Santa Monica is home to a host of entertainers and media creators, and in the industry, resident Catherine Butterfield has finally done it all. From acting and writing screenplays to television and film work, Butterfield had one “final frontier” to conquer, penning and publishing a full novel, something she finalized this year.
Butterfield’s historical novel The Serpent and the Rose, based on the life of 16th Century French princess-turned-queen Marguerite de Valois, marks her book debut that attempts to rectify the reputation of someone who was often smeared during her life. The novel is told in diary form, voicing de Valois’ concerns with religion, her “extremely oppressed” status by the patriarchy of the period, and constant bad press from politically-charged attacks.
The princess was regarded historically as the first woman to ever write and publish her memoirs, readings that inspired Butterfield to bring a “modern slant” to de Valois’ life. Another inspiration was a visit to the southwestern French commune of Nérac, where de Valois’ and husband Henry (later King Henry IV of France) resided. Butterfield had limited knowledge of the couple, but took umbrage with the double standard of their sexuality.
“My feminist sensibilities were inflamed by the fact that he was a well-known rake, and went through every woman … whereas she was known as some kind of pervert,” Butterfield said. “She probably just was a young person who enjoyed her body [but] she was known as a pervert, a letch, a sexually depraved princess. And I thought wow, this is so not fair.”
The author stated she wrote in de Valois’ voice, but a slightly more “feisty” version that asked more questions of her situation. Penning the novel in a state of “outrage,” Butterfield’s portrayal of the princess asked why she was always used for political reasons, why she couldn’t have agency over her own future, and how she could escape the claws of her mother, the infamous Catherine de’ Medici.
“I just felt like I could feel her presence, and I thought I’m going to clean up this woman’s reputation … she’s not the only one this has happened to, but this is the one that I [took] an interest in, and I [tried to] tell her story the way I want it to be told,” Butterfield said.
Butterfield has been telling stories her way for a while now, brought into the entertainment world “by osmosis” due to her father’s career as a general manager for CBS television affiliates. Both of her parents were also actors, which was the first facet of the industry she conquered, performing in New York and regional theater before transitioning into playwriting.
After having plays produced both domestically and internationally, she turned to the film and television industry, writing and producing for such shows as “Ghost Whisperer” and “Party of Five.” Butterfield also wrote two short films for the Interact Theatre Company in Los Angeles, winning a Telly award for both projects.
Her career eventually led her to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, initially living in Silver Lake before her pregnancy made her consider the prospect of pushing a stroller up the steep hills of the neighborhood. Butterfield moved to Santa Monica to raise her daughter, Audrey, and has stayed beachside ever since.
“I saw these women rolling their little strollers up and down Montana Avenue and I thought, that’s what I want to do,” she noted. “Also, the air is so nice out here … Santa Monica is awfully seductive.”
When she first gained interest in de Valois’ life, she was considering returning to her roots with a screenplay project, but pivoted to the book project after introspection relating to project autonomy.
“I thought of all the screenplays that I have sitting in my garage that either went into turnaround, or just never got made, and I thought why should I [write] this great idea to [just be] in my garage again?,” she said. “I should make it a book, because then friends can have it on their bedside table, and it’s a real thing. It’s a tangible thing.”
Now a published novelist, she states that it is “enormously gratifying” to see other people positively reviewing her work. The Historical Fiction Company, for instance, calls the work “a captivating tale” that “paints a complex and memorable portrait” of de Valois.
“When the book first arrived and I could hold it in my hands, [it was] a thrill … [with] a book, there it is, you can read it, you can enter that world at any time … and I find that so thrilling,” she added. “And now that people are reaching out to me and saying I finished [the book], that’s so exciting.”
“The Serpent and the Rose” can be purchased on Goodreads and more information on Butterfield can be found on her website.