Chapter 15

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I am now at chapter 15 of the first draft of ‘A Depraved Indifference.’ Chapter 15 is usually what I consider the halfway mark. Roughly. As I’ve said before, I aim to make each of my mysteries around 100,000 words in length, and it just so happens that, at the end of chapter 14, I am up to 47,000 words, so another three thousand through chapter 15, and I will be stepping over the threshold into Act Three. Or that may happen in chapter 16, depending on how Jack’s meeting goes with Inspector Smith of the City of London Police, which is about to happen.

The Four Acts

If you were wondering about the four acts, it’s a very common film structure, particularly for action/adventure films.

Act One, there’s no problem, everything’s as it should be, and then there’s a call to adventure, and the hero takes it, or deliberates, then must take the adventure.

Act Two, he’s now got a problem to deal with, so the question is, what is this problem?

Act Three, after a halfway twist or turning point, he now knows what the problem is, but not how to deal with it, so Act Three is about ‘How do I solve this?’ This can involve gaining emotional as well as physical strength.

Act Four begins around the crisis of the story, when the final obstacles are in his way and he must overcome them in order to succeed. He must go ‘underground’ as it were in a ritualistic rite of passage to he can emerge victorious at the climax. There’s then a denouement or rounding off of leftover themes, and that’/s about it.

So, my Chapter 15 is happening around the time of the end of Act Two, and we’re just about to have a twist. Kind of. Anyway, that’s where I am with ‘A Depraved Indifference.’ And now…

Promos

Aug to Sept SPY Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense Sales Promotion

This one runs until the 20th September. There are 46 titles covering all aspects of mystery and thriller, and my three series starters are in the list.

Monthly Menagerie of Menage

This promo is open to steamy books with two or more love interests. As you might tell from the title, there’s a heat element to this collection. That’s why I put in my only really ‘hot’ title, ‘The Mentor of Wildhill Farm,’ which, tbh, is often more heat than anything else! There are 17 books here, but they include str8 novels, box sets and collections.

A Depraved Indifference

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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.

The blog is well worth visiting if you are interested in London history and want a guided walk.

About AI Spammers

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Here’s a note for anyone else who might have published a book or two, and it’s about the way scummy scammers are using AI to make money. Here’s the start of an email I received this morning:

I recently explored *Snake Hill (The Delamere Files Book 9)*, and I was captivated by the way you weave suspense, rural legends, and complex character dynamics into this installment. The tension around the mysterious disappearances, the fire snake folklore, and the responsibility placed on both Jack and Simeon makes this book an engrossing read for fans of crime and mystery. Even with such a thrilling narrative, it seems this book hasn’t yet reached he wider audience it could captivate…

Do they think I am daft? Explored a book? What, you set out from the Royal Geographical Society with a brief to…? The rest of it is generated by an AI thing using my blurb, the text you can read on Amazon, which I wrote. All the person behind this is doing is generating dodgy text based on a book’s blurb, and having their system send out an email. These things then go with text like: Have you found it challenging to connect *Snake Hill* with readers who would enjoy the depth of your series, the unfolding mysteries, and the suspenseful twists…

This email suggested I contact ‘Mary’ and, like most, it promised promotion leading to untold wealth. It wanted me to reply and beg them to help me publicise the book(s). Then, what they would do is take my money and get AI to send out a few random spams to random email addresses and move on to the next victim.

Bring the Past to Life with Historical Fiction

I am now receiving at least one of these emails every day, But, because I use Mailwasher, I see them before they get to my laptop, not that they are dangerous or anything, but Mailwasher comes with various commands. I can permanently mark and report the email address as spam, and I can also bounce it back, so the person/machine at the other end thinks my email address doesn’t work. Hehe.

I don’t reply because I will only get more spam from the same AI if I do, but I’d love to reply: ‘So, tell me, as you have read the book and see its potential, can you tell me, a) what is the first full sentence on page 213? And b) why you started a series at book nine and not book one?

