It was such fun to be interviewed by the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood. The original interview by Elisa Beatty can be viewed here. Please find below a copy of the text.
Today we’re welcoming Elizabeth Chatsworth, another of the amazing Persisters, the 2018 class of Golden Heart Finalists. Her manuscript THE BRASS QUEEN (fabulous title!!) is nominated for Best Mainstream Fiction.
Elizabeth Chatsworth was born and raised in Yorkshire, England. After earning a Masters in Business Management, she left a career in corporate marketing to become a voice actor. She emigrated to the U.S., where she (barely) survived intensive comedy training with the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City. In 2010, she joined SAG-AFTRA as a professional actor. Her voice acting encompasses corporate training, advertisements, medical videos, and computer games. If there’s an elf, a witch, or an aristocrat in a video game, it might be her!
Elizabeth lives in Connecticut with her husband and Yorkshire terrier, Boo. Elizabeth and Boo (a Pet Partners therapy dog) visit hospitals, colleges, and retirement homes to share Yorkie snuggles. Elizabeth also donates her vocal skills to record audio books for the blind and dyslexic at Learning Ally, and for fun practices archery, kung fu, and horseback riding (but never at the same time).
She describes THE BRASS QUEEN as “a science fiction rom-com set in an alternate Victorian world” and says its “cross-genre fun will appeal to fans who enjoy sci-fi and fantasy, historical and paranormal romance, alternate history, and/or steampunk.”
Here’s a blurb:
In 1897, fiery English aristocrat Constance Haltwhistle is the last in a line of blue-blooded rogues. Selling illegal firearms under her alias, the “Brass Queen,” has kept her baronial estate’s coffers full, but due to an archaic law, she will lose her ancestral home if she fails to marry within three days. Torn between high society and the underworld, Constance throws herself a lavish coming out ball to attract a noble spouse.
Her party is gatecrashed by US spy, JF Trusdale. Tall, dark, and almost handsome, Trusdale is shadowing a shady scientist. Doctor Creswick has developed an invisibility serum that could change the international spy game forever.
Trusdale is blindsided, and Constance mortified when an airship crashes through the ceiling and kidnaps Creswick. Constance knows a liar when she sees one. Trusdale knows a fraud when he meets one. Yet, the two join forces to save the scientist.
As royal foes create an invisible army to start a global war, Constance and Trusdale must learn to trust each other. If they don’t, the world they know will literally disappear before their eyes.
This just sounds incredibly fun!! I love the idea of steampunk with a sense of humor, and the threat of the world literally disappearing is so clever! I wish I had THE BRASS QUEEN to read at the beach this summer!
Folks, Elizabeth and I are sitting down here in my parlor to take tea, with a lovely steam-powered fan (made of peacock feathers!) to keep us cool! Please join us!
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Welcome, Elizabeth! Wow, what an interesting background you have! You grew up in Yorkshire, lived in New York, and now are in Connecticut, with a little kung fu and improv comedy thrown in! (Though I think your life won’t really be complete until you combine at the least the archery and the horseback riding!! At least once!! And post a video on YouTube!! Bonus points if you do it with your Yorkshire Terrier on your lap!) With all those influences, I’m not surprised you’re going the highly inventive steampunk route. How did growing up where you did tie in to writing this novel?
I was born in Sheffield, an industrial city surrounded by bucolic farmland and wild, untamed moors. THE BRASS QUEEN is set in an alternate history version of Sheffield in 1897, as the city prepares for a Jubilee parade by Queen Victoria. The novel shares the adventures of Constance Haltwhistle, head of the city’s decorating committee for the Queen’s visit, as she attempts to find a husband, rescue kidnapped scientists, and thwart invisible assassins from starting a global war!
The more I hear, the more I want to read this! I can see how the industrial city / untamed moors combination would fire a steampunk imagination. And I’m guessing the improv comedy work also plays in to what you write. How has your career in voice acting and comedy impacted your writing? How does it affect your ear for dialogue? For plot?
My work as a voice actor has definitely helped me to develop an ear for effective dialogue. One of the best tips I can offer to other writers is to physically act out your characters’ interactions. Shout if they are angry, or smile if they are welcoming home a loved one, and note which expressions and gestures come to you as you move. Your body knows how to take the words off the page and translate them into believable action. Once you’ve acted out the dialogue a couple of different ways, you’ll know how your character would deliver your lines, and how they would feel while saying them. This exercise can add a whole new level of authenticity to your novel.
