Deborah Swift's Blog, page 17

I have enjoyed several of J C Briggs books and I intend to catch up with them all eventually. This one centres around a mysterious Chinese Ambassador who appears at the opening of The Great Exhibition. At first the mystery is about tracing a missing person, a Chinese secretary assumed to be with the Ambassador, but one thing leads to another and it soon turns out another well-connected man has also gone missing. When his body is found in the Thames this leads into a murder investigation. The victim, Cornelius Mornay, a respectable banker, has links to Canton and the Opium trade, and the Opium trade and tea trade are threaded throughout this novel. The plot revolves around the man Mornay’s secret life in China, and the fact that his secrets come home to roost after his death.

Who could fail to enjoy the opulence of the Crystal Palace and the Exhibition, with the carriages and royal attendants — contrasted with opium dens, dark alleys, filth and squalor, and shoe-black boys scrounging a living? What makes this series so enjoyable is the relationship between Charles Dickens and Superintendent Jones of Bow Street. By now they read each others moods and motives pretty well, and obviously have enormous respect for each others’ respective skills. What links them is their quest for decency and to bring murderers to justice, and this makes them characters the reader can warm to. Throughout we have threads from Dickens’ books woven into the narrative, and towards the end we get a glimpse of Dickens the actor, a nice touch, and it leads to a gripping ending.

This was an extensively researched novel, and there are notes at the back to tell you how the inspiration began with a newspaper article, and how the Chinese puzzle of the title might have been an actual object Dickens saw at the exhibition. This symbolic object was used to great effect through the novel.

As always with these books, the characters make it. We see the very rich and the very poor, those we can love and those we can loathe. Most loathsome I think for me was the self-satisfied Vicar Ernest Holiest, and Kitty ‘Puss’ Lovell. As always I love to see Scrap, the boy detective in action, this time felling a villain, and I felt immensely sorry for Kitty’s sister Maggie Chester.

If you love a great murder mystery and to immerse yourself in the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian London, then look no further, J C Briggs evokes the period brilliantly.

Highly recommended.

BUY THE BOOK US  UK

More about J C Briggs – J C Briggs Website

“Edward, always Edward. He came first. He was her husband and her King.”

I have read all of Carol McGrath’s books and find them to be impeccably-researched and detailed evocations of the period. This one is no exception, and paints a vivid picture of Eleanor of Castile and life under feuding Barons and the ever-present threat of their insurrection.

Eleanor is an unlikely heroine when we first meet her, young, impressionable, and fiercely devoted to her husband. But while he is absent fighting to retain and regain his lands, she is left to literally hold the fort. She meets her match in Simon de Montfort and his sidekick the red-haired Gilbert de Clare who forcibly remove her from her home at Windsor castle and keep her under house arrest.

Eleanor’s companion, Olwen, a herbalist is the other main character who acts as go-between between those on the side of her husband, Lord Edward (soon to be Edward I ). Olwen’s skill in herbs allows Carol McGrath to give us sumptuous descriptions of the craze for Paradise Gardens, medieval herbs, and medicinal information about the period, all adding to the atmosphere of the book. Olwen is a good counterpoint to Eleanor, well-connected to all that is earthly, whereas Eleanor has a deep faith and feels connected to heaven via the idea of royal blood. Much of the book goes on in plots, whispers and messages, and Eleanor has to use diplomacy to keep her position and dignity. She realizes that owning her own estates not only gives her great security but also plenty of excuses to escape to her business with notaries and clerks, away from the stultifying demands of courtly life.

This portrait of her as she struggles through the death of her child and the struggles to remain a true queen make one realise why when she eventually dies she was so well-loved. This portrait of her early life gives an insight into what it took to be a great lady of the time and to deserve the title of ‘She-Wolf.’ A fascinating and detailed look into the life of a medieval Queen and very highly recommended by this reader.

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To discover more about Carol McGrath, Visit Carol McGrath’s website.

