Q&A with Evelyn Vaughn

LOST CALLING is a riveting first book in a series entitled The Madonna Key. Filled with excitement, action, and quick wit, the author blends Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon into one heck of a kick-butt female protaganist named Caterina Dauvergne, a museum curator who will stop at nothing to unlock the secret of the Madonna Key.

RITA award winning author,Evelyn Vaughn, joins us today to talk about her latest book.

*****Q&A******
Q: What inspired the Madonna Key Series?

A: As with any group project, The Madonna Key didn’t come from any one source. However, for me, the initiating element was the fact that I love to collaborate with other authors. I’d had an incredible experience collaborating on the “Family Secrets” series from Silhouette, but a diminished experience on the “Athena Force” series, during which neither of the authors who’d written connecting books was particularly available. I thought: I want to do a continuity series with other authors who truly want to play well together. And the only way to have some control over which authors participated was to create our own series.

At about the time I was coming to that conclusion, my editor Natashya Wilson—a Senior Editor at Silhouette—noted in a chat that she would love to see something with “Dan Brownesque twists and turns.” So I contacted another Bombshell author, and she suggested a mutual friend of ours, and it blossomed from there.

More details about them in the next question;)

As for where the idea came from… I’d already been playing with the idea of doing a Grail Keeper book about Catrina and Rhys, in which the “goddess” was the mysterious Black Madonna figure of medieval France. So that ingredient came pretty easily. I’d also written a fantasy story, “Ecliptic” in the anthology CONSTELLATION OF CATS (w/a Von Jocks, ed. Denise Little), which set up the idea of a hidden group of goddess-worshipping priestesses awaiting the Age of Aquarius to reemerge. Other authors suggested there be a “motherhood” theme, and a faction trying to control nature. And so it went!

Q: In the beginning of Lost Calling you make a dedication to all the authors and contributors to the series. Can you tell us more about what went into making such an elaborate storyline?

A: The first author I contacted was Vicki Hinze – I’d never officially “met” her, but online she was a major cheerleader for the Bombshell line, and I was impressed by her enthusiasm and marketing savvy. The mutual friend she immediately suggested was Lorna Tedder; although she hadn’t written for Silhouette in some time, she’s active in small-press publishing, and she did a beautiful short story for an anthology I edited several years back called WORDS OF THE WITCHES, so I quickly agreed. The three of us took the first two weeks creating the basic concept—the weather control, the Marian priestesses, the European setting, the Age of Aquarius—and agreed upon the idea of a mosaic that had to be reformed. Two weeks later was the Romance Writers of America’s national conference, so I invited Jenna Mills (one of my favorite collaborators from the “Family Secrets” series), Sharron McClellan (a Bombshell author also writing lost-history thrillers), and Barbara Samuel, who writes for Silhouette as Ruth Wind. Barbara had to bow out after a few weeks, because of other obligations. The remaining five of us went to work on refining our series idea, specifically how the overarching plot would develop through each book and what twists we could plant. If you’ve only read LOST CALLING, you’ve only scratched the surface of the twists we have planned!

After we’d sold the idea to Silhouette, Cindy Dees—who was already making a name in Bombshell with her Medusa books—was brought in to fill the slot we’d intended for Barbara. Then Vicki Hinze discovered she, too, would be unable to juggle the Madonna Key with her other obligations, and suggested Carol Stephenson, who writes legal thrillers, replace her. Though they were late-comers, they also influenced the flavor of the series… really, we kept refining the series until the final book was written and submitted. And a few early authors went back and made minor changes in the galley stage, to help us pull off some last-minute tweaks in the later ones.

Q: How long did it take you and your conspiring sisters to make the outline/ bible? What kind of discipline did you use in creating the story and how much of a team player do you have to be to work with other authors?

A: This was a much bigger project than any of us expected. It was just over two years between the initial concept, and my first e-mail to Vicki, and the submission of the 7th book!

The first e-mail to Vicki was in July ’04, when the line was brand-new. The original five of us submitted the basic proposal to Silhouette in September ’04, and our editor told us they’d like to see a more polished bible and individual proposals in October. By May ‘05, all of us who would be writing a book had been contracted, and I finished LOST CALLING in the fall of ’05.

