First Draft of LNN finished - at last!

 

The seemingly dour (but is he?) Nathaniel Brockworth

Well, Yes, it's taken forever, but the first draft of 'Lord Nathaniel's Nemesis' is complete, and I'm happy with it. Getting to know the two lead characters has taken a while, because, it turns out, that they are a lot more complex people than those in the first two books: 'Lady Isabel's Inheritance' and 'Lady Serena's Secret'. I think that it was always inevitable that characters who do not conform to the standard male and female tropes of romantic fiction were going to be harder to write. The usual simple formula of historical romances would not be enough to explain why these two very different people, from wildly different backgrounds, would meet and fall in love. (Historical Romantic fiction tropes: strong overbearing, gorgeous male; beautiful, but tricky, aristocratic female - do not fit well in this story. Nathaniel tends to be rather self-effacing and Rebecca isn't even aristocratic!) 

Rebecca Northley - beautiful, rich heiress, but an outsider as far as High Society is concerned.
She is a commoner associated with business and trade, and is therefore only valued by many for her fortune.

I probably should have realised that this would be a tricky task long ago, when I was finding it hard to find an interesting story line which would fit the characters I wanted to portray. The classic story lines would just not work. So I eventually found myself going down pathways that had definitely not even occurred to me when I started writing this novel. But slowly and surely Rebecca and Nathaniel's story unfolded - with forays into places I knew from my University days, and very unladylike occupations for Rebecca. But at least the story held together as a plot!

Yes! A Roman mosaic and a vineyard producing English sparkling wine - how on earth do those fit into the plot? They do, I assure you!

 You know the old saying 'still waters run deep' - that is certainly true for Nathaniel, who superficially comes across as a bit bland. Not so, under his dour frowning façade, lies a passionate man, who is not quite so comfortable expressing himself on a personal level as the rest of the Brockworths, and therefore takes a little more time to get to know. However, fate intervenes and faced with the possibility of losing the love of his life, Rebecca, Nathaniel finds himself playing the unexpected and rather uncomfortable role of knight in shining armour. Despite these heroics, all still does not go well in his pursuit of his soul-mate, and drastic methods have to be contemplated by a man happier standing in the shadows, than taking overtly bold steps to avert disaster.

The magnificent frontage of Harewood House

Without giving too much away, the plot shifts around quite a lot in this novel, including London, Oxfordshire and finally to Seth Northley's (Rebecca's father) imposing mansion in Hampshire. I have unashamedly based this over-the-top Palladian pile on the wonderful Harewood House, near Harrogate Yorkshire, which we visited in September. I just loved this house - so beautifully kept and built by the nouveaux very riche of the mid-eighteenth century Lascelles family (though the Lascelles family, had been in fact, respectable gentry in the area since early medieval times. However, my story story does not relate to them other than referencing the gorgeous house).

The fabulous Gallery which appears as Chicheley Place's ballroom in 'Lord Nathaniel's Nemesis'

So now I have to sit down and start the second draft, and fill out the story to make it a riveting read. I just hope hope that is a smoother process than developing the first draft!

I'm hoping to finish the second draft by the New Year, but a publication date in 2026 is probably a realistic prediction, and I'm not even going to speculate on which month!

                           In the meantime, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Lady Serena's Secret published!

 
April 2025

Well it's been a while coming, but Lady Serena's Secret is now available as an e-book on Amazon. It was not an easy book to write as Lady Serena is basically a very nice person. And nice people are trickier to write about, as they tend not to offend or do outrageous things. In short - they can be a bit boring. So, whilst being true to the nature of one's chief protagonist, a writer has to dig a little deeper into her subject. No-one is really perfect after all - are they?

And Serena, I am glad to say, is not quite the perfect 'Diamond of the First Water' - a model of upper class beauty and perfection, that she first appears to be. No, Lady Serena has been flouting quite a few of those unspoken rules that dictate the rather restricted lifestyle of Upper Class Virgins. 

Bored with yet another London Season, Serena and her friends, Lady Millie and Lady Fliss are, instead of devoting their energies to finding suitable husbands, relieving their ennui, by helping out at a Girl's Charity School (which is acceptable), and supporting it financially by secretly producing a Lady's Periodical, 'La Dernier Cri' (which is not quite so acceptable). Their involvement in this kind of enterprise would, if it ever became known publicly, bring not only scandal to them, but also to their families. However, so far, they have eluded detection, and are quietly proud of the results of their efforts.

Serena, not content with sailing close to the wind with her publishing activities, secretly designs clothes and jewellery (though the latter she has not indulged in recently, as the danger of detection is considerably higher). However, she still provides her modiste, Madame Tiffany with the odd dress design when she feels inspired and cannot resist her muse any longer. The haute ton would be shocked and outraged if they knew that Lady Serena had designed some of the most admired dresses of the Season.

