Debra Brown's Blog, page 11
July 13, 2011
'When Fate Dictates' – by Elizabeth Marshall
An Excerpt of When Fate Dictates, a Scottish Historical Fiction and Fantasy Novel
Simon spooned a large mouthful of lamb stew hungrily into his mouth. Swallowing hard he rested his elbows on the table, his chin cupped in the palms of his hands, his eyes surveying me quizzically. I put the cloth I was folding down and looked back at him.
"Why do you stare at me so?" I asked.
"I was just thinking Corran that you don't look yourself somehow. You look...very sad," he said, a frown crossing his brow.
I forced a smile, knowing it would not reach my eyes. "No Simon, I am not sad, just thinking over our travel plans," I lied, hoping he would accept my explanation.
The truth was that I felt overwhelmed by a paralyzing feeling of fear. My mouth was dry, my heart raced, the palms of my hands were damp and in the pit of my stomach I just knew that the road ahead was not the right one for us.
I looked around the front room of our house. It felt cold, I thought dimly, but
then I remembered that was because we had no fire burning. Why would we need a fire? We were leaving today. The bags and chests we had neatly packed lay against the wall, waiting to be piled onto the carriage. The rickety old stairs stood as though nothing had changed, but in my mind I could see the room above them. Cold as the day we arrived, bare and empty as the fireplaces. The treasures we had found in the chest returned to storage and the lid firmly closed on this chapter of our lives.
I watched as Duncan climbed awkwardly onto his Daddy's lap and as Simon lovingly put his arm around his son to help him; how he scooped some meat onto a spoon and then fed it to the little boy. Their movements were slowed to my eyes. I felt as though I were in a dream, watching my life through a hazy fog of detachment. I could hear Simon and Duncan but their voices carried an echo of distance. The knot of fear in my stomach tightened, my fists clenched and I realized I was holding my breath. Something was very wrong! My eyes darted frantically around the room, searching for the source of my fear, but everything looked as it should.
Instinct took my eyes to the door, seconds before a loud thunderous bang came from behind it. There was a scraping and clanging of metal as I watched the door fall in before me. I stared in horror as the march of Red Coats trampled over the oak door and into our front room.
"Dear God!" I screamed, "Dear God No!"
Simon was on his feet, pistol in hand, Duncan beside him crying. He pushed the little boy away but Duncan clung to his father's trousers. Simon was shouting, but I could not hear the words, he raised his pistol and held it steady at the mob. I ran to my little boy and grabbed him, pulling him away from his father. He fought wildly, kicking and screaming for his Daddy as I closed my arms around his little body, holding him tightly against me. I backed under the stairs and into the far
corner of the room as more Red Coats stormed the room. They had their pistols fixed
on Simon. They were shouting orders, he was shouting back and then I heard the shot, saw the smoke from the pistol and the room went quiet as Simon's body hit the floor.
'When Fate Dictates' by Elizabeth Marshall
Elizabeth Marshall Writes
'Dying', on a mountain, Corran is mysteriously saved from death by a Highland Stag. Confused, alone and frightened, she makes her way back to the village of Glencoe, and comes face to face with one of her enemies, Simon Campbell, a Red Coat, deserter and traitor. With her family massacred and her village destroyed, Corran trusts the fugitive when he offers to help her escape the village. Plans to flee the
country are brought to an abrupt end by Simon's old enemy and fellow Red Coat, Angus. Pursued by Angus and seeking answers to the many questions in their life, Simon comes into the possession of a Campbell crystal which leads the couple through time and into modern day York where a final confrontation ends their conflict.
'When Fate Dictates is now available for download on Kindle - HereThank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Simon spooned a large mouthful of lamb stew hungrily into his mouth. Swallowing hard he rested his elbows on the table, his chin cupped in the palms of his hands, his eyes surveying me quizzically. I put the cloth I was folding down and looked back at him.
"Why do you stare at me so?" I asked.
"I was just thinking Corran that you don't look yourself somehow. You look...very sad," he said, a frown crossing his brow.
I forced a smile, knowing it would not reach my eyes. "No Simon, I am not sad, just thinking over our travel plans," I lied, hoping he would accept my explanation.
The truth was that I felt overwhelmed by a paralyzing feeling of fear. My mouth was dry, my heart raced, the palms of my hands were damp and in the pit of my stomach I just knew that the road ahead was not the right one for us.
I looked around the front room of our house. It felt cold, I thought dimly, but
then I remembered that was because we had no fire burning. Why would we need a fire? We were leaving today. The bags and chests we had neatly packed lay against the wall, waiting to be piled onto the carriage. The rickety old stairs stood as though nothing had changed, but in my mind I could see the room above them. Cold as the day we arrived, bare and empty as the fireplaces. The treasures we had found in the chest returned to storage and the lid firmly closed on this chapter of our lives.
I watched as Duncan climbed awkwardly onto his Daddy's lap and as Simon lovingly put his arm around his son to help him; how he scooped some meat onto a spoon and then fed it to the little boy. Their movements were slowed to my eyes. I felt as though I were in a dream, watching my life through a hazy fog of detachment. I could hear Simon and Duncan but their voices carried an echo of distance. The knot of fear in my stomach tightened, my fists clenched and I realized I was holding my breath. Something was very wrong! My eyes darted frantically around the room, searching for the source of my fear, but everything looked as it should.
Instinct took my eyes to the door, seconds before a loud thunderous bang came from behind it. There was a scraping and clanging of metal as I watched the door fall in before me. I stared in horror as the march of Red Coats trampled over the oak door and into our front room.
"Dear God!" I screamed, "Dear God No!"Simon was on his feet, pistol in hand, Duncan beside him crying. He pushed the little boy away but Duncan clung to his father's trousers. Simon was shouting, but I could not hear the words, he raised his pistol and held it steady at the mob. I ran to my little boy and grabbed him, pulling him away from his father. He fought wildly, kicking and screaming for his Daddy as I closed my arms around his little body, holding him tightly against me. I backed under the stairs and into the far
corner of the room as more Red Coats stormed the room. They had their pistols fixed
on Simon. They were shouting orders, he was shouting back and then I heard the shot, saw the smoke from the pistol and the room went quiet as Simon's body hit the floor.
'When Fate Dictates' by Elizabeth Marshall
Elizabeth Marshall Writes
'Dying', on a mountain, Corran is mysteriously saved from death by a Highland Stag. Confused, alone and frightened, she makes her way back to the village of Glencoe, and comes face to face with one of her enemies, Simon Campbell, a Red Coat, deserter and traitor. With her family massacred and her village destroyed, Corran trusts the fugitive when he offers to help her escape the village. Plans to flee the
country are brought to an abrupt end by Simon's old enemy and fellow Red Coat, Angus. Pursued by Angus and seeking answers to the many questions in their life, Simon comes into the possession of a Campbell crystal which leads the couple through time and into modern day York where a final confrontation ends their conflict.
'When Fate Dictates is now available for download on Kindle - HereThank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
July 6, 2011
Book Giveaway! The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
My sleepless nights and perfect-word searching days have, at last, produced a published book, making me an author! My Victorian Era mystery and sweet romance novel, The Companion of Lady Holmeshire, is now available in digital format on Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Coffee Time, with Amazon being next. My launch date is July 15th. At that time, the book will become available in trade paperback.
How did this come to be? I ran out of movies. I have always enjoyed the pomp and circumstance, upstairs downstairs, castles, banquets and balls movies. Most of which came from Jane Austen, Dickens and Bronte books, along with others. As a jewelry maker and mother, I did not have much time for the reading that I loved so much as a child, but those movies could always play while I did my work. Eventually, this west-coast American learned how England worked in the times of strictly structured class differences. Although I am happy for everyone that those lines have broken down and there is more opportunity all around, those times made for amazing stories today. And more are desperately needed. Therefore....
Miss Emma Carrington, as a helpless infant, was deposited on the doorstep of the village of Holmeshire's local Squire Carrington. She was taken in and nurtured by Mrs. Carrington until the dear lady died. The teenage Emma was no longer wanted in the Squire's house, having taken up priceless hours of the Mrs.' life with her banter. Sent out, she took a position as a housemaid for the Countess of Holmeshire in the Northumberland castle up on the hill. The Countess took a liking to this maid and decided to have her as the companion who would make her lonely widowhood more pleasant. Emma was to be dragged along into snobbish, genteel society in London, like it or not. Strong feelings grew for the young Earl of Holmeshire, who was engaged by arrangement to a London lady. Mysteries unfold as romances grow, both in the aristocratic circle and among the servants downstairs. None of my readers, to this date, have guessed the surprises that are uncovered in the last two chapters, but you are invited to try in my Reader's Game!
