Q&A
TALES OF
THE CITY
Author Fiona
Davis’ five
works of historical
fiction
have all been
published by
Dutton. Her
most recent
work, The
Lions of Fifth
Avenue came
out in August,
2020.
challenging, way. If I'd known how hard it was
to write a mystery that drives the story along
while doing this, I might have thought twice!
How do you make your
historical characters
relatable?
It's important to go through The New York
Times archives,read the articles and see what
the headlines were during the time I'm writing
about. That does help to get a general sense
of what was important at the time,the big
things that happened in history and the
tensions that were in the air.
Also,I love going through old women's
magazines, like Harpers Bazaar and
Mademoiselle.For The Lions of Fifth Avenue,
I read about the “new woman,”and how
women's roles (pre-WWI) should change, and
about the women who were unhappy with
traditional roles. So my character Laura, the
superintendent's wife, looks into what's going
on in the city in women's groups, goes to
Columbia Journalism School, which was
coed at the time,and gets involved in birth
control and women's events in the Village.
How long does it take
you to write awork of
historical fiction?
It takes me ayear. Idoalot of intense
research for three or four months, then do a
rough first draft, and then just start revising.
It's fast, but Ifind that Ineedtodoitthat way
because the book stays in my head, and I'm
juggling so many characters.
When you're writing, what
is a typical day like?
Idothe hard stuff in the morning: The first
draft, the editing. And then the afternoon is
for dealing with more administrative tasks,
though when I'm editing, it can go for hours
at a time because I'm keeping those moving
IT’S HELPFUL TO THINK THAT
SHAKESPEARE WENT THROUGH
PLAGUES AND THEY SHUT
DOWN, THEN GOT BETTER
AND CARRIED ON.
pieces in my head —how one character in
one timeline affects the other, and how much
I can reveal. Sometimes my head is spinning,
and Ieat alot of chocolate.
When it's time for anew book,
where do you get your ideas?
It begins with the building. Before writing
The Lions,I'd gone on alot of author
talks where people were giving me great
suggestions, and the New York Public Library
came up over and over. I started looking
at articles about it, and found one about a
superintendent and his family who lived in the
library in a seven-room apartment for years,
starting in 1911. They raised three kids there;
one was born in the library, and theyplayed
baseball using books as bases. I thought, “How
brilliant that there'san apartment inthere.”
That was the trigger for a fictional superintendent's
family who lived in the library and
experienced a series of book thefts.
The apartment is still there.The library
was wonderful to work with; they gave me a
behind-the-scenes tour and showed me the
old apartment up asecret set of stairs. Now
it's usedfor offices and storage.
What are you doing now? Are
you planning your next work?
It's good to take abreak and clear my head
between books. I'm in Manhattan, and I have
ahouse north of the city. Iusually have a
backlog of bookstoread, and Itry to run
afew times aweek. Ialso love going to the
theater.Now, I'm working on abook set at
the Frick Collection.It's a wonderful residence
that turned into a great museum.
(To promote) The Lions (during the pandemic),
I'm doing a ton of virtual events that
are listed on my website. They can reach a
wide range of people who are geographically
far apart. You can do them with another
author and have a conversation that can open
up to questions around the country. It's a
unique and remarkable way to reach readers.
It's helpful to think that Shakespeare went
through plagues and they shut down, then
gotbetterand carriedon.
Do you have any memories
of growing up in Wayne?
Yes! We lived on Pine Knolls Drive above
Pines Lake, and one of my earliest memories
is of athunderstorm coming, and sitting in a
rocking chair with my mom watching it come
acrossthe lake. There was such asense of
community on the street, and everyone knew
each other. ■
NOVELS COURTESY OF DUTTON BOOKS
36 BACK TOSCHOOL 2020 WAYNE MAGAZINE