There are some things that I absolutely love about book blogging. (Ok, there are many things!)
One of my favorite is when I have the opportunity to connect with an author and other bloggers in the community and highlight wonderful books.
Tamera Alexander has a new book, "To Win Her Favor" that will be released on TUESDAY, May 12th. My review will be up soon!
To tide me over until I finish the book, here is an interview that was shared with me (and I was given permission to share it with you).
Q: To Win Her Favor
is the second in your Belle Meade Plantation series. Can you tell us where the
story picks up in the series? Is it directly connected to the first book?
Each of the Belle Meade Plantation
novels are standalone novels, so each tells a complete story. However, you
might just catch a glimpse <wink> of Ridley and Olivia from To
Whisper Her Name in To Win Her Favor (releasing May 12, 2015). But
Cullen and Maggie’s
story definitely takes center stage in To Win Her Favor, the second of
three novels in the Belle Meade Plantation series.
Coming in July is a Belle Meade
Plantation novella—To
Mend a Dream. To Mend a Dream continues the story of a secondary character we
meet in To Win Her Favor, Savannah Darby. Savannah is Maggie’s closest friend and while we learn
about Savannah’s
struggles in To Win Her Favor, the culmination of her story is told in
To Mend a Dream, a novella in a Southern novella collection entitled, Among
the Fair Magnolias (written with authors Shelley Shepard Gray, Dorothy
Love, and Elizabeth Musser).
You are a resident of
Nashville, which is a city rich with culture and history. Is this why you chose
to set your series there?
I’ve always had a love of history. Southern history,
specifically. Being from Atlanta, I grew up around antebellum homes, so when I
was in Nashville on a business trip in 2004 with my daughter, we toured the
Belmont Mansion, and I knew then I wanted to someday write about Belmont’s fascinating history (A Lasting
Impression and A Beauty So Rare). Likewise, when I learned about
Belle Meade’s
thoroughbred legacy, the ideas started coming (for To Whisper Her Name
and To Win Her Favor). I’m honored to write about these two Nashville estates and
their real history. It never gets old for me.
How many times did you visit
the actual Belle Meade Plantation while writing this book?
Oh gracious, I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been out there (Belle Meade is
only 25 minutes from my house). Just two weeks ago, I met a book club of about
30 women at Belle Meade. They were from Alabama, having a girl’s weekend out! After they toured the
mansion, we walked down to the old Harding cabin, one of my favorite places at
Belle Meade, and where Belle Meade all began. No visit to Belle Meade is
complete for me without stopping by that cabin. It has such a presence about
it.
I’m grateful to Belle Meade’s director, Alton Kelley (a descendant of the Harding
family who owned Belle Meade in the 1800s) and to Jenny Lamb (Belle Meade
Educational Director) for opening up the family files, letters, and artifacts
to me. I couldn’t
write these books with such historical detail about the house, the family
members, and the servants without Belle Meade’s assistance.
How much of the novel is
based on actual events and how much is from your imagination?
The backdrop of the novel—Nashville’s history, the Belle Meade mansion,
outbuildings of the estate, the family members, and most of the servants at
Belle Meade—are
from history. I often take documented historical events—such as parties, horse races, or
catastrophic occurrences—and
weave them into the fabric of my stories. Then I intertwine a fictional story
that follows the journey of a male and female protagonist within that story
world. In To Win Her Favor, that’s Cullen McGrath and Maggie Linden.
The basis for Cullen’s character is founded in the history
of Irishmen who came to Nashville in the 1850-70s, and who faced very real
prejudice from Nashville residents. Likewise, Maggie’s character was inspired by accounts
of women who were formerly landed gentry (from wealthy families who were major
land owners) but who lost everything following the war and the changes that
conflict brought. The rest of the details are filled in by asking myself the
question writers constantly ask themselves, "What if…"
How was this book different
from other projects you have worked on?
To Win Her Favor is definitely one of the more passionate stories I’ve written, and I don’t mean that solely in a romantic
sense. From the start, this story was simply more evocative because it delves
into the intimacies of a marriage of convenience, and also explores prejudice within
a marriage—in
addition to examining the prejudices between former slave owners and
former slaves. Passions run high between the characters in To Win Her Favor.
Everyone was learning how to be with each other in that time period, learning
where the new boundaries were, where everyone fit.
As I read and researched for To
Win Her Favor, I often found my own emotions stirred by real events that
occurred in Nashville during Reconstruction. At times, the accounts were
repugnant and heartbreaking. Yet at others, they were remarkably soul stirring
with fresh whispers of hope.
View vignettes filmed on location at
Belle Meade Plantation, the setting of To Whisper Her Name and To Win
Her Favor, on the Belle Meade Plantation novels page on Tamera’s website.
Dragon Tears by Nancy Segovia
* 
*
* 