Author Spotlight: Marty Ambrose, author of Forever Past
It’s 1873, and you’re standing on a sunny Italian piazza. You shield the sun from your eyes as you take a seat outside a nearby cafe and watch passers by go about their day. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful setting - but you know someone is hiding something.
That’s what it feels like to read Forever Past, the third and final book in the trilogy from Marty Ambrose. Balancing the relaxation of a holiday read with the thrill of a dangerous mystery, this historical story focuses on Claire Claremont, the last surviving member of the Byron/Shelley poetry circle, and her hunt for answers decades after the summer that changed her life.
‘The trilogy is about Claire’s search for her lost daughter,’ says author Marty Ambrose. ‘It’s really a mother-daughter story, and I think the theme is about settling with the past. It’s also about the Byron/Shelley group, how they influenced each other, how they changed literature, and what it means to be left behind.’
1816 was famously touted “The Year Without a Summer” due to a volcanic eruption that led to Europe’s coldest summer on record. That year was a big one for this circle of friends: hiding from the bad weather inside a Genevan villa, they challenged each other to write a ghost story, which resulted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Poldori’s The Vampyre.
‘I've certainly always been an obsessed Byronist. That’s why I studied in York, I wrote my dissertation on Byron, I’ve taught the Romantics. The summer of 1816 has been written about a lot, but not from Claire’s perspective, and that stood out for me. There are these unheard voices that often give us a totally different perspective on these really famous literati. There was just something about her I couldn't let go of.’
It’s true that Claire is something of an almost-famous figure. Fans of the Romantics will of course know the poetry of Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. But Claire is often left out of the narrative; some accounts of that summer don’t even mention that she was there.
‘Our view of the “almost-famous” people is always based on that of the famous people. Byron made these little comments about this “odd-headed girl”, and Mary was kind of jealous because Shelley was really close with Claire. All we had coming down to us was their view of her. When I read Claire’s letters and her journals I just got a really different feel for her. She’s a brilliant letter writer, she’s witty, she lived in Italy much of her life, she went to Russia as a governess, she lived in Germany, she lived in Austria, so she was really an adventuress on a shoestring! Claire never stopped living this wild bohemian life even in her seventies.’
Marty’s career has been in teaching; she was and still is a 19th century scholar, which offered her the ideal background to write about these iconic characters. She describes her journey as ‘chequered,’ but says that ‘this part is the best, because I’ve found a way to combine my love of history and literature.’
Even so, writing a historical trilogy is a big commitment, one that Marty has poured her heart into. Accuracy needs to be balanced against creativity; the challenge, as Marty says, is finding the right historic moments to bring the book to life.
‘When you’re writing fiction you have to look at the historical details and try to find the dramatic moment. So you have to go into the journals and the letters and find something personal that you can pull into the book. They spend a lot of time reading and sailing and talking which isn't dramatic! There were a lot of things I learned in Italy from local historians that I'd never read, and I’ve read this for a lifetime.’
Marty is an expert at setting the scene; her descriptions of Italian piazzas and Catholic convents is so precise that you can feel the sun on your face with every turn of the page. No doubt she had to undertake plenty of gruelling geographic research!\
‘Because the books are set in Italy I get these great trips to Italy! I’m really fortunate my husband speaks Italian, because a lot of the places I went where the Romantics lived are kind of remote - we were the only Americans there and I’m not great at Italian. It was a lot of adventure.
‘In Ravenna there's a scene where Allegra comes out of the carriage and Byron’s at the front of the palazzo. Until I saw that street I would have had her walk over to him, but in fact she would simply get out of the carriage as they’re only about six feet apart; it’s a twisted little street about the width of my table! There were things like that I would have gotten wrong if I hadn’t been there, and historical readers are nitpickers - rightly so!’
Despite the book’s idyllic backdrop of sunny Italy, not everything is peaceful; someone is determined to keep Claire from the truth, no matter the cost. Claire finds herself questioning her trust in almost every character, as does the reader. But what’s Marty’s secret to writing a great mystery?
‘Always do the unexpected because that’s the thing that makes a story interesting. If people were always telling the truth we wouldn't have a mystery. I'm a nosy person always wanting to know what's behind the door. For instance, I was biking down my neighbourhood and I saw my neighbour hauling this plastic bag out, and I was like, “Hmm, I wonder if there’re body parts in there!” That's just how you think, that there's something that somebody’s hiding, and that makes a good mystery.’
Marty has spent the last five years working on the Claire Claremont trilogy, and says the real challenge is making sure that each book functions both as a standalone and as a trio. She works closely with her London-based editor to ensure every loose end is tied up.
‘We really spent two months, probably sixty hours a week, just making sure that when you came to the book you had enough detail that you didn't have to read the first two. I'm incredibly fortunate. I can’t imagine not having an editor; I have a second editor who is a specialist in Italian culture and language. I think it’s that your agent and your editor are as patient about the work as you are. You’ve got your editor, second editor, copy editor, proofreader, and everything they do make your work good. It would be a much lesser book without that - I sort of cringe when I think about the first draft!’
Five years is a long time to spend with one character, and every author has a part of the process that they find difficult. For Marty it’s the midway lull after all the research is done; she emphasises the importance of staying motivated.
‘When you’re past that first flush of excitement of getting the book sketched out, and then you’re in this middle part, you don't want your excitement to sag. You have to keep generating that excitement about the project so that you’re always pushing. That part I find difficult.’
The final book in the trilogy, Forever Past is a real page turner - one that aspiring mystery writers will no doubt look to as an example. Marty was happy to offer a bit of advice to authors starting their careers.
‘I think you have to decide at the beginning whether you want to write literary fiction or commercial fiction, and I think everybody needs to make that decision because you’ll make different artistic choices.
‘Once you do that, you then have to be professional. It’s a small world. Everybody knows everybody, and I hear this a lot from my agent and publicist: life’s too short to work with difficult people.
‘The last piece of advice is that you do have to solemnly promote and be an author who is out there using social media. If you think you’re just gonna be in a room and write and that’s going to be the end of your responsibility, it’s not. I bring you back to Byron again: he was the showman of Romanticism, he would have been the king of Twitter! He knew how to promote. Find something that works with your personality and that you’re comfortable with.’
While Claire Claremont’s story has reached its conclusion with Forever Past, Marty is certainly not putting her feet up. She’s already deep in her next project, a mixture of mystery and women’s fiction.
‘The new book is a standalone dual narration which is bigger, broader, a little less literary. It’s about two women with two losses, which interconnect. It's a dirty job but I have to go to Milan and Verona to research!’
About the Author
Marty Ambrose has been a writer most of her life, consumed with the world of literature whether teaching English and creative writing at Florida Southwestern State College or creating her own fiction. Her writing career has spanned almost fifteen years, and she has eight published novels. The Claire Clairmont historical mysteries build on Marty’s background as a Romantics scholar. She loves telling a story – especially if it’s a Florentine conspiracy that unfolds in a Downton Abbeyesque setting.
Marty Ambrose Instagram: @martyislandauthor
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