Interview with Marilyn Brant + GIVEAWAY!!

Today I have the honor of welcoming the talented Marilyn Brant to Leatherbound Reviews. I have read several of Brant’s books and have thoroughly enjoyed each one. There is a reason she has won the RWA’s Golden Heart Award, the Reviewers’ Choice Award, and the Heart of Excellence Readers’ Choice Award.
This past November, Brant released her latest novel, A Summer in Europe. Since this is a “summer” book, I have been anxiously awaiting summer’s arrival to read this. With summer weather is upon us in the Deep South, I thought now would be the perfect time to pick up my copy and travel abroad with the characters.
While reading, I became such a part of the book, the characters became new friends and the locations tangible, that I just had to ask Marilyn more about her novel, characters and inspiration.

Thank you so much, Marilyn, for satisfying my hunger for more about A Summer in Europe in answering these questions.

You have your protagonist, Gwen, listen to a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber, particularly, “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera.” Was there a reason you chose Webber and show tunes?

Yes, I'm a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan myself, and I happen to be very familiar with songs from a number of his soundtracks. That made it easy for me to find connections between some of his musicals and what was happening in the novel. "The Phantom of the Opera" was especially useful because it has scenes in Paris (which my characters visit) and, thematically, there's a major love triangle going on in that play. Also, being British and so popular in musical circles, Webber's shows have had long runs in London (another city my characters visit), so I knew seeing one of his plays would be a realistic excursion for Gwen and her traveling companions. As for musicals in general, there's something just so delightful and freeing about people breaking into song to express themselves. I fell in love with "The Sound of Music" when I was in 3rd grade and was completely charmed when I watched my first live musical -- "The Music Man" -- when I was in junior high. I've seen more live theatrical productions now than I can count, and I've even taken part in a few, but I never tire of them. I almost always leave feeling uplifted. It's the kind of lighthearted experience a character like Gwen needs more of in her life.

Oh, I agree! I thought the music fit so well with your themes and characters’ experiences. I also liked that one doesn’t need to be well-versed in musicals to pick up on the musical connection and understand its importance to Gwen and Emerson.

I also noticed in According to Jane, music plays a key role. Do you always try to incorporate music into your novels, or is this just a coincidence?

Oh, it's not a coincidence at all!! I am a HUGE music geek. I love so many styles of music and I get a thrill out of being able to showcase them in a story. The kind of songs a character enjoys conveys something about their personality, in my opinion, and certain lyrics are absolutely perfect for underscoring a novel's theme or a character's emotion. I can't imagine life without a musical soundtrack, but that may be because I have one constantly playing in my head, running parallel to my personal life, too. At any given time, you could ask me what song is currently on my mental radio station, and I can always tell you. (Right this second: "Crazy for You" - Gershwin; Yesterday: I distinctly remember several hours of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," LOL.)

LOL! I love that you have a constant playlist going on in your head! I think you are on to something connecting music to your themes and characters’ emotions. Whenever I hear a familiar song, I am always taken back in time to some memory or emotion. Music is such a powerful conveyor of those things.

Did you have fun writing the scenes with the S&M Club? I have to admit, you had me snickering so much I woke up my poor husband. I just loved this group and their desire to live life to the fullest.

I'm so thrilled you enjoyed my little "S&M" Club!! And, yes, it was a BLAST writing these characters. Aunt Bea and Dr. Louie and Hester and Zenia were like friends of mine by the time I finished the novel. While I don't have people in my real life who are exactly like any of these characters, I do have some fabulous 70+ year-old relatives and friends who are funny, charming and so very wise. I love talking to them, and I don't feel they are remotely "old." Their spirit and spunkiness has been an inspiration to me for years. My late mother-in-law, who passed away when she was 85, had been one of my very best friends -- I could talk and laugh with her for hours. She may have been 45 years older than me, but I'd never felt her to be anything but a peer. And her sister, who lived until age 90, was a riot. So warm and funny and full of life. So, I wanted to channel some of these great traits into my characters. I figured Gwen could learn a lot from them!


