Jessie Meets Patricia Furstenberg
When Secrets Bloom by Patricia Furstenberg is a compelling novel that completely absorbed my weekend, and I invited the author to chat with me. Patricia Furstenberg is a writer of historical fiction inspired by the forgotten corners of the past, where truth and legend entwine.
Jessie: Explain what your current novel is about and what inspired you to write it.
Pat: Jessie, thank you for hosting us on your blog today. It’s a treat to return. And by ‘us,’ I mean myself and my latest historical fiction novel, When Secrets Bloom. It’s a story set in medieval Transylvania, where silence means survival and secrets are often deadlier than blades. It follows Kate, a German Saxon healer, who defies the strict order of her Szekler husband to save a mother and child during a birth gone wrong. That one act unearths suspicion, betrayal, and a chain of events she cannot stop.To write When Secrets Bloom I was inspired by the quiet resilience of women who lived in a time when their words were rarely recorded, their skills often feared, and their loyalty constantly tested. I wanted to explore what it means to be heard. Truly heard, when the cost of truth might be your life.15th century Transylvania, with its mist-veiled mountains and its tangle of cultures and loyalties offered the perfect stage. The story took root many, many years ago. I just needed to mature, as a writer, and to find the right angle. I found it while I was researching medieval medicine and how it was often the very knowledge that saved lives but it also branded women as witches.
Jessie: What themes do you explore in your novels?
Pat: Jessie, I always return to a few threads: unconditional love, war, loyalty, but also the tandem of trust and betrayal. In When Secrets Bloom these come together through the question: A secret can be a shield or a weapon, in the wrong hands.
The book also includes the enduring theme of female strength in the face of systemic suspicion. Kate isn’t loud or rebellious. She’s fiercely loyal and quietly brave. I wanted to show how survival often required not fire, but frost. And, of course, my favorite, history and folklore hum beneath every page. I’m always drawn to the spaces where fact and story blur.
Jessie: Are there any social, historical, or cultural references that shaped your novel?
Pat: Absolutely. When Secrets Bloom draws heavily on 15th-century Transylvania, particularly the Saxon and Vlach settlements, located apart, and the role women played within their respective tight-knit communities. There’s also a whisper of Vlad the Impaler throughout the storyline. Not as the villainous figure many imagine or expect, but as a protector, a strategist, and a man (in his youth) whose trust is both rare and dangerous.
The setting also reflects the religious tensions and political instability of that time, when Wallachians, Hungarians, and Saxons shared borders but not always beliefs. I also wove in superstitions, such as Saint Andrew’s night, when spirits were said to walk, because they add texture and authenticity to the era and much more.
Culturally, this was a time when a woman healing with herbs could be easily branded a witch. And yet without her, no village would thrive. That contradiction, how knowledge could both save and condemn, was central to the story.
Jessie: Who is the main protagonist in your novel? Tell us something about them.
Pat: Kate Webber is a healer. A Saxon. A wife. And, unknowingly, a threat.
What I love about Kate is her quiet courage. She doesn’t set out to defy or to change the world. But when a life is at stake, she acts. She’s trained in medicine, not rebellion, but her every choice unearths secrets buried too long. Kate’s past is tied to Vlad Dracula, her former mentor. He taught her to dissect wounds and read minds. How to protect herself. Not for love, but for survival. That bond, forged in trust and silence, is now the thing she dares not speak of, especially as suspicion mounts. Kate is both ordinary and extraordinary. Like so many women of history, her story might have been forgotten. I wanted to give her voice back.
Jessie: Explain how you overcame a challenge with your current novel.
Pat: One of the biggest challenges was writing Vlad’s voice without overpowering the novel, because although he is an unseen presence for much of the book, his influence over Kate is enormous.
To balance that, I wrote 52 quotes attributed to him, one at the beginning of each chapter. These quotes form a private conversation with Kate. Through them, we see not the monster of legend that history left us with, but the man behind the myth: calculating, persuasive, yet deeply shaped by a life of betrayal and exile.
Another challenge was finding the emotional tone. Medieval life could be brutal, but I didn’t want to write a story of only hardship. I wanted beauty. So I focused on light, even in the darkest chapters: be it a crocus blooming out of season, a remembered joke, a cultural idiom, or the way snow clings to a branch before it falls.
My thoughts on When Secrets Bloom:
Set in medieval Transylvania, this book captivated me. Kate is a Saxon healer. Her kindness, wisdom and healing powers save lives, but her role is forbidden in the ancient patriarchal world. This magical narrative is brimming with wisdom and universal messages.
Kate represents the women in history who paved the way for women’s rights. Furstenberg gives the unseen battles of woman a voice in Kate, reminding us of the strategic roles they played through history. Kate’s silent fight is guided by her mother’s wisdom, instinct and a gift she inherited.
The unique perspective of Kate’s mentor, Vlad Dracula, is mesmerising. I enjoyed the exploration of how fear can shape a myth. Like Kate, this man was labelled as evil because he was different, but in this novel, he gave Kate knowledge and strength to battle through her challenges. She explains that her ‘knowledge became my weapon, my mind the blade, he honed.’
I was lost of the darkness of the fifteenth century, willing Kate to be safe. With Vlad Dracula as her mentor and a Szekler husband, she is branded a traitor and put on trial for witchcraft in a barbaric world where boundaries between religion and superstition merge. Shadows, secrets and whispers of betrayal lurk around every corner and ‘fear clings to the walls like damp.’
It was wonderful to escape to another time and another place that was both frightening and familiar. ‘A place of cobbled alleys and high-gabled houses where shutters close faster than lips and secrets…’ The author uses vivid, poetic language to create the dark world, and I noted so many beautiful lines.
Kate’s childhood sweetheart, Iandu, arrives in the novel. They parted with a romantic gesture of hope, but ‘hope wilts when fed on silence’. Can he forgive her marriage to another, and will he help her?
Characters are skilfully drawn with a distinct dichotomy between good and evil, creating a wonderful drama brimming with conflict and tension. A compelling novel where history, myth, superstitions and storytelling collide. A clever novel!
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About Patricia
Patricia Furstenberg is a writer of historical fiction inspired by the forgotten corners of the past, where truth and legend entwine. With a medical degree and a heart rooted in Transylvania, her stories often explore resilience, hidden truths, and the quiet strength of women. She is best known for her war fiction Silent Heroes and historical fiction Joyful Trouble. Part of an upcoming book series, When Secrets Bloom is her latest release.
Where to contact Patricia: