Madeline Martin has been at the top of the recent Historic Novel sales charts in the past few years with her bestsellers and book club favorites, The Last Bookshop in London and The Secret Book Society. Yet these two stand atop a repertoire of more than 40 books that have captured readers in three different genres. We are privileged to have had an hour of her time to share her history, her inspirations, her very unique research process and the new books that are on their way!
Jackie: So tell us about your love of history and how it came to be.
Madeline:
Growing up, my dad was in the army, and so that meant that we moved around all the time. We actually did three different tours in Germany. So we were first in Darmstadt and then in Herzberg and then in Bad Kreuznach. When we lived over there, my parents very much embraced living in Europe. So, we went to all of these amazing historical sites. You will never find anybody more passionate about history than somebody who works at a historical site. I grew up really getting to see these beautiful places that once existed, now crumbling ruins in some cases, some of them completely refurbished and redone. But the tour guides would just be so effusive as they were sharing the history of all these places. I remember just walking around and looking at the walls and thinking, gosh, if these walls could really talk. I think that just really seeped into me and at its root made me absolutely, 100% a history lover.
Jackie: So tell us about your love of history and how it came to be.
Madeline:
Growing up, my dad was in the army, and so that meant that we moved around all the time. We actually did three different tours in Germany. So we were first in Darmstadt and then in Herzberg and then in Bad Kreuznach. When we lived over there, my parents very much embraced living in Europe. So, we went to all of these amazing historical sites. You will never find anybody more passionate about history than somebody who works at a historical site. I grew up really getting to see these beautiful places that once existed, now crumbling ruins in some cases, some of them completely refurbished and redone. But the tour guides would just be so effusive as they were sharing the history of all these places. I remember just walking around and looking at the walls and thinking, gosh, if these walls could really talk. I think that just really seeped into me and at its root made me absolutely, 100% a history lover.
Jackie:
Well, from one who also loves history like you do, I certainly understand that passion. How did you start writing and what drew you to write your early books?
Madeline:
I’ve been writing for over 20 years, and my very first book idea came to me was when I was on maternity leave with my oldest daughter, who is now 20. I was reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, which is just such a fabulous series. I really loved that dichotomy between the brawny Scotsman and the feisty Sassenach. I thought that that would be something that would be fun to write about. So, I started writing romance. I wrote two romances, and then I went to a writers group meeting when I was hugely pregnant with my second daughter, who’s now 16. An author I met exchanged books with me. I realized the woman was very nice–this had nothing to do with her — but I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I had stories, but I didn’t really know how to write them. I’ve always been very type A, perfectionist. I basically stopped everything that I was doing at that moment, and I spent the next five years learning everything that I could about writing. I would read books on the craft of writing. I would go to conferences. I would listen to workshops on CDs, which will kind of tell you how long ago that was. And at the end of those five years, that’s when I wrote my first romance, and I submitted it to a couple of friends. They read it and said, “oh my gosh, this is really good.” You should submit it to some nationwide contests. So, I submitted it to three and then I finaled in all three. I won first place in all three. The next conference that I went to, I pitched to my dream agent, and she signed me. That was really how I got into writing.
Jackie: That’s a fantastic story. Thank you. So, you did all that while maintaining a corporate career as well as raising kids, running a household,etc. How did you manage to do all that and still turn out over 30 of these romance novels?
Madeline: No sleep. (laughs) It’s not really the answer that most people want, but that’s honestly the answer people get because that’s the truth of it. When I went to college, I really didn’t feel like “real people” could become authors. So, I didn’t think about going to school to write. I had my degree in business administration, and I minored in economics, political science and accounting. I ended up becoming a business analyst. I did SQL code where I pulled in financial data and did analysis. That was my day job.
My daughters were in everything. For a few of those years, I was even a single mother. I honestly would wake up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning and I would work before they would get up and go to school. My work is writing. If I was stuck in line at the grocery store, I would pull out my phone and start working on a scene. If I got an idea while I was working, I’d pull out a post it note and just jot down little memos for myself. The weekends that the girls were with their dad, I worked the entire weekend on writing. All of my vacation time pretty much ended up going toward conferences and that kind of thing. I just really was passionate about learning how to write and how to write that next book.
The way I ended up writing full time is because I was writing for a small press, and then I moved on writing for Harlequin Historical. Then, I realized that I could make more money if I wrote historical romance self-publishing. But with self-publishing, you have to put out a book every month or two. I still had my day job AND I was writing a book every other month. I wrote six to eight books a year, had my full time job and had my girls. At this point I was married. I kind of saw the writing on the wall at work where people were being laid off, and I told my husband,” I think that if I get laid off, I would like to just write full-time because I’m tired.” At that point I had written over 30 books and I was making some decent money from it.
When I tell you I would never take a sick day, I mean I would literally be working with a bucket next to me! Or it would be like, ” I have to edit five pages and then I can take a ten minute nap.” When I tell you it was like this for a decade, I mean I was always writing. So, I did end up being laid off from work — and I know is horrible to say — but I was so relieved because I really did need a break! I thought, “This is going to be so nice because I’m going to have the house to myself, I can focus, it’s going to be quiet.”
That was February, 2020. The pandemic happened three weeks later. But that’s what gave me the opportunity to really dig in and start writing my first historical fiction. Because working a full-time job and having to keep up with an every-other-month release is impossible, especially with historical fiction because of the amount of research that it really does take. So having this time, even though everybody was home, gave me the opportunity to do the full research that I needed for The Last Bookshop in London. And — little spoiler alert — ten months of severance does not equate to ten months of living expenses!
I will say that I am so immensely grateful for the success of The Last Bookshop in London. In fact, when I found out that I hit the New York Times with that one, I was driving my daughter to dance. My editor called and he was on speakerphone and he said, “I just want to let you know that you hit….” And I’m thinking, oh no, he’s going to say USA Today bestseller list. My best friend had just called me earlier that day to tell me about that one. But my editor said, ”You hit number eight on the New York Times!”
That was just amazing! Over 35 books at this point, writing and working for over 15 years. I never thought that I would hit the New York Times. I was thrilled and stunned. But I actually went home and I did laundry because mom-life doesn’t stop. However, I did have a celebratory glass of wine with it.
Jackie: Well, congratulations. Breaking through is no easy task. And especially when you’ve been in the trenches for so long.
Madeline: Oh yeah, I was definitely in the trenches for a while.
Jackie:
So you seem to have had three distinct periods. Those three periods are your historic romances, your book focused books — and that includes The Book Lover’s Library, The Librarian Spy, Keeper of Hidden Books, and The Last Bookshop in London, which was an international blockbuster. And they’re all set in and around World War II. Then you started on this new sequence, which was The Secret Book Society, with something slated later for this year, A Time for Witches, that seemed to be more in historical times when women were repressed by society for who they were. Tell us about your evolution as a writer and how and why you moved from period to period.
Madeline:
I have to be honest with you — I love all history! So after I’ve done a little bit of history for a while, I start thinking, what can I write about this? What can I write about that? I’ve always been fascinated by the Victorian time, so I knew that I really wanted to delve into that particular time period.
I will say that with World War II historical fiction — and I don’t think this is a secret because I read my reviews and I see people talking about books — honestly, there’s been a bit of World War II fatigue going on. The industry is quite glutted with World War II historical fiction. Even myself, there would be so many times where I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I have this amazing book idea. I found this incredible thing that nobody’s ever talked about.” And then I open Publisher’s Marketplace and there’s a deal for that particular book and that particular topic, and it’s like,” Ahhhhh.”
Everyone was kind of talking about how they were wanting different historical fiction. I thought it was funny because the different historical fiction was the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, which I feel is slightly rude, because it doesn’t feel like historical fiction to me. But I guess that’s just how I know I’m getting older.
I will go as deep in history as people will let me because there are so many different time periods that I want to research. I’m deeply fascinated by the early stuff. While everybody is having all these 50s, 60s, and 70s ideas — I wrote this Victorian. It really was just a lot of fun to write.
