The news today is that ‘1892’ is now available in paperback. Here’s the link:
At the moment, Amazon is only showing the Kindle version, but the paperback link should appear with it soon. It is also available in 11 other Amazon countries, namely: UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, JP, CA and AU.
What’s even better is the review left by Anthony Pisacano. Titled, A Wonderful Christmas Gift!, this is a great review because it gives a succinct outline while not giving anything away, and I couldn’t have put it better myself. Here’s what the review says in full:
Jackson Marsh has gifted his readers another treasure from his Clearwater Tales.
On a train bound for the Christmas Eve festivities at Larkspur Hall, a Baron, housekeeper, detective, antiquarian and a professor, relate to each other tales from their past.
A priest is also in attendance but not for the same reason. He is made welcome to their first-class coach, and becomes privy to their personal stories.
Each story gives us a closer look into the background of the characters we have come to know through the previous stories associated with the Clearwater Mysteries.
I especially enjoyed the Professor’s tale as his background was not divulged when we met him during the Larkspur Mystery series.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tales especially the final “priest’s” tale, which left me with a lump in my throat.
I am so glad I discovered Jackson Marsh’s books. His storytelling is expertly detailed, keeps you interested and wanting more, and he has a great sense of humour that he instils into his characters.
1892 (The Clearwater Tales) is a must-read, and I strongly urge familiarizing yourself with Jackson Marsh’s other books.
I can’t think of a better gift than this!
What can I say but thank you! Hopefully, this review might inspire other readers to follow suit, if not with a review of ‘1892’ then with a review of any of my books. Such things are always useful, because I can do what I’ve done here and pull quotes (or the whole thing) and use them to attract other readers.
As for other news, we are gearing up for a Christmas break which, for me, will begin next weekend and run to the 6th or 7th of January. This year, I shall be closing down next Saturday and giving myself a rest, or at least giving my back a rest from constant desk-sitting and typing. My imagination will not rest, and I’ll be taking a notebook with me when we go to Athens just after Christmas. I’ll post pics and posts on my Facebook pages while we’re away, so you can also enjoy Athens at New Year.
There will be a work-in-progress update on Wednesday and a final blog post of the year next Saturday. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who downloaded the free copy of ‘1892’, and to everyone who continues to support my little writing endeavour, which, as Jackson Marsh, now stands at 30 titles. Eek!
Good morning. The news this Wednesday is quite simple. My recent work in progress, 1892, is now out in Kindle format and on KU. The paperback version will be a little while longer because we needed to adjust the spine and its text (my fault), but hopefully, it will be with us within the week. This means I can get back to my other work in progress, ‘Follow the Van’ which I have started revisiting after a few weeks away.
It’s always a good idea to keep notes as you’re writing a first draft, and I have a book beside me with the notes I make when writing or rereading a chapter. This is particularly important with a mystery or a detective novel because there are so many tiny facts which have to be consistent. I reread my notes, put them in order again, transfer them to the main, larger notebook on my writing table, and then completely forget what I’ve just noted. Each time I go through the draft chapters to refresh myself, I make more notes, until I have all manner of lists and ideas, details and pointers hanging around beside me.
Another thing I’ve started doing with the Delamere series is to make some notes within the manuscript. I use footnotes to remind myself to check I have tied up a thread or answered a question. Put another way, when I write something I know needs explaining later, I put a footnote to remind myself ‘Make sure this is explained later’ kind of thing. Then, when I read the draft back, I check the note, and if I’ve explained later, I delete it. If I haven’t, I leap forward to where it needs to be explained and make the change. While I am doing this, I am also going through my book, crossing out what’s been done, and preparing a separate list of what still needs to be clarified, cut or developed.
For now, I am going to work on ‘Follow the Van’ up until Christmas, and then take two weeks off – we’re all going to Athens for New Year; more about that another time. More about the WIP and other matters in time too. I’ll have my usual Saturday and Wednesday blogs up until 23rd December, and will then be away. So, if you’ve not downloaded your copy of ‘1892’ yet, here’s the Amazon.com link, though the book is available in other Amazon stores.
Members of my private Facebook group will be able to take their free copy of my cosy Christmas short story collection, ‘1892’ on Monday and Tuesday of next week,
Here’s how you can claim your free copy of ‘1892, The Clearwater Tales, Volume One.’
Head to my private Facebook group, Jackson’s Deviant Desires and if you haven’t already joined the group.
You must do this by Monday when it will be possible to download a free copy of ‘1892’ from a post within the group.
