I was recently interviewed about writing The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia. Join us for the next few weeks as we share my answers with you.
Q: What drew you to writing the Romanovs’ story? 
A: I first read Robert Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra the summer between my 7th and 8th grade year after pulling it off my mother’s bookshelf. “You’re not going to like that,” she warned. “It’s pretty dense history.” She was right. It was dense, but I loved it! And I longed to know more. I became a Romanov reader, devouring dozens of books on the subject over the years.
But I’d never considered writing about the Romanovs until five years ago. That’s when students in middle schools—mostly girls—suddenly and surprisingly started asking if I knew anything about Anastasia. Why? They’d seen the Disney animated movie, Anastasia, and understood it was based on a nugget of truth. But what was that truth? They obviously longed to know. And they hoped I could tell them. But within my fifteen-minute question-and-answer period, I really couldn’t… not enough anyway. And so I began to conceive of a book for them. And for me. The Family Romanov is my answer to those girls’ questions. Is it the royal fairy tale most of them imagined? Probably not, but it’s definitely the truth. And I believe that’s exactly what they wanted.