Listen to Candace Fleming reveal the story behind The Family Romanov, courtesy of TeachingBooks.net. Candace Fleming read Robert K. Massie's acclaimed history of the Romanov family and the fall of Imperial Russia, Nicholas and Alexandra, when she was thirteen. But the spark for her latest book came from a series of school visits she made five years ago. Wherever the author went to talk about  historical research, a student would inevitably ask, "What do you know about Anastasia Romanov?" Fleming credits the movie Anastasia (Fox Animation Studios, 1997) for those questions: "Those kids recognized that there was a kernel of truth in that movie, and they wanted to know what really happened.”  Fleming was determined to find out, and The Family Romanov (Schwartz & Wade/Random House, July, 2014; Gr 7 Up) was born.   This book may have started as a look at what happened to Anastasia Romanov, a story shrouded in mystery and speculation for years, but it became so much more. I knew it was going to get big, so I kept pushing back. Of course, it got completely out of hand. Even when I began, I thought, "I cannot do another princess story. We “oooh” and “aaah” over the Fabergé eggs and palaces and court life, the happy family, and the royal romance between Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. But the story of the Romanovs often excludes the rest of the history. They weren't minding the store. Thanks to all those primary sources—including a number released since Massie’s book was published—we see this royal family up close; we're even privy to the endearments the Tsar and Tsarina used with each other. What I loved is that the Romanovs wrote to one another in English. With translations, you can't be sure. But in the book, when the Romanovs speak, that's how they sounded. Alexandra didn't speak Russian well. Her family spoke German. In many ways, the Romanovs were such an [ordinary] family…and that's what’s so compelling about them. I hadn't realized how simply they lived until I went to Russia. They are royals you can really relate to which makes the other part of their story so difficult to grasp. How do people so seemingly like you and me, who love one another, who are devoted to their family, how could they not understand they had some control [over the plight of their starving, desperate subjects]? You make their myopia, and the contrast between them and the Russian people crystal clear in your description of Bloody Sunday in (January, 1905) when whole families were injured or killed right outside the gates of their home in Tsarskoe Selo. Everything I'd read about Tsarskoe Selo [prior to going there] had not prepared me for the fact that the former imperial residence is located in the corner of the park. There’s a gate, but the town is right on the other side of it. From their terrace [the royal family and guests] had to have been able to see the local people, to smell their cooking. I‘d thought the Romanovs were isolated. They weren’t. The more difficult things became outside the palace, the more entrenched inside Tsar Nicholas II became. It was a psychological isolation more than a physical isolation. Tell us about the structure of the book, and the first-person accounts in the sections titled “Beyond the Palace Gates,” which so starkly contrast the lives of the Romanovs with those of their subjects. Generally, structure comes late, and until it reveals itself, I can't write the book. It's usually an indication that I haven't done enough research. The story whispers to me how it wants to be told—that's when I know I'm ready to start writing At first my focus was going to be Anastasia, then all the children, then it became the whole family. But you can't talk about the Romanovs without talking about the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, and Karl Marx. It was grueling. On my trip to Russia standing outside the gates of Tsarskoe Selo, I thought about the workers. Suddenly it occurred to me that I needed those voices, those first-person accounts. There were so many stories to tell. Which do I choose, and where do I put them in the context of the Romanov story to heighten the drama? I think of the chapter about the Romanovs, “A Small Family Circle.” It's a lovely day; the children get up, Tsar Nicholas goes to work, and later they all come back together for tea. [That's followed by the Russian author] Max Gorky’s story—his family was starving. That was not an uncommon life that Gorky's was chronicling. Did anything you learned surprise you? One of the things that surprised me was that newly discovered material about autopsy of [Grigori] Rasputin [the infamous faith healer and mystic, on whom Alexandra relied for advice]. We'd all bought as history, what’s related in the Massie's book: Rasputin was stabbed, shot, then beaten with a club. And when he was found, one arm was loose … so he died of drowning. This is the story everyone agreed on. But a deposition from a physician who did the autopsy, said Rasputin had no water in his lungs; Rasputin died of the gunshot wounds. It makes him appear so much less the superman [he wanted everyone to believe he was]. I also thought the controversy surrounding [the canonization of the Romanovs] was surprising. I hadn't realized...that so much time and consideration [had gone into it] and that the family was sainted on two levels, by the Orthodox Church in Russia, and the Orthodox Church Outside of Russia [in 1981]. What are you working on now? William Cody. Buffalo Bill. I call him Will because that's what he called himself. He's just a lot of fun. And so full of baloney. He out-Barnumed Barnum. All those acts in the Wild West grew out of his own childhood. They're all based on some truth.   Listen to Candace Fleming reveal the story behind The Family Romanov, courtesy of TeachingBooks.net.