This week’s WIP update. ‘A Night of Opposites’, the Delamere Files book 11, is currently open on my desk, where I am giving it its last read before preparing for publication. It’s back from the proofreader (always a little like waiting for your end-of-school report), and I am doing my final check. Andjela is finalising the cover, and as we’re making some changes, I can’t show you that just yet. When it’s ready, the first to see it will be members of my private Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksonsdeviantdesires, if you’re not already in, join! It’s all free.
Here, though, is the title – not that it gives anything away.
And after this one? I hear you ask. Well… I have already made a start on Delamere 12, and this will be the last in the series. In fact, it may well be the last in the Clearwater world. But… I mean in terms of full-length, 100 K novels. I may do some more shorts along the lines of ‘1892’ and ‘1893’, or some side stories based around the characters, but not a full-on mystery. I think it will soon be time to turn my hand to something else.
I was recently contacted by HarperCollins about my book, ‘Bobby’, and they encouraged me to seek representation so they might consider doing something with it. It would have to be a second edition, perhaps with substantially more information, if I can find any to add, or with more embellishments, though without spoiling the ‘voice’ of the existing piece. On the back of that, I approached an agency via their recommendation, and they are currently reviewing ‘Banyak & Fecks’ not for publication, but to see how I write fiction. The ‘Bobby’ biography would be much different, and once Delamere 11 is up and running, I may get back to them about how to ‘move Bobby forward.’ However, I shall not be ‘Reaching out.’ I will write them an email.
Newsletter
My next newsletter is due out on Saturday, and there will be another list of interesting promotions to check out, and hopefully, a little more news on ‘A Night of Opposites.’ If you’re not subscribed, you can do so here. Fill out the few details, and verify your email address when the message comes back, and that will add you to the list. Sorted.
Here’s a bonus. I uploaded this photo by accident. It was meant for my other blog, the one about living in Greece, but here it is anyway. Monday morning at 04.30 heading down the hill to catch a boat.
I wrote ‘A Night of Opposites’ with class in mind. The 19th century, particularly the Victorian era, saw prolific writing on the subject of the strata of society.
Friedrich Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England appeared in 1845, and is a landmark study of the industrial proletariat. What we might call ‘social’ novels by authors such as Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell talked about class divisions in works such as Hard Times (1854) and Mary Barton (1848).
Then, there were the social surveys. Most famous of all is Charles Booth’s massive survey, Life and Labour of the People in London (1886–1903). This provided a detailed, mapping-based analysis of poverty and class.
Charles Booth’s Poverty Map and Delamere Let’s have a quick look at where Jack and Will grew up, according to the map, which was published only a few years before the events of Delamere.
I imagined Jack and Will as living in ‘Limehouse Row’, which didn’t exist, but which can be taken for the area to the right of Ropemakers Fields, in the dense black area (‘semi-criminal’, by the key), which is among the reddish/purple area (‘poor and comfortable mixed’).
Here’s the key:
Baxter hails from Shadwell, slightly to the west of Jack, but as you can see, a very similar mix of people poor enough to be considered criminal class, and what we might now call upper-working class. In other words, hard-working men with their own businesses, like Baxter’s father, are alongside the unemployed. It is easy to see why there was so much dissent and tension in the East End at the time.
Part of the Shadwell area – Limehouse is just off to the right.
Compare the docklands area to where Clearwater House and Delamere House are situated.
Again, Bucks Avenue doesn’t exist. I chose ‘Bucks’ right back in ‘Deviant Desire’ because Bucks Row was the location of a Jack the Ripper murder, and Clearwater, Silas, and the rest were ‘young bucks.’
My Delamere House is situated roughly where the Cavalry Barracks stand, and lies among a lot of red and orange, meaning my boys now live among the well-to-do, wealthy and comfortable, which is what all of the characters now are.
This is the land of Lord Clearwater, and now, Jack Merrit and Co., and we must remember that everyone now living in Delamere House has either come from a very lower-class background or, in the case of servants, from a slightly upper-lower working-class background. The one society might have classified as being the highest class by birth would be Charlie Inning, because his father worked in the city and the family lived in the country. Booth didn’t cast his survey that wide, so I can’t comment on what he might have thought, but according to him, among the other characters, Mr Sparks might have come top of the class by being lower-middle class, because she was from the Streatham area. Again, the map didn’t cover that far south, so I can’t be sure.
