Susanne Alleyn

The longer version:

The granddaughter of children’s author Lillie V. Albrecht (author of Deborah Remembers, The Spinning Wheel Secret, and three other historicals), Susanne Alleyn definitely doesn’t write for children, unless, like her, they have found guillotines, high drama, and the French Revolution fascinating since the age of ten or so.

Susanne was born in Munich, Germany, and grew up in Massachusetts and New York City. After studying acting and singing, and earning a B.F.A. in theater from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Susanne eventually came to the conclusion that, as an actor, she was quite a good writer, and that sending out manuscripts to editors and agents was still easier on the nerves than going to auditions. (She can, nevertheless, still sing a high C when requested.) Having been unwholesomely fascinated by the French Revolution since she read the Classics Illustrated comic-book version of A Tale of Two Cities, she set out to write about it. Her first novel, A Far Better Rest, a reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities (what else?) from the point of view of Sydney Carton, was published in 2000.

Though a longtime fan, she had never considered writing mysteries, however, until she suddenly found herself creating a historical mystery plot suggested by an actual series of murders committed in Paris in the early 1800s. Police agent Aristide Ravel made his first appearance in Game of Patience and returned in A Treasury of Regrets, both set in Paris in the Directoire period of 1796-97. Susanne is currently at work on a third mystery in the series, a prequel, and intends to cover the entire Revolutionary period in future novels.

She is also the owner, manager, secretary, bookkeeper, shipping department, and janitor of the online bookstore Tricolor Books (link at left), specializing in out-of-print, rare, and academic books on French history. She would like to add that she speaks French very badly.

Susanne and her three cats live in Albany, NY.


The short version:

Susanne Alleyn was born in Munich, Germany, and grew up in western Massachusetts and New York City, earning a bachelor's of fine arts in theater from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Fascinated with the French Revolution since childhood, she has been exploring and writing about it since her teens. She lives in Albany, NY.

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Interview with an Author: Susanne Alleyn
By Morgan Wang

At 5:00 p.m. I was pacing back and forth by the phone clutching a couple of sheaves of paper and a tape recorder. The phone rings. The voice on the other side says: “Is this Morgan? This is Susanne.”

Okay, you’re probably thinking, “What’s going on?” Well, I’ll explain. It started about a year ago. I had been interested in the French Revolution for several months, and in my research, had come across a little-known movie called La Révolution Française. Unfortunately, it had not been released in the U.S. However, some people had a copy of it. So, I e-mailed the webmaster of Saint-Just.net, a historical site on Louis Antoine Saint-Just. The webmaster had written about the movie on her site. She told me to contact Susanne Alleyn, who runs an online bookstore and is a mystery writer. After obtaining a copy of the movie, which, by the way, was fantastic, I decided to pick up a copy of Alleyn’s latest novel at the book store. By the first chapter, I was enthralled. The historical detail was incredible, the characters amazing, the plot fantastic. Well, I promptly read her other books. I was intrigued by her compelling use of historical research as entertainment.

Several months later, I was thinking of what to do for Justin-Siena’s lit-mag. I thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool to interview an actual author?” We had only e-mailed a few times before, so I was pretty nervous about this, but I thought I’d give it a shot. And to my surprise, she agreed to be interviewed.

Susanne Alleyn is the author of Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets. Both are about undercover police agent and investigator Aristide Ravel, who investigates murders in post-revolutionary France. Historical accuracy is scrupulously followed. Her first book, A Far Better Rest, is a retelling of the classic novel A Tale of Two Cities through the eyes of Sydney Carton.


Morgan Wang: What made you interested in writing?

Susanne Alleyn: My grandmother was a writer. She wrote children’s books back in the 50’s. I grew up in Massachusetts, and she lived in a town called Westfield, which has about 400 years of history. It was settled by the Puritans in the mid-17th century. She was just fascinated by the local history, so after doing quite a lot of local research and such (she was librarian there), she decided to write children’s books, set in the area. And she ended up writing five, and had them published, and became something of a local celebrity.

MW: Well, so your latest writing project, how’s the story line?

