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

Forward momentum...

After a day and a half of backtracking, in order to re-engage with my characters after a brief writing hiatus, I'm pleased to announce I'm now moving forward with the plot again. Yeehah!

Have just written a prickly little scene that deals with the aftermath of Beatrice and Ritchie's 'first time' ie. the first time they doooo eeeet, as opposed to all the sensual play they've been indulging in up until now. As Beatrice was a virgin, it's a bit of a big deal for her, and already, rightly or not, she's staring to forge deeper feelings for Ritchie than she knows she ought to, given their relationship is grounded in an 'indecent proposal' arrangement. Ritchie too senses that he's getting in deeper than he planned [ooer missis] and being a guy with a shed load of emotional baggage and complications in his life, that could lead to even more of the same ahead.

It's going to be a bumpy road for these two, I guess...

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Eating: more swiss roll
Watching: bit of British Superbikes
Reading: stalled on about four books, planning to read something different
Writing: IN THE FLESH
Feeling: fairly chipper

Back and forth

Have been back at work today on Victorianoid after a few days of procrastinating and doing other things.

I mostly find that when I've had a few days off from a book, I need to backtrack a bit to re-engage with the characters and the plot, and in this case, I went back about three [short] chapters, to rewrite and refine. I was going to change the 'action' in these scenes quite a bit, to follow what I laughingly call my outline, but on rereading the scenes, I think I'll keep the interaction between Beatrice and Ritchie pretty much as it is, and just change the outline! In my synopsis and outline thingoid, Ritchie was always the one pretty much calling the sexual shots, but as I've been writing, Beatrice has very much developed a mind of her own in these matters and is more sexually aggressive than I'd anticipated. I'm not sure how 'of her times' she is in this, but I'm sure that beneath the prim exteriors of many a Victorian miss or matron, there was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to reach out and take hold of it... much like Beatrice, beneath the tablecloth in the restaurant of Belanger's Hotel. Think about it... ;)

I've also been thinking about length again [much like Beatrice during her under the table manipulations!] and have been reworking the outline with that in mind too. Have cut out some scenes, and some unnecessarily non-relationship type aspects, to leave more space for Beatrice/Ritchie emotion and sensuality. I know a novel needs *some* plottiness, but not at the expense of the love and sex stuff in this kind of book ie. an erotic romance.

Anyway, feel better to be writing again... even if my wordcount has shrunk today, having cut out 300 words of dead wood and cringe-inducing clunkiness. I don't think super fast drafting will ever be for me, because the absolute tosh I write when I'm racing just makes me wince. I'd rather work more slowly, and go back and forth with the thing, and then know/hope that the prose isn't too horrendously awful when I've finished the first draft. :)

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Eating: a lot of chocolate swiss roll
Watching: Victorian Farm/Victorian Kitchen Garden
Reading: my outline
Writing: Victorianoid
Feeling: not bad

Writing a baddie!

In the last couple of days, I've been thinking about and writing about the baddie in my WIP. Now this is tough for me, because I'm a sucker for sympathetic characters, even when they're sexy, somewhat domineering alpha heroes... but the dastardly Eustace Lloyd's actions have a pivotal effect on the plot of IN THE FLESH, so I don't think it'll work to have him simply referred to, rather than put in an actual appearance. In fact, come to think of it, a dirty trick that Eustace plays on my heroine, Beatrice Weatherly, initiates the entire plot of the book. Not that there's a *huge* amount of plottiness. I'd be the first to admit that my stories depend mainly on characters, erotic interplay and emotions, rather than a lot of racing around doing things.

Because I mostly like 'nice' characters, I don't write many nasty ones. I think the last proper villain I wrote ie. one without much in the way of redeeming features, was Isidora, the wicked sorceress in my GOTHIC duo, Gothic Blue and Gothic Heat. Now she was a very bad girl, and totally ruthless, and didn't care what she did to people as long as she got what she wanted. Readers seemed to like her, and I must admit, she was fun to write, so maybe I can channel some of that irredeemable mojo into Eustace... although I'm already looking for reasons for him being the way he is. Not that I'll have much time to go into his back story. I've nearly got three quarters of my wordcount done, and I'm only half way through the plot!

Looks like this book is due some stringent and carefully considered cutting and compressing in the editing... or it's going to be a helluva sight longer than the projected 95K words!

