Around my desk are poems, drawings, and cards they’ve given me as they grew up, plus photos of places we’ve traveled.
They are my muses, my sounding boards, my best editors. They read a good number of those 80-plus Hamilton-related books and blessed me with their notes. I wouldn’t have survived that ten-month sprint for Peggy without the help of my adult children who have grown up to be incredibly gifted creative artists themselves.
Readers’ emails and their spill-over creativity so touch my heart. That was done by a young reader in melted crayon, which she gifted me at a bookstore event. Of the non-book things, you may notice the Peggy cover replica. I had to research people around her to find fleeting mentions of “the wicked wit,” “the favorite at dinner tables and balls” woman “endowed with a superior mind and a rare accuracy of judgment.” The best tidbits were gossip Alexander dropped about “my spritely little sister” in love letters to Eliza, which included breadcrumbs to Peggy’s romance with a much celebrated warrior, the Maquis de Fleury. Reading all those books was necessary because nothing is left in Peggy’s own hand. From assignment-(Katherine Tegen astutely suggested I write something about Hamilton)-to completion! I chose Peggy, who pops into the Schuyler Sisters song with that exuberant “And Peggy!”, to be my protagonist because Alexander himself was sacrosanct given Lin Manuel Miranda’s brilliant musical, Eliza was already well covered, and Angelica is a bit, mmm, complicated for a YA audience. That biographical novel was such fun to do, although I had to write it on an insane turn-around to catch the Hamilton wave. Shelf One: The top four shelves here are the biographies, histories, letter collections, and memoirs related to Hamilton and Peggy! A Revolutionary Friendship. They overflow as it is with all the reading I’ve done for my twelve novels. I fought the urge to tidy up for this Shelfie! But I took a deep breath and walked into my office to snap these photos of my floor-to-ceiling shelves. Elliott plus 5 chances to win a signed copy of Louisa June! Elliott on March 22nd, 5 sites will be featuring exclusive guest posts from L.M. To celebrate the release of Louisa June and the Nazis on the Waves by L.M. Welcome to the Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves Blog Tour!
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