I bet, for every one of me (who is slightly experienced in this self-publishing game) there is a newbie out there who falls for this trick and parts with money because their book isn’t selling as well as they thought it would – and they thought it would because AI wrote it for them. Believe me, I have published over 40 full-length novels (every word of which I have written myself), and without a massive publisher and their publicity machine, you ain’t going to make a living, so don’t waste your cash on AI-generated spammers.

Research: British Newspaper Archive

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British Newspaper Archive

You may know that I use old newspapers and publications a great deal when researching for my 1890s mystery novels. Sometimes, I use them for inspiration and turn to the Illustrated Police News to find ideas for stories. At other times, I use them to find advertisements for things so I can use props that were real at the time, soaps, hair products, and in the case of ‘A Depraved Indifference’, a watch.

Here’s the front cover for the Police Illustrated News of 137 years ago on September 8th.

Click to open a PDF of the page (larger)

The central illustration is headed ‘Revolting and mysterious murder of a woman – Buck’s Row, Whitechapel.’ This is coverage of Mary Ann Nichols, a Jack the Ripper victim killed on 31st August 1888. Just out of interest, my grandfather was born on 8th September 1905, and my husband on 8th September 1967, and if you have read the Clearwater series, or Delamere, you will know that both houses stand side by side in Buck’s Avenue. It’s a made-up street in Knightsbridge, just about where the barracks are, overlooking Hyde Park, but I chose Buck’s on purpose. Anyway…

Morley’s Hotel

One of the places I wanted to know more about was Morley’s Hotel, so I have turned to the newspaper archive again to see what I could see. So far, I’ve not had much luck, but I have discovered that the hotel, which was in Trafalgar Square, was, in 1893, owned by the James brothers, so I have dropped them into Jack Merrit’s investigation. Currently, I am on chapter eight of the new story and it’s going along well. I am a quarter of the way through, and we have had two seemingly unconnected discoveries, a birthday, and Will has solved two cases, once while getting out of a carriage.

Morley’s Hotel stood where South Africa House now stands on the east side of Trafalgar Square and was a massive building. However, there seems to be very little information about it. I found out that Buffalo Bill once stayed there and an American soldier shot himself there in 1892, but that’s about it. I couldn’t help wondering how much of a rival it was for D’Oyly Carte and his Savoy Hotel up the road, or the Charing Cross station hotel. I will keep researching. The newspaper archive does cost a little to subscribe, but there is some free material, and you can find out all about it here:
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Excellent Promo: Thrillers and Mysteries

Next week, my newsletter will be out, and new promos will start. One, though, is already up and running and since it started, sales of my series have begun to rise – which is excellent news for me! This promo runs into September, so there’s still plenty of time to browse and maybe find new authors to read and follow. It’s a collection of mystery and spy thrillers, and there are 46 titles to check out. Have fun!

Click the pic to find new reading.

WIP: Delamere Ten

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Snake Hill (Delamere Nine)

The good news is that Snake Hill is doing well, which means people must have enjoyed the previous books in the series. The ongoing news is that the paperback is not quite ready, but I hope to have the full cover in the next day or so.

Snake Hill universal link. Click here.

A Depraved Indifference (Delamere Ten)

This is off to a good start, and I even know what is to happen and when. The idea came to me very quickly, which is often a good sign and a warning sign. I warn myself to slow down and not rush ahead, and then I tell myself I can because I am creating this, so I can always uncreate it and change things, though, this time, I haven’t had to. Yet.

Without giving too much away, so far, Jack and Baxter have been called to a famous London church where something mysterious has been discovered. It could be 300 years old or three months, but the thing should not be there. Doctor Markland gets involved briefly, and Ned comes along with his scientific bits and pieces, and the next thing you know, we’re having lemonade on the back terrace at Delamere, where Will asks Ronny to sing some nursery rhymes. You can imagine the reception that gets. Later this morning, I will finish chapter six, that’s how well the storytelling is going. So far.

The research is happening as well. Here, for example, is the only image I can find of the church of St Clement Danes (Strand, London) before it was bombed in WWII. This is the original organ, which was built in 1690.

