Crosswick Family Tree

Since I am re-writing my Crosswick book I thought I'd look at the family tree I created for the story. Well wow it certainly shows some twists and turns and even though you  will read about them in the story I think the impact will be quite big when you first see the Family Tree which will be included in the front pages of the book.

I have been studying and researching the regency period with many thinks to Jane Austen's blog

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/social-customs-and-the-regency-world/

This blog is full of fantastic information and has been brilliant for a beginning like myself.  Though I have always loved history along with researching the social history it has been a hard slog to get information correct. yes we have artistic licence though personally I think a book sounds much better if the  historical background is closer to how life actually was.

Not that I am saying I will get everything right, because I won't.  My writing is for those who enjoy a good read. I do hope this book will be one you can't put down especially due to the fact that it is the first one in the Crosswick series.

I would leave you with an example of the family tree though this may ruin the book.  So here is an excerpt instead:-

This work is copyrighted©Claire Plaisted 2012

Several hours later a pounding on the front door startled Gregory awake.

“Worthington, what the hell’s going on,” he shouted.

“I will find out sir,” with the dignity Gregory always found slightly amusing, Worthington quickly slipped out of the library to the front door.

Gregory hated interruptions especially late at night. Why people could not wait until morning he never knew. The library door was flung back, rebounding off the wall making him jump up he turned in shock to see who would dare. Gregory’s eyes widened at the sight. An old man could do all this noise, nearly waking the dead. Grinning at Worthington he waved him away as he started to laugh. Laughter was just what he needed. A good distraction, this was going to be after all.

“Father,” he said with much amusement, “What on earth are you doing here?”

He shook his fist at Gregory with fury.

“Worthington, please a fresh pot of tea for my father; he must be cold.”

“Yes sir. Would there be anything else?”

“No thank you Worthington, just take his coat if he’ll let you.”

His father, still did not utter a word, he straightened his back like the soldier he used to be walking over to the other chair opposite his son by the glowing fire. Rubbing his hands, he sat. Gregory quietly sipped his whiskey waiting for his father to make the first move.

Talking to his father was like a fine game of chess, picking your moves carefully to get the best results.

“Gregory,” his father sighed. “Gregory, what were you thinking?”

Shaking his head once again, he looked his son in the eye. Thinking deeply about what he should tell him; what he could leave out was the hard part. Gregory knew his father was not talking about his whiskey so he waited, the game had begun; if he interrupted too soon his father would close up. A knock at the door a maid entered with a tea tray and a plate of biscuits.  Placing it on the table between them, she turned leaving quickly, Worthington closing the door behind them.

“Gregory, why are you doing this?”

“Father,” he said questioningly

He looked up at Gregory his eyes as sharp as ever. “You interfere in things when they are best left alone; I only heard today that you bought the old Crosswick place.”

“How, who told you?”

“It doesn't really matter, you should have let the past stay the past son,” he said tiredly. “Why do you think I sent you overseas to your uncles? It was to help you forget, then the first thing you do on your return, was to buy the damn debt and set things back into motion which will no doubt end badly.”

“What things are you on about father?” he asked puzzled.

“There was much trickery around Matilda’s marriage, I didn’t find out until it was too late, or I would have told her father. Remember he was my best friend for many years.” He said sadly.

“Yes father, I know, though I don’t understand about the trickery, what was it you saw, you never told me?”

“In the morning my son, in the morning, I’m too tired from my journey, I’m not as young as I was,” he sighed. Gregory knew he’d get no more from him this night.

“Please ask Worthington to escort me to my room, my valet should already be there,”

He turned walking out of the library, leaving Gregory with a mystery he knew he could not solve. With a puzzled frown, he paced the library before retiring up to his own room. It would be many hours until he slept, tossing and turning thinking about what his father said. Sleep finally claimed him fitfully in the early hours, though restful it was not.

Hope you enjoyed the read. :)

Horse Ride and Overnight Stay Info now sorted.

Thank you to all my lovely friends, family and fellow researchers for helping me solve my details of historical and journeying in the 1830's. I know I have artistic licence to do as I wish when I write my book, however as Mel said it is a nicer read if it is based on factual information.

A solo horse rider from London to Gloucester would take more than half a day, even with an Arabian.  When I first wrote my "Crosswick" draft I just wrote and didn't overly think on some of the major details at the time. Now is the time to fill in those details and one of the major ones is of course the Horse and Rider episodes.  There will be quite a large re-write due to the fact that a horse and rider would have an over night stop on the way for rest and recuperation.

