Author of Reese’s Book Club YA Pick The Light in Hidden Places, Sharon Cameron, delivers an emotionally gripping and utterly immersive thriller, perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea.
We chat with author Sharon Cameron about her new release Bluebird, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Sharon! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I am a former classical pianist/frustrated anthropologist/amateur historian turned author. I have a passion for research, story, my longbow, secret passages, and little known stories of sacrifice and heroism. I’ve just redecorated my house like a 1780s tavern, and I’d like to be Miss Marple when I grow up. That probably paints an admirably accurate picture.
As the year draws to a close, how has 2021 been for you?
2021 has been a bit of a rollercoaster, and not quite the antidote to 2020 that I think we were all hoping for. This has been a year of adjusting to a new normal, or maybe it would be more accurate to say, personally redefining what normal can be. But I also have books coming out, new projects on the horizon, and a ton of reading and research. So not a bad normal at all, really.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Not until I was in my mid-30s! Though I had always been an avid reader, it wasn’t until I became obsessed with researching a little known piece of Scottish history (a history that turned out to be about my own husband’s ancestors) that I first sat down, on a whim, and started to write. 45 minutes later, I had decided to change my life. I quit everything extra, wrote daily, joined a critique group and professional organizations, attended conferences, and six years later, published my first novel, which wasn’t about Scottish history at all. I’ve never looked back since!
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!
First book: An illustrated biography of Thomas Jefferson. I subsequently fell in love with Thomas Jefferson. I was six.
Made me want to become an author: Since I never considered becoming an author, my new passion for writing was more about a culmination of all the stories I’d loved over a lifetime. But one of the first books that made me fall in love with story? The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. It was history, a strong heroine, romance, and a fight against intolerance and injustice. It thrilled my young soul.
Can’t stop thinking about: Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier. A psychological thriller with a moody, tense atmosphere, one of the best villians ever written (mostly because she seems rather mundane) and superbly gorgeous language. The book is so emotional, it’s like reading a dark and velvety song. I’ve been thinking about it for about 25 years.
Your new novel, Bluebird, is out October 5th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Thriller. Noir. Transformative. Darkness versus Light. (I suppose that’s six words.)
What can readers expect?
BLUEBIRD is a complex story of what could have been, based on what was. It is a book of secrets, forgotten villians and forgotten heroes, the best and the worst of American history as we extinguished the fire of one war only to step into another, far colder one. Ultimately, it is my view of what happens when one girl experiences the transformative power of unconditional love.
Where did the inspiration for Bluebird come from?
BLUEBIRD grew from two pieces of American history that existed side by side in 1946––one inspirational, one shameful, both fascinating, and both forgotten. The first was Powell House, a diverse, multi-religious program run by Quaker volunteers from a mansion in Manhattan, a place created to extend practical help, friendship, and unconditional love to refugees rebuilding their lives in the United States. A place so far ahead of its time in terms of social justice that it’s hard to believe it even existed. The second is Project Bluebird, a secret operation of horrific psychological and medical experimentation run by the CIA, the aim of which was to split the human personality, gain control of the human mind, thereby creating the perfect, mindless spies and assassins. It sounds like science fiction, but these experiments were real, performed on unwitting, unconsenting American citizens using methods taken straight from the concentration camps, and like many other areas of science during the Cold War, I believe our government was paying Nazi war criminals to conduct them. Both of these histories were shocking to me, and for reasons that could not be more opposite!
What challenges did you face while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
BLUEBIRD was based on difficult and upsetting subject matter, and much of that research and writing was done during the height of lockdown and the pandemic. It was a time of fear, and I was writing about so much fear, Project Bluebird being the direct, terrible result of our fear of the post-war Soviet Union. It was impossible not to draw the parallels. But for every Project Bluebird, there is a Powell House, and focusing on the spirit of love and humanity behind that program truly helped. It reminded me that there was balance. That there has always been balance, and that balance exists today. That knowledge gives me tremendous hope for our world.
Can you tell us a bit about your research process for Bluebird?
From pre- and post-war Berlin to the be-bop clubs of Harlem in 1946, BLUEBIRD was one of the most complicated research projects I’ve ever taken on. From hours of German oral histories to personal accounts from the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, the Nuremberg trial transcripts, records of medical procedures in field hospitals, and especially sorting fact from conspiracy theory with the real documentation of Project Bluebird (now available from the CIA through the Freedom of Information Act). The sheer volume of information was mountainous. But the archives of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker civil service organization which ran Powell House, were absolutely mind-boggling. Letters, diaries, budgets, photographs, case studies of refugees, even an unpublished memoir, it all gave me so much depth. But the best research of all was sitting in the living room of a 99 year old Quaker, a beautiful soul who had spent two years at Powell House and a lifetime of service in the AFSC, listening to her memories. She’s in the book, of course, like the others who were there at the time. Powell House was meticulously documented, and I was able to write it with as much realism as historical fiction allows.
What can fans expect from your upcoming virtual tour in support of the book?
I’m doing a slough of talks and appearances, with visuals, information on the writing process, and glimpses of the story behind the story that I haven’t shared elsewhere. Check sharoncameronbooks.com or my social media for the schedule!
Were there any favorite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I had such a wonderful time writing the character of Jake, the Jewish volunteer assigned to be a “friend” to a former Nazi in Powell House. Jake was an amalgam of Sam Spade, a young Carey Grant, and my husband, who is a thoroughly good egg. I re-watched some of my favorite noir films for Jake’s dialogue, including one of my favorites, Hitchock’s Notorious. 1940s American jargon and syntax is such a fun, over the top speech pattern, and this is the first time I’ve ever managed to work it into a novel.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
“Write what you know.” This is actually excellent advice, it’s just so very often misinterpreted. Maybe the better advice would be: “Write what you know about the world into worlds that you do not know at all.”
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a novel based on the true stories of art forgers and baby smugglers in World War II Amsterdam. And having a blast with the research, of course!
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
THEY WENT LEFT, by Monica Hesse, I MUST BETRAY YOU, coming soon from Ruta Sepetys. And everybody should read THE LORD OF THE RINGS at least once. I’ve read it 47 times now.