As far as my next book, which is called A Time of Witches, that one’s coming out September 1st. It’s my first dual timeline. It is set in the 1600s in England during the witch trials, which have always fascinated me. I’ve always been fascinated by the American ones, but again, I grew up in Europe, so, of course, the English ones have me by the heart.
The opening begins in Savannah, Georgia, which is a lovely area. I’m so fortunate to only be two hours away in St. Augustine FL. I had the opportunity to go and visit both places—both Savannah and England.
With A Time of Witches, I used to have this recurring dream when I was in high school that I was being burned alive at the stake. Follow me for more sleeping tips! (laughs)
As a very dramatic teenager with an overactive imagination, I was thinking to myself, “What if this was me in a past life? What if this was an ancestor? What if somehow I’m bound to them and I’m having these dreams because that’s what happened to them?” And that is exactly how this book unfolds.
It opens with Lilith being burned alive at the stake every single night. I’ve been wanting to write this book forever, and every time I would bring it up, people would say, “Witches really aren’t in.” Going back to Publisher’s Marketplace, I saw all these witch book deals going on, and I was like, “Now is the time! I want to write this book!” It’s been 25 years percolating in the back of my mind.
Jackie:
So that’s really a wonderful assessment of the chronology. ”You’ve talked about a couple of the inspirations for your books. What are some of the other inspirations that have launched your books?
Madeline:
I think The Secret Book Society was a really fun one. It’s 1895, which is a time when women are very much discouraged from reading. Men in society felt reading leads to promiscuity. They felt like it was a selfish endeavor that took women away from their roles as wives and mothers. Books also gave women opinions that differed from the men in their lives. How dare they? They really didn’t want women reading at all.
Yet, there were secret book societies and newspaper societies. Generally, it was cost-prohibitive because people were pooling their money and bringing in books that they could all share. I thought, what if it wasn’t cost– but rules — that were keeping women away from the joy and opportunity of reading? And that’s where the idea for The Secret Book Society came from.
I’ve also always been fascinated by “hysteria” and lunatic asylums in that particular time period — how women could be so easily swept away and locked up. So I knew I wanted to tie that into the book as well.
I started researching and I found what I like to call my anti-Cinderella story. It is basically a true story about a man who was having an affair with his wife’s niece, which is disgusting. She protested, as one would, of course. As one did in the Victorian era, the husband swept his wife away to a lunatic asylum to shut her up and get her out of the way.
She’s in this carriage going to the lunatic asylum, she sees a boy on the street and she throws him some money and says, “Tell my friends that I’m being taken.” And he says, ”How will they know it’s you? How will they know I’m telling the truth?” Thinking quickly, she takes off her boot and throws it out the window. He takes this boot to her friend’s house and says, “Your friend has been taken.” Her friends were able to hire a solicitor who specialized in women who were wrongfully admitted to lunatic asylums, and they freed her. Which is an amazing story, especially for the Victorian time.
I was just blown away! So, in The Secret Book Society, it opens up in Lady Duxbury’s drawing room with the street urchin holding a black kidskin boot with rose embroidery along the laces, and he says, “Your friend has been taken.” So, you think you know who it is, but maybe you don’t?
That was really a huge part of the inspiration for The Secret Book Society.
Jackie:
So let’s talk about this international craze for bookstores, libraries and all things related to books. Why did people really flock to this subject matter? Is it something that you think has run its course? Please give me some insight into this.
Madeline:
I don’t think it’s run its course yet. I do think it gets confusing when you think about the names of the books because admittedly, I have messed up the names of my own books because there are so many books, bookstore and library titles. I am right there with you.
But here’s the thing. Writers have been writing about readers since the dawn of time. If you think about Anne of Green Gables, her head was always lost in stories. If you think about the March sisters in Little Women, they were all readers, and Jo was a writer. We’ve always been writing about readers, because at our core and in our heart, we are readers. Of course, we want to write. They say write what you know. That’s a huge part of what we know. We know what literature feels like. We know what story means to the soul. And it feels so organic to write that kind of story, where you do have something that is fixated on an author, a reader, books, libraries and bookstores.