Well like in my last post I have the horse timing is all sorted now, the next part was where in his journey to stop over night.  The question went to my family, friends and researchers I know and some I don't know.  The information was wonderful.

I have decided to stop at Newbury (thanks bro) in Berkshire for one trip.  A lovely gentleman from Rootschat Website gave me a heap of information about Newbury for 1835 and beyond. Newburychap told me about the trains and the coaching inns. The one I had chosen  to use was not actually a place a gentleman would stay (another thing i'd not thought about), he advised me to use the Pelican instead of the Bacon Arms. He also told me who was in charge of the inn during the time my rider stays overnight,  including that Charles Dickens staying there the same year. It wasn't until 1847 when the trains finally took over from the coaching inns to the extent many inn's ended up closing down.  I never realised how big these places were either, some had stables which housed 300 horses.  WOW

It is going to make a good read with this extra info, I am now looking forward to working out Gregory's overnight visit to Oxford.

Thank you Mel, Keith, Mark, Keeley and everyone else who made suggestions and gave me factual information. x

Travel Times by Horse - Regency Era

Well bother, all I can really say is thank goodness my book is a work of fiction.  Apparently I have my horse and rider going from London to Gloucester in half a day instead of two days.  Must admit it is one way to extend the story line. So do I leave it or do I go into more depth of finding a hostelry for my hero and evil man to stay in at a halfway point? 

As a future reader of my Regency Novel it would be great to have some feedback. I don't know much about horses, though I do know that some horses have more stamina than others. I also appreciate roads were very different. There again are they. From photographs I have seen recently on Facebook it seems they have as many potholes now in a road as they probably had in Regency times.

If I change it to fit time wise, it will mean re-drafting quite a few different parts of the story which could cause chaos. Though I like chaos in my books, I'm not sure if this is the best route.

Still humming and haring over what to do :D

Thought this looked a bit like Demon the Black Arabian Stallion in my book

http://animal-backgrounds.com/files/Arabian%20Horse/Arabian%20horses%20blackbeauty%20Wallpaper.jpg

Page Numbers

Well what a frustrating way to begin a day.  Actually that's not quite true. I started to try and put in page numbers in a book manuscript a few days ago and gave up wanting to yell and scream. Instead i calmed down and went to do something different.

Cup of tea in hand I sat on the comfy couch with my laptop and decided to try again. Opening the document I though I can do this it can't be as hard as it was the other day.  Next I Googled how to number pages into word documents after the first page.

Oopps I think this is why I got a little bit tied up.  An hour later and it still wasn't working even though I was going through the guidelines step by step.  Sheer frustration. Lucky for me I ranted and raved a bit on Facebook to my lovely friends. Harrold came to my rescue with two web links one which confused me and the other I seemed to have more luck with.

By the time my daughter came into the lounge I was very grumpy, it still wasn't working and I knew I hadn't missed any steps.  Then right at the bottom of the second link Harrold gave me i noticed something and wondered if it would work. 

Well I did something right, straight after a nice long scream post on Facebook. You know what I still don't know what the heck I did so I suppose there will be more frustration with my next book for print.

Here's the link for you all just in case you need it at some stage

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-steps-to-setting-up-page-numbering-in-word-sections/

Right I'm off to go see i can do my next book :D

First book in print

I have finally done it.  I have my first book printed, it's my fifth work and my first teens book.  Even so I'm really pleased.  I even had a glass of wine to celebrate.  All I have to do now is sell them.

Who knows anything about marketing? 

I have read numerous items to spread the word, blogs etc and have come to the conclusion I'm doing all the right stuff.  I have this blog, I am designing a website I celebrate my success on Facebook, LinkedIn, I tell friends and relatives and still it seems I need more marketing.

Where do I go from here?

Well I need followers on this blog for a start, I know people look though it i just don't actually have followers. Is my blog boring, do I say the wrong things, well I don't know unless someone says something or leaves a comment.

Customer feedback on Amazon from those who have bought and read my novels would also be good.

Maybe I should email everyone in my contact list with a generic email telling people about my novels, where they are to be found etc. Another idea is sending an email to the local paper, though I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that yet.

Whilst my web page is under construction I can't do a business card, though it will be sorted once my webpage is set.  Once again I'll need feedback so I can improve what I've done so far.

Oh I almost forgot the book that you can now buy in print is called "Zoe's Journey," it's about a teen who find out who she really is. Along the way she meets many mythical creatures of which she'd always assumed were fairy tales.

Well back to my writing, if you buy one of my books thanks, and enjoy the read.

