Secure the Shadow
In 1824, a young man buttons up his redcoat and goes to war. Amidst the blood and devastation, he discovers a magical power which can save memory from the ravages of time.
1867 and a woman, living above a watch shop, meets two men who will change her life forever. As she ventures further into a world of séance and mysticism, she must decide whether to trust her own eyes.
In the present day, a rebellious artist finds herself photographing stillbirths for a living. At Little Angels, it’s not about what you can take from a picture, but what you can give.
The story of three lives, spanning the history of photography and our relationship with mortality.
Secure the shadow, ere the substance fades.
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Author Q&A
1.
Favorite childhood memory involving books?
Probably
shopping at Dillons with my dad. That was a huge book chain that existed before
Waterstones took over the world. Just the smell of new books, looking at all
the covers and exploring different sections. Before that, it would be the local
library, where I’d have to make life-or-death decisions about which children’s
books to take out. I think you were only allowed five at a time, so it was a
truly heart-wrenching decision each week - which to keep hold of and which to
let go.
2.
What’s one movie you like recommending to others?
Controversial,
perhaps, but Cloud Atlas. I thought that was a masterpiece. As a writer,
I feel disloyal saying that I actually preferred some of the relationships in
the film, and it was cinematic as all hell. At the same time, the book was so
incredibly clever in the way David Mitchell played with language. Especially in
the quirks he included in the evolution of future English.
Often, when
a book gets turned into a movie, you feel like you lost one of them. Very
occasionally, the movie is better than the book, and you start to forget the
book was ever written. More often, the movie is worse than the book, and you
wish it had never been made. But, with Cloud Atlas, you sort of feel
like you gained two completely distinct, yet equally good, pieces of art.
Something
similar happened with The Body and Stand by Me.
The world
is better for having both.
3. Have
you ever met anyone famous?
Several
famous authors. I used to go to the Cheltenham Literature Festival most years
with my family, and we’d go up to get books signed afterwards, so there’s a
long list of writers I’ve passed a couple of words with. Perhaps the most
memorable for me was getting the opportunity to tell Ian McEwan how much his
short story, Butterflies, meant to me. It was really the first time I
realised the power a narrator has to misdirect their reader. He smiled and told
me, ‘That’s the darkest story I ever wrote.’ No wonder I enjoyed it.
I also
appeared at Northampton’s first LGBTQ book festival in 2012, so met Alan Moore
who was headlining. He had glittery purple boots and gave a reading from The
Mirror of Love, which left the whole room silent. It was a lovely event.
Growing up,
science-fiction writer Ian Watson was a family friend, but I didn’t really
appreciate that at the time as I was many years off attempting to write a novel
myself, so didn’t make the most of that.
I also
attended the BRIT School of Performing Arts, which launched the likes of Adele,
Amy Winehouse and Katie Melua, but I was a few years older and left before they
arrived, and I can’t sing to save my life. So, more of a famous alumni than a
personal connection.
Oh, and I
did my undergrad at the same uni as Jamie Cullum. He directed me to the campus
bar the first night I was there and played piano at our Christmas ball before
he was famous.
So, in
passing, a few people.
4. How long, on average, does it take you to
write a book?Nine months. About the same length of time it
takes to give birth, which is sort of fitting, but then I can faff about with
it for up to a year after that.
5. What book do you wish you had written?I’ve recently been blown away by The
Binding by Bridget Collins. Just utterly beautiful from beginning to end.
6. Tell us 10 fun facts about yourself!
Goodness, ten is a lot.
Okay, keeping them brief, and possibly not all
fun:
1. I come from a village that’s famed for
witchcraft.
2. I have no fingerprints on my left hand.
3. I was once stopped by a ‘fake devil’ in
Sierra Leone, who dusted the windscreen of the car with a rainbow feather
duster before letting us go.
4. I’ve survived three bouts of malaria and
now consider myself an expert on sweating, vomiting, shivering and pooping.
5. I’m attempting to build the first piano made
in Africa in thirty years, with my friend Désiré.
6. I once escaped a man with an automatic
rifle in DRC when the priest I was travelling with told him I was a nun.
7. I did a TEDx talk at the University of
Luxembourg in 2018.
8. I drove across the Nullarbor in Australia
with a friend in my youth.
9. I helped to research and develop the first
dictionary of Rwandan Sign Language (Amarenga yo mu Rwanda), published in 2009.
10. I’ve always loved standing stones and cromlechs.
I once travelled six hours to visit Karahunj in Armenia, and the driver only
had one tape of Louis Armstrong. Now I can’t listen to Louis Armstrong without
getting a headache. I’ve also visited the Plain of Jars in Laos, New Grange and
Knowth in Ireland, and Kilmartin in Scotland.
7. How do you select the names of your
characters?I like names that mean something, so I will
scour baby name lists and find something that fits. For example, in Those
Rosy Hours at Mazandaran, one character was called Sheyda, meaning lovesick,
and she was. I like little things like that. However, for minor characters, and
on an off day, I’m not beyond scouring the spam folder of my in-box for
inspiration. Some of those fake account names can be quite creative.
9. What
is your most unusual writing quirk?
Possibly
how I dispose of hard-copy drafts. I always write on a computer, because my
handwriting is illegible. Then I’ll get the full manuscript printed as a hard
copy at the local print shop. That way I can take it to a café or sit by the
lake and work my way through it with a red pen.
After I’ve
finished transferring hard-copy edits to the computer, I’m left with a huge
pile of edited paper. I usually print one-sided, and loath the idea of wasting
paper. So, for the rest of the year, I use the blank side to print my
accounting receipts. I like the idea that, if I ever get audited, the tax
inspector might have something interesting to read between calculations.
Author Bio –
Marion Grace Woolley is known for dark historical fiction including Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran and The Children of Lir. She balances writing with her work in international development and her hobby as a piano tuner. Marion currently lives in Rwanda.
Social Media Links –
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/AuthorMGW/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorMGW
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormgw/
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Thank you for hosting me!
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You're very welcome! :)
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