It’s interesting, though, that because of a change in fortune, the cast-class order, by 1894, has been rearranged.
Their changes in fortune are, ultimately, thanks to the philanthropist, Lord Clearwater and his desire to buck the fashionable class-system trend, and lift the lower classes to a position of something higher.
However, the Delamere characters still fit into social classes either because of where they come from or where they now see themselves. (Or would have, had the map been available then.)
I drew up a list, classifying them according to the class they are now in, and saw that by using the classification very loosely, I could fit one into every class by varying degrees. For the Clearwater/Delamere nerds amongst us (and I, of course, include myself in that), here’s the list from top down as the characters might have seen themselves according to the map of 1889.
Top class Lord Clearwater Upper Class Sir Easterby Creswell Lower-upper Silas Hawkins, Tom Payne, Jimmy Wright
Upper-middle Will. Jack now is, but doesn’t want to be. Larkin Chase. Middle-middle Charlie Inning. Lower-middle Ned. Baxter. Upper working Max. Ronny & Simeon (because they are men). Mid-lower Mrs Sparks (because she is a woman).
Lower Originally Jack, Will, Baxter. Lowest Originally, Ronny & Simeon.
Why?
Because it helps the writer to know what class society considered his characters to be from, and considered themselves to be in, especially in the late 19th century and onwards, when a person’s class meant everything.
I could expand the list to cover all characters in all three mystery series, but we’d be here all day because there are so many. However, I thought you might find the above interesting, and I might include it, without maps, in the author’s notes of ‘A Night of Opposites’, which should be with you in a couple of weeks.
I have settled on the title, I have a deadline of Sunday to dispatch the MS to be proofread, and today, I’ll start chatting to Andjela about the cover. I have two more chapters to check through today, and then I will return to the midpoint of the book and go over the second half again. That’s because, as I write, I go back and reread, check, alter and improve the first chapters more often than I do the second half. I also do that to remind myself of what’s what in the story, and in the case of ‘A Night of Opposites’, it’s a very complicated case. Not for the reader, I hope, but I mean, when Jack and his men take on this private investigation, they are immediately faced with 12 suspects. Actually, as with most mysteries, the suspect list starts off as being everyone the victim knew, but you have to start from a smaller number of obvious, rather than expand to a huge number of could be.
As for publication date, that’s likely to be in early April.
I saw this in a search and it gave me an idea for a cover…
As for content and what to expect, well, this is, at first, an obvious case, but of course, it is not. It’s one of those where Jack & Co. need to interview a variety of characters, and they are all slightly odd because they are members of the Thirteen Club (see earlier posts), in a variety of employment and with a variety of lifestyles. I was able to have great fun inventing these people, like Mr Slack, the properties maker of Drury Lane, and Captain Garnet (retired), who, since leaving the army, has taken up a job stuffing animals and creating ‘freaks’ for fairgrounds.
Along the way, Bax and Charlie have a crisis, Will sets off on his own investigation of Jack’s case, the boys are growing up (it’s now January 1894), and Jack gets himself into and out of a bad mood… The usual instalment of mystery, bromance and friendship, a little love, and much history. The story also gives us a lead into Delamere 12, which may be the last in the series, but let’s get number 11 the best it can be before starting on that. On which note, I will return to my editing and leave you with a link to a set of books that are all part of series.
Promo
This promo offers titles that are at least the second in a series. Why? So that readers might be tempted to first buy the first, I guess. These are not necessarily LGBT-themed novels, though you’ll be able to pick out mine in the list. There are 33 titles, including novellas and full-length novels.
That’s a working title, but it’s better than ‘Thirteen’, which was the working title of Delamere 11 until yesterday. As I search back through my notebooks, I see other options written at the top of pages as ideas occurred: ‘Attempting Fate’ was another – a nice play on words, perhaps, but only slightly to do with the intricate plot of this one, where some characters are tempting fate by breaking superstitions. ‘A Baker’s Dozen’ was another, but that’s weak, except it gave me an idea for book 12, which may be the last in this series – and the title won’t be ‘A Baker’s Dozen.’