SA: I can tell you some basics. I won’t tell you a lot because it will change. It’s a prequel. It’s 1786, and the Diamond Necklace Affair will appear in it. It involves a murky tale of sinister Freemasons, and missing corpses.

MW: So how do your own personal experiences affect your writing. Do they? Or not . . .

SA: Well . . . I myself . . . have not met any sinister Freemasons, or any stolen corpses.

MW: Yeah, after I asked the question I thought . . . wait. I don’t think she hangs around dead bodies very much . . .but I could be wrong . . .

SA: Hmmm--No . . .personal experiences. Honestly, I don’t think that personal experiences are part of it. As far as developing characters, and people I know, yes. Experiences not too much. This next book is too weird. Though I was the historical advisor on a local production of The Miser by Moliere. That’s where I got the idea of putting scenes from The Miser into A Treasury of Regrets. I had gotten to know the play really well by then. I wasn’t in it, but I got to tell them about 17th century France. I guess being able to work on the production of The Miser, putting that and my experience of working in theater, translating that into an 18th-century concept for a couple of scenes. But that’s probably about it. Superficial stuff. Aristide has had a pretty bizarre life.

MW: Yeah . . . I didn’t really think it was based on anything, but I could be wrong . . .

SA: Ahhh . . . No, no, no.

MW: Does your plot usually take really strange turns as you’re writing? For example, you’re going one way, and you have a plot line that doesn’t really work. Do you try and salvage it, or just go where the plot takes you?

SA: I don’t think they really go in sudden dramatic shifts. When I think of a story, I generally have an idea of how the story begins and how it ends. A whodunnit. You know, who gets bumped off, and how, and how it ends. And then I just need to figure out how to get from point A to point Z. And I kind of make up points B though Y as I go along. So I know where I’m going, and that kind of keeps me in one basic direction. Although it’s not to say that something freaky isn’t going to happen because this one is just weird.

MW: How is your latest project going?

SA: I don’t know. I’ve got about 100 pages so far. And you know, it’s a lot slower than it should be, but I’ve worked out a couple of things; I’ve gone back and fixed things up. Hopefully that will take me off in a better direction, and make things a little easier.

MW: How does one create a compelling plot?

SA: Creating a plot . . . I don’t really know. I have to start with something. I have to start with a situation that exists. Something I’ve read about, a historical situation. Well, two separate cases inspired me for the two separate mysteries. You kind of work it out from there.

MW: How do you go about creating your characters? Do they just appear?

SA: I think so. Yeah. I guess subconsciously I have a pretty complete idea of what they are like. From the time I start writing them into a story--I think this is probably because I majored in Theater, and I have a fair amount of acting training--so with every major character, I just get into the part. As if I were performing the part. You know, “How would I play this person?” It’s the same as, “How do I write this person?”

MW: In your novel, Game of Patience, you have some really complex characters. Are they based on people you know, or facets of yourself, like the character of Aristide Ravel, or Rosalie, for example.

SA: It’s funny. Game of Patience . . . I originally started writing Game of Patience as a non-mystery novel and I had it from the point of view of a woman, who would become Rosalie, and it sucked. She was based on a real person, I had come across her in a history book and she just grabbed me. There was very little about her, except she was a female 18th century serial killer, and I thought this was fascinating. I really wanted to learn more about her and write something about this person. I did some research and just couldn’t find anything that would give me any facts to write about her. So I just based a character on her. As I said, my first attempt was really pretty bad. And then suddenly I had the idea: “I think this should be a mystery!” And she became the antagonist. And then I thought: “All right, who’s going to be my sleuth?” I don’t know how, but Aristide just sort of developed. Very, very quickly. Although I do confess . . . Do you know the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel?

MW: Um, I’ve heard of it.

SA: Well okay, I’m a Buffy fan, and Angel is a character in it. He’s a vampire . . . a reformed vampire, and actually Aristide first developed as a combination of Angel and Alan Rickman playing Professor Snape in Harry Potter, if you can believe it. So that’s where my first image of him appeared. Sort of this morose guy dressed in black.