Hew d'Arras, Earl of Blencathra has returned to English shores reluctantly, due to the necessity of taking over the reins of the family Estate and businesses, and to avoid an almost certain demise from illness, if he had insisted on remaining in India. He is also looking forward to the challenge of extending the gem and jewellery business he started in India, and building up the family shipping business to be a global enterprise.

When he left England ten years previously, he had sworn never to return. However, embracing the inescapable, he looks up his sole remaining close relative, his cousin Isabel, who has recently married Theo Brockworth, Marquess of Norcombe - Serena's eldest brother. On being introduced to the Brockworth family, Hew discovers that Serena is everything he despises in females - a beautiful blue-eyed blonde, and despite his instant attraction to her physically, immediately raises all his defences. 

Far from the usual stunned admiration that she is used to receiving when introduced to any male on the right side of the grave, Serena is totally dumbfounded when Hew views her with stony disdain, bordering on outright hostility. Somewhat miffed that he appears to have taken her in instant dislike for no apparent reason, Serena delights in thwarting his efforts to put her off, when Isabel invites her to help in Hew's quest of finding a new home in London.

And so begins the on-off, up and down relationship between Serena and Hew. As Serena goes about her life helping friends and acquaintances whenever she can, Hew starts to realise that there may be more to Lady Serena than first appearances might suggest. Indeed, far from the ambitious, avaricious and manipulative heartless siren he expected, he has to admit that she is warm, generous, talented and soft-hearted, amongst countless other virtues. Likewise, Serena starts to realise that far from being the stony-faced, one dimensional businessman that he likes to portray himself as, Hew is a closet Romantic with an artistic side that he keeps very carefully concealed. 

Running the gauntlet of scandal, intrigue, fortune hunters and the malicious harpies of the ton, enjoy the trials and tribulations of love within the Ruling Class during the 1820's with Hew and Serena, in

Lady Serena's Secret

now available as a e-book at Amazon, here.

Book covers and AI

When you are writing a novel, especially a historical romance, the appearance of your characters matters a lot. Especially the picture that you chose for the book cover. Apparently some appeal more than others! Is your hero tall dark and handsome (classic male trope)? Is your female lead small, fair and pretty (classic female trope), or more probably, as in real life, quite, quite different from these archetypes? In Lady Serena's Secret, I am afraid I have gone fairly conventional - I just hope the story line is interesting enough for you to overlook that! In the Brockworth Chronicle's, I normally try to mix it up a bit, but one always has to bear in mind what sort of images are available commercially, at a reasonable price, to those who are indulging in a bit of self-publishing on Kindle.

HEW 1

But now I have discovered AI art design programmes! When I mentioned this to my son Peter, he promptly dismissed these sort of programmes as something only useful for those with no artistic abilities whatsoever. Well, that could be a perfect description of my drawing/ painting skills, I quietly thought to myself! I have a very clear memory of Miss Noblett (our art teacher at Larkhill Convent) standing behind my chair in art class, and saying quite loudly, 'Well, we won't be seeing you again next year, will we, Bernadette?'. This was her not-so-subtle-at-all way of telling me that putting my name down for GCE Art would be a waste of everyone's time, especially hers. I did needlework instead!

HEW2

I am happy to say that this summary dismissal did not, however, dull my interest in Art, which is still a bit of an obsession, but only from an admirer's point of view.

But back to AI for the artistically talentless! I'd looked at a few reviews on line and watched a few YouTube videos on the subject and had really been impressed with the results shown there. The one that stood out for me was, Leonardo AI, and so I thought I would sign up for the free trial. Obviously you don't get all the bells and whistles with the free trial, but it does give you an indication if it is going to produce the sort of material that might prove useful for your own personal projects. I have now signed up for a basic subscription which allows you to fiddle around with the images a bit more, plus whatever you generate can be kept from going onto the images freely available to anyone who signs up. What you produce is yours.

HEW 3

Well, the results are variable, I have to admit, but like photography, out of every ten pictures that you generate, you will will probably get one or two that really catch your eye. No doubt the results get better with a) practice and b) getting to understand the tools better. However, you end up with quite a few possibles, and then you wonder which would have the most book cover appeal. 

Now few people would say that I was 'normal'. I know this because people have told me - kindly - but leaving me in no doubt whatsoever, that I am 'different', bordering on eccentric. Therefore, I have to conclude, that what appeals to me, may be completely way off target as far as the general public is concerned.

