Book Bloggin' Princess: Author Interview: Historical Fiction Author Brian McPhee

Monday, September 14, 2020

Author Interview: Historical Fiction Author Brian McPhee

Brian McPhee lived in Glasgow, Scotland until he was 21, when he moved to London. In his early 40s, he emigrated with his wife and daughter to Maryland, USA. After a successful career in IT marketing and management, he and his wife moved once more, to Monpazier in southwest France. All Visible Things is his third novel.

WEBSITE: https://www.ententepublishing.com/

As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. Can you tell us how you got the idea to write your book?

I became aware of Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished painting, La Scapigliata (The Lady

with Disheveled Hair) and was completely charmed by it. I then realized that hers was the face in several of Leonardo’s religious paintings – Virgin of the Rocks, Virgin and Child with St. Anne and The Lansdowne Madonna. The face is almost certainly an idealized representation of innocent feminine beauty, but what if she was in fact a real woman? This was the initial spark for All Visible Things.

Can you tell us a little about the main characters of your book?

The principal period character is Paolo del Rosso, who we meet as a 14-year-old assistant to Maestro Leonardo da Vinci. Paolo is instructed to keep a diary, half of which is discovered 500 years later by Lauren Patterson, a young American PhD student working in a minor English stately home. The diary reveals Paolo’s infatuation and later love for the beautiful Chiara, Leonardo’s goddaughter and model. With the help of Jonathan, an English art dealer, Lauren tracks down the rest of the diary and the astonishing secret it contains.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would that be?

Don’t try to show off. Don’t try to create a writing voice, try to set free the one inside you.

What would you say is one of your interesting writing quirks?

I prefer to have one of my characters describe a scene or place in first-person dialogue than try to describe it as the third-party narrator.

Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?

They enjoy the emotional highs and lows and the immersion in a historic period.

What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?

That the first draft of All Visible Things was too much like a Dan Brown knock-off. It was true. I completely rewrote the modern story.

What has been your best accomplishment?

The fact that most people who read my second book, Empress, then bought my third book. (My first novel was not historical fiction.)

Do you Google yourself?

Not yet.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Three that I suspect I will never finish and one I am currently working on.

Fun question – if you were princess or prince, what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?

Turn it into a republic.

Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to your readers?

My goal is to get you emotionally involved in my tale, so that for a few hours you are immersed in the world of my characters.

All Visible Things is a dual-timeline novel moving seamlessly between modern-day and Renaissance England and Italy.

When Lauren Patterson discovers the diary of a young assistant to Leonardo da Vinci, we are immediately immersed in the personalities and intrigues surrounding the archypical Renaissance man–and animal lover, vegetarian, dandy and bearer of grudges. When not executing the commissions of ungrateful clients, Leonardo juggles finances, apprentices, friends and rivals, all the while making time for his true passion–his pioneering scientific enquiries.

The diaries document a series of dramas–extortion, murder, defamation, betrayal and bitter artistic rivalries–played out against everyday struggles to extract money from clients, manage a hectic studio and, amidst the chaos, create timeless masterpieces, in particular the Mona Lisa, whose complex saga weaves through the narrative. The enthusiastic diarist is Paolo del Rosso, endlessly captivated by the vibrant life of Florence and enamoured of Chiara, Leonardo’s beautiful goddaughter and the model in some of his greatest paintings. Their tender, decades-long relationship is the constant thread through the Renaissance tapestry, as their lives are unwittingly unravelled by a devastating intrigue that unspools down the years.

The discovery of the diaries is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Lauren, but one threatened by academic jealousies, unwanted media attention and personal insecurities. However, a partnership and friendship develops between the young American researcher and an English art dealer as they come together to find the final pages of the diary and track down Paolo’s charming portrait of Chiara, drawn with the encouragement and assistance of Leonardo–a trail they follow from Renaissance Florence to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust to a thrilling dénouement when the portrait gives up its astonishing secret and our protagonists embrace their future.

While All Visible Things is a work of fiction, its themes and settings are based on extensive research into the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci and everyday life in sixteenth century Italy. It combines the sweep and drama of Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy with the intimacy of Tracy Chevalier’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring.