Today, we are welcoming IN THE GARDEN WITH MONSTERS author Crystal King. Let’s begin with telling our readers a bit about yourself. Where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?
I’m originally from the Pacific Northwest, having spent time in Spokane, Boise, and Seattle, but I’ve called Boston my home for the last twenty-eight years. I’m currently working a pesky day job, but one I’m fortunate to also love, teaching social media and AI for a tech firm.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing in some form or another since I could hold a pencil. My mom has a box with poems and stories I wrote from when I was five. But I began writing novels in earnest starting in 2012. It took me a bit for my first book, Feast of Sorrow, a novel of ancient Rome, which was published in 2017.
What does your typical writing day look like?
I write or edit every morning for an hour first thing when I get up. It’s the one way to make sure I’m making consistent progress. On weekends when I have more time that often extends by several hours. And if I’m working on some really heavy edits under deadline, I’ll try and fit editing in between everything else I’m doing that day.
Tell us about your latest release? Where the idea came from? Perhaps some fun moments, or not so fun moments?
In the Garden of Monsters is a wild retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth set in 1948. It is told from the point of view of a model that Salvador Dalí brings to the Sacro Bosco, a Renaissance-era garden of stone monsters an hour north of Rome.
I came to the idea in an interesting way. Back in the middle of the pandemic, I was struggling to sell a novel about a Renaissance meat carver. “Renaissance historical fiction isn’t selling right now,” I was told (mere weeks before Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait hit the bestseller list). I was discouraged. This sentiment also didn’t bode well for the book I was writing about an obscure Baroque steward, Antonio Latini. I was lamenting about the whole thing on Zoom with an author friend, Kris Waldherr. “If I were going to write something that would actually sell, what would it be?” I remember her tilting her head in thought. “Well, gothics are hot right now (says the author of the gothic masterpiece Unnatural Creatures).” And I thought to myself, hmmm. If I were to write a gothic, what would I write?
Immediately, the location came to me. And if you’ve read many gothics, you know it’s all about the location. I had been to the town of Bomarzo, an hour north of Rome, a couple of years before, completely on a whim only because it was near Caprarola, which I was visiting for my work on that Renaissance meat carver book. In Bomarzo is a spectacular Mannerist garden of sixty-six stone monsters called Il Sacro Bosco, or the sacred wood. It has a fascinating history which begins in the late 1500s, then pauses for nearly 400 years when the whole garden is abandoned and overgrown, then rediscovered by poets and artists in the early 20th century, and in particular, Salvador Dalí, who visited in 1948. In the 1950s a couple bought it and restored it for the public to visit. The garden is certainly beautiful, magical, strange, and somewhat creepy, but looming above it on the hill is the medieval palazzo, making it an extra perfect setting for this ghosty story.
Who has been the most difficult character for you to write? Why?
Salvador Dalí was a bold choice of character for me to tackle. In today’s world, he would have been canceled in two seconds. He was narcissistic, misogynistic, and racist, and he admired the power (not so much the actions or policies) of dictators like Hitler and Franco. But he was also extremely charismatic, fascinating, entertaining, and highly influential. I had to walk a fine line in demonstrating his problematic side with everything else about him that made him one of the most important—and interesting—artists of the twentieth century.
If you could be one of your characters for a day which character would it be?
That’s tough! Crazy things happen to my characters and I’m not sure I want to be in their shoes. But maybe Lillian, Julia’s best friend, whose indomitable spirit I love.
What’s your take on research and how do you do it?
I love research and it’s part of the reason I write novels that have some historical fiction element to them. I’m fascinated with history and how we humans have tackled (or not) all sorts of challenges throughout the eons. Before I begin a novel, I read voraciously, and spend a lot of time on the Net, gathering information. I store up factoids and ideas in a few places: Evernote, My Mind, and Scrivener. I work in tech so technology is my friend in managing all the details.
Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write?
I read so much and so widely that it’s difficult to say. But I have long admired authors like Margaret George, Italo Calvino, Catherynne Valente, V.E. Schwab, and Haruki Murakami. Wait, there is one writer who has made a big difference for me—M.F.K. Fisher. Her food writing was what inspired me to go down the path of writing novels with a central theme of food (including In the Garden of Monsters!)
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
Not terribly secret because I talk about it a bit, but people are usually shocked that I can read as fast as I do, 800 words per minute or so. I can easily read a book a day if I have the time to do it. Books are sort of like candy to me. I can never get enough! But being able to read so much has been very helpful for me in the world of social media and marketing, as well as all the research I need to do for my books.
Your favorite go-to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
Ice cream or gelato! It’s my favorite indulgence and greatest weakness.
What is your writing kryptonite?
Shiny things? Seriously, I am easily distracted, so I need a space where I can really focus and music playing to keep me from being pulled into other things.
You said food is a central theme of your novels. Do you have recipes that accompany your books?
Yes! On my website, crystalking.com, I have free companion cookbooks available for download. I work with food book bloggers, chefs, and food historians to recreate the recipes. And of course, there are some of my own recipes as well. The In the Garden of Monsters cookbook includes recipes inspired by various eras in Italian food history as well as some interpretations of dishes found in Salvador Dalí’s 1973 cookbook, Les Dîners de Gala. Recreating the recipes in my novels has been one of the most enjoyable parts of my author life.
Oh, recipes! That is awesome.
Thank you very much for joining us today, Crystal. Readers, here’s quick look at IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS which releases today!
A woman with no past. A man who seems to know her. And a monstrous garden that could be the border between their worlds…
Italy, 1948
Julia Lombardi is a mystery even to herself. The beautiful model can’t remember where she’s from, where she’s been or how she came to live in Rome. When she receives an offer to accompany celebrated eccentric artist Salvador Dalí to the Sacro Bosco—Italy’s Garden of Monsters—as his muse, she’s strangely compelled to accept. It could be a chance to unlock the truth about her past…
Shrouded in shadow, the garden full of giant statues that sometimes seem alive is far from welcoming. Still, from the moment of their arrival at the palazzo, Julia is inexplicably drawn to their darkly enigmatic host, Ignazio. He’s alluring yet terrifying—and he seems to know her.
Posing for Dalí as the goddess Persephone, Julia finds the work to be perplexing, particularly as Dalí descends deeper into his fanaticism. To him, she is Persephone, and he insists she must eat pomegranate seeds to rejoin her king.
Between Dalí’s fevered persistence, Ignazio’s uncanny familiarity and the agonizing whispered warnings that echo through the garden, Julia is soon on the verge of unraveling. And she begins to wonder if she’s truly the mythical queen of the Underworld…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Crystal King is the author of In The Garden of Monsters, The Chef’s Secret, and Feast of Sorrow, which was long-listed at the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and designated as a MassBook Awards Must Read. A social media and AI professor by trade, her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language, and culture of Italy. Crystal has taught writing, creativity, and social media at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, and GrubStreet. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and former co-editor of Plum Ruby Review, she holds an MA in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston. You can find her at crystalking.com.
