Elizabeth the First Wife (44 page)

“Well, it is perfect.” The rose-colored votive glowed, the shadows playing against the imperfect walls.
I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest
. “And good news: That's the only quote you'll ever need to memorize.”

In
Helen of Pasadena
, your protagonist was a woman roughly your age, with a teenage son about the age of one of your sons. She even majored in the same thing in college that you did. But Elizabeth Lancaster is younger, single, childless, and a Shakespeare professor. Was it more of a challenge to write her?

Actually, it was a lot more fun to write Elizabeth than Helen. With Helen, there were so many obvious parallels to my life that I really had to work to make it clear she wasn't me. (I thought I'd done a fine job, but I can't tell you how many people have called me “Helen” since the book has come out. Or introduced me by saying, “This is Helen of Pasadena!” Um, no.)

Elizabeth's the cool, slightly cynical single gal that I'd like to think I would have been had I not gotten married and if I had a PhD. I had a fantastic Shakespeare professor in college who brought the material to life with her passion and sometimes brought us to
tears with her lectures. Elizabeth is an homage to her, but she comes with more emotional baggage and a funkier wardrobe than my former professor.

One similarity you have to Elizabeth is being the youngest of the family—in her case, a highly accomplished family, and in your case, a very large family, also with its share of accomplishments. How has being a youngest shaped you as a writer?

When you're the youngest in a big family—or probably any family—you end up observing more than contributing for years of your life. No one wants to talk to the youngest or hear what you have to say at the dinner table. So I spent a lot of years listening, laughing, and making copious mental notes about people, behavior, and conversations—all very helpful for a writer. Also, you have plenty of “lives” to borrow material from. Was that funny story about the bad date mine? Or my big sister's? Ultimately, it doesn't really matter who went on the bad date, I can still use it in my writing.

Shakespeare looms large in
Elizabeth the First Wife
. Have you always been interested in the Bard?

I grew up in Connecticut near a town called Stratford, which is home to an “official” Shakespearean theater, so from elementary school through high school, seeing a play was an annual field trip. And I can still remember the discussion about
The Taming of the Shrew
in my eighth-grade English class with my groovy, feminist teacher. I think that early exposure gave me an interest and a comfort level with the material. Let's face it, the first few Shakespeare plays you see, you barely have a clue what's happening. But the more you read and watch, the more you understand.

In high school, I also loved going into New York City in the summer to see Shakespeare in the Park with friends, because that was
a whole happening, from waiting in line for the tickets to seeing great actors in an outdoor setting with a raucous audience. By college, I eagerly signed up for a full-year class, reading a dozen plays and even playing Hamlet in our in-class production.

But my lifelong fascination with the Bard was really cemented during my junior year abroad in Athens. I had the opportunity to see an amazing Royal Shakespeare Company/Peter Hall production of
Coriolanus
with Ian McKellen in the title role. The production was staged in the ancient amphitheater on the Acropolis. There was no need for a set, because it was the ancient amphitheater on the Acropolis! Just the words, the acting, and the lighting—and with Shakespeare, you don't need any more. It was mind-blowing, to steal a phrase from the book. Just one of those experiences that connected me to thousands of years of theater, words, and the whole human experience in a single night. Made me a lifelong believer in the power of the Bard.

How challenging was it to write about Shakespeare, the most influential literary figure of all time?

Very. The more I researched for the book, the more I realized I didn't know jack about Shakespeare. At first, I thought I'd weave some Shakespearean mystery into the plot, something to do with the writing of
Midsummer
and the noble family for whom it was written. But after dipping into my research, it became very clear that there were lots and lots of serious Shakespeare scholars and ten times more enthusiasts who would bust me if I didn't get the research exactly right. That reality was sobering! That's why I decided that Elizabeth's research for her book would have a pop-culture slant and be more accessible and fun than arcane. That was a critical decision in the creation of Elizabeth's character and the plot. As a writer, I felt inspired when I decided to go in that direction.

Which brings up Elizabeth's book-within-a-book,
All's Fair
. What inspired that?

Once I decided to ditch a super-serious scholarly focus on the Shakespearean material, I worked on creating pseudo-scholarly material that any reader could enjoy. The idea hit me in the shower—where I do my best thinking—and I immediately got out and searched for contemporary relationship books based on Shakespeare. There weren't any! I was shocked, but thrilled. It seemed like a really contemporary way to use the material, and I like writing about contemporary women and their lives.

Plus, let's face it, even for educated readers, for many of us our last exposure to a Shakespeare play was in high school or college. Details get fuzzy. And who's kidding who? Life is busy, and nobody sits down to read
The Tempest
after they put the kids to bed. But I thought, readers might have read or seen
The Tempest
at some point and would like a little refresher class. I hope
All's Fair
, the book-within-a-book, helps readers feel a little more on top of their Shakespeare again. Like they're back in the literary game, able to drop references and quote quotes without having to work too hard!

Is there a Shakespearean heroine you most identify with?

Before I wrote the book, I probably would have said Beatrice from
Much Ado About Nothing
, just because she is fabulous and easy to like. The Elizabeth Bennet of the canon. But doing the research on all the Righteous Role Models made me appreciate so many more of the female characters for various reasons. Juliet was one tough teenager. Cleopatra worked it. Portia made a feminist statement in an age when those didn't come easily. There's a lot to admire in almost all of the women of Shakespeare, especially when viewed through the perspective of time.

In this era of extremely heated political debate, you've created a world in which Democrats and Republicans not only get along, but also love each other. Is this literary wishful thinking or actually possible?

