Q&A With Sophie Perinot 

Today I have the pleasure of doing this Q&A with historical fiction author Sophie Perinot! Sophie is the author of The Sister Queens, & Médicis Daughter! Sophie was a collaborating author on A Day Of Fire with Kate Quinn, Eliza Knight, Ben Kane, Stephanie Dray & Victoria Alvear. Then the core of that group—Kate, Sophie, Eliza and Stephanie— co-authored a second novel, Ribbons of Scarlet, adding talented writers Laura Kamoie and Heather Webb. Most recently, Sophie wrote her first dual timeline mystery, featuring the Great Fire of London (1666), under a new name—Evie Hawtrey 

Q: Sophie, would you please give a brief description of each of your novels starting with A Day Of Fire? 

A: Happy to! 

A DAY OF FIRE: Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . In A Day of Fire, Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each other’s’ path during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

AND BY FIRE, written as Evie Hawtrey: 

Tempered by fire and separated by centuries, two extraordinary female detectives track a pair of murderous geniuses who will burn the world for their art.

Nigella Parker, Detective Inspector with the City Police, has a deeply rooted fear of fire and a talent for solving deadly arson cases. When a charred figure is found curled beside Sir Christopher Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire of London, Nigella is dragged into a case pitting her against a murderous artist creating sculptures using burnt flesh.

Nigella partners with Colm O’Leary of Scotland Yard to track the arsonist across greater London. The pair are more than colleagues—they were lovers until O’Leary made the mistake of uttering three little words. Their past isn’t the only buried history as they race to connect the dots between an antique nail pulled from a dead man’s hands and a long-forgotten architect dwarfed by the life’s work of Sir Christopher Wren.

Wren, one of London’s most famous architects, is everywhere the pair turn. Digging into his legacy leads the DCIs into the coldest of cold cases: a search for a bookseller gone missing during the Great Fire of London. More than 350 years earlier, while looking for their friend, a second pair of detectives—a lady-in-waiting to the Queen and a royal fireworks maker—discovered foul play in the supposedly accidental destruction of St. Paul’s Cathedral…but did that same devilry lead to murder? And can these centuries-old crimes help catch a modern-day murderer?

RIBBONS OF SCARLET: 

In late eighteenth-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise upending a world order that has long oppressed them. In Ribbons of Scarlet, six bestselling and award-winning authors bring to life an epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers—seven unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

MÉDICIS DAUGHTER:

The mother-daughter relationship is always perilous. Her mother was Queen Catherine de Médicis.

Winter, 1564. Beautiful young Princess Margot is summoned to the court of France, where nothing is what it seems, and a wrong word can lead to ruin. Known across Europe as Madame la Serpente, Margot’s intimidating mother, Queen Catherine de Médicis, is a powerful force in a country devastated by religious war. Among the crafty nobility of the royal court, Margot learns the intriguing and unspoken rules she must live by to please her poisonous family.

Eager to be an obedient daughter, Margot accepts her role as a marriage pawn, even as she is charmed by the powerful, charismatic Duc de Guise. Though Margot’s heart belongs to Guise, her hand will be offered to Henri of Navarre, a Huguenot leader and a notorious heretic looking to seal a tenuous truce. But the promised peace is a mirage: her mother’s schemes are endless, and her brothers plot vengeance in the streets of Paris. When Margot’s wedding devolves into the bloodshed of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, she will be forced to choose between her family and her soul.

THE SISTER QUEENS:

Raised at the court of their father, the Count of Provence, Marguerite and Eleanor are separated by these royal marriages—but never truly parted. Marguerite is the more patient and perfect of the pair . . . used to being first. She wants to be a good wife and a good Queen, but her husband Louis IX of France is a religious zealot who denies himself the love and companionship his wife craves. Can Marguerite borrow enough of her sister’s boldness to grasp her chance for happiness in a forbidden love? Eleanor on the other hand is strong-willed and stubborn. When she becomes Queen of England, she quickly discovers that Henry III is a good man, but not a good king. Can Eleanor stop competing with her sister and value what she has, or will she let it slip away?

Q: How do you choose a topic for your historical fiction novels & how long does it take you to research and write your books?

A: My ideas come to me serendipitously. Honestly sometimes I feel as if I am meant to find them. They do, however, tend to have a unifying factor—I like to restore or rehabilitate women who have been erased or mis-represented in history when I have the chance. For example. . .  

The Erased . . . The spark for my debut novel, THE SISTER QUEENS, came from a footnote. I was reading about Notre Dame de Paris for a different project and came upon a footnote discussing Marguerite of Provence, medieval Queen to Louis IX of France.  She and Louis jointly presented the church’s last and smallest door—the Porte Rouge—and if you look up, you can see Marguerite’s kneeling image carved over that charming door.  Anyway, in the footnote it was mentioned that Marguerite was one of four remarkable daughters of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence—ALL of whom became Queens.  I wondered how such women, with their powerful Savoyard connections and politically significant marriages, could have slipped through the fingers of history.  The fact they had aggravated me.  So, I started a file folder with their names on it, vowing to come back and tell their story.  The Sister Queens is the result of that vow and ultimately highlights the two eldest, Marguerite who became Queen of France and Eleanor who became Queen of England.

