DEBUT SPOTLIGHT: Gabriella Saab
This week, I’m pleased to feature yet another wonderful 2021 debut author, Gabriella Saab, and her historical novel launching on October 19th from William Morrow—THE LAST CHECKMATE—a WWII story about a young Polish woman who joins the underground Resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. If you enjoyed THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT or the TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, this is a book you’ll want on you radar.
I’ve gotten to know Gabriella over the past two years as a member of the #HFChitChat group on Twitter, and her dedication to the historical fiction community and her craft are admirable. I’m delighted to help celebrate her book’s release, and I’m even more excited to see what she writes next! Gabriella is an author on the rise.
The Full Synopsis
Maria Florkowska is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and, as a member of the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a young woman brave beyond her years. Captured by the Gestapo, she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, but while her family is sent to their deaths, she is spared. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, decides to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of exploiting her skills, he has every intention of killing her.
Befriended by a Catholic priest, Maria attempts to overcome her grief, vows to avenge the murder of her family, and plays for her life. For four grueling years, her strategy is simple: Live. Fight. Survive. By cleverly provoking Fritzsch’s volatile nature in front of his superiors, Maria intends to orchestrate his downfall. Only then will she have a chance to evade the fate awaiting her and see him punished for his wickedness.
As she carries out her plan and the war nears its end, she challenges her former nemesis to one final game, certain to end in life or death, in failure or justice. If Maria can bear to face Fritzsch—and her past—one last time.
"From the strategic opening move of The Last Checkmate, I was in the grip of an unforgettable story. Vivid prose and heart-stopping scenes, Saab unfolds the story like her protagonist plays chess, with cunning wit and brilliant strategy. Gabriella Saab’s debut is immersive, smart, and haunting—a do-not-miss WWII historical novel.” -- Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of Surviving Savannah
And now for our interview…
Paulette: Hi Gabriella! Thanks so much for taking time for this interview. First off, I’d love to hear all about THE LAST CHECKMATE and what inspired you to write it.
Gabriella: The Last Checkmate is a historical novel about Maria Florkowska, a talented chess player who is caught working for the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and sent to Auschwitz, where she is spared execution but exploited as entertainment for the camp guards by being forced to play chess against them.
Until 1942, Auschwitz was a political prison camp mostly for Polish men, so I wondered if a woman had been sent to Auschwitz in 1941, how might she have been spared execution and what might she have done to fight for survival? In developing my answer, I studied real stories from the Polish underground resistance, the Auschwitz camp resistance movement, and the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz created in 1943, comprised of mostly Jewish women who were forced to use their musical skills to entertain the guards or play while prisoners were marching to forced labor or being executed. I applied this idea of forced entertainment to chess. Why did I choose chess, you ask? I didn't; Maria did! Long before I knew anything about the Women's Orchestra and was starting only with the question posed above, Maria made it VERY clear to me that she was a chess player, and the story fell into place after that!
Paulette: I love it when characters come to you with such a clear voice—almost as if they are real people. Maria sounds like such a compelling character. I can’t wait to meet her. It certainly helps make writing a character’s arc so much easier when their voice and personality are so pronounced. I definitely had that experience with my current work-in-progress!
You’ve told me that you spent a lot of time plotting and crafting your story well in advance of drafting. Can you tell us a little bit about what your writing process looks like?
Gabriella: I usually start with a nugget of interesting history which then leads to a question. After that, I am a massive plotter. I gather all my research, read and take notes, develop inspiration boards on Pinterest, write a synopsis, outline the story, usually put together a factual timeline so I can refer to it while developing my fictional one, develop my characters and their arcs, break my outline into a chapter outline, THEN I write. It sounds like a lot, but it helps me stay focused while also leaving room for the story to develop and change because it takes drafting and editing for me to understand the story and characters fully. So I draft with the broad research, then edit and do more specific research as it comes up. When deep into a project, I get kind of obsessed with it and don't do much else, so I usually spend every day with it for many many many hours... still working on that whole work/life balance thing!
