my own relationship with them that I write it first. I found it quite a harrowing experience and I recall that once I'd written it, it took me a couple of weeks to be ready to move on in my mind to the very different world of China. That first scene is pivotal in explaining the motivations and emotional damage that drives the rest of the book.

Kelly: Your mother sounds like a fascinating woman. I read an interview in which you talked about the fact that, like the character Lydia in your novel, she grew up in White Russia and fled the communist revolution in 1917 by going to China. In that same interview you briefly discussed the part of your mother's life that took place in India and that you couldn't cram it all in one book. Do you intend to write another book based on your mother's experiences? It sounds like she lived a life full of literary possibilities.

Kate: Yes, my mother was a remarkable woman. Despite the many traumas of her life - or more probably because of them - she was a woman with a true inner grit that made her cling on to life and cling on to anything of beauty. She had a strict credo. Don't cry. Don't whinge. Be honourable and focus on what is beautiful in life.

At the moment I have no plans to write about her experiences in India, though, like China, it was also a turbulent and therefore exciting time politically. But I've learnt never to say never. So maybe, one day.
Kelly: Was there any part of your mother's history in Russia and China that she was reticent to speak about?

Kate: Though I grew up knowing that she had spent her early life in China with her mother, Valentina, and her journalist step-father, Alfred, my mother omitted to mention anything at all about the Russian part of her birth or ancestry. It wasn't until much later in life when I was going through her old yellowing photographs of her time in China and I started to write her name, Lily, on the back of one, that she said, 'I was called Lydia in those days.'

Then it all came tumbling out. How she and her mother were White Russians who fled to China after the communist revolution in 1917 and how the shame of being penniless refugees in a foreign land had been so branded on her young heart that she was never able to talk of it.

Our family was of course fascinated by this sudden and unexpected insight into our ancestry, and the release of the long-hidden secret gave my mother much relief and pleasure. It was her tales that prompted me to write The Russian Concubine after her death, an inheritance I knew I had to honour, though I must emphasize that the book's story is pure fiction.

Kelly: I read that your husband Norman began work as a full-time crime writer after your family moved to the countryside. He won the John Creasey Award in 1987 using the pen name Neville Steed. Is he still writing? Do you find that having two writers in the family makes your work easier or more difficult?

Kate: My husband, who wrote as Neville Steed, has always been a huge help to me. He is no
longer writing himself. After having thirteen novels published, he moved on to painting instead, but I value his judgment and he is always the first to read my manuscripts. He is my greatest critic and my greatest support, often coming up with clever solutions when I moan that I've written my plot into a corner.

Also he understands the needs of a writer:- time to be alone and undisturbed with your characters. And he knows that when I'm staring blankly out of the kitchen window with a plate only half washed in my hands, I'm not actually being an idle slattern. The old brain is churning over some vital story point. And he's good with medicinal coffee and chocolate when he sees a glint of white panic in my eyes! So in every way, having a writer husband is a big plus.

Kelly: You've traveled extensively and I think it shows in your writing. A great deal of the Russian Concubine takes place in China, have you been there? If so, what was that like?

Kate: No, I have never been to China. There's a good reason for this. The China I was writing about, the International Settlements and the colonial way of life, are all long gone. I didn't want to go over there and see the city of Tientsin (now Tianjin), on which my city Junchow was based, covered in neon signs and modern chainstores.

Instead I did thorough research for nine months, until I felt I could walk and talk confidently in that extraordinary world of China in 1928. Then I used my imagination. Which must have worked, because so many people familiar with the Far East who have read The Russian Concubine have asked me how long I lived out there. I feel honoured by such remarks and regard it as a privilege to write about a country I have come to love.

Kelly: Lydia falls in love with a gentleman named Chang An Lo, a freedom fighter struggling for change in a very volatile period of Chinese history. In many ways Lydia and Chang are a sort of Romeo and Juliet of the 20th century, both trapped by very different social expectations. Is Chang An Lo one of the parts of the book based on your mother's life that is purely fiction or was there a relationship that somehow inspired the creation of Lydia's love?

Kate: Lydia and Chang An Lo's love affair is purely fiction. My mother was too young for such passions when she was out there! But I was always aware that she felt an outsider in England, not coming to live here until she was thirteen, and so I grew up watching her try to bridge that gap and not always succeeding. So maybe part of my inspiration for Lydia and Chang An Lo's relationship came from seeing that daily struggle to cross the divide and the problems it created.

Kelly: I have already read posts written by fans of The Russian Concubine who are eagerly awaiting a sequel to the book. Can we hope for such a book?

Kate: Yes, a sequel is definitely on its way. I have recently finished a book set in Russia in 1933 that has no connection with The Russian Concubine, but it is another strong emotional epic and will be published in 2008.

And at the moment I am back with Lydia, following the next stage of her life in the sequel to The Russian Concubine. I love discovering where she will take me. I am thrilled to be reunited with my fiery heroine and Chang An Lo, both of whom became such a part of my life. It is a wonderful, if sometimes daunting, journey I am embarking on and my writing-fingers are twitching with anticipation.

Kelly: I am one of those people that find their shelves loaded with books, movies, and CDs. What loads down the shelves of Kate Furnivall?