Yes! I also think they have a lot to teach Gwen. :) I do hope I am a bit like them, warm, funny, and full of life, like you say, when I am older.

Now, what gave you the idea for a Sudoku and Mah-jongg group? Do you play? If not, how did you research the rules and terminology?

I do play Sudoku, although not at all at a competitive level. My son and dad and brother all play, too, so we've worked on puzzles together during holidays and other family events. I come from a serious math-science family, so we'd do things like "solve story problems" during Thanksgiving gatherings for fun. It was the source of much amusement to my husband, who assured me that this was not at all "normal family behavior" in his experience, LOL. In any case, I knew the basics of Sudoku, and I read about tournament play online, so I could create my own fictional international competition. Mah-jongg, however, was another story. I'd never played even once in my life, but I wanted an "S&M" Club, so I needed a good "M" and "Mah-jongg" seemed more intriguing and offbeat to me than any other "M" I could come up with... My good friend, YA author Simone Elkeles, had played a great deal of Mah-jongg, though, and she promised she could teach me and that it would be an easy thing for me to learn. SO NOT TRUE!! It was quite a feat trying to understand the rules of the game, and my attempts at learning them ended up being pretty hilarious to us. So much so that I actually wrote a fun "extra," which is included at the end of A Summer in Europe, explaining what had happened when Simone tried to teach me to play the game at our local Steak-n-Shake. One of these days, I might give it another try...

Thank you for including your Mah-jongg lesson in the back of the book. It was quite entertaining to read!

Switching gears again, I know you have traveled quite a bit when younger. Are the places visited in ASIE all places you have seen or are some places you still wish to go? And is this where the majority of your research came from?

Look at the happy couple in Paris!

I was incredibly fortunate to have traveled to all eight of the countries Gwen and her companions visited in A Summer in Europe. I went to almost all of the individual sites, too, with the exception of Monet's home in Giverny, France and Waverley Abbey in Surrey, England (and I still want to see both of those, so I'll have to figure out a way to get back to Europe again :). However, there were a lot of details I needed to research online because it had been so long since I was abroad. I knew a great many things had changed or, even if they hadn't, my memory wasn't exacting enough to remember how long it took to cross the English Channel or how many steps it would take to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower. There were plenty of specifics I needed to look up!

You have done most, if not all, of your traveling with your husband. Did he read A Summer in Europe? What were his thoughts? Did he help you at all in your recollections?

Marilyn and hubby in Capri

Ha! Yes, I definitely did most of my European traveling with my husband, although not all... When I was 19, I toured Europe for six weeks with my college dance group and the live band that performed with us. It was a blast! We met tons of other dancers and musicians from around the world and got such a great workout every day because we were either rehearsing or onstage all of the time. Some of the people I met on that trip helped to form the adventure I wrote for Gwen. But my husband and I traveled extensively as a backpacking couple and went on bus tours and countless historical excursions. He's a world history teacher, so it was like having my own private tour guide through many of the major sites and, ohhh, he could lecture endlessly on some of them when he wanted to, LOL. I wrote and revised A Summer in Europe before he read it (I believe he got ahold of it when it was already at the Advanced Reader Copy stage), and he told me he loved it. For him, he said it was his favorite of my novels because he knew some of my inspirations, such as where I gotten a few of the scene elements, several lines of dialogue and most of the site descriptions. There were times when I was working on the draft that I'd ask him about something (i.e., "Hey, remember when we were in Capri? Do you have any idea how long the ferry ride to the island took us?"), but he mostly helped by having kept our recollections of European travel alive through all those years when we didn't journey any further than the American Midwest. We still often talk about funny moments or interesting impressions from those old travel days...they remain a very special time in our lives.

So, what you are telling me through this is that you had your very own personal Emerson while vacationing with your husband. Lucky you!

