Sandy's Chatterblog has moved!

I will now be blogging from my own website. The design of the blog isn't perfect yet, but it does resemble the look of the old blog here (which is what I wanted to achieve).

A Summer for Love Blog Hop: Summer in Scotland (with Giveaway!!!)

Ahh, summertime! It's the perfect time for strawberry ice cream, for peach bowle, for spending lazy days outside, and for going on vacation.

In the summer of 1839 this meant for a lot of people to go to Scotland because a young Scottish lord, the Earl of Eglinton, was hosting a medieval tournament on his estate in Ayrshire. He and a group of his friends donned medieval armor in order to joust like knights of old. The event drew several ten thousands of people to the Scottish countryside - and caused unspeakable traffic jams in the area around Eglinton Park. And because everybody was to come in costume, the coaches all over the country were piled high with boxes, parcels, and packages of all sizes.

In Edinburgh, a reporter for Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, ready to embark upon his journey, was utterly astonished by the amount of luggage - and he was not the only one:

Arriving at the office in Prince's Street a little before the hour at which [the coach] should have started, we were astonished at the immense pile of luggage which we saw heaped on the street in order to be packed upon the carriage. When Mr. Croal, the coach-proprietor, came up, he was so much appalled by the sight, that, apologising for the delay which he must inevitably  occasion, he informed us that he must send back the coach to the yard, and get out a stronger one, that might be more certainly able to bear such a load without risk of breaking down.

When this more potent vehicle arrived, any impatience that might have been excited in us by the delay, was subdued by the interest which we could not help taking in the ingenuity which the coachman and his assistants displayed in packing and piling the various articles in and upon it; till I, and my companion, and two officers of our acquaintance, who had all of us placed ourselves comfortably on the hinder seats, could no longer see those in front, even when we stood up to try to do so. We felt some comfort in thinking that  the superior construction of coaches, now-a-days, admits of this being done with more safety than was formerly the case.

Besides all the ordinary kinds of trunks, portmanteaus, band-boxes, and carpet-bags, which are usually attendant upon a coach full of passengers inside and outside, there were innumerable white deal boxes of all manner of shapes and sizes. Most of them were ingeniously suspended like sausages on strings all around the carriage; and, to crown all, on the very top perched a wicker cage, containing a great, long-legged, large-bodied, awkward-looking pair of Chittagong fowls, belonging to an Indian who had a seat in the interior. The cock not only seemed to know that he was going to the Tournament as well as other people, but to think that he was to be triumphant there; for much to the amusement of all who beheld him [...] he crowed away so loudly that he brought some of the sleepy citizens of Prince's Street, in their night-caps, from their beds to their windows, to wonder at so unwonted a summon.

(from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, November 1839)

My latest release THE BRIDE PRIZE is set against the backdrop of the Eglinton Tournament, and my hero and heroine are among the people travelling to Scotland in August 1839. Click below to listen to an excerpt.

THE BRIDE PRIZE is available from Amazon US / UK (and all other Amazon stores) & from Kobo

But wait! You can also win a signed copy of the novella if you sign up to my newsletter during the Summer for Love Blog Hop!

And there is even more!
Leave a comment here on this blog with your name and your e-mail to be entered into the Grand Prize drawing for a chance to win one of six $50 Amazon or B&N giftcards! Just tell me about your favorite summer destination.

Comments without name and email will not be counted.

Commenting on each and every stop will increase your chances of winning.

You can find the list with all stops here.

The Grand Prizes will be awarded to randomly drawn participants / commenters.

Winners will be drawn and announced on THE ROMANCE TROUPE blog by June 10th using random.org to determine each winner.

Phone box? No, it's a library!

I went to Hofheim today, and this time I remember to take a picture of this pretty thing here: the phone box that has been transformed into a mini-library! (I snatched up an older German children's book.)