Libraries and bookstores are safe places. They are places where people gather. They are places where knowledge is shared. They are places where people can escape. Especially during World War II — and during times of great upheaval, books represented hope. They represented resistance. They represented education. They represented freedom of thought.
I think during the pandemic, when The Last Bookshop in London came out, people were craving connection. They were craving comfort. They were craving stories about resilience. And, a book about books during the Blitz, where people are gathering together and reading aloud and finding solace in literature — I think that just really struck a chord.
Also, bookstores and libraries are inherently romantic. There’s something about the smell of books, the dust motes in the air, the quiet turning of pages. There is something very nostalgic about it. And nostalgia is powerful.
I don’t think it’s run its course yet. I think it might shift. I think it might evolve. But I do think that readers will always love stories about stories.
Jackie:
So I understand that you did a deep dive into the London Blitz for The Last Bookstore in London. Let’s talk about how you do your research. Whether you go to these places. What’s your process?
Madeline:
I try to have at least 100 nonfiction books for every book that I write. I don’t always read them cover to cover because they don’t always have all the information that I need throughout. I would if they did, I assure you of that. But sometimes it’s only a chapter. Sometimes it might even only be a paragraph.
It’s funny, if you had told 15-year-old me that bibliographies would matter at some point in my life, I’d have said, “Nobody ever even looks at bibliographies; you’re lying!” But today, I love a good bibliography. And that’s usually how I start off, because a lot of times the articles that I read will have bibliographies and sources at the bottom. And that the first tap into the vein of research that just unfolds all of these amazing rabbit holes for me to go down.
Whenever I get the okay to start a new book, I think my mail people hate me because we have the community mailbox and they bypass that completely, bringing those opaque U.S. Postal Service boxes right to my door. When they just drop off all these boxes of books, they know I’ve got another book coming.
For me, I just really love to read those resources. They have so many wonderful first-hand accounts. They have all these statistics and facts. They have real deep-dives into the psyche of people on both sides of what’s transpiring.
It’s fascinating. So, a lot of my characters are never really built necessarily on one particular person in history. They’re amalgamations of all of these different first-hand accounts that I consume while I’m reading these nonfiction books.
However, I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on location to do research for these stories, as well.
I didn’t do it with The Last Bookshop in London because I wrote that during 2020, and that was the heart of the pandemic. Nobody was going anywhere. In fact, it’s so weird to even think about the entire world being shut down. There was no going to England.
With that book, because of living in Germany for so long, I had gone to England many times. Admittedly, a lot of it was in my early 20s, and I can’t necessarily say that bookstores were the only thing on my to-do list while we were in England. There were a lot of pubs! (laughs) But I did always visit bookstores in the UK, and I love the musty, dusty ones that had haphazard piles that seem to make sense to nobody else but the owner. I really made Primrose Hill Books from that aesthetic and vibe.
I got to Warsaw for two weeks for research for The Keeper of Hidden Books, a story that is based off of these incredible journals that I found that were written by Warsaw’s public librarians during World War II, citing their efforts to save books from Nazi destruction — and also to operate secret libraries when all of the public libraries were closed in 1942.
I went to Lyon, France, the heart of the French Resistance during the War. I was at the museum for so long that the security guards started to follow me around. That’s how you know you’ve been there for a very long time!
I also went to Lisbon, Portugal, and both of those, Lyon and Lisbon, were for The Librarian Spy, which was based on American librarians who were sent to neutral countries to gather literary intel during World War II. When I went to Lisbon, the tour guide that I ended up hiring, her grandmother was 101 years old and viscerally remembered when all the refugees were coming into Portugal. She was such a wealth of information while I was writing about this particular time period.
I’ve been under the caves in Nottingham, England for The Book Lover’s Library. I’ve had some really incredible experiences, and I try to bring all of that into my books to hopefully make for an evocative experience for the reader.
