Olesya Salnikova Gilmore Interview - The Haunting of Moscow House ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Credit: Nicola Levine

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore is the author of The Witch and the Tsar. Originally from Moscow, she was raised in the US and graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in English/political science, and from Northwestern School of Law with a JD. She practiced litigation at a large law firm for several years before pursuing her dream of becoming an author. Now she is happiest writing speculative historical fiction inspired by Eastern European history and folklore. Her work has appeared in LitHub, Tor.com, Historical Novels Review, Bookish, Washington Independent Review of Books, among others. She lives in a wooded, lakeside suburb of Chicago with her husband and daughter.

Greatest thing you learned at school.

How to work hard.

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?

When I was working sun up to sun down reviewing documents as a young attorney at a large law firm, I realized I was writing scraps of a story on any break I could find because I needed more creativity in my life.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

Readers telling me they loved my story, that it spoke to them in some way and left them thinking and dreaming.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?

Hard work, perseverance, and passion, probably in that order!

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?

Lack of time, and then imposter syndrome and doubt in the wake of my debut’s release.

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?

*The* graveyard scene; for those who’ve read the book, you know why. Teaser: I didn’t think I could write a racy sexy scene, so I wrote a disturbing *and* racy scene and had a blast writing it.

Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?

Every book that I read changes my life in some way, but the one that comes to mind is Madeline Miller’s Circe. It’s the book that convinced me I could re-imagine the story of the maligned Slavic witch of legend, Baba Yaga. This book got me my agent, my publisher, my debut experience, and now book 2! It has (thus far) allowed me to write for a living, which I am very thankful for.

Can you tell us when you started THE HAUNTING OF MOSCOW HOUSE, how that came about?

The idea for the novel started as a pitch to my editor, when she asked me what I would be working on for Book 2, which was part of my contract for my debut novel. Before I received an offer, I was exploring various story ideas, from fantasy and horror to straight historical fiction, when I came upon two old Russian aristocratic families—the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns. Specifically, two sisters of the Sheremetev family, who were forced to live in the attic of their Moscow ancestral home in the post-Revolutionary years while a group of Soviet students moved in. This story lent itself to gothic fiction, and I was immediately entranced by the fascinating tension between the fallen yet not so dead past and the stark present of a new regime trying to erase what came before.

What were your feelings when your first novel was accepted/when you first saw the cover of the finished product?

It’s a surreal experience! I remember just lying on the floor, looking up at the ceiling, thinking I did it. Then, I wonder what happens when your dream comes true. It turns out, you live the dream by continuing your work! And when I saw the cover, I was overwhelmed by how my idea now has a face, a name, an entire story. An identity. It truly is magic.
What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters? I can never get over the magical fact that once you know your characters as an author, eerily, hauntingly, they begin to have their own minds and make their own decisions. They begin to write the story themselves.

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT THE HAUNTING OF MOSCOW HOUSE

The novel started out in first person past tense. I changed it to third person present tense in Draft 2, and it was easily the most painful revision I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Pro tip: decide on a POV/tense before you start to write and really think about it, so you avoid the hell that I went through.
The sisters’ aunt had her own point of view along with the sisters at the beginning. It had been a mix of the present and the past. Though she was A BLAST to write, I quickly realized for a book that was already complex, this would definitely be overkill.
Some of the characters of my fictional family have the same names as my real-life family (Alexander, Irina, Sergei, Katerina, and Natasha). Since this is a novel about family, I thought it would be a sweet nod to them.
I almost didn’t include the American Relief Administration into the story. I didn’t know how to blend it with the haunted house piece of the storyline, until I received my editor’s developmental edits, then spoke to her, then thought about it, and finally figured out a way that I could maybe do it. Spoiler alert: I did do it; it is up to you if it works!
I rewrote this book at least twice, the second revision an almost near total rewrite.
Before I saw the cover, the color of Moscow House was yellow; after I saw it, I loved how there were hints of the Hermitage Palace in the coloring and style of my haunted house, and I changed it in the book to teal for that reason.
I loved working on the chapter titles; I’ve never done them before and thought they were a lot of fun to write.
Except for the sisters, my favorite characters in the novel are Uncle Pasha and Nicky.
My biggest challenge with the creation of the sisters was initially making them sound, feel, and behave differently from each other, especially based on their significant age gap and differing personalities. This was also the first time I tried a double POV. It was only through many, many edits that I began to have a handle on how to accomplish this.
The original gothic story I was going to write before I got the idea for Moscow House was supposed to be set in Russia just after the Napoleonic Wars. It was about a girl whose father died, thereby forcing her to get married to a man/former officer in the army with a ruined, half-burned down house in the countryside, a dead brother and sister-in-law, and secrets about his role in their deaths, as well as in the war. I might still do it!

