It’s a pleasure having award-winning novelist Susan
Meissner here with us today to talk about her newest book from WaterBrook Press,
The Girl in the Glass, a
part-contemporary, part historical novel set in Florence, Italy
1. Susan, tell us where the idea for this story
came from.
For our 25th wedding anniversary a
few years ago my husband and I took a much-anticipated eight-day Mediterranean
cruise. One of the ports of call on the Italy side was close enough to Florence
to hop on a bus and spend the day there. When I stepped onto Florentine
pavement I fell head over heels in love. There is something magical about
Florence that I didn’t see in Rome, or even Paris if you can believe that. The
artistic genius that meets your eye no matter which direction you turn is
unparalleled. The beauty created by mere mortals during the Italian Renaissance
is jaw-dropping. It was the perfect place to bring a disillusioned present-day
character who needs to re-invent her life. That’s what Renaissance means:
rebirth. I went back a couple years later with my mom, daughter, sisters and
nieces and knew I just had to set a story there and somehow involve the infamous
Medici family.
2. I know exactly how you felt! We only had a day there and it was enchanting
from morning until evening. So what is the story about, in a nutshell?
Meg Pomeroy is a disenchanted travel book editor
unsure of her father's love, still smarting from a broken engagement, and whose
normally cautious mother is suddenly dating a much younger man. Her perspective
on everything that matters is skewed. She escapes to Florence, Italy, on a
long-promised trip, believing her father will meet her there. True to form,
he’s a no-show, but the trip allows her to connect with Lorenzo DiSantis, a
writer she’s met only via Skype and e-mail, and Sofia Borelli, a tour guide and
aspiring writer who claims she’s one of the last Medici, and that a sixteenth-century
Medici granddaughter, Nora Orsini, speaks to her through Florence’s amazing
statues and paintings. When Sophia, Meg, and Nora’s stories intersect, their
lives are indelibly changed as they each answer the question: What if renaissance
isn’t just a word? What if that’s what happens when you dare to believe
that what is isn’t what it has
to be?3. I loved how you interwove the past and present struggles of Meg and Nora and Sofia. One of hte things I was so impressed by in Florence were the highly educated tour guides so Sofia is really true to form. The Girl in the Glass refers to a painting that the heroine of your novel, Meg, loves. Describe the painting and what it stands for.
Because this story is set in Florence, against the backdrop of the most stunning art that can be seen today, I wanted there to be a current day painting that connected my main character, Meg, with this amazing city. The painting Meg loves features a little Florentine girl mimicking a statue whose marbled hand is extended toward her. The painting hung in her maternal grandmother’s house; a place where Meg felt loved and safe. Meg hasn’t seen the painting since she was a little girl. When her grandmother died, everything in the house was sold or parceled out to other family members. Meg knows the statue in the much-loved painting is real, that it is somewhere in Florence, and that it is likewise beckoning her to come. Since she doesn’t know where the painting is, she is set on finding the statue itself. In a way, the lost painting represents Meg’s perceived loss of her family when her parents divorced and everything stable in Meg’s life turned upside down.
4. Yes, that painting and Meg's hope to find it really deepened the story for me. Nicely done! In its review of The Girl in The Glass, Publishers Weekly said that this book is like taking a trip to Florence. What kind of research is involved in creating that kind of experience? Why do you think readers love to take those kinds of journeys in a novel?
The best kind of research is that which lets me usher the reader right into the time and place I want to take them, without them feeling anything — no motion sickness, if you will. So I need to know everything, not just facts and figures but even the subtle nuances of a time period. It means a lot of reading and note-taking. I usually end up collecting more data than I can possibly use, but I don’t always know what I’ll need until I am into the story, and the characters start talking and reacting and deciding. I think readers like the thrill of being somewhere they couldn’t visit any other way than through the pages of a book. Novels let us experience the lives of other people without having to make any of their mistakes. And we can also share their joys. And their victories. And the lessons they learned in the crucible of life.
5. Novels are also like maps helping us make our way in a
new place and lessening some of the anxiety or fear of the unknown. One
important plot in The Girl in the Glass deals with Meg’s disappointment in her
parents’ divorce and her father’s behavior in the years following the
divorce. What inspired this particular thematic exploration of
disappointment with parental expectations?
My parents have been happily married for over
fifty years so I had to research this aspect for the novel. I like to think of
myself as a hungry observer; I tend to watch people, study them, to learn from
them. I have seen a lot of people who grew up in homes where their parents had
divorced and I’ve seen the effects of that severing. Some have never gotten
over it. Childhood life-changers tend to stay with us. And the family,
especially the parents, are the child’s universe. When you upset that you upset
quite a bit. 
6. As a mental
health professional, I'd say you are a superb observer of the human spirit.
Your stories always ring true in the relationship department as well as
everywhere else! Your last few novels have had important historical components
in the storytelling. Some of the history of the famous Medici family is included
in the novel. What was the most fascinating thing about the Medicis and how do
your reconcile their infamous behavior with their unquestionable contribution
to the world of art?The Medici family both appalls and fascinates me. On the whole they were shrewd, conniving, opportunistic, unfaithful, vengeful, murdering rulers, who of all things, loved art and beauty. Michelangelo, DaVinci, Donatello, and so many other Italian Renaissance artists, wouldn’t have had patrons if it weren’t for the Medici family. They wouldn’t have the financial backing and opportunities to create all that they did. I don’t know if we would have the statue of David or Brunelleschi’s Dome or Botticelli’s Primavera were it not for the Medici family. They made Florence beautiful and yet most of them were addicted to leading un-commendable lives. That is astounding to me. They weren’t — taken as a whole — admirable people, and yet look at the legacy of beauty they made possible. I like to think that demonstrates there is hope for all of us to be able to see beauty in spite of living with much disappointment. You don’t have to look hard to find ugliness on Earth, but beauty is there. Don’t close your eyes to it.
7. Your words remind me of Elizabeth Barrett
Browning's words "Earth is crammed with heaven. Every common bush afire
with God. Only he who sees it takes off his shoes." The Medici's didn't
see it but they opened the doors for the rest of us to see it. One of your
point-of-view characters is a little known Medici family member named Nora
Orsini. Tell us about her. Why did you choose her?
Nora
Orsini was the daughter of Isabella de’Medici and the granddaughter of Cosimo
I. In the Girl in the Glass, Nora’s short chapters precede every current-day
chapter, as she tells her story on the eve of her arranged marriage. Very
little is known about Nora Orsini, so I had the glorious freedom to speculate,
which is the reason I chose her. I wanted the literary license to imagine
beyond what history tells us. There is, however, plenty that is known about her
mother, Isabella Medici. Nora did not lead the happiest of lives. I wanted to suppose
that the beauty of her city offered solace to her, and that if it were indeed
possible for Sofa, the tour guide that Meg meets, to hear Nora’s voice speaking
to her from within the masterpieces, she would speak of how the beauty that
surrounded her kept her from disappearing into bitterness.
As always, you did a fabulous job, Susan. Where
can our listeners connect with you online or learn more about The Girl in the Glass, and your other
books?
You
can find me at www.susanmeissner.com
and on Facebook at my Author page, and on Twitter @SusanMeissner. I blog at susanmeissner.blogspot.com. I also send out a
newsletter via email four times a year. You can sign up for it on my website. I
love connecting with readers! You are the reason I write.
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