Deidre
asked
Kate Quinn:
I read The Alice Network in two days and loved every second of it. What inspired you to write it? And as a writer, did you have Eve or Charlie possess any of your traits or qualities?
Kate Quinn
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I knew going in that I wanted to write something 20th century, and I wanted to try a dual narrative. Surfing for inspiration, I stumbled across a wonderful non-fiction book about women heroes of WWI (Kathryn J. Atwood; I recommend it highly) with a series of fascinating essays on unsung heroines of the war, and found the story of the historic Alice Network. It begged to be told, simple as that.
As for Eve & Charlie, I suppose they both probably have little bits of me in there; most of my protagonists do to some degree. (Although I cannot, sadly, calculate numbers in my head the way Charlie does.) Eve does share one very important trait not with me, but with my husband, and that's her stammer. I've watched him deal for many years with the problems that assail Eve: being frustrated by conversational hitches, by well-meaning people who try to finish his sentences for him, by ignorant people who assume someone with a stammer must be stupid. It was important to me, and to him, to show a speech impediment realistically, and to show someone who turned what might be seen as a weakness into an asset--in Eve's case, she uses her stutter to make people underestimate her. My husband helped me fine-tune all Eve's dialogue, and is delighted to see the reaction readers are having to her.
As for Eve & Charlie, I suppose they both probably have little bits of me in there; most of my protagonists do to some degree. (Although I cannot, sadly, calculate numbers in my head the way Charlie does.) Eve does share one very important trait not with me, but with my husband, and that's her stammer. I've watched him deal for many years with the problems that assail Eve: being frustrated by conversational hitches, by well-meaning people who try to finish his sentences for him, by ignorant people who assume someone with a stammer must be stupid. It was important to me, and to him, to show a speech impediment realistically, and to show someone who turned what might be seen as a weakness into an asset--in Eve's case, she uses her stutter to make people underestimate her. My husband helped me fine-tune all Eve's dialogue, and is delighted to see the reaction readers are having to her.
More Answered Questions
Gen
asked
Kate Quinn:
Hey Kate! I want to thank you for such wonderful books that I keep going back to. I swear, it's an incessant stream of fangirling on my part. I am not sure if I've seen it somewhere or not, but do you have any plans after finishing the collab on the Boudica novel? I can't get enough of your writing since I first picked up Mistress of Rome a couple of years ago, probably shortly after you first released it.
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