Award-Winning Author of Historical Fiction Liza Nash Taylor

The farmhouse where Liza Nash Taylor lives in Keswick, Virginia, with her family and dogs was built in 1825, and it is the opening setting of her novel, Etiquette for Runaways: A Novel. She writes in the old bunkhouse, with the occasional black snake and a view of the Southwest Mountains. Taylor has just completed the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Art and was recently named a Hawthornden International Fellow for 2018. In 2016, she won the San Miguel Writer’s Conference Fiction Prize and last year she won second place in the novel excerpt division of the Seven Hills Literary Contest. Taylor’s work has appeared in Bluestem Magazine, Ekphrastic: writing and art on art and writing, Microchondria II, (an anthology by the Harvard Bookstore), Rum Punch Press, the Seven Hills Review, Gargoyle Magazine and is forthcoming in The Four Elements Anthology and 1932 Quarterly.  This novel was longlisted for The Mslexia Magazine Women’s Novel Competition in the UK and was a finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards. An excerpted chapter was published in The Copperfield Review. Taylor’s second novel-in-progress was a semi-finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition this year, as well as a finalist for the Tucson Festival Awards.

How did you first come to writing and what was your initial writing journey like?

Good question. To say I got a late start is an understatement. I started as a fashion designer and from there worked in design and had a shop on Nantucket. When my youngest went to boarding school I went back to school myself, to study literature. I was working on an English degree for about a year, then one semester the only classes available were something along the lines of “Literature of the Restoration,” (which just made me want to weep with anticipatory boredom), or “The Writing of Fiction.” That was in 2013, and I was 53. I started writing Etiquette for Runaways: A Novel then. The first drafts, well…suffice it to say that I cringe just thinking about them. That class, though, was a fantastic introduction and I never looked back. I had my first piece published in a literary magazine in 2015. It didn’t take long for me to see that I needed to catch up fast if this was going to amount to anything, so I applied to a low residency MFA program. I finished that in January 2018, at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to have the time to write and some very good teachers.

As an author of two historical fiction novels, what do you feel that the historical fiction genre affords writers?

To me, historical fiction as a genre is rich with stories to be unearthed and re-told, and through research, I often find historical factoids that can shape and define a plot. Plus, there are no cell phones, and the clothes are much better. As a reader, I go to Historical Fiction because I love learning the quotidian details of any given period. That’s been the case since I was a child.

What was the inspiration behind your novel Etiquette for Runaways? For instance, I detect a hint of Daniel Defoe's 1722 book Moll Flanders…

Yes, you’re exactly right. I had just finished reading Moll Flanders before I started writing my first novel. Her story made an impression on me and influenced my plot (minus the marrying her brother bit). I was taken by Moll’s naivete, which she overcame through sharp instincts and the pursuit of dubious opportunities. An impoverished young woman in 1722 had very few options, and Moll got ahead by using her wits. She didn’t always make good choices, though, and I liked that about her. Defoe was way ahead of the curve.

I’ve heard you live in a historical home. What is that like and do you draw any inspiration from it for your writing?

I live in an 1820’s Virginia farmhouse. It was never a grand house, and it was badly enlarged several times over the years. When my husband and I bought it eighteen years ago it hadn’t been renovated and the wiring was ancient. Forget about air conditioning, and all the fuses blew if you made toast and plugged in the coffee maker at the same time. But I loved it. Not to get all woo-woo, but it spoke to me. We’ve done a lot of work over the years. I write in the old bunkhouse.

I’m always finding antique bottles and hardware and bits of porcelain in the dirt around the property (along with the occasional black snake). I found a shard of a Victorian-era porcelain doll’s face, and that spun into a subplot in my first novel. I wondered whose doll it had been, and what that girl's life was like here, at Keswick Farm. I set both books here, in part. I can write about the Southwest Mountain view in October and how new-mown hay smells in June. I couldn’t do that if my books were set somewhere I’ve never been.

What has it been like working with the Trident Media Group literary agency?

Well, first of all, I’m proud to be represented by such a well-established, reputable agency. It’s an honor. My experience with Mark Gottlieb has had great results. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. Mark Gottlieb listened to what I wanted and brokered a deal for both of my completed manuscripts. I’m so excited about moving forward to publication.

