Newsletter
First, my monthly newsletter will be sent out this morning (Saturday) at 10.00 GMT + 2. It contains a brief news section and a heap of new promo suggestions with everything from steamy MM to standard historical fiction. Look out for that, and if you haven’t already subscribed, you know what to do!
A Depraved Indifference
The update here is that I am now up to 35,000 words of the first draft, so about four chapters away from the halfway mark. It’s not set in stone that I write each novel to 100,000 words, but it is what I like to aim for. I think my longest is 150,000 words, which is ‘The Larkspur Legacy’, but then, that is really parts two and three of a much longer story that starts with ‘Starting with Secrets.’ I guess you could say, together, they make one continuous mystery adventure of around 260,000 words.
The complete sentence that inspired the title of Delamere Ten is, A Depraved Indifference to human life, and it looks like this mystery is going to give Jack and Baxter some gruesome scenes to investigate. So far, I have three connected mysteries, one of which is a nasty and inventive murder. I now need to invent a few more and give Jack a worthy adversary who may go on to become his archenemy.
At the moment, I am looking into the history of a church called St Dunstan’s and All Saints, in Stepney, East London. I came across a blog titled, A London Inheritance, which has a fascinating post about the church, if you are interested, go and have a read. It also held this image:
It’s a map from 1720, and the church is ringed in red. What I also find interesting here is that at the bottom of this image, you can see both Shadwell, where Baxter comes from, and next to it, Limehouse, where Jack and Will Merrit are from. As you can see, they are noted as being hamlets. Later, the wider area became known as Tower Hamlets because it comprises an area near the Tower of London that was made up of hamlets.
St Dunstan’s is only one of several locations used in my next book, which is set in August 1893, and starts at the time of Simeon’s 17th birthday.
Of course, none of this will make any sense unless you have read the Delamere Files books, but if you have, you will be pleased to know that life goes on in Delamere House, although with a moral Vs professional dilemma for my main man, Jack.
More will be revealed in time – but not too much! Have a great weekend, and remember to look out for the newsletter and check out the promos.
