Michelle Cox – Chicago Cinderella

Michelle Cox’s genre bending series Henrietta and Inspector Howard blends mystery, romance and family saga into a Chicago Cinderella tale of Downton Abbey meets Upstairs Downstairs that her readers adore. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Michelle talks about  her passion for period drama and 1930s Chicago, how working in a nursing home got her started writing, and what she’d do differently if she were starting over again. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: How a nursing home job led her to writing Her passion for the 30s and 40s Telling Chicago stories that resonate The period drama website she adores The writers she admires most The shock of discovering writing as business Where to find Michelle Cox: Website: www.michellecoxauthor.com Facebook: @michellecoxauthor  Twitter: @michellecox33 What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here’s Michelle. .  Hello there Michelle and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us. Jenny:  Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so, what was the catalyst for it? Michelle: Well no, not really. I didn’t actually see myself writing fiction. I never had the courage to be a writer. I loved reading as a kid – I was always reading, and I think one of the greatest Christmas presents I ever got was a set of the Louisa May Alcott series. Introducing Michelle Cox I was always trying to do little copy cat or fan fiction stories based on her novels, but they never really went anywhere so I usually did illustrations on them instead. I was a pretty good essayist in high school, so I did still contemplate being a writer versus becoming a doctor. Michelle Cox – historical fiction author I actually chose to be a pre-med in college, because I thought it was the easier path than being a writer and it seemed less scarier to me. It turns out that was sort of true! At the time I thought, I would go into pre-med. Then I took this Victorian Lit class and I told myself, you can’t keep hiding. This is really your passion. So I quickly switched, but still only majored in English Literature and not creative writing. Then I got married after college and had all these weird jobs, and started a family. Writing was on the way out until my oldest son, 16, was diagnosed with ADHD. I had been volunteering in all these committees and groups, and I just went cold turkey and quit everything. I just devoted all this time to this kid. It didn’t take too long for him to get on a path, and then suddenly I had all this time. I could either get a job, go back to volunteering, or maybe I could write that novel that I really always wanted to write. Suddenly, I gave myself the permission and the courage after 20 years to really do this. But it wasn’t really to be published; it was just to see if I could sit down and write a novel. It was a strange way that it all happened, but here we are! A serious-minded little girl Jenny: I noticed you said that you did Victorian Lit – were you always attracted to historical fiction? Michelle: Yes. You know, when I was a kid I was probably the weirdest kid because I had this thing in my head where I always wanted to read the Newbery award winners or the Caldecotts. I was always attracted to the classics and I always had this motivation that I should read only really good books. I remember one summer being 10 or 11, and my mum taking me to the library and I felt so conflicted. I said, “Mum, I don’t know whether to pick out the junk or to read the classics”. She said, “oh honey, just read junk!” But I couldn’t do it. I had to read the Newbery’s. I basically read only classic literature until my third kid was born, and them my brain kind of turned to mush. I needed something a little lighter, so I turned to historical fiction because at least it was in the same time periods as to what I was used to reading. Michelle Cox, A Girl Like You Book One in the series Jenny:  A Veil Removed, The fourth book in your Henrietta and Inspector Howard mystery series which begins in 1930s Chicago, is due out soon . .. What attracted you to 1930s Chicago? Michelle: That’s a very good question. The truth is that I used to be very attracted to the forties. I loved the war years and the music, and everybody being united against this common enemy. But when I was in one of the weird jobs I mentioned before – working in a nursing home in Chicago’s North West Side- it was called the Bohemian Home for the Aged and Orphans, but we didn’t have any orphans. It was a very strange nursing home, and it was here that I met some very interesting people – mostly immigrants – that had lived through the thirties and forties. They just had amazing stories to tell. I tell writing groups at times that if you’re stumped for ideas, just go and sit in a nursing home for a couple of weeks. You’ll have all the ideas you could ever want. Amazing nursing home stories I met this one woman, and I actually used her story. I based Henrietta von Harmon, the heroine of my stories, on