As an author whose books are set in the past, servants and masters often come up, and the idea of a hierarchy based on who pays who. (see this post) Also as an author I rely on my editors to help me make my book the best it can be. I love editors, and most authors will say the same – that a good one is like the holy grail!

I’ve been edited by an in-house editor at a traditional publisher, and by a freelance editor when I self published, and many others sorts of editors in-between. I’m interested not in individual editors, but in the status of the editor in relationship to the author, and therefore what dictates the relationship we might have with this most crucial of co-creators in our publishing journey.

My first relationship with an traditional publishing editor was very definitely one of collaborative effort to improve the book, and the editing was long, and comprehensive, over approx. 10 weeks, consisting of a structural edit, a line edit and a proofread, all done by different people. Each contained style sheets and references, and I got the impression from this that no expense was spared in making sure the book was as perfect as it could be. We had a back and forth dialogue which discussed character, plot and use of language. This was however, a long time ago, before digital, and times have changed.

Master or servant – it comes down to money

I was lucky, as I’ve just heard from a friend about her traditional publisher whose editor refused to let her book go to publication unless she agreed to the edits, which involved what she thought of as ‘too many substantial cuts’ and removal of one character and their arc completely. In the end, she acquiesced, but is now worried the book is no longer her vision, or the best version, of the work. In the traditional publishing model then, the editor can sometimes be ‘the master’. They are paying for the book to be published and are upholding what they view as certain ‘standards’.

On the other hand, when I was self-publishing one of my own books, I hired a freelance editor. His services were every bit as professional as the traditional publisher, and though it was a copy-edit not a structural edit, his edits included a style sheet and copious notes about what might make the book clearer or better for the reader. He also wrestled with my out-of-kilter timeline and suggested well thought-through corrections. My book had his attention for a specified amount of time, and I could quantify the time he spent because of his invoice. Because of his professionalism I have no doubt that if the book was too terrible to publish, he’d have told me … or would he?

And would they all?

The downside of this ‘author hires the editor’ relationship is that in this situation the editor is, technically, the servant. As I am paying for his services, it is unlikely he will tell me if my book is really bad and needs re-writing. Why? Because I’m paying him. There is a limit to what he can do in the time I’m willing to pay for, and my repeat business depends on me being happy. The power dynamic is distinctly different.

An author’s ego can be fragile, and it may be hard to ask for a ‘no holds barred’ edit, particularly if, after the harsh (but realistic) feedback arrives, you have to actually  pay for the privilege to hear your book needs a lot more work.

Illustration by William Thomas Smedley, 1906 Wikipedia

The computer is my editor

Recently I heard from another self-published friend who said that she was unhappy with her freelance editor. The editor seemed to have merely run her novel through a Pro-Writing Aid type program, and hadn’t given her work the personal attention she felt it deserved, at least not for what she was paying them. In this situation, she clearly thought of herself as the master, and that her servant had ‘cheated’ her and hadn’t done a good enough job.

Publishers don’t always have the best editors

Fast forward another few years. Newly-minted digital publishers (both independent and from big traditional houses) are pushing out books left right and centre. I had experience with one of these once that gave me no editing whatsoever, merely uploaded the manuscript to kindle and POD, which I then had to retrieve and re-edit (not my current publisher I hasten to add). Other people are telling me that their ‘editors’ have no editorial experience at all, but have merely have done an English Literature degree and ‘read a lot of books.’

A publisher’s editing costs are invisible to us as authors. We have no idea if the editor has spent a hastily-crammed few hours with the book, whilst dealing with twenty others, or sat with it for three weeks mulling over every last word. Though there are often clues in the ‘track changes’, that show the book was edited in less time than it takes to brew a coffee!  And I suspect most authors can tell if they have been given less time with the editing than they would wish.

It’s our choice

There are brilliant, insightful editors out there, both in-house in publishing houses, and working freelance for self-publishers. As authors I think we should always consider what sort of status relationship we want with our editor and how much that matters to us, when we consider the bigger picture and the pros and cons of our publishing journey. The quality of editing really affects the final outcome of what has taken us perhaps as long as a year of daily grind to write. As authors we all hope for an editor that will take our voice seriously, that will read and consider our novel carefully, and one who is fully qualified for the job.

