Sunday, October 27, 2013

Emma Jane Holloway The Baskerville Affair trilogy AN INTERVIEW ~ Featuring ~ A Study in Silks by EMMA JANE HOLLOWAY









Ever since childhood, Emma Jane Holloway refused to accept that history was nothing but facts prisoned behind the closed door of time. Why waste a perfectly good playground coloring within the timelines? Accordingly, her novels are filled with whimsical impossibilities and the occasional eye-blinking impertinence—but always in the service of grand adventure.
Struggling between the practical and the artistic—a family tradition, along with ghosts and a belief in the curative powers of shortbread—Emma Jane has a degree in literature and job in finance. She lives in the Pacific Northwest in a house crammed with books, musical instruments, and half-finished sewing projects. In the meantime, she’s published articles, essays, short stories, and enough novels to build a fort for her stuffed hedgehog.

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  • A Study in Silks
  • A Study in Darkness
  • A Study in Ashes



  • Describe your writing in three words.
Steampunk. Magic. Revolution.
  • Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?

I’m more of a plot-weaver than a straight-line plotter, with a number of character arcs intersecting and influencing each other. My books are more a full meal deal than a snack. To keep this all in line I do keep extensive notes and sometimes I’ll pin a big piece of newsprint on the wall and scribble it all out there. With all the great writing software in the universe, I still like pen and paper. I really do belong in the Victorian era!
  • Was there any research involved in your work?
Absolutely. I’m writing historical fiction and also science fiction. I find the history easier than the science and spend a lot of time looking up all the wonderful ways nineteenth-century boilers could explode.
  • Are your characters in the book based on anyone you know?
There are aspects of people I know in the characters, but never an entire person. Even if an author meant it in the best way, I think replicating someone in fiction would lead to no end of trouble. I can just see my friends asking, “Does this adverb make me look fat?” or “What do you mean the villain just shot me! It should take me at least three paragraphs to die!” It’s just not worth the angry emails.
  • Once a character is fully developed do
    you set them free or do they still dance around your mind?
Characters stay with me. They are the worst nags and messy houseguests, cluttering up the inside of my head with newspapers and dirty laundry. Sometimes they’ll be quiet for a long time and then pop out of nowhere to pester me with a new storyline.
  • Do you need visual media to describe people or places?
For reference, certainly, if it’s a specific image I need to get right. I travelled for three weeks in London and Dartmoor for this series and I came back with a lot of photographs. Otherwise, I don’t usually have pictures in front of me while I’m writing. At the same time, steampunk is very visual and the clothes and contraptions are part of the fantasy. I keep a folder of images I browse through sometimes to get me in the right mood.
  • Do you have a Muse?
If so, she has some explaining to do!



A Study in Silks
September 2013
Evelina Cooper, the niece of the great Sherlock Holmes, is poised to enjoy her first Season in London’s high society, but there’s a murderer to deal with—not to mention missing automatons, a sorcerer, and a talking mouse …
In a Victorian era ruled by a Council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch, and sorcery the demon enemy of the Empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is magic that can run machines—something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as a guest of Her Majesty’s secret laboratories. What’s a polite young lady to do but mind her manners and pray she’s never found out?
But then there’s that murder. As Sherlock Holmes’s niece, Evelina should be able to find the answers, but she has a lot to learn. And the first decision she has to make is whether to trust the handsome, clever rake who makes her breath come faster, or the dashing trick rider who would dare anything for her if she would only just ask …
A Study in Darkness
October 2013
When a bomb goes off at 221B Baker Street, Evelina Cooper is thrown into her Uncle Sherlock’s world of mystery and murder. But just when she thought it was safe to return to the ballroom, old, new, and even dead enemies are clamoring for a place on her dance card.
Before Evelina’s even unpacked her gowns for a country house party, an indiscretion puts her in the power of the ruthless Gold King, who recruits her as his spy. He knows her disreputable past and exiles her to the rank alleyways of Whitechapel with orders to unmask his foe.
As danger mounts, Evelina struggles between hiding her illegal magic and succumbing to the darker aspects of her power. One path keeps her secure; the other keeps her alive. For rebellion is brewing, a sorcerer wants her soul, and no one can protect her in the hunting ground of Jack the Ripper.

Visit my web page: http://www.emmajaneholloway.com/
Like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaJaneHollowayAuthor
Read the first 50 pages of A Study in Silks here: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2013/09/50-page-fridays-emma-jane-holloway.html
Read the prequel short story here: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2013/09/steampunk-and-sorcery-read-the-adventure-of-the-wollaston-ritual-here.html
Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wq2oLLtmV0
Emma Jane Holloway
Ever since childhood, Emma Jane Holloway refused to accept that history was nothing but facts prisoned behind the closed door of time. Why waste a perfectly good playground coloring within the timelines? Accordingly, her novels are filled with whimsical impossibilities and the occasional eye-blinking impertinence—but always in the service of grand adventure.
Struggling between the practical and the artistic—a family tradition, along with ghosts and a belief in the curative powers of shortbread—Emma Jane has a degree in literature and job in finance. She lives in the Pacific Northwest in a house crammed with books, musical instruments, and half-finished sewing projects. In the meantime, she’s published articles, essays, short stories, and enough novels to build a fort for her stuffed hedgehog.

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