this woman because she used to tell me that she had a man-stopping body and a personality to go with it in the thirties. I was like, wow that’s so amazing! Even then, I thought it would make a great book. Dream job – at the Chicago World Fair, 1933 The one detail of her life which really intrigued me was that she had all of these weird jobs; I put all of those in the book. A lot of Book One is actually true, but one of them was she had this job at the Chicago World Fair in 1933. She was a Dutch girl for a Dutch Rubber Company. That meant everyday, she had to dress up as a Dutch girl and hand out flyers. She said it was her favourite job, because on her lunch break she got to walk around the whole fair and see everything. That endeared me so much, and I just really wanted to set the book in the thirties so I could use that detail. I shifted, and I’m kind of glad I did because there’s not as much written in those in between the years of the war. There’s so many stories about the Depression, the haves and the have nots. It’s really been a great experience, and I also love the music from there too, so that helps! Jenny:     I described it as a mystery series, but it’s  in fact  not “just a mystery series” It goes across several genres, doesn’t it? There’s a big family saga being revealed bit by bit – and of course the romance as well? Michelle: It is really a bit of everything, which marketers and book distributors don’t really like. They want everything to be a nice little genre because they want to know where to put it on the shelf, and this is a really blended sort of thing. Coming from the reader’s side, I don’t think that’s necessarily such a bad thing. I think that readers are sophisticated enough to enjoy sort of a blending of genres. I mean there’s some pretty hardcore mystery readers and romance readers and that’s all they like. Chicago style Cinderella But it’s always said that you should write something you would like to read. That’s what I did. I like to describe it as Downton Abbey meets Upstairs, Downstairs with a little mystery thrown in. So it didn’t start out that way because originally I was selling this other book, but I couldn’t get any interest. So I decided to write a mystery, thinking that that would be more attractive to an agent. I was really naive back then. I wrote this mystery, but as I was writing, I really fell in love with these characters. I thought, this could be a series. The only problem was I didn’t really want to write this series about a cop and his wife, and they solve these gritty crimes in Chicago and there’s kidnaps and rapes. I didn’t know what to do. I really loved the characters, but I didn’t like where I had placed them. I liked them for one book, but I didn’t see me expanding this out. So I decided to give Clive this expanded past. He’s actually very wealthy, and he’s the son of these very wealthy people. That threw an interesting twist into the book, I thought. Now it’s become this sort of reversed Cinderella story. Henrietta is now the Cinderella, but she doesn’t really want to be. That creates a whole sort of other drama intention. They can still go into the city and solve a case or whatever, but then they can escape into this whole other world. Autumn-Spring romance Jenny:  Henrietta and Clive Howard are a “mismatched” couple in the sense there are big differences in their age and social status…  did you always have a series in mind when you began Book One? A young Henrietta in A Veil Removed – Book Four in the Henrietta series Michelle: Yes, it was. There was definitely supposed to be this age difference between them. It’s strange when you’re writing a book- if I was writing it again. I’d know exactly what I was doing. My thought was that I really wanted him to be involved in World War One, because he would be really scarred from that. So I made him the youngest I could possibly make him, so he could go into the war. That left him in the thirties, he’s around 30 years old. But Henrietta had to be this very young, naive girl. It was a bit of a stretch, but I thought I could do it. I hadn’t thought of creating another wedge between them, which was the wealth versus the poverty, but I think it works well. Clive wants this traditional wife, and he is sort of upset with Henrietta because she doesn’t fulfil that. But one of the reasons he is so attracted to her is because she is quite spunky and independent. It creates another little dilemma there too. A very ‘modern’ sort of girl Jenny: That’s interesting there, because I know you’re a great fan of those shows like Downton. But Julian Fellowes who created Downton – I was quite fascinated recently when watching a YouTube video of the making of the new movie. He said in that that when they started making that enormously successful franchise, the idea behind it was to “capture the spirit of the time while keeping it modern”. I think that’s something you’ve managed to do very well with Henrietta and Clive, because she’s very much a modern woman living in the 1930’s don’t