Today’s special guest author is Joanna FitzPatrick and we’re chatting about her new historical mystery, The Artist Colony.
Bio:
Joanna Fitzpatrick’s MFA thesis from Sarah Lawrence College was about her life as a rock ’n’ roll star’s wife. She’s written two previous novels, Katherine Mansfield, Bronze Winner of the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award in Historical Fiction, and The Drummer’s Widow. The Artist Colony is her third novel.
Welcome, Joanna. Please tell us about your current release.
Part mystery, part historical fiction, THE ARTIST COLONY celebrates the talents of early women painters, the bonds of sisterhood, the muse that’s beautiful scenery, and the determination of one young woman to discover the truth, to protect an artistic legacy, and to give her deceased sister the farewell she deserves.
What inspired you to write this book?
After too many writing teachers told me to write what I love to read, I felt a powerful urge to write a mystery. I’d moved from NYC to Carmel, California carrying a landscape my great aunt had painted in the 1920s when Carmel by the Sea’s was an artist colony and not a tourist destination. My curiosity took over and I started researching the colony’s history. Then I went in search of the actual locations where my great aunt had painted and started to write scenes in those locations and voila! The Artist Colony was born.
Excerpt from The Artist Colony:
The Monterey autobus came to a sudden stop, bringing Sarah back into the present. The view before her was identical to Ada’s seascape hanging on her wall in Paris; it brought continuous sunshine into her dimly lit fourth-floor garret. Ada had discovered a painterly paradise in Carmel and she shared it with Sarah and everyone else who viewed her landscapes.
What could have happened, wondered Sarah, to change this paradise into an early grave?
“Last stop!” shouted José. “Carmel-by-the-Sea!” The passengers climbed down and started off in different directions.
Sarah stepped onto a wooden boardwalk and scanned the deep blue waters that spread out beyond the end of the road. Is that where they found you? Under the cobalt blue sky? The cypresses? The waves crashing against jagged rocks? That white pristine beach?
The brilliant colors faded to black. She lowered her head and whispered, I’m so sorry, Ada. I’ve come too late. Will you ever forgive me?
Ada’s silence was deafening.
What exciting story are you working on next?
Because of the book release this year I’ve had little time to start a new novel. That’s why I enjoy filling out this questionnaire that allows me a moment of creative thought and my fingers get to fly across the keyboard.
I am missing my amateur sleuth narrator, Sarah, and her loyal dogtective, Albert, so I might bring them back to life in my next novel and take them with me to France to scout locations.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Around the campfire at Girl Scout camp when I told a horror story about a young girl attacked in the night. I was rather shy and awkward, you know the type, the last one picked to play on the team. But as a storyteller I was accepted, even admired. I started revising my story with gory details and it became more suspenseful until even I was scared to tell it.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write full time when I start a new writing project. I have to get it all down on the blank page and the only way to do that is to lock myself in my studio and write, write, write until I finish the first draft. Once I have that first draft, I can open the door and relax a bit because I know I’ve got the material and can start the second phase: Revisions.
Finding time to write isn’t the problem. We all know the stories of famous writers writing before going to work or after their children are put to bed. For me, it’s finding the courage to start a new project knowing once I start I have to see it through and some projects can take up a big chunk of your life.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
My favorite quirk is to hear words like “quirk,” and liking its sound, but not that familiar with its meaning, look it up in the dictionary. If I like the definition and its synonyms (and quirk is a fabulous example) then I use the word in what I’m writing, which often leads to another quirk.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an actress and receive great accolades for my performance as the tragic Ophelia in Hamlet. If not Ophelia then my other ambition was to perform on Broadway as Piglet in Winnie the Pooh.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Thank you for being readers. If you weren’t there to read, then who would hear me?
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Thanks for visiting today!