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So many resources, so little time

“I have to organise my research and my plots and my characters,” I said to my personal romantic hero over the Christmas break. “I need a database. I need to be able to keep all the resources where I can reach them.”

So off he went, like the hero he is, on a quest to find a simple tool that would do what I want.

One Note database

The answer proved to be OneNote on the PC, linked via the ether with Outline on my IPad. Now I always know who lives at Dennings farm and what the head groom at Longford Court looks like. And the phases of the moon and weather in my part of England during May and June 1807.

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The problem with pedantry

19th century dinnerMy hero and heroine being invited to dinner, I set out to confirm what I knew about seating etiquette at a formal Georgian dinner. I’ve read heaps of novels in which the dinner guests process couple by couple into the room in order of precedence, and are seated male, female, male, around the table. But I wanted to get it right.

Turns out that it isn’t that simple. Jane Austin’s world tells me that, in 1791, the etiquette was quite different.

When dinner is announced, the mistress of the house requests the lady first in rank, in company, to shew the way to the rest, and walk first into the room where the table is served; she then asks the second in precedience to follow, and after all the ladies are passed, she brings up the rear herself. The master of the house does the same with the gentlemen. Among the persons of real distinction, this marhalling of the company is unnecessary, every woman and every man present knows his rank and precedence, and takes the lead, without any direction from the mistress or the master.

When they enter the dining-room, each takes his place in the same order; the mistress of the table sits at the upper-end, those of superior rank next [to] her, right and left, those next in rank following, the gentlemen, and the master at the lower-end; and nothing is considered as a greater mark of ill-breeding, than for a person to interrup this order, or seat himself higher than he ought. –John Trusler, 1791

A further quote from the same book says that:

Custom, however, has lately introduced a new mode of seating. A gentleman and a lady fitting alternately round the table, and this, for the better convenience of a lady’s being attended to, and served by the gentleman next to her. But notwithstanding this promiscuous seating, the ladies, whether above or below, are to be served in order, according to their rank or age, and after them the gentlemen, in the same manner. – John Trusler, p 6

Austenised has these rules, culled from Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, by Jennifer Kloester.

  1. When going in to dinner, the man of the house always escorted the highest-ranking lady present. The remaining dinner guests also paired up and entered the dining room in order of rank.
  2. Dinner guests were seated according to rank, with the highest-ranking lady sitting on the right-hand side of the host, who always sat at the head of the table.
  3. When dining informally it was acceptable to talk across or round the table.
  4. At a formal dinner one did not talk across the dinner table but confined conversation to those on one’s left and right.
  5. Ladies were expected to retire to the withdrawing room after dinner, leaving the men to their port and their ‘male’ talk.
  6. A hostess should never give the signal to rise from the table until everyone at the table had finished.

I’m not sure that these would apply in 1807, though. I found a lovely post on Georgian eating, which gave the same message as Trusler – ladies on one side, and gents on the other.

A call for help on Goodreads led me to the wonderful English Historical Fiction Authors, and the post by MM Bennetts, which told me about late Georgian servings, but not about 1807 seating.

A second post on the same site. this one by Maria Grace, gave me more details about how the courses were served and what they might comprise.

The truth is out there, but perhaps I should just send my characters on a picnic!

The angler's picnic

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What Elyse said

Elyse writes in defence of romance novels on Smart Bitches Trashy Books.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what I read. It doesn’t even matter that I do read, quite frankly. What matters is that we live in a world where fiction aimed directly at women is perceived as garbage. That doesn’t say anything at all about me, it says a lot about what needs to change.

I’ve quoted the last paragraph, but read the whole thing. Cheers and cookies, Elyse.

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Now a Goodreads author

I woke up to the email I’ve been waiting for; I’m now a Goodreads author.

So I can get to work on a Goodreads’ author profile, and add the other two books. (I’ve already put Farewell to Kindness and A Dangerous Madness into Goodreads.

I notice that another book named A Dangerous Madness was published in May this year. It looks good; I’ll have to put it on my to read list. And I’ll have to find another title for the second Redepenning book.

UPDATE: Done. The second book is now A Raging Madness.

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A timeline of stories – colour coded by series or group

Chronology of stories and characters_1Click on the chart to see it full view.

