Corinne Souza, author of Jasmine's Tortoise (May 6-20)

Join us here to talk to Corinne Souza, author of Jasmine's Tortoise (which was also an Early Reviewers book!). She'll be on LibraryThing to discuss her work and answer questions from today, May 6th through May 20th.

Hi - this is the very techno-stupid Corinne trying to say hello and hoping someone will drop in to talk but I am probably in the wrong place again. This, despite Abby of LibraryThing talking me through it all and being very patient.

If I am in the right place, I just wanted to say again to everyone how kind they were to review Jasmine's Tortoise. I have been in touch with all who wrote direct and am staggered at how much time everybody took.

If you'd like to be in touch again . . . Here I am. Feeling, as I say, a bit of a twit!

very best wishes
Corinne

You're absolutely in the right place!

Phew!

But I will still look like a pillock if no-one turns up . . .

Hi Corinne - thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

I'm new to LibraryThing too, so like you I'm still trying to find my way around, and this is my first post!

I enjoyed Jasmine's Tortoise and read it very quickly; I thought Lloyd's List's use of the word 'merciless' to describe it was spot on, as it pulls no punches about the impact of espionage on the characters' lives. With such a huge cast, there seems loads of potential for a sequel/prequel - are you working on one at the moment or have you moved on to something completely different?

Also - and perhaps this question will make you groan as I'm sure everyone asks it - to what extent did your own life as the daughter of a spy influence the events and characterisation of the book?

Yippee! Hi Shariwalter: I feel less of a twit now someone really does want to talk. Hope LibraryThing's Abby didnot bully you into being nice to me. She's running around all over the place trying to help the authors and make this author chat thing work and I am full of relief you checked in so as not to let Abby down or fall flat on my face myself.

Re. sequel/prequel. Yes, sort of. But I am working on a non-fiction first - Nanny Brown's Scrapbook - before going back to fiction. The follow-up to Jasmine's Tortoise is the same period as the present book but covers the Russian, General Nico Stollen's life. In Jasmine's Tortoise, we only see the general through Jasmine's eyes or as he related to her life. In 'Stollen' we see his work and how/why he operates in a more detached manner. But am a long way off completion . . .

Re. your last para: you are the only one to have asked!! So, am not groaning at all. This does not mean your question is easy to answer because it isn't. All was fiction. The events and characterisation were not influenced by my father's work - given I am two thousand years old these days this is hardly surprising - but I think probably framed them. I believe the real influence came from years and years of geeky research and, probably as importantly, my feeling that spook fiction is for the most part written from the point of view of a spy, the impact of his/her work on families and communities being marginal. I sort of wanted to address this lack of balance . . .

Probably failed miserably! Thank you so much for your kind comments and writing in.
with best wishes
Corinne

Shariwalter: I forgot one thing!!! This is thank you for making me/Jasmine's Tortoise your first post. Really chuffed about that. I find I am hooked on LibraryThing now - its brilliant nosying around people's comments and books.
As I say, sorry I forgot and thanks again for making my book your first post.

Thanks for your reply, Corinne. There was certainly no bullying involved - I was just surprised and pleased to discover there was an Author Chat thread about a book I've actually read! LibraryThing is definitely proving addictive... I was going to stick with the free membership but I'm approaching the 200 books limit and will probably end up subscribing so I can carry on.

That's interesting to know you are going to focus on Stollen next time - he is such a morally ambiguous and somewhat enigmatic character that it will be intriguing to have more of an insight into his psyche. I am wondering whether he will prove to have an Achilles Heel... Did you find that he was your favourite character when you were writing JT - and were there any you really disliked?

On the understanding we have agreed we are tekkie plonkers, how do i take a look at your 200 books?! Just love being nosy i.e. are they arranged higgledy-puggledy, alphabetically and what are they - classics, thrillers, Austen ? .. .

Re. Stollen. I would love to say he's a really bad lot and of course he wasn't my favourite character but . . . nah! he was my favourite although the Jesuit Father Anthony came pretty close. I also totally understood why wonderful wonderful Vivienne Solomon QC fell madly in love with Bobby Lomax. Vivienne, and the CIA agent Betsy Meredith were superb women. Sorry I had to cut so much of Betsy out - always a problem when you have so many characters. I feel completely lost without them which sounds pathetic. And yes, I simply could not stand Andrew Fitzwilliams and Sir Peter Ligne.

If you click on my name you should see a link called 'see library'. It's only 172 books at the moment - 200 was a slight exaggeration but I should reach that in the next few days. Mostly non-fiction - I'm a history buff.

