Interview with Anna Godbersen, author of the The Luxe Novels!

As promised, today an interview with Anna Godbersen, author of the fabulous Luxe book series
for more about the The Luxe books, you can visit the site here

When did you start writing for young adults and why did you choose to write for young adults?
About five years ago—I was ghostwriting a young adult series, and discovered that I really enjoyed the themes of first experiences and self-discovery, and thinking about this idea of how one maintains their individuality, while at the same time learning what it is to be part of a society, or a family, that one may not necessarily fit in with.

How did the idea for the The Luxe books started?
I wanted to write my own series, and I wanted it be glamorous and breathless and full of ruthless and buoyant and excitable characters. But the contemporary high-flying demimonde seemed pretty well covered to me, and besides I felt ill-equipped to write about the luxurious world of today. The gilded age is the perfect setting to hit all those notes, and I figured that having to describe a milieu that was so far back in time, that I couldn’t possibly have experienced myself and would really have to use my imagination for, would keep me on my toes as a writer. Once I started researching the time period, all of the characters and their troubles began taking shape very quickly.

In your books, the reader steps in a literate time machine to Manhattan in the 19th century. How do you research for this particular era?
There are a lot of great histories of this era—it wasn’t hard to find source material, and the homework wasn’t boring! I also spent a lot of time at the New-York Historical society, reading old newspapers and gossip rags and etiquette books, which inspired all the chapter intros. And then of course there was reading Henry James and Edith Wharton before I went to bed…

Was it difficult to create characters that live in a different time era?
This task has particular difficulties and particular joys. My characters grew up with completely different notions about romance, family, distance, speed and medicine than I did—sometimes it is a challenge to remember that, and I find my modern sensibilities have entered the heads of my characters. But because I always have to check myself, and ask whether a character really would react in whatever way, the writing ends up becoming more true to character, maybe more true in general. And at the end of the day, this is fiction, not history, and The Luxe represents a fictional version of long ago, and Elizabeth and Penelope and Diana live in some completely made up time that isn’t exactly then, isn’t exactly now, but is uniquely their own.

What is the first thing you do when you begin wrinting a book?
I think about the characters—who they are, what they want, where they begin and where they are going to end up—and then I plot the book from beginning to end in great detail.

What where your favorite books as a young adult?
I loved the Marion Zimmer Bradley books—The Mists of Avalon and Firebrand, which are these epic feminist re-tellings of the King Arthur legend and the Trojan War, respectively, as well as her science fiction series. And I loved Pride and Prejudice, of course, as well as A Moveable Feast, and I also seem to remember reading a lot of John Grisham at one point or another.

I've read that there is one last Luxe book to come, what are your writing plans after that?
Yes, Splendor is the last Luxe book, coming out in the fall in the States. After that I am going right back to work on another series, about which I am very excited!

What's your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?
Reading is the single greatest activity the world has allowed me to experience—it makes me sane, it makes me feel connected, and part of something greater than myself and my immediate surroundings, it has taught me how to see and how to feel, it is my religion. So, to be a writer, to be able to create literature in whatever minor way, is a huge blessing. It can also be isolating, however, and to write a novel requires a lot of work, a lot of time, before you have any idea if what you are doing is worthwhile, and that can be pretty terrifying. But, in the end, for me, it’s worth it.

MANY THANKS, ANNA!