Author Kate Reynolds’ debut novel, Ernestine, is sure to win over any historical fiction reader. Mystery, intrigue, and excellent writing make this a win-win, as Reynolds takes readers on a journey into the past and into the life of Sister Ernestine in 1526, Spain as she does everything she can to honor a promise made while facing her own fears.
Interviewed by Debbie A. McClure
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Welcome, Kate. Perhaps you could start off by telling us about your book.
In 1526, the serene convent sitting within the red walls of the Alhambra in southern Spain faces a disturbing problem. Stung by rising taxes and faced with the impending demise of the convent, the abbess chooses to sell the magnificent abbey olives, despite her vows of poverty. Into Saint Francis Abbey steps Sister Ernestine, a stranger from the north. She has come to the cloister to conclude a matter of honor despite the terror she feels in being in the land of the Great Trials. Out of the crucible of the Inquisition, Sister Ernestine helps the abbey resolve a cascade of financial difficulties. In doing so, she discovers her own courage. Ernestine is the story of the conflict that arises when a woman afraid of her own past confronts an abbey afraid of its future.
Q Who has been your greatest life coach, mentor, and why?
A One of my earliest memories is of a very young me sitting in the family kitchen while my mother made dinner, and while she worked, she told me stories. Mom and my father got married in England during World War II, and the tales she told of bombs and death and courage sent shivers down my spine. In fact, all these years later, I am still powerfully affected by her stories. Mom was a skilled teller of tales, and I hope I learned something from her. She chose her words—and even her pauses—carefully. The stories were always communicated with humor, but they also showed a deep respect for the nuances of the English language. She knew to choose not just a good word, but the right word, and that matters.
Q What inspired you to write Ernestine?
A Now that’s a question I love, because the answer is a strange convergence of two events far apart in time. The first happened years ago, when I read The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton. Halliburton was an adventurer who traveled around the world, usually spending as little as possible. He later wrote up his exploits in a series of wonderful books. One of these escapades occurred when he visited southern Spain, thus fulfilling his long-held desire to see the Alhambra. To him, the Alhambra in Granada, Spain represented romance and magic. It was a place filled with history and daring deeds. Halliburton bought a ticket to tour the Alhambra Palace late one afternoon and then hid from the guards when it came time to close. He spent a mystical night alone wandering in the beautiful Moorish Alhambra alcazar and gardens. When I read Halliburton’s book, I knew that some day I would visit the Alhambra—I just had to roam those gardens at night. He inspired a love of travel in me that I have never lost. He also inspired me to write.
The second occurrence happened years later when my husband and I toured Spain. I insisted (in memory of Richard Halliburton) that we spend the night at the Alhambra, which had become a high-end hotel run by the Spanish government. While there, I learned that back in the 1500s, the Alhambra was home to a convent of nuns. I was entranced by this knowledge. Imagine a palace home at various times to Moorish princes, Spanish monarchs and a humble collection of nuns. And this is where I decided to set my story.
Q Historical fiction entails a great deal of research. How much time and research did it take to complete this novel?
A This is a bit embarrassing, because it actually took me about seven or eight years to research and write Ernestine. I wanted it perfect, you see. Well, perhaps not perfect, but the best it could possibly be.
Q Where did you obtain your research resources to ensure historical accuracy?
A My husband and I lived in Palo Alto, California at the time, and the library there and the one at Stanford University contain rich, interesting scholarly texts. I spent years fossicking about in old books and dusty shelves learning about Spanish culture and history. Some research was made difficult because I had let my Spanish lapse a bit, so it was hard to glean the meanings. I am enormously proud that in fact, Albrecht Dürer really did create a design for a flying machine, just as I write in my novel. Those plans really were lost, too. If you read Ernestine, you’ll find out what happened to those documents!
Q What surprised you the most about writing this character?
A Well . . . honestly . . . the ending stunned me. That is not what I intended, not what was in my notes. I don’t want to spoil anything for your readers, but when I sat down to write my ending, Ernestine simply refused to cooperate. So she wrote her own grand finale. When I think about it now, I realize she was right.
Q Do you write to a schedule or as inspiration/time allow?
A Writers can learn to encourage their own inspiration so they don’t have to drum their fingers and wait for a muse to appear. One of the tricks I’ve learned over the years is to always finish up and walk away from a day’s work in the middle of a scene. What, you say? Walking away in the middle of a scene is sacrilege! Ah, but it actually isn’t.
You see, each morning I always begin by reading what I wrote the day before. If I always turn off the computer in the middle of a scene, the next day I can easily remember what excited me the day before. It makes it fun to finish the scene and propel the story forward.
I never wait for inspiration, but I do try to provide an atmosphere in which inspiration finds me. I’ve never even once experienced writer’s block.
Q What did you learn most about yourself in writing, publishing, and marketing?
A I was terrified when I began to write. Terrified that my lifelong dream, writing a novel, was beyond my reach, or that I would be unable to tell a story that hung together well. I had the example of my mother’s World War II tales to remind me that I might never be the story teller she was. All that is likely true, but I learned I have my own stories to tell. Writing Ernestine helped me develop confidence in my own work, my own voice. It did not, however, teach me confidence in marketing. I am an awful marketer.
Q Has anything in your past professions proven to be of particular help in the writing of this novel? Why?
A One of my favorite pastimes is learning to track wild animals. For years, I had no idea such a hobby even existed, but it does and there are loads of books on animal tracking for anyone interested. Anyway, the idea is to find a track (preferably more than one) and then study it to determine what animal made the track, when it might have been made, and what the animal was doing at the time (running away from a predator, for example, or maybe getting up from a nap). Some trackers are so good they can determine the gender of the animal and can even track across rocks. (I am nowhere near that good, not even close.)
Tracking takes patience, thought, study, and careful observation. When you track an animal, you need to think like that animal, need to see and feel what it did. Writing is a lot like that. A writer has to immerse herself in her own characters, must be someone else. You also need to reach deep into your own life experiences. We all know what hunger feels like, and love, and anger, and remorse. I use my own experiences with those emotions while imagining them from someone else’s point of view.
Q Would you write another historical novel?
A I already did! I am finishing a novel set in World War II in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s about a pair of twins who throw themselves into the War Effort with unforeseen results. I try to capture the moment a young girl learns to think for herself. Plans are in the works to publish my new book soon. As of now, the title is Pheemie’s War. Pheemie is my main character.
I also have another historical, my very first effort, set in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. It remains to be seen whether or not I will resurrect that novel and use what I have learned since then to improve it.
Q This book is extremely well written and you’ve chosen to write Ernestine in the first person. Why?
A Yes, there are parts of the book in which Ernestine explains to an old blind nun who she is and where she comes from. I put those sections in the first person because the first person seems so much more immediate. I wanted a reader to feel the same emotion Ernestine experienced. When I originally wrote those passages in the third person, it didn’t seem as fresh. I switched to first person, and it was like magic.
Q What’s next for you?
A My husband and I have lived in Tucson, Arizona for about twenty years. When my mother passed away here last year, at age 102, we saw an opportunity for some adventure. We’re moving with our cat to Bluffton, South Carolina early next year. I’ll be writing and publishing from there.
Q Where can our readers discover more about you and your work.
A My new Facebook page is: https://tinyurl.com/2v4drvfj
I plan to keep that site up to date, and that’s where you can find out about my other books when published. I would love to interact with readers there, so if anyone has a question, visit my page and fire away. I will answer!
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