I will give away a PDF copy of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire; please comment below to be entered into the drawing prior to the book's launch on July 15th. Be sure to leave contact information or check back for the winner's information on that date. Best wishes!Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
June 29, 2011
Lady Catherine de Bourgh Pays Tribute to Jane Austen (eventually)
By Karen V. Wasylowski
Author of 'Darcy and Fitzwilliam' Please click on that title to see my April post about the book with Karen.
And now: Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
"Do I have everyone's attention? I should very much appreciate all of you being seated straight away. Who is that vulgar, hairy, woman in the atrocious red cape…oh, it is you, bishop. La, I though you were Princess Esterhazy. Well my goodness, I was under the impression you were taller. I should have recognized you, of course, by that elegant beard, so unlikely an allurement to be possessed by a princess. Now, for a baroness if would have been, of course, excusable…yes,
thank you, please be seated your Eminence so that I may commence with my humble tribute.
It is wonderful to see so many old and dear friends here. Well, old at any rate (ahem). I should like to introduce my family to you, but, first I would thank our very thoughtful hostess, Miss (will someone hand me my spectacles – Darcy be a dear – thank you ) Ah, here it is…Miss Debra Brown – what a charming name. Would you please stand. Very nice. I am certain we need not worry overly. Miss Brown, I am sure, is certainly of the Devonshire Brown's and not from those unpleasant American Brown's. I should like to thank her, and her writing site, English Epochs, for giving us this opportunity. And she is an author as well, or so it says here. The title of her book is The Companion of Lady Holmeshire. I am certain that this novel shall be quite well received. Thank you, Miss Brown. Thank you. Miss Brown. That is quite enough bowing. Miss Brown. Oh do sit down, please!
Now a number of my relations are present and I should be very proud to introduce them to you all.
First, of course, is my handsome and very proficient daughter. Anne. Anne de Bourgh. Anne! Yes you, Anne, who else would it be, I've only one daughter. Stand up, gel! Oh bother. Someone find her vinaigrette please…there you are dear. Feeling better? Feeling quite the thing, are you? Excellent. Now stand up straight, Anne! Don't slouch!
She's lovely isn't she? Ah, so very pale and wan. No hint of vibrancy. There is a reason for this, other than good breeding. It is not common knowledge, but I shall tell anyway. Anne has suffered her entire life from a series of peculiar and debilitating maladies - shortness of breath, palpitations, headaches, eye spasms, the occasional swoon. Uncontrollable crying. Yes. Oddly enough they usually crest whenever I walk into a room but then lessen when I leave. I know, how sad for her. And it apparently is common in other members of my family as well; I have found throughout the years that very many of my relations suffer from these anomalous symptoms. At least they do when I am in the vicinity. Oh well. 'What wound did ever heal but by degrees." That is Othello, you know. Of course if my willful, obdurate nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, had married Anne when I suggested all those many years ago my daughter's illnesses would have, I am certain, vanished. The young today, they are so very selfish, don't you find?
Darcy why are you muttering and stomping your boots? He angers so easily these days; come over here and let me introduce you. My word, you look positively grim. Turn to the people. Isn't he handsome? Stand up straight! Fitzwilliam Darcy is my sister Anne's son, my late sister Anne, and the pride of Derbyshire. See how elegantly he dresses, how gracefully he comports himself. He is the perfect romantic gentleman. Dark, brooding fine-looking, arrogant, haughty…rich…some call him proud but I do not. I feel he merely has an accurate measure of himself that is all. He is a tall sort of man also, is he not? Extremely vertical for his weight.
Darcy and I had quite a splendid relationship for many years; he always would attend me during Easter, along with his reprobate of a cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. Fitzwilliam is my brother's son - a second son. A soldier.
Apparently the clergy would not have him.
Now Darcy, who, as I have already pointed out, is a very handsome gentleman of great intellect and superior lineage has made an incredibly ill-fated misalliance with Miss Elizabeth Bennet. No need to stand Elizabeth, nor speak if possible. What? What have I said? Why is he angry with me now? The young today are such a trial, they can be so argumentative. To continue, Elizabeth's father is a gentleman of no consequence so the less said about her, him, or their embarrassing family, the better. Her mother is a absolute horror of a woman, completely lacking in accomplishments, her sisters are plain, awkward, hoyden or timid. Take your pick.
Next to Darcy is his lovely sister Georgiana Darcy. Georgiana plays the pianoforte extremely well due to her constant practicing. Stand please, Georgiana. Posture, Georgiana, do not droop so! As you can see she is a tad too tall, and rather too womanly, frankly speaking, for her young age. Truly refined young girls of the aristocracy are small boned and thin and never speak. Not until they agree to the marriage of their father's choosing, that is and then they merely say 'yes'. A truly elegant woman never speaks until she has children. And then she never stops. Oh, for heaven's sake, don't pout, Georgiana, you will develop puffy eyes, making you appear even more unappealing. Whyever is she crying?
Now, on to my tribute to Miss Jane Austen. She was…witty and quite opinionated. There, I've said it. She was intelligent. I do not mean to insult her but there it is. To use the vulgar colloquialism of the day, she was a blue stocking. We did not rub along well together. I first met Miss Austen in 1796 during her stay at Goodnestone Park in Kent. She was visiting there with her brother Edward, a most pleasing young man and his good wife, a delightfully silent young woman…unlike her sharp tongued and clever sister-in-law. Darcy! I do not appreciate nor condone that raised eyebrow! It is most threatening. Please lower it immediately.
Where was I? Oh, yes. I came to discover that Miss Austen was writing a novel at the time, quite a useless ambition for a young woman, but, the young never listen to sense, do they? It was entitled First Impressions. I cautioned her most wisely regarding the capriciousness of the publishing industry and, due solely to my counsel, she wisely sold the copyright to her manuscript for 110 pounds. Quite a coup I believed, for a girl. She had asked Mr. Edgerton for 150 pounds but I convinced her that she was fortunate to receive any amount for that silly story, let along 110 pounds! Poor dear. I am certain no one ever heard of the book after that, although I did hear mention that Edgarton changed the name of the book.
But whoever heard of Pride and Prejudice?
For some reason Jane refuses to speak with me, even unto this day.
La, children they are so unappreciative, are they not?
And now, back to Karen:
The short story I just publishd is on Kindle and Nook only, sells for $.99. It is Georgiana's Story.
Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Author of 'Darcy and Fitzwilliam' Please click on that title to see my April post about the book with Karen.
And now: Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
"Do I have everyone's attention? I should very much appreciate all of you being seated straight away. Who is that vulgar, hairy, woman in the atrocious red cape…oh, it is you, bishop. La, I though you were Princess Esterhazy. Well my goodness, I was under the impression you were taller. I should have recognized you, of course, by that elegant beard, so unlikely an allurement to be possessed by a princess. Now, for a baroness if would have been, of course, excusable…yes,
thank you, please be seated your Eminence so that I may commence with my humble tribute.
It is wonderful to see so many old and dear friends here. Well, old at any rate (ahem). I should like to introduce my family to you, but, first I would thank our very thoughtful hostess, Miss (will someone hand me my spectacles – Darcy be a dear – thank you ) Ah, here it is…Miss Debra Brown – what a charming name. Would you please stand. Very nice. I am certain we need not worry overly. Miss Brown, I am sure, is certainly of the Devonshire Brown's and not from those unpleasant American Brown's. I should like to thank her, and her writing site, English Epochs, for giving us this opportunity. And she is an author as well, or so it says here. The title of her book is The Companion of Lady Holmeshire. I am certain that this novel shall be quite well received. Thank you, Miss Brown. Thank you. Miss Brown. That is quite enough bowing. Miss Brown. Oh do sit down, please!
Now a number of my relations are present and I should be very proud to introduce them to you all.
First, of course, is my handsome and very proficient daughter. Anne. Anne de Bourgh. Anne! Yes you, Anne, who else would it be, I've only one daughter. Stand up, gel! Oh bother. Someone find her vinaigrette please…there you are dear. Feeling better? Feeling quite the thing, are you? Excellent. Now stand up straight, Anne! Don't slouch!
