Today I am rejoined by the fabulous author Helen Spring who has been working Blood Relatives, a sequel to her novel The Chain Makers. I couldnt wait to invite her here to tell us all about it.
It is lovely to
have you back, Helen. Last time we met up we talked about your novel ‘Strands
of Gold’, and you told me you were currently working on a sequel to another of
your novels, The Chainmakers. It must
be a great feeling to have finished the book. It’s called Blood Relatives isn’t
it? Tell us all about it and why you
wanted to write a sequel?
I
had a great response to ‘The Chainmakers’, and the one thing people asked over
and over again was ‘What happened to
them afterwards?’ All stories and characters have an end at the close of the
book, but of course the people continue in our minds, and in the ficticious
world they inhabit. In this case the family unit was interesting, because at
the end of the novel we have a couple with one son, and one baby who is an
orphan.
Yes, that’s
right. And your main character in ‘Blood Relatives’ is in fact that
small baby, but all grown up. How did you think up her story?
Well,
I felt that her adoptive parents, Anna and Clancy, had endured quite enough in
‘The Chainmakers’, but here was this sweet child, with lovely parents but a
very chequered biological background, who would have to live her own life her
way. As is happened, by the time she was 20 years old WW2 was raging through
Europe, and the Italian side of her family would be living in German occupied
Rome, so the story was there for the writing, so to speak.
I quickly came
to empathise with Victoria, and you have an interesting personality conflict
between her and Giorgio, the Mafia boss, who is of course a distant relative.
Why are you so interested in the Mafia?
I
couldn’t escape it! Victoria and Giorgio shared a common great-uncle, who had
been deported from the USA back to Italy. When he died he left Victoria a
lovely Roman villa, it was entirely understandable that she would be thrilled
and want to see it. Of course the Italian Mafia during the war was totally
different to New York in the 1920’s. Circumstances and priorities have changed,
but both Victoria and Giorgio bring their own prejudices to their relationship.
Was the research
difficult for this part of the story?
Not
so much difficult as almost overwhelming. There was a great deal of material,
most of which was not relevant. In particular, I got very bogged down by the
Ardeantine Cave Massacre, which is very well known in Italy but hardly known of
here. In the end I had to ditch almost all except bits which were pertinent to
the story I was trying to tell. The war kept getting in the way from beginning
to end of this book, which was intended to be a love story.
Ah! It is a lovely
love story. The lovely Guy is quite hunky isn’t he? What was the conflict
between him and Victoria?
Getting
them together was the problem! With all that was going on, they had very little
time together so it was hard to build the romance. Of course, that was exactly
what was happening all over the world at that time, separation and months
without news of loved ones. I wanted to show that.
It’s interesting
that they were from very different backgrounds. I liked that element of the
story.
Yes,
and also with very different experiences of the New York Mafia, who he would
call ‘The Mob.’ His impoverished childhood has made him very self-reliant and
what we would call today ‘street-wise.’ But he is very determined to make his
own way, and has a happy attitude to life.
And of course by
the time Victoria managed to get back to New York, Guy was away fighting in
Europe.
Yes,
and the New York that Victoria returned to was also changed by the war. These
were hard times for everyone, but I felt it was important that when Guy
eventually comes home he is still full of fun and ready for anything.
I can’t wait to
read it again, Helen. What are your writing plans now?
My
next job is to put together a collection of short stories, which I also enjoy
writing.
I
could do with a bit of a rest and I am hoping this will be less demanding than
another novel, but who knows? My characters have a way of writing themselves
into interesting situations!
I shall secretly
hope that they inflate into another wonderful novel. Thank you so much for
joining us again. I am sure we will all rush to buy it as soon as it hits the
shelves.
Thank
you for having me. I look forward to speaking to you again.
Helen
Springs books are available in paperback and on Kindle.
Click here to purchase if you are in UK
Click here if you are in the US
Click here to purchase if you are in the UK
and here if you are in the US
and here if you are in the US
Sounds an interesting story Helen - one I'm just going to have to read!
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