For two years I have been working on a novel called The Blue Rose.
It tells the story of Viviane de Ravoisier, the daughter of a French marquis, and David Stronach, a Welsh gardener who travels to her chateau in Brittany to design and plant an English-style garden. The two fall in love, but their passion is forbidden. David is driven away and Viviane is married against her will to a duc. She is taken to the palace of Versailles where she witnesses the early days of the French Revolution. Through her eyes, I tell the story of the fall of the Bastille, the abolition of the nobility, and the beginning of the Terror.
I imagine the Chateau de Belisima-sur-le-lac looking a little like this chateau in Brittany, the Château de Trécesson:
I first discovered this chateau when someone posted a picture of it on Facebook, wondering what the chateau was called. It was so like what I imagined Viviane's home looking like, I went and searched on the internet until I located it and it has been my desktop picture ever since.
I have a very visual imagination and so I am always printing out pictures and sticking them in my notebooks, or pinning them on Pinterest (you can check out all the pictures on my Pinterest page if you like.)
I also like to collect small artefacts that help inspire my imagination.
The first is a small miniature of a 18th century French noblewoman that I bought on Etsy. It's the most exquisite little painting, and it has worked its way into the story as a miniature of Viviane's mother, who died the day she was born.
My other treasure, I found in an old antique shop in France when I was there two years ago researching this book.
It is a huge old key. The man in the antique shop told me that it was the key to a chateau that had been burned during the french revolution. The key was found in the chateau well 270 years later. No-one knows who threw it in the well, or why. This story really intrigued me and so I bought the key, and it now hangs on my wall.
This anecdote too has worked its way into the story.
I have now finished the first major draft of The Blue Rose and will soon embark on the final edit and proofread. It's been such a marvellous adventure writing this book, I can't wait to share it with you.
Next year I have a significant birthday, and so I have drawn up a list of fifty dreams, ambitions and desires that I call THE 50/50 PROJECT (I guess that gives away what kind of significant birthday I am facing!)
The list is not static - as I think of new things I badly want to do, I add it to the list (though this means I have to remove something else.)
However, right from the start I've had on my list:
BUY A RED CONVERTIBLE!
And now that particular dream has come true. Here I am in my new, very cute, very red Mini S Cooper convertible.
Red lipstick mandatory.
You can see the whole list of dreams and ambitions at THE 50/50 PROJECT (as I continually reassure my husband, I know some of these are highly unlikely to ever be achieved).
However, I have managed a few. Read about how I sold a million books, won a major international literary award, stood under a waterfall, and visited Haworth Vicarage where the Brontes once lived.
What about you? What are your hopes and dreams (improbably or otherwise)? What should I add to my 50/50 list?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT - I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
I have a secret page on my website that only those that search carefully can find. I call it The 50/50 Project ...
It is a list of all my hopes and dreams - both possible and impossible - & all the places I hope to one day go and all the things I hope to one day do. I call it The 50/50 Project because it was inspired by the inching closer of my 50th birthday and the realisation that there are still so many things in the world I want to do (I found 50 of them, hence the title). The idea is that - as I go somewhere or achieve something - I'll blog about it, and gradually be able to cross off some of these dreams.
Today I am crossing off:
No 36: Stand Under A Waterfall
I actually did this last year, when I was touring for THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST in the Top End. Panos Couras, who was then the director of the Northern Territory Writers Centre, took me to swim at Wangi Falls in the Litchfield National Park, 100 km south-west of Darwin.
It was the most magical place that felt very secret and ancient (apart from the dozens of people swimming there!) Its surrounded by red desert and grey-green bush for hundreds of kilometres, and the water plummets down a ochre-red rock face in heavy white veils. To get to the waterfalls, you need to swim across the waterhole which is incredibly dark and cold. Your arms and legs are greenish-brown under the water, and I could not help being afraid of crocodiles (even though I knew the waterpool was only opened if no crocodiles were sighted).
Here is my photographic proof! (Thanks to Panos Couras who took the photos)
And to give you an idea of how tall the waterfall is (about 52 metres):
I have a secret page on my website that only those that search carefully can find. I call it The 50/50 Project ...
It is a list of all my hopes and dreams - both possible and impossible - & all the places I hope to one day go and all the things I hope to one day achieve. I call it The 50/50 Project because I hate the term 'bucket list' (so inelegant). Yet, like many such lists, it is was inspired by the inching closer of my 50th birthday and the realisation that there are still so many things in the world I want to do (I found 50 of them, hence the title). The idea is that - as I go somewhere or achieve something - I'll blog about it, and gradually be able to cross off some of these dreams.
So its very exciting that my very first blog post for The 50/50 Project is:
No 33: Sell a million books (or more!)
I have written quite a few books - more than thirty at last count. Both books for adults and books for children, ranging from picture books to young adult fiction, plus one collection of poetry. All my books have sold well. Some have sold extremely well. Yet I still had not cracked total sales of more than a million copies.