She's lovely isn't she? Ah, so very pale and wan. No hint of vibrancy. There is a reason for this, other than good breeding. It is not common knowledge, but I shall tell anyway. Anne has suffered her entire life from a series of peculiar and debilitating maladies - shortness of breath, palpitations, headaches, eye spasms, the occasional swoon. Uncontrollable crying. Yes. Oddly enough they usually crest whenever I walk into a room but then lessen when I leave. I know, how sad for her. And it apparently is common in other members of my family as well; I have found throughout the years that very many of my relations suffer from these anomalous symptoms. At least they do when I am in the vicinity. Oh well. 'What wound did ever heal but by degrees." That is Othello, you know. Of course if my willful, obdurate nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, had married Anne when I suggested all those many years ago my daughter's illnesses would have, I am certain, vanished. The young today, they are so very selfish, don't you find?
Darcy why are you muttering and stomping your boots? He angers so easily these days; come over here and let me introduce you. My word, you look positively grim. Turn to the people. Isn't he handsome? Stand up straight! Fitzwilliam Darcy is my sister Anne's son, my late sister Anne, and the pride of Derbyshire. See how elegantly he dresses, how gracefully he comports himself. He is the perfect romantic gentleman. Dark, brooding fine-looking, arrogant, haughty…rich…some call him proud but I do not. I feel he merely has an accurate measure of himself that is all. He is a tall sort of man also, is he not? Extremely vertical for his weight.
Darcy and I had quite a splendid relationship for many years; he always would attend me during Easter, along with his reprobate of a cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. Fitzwilliam is my brother's son - a second son. A soldier.
Apparently the clergy would not have him.
Now Darcy, who, as I have already pointed out, is a very handsome gentleman of great intellect and superior lineage has made an incredibly ill-fated misalliance with Miss Elizabeth Bennet. No need to stand Elizabeth, nor speak if possible. What? What have I said? Why is he angry with me now? The young today are such a trial, they can be so argumentative. To continue, Elizabeth's father is a gentleman of no consequence so the less said about her, him, or their embarrassing family, the better. Her mother is a absolute horror of a woman, completely lacking in accomplishments, her sisters are plain, awkward, hoyden or timid. Take your pick.
Next to Darcy is his lovely sister Georgiana Darcy. Georgiana plays the pianoforte extremely well due to her constant practicing. Stand please, Georgiana. Posture, Georgiana, do not droop so! As you can see she is a tad too tall, and rather too womanly, frankly speaking, for her young age. Truly refined young girls of the aristocracy are small boned and thin and never speak. Not until they agree to the marriage of their father's choosing, that is and then they merely say 'yes'. A truly elegant woman never speaks until she has children. And then she never stops. Oh, for heaven's sake, don't pout, Georgiana, you will develop puffy eyes, making you appear even more unappealing. Whyever is she crying?
Now, on to my tribute to Miss Jane Austen. She was…witty and quite opinionated. There, I've said it. She was intelligent. I do not mean to insult her but there it is. To use the vulgar colloquialism of the day, she was a blue stocking. We did not rub along well together. I first met Miss Austen in 1796 during her stay at Goodnestone Park in Kent. She was visiting there with her brother Edward, a most pleasing young man and his good wife, a delightfully silent young woman…unlike her sharp tongued and clever sister-in-law. Darcy! I do not appreciate nor condone that raised eyebrow! It is most threatening. Please lower it immediately.
Where was I? Oh, yes. I came to discover that Miss Austen was writing a novel at the time, quite a useless ambition for a young woman, but, the young never listen to sense, do they? It was entitled First Impressions. I cautioned her most wisely regarding the capriciousness of the publishing industry and, due solely to my counsel, she wisely sold the copyright to her manuscript for 110 pounds. Quite a coup I believed, for a girl. She had asked Mr. Edgerton for 150 pounds but I convinced her that she was fortunate to receive any amount for that silly story, let along 110 pounds! Poor dear. I am certain no one ever heard of the book after that, although I did hear mention that Edgarton changed the name of the book.
But whoever heard of Pride and Prejudice?
For some reason Jane refuses to speak with me, even unto this day.
La, children they are so unappreciative, are they not?
And now, back to Karen:
The short story I just publishd is on Kindle and Nook only, sells for $.99. It is Georgiana's Story.
Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
June 6, 2011
Interview: Barbara KyleAuthor of the Thornleigh Series
*Welcome Barbara!*
First, Debra, let me say it's a pleasure do this interview for you. Your readers might be interested to know that we met via Twitter, where you very kindly gave me, a Twitter novice, some helpful advice when I needed to change my username. So thank you for that, and for inviting me to your blog.
*I'm glad to have you! I have read that you began your career by studying drama and going into acting. Could you tell us which productions you were involved in and whether you still take on acting work?*
I loved being an actor, a career I enjoyed for twenty years. I did everything from Shakespeare and Moliere on stage, to musicals, to starring in a TV soap opera called "High Hopes." Several years ago I traded my acting career for one as a novelist, so it's been a long time since I was in front of a camera or "on the boards" (the stage). I had a very pleasant "swan song," though: the last role I played was in a made-for-TV film about the US hostage crisis in Iran when Jimmy Carter was president. George Grizzard played the president, and I played his wife, Rosalynn Carter. That was an honor, because she's a person I admire. I must say that acting was a terrific background for writing fiction. All those years of reading scripts drilled a sense of dramatic structure right into my bones.
*Please tell us a little about the Thornleigh series and the Thornleigh family.*
My Thornleigh series follows a rising, middle-class family through the tumultuous reigns of three Tudor monarchs: Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. So far, there are four books in the series, and I've just signed a contract with my publisher, Kensington Books, for three more, so I'm now at work on the fifth. The Thornleigh family characters – Honor, Richard, Adam, and Isabel – are fictional, but each of them becomes dramatically enmeshed in the lives and loves, crises and adventures of real people of the day, such as the headstrong monarchs I mentioned above, and movers and shakers like Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More, and revolutionaries like Thomas Wyatt and John Knox.
The Queen's Lady begins the series. It's Honor's story as a young lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, the wife he threw over for Anne Boleyn. My story features Honor's conflicted relationship with her guardian, Sir Thomas More, who was Henry's chancellor, and the missions she ran to rescue the men he persecuted. It also begins her exciting love affair with Richard Thornleigh, a seafaring wool merchant.
The King's Daughter features their daughter Isabel's adventures with mercenary soldier Carlos Valverde during the Wyatt Rebellion early in the reign of Queen Mary. Isabel is pledged to help Wyatt's rebellion, but first she must rescue her father from prison, all while being hunted by her father's old enemy.
The Queen's Captive interweaves two stories. One is Honor's mission to advise and protect the headstrong twenty-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who was in peril of being killed by her half-sister Queen Mary, and then turning her into a queen. The second is the story of Adam Thornleigh's love affair with Elizabeth. Both stories culminate, the second one rather poignantly, in Elizabeth's accession to the throne.
The Queen's Gamble, which will be out in August, brings Isabel back from the New World to undertake a mission for Elizabeth, who, after less than a year on the throne, was facing the first international crisis of her reign: the threat of invasion by France via Scotland. Isabel smuggles money from Elizabeth to Scottish rebels, but Elizabeth keeps Isabel's young son as a hostage to ensure her loyalty. Then, Isabel's troubles worsen when Carlos, her Spanish husband, is engaged as a military advisor to the French, putting the couple on opposite sides in this deadly cold war.
*How do you feel when writing a book and nobody else knows these characters that you are so intimately connected with? Do you wish someone else was able to discuss them with you?*
Actually, I discuss the characters with my husband almost every day. He's my totally reliable sounding board. He used to be a film editor, and has a marvelous editor's eye. Also, he's a great go-to guy for checking about how my male characters would really feel and act. That quest for authenticity has brought us a few smiles. In The Queen's Lady I wrote a scene set during May Day night revelry in which I had a drunk walking through the crowd while pissing. Then I wondered: can a man actually do that – walk and piss? I asked my husband, and he went outside (luckily we lived in the country then, no neighbors around) and he came back in and said, "Yup."
No doubt you have spent countless hours researching the real characters, such as Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth, and times that you write about. Do you feel that your portrayal of these persons in your book matches their real life personas?
