AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Rachel McMillan
It’s always such an honor to interview my fellow authors, especially those who have a multi-faceted presence in the publishing world. Rachel McMillan is not only the author of several acclaimed historical mystery and romance novels, she’s also a literary agent. A self-proclaimed book gusher, Rachel is a positive, supportive, and knowledgeable mentor to the writing community, and I was thrilled that she carved out time from her busy schedule to chat with me about her process as a writer and her intriguing new historical romance, THE MOZART CODE.
THE SYNOPSIS
No matter how you might try to hide in a war to escape your past, it is always close at hand.
Lady Sophia Huntington Villiers is no stranger to intrigue, as her work with Alan Turing’s Bombe Machines at Bletchley Park during the war attests. Now, as part of Simon Barre’s covert team in post-war Vienna, she uses her inimitable charm and code name Starling to infiltrate the world of relics: uncovering vital information that could tilt the stakes of the mounting Cold War. When several influential men charge her with finding the death mask of Mozart, Sophie wonders if there is more than the composer’s legacy at stake and finds herself drawn to potential answers in Prague.
Simon Barrington, the illegitimate heir of one of Sussex’s oldest estates, used the previous war to hide his insecurities about his past. Now, he uses his high breeding to gain access to all four allied quarters of the ruined city in an attempt to slow the fall of the Iron Curtain. He has been in love with Sophie Villiers since the moment he met her, and a marriage of convenience to save Simon’s estate has always kept her close. Until now, when Sophie’s mysterious client in Prague forces him to wonder if her allegiance to him—and their cause—is in question. Torn between his loyalty to his cause and his heart, Simon seeks answers about Sophie only to learn that everything he thought he knew about his involvement in both wars is based on a lie.
“Murky espionage and burgeoning passion twine beautifully together in The Mozart Code’s superbly evocative prose—an enchanting read!” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code
THE INTERVIEW
Paulette: Hi, Rachel, thanks so much for joining me! I’m so excited to have you on the blog to talk about The Mozart Code. Can you tell us all about what inspired you to write it?
Rachel: I have always been fascinated by Vienna and Prague—they’re two of my favourite cities in the world and I love exploring them on foot and on the page. I also long ago filed away the knowledge that Mozart’s death mask was believed to appear in a pawn shop (pfandhaus) in Vienna in 1947, directly after WWII and while the city was occupied by its four allied victors. I found this so interesting and I knew I wanted to throw it in a book someday. But these ingredients wouldn’t have conflated so perfectly if I had not met Simon Barrington.
When I was writing The London Restoration, I had no intention of writing more books featuring its characters and I created Simon as my heroine Diana’s friend and contact to MI 6. But like most characters I write, they sit down and tell me their entire backstory and when I was writing a scene where Simon meets Diana at The Savoy, he pulled up a chair and revealed every last bit of himself. I was inspired by the close connection I had with a character whose action was supposed to be in the periphery of one story but who shoved his way forefront so blatantly I knew I wanted him to have his own book. Thus, The Mozart Code, is very much my own fan fiction! LOL
Paulette: I love it when a supporting character becomes so real that they demand their own book! And I can very much relate to being inspired by Mozart, as well. As a classical music nerd, I based my senior year project on the intrigue surrounding Mozart’s death, so I was absolutely thrilled when I started hearing buzz about your book! I haven’t yet had a chance to read it (it’s on my near TBR stack, I promise!), but I cannot wait to be immersed in the world you’ve created in The Mozart Code.
You mentioned your love for Vienna and Prague, which were both formative cities during Mozart’s career, and an important setting for the post-WW2 plot in The Mozart Code. If you had the opportunity to live in the place and time period in which your novel is set, would you?
Rachel: I would not want to live in the time the novel is set because Vienna was close to falling behind the Iron Curtain and was occupied by its four allied victors (Americans, Brits, French and Russians), food and petrol were scarce and the bombed city was victim to housing shortages. The Black Market drove prices up and cigarettes were worth more than Austrian shillings. But as for living in Vienna? Oh yes. It is my favourite city in the world. I love living in Canada, so I would instead love to live there just for 6 months or be rich enough that I could keep a flat there and commute. Vienna is my favourite. I just love it and I will never stop traveling to it. I missed it during the pandemic lockdowns.
Paulette: I can understand that. The pandemic severely impeded my ability to do on-location research for Parting the Veil, and that’s something I mourn to this day. There was no amount of research that could have replaced being there. Hopefully, we’re getting to a point where we can manage living with this virus and not have it color and inhabit our lives so fully.
Your love of history and the rich details that can only come from dedicated research truly shine through in your work. Can you share a bit more about your writing process?
Rachel: I research extensively and often write all of my descriptive work on-site—weaving it into the manuscript later depending on when I’m on location. I also spend months researching maps and archives and ensuring that the cities and worlds I am painting on the page are as authentic to how they would have been in the period I am writing in. If I am struck by a scene, I write it—no matter how out of sequence it happens. I tend to write every day (including Christmas, honestly) because for the past six years of my life I have always been on a deadline writing in four different genres and because writing is not my day job. Sometimes writing, to me, looks like a 3-4 hour walk plotting and imagining everything in my brain. I am a very cinematic thinker and creator: meaning that I see a movie of the characters and hear their voices and then take to their dictation. It often means that my editor has to spend extra time ensuring that I get my books “Reader Facing” because I inhabit them in my imagination so much.
Paulette: I admire your dedication and your work ethic, so much. You inspire me! I can relate to the cinematic aspects of your process. I am a photographer, which is what I did for a living before the pandemic robbed me of my primary breadwinning career: shooting weddings (the wedding industry is still recovering from the pandemic). I also shoot stock photography—landscapes and architecture are a favorite subject—and I often “see” a scene in my mind’s eye before writing it. I’m an artist first, so setting the scene and atmosphere of a story is one of my favorite aspects of writing. What are your favorite and least favorite aspects?
Rachel: I love when I meet the characters for the first time and when I am new to their world and everything is fresh. I hate the insecurity. I am a VERY self-conscious writer and I hate the point where there are so many loose ends as deadline approaches and I wake up every hour with one more thing to think about. I do know that I am a writer whose books truly become themselves in substantive edits.
Paulette: I feel much the same way—I love revisions and I always keep copious notes/reminders as I go through each stage of edits, yet I still have insecurities that I’ve forgotten something important. I think it’s sort of inevitable that things won’t ever be perfect. As a lifelong perfectionist, that’s hard for me to accept, although I do try to get over myself and not take myself too seriously. Writing a book is something to be proud of, after all, and you certainly have a lot to be proud of, Rachel! Thanks so much for giving of your time and your valuable insights for this interview!
THE MOZART CODE is available wherever books are sold, or you can purchase it online from Bookshop, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble
Rachel McMillan is the author of The Herringford and Watts mysteries, The Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries, The Three Quarter Time series, The London Restoration and The Mozart Code. Her non-fiction works including Dream Plan Go: A Travel Guide for Independent Adventure and A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada and is always reading. You can connect with her at www.rachelmcmillan.net or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.