Until Bitter Greens, my retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale. I wrote this novel as the creative component of a Doctorate in Creative Arts, along with a 30,000 word exegesis 'The Rescue of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower.' It was published in 2012, the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Grimm Brothers' first collection of fairy tales, a time when interest in fairy tale retellings was at a all-time high.
The book has since been published in all English speaking territories, particularly Australia, the UK and the US, as well as in Russia and as an audio book. It won the American Library Association (ALA) Award for Best Historical Fiction, was a Library Journal US Best Historical Novel, and was shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, the Ditmar Award, and a Norma K. Hemming Award (for which it received an Honourable Mention).
It has sold strongly all over the world, but particularly well in Russia, where I sold in excess of a quarter of a million copies in just two weeks. Thanks to my Russian readers, I have finally cracked the Million Copies Sold glass ceiling. Let's hope I sell my next million much, much faster!
So HOW did it happen? I really do not know ... except that I poured my heart and soul into this book! I spent seven years researching and writing it, I took an enormous risk by writing something very different from the books I was known for, I constantly thought to myself 'how can I make the book better? How can I push myself to be bolder, more daring, more innovative, more surprising?' and I brought to it everything I know about storytelling and writing. I think it has paid off (big happy smiley face!)
I talk about how I found out about my Russian bonanza in this Youtube interview with Booktopia :
Keep an eye on my blog for other updates to the (now-not-so-secret) 50/50 Project!
It was my 50th birthday last year & so I set out to fulfill as many items on my 50/50 project as possible.
You may not know about The 50/50 Project – it’s simply a list of dreams and plans and ambitions that I hope to make come true. There’s no deadline, and I probably will never achieve all of them, but it is fun trying!
No 25 on my list is to ride in a helicopter, and so my lovely husband organised a secret adventure on the day of my birthday (which is 3rd June – sorry, it’s taken me a while to post about it!)
June is winter in Sydney and it was a cold, wet, blustery day.
My husband thought it was a shame, because Sydney is so beautiful when it sparkles in the sunshine, but I didn’t mind at all.
In fact, it was so exciting and atmospheric seeing the raindrops hit the glass and feeling the wind rattle the rotors.
Then we went out for lunch, and my husband gave me another wonderful surprise - some gorgeous ruby earrings!
So I was very spoilt on my 50th birthday ... and I can cross another thing off my bucket list!
On my website I have a page called The 50/50 Project, where I have listed the 50 things I still wish to do in my life.
No 11 on the list is "See where the Bronte sisters grew up and wrote their books".
"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' by Anne Bronte are among my all-time favourite books, and I have read so many books about them and their work. I re-read one of their novels every few years, and never fail to fall in love with them again.
I have wanted to go to the Bronte Vicarage in Haworth for as long as I can remember, and at last - in July 2015 - I finally made the pilgrimage.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and - although I had been warned I'd have to fight flocks of tourists - I practically had the house to myself.
I found the little house very moving - Charlotte Bronte's flower-trimmed wedding bonnet and tiny lace gloves:
"Nothing would satisfy some of my friends but white which I told you I would not wear. Accordingly they dressed me in white by way of trial--vowed away their consciences that nothing had ever suited me so well--and white I had to buy and did buy to my own amazement--but I took care to get it in cheap material--there were some insinuations about silk, tulle and I don't know what--but I stuck convulsively to muslin--plain book muslin with a tuck or two. Also the white veil--I took care should be a matter of 5s being simply of tulle with little tucks. If I must make a fool of myself--it shall be on an economical plan."
~ Charlotte Brontë wrote in a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell, early June 1854
Poor Charlotte died while in the early stages of pregnancy, perhaps from tuberculosis, perhaps from typhoid, perhaps from malnutrition following severe morning sickness. She was 38.
I also loved the little books in which they wrote their poem and stories:
And the couch on which Emily Bronte is said to have died, aged only 30:
I had not realised how close the vicarage was to the church and to the village. Somehow I had always imagined it as being high on a windswept moor ...
Here are some of my favourite quotes from these favourite authors of mine:
Anne died far too young as well, and its impossible not to wish that they had all and a chance to live and be happy and write more wonderful books and have children, to pass on (perhaps) their extraordinary genuis.
I am even more fascinated by this brilliant and heart-wrenching family since having visited their home at Haworth - if you are ever travelling the wild windswept moors of Yorkshire, you must go too!
Something I have always wanted to do is celebrate the summer solstice at an ancient circle of stones like Stonehenge or Avebury.
It’s actually No 9 on my list of things I want to do one day – I call this list my 50/50 project.
I was actually in England for the summer solstice last year, and only half an hour’s drive away from the Rollright Stones which is – so far – my favourite circle of stones.