The Misrepresented . . .  My second novel, MÉDICIS DAUGHTER, centers on Marguerite de Valois, youngest daughter of Catherine de Médicis, Queen of France. I knew Margot from my childhood reading, and specifically the work of Alexandre Dumas. Margot represents a woman unfairly treated by history. She’s traditionally been portrayed as a wanton woman. But these luridly embroidered portrayals of her are rooted in a single wicked piece of propaganda. Propaganda was used by her husband to secure a divorce when she didn’t produce an heir. That really fired me up to provide a more balanced, historically accurate look at the youngest Valois Princess.

Was she perfect? No. But nor was she a shallow, sex-obsessed, pleasure seeker. Looking at the historical record, Marguerite was highly intelligent, politically astute, and (in her later years) a serious force in the literary life of France. Arguably her political acumen exceeded that of her brothers, making her more like her strong-willed, politically expert mother, Catherine de Médicis. And, unlike her mother, Margot was a woman of deep and genuine religious conviction.

As for how long it takes me to research and write my books, that varies greatly. The fastest I’ve ever done it was nine months. But most of the time it takes twelve to eighteen months. There are two stages of research—the baseline stuff that must be digested before my characters, setting and time period to come to life; and “spot” research when I pause my writing to work on a detail. For example, be certain of what type of farthingales women were wearing at the French court in 1572. 

Q: What was it like co-writing A Day Of Fire, with Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Heather Webb, Eliza Knight, Victoria Alvear & Ben Kane? I did Q&As with Stephanie, Heather and Eliza and they are fantastic! What was it like reuniting with Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray & Eliza Knight to write Ribbons of Scarlett?

A: Kate, Stephanie, Eliza and I were all living in the DC metro area at the time and had a habit of getting together for lunch or at book festivals. At the time continuities were becoming popular in the romance genre and we thought they would cross over nicely into historical fiction. So, we brainstormed a chart full of historical ideas for a collaborative book, ultimately selecting the story of the destruction of Pompeii. Then we invited Vicky Alvear and Ben Kane to get on board. 

This was back in 2013, and the industry wasn’t yet on-board with this edge-of-the-envelope pushing stuff, so we put the book out ourselves. In 2015 it won a prize for Indie fiction awarded at the HNS North American Conference. Then in 2023 William Morrow acquired rights and re-released it with an exciting new cover.

When it was time to write RIBBONS OF SCARLET the core team from A DAY OF FIRE—Kate, Eliza, Stephanie and I—were again all involved, and this time we recruited Laura Kamoie and Heather Webb. 

Because these novels were continuities not collections of short stories, our individual characters crossed over between chapters. That led to one of my favorite aspects of our collaborations—co-writing scenes and dialogue, often in real time. 

When you write a novel by yourself you know with 100% certainty what all the characters on a page are going to do and speak. But when you co-write a scene, you get surprised. For example, in A DAY OF FIRE my character, Sabinus, has a drink with Stephanie Dray’s main character, Capella—a post sex drink and a conversation. Although all of that occurs in my section of the book, The Heiress, Stephanie and I got together in a google document and she responded as Capella in all the dialogue. I had no way of predicting what Capella, as voiced by Stephanie, would say or for that matter do. That uncertainty mirrors real life and I think it made collaboratively written scenes crackle with authenticity.

I think all the collaborators on both RIBBONS OF SCARLET and A DAY OF FIRE will tell you that we learned so much and improved our craft by writing together. 

Q: What advice do you have for anyone wanting to co-write a book with someone else? 

A:  Assemble the right team! You are going to be in it for a long haul. So having a shared vision and good collegial relationship is important. Listen to each other’s feedback but remember YOU are the author of your section of the novel, and have the final say on what you write and what editorial input you take or reject. With that in mind, when it’s your turn to critique the sections of your fellow authors, respect the other writers’ autonomy and voices. This is a true collaboration, not a top-down situation in which a boss tells everyone else what to do. HAVE FUN, at their best collaborative writing projects are exhilarating and an opportunity to learn more about your craft by surrounding yourself with other highly talented authors. 

Q: Congratulations on A Day Of Fire being optioned for television! I am so happy for you Kate, Stephanie, Eliza, Ben & Victoria. Have they started writing episodes and casting yet? Do you guys have a hand in writing the television show? I’m glad that authors are smartening up when it comes to Hollywood getting the rights to their work. 

A: We have not received any word yet that casting or writing has begun but you can bet all my toes and fingers are crossed. And those of my co-authors are as well.

As a group we selected two members of our authorial team to consult on the scripts as they are written. Honestly the thrill of seeing our characters come to life is what I care about most. I accept that changes to the original book will be made—because scripts are not the same as novels. And the production team as leaked in Variety Magazine is ASTOUNDING. I mean show runners who worked on the Tudors and Vikings! Ridley Scott. You’ll be in better hands than those.

I truly hope that a TV series will give the amazing historical characters we created in A Day of Fire new fans and, through those watchers and people who choose to read the novel after viewing the series, new lives. Every reader sees my Aemilia and Sabinus through their own eyes and that deepens the characters I originally created. 

Q: Will your next book be a solo work or will you be co-writing another novel with Kate, Eliza, Stephanie, Eliza & Heather? 

A: While I’d be very happy to have more collaborative writing in my future, my next book is due to be a solo novel. I am hoping to release another dual-timeline mystery (with one timeline being historical of course) as Evie Hawtrey. And I am actively researching two ideas for Sophie novels (pure historical fiction), both set in Britain.