Ask the Author: Katherine Howe
Answered Questions (27)
Katherine Howe
Thank you for this delightful note Wendy. That's a lot of reading! I'm honored that Physick Book would hold a place in your top 10. I have a new novel coming in 2023 that will be about a female pirate beginning in Boston in 1726, which will be sort of TREASURE ISLAND meets GONE GIRL. I hope you will enjoy it!
But I do miss Connie. We shall see what we shall see.
But I do miss Connie. We shall see what we shall see.
Katherine Howe
Thank you so much Whitney! I'm delighted you enjoyed them. My next novel will be out in 2023, and will be an early New England pirate story - sort of TREASURE ISLAND meets GONE GIRL.
But I do miss Connie. I think about her all the time. You never know...
But I do miss Connie. I think about her all the time. You never know...
Katherine Howe
Thank you so much Amanda! I'm delighted you enjoyed them.
I miss Connie. You never know what the future will bring.
I miss Connie. You never know what the future will bring.
Katherine Howe
It's true the real Deliverance did survive the trials, and I had initially planned to have Livvy make a daring escape. But in the course of writing the novel, I realized that that ending felt wrong. It felt inauthentic, despite being "true." So I chose to do what the story required. That's the trick with historical fiction - balancing the demands of history with the demands of narrative.
Thank you so much for reading the Physick series. Connie has a brief cameo in Conversion, if you are in the mood for another witchy story from me.
Thank you so much for reading the Physick series. Connie has a brief cameo in Conversion, if you are in the mood for another witchy story from me.
Katherine Howe
Booo! I'm so sorry Tiffany. Was it run by the publisher?
Katherine Howe
I have every confidence that there is a way out of this basement. But I am running out of water.
Katherine Howe
Let me consult my Magic 8 ball......
Katherine Howe
Thanks Emmi! We shall see. I would love to write a concluding chapter for Connie and her family, and maybe weave in Emma and Colleen from Conversion too. Fingers crossed.
Katherine Howe
Thank you Kevin! Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, and to a lesser extent Conversion are all set in Physick World. Should my epic pirate novel ever see the light of day a parrot character from House of Velvet and Glass makes an appearance on a desert island eighty years earlier. I enjoy easter eggs like that.
Katherine Howe
Hi Earl, Thank you so much for this question. I have found that each book evolves in its own way. I know that I love to have a sense of the material culture of a given moment in place and time, and I like to understand the technological constraints my characters will live with. But it's also important to understand the social constraints. And sometimes a tiny trenchant detail can convey an entire world, but I won't know that until I find it. It's been interesting to me that each book has demanded its own approach. What I have found is that the historiographic questions I pose myself are the same, but the places to look for the answers change.
Katherine Howe
I have wanted to write a follow up to THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE for years. I am so excited that the time has finally come with THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS, out June 26, 2019 from Henry Holt and Co.
Katherine Howe
Then we are distantly related Rachel! I think we all have some secret witchness about us, don't you? It's just a matter of finding out what it is.
xoxo
xoxo
Katherine Howe
Only 8 months to go!
Katherine Howe
Thank you Carol! My next one, THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS, will be out in June 2019. I can't wait for you to have it.
Katherine Howe
Hi Fay, Thank you so much for this wonderful note. It's always exciting to hear from other far-flung Howes. A lot of families started getting into genealogy in the late 19th Century, largely in response to ethnic anxieties about European immigration. Our family was no exception, unfortunately, so that's when a lot of our research dates from. The cool thing about family research now is that it is so much easier to do, given how many online resources there are. It's become much more accessible for people from all different backgrounds, including those - like African Americans - who are harder to track in the archive. We're living in a golden age of history research, and I think it's very exciting.
Katherine Howe
Yes Damara! THE DAUGHTERS OF TEMPERANCE HOBBS is coming from Henry Holt and Co. in summer of 2019. And I can't wait for you to have it.
Katherine Howe
Thank you so much for this question, Rachael. I was born in and grew up in Houston, and lived there for eighteen years. I moved back east for college, and the vicissitudes of adult life have kept me here. But my heart lies in both places. I even have a novel in the drawer that is set along the Gulf Coast, where I grew up. It's different from the other work that I have done, maybe because we are different versions of ourselves when we occupy different spaces, and moments in time.
Katherine Howe
Hi Dustin, thank you so much for reading. I have a pretty strong conviction that nothing in history should be off limits to anyone willing to put in the time to study it. Circumstances like the witch trials, which are essentially about power, deserve our attention all the more. Also witch trials are one of the few passages in history in which regular people are at the center of the drama. That's one reason you won't find me writing about kings and queens. I'm very interested in exploring stories about regular people trying to make sense of an insensible world.
Katherine Howe
Thank you so much Carol. As I enter edits on Book 6, having readers cheer me on makes it so much easier. Thank you for all that you do.
Katherine Howe
Thank you so much for this compliment, Gubbio. I tend to be a very visual person (my first real job was in an art museum, as it happens), which is one reason I love to wallow in setting. But it can be too much for some readers. It's all a matter of taste, and how you as a writer experience the world around you. Thank you for reading!
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