That's an excellent question. I take great pains in all my books to keep the historical facts accurate as far as who did what, and when, where, and how. But within that historically true framework I take literary license to create characters who are emotionally true. The historical record gives us dead personages, but fiction brings them to life as flesh-and-blood people with all the passions, longings, hates, and fears that are the human condition. I love marrying these two elements – history and humanity – to make these people "live" again.
For example, Queen Mary was a religious zealot who burned hundreds of people at the stake during her brief reign; her people in her own time called her "Bloody Mary." That's a historical fact, and it makes us view her as cruel. But she was also a woman who suffered in her personal life, hopelessly in love with her husband, Philip of Spain, who coldly fulfilled his conjugal duty with her and then promptly deserted her for his mistress back home. Mary believed she was pregnant, joyfully so, and kept on believing it right into her tenth month, by which time it was clear to all that her pregnancy was a phantom one, and she became the laughing stock of Europe. It's hard not to pity such a sadly self-deluded woman, and I hope I've conveyed that pity in The Queen's Captive. By the way, some modern scholars believe that her condition was a tumor caused by uterine cancer.
*Do you feel that your Thornleigh family fits the general description of any real family of that time? Or that there is a good possibility of such a family's existence?*
Definitely. The Tudor and Elizabethan period was a boom time for the middle class, who were happily making money and growing very prosperous, especially during Elizabeth's long and peaceful reign. I based Richard Thornleigh's success as a wool merchant on much research about the wool trade; that trade with Europe was England's mercantile life blood. Of course, real wealth was in land. High status and riches came from the monarch's gift of titles which brought land. In my Thornleigh saga, Elizabeth rewards Honor and Richard for their loyalty by ennobling Richard; she makes him a baron. Their son Adam, too, after carving out a life as a sea captain, is knighted for his service to Elizabeth. This was a common route to riches.
By the way, I'm running a contest on my website to name the Thornleighs' newly built grand house. The winner will get an autographed copy of The Queen's Gamble, plus I'll use the winning name in the book I'm now writing, and thank the winner in the book's acknowledgements. So this is an invitation to your readers: If you have a name suggestion, send it in!
*I know you have a new title coming out soon. Could you give us the name of the book and the release date?*
Gladly. The book is The Queen's Gamble and it will be released by Kensington Books on August 31. Your readers can pre-order it now from any bookstore or online supplier, and they'll receive it even before it hits the stores.
*Do you have a story taking form in your mind for another book?*
I'm actually hard at work on it. I've got a three-book deal with my wonderful publisher, Kensington, to continue my Thornleigh series. The book I'm working on introduces a new Thornleigh heroine, and also introduces Mary Queen of Scots and the crisis that she created for Elizabeth when she escaped captivity in Scotland, fled to England, and threw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth, who was her cousin. The crisis for Elizabeth was that Mary was infamous throughout Europe for having connived at the murder of her husband and then marrying the murderer. In the over four hundred years since then, people have been taking sides about whether Mary was a murdering adulteress or a saintly innocent. Stay tuned to read my take on her!
*The time period surrounding Henry VIII was a period of religious turmoil and violence. Do your stories bring out a lot of that?*
They do, yes. You're right: religion was the huge issue of the period, and I find it a fascinating parallel to the religious tensions in our own time, of Christian vs. Muslim. 15th century England was a cauldron of religious hatred and fear, of Catholic vs. Protestant. At the beginning of Henry VIII's reign, when Protestantism first jumped across the Chanel from Germany, it was illegal to own a Bible in English; only the Catholic church's Latin version was approved, and the English authorities burned people who refused to recant their "heresy". Queen Mary, a fierce Catholic, burned hundreds of Protestants at the stake.
*Do you remember any favorite reader's comments on the series that you care to share with us?*
Ah, many! I treasure that connection with readers. Here's one email that really made my day: "Your book, 'The King's Daughter,' is absolutely the best yet. In fact, if there were something equivalent to the Academy Awards in the Best Historical Novelist category, Barbara Kyle would be under spot lights every year. You are that good."
The note I found most moving was from a gentleman in Tennessee who wrote me to say that after his wife died he went into a deep depression, then found comfort in reading everything he could get his hands on about the Tudors, and my books, he said, were the best. That really touched me.
And here's a line from a reader's email that I cherish: "I had to write you even though it is so late in the evening. I just finished Chapter 11 of The Queen Captive! You had me in tears …" I won't tell you why this caring reader was in tears, because that would spoil the story for your readers, but I will say that she went on to add how happy she was when the character she'd been weeping about survived.
I'd love to hear from your readers, too. They can email me at bkyle@barbarakyle.com.
*On your website, I see that you also have become a writing teacher. How did this part of your life develop?*
I began giving workshops about eight years ago, and found that I really enjoy helping emerging writers. My "Fiction Writer's Boot Camp" became quite popular. This became the basis of a series of video workshops I made called "Writing Fiction That Sells. "The series is available online through my website – over ten hours of instruction and inspiration, tips and techniques. I've had tremendous feedback on it from writers, which is very gratifying. Then the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, which offers excellent courses for writers, led by many successful novelists, asked me to create a course for them. Most of their courses were geared for writers of literary fiction, and I thought popular fiction was being overlooked, so I developed a course called "Writing the Popular Novel."
Now, I offer my "Master Class: Your Novel in Workshop" a couple of times a year in Toronto. It's an intensive weekend in which we workshop the beginning section of each person's novel – the class is limited to ten people. As I tell the writers who attend, it's crucial to get the opening of one's book in top shape before submitting it to an agent or editor, because if the first twenty or thirty pages don't grab them, they simply won't read on.
Also, when my own writing schedule allows, I also do manuscript evaluations. Several of the writers I've helped have gone on to get published. That, for me, is most satisfying.
*Can people benefit from your writing instruction in some way, either through a book or online?*
Definitely. Anyone interested should check out my series of online video workshops "Writing Fiction That Sells," available through my website. They can watch a free clip on my website. And, if they live in or near Toronto, my next "Master Class: Your Novel in Workshop" weekend is August 13-14. All the details are on my website: http://www.barbarakyle.com
Thanks, Debra. It's been fun!
*Thank you! It has been a pleasure.*
Please comment to enter a giveaway for an ARC of The Queen's Gamble or a copy of any of Barbara's previously published books! Enter by July 5th, 2011.
Barbara Kyle previously won acclaim for her contemporary novels under pen name 'Stephen Kyle', including Beyond Recall (a Literary Guild Selection), After Shock and The Experiment. Over 400,000 copies of her books have been sold.
Barbara has taught courses for writers at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and the Haliburton School of the Arts, and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers' organizations, garnering praise such as this from internationally acclaimed author Wayson Choy: "Barbara, I am amazed at your professional energy and dedication to teaching the craft. You're an inspiration!" Barbara also enjoys helping emerging writers through her manuscript evaluation service.
Visit BarbaraKyle.com.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
What Do You Do to Indulge Your Inner Aristocrat?
I have become so pathetic. I used to hate the ringlets over the ears, hair parted down the middle look of the 1840s, but I nearly decided to try it myself the other day! A few times I did my writing on a clipboard, sipping tea with a decanter full of tulips at my side instead of at the computer. I get lost in large picture books and read histories and related fiction.
What do you do to indulge your inner aristocrat?Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
What do you do to indulge your inner aristocrat?Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
June 5, 2011
The Development of Victorian Morality
While people today think the Victorians to have been prudish, they were, like people of any epoch, progressive for their time. Only a few decades before Victoria ascended the throne, for example, waltzing was considered by most as immorality in the ballroom. Victorians, however, and the Queen herself, waltzed unhindered while their Regency era forebears were yet alive and even present! Shocking! Quite progressive, were they not?
Indeed, many of the things done then were for the sake of being progressive. Take, for example, the sign found at various offices- "You Are Requested to Speak of Business Only". Today such a sign would be considered irritating, restrictive and perhaps even unconstitutional in the US. At the time, though, it was meant to promote a dutiful work ethic, which was an important thing to society in general. This was a change. While in the past the idle life of an aristocrat was thought of as right and something to wish one could attain to, or hope to marry upward into, during the Victorian era the lower classes began to pride themselves on work well done, on rising from poverty into self sufficiency and on doing their duty to the community. People were eager to be found Respectable, and there was no respect for those who deluded others or cut corners. Such ones would find that they did not fit well enough into society to receive invitations into the homes of most. People also worked long hard hours to keep their jobs, as there was no real job security or unemployment compensation. The result of these social and fiduciary pressures resulted in England's skilled workers becoming well known around the world for their dedication and expertise. The sense of self-worth of the working classes began to be bolstered by their newly popular contempt for the idle rich, which likely contributed to their productivity and a higher living standard. Aristocrats began to feel guilty when idle and to find ways to busy themselves usefully, such as charity and public service, in order to not be deeply disdained. They had taken notice, too, of the French Revolution and its treatment of the nobility and preferred to avoid such an outcome.
Respectability was determined in other areas of life as well. A family should be living in a clean, tidy home, wearing clean clothing and displaying good manners. One would not call attention to themselves with loud ways or flashy clothing. It was far more respectable to do without than to go into debt. Thrift was encouraged. In a true emergency, a respectable person could rely on his or her neighbors because he himself, or she, had been helpful in the past and deserved it. Troubles should be born without complaint, it was thought, and so personal and family problems were often unknown outside the family. Neighbors kept their distance. In the middle class, there was some suspicion of a man who earned enough money for their children to inherit. Sons were to be taught a good trade and become self-sufficient. Earlier in the century, fathers would make great sacrifices to provide for a daughter who might not wind up married, but later, women began to become more independent.
There was great importance to being earnest, as you may have heard. Earnesty meant that recreation was for refreshment and health, but not for self indulgence. Drinking and indulgence were, after all, the causes of disease! Moderation, bath and exercise, along with cleanliness of the home, were the cure. Respectability involved punctuality, rising early, orderliness, self-denial, self-control, initiative, good use of leisure time and prudent marriage. Such traits were widely promoted in lectures, sermons, publications and workers self-help societies.
I cannot personally see any problem with these standards! While there was quite a bit of unnecessary oversight from a distance, by neighbors and other busybodies, and a person could be shunned for being less than Respectable, the principles themselves contributed to health and prosperity.
It was quite important, also, to be a gentleman, and chivalrous. In the early nineteenth century, a gentleman was only someone from the aristocracy or a barrister, clergyman, military officer or Member of Parliament. However, England was progressive, and as time went on, gentlemanly conduct became an obligation. Mistresses and illegitimate children were no longer openly acceptable; Parliament could dismiss a member found to be living in such a way! The term "gentleman" began to apply to men who lived up to socially acceptable behavior. "Gentlemanly behavior was governed by a strict unwritten code of what was 'done' and 'not done.' It was clearly 'not done' to cheat at cards or question the honesty of another gentleman." He was "courteous, considerate, and socially at ease. He paid his gambling debts and kept his word- a verbal promise was more important than a handshake, and a written contract seemed faintly disreputable, as if it suggested that a gentleman's word could not be trusted." He was "honorable, dependable, and ethical. He did what was required without supervision- he didn't become a clock-watcher, but neither did he work excessively long hours just to make more money... A gentleman exhibited stoic self-control. He did not call attention to his own cleverness, or visibly work harder than others, or show too much enthusiasm.... loyalty, team spirit, courage, and fair play... he was motivated by an enormous fear of... visibly failing to live up to his standards and responsibilities." He behaved honorably toward all women, accepting their chaperones on every outing. A gentleman would not turn his back on a lady to whom he was speaking without first excusing himself, hat in hand, and at least giving a hint of a bow. No wonder we women today.... well, enough daydreaming here. It's just not going to happen.
Early in the century, women were taught young to become a wife and mother. Her duty in life was to rule the house under her husband's oversight. She was responsible to turn out healthy, self-sufficient sons and well trained daughters who could do the same. She was to keep the house and laundry clean (mind you, a great many women had servants, at least for the heavy work), oversee the children's education, preserve high moral values, guard her husband's conscience (men obviously being unable to do so for themselves?) and build society up by her daily Christian duties. If she were to do so properly, her husband and sons would have no cause to leave home for an evening's morally suspect entertainment. Girls were taught that as women, they would be more responsible for the "success or failure, happiness or misery, learning or ignorance, than kings, statesmen, philosophers, philanthropists, and clergymen." Women were legally subordinate, economically dependent, taught to be obedient to their husbands, and yet entirely responsible for the comfort, beauty morality and happiness of the family. She was trained to please and to suppress her own desires. In turn, she was to be protected from the shocks and dangers of the world, her purity and refinement safeguarded; she was to be safe at home. It was important for her to marry wisely, because her "marriage established her rank, role, duties, social status, place of residence, economic circumstances and way of life. It determined her comfort, her physical safety, her children's health, and ultimately- perhaps- even her spiritual well-being." Unfortunately, in earlier times, girls were not to hear of sex until their husbands taught them on the wedding night. I can't imagine that that was healthy in any way. I know a woman, now in her 80s, who had that same experience, so I believe that thinking carried through into the 20th century, as did many other ideas. To some degree, however, a lighter version of Victorian sexual mores was healthy. Where the standards were applied in fact, girls were, in general, safer, children were more often born in a two parent home with parents who took their responsibilities seriously.
In later decades, especially toward the end of the century, the "New Woman", or feminist, appeared. Girls began to grow up educated and took on work as a professional. They no longer had to have a chaperone every time they left the house, traveled by bicycle or public transportation and even lived in a flat with friends. You see? The Victorian Era was totally progressive. What is your view?
All quotes and some of the information was taken from Daily Life in Victorian England by Sally Mitchell.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Indeed, many of the things done then were for the sake of being progressive. Take, for example, the sign found at various offices- "You Are Requested to Speak of Business Only". Today such a sign would be considered irritating, restrictive and perhaps even unconstitutional in the US. At the time, though, it was meant to promote a dutiful work ethic, which was an important thing to society in general. This was a change. While in the past the idle life of an aristocrat was thought of as right and something to wish one could attain to, or hope to marry upward into, during the Victorian era the lower classes began to pride themselves on work well done, on rising from poverty into self sufficiency and on doing their duty to the community. People were eager to be found Respectable, and there was no respect for those who deluded others or cut corners. Such ones would find that they did not fit well enough into society to receive invitations into the homes of most. People also worked long hard hours to keep their jobs, as there was no real job security or unemployment compensation. The result of these social and fiduciary pressures resulted in England's skilled workers becoming well known around the world for their dedication and expertise. The sense of self-worth of the working classes began to be bolstered by their newly popular contempt for the idle rich, which likely contributed to their productivity and a higher living standard. Aristocrats began to feel guilty when idle and to find ways to busy themselves usefully, such as charity and public service, in order to not be deeply disdained. They had taken notice, too, of the French Revolution and its treatment of the nobility and preferred to avoid such an outcome.
Respectability was determined in other areas of life as well. A family should be living in a clean, tidy home, wearing clean clothing and displaying good manners. One would not call attention to themselves with loud ways or flashy clothing. It was far more respectable to do without than to go into debt. Thrift was encouraged. In a true emergency, a respectable person could rely on his or her neighbors because he himself, or she, had been helpful in the past and deserved it. Troubles should be born without complaint, it was thought, and so personal and family problems were often unknown outside the family. Neighbors kept their distance. In the middle class, there was some suspicion of a man who earned enough money for their children to inherit. Sons were to be taught a good trade and become self-sufficient. Earlier in the century, fathers would make great sacrifices to provide for a daughter who might not wind up married, but later, women began to become more independent.
There was great importance to being earnest, as you may have heard. Earnesty meant that recreation was for refreshment and health, but not for self indulgence. Drinking and indulgence were, after all, the causes of disease! Moderation, bath and exercise, along with cleanliness of the home, were the cure. Respectability involved punctuality, rising early, orderliness, self-denial, self-control, initiative, good use of leisure time and prudent marriage. Such traits were widely promoted in lectures, sermons, publications and workers self-help societies.
I cannot personally see any problem with these standards! While there was quite a bit of unnecessary oversight from a distance, by neighbors and other busybodies, and a person could be shunned for being less than Respectable, the principles themselves contributed to health and prosperity.
