Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer -- Behind the Scenes!

A little bit about the book -- and the killer queen

Here's the official book description, in case you haven't read it yet: 

Colette Iselin is excited to go to Paris on a class trip. She’ll get to soak up the beauty and culture, and maybe even learn something about her family’s French roots.

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place across the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours museums and palaces, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks suspiciously like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her popular, status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they uncover a shocking secret involving a dark, hidden history. When Colette realizes she herself may hold the key to the mystery, her own life is suddenly in danger . . .

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So. The first question most people ask me about this book is, why Marie Antoinette?

Well, actually, that's not true. The first question is usually, "So it's like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but with Marie Antoinette?" And the answer to that is, no, not really. It does have the element of a historical supernatural angle, but the book takes place in modern-day Paris, stars a modern-day girl, and isn't based on a classic work. There just happens to be an angry ghost roaming around Paris, mysteriously murdering people. 

Now, back to the other first question: why Marie Antoinette? 

To me, she's practically the perfect antagonist. When I write ghost stories, I like to give my ghosts a backstory that makes their motivations clear and understandable. I want the reader to feel sympathy for the ghost, in a way -- not that it's okay to go around cutting people's heads off (for the record, my stance on that is a big old NOT OKAY), but that given what she went through, it's not surprising that she would become an angry ghost after she died.

Marie Antoinette grew up in Austria and was sent to France when she was just 14 years old. She married the future king and was immediately caught up in a bunch of political ceremonies and rules that forced her to act like someone she wasn't comfortable with. At every turn, she was watched, judged, and criticized. She was distrusted just because she happened to have been born in a different country. 

As she got older, she tried to find a balance between being herself and being the woman the public expected her to be. She lived a life of luxury and excess, but she was also a loving mother and a devoted friend. She gave generously to charity and liked to spend time away from the main palace building in her little "village," pretending to be a simple villager.

Eventually, the public rose up and overthrew the monarchy. Marie and her family were captured, and she and her husband were condemned to death. 

What strikes me about her story is how totally relevant it is to what we all go through every day -- the pressure to fit in. The pressure to do and say the right thing. The pressure to be the right person and please everyone around us, while ignoring who we are and what we want in our hearts.

Right away, I knew I could build a story around a ghost who was so troubled -- and a main character, Colette, who on some deep level was experiencing the same type of judgments and stresses in her own life. On the surface, she seems spoiled -- people at her school see her as rich and popular. What kind of problems could she possibly have? 

But the truth about Colette is a lot like the truth about Marie Antoinette. There's a lot more to her than meets the eye. And as she heads to Paris, she has no idea just how much she's going to learn about herself.