We chat with author Genevieve Cogman about her latest release, Scarlet, which is the first book in a wildly engaging new series and reinvents the beloved tale of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Hi, Genevieve! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a Classifications Specialist (working with clinical codes which are used in hospitals to record diagnoses and procedures), I live in the north of England, and I love speculative fiction and classic detective fiction. My hobbies include fairly basic patchwork, quilting and knitting (my family are fed up by now of getting scarves and quilts as presents). My studies were in mathematics rather than creative writing (BSc in Mathematics with Statistics, MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications) but I’ve been an enthusiastic writer of fanfiction and freelance work for roleplaying games (including GURPS, In Nomine and Exalted). I enjoy musicals and operas, and the Japanese theatrical troupe Takarazuka. My main fiction writing so far has been the Invisible Library series (8 books published so far), though that’s on pause for the moment while I work on this new trilogy.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I discovered that I loved stories when I was 5 or 6 years old and first reading. I was one of those children who didn’t want to go out to play, because I had my head in a book. I didn’t actually start writing till I was in my early twenties, and writing diaries for roleplaying game sessions, or fanfiction, or fan poetry, and so on, but I was daydreaming well before that.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
I remember reading the Lord of the Rings at 7. (I read plenty of other books, too, but that’s the one I remember first and best. My parents read me the Hobbit before that as a bedtime story.)
There was no book that “made me want to become an author”, I’m afraid. I didn’t want to become an author as a thing in itself. I just enjoyed creating stories.
I can’t stop thinking about the Locked Tomb books by Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth…) I want to find out how it finishes.
Your latest novel, Scarlet, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Scarlet Pimpernel. Vampires. Revolution. Embroidery.
What can readers expect?
A fair amount of action, a tinge of humour, a little bit of romance, and a splattering of history (with vampires – though honestly, the French Revolution and the Georgian period had so many interesting things going on anyhow that one hardly needs vampires and magic).
Where did the inspiration for Scarlet come from?
I was considering new ideas, and ended up writing down a big list of inspirations, thoughts and topics which interested me, to see if anything particularly clicked. Then I drew a mental line between the Scarlet Pimpernel stories, and the idea of vampires as part of society, and I got the feeling that there was a story there which was worth exploring. The idea of a lower-class female protagonist would allow me to look at the Scarlet Pimpernel setting from a more “outsider” perspective than most of the original stories: to be fair to Orczy, quite a few of her stories are from a female perspective, but most of her heroines are aristocratic, pure-hearted, or both, and Eleanor is definitely not pure-hearted.
Can you tell us about your research process?
I researched both the factual side and the fictional side.
The fictional side was easier: there are a number of the Orczy books available on Project Gutenberg, and other fictional media (such as the movie with Leslie Howard, the tv series with Richard E Grant, the musical by Wildhorn and the GURPS roleplaying game sourcebook) are all available without too much difficulty.
For the factual side, I hit the bookshops and the libraries for information on the French Revolution and on the Georgian period in general. I also asked for relevant reference books for my birthday that year – killing two birds with one stone! There’s also the internet, where a lot of people are willing to share information such as how women wore stays (and why they weren’t like Victorian corsets), what the ‘cut direct’ was, and so on.
But ultimately, the final part of any research process is deciding which parts to keep and use and which parts to discard or ignore. The fact that the setting was already fictional (well, it included vampires) meant that I didn’t have to feel too guilty about breaks from historical reality at various points. And as the story progresses, in books 2 and 3, it’s going to grow even more detached from historical fact, due to events that take place along the way.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I had a lot of fun writing Chauvelin (one of the main villains of the piece) threatening the heroine. He’s a delight to write. So unpleasant, with such style.
What’s next for you?
The second and third books in this trilogy. I’m not sure after that – possibly a return to the Invisible Library world, possibly something else.
Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
I’m personally looking forward to The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, Season of Skulls by Charles Stross, anything new from Barbara Hambly, and Alecto the Ninth from Tamsyn Muir (though I can only hope that’s coming out in 2023). But there are so many good new books out there – it’s a delight to have so much choice.