Aunt Bea & Zenia love The Bold and the Beautiful. At one point, you go into great detail about the plot and drama in the soap opera. Is this a guilty pleasure of yours? I am curious to know how you knew all the details on who was really whose son.

Excellent question!! There's actually quite a story behind this... I'd originally come up with a fictitious soap opera for the book that I'd called "The Bold and the Brazen." I created what I thought was the wackiest, most outrageous plot lines for this fake soap and named the characters with very soap-opera-ish names like "Rafe" and "Esmeralda." When I turned in the book to my editor, though, he told me that I should just use the plot lines and names from "The Bold and the Beautiful" because he was a fan of the soap and he just KNEW that was what I was basing mine on. Well, in truth, I'd never seen even one episode of "The Bold and the Beautiful" before then, and I didn't know any of the characters or their stories -- I was just spoofing the title. When I went online and started reading about the Forrester clan and all of their machinations, though, I couldn't believe it! If I thought MY plot lines were outrageous, THEIRS were even more so!! I read through several seasons of drama on the soap (marriages, divorces, affairs, out-of-wedlock babies, attempted murders, kidnappings, etc.) and watched a handful of episodes and, then, I realized I only had to slightly rewrite the scenes where the soap characters make an appearance. It was stunning to me how seamlessly the real program fit with my wild original ideas!

I’m dying to know who your favorite characters were to write. I am thinking it would be rather fun to write about Aunt Bea, Hester and Zenia.

Hester and Zenia were a hoot to write. I loved letting Gwen listen in on their conversations, especially when Hester was "getting ideas" for her murder mystery, LOL. I really had fun writing Aunt Bea, too, just because she cared about Gwen so much and was trying in her own eccentric way to give her niece such an important gift. Emerson and Thoreau's mom was a piece of work, so I enjoyed her a whole lot (!!), and, I'll admit, when it came down to the last couple of chapters, it was a pleasure writing ALL of the characters. I knew them so well by then, it was easy to imagine their interactions together in London. The theater scenes at "The Phantom of the Opera" with Gwen, Richard and Emerson were especially exciting to choreograph, and I truly loved getting to visualize what was happening onstage with what was happening in the audience...not to mention adding in Thoreau and all of his post-play questions. I'd laugh to myself as I was writing those segments of the story. But behavior like that is what makes people think writers are a little crazy, so I tried to do most of my drafting (particularly toward the end of the novel) at home!!

Well, you did a great job with the “Phantom” scenes. I loved seeing what was going on onstage to what was taking place in the audience! The connections were so well-developed & delivered. And then throwing in Thoreau’s post-play questions had me laughing out loud too!

Thank you so much Marilyn for taking time and allowing me to relive the book through your answers. I hope you are able to visit Europe with your son sometime soon. Maybe for a graduation present? It’s a win-win for all three of you!

If you have EVER wanted to visit Europe or you have been and want to relive your experience, you need to pick up a copy of A Summer in Europe! Or if you just want a great read, then pick up ASIE!

To find out more about Marilyn's journey and writing experience with ASIE stop by her blog.

Thank you, Jakki for having me here. It has been a pleasure, and I just love sharing my European experience with readers.

*I will be posting my vlog on Friday. Make sure you come back and hear my thoughts on Aunt Bea’s club and for more chances to win A Summer in Europe!*

***GIVEAWAY TIME***

Marilyn Brant is graciously giving away ONE Hardcover book-club copy of A Summer in Europe!! (US & Canada residence)

To enter, simply leave a comment about the interview or tell us if you can travel anywhere in Europe, where would it be?

After you comment, tweet, etc. make sure you fill out the Rafflecopter form as that is how the winner will be selected!

Winner will be announced Friday, June 8! Check back to see if you won! Good Luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you so much Marilyn Brant for the amazing giveaway!! Again, the winner will be announced Friday, June 8! Good Luck!