Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write a novel about Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday? Fiona Davis: I got an email from a former Rockette who was in her 80s and suggested the building as a location. We got on the phone and she had so many wonderful stories, I knew I had to do it.   Jen: What was your research process like for this novel? And, what’s something fascinating you uncovered along the way? Fiona: I interviewed a number of Rockettes, some who danced there in the 50s and 60s, some later. I got a terrific backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall, and read as much as I could about the era. I was surprised to learn that in the 50s, Radio City was a movie house, and the Rockettes performed four times a day in a stage show that was based on the movie’s theme, doing up to 600 kicks per day.    Jen: What’s happening in nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks’ life, causing her angst? Fiona: Marion wants to be a professional dancer, something her father is absolutely against. Marion’s mother, who wanted to be an actress, died when Marion was a little girl,…

Jen Vido: What inspired your new book, THE MAGNOLIA PALACE? Fiona Davis: THE MAGNOLIA PALACE was inspired by the Frick Collection, a museum in New York City that was home to Henry Clay Frick (an industrialist and art collector), and his family. I loved that it was both a residence and a museum, which works well with a dual-timeline novel. Some of the characters are real people – Henry Clay Frick and Helen Frick, his adult daughter, in particular. And some are fictional, like Lillian, who’s inspired by a celebrated artists’ model from the 1910s named Audrey Munson. Audrey posed for the reclining nude figure that’s carved above the entrance to the Frick mansion. In 1919, what happens in Lillian Carter’s life that lands her in the Frick mansion? Lillian has been struggling in her career as an artists’ model since her mother died earlier that year, and then was accused by the police of being part of a sordid love triangle after her landlord killed his wife. (The scandal is drawn directly from Audrey Munson’s real life.) Early in the book, Lillian is staring up at the image of herself in the Frick’s doorway, wondering what’s going to become…

Jen: What inspired you to write THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE? Fiona: At author talks and book signings, readers often suggest New York City landmarks they’d like to see featured in my novels. The New York Public Library came up repeatedly, so I figured I’d do a little research into its construction and history. I learned that when it opened in 1911, the superintendent lived in a seven-room apartment deep inside the library with his wife and three children. The idea of a family living in this monument of marble that’s filled with books struck me as a perfect setting for a novel, and I was up and running–although I created a fictional family for the story.  What is the catalyst behind Laura’s decision to apply to the Columbia Journalism School?  Laura, the superintendent’s wife, has been living in the library for a couple of years, and feels stifled and lonely–it’s not like there are any neighbors to chat with or borrow milk from, as there would be in a regular New York City apartment building. She’s been writing a column about her life raising her two children in a library for the employee newsletter, and when she hears that…

What inspired you to write The Chelsea Girls? I met an actress in her nineties who started telling me what it was like in the New York City theater world during the McCarthy era, and I realized this was a story that very few knew. As I dug into the research of that period, I was struck by how many actors and directors had had their lives destroyed by a misguided witchhunt, many of them at the very cusp of their careers, which means we don’t know the plays or performances that were lost because of McCarthyism. I wanted to tell that story. The Chelsea Girls takes place during the 1940s to 1960s. What is the most fascinating thing you learned while researching this time period? The book takes place at the Chelsea Hotel, and I was surprised at how many famous people had stayed there over the years. The poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death there, and artists like Jackson Pollock and John Sloan called it home. Then you have all the rockers: Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious. Playwright Arthur Miller sought refuge there after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. The list goes on an on, and…