I liked Betsy Meredith too - a very strong woman - but I have to confess that Sir Peter Ligne was my favourite!! I know he is horrible but also strangely charismatic. I felt quite sorry for him when he got his come-uppance!

Hi Corinne,
It's me again but on Librarything this time...

Reading some of the other reviews of your book, I didn't realise the parallels and autobiographical influence of your own life. It must have been a difficult period for you.

I'm so glad you're going to focus on Stollen next time, as he was the one character I really wanted to know more about. Keep it up.

Annabel

Hi Annabel . . .

First:

Note to Shariwalter: aren't you pleased Annabel's popped in? Now at least you can duck away!!!! If you do, thanks for everything, have not had time to peep at your books yet but will do; cannot believe Peter Ligne was your favourite (boy did I fail there!) but glad you liked Betsy.

Second:

Annabel, thanks for coming to Shariwalter's rescue. Great to hear from you again. Re. what you say. The influence can be over-stated big time. I was writing fiction, honest, guv. As for Stollen, I am usually sort of ashamed of myself for being so drawn to him. He is an interesting man: my anxiety is that I think you'll be more interested in his career. Whereas when I get back to him, I will be exploring character not espionage . . .

Have a great weekend both.
Corinne

Hee hee! I haven't run away. It's been nice chatting to you.

I honestly don't think you have failed with Peter Ligne - I think there's an important distinction between appreciating that someone makes a vivid fictional character, and liking them as a person. I'm sure if he was real and I met him I would loathe him, and his outcome in the book is appropriate to the story and exactly what he deserves, but I enjoyed his total amorality and deviousness. All the best bad guys have something interesting or magnetic about them - they have to be strong and worthy adversaries for the 'goodies' to overcome. (Though of course in JT it's not as simple as goodies and baddies.) So I'd say he was my favourite 'character' rather than my favourite 'person', if you see what I mean.

(Just been looking at the books I share with you, Annabel - some good ones there!)

Ho Ho Ho Shariwalter . . .

So, wot did I find lurking on your bookcase amid horses, history, medicine, plagues, strong women and age of elegance various? 'The 38 Most Common Writing Fiction Mistakes', that's wot. Explain please. Are you writing too? Brilliant if you are.

Checking out people's books is brilliant. A total snooper's paradise. I spent far too long looking at all your books. I must have a look at Annabel's too. Good grief this LibraryThing is brilliant - think about it, I'd have to lurk around after dark for hours with bino's, peering through people's windows to see what I've just seen. What really puzzles me - given your books - is why on earth you asked to review Jasmine's Tortoise. It doesn't fit . . .

Not that I'm complaining. Just really chuffed.

As for that ghastly creep Ligne. You have caught him completely. He was amoral - Stollen was immoral: is there a spellcheck on this thing, does immoral have two 'm's? - which, in a way, made Stollen the bad guy because he knew the difference between right and wrong.

What surprises me is that no-one has commented on the American Jesuit Father Anthony. I thought he was one of the most amazing attractive politically-aware characters. I created him as the good side of Stollen. Both charismatic alpha males. In fact, at one stage in the book the Russian says something like (I cannot remember where I put it): 'Every time he sees me, he sees himself . . .'

I had too much sun today. Old enough to know better. Red nose day tomrrow.

Yes, I do write fiction - not with the help of The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes though - I thought it was money for old rope! Steven King's On Writing is my favourite, though mainly for the funny autobiographical bits.

I didn't get Jasmine's Tortoise as a LibraryThing review copy - I already had it. You will be pleased to know I paid real live money for it! You're right that it's not very similar to the rest of my library but with my writing hat on I like to see what small indie publishers are up to, so I was interested to see what it was like. There is some good stuff coming from the indies lately - I'm a fan of Snowbooks too, and I keep an eye on companies like Myrmidon and Tindal Street to see what they are bringing out - often more unusual than the 'big boys'.

I found Father Anthony to be a sympathetic character because as you say, he's an 'alpha male', with so much strength of personality, awareness, power, connections - things that could so easily lead to corruption, and yet he does not choose that path. I see what you mean about him being a kind of mirror to Stollen, with many similar traits that are reversed and used for good. I expect to see more of him in the next book! I suppose Father A is a hero, while Stollen is an anti-hero.

Hope you are not too sunburnt. It's even hotter today here.