This Week in 1844: Awesome Ad

In contrast to the second half of the nineteenth century, in the first half, illustrated ads were the exception due to the high taxes on advertisements. So I was tickled pink to find this lovely thing in this week's ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. It's a traveling dressing case with an in-built writer's desk. Very cool, isn't it?

Writer's Desk: Plotting Falling for a Scoundrel

Let's put it like this: I'm a tad late with this....

Fiction vs Reality

There's a scene in Mercedes Lackey's MAGIC'S PRICE where Stef, one of the main characters, plays the harp for too long and ends up with terrible, bleeding blisters on his hands. I've always thought this was some kind of dramatic exaggeration.

Eh.... not quite. In this case fiction seems to be uncomfortably close to reality.

An hour with the sweet thing in the picture up there and I have the beginnings of a fiendish blister on my index finger. As a (former) piano player, I've never fully appreciated the physical problems players of stringed instruments have to deal with.

But isn't it a pretty thing? It's a concert ukulele from Luna

This Week in 1844: Metropolitan News

 One of the columns in the Illustrated London News was titled "Metropolitan News" - and the following snippet appeared in the issue from 18 May 1844:

On Wednesday evening the Lord Mayor entertained her Majesty's Ministers, and several members of both houses of Parliament, at dinner, in the Egyptian Hall, at the Mansion-House [= i.e. the residence of the mayor of London]. Among the guests, who were very numerous, we observed the Lord Chancellor, Lord Wharncliffe, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Lincoln, Earl Delawarr, Earl of Devon, Earl of Shaftesbury, Earl of Jersey, Earl Jermyn, Lord S. Somerset, Viscount Barrington, Lord Canning, Lord Ashley, Lord Eliot, the Bishop of Llandaff, Sir Robert Peel, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Monteagle, Sirs G. Murray, James Graham, E. Knatchbull, Mr. E. Gladstone, Sir J. Nicholl, Captain Gordon, &c. All the leading members of the Corporation were also present.

(I assume that "Corporation" refers to the Corporation of London, the local government.)

This Week in 1844: News from America!

From The Illustrated London News, 18 May 1844: 

The city of Washington, the seat of the American Government, has just been the scene of two events of a very opposite character - the signature of the treaty for the annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United States, and the delivery of a Message by the President in communicating this treaty to the Senate; besides an affray in the House of Representatives, and the attempted assassination of one of its members.

This bit of juicy news was run by a number of British newspapers with reference to the New York Sun. What happened was that a brawl broke out between representatives during the discussion of a bill: Mr. Wright from Kentucky made a pass (and yes, that would be a physical pass...) at Mr. Rathbun from New York and both proceeded to hit upon each other. While the rest of the representatives tried to separate the two men, one William S. Moore, who had for some weeks tried in vain to obtain a claim from the government, tried to enter the house, was hindered, and proceeded to shoot at the representative from Ohio. He missed this man, but wounded another instead.

The whole affair was referred to a committee of five for investigation, with instructions to report a Bill for the punishment of offences committed within the House. At the solicitation of friends, Mr. Rathbun and Mr. White shook hands amid the applause of the House. Thus that affair ended.

Launch of THE BRIDE PRIZE

I'm thrilled to announce that THE BRIDE PRIZE, the first in the Allan's Miscellany series is now available on both Amazon and Kobo, with B&N soon to follow. Here's the blurb:

It's 1839, and Lord Eglinton's tournament in Scotland is the most anticipated event of the year: he and some of his noble friends will don medieval armor and joust like knights of old.

Does this mean a revival of true chivalry? Miss Florence Marsh thinks it might.

Or is the tournament mere tomfoolery and the greatest folly of the century? Mr. Robert Beaton thinks it is.

But when Flo and Robbie meet at Eglinton Park, they'll soon learn that a dash of romance can make the greatest differences look rather small and that true love might find you in the most unlikely place.

If only Robbie wasn't working for that scandalous new magazine Allan's Miscellany! If only Flo's father didn't detest the periodical press!

And if only they had remembered to bring an umbrella!

