I am nearly at the end of the editing process for ‘Finding a Way’, the Delamere Files, book one. A few more chapters to re-re-read and re-re-edit, and the whole MS can go off to Anne for proofing. The cover is done, the blurb is almost ready, and there will be a full cover reveal in the next couple of weeks.
I’ve been taking on some extra paid work, so haven’t had much time to continue with book two, ‘A Fall from Grace’, but I will be back to it today as soon as I have sent the first book to be proofed. Book two is at 48,000 words, about halfway through, and book one comes in at just over 100,000, so plenty of new reading will be coming your way soon. Neil is currently reading Finding a Way, and I’m looking forward to his feedback. I think.
Without giving away too much of the cover, here’s the face that inspired the face – a before and after if you like, as created by my wonderful cover designer, Andjela V.
Jack Merrit, a young cab driver. The original photo from pre-1900
The two-at-once scenario persists. I am giving ‘Finding a Way’ my almost final read-through before sending it to be proofed. After that, I will do another read before setting a release date. Andjela has provided me with several cover ideas, and I have chosen one. By the look of the cover, I have invented a new TV detective series set in the late 1800s, which is (almost) what I intended. Dazzling, who does my illustrations, is working on a character drawing of one of the MCs, because I like dropping them at the front of the books these days, and I am still fussing about whether the book is any good or not, but that’s par for the course. (It is good, but because it gives us new characters, I always worry about what’s going to happen to them.)
Fall From Grace
Meanwhile, book two in the new series has a title and 45,000 words of a slowly evolving mystery, during which my main character starts to find his feet as a Clearwater detective and as a recently able-to-be-out gay man in 1892.
Where book one is more of an introduction/prequel than a mystery, book two starts off with a case. A client charges my new detective with finding a missing man. My newbie, Jack Merrit, is being tutored by old hand, Jimmy Wright, and is finding the transition… Well, I’m not saying too much right now as I’m not even halfway through, but I know where I am going – though the characters don’t yet know what’s in store (insert an evil laugh), and I know how things are going to work out in the end.
The end will, of course, lead to book three… But that’s a way down the line right now.
The Series
I was going to keep details of the new series quiet for as long as possible, but I’m getting to the stage where I have to start dropping teasers and hints. So, I can now give you the title, font and subtitle that will accompany the new books, and the first one will look like this:
The Delamere Files, eh? Uh huh. Each one (after book one) will be a case for my trainee detective. I intend to keep my three main characters and build them and their relationships as they find their way through this new world of being investigators of one sort or another, and around them, I’ll build more traditional mysteries than the sometimes-outlandish ones we have in Clearwater and Larkspur. (All of which were perfectly feasible, and some of which actually happened.) While all that is going on, favourites from Clearwater and Larkspur will give us guest appearances, and the main characters of Jack Merrit, Will Merrit, and Larkin Chase will develop, fall in and fall out, and… who knows what else.
So, that’s where I am right now. I am heading back to book two, chapter 11, somewhere in West Kent in July 1892, and a graveyard…
I’m not, actually. Not at sixes and sevens, that is, but I am working on book two of the new series, which would be work in progress seven since I started the WIP blog, and I am also working on the first in the series, which would be WIP six. The first is almost complete, I am doing my ‘last edit before proofing’ but haven’t set a date for proofing yet, because I need to be further into book two first. So, unusually for me, I have two major works on the go at the same time. We also have family visiting, which means fewer working hours, but I’m still up at 3.00 each morning to get started and make the most of the time I have.
Where did the expression ‘at sixes and sevens’ come from?
Here’s an aside. First of all, this is an idiom, a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. (Deducible: possible to discover based on the information or evidence that is available.)
Grammarist. Usage of the idiom over time.
According to Grammarist.com: The idiom at sixes and sevens came out of the 14th century from an old dice game where throwing a six or a seven was filled with risk and uncertainty. It appeared in Chaucer’s work “Troilus and Criseyde,” back in 1374, and the excerpt read, “Lat nat this wrechched wo thyn herte gnawe, But manly set the world on sexe and seuene.”
