Deborah Swift's Blog, page 35

The Twenty First Century Tudors - The books of Terry Tyler

I've been reading the novels of Terry Tyler, whose books thrust the plots of Tudor history, particularly the Tudor Court, into 20th/21st century big business. In the first book we meet Harry Lanchester (HenryVIII), owner of Lanchester Estates, and his six wives.

In the second, after his death, we see the machinations for the 'throne' of Lanchester Estates. I really enjoyed the first one, but the second one is superb.

What Terry Tyler does really well is to get the reader into the characters' heads, and by providing us with contrasting personalities this never becomes claustrophobic. I enjoyed experiencing being the dull wife Amy, the neurotic, unbalanced Isabella (in love with the ghastly Philip Castillo of Spain) and the sad teenage monster Jaz.

And I loved them all. On the surface the characters might seem unlikeable, but I defy you not to understand their point of view, and this is what Tyler does so well, eliciting reader empathy.

The boardroom battles for control of the business ring true too - complete with the freeloaders, the over-ambitious, and the people who just want a quiet life. Tudor fans will find the links to history give an added level of interest to what is already an excellent book.

Those readers who remember Dallas and Dynasty on TV will love these, as will Tudor fiction fans, lovers of Jackie Collins blockbusters, and anyone else who loves a good read.
Terry's Amazon Page
Terry's advice for indie writers
Follow Terry on Twitter

Ghosts of Markyate Manor - Hermit, Heiress, Highwayman

Markyate Manor - scene of many hauntings, is the setting for the Highway Trilogy: Shadow on the Highway, Spirit of the Highway, and Lady of the Highway.
The name Markyate is derived from the Old English words meac  and geat and means 'the gate at the boundary', presumably between Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. In the 12th century, with the consent of his abbot, a monk went out from st Alban's and into the woods to seek a place to make a hermitage. God apparently guided him to Caddington, not far from Watling Street. There he lived a solitary life, until a woman came to him, Christina, in the firm belief that she too was called to a silent life of contemplation. He duly fastened her into an adjoining cell, where she was walled in for for four years!  She saw nobody in all that time, only coming out to walk at dusk when she would see not a soul, supporting herself through her exquisite needlework. She was (unsurprisingly) taken over by heavenly visions, and when the original monk died she had gathered quite a following and was allowed to set up  a priory under Benedictine rule. The seal of the Priory can be seen above, and more about Christina's extraordinary life can be found here.
The Priory did not fare well during the dissolution because it had become run down, and there were charges of corruption and lack of chastity brought against the nuns. The Priory was eventually demolished in 1537, and Markyate Manor was built on its footprint, although it is still sometimes known as Markyate Cell -  George Ferrers retained the name when he bought the land in 1548. The Ferrers family controlled this land when Markyate Cell was the home of Katherine Ferrers, also sometimes known as The Wicked Lady, a title I am hoping to overturn!
The Manor was left to Katherine by her mother, but it was soon in the control of her uncle, Simon Fanshawe, and she was forced into an arranged marriage with his nephew, Thomas Fanshawe.  After that, the story gets even more interesting as the legend credits her with being a notorious highwaywoman. She lived in the house through the years of the turbulent English Civil War, much of it alone as her menfolk were away fighting. She finally died there, having been mortally wounded trying to rob a coach on Nomansland.
Her ghost has been seen dressed in highwayman clothes riding her horse at full gallop, and in 1840 part of Markyate Cell was destroyed by fire, and the blaze was blamed on Lady Katherine.  Whilst helping to put out the fire several locals said that they felt a ghostly presence and that they were being watched, by the ghost of Katherine. But Katherine is not the only ghost that haunts this building - in the late 1850s workmen repairing a wall saw the figure of a nun. Perhaps this was the anchorite Christina. The nun has been seen several times since, walking in an avenue near St John's Church.
In 1957 the bypass around Markyate was being built. A night watchman was sitting by his brazier one night when he looked up and saw someone warming their hands by the fire. The figure was that of a young man who promptly vanished as the night watchman was looking at him. Was this an appearance of Markyate's legendary Phantom who may also haunt Hicks Road and the High Street?  Luton Paranormal Society
So it was not just Lady Katherine Fanshawe that haunted Markyate Manor. There was also a young man.
There has always been  a mysterious figure, Ralph Chaplin, associated with the legend, although I can find no trace of him in historical records. That gave me fuel for thought, and led to the story-line for 'Spirit of the Highway'.
Like to know more? check out this article in the Daily Mail for a summary of the life and legend of Lady Katherine Ferrers (Fanshawe).Spirit of the Highway is out today, published by Endeavour Press. It is suitable for teens 14+ (and adults too!).
Amazon US Amazon UK

