S.K. Rizzolo

 

S.K. Rizzolo was born in Aspen, Colorado, but raised in the Middle East where her father was employed in the oil industry. She recalls being awakened in the middle of the night to get immunized when cholera broke out in Tripoli, Libya and was also evacuated along with other American women and children in a C-130 cargo plane during the Six-Day War.

Returning to the United States, Suzanne earned a B.A. and M.A. in English. Currently a high school teacher, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. The Rose in the Wheel, a mystery set in Regency England, is her first novel. Visit S.K. Rizzolo online at http://www.skrizzolo.com

"It's a substantial mystery flavored with historical dialogue in keeping with the era...In fact, the writer offers up the story as if she were there and was simply recounting what she experienced. A splendid mystery in a promising new series." --Brenda Weeaks, MyShelf.com

 

"Rizzolo provides oddly relevant mystery fare..." ---Publishers Weekly

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and were reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

S.K. Rizzolo: My father was an Arkansas farm boy who grew up to work in the oil business, so I was raised in Libya and Saudi Arabia. For all that, I managed to have a pretty sheltered childhood filled with lots of stories and daydreaming. Big influences were books like Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist as well as the works of E. Nesbitt, C.S. Lewis, and Susan Cooper. I was always that nose in book sort of kid who found fictional worlds more real than real.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why do you write?

S.K. Rizzolo: Ask me that as I juggle parenting, teaching, and general craziness, and you may not get a printable answer! I write to have written, I suppose, to fulfill what for me is always the very large, often overwhelming goal of holding that finished book in my hand. I think many writers are themselves avid readers who want to add their bit to keep the written word alive.

Pageonelit.com: Tell us about your novel The Rose in the Wheel A Penelope Wolfe/John Chase Regency Mystery?

S.K. Rizzolo: Set in 1811 London, the novel explores the murder of an eccentric lady philanthropist who is strangled, then run down by a carriage. The sleuths are John Chase, a crafty, crusty Bow Street Runner, and Penelope Wolfe, a young mother whose imprudent marriage has left her largely to her own slender resources. Penelope is drawn into the case when her ne'er-do-well husband comes under suspicion for the crime. The book introduces a large cast of characters from all walks of life such as a melancholic barrister, a benevolent "thieves' attorney," and a common street rat.

So, unlike many Regency novels, this is not a book about the polished, restrained gentry, a segment of society that in actuality represents only a narrow slice out of the range of possible experiences at the time. That's why I made Penelope the daughter of an expatriate radical philosopher and the wife of an artist. She's not of the polite world really, though she is a lady. Her background helps me get away with some rather unconventional behavior on her part.

 

Pageonelit.com: What inspired your book?

S.K. Rizzolo: It all started with a bit of lore I read about St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th century Christian martyr who was bound to a spiked wheel because she refused to marry a pagan emperor. God destroyed the wheel whereupon Catherine, after suffering the more merciful death of beheading, went to her eternal reward.

Anyway, in one particular St. Catherine chapel high above the Dorset coast, there are niches or 'wishing holes' in which young girls seeking a husband would drop pins and recite a rhyme. For some unknown reason, this story fascinated me so much that I had to go all the way to Dorset to see the chapel. In the book, my murder victim, the charismatic Constance Tyrone, revives the St. Catherine legend.

 

Pageonelit.com: What specific challenges did you face in bringing your characters to life?

S.K. Rizzolo: There's a sentence in The Rose in the Wheel: "At dusk in Temple Gardens, the barrier between past and present turned fluid and ghosts walked." I think that's what historical novelists attempt to do: make ghosts walk, resurrect the faint voices of the past. I think the echoes are there, but we have to listen carefully.

That's why London continues to be such an inspiring setting--all those layers of history. Quite amazing for a California person like me.

Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback from readers and book reviewers regarding your books? What do they like about the books?

S.K. Rizzolo: The reviews for the first in the series have been very positive. People tell me the book is well researched and that the characters, especially Penelope Wolfe, are compelling. I am always thrilled to hear that since I try to create characters who accurately reflect their particular historical moment yet who are also accessible to modern readers. For instance, I think readers can easily identify with Penelope's love and concern for her daughter or with her desire to make her own mark in the world.


Pageonelit.com: Tell me about your publishing experience -- The good, the bad and the ugly.

S.K. Rizzolo: When I finished Rose in '97, I was lucky enough to find an agent almost immediately and thought my troubles were over. However, after collecting a stack of lovely rejection letters, I realized that the wheels would not be turning that quickly! A few years later I opted to try smaller publishers on my own and found Poisoned Pen Press. I feel fortunate now to work with such well-respected and dedicated professionals.


Pageonelit.com: What's next?

S.K. Rizzolo: I put my head down and finish the sequel, BLOOD FOR BLOOD, due out in 2003. In this book, Penelope Wolfe becomes a companion to a lady of fashion, a highly unsuitable calling for someone of her temperament. But her mettle is soon tested when one of the footmen turns up with a knife to the heart in the garden. Set in the restless and violent spring of 1812 when the Luddites were on the march and Lord Byron took London drawing rooms by storm, Blood for Blood also touches on millennial politics and religious extremism.

 

Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you read?

S.K. Rizzolo: BLACK DOG by Stephen Booth, a very entertaining read.

Pageonelit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing.

S.K. Rizzolo: Well, my various career and family pursuits keep me extremely busy, but I do enjoy travel, especially to England. Luckily, my husband Michael, another former English major, shares this obsession with me and is also willing to lend his creative spirit to our stories. The last time we were there we retraced the steps of our nineteenth century characters, an amazing experience which, I think, added dimension to the novel.