The novella is available in two different editions: a plain edition for 99 cents and an enhanced edition for $ 2.99. The latter includes detailed info about the historical background and illustrations. Here are the buy links:

Plain edition:
Kindle US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K9TEZ5S/
Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K9TEZ5S/
and all other Amazon stores

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/ebook/the-bride-prize-1

Enhanced edition:
Kindle US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K9TLA38/
Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K9TLA38/
and all other Amazon stores

Addictive Research

I recently stumbled across an Ebay auction of a double volume of THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. Of course, I had heard of that newspaper before (after all, my current academic research focuses on Victorian periodicals), but I hadn't realised what a gem it was. But the person selling his copy on Ebay kindly provided pictures. OH MY! Where are my smelling salts?!?!?!?

That volume on Ebay was in a bad shape and the price was already quite high when I discovered the page, so I decided not to bid on it. The volume that I ended up buying (because, hey, it's for research, right? and I can use it for both my academic work and my creative work -- awesome! it's like "Buy one get one free"!!!) arrived today. In a word: it's gorgeous!

So far I've just leafed through it and took pictures of some of the highlights, e.g.

• intriguing bits of paper pasted into the newspaper (pic on upper right)
• prize cattle
• masses of people emigrating to the New World
• the construction of the Crystal Palace for the Grand Exhibition in 1851
• the new railway station in Newcastle upon Tyne (pic on upper left)
• some sheet music
• the Assyrian sculptures from Nimrod at the British Museum*
• Stamp Duty in action

____________
* I yelled "Wheeee!" when I came across that particular picture because DEVIL'S RETURN deals with the excavations in Nimrod in the mid-1840s. :-)

That moment when you realise there was no direct train between London & Edinburgh in 1846....

from BLACK'S IRON HIGHWAY FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH, 1850

... and it totally messes up your story.

Well, a little anyway.

Thanks to the somewhat belated realization that perhaps I should check whether there was indeed a direct train from London to Edinburgh in 1846 or whether my heroine is sitting in a horrible anachronism, I had some digging to to earlier this afternoon. And this is what I 've found:

The Great Northern Railway, that is, the line between Newcastle and Edinburgh, was opened either in late 1850 or at some point in 1851 (a guidebook from 1851 mentions that new connection), so in 1846 my heroine wouldn't have been able to take a train on that line. As to the Berwick-Edinburgh connection, I couldn't quite figure out when exactly this was opened (it was at some point in the late 1840s). So in the end, I decided that my heroine would take the train to Newcastle and from there the stagecoach to Edinburgh. (Grrr....)

In other news, the revisions of A TANGLED WEB are all finished; I just need to type up all my edits. I'm not yet quite happy with the prologue (should I ditch Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" or not?), but I hope I'll be able to iron this out tomorrow morning. Then I'll just need to Americanize the whole manuscript before I can send it off to my copy editor. Wheee!

Invitation to a Tournament

Today I'm guest-posting on Risky Regencies, where I'm sharing some info about the historical background of THE BRIDE PRIZE. And no, we are not talking about medieval romance here. :-)

Click here to find out more

(There are men in kilts! Noble knights! People in medieval costume!)

Breakthrough!!!!!

As you know, I was working on the revisions of THE BRIDE PRIZE these past few days. These were the hardest revisions I've ever done (mainly because I didn't properly plan the story from the get-go), and there was a lot of red on the pages. Like, A LOT!

In the end, I was so very frustrated that I decided to switch colours to make the pages look a little less horrid. And with a little help from my friends (in the picture below you can see a promo pen Debra Holland gave me when we met at the IndieUncon in San Francisco back in February) I muddled through a few more chapters, until....

....until I hit a major, major roadblock. I grappled with that one scene for days and days and days and DAYS. And it was beyond depressing because I just couldn't figure out how to resolve this dratted scene -- until this afternoon!!! Wheee!!!!

