Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

I am very, very honoured to have Sophie Masson here to talk to us today. Thank you so much Sophie for agreeing to be interviewed. Sophie has a new novel (for adults) out and she’s going to tell us a bit about it and her writing process.

Sophie, can you tell us a bit about your new novel?

Trinity: The Koldun Code, is the first book in the Trinity series and it’s a mix of urban fantasy, conspiracy thriller and romance. It’s centred around Helen Clement, a 22 year old Londoner of mixed French and American descent, who’s come to Russia with her mother, who’s a travel writer, to stay with a family friend. Helen’s just got over a bad experience, and she’s desperate to be somewhere very different: which Russia most certainly is! When they arrive, the Clements hear about a mystery that’s been the talk of the locals for weeks: the mysterious deaths, by drowning, of the three directors of a prominent private investigation company called Trinity. There’s even talk of a curse, and the sense that something is not quite natural about what’s been going on..
The heir to the company now is 24 year old Alexey Makarov, a music graduate who’s grown up partly in Russia, partly in Australia. And about whose family very dark secrets swirl..

When Helen meets Alexey in the woods one day, something momentous happens–something neither expected. But nothing is simple in Russia, and as events take a sharp turn into danger and eerie paranormal happenings, nothing will ever be the same again for them…Who can they trust? Who is the shadowy enemy who has been stalking Trinity? And just what does it have to do with the Koldun code?

With a background steeped in Russian myth and legend as well as the country’s modern beliefs in magic and the paranormal, this novel takes readers on a fascinating journey into an extraordinary culture .

Sophie can tell us a bit about yourself (where you live, how long you’ve been writing, previous publications etc)

I live in northern NSW, near the university town of Armidale, on six acres in a mudbrick house we built ourselves–it’s a beautiful spot and the perfect environment for writing! Originally, I come from France–my parents are both French, and though I was born in Indonesia when my parents were working there, I was sent back to France as a baby, and lived the first 5 years of my life there with my grandmother. When my parents came to Australia for work when I was five, they took me with them this time so that’s how I ended up going to school here and everything! We used to go back to France quite often when I was a kid, and we had to speak French at home, so I am still totally fluent in French! (Incidentally, I got interested in Russia too as a child, after reading Jules Verne’s wonderful adventure novel Michel Strogoff, which is set in Russia–and that interest has never left me–I’ve now been there twice)
I’ve been writing a long time– I’ve been writing stories ever since I could hold a pencil! But professionally, I’ve had stories published since the late 1980’s, and my first two books were both published in 1990–one was an adult novel, one a children’s novel! Since then I’ve had more than 60 novels published, most of them for young adults and children, but several for adults as well.

This year’s been a super-good publishing year for me–I’ve had two novels for children (1914; Emilio), one for young adults (The Crystal Heart), one non-fiction book for adults (The Adaptable Author), and one novel for adults (Trinity: The Koldun Code) published!

You mentioned that this was your first adult novel in 13 years? Why so long?

Yes, that’s right it’s the first adult novel in 13 years of mine to get published, since Forest of Dreams appeared in 2001. I don’t really know why–it wasn’t that I didn’t have ideas for adult novels or even indeed that I didn’t have ms of adult novels for publishers to look at, because I did– but I think people had got used to me as a YA/kids’ author and didn’t quite connect with the idea that I could also write for adults. Plus I guess the ms I was proposing were not quite right. That all changed with Trinity–I knew I had something there that was really strong, distinctive and gripping. It still took a little while for a publisher to pick it up–but when Momentum took it, I was stoked–Trinity had found the absolutely perfect home. I have been so happy with my experience there–there is a real feeling of excitement about the books they publish, the engagement they have with their authors, the quality of production, and the fabulous advice and help given in marketing and promotion.  Now it’s up to readers–and I hope they love the world of Trinity as much as I and my publishers do!

Can you tell us a bit about what’s coming next (is there a sequel)?

Indeed there is! The sequel is called The False Prince (Trinity book 2) and I’m writing it at the moment. It is wonderful to be back in that intense and exciting world and I am also having so much fun researching all the weird and wonderful byways of Russian parapsychological research and old books of spells too!

