AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY: PAMELA HARTSHORNE, TIME'S ECHO

Join me and welcome Pamela Hartshorne at FLY HIGH! Today's guest has had a 20 years' experience as a romance novelist (pen-name Jessica Hart)  and has now published her first historical fiction novel with her real name. It's a brilliant time slip mystery set in York  in the years of Queen Elizabeth I (read my review) Leave your comment or questions for Pamela + your e-mail address to get a chance to win a paperback copy of Time's Echo.   Open worldwide, the giveaway ends on 30th September. 

Hello Pamela and welcome at FLY HIGH! Thanksfor accepting my invitation. I’m really glad to have the chance to ask you somequestions about yourself and your new “time slip” novel, Time’sEcho. Thankyou for having me, Maria Grazia!  I’mdelighted to be here.  Isn’t it great howthe internet makes it possible for us all to communicate with each other likethis?
It is wonderful, indeed! My first  question for you is :   What’sit like to live in York?  Does living ina town so  full of history  influence your writing?I love living here – York a very ‘livable’ city,small enough to walk across easily but big enough to have lots going on.  And yes, I love the fact that you can feel somuch part of its interesting history. Going in to have a coffee or post a letter, I walk along the samestreets Hawise walks along in TIME’S ECHO, and every time I go out, I get newlyinspired!

How different was to live there in theElizabethan age?In some ways, it was very different, ofcourse.  Religion was much more importantin daily life, and the difference between Catholicism and the new Protestantreligion was very divisive.  None of thetechnology we take for granted existed then, obviously, and there were feweropportunities to move away from the city and make a new life for yourself, asHawise discovers.  But in other ways,things were not so different.  Peoplestill worried about their children being sick, and grumbled about noisyneighbours and dirty streets and problems moving around the city, just as we dotoday.
Why did you choose that era as your timesetting?

York between past and present

I got to know Elizabethan York well while I wasresearching a PhD on the streets and public space in late medieval and earlymodern York.  It so happens that awonderful series of records survive for local courts between 1575 and 1586; Iworked on these for so long that the individuals mentioned became like oldfriends, and I found myself imagining what they would have been like … In fact,one of the incidents in the records, when Miles Fell’s dog bit Nicholas Ellison the leg, became the starting point for TIME’S ECHO.
What was the most surprising fact youdiscovered about  16th century York,  while researching for your book?Hhmmnn,interesting question!  Perhaps the factthat those accused of witchcraft had a proper trial and were oftenacquited.  Even in those days, noteveryone was caught up in the hysteria of (literal) witch hunts although weoften like to think that in the past society was less rational than ours. 
Thinking of your heroine,  Hawise Aske ,what can you tell us about how hard life was for awoman in that period?I think one of the worst things for women then washaving so little freedom to travel or live as individuals.  Unless you were married, women had very fewoptions, although a widow could run a business on her own.  Women had no votes, and no voice in civicgovernment, but I’m fairly sure they would have made their opinions knownanyway!   Perhaps hardest of all was thefact that so many children died in infancy. Childbirth itself was not quite as dangerous as is sometimes imagined,but the first five years of a child’s life could be perilous and many did notmake it.  Those who did survive werecommonly sent into service in another household, sometimes when they were asyoung as eight, which must have been difficult for mothers too, however muchthey accepted that was the normal thing to do. 
What inspired you such a peculiar name foryour protagonist? Hawise was quite a common name in the medievalperiod.  I came across the will of oneHawise Aske in 15th-century York when I was researching my PhD, and I justloved the name.  It would have beenold-fashioned by the 16th century but I wanted my character to be differentfrom everyone else, and the name seemed to suit her.
You also published many romance novels asJessica Hart. How different is it to write historical fiction? The actual process of writing is much the same, Ifind (a lot of drafting, a lot of crises!) but I had to think a lot more aboutthe plot when writing TIME’S ECHO. Plotting isn’t so important in a romantic novel, but it’s doublydifficult in a time slip because you’re effectively writing two stories, one inthe present and one in the past.  I alsohad to do a lot more research than I would normally do for a contemporaryromance.
 How much of your experience as a romancewriter did you put in Time’sEcho?My 20+ years as a romance writer stood me in goodstead when it came to writing a longer and more complex book.  I knew about creating sympathetic characters,about dialogue and pacing and emotional tension … Some people think thatromance writing is somehow easier than writing in other genres, but itisn’t.  It’s still about telling a story,and keeping the reader turning the pages, which applies to every kind ofcommercial fiction.  I also knew aboutdeadlines and drafting and the fact that when it comes down to it, you justhave to get the words on the page.  Thatwas probably the most useful part of my experience, in fact!
What are you like as a reader? Very picky, I’m afraid, and super critical!
What are your favourite genres? Thrillers, romantic suspense and historical novelswith a bit of twist.
Any authors you particularly admire or thatinfluenced you as a writer?Too many to mention them all, but particularlyHarlan Coben, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Nora Roberts, Loretta Chase, SusanElizabeth Phillips, Tana French, Philippa Gregory, Juliet Marillier and, ofcourse, Barbara Erksine, the queen of time slips! 
Now, a bit of promotion. How would youadvertise your Time’sEcho in about 50 words?What if you could go back in time and live yourlife again?  Would you know the momentyou’d made the wrong decision, the tiny choice that changed everything?  TIME’S ECHO is part ghost story, partpsychological thriller, part romance and part historial novel – something foreveryone!

York Minster

Areyou planning a sequel? I’m in the middle of a new ‘time slip’ (workingtitle: THE MEMORY OF MIDNIGHT).  It’s notexactly a sequel, but like TIME’S ECHO it is set in Elizabethan and present dayYork.  In spite of that, it’s quite adifferent story, I promise!  Once this isfinished, I’ll be writing another light-hearted romance – my 60th! – and amlooking forward to a change of tone after that. WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS, first published this January, is beingre-released as part of Mills & Boon’s RIVA relaunch this autumn and I’malso self-publishing five of my earliest romances … so there’s lot’s goingon! 
That’s all for now, Pamela. Thanks alot for taking the time to answer my questions and being such a kind guest.Good luck  and great success to you andyour new book!
Theauthor:  Afterstints as a foreign newsdesk secretary at The Observer, cook on an outbackcattle station and production assistant at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’sPark, Pamela stumbled into writing as a way of funding a Ph.D. in MedievalStudies. For the past fifteen years Pamela has been able to combine herhistorical research with a successful career as a romantic novelist and iswinner of the two most prestigious awards in romance writing, a RITA®, awardedby Romance Writers of America, and the coveted Romance Prize, awarded by theUK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association. She lives in York.
Links : http://www.pamelahartshorne.com/http://pamelahartshorne.blogspot.co.uk/https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pamela-Hartshorne-Author/220530941392774https://twitter.com/PamHartshornehttp://www.jessicahart.co.uk/https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Hart/197786216977996
BookBlurb: York , 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a strangerin the market, and sets in train a story of obsession and sibling jealousy, oflove and hate and warped desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high pricefor that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go andnowhere to hide. Four and a half centuries later, Grace Trewe, who hastravelled the world, is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in theBoxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one. But in YorkGrace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined. Drawninexorably into Hawise’s life, Grace finds that this time she cannot move on.Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?