But I was too scared to go out in the dark by myself! I didn’t know anyone else who was going and I didn’t want to intrude on the celebrations of anyone who might be there. So I didn’t get to see the sunrise over the stones, as I’d hoped.
I did, however, go the next day.
And it was such a beautiful & magical experience I thought I’d share it with you … even though it’s not quite making that particular dream come true.
I went with Krys Saclier and Martina Smythe, two of my students from the 2016 History, Mystery & Magic retreat in the Cotswolds, and Martina took most of these dreamy photographs (thank you for letting me use them!)
Maybe one day I’ll be back in the UK at midsummer and will have the courage to go and see the sun rise over a circle of stones (or at least, have some friends to go with me!)
This year I had a significant birthday, and so I drew up a list of fifty dreams, ambitions and desires that I call THE 50/50 PROJECT (I guess that gives away what kind of significant birthday I endured!)
The list is not static - as I think of new things I badly want to do, I add it to the list (though this means I have to remove something else.)
However, right from the start I've had on my list:
SEE ULURU AT SUNSET
So my husband and I took a romantic weekend away in early November to visit Ulura in the Red Centre of Australia. We flew into the Ayers Rock Resort on Friday night and stayed at Longitude 131, which is right inside the national park. It's a row of fifteen glamorous 'tents' with amazing views of Uluru - you can watch the sunrise over the rock from your own bed.
Our first night there we were taken out to see the famous rock change colours as the sun goes down. It really is extraordinary - this huge monolith rising from the flat desert scrub, changing from brown to red to orange to violet as the stars begin to shine.
We then walked the Field of Stars art installation by the British artist Bruce Munro which was just magical:
(I didn't take this photo - it was too dark by the time we got there. This photo is by Mark Pickthall from AU ABROAD)
Then we had a magical dinner under the stars, while our guides from Longitude 131 told us stories of the stars spread out above us and we listened to a local play the didgeridoo. It was really magical.
Over the next few days we walked into the gorges of Kata Tjuta, and learnt from our guide the convulsive geographical events the led to the formation of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, and were told about many of the fascinating native plants and wild flowers growing in the desert.
We also walked around the base of Uluru, and heard some of the Dreamtime stories of the local Pitjantjatjara people - you can just imagine how much I loved that. I was particularly struck by how deeply embedded the stories were in the landscape. Many myths of the world have been unanchored from place, but the stories of the Pitjantjatjara are inspired by, and proven by, the unique rock outcrops and waterholes and flora and fauna of the area, and cannot be cut free of them.
We watched the sun set and the moon rise over the great orange mound of rock, and then returned for another delicious meal of local produce - including kangaroo.
It truly was an amazing experience and I am so glad we went. The lovely people at Longitude 131 looked after us so well, and I learnt so much.
And I'm happy to have crossed one more thing off my list of The 50/50 Project!
If you enjoyed this blog, you may like to read about how I sold a million books, won a major international literary award, stood under a waterfall, and visited Haworth Vicarage where the Brontes once lived.
THE 50/50 PROJECT: Finishing my Doctorate & Publishing my Exegesis
My novel BITTER GREENS was written as the creative component of a Doctorate in Creative Arts at the University of Technology, Sydney.
It retells ‘Rapunzel’ in a Renaissance Venice setting, entwining the fairy tale with the dramatic true-life story of the 17th century French noblewoman who wrote the tale as it is best known, Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force. She was second cousin to Louis XIV, the Sun King, and a maid-of-honour at the royal court in Versailles. She wrote her story ‘Persinette’ while locked away in an impoverished convent by the king, as punishment for her wild and wicked ways (which included dressing up as a dancing bear to try and rescue her much younger lover).
BITTER GREENS took me seven long years to research and write, including the four years that it took complete my doctorate.
As the theoretical component of the degree, I also wrote a 30,000-word dissertation on the history of the Maiden in the Tower tale, examining why this tale haunted my imagination above all others, and why it has continued to be told and re-told for so many hundreds of years.
I am very glad and proud to announce that my doctoral dissertation is to be published in book form by the wonderful people at FableCroft.
THE REBIRTH OF RAPUNZEL: A MYTHIC BIOGRAPHY OF THE MAIDEN IN THE TOWER will also include a number of essays and articles on fairy tales and folklore.
FableCroft said, in their press release: “This unique collection will include Kate’s research on the Rapunzel story that underpinned her stunning, award-winning novel, BITTER GREENS … The book is not your usual reference work, but an wonderful exploration of the subject matter, written in Kate’s clever and engaging style.”
FableCroft have released both a hardcover print edition as well as an accessible ebook version, with cover art by Kathleen Jennings.
A SKETCH OF KATE FORSYTH BY KATHLEEN JENNINGS
You can buy the book now! I hope that you find the book a fascinating companion book to BITTER GREENS.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT – I LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