Authors are often in a vulnerable or ambiguous position re their books (e.g. Do you choose your agent or do they choose you?) but now we can pay for our own services, or choose to be published, we don’t need to be blind to our choices. Although we always hope for equality, and the situation where author and editor work together to produce the best book they can, we need to be aware of how different publishing structures affect the author/editor relationship.

Every now and then I feel like reading something different . Hotel Obscure is about as far away as you can get from my current life as a comfortably-off, middle aged (if not old!) woman in a small  quiet village in Northern England. Hotel Obscure of the title is an American hotel populated by the dispossessed, by hookers, drug dealers, failed rock stars and general low-life. It’s the sort of place people go to hide, or to die, and in this collection the characters do both!

The stories in the book are linked by the place in one way or another and some of the stories intersect in surprising ways. What I really enjoyed about these stories were the characters, who never failed to engage the reader with their hardships and stories of the wrong side of the tracks.. Each story often had a sting in the tail – I particularly enjoyed ‘Requiescat in Pace’ which had a marvellous twist at the end, ‘Not that Lonely’ was a great slice of life showing how connected even the most dysfunctional people are, and dealing with death in a really matter of fact way. Many of the stories have the threat of death lurking beneath like a thread. I loved the ageing Gloria in her overly colourful clothing and Margaret in her ‘fire-engine red’ stilettos and Johnny and Henry and their uneasy comradeship based on proximity of place rather than common interest. Toleration of others is a heart-warming strength of these characters.

Lisette Brodey has a way of getting under people’s skin and noticing how they think and what makes them unique. In the last story, Ellmore J Badget Jr is so repressed and strait-laced that he finds even the thought of adjusting his tie, once his day has started, makes him queasy. Nevertheless I warmed to him and was rooting for this son of a judge who was always a disappointment to his father. Being a disappointment is a theme that recurs in many of the stories, the sense of just having missed the destiny of greatness, or of feeling that you cease to matter to the world. What becomes apparent from the story is that everyone does. The stories are poignant and gripping and I highly recommend Hotel Obscure.

Buy the book UK

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Reader Note: contains expletives and sexual references in keeping with the subject matter

I’m delighted to spotlight the new Abbess of Meaux murder mystery by Cassandra Clark on it’s publication day!

From Cassandra: I am now writing the Abbess of Meaux series of historical mystery novels set in fourteenth century Europe. I’m pleased to be able to draw on travels in France and Tuscany and bring together my interests in music, politics and history.

The first in the Abbess of Meaux series was published in 2008. Followed by The Red Velvet Turnshoe a year later when Hildegard crossed the Alps. She was back home in York for The Law of angels and the following year off down to Westminster with Alexander Neville’s cavalcade to see King Richard open parliament. Meanwhile she fell for a London bad boy involved in the spying game for which she had to go on a penitential pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Back in Yorkshire she stays at the sinister priory in Handale Woods – a horrific dragon and the mutilated body of a young mason are a mystery that puts Hildegard’s life in jeopardy once again.

Next, with dark forces building around King Richard, the Prioress has a special assignment for Hildegard. She must go to the pope’s palace at Avignon in the south of France to find out whether he will give his support to the King or to his ambitious and deadly uncle, the duke of Gloucester … But the pope himself has a terrifying secret and Hildegard is the only one who can put all the pieces of the puzzle into place.

Click here to read an interview with Cassandra Clark at bfkbooks.com

Now follow Hildegard of Meaux into the dark side of medieval England in book 11 when a request to escort a young heiress to the north becomes a sinister game of cat and mouse.

‘Hildegard is..a cross between Brother Cadfael and Miss Marple…surely a great addition to the sleuthing fraternity.’
(Docklands)

Death and danger await intrepid nun Hildegard of Meaux when she undertakes a secret mission for the good of her Order, in this eleventh action-packed installment of the medieval mystery series.

