Episode 17: My conversation with author Frances Peck

2025-05-30

I am so pleased to be able to share my first-ever interview with a published author here on Bookmarkable. I was delighted to sit down with local North Vancouver writer Frances Peck to discuss her debut novel, The Broken Places — a Globe and Mail best book of 2022, and finalist for the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. We had a lot to talk about and time flew by! We learned a bit about her second novel, Uncontrolled Flight and she gave some insight into the novel she’s working on now and her writing process. We also dove into all the ways reading has been a key influence, insp...

We had a lot to talk about and time flew by! We learned a bit about her second novel, Uncontrolled Flight and she gave some insight into the novel she’s working on now and her writing process.

We also dove into all the ways reading has been a key influence, inspiration, object of focused study and pleasure throughout her life. Plus we explored areas of common interest.

Books and authors mentioned on this episode:

The Broken Places and Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck

Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge).
Monty Python sketch: Novel Writing: Thomas Hardy writes Return of the Native
George Elliot
Charles Dickens
February by Lisa Moore
Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrisey
The Handmaids Tale, Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
The Fireman and The Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill
Stephen King (anything by)
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
The Princess Bride and others by William Goldman
When We Cease to Understand the World and The Maniac by Benjamin Labutut
Mandy by Julie Edwards (aka Julie Andrews)
Ken Follett
Sidney Sheldon
Scruples, by Judith Krantz
Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Elizabeth George
Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)
A Time to Write in Earnest by PD James
The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
Anne Tyler
Louise Erdrich
Romantic Comedy, Eligible, American Wife and Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Jodi Picoult
Americanah and Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Anosh Irani