It was quite important, also, to be a gentleman, and chivalrous. In the early nineteenth century, a gentleman was only someone from the aristocracy or a barrister, clergyman, military officer or Member of Parliament. However, England was progressive, and as time went on, gentlemanly conduct became an obligation. Mistresses and illegitimate children were no longer openly acceptable; Parliament could dismiss a member found to be living in such a way! The term "gentleman" began to apply to men who lived up to socially acceptable behavior. "Gentlemanly behavior was governed by a strict unwritten code of what was 'done' and 'not done.' It was clearly 'not done' to cheat at cards or question the honesty of another gentleman." He was "courteous, considerate, and socially at ease. He paid his gambling debts and kept his word- a verbal promise was more important than a handshake, and a written contract seemed faintly disreputable, as if it suggested that a gentleman's word could not be trusted." He was "honorable, dependable, and ethical. He did what was required without supervision- he didn't become a clock-watcher, but neither did he work excessively long hours just to make more money... A gentleman exhibited stoic self-control. He did not call attention to his own cleverness, or visibly work harder than others, or show too much enthusiasm.... loyalty, team spirit, courage, and fair play... he was motivated by an enormous fear of... visibly failing to live up to his standards and responsibilities." He behaved honorably toward all women, accepting their chaperones on every outing. A gentleman would not turn his back on a lady to whom he was speaking without first excusing himself, hat in hand, and at least giving a hint of a bow. No wonder we women today.... well, enough daydreaming here. It's just not going to happen.
Early in the century, women were taught young to become a wife and mother. Her duty in life was to rule the house under her husband's oversight. She was responsible to turn out healthy, self-sufficient sons and well trained daughters who could do the same. She was to keep the house and laundry clean (mind you, a great many women had servants, at least for the heavy work), oversee the children's education, preserve high moral values, guard her husband's conscience (men obviously being unable to do so for themselves?) and build society up by her daily Christian duties. If she were to do so properly, her husband and sons would have no cause to leave home for an evening's morally suspect entertainment. Girls were taught that as women, they would be more responsible for the "success or failure, happiness or misery, learning or ignorance, than kings, statesmen, philosophers, philanthropists, and clergymen." Women were legally subordinate, economically dependent, taught to be obedient to their husbands, and yet entirely responsible for the comfort, beauty morality and happiness of the family. She was trained to please and to suppress her own desires. In turn, she was to be protected from the shocks and dangers of the world, her purity and refinement safeguarded; she was to be safe at home. It was important for her to marry wisely, because her "marriage established her rank, role, duties, social status, place of residence, economic circumstances and way of life. It determined her comfort, her physical safety, her children's health, and ultimately- perhaps- even her spiritual well-being." Unfortunately, in earlier times, girls were not to hear of sex until their husbands taught them on the wedding night. I can't imagine that that was healthy in any way. I know a woman, now in her 80s, who had that same experience, so I believe that thinking carried through into the 20th century, as did many other ideas. To some degree, however, a lighter version of Victorian sexual mores was healthy. Where the standards were applied in fact, girls were, in general, safer, children were more often born in a two parent home with parents who took their responsibilities seriously.
In later decades, especially toward the end of the century, the "New Woman", or feminist, appeared. Girls began to grow up educated and took on work as a professional. They no longer had to have a chaperone every time they left the house, traveled by bicycle or public transportation and even lived in a flat with friends. You see? The Victorian Era was totally progressive. What is your view?
All quotes and some of the information was taken from Daily Life in Victorian England by Sally Mitchell.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
May 23, 2011
The Development of the Victorian Era- The Early Days
The Victorian Era is a long, lovely, interesting time in history with changes taking place rapidly, decade after decade. It was a time of elegant society, but also a time of harsh realities, some of which I have touched on in past posts. What was behind the changing customs, the attitudes and the times? I will be doing a series of posts on the Victorian times here; I hope you will find it interesting!
Queen Victoria herself was probably never meant to be. She was the product of an emergency! The only heir of King George IV, Charlotte of Wales, died in childbirth as did her heir. Though George IV had brothers, none of them yet had legitimate children. George himself was succeeded upon the throne by his brother William IV while they all rushed around abandoning their mistresses and snatching up princesses to marry in order to provide a legitimate heir of the royal blood. The first to be born was Victoria, the daughter of the Duke of Kent and his wife, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. She became the heir apparent of William. Her father died soon after she was born, and her mother raised her fairly isolated from the public eye. Her mother did not get along with the king, and Victoria was the center of much family feuding. She came to the throne at age eighteen, after a succession of old men, amid much rejoicing of the people.
Victoria personally was very interested in the welfare of the poor people of her country, but the ministers of government had set up the degrading, life-destroying workhouse arrangement, called the New Poor Law, in 1834, before Victoria came to the throne. They could not be much bothered with the poor beyond that for many years. I will post more extensively in the future on the workhouses. The change from an agricultural to an industrial society created many working poor, from children on up, who put in lengthy hours for low pay. Living in crowded cities, these workers could not grow much in the way of food and were at the mercy of their often unscrupulous employers to be able to survive at all.
Early forces behind the early Victorian era included:
A) The Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, which brought on an atmosphere of national pride.
B) The Industrial Revolution, which transformed England from an agricultural nation to an industrial power, making it the world's greatest economic power for most of the century.
C) The Reform Bill of 1832, which doubled the number of men eligible to vote. A gradual progression toward democratic rule and governmental responsibility for the safety and well-being of the citizens was a result. Although Victoria did not ascend the throne until 1837, many scholars consider this Bill to be the starting point of the Victorian Era. It was certainly a strong influence on the society of her time.
When Victoria was crowned, the majority of people lived in the countryside and few of them traveled more than 10 miles from the place they were born. Nothing moved faster than the horses that carried them. Only half the population could read or write, and even five year old children worked in coal mines and dangerous factories. Power was in the hands of a small minority- men who held property.
Women had no rights at all. A woman was the property of her husband. Any property, even clothing, that she held on her wedding day became his. Should he die, she could only hope that his will, if he had one, provided for her in some way, or that family would take over her care. Even her children were not then hers, and Chancery Court would settle, hopefully, on some male family member to raise and care for them. Chancery operated very slowly, much to the harm of the children.
Styles in dress were frequently changing. Just a few years after the Regency era with its Empire cut dresses, which had no waistline but just under the bust and tiny puffy sleeves, early Victorian women wore off the shoulder dresses with a v-shaped waist and long puffy or billowing sleeves. They were truly elegant. A man's shirt collar came up to cover his neck, and his vest was low cut. No one would be seen out of doors without a hat. It just wasn't respectable. Even the workhouse inmates wore a hat, though it might be quite ragged. Gentlemen's hats were very tall top hats; they were quite difficult in windy weather. Women wore a pretty bonnet. Stylish women had their hair parted down the middle with ringlets or braids in front of their ears.
There was much transition during the sixty four years of Queen Victoria's reign. I will go into more detail in coming posts.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Queen Victoria herself was probably never meant to be. She was the product of an emergency! The only heir of King George IV, Charlotte of Wales, died in childbirth as did her heir. Though George IV had brothers, none of them yet had legitimate children. George himself was succeeded upon the throne by his brother William IV while they all rushed around abandoning their mistresses and snatching up princesses to marry in order to provide a legitimate heir of the royal blood. The first to be born was Victoria, the daughter of the Duke of Kent and his wife, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. She became the heir apparent of William. Her father died soon after she was born, and her mother raised her fairly isolated from the public eye. Her mother did not get along with the king, and Victoria was the center of much family feuding. She came to the throne at age eighteen, after a succession of old men, amid much rejoicing of the people.
Victoria personally was very interested in the welfare of the poor people of her country, but the ministers of government had set up the degrading, life-destroying workhouse arrangement, called the New Poor Law, in 1834, before Victoria came to the throne. They could not be much bothered with the poor beyond that for many years. I will post more extensively in the future on the workhouses. The change from an agricultural to an industrial society created many working poor, from children on up, who put in lengthy hours for low pay. Living in crowded cities, these workers could not grow much in the way of food and were at the mercy of their often unscrupulous employers to be able to survive at all.Early forces behind the early Victorian era included:
A) The Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, which brought on an atmosphere of national pride.
B) The Industrial Revolution, which transformed England from an agricultural nation to an industrial power, making it the world's greatest economic power for most of the century.
C) The Reform Bill of 1832, which doubled the number of men eligible to vote. A gradual progression toward democratic rule and governmental responsibility for the safety and well-being of the citizens was a result. Although Victoria did not ascend the throne until 1837, many scholars consider this Bill to be the starting point of the Victorian Era. It was certainly a strong influence on the society of her time.
When Victoria was crowned, the majority of people lived in the countryside and few of them traveled more than 10 miles from the place they were born. Nothing moved faster than the horses that carried them. Only half the population could read or write, and even five year old children worked in coal mines and dangerous factories. Power was in the hands of a small minority- men who held property.
Women had no rights at all. A woman was the property of her husband. Any property, even clothing, that she held on her wedding day became his. Should he die, she could only hope that his will, if he had one, provided for her in some way, or that family would take over her care. Even her children were not then hers, and Chancery Court would settle, hopefully, on some male family member to raise and care for them. Chancery operated very slowly, much to the harm of the children.
Styles in dress were frequently changing. Just a few years after the Regency era with its Empire cut dresses, which had no waistline but just under the bust and tiny puffy sleeves, early Victorian women wore off the shoulder dresses with a v-shaped waist and long puffy or billowing sleeves. They were truly elegant. A man's shirt collar came up to cover his neck, and his vest was low cut. No one would be seen out of doors without a hat. It just wasn't respectable. Even the workhouse inmates wore a hat, though it might be quite ragged. Gentlemen's hats were very tall top hats; they were quite difficult in windy weather. Women wore a pretty bonnet. Stylish women had their hair parted down the middle with ringlets or braids in front of their ears.
There was much transition during the sixty four years of Queen Victoria's reign. I will go into more detail in coming posts.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
May 17, 2011
Crime and Punishment in Victorian England
You own a small palace. You have your trusted staff and you can live happily ever after. Right? In the movies we hear the Mistress of the house defending her staff when there is anything amiss. They were all exemplary. They came with references and could not have done wrong. And besides, she was a proper lady and would not suspect.
There was a great divide, though, between the rich and poor. The rich had vast excess while the poor were in misery. A good many would have liked to work their way into an aristocratic household to get their hands on anything they could redeem for cash. Therefore, it was necessary for you, as the Mistress of the house or the steward, to check references very carefully. Any girl old enough to have worked before, say age 16, had better come with a good "character", as references were called. Even then, there was the problem of forged characters. However, a job in such a household was highly esteemed, for servants in a great house ate regularly and had a roof over their heads. Those who came in with the right motives safeguarded their futures by behaving by the book.
While you might be safe in your own exquisite home with your carefully hired staff, you had to hide any valuables in a hidden pocket of your dress, often under a flap of fabric, when out and about in Town (the capital T means London Town). If for any reason you were out of your carriage and standing in a crowd, there were an abundance of skilled pickpockets not far away and drawing nearer. One might create a diversion while another stuck his hands into your pockets. Even a gentleman with hidden pockets in his coat would go home to find that his gold pocket watch had somehow disappeared, though he hadn't felt a thing.
Children were often hired to carry your expensive clothing here or there to be laundered or stitched. They were often relieved of their burdens by crooks looking for something nice to sell. Children of the aristocracy, if left alone to wander in a park or down some street to shop, were often relieved of the clothing they were wearing and sent home to you naked and crying.
Railway travel was an exciting new sport for the gentry of early Victorian times, but once again, there were crooks waiting nearby. You might arrive home after long travels and have your trunk lashed onto the back of a carriage to be hauled home behind you, only to arrive and find that the lashes had been cut and your trunk was missing. This would be worse yet if you arrived from your country home and the clothing you had intended to wear for the Season had disappeared.
Should anything sensational occur, you would want to be right there in court alongside a number of other upper class viewers to enjoy the proceedings. Large courtrooms were packed; you might even want to buy a ticket in advance if the case would prove to be interesting, like the case of Lord Frankfort. He had provided a home for a prostitute, but when she wanted to leave, he prevented it for two months. When he stepped out to a club one night, she took the jewels he had given her and left. He sued for the jewelry, apparently forgetting that his wife would get wind of it. She then sued for a judicial separation. The mistress was found not guilty of theft in the matter, and the aristocracy had enjoyed the show. Well, they didn't have TV and couldn't follow along with Poirot, could they. Ten years later, Lord Frankfort was back in court, charged with publishing an indecent communication in the shape of a letter to peeresses and the daughters of the nobility, offering to arrange to drug their husbands to sleep so that they could spend the evening with lovers. One clergyman had opened his wife's letter, of course, and went on the witness stand about what he had read. However, his decency moved him to ask the judge to send all ladies outside the courtroom so they wouldn't have their ears damaged by what he was about to say. The judge merely ordered the ladies not to listen. Lord Frankfort went to prison for a year, but used his financial goodwill to be exempted from oakum picking and the treadmill.
Sentences could be savage and arbitrary. Two young men had stolen a handkerchief worth 1s and were transported (to Australia, likely) for seven years. Two others each stole a handkerchief worth 3s and 2s and the same judge sentenced them, one to a month in a house of correction and the other to four year's penal service. Someone who took a bottle of gin worth 2s got only fourteen days.
Those who were incarcerated, however, might get the first bath of his life and clean shirts once a fortnight when new and more humane prisons began to be built. They were taken out for exercise wearing caps that had flaps to cover their faces so that other prisoners could not recognize them. They were taught trades and even given a good suit of clothes when leaving prison. However, they often sold these quickly as they did not match the clothing of the people of the Town.
By 1861, only murder and treason could be punished by death. Few murderers were, in fact, hanged. In 1854 only five hanged, and the annual average was between nine and sixteen. It was, however, still another sort of entertainment, and thirty thousand showed up to watch one hanging of a man and wife convicted of murder. Charles Dickens was in the crowd, having paid only 10 guineas for a place on a rooftop to see all the better, but he apparently was not pleased with it, and he wrote to the Times that executions should no longer be public. At least, he said, the hangman "should be restrained in his unseemly briskness, in his jokes, his oaths and his brandy". He also noted that the woman, hung in her black satin dress, was elaborately corseted and artfully dressed.
Things were much worse for convicted criminals before Queen Victoria's time, and over her decades gradual changes were made toward humane dealings with them.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
There was a great divide, though, between the rich and poor. The rich had vast excess while the poor were in misery. A good many would have liked to work their way into an aristocratic household to get their hands on anything they could redeem for cash. Therefore, it was necessary for you, as the Mistress of the house or the steward, to check references very carefully. Any girl old enough to have worked before, say age 16, had better come with a good "character", as references were called. Even then, there was the problem of forged characters. However, a job in such a household was highly esteemed, for servants in a great house ate regularly and had a roof over their heads. Those who came in with the right motives safeguarded their futures by behaving by the book.
While you might be safe in your own exquisite home with your carefully hired staff, you had to hide any valuables in a hidden pocket of your dress, often under a flap of fabric, when out and about in Town (the capital T means London Town). If for any reason you were out of your carriage and standing in a crowd, there were an abundance of skilled pickpockets not far away and drawing nearer. One might create a diversion while another stuck his hands into your pockets. Even a gentleman with hidden pockets in his coat would go home to find that his gold pocket watch had somehow disappeared, though he hadn't felt a thing.
Children were often hired to carry your expensive clothing here or there to be laundered or stitched. They were often relieved of their burdens by crooks looking for something nice to sell. Children of the aristocracy, if left alone to wander in a park or down some street to shop, were often relieved of the clothing they were wearing and sent home to you naked and crying.
Railway travel was an exciting new sport for the gentry of early Victorian times, but once again, there were crooks waiting nearby. You might arrive home after long travels and have your trunk lashed onto the back of a carriage to be hauled home behind you, only to arrive and find that the lashes had been cut and your trunk was missing. This would be worse yet if you arrived from your country home and the clothing you had intended to wear for the Season had disappeared.
Should anything sensational occur, you would want to be right there in court alongside a number of other upper class viewers to enjoy the proceedings. Large courtrooms were packed; you might even want to buy a ticket in advance if the case would prove to be interesting, like the case of Lord Frankfort. He had provided a home for a prostitute, but when she wanted to leave, he prevented it for two months. When he stepped out to a club one night, she took the jewels he had given her and left. He sued for the jewelry, apparently forgetting that his wife would get wind of it. She then sued for a judicial separation. The mistress was found not guilty of theft in the matter, and the aristocracy had enjoyed the show. Well, they didn't have TV and couldn't follow along with Poirot, could they. Ten years later, Lord Frankfort was back in court, charged with publishing an indecent communication in the shape of a letter to peeresses and the daughters of the nobility, offering to arrange to drug their husbands to sleep so that they could spend the evening with lovers. One clergyman had opened his wife's letter, of course, and went on the witness stand about what he had read. However, his decency moved him to ask the judge to send all ladies outside the courtroom so they wouldn't have their ears damaged by what he was about to say. The judge merely ordered the ladies not to listen. Lord Frankfort went to prison for a year, but used his financial goodwill to be exempted from oakum picking and the treadmill.