Those last words are six and seven in Old English. (Just in case, like me, you were asleep when they did Chaucer at school.) Good old Wonkipedia agrees that the idiom evolved from a card game, and adds: William Shakespeare uses a similar phrase in Richard II (around 1595), “But time will not permit: all is uneven, And every thing is left at six and seven“.
Meanwhile…
Currently, my desk is surrounded by pieces of paper stuck to the shelves, and beside my open notebook. This is because book two in the new Delamere (or Clearwater Detective Agency) series involves a lot of detail in its backstory, and I have to keep track. A man is missing, and it falls to the newly appointed detective’s assistants, Jack and Will Merrit to investigate. While they are doing this, Jack is still coming to terms with his feelings for Larkin Chase but is confused by his feelings towards his new boss, James.
The typing corner in my workhouse today.
The story fits into the Clearwater world, after ‘The Larkspur Legacy’ and is set in London. A couple of Clearwater/Larkspur characters have made appearances in the first and now, second, book, but it’s not about the Clearwater crew, as the previous series were. It’s about my new MC, Jack Merrit, a handsome hansom driver with a very ‘precise’ younger brother, and how they find themselves rocketed from Limehouse to Knightsbridge, poor to middle class, through a series of unexpected circumstances. As per my usual, there is a mystery to solve, action and adventure, and in this case, a slow-burn love story that, over the course of several books, will see the MC travel from longing to lust to losing, to…? At least, that’s the plan.
I am currently on 28,000 words of book two, which doesn’t yet have a title, but which is inspired by ‘Men of a Similar Heart’ a story I wanted to tell, but one which didn’t fit into the Clearwater world. Until now.
Symi Dream Blog
By the way, as soon as I have posted this, I am off to post on my other blog, SymiDream. If you want to see the non-story side of me and where I live, then bookmark that blog which I update around five times per week with all kinds of island chat and other matters. Whatever takes my fancy really. Today, I am talking about this blog a little, so it makes sense on this one to talk a little about that one…
You see what I mean about being at sixes and sevens? Lol.
Today’s news is that I have finished the first draft and first story read-through of the first book in the Delamare Files series. The draft comes in at 103,000 words, and the ending makes it clear there is to be a sequel. I have started on that already, and know the mystery plot, the feel of the story and its message/theme.
Meanwhile, as I aim to get halfway through book two before finishing book one, there is still a way to go before book one will be ready for you. A few months without a new release means a drop in sales, sadly, so I am having to juggle publicity work with creative work, and as I am not very good at the former, it’s quite a challenge.
Finding the Way
However, the first in the series does now have a title, Finding the Way. You know me and my titles. I like to fit in a double meaning if possible and make the title have relevance to two sides of the story. Finding the Way refers to the MC, Jack Merrit, being a cabbie in 1892 and thus, being able to find his way from A to B thanks to his knowledge of the streets. It also refers to him finding his way towards accepting himself and his affection for another man. There’s a third play on words which happens in the very last line, but I’m not giving that away right now.
Sinford’s Scandal
That’s the working title of book two, and this story is drawn from an idea I had for a Clearwater mystery. I’ve mentioned it before in passing, as it was a story that didn’t fit anywhere, but it is perfect for the Delamare Files series. You see, this new series is to be much more detective and case-based. Rather than our main characters constantly hounded by personal enemies, they are working on behalf of other people through the Clearwater Detective Agency. Though, having said that, they have enemies of their own; disgruntled crooks, mobs whose members they have put away, fed-up villains who want to get their own back. With the cast being predominantly gay, and with the series set in 1892, there is also an overarching danger of living as gay men when being gay was punishable by up to two years in prison with hard labour. Not that ‘gay’ was ‘gay’ back then, nor was it even ‘homosexual,’ not yet. (The word had been coined, but only in obscure medical journals and only used among a few medical professionals).
