Maid Of Steel
Across the
Atlantic – Queenstown, southern Ireland – hotelier Thomas dreams of being
loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice’s
father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It’s been eight years.
But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don’t include the fight for
equality or her dull husband.
Emma’s arrival in
Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish
Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma’s path to suffrage was never
meant to lead to a forbidden love affair…
Purchase
Links
Publisher’s link: https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/book/486/maid-of-steel-SMwd/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191535269X/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/191535269X/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/maid-of-steel/kate-baker/9781915352699
Author Bio – Maid of Steel is Kate’s first full length
novel to be published. She also writes short stories and is presently drafting
a second novel.
She writes at a
desk covered in to-do lists and lights candles in the hope the lists disappear
in the shadows.
She lives in East
Anglia in the UK with her husband where they attempt to look after farmland for
generations to come.
A small, very
small, dog can be frequently found on Kate's lap. Otis is her first miniature
dachshund.
https://twitter.com/katefbaker
https://www.instagram.com/KateFrancesWrites/
https://www.facebook.com/KateBakerAuthor
Author Interview:
Today on Teatime and Books I’d love to welcome, Kate Baker, author of MAID OF STEEL. We are so delighted you could join
us today.
Thank you so much for inviting me to celebrate my debut’s first
birthday!
What or who inspired you to become an author?
When playwright, Beth Flintoff, came to spend time with a group
coming to the end of a self-esteem program at Ipswich Women’s Aid (myself being
one of them), we were encouraged to write down our feelings and thoughts. She
was writing a play about Maria Marten, who was murdered in Suffolk at the hands
of a perpetrator in 1827. Beth wanted a greater understanding of how someone
could arrive a point in their lives where they put their trust - and lives -
into the hands of someone who could do them harm.
Watching Beth’s play at The Wolsey moved us all; it’s a profound
moment when you realise the choices we make all lead somewhere, and I don’t
necessarily mean a geographical location. Mental wellbeing has such a huge part
to play in how we see ourselves and if it wasn’t for the work of the teams
around the country at the Women’s Aid Centres, many women could not call
themselves survivors.
After my course came to an end, I was determined to keep
writing. I had found the process tapped into my natural creative side. I
continued to learn the craft and in 2019 began work on a novel, inspired by a
weekend away in Ireland for my fiftieth. In 2023, Maid of Steel was published. While
the story is set in 1911 and 1912 Ireland, is woven through reality of politics
of the time, the theme is definitely one of equality. I think even the title
has a hint of where the last few years have taken me. My book is primarily
about a suffragette, yes, but it’s not about a woman trying to be better than a
man. It’s about equality.
What sort of research did you do to write this
book?
I love
doing research, although it can take over for months and stop you writing the
story! I bought over ten books from ebay about Ireland and suffragettes and
read articles written in the early 20th century, so that when I did
my first big edit, I could flesh out the scene ideas I’d thrashed out during
Nano2019 and make the scenes authentic. Once I’d written that first draft,
I also returned to Cork and Cobh – dragging (hardly) my friend, Hannah, with me
so we could revisit some places and investigate others that we hadn’t been to
the year before, such as Cork City Gaol which features in the novel when Emma
is arrested.
What are you working on now? Any chance of a
sequel?
Funny you should ask this, as a
handful of readers have asked for one! Initially, I’d thought the story done,
but there was a lot of material which didn’t make the pages of the novel, such
as Emma’s grandmother’s story, set in 1854 when she escaped Ireland in the
Potato Famine. I’ve also thought about a novella perhaps, which could show us
what they do next (which could involve yet another visit, methinks!)
For now, though, I’m working on a
second standalone – The Projectionist – and hope to have the first draft
completed within a month. It’s at 62k words right now. It’s the dual-time line
story of Frank who all his life was the projectionist at the cinema in a small
town on the east coast of Essex. In the contemporary time-line he’s an old man
who shuffles past the derelict cinema at the same time every day; for good
reason. He knows that was the time his late wife watched his message home from
Egypt which he was doing National Service in 1952. The historical time-line is
set mostly in 1953 in Bradwich where Joan is left alone to deal with the great
flood East Anglia endured on 31 January of that year.
Are you a pantser
or a plotter? Or a mix of the two?
I recently
learnt that I’m something called a Chaotic Plotter! There’s a chart with 9
specific author types between those two descriptions and while I don’t follow a
rigid plan, I do have an outline in my head before I begin – perhaps post-it
notes on the wall which occasionally float off and become walked over because
I’m too busy writing to pick them up. I don’t do detailed character analytics
before I start because I tend to find I learn more about them as the story
unfolds in front of us both.
Which type of genre do you love most, and why?
It really
depends which mood I’m in as to what genre I read. And while I’ve been finding
my voice as a writer, I think the same thing applies. It’s still early days so
I can’t yet say my writing can be branded, although I certainly am enjoyed that
historical family drama which seems to come under ‘women’s historical fiction’.