I keep handwritten notes as I go, and for this first draft, there are 16 pages of them. If I look back through the book to previous novels and their notes, I find A Depraved Indifference has 14, whereas Snake Hill only has 7.5, because some books are easier to keep track of than others.
A Night of Opposites, or whatever it is called, has a detailed backstory to it, but this is only known by the villain and by the reader- there’s a challenge for you. How do the characters find out what we and the baddie know without making it too easy? It’s a case of connections, and some are thin, but vital. Details are also vital, which is why I keep the notes. Often, when I am on a new page of notes, and something important is further back, I repeat that word as a reminder at the top of the page I am noting on. Therefore, I look back and find oddments at the top of the pages, and for the current WIP, some read like this:
11. Orlando Active 1887 onwards. | 61/married at 25/son born 1859/ died 1882. | Jinks | Blanch | Ormolu clock | “Opposite” | 6 is next door | Exploding cocoanuts |
That last one is real but not what you might think!
I shall ask you what you might think once the book is out there, and that should be out in April, depending on how the second draft goes.
That’s all for later. Here, for now, if you are looking for something spicy to read and you missed the last newsletter, here’s a list of titles that might spice up your life this spring.
M/M Erotica – March
Romance / Active/Erotica and Romance / LGBT
The title says it all – Anything goes in these 71 erotic novels.
Well, this week seems to have caught up with me. It’s Saturday, and I’m not prepared. I have to get my newsletter out this morning, and I should really be posting a blog post, but as I am totally unprepared, I thought I would put the basics of the newsletter here as well as send it out in the usual way. Doesn’t that negate the need for a newsletter? Yes, I can see what you mean, but no, not if you’re one of the many people who haven’t subscribed.
This month, as always, I have a list of promos for you. As I tend to save the writing news for this blog and my social media pages, the newsletter is primarily a listings update.
March Promos & News from Jackson Marsh
Hello, and welcome to March!
There is no need to rush out and buy me anything, but March is my birthday month. Strangely, I share the date with Archer, Lord Clearwater (and another character I can’t recall off the top of my head). As if to celebrate reaching the age of the year of my birth (63), I have a series of promos listed below, and as usual, browsing is completely free.
In other news: (This section is for the newsletter readers only.)
New Titles and Authors
#1 Backlist Bump 2026
Genres: Romance / LGBT Hosted by Elle Keaton There are 63 titles in this collection of backlist titles, all LGBT-themed. In this collection, I am trying to promote some backlisters of my own, namely, ‘The Mentor of Lonemarsh House’ and ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.’
Romance, Romance / Billionaire, and Romance / LGBT How about a selection of 80 MM and straight Romance novels from a wide variety of authors? It’s mainly straight romance, but I have thrown in three Jackson MM titles to see if we can’t convert some of the bodice ripping to breeches ripping.
Romance / Active/Erotica and Romance / LGBT The title says it all – Anything goes in these 71 erotic novels. Including ‘The Mentor of Wildhill Farm.’ (NSFW)
Mystery & Suspense / British Detectives, Mystery & Suspense / Crime, and Mystery & Suspense / Thriller There are 33 titles in this list, including novellas and full-length novels, and they are, or are supposed to be, at least the second book in a series, to show that the series is more than just the initial book. In this one, I have ‘A Fall from Grace’ and ‘A Depraved Indifference’, two of the (currently) 10 Delamere books.
There are 35 exciting titles in this collection of ‘must-read’ thrillers and mystery novels. Among them, you will find my ‘Deviant Desire’, the Clearwater Mysteries, book one.
There are 134 titles in this large and very varied collection of titles old and new. All mystery, thrillers, spies, assassins, various eras and tropes, everything you need for some thrills.
“There are currently ten books in the Delamere Files series, and I suspect I’ll be reading all of them.”
That was the last line of a review of ‘Finding a Way’ that appeared in a Facebook group last November.
“As always in these books, the fairly placid opening chapters begin to speed up, until the heart-stopping denouement brings everything to a climax.” Posted by the same reviewer two days ago, about ‘Acts of Faith’, book seven in the series.
In between times, he has written a thoughtful, accurate and positive review of each book in turn, and says he intends to finish the series. Sounds like good news for me!
I’m mentioning this today because the reviewer, Ulysses, is not alone. I recently found positive reviews of the series on other Facebook pages, and that made me think of other indie authors and their fans out there.
