Elizabeth Bell writes historical fiction and Necessary Sins was so deep! Join me as I find out more about the book and the author!
What was the spark that started Necessary Sins?
Necessary Sins came out of a whole lot of sparks. When I was eight years old, my parents took me to visit Charleston, South Carolina. I fell in love, and I knew I wanted to set a story there. Then my mother introduced me to John Jakes’s North and South, Alex Haley’s Roots, and Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds. I wanted to write an epic family saga of my own—set in Charleston, of course.
Name one thing you’re proud of having achieved with Necessary Sins.
Actually finishing it! This saga took me three decades of research and revision to complete. There were many, many times when I despaired of ever finding the shape of the story. Where did it begin? How should it end? And how should my characters journey between those two points? These questions haunted me for years. I'm proud that I persisted until I found the answers.
Please tell us a little about your writing style. What/who has influenced you?
I think I'm doing something unusual: a family saga that's epic in scale yet also intimate because it takes a psychological deep dive into the characters. Much as I enjoy the sweep of a historical doorstopper like the novels of James Michener or John Jakes, they can tend toward melodrama. Typically, the characters are more props and symbols than fully rounded human beings. Historical novels with psychological complexity that I really admire include Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Douglass’ Women, Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Wench, and Robyn Cadwallader’s The Anchoress. I hope my Lazare Family Saga combines the best of both storytelling styles.
What was the most interesting/random fact you discovered while researching for Necessary Sins?
There were so many! I suppose it was my realization of just how young boys were who went off to seminary to become priests in past centuries. They were adolescents. Who is ready to make a lifelong commitment at the age of twelve? That really unlocked Joseph's psychology for me, that it's been arrested. In interviews I read with Catholic priests, I could see how they were finally becoming their own men and having their sexual awakenings in their 30s and 40s because their humanity had been repressed for so long.
Share something about your main character(s) that is super important to you and why that is.
That they're flawed human beings. I find such characters much more interesting to write and read about than conventionally heroic types. I suppose I find it easier to identify with flawed characters, and I actually find them inspiring. Here are the ways in which this person has been broken—now can they find a way to heal and to heal other broken people in the process?
Is there something from your own life or experience that has found its way into Necessary Sins.
I grew up Protestant, not Catholic, but my frustrations even with that form of Christianity came through in Necessary Sins. Joseph's father René speaks aloud many of my thoughts, especially when he says "God is not enough—human beings need each other.”
What’s next for you and your writing?
Next year, I'll be auditioning narrators and getting The Lazare Family Saga made into audiobooks. I'm very excited about that!
What book(s) changed your life?
I've already mentioned them, but I'll circle back to the single most influential book. I dedicated Necessary Sins to the late Colleen McCullough because of The Thorn Birds. Her unforgettable characters and the way she evokes time and place inspired me. Most of all, I love how interconnected each generation of The Thorn Birds is, how Fee's story echoes through her children and grandchildren. I loved the idea that (SPOILER) the earlier generations screw up and miss their chances at happiness, but eventually the youngest generation is able to break the cycle and find fulfillment. It's not reincarnation, but it's like the family is a single being that's failing and slowly learning and finally growing—the story arc isn't just about a single character's journey but all the family members together. That's so emotionally engaging and satisfying to me. I find it cathartic.
Is there a cause that’s important to you?
Good historical fiction! By which I mean: an author who knows his or her chosen period inside and out and writes a novel that could plausibly take place there. Not historical fantasy masquerading as historical fiction, in which supposed 19th- or 15th-century characters behave like 21st-century people. I certainly don't mind the occasional historical romp, but it needs to be labelled as such. Authors do their readers a great disservice by misrepresenting what the past was actually like. They're continuing a long game of telephone, and the truth gets more and more distorted. To paraphrase George Santayana, if we cannot remember real history, we'll end up repeating it.
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