Hello bookworms! Today I bring you an interview with Trisha R. Thomas, author of What Passes as Love which I reviewed a few days back. If you are looking for a slow suspense and mystery novel set in the 1800s, check this one out. For now, read on about Trisha and her writing journey.
What Passes as Love by Trisha R. Thomas
Historical Fiction
1850. I was six years old the day Lewis Holt came to take me away.
Born into slavery, Dahlia never knew her mother—or what happened to her. When Dahlia’s father, the owner of Vesterville plantation, takes her to work in his home as a servant, she’s desperately lonely. Forced to leave behind her best friend, Bo, she lives in a world between black and white, belonging to neither.
Ten years later, Dahlia meets Timothy Ross, an Englishman in need of a wife. Reinventing herself as Lily Dove, Dahlia allows Timothy to believe she’s white, with no family to speak of, and agrees to marry him. She knows the danger of being found out. She also knows she’ll never have this chance at freedom again.
Ensconced in the Ross mansion, Dahlia soon finds herself held captive in a different way—as the dutiful wife of a young man who has set his sights on a political future. But when Bo arrives on the estate in shackles, Dahlia decides to risk everything to save his life. With suspicions of her true identity growing and a bounty hunter not far behind, Dahlia must act fast or pay a devastating price.
Content Notes include depiction of slavery, extramarital relaitonship, sexual assualt, violence, racial slurs, racism, rape, death at childbirth.
Hi Trisha! Welcome to Armed with A Book and thank you so much for taking some time for me and my readers today. Please tell us a bit about yourself.
Hello, thank you for having me. I first began writing WHAT PASSES AS LOVE about five years ago. I know that seems like a long time, but there were other projects in between. WHAT PASSES AS LOVE was the book I couldn’t let go of. I kept coming back to it out of passion and real love for the characters.
What passes as love is a thought provoking drama about trying to fit in while being true to personal ideals, not societal pressures. When Timothy mistakes Dahlia as a white woman, she reinvents herself as Lily Dove, breaking the familial shackles that were holding her back. How did the idea of this book come to you? What made you want to pursue it?
While I was researching, I found an archived photo in the Library of Congress. The picture was taken in 1861. Three enslaved sisters who could easily pass for white were photographed in their dresses and bonnets. I had so many questions. How were the three of them raised? And by who? Dahlia Holt became my reimagined character, a mixed-race daughter of a plantation owner determined to find her place in the world. I pictured her growing up with dogged determination to be free of the legacy of being owned and enslaved.
I loved the variety of characters in this book and how we, humans, love building alliances based on our similarities. Set in the late 1800s the differences were more pronounced as they were an integral part of the societal system since it divided the people into slaves and owners. Alongside that, What passes as love touches on numerous delicate topics including rape, complicated marriages, civil war, human rights and complications of childbirth. What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?
I wanted to make sure the relationships in the story got the proper attention. It’s easy to be caught up in the historical details and forget about the character’s relationships. There was gross injustice in America in the nineteenth century. Black families were torn apart by brutal deaths or being sold. But that’s not our only story. There were also substantial loving relationships between the enslaved people who lived through this brutal time. They survived. An entire group of people who shouldn’t have survived, did, and I think it was because they had each other. I cried a lot writing this book.
Can you tell us more about the title of the book and how you came to choose it?
The title is multi-dimensional. So appropriate. Dahlia doesn’t know what real love is. She’s only seen it from her view as a child being shaped into servitude. When she really feels love, she realizes how long she’s existed without it in her life. There’s also the passing of the story. That was an added bonus to have the word “Passes” in the title. She’s hiding in plain sight, passing for white.
Bo’s perspective in the story was very helpful and I am glad that you included him! I don’t think I would have been able to paint the picture of what the workers in the kitchen and grounds were going through without him. His relationship with Essie and her character added another human aspect to the story as it exposed our flaws more acutely. Did you always know who the characters were going to be or did they evolve over time?
I absolutely knew who the characters were, but of course they changed over time. As I did research, the more I found out, the more layers were given to each person. Every character in the story has a fully fleshed out history and human point of view, flaws and all. Regardless of whether they’re the good guy or the bad guy, I wanted the reader to understand who they were.
Similar to my last question, did you have the ending in mind before you started writing it or was it something that came about naturally?
I had the same ending from the beginning. How I got there changed a few times, but always the same ending.
What kind of response were you expecting from your readers? What has their response been like?
I, of course, only hear the good stuff. You can’t help but care about Dahlia. She’s compelling and honest. There’s no way out once you’ve met her in those first opening pages. Seeing what happens to her and being fully vested in her choice to run and be free even it means leaving someone she loves behind. Someone that ordinarily may not read this period in history is going to be drawn in by the relationships and emotional connection.
How is What passes as love different from your other books?
Historical fiction offers a chance to create multiple layers of a time frame. Contemporary, which is what I’ve mostly written, is an up-to-the-moment story and is far easier to navigate. Regardless of the landscape, I’ve always given my character’s backstories with timelines to fill in the blanks. It doesn’t matter if they’re the protagonist or villain, I like them to be whole and well-drawn. Where they come from and how they became that person are important facts to add. I want the reader to feel every detail so if they pick up the book twenty years from now, whether it’s written from a historical point of view or present day, they’re in the moment. The only way you can do that is to paint a complete picture. The landscape has to be painted so that no matter how many years later, when you pick up this book you’re going to experience that time period and be connected. I want my stories to be passed down throughout generations.
Reading Experience and Review Link
Many thanks to Over the River PR and the publisher for the gifted copy of the book for an honest review and the giveaway copy of the book.
Cover image: Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash
Be First to Comment