When reading ‘Writing Coach Books’, I am surprised how much time they spend on the subject of ‘Writer's Block’. Maybe it’s because I have been around quite a bit (no, I’m not telling you my age!) that I seem to have an endless resource in my head, so if one plot line seems to be coming to a dead end, it doesn’t take long for the brain cells to come up with a new scenario to pursue.
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| Inside the Orangery at Sezincote - the Inspiration for Colonel Fawcett's Orchid House in Lady Serena's Secret (currently being written - hopefully to be published in the New Year). |
Having worked with the Great British Public as an Optometrist, it is surprising the amount of drama that even ordinary folk encounter (don’t worry, all your stories are safe with me - I would never use them directly). And the drama increases in variety and shock-value the higher the social status or wealth of the people involved! So, the fact that during the Regency/ late Georgian period, the Upper Classes were always getting up to a myriad of scrapes and downright wickedness, is not quite as surprising as one might suppose. The fact that there wasn’t any social media beyond the newspapers and scandal sheets, or an organised police force for much of the period, may have had something to do with it!
However, despite having quite a mine of tales of human frailty to pick and work, I do find it both interesting and fruitful to feed that memory bank on a regular basis. That is my excuse, anyway, for noseying around as many interesting historical places as I can, when I am taking a few days away from home.
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| Kelmscott Manor. Country home of William Morris. Though it has not been a direct inspiration for a scene in my books yet, it is an archetypel Cotswold Manor House, and probably has the most romantic feel of any I have visited. |
So Bath is next on my list. I’ve been there before, of course, but as we are in the area in the lead up to Christmas (visiting daughter and family with Christmas presents), it seems too good an opportunity to miss, to renew my acquaintance and get the feel of the place once again. The downside of visiting at this time of year is that a few places are closed, notably, the Assembly Rooms.
Bath will probably feature to some extent in Book 4 of the Brockworth Chronicles, “Lady Rosamund’s Recluse.’ As we already know from Book 1 ‘Lady Isabel’s Inheritance’, Lady Rosamund is currently attending a rather progressive school near Bath, and so it is a good spot for her to have already established connections in the area. It also gives me an opportunity to use a new plot setting to explore, and as this is to be in the nature of a Gothic Romance, the craggy coastline of Devon, not too far away, should prove to be a suitable backdrop. The Castle involved will be suitably gloomy and forbidding, of course. I have already modelled part of it on Berkeley Castle, which we visited quite recently.
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| Berkely Castle - a suitably rambling and ancient castle for setting a Gothic Romance. My inspiration for the castle to feature in Book Four of the Brockworth Chronicles. Actually, it's rather a beautiful place in an austere kind of way. Well worth a visit! |
Though many of my trips are planned as semi-research trips, I’m afraid I’m a bit of magpie, so if something shiny catches my eye (i.e. it looks interesting), then I shall go there, take as many photos and notes as I can, and salt the memories away for possible future mining forays.
Then there is what I like to call serious research, which usually involves reading rather dry tomes, to get my facts straight. Why do I bother, you may ask? Not many people would be bothered to look up facts, but then I have an inkling that there are quite a few pedantic readers like me, out there, who are incandescent when they read something totally wrong that an author has failed to fact-check. (That also applies to modern or foreign, mainly American, phraseology creeping into the mouths of Georgian English Aristocrats. Gotten is my number one pet hate!)
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| William Dalrymple's excellent book about the East India Company. |
So, I spend a good deal of my time reading up on subjects such as the East India Company. Reading ‘The Black Sheep’ by Georgette Heyer many years ago, inspired me to wonder how many men of middling background, went out to India and made eye-watering fortunes which, if they survived, they brought back to England to set up as Landed Gentry, and frequently entered politics. So, currently, I’m reading The Anarchy, by William Dalrymple (one of the most forefront experts on the subject, and thankfully, very easy to read), to provide background for the book I’m currently writing, ‘Lady Serena’s Secret’. Though none of the characters or plot lines are taken from such sources, they provide, hopefully, a realistic and historically accurate backdrop to the events happening to the lead characters. It makes them more believable, I hope, and more rounded sympathetic characters.
So, what am I saying, really? Well, I suppose it’s that writing for me, isn’t simply just dreaming up a racy storyline and committing it to electronic pen and paper. It's more about really getting into the characters' heads and situations, and the things they have experienced and hopefully relating how those influence the how, who, why, where and when they fall in love.
And though I appreciate that most Aristocratic marriages of the Regency Period were probably decided on purely mercenary lines, nobody really wants to hear about those. (Except, maybe, if against the odds, it does turn out to be a love story. Maybe, a story line for later?) So, in the pursuit of entrancing (I hope), true love stories, I will continue to seek out the unusual, and quirky, and sometimes downright bizarre - hopefully to entertain my readers!
Detta.