How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Emily Franklin's website.
When I began this novel about the life of Isabella, Stewart Gardner, I kept coming back to the idea that she evolved into the art collector/museum, founder/Boston, scandalous society person from her beginnings as a social outcast. Initially, the novel was called Becoming Isabella. However, once I had finished writing the novel, I realized that unless a reader knew who Isabella Stewart Gardner was, the title wouldn't mean all that much. I also realized that I wrote about this woman in the 1800s becoming herself as Boston was becoming the city it is today, so I wanted to ground the story in a location. The entrance to the Gardner museum is flanked by two Lions, and there's a story of Isabella parading two Lions down Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Once I incurred the novel title in Boston, the lions quickly followed. The Lioness of Boston is truly about a woman finding her own voice and...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Lioness of Boston.
Q&A with Emily Franklin.
--Marshal Zeringue
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