Louise Fein: On History Helping Create Authentic Fiction
Louise Fein is the author of Daughter of the Reich, which has been published in thirteen territories, and the international bestseller The Hidden Child. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. She lives in Surrey, U.K., with her family. Find her on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
Louise Fein
In this post, Louise discusses how historical people and moments helped make things more authentic in her new historical fiction novel, The London Bookshop Affair, her advice for other writers, and more!
Name: Louise Fein
Literary agent: Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson
Book title: The London Bookshop Affair
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release date: January 16, 2024
Genre/category: Historical Fiction/Cold War/Family Drama
Previous titles: Daughter of the Reich and The Hidden Child
Elevator pitch: 1962, London. When Celia Duchesne discovers a devastating secret about her family’s past, she begins to uncover truths, both past and present, which tip her unwittingly into the murky world of espionage. With a new love interest on the scene, and a job she adores in a bookshop in the balance, will she risk all she holds dear in the name of justice?
Bookshop | Amazon
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What prompted you to write this book?
This book is mainly set in 1962, but also has a 1942 thread. The 1942 section features the SOE—the Secret Operations Executive established by Churchill—which dropped agents behind enemy lines during WWII to disrupt the enemy by means of sabotage and misinformation. A cousin of my father had been in the SOE, but nobody ever knew what he did, so I recovered some of the papers from the National Archive here in the U.K. The papers (mainly focused on the training) made for fascinating reading, and I began to research more about this secret organization.
Much has been written about the brave agents of the SOE, but less fiction has focused on some of the blunders and mistakes that were made by those in control of the organization, risking hundreds of lives. I was also interested in the fact that women of all ages and backgrounds joined the SOE, and of course women took on many other vital and brave occupations during the war years. However, after the war, many of these women were expected to give up what must have been important and often exciting roles, to fulfill society’s expectations of domesticity.
The 1950’s and early 1960’s saw women’s liberation in many cases take a backwards step. I wanted to explore what would have happened in the cases of two women, one in the 1940’s and one in the early 1960’s before second wave feminism, who, for very different reasons, wanted to challenge the expectations of what a woman should be, and how she should behave. The result was The London Bookshop Affair. Being set in 1962, I could not ignore the Cuban Missile Crisis which happened at the height of the Cold War, and those elements became integral to the plot of this book. The story features real events and some of the characters are loosely based on real people.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
Typically, coming to a workable idea for a novel will take me several months. It will involve the nub of an idea, which I will begin to research around and mull over and develop. This process takes time and, in my case at least, can’t be hurried!
I always outline my novels in detail now, and this will also take me several weeks before I am relatively happy with the outline. In total for this book, I worked on the idea, including the research and the writing, for about nine months before I felt I had something good enough to send to my agent and publisher. Fortunately, they liked the idea, and once I got writing it took me a further six months to have a draft ready to send to my publisher. There was another six months or so of edits: structural, line and copy edits. After that stage came proof pages (the final proofread) and then around six months for the lead up to publication.
In all, from initial idea to publication, it was just over two years. In terms of whether the idea itself changed over that period, definitely yes in many ways, from subplots to characters etc., which were changed or developed, but I would say the central nub of the idea remained the same throughout.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
This is my third published novel, so I have a good idea now of how the process works. I think the thing which always slightly takes me by surprise is the long stretches of silence when it feels like nothing is happening with the book once all the editing is finished. However, there is always lots going on behind the scenes, from cover design to the style of the typeset to all the publicity and marketing. I am very lucky with the team at William Morrow, especially with my editor who is wonderful at keeping me informed at every step in the process.
I think one thing I have learned publishing this title is to be in total awe of the work of copy editors! The thoroughness and attention to detail in their work is incredible. I had erroneously thought before I was published that copy editors focus on grammar, sentence structure, timelines etc., but they do so much more than that. They also check all the research and mine managed to pick up errors I had never even thought of. In this novel, I think the most surprising one was that I had a male cat of a certain breed in the book, when in fact that breed is almost always female. As a result, the cat changed breed! I am so grateful to both my copy editor and proofreader who both picked up a myriad of details I needed to check and correct.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I think one of the things which often surprises me when writing historical fiction, and this novel was no exception, is that real events or people often pop up in the research, which make the plot or an event or happening already in the novel absolutely authentic. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot here, but in The London Bookshop Affair, it transpires that many of the people are not who the main character (or the reader) think they are. There were real inspirations behind these characters which helped me greatly in where I wanted this story to go. All is revealed in the author’s note at the back of the book, so if you want to understand more, you will need to check that out!
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
First and foremost, I hope that readers will find this story engaging and a great piece of entertainment. I also hope they will find it interesting from a historical and social perspective, as the book is rooted in real history. I hope there will be elements to think on and perhaps discuss with friends or in book clubs. As with all good historical fiction, I think there is always a resonance of themes which can be related to today’s world, too.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
My one piece of advice above all others would be to exercise patience! Publishing is a long game, and there are lots of lengthy periods of no news and everything seemingly being very quiet. This goes not only for the submission process, but during the writing process, editing, and publishing itself. Patience also when you have finished writing your first draft, and although that is very exciting and a huge achievement, I can’t stress enough how every draft needs much rewriting and editing before it is in its best state to send out into the world. It is much better to slow down, put it aside and come back to it with fresh, critical eyes and improve it rather than send it out in a hurry.
I’ll sneak in one small extra piece of advice which is hard to do, but essential for happiness in this business: Don’t compare your success to others. It can feel like everyone else (on social media) is doing much better than you (usually they are not). Focus on your own achievements and make sure you celebrate every single one, however small they may be.
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