MW: If Game of Patience is made into a movie, would you like Alan Rickman to be Aristide?

SA: Oh . . . Well . . . I love Alan, but he’s too old for the part. He’s great, but he’s too old. Actually, if they made a movie of it, my first choice would be Adrien Brody.

MW: So other characters . . . Do you base characters on yourself, on people . . .

SA: Oh. Um. I think you take a little bit from everywhere. Some of the minor characters in A Treasury of Regrets are based on people I know. Charlotte is kind of a combination of two people I know. And you know, taking some of the less flattering aspects of both people and combining them into an utter dithering nitwit. Poor Charlotte.

MW: How do characters develop? Will Aristide be a little lighter in the prequel, as the events of the past few years have been pretty hard on him.

SA: You probably should ask me that after I’ve written about five books in the series. Certainly Aristide has been affected by the events of Game of Patience, so he is a bit more withdrawn than usual in A Treasury of Regrets. He is somewhat shy of romance at the best of times, but I would say he is even warier in Treasury. He’ll be a little lighter in the prequel, if only because it takes place before the Revolution! But in 1786 he is a frustrated young writer, think Camille Desmoulins and all his literary friends, and has a huge chip on his shoulder because of his family background. Let’s say that the neuroses are spread around differently.

MW: How long does it usually take to complete a manuscript?

SA: This one is going to take longer than I wanted it to. The first draft, ideally, takes 6 to 8 months. Once the first draft is done, I go back, and start fixing it, and improving it, and moving stuff around and so forth. That’s about 350 pages, but I go by word count. I know that A Treasury of Regrets, by the time I finished the first draft it was 80,000 words. I went back, and improved it, and fleshed out the plot. The finished manuscript was 85,000 words.

MW: Do you usually add things, or do you edit and cut things? When?

SA: I add things when I realize I need to put in more details or explanation, or even since I am such a dialogue-oriented writer, I have entire scenes of people talking to each other across empty white rooms. Then I realize: I really need to put in some description. So description goes in. Then it’s going through and seeing what I can take out because it’s unnecessary, it’s clunky writing, repetitive writing, whatever. So it’s kind of adding in for content, and editing out for style.

MW: How many drafts do you usually do?

SA: It’s hard to say. I think . . . I’m a writer who writes the first draft and every day, the beginning of a writing session, I go back and review the last scene or two that I wrote. I do some quick editing. So I’m not a writer who simply gets the first draft done, and never looks back. I don’t even know if you can do that writing a mystery, where you have to have a plot that works. So I do go back and then when I’m done with it, I have something that is coherent. It may not be the way I want it to be, but it’s coherent. Then some people’s second draft is really different from their first draft, mine not that much. There will be some scenes moved around, some scenes extended, or reduced, but there’s not a huge amount of difference.

MW: So, writing as a career . . .

SA: Well, you have to be crazy. You do. I am probably a typical “born writer.” I have had a few jobs, which are the usual weird, low-end paying jobs, just to earn some money, instead of earning no money at all. And I’ve always been a person who really hates working for other people . . . I’m just not a person who can say, “I’m a librarian, I am a nurse, and I write on the weekend.” That kind of thing. So I do not have a large income. But I have had the time to do a lot of writing, and hopefully made myself a better writer because I’ve put a lot of words down on paper. Some of which will never see the light of day…

MW: But I’m sure they’re really really good . . .

SA: (Laughs) No, no, no. You don’t want to read anything I wrote at 25. Trust me.

MW: What advice do you have for young writers?

SA: Don’t.

MW: Don’t? Uhh . . . Okay . . .

SA: (Laughs) Beyond that . . .

