Seven Turns of the Snail’s Shell: Author Interview With MJ Roe

2 July 2009 by Mj Roe    453  
Seven Turns of the Snail’s Shell: Author Interview With MJ Roe
It is rare to come across a novel that is so compelling and creatively developed that you wonder how the author conceived such a powerful idea. Mj Roë’s The Seven Turns of the Snail’s Shell is one of these books. Princess Diana has been killed in a terrible crash…or has she? From this question evolves an intricate story of unrequited love, deception, murder, and intrigue. The novel opens in Paris, revealed to us in all its beauty and its flaws. Add to this mix a mystery about Diana’s death, the inclusion of elderly members of the French Résistance, and two seemingly innocent characters. Anna is an American writer who has returned to her beloved Paris in August 1997 hoping for a reunion with her true love: the dashing French doctor, Charles-Christian Gérard, who dropped from Anna’s life ten years earlier and, as an emergency room doctor at La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, is suddenly in the vortex of drama. Is there a chance they will reunite? And why have these two people of such different backgrounds and histories been pulled into a dastardly plot that includes murder and international intrigue? As mesmerizing as it is fast-paced, the story pulls the reader in from the first page. BP recently asked Mj what inspired her to write the book, the research she did and how she actually wrote the story. Her responses follow. Q. What is your background and what stirred you to write this story? R. Years ago, as a young college student, I fell in love with France, the French culture, food, well, just about everything French, and I have continued to be a Francophile all my life. Over the years I have returned often to France to study, to live, and to work. Between 1994 and 2000, I flew frequently to Paris on business, staying for several weeks at a time and working alongside French colleagues and clients. It was during those long Los Angeles to Paris flights that the core story evolved. Then in August 1997, when Princess Diana’s horrific accident happened, I knew I had the perfect backdrop. Q. How does Diana, Princess of Wales figure in the story? R. She doesn’t, really. The novel begins on the last day of August 1997, the day of the accident. In the year following the crash (the timeframe during which the story takes place), there was considerable suspicion that she was not dead or possibly had not been in the accident at all. Conspiracy theories proliferated around the world. My intent was never to identify what happened to Diana but to tell the story with the mystery as the backdrop. Q. How long did it take you to write the story? R. I started writing it in 2002. I began with character descriptions and joined an online writer’s workshop when I was writing the first few chapters. Once I completed the entire first draft, I rewrote it. And then I just kept working on it for two more revisions. A meeting with an editor at a writers’ conference in San Diego basically sent me back to my PC for yet another revision. Then, to get some solid feedback, I joined a local writers’ group. One of the group’s requirements was that members read their pages aloud. It’s the best thing a writer can do. Reading the pages aloud prompted changes and revisions that ultimately polished the fourth and final revision. Q. How did you come up with the title? R. The arrondissements of Paris are often described as spiraling out in the manner of a snail’s shell. It’s a great way to remember them. When I began writing the scene in which the waiter in Paris draws the map of the arrondissements for Anna, the heroine, it occurred to me that the snail’s shell could be significant in the story in another way. It wasn’t until the character of Diamanté appeared that the Corsican connection came about and the game of “The Seven Turns” just evolved from there. Q. People are fascinated with where writers get their characters. How did Diamanté come to you as a character? R. I had always read that sometimes characters just come to authors and dictate the rest of the story. Well, it sounds strange but that is what exactly happened with the appearance of Diamanté. I awoke one morning with his entire name in my head. I had no idea what role he was going to play. I just had the name and I knew I had to use it. It wasn’t long before he started dictating where the story was going – the Corsican maquis connection, especially. The writing just flew after that. Diamanté is probably my favorite character because of all the intrigue that surrounds him. Q. What did you find the most frustrating thing about writing the book? R. To keep going with a story, and make it your best work, you have to really be passionate about it. Otherwise, the numerous revisions that are required become frustrating. Q. Finally, what was the most emotionally charged for you? R. Writing the story’s ending. I wanted it to pull in the readers, make them identify with Anna’s inner turmoil. There were a lot of revisions involved.  To order, go to Amazon.com.   Mj Roë earned degrees in French and English and a graduate Diplôme from France’s Université de Pau. Having spent many years living and working in France, the author and her husband now reside in Southern California. Subscribe now for your own free subscription to BonjourParis…
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By Mj Roe