Pump Up Your Book Chats with Cynthia Haggard, author of Thwarted Queen

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Author Cynthia Haggard

Born and raised in Surrey, England, Cynthia Sally Haggard has lived in the United States for thirty years. She is the author of the Thwarted Queen series, which includes The Bride Price, One Seed Sown, The Gilded Cage, Two Murders Reaped and Rose of Raby. She has had four careers: violinist, cognitive scientist, medical writer and novelist. Yes, she is related to H. Rider Haggard, the author of SHE and KING SOLOMONS’S MINES. (H. Rider Haggard was a younger brother of the author’s great-grandfather.) Cynthia Sally Haggard is a member of the Historical Novel Society. You can visit her at: http://spunstories.com/, https://twitter.com/ – !/cynthiahaggard, and http://www.facebook.com/cynthia.haggard.

Thank you for this interview, Cynthia. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

A: As a child, I loved to read, and was taught reading at the age of three by my mother. But writing was something that came much later, after I’d already had a couple of careers, which I fell into by accident. I’d come out of a 15-year period of working as a bench scientist when I decided to make the transition to science writing. It occurred to me that the best way to do that was to take courses in creative writing. I found my way to a charming cottage in the Bernal Heights area of San Francisco, where, on the first day of the Intro to the Novel course, the Stegner fellow informed us that he expected to see the first five pages of our new novel next week. Ever the good student, I obliged. I have never looked back.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

A: The marketing side of it is very time-consuming and can sometimes be frustrating, although it can also have its unexpected rewards (as when a reader praises your work). Most days, I feel like Sisyphus pushing that immense boulder up a hill. I keep my sanity by carving out time to write every day.

Thwarted Queen

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

A: I am married and am very blessed to have a supportive husband. I literally could not do this without him.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing? Where do you like to vacation? Can you tell us briefly about this?

A: I lead one of those lives where I very rarely do something that isn’t related to writing. Right now, I’m touring Sicily, looking for inspiration for a new novel. But I can hardly complain about that, now can I?

Who is your biggest fan?

A: I am lucky enough to find my biggest fans in my own close community of friends and family.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

A: My husband and I live in a 2-bedroom apartment in Washington DC. My office is the second bedroom. I love that place. It is very me.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in May 2012 via a virtual book tour. Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

A: It’s the wave of the future. My understanding is that traditional book-signings are not effective because people don’t typically turn out for new authors they don’t know. A virtual book tour allows me to reach readers I couldn’t possibly reach otherwise.

Thank you for this interview, Cynthia. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

A: Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure to talk with you!

Thwarted Queen Synopsis

Cecylee is the apple of her mother’s eye. The seventh daughter, she is the only one left unmarried by 1424, the year she turns nine. In her father’s eyes, however, she is merely a valuable pawn in the game of marriage. The Earl of Westmorland plans to marry his youngest daughter to 13-year-old Richard, Duke of York, who is close to the throne. He wants this splendid match to take place so badly, he locks his daughter up.

The event that fuels the narrative is Cecylee’s encounter with Blaybourne, a handsome archer, when she is twenty-six years old. This love affair produces a child (the “One Seed” of Book II), who becomes King Edward IV. But how does a public figure like Cecylee, whose position depends upon the goodwill of her husband, carry off such an affair? The duke could have locked her up, or disposed of this illegitimate son.

But Richard does neither, keeping her firmly by his side as he tries to make his voice heard in the tumultuous years that encompass the end of the Hundred Years War – during which England loses all of her possessions in France – and the opening phase of the Wars of the Roses. He inherits the political mantle of his mentor Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, and become’s the people’s champion. The rambunctious Londoners are unhappy that their country has become mired in misrule due to the ineptitude of a King prone to fits of madness. Nor are they better pleased by the attempts of the King’s French wife to maneuver herself into power, especially as she was responsible for England’s losses in France. But can Richard and Cecylee prevail? Everywhere, their enemies lurk in the shadows.

This book is filled with many voices, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time. By their courageous acts, these fifteenth-century Londoners set the stage for American Democracy.

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How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

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