{"id":132951,"date":"2020-11-03T11:14:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=132951"},"modified":"2020-11-09T14:37:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T03:37:48","slug":"read-a-qa-with-fiona-mcintosh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2020\/11\/03\/read-a-qa-with-fiona-mcintosh\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Fiona McIntosh!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Fiona<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fiona McIntosh is an internationally bestselling author of novels for adults and children. She co-founded an award-winning travel magazine with her husband, which they ran for fifteen years while raising their twin sons before she became a full-time author. Fiona roams the world researching and drawing inspiration for her novels, and runs a series of highly respected fiction masterclasses. She calls South Australia home.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Fiona McIntosh is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her latest historical novel, The Champagne War<\/a><\/strong>. Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Fiona<\/a>

Fiona McIntosh (Photo by Anne Sropin).<\/p><\/div>\n

Tell us about your book, The Champagne War<\/em>.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

FM:<\/strong> Well, what a story. It demanded its pound of flesh from me though. We were onto our fifth draft before we hit on all the right combination of characters stepping through increasing drama and all the simmering ingredients for a tense, compelling, engaging tale.<\/p>\n

The darkness of WWI has lowered itself across Europe and everyone is feeling its shadow and sorrow. But if the Kaiser is going to take Paris \u2013 as he wants \u2013 then the fastest route and the easiest gateway is through the sun-drenched vineyards of the Marne region. All that stands between the German Army and claiming its prize of the French capital is the great cathedral city of Reims, its tiny but famous neighbour of \u00c9pernay that produces the globe\u2019s champagne \u2026 and the will of the French with its allies that come from all over the world to fight alongside the French.<\/p>\n

Sophie Delancr\u00e9 is sixth generation champenoise and a rebellious soul in the mould of famous champenoise predecessors, Veuve Clicquot and Madame Pommery. She has inherited her family\u2019s champagne house and when the news arrives that her beloved husband of just weeks has been gassed and lost in the muddy graves of No Man\u2019s Land in Flanders, she must overcome her grief and become a grape grower and producer of the fruit for her champagne against all the trauma thrown her way. And it feels like everything is her personal enemy, including the German army on the doorstep of her vineyards.<\/p>\n

Captain Charlie Nash of the Leicesters is a chemist and a peacemaker but when the Germans release a killing gas in Ypres for the first time in history, he is moved to join up and fight Europe\u2019s bully. He doesn\u2019t want to be a hero and still he leads like one, rarely caring for his own safety and running at danger as though inviting the bullet, shrapnel or artillery that he is convinced has his name on it.<\/p>\n

Two people facing impossible odds must overcome all the traumas that war throws at them.<\/p>\n\n\n

