RACHAEL KING - Interview






  


BLOG INTERVIEW - AUTHOR OF THE WEEK

THE SOUND OF BUTTERFLIES

Back cover synopsis:

"In 1904, the young lepidopterist Thomas Edgar arrives home from a collecting expedition in the Amazon. His young wife Sophie is unprepared for his emaciated state, and even worse, his inability - or unwillingness - to speak.

Sophie's genteel and demure life in Edwardian England contrasts starkly with the decadence of Brazil's rubber boom, as we are taken back to Thomas's arrival in the Amazon and his search for a mythical butterfly. Up the river, via the opulent city of Manaus - where the inhabitants feed their horses champagne and aspire to all things European - Thomas's extraordinary and increasingly obsessed, journey carries him through the exotic and the erotic to some terrible truths.

Back home, unable to break through Thomas's silence, Sophie is forced to take increasingly drastic measures to discover what has happened. But as she scavenges what she can from Thomas's diaries and boxes of exquisite butterflies, she learns as much about herself as about her husband."

Interview:

Q: Hello, Rachael. I was very impressed with your debut novel as it seems to have a sophistication level and attention to historical detail that so far I have not seen produced by a young writer. You are based in New Zealand and your novel is based in turn-of-the century England and Brazil. Can you tell us how you prepared to write this story in terms of: spark of interest, research, historical accuracy, use of scientific terms and foreign language phrases?

A: The first spark that came to me was the butterflies: I looked up one night at the butterflies behind glass on my living room wall and thought ‘what a beautiful book cover they would make’. Then the premise literally just leapt into my head: a butterfly collector returns home from an expedition mute. What happened to him? I knew that as well as showing his journey, I wanted to show his wife’s journey in trying to communicate with him again.

From there I looked around for settings and time periods I could use, which led me to Brazil and the journals of the 19th century explorers such as Alfred Russell Wallace and Henry Walter Bates. But I also learned from my brother, when I mentioned my idea to him, about the rubber boom (which happened at the turn of the 20th century, and so somewhat later than Wallace and Bates’ travels) and what an extraordinary time it was in terms of decadence and cruelty and I knew I had to use this as the backdrop to the story. He told me about the opera house in Manaus (as depicted in the Werner Herzog film, Fitzcarraldo), and I went from there.

I began to write and research simultaneously as I knew that I could always go back and change something that wasn’t historically accurate: it was important to me to get into the flow the story. Almost the whole of Thomas’s story came to me in the first couple of days after my initial idea… only the details changed to fit the facts, but the overall arc was there. Sophie’s story was easier as I once lived in Richmond, and through reading authors like EM Forster felt as if I was more familiar with Edwardian England. Again, I let the story lead and did the research as I went to check facts and to find some juicy authentic details about the time and place.

I found some brilliant books about butterfly collecting through the ages, so was able to use scientific knowledge available at the time, and the Wallace and Bates journals were invaluable for the natural history of the Amazon. A Brazilian friend on Zoetrope translated certain phrases into Portuguese for me. I’m dreading the day I have to do a reading and attempt to pronounce those words!

Q: I'm not sure if you have visited modern-day Manaus as part of your research, but if not can you share any insights on reconstructing a believable foreign setting?

A: Here’s the secret: a bit of research, a bit of imagination, and a whole lot of cheek!

But seriously, the best tool available for this is your imagination. Some people say they can’t write about a place without going there, but why not? As fiction writers we need vivid imaginations. I can write about a historical place without going there; just as I can write about a time period without using a time machine to go there myself. If your research is good, you should be able to imagine yourself there, with all its sights, sounds and smells, then write what you see in your mind’s eye. It is preferable of course to go there if you can, but that option wasn’t available to me.

I should add that if I was writing a contemporary story I wouldn’t tackle it without going to the setting concerned. Writing about a city a hundred years ago is completely different to writing about it now.

Q: I don't want to reveal further elements of the plot, but I am wondering how you first constructed the story since you alternate POVs between Sophie and Thomas. Did you write Thomas's story first and then Sophie's or from the first draft were you telling both stories simultaneously?

A: Yes, it’s hard to talk about this novel sometimes, because there are so many surprises along the way! I wrote the book as if I were reading it, so from the first draft I was alternating viewpoints. It was a process of discovery for me, and I found that imagining I was a reader was a great way to get narrative pace and structure just right.

Q: Agatha is an interesting character, as she seems to be more rebellious than Sophie regarding the accepted behavior of women during this time period. Is she or any of the other characters based on a historical figure or pure invention?

A: No, she is pure invention. Some people have expressed surprise at her forthrightness, but actually late Victorian and Edwardian literature is full of such women, who challenge social norms. I’m thinking of characters from the pens of Edith Wharton, Henry James, EM Forster, Thomas Hardy… also, the Bloomsbury set came along not long after this and they got up to all kinds of mischief. Edwardian times were quite risqué: led by King Edward, it was party central. I could have made the characters a lot more naughty than I did!

There are two characters in the book loosely based on real people: the character of Senhor Santos, the rubber baron, is based on a real figure called Julio Arana (I have only taken some elements from his life, he is not supposed to be a carbon copy), and the off-stage Mr. Roberts is based on an American called Walter Harding, also heavily fictionalised. I can’t say much more than that without giving away the story!

Q: I was impressed by the level of detail regarding the women's and men's clothing. Did you have fun researching that? There is an exceptionally vivid scene when Sophie rushes off without her gloves, and you do an excellent job explaining how shocking this was for the time. Something a reader almost has to be re-educated about during these days of casual attire and flip-flops.

A: Oh yes, that was great fun. Captain Fale being shocked at Sophie’s gloveless hands says more about him perhaps than society – at that point women’s evening gowns were showing quite a bit of cleavage. But fashion was so much more set than it is now, certainly. I had a lot of fun with Agatha and her hats, as they really did get bigger and fruitier at that time – it’s a wonder women’s heads could take the weight of them.

Q: Did you use outlining techniques to determine when certain details of the plot would be revealed in order to increase the level of suspense? (I enjoyed the mystery of Thomas's silence, and found myself trying to guess what had happened to him while I was reading.)

A: Yes, I did a chapter by chapter breakdown for the Brazil chapters, but was flexible enough to not stick to it if the characters led me in another direction. But most of the twists and turns stayed as I planned them. The England chapters however were much more organic, and that side of the story unfolded as I wrote it.

A couple of prospective publishers commented that they thought the book was a bit slow to start with (which others disagree with!) but it was very important to me to establish character well before just racing ahead with plot. All of Thomas’s expedition companions play an important part in Thomas’s development and I needed their actions to be wholly believable, not contrived for a racy plot.

Q: Did you find it challenging to write from Thomas's perspective? (If you did, I don't notice it since the voice and tone are completely believable, but I often wonder if it is a challenge to be a spokesperson for another gender.)

A: It was liberating. Actually, the character I had most fun with was Captain Fale. Thomas was a sensitive person so I was able to give him lots to think about, but in inhabiting Fale’s head I lost myself in him totally and was able to come up with a distinct voice for him that was pure fun to write. For Thomas, my research to write from a man’s perspective was every man I’ve ever known!

Q: Which scenes were the most difficult to write?

A: Sometimes it was hard to write Sophie’s and Agatha’s scenes without becoming sentimental or twee. I worked very hard on the prose for those scenes. I was determined that the book shouldn’t read like an Edwardian romance… but whether I succeeded or not is up to the reader. The fast-paced action scenes were hard to start, but once I was in them like being in a trance and many of them ended up being exactly as they were in the first draft.


Q: How long did you take to write this? Is research the more time-consuming part and the story was pre-envisioned when you sat down to write the first draft? Or did the story shape itself while you were writing?

A: It was three and half years from go to whoa, but I had about a year and a half when I didn’t work on it at all. I wrote most of the first draft in about 18 months, then had a huge break while I went back to work to try and earn some money. During that off period my father died suddenly, and it was a real eye-opener in terms of evaluating my life and what I wanted to do with it. I knew then that I needed to finish the book and I quit my job and worked on it full time for the next six months - thanks to some money that he left me I was able to do it without having to worry about earning a crust. It was like a parting gift, seeing me on my way to being a published author.

Q: When the book was finished, did you find it hard to let go of the characters you created? By the end of the book, I felt like I was in the same room observing them.

A: Yes, I’m very fond of Thomas and Sophie, but I was ready to set them free. It was really important to me to create main characters that the reader really knows and cares about. I have read so many dry and dusty historical novels where the writer is so fanatical about writing in a voice of the time that as a reader you just can’t empathise with the characters. I’m glad you felt that way about them.

Q: This story has a cinematic quality, something I would love to see on screen. Is this an angle you would consider?

A: I’m certainly open to offers and discussion! It would be a very expensive film to produce I imagine, and I’m sure the story would have to be changed a bit, but I wouldn’t be too precious about that. I think books and films are two completely different works of art and so need to be different.

Q: Are you enjoying becoming a Known Writer? How has it been on your book tour to meet supportive readers?

A: I’ve had quite a bit of publicity here in New Zealand and I can’t help thinking people must be sick of the sight of me! But it’s been quite a ride. The only trouble is that I’m very easily distracted from my writing and I should be working on my next novel. My book tour starts this week, so I am yet to meet supportive readers, but I’m looking forward particularly to being on a panel at the Christchurch Writers’ Festival and arguing about historical novels. One of my dates is two weeks before my first baby is due so that could get interesting if it decides to come early!

Thank you, Rachael King, for participating in this week's Blog Interview. Best of luck for the continued success with this remarkable story.

Thanks, Jennifer!



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