November Starts and NaNoWriMo 2011
New Format
I have recently been invited to a Blog Tribe, the concept of which I am still a little sketchy on, but the idea is 6 other writers who explore the same periods as I get together and as we create our wonderful erudite web logs full of historical information, we share it.
The writers are Debra Brown, Teresa Thomas Bohannon, Maria Grazia, John D. Aidan, Lauren Gilbert and Emily Snyder
This new venture for me then leads me to redesign how I report in Things That Catch My Eye. Instead of just a Writer's Blog where I report on the success and failure of my writing life. Write up my Gratitude Log. Provide excerpts of my writing, I will also write notes on my historical research for the books I am working on. And as they should carry more weight, I will place them first in the blog, with the notes of what I have been doing as a writer following.
This month is NaNoWriMo, and so I am at work on a Regency. The Other Shoe. It has led to research on Lloyds of London for today and the Royal Exchange for next time.
Lloyds of London
Starting in Edward Lloyd's coffee house in 1688 on Tower Street, it was not the site of commercial interaction at first, but as more members of the shipping trade gathered there, ship's captains, merchants, and owners, it evolved to a place where marine insurance could be financed. So successful that by 1691 Mr. Lloyd was able to move to a larger premise at the corner of Lombard Street and Abchurch Lane. Lloyd also began to employ correspondents at the main ports in England and abroad to get factual news quickly.
The motivation for Lloyd's to grow beyond a place where like minded businessmen would gather to talk was the need to protect individual owners from the possibility of catastrophic losses. Underwriters would subscribe and assure that should a vessel be lost, they would then pay for it's loss. They though would receive rewards for agreeing to such risks. Thus insurance as we know it was born, and Lloyd's is now the leading specialist insurance market.
The coffee house 
was taken over by Edward Lloyd's son in law, and then in later years, the trading inside the coffee house took on a life of it's own. By 1769 the first breakaway underwriters left to form New Lloyd's Coffee House in Pope's Head Alley. In 1771, 79 merchants, bankers, shipowners, brokers and underwriters subscribed with £100 each to create a building for all. In 1774 Lloyd's then moved to the Royal Exchange.
One can not hide from the fact that a major component of what occurred at Lloyd's was the insuring of vessels engaged in the Slave Trade. One can not just wish that such facts could disappear. That we of the 21st century can wish away the horridness of the Slave Trade, but having that in our history defines us now. Austen has the Bertram family receiving their income from slave plantations in the West Indies. They of course are not the only families to be so involved in the matter. English shipping carried 3 1/4 million people into slavery.
During the years that Lloyds was extant and Slaver trafficking was legal, British shipping lost over 1000 vessels.
With the advent of the Napoleonic wars, and shipping so much at risk, a close synergy was created between the business interests and the Admiralty. Even to this day, the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund started in 1803 still functions and supports ex-servicepeople.
4,000,000
Just a few days ago, before the start of National Novel Writing Month, I passed another writing milestone. Four Million words written. There has been more than that. I don't keep track of the blogs, and it is possible that the blogs one day could become books. Nor do I keep track of the reviews, or other writings.
Four Million though for the novels that I have in the drawer as finished first drafts, second drafts, published, working on now.
That is over 13,300 pages of material. It's a lot. Stack up nearly 3 boxes of copier paper. 500 sheets to a ream, 10 reams to a box, so 26 reams of finished work that I have been keeping track of. There are other buried bones in the closet that could contribute to my word count but have not.
Sales October
Down from September, which is hard. I had hoped for sales growth every month, instead of the other way around. 86 books which is slightly over 50% of the month before. One series of 6 Colonel Fitzwilliams and a Shattered Mirror went to a bookshop (can't tell which one though) and another bookshop (maybe the same one) has bought a series in November as well. Kindle to Physical was 31% so I definitely see a trend there.
Overall, 13% of the goal we want in sales to become a full time writer. Of course the goal is the minimum needed to support us. I am sure Cheryl would like the revenue to be a little better than minimum so we could travel. Buy Christmas presents, that sort of thing.
Good Review
I love getting good reviews, especially when I am in the doldrums and I did garner another 5 star review (my favorite kind) Next to those, I like those that end with "would recommend." Those are always valuable. I have a few now for Colonel Fitzwilliam's Correspondence. I think those that read it, will be able to say the same. That they would recommend. I find that those who do not like what I have written are those who fault me for language. Aside from Austen and Heyer, there are few others that I have read for the period, but those that I have, write with a flair for setting the dialogue and narration with that period style. Some better than others. Those who have written with our present use of language are the ones I personally don't read or recommend. So I suppose when a reader faults me for not writing with a contemporary use of language, I have written a Regency that does not appeal to them, just as I fault those writers who can't find their way to use the rich Regency Lexicon available to us.
This year, I am once again writing a Regency. It is tentatively called The Other Shoe, as mentioned above. I completed the competitions 50,000 word requirement in 9 days. And having written several Novella length pieces this year, I can see that we can call 50,000 words a book. But my full length books are always well over 90,000 words and even 100,000. The big ones are over 200,000.
So The Other Shoe, at 50,504 words, has just reached the middle of Chapter 8, and in a 15 chapter book at present, that would be the middle of the story. Where our heroine (Lady Barbara Winhampton, the daughter of the Earl of Tyrone) is unburdening her soul saying how she just hates the hero. Though she doesn't say how the hero has stirred thoughts in her that she had not known she had.
I scanned the list of Earldoms, for a defunct one to give to our heroine's father. Tyrone was the first I saw that seemed to be useful, but it was a subconscious choice that guided me to it. There is a 1936 (wow-75 years old) movie called Lloyd's of London.
I like the movie, and it ends during the Regency with the news of Trafalgar a key part of the story. It is one of my influences and as I plotted the story a few days ago, I remembered the movie and put in a needed plot device for both Hero and Heroine's family need to find some quick wealth. Wealth that could be gotten by investing as the star of the movie, Tyrone Power did. This fact came to me on Tuesday this week, when I had passed the first third of the novel.
Over the course of the last few months, I have become a reviewer at Inside Mac Games. I am now working on my third review for them. My previous two involve the game AI:Wars, which was actually pretty bad the more I think on it, and the Map bundle from Civilization V, 
(picture from actual gameplay I did for the review) which I have mentioned before is a great game.
IMO
I have decided, as a matter of preference, that now, almost 50, I do not have to be humbled by my opinions any longer. IMHO is out!!! My Opinions are mine, and I intend to drop the H. And that is my opinion, 
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Thanks for sharing!