MW: I’ve always liked writing, and was thinking about becoming a writer, now I’ll think twice. (Both laugh)

SA: If there is something else that you like to do, try the something else. If not, if there is nothing else you want to do, then write. And write and write. It will take you 10 or 15 years’ worth of writing before you get good enough to be published. Start early and keep at it. If somebody came up to me and said, “I want to be a fiction writer!” I would say, “Write what you most want to write.” Don’t write the book that you think will catch the latest trend. Don’t try to write the next bestseller by copying a recent bestseller. It doesn’t work. Write the books that you want to write. Write the books that you most want to read that nobody has written yet. And by doing that you will have something that was written from the heart, to use a cliché. You will write something that you really want to write, and make it the best it can be. If you try and write something so you can copy a bestseller, you probably will end up with schlock. You will end up with something that is not sincere. And don’t try to copy a style. If you have favorite writers, you will subconsciously copy their style. Everybody does that. But don’t try to consciously try and copy it. You will end up with something that sounds silly. That’s all I can say.


So there I was. Surprised that I had just completed my first interview with a published writer of several books, which I admire and enjoy reading. I looked down at the 3 tapes to transcribe. Time to head for the computer. My 10-15 years starts now...

Interview ©2008 Morgan Wang
Contents may not be reproduced without written consent of the author.

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Q. Describe your latest project.

A. My current work in progress (no title yet) is a prequel to my two historical mystery novels, Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets, also featuring Aristide Ravel, freelance investigator and part-time agent of the Paris police (please don’t call him a spy) before and during the French Revolution. The prequel, set in late 1785, is Aristide's first encounter with murder in Paris, and deals with the shady underground worlds of clandestine publishing, secret societies, and court intrigue in the final years of prerevolutionary France.

Q. Why write a novel -- three novels, in fact -- set in such a grim, violent period of history as the French Revolution?

A. OK, this is the part where I take a deep breath and try, once again, to explain. Most people’s knowledge of the period begins and ends with A Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Pimpernel, both of which are stupendously exaggerated depictions of the “horrors” of the Revolution (or rather the Terror). In fact the French Revolution was viewed by a lot of people, for at least the first couple of years, as the greatest event in the history of civilization, and it was really the beginning of our modern world. Radical ideas like social justice, equality under the law, and representative democracy were not entirely new in the West, of course; but when France -- the biggest, richest, most intellectually sophisticated, and most powerful country in Europe -- started to put such ideas into practice, and shake up the system of monarchy, aristocracy, and privilege that had governed Europe for centuries, everyone had to sit up and pay attention whether they wanted to or not.

Q. You’re wandering from the point here, Ms. Alleyn. What do you find so particularly fascinating about the period?

A. The sheer theatricality of it, I suppose. As an ex-actor, I’m drawn to dramatic situations and personalities, and the Revolution is full of them. Suddenly a whole society was breaking up and re-forming itself, and all these incredibly complex and gifted people, who without the Revolution would probably have lived long, dull, comfortable lives as lawyers and career army officers, were throwing themselves into public life. And some of them, fundamentally decent people, ended up caring so much about their ideals and how they thought the Revolution and the French Republic should be managed that they were willing to kill anyone who disagreed with them, including their best friends.

Q. Will you be writing more novels about Ravel?

A. Absolutely. Aristide will, I hope, have a long and colorful career as an agent of the police. Although Game and Treasury are set in 1796-97, I'll be writing a number of prequels that take him from the 1780s, before the Revolution, right through the Terror of 1793-94. The Terror, when Paris was full of spies, conspirators, and all kinds of foreign adventurers, and rife with threats of invasion, civil unrest, and political intrigue and infighting, ought to keep a police agent endlessly busy!

Q. Just how long have you been interested in this period?

A. It’s OK; you can say “obsessed,” you know. Over twenty-five years now, since I was about seventeen. I began by reading the basic pop history books about the period, which grabbed me enough so that, during college, I went on to original sources -- memoirs, period newspapers -- and the more academic histories, and never stopped.

Q. Do you enjoy movies set in the French Revolution?

A. I love them all, even the majority that are just incredibly, hilariously, inaccurate and bad, bad, bad.

Q. What mistakes annoy you the most in poorly researched French Revolution movies?

A. Don’t get me started. But if I had to specify one thing, it would probably be the guillotines. They never do manage to get them quite right.

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Web site ©2007 Susanne Alleyn.
Contents of this site or the novel may not be reproduced in any form without written consent of the author. Publications may quote excerpts for purposes of review only.