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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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.
***
Learn more about Pauline and her creator here:
http://scotttarbet.timp.net/ is Mr Tarbet’s author page.