Author Sarah Penner becomes deep with her research – even participating in a seance

Sarah Penns Like to get out of the library when examining their engulfing historical fiction books, far out of the library.

The pen behind the best seller 2021 The lost pharmacistThe London Seance Society And the coming Amalfi curse (Out April 29) has gone clay in London, participated in a seance and explored a shipwreck all in the research name.

“When they pick up a book, (readers) want that feeling of in -depth, but they do not necessarily want things they have already done, because then your depiction of it can in some way conflict with their,” the author told People. “And so in some ways it is an opportunity to only introduce the reader through my words to that experience without having to leave their sofa.”

Penner’s books are known for its realistic details, the Step-back-in-history feeling that comes only from careful research. But the author, who began to write as a way to fulfill her creativity while working a desk, prefers to get her hands dirty to look at artifacts in museums.

“When you are out in the field on your own, nothing is behind glass and you have to compile what you think is interesting,” she explains. “I have to be the own curator for my own experience. And that’s part of what I always liked about this.”

It does not mean that she has not also found inspiration in the more conventional way, including a very special book that she discovered at British Library when researching The lost pharmacist. “It was this pharmacy journal from the 18th century, and I remember seeing part of a thumbprint on one of these old pages. On another side there was part of a Tas pressure that someone’s cat went over it,” she says. “And I just remember thinking, I keep this log that is literally 300-400 years old. I may have been the last person who opened it. And it’s just a really fantastic connection to this person I will never meet.”

While some writers start with a character and build the story around them, Penners often begins with inspiration that she gets from her own travel. “For me, novels always start with a sense of place, so I’m in a place that really speaks to me,” she says. “I am curious about the area in the area, so I’m starting to investigate. But then my imagination begins to cross and say, ‘Oh, I could see that it is happening here, it is happening here.’ So I am very inspired by a sense of place. ”

And sometimes, going even deeper into these places helps her meet her own fear along with the characters she creates on the road. In preparation for Amalfi curseWhere her protagonist is a nautical archaeologist who moves to the Italian village of Positano to investigate some mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast, she and her husband spent a lot of time under the water themselves.

“We got (scuba diving) certified about ten years ago in Kansas in all places,” Penner says with a laugh. “But we have dived all over the world. We love Florida Keys … We have dived in Thailand, Cozumel, all kinds of really fun places in the Dominican Republic.” But she does not discount the danger in the sport. In fact, is a scene where her protagonist gets problems with a dive based on what the self -described “nervous diver” admits scares her about the sport.

“I think part of writing the scene that I described very close as my own deepest fear,” she says. “Call it the deepest form of immersion therapy.”

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So where will Penner’s adventure take us next? No spoilers, but she releases her map for future opportunities.

“I would like to set a book in Edinburgh or Prague, but I would also like to go much different than maybe Antarctica or the distant tundra in Alaska,” she says. “I would love to go to South Africa and see some of the Saharan deserts. And then New Zealand and Australia. They are also on the bin list, so it will be really interesting to see where my future stories stop taking me.”

Amalfi curse Hits shelves on April 29 and are available for pre -order now, wherever books are sold.