you think? Michelle: Yes, and that’s so tricky to do, don’t you think? You want her to be true to the time, but you have to make her appealing to a modern reader, so that’s a fine line to walk. But really, all you have to look at is the woman this character was based on. She really was this very spunky, independent woman at the time who had all the strange jobs including being at the Burlesque House, so she had to have a little independence and spunk to her. I just think it’s all in how you present it with the dialogue and the language- which I’m really a big stickler on. I think if you can get that right, you can convince readers that you’re true to the era. Like I said, before it’s hard because you can paint her as this independent women working in Chicago. It makes it a little harder and even more of a stretch when now, they’re in this relationship and he wants this traditional thing, but she doesn’t want that. That was hard to do, but I think I pulled it off. Expanding the story to England Jenny:  Without wanting to give any spoilers, Book Three, A Promise Given, takes Henrietta and Clive Howard from Chicago to England, and it gets more “Downton Abbey” as the story progresses. . . Was this always a part of the plan?  Michelle: I’m a huge Anglophile – I married to a Brit and studied for a while in London, and I feel I’ve watched every period drama that was ever created. It seems like this was a natural evolution; it was going to happen sooner or later, right! Jenny: You’ll probably be sad when you have to bring them back to Chicago! Michelle: I know! I did have to do that in Book Four, and it was like oh no, back to this… I’m already scheming to get them back there in Book Six. Jenny: How many have you got planned at this stage? What’s coming next? Michelle: Well, Book Five is in the works and it’s being edited. I would like to do more. I feel I’ve been writing them so quickly that I kind of want to see what my readers’ response is. So far it’s been really great- people are really excited by them and waiting for the next one. I’ve also written a separate stand alone novel and I’m trying to shop that one, so any agents out there listening… I’m interested! Jenny:What is that one? Is it also 1930’s? Michelle: Yes, it’s still set in the 1930’s and different characters completely, but it’s also based on a story I heard in the nursing home. This one is a little more dark. Chicago scene – 1930s IDOT photos courtesy of the UIC Library Jenny: I was quite impressed – on your website, you say that you feel like you might have lived in the 1930’s. I was just wondering if you could tell us a little about that; how does it make you feel and the nostalgia for hat period? Michelle: Like I said, at first I was really in love with the forties. But after meeting all these people in the nursing home who had lived through the Depression and lived with losing their jobs and all of their money… something I love about the forties is people banding together to fight this common enemy. In the thirties you find that people still banded together, although it was against the enemy of poverty. They talked about it as a different world – they would sometimes sleep on the beaches of Lake Michigan and nobody worried about people stealing from them, or being murdered or whatever. I found those stories really interesting… it’s on the cusp of the next war, and you have all these old societal rules breaking down, and then the war crushes it. That’s really interesting to me too, to see those fine cracks beginning to form. Finding the stories Jenny: You’ve evolved that passion for your stories into your blog, about the forgotten stories of Chicago residents, haven’t you? I had a look at that, and it’s very sweet but really detailed and quite time consuming to do. Are those stories ones of the people that you met in the nursing home? Michelle: Yes, exactly. When I was hired, I was hired as the admissions director for this nursing home. It turns out I was really terrible at it! I didn’t realise that the time of my job as admissions director was to sell beds; to be an ambulance chaser. I just didn’t have any taste for that. I loved being with the residents and talking to them, solving their roommate disputes or finding a lost sweater. Finally, the administrator called me into his office and he said this was not working. I thought, oh no- I’m about to fired. But he wanted to put me in social service, and I thought that was perfect. It was my job to be with these people! I was only meant to write a little paragraph about their life, and put it in the chart but I would spend weeks with these people getting to know them, getting stories out of them. Heartbreak and happiness – Violeta Salcedo’s story is one of many on Michelle’s Chicago stories blog novel notes of local lore I think it was beneficial for everyone, because it let me get to know them really well and I think it helped their transition because somebody was sitting with them and wanted to their their stories. I think it helped the staff too, to