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The Worm Hole Podcast Episode 20: Tracy Rees (Amy Snow; Florence Grace; The Hourglass; Darling Blue; The House At Silvermoor)

Posted 9th August 2020
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Charlie and Tracy Rees (Amy Snow; Florence Grace; The Hourglass; Darling Blue; The House At Silvermoor) discuss Richard, Judy, Dickens, Austen, and Brontë – not all at once – coffee houses in Victorian times, landslides and hourglasses, changes to the Yorkshire mines in the late 1800s to early 1900s, and the inclusion of the average person in historical fiction.

Release details: recorded 31st July 2020; published 10th August 2020

Tracy’s social media: Twitter || Instagram || Website

You can contact the show at books@carnelianvalley.com

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Show notes:

Question Index
Book Purchasing Links
Transcript
Photo Credit Line

Question Index

00:58 Tell us about Richard and Judy
02:48 You had a background in non-fiction publishing…
04:32 Dickens’ influence, or Austen, Brontë?
05:51 Who are your favourite non-classical authors?
12:03 Who came first, Aurelia or Amy?
12:36 Was including the ‘average person’ in your books always part of the plan?
13:55 Did you ever get to researching how coffee culture was in the Victorian period?
14:44 So your library has expanded vastly since you became a writer?
15:01 Do we have any idea how many children were abandoned or how many women had trouble in that period?
17:32 What was behind the idea to use Florence’s name as the title (of Florence Grace)?
18:49 What was the inspiration for the Grace family?
19:46 Houses are important in this book – where did Heron’s Watch come from?
20:47 When did you conceive the idea of a landslide as like an hourglass?
22:13 What had you deciding to look at mother-daughter relationships?
24:37 Why did you choose to tell Darling Blue over the course of a year?
25:52 The Camberwells taking in working class Delphine – were there many families in the 1920s that would have done similar?
26:54 Was the concept of the letters based on anything you’d heard before?
27:47 Did you find out anything interesting in regards to women in the 1920s becoming reporters?
31:09 Did the mining strike coverage in Darling Blue inspire The House at Silvermoor?
32:26 The House at Silvermoor contains your first male narrative – was that interesting to do?
38:20 Were there good mine owners as there are in the book?
40:09 Does the thread of owners changing the mines for the better align with the reality?
41:17 What happened to the horses – were they ever able to leave the mines?
42:15 Will you go back to any of the periods you’ve already covered?
43:06 So was your agent meaning you when she was saying someone should write about mining?
43:23 What is your favourite period to write about?
44:11 Do you ever see yourself going back further in history?
45:10 What’s next?