Oooh, A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT goes live!

Am very excited today, as A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT has just gone live at eHarlequin for pre-order!

This is a big thrill for me, as I'm sort of officially a historical romance author now, and this is a first peek into the overall 'world' of IN THE FLESH, too, although the characters from the novel don't actually appear in this short. Sofia Harewood, the heroine of Gentlewoman, does however go on to appear not only in the sequel, A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT, but also as a supporting character - under her new married name - in IN THE FLESH.

Something fun, on the Harlequin page, that I hadn't expected, is that the two Gentlewoman books also have a series title - THE LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE! At the moment, there are only the two Briefs, and a reference to the Circle in the novel, but now I'm fancying writing some more short stories about the Ladies who gather, not so much to embroider but to sew seeds of mischief amongst one another. Maybe they could even feature in longer works, such as another novel, or novellas?

Writing more Victorians would be lots of fun for me to do, and also, more stories set in that era would justify my extravagance on books and magazines about those times! Only this morning, I received a copy of The Times from 1889... fascinating stuff!

A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT - available at eHarlequin

ps. as the Brief becomes available at other outlets, I'll post info here and on its page at my site.

A Very Useful Book

This little beauty arrived this morning, via Ebay. It's MANNERS OF GOOD SOCIETY, written by "A member of the Aristocracy". A research book, obviously, but the best thing about it is that it was published in 1890 ie. the very year that Victorianoid is set!

So, this is the real deal about etiquette of the time, not a second hand source such as an internet search. And it's full of advice to the socially unsure about visiting your friends and acquaintances, leaving your calling cards, how to address various toff and nobs, going to parties, balls and picnics and generally behaving with propriety in the later Victorian age.

Now, I must admit, my story doesn't involve a lot of the activities described in this worthy little tome [especially not the behaving with propriety, quite the reverse!] but at least dipping into it will give me an idea of the mindset of the society conscious folk of the time, and a flavour of the way they wrote and spoke, and even if I don't use it directly, I'm hoping some of its wisdom will seep into my subconscious and maybe lend a little veracity to my Victorian historical writing.

I've actually amassed a few contemporary items for this book: bound volumes of the Illustrated London News and Punch. Bound copies of The Young Ladies' Journal and even a Mother's Companion. I love to handle these original books, and think that people were reading them and enjoying them and looking at the illustrations over a century ago. It makes the Victorian age feel very real to me, and not just some dry, theoretical historical time period.

I think that's what draws me to the Victorian era. You can still get your hands on so much of the stuff they made and used. :)

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Eating: Jaffa Cake Bars
Watching: various
Reading: The Moor/Laurie R. King
Writing: Victorianoid
Feeling: so so

I have been mainly...

watching this for the last couple of days and have been completely fascinated by it. Strangely enough, I still don't know whether I actually like the central character of Lillie Langtry. She was the Victorian equivalent of these celebrities who are famous just for being famous, and who got ahead by looking pretty and sleeping their way to the top. It's hard to tell if this is a true representation of the real woman, but it is compelling viewing. Lillie had her share of triumphs and tragedies and a lot of love affairs, and does seem to have been a shameless self promoter who sometimes caused pain to others and/or exploited them for her own advancement. And yet, she was feisty and used her own form of power in an age when men were pretty much in control of everything.

All in all, I think I admire Lillie more than like her, but it's the mark of fine programme making and intriguing subject material when you find you're not exactly rooting for the central character all the time, but you just can't stop watching anyway.

It couldn't last...

... my writing spurt, that is.

I finished my first school reunion story on Saturday evening, in first draft, but I haven't really done any new writing since. Correction, I haven't done any writing since, why avoid the issue!

I'm sort of in a bit of a multiple holding pattern at the moment, waiting to hear about various things, and I'm not sure what to do next. Editing the reunion story would be obvious, but I like to leave things to set for a little while before I tackle editing. In the meantime, I've not been totally idle on the writing front. Instead of actually laying down words, I've been researching and reading topics up online, for a book idea that's 'out there'...

Now I've no clue as to whether this idea/proposal will come to anything, or any special hint or sign that there's any hope... but it's a story line that needs more background development than my usual boy meets girl, boy shags girl, boy and girl skip off into the sunset tales. So, I thought I would look up a few things in sheer blind hope that I'll need them...

Other than that, I'm having a pleasant but very lazy Easter Holiday... and I hope you all are too.

ps. I indulged myself this morning at Amazon, with a Black Books Complete Box Set. Oh, so funny... And in honour of that, here's another look at a YouTube I've posted before, but which is one of the most hilarious and ironically true to life writing vids I've ever had the pleasure to view.

Another poll...

Get Free Opinion Polls

It's a bit similar to one I had before, but with more detail... I'd just like to know what readers want... So I can give it to them!!!! :)

better?

Well, I think I'm beginning to get a handle on that paranormal story of mine... but even though I might end up with something I quite like, I still don't feel all that optimistic that the editor will like it. It might end up being one for a future self published shorts collection or something... It's been very weird to get the tone for this thing. It's more a slightly fun story, and not linked to any established mythos... just something inexplicable that may or may not be a trick of the imagination. Don't know whether this can be classed as paranormal or not, hence some of my doubts about it. If I get it right though... it'll be one for the delectation of my Vincent friends... I think the title alone gives sufficient hint of that... ie. the thing's called Watching The Detective!

Have been watching stuff to do with ballet in the last few days, as background research for TechnoGothic, which has an ex dancer as a heroine. Some behind the scenes stuff has been particularly useful, and now I'm watching a performance of the great romantic ballet Giselle. Masses of elements of gothic tragedy in this story... and the juxtaposition of love and death is always powerful, but the plotline really does irritate me in a lot of ways because Prince Albrecht, the supposed hero, is such a jerk! And Giselle herself is a nitwit for falling for such a selfish user. Down to earth Hillarion is the guy who really loves her, and what does he get? Bumped off by the magic dancing fairies when he should actually be *rewarded* for his love and devotion! While soppy, self centered Albrecht gets away with it... He's supposed to be eternally sorrowful, but I bet you anything when the curtain goes down he v. quickly gets over it and is back to chasing innocent peasant babes in a different village to get his end away before very long...

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Telly: Giselle
Chocolate: Cadbury's Chocolate Biscuits
Mood: okay
Writing: Watching The Detective 1.4K words so far
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: not bad, have deduced that my current twinges are due to cracking walnuts!!!