see this person as a whole person and nobody ever told me not to do it, so I just kept doing it. When I started on this writing career, my PR person said I really needed a blog. I didn’t feel I had anything to say. I was a new writer, I hadn’t discussed the craft of writing with anyone. I finally came upon this idea of telling one of these stories every week. It matched perfectly with the book. So it kind of went hand in hand. What’s neat is that the blog has its own little following separate from the books so that’s kind of cool too. Jenny: That’s lovely! What kind of feedback do you get on the blog? The popularity of stories Michelle: People love those stories. It’s great, because over the years I’ve found different Facebook forums where people have allowed me to share their stories. That opens it up a whole new readership. My best story about a fan is that one day, I was in down state Illinois, so a few hours away from where I live and I was going to this auction. I was filling out my information to get a ticket, and the person behind the desk said “are you Michelle Cox, the writer?” And I said yes! She said “I read your blog every week and I love it”. I was stunned! I always thought, I wonder if there is anyone out there reading this… that’s proof that there’s one person. It was incredible! I think that people don’t want to sit down and read a big long thing, but they will sit down and read one of these stories. Jenny: That’s right. Funnily enough, I was just seeing on my email feed there’s a piece come through saying that even in terms of writing, people are writing shorter and shorter things and putting them on kindle as ebooks. But people are looking for shorter things as well. Michelle: Yes, exactly! James Patterson is putting out these little tiny things, isn’t he? Jenny: Yes, I think so. You could easily do some novellas about some of those stories that you’re writing about! Michelle’s world before writing Jenny:     Your life before you became a published writer – tell us a little about that? Michelle: I grew up in a very small town on the Illinois- Iowa border. It was a small farm- my great-grandparents farm- and I won a scholarship to an all womens college run by nuns in Chicago. Because I didn’t have money, I applied for scholarships all over and I just said I would go to the school that gave me the most money, and that was it! So off I went. It was great. That’s why I think I can write Henrietta and her sister Elsie, who has more of a role in the books as they go along. I can write them well to be sort of a naive person in the big city, and all of the dangers that goes along with that. So it did inform my writing in a way, and it was my vehicle to meeting all the people in the nursing home. Jenny: Is there one thing that you’ve done more than any other, that you’d say is the secret to your success? I mean having already written five books, that’s already quite a substantial amount of work you’ve achieved there. Michelle: Thank you. I would have to say it’s got to be discipline. You’ve really got to have it. You’ve got to have a regular time that’s devoted to putting words on the page every single day. There really isn’t such a thing as “writers block”- it’s like exercise. Nobody gets out of bed and feels like exercising, and it’s the same with writing. You don’t necessarily jump out of bed and feel like doing it, but you have to. You’re not going to get anything done otherwise. Setting successful work habits Jenny:  What kind of work habits do you have- are you inclined to over-achieve and get stressed out – and how do you like to relax when you’re not working? Are you perfectly regulated or do you set unrealistic goals and then get stressed out? Michelle: No, I’m an overachiever, workaholic who gets stressed out! It was a lot easier when I was just writing the books, and book four comes out in a couple of weeks, Book Five is in editing and production and I’m trying to shop this stand alone novel at the same time and market all the other books- I try because I’m a type A, to have these little schedules where I do one thing for a certain amount of time and then move onto the other. It usually goes out the window, and then I have to start all over the following week- but it usually gets me along! The Ups and Downs of Upstairs Downstairs – a passion for period drams Jenny:  In a recent Facebook Post you confess your favorite website is Willow and Thatch, a site that focuses on historical dramas on TV and movies. . . . It looks quite delicious  Is this your guilty secret? Michelle: I love that site! I just stumbled upon it one day, and oh my god I was in heaven- a whole site devoted to period drama. For a while I was a secret stalker fan, and then I eventually reached out to them and said hey, could I promote my books on your site- I think it’d be a great fit, and I could write for you? They said sure, so I’ve written two pieces for them now, and let me tell you; they are very rigorous editors! It fitted so nicely, but they are very professional in their editing and how they put the stories together. It’s just gorgeous. Jenny: The article you wrote there – The Ups and Downs of Upstairs, Downstairs- there’s so much hard fact there. Actors were named in their past work, and it was really quite encyclopaedic. I quite believe that you had a rigorous editor tapping you on the shoulder there asking you all these questions! Michelle: Oh yes, for sure! I mean I had presented a lot of that, and I had done a lot of research but they not only checked my research, but added to it! Like wow; who has time for this! Turning to Michelle as reader Jenny:     The series is called “The Joys of Binge Reading” because I see it as providing inspiration for people who like to do just that – binge read.  