HEW 4

So, I have decided to test the water, as it were, and see what my friends and family think. I have picked out the five images of Hew that I prefer, which I generated with my personal vision of him in mind, (Hew is the male love-interest in 'Lady Serena's Secret' - to be published around Easter). For guidance here is a short summary of his character:

Hew d'Arras, 9th Earl of Blencathra cousin to Lady Isabel Brockworth (nee d'Arras) of Book 1, Lady Isabel's Inheritance. Tall, dark, handsome (but not drop-dead-gorgeous - that would be too much of a cliché), with near black hair and pale green eyes, a bit on the thin side as he has returned from India because of illness (tropical diseases killed off a lot of Brits in India at that time). Very rich, through his own hard work, with business interests in shipping and gemstones. He has returned to England, reluctantly, but with the firm idea that he would re-establish the good name of d'Arras in Society, and continue to build an extension of his Indian business empire, in England. He is serious, ambitious,  uninterested in the usual society entertainments, and suspicious of all, especially of all beautiful blue-eyed blondes. (Serena, of course, is a beautiful blue eyed honey-blonde, whom he tries to ignore, but with little success). Sorry - that's enough spoilers for now!

HEW 5

So which of the five possible Hews would you look at twice? I have numbered them coveniently for you to choose. You are allowed to choose as many as you like. I know which ones are my favourites! You can reply via the comments box, on Facebook, or send your answer to: arcadystitching@gmail.com. I will publish the results at the end of the month!

If you would like to receive notice of new blog posts, please let me know, and I will add your name to the mailing list. (this is a personal blog, not a business website - I DO NOT pass on any info about my correspondents to ANYONE. Just in case you wondered. You are my friends, and I'd like to keep it that way!

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 is a good one for you!

B.

Progress Report: Lady Serena's Secret

Hello, and apologies for my absence. I have been unwell. Hopefully, all fingers crossed, I am on the mend, and ready to engage with you all once again! Despite some really rubbish days, I have managed to work on steadily with 'Lady Serena's Secret' when feeling up to it, so it's time for a progress report.

The proposed book cover. Lady Serena is actually more blonde than this, but it is surprisingly difficult to find true blondes in book cover designs. Copyright LitAtelier (Etsy)

As I have mentioned before, doing the research for these books is probably the most enjoyable bit involved in the process of producing a book. My brain takes me walkabout in its hidden recesses, chivvying out half known facts and forcing me to learn something more solid about them. So the sacred lotus flower of the East comes up during the latter part of the book, and though I knew roughly what it looked like, to make sure I didn't make a massive horticultural faux pas, I did a little bit of research. (We are so fortunate to have the Internet - the information we need is literally at our finger tips. I would have had to seek out some botanical tome or write to someone at Kew pre-Google and Wikipedia). But I digress.

So the sacred Lotus flower. Though the flower looks like a water lily (Nymphaea) it is from a completely different different plant group - Nelumbo. It is also different in form, having a much larger flower and can stand up to eight feet above the mud in which it grows. Water lilies grow in water and rarely stand above the surface more than eight inches.

 

Lotus flower. Copyright: T.Voekler, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

However, it was the symbolism that really interested me. It has different meanings in different cultures, the primary ones being Purity, Rebirth and Overcoming Adversity. Other attributes are Beauty, Strength and Enlightenment. Whilst I refuse to let slip some spoilers, you can be sure that the lotus flower's appearance in the story is somewhat significant, bearing in mind its symbolism.

My other recent area of research is Malaria. Our hero, Hew d'Arras, Earl of Blencathra (not giving away too much here as this information appears at the beginning of the book), is reluctantly returning to England from India, because he has been told that remaining in the country would mean his early demise from disease and the effects of an unfriendly climate. We are not actually told that he has had Malaria, but as he has come back armed with cinchona bark (the only effective treatment for Malaria at that time, though it was used to help with other types of fevers), it's a reasonable conclusion to make. Also, people could have relapses, even after they appeared to have thrown off the disease. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about possible plot lines involving those facts.

 

A depiction of the train for George IVs Coronation. The invited Peers had the dubious honour of being told to wear Tudor or Stuart dress. The acceptable designs were placed on display at the College of Arms. Levens Hall has one of the original Page's costumes (in remarkably good condition considering it is over 200 years old. The silk fabric is truly beautiful) on display Copyright:Edward Scriven (after Francis and James Stephanoff), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, towards the end of the book, the Coronation of King George the IV takes place. Though the actually ceremony doesn't play a part in the plot, per se, the hoo-ha and eyewatering expense surrounding it, does. Finding original sources has led me around the world (digitally, that is), though it pains me to see that other countries value our history more than we do. Once more I digress! There is a particularly deliciously funny scene involving Theo which makes me laugh just thinking about it.

The first draft is nearly finished - hooray! Turning it into a good story, rather than just a collection of connected events, starts probably in the next week or two. That's when the going gets tough!

Best regards, Detta