Authorpreneur Dashboard – Michelle Rene
I Once Knew Vincent
Literature & Fiction
First place category award winner of the Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction. In 1882, there was an artistic explosion of creativity in Europe. To a poor girl, Maria, and her alcoholic, prostitute mother, Sien, in The Hague, Netherlands, that didn't mean much until one winter evening when her mother brought Vincent Van Gogh to their home. Before his stint in Paris with the bohemian painters of his day, Van Gogh tried for a family life while learning the trade of art. Seminary school was a failure, and his cousin Klee had rejected his romantic advances. He took solace with this poor girl named Maria and her mother Sien, determined to make them all a family. Maria, a hardened, honest girl, becomes Vincent's secret art critic. With an emotional artist for a friend and an alcoholic woman for a mother, Maria burdens herself as the responsible person in the family and tries desperately to keep them together. The short year and a half with Vincent forever changes Maria.
Book Bubbles from I Once Knew Vincent
The Power of Literacy
This excerpt is telling of a time when the ability to read and write was not a skill many poor people possessed. Imagine the advancements that could have been made to their lives if this were different. Maria desperately wants to know the things Vincent knows, but she doesn't want to admit she can't read the little blue book herself. Vincent just assumes she can read because it is like breathing to him. It takes a seasoned and sympathetic man like Mr. Zuijderland to recognize her need. The ability to read changes her life. Imagine how different our current world would be if literacy was valued as a basic human need everywhere.
Snow and Silence
There is something pristine and gentle about snow in places that rarely see it. In this part of the story, I wanted to magnify the emptiness of hunger and the silence of the hungry with the lack of snow during Christmas time. This idea bookends the theme of snow later when the Christmas scene comes to its emotional conclusion.
The Man Missing a Part of His Soul
All of the characters in this book, unlike some of my other books, are all based on real people. Pieter, Sien's brother, was a real person. He is mentioned a little in Van Gogh's letters and is often referred to in a very negative way. Research suggests the family steered clear of him, but why? When deciding his character, I looked at the main character of Sien, a broken woman in most respects. A woman who tried to keep her daughter away from her own brother. Why would she do that unless he was missing a part of his soul. Maybe he was a sociopath.
Is Not a Little Cat a Kitten?
Lots of people have asked me where I came up with the idea of naming Maria "Little Cat". I'd love to say that it was a long, thought out process where I analyzed dozens of possible nicknames, but that wouldn't be true. Maria was so truly herself and unlike anyone else in my mind that she basically told me that Little Cat was her nickname. She was a child in appearance, yes, but her mind and soul were that of a hardened woman. She wasn't a kitten. Just a very small cat.
Meet Maria
Writing the character of Maria was wonderful, heartbreaking and wonderful. I tried to imagine how a little girl raised in such harsh poverty might behave. What traits and coping mechanisms might she use to survive. And then, I slowly stripped all those coping skills away with every one of Van Gogh's works she witnessed.
