‘My defloration was talked about in all the courts of Europe. The Prince boasted of his prowess, even as preparations were being made for his wedding, as boldly as if he had ridden across that causeway with bloodstained sheet tied to his lance.’
1584, Italy: Twenty-year-old Giulia expects she will live and die incarcerated as a silk weaver within the walls of her Florentine orphanage, where she has never so much as glimpsed her own face. This all changes with the visit of the Medici family’s most trusted advisor, promising her a generous dowry and a husband if she agrees to a small sacrifice that will bring honour and glory to her native city.
Vincenzo Gonzaga, libertine heir to the dukedom of Mantua, wants to marry the Grand-Duke of Tuscany’s eldest daughter, but the rumours around his unconsummated first marriage must be silenced first. Eager for a dynastic alliance that will be a bulwark against the threat of Protestant heresy beyond the Alps, the Pope and his cardinals turn a blind eye to a mortal sin.
A powerful #MeToo story of the Renaissance, based on true events.
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Q&A
– When and where do you prefer to write?
I can write anywhere but some places are better than others. A favourite is curled up on bed with my little cat for company and lots of pillows behind me (Mark Twain wrote in bed so I think I’m in good company!). I can also work in really noisy places like airports, because in a place like that you’re actually alone.
– Do you have a certain ritual?
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but I suppose I do. I join the London Writers Hour at the start of the day (I can’t recommend it too highly; there are hundreds of us there on Zoom, all typing away in silent companionship), then I go to work (I work from home part-time). In the afternoon I write and again late into the evening. I join another writers group in Ireland for an hour on Sunday.
– Is there a drink of some food that keeps you company while you write?
Cups of green tea or camomile. If I gave in to the amount of coffee I would like to drink, I’d be completely wired.
– What is your favourite book?
Oh, that’s so hard! Books I have loved have included Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea, Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday, anything in the Inspector Montalbano series, or from the golden age of crime, so Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, and then of course the classics: Far from the Madding Crowd, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre. I read a lot of nineteenth-century fiction when I was younger and I think that’s why I am a historical novelist as I warm to the language in those books more than to some contemporary fiction. I also make a point when I am writing a historical novel of reading books that were published at the time I was writing about, even if the themes are completely different. Those books help me find the right ‘voice.’
– Do you consider writing a different genre in the future?
I’m exploring writing a historical crime series. Yes, they are still going to be historical novels, but crime writing is quite different even so. They have to be plotted in quite another way.
– Do you sometimes base your characters on people you know?
Absolutely! But I either bury them very deep so that nobody would know or I actually tell the person I would like to put them in a book, usually at a different age from the one they have now. I have a rom-com coming out later this year under my Kate Zarrelli pen-name and I based the best friend character on a close friend. I have also dedicated the book to her.
The main characters in Annie of Ainsworth’s Mill, published a couple of years ago (writing as Katie Hutton), were inspired by my great-grandparents. Only, when I got into the story my two protagonists took on lives of their own and insisted they weren’t going to do things my great-grandparents had done. So I went with what was right for them.
– Do you take a notebook everywhere in order to write down ideas that pop up?
No, but I should. I do write down bits of my dreams and have got several short stories from them. By the time I have written the story I don’t remember the actual dream at all, as the story takes over and comes into its own – but the dream is the starting point.
– Which genre do you not like at all?
Probably science fiction. I have read some in the past but I wouldn’t choose it in a bookshop.
– If you had the chance to co-write a book. Whom would it be with?
That’s a really good question. I’ve never considered it, as writing seems like such a solitary occupation. I think I would probably say Constance Emmett, a writer friend in Massachusetts who has roots in the north of Ireland, which is where I come from.
– If you should travel to a foreign country to do research, which one would you chose and why?
I would like to go to Romania, to Transylvania, not because of vampires but because I would like to set a nineteenth-century book there in what was once a sizeable German-speaking community. The fortified churches of what they called the Siebenbürgen fascinate me.
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About the author
Katherine Mezzacappa is an Irish writer of mainly historical fiction, currently living in Italy. She has published several novels under pen names with publishers Bonnier Zaffre and eXtasy. She works as a manuscript assessor for The Literary Consultancy. Katherine reviews for Historical Novel Society’s quarterly journal and is one of the organisers of the Society’s 2022 UK conference. In her spare time she volunteers with a used book charity of which she is a founder member.
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Author Links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katmezzacappa
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinemezzacappafiction/
https://katherinemezzacappa.ie/
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Book Links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maiden-Florence-Katherine-Mezzacappa/dp/1914148509/
https://www.amazon.com/Maiden-Florence-Katherine-Mezzacappa/dp/1914148509/
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