So when the dashing poet Thomas Wyatt offers to coach her on how to shine at court - and to convince the whole court they’re lovers - she accepts. Newly arrived to the court of King Henry VIII, everything about her seems wrong, from her clothes to her manners to her witty but sharp tongue. About ‘Tarnish’:Īnne Boleyn is the odd girl out. And playing with a new idea that’s got me completely hooked.įinally: Would you rather be a book, or a computer?Ī book! Books have texture and dimension and personality and can travel just about anywhere.

I’m just finishing revisions on a third book set in Henry VIII’s court. And always, at least once in a writing session, I need chocolate. Quiet, though I’ve done some of my best writing in crowded coffee shops. I relearn that with every book I write.ĭo you have things you need in order to write? (i.e. I’d been told, but I wish I’d known that it’s OK to write a horrible first draft. What is one thing you wish you’d known when you sat down to write your novel? I was underweight as a teen, but my inner critic was just as cruel and I wish I’d had Cooner’s spare and elegant story to help me combat it. Skinny by Donna Cooner is about an overweight girl who overcomes her nasty inner critic-an invisible “Goth Tinkerbell” who she calls Skinny. Which one YA novel do you wish you had when you were a teen? The next, this scene played out in my mind and all I had to do was write it down.

I recently wrote a scene that sprang up - whole and visual and nuanced - completely out of thin air. What is your favorite chapter or scene you’ve written recently? But when I do, it’s like being struck by lightning. I have to know the story - and know it well - before I can find the fitting image. They can both be either simple or impossible, but neither one comes easy on the first draft. Which is easier to write: The first line or the last line? Her descriptions stem from emotional reactions to the events that occur in her world. Anne in Tarnish has grown up in royal courts, so to her, the world is “normal,” and has to be described as such. In Gilt, Kitty is overwhelmed by the dichotomy of court-the luxury vs. The tone comes from the narrative character.

It’s part of my job that I absolutely love. My job is to add the sensory richness to all of that - smells and tastes and emotions and tactile imagery. The physical aspects of the world come from research - the layouts of castles, the descriptions of cities, the food and clothing and rituals.

Tarnish by Katherine Longshore