Author Interview with Marie-Louise Jensen

I’m proud to present the author of Between Two Seas (referred to as Seas), and The Lady in the Tower (referred to as Tower), Marie-Louise Jensen! 

From checking out your website, I’m glad you rediscovered your creativity. Maths is overrated! First of all, when was the moment that you thought of both Marianne and Eleanor’s story?

I had the idea for Marianne’s story in an open air museum in Denmark. I saw a book about how Danish fishermen sailed across to Grimsby to sell their catch, and immediately I thought, what if one of them had a daughter there who later came looking for him in Denmark? I could visualise Marianne at once; shy, reserved and very English. And I could imagine how she would experience Denmark. I knew I had the seed of a story.

Eleanor’s story came to me on a visit to Farleigh Hungerford Castle. I’d been there before and heard the story of how Lady Elizabeth Hungerford was locked in the tower, but that time it just came to me as a story idea. No one knows how Lady Elizabeth escaped, and I started to imagine her daughter freeing her.

The books are quite different in their style of protagonist. Seas is more character driven, while Tower has a lot of action and intrigue. What fuelled your decision to create such diverse worlds? Or, as is the case for some of us writers, did your characters march up to you, point down at the screen/paper and order ‘Write my story!’?

Between Two Seas arose from my own experiences of living in Denmark as a teenager, and everything I know about Skagen in the time I chose to set the story. I wrote it quite quickly, initially, and the whole story came tumbling out of me, some of it planned, but some of it a surprise. I was thinking more about the character and how she would experience Skagen than about the story, although there is a story there too.

Eleanor’s story came to me before I started writing Between Two Seas. In fact I had some ten chapters of it written before I put it aside to write the other. The reason this story is so much more plot driven than my first book is because when I started to research the Hungerford’s and the history of the castle and the people, there was so much that really happened or that I wanted to include. It was a very exciting period of history.

I thought The Lady in the Tower would be more like Between Two Seas when I started out, but the social setting in the castle called for quite a different style and far more interaction between characters, so it changed and changed as I wrote. 

Some generic questions for you: where is your favourite place to write? Favourite time to write? Favourite colour ink/type of font for writing? Favourite snack while writing?

I work absolutely anywhere. I can work with pen and paper or use my little notebook computer. I work in cafes, in the car, on trains. I do prefer working at home at my desk when I have the chance. But wherever I start out working, I soon disappear into the world of the book.

I’m not a morning person and I tend to work from lunchtime through to the small hours. If I do get up early I go and exercise, I don’t normally write.

Favourite snack, well endless cups of tea, obviously, and when the going gets tough, the only remedy is chocolate.

How did you react when you receive ‘The Call?’

When my agent rang me to tell me I had an offer of a two-book deal from OUP, I was lying in bed with the worst flu I’d ever had in my life. I’d spent three days feeling it might be easier to die than fight the virus. I had no voice at all and could barely summon up the strength to respond. But within about an hour, the news had filtered through to my brain I managed to start feeling excited.

It’s a very strange process though. After all the initial excitement and the rewriting, there was then a two-year wait for publication where nothing at all seemed to be happening. It was, of course, but not from my point of view.

Are you a plotter, writing down the plot in detail before you commence writing, or an edge of the seat writer, having a vague idea of the plot but not committing it to paper, and just writing whatever your muse dictates.

Somewhere in between. I plot my stories out before I start and spend a lot of time thinking about them. There may be gaps, but I always know what the end point will be and some of the events that will shape the narrative. But I also have new ideas as I’m writing and sometimes I go with them. The biggest unplanned change I’ve ever made was the introduction of a character called Ragna in my next book, Daughter of Fire and Ice. She was only supposed to appear in one scene, but she wanted to stay. So I did some rethinking and rewriting to make her part of the story.

Muses take different forms. Mine is under 5 inches high, very vocal and knows how to use her feet/elbows to spur me on. What does your muse look like, and how does she/he act?

I don’t really have a muse. I have a few people that inspired characters. I’d better not give them away so publically though! 

A writer isn’t an isolated person in this world (normally). A writer has family, and friends. What were their reactions to your publication?

I have two sons and they are finding the whole thing very exciting. They sometimes resent it a bit when I shut myself away to write, but they love coming with me to events, launches and prize awards (they’d probably enjoy it more if I won something!) I have a mother who’s very excited and involved too – and very supportive.

In the free time you have, apart from spending time with family and home-educating your children (a large and rewarding job), what do you like to do?  

Swimming, walking, watching children’s films and reading teen books. And I love spending the summers in Scandinavia. We almost always spend a spell in Denmark, and in 2007 we spent two months in Iceland travelling, sightseeing and researching my Viking books. We camped too, the whole time, and some nights there was ice on the tents. It was an amazing summer. It didn’t get dark the whole time we were there. I love the north.

Are you able to tell us about future novels?

Daughter of Fire and Ice is publishing February 2010. This is a Viking novel and there is already a synopsis up on amazon and waterstones.com. Cover to follow soon!

I’m working on a second Viking novel now. It’s linked, but stand-alone. I’m going to research a second Tudor novel once I’m finished. Not a sequel toThe Lady – a new story.

I’ve also been working on a project with fellow OUP author David Calcutt. We’ve written a dual-narrative, futuristic book together which we hope will find a publisher soon.

Thank you very much for your time. I urge everyone to go check out Marie-Louise Jensen’s books. Be sure to schedule in a few free hours to read them.  I can also add that I have a copy of Daughter of Fire and Ice, awaiting a read and a review from me. Review will be posted here!