Episode 55: Margaret Ann Spence, author of Joyous Lies

Margaret Ann Spence author of Joyous Lies and Lipstick on the Strawberry.

Key Topics:

The inspiration behind Joyous Lies, a women’s fiction novel with a good dose of mystery. Secrets from the past abound, set to the backdrop of what happened decades ago in a commune.

Interview Notes:

Margaret shares the inpsiration behind her novel and more.

Maelle, her main character is a botanist, and Margaret shares that the idea plants can communicate, which fascinated her, is not in fact fiction!

In the book, Joanna who is Maelle’s grandmother escaped the Vietnam war with her husband to to land his family owned in the 1970s, which has now become one of the last remaining communes still in existence. 

Margaret shares how many ideas we take for granted today come from this commune farming background and the research that went into the novel. 

Reviews appreciate the mystery elements of this novel; what happened exactly to cause the death of Maelle’s mother decades ago?

Margaret also happens to be a publisher sister, like me she is published with The Wild Rose Press (who have been kind to us both).

We also chat about writing tics caught in editing (Margaret’s and mine), and the challenges of de-anglofying our novels! 

Her advice: the difference between being published and not being published is just persistence. There are so many gatekeepers and you just have to keep going in spite of the nos.

Reading wise, Margaret recommends QUEEN OF THE OWLS by Barbara Linn Probst and Julie Clark’s THE ONES WE CHOOSE, about a single mom who has a son through artificial insemination. 

Margaret wraps up by showing us some of her fun photos explaining life on a commune, including the infamous chicken truck that makes an appearance in the novel.