The Plantagenets discussion
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Questions for Brian Wainwright
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Okay, this is going to be very fun!Hi Brian,
I've been wondering what the picture is on the cover...?
Mod
Barb wrote: "Okay, this is going to be very fun!Hi Brian,
I've been wondering what the picture is on the cover...?"
It's supposed to be a lady's headdress - a steeple hennin.
I could write several pages about Alianore covers. There have been three in all. The second was horrendous and it's a wonder it sold a book. This third one is the best, but obviously it still isn't as good as it could be. A major publisher would hire an artist to produce something more suitable, probably a cartoon. But small publishers simply don't have the money/resources. Sadly that's a fact of life. And although one should NOT judge a book by its cover, a high percentage of people do!
Mod
Misfit wrote: "I'm thinking about questions, but shouldn't we have the cover on the group's page as an uncoming read? If I recall it's pretty easy to do, let me know if you need help Susan."Misfit, I'd love it if you could help with the picture. I tried the other day, but something is not penetrating into my brain. Thanks!
Mod
Here's a close up on the cover. It is a headdress.
I'm curious to know whether you found it difficult to write the tongue-in-cheeck Alianore at the same time you were writing the serious Fetterlock (you were writing them at the same time, right)?
I was in a trough with Fetterlock - basically I couldn't make progress.It's my custom to have a few ideas lying around. Among these was a vague plan to write a novel on the Wars of the Roses based on Constance's fictional granddaughter. I had worked out the broad details of the Audley family and the dates fitted (roughly) but the project was literally one line. (It was actually the one on page 21 after the page break, except I think it was a bit more 'straight'.)
Suddenly Alianore found her voice. If she'd be real I'd have suspected spiritual dictation, because it was that strong. Originally it was going to be a short story, and in that form it went to a competition. Although it got a good response it wasn't picked. Anyway, Alianore was not satisfied she wanted her book and she wouldn't let me do anything else until it was written.
To be honest, it practically wrote itself. If writing was always that easy I'd have a dozen books by now. Possibly more.
The Alianore/Constance split isn't perhaps as strange as it seems as I do have different sides to me. On Brian is deeply serious and would fit nicely in to the Puritan Commonwealth. The other Brian is rather 'droll' as someone important once told me, and doesn't take life seriously at all. (I was once told that living with me would be like living with Spike Milligan. Does that help?)
I should add that in it's original concept Alianore was going to be 'serious' HF. However, Alianore had other ideas!
Mod
I for one am very glad Alianore took over and *changed* the story.
Well, it certainly took me into new territory!Interestingly I had my PLR statement yesterday and Alianore is much more popular with British library readers than Fetterlock. Given the blood I sweated to produce the latter, perhaps my future lies in comedy.
Brian, I was wondering how you arrived at Alianore's version of what happened to the princes in the tower? Is that a result of your imagination or is that scenario one of the theories circulating of what could have happened to them?
The credit for the original idea must go to Pamela Belle who had a fairly similar escape plan in _The Lodestar_. (An excellent and under touted Ricardian novel IMO.) However, I did change it about a bit (considerably even) for my purposes! In Belle's version they go off to Tyrell's manor and live there for a time, which is based on Audrey Williamson's theory.I honestly don't know what happened to those boys but when you are writing a novel you have to come up with something, and this one had rich comic potential - few others had.
(As an aside, what scares me is it is quite clear from some comments - elsewhere not here I hasten to add - that some people have taken Alianore seriously. Short of printing 'This is a send up' in large black letters on alternate pages I don't know what more I could have done to make clear that it wasn't meant to be taken literally.)
Mod
Misfit wrote: "Tell you what, make me a temporary mod and that will be easier than trying to walk you through it :)Here's a close up on the cover. It is a headdress.
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Here's a question for you to post your questions to Brian about his novel (or in general) in advance, for him to answer at his leisure. No spoilers, please.