| Re: Mary Hoffman; Stravaganza
Oh, spare my blushes Alia and Mark! Not so much busy as knocking around in this field for a good many years.
For the sake of members of this particular forum I think Stravaganza is the way to go. I had written only one junior SF (Trace in Space- Hodder) and one teenage Fantasy (Special Powers - also Hodder) before I had the idea for a trilogy of books set partly in 21st century London, where the teenagers come from, and mainly in a 16th century version of Italy in another dimension.
The three books released so far - City of Masks, City of Stars and City of Flowers are set, respectively, in alternative versions of Venice, Siena and Florence (all published by Bloomsbury). Each features a different "stravagante" a traveller in time and space by means of a series of talismans.
They all go to the same school - an Islington comprehensive built partly on the site of the laboratory of the Elizabethan alchemist William Dethridge (based on John Dee before this became fashionable!). He was the creator, through an alchemical accident of the portal to 16th century Talia.
Since then our world has moved on but the portal, although very unstable, remains in that time and country. Each talisman takes its owner to only one city.
I am within three weeks of finishing Book Four (the beginning of a new trilogy, I hope) City of Secrets, based on an alternative Padua. It has involved research into 16th century printing with wooden presses and moveable type, the anatomy theatre of Aquapendente and dissections, the Evil Eye, dyslexia and the university of Padua. (It required a trip there, of course).
This book will come out next Spring so you can see that I ought to be writing it instead of this post. But I wnated to say I feel very welcome on the forum already - thank you for encouraging me to join, Mark. I am spreading the word.
My editor at Bloomsbury is the same as JK's as is my publicist and also, coincidentally, accountant. Surely that must mean something? Well the books do have 29 foreign editions now (though some of these are described as "bijou" like Bulgaria and the Faroe Islands! - you should bear this in mind when you hear that a book has been published in x number of languages).
I sahll, when time permits, start or contribute to another thread on historical fiction, since this is another direc tion of mine. The Falconer's Knot came out this year (also Bloomsbury) and my next title will be Troubadour. I love the research.
Aspiring writers feel free to pick my brains which make up in longevity for what they lack in youthful enthusiasm.
Mary |