This description slightly irks me, as I fear men could be put off reading it.
Yet Mark Stay (of Bestseller Experiment) did an edit for me and loved it, as
have a handful of men I know have read it. Okay, one is my father which may not
count as someone who genuinely ‘found me’; he knew I’d been writing it for
years and it was natural he’d want to read it, being a voracious reader
himself. But because his favoured genre is policital and coldwar thrillers, I
was touched that his feedback was really positive regarding pace and storyline.
(He’s a tough one; ex-military and calls a spade a spade!)
I had a go
at writing science fiction a couple of years back, but that’s so so hard! I’ve
written a ghostly fantasy short story for an anthology which members of The
Bestseller Experiment are self-publishing this May, so we’ll see what readers
think of that soon enough! I’ve had five shorts accepted by People’s Friend
magazine which are more the type of stories their readers expect – wholesome,
happy-ever afters with no sex or violence on the page.
What’s your favorite novel of all time, and why?
What a difficult question! I stayed
up all night to read The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak and bawled my eyes out;
again that fictionalized reality is what really gets me. But I also adored
Nicholas Evans’ The Horse Whisperer, which I read long before Robert Redford
made the film. That unhappy ending was what really left me affected for days
(but it was important for that story; her husband was a lovely man after all).
One last title I must mention is Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden set in
Japan in 1939. It’s a coming of age story about a young man sent away to the
coast to his family’s what we’d call a summer house; away from the city where
his illness is worse, and away from the threat of conflict. The beach house is
cared for by Matsu, an elderly and wise man who lives simply. It’s a real
lesson to us all about what life is really about. I found it profound and my
husband and I watch Love Island sometimes – which we love – but then conclude,
,”It’s not very Matsu, though, is it?” !!!
What fellow author do you recommend reading, and
why?
I adore Rose Tremaine for her
storytelling, and Lucinda Riley for her family connections, Sophie Hannah for
her clever mysteries, Kristin Hannah for her locations all over the world,
Stephen King for his ability to reach into my soul to terrify me, Mark Stay for
an entertaining delve into 1940s village life with woodland and witches in his
‘Witches of Woodville’ series. I do also occasionally read a literary author,
such as Margaret Attwood. While I’ll never be as good an author, reading
wordage by such talent might rub off, you never know!
When you’re not writing, how do you spend your
time?
I’ve run my own one-man band business
on our farm for 17 years. The Rug Room washes and reproofs and repairs horse
rugs for clients in a 20-mile radius of our farm. I have a workshop seventeen
paces from the back door, so the commute is not too bad! I’m an insomniac so
can frequently be found sewing patches on clean rugs at 3am.
I also do the farm accounts for our family farm and although I
don’t sit down for two solid days a week, it’s probably a correct guess at the
time I spend doing that plus all the emails and form-filling that goes with
modern farm life.
Do you listen to music when writing? If so, what
type?
Usually Hans Zimmer instrumental tracks from the films. He’s
done so many over the last couple of decades and the cinematic vibe listening
to them brings helps me to ‘see’ the scenes as they grow on the page. I can
change the tone of the music to help with the tone of whatever I’m writing.
Occasionally I type in silence, but more often than not, I do have something
playing.
Any advice you have for a blossoming author?
Yes! Beware who you show your early work to. By all means, sign
up for creative writing workshops and join writing groups, but sharing
embryonic scene ideas to be critiqued can shred your confidence and stop you
before you’ve started. Let your writing world grow around you. Play with words;
do short stories as well as thinking about a novel. Even have a go a flash
fiction, utilizing your existing characters and put them into situations that
won’t appear in the book. This can really help to drill down into who they are.
We relate best to stories where we care about the character. Some say write
every day. I’ve tried that, but can’t do it; not unless you count email writing
or blogging.
Another fun thing to do is while you’re watching a film or TV,
think about what the director has done for us. How has he/she captured our
attention, how are they maintaining pace, how have our heartstrings been
pulled? Why do we care? Why do we keep watching and not scroll on our phones?
How did the scene begin, how did the film begin? What was the book? Most of the
fiction on screen began life as a novel so it’s the perfect way to absorb
aspects of the craft.
Just
for Fun:
Do you like tea or coffee?
Tea; earl grey with milk (and I don’t care that’s seen as
‘wrong’ by many!)
Do you have any pets?
A miniature dachshund called Otis who sleeps 22 hours a day and
is not helping my failing fitness regime
What’s your favorite color?
Blue
What’s your favorite season?
The warmth of summer
What’s your favorite movie?
Top Gun
Interview
Closing:
This was so much fun! Thank you, Kate, for
joining us. We wish you all the best on your
continued writing journey and we are looking forward to your next book.
Thank you for having me; I’ve loved chatting books and reading!
xx
Giveaway to
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