Author Confessions: Madeline Martin

On her new novel, doing laundry after making the List, and the three books that made her want to write.

Some readers think of books as a treasure. In a Madeline Martin novel, books are always a treasure.

Her fourth novel, The Booklover’s Library, came out on Tuesday — and I love everything about the premise: “A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of the books that bring them together, by the bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.”

That is everything I want in a book! Plus, I’ve been a fan of Madeline’s work for awhile, and when she and I became friends over email this past summer, I jumped at the chance of featuring her on Dear Fiction. Here’s what she had to say about why she can’t stop writing about her love of books.

This is your fourth historical fiction novel that centers around a character's connection to books. Why do you keep returning to bookshops, libraries and booklovers? 
I confess, I’m a total book lover. For me, books are such a ubiquitous part of my life. I'm always either thinking of a book that I'm reading or writing, or seeing something that reminds me of a scene I read once or adding onto my towering TBR with more books I can’t wait to read. I think most importantly though, bookshops and libraries have been such an influential part of my childhood and still are today as an author. When I mentioned my love of bookshops and libraries and books in my own stories, it's an homage to what they mean to me.

How is The Booklover's Library different from your earlier books?
This particular book is set in Nottingham, England, which I have not written about before. It is also about a widow whose daughter is sent away during the children’s evacuation in England during World War II, which is an aspect I’d wanted to write about since I first learned about Operation Pied Piper.

But I think what sets this apart from my other books is that it’s the most personal book I've ever written. I spent several years as a single mother and incorporated a lot of my own personal feelings from that time into this book as well as having several scenes that were inspired by certain events/experiences that happened to me.

This is definitely one of my more heartwarming stories that I have written and I think people who loved The Last Bookshop in London will really enjoy The Booklover’s Library, especially because there is a cameo with some of those favorite characters. I've never brought in characters from a previous book before in my historical fiction, so I suppose that is a little bit different as well.

Where were you when you had the idea for The Booklover's Library and what was the spark?
I’m a self-professed history nerd and am always reading some article or another. So, while it is not very exciting, I was at home when I had the original idea. The inspirational spark came from an article I read about the real Booklover’s Libraries. During the marriage bar, women had to quit their jobs when they married. The librarians who worked at the Booklover’s Library had statistically longer engagements than other women and areas of work. They enjoyed their jobs so much they were loathe to marry and have to quit. I thought that would make a wonderful setting for a book.

Then I learned about Nottingham’s underground cave system used during World War II for sheltering from bombing raids and immediately knew that I wanted to write this book

There is also special connection to a reader who reached out to me with a really lovely letter telling me how much The Last Bookshop in London meant to her as she was a survivor of the Blitz and shared her own personal story about being evacuated as a girl. Some of what she told me inspired a scene in this book, which is detailed in my author’s note.

Can you share the three books that have been the most influential in your writing and/or reading life?
The first one is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon because reading that book is what made me decide that I really wanted to write my own story. I wrote historical romance before getting into writing historical fiction, and was hugely inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s work.

The next book is Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, which is my favorite World War II historical fiction that I've read.

And anything by Allison Weir as she has been a favorite author of mine for decades and her ability to bring history to life has always been such an inspiration.

Where do you tend to do the best writing?
I generally write the best when I am at home, where I can wear comfy pants, have delicious coffee readily available, and have my cats nearby because they love to hop up in my lap for snuggles. But the biggest reason, even beyond my ergonomic chair, keyboard, and mouse is the fact that I emote way too much while I'm writing.

If I'm writing a scene where the characters are angry, I'm glaring at my monitor, if I'm writing a scene that is sad, I'm absolutely bawling my eyes out. If I'm writing a funny scene, I'm probably grinning like a fool. No one needs to see that in public. ROFL!

What comes easiest for you as a writer? What is most challenging?
I think the easiest part for me is the research. I enjoy it so much that I probably would never write a book if I didn't have a deadline. LOL

I think as a historical fiction author, dialogue is generally the biggest hurtle. Making sure that what is said sounds appropriate for the time period. This can be further exacerbated by people mistaking contemporary sayings as not having existed during the time of the book, which is not always the case. However, I always do research to ensure that contemporary-sounding sayings did in fact exist during the time period that I'm writing in.

While I don’t have any from my book personally off the top of my head (writer brain woes!), I figured I’d share some examples in general: ‘big wig’ actually comes from the 1700s and ‘bit the bullet’ comes from the late 1800s.

If you could relive one day in your publishing/writing life, what would it be and why? The day I hit the New York Times bestseller list. There was a lot of difficulty going on in my life at that time and I had been a bit of an emotional mess. It was the highest achievement going on in my life simultaneously with the most difficult life event I’d ever experienced and that made celebrating a little difficult. In fact, after I found out, I went home and did laundry because mom life never stops (I did enjoy a celebratory glass of wine while doing it though), but I wish that I would've taken more time to really celebrate the accomplishment. Next time 😉

Lastly, if you could insert yourself into one of your novels and do the job of the heroine, which character and which book would you want to transport yourself into? I think Grace’s job in The Last Bookshop in London. She is not much of a reader when she starts at Primrose Hill Books, a dusty old bookshop. But as she cleans up the shop and gets to know the customers, she eventually begins reading and it is life-changing for her. There is a wonderful community surrounding that little bookshop that brings love and hope and the dark time of the Blitz on London. I really love that sentiment and enjoy book communities. The way she fosters that community is so very appealing to me.

Thank you for stopping by, Madeline!! If you want to read her latest book, order it here, here or here. I’ve been a busy bee over here and will give you a big update on my latest project next week. xoxoxo