When I conceived of the book, we had a Republican governor of California who was a fiscal conservative, a social liberal, and a bodybuilding movie star married to a Kennedy clan member! Clearly, here in California, anything IS possible.

Elizabeth Lancaster sticks to her career guns and doesn't do what her mother wants her to do. Is this an essential message for you?

One of the themes I wanted to explore in
Elizabeth the First Wife
was the idea of breaking free of your family's expectations and being your own person. (That's definitely the baby of the family in me!) But I've observed in my own life and the lives of others that being your own person is not that easy, even as you slide into midlife. And ironically, it can be even harder to carve out an adult identity if you have a close family where you can get stuck, never really evolving from the role you played when you were twelve.

In Elizabeth Lancaster, I wanted to explore a woman sticking up to not only her mother, but really her whole family, who have plenty of ideas of how she should be living, what she should be doing, and how she should be dressing. The Lancasters are purposefully an intimidating bunch, high profile and high powered, making it even tougher for Elizabeth to strike out on a new path. Plus, she is stuck romantically at age twenty-three, when she got totally burned, so that's not helping her forward momentum. The book focuses on Elizabeth, in her mid-thirties, defining who she is and finally making choices as she sees fit, not to please her family.

And I do feel that finding a professional path is critical for
women to establish their adult identities. We have a lot of roles we play in society or in a family—wife, mother, sister, aunt, caretaker—and by definition those roles rely on others in our family. But in our professional lives, we get to create our own persona. Be who we really are when our mother isn't watching. I think that's important in a woman's self-identity.

Once again, Pasadena serves as a major setting and theme. Has your vision of Pasadena evolved since writing
Helen of Pasadena?
Can we expect to see you escaping to Ashland any time soon?

I know so much more now about Pasadena than I did when I wrote
Helen of Pasadena
. Wow, since that book came out, lifelong Pasadenans have dished the dirt on all kinds of scandals and local lore. I won't be walking away from Pasadena anytime soon, because there's too much good stuff to mine and great cultural institutions to explore. But I did like bringing in another locale. It keeps my writing fresh and provides a comparative setting for Pasadena, which is steeped in tradition. The next book will be Pasadena and somewhere in Europe, because I can write the trip off as research, right?

That being said, Ashland is an amazing town with a wonderful spirit and a creative soul. I'd love to find my own little Sage Cottage there one day.

Helen Fairchild swoons over the manly forearms on the sexy archaeologist. Elizabeth Lancaster swoons over the manly forearms on the sexy political operative. Is it safe to say you have a thing for masculine forearms?

Guilty as charged. Forearms are revealing. I think as a gender, women have focused on men's backsides and abs for too long. Six-packs don't tell us anything except that the guy spends a lot of time in the gym and probably doesn't eat pasta. A man's forearms say a
lot about his life choices. Are they tanned and muscular? Then the guy must get outside and move dirt around, figuratively or literally. Are they pale and slim? Too much time in the office! Could be dull. There's a story in every forearm, and all you need is for the guy to roll up his sleeve to get a good look.

Does writing a novel get any easier the second time around?

Nope.

1. When we meet Elizabeth, she seems perfectly contented with her life, although her family of high achievers encourages her to be more ambitious. Do you think she was denying her ambitions out of fear?

2. Setting plays a large role. Could Ashland and Pasadena be considered characters of their own? Does Elizabeth's relationship with each of these places change over the course of the book?

3. The title
Elizabeth the First Wife
ties our protagonist to Elizabeth the First of England. Which of her aspects draw inspiration from Queen Elizabeth? How is she a modern-day Elizabeth?

4. Did you think Elizabeth and FX were going to get back together at the end? Were you hoping they would?

5. What is the significance of an all-consuming “first love”? Compare Elizabeth and FX's relationship to the one with Rafa. Do you remember your first love as vividly as she does?

6. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from Elizabeth's book proposal,
All's Fair
. How did these affect your reading of the main storyline?

7. Elizabeth struggles to create her own identity within her family, and ultimately triumphs. Is that a common issue?

Is it easier to write a second novel? Sadly, no. You still have to write every word, and it's just as difficult to stay out of the fridge as it was the first time around. But if you're lucky, you have a team to get you through the good days and the rough ones. I'm one of the lucky ones, so thanks go to:

My publisher, Prospect Park Books, and its positive and patient brain trust: Colleen Dunn Bates, Patty O'Sullivan, Jennifer Bastien, Caroline Purvis, and the sales and distribution team at Consortium. This one's for you. Thanks to book designer Kathy Kikkert for her lovely work.

My multimedia empire builders, if writing in your bedroom and recording a podcast in your closet can be called an empire, including my agents, Yfat Reiss Gendell at Foundry Literary in New York and Katie Cates at Kaplan/Stahler in Los Angeles; my webmaster and designer, Emily Tellez; my photographer, Dana Bouton; and my hairdresser/life coach, Trina Mor.

My sources for the book: the California Institute of Technology, the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. At Caltech, many thanks to my friend Leslie Maxfield, the director of Academic Media Technology, and to the impressive bunch at the Caltech Women's Club, including Dr. Carol Carmichael, who provided inspiration, encouragement, and some good dirt. Also, my gratitude to Dr. Robert Spero of the Jet Propulsion Lab, who factchecked my physics and found it wanting. Thanks for those helpful hints, Robert—now get back to work on those Laser Interferometer Space Antennae! All hail to the tireless volunteers
and designers of the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, who raise money for children's music programs, especially president Beverly Marksbury, who graciously showed me around the house. And thanks to the terrific press office at OSF for behind-the-scenes information, tickets, and tours.