Jackie:
So let’s talk about your early works. You have a series, your whole romance and historical period for the historic romances: Border Ladies, Borderland Rebels, Highland Passions, Wedding a Wallflower, Matchmaker of Mayfair, The London School of Ladies High, Heart of the Highlands, andThe Mercenary Maidens. Were you a romance reader besides Diana Gabaldon? And what drew you to these periods, regions, characters? Did you travel to those historic locations in Scotland?
Madeline:
I read romance all through high school, probably way earlier than I should have. I think that’s a lot of us. It was something that really was very intriguing to me. I thought it would be an interesting thing to write. I love the idea of these two broken people having their arc together and both finding a way to help one another heal, and really at the end of it — being whole people at the end.
These are all written in very different time periods. Delving back into what I was mentioning earlier about how I love history and I love learning about different aspects of history, some of them are medieval. Some of them are set in the 1700s, and others are set in the Regency era. I really had fun with it.
Before I started writing in each one of these individual time periods, I did about a year’s worth of research to make sure that I was writing period-appropriate. I absolutely did get to go to Scotland and to England to do research for all of these books, as well.
Jackie:
So what’s your writing routine? After all, you still had a very young family, as you said, and you did some of that when you were a single mom. But now you’ve got not only your two daughters, you’ve got what you have said in your bio, two spoiled cats and your current husband, Mr. Awesome. So how do you write and manage a family? You said that at those times, you were working late into the hours, but what’s your process in terms of just writing an individual book?
Madeline:
Well, the funny thing is, I’m still up at 4:00 in the morning because after you’ve done that for over a decade, you can’t just decide to turn it off. Your body is compliant. I wish there were times that I could actually sleep in later than I do, but if I ever sleep in up to six or something, the cats are like, oh, mom’s dead, and they start freaking out.
So honestly, I do get up early. I get a lot done before my daughter wakes up and comes downstairs. My daughter is 16. My other daughter is 20 and she’s living on her own now. So, I try to get stuff done before my daughter wakes up.
I will say one of the hardest things that I have to contend with now is that I travel about 40% of the year doing various speaking engagements and book festivals and teaching workshops and that kind of thing, which is absolutely wonderful! I’m so incredibly grateful that I have the opportunity, but I’m not going to lie that that travel does sometimes make it difficult to be able to do everything that I need to do.
To that effect, I have to say that the real hero is my husband because he’s the one who stays home and makes sure that everything goes smoothly, that the cats are well taken care of, that the teenager has everything that she needs.
A lot of my time is also committed to research, about ten months’ worth. A lot of it is making sure that I always have my research book and a couple of notebooks tucked away with me when I go on these trips, and I just read and do a lot of notes.
I’m working on one right now. I have my notebook where I keep all my of my pertinent research, and I usually have about 15 notebooks by the end of my research. Honestly, I had an interview one time, and they asked how much of that makes it into the story. I think its maybe 30%. I’m immersing myself in everything that I possibly can read about that particular time period because I want my soul to be living in it, so that when I’m writing these stories and writing these characters, I’m basically in their heads, in their skin as I write.
When I go on a research trip for usually two weeks, it’s incredible because I’m able to get so much more wonderful information. Then when I come back, and start working on my characters.
They say that if you want to know what happened in history, you read nonfiction. If you want to know how people felt, you read historical fiction. I try very hard to put a lot into my characters. In fact, odds are if there’s more than a couple of lines on the page, I have a full dossier on every one of these characters. A lot of them have character arcs outside of just the protagonist. They’ll have their own subtly unfolding background, as well.
It’s funny because I was at a book club one time and a woman asked, “Well, why did this one character not do this?” And I said, “She would never do that!” She responds, “That’s so funny. It’s like she’s a real person or something.” And I said, “I guess that’s because to me, I know everything about them. I know their hopes and dreams. I know their family life, how many siblings they have, their parents or grandparents. I know everything!”