Kate: What loads down my shelves? I always have a knee-high pile of books beside my bed, and at the moment top of the heap is Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love which I am looking forward to. Two books I enjoyed recently were Philippa Gregory's magnificent Boleyn Inheritance and Stef Penney's Tenderness of Wolves. Also Lori Lansen's The Girls. Lori Lansen, like the brilliant Lionel Shriver, can take a difficult subject and make it riveting. But right now I am reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, set in Pakistan, which is an amazing testament to the human spirit.

So many books to read and so little time. Bring 'em on!

Beach Bound With Exciting New Books

Today I am off to Hawaii, Maui to be specific, with my boyfriend and family. (Wish us luck.) I plan on swimming, laying out in the sun and packing along some of the exciting new books I have been sent from publishers in the last couple of weeks.




The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall, PB (June,2007) $15.00

This book was inspired by the experiences of Furnivall's mother who was a white Russian in China during the 1920s. Things get crazy in the life of the main character, Lydia Ivanova, when she falls in love with a Communist freedom fighter. This time period is marked by the rise of China's Communist regime, a period when no one was safe especially foreigners subsiding off of petty thievery to stay afloat, which Lydia is forced to do in order to support her mother Valentina.

I traveled to China a few years ago and was able to really immerse myself in the history of the nation. Since then I have been enamored by the writings of great Chinese historical authors like Anchee Min and Pearl Buck. So when it was time to pack (and yes I waited till the last possible minute) this book was most certainly included.

If I am Missing OR Dead by Janine Latus CL (April, 2007) $25.00

The subtitle of this book is "A Sister's Story of Love, Murder and Liberation" and it begins with the disappearance of the author's 37-year-old sister Amy. It turns out that Amy, who is a graduate student and a corporate employee has been living a "tough guy" that no body in her family had met. After a little prodding Amy finally divulges the fact that this guy is an ex-con. So when Amy goes missing, Janine has a pretty good idea that this no good boyfriend is involved. What follows is an investigation into Amy's disappearance and a reexamination of both girl's childhood and subsequent poor self images.

One need look no further than the blurb inside the cover to see that this memoir certainly packs a punch. I wanted to know the story the moment I discovered the book. Janine Latus, the author and sister, has spoken out nationally against domestic violence and with this book she has an important story to tell.

The Bestiary by Nicholas Christopher, CL (June, 2007) $25.00

Nicholas Christopher is a book lover. He spent five years traveling around the world, searching through universities, visiting libraries, talking with rare book collectors in order to write his fifth novel, The Bestiary. This is the story of a young man's search for a book that has been missing for 800 years. This missing book contains drawings of animals real and imaginary.

I have already cracked this book open and my first opinion is that Christopher is really a beautiful writer. The first five or so chapters are two to three pages in length, detailing the strange nature of the main character, Xeno Atlas, and his quiet, often divided, family. I haven't read any of Christopher's previous books but if The Bestiary is any indication of his style, I will be picking up the others any day now.

All three of these books are different. A tale of the rise of Chinese Communism through the eyes of two Russian immigrants, a memoir of heart-aching loss and personal discovery, and the story of a young man who sets out to find what could be one of the most important books in human history.

The most exciting thing?

I have scheduled interviews will all three authors. Not only am I ready to spend my beach days reading and relaxing, I will be thinking of questions and observations from these three authors.

So I am off to the islands with all three books packed away. Will I read them all? Probably not. But it's every book addicts dream to spend an entire vacation on the beach reading and I am gonna do my best to see how far I can make it.

----------------------------------------------------------

August has been a good month for finding new and exciting books and authors. In addition to the three listed above I will be sitting down to talk with the following authors:

Karen Abbot author of Sin in the Second City. What do you get when you study a lot of whores, a couple of pimps, three senators, and a priest or two? This non fictional account of Chicago during some pretty naughty times.

Camille Deangelis author of Mary Modern. Okay so here's the deal: Girl finds grandmother's DNA, girl brings grandmother back to life. Grandmother want's grandfather and so they bring him back to life too. Sound like a pretty sticky situation? Sure is.

Peter Behrens author of The Law of Dreams. The paperback version of this highly acclaimed novel finally hits the stands on August 28th. A helpless young fellow from the ruined potato fields of Ireland is followed on his way to a New England horse ranch.

John Robison author of Look Me in the Eye and brother of Augusten Burroughs. Readers of Burroughs know that he has an older brother who as Asperger's Disorde. This is the elder brother Robison's account of growing up.

David Blixt author of The Master of Verona. A mix of Italian history and Shakespeare's Italian characters go head to head in this exciting debut novel by Blixt, a professional Shakespearian actor who credits his trade for helping him to write great dialouge.

Christina Baker Kline author of The Way Life Should Be. Angela Russo realizes one day that she's been gliding along in her career with little or no challenge involved. She's tired of failed blind dates and decides to place a personal ad. We've all known someone in this position, yeah? Angela meets a guy who's living in Mount Desert Island, Main -- a far cry from Angela's location in New York City. Suddenly the job goes kaput and without anything holding her down Angela heads for Maine. Crazy? Maybe. But it looks like Angela Russo won't be in danger of becoming the next crazy cat lady.

And about a dozen more! Stay tuned for more great interviews and book news.