The Things We Don’t Say
A beguiling painting holds the secrets of a woman’s past and calls into question everything she thought she knew about the man she loved…
Near sixty years ago, renowned London artist Patrick Adams painted his most famous work: a portrait of his beloved Emma Temple, a fellow bohemian with whom he shared his life. Years after Patrick’s death, ninety-year-old Emma still has the painting hanging over her bed at their country home as a testament to their love.
To Emma’s granddaughter, Laura, the portrait is also a symbol of so much to come. The masterpiece is serving as collateral to pay Laura’s tuition at a prestigious music school. Then the impossible happens when an appraiser claims the painting is a fraud. For Laura, the accusation jeopardizes her future. For Emma, it casts doubt on everything she believed about her relationship with Patrick. Laura is determined to prove that Patrick did indeed paint the portrait. Both her grandmother’s and Patrick’s legacies are worth fighting for.
As the stories of two women entwine, it’s time for Emma to summon up the past—even at the risk of revealing its unspoken secrets.
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What are your favorite sources of inspiration when you are wanting to settle in and write a new book?
It’s funny, I don’t tend to look for inspiration. It’s more a case of inspiration coming to me at times when I don’t expect it to appear! I have contracts to fulfil and so if something strikes me, I’ll mull over the idea in my head and consider using it for my next book. So, I usually have a bit of a bank, if you like, of ideas and often I’ll piece several of them together to come up with the next book I need to write. Inspiration can come from people, the stories people tell me (I’m a good listener!) or from places like art galleries, certainly from my travels…recently I was doing some research for my current WIP and something struck me as fascinating for my 2020 contracted book. I pitched it to my editor, and she loves the idea!
Do you travel to the places that you center a story around or is your research mostly done from books/internet, etc.?
I definitely travel to the places that inspire the settings in my book. For THE THINGS WE DON’T SAY, I packed my suitcases and travelled to London and Sussex for a week all the way from Australia! I stayed in Bloomsbury, right around the corner from Gordon Square where my character, Emma Temple lived, and very close to her granddaughter Laura’s apartment too. Then, I went out to Sussex to visit Charleston, the house where the Bloomsbury group also lived from 1916 and which inspired Summerfield, the country house in THE THINGS WE DON’T SAY. It was a wonderful, moving experience to walk where my characters would have walked. I find that nothing beats travelling to the places in my novels. I do acres of reading and research too, sometimes before I travel, and other times, I’ll travel first, then come back and read.
Do you have any upcoming projects that you can tell us about to look forward to?
Hmm, that is my secret! But, yes, I actually have a few projects that I am working on for now and I will be able to share them soon. One, is another novel for Lake Union Publishing which will release in July 2019. It is completely different from the setting and story in THE THINGS WE DON’T SAY, and I am completely involved in it and in love with the real people who inspired the story. I travelled throughout the whole of January to research the book- across to to other side of the world from Australia again! The main thing for me is to have an emotive connection to my characters, the setting and the story. Once I have that, I am hooked.
Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of four novels published in the US- Paris Time Capsule, The House by the Lake, From a Paris Balcony and Secret Shores. The books are published in twelve countries, in ten languages and Secret Shores has been shortlisted for an ARRA award in 2018. Ella has degrees in music, majoring in classical piano, and in Arts majoring in nineteenth century women’s fiction and modern European history. Ella’s fifth novel, The Things We Don’t Say, is set for release in the UK, Australia and the US on July 1st, 2018. Ella is working hard on her sixth novel. She writes full time. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian Greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.
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