I also did some digging around Trafalgar Square and discovered that where we now have South Africa House was once Morley’s Hotel. That was a handy find as I needed there to be a hotel there in 1893, and lo! Here it is.

Photo is early 20th century

That’s my Wednesday update. If you haven’t joined my newsletter yet, please do, as there’s a heap of hot books coming your way in several September promotions. And, if you’ve not started sharing my BookBub and other links around your social media, please do! (Top of the right-hand column) Back on Saturday with another update.

Snake Hill on Kindle and KU

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Snake Hill is now available on Kindle and in KU. Here’s the universal link.

https://mybook.to/SnakeHill

That should take you to your appropriate Amazon site, and all will be well. The paperback version should be out next week. We’re just organising the full cover, which is something we can’t do until we know the page count, which we now know. So… In case you have missed it, here’s the blurb.

Albert Arbon collapses at Delamere House after a three-day trek. His only son, Robert, has vanished after seeing a strange light in the Suffolk sky, and Arbon is desperate to find him.

Detectives Jack and Baxter, with young Simeon, accompany Arbon back to his remote Suffolk farmhouse, only to find themselves faced with a combination of rural legends seemingly tied to a series of unsettling events. A body lies inexplicably in the middle of an untouched wheat field. Other children have gone missing. There is talk of a ‘fire snake’, and no-one dare share the secrets of what can be seen from Snake Hill.

As the investigation deepens, Jack must navigate more than the mystery. He must also face the burdens of responsibility — not only for uncovering the truth and doing the right thing, but also for guiding Simeon, a boy on the cusp of manhood, who’s willing to risk everything to prove himself.

What Next? Delamere Ten.

You might not be surprised to know I am already working on Delamere 10, and it has the title of ‘A Depraved Indifference.’ I am working with the idea that will combine:

Murders past and future.

A nursery rhyme.

Several London churches.

A Church organ.

So far, it starts on Simeon’s 17th birthday, so it’s set in August 1893.

My original idea for Delamere was to see where Jimmy Wright had come to, following his entry into the Clearwater world back in ‘Twisted Tracks’ in 1888 (although his first appearance is in Deviant Desire, but it’s very brief). I soon discovered that Jack and Will Merrit were to be my leads, and so, the series has become their story, and I, for one, am enjoying exploring their lives. I was going to write one book for each of 12 months of their lives, but that’s kind of gone by the by. Having said that, we’re on book ten (almost) and the series started in June 1892 and we’re only now in August 1893, so I haven’t done too badly. A lot has happened in that time.

I often wonder if it’s too much and how long a series should run for. I think, as long as I am writing a good, entertaining read, and as long as people are still enjoying the stories, i.e. buying them, then I’ll carry on until it feels right to finish. If you have any other ideas, let me know.

Meanwhile… It will soon be September promo time, so get ready for a new list, but in the meantime, there’s a new one just started up a few days ago, and we’re in it, so if you want to boost my kudos, hit the banner. This is a collection so thriller and mystery reads that are available on a variety of platforms.

A Depraved Indifference

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While we eagerly await the publication of ‘Snake Hill’ (any day now), I have come up with a working title for the next instalment of the Delamere Files, ‘A Depraved Indifference.’

I was doing some legal research the other day, as you do, when I came across something I’d not seen before. There was no reason why I should have done because a) I am not a lawyer, and b) it’s to do with American law, but I liked the term and what it implies. The paragraph was this: If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a “depraved indifference” to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought.

A depraved indifference to human life… I wondered if there was an English law equivalent in 1893, and I am still researching that, but the story I am now embarking on may not have anything to do with law or that phrase in the way it is meant. What I might do is use that expression/term/whatever to inspire the rest of the story. In Delamere 10, Will has already cited it (and I’m only on chapter two) while settling a case for the CID. Anyway, the point was to let you know I have started on some ideas for the next book, which has had me locked into this view for a while…

And this is the first draft text for chapter one of the next book, in case you want to zoom in and read.

