Patricia Bernstein
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein
Author of A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower
"A Noble Cunning" is based on the true story of a persecuted Catholic noblewoman who, in 1716, rescued her husband from the Tower of London the night before his scheduled execution, with the help of her devoted women friends. Her stunning feat was never performed by anyone else before or after. My protagonist, Bethan Glentaggart, confronted a raid on her home by a mob seeking an illegal priest, a trip alone from Scotland to London during the worst winter storm in memory, and humiliation before a royal court when she tried to petition a cruel king to spare her husband. When that last effort failed, she had to find another way to save her husband's life.
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein
Author I draw inspiration from:
H.F.M. Prescott, author of "The Man on a Donkey." Hilda Prescott was an academic who knew as much about the reign of Henry VIII as if she had lived in the 16th century herself. A reader opens her novel, falls into the Tudor period and doesn't come up for air until the last page has been turned. She presents an interesting melange of real and fictional characters from the period and tells her story through their eyes: a proud prioress, a troubled and abusive priest, a lovelorn girl, a nobleman, and Robert Aske, leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace led against the king when the monasteries were destroyed. And there is also the madwoman Malle who has a vision of Jesus on a donkey, which each faction in the political struggle of the times tries unsuccessfully to co-opt for their own use.
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
On the couch on a rainy or cold day when I'm all alone
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, 12th-century pathologist trained in the medical school at Salerno and sent to England at the request of Henry II to solve a mystery ("Mistress of the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin/Diana Norman). I'd like to ask Adelia about the world she lived in and tell her about advances in medicine and in the status of women in our time. I imagine she would be rather disdainful and think that the lives of modern women are far too easy! It would be hard to convince her that we still have our own struggles.
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
When I first read "Little Women" at the age of nine.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Audiobooks are great for listening in the car or while I walk. I recognize the many benefits of ebooks, cost-wise and especially for travel, but I still like to hold a real book in my hands when I'm doing any serious reading, whether it's a hardback or paperback. I guess that's why, though I've given away many dozens of books, I can't see a difference on my bookshelves. I keep buying more!
The last book I read:
"The Searcher" by Tana French. I really liked her early books but I didn't care for "The Witch Elm." "The Searcher" seems to be a return to form, a story about a Chicago policeman whose wife has left him and who has grown weary of his job. He relocates to a small town in Ireland but soon finds that the ugly evil he confronted for so many years in Chicago also exists in a different form and close to home in this Irish village. The writing and scene setting are polished and characterizations are vivid. There is a pervasive sense of sinister secrets and impending doom as in most novels by French. I do think she pulled her punches at the end--it seemed anti-climactic after all the sturm und drang that preceded it.
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Though I'm not always a big fan of modern technology (understatement!), the computer has been a godsend to me since I am a compulsive editor. I've been asked how many drafts I write of my books. The answer is impossible because I am constantly revising and then revising some more again and again. Even when my book is in print, I'm seeing ways I could have improved a sentence here or there!
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I already have a career as a publicist owning my own business. I enjoy it, though I'd rather be writing full-time. However, I do think being in business has hardened my head a little and put me more closely in touch with daily reality, which is useful to a novelist! As a kid and teenager, I was a dreamer and so sheltered that I didn't have much to write about.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
It's totally romantic, I guess, and rather silly, but I'm still drawn to the Middle Ages especially and maybe also the Renaissance. Too much fondness for the Pre-Raphaelites probably, though their depictions of medieval dress were highly romanticized. Panniers and white wigs in the 18th century? Tight corsets in the 19th? No, thank you! One source on Pre-Raphaelite dress claims P-R costume references the reign of Edward III, 1327-1377. That's astoundingly precise! But I love the long, sweeping sleeves, embroidered hems, laced bodices, etc., of the 12th century. Having handled long skirts and an open cloak on a very cold and wet day at a Renaissance Festival, I still have to say that living in those clothes--or any of the old long, full skirts--could not have been comfortable!
Place I’d most like to travel:
I'm planning a long-delayed Lord of the Rings tour of New Zealand with two of my daughters! Favorite fantasy combined with a spectacularly beautiful locale. Can't wait!
My signature drink:
Coffee, coffee, coffee with milk, no sugar! Keeps the brain steaming along!
Favorite artist:
It saddens me that so many people lived and died before there was Beethoven--or Mozart or Verdi. I guess I'm giving myself away as an opera and classical music lover. I've been singing in the chorus of a small opera company for years. Living inside the world's most beautiful music, even for a short time, is one of life's greatest joys for me. Don't believe me? Go listen to the end of Act 1 of "La Boheme" and then tell me what you think! (Also love Emmy Lou and Linda Ronstadt and a lot of dinosaur rock.)
Number one on my bucket list:
I'm curious about Tai Chi. It looks amazing. Would also like to get back to art and language classes.
Anything else you'd like to add:
Everything I've written, fiction and non-fiction, has to do with history. History is my great love and I'm endlessly curious about how people used to live.
Find more from the author:
https://www.patriciabernstein.com;
https://www.facebook.com/p/Patricia-Bernstein-Author-100085697352594/
Website: https://www.patriciabernstein.com
About Patricia Bernstein:
Author Interview - Patricia Bernstein
Patricia Bernstein grew up in Dallas. She earned a Degree of Distinction in American Studies from Smith College and, returning to Texas, founded a public relations agency in Houston, while publishing dozens of articles in publications as varied as Texas Monthly, Cosmopolitan and The Smithsonian.
Her first book was a collection of first-person childbirth accounts from the 1890s to the 1990s. The second was The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. The third was Ten Dollars to Hate: The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan about the millions-strong 1920s Ku Klux Klan. Ten Dollars to Hate was a finalist for the Ramirez Family Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was named one of the 53 best books ever written about Texas by the Austin American Statesman.
A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower, Patricia’s debut novel, published by History Through Fiction, was inspired by a true story she heard during a visit to Scotland. A Noble Cunning tells the tale of a persecuted Catholic noblewoman who rescued her husband from the Tower of London the night before his scheduled execution. The novel was named the winner in the Religious Fiction category of the American Book Fest and finalist in Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction and Inspirational Fiction.
Patricia lives in Houston with her husband Alan Bernstein. They have three wonderful and very different daughters.