I’ve been using letters and numbers to code the stories into groups, and I have this complicated spreadsheet that says what is happening to each set of characters in each year – but I thought I might find it useful to have a simpler chart that sets each story in its year. The ones that cover several years didn’t fit neatly, so I’ve given each one of those their own column. The colour coding helps me to see which books belong in which series.

I told you I was an obsessive planner.

(K1-8, L1-4, and M1-4 aren’t far enough along to have a year, yet.)

That’s 56 books, or approximately 5,600,000 words. At 500 words a day, that would be 37 years (nearly). Just as well I’m doing nearly 30,000 a month. That’s still 15 years, though! I might need to retire and write full-time!

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m practising avoidance again. The chicken coop has clean sand and clean straw. The husband has a coffee. The bed is made. I’ve played around with the RSS settings in Facebook and still haven’t got it working. I’ve created this pretty looking table and posted it here on the blog. There must be something else I can do other than tussle with Farewell to Kindness! (Are your characters giving you trouble, Jude? Whatever gives you that impression, dear reader?)

 

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How much was sugar in 1807?

Old-Bailey-9685I’ve found this neat website that tells the answer – a fully searchable edition of the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. You name it, and somebody will have stolen it – and the value of what they stole will be right there in the proceedings.

I wanted to know whether Elizabeth’s cash-strapped household could afford to let Hannah make strawberry jam for the fete. Turns out that the price of sugar had been dropping for years, and was one shilling a pound in London in 1807. It was probably more out in the Cotswolds, but – yes – thanks to the various genteel jobs the sisters had picked up around the village, Hannah could make strawberry jam with the wild strawberries growing along the edges of the nearby woods.

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What do you think of lo-o-o-ong books?

Love booksIt’s a funny thing. In my life as a commercial writer and editor, I’m known for brevity. I’ve even been called the slash and burn queen, wielding a red pen (or the electronic equivalent) in place of a weed cutter and a blow torch.

My all-time great slash and burn moment was replacing a 159 word sentence in a set of terms and conditions with six words that meant the same thing.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that my fiction writing self takes a very different approach.

The other day, my sister – who is up to chapter 28 of Farewell to Kindness (I’m still writing chapter 29) asked if I was getting a bit overcomplicated. “All those subplots,” she said. “And now Hannah’s husband has reappeared.” She assured me that she likes it, and she wants to know what happens next. My new critique partner (thanks Romance Writers of Australia) is only up to chapter 4, but has also commented on people that she thinks might be surplus to requirements – although one of her favourite characters probably won’t make the final cut, since she never appears in the book again.

This is, of course, a first draft. I told my sister that I need to get the whole story out of my head before I know what to cut and what to leave. And some of it will have to go; I can already see some places where scenes don’t progress the action.

But losing characters and plot lines? I’m still thinking about that one.  Personally, I like long complicated books, where all sorts of things are going on, and the author only ties it up with a neat bow in the last chapter. But do other people? I’ve been reading a few online discussions, and the jury is still out.

Jacob Whaler on long books versus short books

Reddit 

Size matters, from Bookriot

and Karen’s books and chocolate

What do you think?

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I’ve added new covers on the Books page

And one more to go (just waiting to get clearance from the photographer of the image I want to use). These covers are my placeholders, till closer to publication time. Made using Pixelmator with license-free images and a couple of things I bought.

I’m trying to create a ‘look’ for each series. What do you like? What doesn’t work? Do you have a favourite?

Shows woman with horse Shows masked woman in a forest Cover showing woman archer on village green

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Thanks

Thank you to Simon at Rocking Self Publishing P0dcast. I followed his video course when creating this website. Thanks for the truly neat apps, plugins and widgets, Simon.

Thank you also to John Corwin of Novel Publicity & Co for the ‘complete and unabridged guide to GoodReads for authors’.

And thank you always to my own personal romantic hero, whose timely bacon and egg sandwiches and cups of coffee made this website possible. Love you, darling.

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60,000 and counting

Today on the train to work I passed the 60,000 words mark. I’m up to scene 43 of the 91 listed in my plotting spreadsheet. (It has all the scenes in the novel in the left hand column, and columns D to Q let me note which plot lines each scene advances. Did I mention that I’m an obsessive planner?)

Yipes! 43 out of 91 doesn’t sound far enough. Nonetheless, I’m pretty sure I’m more than halfway through. Some short scenes coming up?