These pages and groups have worked well for me, albeit randomly, and they would, I am sure, like a few more followers. These aren’t the kind of pages where you only see promotions, though there are plenty, they are more concerned with the literature and its authors.
All I list here are great communities, but there are many more. I hope these will be of interest to readers and authors alike.
By the way, if you search for my name within the group, you should find all the reviews published there to date.
Queer Romance Ink
As usual, click the image to follow the link. You might have to join the groups in order to browse.
There will be another newsletter on 7th March, so make sure you are subscribed.
I’ll have some new listings for you, some promos to explore, where LGBTQ+ novels are on special offer or simply being advertised, and there will soon be news of Delamere 11 – check back on Wednesday.
Still with no definite title, Delamere 11 is progressing well. I have to admit, this is the first one where I have kept so much detail in my notebooks as I go. Not that the mystery is particularly complicated (no more than usual), but because there are backstories of minor characters which have to be accurate, believable and interesting, and yet, which have to be consistent.
Some books write themselves.
‘Snake Hill’ was one of these, where I started with an ending, and then started with the start, and the two seemed to meet logically along the way. This time, I have started in the same way and know where I am heading, but I have approached the first draft with a more critical eye than usual.
Because there are many tiny details to be sure of, and because some characters have altered the story for me along the way (mildly), I have had to go back, read again, change or update, and then carry on. Yesterday, for example, I reread five chapters of draft one, in effect turning them into a draft two, while also continuing draft one further along in the story. All the time jotting notes such as 24 years in an asylum, or, Rememberthe Spiritualist Magazine, and Mr Phinigan Slack, secretary and illusion maker, Drury Lane. They mean something to me!
As for word count, I am at 66,000 words, and am starting to build towards a climax of the main mystery, the backstory subplot (highly connected to the main mystery), and a subplot for Baxter, while hopefully continuing to keep the reader guessing while ramping up the tension. This appeared today in a review/summary of one of the series seen on a popular Facebook page: As always in these books, the fairly placid opening chapters begin to speed up, until the heart-stopping denouement brings everything to a climax.
I have been receiving several of these excellent write-ups of late, and on Saturday, I intend to share with you some pages on Facebook that have been more than generous in their praise and support of the Delamere Series (and Clearwater), so you might also join the groups and find more indie authors to read.
On which note, the end of the month approaches, and that means a last few departing book fares to advertise, and soon, some new ones to tell you about.
Promo
To end this month’s promotions, I will leave you to browse one of my favourites, and in this case, you have two options. Clicking one gives kudos to Jackson’s list, and the second, to James’ list, and you’re welcome to click and explore both, one, or neither. See you on Saturday.
Today’s work in progress update is to let you know that I am now over halfway through the first draft of ‘Thirteen’ (working title, and it’s book 11 in the series), and had just had my midway twist. The trouble is, I wrote it a couple of days ago, and have had a day off in between, and now, I can’t remember what I wrote, so today will start with reading back. I turn to my notes, and find them of some help, although, as you can see, they may baffle some people, including myself.
That is one page of 11 so far on this story alone. As I write the chapters, I jot down important facts for later, and then, when the mood hits, I filter the notes and write up a file that I can edit as I go. Here, for example, is a chart I made up to keep track of the murders in ‘Acts of Faith.’
In the case of ‘Thirteen’, I have a file called ‘Tie ups’, which is where I note plot points, conversations, clues and questions that I must come back to and answer later in the book. I can’t show you that or tell you too much as that would give away spoilers.
Do all authors do this? I don’t know. I do know that some authors plot and plan their entire story before starting out. They make up lengthy backstories about their characters, they, as they do when making a film, will have a character ‘bible’, and list all their traits and mannerisms, loves and hates and so on ad infinitum. Then, they will so the same with the plot, and draw grids with action lines and other grids with emotional throughlines, great big red arrows for twists and, beneath, a rough wordcount. Then, they will start writing.
I have tried that approach, and it’s not for me. In the case of Delamere Eleven, I was reading a newspaper from 1893, looking for ideas, when I came across a mention of the Thirteen Club. I’d not heard about them before, so I did some research, and later that day, started writing the book. I had a rough idea where the story would end up, and nothing else. That’s the fun part about making it up as you go – I only know as much as my characters know. I write, mainly, from the point of view of my leads, Jack and Will Merrit, and now, Ben Baxter (sometimes others). These are the investigators, and they have no idea what they are investigating until they begin, and neither do I.
