The Chalice (56 page)

9) When you began writing, did you know that Joanna Stafford would end up not marrying Edmund Sommerville? Or did you discover this during the process of writing? Have you imagined a future for Joanna beyond this book?

I never imagined Joanna marrying him in this book. The complexities and contradictions of their relationship deepened while I was writing. I am pleased that some readers are so taken with Edmund. I like to think he is an original character.

10) You have worked on the staffs of
InStyle, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly
, and
Good Housekeeping
, and are now a features editor of
DuJour Magazine
. What inspired you to begin writing novels? How do you balance the different demands of magazine editing and novel writing?

I didn’t think about writing novels while building a career in magazines. But after I gave birth to my son, I felt a craving to tell my own stories. I wrote a few screenplays and got pretty far in writing competitions—I have a manager for screenwriting—but then I joined a fiction workshop and was deeply bitten by the bug. I wrote at night or on weekends at Starbucks, an hour here, an hour there. I took some “staycations” when I did research and wrote. I started getting up early in the morning to write fiction before everyone else wakes up. That is a system that works, and I still do it: waking up early to write.

11) What writers have most deeply inspired and influenced you?

My first love was Daphne du Maurier, and I think her books hold up very well. I re-read them all the time, and I have to assume she has influenced me. I read a lot of historical fiction when I was young, primarily Norah Lofts, but also Jean Plaidy and Mary Stewart. When I was at college, I studied F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. I’ve read almost all the books of Edith Wharton and Henry James. I’d have to say I’m influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Wilkie Collins too. I really love Mary Renault and Robert Graves—they are sources of great inspiration. Most recently, I have gotten so much from reading A.S. Byatt, Katherine Neville, Elizabeth Kostova, and Ariana Franklin.

ALSO BY NANCY BILYEAU

The Crown

Touchstone

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Nancy Bilyeau

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Touchstone hardcover edition March 2013

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Designed by Claudia Martinez

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bilyeau, Nancy

The chalice / Nancy Bilyeau

p.  cm.

“A Touchstone Book.”

1. Great Britain—History—Tudors, 1485–1603—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3602.I49 C47 2013

813'.6 2012031205

ISBN 978-1-4767-0865-2

ISBN 978-1-4767-0867-6 (eBook)