I now have the cover for Holywell Street, book eight in the Delamere series, and I am waiting for the proofed copy to come back so I can do a final check and send it off to be formatted. Not long now, which leaves the question, what next? Before I answer that rhetorical question, here’s the cover title:
1893
A while ago, I started on something called ‘1893, The Clearwater Tales Volume Two’ to accompany ‘1892’, which is volume one. I’ve written the first two chapters of what may one day be another anthology connected by a situation, and I have gathered some characters together. I have an observer and his backstory, the setting – a foggy night in a Wiltshire railway station where the Penzance special is delayed. The characters tell stories while they wait out the night. I have the station master, Harry Carnforth, a character who made a brief appearance in ‘Grave Developments’ and was then cut, his name is Martin Dewhurst, and he wants to attend the Larkspur Academy. Also waiting for the train are Silas Hawkins, Sir Easterby Creswell, Chester Cadman, and Benjamin Baxter.
The trouble is, I don’t know what the short stories are that they will tell each other to keep themselves amused as Harry Carnforth caters for them through the night.
That’s one idea.
1892 the Clearwater Tales Volume One
Another Delamere?
For sure, but what’s the hook, the gimmick, the subject…? I was talking about this recently, how a subject comes to me and I explore it from there. So far, we’ve had: being a cabman, the old school network, music halls, family feuds, magicians, a serial killer, and coming soon, Victorian erotica. Included in those eight books so far are also sewers, saints, singers and sinners, and a little sex, though I must admit, I am writing less of that these days.
So, I think my next task will be to return to the Police Illustrated News and other publications of summer 1893 and see what was going on in the world. I had thought of a kind of Oscar Wilde type trial, which is coming up in 1895, and the cover of Hollywell Street gives us someone foppish who could well be a Dorian Gray, but I don’t want to get into all that as it’s been done.
Therefore, I guess the current answer is, ‘I’m not sure’, but I’ll be along with something as soon as inspiration strikes. Meanwhile, I have some more promos coming up, so look out for a newsletter next Saturday, I need to do more publicity somehow, so I can sell a few more copies, and I continue to play with animating the covers, as you will see from this next one pulled at random from my growing collection. Have a good week, I’ll pop back on Wednesday with an update on ‘Holywell Street.’