Well, actually, I had already scribbled what eventually became the solution onto a post-it the night before: just before I went to bed, the Muse struck me over the head. :-)

After a final read-through tomorrow morning, both THE BRIDE PRIZE and DEVIL'S RETURN will go to my copy editor, and for me it's then on to A TANGLED WEB (which will probably be a similarly hard nut to crack as THE BRIDE PRIZE - oh joy!)

In Support of Jackie Barbosa

If you're looking for some good books to buy this week, I ask you to consider the books of my colleague Jackie Barbosa. Jackie writes in various different genres, so there's a little something for almost everybody, especially if you like your stories a bit spicier. I've just bought the contemporary According to Luke myself because the excerpt sounded so very delicious. Check it out here.

And here's the blurb:

Luke Finley, the eldest of four brothers, is a committed serial monogamist. He’s all for one woman at a time, but not one woman forever. He knows a lifetime of fidelity just isn’t in his genes.

But when his latest girlfriend kicks him out–of his condo–the woman he’s always thought of as “one of the guys” turns out to be the one woman who can rock his world and make him believe in forever.

A friends-to-lovers story! Love those!

Or perhaps you'd like to have a look at her two free historical shorts, The Reiver and Nine Ladies Dancing.

The reason I'm asking you to support Jackie is a sad one: You might have already heard that earlier this month Jackie lost her 17-year-old son Julian in a car accident. Most of us will never be able to fully understand what Jackie and her family are going through right now, the terrible pain they must be feeling.

There is nothing we can do to ease this pain, but we as her colleagues wanted to show her our support, and so Beverly Kendall and Courtney Milan came up with the idea of authors highlighting Jackie’s books on their blogs or FB pages.

There is also a memorial fund set up in Julian's name. Details to donate can be found here. Any and all donation amounts are greatly appreciated.

Doggie-walking Duties & a Tournament

Today, I was once again on doggie-walking duty. :-)

I'm also still hard at work at the revisions for THE BRIDE PRIZE. At the moment my characters are at a tournament (which is not exactly surprising, given that half of the novella takes place during the aforementioned tournament). As per my editor's suggestions, I'm working on increasing the conflict between hero and heroine. In this particular scene it needs to be clearer that he regards the whole tournament thing as a rather silly affair. Sooo..... (insertions in red)

Around them the crowd fell silent as the knights retired to their tents in order to don their helmets and await the formal challenge to combat. Yes, very much in the manner of Ivanhoe (though minus the nasty Prince John and the general bloodlust of the audience) and as good a show as anything you might see on a London stage.
Here and there a few laughs could be heard as the jester rode across the field, swinging his bells in a somewhat dampened tingle over his head.

And then, finally, a blast of trumpets sounded, and the first challenge of the day was issued: the Knight of the Swan sent his defiance to the Knight of the Golden Lion. Having donned their helmets, both knights rode forth, plumes fluttering in the wind.

Everyone around the lists seemed to hold their breath. This was it! This was why they had come here from all corners of the kingdom; indeed, even from all corners of the world!

Breathless excitement gripped the stands & slopes, Robbie scribbled into his sketchbook right next to a very hasty drawing of a round gentleman staring in open-mouthed wonder at the silly spectacle unfolding in front of his eyes.

We do so need somebody for satirical illustrations, Robbie thought ruefully.

The knights took their positions on opposite sides of the barrier that had been set up for the tilting.

Miss Florence sighed happily. "Isn't it wonderful? It's so --"

Another blast of trumpets, and the knights rode furiously -- or at least as furiously as was possible in the rain, which was not very furious at all -- towards each other... further and further... and past each other, without so much as scratching their shields, let alone splintering anybody's lances.

Out and about with the Doggie Sister

I've taken over doggie-walking duties for a few days, and today was just perfect for going down to the river.

On the way back, we passed the car park where my Mum usually parks her car when she takes Tinka down to the river. Tinka was utterly flummoxed that today THERE WAS NO CAR TO TAKE HER HOME! Wait, wait, what? I actually have to walk home???? She just couldn't believe it. *g* 

My New Editorial Assistant

 For tackling Chapter 3, I had a very special editorial assistant today:

"Edi-what???"