What is the first job you have had?

First nonofficial job: I helped my parents with their Russian art and gift business. First official job: Abercrombie & Fitch (I’m a millennial, what do you expect? ;))

What is your happiest childhood memory?

There are so many! But cooking with my grandmother, reading with my dad’s dad, exploring Moscow with my mom’s dad, then exploring the US with my parents, and thinking up elaborate backstories of our Barbies with my sister are all at the top of the list.

What was your favorite subject when you were in school and why?

English; it’s the only subject that wasn’t work for me. I’d just read and read and read, then write and write and write, and be completely content.

What decade during the last century would you have chosen to be a kid?

Probably the 1920s, but instead of Russia, in the US, or maybe in Paris.

Name one thing you miss about being a kid.

I miss the family that has passed on—my grandparents most of all. That is partially why I wrote Moscow House!

Best date you've ever had?

Every date on my honeymoon with my husband. We spent two glorious weeks traveling around Greece, from Santorini to Mykonos to Athens. Romance, ancient history, Mediterranean food, and the sea. What more could a girl ask for?

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

Has my daughter woken up yet, or do I have five more minutes?

What is your most memorable travel experience?

I love to travel, so every place I’ve been to is memorable in some way. But probably Greece because it doesn’t get better than the honeymoon!

Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?

Heartbreak. Been there, done that, lived through it, and most importantly, was able to learn what I didn’t want to find love later with the person I did want.

When you looked in the mirror first thing this morning, what was the first thing you thought?

I think it was something along the lines of, hm, I don’t look half bad. Ha!

What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?

The latest audiobook I fall asleep listening to.

If you had to go back in time and change one thing, if you HAD to, even if you had “no regrets” what would it be?

I would change a lot of things! But I think one thing that particularly comes to mind is that I would have left a bad relationship much sooner.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?

Sometimes, I miss my childhood, miss the people in it and how carefree it was, how everything was in front of you, but when it comes down to it, I don’t think I’d go back. I really love my life now—my family, my work, letting loose and doing more fun things than I had before when I worked 24/7.

What event in your life would make a good movie?

Good is a relative term, but probably my failed first relationship. It was . . . very soapy and dramatic.

What is one unique thing are you afraid of?

Vomiting and centipedes.

When was the last time you told someone you loved them?

I told my husband I loved him last night, or maybe this morning. We make sure to use the L word with each other and our daughter as often as possible.

What were you doing the last time you really had a good laugh?

I think I was on the couch with my husband, and we were likely watching tv, when he said something incredibly ridiculous and at the same time, irresistible, as he is wont to do, and then gasping laughter ensued.

Which incident in your life that totally changed the way you think today?

Actually, a trip to France with my husband, and unfortunately not a great one. It happened about half a year before I left the law. Imagine the South of France, a romantic getaway, and I cannot sleep or eat. I feel sick to my stomach. It turned out I was having a severe anxiety attack, prompted by overwork and the stress of my life as a lawyer. It changed what I wanted out of life, how I wanted to live my life, and what I wanted to do with it.

In this elegant gothic horror tale set in post-revolutionary Russia, two formerly aristocratic sisters race to uncover their family’s long-buried secrets in a house haunted by a past dangerous—and deadly—to remember.

It is the summer of 1921, and a group of Bolsheviks have taken over Irina and Lili Goliteva’s ancestral home in Moscow, a stately mansion falling into disrepair and decay. The remaining members of their family are ordered to move into the cramped attic, while the officials take over an entire wing of grand rooms downstairs. The sisters understand it is the way of things and know they must forget their noble upbringing to make their way in this new Soviet Russia. But the house begins to whisper of a traumatic past not as dead as they thought.

Eager to escape it and their unwelcome new landlords, Irina and Lili find jobs with the recently arrived American Relief Administration, meant to ease the post-revolutionary famine in Russia. For the sisters, the ARA provides much-needed food and employment, as well as a chance for sensible Irina to help those less fortunate and artistic Lili to express herself for a good cause. It might just lead them to love, too.

But at home, the spirits of their deceased family awaken, desperate to impart what really happened to them during the Revolution. Soon one of the officials living in the house is found dead. Was his death caused by something supernatural, or by someone all too human? And are Irina and Lili and their family next? Only unearthing the frightening secrets of Moscow House will reveal all. But this means the sisters must dig deep into a past no one in Russia except the dead are allowed to remember.

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