So – turning to your taste in fiction who do you “binge read?” Have you ever turned to escapist pleasure, and do you have any recommendations for listeners? The complete set of Anthony Trollope – 46 novels. Michelle: I don’t know if you’d call this escapist pleasure, but it was for me! I did read all of Anthony Trollope’s series. I feel like he’s the most under represented writer in the English language. He’s never taught in college, and it’s clear that the Pallisers are a forerunner for upstairs, downstairs. It’s weird to me that it’s never been mentioned. So I’ve read through all of those. But if you really want to talk about binge, I love Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series, and I also love Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series. I met her at a mystery convention conference, and she’s a lovely person- so sweet and approachable. Circling back from beginning to end Jenny:     At this stage in your career, if you were doing it all again, what would you change – if anything? Michelle: What a good question. I guess I would go into this whole thing understanding that it’s a business, and make better decisions based on that. I just wrote a book, and that was a personal challenge. Then it was a personal challenge to get it published, and then it was a challenge to write another book and so on. Then I woke up and realised I was in the middle of running a business, and I didn’t really prepare for that. That’s probably been the biggest learning curve, and one I’m still trying to master. Being a good writer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be a good business person. But that’s really what you have to do- that’s the world we’re living in unfortunately. Jenny: So how long has that been? When was the first one published? Writing as a business Michelle: The first one came out in April 2016. I had signed the contract in December 2014, and the publisher said that she could probably rush it and get it out in the fall of 2015. But she advised me, since I was starting from zero with no platform, to take a year off to ramp up and I’m very glad that I took that advice. So I’ve been at it since 2015. Jenny: That’s not a long time, because there’s still a lot to learn… if you’re trying to write as well, it’s certainly not easy. Michelle: Exactly, yes. There’s a lot of balls to juggle! Jenny:   What is next for Michelle the writer? Are you a big goal setter?  And what are you working on next? Michelle Cox, Book Three, A Promise Given Michelle: I’m trying to get Book Five out into the world. I’ve been mentally sketching out some ideas for possibly six, and I’m really trying to find a new agent and publisher for this new stand alone book. I don’t now where I’m going next. I have some great ideas for spin offs off of this series, which I think would be so fun. I love that- when writers have different series, but some of the characters cross over. I’d love to do something like that. Jenny: And especially if this trend towards shorter fiction keeps coming, then you could look at doing ten novellas that are spin offs- that’s just putting it out there, but you could definitely see possibilities for that, couldn’t you? Michelle: Yes, and that’s a really good idea because my books keep getting longer and longer with each one that comes out. That is not following the trend, so spinning it off and smaller things might be the way to go. Jenny: And sometimes you develop a backstory for a character- you don’t really need to hsove it all in a book, in fact it’s better if you don’t. You can fit it in ina nother way in a spin off. Michelle: Yes, you could create a spin off series with shorter amounts. Jenny: Yes, that sounds great! You’ve got yourself busy for the next five years. Thank you so much for your time, thank you for being on the show and all the very best for your writing. Michelle: Thank you Jenny, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. More reading/listening suggestions If you would like to read other historical mysteries set in early twentieth century why not take a look at Liz Freeland’s Louise Faulk mysteries set in pre World War I New York, or Camille Di Maio’s dual time line mysteries that move between the 1950s and other periods. Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]