I will be interrupted soon by the arrival of the files for number nine, which I will check through and upload as soon as we’re all happy that Snake Hill is good to go.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed I put three new links at the top right of the page, just beneath the newsletter sign up. My Facebook page, my BluSky profile, and now, my BookBub link, so if you use that service, you can follow me there. I ought to add my Goodreads link too, I suppose. (Note for later.) Meanwhile-meanwhile, a new promo has just arrived, so if you want to be among the first to see these new spy, mystery and suspense titles, just click the banner.

Snake Hill. A Further Update.

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Not long to go now, and you will be able to order/download a copy of the latest Delamere adventure, ‘Snake Hill.’

If you scroll down, you will see the cover and the blurb, but that’s all I can share with you at the moment. I am finishing my last read of it this weekend and will then send the MS to the formatting wizards while I wait for the full cover for the paperback version. I hope to release it during this coming week, but it will depend on when I receive the appropriate files. I’ll keep you informed on my social media.

Talking of which, if anyone uses BlueSky, I have an account there now: @jacksonmarsh.bsky.social so feel free to follow.

In the meantime, I have written a 5,000 pastiche or parody or piece of satire for my other blog where I chat about life on this Greek island. Next week, I will be presenting a section of this piece every day. What is it? Well, have you seen the play or film, ‘Shirley Valentine’? If you have, you will know it’s about a woman coming to Greece and finding herself during a kind of midlife crisis.

Well, my piece of satire answers the question, what would be Shirley’s experience of Greece if the story happened now? Hopefully, readers will find it amusing. If you want to check it out, click over to my Symi Dream blog on Monday and follow the adventure.

Talking of adventure, if you still haven’t checked out this month’s list of books on special promo, then try this one:

MM or MM+ Romance You’ll find 179 MM titles in this collection of MM romances. So many topless hunks, I don’t know where to start. Maybe with one of my own, and ‘The Mentor of Wildhill Farm,’ probably, of all my 50 books, the one with the most heat. In fact, it’s probably 60% heat, and the rest is story. It was my first Jackson Marsh and has a twist at the end you either love or hate.

Click the banner.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with more news on ‘Snake Hill.’

Snake Hill Cover

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Well, my dears, it’s here. The front cover for Delamere nine, ‘Snake Hill.’ Hang on, though, or as Baxter would say, Hold your pony, mate, not so fast. First you have to promise to click the promo link and check out a few titles that should open on another page.

MM & MM+ Romance

You’ll find 179 MM titles in this collection of MM romances. So many topless hunks I don’t know where to start. Maybe with one of my own, and ‘The Mentor of Wildhill Farm,’ probably, of all my 50 books, the one with the most heat. In fact, it’s probably 60% heat, and the rest is story. It was my first Jackson Marsh and has a twist at the end you either love or hate.

Click the banner

Wildhill Farm

Talking of the Mentor of Wildhill Farm, yes, it was my first ‘go’ at a queer romance, though there’s more heat than there is romance, and I had an idea towards the end to turn it into a series set in the same place. Then, I realised that it would soon be repetitive, and decided it was the place that was important. However, also vital was the old/younger mentor/mentee pairing, but that couldn’t always happen in the same location, so… Barrenmoor Ridge, Lonemarsh House, Lostwood Hall came next (maybe not exactly in that order), and onwards to other standalones like ‘The Stoker Connection’ which gave me a chance to play with ‘Dracula’, as it were, and to relive something from my teens. (I used to work in the theatre where the two MCs meet.) You can find all my titles here.

Anyway, I’m wandering from the point. The cover for Snake Hill, where is it? What is it? What’s the blurb?

The cover is coming in a moment, but as for what is it? That will become apparent when you read it, which I hope you can start to do next week – soon, at any rate. What’s the blurb? Here’s the blurb:

Albert Arbon collapses at Delamere House after a three-day trek. His only son, Robert, has vanished after seeing a strange light in the Suffolk sky, and Arbon is desperate to find him.