Now then... shall I do a bit more Eustaceness? Or return to Beatrice and Mr. Ritchie and their delicious bedroom games? Hee hee!


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Eating: far too much sweet stuff
Watching: The Mentalist, Numb3rs etc
Reading: Patience - Lisa Valdez/Sherlock Holmes for Dummies
Writing: IN THE FLESH aka Victorianoid
Feeling: so so

Why?

Do I suddenly have to keep signing in, again and again, to Blogger? Up until not long ago, I could sign in once in a session, then edit my sidebar thingies on the fly, from the page... not so now. Very annoying.

You'll be pleased to know that I've now begun moving forward again with IN THE FLESH. I spent yesterday pootling about with the 12K I'd completed and doing little tweaks and adjustments to reflect thoughts I've had and research I've uncovered since I first worked on it, many, many months ago. I was pleased to discover that I clicked with Bea, the heroine, again immediately. She's an interesting girl, brave and feisty, who looks on the positive side. She's made silly mistakes, but she's learning from them so she doesn't slip up in quite the same way again. I'm not sure that she's a totally strictly accurate Victorian young lady in her thinking, maybe... but she has to be what she'll be, that's the way I write. And I think I can avoid any super ridiculous anachronisms... ITF will be a bit wallpapery, but not too much, I hope.

Ritchie, I'm already liking very much again too. Especially his ruthless sexiness at this stage. I hope to bring out his more tormented and angsty side later, although it won't be black, bleak, miserable angst, just a guy trying to make the best of the hand life's dealt him.

I'm also, currently, opening the door to the mind of Charlie, Bea's brother, who's an unwise character although not a villain. I hope to make him grow stronger through the book, although at the moment he's teetering on the brink of an erotic tryst in a moonlit garden with another man... Very foolhardy indeed in an age where homosexuality was against the law, and he could go to prison and serve a term of hard labour. Eek, Charlie, be careful!



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Eating: chocolate finger biscuits
Watching: nothing yet
Reading: nothing yet today
Writing: IN THE FLESH aka Victorianoid
Feeling: quite positive

Credit crunch....

Times are hard, and I'm reduced to Tesco's 'value' chocolate digestives for my mid morning treat. Still yummy, though, but I yearn for the days of Hotel Chocolat and luxury muffins and whatnot... :(

Any road up, I know I've been a very poor blogger lately, so will attempt a bit of catch up here...

So, what's happening...

At the moment, I've got the contracts for my next two Spice Briefs on my desk. These are ANOTHER CHANCE & A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT. Another Chance is about further naughty goings on at Blaystock Manor, which is featured in CHANCE OF A LIFETIME, my first Spice Brief. This time it's Maud the archivist who's having some sexy, spanky fun with William the hunky estate steward. Hee hee! A Gentlewoman's Ravishment features Prudence Enderby, who gets a shock when her forbidden erotic fantasies about being kidnapped and ravished by a fabulously horny brigand start to come true!

Another Chance is nearly complete, but Ravishment is yet to be started. They'll both appear sometime in 2010, Ravishment in Spring, probably, the month after its sister story, A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT is published, and Chance, later in that year.

My next publication, due out on 1st May, is TWICE THE PLEASURE, the first in my Risque Reunions trilogy for Spice Briefs. I'm hoping that the other two stories in this trio appear in consecutive months... Twice is about Caitlyn, who, returning to her old high school college for a ten year reunion, meets up with the beau she was besotted with back in the day... and who unfortunately didn't seem to be besotted with her, because he was besotted with his best male buddy! But all is not as it seems, and the three old college mates come to an erotic and deliciously wicked understanding.

What else have I been working on recently? Well, my first ever full length historical erotic romance! This is a first for me, as I've always been shy of attempting something that needs so much research, and have also always felt that I'm a person very much rooted in the contemporary... But the idea of writing a historical was suggest to me, and really took my fancy, so I thought I'd give it a shot and have written a proposal for a hot historical set in the late Victorian period. I must stress this is only a proposal, and not a commissioned work... so it's in the lap of the gods as to whether it'll meet the approval of an editor... In these tough times, when publishing opportunities are at even more of a premium than ever, I'm going to need the crossed fingers, toes and miscellaneous other extremities of all my friends and fans if 'victorianoid' is to succeed!