Author Interview: Sophie Law (& Giveaway)

Author Interview: Sophie Law (& Giveaway)

Today is my stop on the Olga’s Egg blog tour and I am pleased to welcome Sophie Law on to the blog with a quick interview! She’s come up with some fascinating answers!

Q&A

What is your favourite thing about writing books?
I love constructing a world and inhabiting it through my characters. Not only is it the best possible escapism, I find that it makes you much more receptive to details of everyday life that one normally misses. To write, you have to absorb the world around you so that you can create completely new worlds in your head.

Who is your favourite character in your book and why?
Assia, the protagonist. She is impulsive, but also incredibly introspective and insecure at the same time. I enjoyed writing a character with traits which would seem contradictory but which actually go hand-in-hand, which is how they exist in all of us. Assia wants to doubt what she learns about her family, but as she discovers more, she realises how much sense it all makes.

What is your favourite drink to consume while writing?
Coffee – definitely coffee! Preferably a large cafetiere of it. The ritual of coffee is incredibly motivating and I often have really good ideas while staring out of the kitchen window, waiting for the coffee to steep.

Do you have any bad habits while you’re writing?
Sadly, it’s the usual draw of social media or WhatsApp. I have taken to turning off my phone while I write because notifications and the ‘odd check’ on Instagram can absolutely destroy my concentration and I genuinely do worry about what it does to my mind.

How do you research your books?
Olga’s Egg is about missing Fabergé eggs and so I did a lot of research into the history of the eggs. I read a lot about Fabergé and the Romanovs (as a Russian art expert, my library is pretty well-stocked) and I also derived a lot of up-to-date research from wonderful internet resources run by people with a passion for both the Romanovs and Fabergé .

Are you a plotter or a pantser?
A plotter all the way. I once got 60,000 words into a book without plotting and realised that it had completely run out of steam. I think plotting still makes room for pantsing – you can change your mind and follow a different tack if a character has developed in a certain way – but writing without a detailed plot is, for me, like starting a marathon without training.

If you could live in any fictional world, which would you choose and why?
In Narnia, because it is a world which enchanted me when I was younger. I love the idea of animals talking and would love to meet Aslan the lion. I used to adore the idea that you could spend years in Narnia and only a few seconds had passed in our world.

If you could befriend any fictional character, who would you choose and why?
Anna Karenina. She was such a complex woman who loved and suffered and was afraid of losing control and of losing Vronsky and I have always felt a great affinity with her. I would love to ask her about her feelings towards her children. As a mother now, I am fascinated by maternal love and its many manifestations.

About the book

When Fabergé specialist Assia Wynfield learns of the discovery of a long-lost Fabergé egg made for the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Tsar of Russia, she appears to be the only person with misgivings. On travelling to St. Petersburg to see the egg, Assia moves among Russia’s new rich but finds herself pulled back into a family past she would rather forget. With news that a friend is missing, Assia starts to dig deeper. But does she really want the answers to the questions she is asking? Set in today’s glamorous world of Russian art with glimpses into the lives of the last Romanovs as their empire crumbled in the wake of the Russian Revolution, Olga’s Egg is an enthralling tale of love, family secrets and the artistic treasures that conceal them.

About the Author

Sophie Law was born in London in 1981 and studied at Oxford University and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She began her career as a Russian art expert at Bonhams in 2006. After a number of years heading the Russian department and as a UK Board Director at Bonhams, she now acts as a consultant specialist. She lives with her husband and daughter in Oxford.

Website. Twitter.Facebook. Instagram.

Giveaway

To be in with a chance to win one of two ebooks of Olga’s Egg, simply comment below saying you want to win!
1. Open to INTL
2. Entrants must be 13years or older
3. Winners will be contacted by email and will have 7 days to claim prize
4. Ends on 16/11/2018

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Will you be reading this book?