The Indie Showcase presents, Laura Lambton
My guest this week is an author of historical fiction. Over to you, Laura.
‘Everyone has a story inside them,’ were words I had heard a thousand times and they became all the more frustrating as each year passed with nothing to show for my efforts beyond a pile of discarded ideas. No story seemed worth telling and I embarked on a teaching career, leaving my dreams of becoming an author on the back burner. ‘If I couldn’t do it myself,’ I thought, ‘at least I can teach others and inspire a passion for literature and the English language in them.’
Typically, it was in the midst of my teaching career when I
had no time for anything else that the idea for Carmela came in to fruition. I wrote small sections in snatched
moments and the characters did begin to develop but when I left teaching in
2017, they really took flight and the story unravelled around them. I published
in April last year and have been fortunate enough to see some success with
this.
Carmela is a work
of fiction based on a true story. The two main characters, Carmela and Angelo
were real people – my great-grandparents – who lived in Italy in the late
1800s. Carmela was raised by the monks of Monte Cassino and Angelo, a poor farm
boy would risk his life twice a week making the journey in to town to learn how
to read and write. The story follows them through key years of their lives
through love, loss, hope and mystery as the reader learns just how closely
entwined their lives really are. The story is told from different perspectives,
allowing the reader to make predictions and experience twists in the tale.
The hardest part of the writing process was trying not to
offend. I knew Carmela and Angelo’s family would eventually read what I had
written and I needed to ensure I portrayed their characters in the way people
living today, remembered them. The story developed itself around me but it was
the characterisation I spent time agonising over. As a result of this, the
whole process from start to finish took me just under five years to complete
but seeing Carmela in print, means
that every second was worth it.
The process of writing Carmela
really was an adventure and it has inspired another idea that I am currently
researching and developing. For me, writing, very much like reading, is an
escape but you get to create the world you escape to. The saying really does ring
true: ‘If you can’t find your escape on the shelves, create it.’
Here’s a review from Amazon,
My thanks to this weeks guest for a great post. I hope you all enjoyed it.
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The Saturday Rewind is taking a short break, I’ll be back on Monday with another blog hop, don’t miss next Thursdays Showcase post either.
Have a good week,
Richard.
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