February, 1390. The Church seethes with rebellion. Newly elected Pope Boniface faces a challenger: the anti-pope Clement, who sows discord from his power base in France.

The quarrel threatens the very survival of the Cistercian Order. So when suspicions grow that distant Beaulieu Abbey may turn traitor, Hildegard’s prioress summons her with a mission she can’t refuse: travel to the isolated royal abbey and spy out their true allegiance.

The public reason for Hildegard’s trip is more prosaic. A young Cornish heiress, promised in marriage to the son of local aristocrat Sir William, needs escorting to her new home. It’s not often Hildegard joins a betrothal party, and she’s looking forward to meeting the girl.

But little does Hildegard know, death and danger wait at Beaulieu – and even the protection of her travelling companions, the monks militant Brother Gregory and Brother Egbert, may not be enough to keep her safe from harm . . .

This action-packed, page-turning medieval mystery is a great choice for fans of holy sleuths like Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma and Paul Doherty’s Brother Athelstan.

Buy MURDER AT BEAULIEU ABBEY on Amazon UK

Buy MURDER AT BEAULIEU ABBEY on Amazon US

See all eleven books in the series    Visit Cassandra Clark’s website

I’ve read both the other books in this series so was really looking forward to this third book. And its an absolute cracker. When the local doctor is found semi-submerged in a pond associated with the Old Gods – Gogmagog Ditch,  Bob Robbins and his sidekick Laurie Oliver are brought in to investigate. Initially labelled as a suicide, the doctor’s death is soon discovered to be the result of bludgeoning about the head and so the sleuthing begins. There’s a large cast of interesting characters, and it soon turns out the doctor is not as clean-living as we might expect and a veritable Lothario, and several of his women friends are possible suspects.

I enjoyed taking a trIp to the standing stones and old caves of Cornwall, to Willoughby’s antiquarian bookshop (which I have to admit I could probably have happily lingered in for a few hours in real life), to the racing stables staffed with the cold fiancee Daphne and sunny Pippa. There are some wonderful eccentrics, including the Hilda, the manipulative and bullying sister of Gwen, an invalid, and Muriel Kittoe the author of murder mysteries.

Bob Robbins is a great character to get to know, and I enjoy the way he still talks to his now deceased wife, Joan, which is both poignant and realistic. Laurie Oliver, the younger policeman, who knows all sorts about literature and is apt to quote it to the consternation of his boss, is delightful, and keeps Bob on his toes. Add to the interesting characters a plot involving drugs, old rituals, stolen goods, army manoeuvres and an attempt to send someone crazy, and you have all the ingredients you need for great entertainment and a great read.

You can buy the book here US  UK

Find Jane on her website

Read my Review of Private Lives

Readers of historical fiction love complex world-building, but only when it is integral to the story.

How do I tell if I’ve written an info-dump?

Nothing within the info dump is occurring in the actual moment of the scene. Often they are regurgitations of the past (back story) or they convey historical facts about the characters or era. Readers want to be immersed in the story. They want to feel like they are right there with the character as the characters drive the narrative. Info dumps also lack emotional impact as they tend to be information-heavy, and so they often fail to make connection with the reader.

Q.Is anything I’ve written in this paragraph happening right now

A. No? Cut it.

The most common things to info-dump in historical novels are:

*How the politics/society works.

*Character back story – what they did before the story began.

*Character front story— what they intend do in the future (unless it’s an active threat, or plot-driving intention).

*Character journeys – detailing the horse, carriage, boat, route.

*Rules, rituals or laws of a city/country/culture

*Historical or cultural objects that need explaining eg types of carriages, wet-nurses, styles of Roman column

*’How to’ paragraphs: explanations of how to load a gun, victual a ship, shoe a horse, (unless it is in the moment)

*Personality summaries – eg  ‘John was a…’ Readers want to discover these traits for themselves through the characters’ actions and speech.

Q. Does it matter to the story?

A.Well, the story wouldn’t be as rich without all this detail.