Eh?! Proper dosh spent on my book? How wonderful. Thank you. Of course, now I want to know what you write. If you can, let me know but quite understnad if you'd rather not. Another indie worth keeping an eye on is Legend Press. John Braine's book on writing is also useful - cannot remember title. Stephen King's had some really funny bits, I agree. Am not sure however about these books in general: they sort of set the bar too high in one way (i.e. focus on massive commercial success and mass market appeal) and too low in another (i.e. formulaic/don't have too many characters etc etc when in fact the story should determine this not a formula).

As for Father Anthony - yes to all you say. Most of the characters had 'twins' by the way. For example, Andrew Fitzwilliams and Ghazi El-Tarek had similar advantages albeit from different cultures; Laure de Chebran (French ambassador's wife), Betsy Meredith (American CIA agent) and Vivienne Solomon (British QC) - although their circumstances were different had the same strong characters and integrity. As I say, most were twinned in some way or another. This makes things sound so contrived but I was hoping to demonstrate that irrespective of age, culture, personality, creed, nationality etc morality/motivation are pretty universal.

One of the LibraryThing reviewers said something about me not being a good enough writer to realise what I was seeking to achieve. Boy did this hit home because it was true. I wish now - but easy to say afterwards - I had stuck to my guns and kept it as a very long book instead of bringing it down to easy length. The 'long' book addressed some of the criticisms. I feel so sorry about this because I did not do justice to some terrific characters and feel upset for 'them': how pretentious is that?!

As for Father Anthony (hero) and Stollen (anti-hero), I am not sure. You see, simplistically, Father Anthony could not save the situation and therefore cannot be a hero. Nor, incidentally, could Stollen. In the end, the only thing Stollen could do was destroy Ligne . . . this makes him neither hero nor anti-hero.

Thank you for buying my book. Really kind of you.
Corinne

Hello Corrinne!

I haven't read JT - but that's because this discussion is the first I've heard of it! (That's why LT is so great.) But I'm now going to get a copy, because the reviews have me hooked. My father had a UNESCO job at the university in Baghdad in 1968/9 and we, his family, went out for a month in the spring of 1969. I was 12, but have some vivid memories.

Can't wait to read it!

Corinne - I write historical fiction, at the moment working on something described by one writer friend as 'Victorian claptrap'. My first book isn't published yet, so I am not an incognito famous writer I'm afraid! I think the how-to books can be useful but they are also fairly prescriptive and if all writers followed them to the letter there wouldn't be much room for individual voice.

Interesting about JT originally being much longer - I thought there were some characters whose appearance seemed quite fleeting. Ghazi El Tarek is one such - I would have liked to see more of him, as well as Betsy, Peri and Leah. How long was the book to start with? I have just started reading Charles Palliser's The Quincunx, which is nearly 1200 pages - it's good when books are the length they need to be, but the commercial considerations must make it difficult to attract publisher/agent interest for a hefty manuscript, especially for a first novel. It must have been difficult deciding what to cut out.

Sarahemmm - your time in Baghdad sounds fascinating - it will be interesting to see what perspective this gives when you read JT. The early part of the book shows a side of Iraq largely forgotten in the West today - the 'Spies Party' is so glamorous!

Sarah M: How strange and lovely to hear from you: I sort of went gulp - I guess you were just flying into Baghdad as my family (we were locals) were pretty much flying out (we left for UK in 1968 when I was 13). Iraqis were absolutely hooked on education for their sons and daughters and would have so welcomed your father.

Glad you went for a month in the spring: the summers would have been too hot, and would pretty well have wiped you out. My mum first went to Iraq in 1949 when she married my father - she remembers 'air-conditioning' being no more than a palm frond with drops of cooled water in those days; followed by central ceiling fans, and then, a few years later, air coolers and, finally, the modern world arriving with air-conditioning. I guess given the present dreadful situation, things are back to where they started . . .

Thank you for popping in - just lovely you did.
Corinne

Victorian claptrap sounds good to me. Looking forward to it: what stage are you at? Re. your second para: Jasmine's Tortoise is 85,000 words. Originally, it was 125,000 words and, as I say, I wish I hadn't carved it up because I think the people kind enough to read the book would have stuck with it; and those not interested would not have bothered whether at 85,000 words or longer and irrespective of the typos which were all my fault and I wriggle with shame about. Don't know whether this helps you with yours . . .