What kind of historical research did you do for this novel? Can you talk a little bit about how your research influences things like plot and character when you\u2019re writing?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM: <\/strong>I read loads of non-fiction. That\u2019s where it begins. Small towers of books about every subject I need for the story, from life in the trenches to the food of eastern France during 1918. I consume vast amounts of information and then when I feel I know what sort of story I\u2019m working with I start my journey to get my feet onto the ground of every location that it might walk. For me it matters not that I have been to Paris many times, for instance. I call it my due diligence for the reader that I travel to each location in the book as though it\u2019s the first time and my focus is purely in that location for this particular story. That focus does make a huge difference and as it turned out I had to visit the region of Champagne three times for the novel. There was just so much information to absorb that it couldn\u2019t be done in one visit and this is mostly because I write organically. I don\u2019t plot. So I kept returning to my base in \u00c9pernay to layer in more detail and richness to the tapestry of the book. All of my historical books usually take at least two visits to the location roughly six months apart. The first is more of a big picture view \u2013 gathering up broad brushstrokes for the novel, who to speak to and interview, which locations to settle on, discovering what else I need to read up about, visiting museums and galleries that can add important detail. The second trip drills down. I am talking one on one with people who have vital information \u2026 so lots of interviews and also journeying and taking more detailed notice of my emotional response to landscape, to location, to season, to the information I\u2019m learning about. All of that becomes an important resource to the story. For instance, what would the landscape of my story look like in winter \u2026 summer? Very different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each novel is roughly two years in the making so I\u2019m always working well ahead \u2026 so right now I\u2019m beginning my reading research for the 2022 Christmas novel. If all goes well, I\u2019ll be travelling by next May for that story\u2019s first physical research trip but Covid may well interfere with my best laid plans. So a plan B is now being hatched \u263a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your novel takes readers all across the winemaking regions of France, especially \u00c9pernay. Did you learn anything surprising about winemaking or champagne while you were writing?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> Oh gosh so much, I wouldn\u2019t know where to begin explaining, from the temperature of limestone cellaring to the tension of how much sugar to add or the moment to pick and crush those grapes. I think the fact I enjoyed learning about most was when the champenoise I was working with revealed that mood definitely affects how you taste champagne. I found that enlightening, especially as champagne is thought of as the party drink and indeed the best way to get a good party started. But champagne drunk in a sour mood will deliver a different flavour to the same drinker than if he or she were in a more effervescent frame of mind. Alcohol probably works in this way anyway, but I do think champagne – especially from what she said – responds more readily to individual mood. And I found that exciting in the same way that when I was researching my book on perfume to discover how individual perfume can be across different people wearing the identical fragrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the main inspiration for your protagonist, Sophie Delancr\u00e9?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> A sixth generation champenoise called Sophie Signolle, whom I met by chance on the avenue de Champagne in \u00c9pernay. We got talking, became fascinated by each other and I realised Sophie was my character \u2026 she embodied everything I wanted in my fictional heroine; a widow, a talented, risk-taking champenoise with an independent spirit and a deep love for the landscape of \u00c9pernay and its history … and the people who had walked before her in the champagne industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fiona<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What do you love the most about writing historical fiction?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> I love the enrichment that I personally receive while I\u2019m researching. I am always learning about so much that is new in my life, whether it\u2019s about how tea is grown and picked on the hillsides of Darjeeling, to how perfume was made at the turn of the previous century in Grasse, to the kindertransports that rescued Jewish children from Europe at the start of WWII \u2026 or indeed the trials and traumas of making champagne through the trench warfare of WWI. I also enjoy the challenge of the research … finding the right locations, finding the right voices that can give me the background I need, and waiting for my characters to tap me on the shoulder and walk into the pages of my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the last book you read and loved?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> A book called Nine Pints<\/em> … non-fiction. About blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you describe what a typical writing day looks like for you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> I\u2019m writing this in the first few days of spring, so for me the mornings are brighter \u2013 not yet much warmer \u2013 but I\u2019m forcing myself to get up earlier and try and cram in a half hour\u2019s exercise before the household gets going. I\u2019m usually at my keyboard by 8:30 and I\u2019ll deal with all my overnight email and the first few emails of the morning usually from the publisher, answering anything urgent. I\u2019ll get down to writing by around 9:30 and work until about 1pm. Three hours or thereabouts is plenty to get my word count done. The afternoon is usually spent on admin, social media, newsletters, Q&As, and working with my masterclassers. I read my research books after 8pm and in between my drama viewing. Through Covid every day is the same and so I\u2019m essentially working seven days a week. But in the good old days \u263a I used to work Monday to Thursday on writing and I would take Fridays off to do errands, keep appointments and the weekend was always about family. Right now, though, Tuesday could be Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> Kill the dog! That was from Bryce Courtenay whose masterclass I attended. I\u2019d never even attempted to write creatively since school, and suddenly decided – aged 40 – to take a week long writing course. Naturally, he\u2019d asked to see some pages. I\u2019d bolted together an opening chapter that involved the mention of a dog that gets in the way of the villain and he liked it but he said, \u2018you\u2019ve got to kill the dog in this scene.\u2019 I was horrified. I\u2019m an animal lover, an advocate for animals, I prefer animals to people \u2026 I couldn\u2019t kill the dog. But he insisted – ‘And that\u2019s how you\u2019ll quickly show rather than tell the reader who the bad guy is.\u2019 He was right. In that one moment I learned more about how to direct character and show not tell, than any number of books could teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope readers will discover in The Champagne War<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> Apart from an addictive and emotional read, perhaps readers will discover that when it comes to war, even those who aren\u2019t in immediate danger have to fight their own private battle of survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the women left behind \u2013 in this case, in France but essentially from every country that sent soldiers \u2013 were fighting physically to keep their towns and villages safe by taking on all the men\u2019s roles while still giving birth, looking after children, nursing the sick\/injured, developing new manual and labour skills, etc. They were fighting emotionally too, to stay strong through their fears and through their losses. And mentally they had to stay incredibly resilient; not give up, not show their anxiety, not capitulate to all the stresses. They still had mouths to feed, men to support through letters, parcels, nursing in hospitals, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile the men in trenches \u2013 and on both sides – were using every ounce of their ability simply to survive the attrition, the conditions, the relentless killing and horror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main characters represent all these parties. Sophie might be wealthy and privileged but she\u2019s fighting a lot of demons \u2026 loss, fear, how to look after the people who count on her, how to look after her vineyards, how to still make champagne when she lacked some of its necessities, how to take care of the injured, how to keep people believing there was a future. How to keep her spiralling emotions under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie, a pacifist is forced to pick up a rifle and kill strangers daily. He\u2019s good at it and hates himself for it. He hates everything about the war but the use of poisonous gas tips him into almost a blind rage and a sort of panic that as a chemist he\u2019ll be asked to develop something more toxic and murderous so he\u2019d rather join up than be that person. And then his next few years is about kill or be killed. His world is small. He could be in Belgium or France but a trench is a trench and warfare doesn\u2019t change. He does begin to appreciate the tiny joys in life … sunshine, birdsong, a cheap glass of wine, a kind word, a smile from a woman, the touch of another \u2026friendship \u2013 even with the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do wish we could learn from these stories and never make war again on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I add that in painting this frightening landscape for the book I knew I had to add a counterbalance and it\u2019s the champagne that brings all the joy to the story \u2026 And there is joy. I\u2019ve imbued the pages with some marvellous descriptions of vineyards, making champagne, tasting champagne and Sophie\u2019s theories behind the grapes that I hope will make every reader feel uplifted and rewarded for reading the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

FM:<\/strong> Two books. The first will be a new crime, featuring Jack Hawksworth. It\u2019s called Mirror Man<\/em> and will be released for June 2021. The book is finished \u2013 we all love it \u2013 and it\u2019s now being put through its editorial paces as we shape the manuscript towards its final version. Given that the last time I wrote Jack was about a dozen years ago, I am thrilled that I could step back into his shoes with ease and understand him again, as much as enmesh him in another absorbing hunt for a killer in a baffling case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then in October 2021 we will release The Spy\u2019s Wife<\/em>, the next historical novel. Presently, I\u2019m about 35,000 words in. It\u2019s a switch up from The Champagne War<\/em> and last year\u2019s The Diamond Hunter<\/em> by being deliberately set in the interwar years of 1933-1937. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Fiona!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

—The Champagne War<\/a><\/em> by Fiona McIntosh (Penguin Books Australia) is out now – limited signed copies are available from Booktopia!*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*While stocks last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This book is part of our 2020 Christmas Gift Guide<\/a>! You could<\/strong> win 1 Million Qantas Points when you order any product featured in our Christmas Gift Guide between 2 November and 14 December, 2020.<\/strong>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christmas<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

*T&Cs apply.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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