Female Mystics in Fiction

I have just finished 'Illuminations' by Mary Sharrat, about Hildegard von Bingen. A reader might be surprised that there could be so much plot in a book which is essentially about a woman enclosed firstly as an anchorite, and later as a nun. However the enclosed nature of her life brings Hildegard into conflict not only with her 'captors' but also with those with whom she shares her religious life, and this provides Sharrat with the meat of the novel. It is also a fascinating glimpse into how difficult living the monastic life actually is. There is Cuno, the jealous Abbott, Volmar her conflicted friend, and the young novices she rescues who later turn to bite the hand that feeds them. 
Of course what sustains Hildegard is her relationship with the Divine, and her music. What sustains the novel is the fact that we empathise with Hildegard almost immediately - who could not, when she is a child walled up against her will? From the very beginning we follow her through her long life as she strives to build her place within Christendom, and finally founds her abbey.
From a spiritual perspective, the novel is not overly preachy, but rich with quotations from Hildegard's songs and writings, used appropriately through the text. We witness the 'greening'of her life as she becomes more accepting and less resistant to her lot, and as she grows in maturity casting off the selfishness and egotism of material concerns. Highly recommended.

Other novels I have read that feature diverse women and their spirituality are:
              The Chymical Wedding is about alchemy as a way of spiritual transformation and is set in Victorian England. Evensong picks apart episcopal ministry in a small Virginian town in the USA. The Mists of Avalon explores Arthurian legends and how the Pagan Priestess Morgaine copes with the new religion of Christianity. The Red Tent is about women's mysteries in the Bible, told through the life of Dinah.These are all excellently-written books which will provide a great plot, plus spiritual depth and food for thought.Please do recommend more in this vein,  that you feel I would like. 

The Importance of Presence for a Writer

As a writer I have been encouraged by my publishers to meet my readers online. When having an online conversation I am often talking to a small square icon or thumbnail, yet this picture is very important to me as an idea or representation of the essence of the person.
Recently I went to a writing conference and looked for all the people I had met online. One by one I managed to identify each person from their thumbnail, but unsurprisingly the real person was always radically different from the person I had constructed in my mind from the online conversation. The icon, along with the typed conversation, flattens out the persona so that it is hard to get a sense of who is actually there, behind the words. 
When confronted with a real individual though, it is easy to hear the music of the voice, see the posture, appreciate the energetic or listening quality of the personality. In these days of online relationships it is easy to forget this presence – the most important part of the person. 
Presence implies a deeper more connected awareness of the world around us, and so the ability to be a vehicle for what needs to be done. I believe words can carry presence if the writer is aware whilst writing; and that words can carry a certain intent. After all, without the written form so few religious or spiritual ideas of the past would have survived.
Yet to look at writing only as a way to preserve ideas, i.e. the end result, is to miss the point, and to forget the importance of presence. Writing is a form like any other artistic endeavour where the process is as important as the outcome. 
Click to read PDF
In her classic book, still in print since 1934, ‘Becoming a Writer’ Dorothea Brande says that excellent writing has ‘innocence of eye’ and ‘freshness of response’. To create these qualities we must discipline ourselves to stop ‘doing’ and spend more time ‘being.’ From stillness of mind and body united, a new perspective can arise. 
To maintain presence in writing is to cultivate space in oneself to let new ideas emerge, but more importantly it is to maintain a space for the response from the reader. After all it is not only the writer, but the reader who has to imagine the book. Skilful writing is not only about what to include, but more often about where to leave things open.
I have been a meditator all my adult life, and that is how I find presence in my life. Other people find it by walking in nature, by using mindfulness techniques, or practising yoga. Do feel free to share how you nurture this aspect of your writing.