Q. How much detail do you really need?

A. OK, OK. I’ll cut some of it.

How to insert information skilfully:

Brevity. One sentence, you can usually get away with.

Sprinkle. Tell the minimum amount people need to know and sprinkle it through a scene.

Dialogue: Unless the character is unfamiliar with his own world, they will never have to explain it to anyone. (Let alone the reader). Use dialogue only between a person who needs to know the information and the character who needs to tell it.

Character attitude. Use it as a person’s opinion. “Red suits my colouring. I hate the foolish sumptuary law that stops me having a gown the same colour as hers.”

Integration. Fit it into the scene as much as possible and align it to something that is happening NOW.

A separate extract. Careful here, but a distinct change to a newspaper article, letter, extract of a diary could be used for this purpose.

Of course these are not hard and fast rules; if you’re using a characterful omniscient POV, or a first person POV with attitude, you can get away with giving us a fair amount of information, or if your tone is supposed to be amusing, such as in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, below:

Here is a small fact: You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please trust me.

Historical Picture note, about John Hunt Gong Farmer

Gong farmer  – a term that entered use in Tudor and early Modern England to describe someone who dug out and removed human waste and excrement from privies and latrines. The word “gong” was used for both the privy itself and the crap (!) that was in it. Work like this was deemed unclean in polite society and so they were only allowed to work at night. The waste they collected was also known as night soil, and they were often also referred to as nightsoil men.

Writers: You might also like: Why have a historical Sub-plot?

I’m delighted to highlight the new Elizabethan spy mystery  ‘State of Treason’ today by Paul Walker.

Audiobook listeners will be delighted that it is already available in audio – Listen Here

London, 1578

William Constable is a scholar of mathematics, astrology and practices as a physician. He receives an unexpected summons to the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham in the middle of the night. He fears for his life when he spies the tortured body of an old friend in the palace precincts. His meeting with Walsingham takes an unexpected turn when he is charged to assist a renowned Puritan, John Foxe, in uncovering the secrets of a mysterious cabinet containing an astrological chart and coded message. Together, these claim Elizabeth has a hidden, illegitimate child (an “unknowing maid”) who will be declared to the masses and serve as the focus for an invasion. Constable is swept up in the chase to uncover the identity of the plotters, unaware that he is also under suspicion. He schemes to gain the confidence of the adventurer John Hawkins and a rich merchant. Pressured into taking a role as court physician to pick up unguarded comments from nobles and others, he has become a reluctant intelligencer for Walsingham.

Do the stars and cipher speak true, or is there some other malign intent in the complex web of scheming? Constable must race to unravel the threads of political manoeuvring for power before a new-found love and his own life are forfeit.

Buy the book : Amazon  

Listen on Audio : Amazon UK • Amazon US 

About Paul Walker

Paul is married and lives in a village 30 miles north of London. Having worked in universities and run his own business, he is now a full-time writer of fiction and part-time director of an education trust. His writing in a garden shed is regularly disrupted by children and a growing number of grandchildren and dogs.

Paul writes historical fiction. He inherited his love of British history and historical fiction from his mother, who was an avid member of Richard III Society. The William Constable series of historical thrillers is based around real characters and events in the late sixteenth century. The first three books in the series are State of Treason; A Necessary Killing; and The Queen’s Devil. He promises more will follow.

Connect with Paul:

Website • Twitter • Facebook

Review of The Lengthening Shadow

I’ve read all three of the Linford Saga books now and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Liz Harris has a flowing easy-to-read writing style that pulls the reader along. This is the third part of a series but can definitely be read as a stand-alone novel. In it we get to meet the other side of the Linford family, who we have briefly encountered in the other books. This one is set mostly in the 1930’s as war threatens, and centres around Dorothy who we have heard of but never met in the other books. Dorothy has done the unforgiveable – met and married a German, and is now in Germany. There is an excellent sense of period atmosphere, especially in the way the author has conjured the life of a small German village, as Nazism becomes the only acceptable ideology, and Dorothy’s husband Franz is pressured to join the National Socialists. When Dorothy discovers her son Dieter as one of the Jungvolk has been set to spy on the family, the news is the last straw that threatens to tear the family apart.

