Liz Tolsma has worked as a teacher and an advertising copywriter. She is currently a stay-at-home mom. Her novella Under His Wings released in September 2011, in Barbour Publishing’s novella collection A Log Cabin Christmas. She makes her home next to a cornfield in Wisconsin with her husband, Doug, and their three children, all adopted internationally, one of whom has special needs.
In this interview, Liz talks with us about the latest book in her Ever After Mysteries Series, Slashed Canvas.
FF: What inspired the story in your book?
I was presented with the idea of being one of the authors in a series of fairy-tales-turned-1920s mysteries, and I was intrigued. When the person who approached me about joining this collection mentioned using a fairy tale like The Lost Princess, my mind immediately went to a princess who had to flee the Russian revolution for Paris. The story took off from there.
FF: What can you tell us about the main characters in your book?
Princess Katarina is very spoiled at the beginning, being part of the Russian nobility. She never had to do anything for herself, and that includes raising her two girls, who are very spoiled. Stick with her. You and she will both discover that there is more to her than meets the eye.
Georges is a wounded vet from the Great War who is working as a janitor in the Louvre. He’s trying to put his life back together as well, and his calm, practical manner is the perfect foil to Katarina.
FF: Which character surprised you the most?
Well, the kidnapper actually did. For most of the book, I didn’t know who had taken Katarina’s children. I sort of solved the mystery as the readers did, though I did settle on who had done it a little earlier than you may guess. That was a lot of fun to write that way.
FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?
Because stories are all things we can relate to. We speak to each other in stories, whether it be how our days were or what our plans for the future are. In the events and characters of stories, we can see ourselves. A well-written character will resonate with a reader long after the book is finished, and that’s usually because that character touches a place of truth deep inside a reader.
FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?
My faith is so intertwined with who I am that I can’t not tell stories that aren’t colored by it. It’s impossible for me to leave God out of my books because He’s such a part of my life. Whether it’s a more overtly “Christian” book or one that’s more subtle, you’ll always find a faith thread in my stories because that’s who I am.
Slashed Canvas
Ever After Mysteries Series #8
Liz Tolsma
Celebrate Lit Publishing
Genres: Historical Suspense
Release Date: January 31, 2022
ISBN-10: 1951839498
ISBN-13: 978-1951839499
Book Summary:
Held prisoner by all she’s lost, Katarina’s about to lose all she has.
Princess Katarina Volstova barely escaped the Russian revolution, arriving in Paris just before the birth of her twin daughters. With her heart still captive in her homeland, she haunts the Louvre each day, spending hours gazing at one painting, lost in her pain.
Not the man he once was before the Great War, Georges Velvey hides himself away doing janitorial service in the Louvre and watching the beautiful woman whose pain seems riveted on one painting.
When Katarina returns home to find her daughters and their nanny missing, the loss opens her eyes to all she has to lose now.
Frantic to find her girls, her distress causes Georges to offer his assistance. Together they put together clues to a puzzle they must complete before the kidnapper ensures Katarina and her daughters are never reunited.
Slashed Canvas offers a retelling of The Lost Princess that mingles self-centered grief, spoiled little girls, and proof that nothing will stop a mother from saving her children.
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