UK Independent Publishers - a 'Do they add value?' check

I meet regularly with other novelists to critique our works in progress, drink tea, and discuss the various merits of the biscuits. Recently at one of my novelists group meetings we were discussing independent publishers who might publish a full length novel. I argued that there were not that many, but one of the other group members recently emailed me to say that the Independent Publishers Guild UK (www.ipg.uk.com) have a staggering 580 members!  
So why do I say there are not that many ?
The answer is, because in my opinion very few add value for a novelist, and some add so little value that they are in fact proxy self-publishing. 
There are of course loads of independent publishers that publish everything from memoirs to military to experimental.(eg local-to-me Cicerone Press that publishes mountaineering guides) And a lot of other so-called 'independent' publishers that are actually assisted self-publishing companies e.g. the well-respected Troubadour, Silverwood. (But these self-publishing services will cost you - and rightly so, for the various services they offer.)
But in fact there are very few independents that publish full length novels, don't charge the author anything at all, and do add value.
These days most publishers of  fiction offer e-books as a matter of course, (and some only e-books) so lets assume that as a given, that they will at least upload your book to Amazon. Publishing is easy these days, so publishers have to do more than just upload an ebook and offer a badly-designed POD paperback to win my vote.
So what exactly do I mean by 'add value?'
PHYSICAL VALUE a) Offer distribution of physical books to bookshops (ie I don't have to carry my books to my local bookseller myself)
b) Offer proper editing, proof-reading, interior layout and typesetting (i.e not just an edit through an online programme such as Autocrit, or reproducing your Word Document as a book)
c) Offer a print run (however limited) that is not just Print on Demand such as CreateSpace. By the time the publisher adds their cut, it makes the books too expensive in comparison with other traditional publishers, and therefore they fail to sell. Who will buy a £12.99 paperback when similar titles sell for £7.99?
d) Offer an individual marketing strategy for your book, including promoting it to bookshops and libraries, in other words not just bunging it on their website and newsletter and hoping for the best. I reckon many  independent publishers fail on one or more of those counts. They rely on you to sell your books to family, friends and your network, and then take royalties for the very little effort they have put in, which usually just involves adding a cheaply-designed cover and uploading your word document as a book to kindle, POD and their website. I admit these things take time, and incur costs for the publisher. But in most cases you would be better off self-publishing than giving this type of publisher a substantial part of your royalties when they add so little value to what is in the end your product.

There are many 'independent' publishers that look convincing, but are actually not that good for the author. Eg take a look at this fairly typical independent publisher  It looks great, until you read under their submissions guidelines: 'Depending on how many we think it could sell, we offer varying levels of contract. About one in ten of the titles on the list have a subsidy from the author, directed either towards more editorial or marketing work than we can normally provide.' Non-fiction sells well, so perhaps 1 in ten is actually most of the fiction, but of course you wouldn't know that if you were the submitting author.
or this one: 'A traditional partnership agreement entails the same benefits as a mainstream agreement. However, as the writer you may be asked to cover part of the cost of publishing the book. We follow all traditional industry etiquettes with regards to the promotion and marketing of the title in addition to all other avenues involved in the process.'
From another niche Independent Publisher website: 'We believe that as an author it is your responsibility to ensure that your work is of a reasonable standard before submitting to us. We can recommend a proof editor if you wish but that would be outside of our arrangement with you and you would contract them yourself.'
If you are going to pay, why not self-publish or use openly assisted self-publishing like Silverwood Books?

PSYCHOLOGICAL VALUE
Of course I am not negating the psychological value of having your work accepted by a publisher. After receiving a lot of rejections (and we all get them!) it feels brilliant to have your book accepted by somebody. Anybody!  A friend of mine recently had her novel accepted by a small independent publisher. She was over the moon until she read on Link'd In that her commissioning editor had just left school, had never worked in publishing before, but had done  two weeks work experience for a book promotion company. So if literary validation is important to you, don't forget to Google who is reading your manuscript and whether they are actually more qualified to make a judgement on your work than your local newsagent.
However, there can certainly be psychological (and monetary) value  in accessing a like-minded community. If you have a book that suits a niche audience, then there can be value in a niche publisher and in becoming part of that network, but check the network is not just other hopeful authors like yourself.
a) See if the books from that publisher have won any prizes or been nominated for an award (or sold millions - we wish!)
b) Check whether any of the books been endorsed by writers or critics you have actually heard of, not just 'Brilliant' - Amazon Reviewer
b) For niche markets, eg horror, fantasy, experimental, check that the publisher seems to have good networking links with their community. Eg Do they blog? If so, check out their blog.
CONVENIENCE VALUEOK, so you are technologically inept, and it's much easier to hand it to a publisher and let them do it, if they accept your submission. But if it doesn't get edited or properly laid out, if it has a bad cover, if it only reaches a few other writers who go to their website, and if it is too expensive to be attractive in bookshops, the convenience soon becomes inconvenient. You haven't the control to do anything about it, the way you would have had if you had self published - and you are still paying them via your royalties.
However, for full length commercial/literary novels I can safely say the following independent print publishers do add value - not an exhaustive list, and in no particular order. They all have beautiful websites and beautiful books that you sometimes see in bookshops - a good sign.
Bloomsbury*, Alma, Myrmidon, Honno Press, Parthian Books, Myriad Editions, Allison and Busby*, Serpent's Tail, Valley Press, Canongate*, Legend, Salt, Cinnamon Press, Accent Press, Cillian Press.
Some of these require you have an agent right now to submit (those marked with asterisks), some don't, but for a bigger list of  small independent publishers check out Nottingham Writers Studio. If you want to see a list of other small presses, check out Lollipop. And here's a complete list of UK publishers competing in The People's Book Prize.
Anyone who can recommend more excellent independent publishers to add to this list - please do!
Thank you to crime noir writer Tess Makovesky for prompting this post. Find her at www.tessmakovesky.com

Editing historical fiction, my way

I am in the middle of edits for two of my books, one a young adult novel and one a 400 page adult novel. These are the edits I make before I send out to my agent, a publisher, or in some cases the public. There will be other edits later, but as some publishing houses edit very heavily, some hardly at all, it pays to be picky with your work.
Recently I have seen a plethora of writing books suggesting that you should edit in 'one pass'.
This does not work for me because of the amount of research I need to check. So here is my editing process. It takes as long as the actual writing of the book.

I always work with a printed copy of the manuscript, and initially I am editing for story. I read like a reader and not a writer, to identify  whether the nuts and bolts of the story work. At its heart, story is about change, so if it's getting static, alarm bells ring. I mark parts that are slow or boring with a big red pen. Though sometimes boring does not mean cutting stuff, but adding more detail to make it interesting and bring it to life. 
Usually the first time I print out the draft it needs a lot of re-working -  new chunks need to be written and others lopped off. At this stage I do extensive re-writes. That copy is then like an old rag covered in scribble and crossings out and is re-cycled onto our log-burner!
After more work on the computer to streamline the story, I'm ready for a more detailed edit. Usually I send this newer version out to some readers so I can incorporate their comments when I work on the next edit. One way of speeding it up is to mark all the pages that need edits with sticky post-its. I use the same manuscript and just go through it with different colours for each editing pass. Then with the copy next to me with its rainbow fringe, I trawl through the manuscript a page at a time making all the necessary alterations. At this point I am usually fuelled by coffee, a looming deadline, and a desperation to get it finished and move onto the next book.
Here are the passes I make:edit for character. Go through each major character's arc of action and emotion. Check what they are doing in the scenes where they are absent, and try to refer to these actions in the scenes where they are present. Get a sense of their daily routine - for example how long it takes them to dress, their relationship with servants or 'betters', and their class in relation to other characters. Check how they are feeling;  that it is consistent, and that it has development.  Make sure their attitudes are consistent with the period.edit for theme. Highlight any themes that drive the novel, make sure sub-plots echo these themes. Look for metaphor, symbol and meaning. Try to find parallels with today, and highlight  them. They will be useful when you have to promote or tell people about your book.edit for time-scale. In historical fiction it is particularly important to get dates right, and for the narrative to fit within certain fixed parameters or historical milestones. Check travelling times - horseback and boat are very slow, but mail can be surprisingly quick.edit like the most eagle-eyed historian. I have made small errors in my books, (really sorry ) but not because I did not care - I did my best to make the history right! Often it is little things (like the taking for granted of walls and hedges before the enclosures act) that catch you out. Question everything and double check your research. Keep notes in case someone queries your sources. Make notes about where you have changed, bent, or ignored  supposedly 'known facts', and why. Two books down the line you might not remember why, but an expert reading your book is bound to write to you and ask.edit for anachronistic dialogue, and for dialogue that fits the character. It is easy to slip into modernism in dialogue, and the quickest way to lose your historical atmosphere. Seemingly innocuous phrases like 'Oh my God' have taken on a distinctly teenage flavour since OMG!edit for good English - cut out uninteresting language, spelling mistakes, faulty grammar and typos, or get someone else to proofread it.My novel grows about 10% during this edit as I re-work dialogue, fill plot loopholes and deepen character.What is your editing process? Do you have any tips or tricks?

History, Mystery, Humour - A Cruel Necessity by L C Tyler

'A Cruel Necessity' by L C Tyler is unique - crime fiction set during Cromwell's rule after the English Civil Wars.
What makes this mystery different is the intentionally humorous twist. This is a period I love, and L C Tyler has done a great job of bringing it to life, in all its grubby glory. The plot includes the spying activities of Thurloe, the nebulously changing factions of Roundheads and Cavaliers, and the sheer difficulty of identifying a murder suspect in the era before forensics. 
Our main character, John Grey, is a very likeable trainee lawyer, intelligent but naive, and his blundering but well-intentioned attempts to bring the murderer to justice are thwarted at every turn by men (and women) more world-weary than himself. The delights of this novel lie in the clever and witty dialogue, and in the satisfyingly complex plot, which includes code-breaking and red herrings galore, and even a brief appearance by Pepys. 
Right up until the end I was as baffled as Grey, but when the resolution came, it was a corker. Clever, witty stuff, and I hope there will be many more in this series.

If you like the name Araminta, (sadly out of fashion right now!) you might also like The Painted Lady by Edward Marston, another historical whodunnit featuring a woman of this name, but very different from the Araminta in 'A Cruel Necessity'.  This time the novel is set later in the seventeenth century after the Restoration, (my favourite period) and features sleuth Chistopher Redmayne the architect, and his sidekick Constable Jonathan Bale.
Both books are pleasurably tight and compact reads at just over 300 pages.
Publishers: Constable & Robinson, and Allison & Busby.

The Wicked Lady – Katherine Fanshawe

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I am not the first writer to be inspired by the life and legend of Lady Katherine Fanshawe.

The first novel based on her life was by Magdalen King-Hall who wrote a book called The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton in 1945. I have a copy and it is exciting reading, though long-winded in the telling by today’s standards. The book was a smash hit in its day and was made into a film - The Wicked Lady.



The film starred Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman to relieve her life of boredom. The mystery of why she would take such an extreme action was the sensation of its day – women were supposed to be safe at home doing the housekeeping! The film had one of the top audiences ever for a film of its period, 18.4 million – a staggering number. I can remember my mother talking about it as one of her favourite films.
It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s in wartime Britain. They provided pure escapism from the deprivation of WWII, with lavish sets and costumes and period settings, and the films were often based on historical novels.

Here is the trailer for the 1945 film – great costumes, but from it you get the melodramatic flavour of the plot. In fact, before it could be released in the US, re-shooting was required as the women's bodices were very low-cut and showed too much cleavage for the American censors.


It was such a hit that the film was re-made in 1983 and starred Faye Dunaway in the lead role. (Poster from www.moviepostercompany.co.uk) The film was a disaster and earned Faye Dunaway an award for the Worst Actress!





In my retelling of the story I have stuck to historical facts more than King-Hall did, including keeping the original names. Research into the background of the English Civil War provided me with plausible plot devices that enabled me to stick with the history more closely. However, as this is a novel for younger readers (14+) I wanted to retain the swashbuckling feel if possible, without making it into a melodrama. My story is told over three stand-alone books with three different points of view, the first book, Shadow on the Highway, is told from the point of view of Abigail, Lady Katherine’s deaf maidservant. You can find out more about how I researched her here.

This post first appeared on the Let Them Read Books Blog. Why not visit the site for more historical fiction, and interesting guest posts.

Nursing in the 1940's and 50's - Fetch Nurse Connie

I am thrilled to welcome Jean Fullerton to my blog today, to chat about her latest book and the way in which she researched and wrote the story. Known for her wonderful Powerpoint presentations about East End London life, Jean brings all her research and life experience in the NHS to her books about 1940's and 50's nursing. Fetch Nurse Connie will be the fifth book in the East End Nurses series. How have circumstances in healthcare changed for Millie and Connie since the first book?
I purposely set Call Nurse Millie in the years after the end of the WW2 and before the introduction of the NHS in 1948 so people could see what the system of health care before the NHS was actually like. In the first book of the series Millie and Connie are employed by a local Nursing Association which is a voluntary organisation supported by subscriptions and fundraising rather than central funding. The second book All Change for Nurse Millie starts on 5th July 1948, the day the NHS came into being so I could show the changes to the new system and some of the problems it had from the very start.
As Connie is Millie’s closest friend and we meet her a great deal in Millie’s story it seemed natural to tell her story in Fetch Nurse Connie, during the same time period. Like Millie’s, Connie’s story starts on VE-Day 1945 when the old health system was still in place so we see Connie  not only grappling with the her patients illnesses but also the social conditions of the time.
Your books are impeccably researched. What are the two most valuable resources you use for discovering about medicine in the 1950's? Thank you for saying so, Deborah. Unlike my previous 19th century books the East London Nurses’ Series is within living memory so I have the great privilege of being able to speak to nurses who worked in East London during that time.  However, my most valuable research resources are my collection of 1930s, 40s and 50s nursing and midwifery text books. These include books on child health, contraception, midwifery, nursing dictionaries and a 1945 doctor’s prescribing dictionary, all of which I have to hand all the time. The most valuable of these books is the 1947 edition of Merry and Irven’s District Nursing. This was the text book all trainee Queen’s Nurses’ would have bought. It has everything from clinical procedures to the various charitable institutions of the time like the Sick Children’s’ Fund and the Destitute Relief Board. It also sets out how fees were calculated and the proper administration of a local Nursing Association. It was totally invaluable in helping me breathe life into district nursing during that period. There is also a breakdown of the way the new Welfare State was to be implemented and how much the individuals had to contribute in to the National Insurance Scheme before they were entitled to receive benefits. I also think I must have every nurses biography of the 20th century and a few before.
Apart from Millie, who is your favourite character to write? Is he/she constructed around a real person from the past?I actually enjoy writing her friend Connie, who is the heroine of the new book.  She has a very different story and other issues in her professional and personal life to cope with. Unlike Millie she is part of a large East End family, very like my own. After her fiancé’s home-coming takes and unexpected turn Connie finds herself spending a great deal of time trying to put her heartache behind her and convince her mother and two sisters that there’s more to life than marriage and children.I never consciously construct a character around anyone in particular but I hope Connie, like Millie, is a little bit like the nurse I strive to be.
What would surprise Connie and Millie most about nursing  today?As a registered district nurse with 20 years’ experience working in East London I’m sad to say that today ‘care’ sometimes seems missing out of the equation. Not by nurses’ I might say. I teach nursing at a London University and can assure you the vast majority of the nurses I nurture through their 3 year’s training are kind and compassion and I’d be happy for them to nurse any of my nearest and dearest. Sadly, it’s the overburdened NHS full of targets, statistics and research that sometimes put unbearable pressure on them. In Millie and Connie’s day a nurse was responsible for all their patients’ needs. This included housework, personal care and nutrition along with the more obvious nursing tasks such as dressings and medication.  However, I’m sure she’d be amazed at the range of drugs now available – especially those to regular body systems such as diabetes, high blood-pressure and pain relief  plus being able to undertake such complex operation as open heart surgery and joint replacements.
How carefully do you plan your books? Do you have a strong outline, or do the characters know where they want to go?
Because I weave at least six patients’ stories through Connie’s over-arching story I plan my novels very carefully on a colour coded table. This allows me to space out Connie’s meeting with her patients, family and her ex-fiancé Charlie. I can also see, for example of there are too many scenes with her family bunched together or if there’s too much space between her patients as we see their stories.Of course it changes as I get to know the characters and ideas come to me but it gives me a place to start.
Thanks for asking me to drop by Deborah and for anyone who might want to read Connie’s story here’s a quick insight.Fetch Nurse Connie.Connie Byrne, a nurse in London's East End working alongside Millie Sullivan from Call Nurse Millie, is planning her wedding to Charlie Ross, set to take place as soon as he returns from the war. But when she meets him off the train at London Bridge, she finds that his homecoming isn't going to go according to plan.Connie's busy professional life, and the larger-than-life patients in the district, offer a welcome distraction, but for how long?Available from Orion Fiction on kindle, paperback and hardback on 4th June 2015Click on the bookcover to pre-order.Easter with Nurse Millie out 19th March
Fetch Nurse Connie out 4th June 2015.
All Change for Nurse Millie
Christmas with Nurse Millie e-novella.
Call Nurse Millie.Website:  http://www.jeanfullerton.com

Award-winning author Charlotte Betts reveals her favourite English chateau

I have just finished Charlotte Betts' latest novel, Chateau on the Lake, which is yet another gripping romance from this award-winning novelist. I first came across Charlotte because she has written several books in one of my favourite periods - the seventeenth century, but for this novel we are invited to explore the 18th century and Revolutionary France.

After the death of her parents Madeleine Moreau must travel to France to search for the relatives she has heard of, but never met. The meeting proves disastrous and she is given shelter at Chateau Mirabelle, a breathtakingly beautiful castle which is home to the aristocrat Etienne D'Aubery. Of course there is a little competition for Madeleine's affections, with the handsome Jean Luc, and plenty of dark and sinister secrets in the Chateau's past.

Charlotte Betts recreates the detail of the period painstakingly, whilst still providing a pacy and satisfying romance. The sense of the course of the French revolution with all its horrors - the guillotine, the starving peasants, the mob violence - all these are faithfully depicted, whilst never losing the forward momentum of the plot. It is a hard thing to do, to juggle romance against such gritty realism, but Charlotte Betts does it seamlessly.

I wondered, after the attractions of France, which would be Charlotte's favourite English chateau, a place in which to spend a quiet afternoon - 

Corfe Castle is one of my favourite historical sites to visit. We often holiday in Dorset and I love the way the castle is the focal point of the village. It's always been sunny when I've visited and I like to sit quietly in the sunshine and allow the tourists' voices fade away. If I close my eyes and listen to the echoes of time it's almost possible to unlock the secrets of the past. I conjure up a vision of Lady Mary Bankes who, when her husband was away, led the defence of the castle during a six week siege by the Parliamentarians. What a wonderful novel that would make! Perhaps I shall write about that one day.Charlotte 

With her talk of English Civil War sieges, I might just beat her to it. (Only joking of course!)
Find out more about Charlotte Betts on her website