Traveling to find the Other Shakespeare
I'm delighted to welcome Lea Rachel to my blog today. She's the author of a new novel about Shakespeare's little-known older sister, The Other Shakespeare. Just the title has me intrigued, so I jumped at the chance when the Cadence group said she might be willing to visit my blog. Welcome Lea, and please tell me how someone from US manages to write so convincingly about the UK.
Guest Post by Lea Rachel:
Traveling for your Writing
When I first read about the character of Judith
Shakespeare – older sister to William, born with as much talent and ambition as
the Shakespeare we now revere, invented by Virginia Woolf in her novella A Room of One’s Own – I was
enthralled. I simply had to write a fiction
novel around the character of Judith Shakespeare, and the path her life might
have taken.
But I live in St. Louis, Missouri, heartland of the United
States. Some would say it is in the
Midwest, some would locate it firmly in the South (please let’s not get into
Civil War allegiances here), but either way it is over 4,000 miles from where
my novel had to take place - that’s over 6,000 kilometers for you Brits out
there. What do I know about London, let
alone 16th century London? I could
guess that they didn’t have indoor plumbing, or electric lighting for that
matter, but…
So I went to my writing desk and opened my latest bank
statement. Did I have enough money to
travel to London? To visit the (remade) Globe
Theatre, the British Museum, and Stratford-upon-Avon? I knew I could do basic research with texts
and tomes published in the United States and available in my local library, but
I wanted to do a bit of archival research – I needed to smell London, to touch
the waters of the Avon, to see, in their natural environment, the flowers that
had populated the Forest of Arden.
So I thought about how I could phrase it to my
husband. What do you say I empty our
bank account on a trip to London while you stay behind and take care of our one
year old baby? What if I leave you alone
and you don’t have to make the bed or do any dishes for an entire week? How about I owe you big time?
Luckily, I needn’t have worried. My husband has always supported my writing,
and in this, he did not hesitate. I
travelled to London over the Thanksgiving Day break (when I had time off work,
but nothing in England would be closed as it wasn’t their holiday), and spent
twelve hours every day walking my feet off.
I took so many pictures of Shakespeare’s birthplace the docent looked at
me with concern and asked if I had any particular questions. I pilgrimaged to Shakespeare’s grave - twice.
The 16th century is so long ago that there are
many things about it we will never really know.
Like how often servants washed their hands, what bedtime stories were
favorites of the kids, if people bothered to clip their toenails
regularly. Heck, we don’t even know the
date on which the great bard was born, let alone the minutiae of much of his
daily life! But there is nothing like
hands-on research, with its sights, smells, and tastes, to stimulate
creativity, excitement, and authorial motivation to actually finish your book.
That, and a truly supportive husband.
It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. My husband and I are both from England, so we try to get back on a regular basis. But somehow we never seem to pack half as much into our visits as you did.
About the Author:
Lea Rachel possesses a strong
literary background firmly planted in her roots, education, and experiences.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, she hails from a bloodline of writers,
including her grandmother Beki Bahar, an internationally published Turkish
author and poet, and her uncle Anthony Kosnik, coauthor of a well-respected
liturgical book that circulated circa the 1970s.
Rachel attended the
University of Michigan, where she had two short stories published in the
competitive literary publications Prism
and The Write Stuff. She has attended
writing workshops at the University of Michigan, University of California, and
University of Iowa—and placed fifth, out of 18,000 entries, in the personal
essay category of the 72nd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition.
Rachel makes her home in St.
Louis, Missouri, with her husband and son. The
Other Shakespeare is her first novel, released subsequent to her debut
work, a personal memoir entitled I
Promise.
About the Book:
Judith Shakespeare is the fictional
older sister of William Shakespeare and in the novel she is born with as much
talent, as much creativity, and as much drive as her younger brother
William. But in 16th century England, as a woman, Judith never
has much of a chance to develop her talent. As Virginia Woolf imagines in
her sketch, Judith could have been as productive and famous as
William, except for the fact that she is never sent to school, is pressured
into marriage, and is consistently denied her independence and a room of her
own. Her stifled literary talent, in such circumstances, becomes more of
a burden than a gift as it drives Judith to run away from Stratford and engage
in extreme measures to try and have her talent recognized.
A must-read for Woolf and
Shakespeare fans alike, The Other Shakespeare combines history,
social issues, and drama in a compelling story that will thoroughly entertain
and enlighten. Pay attention as you read and you will find that every
chapter in the book has at least one Shakespeare quote embedded in the text.
Some of them are easy to recognize and some aren't!
So, can you resist it? Here are some links, so you can buy it and read it straight away.
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-other-shakespeare-lea-rachel/1120739175?ean=9780990861607
Find Lea Rachel at: http://www.learachel.com/main/
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