1--What is the title of your latest release?
BOY
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Sander Coke, Shakespeare’s beautiful and celebrated “boy player,” is famous for portraying female roles, but he’s about to age out of his apprenticeship, and feels unready to face the future “as a man.” Meanwhile, his closest friend from childhood is Joan, who wants to study natural philosophy but has no access to education. Sander disguises Joan as a boy and gets her apprenticed to Francis Bacon, the father of the Scientific Method. As Sander and Joan begin to realize their own relationship is changing, their shared connection to Bacon embroils them in some of the most dangerous political intrigue of Queen Elizabeth’s final years.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
It wasn’t really a decision; a story about Shakespeare’s actors has to take place in Shakespeare’s London, aka Elizabethan London – which is my fictional happy place. I love all excuses to while away the time there.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I should hope so! I hang out with them enough in my head and we all get along fabulously. One on one, Joan would probably be more interesting than Sander (no offense, Sander).
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
JOAN: Intelligent, determined, and practical.
SANDER: talented, charismatic, and playful.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Francis Bacon – the father of the Scientific Method and generally considered the most brilliant mind of his age – thought the sun revolved around the earth. Even though by then, most astronomers had figured out it was the other way around.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I win top honors for Most Obsessive Rewriter. I edit as I go, and then when I’ve finished a draft I go right back to the beginning and start to rewrite. I repeat that about 5 times in a row, and then – abracadabra! – a year has elapsed, and I have a book!
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Salty, gooey chocolate chip cookies. I’m not proud of that. I wish I had something more interesting, but the heart wants what it wants, and so does the mouth.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I’m pretty peripatetic, but I’m so in love with what I have at the moment. My desk is an antique drafting table against a wall, with a custom-built cabinet beside it that I designed in collaboration with my cousin, who built it (I call it “the Jeffersonian” - my cousin’s name is Jefferson). There’s a transom window above the table, and windows to either side, so the room is flooded with light and the golden-yellow walls glow with warmth. There are plants, and books, and musical instruments I wish I played better. A built-in cabinet houses my haphazard “altar.” This contains, among other sundry items, a statue of the Buddha, a wee photograph of the Hindu goddess Kali, my great-grandparents’ menorah from Berlin, a bar of lemon soap from Sweny’s Pharmacy in Dublin (see: Ulysses), a coconut shell full of sand from Antigua, a lock of hair from my beloved dog Leuco (who inspired my novel Stepdog), mementos from plays and other projects (none of which would make sense to a casual observer), and a photo of the Grandfather Tree – a massive, sprawling white oak that my friends and I grew up climbing.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Must I pick just one? Ursula K. LeGuin. (Let me know if I’m allowed to list more than one, in which case I will add Christopher Moore, Etgar Keret, Niall Williams, Margaret Atwood, N.K. Jemison, Susan Cooper, Hilary Mantel, Dorothee Dunnett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nicholas Seare, Matt Ruff, Barbara Kingsolver, Kazuo Ishiguro, Terry Pratchett, Italo Calvino, Douglas Adams, Fannie Flagg, Octavia Butler, Connie Willis… but I think I’m only supposed to name one, so never mind)
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
In the most literal sense of changing my life, that would be my own first novel, The Fool’s Tale, because it transformed me from “aspiring author” to “full-time working novelist.”
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.
I’d written a screenplay that won an award but never got made; one serendipitous downstream effect of the award was meeting Marc, an arts attorney who became a sort of fairy godfather to me. When I wrote The Fool’s Tale, I literally apologized to Marc, because he’d been trying to nurture my screenwriting career and here I was writing a – what, a novel? He said, “This is very good, and if you enjoyed writing it then go ahead and write another one, but in that case, we should find you a literary agent.” He showed it to an LA agent he worked with (Rich), who showed it to a literary agent he worked with (Liz). Liz immediately picked me up as a client and said, “I’m sending your book out to several editors, but I think I already know the one who will say yes” – and 10 days later, she called to say, “The one I thought would say yes has said yes.” I had struggled so hard for so many years, and to have it suddenly happen that smoothly was surreal.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Oh dear… depends on my mood! My single favorite book is The Phantom Tollbooth. As for genres… let’s see… Historical fiction, speculative fiction, sometimes Jane Austen. Lately, given the times we live in, I’ve been especially appreciative of speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, futuristic) that makes me laugh (recent examples are Turn My Heart to 5 and Perilous Times). I can think and feel and philosophize enough on my own; I need help with the laughing.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I would say it’s a toss-up between the indie Dutch film Antonia’s Line and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Do not look to me for consistency of taste.) And I’m certain I’m forgetting one I cherish even more than those.