Sentences could be savage and arbitrary. Two young men had stolen a handkerchief worth 1s and were transported (to Australia, likely) for seven years. Two others each stole a handkerchief worth 3s and 2s and the same judge sentenced them, one to a month in a house of correction and the other to four year's penal service. Someone who took a bottle of gin worth 2s got only fourteen days.
Those who were incarcerated, however, might get the first bath of his life and clean shirts once a fortnight when new and more humane prisons began to be built. They were taken out for exercise wearing caps that had flaps to cover their faces so that other prisoners could not recognize them. They were taught trades and even given a good suit of clothes when leaving prison. However, they often sold these quickly as they did not match the clothing of the people of the Town.
By 1861, only murder and treason could be punished by death. Few murderers were, in fact, hanged. In 1854 only five hanged, and the annual average was between nine and sixteen. It was, however, still another sort of entertainment, and thirty thousand showed up to watch one hanging of a man and wife convicted of murder. Charles Dickens was in the crowd, having paid only 10 guineas for a place on a rooftop to see all the better, but he apparently was not pleased with it, and he wrote to the Times that executions should no longer be public. At least, he said, the hangman "should be restrained in his unseemly briskness, in his jokes, his oaths and his brandy". He also noted that the woman, hung in her black satin dress, was elaborately corseted and artfully dressed.
Things were much worse for convicted criminals before Queen Victoria's time, and over her decades gradual changes were made toward humane dealings with them.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Authors: How Do You Choose Names?
I think one of the biggest challenges I have faced in writing is choosing names for my characters and places. What about you?
Since my novels are Victorian and English, I have to try to "think English" despite my American birth. Places in England seem to end in "ton", "shire", "bury" and such. So then I try to add on another British name, and so thinking of Sherlock Holmes, I came up with the name for my book's fictional location- The Companion of Lady Holmeshire. With some of the character names, I start with the ending and then make up a beginning, thus Lord Breyton. After each making up frenzy, I get on Google and look up the name to make sure there is not a real one living who might sue me, lol. You would be surprised to find out how many of the names I have made up are real and occupied! It was probably about one out of four that were actually available.
Another way that I have come up with a name: I was floating about Facebook, spacing out because I needed a name for an angelic young lady in my second book, For the Skylark. I received a Friend Request from a gal named Evangeline. That was it! I asked the young lady if I could steal her name and she agreed to it. :) The next day, I received another Friend Request from a second woman named Evangeline, and I knew for sure that it was a keeper. (Although it took only one second to be sure in the first place!) My character has a twin brother, who as a toddler could not pronounce Evangeline and so called his sister Angel Eyes, which really reinforces her characteristics. I love it!
How have you authors come up with your names? I'd love to know.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Since my novels are Victorian and English, I have to try to "think English" despite my American birth. Places in England seem to end in "ton", "shire", "bury" and such. So then I try to add on another British name, and so thinking of Sherlock Holmes, I came up with the name for my book's fictional location- The Companion of Lady Holmeshire. With some of the character names, I start with the ending and then make up a beginning, thus Lord Breyton. After each making up frenzy, I get on Google and look up the name to make sure there is not a real one living who might sue me, lol. You would be surprised to find out how many of the names I have made up are real and occupied! It was probably about one out of four that were actually available.
Another way that I have come up with a name: I was floating about Facebook, spacing out because I needed a name for an angelic young lady in my second book, For the Skylark. I received a Friend Request from a gal named Evangeline. That was it! I asked the young lady if I could steal her name and she agreed to it. :) The next day, I received another Friend Request from a second woman named Evangeline, and I knew for sure that it was a keeper. (Although it took only one second to be sure in the first place!) My character has a twin brother, who as a toddler could not pronounce Evangeline and so called his sister Angel Eyes, which really reinforces her characteristics. I love it!
How have you authors come up with your names? I'd love to know.Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
April 26, 2011
Realities of Life in Victorian Times
I fully intended to talk of palaces and duchesses with pearl covered tea gowns when I started this blog. And I will yet. But for some unknown reason, the research I have been doing takes me into some of the realities of life for the majority of people. And many of these realities hit hard for the aristocracy, too. Take for example:
Bed bugs. What a joy. No matter your station in life, you might be visited by the bed bug, and it was no picnic to get him to move along. You could probably blame it on the maids, but it did not give you a better night's sleep to do so. I am not aware of the modern means of treating a house for bed bugs, but even today, I hear it is not easy. One woman in the 19th century wrote about tossing 20 pails full of water on the kitchen floor trying to drown them. All the parts of her bed were then immersed in water, after which they were laid out in the sun for two days. The bed's joints were painted with mercury ointment (beware the vapors thereafter, although they were unaware of it's toxicity and probably blamed the maids for the onset of illness) and the curtains were taken down and washed. If you think that was an easy task, kindly refer to my post on doing laundry. Bedroom curtains were often thick, heavy fabric to help keep the cold out, and just getting them into the boiling pot would have taken a bit of energy. From what I understand, bed bugs can live within the walls of a house, so depending on whether you lived in a stone castle or a stuccoed Belgrave Square mansion, you may have to learn what could be done to evict them from between the stones or plaster.
Life with mattresses. The less expensive beds were stuffed with wool flocking, which became lumps. The wool might also become fodder for moths. Therefore, the mattresses would have to be disassembled and the wool would have to be washed, boiled and teased. After that, you would have to hire someone to come in and put the mattress back together. Feather beds were the more spendy type, but every third year or so you would have to pull all the feathers out to clean them. So, I wonder, where would you put them all? On the floor to air, while you washed and waxed the ticking cover. Enjoy the 21st century!
I am sure you are dismayed enough by now, but I thought that you should know why families only did their laundry every five to six weeks. It turns out that it is because of the etiquette books. One of them, for example, stated that "a family wash should be performed as seldom as possible". And one was, of course, to abide the etiquette books for fear of becoming a social outcast. One would surely not want a reputation for doing the laundry more than once a month!
Many thanks to Liza Picard's book, Victorian London. (Again.)Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
Bed bugs. What a joy. No matter your station in life, you might be visited by the bed bug, and it was no picnic to get him to move along. You could probably blame it on the maids, but it did not give you a better night's sleep to do so. I am not aware of the modern means of treating a house for bed bugs, but even today, I hear it is not easy. One woman in the 19th century wrote about tossing 20 pails full of water on the kitchen floor trying to drown them. All the parts of her bed were then immersed in water, after which they were laid out in the sun for two days. The bed's joints were painted with mercury ointment (beware the vapors thereafter, although they were unaware of it's toxicity and probably blamed the maids for the onset of illness) and the curtains were taken down and washed. If you think that was an easy task, kindly refer to my post on doing laundry. Bedroom curtains were often thick, heavy fabric to help keep the cold out, and just getting them into the boiling pot would have taken a bit of energy. From what I understand, bed bugs can live within the walls of a house, so depending on whether you lived in a stone castle or a stuccoed Belgrave Square mansion, you may have to learn what could be done to evict them from between the stones or plaster.
Life with mattresses. The less expensive beds were stuffed with wool flocking, which became lumps. The wool might also become fodder for moths. Therefore, the mattresses would have to be disassembled and the wool would have to be washed, boiled and teased. After that, you would have to hire someone to come in and put the mattress back together. Feather beds were the more spendy type, but every third year or so you would have to pull all the feathers out to clean them. So, I wonder, where would you put them all? On the floor to air, while you washed and waxed the ticking cover. Enjoy the 21st century!
I am sure you are dismayed enough by now, but I thought that you should know why families only did their laundry every five to six weeks. It turns out that it is because of the etiquette books. One of them, for example, stated that "a family wash should be performed as seldom as possible". And one was, of course, to abide the etiquette books for fear of becoming a social outcast. One would surely not want a reputation for doing the laundry more than once a month!
Many thanks to Liza Picard's book, Victorian London. (Again.)Thank you for reading my blog! I am always eager to hear back from you.
Debbie Brown
Author of The Companion of Lady Holmeshire