When starting a new story, I set a scene for something to come, and near the start of the story/scene, I make sure the ‘domestic’ matters are up to date. (I have a nasty habit of placing characters and keeping readers informed of their lives. Example: in this book, Simeon is learning to drive. Is that relevant to the plot? It might turn out to be, I don’t know yet.) How the scene/story will end, I can’t tell you, not at the start because Jack and Co don’t know what’s coming their way either.
Therefore, I make notes as I go. Notes and ideas. They drop into my head as I’m bashing the keyboard, and I take a hurried moment to write something down, which is why my handwriting is so messy. Later, after reading back what I have written, I will adjust them or file them in the Tie Ups file. Also, when an idea occurs, I note it at the start of the next chapter. I finish, say, Chapter Nine, reread it and type up a list of where the story is going next. This I do under a new document, in this case, ‘Chapter Ten.’ Not only does this remind me of what I was thinking, but it usually gives me a PoC. A Point of Chapter, as I call it. Every sequence, section, scene, needs a point of some sort, and if you set off on a new chapter with the PoC in mind, you can’t go wrong.
Where you go wrong is when you forget to make notes and rely on your characters to remember what they were going to do, talk about, or discover. Sadly, without you knowing, they don’t know, so all you can do is knuckle down and see what they are going to throw at you next.
Yesterday, when setting up today’s writing, I prepared Chapter Fifteen, and the first few notes read:
Friday morning Jack bad night worrying about Larkin Catch up on hotel visit Ned’s findings
There you go. That’s what we can expect to find in the next chapter, except there are 540 words of notes and reminders, so who knows what Jack is plotting. Not me!
If you’re still up for it, here’s a promo to promote and check out this week – if you can.
LGBTQIA+ Book Fair
Genres: General Fiction / LGBT and Romance / LGBT
Here’s another mixed bag for you. There are 41 titles here, ranging from Victorian MM Mystery to contemporary love stories.
It’s February 14th, and you must choose one Valentine from fourteen. Who will you pick as your date?
This is just for fun because, sadly, I can’t bring my characters to life anywhere else but on the page. But, if you could invite one of them to step from the past and go with you on a Valentine’s date, who would you choose?
Below, in random order, are fourteen characters from the Clearwater, Larkspur, and Delamere Mysteries. I have put their name and their main series so you can see who’s who.
When you’ve made your choice, put a comment on my Facebook page and let’s see who you think would be good to take on a date, and why. (You can copy and paste the photo too, if you want.)
Delamere Eleven (Working title, ‘Thirteen’) is now up to 40,000 words of its first draft. It’s an unusual case (of course), and nearing the halfway point, Jack is thinking about giving it up because he’s not getting anywhere. Baxter and Charlie are having a ‘marital’ difficulty, and I don’t yet know what because Baxter hasn’t told me, and Ronny wants to learn how to drive. It’s all a game of Unlikely Families at Delamere House right now.
This website & Jackson emails. I have some technical issues. Mainly, my emails. I’ve been having trouble with Outlook over the past couple of weeks. It would open, download the house email (the address that comes with the internet provision), but then freeze. After several frustrating hours trying to get to the bottom of things, it turns out that my Symi Dream and Jackson Marsh sites sit on shared servers, and these no longer support the email addresses attached to the accounts – or something. It’s all to do with not having a dedicated server, and I was thinking about migrating away from the host company anyway. The help centre is outstanding, but if I can’t reply to emails…
So, the news really is that I want to move everything you see here, and everything that’s archived, over to a new company, and I have no idea how to do it. In fact, I want someone at this yet-to-be-found new company to say, ‘Give it here, we’ll do it all for you,’ but that’s unlikely. Therefore, if these pages go dark for any length of time, you will know I lost my websites in the move.
Valentine’s Day – Your Clearwater Date will be…?
Call back here on Saturday and take your pick from a set of Clearwater characters, and then decide which one you would go on a date with. Look out for that, and look out for this:
How about 71 new ideas for something to read? That’s what you have in this collection of all kinds of stories LGBTQ+ in theme. This is a BookMojo promo.
