Interview with Anna Godbersen
By Rebecca, jelliellie, Stacy Reeve / Spinebreakers Crew
We sent some questions across the Atlantic to Anna Godbersen to find out how luxe she was as an author.
Here's what she said:
Questions from Stacy Reeve
1) When you've had a bad day what do you usually do to feel make yourself feel Luxe again?
It’s not terribly glamorous, but I like to take a yoga class and see the sunshine. Some girls like to get fancy when they’re feeling blue, but I like to make it real simple.
2) Which item of clothing do you adore?
This little flapper style dress with spaghetti straps that’s made out of two slightly different shades of black silk with some lace detail at the bodice. It’s not vintage, but it’s made with tremendous care and detail the way things used to be, and I feel so delicate and girly when I put it on, even though I’m really neither.
3) What are your top tips to aspiring writers?
The most important thing for an aspiring writer to do is read all the time. She should be ambitious and diverse in her selections, but unafraid to question the authors’ choices and wonder about why and how they tell their stories and construct their sentences. She will learn a lot that way.
Questions from Rebecca
1) Do you think the world is Luxe enough and if not what do you think we have to do to improve that?
The world is full of ways to acquire luxury, and no wonder. We all want comfort and beauty for our lives. But I think the way to achieve that is small scale and very individually—otherwise we’d all be wearing the same ridiculously priced shoes, and that’s no fun!
2) What has been your Luxest moment?
I haven’t had so many, but it was very exciting to have this gigantic picture of myself in Page Six Magazine, which is the glossy Sunday arm of the famous New York gossip column. They cover movie stars and moguls’ wives… and me!!!
3) Where did you get your inspiration from and what prompted you to write about that particular part of history?
I chose the gilded age because I wanted to write about a moment in time that was very glamorous but also somewhat buttoned up, so that the scandal and the rule-breaking could be below the surface and have some secret urgency to it. For inspiration, I read a number of old memoirs and etiquette books of the time period, as well as more recent histories and novels that have re-imagined the era. I am lucky, because there’s a lot to work with!
Questions from jellyellie
1) You’re a young author. How did you go about getting The Luxe published?
Before I started on The Luxe, I ghostwrote young adult novels, and that gave me a lot of practical writing experience as well as bringing me into contact with editors. By the time I came around to doing me own book I was pretty familiar with the process, and that helped a lot.
2) Which Luxe boy takes your fancy?
Sadly for me, I have always been a sucker for a troublemaker. If I were living with my own characters, my heart would probably belong to him.
3) Which Luxe girl do you identify with the most?
They all have little pieces of me—even Penelope—but I think the character I identify with most is Lina. I know this sounds terrible, because she does some pretty wicked things, but the quality she has of being dissatisfied with her life and wanting to make it more beautiful, and screwing up but still carrying on, I really see myself in. And also Diana of course, who is long on imagination and short on morals in the way many an aspiring writer can be.