Art In Fiction
Find out what makes great, arts-inspired fiction in a variety of genres, from mysteries to crime novels, historical fiction, thrillers, contemporary fiction, and more. Art In Fiction founder and author Carol M. Cram chats with some of the top novelists featured on Art In Fiction, a curated online database of books inspired by the arts. Discover your next great read and get valuable advice on what it takes to be a successful writer.
Art In Fiction
A Medium for the History Books in Margery and Me by Maryka Biaggio
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
My guest today is Maryka Biaggio, author of Marjory and Me, listed in the Spiritualism category on Art In Fiction.
View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xK3aC6WBKr8
- How Maryka discovered the true story of Margery Crandon, Boston socialite, celebrated medium, and the woman who took on Harry Houdini.
- The bold structural choice to narrate Margery's story through Walter, Margery's dead brother.
- How Walter's folksy voice arrived as a moment of pure creative magic, and why Maryka describes writing as 90% struggle and 10% magic.
- The 1920s spiritualism craze: how the Great War and 1919 flu epidemic left grieving families desperate to contact the dead.
- Maryka's deliberate choice to keep the central question (is Walter real or a ruse?) permanently ambiguous.
- The challenges of writing real figures including Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and WB Yeats while staying true to their documented beliefs.
- Houdini's obsessive crusade against spiritualism, including Congressional hearings so raucous the police had to be called in.
- How Maryka's background as a clinical psychologist informs her deeply individual character development.
- Maryka's research toolkit: authoritative nonfiction, Aeon timeline software, Newspapers.com, and period novels.
- Reading from the opening of Margery and Me.
- One thing Maryka learned from writing Margery and Me.
- Her writing process and advice about researching.
- Maryka's next novel, co-written with Vanitha Sankaram, and inspired by Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and subversive medieval poetry.
Read more about Maryka Biaggio: https://marykabiaggio.com/
Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.
Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.
Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.