Introducing Louise Fein: From Barn to Bestseller - A Special Guest at Our Naxos Reading Retreat

We're delighted to welcome acclaimed author Louise Fein to our Naxos Reading Retreat this May. While her next novel "Book of Forbidden Words" won't be released until early 2026, Louise has generously shared some fascinating insights into her creative process, writing life, and what inspires her captivating historical fiction.

In this revealing Q&A, Louise takes us behind the scenes of her writing journey—from her unique workspace in an Elizabethan barn (complete with seasonal temperature challenges!) to the unexpected friendships that have enriched her life as an author. She walks us through how she develops her compelling ideas, beginning with a theme that evolves into the all-important "hook" that forms the backbone of her novels.

Her forthcoming book "Book of Forbidden Words" promises to be a masterpiece of historical intrigue, following an encrypted manuscript across 400 years from the dangerous streets of 1550s Paris to the paranoid suburbs of 1950s McCarthy-era America. Inspired by the real-life Voynich manuscript that remains undeciphered to this day, Louise has crafted a tale of three women facing worlds where the spread of ideas is feared and suppressed.

Read on to discover Louise's ideal writing routine (and how often real life interferes), her practical advice for aspiring authors, and why she sometimes has to pull over while driving to capture fleeting moments of inspiration!

Q1· What's the most unexpected way your life has changed since becoming a published author?

Two things spring immediately to mind. Being able to work in my pyjamas, although I rarely do, I feel is a big bonus. Secondly, I have acquired a whole new set of friends which was entirely unexpected. I’ve found other authors to be incredibly friendly, supportive of each other and for people who work alone, a surprisingly sociable lot. I have made life-long friends and have had some wonderful book and writing related times with them, which definitely makes up for the solitary aspects of a writing life.

Q2. How do you start writing a book? With an idea for a plot? A character? A setting?

I’m actually at this point right now! I’ve finished the main edits on my next book, Book of Forbidden Words, which will be out in early 2026, and while I wait for the copy edits to arrive in about a month’s time, it is the perfect time to work on a new idea. For me, I generally have some sort of theme in mind, which I turn into a question, from which comes the hook. The hook (I’ve found through experience) must be the starting point, because it is the thread that runs through the whole novel, like a backbone. For example, for my last book, written at a time when we have all been thinking about ways artificial intelligence might impact our lives, I wanted to write about a time in history when a similarly monumental technological advancement was made. I landed upon the printing press, and the years of violent religious warfare that followed.

The protestant reformation could not have happened without the printing press and the new era of mass media it enabled. It led me straight to the matter of book banning, which remains an issue today, as well as in the sixteenth century. I had the nub of a question/hook – the tension between what a person might do to be free to publish what they want, and how far might someone go to prevent that? Of course, the story (and the hook) moved on from that and is now much improved, but that was my starting point.

Next, I begin to research around that initial hook, to find my story. That is followed by writing an outline. This process will take me several weeks as I hone the concept, re-write the outline and refine the story. I usually end up with around a ten-page outline which sets out the skeleton of the story, characters and plot. Whilst the early drafts of the book will see changes from that outline, the basic story does not usually vary all that much from my original concept. I find it enormously helpful to have the outline in place before I start writing the book, as I know what happens in the ‘sticky middle’ and it keeps me on track.

I have a lot of ideas for novels which I keep jotted down for (hopefully) future use. However, mostly I know they won’t come to anything because for an idea to stick and turn into a book, there need to be a lot of elements that fit into place and work. For me, at least, coming up with a workable idea is a process. It doesn’t just pop into my head fully formed. It’s often weeks and weeks of thinking, research, writing and trying things to see what will work.

Q3. How do you like your coffee?

In a large mug, very hot and with oat milk!

Q4. How long does it take you to write a book?

On average, I would say from the start of working on an idea to finishing all the edits on a book, around 18 months. To actually write a first draft of the novel once I have a decent outline, is around six months. I will then rewrite that at least another couple of times before my third draft is ready to send to my agent and editor which for them is my ‘first’ draft. The time that takes is also dependent on how much research is necessary for the writing. I do a good deal before starting, but it is always the case that some specific or more targeted research is needed when working on later drafts.

Q5. Where do you do your writing? At the kitchen table? Study? Café? Sofa?

I do vary it a bit, because sometimes I write at the kitchen table, or even (hence the pyjamas) I have been known to write in bed on weekend mornings! But my designated writing space is in an Elizabethan barn. This sounds fairly grand, although it is a lot less so in real life. We live in a very old mill house and the barn was where they used to store machinery. The people who lived there before us converted it to a workspace where they used to do embroidery. It does have plug in heaters, but it is generally freezing in the winter and hot in the summer, but the thing I love is that it is quiet and a few steps away from the house so I can kid myself that I’m ‘going’ to work which is a good way to focus and not allow myself to engage in procrastination techniques – convincing myself I must clean the house first, or sort out the washing.

