CHARACTER INTERVIEW: Pauline Spiegel from A Midsummer Night's Steampunk

1.       Tell me a little about yourself (where you live, who you are, what you look like, what you hope to achieve, etc.)

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A very good day, Kathryn—may I call you Kathryn? I am most gratified that my author, Mr Scott Tarbet of the United States, has introduced us. As he has told you, my name is Miss Pauline Spiegel. I make my home in Princes Gate Mews, Knightsbridge, London, with my father, Ernst, Artificer to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. I am a recent graduate of the Sorbonne, where I studied mechanical engineering, in furtherance of my apprenticeship with my father. I hope someday to inherit his artificer shoppe, the Golden Gear, whose mechanical confections delight the eye and mind of the cream of London, Berlin, and St Petersburg society. We undertake commissions for patrons royal and otherwise from around the world.

As you can see from the graduation portrait painted of me by delightful artist Egle Zioma, in appearance I am willowy, almost slight, not endowed with the blond good looks and feminine wiles of my childhood friend Clementine Hozier. My complexion is olive, my hair chestnut in color, and most difficult to tame, all the more so because of my penchant for riding abroad, on steeds both flesh and mechanical. In this I am frequently joined by my suitor, Mr Alexander MacIntyre, a secretary in Her Majesty’s household.

2.      

          What do you like to do in your spare time?

As I mentioned, I do enjoy riding, and walking in nearby Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park with Alex and Clemmie, and punting on the Thames and the Serpentine. I am, however, most enchanted by my work with automata and miniatures, and spend the majority of my time, both leisure and working, at this pursuit.

3.     

     What is your favorite color and why?

I am told that carnelian is the color that suits me best, though I could not begin to say why that is. I pay scant attention to matters of style, and rely on Clemmie’s advice in matters of wardrobe and ensemble.

4.       

     What is your favorite food? Why is it your favorite?

I have a particular fondness for kirschtorte, stemming, I think, from my childhood. My mother, in addition to her considerable attainments as an artificer in her own right, was an extraordinarily adept self-taught cook and baker. It seemed that cooking for my father and me took her heart back to her childhood in Bavaria.

5.     

     What would you say is your biggest quirk?

Oh law! I am chagrined to admit that I am most stubborn. Especially in matters mechanical, I will bulldog a challenge until I conquer it. This also manifests, I am afraid, in my relationship with my dear Papa, who more than matches me for native Germanic stubbornness. He is not enthusiastic about my attachment to Alex, insisting instead on an ancient (from before I was born) promise of marriage between me and the heir of the Spencer Churchill family, young Winston.

6.       

     What is it about your antagonist that irks you the most, and why? Share a line in the book where this irk is manifested.

Irk me! Law! Disgust, you might better say. Recalling the circumstances of my first meeting with my antagonist, Jack, remains quite distressing to me. His status of mere lackey to Dr Oberon Malieux excuses him and his actions not at all, any more than Dr Malieux’s subservience to Kaiser Wilhelm excuse his. Filthy, disgusting, cruel individual, this Jack.

I give you the following excerpt from Mr Tarbet’s telling of my adventures to illustrate:

As she watched, from slots in the forearms of the taller mech, long, razor-sharp bayonets sprang open. “You know, Bill,” he said conversationally to his companion, “I don’t recall nothing in the orders about not having a little fun with her before we takes her back.”

The shorter Enforcer snorted. “Jack, you’re just sorry you been refitted below the waist and can’t have fun with her the way you liked to before they put you in the madhouse.” He ground his mechanical hips at Pauline and flicked his fleshy tongue.

“Too right!” responded Jack. “She would have squealed so much better! But this will be fun enough for all of that.” His laugh became a high-pitched giggle.

There was the distinctive sound of the pump action of a shotgun chambering a round as a long barrel dropped forward from Bill’s chest, leveling itself at Pauline like a pointing finger. “I’ll hold her still for you. Just don’t cut her so deep she bleeds to death before the doctor has his chance with her. And don’t even think of taking no bits of her as souvenirs. Mayhap if you’re lucky, he’ll let us have her when he’s done.”

7.      

     What or who means the most to you in your life? What, if anything, would you do to keep him/her/it in your life?

Beyond doubt this must be my Alex. My heart is fixed upon him. I hope to share the rest of my life with him, in every way and in every circumstance. I dearly hope that my sweet Papa can be persuaded, and that I will not have to defy him.

8.      

          What one thing would you like readers to know about you that may not be spelled out in the book in which you inhabit?

I would like your readers to know how fond I have become of Mr Tarbet in the process of telling him my story, and of him writing it down for others to see. He has become a second father to me. He speaks of me as he would a beloved daughter.

9.      