So, that is where we are right now. I’m about to start on chapter four of Sinford’s, while Finding the Way waits in the background. Now and then I pop back to it to rewrite something or focus an idea, so it is still maturing. Stray thoughts come to me, and I have to rush to a notebook and jot down a better line, and later, make the change. I’m always doing this. Mind you, I still do it with lyrics I wrote over 20 years ago—change a word here and there even though the song will never be performed again—and I’ve just done it to the complete MS for ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge’ which is now rereleased for the better.
I’ll be back on Saturday with something more substantial. In the meantime, I’ll keep on at my full-time job: writing.
The update news today is the first draft of the first book in the next series is complete, except for a short chapter at the end to move us forward to book two, lots of editing and some rewriting, the proofing, cover, layout and, most importantly, the title.
Titles
I’ve spoken about titles before and how they sometimes come out of the text, other times from a flash of inspiration in an unlikely moment, and sometimes, even before I start work on draft one. In this case, the title isn’t coming at all, though I have a list of ideas noted down as I have been writing; none of which have yet struck me as being ideal. They include:
471 471 Kingsland Road The Cabman’s Adventure The Cabman’s Knowledge The Knowledge The Driver and the Fare The Cabbie and the Fare Merrit & Chase Something That’s a Play on Words about Cabbies Having the Knowledge of London Streets and Self Knowledge, or Street Names, or Roads, or…
And Onwards…
The current word count is 103,000, and that’s without the sections I have cut; two chapters of backstory, an introduction written by one of the main characters, half of chapter 21, and the complete first draft of the final chapter which I have completely rewritten. I am still editing out repetition and sections that are in the wrong place, and those I read back and think, ‘What on earth was I trying to say here?’
Today, I will be continuing my reread from where I left off yesterday at chapter eight (out of 26), and will continue to agonise over the title. What’s not changed, however, is the original idea, that the story is based on a piece from the 1870s by James Greenwood, though the novel is set in 1892, and the images of my two main characters. Rather, my main character, Jack Merrit, and the impact character, Larkin Chase. The impact character (IC) is who the main character comes up against and the one who doesn’t change, thus, he has an impact on the MC who has to change for us to have an emotionally driven story.
Larkin Chase is my IC, and Jack is the MC. In this novel, we have archetypal characters in the classic storytelling, hero’s journey tradition. Jack, the reluctant hero, has a sidekick, his brother Will, who also acts as the mentor character. Larkin Chase is the protagonist and IC. We have an antagonist in the form of a gang of East End criminals, shapeshifters (not the fantasy story kind) in the varying shapes of waterboys, servants and cabbies, and we have the voice of reason character in the form of someone you will recognise if you have read the Clearwater and Larkspur series. I will say no more…
What we don’t yet have is a title or cover idea, but that will come later. Meanwhile, as I return to the typo-writer, I’ll leave you with images of the MC and the IC, one or both of whom may end up on the cover beneath the title…. Whatever.
Jack Merrit, a young cab driverLarkin Chase, an investigator of social injustices
First: The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge will be free all day on Saturday 24th June to celebrate Pride Weekend (somewhere in the world) and Pride month. Also, to celebrate its new, tidier edition, with enhanced readability.
I have learnt so much over the last few years, I have a new mission. When I can, to go back and tidy up earlier novels, and Barrenmoor is the first to receive the treatment. Here’s its Amazon.com page, but it will be FREE everywhere for 24 hours on Saturday (Amazon time.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078TFPQ89
Merrit & Chase
I am nearing the end of the first draft of ‘As Yet Untitled. A new Mystery Series, Book One.’ This may end up being titled, ‘Merrit & Chase’ as that’s one of the ideas I am playing with. Others include a play on words around ‘Knowledge’ because Jack Merrit is a London hansom cab driver in 1892. Other ideas include something to do with the word Two, or Streets, a street address (not very punchy), or a phase that lurks somewhere in the draft that’s not yet leapt out at me but might do when I start on draft two.
I am nearing the end of the first draft now and am at 90,000 words (with two chapters of backstory already cut), and have about another 10,000 words to go. Then, I will edit, cut, rewrite, check and dither, before repeating the process and moving on to book two. I can’t say when this one will be ready for publication, but I can tell you I have a title for the series.