The main discipline involved consisted of being available to the other authors—everyone had responsibilities for individual projects to juggle with our Madonna Key work—and trying to keep the storyline straight. Luckily, Sharron McClellan created an excellent spreadsheet that helped with that angle! And yes—to write a continuity series well, one really has to play nice with other authors. We ran into some pretty big snags along the way! Most were caused by some form of miscommunication, but there was also a little power jockeying and some fear reactions. Some authors can accept change very easily. A couple, however, found that once they had their story idea hammered out they did not want to consider any more changes, even those that might improve the series.

Since then, Cindy Dees and I have done a workshop at the Romantic Times conference on how to collaborate on a continuity series, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” in hopes to smoothing the way for other authors with what we learned! :)


Q: What aspect of doing a big project like the Madonna Key series was the hardest? Simplest?

A: The hardest part was dealing with personality issues that were amplified by the stress of deadlines and individual careers. Absolutely.

The simplest part? Hmm… I’m not sure any part of it was simple! We’ve exchanged over 4000 e-mails back and forth between us, pertaining to different aspects of the series.

Q: How did you convince your agent/ editor that the time had come to take on such a big project?

A: You know… that part wasn’t so hard. My agent knows that I love collaborative writing, and that I love series. I suspect she cringes a bit about it, but she does know and accept it in me! J The idea was just so timely that when our editor took a look, she got excited as well. She’s been a major support for the series, from the very start.

It probably doesn’t hurt that I used to work in the corporate world, and I know what a good business proposal looks like. I submitted the original proposal for the series not so much as a “synopsis” but as a business idea, citing the popularity of “lost history” thrillers such as DAVINCI CODE, ANGELS & DEMONS, and RULE OF FOUR and emphasizing how perfect this idea was for the Bombshell line in particular.

Q: In LOST CALLING, your heroine is a curator/ archeologist based in Paris who stumbles upon a buried historic site containing religious artifacts. How much research did you have to do to learn about the profession, the region and the artifacts discovered/ discussed in the book?

A: I did a little research into being a museum curator back when I wrote Catrina into AKA GODDESS, so that came in useful with LOST CALLING as well. But yes, I did a humungous amount of research on Paris, Southern France, and the French Revolution. My number-one research source is the Internet, where I found great “virtual tours” of the Paris catacombs and real-estate listings with pictures that provided the ideas for Catrina’s apartment and farmhouse. I also used a lot of museum websites to find medieval artwork on which to base that which Catrina discovers. My second best research source was my television set, especially since I have Tivo—I was able to create a “wish list” for terms like “Paris” and “French Revolution,” and thus taped a series of specials off the History, Discovery, and Travel channels about elements that would appear the stories. But of course there’s no substitution for books, when you want to go in-depth. Of particular use was a collection of first-hand accounts by women involved in the French Revolution, called BLOOD SISTERS, and a companion book for visiting the Cluny, which I found online.

Q: When you took on the subject of the Madonna Key, a supposed relic that may or may not have to do with Mary (can't wait to find out as I read more of the series which Mary it is), were you afraid you might touch on some controversial issues with the Catholic religion?

A: Yes, we were J But I think our concern ended up being a strength. Because we were aware from the start of possible controversy, we were able to take extra steps to neutralize that whenever possible. For example, while there really are medieval Black Madonnas all over Europe, we deliberately modified the Black Madonna of the Marians to include a key, a jar, and a sword. So far, I’ve never seen a real Black Madonna with that iconography, which allowed us to subscribe to her a history that—while it might be true of all Black Madonnas—doesn’t have to affect any reader’s true beliefs. Another deliberate “counter-offensive” we made probably isn’t obvious in LOST CALLING, but will become increasingly obvious as the series progresses and the historical background focuses on earlier times. We created a powerful group that we present as insinuating itself into the power structure of the medieval Catholic Church. Then we blamed everything for which the Catholics have gotten bad press, from Inquisitions to supposed Nazi support, on them.

I also hoped that Rhys would be a mitigating factor in any possible slights to the Church. Although he’s left the priesthood, and his behavior isn’t without sin, I tried to write him as having a heartfelt respect for the church, and for his own lost calling. Even Catrina’s memories of her early Catholicism were, I hope, fairly positive. It was her grandmother and her own rebellious nature that drove her away from her faith, not any horrible experiences with priests or nuns.