Your book publisher, Blackstone Publishing, is also a topnotch publisher of audiobooks. Are you excited for the audiobook versions of your books?

Absolutely. I am a huge fan of audiobooks. I’m always plugged in to a novel or French lessons while I’m grocery shopping or weeding or exercising. I asked to have some creative input as to who would narrate my books. Can we talk pet peeves here for a minute? We southerners are not all twangy, drawling hayseeds, y’all! There is nothing I hate more than a bad fake southern accent. A Virginia accent is far different from Alabama, or Louisiana, or Texas. Ideally, I’d love to have a native southerner do the narration, but since the plot moves to New York and then Paris, the narrator will have to be versatile. I have total confidence in Blackstone. They were pioneers in audiobooks and they’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m excited about the whole process. Blackstone has been fabulous to work with so far.

Your novel In All Good Faith is a dual narrative based on Depression-era events surrounding the 1932 Veteran's Bonus March on Washington, D.C. What appealed to you about this particular historical event?

Well, for one thing, I had never heard of the Bonus March. It really wasn’t mentioned in history class when I was growing up. I think a fair number of folks don’t know about it. It ended up being something of an embarrassment, to say the least. President Hoover ordered General MacArthur to clear the camps of veterans, and they used tanks and tear gas. It was terrible. I loved the idea of placing a naïve young woman into this melee and seeing what happened.

 I saw that you attended the Historical Novel Writers’ Conference. What was that event like?

You know, I never understood the draw of a Trekkie convention, until now. I mean, where else can you see Marie Antionette and a WWI soldier walking into a party together? The Historical Novel Society Conference was four fabulous days of total immersion with fellow authors. I learned a lot about publishing and being an author. I hardly left the conference center. The theme this year was “Revolution” and my favorite event was called “Hooch Through History,” which was an ersatz lecture on six “revolutions” but really just an excuse to serve six historically-themed cocktails. Another highlight was having lunch with four authors of historical fiction who share the same agent. We’re all at different points along the publication journey, and I was offered some great tips and encouragement by the rest of the Mark Gottlieb Group.          

I presented a lecture on Fashion History, called “Evolution and Revolution in Women’s Fashion: 1850-1970.” I’ll be giving the same lecture in Paris in the fall.

In the panels and presentations there was much discussion about cultural appropriation in historical fiction, as well as discussion about which eras are hot right now. There was a fair amount of buzz about Suffragist themes since we’re coming up on the Centennial of the signing of the 19th Amendment. It seems that novels written around an actual historical figure are doing well, as are dual-timeline novels, where two point-of-view characters tell parallel stories in different eras. Certain eras seem to suffer over-exposure and no one, it seems, is able to accurately predict what the next hot era will be. (Twenties! Twenties! Twenties!) Sorry, I digress. Of course, my agent would be the expert on trends, not me.

Do you have any advice for hardworking writers hoping to become published authors?

As a volunteer, I teach seminars for writers at my local writing center, WriterHouse, here in Charlottesville. One is on strategies for submitting to literary magazines and the other is on finding agents and crafting a successful query letter. I recommend that writers try to get something published in a literary magazine before they start querying. If they’re novelists, they can re-work a chapter into a stand-alone excerpt. You’ve got to get noticed to get noticed, and placing in a contest or getting a fellowship gives you street cred. Also, although some would argue this point, I think that having an MFA is an advantage. Plus, it will just make you a better writer. At every level, writers need to be open to creative criticism and be willing to revise and revise and revise. Unfortunately, a lot of writers get discouraged and stop submitting or querying. But it only takes one “yes.”

Can you help me finish this sentence? “I love writing because…”

Oh, there are so many ways to complete that sentence. But here’s one:

…in the six years since I started, writing has become my creative refuge and my greatest source of validation.

Does that make me sound a tad unstable? What I mean is this: as my nest emptied and I stopped working, I wondered what would come next for me. Many of my friends were in the same boat. I saw some of them react as if the world had paused its rotation, like, Arghhh…I’m not a soccer mom anymore! Now I just have to wait until someone gives me a grandbaby. Sigh. And these are smart, professional women! Don’t get me wrong, my family still means everything to me, but my writing keeps my cup filled with inspiration and purpose. We have got to evolve through life, you know? I’m just getting this party started.