As for commercial considerations: you will know better than I do how much publishing is changing. Basically the cost of paper is prohibitive - and this despite the fact so many of the large houses are printing in Asia or Eastern Europe. Therefore, the paperless book will soon establish itself so the commercial considerations should be less significant: so, what I am saying, but my advice is probably pretty awful and you didn;t ask for it anyway (!), write the book you want to write, do not worry about how long it is - only look at how you carry your story. The real problem will be how writers and publishers get paid: books are being given away with the London Evening Standard these days . . .

Re. my characters Ghazi El Tarek, Peri and Leah Solomon: yes, I remain very sad I had to cut out so much of their friendship to bring the wordcount down. As a result, I don't think I explained as well as I would have liked why Leah's cousin Vivienne Solomon QC thought the world of Ghazi and subsequently defended him in court. The evolution of all this remained but not as I would have liked. The real sadness is that I don't get a second crack at it.

Betsy Meredith I am less concerned about because she comes alive - or at least I hope so - in the Stollen book whenever that gets done. All I wanted in JT was to capture her as a sassy CIA agent. I sort of cheat at the end of JT by referring to her as Congresswoman Betsy Meredith - which is where I hope to pick her up again in the next book. But that's years away for the moment because I'm back on non-fiction again.

Keep going with your writing - and I don't think for one moment it will be Victorian claptrap at all. Really looking forward to it. Which period, by the way: Early/mid/late Victorian. . .

Hi again!

That's really interesting about the length. It's a very fine line between adding extra detail, and adding uncessary detail. I generally like longer books, and maybe the extra bits would have increased my sense of connection with the characters. Have you saved the edits? you could post them as bonus exerts on your website, unless they only exist as odd sentances here and there.

Thanks for such kind encouragement! I'm writing about the 1850s and have done a very sketchy first draft of 100,000, and now I'm rewriting. Historical fiction seems one of the 'longer' genres and a 125,000-word book would not be remotely daunting for me to read. 85,000 actually sounds quite short to me!

I did spot the typos in JT but it is so difficult finding them in your own work. I do a bit of freelance proof-reading, but I can read my own writing and fail to notice whole words missing!

I had a look at your Nanny Brown book on Picnic Publishing's website and it sounds very interesting. When is it due out? Have you seen the cover design yet?

Crossed with reading_fox - hi there! That's a good idea about posting bonus excerpts - I have seen this done before on some publishers'/authors' websites and it can work really well.

Corinne

Do you know, you are the first person ever to realise that 'emmm' is intended as the phonetic of M!

Its amazing that if my dad had been there a year earlier we might well have met. The neighbours next door were an Iraqi and his Scottish wife and I have often wondered what happened to them. We met all sorts of people: invited over to an Indian family's house, my (younger) brothers were all shown how to wind a turban. And we went to the embassy for tea; they had a pet mongoose in the garden. But the best place of all was Mosul, where we stayed in the Railway Hotel, which was so British Raj it was untrue. And an incredible spring festival at Hatra. And the ancient monuments... Nineveh, Nimrud and a stunning arch in the desert. I so hate what has been happening recently.

I've just recieved an email from Corrine, she is still reading this, but is experiencing technical difficulties in replying at the moment, and will get back to us "just as soon as possible"

Thank you, Reading Fox: I had to re-join LibaryThing with a different initial to be able to get my post a message box back. Do I have trouble with technology.

Re. your original message: thank you for this too. I have kept the edits but not in good enough order. I write in longhand; transfer on to a type-writer . . .

Hi again Shari: back with you. Keep going with your period piece. Sketchy first draft of 100,000 is good. You are at the top of the steepest hill (sorry for the cliche). If it is any help: I do three 'first' drafts. This is seriously tedious but means evrything fits in where it should. The enjoyable bit is the stage you are at - the re-write. Do not panic if you find your re-write ends up as a good first draft. After this - and it is the thing I did not do but should have done - let things cook a bit. By this, I mean have a decent break from your text: at least a month. If you can, longer. You will then zip through your re-write . . .

Hope it goes well.
Corinne

Hi Sarah: 'emmmm' could have been 'Emma', I guess . . .

I don't remember the mongoose in the embassy garden. I do remember the Wendy House and strawberries. A pal I hadn't heard from in years and years reminded me that when we were in the Brownies (!) together in Baghdad, one of the tests we had to do was walk across all the strawberry pots in the embassy garden without falling off . . .

That arch you remember is called Ctesiphon - I think it is just still standing.

Thank you for writing in. Sorry for the delay in responding.
Corinne

PS: The British Museum is mounting a huge Babylon exhibition in November. It should be bitter-sweet wonderful.