Q: In the story the main character, Catrina Dauvergne, is a cynic from start to finish. Where did you find her voice and how did you maintain it throughout the story?

A: Here’s where I’m going to get a little weird on you. ;) I believe that characters are real entities. Not that they are necessarily real PEOPLE—few individuals can tell the difference between imagination and reality better than those of us who spend all our free time in the worlds of fiction! But real, nevertheless. There’s a magical concept called “thought forms,” which poses that the more strongly you imagine a make-believe figure, and/or the more people who imagine a make-believe figure, the more actual energy or reality that being takes on.

I told you it was weird! But think about it. How many of us recognize the name of James T. Kirk (fictional) over the name of our Secretary of State (real)? How many of us can easily picture Kirk in our heads? He has a kind of reality, and my favorite writing is when my own characters take on a similar reality. I like nothing better than being surprised by what they say or do, even as I’m first imagining it! Those moments are more like writing-as-channeling, without any of the spooky overtones of disembodied spirits.

Catrina was one of those characters who sprang from my head fully formed. When I was first writing AKA GODDESS, I had planned merely to have a French museum curator who would double-cross my heroine. At first, before I actually got to that part of the book, I pictured a man. But I was trying not to male-bash in AKA GODDESS, and it seemed important to show a woman as a bad-guy at some point. So I created Catrina—and as soon as she walked “onstage,” she was very much herself. I enjoyed her snide commentary and questionable morals so much, I had to bring her back for extra conflict in HER KIND OF TROUBLE. That’s the point at which I noticed how easily she ticked Rhys off—Rhys, who normally doesn’t get angry over anything. It was inevitable, after that, I [had to] see what happened when I threw them together.

There was in fact a predecessor for Cat’s voice. I used one similar to hers to write a series of fantasy stories for my own entertainment, back before I ever sold. I’ve since only published that character once, however, as a short story called “Nothing Says ‘I Love You’ Like the Kiss of Cold Steel” in the fantasy anthology VENGEANCE FANTASTIC (w/a Von Jocks, ed. Denise Little). This is not to say that Catrina is that character, but the earlier character gave me practice in developing a voice that would later become Cat. FYI, one of the tricks I used to keep her sounding French was to avoid contractions whenever possible, since international speakers are rarely as comfortable with contractions and slang. It’s actually a trick I’d used for Rhys, in the earlier Grail Keeper books, but I gave Rhys more contractions in LOST CALLING so that he would sound more English in contrast.

Keeping her voice consistent throughout was mainly the outcome of continual editing.

Q: In Lost Calling, the artifacts discovered belong to a "book club" called the Marions. Who are they and why is the discovery so coveted that an unknown group is willing to kill to cover it up?

A: Hmm… let’s see how much I can tell you without giving away any secrets.

I’ve been fascinated with the role of literary salons in 17th-and 18th-century France for years, ever since I wrote my Masters Thesis in graduate school and found out that the bestselling author of the 17th century (Mlle. de Scudery) was a woman and wrote romance novels. Since I try to incorporate things that fascinate me, I based the Sisters of Mary on similar salons—I mainly used the term “book club” to counter the hair-salon image we get nowadays, when we hear the term, and to clarify the parallel between their intellectual gatherings and the current popularity of book discussion groups.

What differentiates the Sisters of Mary from other salons is that they are apparently a continuation of a group of women who were devotees of the mysterious Black Madonna figure. Unfortunately, by the 18th century, they had forgotten much of what the Black Madonna stood for, which is something other Madonna Key books will explore in greater detail. But apparently, that connection was still strong enough to frighten some very powerful people into hiding all trace that these women existed and charge a fairly simplistic family (the Grimauds) with keeping watch on their hidden tomb, throughout the generations, with horror stories of what they represent.

Q: Curious to know the connection between the modern day heroines and the Marion women of the past. What made the Marion women so strong and does their spirit now lie with the heroines featured in the Madonna Key series?

A: The most obvious connection is that the modern-day heroines feel called to uncover the secrets of the historic Marians. But there’s clearly a psychic connection as well.

Q: How many books are in the series? Titles/Authors?