Yes, I have made up my mind. On hearing my decision, my husband said, ‘You just can’t leave them alone, can you?’ which made me laugh. No. And why should I? Astute readers of mine will understand what he meant when I give you the series title, and tell you it is to be…
The Delamere Mysteries
At least, that’s the plan for now. More to follow in due course.
Here’s my weekly update on where I am at with my latest WIP, currently with the working title of ‘471 Kingsland Road.’
Never start with a backstory
Yesterday, I worked on chapter twenty-one, which was chapter twenty-four, but I had a ‘moment’ a few days ago, and now, three chapters have gone. I was pondering away from the typing machine and wondered if I needed the first three chapters, the first of which was a short introduction. Having had a think, I decided that these chapters were all backstory and probably only me setting up the MC in my head. They’re fine as they are, and decent storytelling, but they shouldn’t be right at the start of the book. Never start with a backstory, as this delays the action. So, they have gone to the Cuts folder, and the info may come out in future books, or as an aside on the blog once the book is published.
The word count (without them) is 82,580, and I am about to embark on the climax. That, I’m guessing, will take me up to 92,000, and the denouement should bring us to 100,000, which is about what I am aiming for in the first draft.
471 Kingsland Road
That’s the working title (471 Kingsland Road), as that’s where some of the action is set, and as the main character is a London cabbie, I was tinkering with the idea of using a street name for the title. I was rereading a chapter the other day when I read something and thought, ‘That might do as a title.’ I didn’t write it down, and now, I’ve forgotten it, so it probably wasn’t that good as a title after all. Something will come. It took me several goes to get ‘Deviant Desire’, currently my bestseller, so it’s worth waiting for the right phrase to fall into place.
London Maps of 1888
Another tool in my arsenal arrived the other day via a delivery from a friend in the UK visiting Symi for her holiday. I’d ordered this book from Amazon, but thanks to Brexit, would have had to pay exorbitant postal and import rates to have it sent. My friend arrived with it on Wednesday, and it’s a boon. It’s actually a book, so it’s a boon-book, or book-boon, and it comes with some coincidences.
It’s a collection of maps of London streets in 1888, perfect for the time in which I am writing. It’s an A to Z, but not as we now know them, and it has clear printing, street names, an index and info, and as my MC, Jack Merrit, is a London cabman… Well, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I took a couple of photos this morning, trying to highlight the area of London used in the story, and if you look closely, you may be able to see Kingsland Road and Dalston Junction. This is where I lived for about 10 years back in the day, at 471 Kingsland, actually.
Dalston Junction, 1888
Coincidences
Just as an aside, I noticed, when the book arrived, that it was published by Harry Margary of Lympne Castle, in Kent. The castle overlooks the Romney Marshes where I was born and brought up, and I used to cycle up there during my teen years. Not only that but there is a crest on the book cover, the motto of which reads, ‘Domine Dirige Nos’, which I believe, when translated, means ‘God guide us.’ My family crest (yes, apparently we have one) has the motto, ‘Domine Dirige Me’, God Guide Me. Well, who’d have thought it?
Anyway, I must get back to chapter twenty-two now, or I will when I have been for a short walk to wake me up and set the chapter in my head. I’ll be back on Saturday with more for the Clearwater Companion, which is taking shape gradually over the course of the coming year.
Hi, and welcome to WIP Wednesday. Today’s news is that I am having a crisis. Well, not me, but my new main character, Jack Merrit, a London cabbie in 1892. I’m not going to tell you why, because that would give away spoilers and reveal the plot and twists in this, the first book of a new series, but I can tell you that Jack’s crisis happens at around 75,000 words in. That’s where I left the first draft yesterday, and I’ll be getting back to it after I have posted this.
I’m still without a title, and currently, I have a choice of two directions in which the story can go. They both lead to the same finale, which will lead to the second book, which I will start on as soon as I’ve finished this one, but before I’ve published it.
Yes, sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but my plan is to be at least halfway through part two before I release part one. By doing that, I can ensure I have a viable series and not a standalone, so don’t expect ‘Untitled 1892’ anytime soon.
Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Southwark Bridge, London, 1892.
What you can expect before too long, though, is a re-release of ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.’ I’m just about to send the MS off to be professionally laid out, and, as that never takes very long, I should be able to do a re-release in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, back in 1892, I have a crisis to deal with…
Pop back on Saturday for more of The Clearwater Companion.
Bit by bit, chapter by chapter, the start of a new series is making its way from imagination to keyboard. The characters are developing to the extent that I now don’t like one of them, and the story has just taken an unexpected twist. This twist was of my devising, not one of those where, at the end of a chapter, a character says something out of the blue and I think, ‘Oh! Okay, let’s see where that leads.’ That’s happened to me in the past, but I am more in control these days.
I also know where we are going to be at the end of the book, and that this story needs to lead into the second in the series, and so on. My three main characters, including the one I’m not sure about, know themselves, and I know them, but soon, we’re to have a fourth enter the stage, and he’s going to throw the proverbial cat among the pigeons as we race towards the crisis point.
So, the work-in-progress news this week is that it’s all back to work and going well, and I am aiming to finish a first draft in a couple of weeks.
The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge
Meanwhile, The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge re-working is also coming along at the rate of a couple of chapters per day. I have been through the MS once to improve it, and am now doing a line edit and making more improvements to the writing, not to the story, as that’s staying the same. I only hope that by editing I am not adding in the kind of typos I seek to remove. All being well, Barrenmoor Ridge (the improved recipe) will be re-released in June.
Queer Romance Ink
Queer Romance Ink
Recently, I was featured on QRI, a place where I list all my books; it’s a kind of ‘gay Goodreads’ you might say, though I never bother with Goodreads, I do bother with QRI, so it was good to get a feature. If you’ve not found this resource yet, you should take a look. Thousands of titles to check out, and loads of new romance authors to meet. They also have a Facebook page to follow. You can see my profile here.
After three weeks away from the new book with the working title of ‘471 Kingsland Road’, I am now back to putting down words. Progress is slow but I have managed a couple of chapters this week, and have all day today to press on with another. It’s coming together slowly, though I am still aware that what I am writing now might actually be a prequel to the start of the series, in the way ‘Banyak & Fecks’ was a prequel to the Clearwater Mysteries. What ‘471’ is turning out to be is character creation, an exploration of ideas, and the putting together of possibilities. It is still telling a story and a good one, and it is a valuable exercise.
It’s proving interesting to start something new, and difficult to leave behind the characters and themes that I’ve lived with since starting Clearwater late in 2018. Five years in the same world is hard to leave behind, so I have an inkling that I won’t actually be leaving it behind entirely.
‘471’ started off as an idea to write something that took place at the same time as Deviant Desire, but now I am thinking it might take place just after the last of the Larkspur series, starting in 1892 (instead of 1888). There’s a reason for this, and, if all goes according to the latest plan, there will be a twist just over halfway through the story which, I hope, will delight readers of Clearwater and Larkspur. That’s the current thinking, and the idea is taking shape and appealing more than my original idea, which was to have a completely separate series set around the same time.
I’ll say no more about that, but will leave it vague because I am still developing ‘471’ and what it might lead to. You’ll hear my thoughts on it as it progresses, so keep calling back to the Wednesday WIP to follow progress. Meanwhile, the Saturday blogs from now on will be a development of The Clearwater Companion, with interviews, images, unpublished sections, chapters and other background things to accompany Clearwater and Larkspur. This, I hope, will see me through the Saturday blogs of summer, and in the winter, when we have more time, we’ll return to interviews with other authors and blogs about research.
The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge
While all this is going on, I am continuing to revise The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge for its second edition and I have to say, I’m enjoying the process immensely. I am on the final edit of all 21 chapters and saving up to have the book professionally laid out ahead of a re-release in a few weeks’ time.
I’ll be back on Saturday with another page of The Clearwater Companion.
Photo: A hackney carriage waits at the end of a long row of horse-drawn hansom cabs facing the striking round portico and spire of All Soul’s Anglican Church on Langham Place at the north end of Regent Street. https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/
