Hello All! Back from my Corfu holiday and feeling all refreshed and energized. What better way to start a new week than to interview a lovely author with a sweet smile like Alice Degan! Alice lives in Toronto and teaches medieval literature but in her spare time she writes fascinating stories taking place in the distant past. Below you will find details on her metaphysical mystery novel, as well as her urban fantasy. The latter inspired a series of short stories as well. Vampires in Toronto? Who would have known! Stick around to hear all about Alice and her work!
Toronto, 1925: An ancient manuscript and a modern cult promise the secret to personal metamorphosis. An atheist graduate student falls in love with a priest. A shiftless musician jilts his fiancée and disappears. From All False Doctrine is a metaphysical mystery wrapped in a 1920s comedy of manners.
Thrown together when their best friends fall in love, Elsa Nordqvist and Kit Underhill don’t think they have much in common. But when Kit’s friend Peachy drops off the face of the earth, and the manuscript that Elsa wanted to write her thesis on seems to have something to do with it, Elsa and Kit become unlikely allies. The question is, can their combined resources of Classical scholarship and Anglo-Catholic liturgy save a man from himself?
On a back alley in Toronto’s Kensington Market, above the Heaven & Earth Bakery, there’s an apartment with a room for rent. The rent is negotiable. The location varies. Humans need not apply. For Nick, who calls 7C home, real life can be a lot weirder than his friends’ role-playing games. Between regular stints at his job delivering bread and cinnamon buns to the otherworldly population of the city, these days he finds himself dodging attacks from vampire-hunting tourists, possessed pigeons, and his boss’s unborn child. Welcome to a world of obnoxious fairies and bored vampires, satyrs who love ’80s music and demons who play video games. Welcome to 7C. Good luck finding the bathroom.
Hello Alice and welcome to my blog!
Hi, Fros! It’s lovely to be here, thank you.
What has inspired you to write From All False Doctrine?
As many writers do, with this book I was trying to write the book that I wanted to read. I love the novels of Charles Williams, which are supernatural thrillers with a Christian mystical twist. Williams was one of the Inklings, a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, but while their fantasies became hugely influential, Williams’ novels remained relatively obscure and haven’t had many imitators. So wishing that I had more books like his to read led naturally, for me, to setting out to write in the same curious genre. I chose a setting in the 1920s, to evoke the style and manners of Williams’ books, but I also chose to place my story in my own city of Toronto. This led to a lot of interesting research, and I was able to include many real locations in the story, including the university I attended and the apartment building where I lived when I began working on the story.
Sounds absolutely amazing, Alice. I bet you learned a lot about your city in the process!
Oh yes, a whole lot of interesting things!
There you go, an extra bonus! Isn’t being an author full of thrills? Now tell us, what other writing have you done?
From All False Doctrine is the first novel I have published, and I’m happy about that now. It’s the first of my attempts that was really ready to go out into the world. But if you’d told me a few years ago that I would feel that way, I wouldn’t have believed you. At the time, I felt as if I had written so much, it was a disgrace that I wasn’t published yet, aside from a few poems in literary journals, years ago. The truth is, I had never tried very hard to publish my earlier stories and novels, which were all over the map in terms of genre and length and marketability. Now I can look back at all that writing as necessary practice to bring me to the point where I am today, and to give me the confidence I needed to go indie. Besides False Doctrine, I have a series of urban-fantasy stories that I have also indie-published; the first three are newly available in the collection The Tenants of 7C, and more are planned! Also, I have written a sequel to From All False Doctrine, called Neither Have I Wings, which I hope to publish this fall.
Any hobbies or interests that you enjoy in your spare time?
I dabble in all kinds of hobbies, but the one that might be most interesting to your readers is my small business of crafting handmade notebooks. As a writer, I’m very particular about notebooks, and a couple of years ago I learned how to make the kind that I like best. It’s another case of creating the thing that doesn’t exist because you want to enjoy it yourself! Now I sell them through my Etsy shop, which has the same name as my indie publishing imprint.
Oh wow, this looks fabulous. Well done, Alice! Do you see yourself in any of your characters, or do any of them have traits you wish you had?
The two main characters in False Doctrine are Elsa and Kit. Elsa is a graduate student, studying Classics (a hard row to hoe for a woman in the 1920s). Kit is a priest. I have graduate degrees in medieval literature from the same school that Elsa attends in the novel, and I even lived in the same residence, so on the surface you might think she’s the character who is closest to me. But on a deeper level, I actually have more in common with Kit, even though his life bears no resemblance to my own, because my worldview is closer to his. He’s also one of the characters I feel proudest of having created. The process of writing him pretty much consisted of thinking, “What would I do in this situation … if I were made of awesome?” I’m not, in real life, but that is one of the great things about writing fiction, isn’t it?
Sure is! What are you working on at the moment? Tell us a little about your current project(s).
I’m dividing my time between the Heaven & Earth stories (my urban fantasy series) and the third book in the False Doctrine trilogy, which takes place in Toronto at Christmas, 1946. Of course that means more fun research! I have a Pinterest board full of images of 1940s dresses, vintage Christmas trees, and other neat things that will feature in that story. The Heaven & Earth stories are very different. They take place in the modern world, and draw inspiration from Japanese manga, a medieval story about a werewolf, and my personal love of Toronto’s Kensington Market neighborhood, which is a funky area with a lot of diverse history.
Intriguing stuff! What genres do you read mostly, and what are you reading now?
I read mysteries, fantasy, manga, and anything else that catches my eye. Recently I have been enjoying the mysteries by French historian-turned-novelist Fred Vargas. I especially like her Three Evangelist series, which features three oddball out-of-work academics. The best fantasy I have read lately is definitely Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor.
Thank you for these awesome recommendations! Do you have any advice for other indie authors?
I have some advice for anyone thinking about going indie, which is: do it, and don’t worry too much about what other people will think. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well my friends and casual acquaintances have reacted; I was prepared to spend a lot of time justifying my decision to other people, but I really haven’t needed to. Most people don’t know or care that much about how books are published, so if you’re confident enough to say, “I decided indie was the way to go,” they will accept that you know what you’re talking about. As for the people who do know the business, well, they know why it’s a smart decision these days!
Great advice, Alice. I also found it easier than I’d thought to tell everyone among my family and friends that I’m a published writer now. To my surprise, people I hardly knew got the most excited about it and wanted to buy my books! Goes to show how our fears and insecurities are not based on reality, huh! On to the next question: what do you enjoy the most as an indie author that you imagine you wouldn’t if you were traditionally published? If you had a choice would you still go indie?
I’m delighted with the freedom and control I have as an indie author. Although I had some experience querying publishers for earlier projects, by the time I finished False Doctrine, I had made up my mind to go indie. I had been reading blogs and books on the new world of indie publishing, and listening to Joanna Penn’s inspiring podcast, and I was excited and nervous, but I made the decision. I didn’t approach any agents or publishers about this novel. For one thing, I knew it would be a hard sell; remember how I said my inspiration was to imitate an obscure novelist?
Sure…
Can you imagine admitting that to a publisher? But, you see, I knew I could market the book myself to my own circle of like-minded readers, and let it grow slowly from there. I also didn’t want to feel that I’d chosen indie publishing as a last resort or backup option, so in fact I made it my first choice. Psychological judo, maybe, but it worked on me!
Psychological judo? Oh, I am noting that down! Thanks, Alice, that’s hilarious (*giggles*) Last question: anything you like to do to get the creative juices flowing?
I like to write in coffee shops, but I don’t actually drink coffee, only tea. I’m fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with lots of options, so I go to different places depending on how long a walk I want. We also have a great public library system with branches all over the city, many of which have nice work spaces, and I have a couple of favorites. I like going out of the house to write because it helps me to focus by eliminating options for procrastinating. When I’m at home, though, I have a nice workspace: a little red desk in front of a window in the study that I share with my husband.
A lovely nook for writing! Well, Alice, it’s been wonderful to have you. Thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for inviting me, Fros!
Alice Degan is a novelist and academic (who also sometimes writes short stories). She studies and teaches medieval literature, and writes urban fantasy and something she likes to call metaphysical romance. She lives in Toronto with her husband.
Visit Alice’s Amazon page
Visit Alice’s website
Other links:
http://www.twitter.com/ajdegan
www.etsy.com/shop/sextonscottagebooks