Editorial assistant. Which means you're helping me to improve my book.

"Does that mean I'll get a treat?"

Uhm...

"Well, then..."

"No treat, no assistance!"

The Cutting Continues

I did indeed manage to condense Chapters 1 and 2 into one single chapter (YAY!); and now I'm cutting away at Chapter 3.

Btw, did you know that there were horse-drawn railways? Neither did I until I researched this scene. :-)

Add a bit of pink...

... in order to increase the general confusion. This is the page from the second pic in my last post. Cut even more stuff. Snip-snap.

My Editor Made Me Do It!

I call this "My Editor Made Me Do It": it's Chapter 1 in all its red glory. Quite a frightful sight, isn't it?

And the next pic shows the beginning of Chapter 2, which isn't much better. But at least the cutting has become easier. Yay! However, I need to cut a lot more text if I want to merge those two chapters into one. *sigh*

(I'd also like to know why the heck my pictures come out so very dark when I upload them here. Until two or three days ago, I've never had this problem before. Grrr....)

Cutting, cutting, cutting, and adding conflict

The aim for Chapter 1: cutting and adding conflict.

Cutting!!!

More cutting!!!! And setting up some of the conflict.

But actually...

We could cut even MORE...

Cutting in Progress

See? Totally killing my darlings. Even such nice paragraphs as:

By the same token, Mr. Marsh considered modern forms of book publication a real horror. He did not buy serial installments, and he held Mr. Dickens responsible for having dragged that beautiful institution of English literature down into the muddy waters of serialisation.

(For THE BRIDE PRIZE I might have to put a section with deleted scenes into the enhanced edition....)

Moreover, if the reader wonders why the heck the heroine's aunt is so excited about a tournament, perhaps the heroine, too, should wonder why her aunt is so excited about a tournament.

Battle-Plan Progress

I have to admit that I dreaded grappling with the revisions of this story. Normally, when I do revisions, I go through a manuscript page by page and insert stuff as I go along. I tried this with THE BRIDE PRIZE this morning, then gave up and did some other work because it was all so very depressing.

By early afternoon, I knew I had to do a mind map in order to get a grip of the story, but abandoned that shortly after posting the entry before this one (because it was all so very depressing *sob*).

About an hour ago, I finally put on my big-girl-pants and sat down and just did it: mind-mapping the story as it is. Afterwards, I put off the inevitable (i.e., reading my editor's suggestions very, very carefully) (this bit is always such a torment - at least for me - because you have to face up to the fact that parts of your story are less than splendid and you have to be brutally honest to yourself in order to get rid of these parts) and added the first layer of colour: some blue and red bubbles to indicate hero/heroine's POV. And finally, I tackled the problem areas (I used a pretty purple pen* to make this bit slightly less painful) (* a promo pen from Valerie Bowman): I worked with my editor's suggestions and noted down on the mind map where improvements are needed. Luckily, Bev gave me some really brilliant suggestions, so it really wasn't as painful as I had feared.

One of the main problems with this story is that it lacks conflict. I knew that while I was still writing it and I worried that it bit be just a bit bland because the romance runs so very smoothly, but I just couldn't figure out a way out to change that. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have a content editor whom you trust and who understands your stories: you need that second pair of eyes. You need somebody whom you trust to be honest about the strength and weaknesses of your story; somebody who understands your way of telling a story enough to make suggestions that will really improve your story, while still being true to yourself and your storytelling.

In this respect, I have been very, very lucky indeed: I had this with Chris Keeslar, my editor at Dorchester, and I have it now with Bev Katz Rosenbaum, my editor of my indie books. She was actually the first content editor I picked, and I feel so very blessed to have found her!

Planning the Attack

What do you do when you're stuck? You make a plan - or, in my case, a mind map in order to figure out what is supposed to go where and how to heighten the conflict in this story. I love mind maps because they enable you to see the whole story on one page, which makes it easier to spot common themes and motifs (or to strengthen those).

