Anne Easter Smith
Best-selling historical novelist Anne Easter Smith is interviewed by The Confession Book, telling her secrets of being a Englishwoman in Massachusetts, unicorn tapestries, and silk long underwear.
Most recent book: Queen By Right (Touchstone Books, 2011)
Where did you grow up?
Germany, Egypt and England
Where and what did you study?
St. James Academy Secretarial School, Oxford Street, London.
Newburyport, MA. My husband and I consciously chose the Boston area after moving too many times. I’ve lived in New York City, Sacramento CA, Washington DC, Plattsburgh NY, Lynchburg VA, and Long Island before moving to the North Shore. The area offers us the things we enjoyed in other places including culture, international airport, “big water”; mountains close by; but most of all a compatible political environment. And for me being surrounded by some of the oldest communities in the US and all that history inspires me in my writing and makes this Englishwoman feel more at home.
Of which of your books or projects are you most proud?
I am proud of the hundreds of articles and reviews I wrote in ten years as the Features/Arts Editor at a daily newspaper in northern New York when I had had no formal writing education. And then I am proudest of my first book, A Rose for the Crown, which took me four years to write having no idea how to even start writing a book.
Describe your morning routine.
Usually walk two miles with my husband (when it’s not too icy), have breakfast, hit my email in-box and do house chores or errands. I’m usually ready to write by 1 p.m.
What is a distinctive habit or affectation of yours?
I am very long-winded. I love telling stories. I am also told I have a most unusual sneeze.
What is your favorite item of clothing?
My silk underwear in winter, and a long, flowing skirt in summer.
Please recommend three books (not your own) to your readers.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, London by Edward Rutherfurd, and Katherine by Anya Seton.
What book do you wish you had written?
Do you have a writer friend who helps and inspires you?
No one in particular, but I communicate with several fellow historical fiction writers on Facebook.
What is a place which inspires you? The Sainte Chapelle in Paris and Bruges.
Name a work of art, in any medium (book, film, painting, etc) which inspires you.
The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Cluny Museum in Paris.
Describe your routine when conceiving of a book and its plot, before the writing begins.
Research, research, research until I can feel the place and time I am writing about (15th century). This requires traveling to all the locations I expect to take my characters to and walking in their footsteps. Once I have a timeline of the history of the years I will write about, then I can start building a story for my historical and fictional characters to move around. My motto: "Don’t mess with history."
Describe your writing routine.
Once I wised up and rented a space out of my home, I go there after lunch and work until 6 p.m. I am not someone who has to write a certain number of words each day. Some days I am only researching and others I am on a writing roll. It’s very undisciplined!
Do you have any unusual rituals associated with the writing process? I love to get into a 15th century mood with medieval music. And I am lost without my 4 p.m. cup of tea and two chocolate biscuits!
Is there anything distinctive or unusual about your work space?
Not really. It’s just a nice big room with plenty of wall and table space for all my maps, costume drawings and genealogy charts.
Besides the obvious, what do you keep on your desk?
A piece of brick from the ruin of the house of John Howard, duke of Norfolk (d. 1485), a photo of my grandson and a postcard portrait of Richard III.
What is the view from your favorite work space?
Oakland Street with its turn of the century houses and curbside trees.
What do you do when you are stuck or have temporary writer’s block?
Have a cup of tea.
Describe your ideal day.
Breakfast with a friend, a walk on the beach, lots of reader emails, and a good afternoon of writing followed by co-cooking dinner with my husband.
Describe your evening routine.
Join my husband back at home around 6:15 p.m. prep dinner together; enjoy a glass of wine as we wait to eat and discuss our day’s activities. Eat between 7 and 7:30 and then watch TV while working on our computers in our dual Ekorne Stressless chairs! Bed between 10 and 10:30 p.m.
What do you do to relax?
Talk to friends on the phone, read, listen to music and try new recipes.
What is guaranteed to make you laugh?
Talking animal commercials; Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer in “As Time Goes By.”
What is guaranteed to make you cry?
Cruelty to animals; killing off one of my favorite characters; “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Do you have any superstitions?
So many, there isn’t room for them all here! I grew up in a theatrical family and I am obsessed by medieval life; what more can I say?
What is something you always carry with you?
(My glasses everyday). I travel with a lucky earring one of my daughters gave me and I lost one; and I have just replaced a scarab I had from my childhood in Egypt which was always my lucky charm until I inadvisedly gave it to a man I thought deserved it. A friend recently found me another on a trip to Egypt.
What is your favorite snack?
To be honest, I never snack unless you call my cup of tea and biscuit one at 4 p.m.
What phrase do you over-use?
"To be honest" and "Actually."
What is a gadget/object/collectible that you could not live without?
My ancient but super garlic press - it was one of the few items I left my first marriage with.
If you could have a meal with any author, and any one other public figure who you do not already know, who would you choose?
Edward Rutherfurd and Robert Redford.
If you could bring back to life one deceased person, who would it be and why?
My mother, because she always believed in me even though I never did and she would be so proud I became a published author.
Is there a fictional character with whom you identify?
Jane Eyre
What would you do for work, if you were not a writer?
I have worked so many diverse jobs in my life and none of them are things I would want to do again, but now that I have done a lot of amateur theater, I’d like to have a go at acting for money.
What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
Don’t wait until you are 60 to start writing that novel. And don’t try and write what is “in” in order to sell a book: be true to whatever story you have inside yourself to tell.
What would you like carved onto your tombstone?
"She did not sew."
Tell us something about you which is largely unknown and perhaps surprising.
I am terrified of sudden bangs. I witnessed a man shot to death in front of me as an 8-year-old in Egypt and a bang still brings back that moment of terror.
What is your next project?
I am writing a novel about Jane Shore, mistress of Edward IV. This will be the last of my series of books about the York family in the Wars of the Roses.
