Media Packet

Media Q and A

Geo-political history engages one’s mind; social history grabs one’s heart.

Romance is social history in action. Romance lets me place representational, fictional characters in the tapestry of a real historical era. That gives me the creativity to envision what living during that time might have been like for women.

All my life I’ve been a storyteller. In 2015, my sister challenged me to stop telling and to start writing. I’ve been writing almost every day since. I like writing novels best, but I also give away a short story every month via my newsletter.

A story of romance, courtship, and love often lost then found, during any time period up to 1950 and placed anywhere in the world.

Generally, most romances end in one of two ways: “happily ever after” or “happy for now.” Novelists usually vary their endings with the stories they tell, and they like finding variations on both themes.

Love is so powerful. Almost everyone wants to be loved. Women’s lives have improved throughout history, but many modern women still struggle to be seen, to be taken seriously, and to be valued. Writing historical romance allows me to explore women’s issues.

I usually start with a time of change or struggle and then ask myself: What were girls’ and women’s lives like during this time? Then I create a person, name her, choose what she is searching for, and create her problems in reaching her goals.

To me, the usual history book is a geographical and political compilation events of the world of men. It covers the political structures, laws, wars, and conflicts without considering the consequences on the lives of the general public, especially women. Social history has always been important but has not been seen as such by academia for centuries.

Recreating a real world accurately takes time and research. Doing so well depends entirely upon the author’s willingness to verify the historical elements of the era they have chosen. My policy is not to place anything historical in a work unless I’ve verified it. That means I have either found it in a non-fiction work that documents the source of its statement, or I have found two sources that agree when I find conflicting evidence.

For example, I can’t put carrots in the soup of my novel placed in 17th century Quebec, Canada, until I find a source that states carrots were grown in that place and time. I’m still researching. I have already verified they grew and put onions and cabbage in their soups.

My careful, thorough level of research takes more time than writing the stories.

I start with a calendar and period maps. I obtain general information on the Internet and look for the sources at the bottoms of entries. Then I find and read the books named. I move from bibliography to bibliography to verify information.

I also visit the places I write about. If I write “A is 100 feet from B,” it is because I was there; I had walked and measured the distance. Sometimes, I travel to a location at the beginning of my second or third draft and return before my eighth or ninth draft for more details.

Each type of publishing has different challenges. Every type expects you to have a large social following and to do much of the marketing to that following by yourself.

Traditional publishers can take from two to three years to get a book released. They need best sellers because the process is so expensive. If your book doesn’t sell well, they often drop it within six months. Also, they can change the title, the plot, the ending, the cover—anything they desire.

Hybrid publishers contract to do some parts of publishing and the author does the rest.

Self publishing means the author is in charge of all publishing and marketing. That means they pay in time to do things for themselves or pay in money after they find the help they want.

I was reading the program notes at symphony concert that included a piece by Antonio Vivaldi, one of my favorite composers. When I read that he had composed two concertos a month for six-years, I wondered about the girls in the orphanage who played his works.

I imagined a beautiful and famous singer with perfect pitch and a pure voice who wanted to leave the orphanage. She sings and plays some of Vivaldi’s pieces.

Venice has just lost its seventh war with the Ottoman Empire. Because Venice no longer has trade agreements in the East and island trading posts in the Mediterranean Sea, their economy is suffering.

I based Giovanni on two people, my maternal grandfather and a paternal uncle. My characters often are composites of individuals I have known or read about. I created the surname Delatesta, which means “of the head” in Italian.

In 1723, Venetian nobility was ranked from 1 to 800. The First Nine-nine families were the richest and most powerful. They paid for and ran the government, made laws, built the public works, sponsored charitable institutions, and paid the salaries of the Protectors (the police.) Because Antonio’s family is ranked 103, he has to gain The Council of the Ninety-nine’s permission to marry Grazia.

After reading about the conflicts between the Saxons and the Normans, I wanted a character who lives in both worlds and has to make difficult choices. Also, in the 12th century, women were property ( like a cow or horse), and I wanted to explore what that meant in a woman’s life.

I named her after Princes Margaret of England (1930-2002). While the rest of the world followed Queen Elizabeth II of England, I liked Margaret’s feistiness and her struggle to live her own life within the confines of the royal family.

Before King William II died, he caused much of the trouble his brother Henry faced. When Henry became King of England in 1100, three factions wanted him dead. Henry fought his entire reign to create a new country and a new people, but the first years of his reign were the most dangerous.

I often give away the prequel to introduce the trilogy. The prequel introduces the main characters, both good and bad, and sets up Henry’s problems of trying outsmart and outlive his enemies.

Lady Margaret represents both sides the society of the time. A transitional figure with one foot in the Norman world and the other foot in the Saxon world, Margaret starts as a woman of rank, but her father reduces her to servitude. She has to bargain fight her way back into Norman society.

  • Lady Margaret’s Disgrace – She is reduced to servitude
  • Lady Margaret’s Escape – She bargains with the royals and endangers her life
  • Lady Margaret’s Challenge – She is awarded land and coin, but few Norman men want to marry her
  • Lady Margaret’s Future – Queen Matilda helps her find a new life

Why not? The subtitle of the trilogy is Henry’s Spare Queen because Henry had to have an heir. If Queen Matilda did not provide one he might replace her with Margaret. King Henry was both a realist and a pragmatist. To Henry, having an heir to hold England and start a dynasty was more important than the woman who bore his son.

Victoria’s Fun Facts

  1. She loves to ride roller coasters – the bigger the better.
  2. The compliment she most often hears is, “You’re so organized.”
  3. She was the only girl to play baseball (called street ball) with the neighborhood boys. She switch hit, switch pitched, caught and played 1st and 3rd base.
  4. As a child, her favorite picture book was The Pokey Little Puppy, probably because she was a pokey little person.
  5. She listens to her favorite bagpipe music so loudly her closed windows rattle.
  6. Because she often misplaces her keys, she has multiple sets.
  7. So far, she has visited 15 foreign countries.

Victoria’s Bios

Ms. Sportelli loves writing romances. She reads social histories and imagines what living in that era is like for women. She thoroughly researches the women’s lives and their challenges before creating her novels.

Mrs. Sportelli shares her love of social history through her romances. No matter the era, love still conquers. She enjoys telling stories of love, courtship, and marriage.

She wrote about Grazia’s romance set in early 17th century Venice in The Songbird of Venice because of the social changes affecting the newlywed couple and their happiness. Venice and the Veneto hold a special place in Ms. Sportelli’s heart because her family originally came from the Veneto region.

Ms. Sportelli’s first books feature a critical time in England’s history. She wrote Lady Margaret’s Disgrace (a prequel) and of Margaret’s adventures in her Henry’s Spare Queen Trilogy because women like Margaret were property in an era when men held all the power.

Ms. Sportelli loves writing romances. She reads social histories and imagines what living in that era is like for women. After she creates her main characters, she thoroughly researches the women’s lives and their challenges before writing her novels. How important were women? What were their daily lives like? What did they wear? How did they fall in love? What were the marriage customs? What were their social activities?

In keeping with those questions, Ms. Sportelli is a member of her local Renaissance festival. Wearing a period costume, speaking as a 16th century English woman would, and interacting with visitors while explaining her life as the Countess of Cumberland, she shares her love of social history.

During high school and college, Ms. Sportelli’s history classes featured leaders, conflicts, wars, battles, and laws without considering the lives of the people who had to live through those events. She asked: How did the geo-political events affect the average person? Her teachers did not consider her questions important and did not answer her.

While teaching high school, she was asked to substitute for a social studies teacher, whose class was examining the social history of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. She read their textbook and fell in love with social history. Ever since, she’s been reading and researching eras that interest her. She is currently researching: 16th century Quebec, Canada; Tudor England; 14th century York, England; mid-20th century London.

In college Ms. Sportelli intended to become a college professor of the British medieval ages, but she switched to teaching English, language arts, and British literature. She now holds a master’s degree in gifted education and has taught high school, middle school, and a college course for pre-service teachers. Because she enjoys being with young people, she is glad she switched majors.

Media Interview Questions

How honest about an era can a writer of historical fiction be if what you are writing is not truly history?

Why write historical fiction?

How did a short story expand into your prequel and a trilogy?

What inspired you to create your main character, Lady Margaret?

When did you start imagining the story of Lady Margaret?

Why was 1096 to 1105 such a dangerous time for King Henry of England?

Why did you weave Lady Margaret, your main character, into Henry’s first years as king of England?

Do you really think King Henry would have replaced his queen just because she could not provide an heir?

What took you so long to get you stories published? Why not just read a history book about King Henry?

Victoria’s Headshots

Click on an image below to open a high resolution downloadable version.

Victoria Sportelli smiles brightly at the camera, wearing a royal blue shirt and is standing behind a chair where her hands rest on its back wooden frame.
Victoria Sportelli smiles brightly at the camera, wearing a royal blue shirt.

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