1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE DECEIVED ONES
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
The Deceived Ones is a contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night about a love-quadrangle in which fraternal twins, separated when fleeing Ukraine, learn that gender can play out in unexpected ways, and a composer with writer’s block improvises on how to engage the soprano of his dreams.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Since I live in Baltimore, I wanted to set it in this city, which mixes grace and grit, as Shakespeare’s play does.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
The Deceived Ones is written from multiple points of view, so there are a number of protagonists. That said, as in Shakespeare’s play, there is one character who is slightly more prominent, and I would love to hang out with her.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Vulnerable, gifted, courageous
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned how to prepare vegan holubtsi, which are Ukrainian stuffed cabbage rolls.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
No matter how much they say you should just get everything down in a flow of imagination before you go back to edit with another part of your brain, I can’t do it that way. I have to feel that a scene is right before I can go on to the next one.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Scottish shortbread.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
Lots of light; an antique desk with multiple drawers; a brass lamp; an oriental rug; myriad books and pictures.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Just one?! Maggie O’Farrell—but there are almost too many to count.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Jane Eyre. I read it when I was in my teens, and it was the first time I became totally immersed in a fictional world.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
An email from Apprentice House Press popped up in my Inbox without fanfare. Then a fanfare ensued!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Literary fiction.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
The version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion from 1995.
15--What is your favorite season?
When I lived in the southern hemisphere, it was autumn; now it’s spring.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
A quiet dinner with a good bottle of red wine.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Anatomy of a Fall.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Vegetarian Mediterranean.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I love to visit art museums.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
My work in progress is a historical novel set in Colonial Pennsylvania about one of America’s first named women composers.
Displaced by the Russian invasion, Vira, carrying little but her precious viola da gamba, is a refugee in the Uniting for Ukraine program.
When she is physically attacked soon after her arrival in the United States, the terrifying experience prompts her to hide in plain sight by passing as her twin, Sevastyan, until he is able join her.
Orson has been commissioned to write an opera for The Twelfth Night Festival, but he is suffering from composer’s block. Not only that, his muse, Isabella, has inexplicably withdrawn from all performing. During a chance meeting, Orson discovers the extraordinary musical talent of Vira, now passing as Sevastyan, and it gives him the jolt of inspiration he needs. Hoping that Isabella will be as intrigued as he is, Orson sends “Sevastyan” as his emissary to persuade Isabella to sing in his opera.
In this love-quadrangle seen from multiple points of view—some poignant, some hilarious—the myriad misconceptions that result from Vira’s deception are woven into themes of migration, sexuality, and diversity.
Women's Fiction | Literature and Fiction Literary [Apprentice House, On Sale: May 7, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781627205290 / eISBN: 9781627205306]
JUDITH KRUMMECK is a writer and broadcaster living in Baltimore. She has been the evening drive-time host for the classical radio station, WBJC 91.5 FM, for over twenty years, and she is the author of two books. Her memoir in essays, Beyond the Baobab, is about her experience of immigrating from Africa to America. Her biographical memoir, Old New Worlds, intertwines the emigrations of her great-great-grandmother and her own. Judith’s debut novel, The Deceived Ones, is forthcoming from Apprentice House, and her screenplay, Philida, based on the Booker-nominated novel by André Brink, is in development in South Africa.
Judith is the recipient of a Creativity Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore.
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