Hello Friends,
This interview was such a treat! The second that Marie-Josée mentioned Edward Rutherfurd I knew she was a writer after my own heart. Anybody remember The World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto? I am revealing my ‘vintage’ here (big surprise) but as a teen, I loved going there and finding the longest, cheapest reads. Rutherfurd’s paperbacks would go on sale, and who doesn’t love a thousand-page paperback for five bucks?
But in all seriousness, Blood Bound is an epic book. Just listen to this synopsis: “In Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties (Guernica Editions), costume historian Geoffroy Le Hideux recognizes the coat of arms of Madame de Pompadour on a blood-stained dress found hidden in the walls of the lyse Palace. In a genealogical investigation taking her from Montreal to Paris, Lou Ashby, a successful communications agent at a television station called La Chane, meets Geoffroy. Together they will expose a secret that alters what was considered historical fact: Madame de Pompadour did not have descendants. But what if she had? Why hide the fact that she had a son who, contrary to historical belief, survived childhood?” I mean. C’mon. YES.
The responses here are in the same candid vein as most of our authors ( I am looking at you, Zak Jones) and though they’re brief, they hit the nail on the head. I am excited for her next book!
Until next week, your friend,
Allison
1. What life events and/or preoccupations shaped this book as you wrote it?
I did not look very far for the original inspiration: it came from my name Poisson, which means fish. You can imagine that it lends itself easily to all sorts of teasing and mockery. When I found out that Madame de Pompadour was née Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, I decided to weave a fiction around that. Especially since she was viciously insulted by the nobles about this bourgeois, some would say vulgar, Poisson name in the Poissonnades verses. I’d had my fair share of problems with that name. Even in my professional life, English speaking people would call me Mrs Poison. No, I am not poisonous. Even in that language, that name is a curse.
2. What was one of your biggest challenges in bringing the project to fruition?
Finding a publisher. I had spent 5 years researching and writing my first novel and I had to send my manuscript to numerous publishers, both in France and in Québec before finding one that agreed to work with me.
3. What other stories or books inspired it, and why?
In English: Edward Rutherfurd’s family sagas. I love stories that unfold through the ages and are based on a sound historical background.
In French: the Nicolas Le Floch detective novels, by Jean-François Parot. I started reading these books because the action takes place in mid XVIIIth century Paris, my favourite era and one of my favourite place.I was charmed by the quality of writing and captivated by these crime stories, often built around real-life historical figures.
4. What kind of impact do you hope it makes?
To rekindle reader’s interest in history, to their place in history.
What I mean is that ancestry, genealogy are important to establish where we come from, what we are made of.
This idea is at the core of my main character’s search for self, for her identity.
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5. Is it connected to your next project in any way?
Yes. I am toying with the idea of writing a fourth book to complete this trilogy (my first translated novel is a stand-alone story, but it turned out to be the first of 3 books).
I have so much material that I could use, still.
Or, I’m thinking of trying my hand at auto-fiction, also revolving about time, the passing of time.