I used a mind map to plot DEVIL'S RETURN, and I only needed to make some minimal changes to the story. I didn't use a mind map to plot THE BRIDE PRIZE, and look where it has got me! When will I ever learn? *sigh*

Second Round of Revisions: Kill your Darlings

This is THE BRIDE PRIZE, the first novella in the series and the next ms that's up for revisions. In contrast to DEVIL'S RETURN, this one will require some serious work because hero and heroine meet way too late in the story. In addition, there's also too much background info. *sigh*

To be fair, I knew that even before I sent the novellas to my editor, but, you know, I'd hoped it wouldn't be too bad.... But as far as the excess of background info is concerned, it's exactly as bad as I had feared.

So this weekend, it's "Kill your darlings" time!  

Today I give you....

... some cover-love. I hope you like it! :-)

First Set of Revisions DONE!!!!!

I'm so thrilled to announced that I've just finished revising the first of the three novellas. Yay!!!

Ornamental Edits

Layering red on the page can render some rather pretty results. :-)

Nearly reaching the end of DEVIL'S RETURN. But first - some male bonding.

Unperturbed, Beaton continued, "I say, Crenshaw, that's all very romantic."

"Yes, in the way of Romeo and Juliet," Mac cut in, his voice a bored drawl. "He will want to slash his wrists next."

As Robbie Beaton says at the beginning of this novella, "No. Cupid, our Mac is not." ;-)

Combative Revisions

I might have to start using two different colours for revivions in order to help me to keep the different edits apart later on when I'm going to work them into the MS Word document....

This, btw, is my attempt at the following suggestion from my editor: "P. 237. The bear scene needs a stronger ending." :-)

A Risky Business: Driving around Nineteenth-Century London

Today I'm once again guest-posting on Risky Regencies, and I've picked a really, really, REALLY risky topic: traffic woes in nineteenth-century London! :-) For this I dug out some of the research I've done for my three novellas (the smiley paper-clips might be familiar to some of you by now) and for past conference papers (have I already mentioned how much I love it that I can use my academic research for my creative projects???), for example all the newspaper snippets on the dangers of wooden pavement.

You can read the whole post here: Traffic Woes in Nineteenth-century London

The Plot Thickens & a Bear

... or at least the layers of red on the page do. This has turned out to be a bit of a tricky scene. As my editor has pointed out, my heroine doesn't say anything - or hardly anything - in two consecutive scenes, which is not so good. On the other hand, I want my heroine to be somewhat diffident in these scenes, soooo......

I've settled on letting her exclaim "A bear?" at one point.

And now, as my editor tells me, I need to find a stronger ending for the bear scene.

Hm.

*scratching my head*

Revisions!!!

After finishing all the grading yesterday evening, I'm finally free to start with the revisions of my three novellas (as you can see, I'm using the same dark red pen for both grading and revisions *g*). Woohooo!!!! Since I received my editor's revision letter, I've been looking forward to this SO much. I love this step in the publication process: giving the contents of my stories one last polish and seeing how it all tightens up. (Besides, at this point I've usually come to the conclusion that my latest literary outpourings are not lethal after all, which is always such a big relief! *ggg*)

With this new series, I also need to check the continuity, for in the earlier stories there are quite a few smaller incidents that will become relevant in later stories. And then, of course, we have all those recurring characters as well as a number of recurring jokes -- like Matthew Clark's whoopee cushion that makes a sound like a dying goat when you sit down on it. ;-)

Heard from My Editor Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hardly able to focus on the grading today -- and I blame it all on my lovely editor! When I switched on my computer this morning, I found her critique of my three novellas in my mailbox. It took me a good 30 minutes to open her mail. What if she didn't like those stories? What if she was going to tell me they were really, really, really bad and how did I even dare to send her such crap? (By now you should know how my mind works, so this mini meltdown will hardly come as a surprise to you. *g*)

Anyways, I finally DID open her e-mail, and -- oh my gosh!!! -- Bev really, really, REALLY liked the three stories. "Did I ever love working on these novellas, Sandra!" her e-mail starts. "Please forgive me for not listing everything I love about them in my critique--it would have been a hundred pages!"

