With her latest middle grade/tween ebook TIME OF HONOR (MuseItUp Publishing) featuring a prep school debater catapulted into the middle ages to prevent a murder, Margo Sorenson has writtentwenty-eight books for young readers. A Minnesota Book Award Finalist in YA Fiction and Milken National Educator Award recipient, Margo and her books can be found at www.margosorenson.com and www.amazon.com, and of course, our beloved Vroman's. Please welcome today's guest author, Margo Sorenson.
You couldn’t imagine that growing up in Altadena and Pasadena could have a medieval influence on my writing, could you? Seriously, my most recent tween/middle grade mystery, TIME OF HONOR, involves Connor, a smart-mouth debater heroine who is catapulted back to 1272, and the medieval aspects of Pasadena helped me put her right back in the middle ages.
There’s more that’s medieval about Pasadena than just the history books in the Pasadena Library. Stop at Westminster Presbyterian Church, and just imagine it transported to a medieval city. Its gothic architecture would fit right in. Sitting there on Sundays as a kid and staring at the vaulted ceilings, I used to daydream (apologies to the ministers!) about living in the middle ages, so it wasn’t a big leap to write about Connor having to swap her jeans for a velvet gown (after a flea-check!).
My family, being the geeks we were, would often drive to the Huntington Library to look at the exhibits. There, too, the medieval influence of Pasadena worked on my brain. Looking at china and silver goblets on display fired my imagination about the people who used them and the conversations they must have had at the table. Granted, Connor had to learn to make do without a fork, since only knives and spoons were used in 1272, and – gross – she had to share a wine goblet with her dinner companion, but to see ancient utensils and plates really helped create the ambiance of medieval meals.
Even the white-glove Pasadena image of years ago was important for this book. Decorum was key; I dreaded attending the young people’s cotillion at the Hotel Green every month, in white gloves (absolutely!), hoping that I could shrink against the wall and not have to dance! There was a genteel rhythm to Pasadena life back then, and, although I didn’t appreciate having to behave, the adherence to etiquette translated well back to courtly life in medieval times. Connor also finds she has to squelch her impulses to fit into 1272, so she doesn’t get found out by the murderers!
Pasadena isn’t a medieval city, but living there helped me write about living in the middle ages. Do you think the castle in the cover’s background looks a bit like the Hotel Green?
There’s more that’s medieval about Pasadena than just the history books in the Pasadena Library. Stop at Westminster Presbyterian Church, and just imagine it transported to a medieval city. Its gothic architecture would fit right in. Sitting there on Sundays as a kid and staring at the vaulted ceilings, I used to daydream (apologies to the ministers!) about living in the middle ages, so it wasn’t a big leap to write about Connor having to swap her jeans for a velvet gown (after a flea-check!).
My family, being the geeks we were, would often drive to the Huntington Library to look at the exhibits. There, too, the medieval influence of Pasadena worked on my brain. Looking at china and silver goblets on display fired my imagination about the people who used them and the conversations they must have had at the table. Granted, Connor had to learn to make do without a fork, since only knives and spoons were used in 1272, and – gross – she had to share a wine goblet with her dinner companion, but to see ancient utensils and plates really helped create the ambiance of medieval meals.
Even the white-glove Pasadena image of years ago was important for this book. Decorum was key; I dreaded attending the young people’s cotillion at the Hotel Green every month, in white gloves (absolutely!), hoping that I could shrink against the wall and not have to dance! There was a genteel rhythm to Pasadena life back then, and, although I didn’t appreciate having to behave, the adherence to etiquette translated well back to courtly life in medieval times. Connor also finds she has to squelch her impulses to fit into 1272, so she doesn’t get found out by the murderers!
Pasadena isn’t a medieval city, but living there helped me write about living in the middle ages. Do you think the castle in the cover’s background looks a bit like the Hotel Green?