Detectives Jack and Baxter, with young Simeon, accompany Arbon back to his remote Suffolk farmhouse, only to find themselves faced with a combination of rural legends seemingly tied to a series of unsettling events. A body lies inexplicably in the middle of an untouched wheat field. Other children have gone missing. There is talk of a ‘fire snake’, and no-one dare share the secrets of what can be seen from Snake Hill.

As the investigation deepens, Jack must navigate more than the mystery. He must also face the burdens of responsibility — not only for uncovering the truth and doing the right thing, but also for guiding Simeon, a boy on the cusp of manhood, who’s willing to risk everything to prove himself.

And as for the full cover… Click the title…

A Glossary of East Anglia

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The next Delamere book, ‘Snake Hill’, mostly takes place in Suffolk. To keep things as authentic as I could, I trawled around for a dictionary of Suffolk words and phrases, and came upon:

A Glossary of Words Used in East Anglia (1895)

Author: Rye, Walter (1843-1929)

The subtitle reads, Founded on that of Forby. With Numerous Corrections and Additions. It was published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, and the version I used was transcribed by Universidad de Salamanca.

You know how I like dialect. ‘Holywell Street’ comes with Baxter’s glossary, if you ned to revise his East End expressions, but in ‘Snake Hill’, we have an East Anglian glossary. For those who may not know:

East Anglia is an area of the East of England often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included.

The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia (Angeln), in what is now Northern Germany. East Anglia is a predominantly rural region and contains mainly flat or low-lying and agricultural land. [Wiki]

So, ahead of publication, here are some of the words I have used in the story. I put this here so you can do some background reading before the book arrives on your Kindle or doormat later in the month.

Badly                          In ill health. Sometimes sadly badly.

Barley-bird                  The nightingale, which comes to us in the season of sowing barley.

Biddie                         Young chicken.

Black Shuck                In English folklore, Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog.

Brank                          Buckwheat

Buck                            To spring or bound with agility.        

Carre                           A stoat.

Clamp                         A mound of earth lined with straw to keep potatoes or mangold wurzel through the winter.

Clevers, or Cluvers     Tussocks or tufts of coarse grass.

Closen                         Enclosed fields; plural of close.

Clutter                         Confusion, disorder.

Cob-boy                      One who is between boy and man.

Dere                            Dire, sad.

Doker                          A diminutive used with respect to young animals.

Duffy dow                   Young pigeon not fully fledged.

Fleck                           The down of hares or rabbits torn off by the dogs.

Flick                            Hare’s or rabbit’s down.

Heads and Holls         Prominences and hollows tumbled confusedly together.

Hingle                         To snare. Poachers hingle hares and rabbits.

Hoven                         Swollen.

Huckle                        To bend down with pain.

Jug                              To squat, and nestle close together, as partridges at night.

Mamble                       To eat with seeming indifference.

Maul                            Clayey or marly solid, adhering to the spade or ploughshare.

Mawth-dog                 The phantom of a dog (in Norfolk).

Mewting                     The whistling of a boy without any regard or idea of time or harmony.

Mump                         A hop and a jump.

Nabble                        To gnaw.

Needles                       A common weed among corn.

Pin basket                   The youngest child in a family.

Plounce                       To plunge with a loud noise.

Quackle                       To interrupt breathing.

Ranny                          The shrew-mouse. (Plural, rannies.)

Ravary                        A violent mad fit of passion.

Roblet                         A young cock.

Sadly Badly                Very ill.

Smouching men          Smugglers (Smouch, 1) to kiss 2) to smuggle.

Smuddered                  Smothered. Choked to death.

Springer                      A youth.

Stour                           Stiff or stout.

Tom Poker                  The great bugbear and terror of naughty children, who inhabits dark closets, holes under the stairs.

Traptles                       The small pellets of the dung of sheep, hares, rabbits, &c.

Trunket                       A game at ball, played with short sticks.

Wiff/Wiffing               The sudden turning of a hare when coursed. Wishly                         Earnestly, wishfully, with longing.