So now that I’ve done the research, I start working on the outline of the book. I usually develop about 25% of the length of the book as a full outline. That’s how long it takes. Then I write the book in a month. I’ve been percolating with all of these ideas for so long, it just pours out of me.
I liken it to readers. If you read a book and it’s so good you can’t put it down, you read it over the course of a weekend. At the end of that weekend, you can viscerally recall every aspect of that book, from what the character wore to what they ate, to that snappy little one-liner they gave to the antagonist.
For me, it’s the same way. If you had taken six months to read that book, it would be a completely different experience. When I write the book in a month, I’m still in that moment. I’m living in that character’s world.
Jackie:
You alluded to your being out in the world. You’re incredibly active on social media, bookstore appearances, and with book clubs. A lot of authors just write their books, maybe do a few book signings, but they aren’t as engaged with their audience as you seem to be. So, tell us why this is important to you, besides selling books, and why you’re so outwardly facing.
Madeline:
I love the book community. It really means so much to me. I’m a reader myself. I love to talk to people who have written books that I love. It’s wonderful to get to meet other readers. It’s so kind of them to come and see me at these different events.
I love to support independent bookstores and libraries by doing these appearances. I try very hard to make sure that any bookstore I’ve ever communicated with, get book plates that I’ve can signed. If anybody has a bookstore that they know and love would like to have book plates from one of my books, please have them reach out to me. They can reach out to me at MadelineMartin.com on the contact me form. I love to send signed book plates. Anything that I can do to support local independent bookstores and libraries — and just reading and literacy overall — I love it!
Jackie:
You’re also engaged in the writing community. I noticed that you’ve been active in the Romance Writers of America, and you and I met at the Historical Novel Society of North America. So tell us how that supports or influences you.
Madeline:
I think it’s so important to never stop learning. Being part of these organizations really helps because I get to take amazing workshops there. And I can help share the knowledge that I have gleaned from so many authors who have helped me in the past.
It is my hope that every single book that I write is to the best of my ability at that time, with the hope that the next will be even better.
I’m getting my MFA in creative writing right now because when I went to college more than 25 years ago, I never really thought about doing anything about writing because I didn’t feel it was a real job. Now that it is my real job, I am indulging in getting my MFA in creative writing. I have two more quarters left. It’s really wonderful because my professor for this quarter is Megan Church, the author of Mad Wife. She’s absolutely amazing.
I work with book coaches on a regular basis, as well. I read through my reviews, and I try to find areas where my writing is deficient. Then I locate book coaches that specialize in those areas. I reach out to them and focus on making that skill stronger.
Jackie:
It’s impressive that you still are seeking new ways to improve your writing when you are already an international bestselling author. You talked about doing presentations and workshops. What are some of those about and how can people find out about them?
Madeline:
It’s about anything anybody wants me to teach. Usually if somebody is asking me to teach something, I say I can pretty much teach anything because I’ve done small press, I’ve done independent publishing, I’ve done traditional publishing. I’ve done so many different things, spending over 20 years actively learning the entire time.
I do have speaking engagements where I’m the guest for the luncheon. I talk about my writing career and whatever book that I’m working on. I speak on all kinds of things, honestly. Or for a keynote or a closing, whatever the case may be.
I am with Authors Unbound, which is a wonderful speaking agency, and they coordinate a lot of my speaking engagements. I also have a contact me form on my website where people can reach out for speaking, libraries and bookstores.
Jackie:
You’ve told us a little bit about A Time for Witches. Where are you going next? Or at least can you hint about the time period?
Madeline:
Yes. I’m actually going to go back to the Victorian period. I really love to learn more about lower classes in history. I feel like there’s so much about the upper echelons, the wealthy and the nobility. I really love to learn more about the working class. These women I’m writing about are from the working class. I’m writing about a women’s reformation home, set on the moors. It’s inspired by some of the Brontë sisters’ works and there may be a visit from Lady Duxbury if I can work it just right. It’s called The Forgotten Pages and it’s coming out probably fall 2027.
Jackie:
Readers, you heard it here first! Thank you, Madeline!