A: There are seven books and one novella in the series. The novella-prequel (“False Idols” by Jenna Mills) is a free online read available on the eHarlequin website:

http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/onlinereads/readsIntro.jhtml?pageID=060606rs01001

The seven books of the series are:

LOST CALLING, by Evelyn Vaughn (July 06)
HAUNTED ECHOES, by Cindy Dees (Aug. 06)
DARK REVELATIONS, by Lorna Tedder (Sept. 06)
SHADOW LINES, by Carol Stephenson (Oct. 06)
HIDDEN SANCTUARY, by Sharron McClellan (Nov. 06)
VEILED LEGACY, by Jenna Mills (Dec. 06), and
SEVENTH KEY, by Evelyn Vaughn (Jan. 07)

Q: What can we expect to see throughout the rest of the series?

A: Each book will focus on a different, equally strong heroine—for example, HAUNTED ECHOES is about Ana Riesner from Interpol, and DARK REVELATIONS is about Aubrey de Lune, the art thief, both of them introduced in LOST CALLING. All the books have got references to or appearances by characters from other books—we always ran our “shared” scenes by the others, so that each character’s true author could “tweak” her to ensure consistency. As the series progresses, you will get a better picture of exactly who the bad guys are, and what they want, and why danger is increasing. We tried to write in quite a few major twists. Also, in each book the reader will see an earlier time period from the Marians’ history. In HAUNTED ECHOES, you get a glimpse of 16th-century Marians. In DARK REVELATIONS, the period revealed is the time of Joan of Arc. By the last book, SEVENTH KEY, we’ll be in the first century BCE. Everything should be answered by the end of that book.

Q: You will be writing the last book in the series. Are Catrina and Rhys going to reappear?

A: The reason I wrote the first and last books was to avoid the change of tone that sometimes results from a continuity series being ended by a different author than the one who launched it. But I didn’t want this to be Catrina and Rhys’s series—and, frankly, I had trouble choosing between whether to write them or my favorite hero/heroine from my other Bombshells, Maggi and Lex. So SEVENTH KEY will feature Maggi Sanger-Stuart and her new husband.

That said, Catrina and Rhys will absolutely reappear. In fact, every single freaking one of our characters from all six previous books will play a role in SEVENTH KEY J It took some juggling! I particularly enjoyed seeing where Cat and Rhys would be, a year later. Also, there’s still some bad blood between Cat and Maggi, which was fun to write.

Q: Lost Calling is not your mother's traditional romance. (Honestly, I hesitate to call it a romance. The action was intense! Lost Calling could have been mainstream.) How would you describe it?

A: You’ve got good instincts. In the romance market, LOST CALLING would not be considered a romance—when I enter it in the RWA’s Rita contest, I will enter it in the “novel with strong romantic elements” category, instead. This is one of the things which made the Silhouette Bombshell line significantly different from other categories at Harlequin/Silhouette. Instead, they were action/adventure novels with a romantic subplot. In a true romance, there will generally be as much emphasis on the hero as on the heroine, the love story must be the primary plot, and the ending usually has a stronger HEA (“happily ever after”) than Rhys and Catrina’s agreement to live together. In the Madonna Key books, the adventure is the primary plot and the heroine is the focus (which we achieved in part through using first person). I deliberately made sure to keep Rhys out of the final scene, to clarify that balance.

Sadly, Bombshells may have been too mainstream for their own good. Category readers were confused by the lack of a primary romance, and mainstream readers had trouble finding them on the category shelves. We just got news this month that Silhouette will be discontinuing the line. Luckily, it turns through January—which is also the last month of the Madonna Key miniseries.

Q: What advice would you give an aspiring writer when it comes to writing an action/ adventure story?

A: I’d suggest you watch a lot of action/adventure movies and take notes—they certainly know how to do it! Try to make sure you have some action, or at least an immediate threat, hit every other chapter or so. Engage the senses whenever possible—action is a physical thing—and keep your sentences and paragraphs brief when writing an action scene, to intensify the pacing. Whenever possible, use your setting, like the threat of a flood in the catacombs, or the heights of Notre Dame. Action isn’t just about fighting.

And good luck!


The winner of LOST CALLING is Patrizia Hayashi!