Angélica Lopes: On the Importance of Research in Historical Fiction

Angélica Lopes is a novelist, screenwriter, and journalist from Rio de Janeiro with over 20 years of experience in writing fiction. Her dramatic vein came from writing Brazilian soap operas, known worldwide for attracting millions of viewers daily. She is also an award-winning author of YA novels and has written scripts for cinema, TV series, and comedy shows. The Curse of the Flores Women is her first adult novel and was sold for translation in France and Italy even before being published in her native Brazil. Follow her on Instagram.

In this interview, Angélica discusses the process of writing her new historical fiction novel, The Curse of the Flores Women, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Angélica Lopes
Literary agent: LVB&Co
Book title: The Curse of the Flores Women
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Release date: July 24, 2024
Genre/category: Drama/Historical
Elevator pitch: Eighteen-year-old Alice fights against the female oppression in Brazil when a family veil is passed down to her and she discovers it hides a secret code in the stitches of the lace about a case of domestic violence that happened 100 years before with her ancestors.

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I wanted to talk about a group of oppressed women who find a clever way to bypass the surveillance of their husbands: They invent code in the lace to send secret messages to each other through tablecloths, blankets, veils … I combined this initial plot idea with the desire to talk about the land of my ancestors in the interior of Brazil. A place and a time when conflicts were always resolved in a violent way.

Four years, including the pandemic. As I was stuck at home, I was able to discipline myself to finish the book, which was already halfway done in 2019. Without the lockdown, it would have taken me an extra year or two since I work as a screenwriter and my workflow is intense. For literature, my time is different. I need to be in a very specific mental state of serenity to dive into the text.

I added some unplanned layers during the writing process. The initial idea was to tell a story of violence that occurred in the past with which today’s young woman could identify herself. I want to show that, despite progress, women continue to be victims. As I wrote, I chose to weave the narrative with quotations of some current cases of violence to reinforce the theme. Another decision that helped convey the idea of connection among women was to have a pair of characters in the central plot: the narrator and protagonist. The story of the Flores is not about one. It's about all.

One of the surprises was the interest from other countries that arose even before the launch in Brazil. It shows that the theme of violence against women is universal and needs to be debated. People want to think about the subject.

Since the story talks about lace makers, I wanted to learn to embroider to understand the movements and subtleties of behavior among women who work with threads. In my opinion, a writer of historical fiction should research the period to recreate the environment with verisimilitude, but also cannot risk becoming too expert in the subject to the point of limiting our creativity. It's a balance.

I hope readers get to know a bit of Brazil and identify with the feeling that we are all interconnected by bonds of affection and ancestry. No one is alone. The book tends to show that we are tied to other people in a straight-line of past, present and future, but also sideways, like lace, that spreads around.

My advice is to write without expectations or future. The paths of our fictions are beyond our control. The only thing we can do is make them concrete. I see many people with the desire to write but needing a plan and some prior guarantee. Write. If someone ever reads it, you did what had to be done. By focusing on the activity, it frees the writer from the pressure of performance that limits our art.