Meet Maryka Biaggio
I'm always thrilled when writers I know get their first book published. Especially when I understand how many drafts and hard work went into this success.
Maryka Biaggio is a former
psychology professor turned novelist with a passion for historical fiction. Her
debut novel, Parlor Games, was
published by Doubleday in January 2013. Twenty-eight years after launching her
academic career she took the leap from full-time academic to scrambling writer
and now splits her time between fiction writing and higher education consulting
work. Her fiction has won Willamette Writers and Belles Lettres awards. She
prides herself on crafting carefully researched and realistic fiction. She
travels extensively, is an avid opera fan, and enjoys gardening, art films,
and, of course, great fiction. She lives in Portland, Oregon, that edgy green
gem of the Pacific Northwest.
Q: It seems to me that writing about historical figures in a fictional
format is especially challenging. I’d love to know why you chose to write about
a notorious woman from the past.
I chose May Dugas, the protagonist of Parlor Games, for a number of reasons: I
was fascinated by the Pinkerton Detectives’ description of her as “the most
dangerous woman in the world”; she did not shrink from adventure or peril; and
I thought a first-person account would both challenge me and, if I succeeded, provide
a fascinating glimpse into May’s world.
Q: What is your first step in the process of crafting a historical
novel?
I always start with a character who has led
an interesting life. If I believe the story has a good arc, I plunge into the
research and writing.
Q: Can you describe your research methods, particularly how you find
direct sources?
For Parlor
Games I started with a Chicago journalist’s self-published pamphlet.
Although he based his narrative on the first-person report of the Pinkerton
Detective who pursued May, his account was riddled with internal
inconsistencies. So I searched online for newspaper articles of the time and
found enough to develop a reliable time line. I wrote to the State of Michigan
and obtained a transcript of May’s Menominee trial. I also searched passport
and travel records at the National Archives in Washington, DC, for accounts of
her travels. I interviewed the foremost expert on May Dugas, who lives in May’s
hometown, Menominee, MI.
I also traveled. For instance, I searched the National Archives in
Washington, DC, for May’s passport and travel records. In Chicago I studied
buildings that were in existence when she frequented the city. I had traveled
in China in 1985, not too long after it opened up to outside visitors post-revolution,
and I drew on that experience in portraying May’s sojourns in the bustling
cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai. A professional meeting had taken me to Mexico
City in the 1990s, so I was familiar with its sights and the surrounding
geography. I arranged a trip to the south of France while I worked on the
novel. I paid the requisite fee to enter the exclusive gambling lounge at the
Monte Carlo Casino, where I was able to soak up the ambience of the scene—the
beautiful, inviting decor, the serious expressions of the gamblers, and the
shuffling of chips—just as May did during her visits there.
Q: Since your characters actually lived once how do you find the right
voice for the POV character?
As I read about May and her adventures I
tried to unearth some sense of her personality, her motives, and the nature of her
interactions with others. I imagined how she might tell her story. Once the
first line of the novel came to me, I felt I had gotten inside her (at least a
version of her that made sense to me), and I was off and running.
Q: What is the toughest part about being a writer for you and how do
you get past it?
The most difficult challenge for me is infusing tension and conflict
into my writing. Once I have a good 50-100 pages, I request critiques from a
few professional reviewers (including Jessica Morrell). Sometimes it’s hard to
hear their feedback because it usually means I need rethink and revise a fair
amount. But I always end up feeling it’s for the best.
Q: What is your best advice for someone who is frustrated at not being
able to break into publishing?
Writing regularly and persistently is the
single most important way to improve your craft. Focus on learning, not on
publishing. In this environment, you need to write well and tell a good story. If you constantly strive for a well-told
tale, you can be published.
Q: What’s your best writing advice in ten words or less?
Read with a writer’s mind and hone your
internal critic.
Q: Sushi or pasta?
Butternut squash ravioli finished with sage
fried in olive oil.
Q: What books are piled on your nightstand?
1)
Webster’s
Dictionary—you never know when you might encounter an unknown word.
2)
Artful
Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte (I confess, I’m a grammar and usage
geek).
3)
Always a novel—right now its Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin.
4)
A notebook for those times when the elusive passage I’ve
been seeking pops into my head at 2 a.m.
Q: What’s next for you?
I’m working on a novel about a child prodigy writer—a
real person born in 1914—whose life went terribly awry.
For more information about Parlor Games, visit www.marykabiaggio.com
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