It’s time to play...
Periodically, we scour
the Internet for interesting authors who would like to play Book Trivia with
us. By answering our book trivia questions, we get to learn things about
the author no one else knows! So, let’s get ready…let’s play…Book Trivia!
Today our guest
author is Cynthia Sally Haggard, author of the historical novel Farewell My
Life.
Thank you for
playing Book Trivia with us!
Everyone knows
Miley Cyrus is the wild child in the music business. But she read
your book and wants to let you know that it changed her life for the better. Why did your
book give Miley a new lease on life?
She learned that Grace’s discipline of being with her
violin (or anything) for five hours a day gave her the steel to meet new
challenges.
You are being
pulled over for speeding. When the
officer asks you for your license and you discover you left it at home, you
decide to pull out your book instead. What do you
tell the officer?
“Officer, I was so moved by the end of the road of this
500-page novel, I didn’t realize I was actually driving on one.”
Superman has
decided to pull out one of your characters to be his sidekick. Who is it and
why?
Father Jerome, whose silver tongue can charm anyone into
doing anything.
You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for
authors, American Book Idol, and the mighty judges will determine whether your
book will make it to Hollywood and become a
big screenplay. What would impress them more – your book cover, an
excerpt or your best review – and why?
The book cover, whose unconventional dark simplicity
perfectly mirrors the mood of Farewell My Life.
You have five seconds to tell us who the greatest author of
all time is. In your
opinion, who would that be?
Vladimir Nabokov, whose dark humor captures the atmosphere
of 1920s Berlin.
A homeless man was caught stealing your book out of a
bookstore. When asked why
he did it, he opened the book and pointed a passage out. What was that
passage?
Frau Varga got off the chair. “Come.” She led the way to
the dining-room parlor and made gestures to show them that she intended to
sleep on the foldout sofa. She dragged the sofa so that it barred the front
door of the apartment.
“It doesn’t look
comfortable to me,” said Violet. “You’ve got freezing drafts coming in through
that front door.”
“I am happy.”
“But you don’t
have a headboard.”
Frau Varga
laughed. “I need not, Fräulein Vi’let.”
“Are we safe?”
“Today, we have
full of peace. But if anything happen,” she added, “I swear at them in
Berlinish.”
“What could
happen?”
“Fräulein Vi’let,
two years ago, it bad. When der Kaiser deposed, people shot in the
streets. They threw hand-grenades from the Brandenburger Tor. They waved
red flags, they shouted slogans.” She made gestures. “It crazy.”
“Those were the
Spartacists?” asked Grace. She remembered Mr. Russell trying to dissuade them
from going to Berlin.
Frau Varga stared.
“You heard in Amerika, Fräulein Graatz?”
“Could there be
problems again?”
“Everything quiet
now,” replied Frau Varga, shrugging. She patted Grace’s arm. “Worry not.”
“I’m not worried
as long as you’re not,” remarked Violet.
Grace frowned.
“Fräulein Graatz,
worry not. Look!” She swept aside the bedclothes to show the knife that hid
under her pillow.
You have been told your book has won one free year on a
billboard in any one state. What state do
you feel would be best for your book and why?
District of
Columbia. The first part
of Farewell My Life is set in the District, in Georgetown.
The Arbor Day Foundation has decided to pick one tree in
your honor because of your writing brilliance. What kind of tree is it
and why did they choose that tree in relation to your book?
Linden Tree. Berlin is populated by Linden trees, and a
Linden Tree is featured in Farewell My Life’s closing pages.
About the Author
Cynthia Sally Haggard was born and reared in Surrey, England. About 30 years ago she surfaced in the United States, inhabiting the Mid-Atlantic region as
she wound her way through four careers: violinist, cognitive scientist, medical
writer, and novelist.
Her first novel, Thwarted Queen a fictionalized biography of Lady
Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the mother of Richard III (whose bones were
recently found under a car-park in Leicester,)
was shortlisted for many awards, including the 2012 Eric Hoffer New Horizon
Award for debut authors. To date, sales have surpassed 38,000 copies.
Cynthia graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, Cambridge MA, in June 2015. When she’s not annoying
everyone by insisting her fictional characters are more real than they are,
Cynthia likes to go for long walks, knit something glamorous, cook in her
wonderful kitchen, and play the piano. You can visit her at www.spunstories.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.haggard
About the Book:
Angelina led a life which required her to fib. When Angelina, the black sheep of the Pagano family,
And so begins Farewell My Life,
a novel in three parts, which spins an operatic tale of dangerous love and
loss.
The Lost Mother, the first part of this novel, slices
back and forth between time and
space, opening in the charming village of Georgetown, Washington D.C. while reflecting a family’s troubled
past in the lovely village of Marostica in the Italian Veneto.
An Unsuitable Suitor, the second part of the novel, is a
Cinderella-ish tale with not-so-charming
princes who inhabit the edgy setting of 1920s Berlin.
Farewell My Life, the last part of the novel, set again in
Berlin, Germany, during the dark
1930s as the Nazis gain power, takes comfortable lives, assumptions and
civilizations and crumbles them into ash.
And all of this revolves around Grace, Angelina’s younger daughter,
whose fabulous talent for the violin promises a shimmering career.