*melts into a happy puddle*

So I've been singing and humming and grinning stupidly and dancing around my flat for most of the day. :-)

Throwback Thursday

Not a lot going on at the moment besides grading papers. So I thought I'll give you a picture for #ThrowbackThursday: this was taken when my family lived in the Black Forest - I must have been five or six years old. Beside me you can see a mechanical organ. In the nineteenth century Waldkirch, the town where we lived, became famous for the production of mechanical music instruments, especially huge fairground organs.

Murder, Mayhem, & Earl Grey

Today I've been hunting down murderers (in between supervising language tests). Historical murderers, that is. Those who killed gamekeepers in the mid-1840s (the tensions in rural communities over the strict enforcement of the Game Laws and the ensuing murders of several gamekeepers form the background to "Falling for a Scoundrel"). As I was scanning several old newspapers, I was struck by the peculiar selection of news they were reporting.

There were short snippets on dreadful accidents, horrid murders, and grisly suicides -- and I couldn't help thinking that even respectable looking newspapers rather relished the gruesome details, as this bit from the Bristol Mercury (30 December 1844) shows:

DETERMINED SUICIDE AT CHISWICK -- On Christmas day, the following determined act of suicide was committed at Chiswick. About a quarter past one o'clock, a man, named Hugh Griffith, a grocer, carrying on busieness in the Devonshire-road, Chiswick, cut his throat with a razor, and nearly severed his head from his body. Medical assistance was immediately sent for, and several surgeons were promptly in attendance, but life was quite extinct before they could arrive.

The sheer number of suicides I found mentioned across several newspapers in the months between September 1843 and January 1844 is quite chilling, especially since I was not looking for that particular kind of news. Together with the many reports on poaching (poaching was met with drastic punishments) and on the murders of several gamekeepers, the snippets on suicides tell of the desperation of the poor in rural areas and paint a chilling picture of their situation.

The juxtaposition of these kind of news items with other local news is rather curious, to say the least. In columns on "Local Intelligence" you can find news about murders and suicides right next to things like this:

A Rev. Tractarian at Oxford has married -- to the consternation of his co-celibiates.

(Bristol Mercury, 30 Dec. 1844)

or like this:

The Earl of Yarborough has returned from Town to Brocklesby Hall for the season. The noble lord's fox hounds had a splendid run on Tuesday morning: it lasted an hour and forty-five minutes, and was pronounced the finest of the season.

(Hull Packet and East Riding Times, 29 Dec. 1843)

or like this:

FIRST FRUIT FROM SEVILLE. -- The swift sailing vessel Waterwitch, Grant, arrived at this port yesterday in seventeen days, from Seville, with a cargo of fine Seville China Oranges, imported by Mr. Sprait, and which, as appears by advertisement, will be sold by Mr. Stamp, on Tuesday next.

(Hull Packet and East Riding Times, 29 Dec. 1843)

And whole column ends with:

HEALTH OF EARL GREY. -- We are glad to learn (December 25) from our Alnwick correspondent that Earl Grey continues no worse, his lordship had passed a good night, and upon the whole continues rather better.

(Hull Packet and East Riding Times, 29 Dec. 1843)

Let's Talk Covers!

One of the truly nice things about indie publishing is that you have complete control over your covers. You can pick a design, make sure that the people on the cover match the characters' descriptions in your story, and you can brand a series whichever way you like.

One of the major elements of branding for the covers of the new series will be a blue background. Originally, I thought I'd just use the same sky picture for all covers, but not only would this look boring, but that one picture also doesn't suit all the people I've chosen to go onto the covers.