The characters are interesting, and it is the domestic lives of the characters that make the hub of the book, rather than big historical events. The Linfords are solid middle class types whose main interests are property development, the new English craze for motoring and travel, and keeping the status quo. In this stultifying atmosphere I especially enjoyed Luisa’s journey from wayward and spoilt young woman to becoming a more responsible person after a terrible car accident changes her life. Dorothy’s sister Nellie provides the link between the two strands of story as she continues to write to Dorothy and provides the address so that Louisa can contact the estranged part of her family.

This is a book that saga lovers and anyone who enjoys 20th Century historicals will enjoy, but I recommend starting with Book 1, The Dark Horizon. Liz Harris writes family feuds really well, with just the right mixture of familiarity and tension, against settings rich with well-researched historical detail. Very warmly recommended.

Book Blurb

When Dorothy Linford marries former German internee, Franz Hartmann, at the end of WWI, she’s cast out by her father, Joseph, patriarch of the successful Linford family. Dorothy and Franz go to live in a village in south-west Germany, where they have a daughter and son. Throughout the early years of the marriage, which are happy ones, Dorothy is secretly in contact with her sister, Nellie, in England

Back in England, Louisa Linford, Dorothy’s cousin, is growing into an insolent teenager, forever at odds with her parents, Charles and Sarah, and with her wider family, until she faces a dramatic moment of truth.

Life in Germany in the early 1930s darkens, and to Dorothy’s concern, what had initially seemed harmless, gradually assumes a threatening undertone.

Brought together by love, but endangered by acts beyond their control, Dorothy and Franz struggle to get through the changing times without being torn apart.

Buy Links : Amazon UK • Amazon US

Connect with Liz Harris:  Website • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook

The Miami Glee Club 1907

When I am writing, I am aware that my own childhood reading history can creep into my writing, dragging it back to an era less sophisticated than where I am now. Often we forget that these shorthand phrases still exist in our sub-conscious somewhere, and they are mostly from our early reading. Usually they come from children’s fiction where they are more at home. They often pop out to describe actions in a way that is unrealistic, and it serves to make our story less real. In fact they anchor it to a time when we read stories as children, and bear little relationship to actual real events.

Here are some examples that I commonly find in my own and other people’s fiction.

‘He buried his face in his hands.’

‘She flung her arms around his neck.’

‘He was grinning from ear to ear.’

‘They clapped in delight.’

‘She jumped up and down with glee.’ *

These are actions very few adults really make (unless they are acting in a comedy sit-com), but they are a shorthand to describe an action conveying some sort of emotion. Too many of these in a book can mean your novel is lacking in depth and reality, and signal that the book is ‘story’. They are especially anachronistic in historical eras when people were restrained by their social status or by their class. In first drafts I often find a few similar shorthand phrases, written quickly as I race along trying to get it all down. But they are phrases I try to replace in the editing with something more realistic, individual and meaningful to the period.

Because I have edited these out of my own fiction, these sort of phrases often jump me out of a story if I read them in another book. What phrases jump you out of a story?

Glee is a word we rarely use these days. The picture is of the Miami Glee Club of 1907. In the US a ‘glee club’ is a kind of choir that traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs, called ‘glees’ . It comes from the word Glee in England, from 1603, which refers to a particular specific form of English part song which was popular up until the end of the 19th Century. The first actual named Glee Club held its initial meeting in the Newcastle Coffee House in London  in 1787.  (see picture below) Glee clubs were very popular in Britain but were gradually superseded by larger choral societies. Proper glee clubs are now very rare.

Read about the Gentleman’s Glee Club in Manchester here on Tall Tales from the Trees Blog.

Writers – you might also like:

The Joy of Writing Ordinary Commoners

Introverts and Extroverts in Historical Fiction

Trade Card for Newcastle Coffee House London