 What are you working on at the moment?

See above! I’m working on The False Prince, concentrating on that, but I also have an idea at the back of my mind for the third book! And also for another YA fairytale novel, based this time on the Snow Queen.

What is your writing process? (planner, panster, write every day, write sporadically, writers block etc).

I’m a bit of a combination planner and pantser–I always describe it by comparing it to travelling overseas–some people need an itinerary for each day, even hour–some people just head off into the blue yonder without even booking the first night’s hotel–and others book the first couple of nights, know where they want to go but are flexible about itineraries and prefer to leave serendipity space to do its work and spring its surprises! The latter type is me as a writer as much as a traveller!

I write nearly every day, when I’m home that is–but I also take days off. Usually it comes down to 4 full days of writing, three of doing other things. I am also very busy in all kinds of other things associated with literary business–such as the ASA, the New England Writers’ centre, and the small publishing house I run with three friends (Christmas Press, we publish children’s picture books featuring fairy tales, myths and legends from many lands–www.christmaspresspicturebooks.com) so that sometimes cuts into my writing time too, but I do like having lots of different irons in the fire! And I think that writing is a ‘whole-life’ thing–it can’t be quarantined from life and in fact should not be. I’ve never had writer’s block–I have no problem either with ideas or with pushing them forward into written form, but mostly I think it’s because when I’m writing I forget completely about what other people might think of what I’m writing and write purely because the story takes me over.

What do you prefer drafting the story or revising and reworking?

I like both–but the revising and reworking can be a very special pleasure because you can see the lovely shape emerging from the mass of material and it’s a great feeling. However I tend to do the revising and reworking as I go, so it’s pretty much a part of the same process: before I start a new chapter every day(and I always write at least one chapter a day), I look at the chapter I wrote the day before and rework/refine it, and sometimes even the one before that too, so that by the time I get to the end, the book has been drafted twice or even three times. Then the editor gets it and usually the structural edits are not big for my books, as I’ve already been revising as I go. I love working with editors on the structural and copy edits, shaping the book even more, it’s a really satisfying process.

 What part of writing do you find hardest?

The middle part! The beginning’s easy–the ending is kind of natural–the middle parts you have to be careful not to run out of puff! It can feel sometimes like you are running on the spot–I have learned many ways of forging ahead but I’m always glad once I’m past that sticky middle!

What do you plan to work on next?

In adult fiction I hope to continue on with Trinity– but also to work on other projects such as one set in Paris that I’ve been working on and off with for some years. In YA fiction, I’m hoping to write the next fairy tale novel, plus I have a couple of other ideas–And in children’s fiction, I have a picture book text I’d love to place! We;ll see..

I always have lots of ideas and projects on the go–it’s part of the reason why I don’t get writer’s block, I think.

Thank you Sophie. You are a whirlwind. 60 novels. Egads! Good luck with the new book. I love the cover. It’s awesome. Momentum have done such a good job on it. The Russian flavour sounds very intriguing. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Here is the cover and the blurb.

Trinity: The Koldun Code

by Sophie Masson

I am in a world deeply strange and strangely deep, a world as different from my old life as it’s possible to be, and it feels completely natural.

An unexpected encounter with a handsome stranger in a Russian wood changes the life of 22-year-old traveler Helen Clement forever, catapulting her into a high-stakes world of passion, danger, and mystery. Tested in ways she could never have imagined, she must keep her own integrity in a world where dark forces threaten and ruthlessness and betrayal haunt every day.

Set against a rising tide of magic and the paranormal in a modern Russia where the terrifying past continually leaks into the turbulent present, Trinity is a unique and gripping blend of conspiracy thriller, erotically charged romance and elements of the supernatural, laced with a murderous dose of company politics. With its roots deep in the fertile soil of Russian myth, legend, and history, it is also a fascinating glimpse into an extraordinary, distinctive country and amazingly rich culture.

You can find Sophie on the web.

Website: www.sophiemasson.org

Blog: www.firebirdfeathers.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/SophieMassonAuthor

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/sophiemasson1