Interview with Rhys Bowen
Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels. Her latest novel, WHERE THE SKY BEGINS is just out!
Photo: Douglas Sonders
We are delighted to feature this interview with Rhys.
Tell us about your beginning, where are you from?
I was born in Bath, England, educated at London University and then worked in BBC drama. Later I went to work for ABC in Australia where I met my husband and moved with him to California.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
My mother tells me I wrote my first story when I was 4 so I guess I was destined to become a writer. I spent an awful lot of time as a child pretending to be someone else, which is what I do every day now! I always wrote but didn’t consider writing as my career. However, working in drama I came up with ideas for my own plays. I wrote one, presented it to the head of drama (with the bravado of a 22 year old) and was told they really liked it and were going to produce it. I’ve never looked back and been a professional writer ever since.
How has writing changed you as a person?
For one thing, writing makes you very observant, and aware of the world around you. If I sit in a restaurant I notice other diners, those who are tense, those who are happy. It makes you very self disciplined. I have a deadline and I have to write a certain number of words each day. I think it also makes you resilient: there will be rejections, bad reviews, disappointments.
Can you tell us a bit about your book WHERE THE SKY BEGINS?
This is my fourth novel set in WWII. I wanted to write about an ordinary person, not one doing brave and heroic things. My heroine, Josie, is an uneducated London woman who is buried in the rubble of her bombed house then rescued and sent out to the countryside to recover. Out of the city and her environment for the first time she has a chance for a new life. She not only survives but makes things better for others, including falling in love, being accepted into a new community and being used to help catch a traitor. Of course it is wartime and I wanted to show that danger is never far away and each time she things she is safe, she is not. This book is a tribute to the incredible bravery of ordinary people who suffered loss, hardship, constant danger and simple got on with living.
What would be your 6 word memoir?
Loves family, loves writing, loves travel.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever had, and the worst?
The best was NOTHING IS WRITTEN IN STONE. Once you have words on the page you have the ability to change, polish, move, delete.
The worst back in the year two thousand from my then agent when I showed her the idea for In Farleigh Field: “Nobody is interested in WWII”. (Since then new agent and In Farleigh Field has probably sold 700,000 copies.)
Do you need a special place to write?
I have an office with all my research materials around me—photographs, maps, history books etc.I work every day.
Are you part of a writing community or a writing group?
I am an enthusiastic member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America but I also have small groups of closer friends within the writing community. I am part of a group blog called JUNGLE RED WRITERS. We chat every day, bounce ideas off each other. Other writers are so supportive.
What is your experience with social media as a writer? Do you find it distracts you or does it provide inspiration?
I am active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Yes, they are time-consuming but also a great way to stay in touch with fans. During the pandemic I realized there were lots of women who were feeling isolated so I made sure I chatted every day about mundane things—why I hated ironing. They commented. It made them feel connected which was a good thing.
I can’t say social media provides inspiration. Certainly can be distracting—oh look at that cute puppy…. But it’s necessary.
Who are your favorite authors?
Several of my favorite authors are also my closest friends: Louise Penny, Deborah Crombie, Jacqueline Winspear. I also like Kate Morton, Kate Quinn
What are you reading currently?
I just finished the Rose Code, which I loved. Currently reading The Thread Collectors, In All Good Faith, The House by the Cerulean Sea.
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Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, including The Victory Garden, The Tuscan Child, and the World War II-based In Farleigh Field, the winner of the Left Coast Crime Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. 2021’s The Venice Sketchbook was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year. Bowen’s work has won over twenty honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world, including over 60,000 Facebook followers. A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona.
Find out more about her on her website https://rhysbowen.com/
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WHERE THE SKY BEGINS
A woman’s future is determined by fate and choice in a gripping WWII novel about danger, triumph, and second chances by the New York Times bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child.
London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’s world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie’s beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go.
Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Awed as she is by the magnificent landscape, Josie sees opportunity. Josie convinces Miss Harcourt to let her open a humble tea shop, seeing it as a chance for everyone to begin again. When Josie meets Mike Johnson, a handsome Canadian pilot stationed at a neighboring bomber base, a growing intimacy brings her an inner peace she’s never felt before. Then Stan returns from the war.
Now a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie’s life again. Her newfound courage will be put to the test if she is to emerge, like a survivor, triumphant.
BUY HERE
Category: Interviews, On Writing
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