Any acting script, whether a commercial, a how-to video, or a play, tells someone’s story. Most stories work best when we know which character’s point of view we inhabit. For instance, in a commercial, are we a kindly friend, offering advice? In a play, are we a villain, seeking to lead the protagonist astray? Your character’s intention informs your choice of words and the way you deliver them to your audience. Fully inhabiting the role of the helpful best friend or villain will allow you to create the story from their point of view, flavoring your writing in unexpected ways. It’s also fun!
Yes! Acting out dialogue is a fabulous idea! I wrote my first (actually never quite completed) literary novel in the ladies lounge of my college dorm, with a big mirror on the wall where I could act out dialogue with myself…I had to work there late at night when no one else was coming in, or I think I would have terrified people. What about the logistics of your writing process? Do you have a regular writing schedule? Plotter or pantser?
I spend at least one hour a day plotting, drafting, or revising. I plot in Excel, draft in Scrivener, and revise in Word. I prefer to write my scenes sequentially, focusing first on dialogue, then internal thoughts, physical actions, and finally, setting.
Ooh! You’re organized! How do you square that kind of regularity with your acting jobs, which I’m assuming keep you bouncing all over the place?
I use the time spent traveling to acting gigs or running errands to brainstorm my WIP, capturing ideas on a digital audio recorder or my phone. It’s so much easier than jotting down notes on the go. To track my writing tasks, such as adding a new character, I use Trello, an online planning board.
Not just organized—tech organized!! That’s awesome. I’m definitely seeing how the Masters in Business Management comes into play. I’m impressed (because I am….not tech-organized….or any other kind of organized, really. Sigh.) You’re clearly a physically active person, too. How do you keep the hours in the writing chair from taking a toll on your health?
Maintaining good posture is important to avoid the dreaded writers’ “shoulder slump,” which leads to neck and backache. Several years ago, I purchased a sit/stand desk which has been terrific for writing. Coupled with an exercise ball as a seat, the desk keeps my core engaged as I work. I also invested in a treadmill desk with a PC set up which allows me to stay physically active as I conduct Internet research, write, or read books online. I also play PC games on the treadmill, which gives a whole new level of experience to strolling through a virtual landscape! My current playlist includes turn-based strategy games Civilization VI and Frostpunk, plus the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
OMG, THAT IS BRILLIANT!! I wonder if I can convince my 13-year-old video-obsessed stuck-in-a-chair-all-day boy child to try that! (And then I will sneak on and play my games when he’s not looking.) Any other tips for writers?
Believe in yourself and focus on writing the words that make your heart sing, and your soul chuckle!
Also, if you’re unpublished, check out the various free-to-enter contests. For instance, if you would like to work with a mentor, Pitch Wars is an excellent opportunity to develop your MS under the guidance of an agented or published author. Other contests, such as Query Kombat, help you to polish your query letter. You can even win publication in a genre anthology via contests such as Writers of the Future. There are wonderful people out there who are generous enough to share their time and expertise with beginners through contests – it’s worth your time to find them!
What about you? What’s your dream for where you’ll be in five years?
I hope I’ll still be writing about strong women carving their own path through history. If I can live in a castle while doing so, all the better!
Those sound like fabulous life goals! And speaking of fantasy castles, what are your favorites amongst the video game characters you’ve voiced? (Did you have any input in terms of what your character said? Could you improvise at all?)
It’s always fun to play a villain, whether quietly understated or with full-on, over-the-top fury. I’ve played the ghost of an angry pirate queen, a megalomaniac goddess, and an assortment of diabolical witches. Such roles allow you to give rein to a broad range of emotions. The best producers allow you to improvise, once the set lines are recorded. You can develop your character’s quirks quite nicely in five minutes or so “play time”, reading lines in different ways and ad-libbing. This works especially well if you are in the studio with other actors.
I’ll tell my son about that! That sounds incredibly fun! Thanks so much for joining us here today, Elizabeth. It’s time to open the floor to chat with our readers. What question would you like to ask our readers to get the conversation going today?