:D

Fairies and Faeries - The difference

So who knew Fairies and Faeries were two different creatures?  I'd always believed they were just two different spellings of the same word.  This goes to show my research needs to be just that little bit deeper.

Anyway I thought I would tell you about the differences I found!

The Word Fairy comes from the Lain word "Fatum" meaning Fate. The Fairy is the one most of us know, mischievous, good, helpful little spirits/folk who are generally no more than 3 inches tall.  Yes they have wings, either two or four. I suppose this is to do with where on the scale of life they are.  

The most famous story  is about the Cottingley Fairies and the two little girls who found them at the bottom of their garden. I loved those photos looking at the delightful fairies with the girls.  The story was made into a book a few years back now.  Sadly when the last little girl died a few years back now as an elderly lady she told the story of the fairies saying that they were pictures drawn by her brother or cousin.  Even today I don't believe what she said, though sadly no one will ever find out now.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg/250px-Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg

Another article I found a few years back was about a the finding of skeletal remains of little people. An apparent hoax for April Fools Day. The picture shows the skeleton in a hand. Though myths and legends come from somewhere it would be lovely if some truth could be found.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/images/derbyshire-fairy1.jpg

Of course young childrens' favourite fairy is the Tooth Fairy who gives us money for our tiny baby teeth as we lose them. 

Now what about the Faerie, who or what are they, why do many people still use it for a different spelling of the lovable Fairy many of us learnt about as children?

The Faerie is a word derived from Gaelic "fear shidhe" In the article I found  it means "man of the shee" So more digging and research was required.

The myth goes to say that Faeries are evil, cruel, horrid spirits who steal children and keep them as slaves or pets. It's also said they are ugly or at least not as handsome as Fairies. Also they didn't necessarily have wings either and they could be tiny or tall.

One of the nicer looking Banshee's also known as Faeries.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Banshee_by_Michelle_Monique.jpg

Now Banshee's can be really scary as in the movie Van Helsing so please don't get your spelling of Fairy and Faerie mixed up when your writing like I did.  Dig deeper into the words you want to use the last thing I'd want for me or anyone else is a critic picking up on the different words and telling us we got it wrong.

So glad that in my stories, one I can change the spelling and the other was Faerie.  Both books will be available this year so look out for "Cera's Haunted House" and "Zoe's Journey," and enjoy the read.

One of my Children's Stories

Though it about time I posted again :-)

Over the last few weeks I picked up one of my old drafts called "Cera's Haunted House." I had only done one chapter of this story so decided to read through and see what I could do about writing more.

This book is about a magical cat called Cera who is over a thousand years old. Cera has gone wandering  and pulls her present owner (as if we could own a cat....lol)n into an adventure. Her name is Areba. They end up in this old derelict, haunted mansion which is where their adventures start.

An evil gargoyle called Ophelia traps them. All she wants is to mend the mansion and bring back a time she can control with her own magic. Ophelia sets Areba (she hasn't realised the cat is there yet) a riddle to solve. Being such an evil gargoyle when she finds out the cat is around she sets them twelve riddles to solve to get free or they'll both end up in a time of her choosing.

Now this is where I go slightly crazy, ok not crazy I suppose more like different.  Many of you will know most riddles have an answer before you make the riddle to accompany it. I like to be different. Each riddle has no answer when it's made up. I start with the riddle and work through it with my writing. What can it mean? How can they solve it? I must admit is has been great fun so far.

Friends have helped at times though I've noticed many say they aren't good at riddles. My favourite riddle so far is in Chapter 4. "I espy an evil eye in the middle of the ocean, be aware and do not stare or you'll be in oblivion."

The first thing two friends came up with (Tina & Sharon) was Whirlpool which makes great sense to the first part of the riddle. What I ended up with thanks to Zillah was a one eyed ogre who like with cyclops you didn't stare at him or oblivion you got. 

Areba knew she had to get rid of the ogre to solve the riddle and save something, with out giving the plot away we have a rather smelly ogre who belch's and fart's a lot and gets pulled into oblivion via the whirlpool of his own making. It is actually quite hilarious to read from what my adults friends said, my own kids just looked at me as if I was weird though they giggled too.

I am now on riddle 5 which certainly took some thinking, nearly a week has passed since I looked at the draft though I know I am ready to finish the chapter now.

“Two and fro you must go to catch the cow for a sow.”   Of course you have to remember the words in the riddle don't always have to mean a cow which goes moo or a female pig. Change the spelling and you have something quite different.  Can you work out this one??

Enjoy.