Q6. You have a new novel coming out in early 2026! Can you tell us about it?

Book of Forbidden Words is the story of an encrypted manuscript which unleashes a chain of consequences that echo across 400 years. From the dank and risky backstreets of 1550’s Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of 1950’s New York, three women, Charlotte, Lysbette and Milly each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared, and every effort is made to suppress them.

1552, Paris: Against a backdrop of religious turmoil, suspicion, and paranoia, the printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives one day at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with a manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas.

1952, New York: Milly Bennett, lonely and unmoored, is a seemingly ordinary housewife with a secretive past. Balancing the day-to-day boredom of keeping house and struggling to find her way with the other mothers at her children’s school, she finds her life taking an unexpected turn as conspiracies spread amidst the paranoid clamours of McCarthy's America. When a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, she is reluctantly pulled into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.

Q7. What inspired you to write this book, and how did the idea first come to you?

My original inspiration for this book was, as explained above, when thinking about what might follow in our current times, with the implementation of artificial intelligence, by looking back in history to a time where there was a seismic change caused by a technological innovation (in this case, the printing press). But this idea further developed when I stumbled across a real, 240 page manuscript called the Voynich manuscript which is kept at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts library at Yale University. This actual manuscript is around 600 years old, and to this date, despite numerous attempts to decipher it, its contents remain a mystery. I wanted to set my novel at a time when the printing press was making a big impact – the early 16th century. It was a tumultuous time which resulted in the protestant revolution and the birth of the modern era. There was a huge amount of fear and attempts to stifle new ideas through book bans and the hunting of heretics.

I set the second timeline in 1950’s America because once again, it was a time of intense fear, bordering on hysteria, at the threat of communism and the end of the American way of life. Once again there was a raft of book bans and mass arrests on the haziest suspicions of people holding communist or even liberal or left-minded ideals. My character, Milly, is tasked with the job of deciphering this manuscript. Of course, with the real manuscript upon which my fictional one is based remaining unencrypted, I had to invent what the contents might feasibly be. I also had to research and design a method of encryption which could have been authentic. It was enormous fun and there will be graphics in the book!

Q8. What’s your ideal writing routine, and how often does real life interfere with it?

My ideal writing routine would be to begin work in the early morning when my brain is freshest. I would take a break mid-morning to walk the dog and think through any knotty plot issues or just to let the work I’ve done so far settle. Fortified with a large coffee, I would continue until early afternoon when I would then break for perhaps two or three hours which I find are my least productive time! I would then perhaps catch up on some admin or fit in some exercise. If I could then do a couple of hours before the finish of the day, that would be ideal. I often have another good writing session between four and six when I seem to have a second wind!

Real life rarely looks like this. I am usually on taxi duties for the family. Someone has a crisis and needs rescuing, or something always comes up which means my plans for the day must be ditched. I have to work, by necessity, at different times of the day – perhaps early morning or in the evening and at weekends, especially if I have a deadline looming.

Q9. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring authors?

This piece of advice is often given, but I can’t say enough its importance! Persistence! Writing and publishing are very hard things, especially if you want to be in them for the long-haul, and so you have to be absolutely determined to keep going, no matter what obstacles come your way. Those could be writing obstacles – struggling with a book that isn’t working, life getting in the way of writing, etc. Or publication hurdles – rejections and knock-backs, poor sales, editors leaving, and all manner of other hiccups. These things don’t go away either once you have that first publication deal. Life for each and every writer, whether they are new to the game or have twenty books published, is a roller coaster of good and bad outcomes. The only thing you can do is push through and keep going. Loving writing for the sake of it, though, is at the heart of it, and if you find joy in writing, that is really all that matters.

Q10. What's one misconception about being an author that you'd like to clear up?

That writing books is easy, and we are all rolling in money! Very, very few authors are able to make a living from writing, and most have to write around full time jobs and family demands. It is neither glamorous nor an easy way to earn money.

Q11. What's the strangest place you've ever pulled out your phone to write down a plot idea?

Ideas can come at most inconvenient moments. I have found through bitter experience it’s important to note them down before they dissipate like mist on a sunny morning. The oddest time was when I was driving, and I did have to pull over to the side of the road (obviously safely!) to write down my breakthrough thought before I forgot it.

Q12. Do you have any bottom drawer novels that have been written but will never see the light of day?

I do! I have a children’s book I wrote when I sent my first book out on submission. I still love that book but can’t see it ever coming out of the drawer. I also have a few part-written novels which are in a different genre. They might, one day, see the light of day. Who knows? Never say never!