Paulette: It can be so tricky! I tend to hyper-focus on my writing as well, and the rest of the world falls away, sometimes to my detriment! And then I’m playing catch-up with everything I’ve put off in order to write. What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the writing process?
Gabriella: Every stage is so exciting for different reasons! Drafting is so much fun because I love diving into a new story, but I love the later stages of edits best, when it's cleaner and feels like a real story rather than something with potential that still needs a lot of refining. Least favorite part? Research. I know, I know, I write histfic! Sometimes it's fun and interesting, but it takes so long and can be so tedious when I'm just itching to write, so I often get frustrated with it. But if I don't research and write something historically incorrect, then I wasted time on something that never would have worked from the start, so I might as well do the research first and hopefully avoid any errors that might poke massive holes into my story.
Paulette: I have a similar feeling about research, although I often get so immersed in researching certain topics that plot bunnies can start to multiply, so it can be difficult to rein things in. And even as careful as we are to research and get things right, it’s inevitable as novelists that we may still get things wrong. It’s important to do the best we can to be accurate, but without the existence of time travel and firsthand experience of the historical time periods we are portraying, some minor liberties may have to be taken for the sake of a story. That’s one reason I love authors’ notes so much—you get a chance to explain the reasons behind your creative choices within the novel.
It’s been such a big year and we’ve gone along a similar path from the time we first got our offers up to our release dates. I’ve tried to celebrate each milestone along the way. What have you done to celebrate?
Gabriella: Two ways! One: If fancy dinners were a love language, that is definitely mine. When I have a big writing milestone to celebrate, I either cook a nice dinner or pick one up from a restaurant (or hopefully go out again soon!) and have a delicious meal with a glass of Prosecco, wine, or craft cocktail.
Two: After I sold my debut, I started a list on my phone with writer milestones and achievements - some as big as "write a NYT bestseller" and others as small as "give a copy of my book to a friend." Every time I hit one of those milestones, I put a check mark next to it on my list. And if something exciting happens that wasn't originally on my list, I add it and then check it off! Now I can add "be featured in a debut spotlight" ;) There are a lot of lows in this industry, so the list has been a great way to celebrate the positives, big and small, and remind myself how incredibly fortunate I am to be pursuing this dream.
Paulette: Lists are the best! I also have a running checklist in the Notes app on my phone. There’s not much that’s more satisfying than ticking off that list. At the end of this year, I’m going to take a look at all the things I managed to do and give myself a virtual high-five, because bringing a book into the world is exciting and wonderful, but also stressful. What have been some of the more challenging aspects of your debut year?
Gabriella: So far, being patient with myself. Authors are their own worst critics, and with debut year, I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself regarding how my debut will be received, to write my next book, to stay active on social media, etc., when it's important to slow down and take care of ourselves, especially during this busy time.
Paulette: Yes. It’s so important to take care of yourself. To give yourself grace. And while a lot of what we do as writers is within our control, so much of it is also out of our control—sales and listing/charting and how the book is received and reviewed, for example. I’m really trying to focus on the things I can control—and most of that is centered on continuing to write the kinds of stories I like to read and improving my craft so each book is better than the last for the readers who will enjoy what I write.
Do you have any advice for fellow writers going into their debut year?
Gabriella: You only get one debut year, so enjoy it! Don't drown yourself in work or put unnecessary pressure on yourself or on things outside your control. Above all, be SO incredibly proud of yourself - you wrote a book!!! And it is being published!!!! A very, very small percentage of people can say that about themselves. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Paulette: I love your positive energy! You are such an inspiration, and congratulations to you on THE LAST CHECKMATE. Happy debut week, Gabriella!
You can pre-order THE LAST CHECKMATE here, or request it from your favorite independent bookstore. It will be available everywhere books are sold on October 19th, 2021.
Gabriella Saab graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing. She lives in her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, where she works as a barre instructor. Her debut historical novel, THE LAST CHECKMATE, will be released from William Morrow/HarperCollins in October 2021. In researching this novel, she traveled to Warsaw and Auschwitz to dig deeper into the experiences and setting of those who lived there.
You can connect with her through her website, Twitter, and Instagram