15--What is your favorite season?
I love all seasons provided the temperature doesn’t go below 35F or above 85F.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I have no real agenda around birthdays. But I was almost murdered when I was in my 20s, and I try to observe the anniversary of my survival in some meaningful, life-affirming way that includes a moment of my saying, “Nyah nyah nyah, I’m still here.”
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’m loving “Shrinking” on Apple TV. I’m also a huge fan of the first season of “Bad Sisters”. And I got a kick out of “Kaos”, because I am such a nerd.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese, I think. Also love Thai.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
When I have what? (Real answer: Usually close-harmony singing, taking a mediocre stab at the Irish whistle, or walking on my favorite beach)
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Must keep that close to the vest for now; I’m meeting with my agent and editor this very week. (Last Call, a play I co-wrote with some Irish musician friends, is being revived at a tiny little venue outside of Dublin in April for all of 3 days, so there’s that…)
A Vibrant and Thought-Provoking Historical Tale of Love, Intrigue, and Gender Roles in Shakespeare's Elizabethan London
From critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland comes a vibrant and thought-provoking historical tale of love, political intrigue, and gender-swapping set in the theatre world of Elizabethan London.
Alexander “Sander” Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in the Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London, and his companionship is sought by noblewomen and -men alike. And yet, now at the height of his fame, he teeters on the cusp of adulthood, his future uncertain. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever.
Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, also has a dream. Though unschooled, she is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. And while she senses that Sander’s admiration for her is more than mere friendship, Joan’s true passion is knowledge, something that is nearly impossible for her to attain. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day; only in disguise can she learn to her heart’s content.
Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander’s theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon: natural philosopher and trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth. It is through their connection with Bacon—one of the greatest minds of their time—that their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.
Brimming with heart, curiosity, and rich historical detail, Boy offers an intimate glimpse of the moral complexities of a singular artistic era, and the roles we all choose to play on the world’s stage.
Women's Fiction Friendship [William Morrow, On Sale: February 25, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780063342859 / eISBN: 9780063342873]
Nicole Galland’s life has meandered as broadly as the Potomac River. She hails from Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, and graduated with honors from Harvard University, where she spent most of her time doing theater and secretly penning unfinished novels, although she was officially getting a degree in Comparative Religion. After that, go figure. Moving to California, Nicole co-founded a theater company for teens that premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She was awarded a full fellowship to pursue a PhD in Drama at UC Berkeley, where she showed great promise at pretentious performance art. Before academia could entirely seduce her, however, she withdrew from the program and split the next several years between the Bay Area and New York City, eking out a glamorous living in theater, writing, editing, and temp work. After winning an award for her screenplay The Winter Population, Nicole somewhat recklessly moved to Los Angeles, where she spent a few years as a starving screenwriter and learned how to play the banjo (quite badly). In April 2002, she rediscovered the unfinished outline to The Fool’s Tale, which she’d begun while sitting in a boring lecture class at Harvard. She was about to delete it from her hard drive when she decided, just for fun, to see what would happen if she finished it instead. After a high concentration of serendipity, the book was completed in early 2003, by which time she’d fled LA to return to the Bay Area to write her second novel. The Fool’s Tale was published to critical acclaim in early 2005, and Revenge of the Rose followed in 2006. After a year and a half as Literary Manager/Dramaturg for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Nicole left the Bay Area and spent a while living largely out of a backpack, traversing the Mediterranean researching and drafting her third novel, Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade. Finally, after 20-odd years away, she moved back to Martha’s Vineyard. She currently resides there with her husband, actor Billy Meleady, and her Portuguese Water Dog, Leuco. With actress Chelsea McCarthy, Nicole recently co-founded Shakespeare for the Masses, a semi-insane troupe pf actors who, with a single day of rehearsal, pull off gonzo script-in-hand performances of adapted Shakespeare plays. To their delight and bewilderment, they have developed a small cult following on Martha’s Vineyard, and hope to subject the rest of the nation to their work in due time. In two and a half years, they have staged productions of 19 of the Bard’s plays.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy