Ask the Author: Seth Margolis
Answered Questions (9)
Seth Margolis
Hi Marla,
I'm so pleased you've chosen SEMPER for your group. I'm happy to provide questions. Even happier to participate by Skype or another platform to answer questions directly. Let me know.
Seth
I'm so pleased you've chosen SEMPER for your group. I'm happy to provide questions. Even happier to participate by Skype or another platform to answer questions directly. Let me know.
Seth
Seth Margolis
I'm still trying to figure this out myself! I would say be as engaged as you can in the various groups on Goodreads that align with your interests and the type of books you write.
Seth Margolis
Good question! I came from a large family or readers. My parents, my siblings and I always had a book in our hands so it just seemed like the highest of callings to be the person who actually created one of those books. Also, I was a tireless storyteller, some (including my family) would say exaggerator. A great qualification for a novelist!
Seth Margolis
Wish I knew! I think it was the conflict between two women over custody that intrigued Paramount. Did you see the movie? Read the novel?
Seth Margolis
My favorite play tends to be the one I saw performed most recently. But among the tragedies, it would have to be Othello. It's been my favorite since I read it in high school and later saw it performed several times. I think it was the rawness of the motivations and emotions that initially drew me, as well as the sense that Othello’s race, as much as the machinations of Iago, made his downfall inevitable. You spend much of the play wanting to call out "Open you eyes, Othello! Can't you see what's happening!"
Seth Margolis
Intimidated is an understatement. First, I had to write a sonnet sufficiently “authentic” to allow readers to suspend their disbelief long enough to finish the novel. I never considered for a moment that “my” Shakespeare sonnet would be confused with a real one. It just had to work within the context of a thriller. My task was even tougher because each line in the sonnet had to contain an embedded clue that would advance the plot. The only small bit of comfort came from the formal structure of a sonnet: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter divided into three quatrains of four lines each followed by a two- line couplet, all with a prescribed rhyme pattern.
Seth Margolis
THE SEMPER SONNET is about a current-day Ph.D. candidate who comes across what she feels certain is a heretofore unknown sonnet by Shakespeare. But when she reads a portion of it on the air, she’s attacked and quickly realizes that the sonnet contains clues to a long-buried secret involving Elizabeth … and possibly the knowledge needed to cause global destruction.
Early in my research, I came across a marvelous book, ELIZABETH’S LONDON by Liza Picard. It is so well researched and so energetically written, you can practically smell London in the sixteenth century, taste the codlings (baked applies) and sheep lungs (no explanation needed), hear the cries of street vendors along Cornhill and Cheapside.
I also did some on-the-scene research in England, including at Hatfield, Elizabeth’s childhood home. This was where Elizabeth was essentially imprisoned by her half-sister, “Bloody” Mary. It’s also where a pivotal – and invented – scene in my novel occurs, and standing in the great hall of the old palace at Hatfield gave me the information I needed to write it with confidence.
I also quite a few hours in Westminster Abbey, specifically Henry VII’s Lady Chapel, considered last great masterpiece of English medieval architecture. More relevant to my novel, it’s where Elizabeth is entombed. I imagine I looked more than a little suspicious to the beadles standing watch – yes, they really are called beadles. Their suspicions were no doubt confirmed when I queried them at length about the security cameras installed throughout the Chapel. To my relief, they were as knowledgeable about modern heat-sensitive surveillance technology as medieval history. I couldn’t have conceived of the scene without their expertise.
Early in my research, I came across a marvelous book, ELIZABETH’S LONDON by Liza Picard. It is so well researched and so energetically written, you can practically smell London in the sixteenth century, taste the codlings (baked applies) and sheep lungs (no explanation needed), hear the cries of street vendors along Cornhill and Cheapside.
I also did some on-the-scene research in England, including at Hatfield, Elizabeth’s childhood home. This was where Elizabeth was essentially imprisoned by her half-sister, “Bloody” Mary. It’s also where a pivotal – and invented – scene in my novel occurs, and standing in the great hall of the old palace at Hatfield gave me the information I needed to write it with confidence.
I also quite a few hours in Westminster Abbey, specifically Henry VII’s Lady Chapel, considered last great masterpiece of English medieval architecture. More relevant to my novel, it’s where Elizabeth is entombed. I imagine I looked more than a little suspicious to the beadles standing watch – yes, they really are called beadles. Their suspicions were no doubt confirmed when I queried them at length about the security cameras installed throughout the Chapel. To my relief, they were as knowledgeable about modern heat-sensitive surveillance technology as medieval history. I couldn’t have conceived of the scene without their expertise.
Seth Margolis
There's always been some debate about why Elizabeth never married and never had a child. Was it political? Personal? Some at the time even thought it was medical. It's also been a source of frustration as well as debate that England's greatest monarch never passed on her gifts -- in fact, the Tudor dynasty died with her. So I thought it would be interesting to relieve the frustration by beginning my novel with one hypothetical (very hypothetical) explanation: she did have a child, prior to becoming queen, and the childbirth experience was so awful she vowed never to risk it again. Because I was writing a thriller, set half in the present day, half in Elizabethan England, I had to come up with a way to tie the birth to both eras. The answer was a long-long Shakespeare sonnet that hints at Elizabeth's secret ... and even darker secrets with serious implications for the present day.
Seth Margolis
Othello
I chose Othello, my favorite Shakespeare tragedy since I read it in high school and later saw it performed several times. I think it was the rawness of the motivations and emotions that initially drew me, as well as the sense that Othello’s race, as much as the machinations of Iago, made his downfall inevitable. But was his fate truly inevitable? Was Desdemona’s?
Othello
Down, strumpet!
Desdemona
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
Othello
Nay, if you strive –
Desdemona
I had not thought this necessary. Nay, I wish it ‘twere not. But here, see with thine own eyes. Hear with thine own ears.
She hands him an iPhone 6.
Othello
That face. And voice. ‘Tis Iago. And now his own Emilia. What? The screen is small …
Desdemona
Thou wouldst not avail me of the iPhone 6s, my lord.
Othello
Nay, but the image is clear! And the sound! Hark, she hands him the handkerchief!
Desdemona
You see, husband. Beware of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Othello You are no traitor.
Desdemona Nay. The very opposite.
Othello Yet Iago plays me for a fool. I will suffer him no longer. And he will suffer for it.
I chose Othello, my favorite Shakespeare tragedy since I read it in high school and later saw it performed several times. I think it was the rawness of the motivations and emotions that initially drew me, as well as the sense that Othello’s race, as much as the machinations of Iago, made his downfall inevitable. But was his fate truly inevitable? Was Desdemona’s?
Othello
Down, strumpet!
Desdemona
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
Othello
Nay, if you strive –
Desdemona
I had not thought this necessary. Nay, I wish it ‘twere not. But here, see with thine own eyes. Hear with thine own ears.
She hands him an iPhone 6.
Othello
That face. And voice. ‘Tis Iago. And now his own Emilia. What? The screen is small …
Desdemona
Thou wouldst not avail me of the iPhone 6s, my lord.
Othello
Nay, but the image is clear! And the sound! Hark, she hands him the handkerchief!
Desdemona
You see, husband. Beware of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Othello You are no traitor.
Desdemona Nay. The very opposite.
Othello Yet Iago plays me for a fool. I will suffer him no longer. And he will suffer for it.
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I wish I had asked my question so much sooner as my book group is meeting in 2 1/2 hours!
Oct 26, 2016 04:37PM · flag