Rebecca Dharlingue (Spoken Label, October 2023)

The latest Podcast from Spoken Label (Author Chat Podcast) sees us return to meet an returning friend, the wonderful Rebecca Dharlingue to chat about her new novel 'The Map Colorist'.

Rebecca advises " In writing my first novel, The Lines Between Us, I returned to an early love, Spanish literature, which I studied in graduate school. The idea of setting part of my novel in seventeenth-century Spain, their Golden Age of literature, offered me the chance to explore a time and place with which many readers are unfamiliar, and to show some of the challenges for women particular to that time and place.

For my second novel, I decided to stay in the seventeenth century, as I find it fascinating. I wanted to show a woman doing something unusual for the time, and I hit upon the topic of cartography. In my research I soon learned that Amsterdam was the capital of map-printing at that time, so I had my setting. It was while I was exploring that world that I came across the work of map colorists. My protagonist was born.

I have worked in hospital administration and as a teacher of English as a Second Language to adults. I have been lucky to be involved with the same monthly book group, sharing our enchantment with literature, for over thirty years. I live in Oakland, California with my husband, Arthur, where we are fortunate to frequently spend time with our children and grandchildren.

I am member of Paper Lantern Writers, an author collective, and the Historical Novel Society."

Rebecca's Website which contains details of where to buy her book is https://rebeccadharlingue.com/