Tantorious is a semi-monthly podcast series featuring interviews with well-known authors, hosted by Allan Hoving and presented by Tantor Audio.
Ashley Prentice Norton is a graduate of Exeter, Georgetown, and the Creative Writing
Program at New York University. The Chocolate Money is her first novel. It explores the relationship between an heiress and her sensitive young daughter.
Excerpts from the audio interview:
Q: Is your personal background as a Rockefeller relevant to this book?
A: Yes and no. I did grow up with an unorthodox upbringing and my mother was sort of a renegade in the Seventies. But 80 percent of the novel is fiction. I was also interested in exploring the relationship to wealth and how American fortunes are tied to commodities and cash rather than to land and nobility as in Europe.
Q: What are you most proud of about the novel?
A: Creating a character’s voice and being able to maintain it. Both Babs and Bettina have very specific voices. Bettina starts out as a ten-year-old and matures into a sixteen-year-old, and to write from the voice of a child can be a challenge. Babs also has a very specific way of talking and thinking and she really pops off the page. They’re a really good contrast to each other but there’s also this symbiotic relationship that they have.
Listen to a sample of the Tantor audiobook edition of The Chocolate Money, narrated by Tavia Gilbert.
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