          If you could tell your writer (creator) anything about yourself that might turn the direction of the plot, what would it be?

There is very little about my past that I could tell him that he does not already know. He also knows a great deal about my adventures that follow those told in AMNS. I look forward to working closely with him to tell more of that story.

  

          Ask me any question. I’ve always wanted to know what a character thinks about writers like myself. I’ll answer the question at the end of this interview.

Question for Me:

There is a great deal of pain evident in A River of Stones. Do you know this pain first hand, or do you write from your imagination? Does it feel like opening a wound, or more like sewing one closed?

Love this question. Yes, A River of Stones is based somewhat on my life growing up and my parents divorcing and my mother remarrying. Although the story is fiction, thoughts and feelings of this time in my own life are revealed through the main character, Samantha. How does a young girl feel about the divorce of her parents? How does it feel when another man wins the heart of her mother? Does she feel as if she's partially to blame for the separation of her parents, and how does she deal with the loss of a father? Does she withdraw? Strike out? Pretend everything is cozy when it's not? 

This book was a great healing book for me. It was also my first. 

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Learn more about Pauline and her creator here:

http://scotttarbet.timp.net/ is Mr Tarbet’s author page.

http://www.amazon.com/Scott-E.-Tarbet/e/B00FXSTPY6/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1468274187&sr=8-2 is his Amazon page.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Scott Tarbet

1    Tell me a about yourself. What got you started in writing?

My dad was a professional technical writer and editor, and aspiring sci-fi scribe, my mom an inveterate storyteller. Between the two of them I was so steeped in the craft that I started composing tales as soon as I could talk, and writing them down before I was out of kindergarten. The first time I saw my writing in print was in fourth grade.

Scott E. Tarbet

How do you schedule your writing time? When do you write?

First thing in the morning. Every day. I'm an early riser, so I'm at my desk by 5:00. I have specific word count goals for each session and track them assiduously.

How and where do you write? Do you prefer a lap top or some other method of getting your words down?

I have a home office with a good, up to date desktop computer. All my writing lives in the cloud, so I can get on with Office 365 and write from my laptop, iPad, or even my phone. And I often do. You can never tell when the muse will tap you on the shoulder.

What's your favorite part about writing? Your least favorite part about writing?

Favorite: deadlines. I work very best when my publisher has a gun to my head. Especially my publisher; short stories have benefited from that. Least favorite: deadlines. I hate being under the gun.

    How did you come up with your book idea? How long did it take you to write your book?

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The concept for “A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk” came from the phrase ‘rude mechanicals’ in the Shakespeare play. Wouldn't it be great to make the Bard’s bumpkins actual semi-mechanical men, in a Steampunk setting at the end of Victoria’s reign? The rest followed naturally, over the next ninety days.

    What types of marketing do you do to promote your writing?

My publisher, Xchyler, has extensive social media efforts. Besides their work, I do lots of signings, convention appearances, etc. My basic philosophy is that writing is easy half of the job: then the hard stuff starts.

    What are you currently working on? Do you have a new book out?

I'm in the last week of first draft of “Dragon Moon”, a techno-thriller that sends Navy SEALs, Russian Spetsnaz, and a Chinese American spy on a mission to stop a madman’s aspirations for world domination. It is scheduled for publication later this year.

Close on the heels of that one will come “Rise of the Stripling Warriors”, an LDS YA, then “The Thousand: First Worlds”, first volume in a YA/NA hard sci-fi series.

    Do you have a project on the back burner? Tell me about it.

I have so many projects in the pipeline that I will have to live to be a hundred and twenty to get them all written. And that's just what is already in my writer's notebook. The Thousand series alone should consume the next three or four years.

What would you tell a beginning writer who wants to publish but doesn't believe he/she has enough talent?

I would ask that beginning writer what in the world they meant by ‘talent’. Is s/he gauging talent by getting their first draft of their first effort accepted for publication by a big house? If so, virtually no writer Is ever ‘talented’.

Writers become published authors when they combine desire to write with extensive practice in the craft, discipline, and endurance. No one ever emerged from the womb with their name on the New York Times bestseller list.

If our fictional writer truly needs outside validation that they should continue on the long hard road to literary flare, technical competence, and marketability, they should hand their work to a group of writers whom they respect, and ask for a brutal assessment. For my part, I have never heard a writer tell another writer, “Give it up. You stink.” We give each other feedback, gentle or occasionally brutal, but we never try to deprive each other of the only outlet for those of us driven to tell stories in the written word.

All that said, some writers just never reach the point of readiness for the jump to published author status. If that is you, beginning writer, keep writing for your own enjoyment. And your mom's. Always your mom's.

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Learn more about Scott and his writing: 

http://scotttarbet.timp.net/