Sooo, today during my lunch break I went hunting for blue backgrounds. I've already found some nice matches for some covers, but there is one picture of a woman that, as it turns out, is rather difficult to match with a blue background. Hmmmm. Clearly, further experiments are called for!

Writerly Beginnings

I've just put some material together for a short interview. One of the questions was when did I start to write, which, naturally, made me think of all those early writing projects of mine.

I've always invented stories to amuse myself, and I started to write as soon as I could write. My very first novel was called "Dicki und Tomi" and was about a little cat and a little dog, who became friends (this would be the pink writing). During my late teens I started to write poetry (the kind of emotional, angst-filled poetry you write when you're seventeen -- this phase is represented by the upper right image), and finally I turned to fantasy fiction. I wrote everything by hand back then. For one of my novels I made the DIY paperback you see above: I photocopied the whole manuscript, folded the pages, pasted them together and gave them this pretty cover. It was a monstrously big (BIIIIIG!!!!) book, but I was so happy that I could hold my own book in my hands. :-) 

I wrote "Wolfswald" when I was 21, and around this time I also began to think seriously about publication. After submitting my manuscripts (now all nicely typed up) to more or less every publishing house in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and receiving umpteen rejection letters, I almost despaired of ever finding a publisher. Eventually I had to face fact; I would never find a German publishing house that would buy one of my novels. As a last-ditch effort I decided to start writing in English. I not only changed languages, I also changed genres: my first novel in English was called "Highland Love" and was a contemporary romance set in Scotland -- this was 14 years, and I haven't looked back. :-)

New Beginnings....

Well, when one book ends, a new book starts. :-) It didn't take me terribly long to dive into a new story -- not only because I, well, wanted to, but also because I realised that there should be another story between Novella #1 and Novella #2 in that series I sent to my editor on Thursday.

So this morning, right after breakfast, I spent an hour putting together the first chapter (or perhaps it's going to be a prologue). One of the underlying themes in all three of the other novellas is the restrictions women had to deal with in their everyday lives. Thus two of my heroines are dependent on the charity of their relatives; one is a poor widow, the other an old maid, who has been relegated to the role of nursemaid to ailing family members. Both of them are painfully aware how disadvantaged they are, but they also know that they have little other choice than to submit to their fate. The heroine of The Bride Prize is in a much better position as her father's adored only daughter. Yet even she is aware that she doesn't have a free choice in certain matters; for example, she cannot freely choose whom to marry. Moreover, in The Bride Prize the heroine's aunt is a poor widow who is dependent on the charity of her brother.

So when it came to plot the new novella, Falling for a Scoundrel, I wanted to use this theme as well, but in a slightly different way. Lady Sophia is a typical pampered young woman of the upper class, who has led a very blessed, very easy life. She lives on her father's beautiful country estate and since she was fifteen she has been engaged to marry the handsome (and rich!!) Lord Manton, who is always very courteous to her and compliments her on her singing and her skill at the piano. Sophia isn't even aware what a restricted life she leads and how little she knows of the world. This whole premise was inspired by one of the literary fairy tales I taught last term, namely by Anne Thackeray Richtie's "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood." So yes, there are probably going to be references to Sleeping Beauty in my novella, and Sophia is rather rudely wakened from her sleep right at the beginning of the story.

Here's the first sentence, which you can just see on the AlphaSmart in the picture above:

Up until that cold day in January, when Death presented to her his cruelest face, Lady Sophia had led a truly charmed life.

Instead of Dinosaurs

And before you worry too much about the dinosaurs or eat oodles of chocolate, you can just as well plot the next story. :-)

The Day after....

The day after sending your manuscript to your editor is always the worst because not only does even your tea cup (well, mug) look slightly battered, but you also come up with 1.000 reasons why your book project sucks, why your editor will hate it, why she will probably drop dead while reading it, why it totally would have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (if dinosaurs had been able to read, that is).

The best thing you can do then is to stagger into the kitchen and deal with the piles of dirty dishes (including the tea mug).

:-)