The copy of the book will be in the Files section, found at the top of the group page.
The files will only be available on Monday and Tuesday, 11th and 12th December. I will take the files down on Wednesday morning, European time (GMT + 2).
1892 will also be on sale from early next week, on Amazon, in paperback, Kindle and on Kindle Unlimited.
Queer Reads
While you are waiting for that, don’t forget that three of my books are included in the Queer Reads book promo on BookFunnel. There are lots of titles there, each with a gay lit theme or story of some sort, and some are on offer.
The titles I have on promo there are Deviant Desire, Guardians of the Poor, and Finding a Way, the series starters for all three of my Victorian mystery series.
Welcome to New Readers
Here’s a quick hello to everyone who has joined our group and discovered my titles thanks to a promo in LGBTQ+ M/M Euro Book Banter that I was involved in last week. The group is running an advent calendar all through the month with a new author every day, and each author giving away a copy of one of their books. Fellow author Barbara Alsborg won my giveaway and claimed a copy of Deviant Desire, and there are still plenty more days to go on the advent calendar, so plenty more books to claim.
1892
If you miss the giveaway on Monday/Tuesday, look out for news of where you can pick up a copy of ‘1892’ from Amazon, or head to my author page and check there. I aim to upload the files and release the book on Monday to coincide with my private giveaway, so it should be available in plenty of time for you to curl up with a cosy and sometimes amusing read, as five favourite characters tell their stories.
Archer’s full title is Archer, Lord Clearwater, Viscount of Riverside and Larkspur, and in effect, he has three viscountcies. However, as is custom, he only uses one, unless it is for a formal announcement. The Riverside and Larkspur viscountcies were added long after the original Clearwater title, Clearwater being the (imaginary) area of Cornwall where the first title was created.
While putting together the Clearwater stories, and ‘The Clearwater Inheritance’ in particular, I delved into Archer’s family history, but never needed to go back further than his father and grandfather. There is mention of his mother’s ancestry in some of the novels, and Archer also has honorary titles after his name thanks to Lady Clearwater’s family: Lord Baradan of Hapsburg-Bran, and Honourable Boyar Musat-Rasnov, are the two that are dragged out on very formal occasions, or when he has a need to impress, such as his court appearance in ‘Fallen Splendour.’ These titles are completely made up, and I used them only to show he had a far-distant connection to the crowned heads of Prussia and Eastern Europe, for a romantic touch.
Archer, Lord Clearwater, Viscount of Riverside and Larkspur
As for the Clearwater title, when I came to write ‘Seeing through Shadows’, I needed to be sure of the history of the viscountcy, and that meant I had to draw up a line of men who had held the title. British titles only carry through the male line, so, in ‘The Larkspur Legacy’, Archer’s nephew could not have inherited his title because the nephew is descended from Archer’s sister.
When I first introduced Archer as the nineteenth viscount, to me, it sounded like it was a very old title, and that is what I wanted. However, later, when writing ‘Shadows’, I realised that for someone to be a nineteenth generation would have meant the title was created around 1240, and the first viscountcy in England didn’t come about until John Beaumont was created Viscount Beaumont by King Henry VI in 1440. My calculation, that the nineteenth generation, Archer, would have come about 646 after the first, is based on the average interval per generation of descendants being 34 years, according to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.
In other words, it was improbable that a man born in 1859 was the nineteenth generation of the title. Luckily for me, there was a civil war in England during which families fought against families, and it wasn’t impossible the title of Viscount Clearwater could have passed between several sons, brothers and cousins at that time.
This is explained in ‘Seeing through Shadows’ as Chester carries out his research, but what follows is the list of viscounts I created as background research for Chester’s research, and I’ve included it out of interest. Not all viscounts are named, because I didn’t need to name them, but you might like to know:
First Clearwater Viscount was created by King Henry VIII after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The fifth to the tenth viscounts were usurpers and feuding brothers, cousins, and uncles during the Civil War from 1642 to 1652.
The fourteenth and fifteenth viscounts were smugglers and crooks.
The sixteenth, Archer’s great-grandfather, was the Renaissance man and made the money.
The ‘should-have-been’ nineteenth viscount was Crispin, Archer’s demented brother, deemed unfit, thus, disinherited of the title by Royal Decree.
The Viscounts Clearwater
From William Riddington, 1541 to Archer Riddington, 1888.
In this week’s blog, you can get to know the main character from the Clearwater Mysteries, Archer, Lord Clearwater. Here’s a little background, and Archer’s answers to five questions.
This interview with Archer took place before January 1890 and the events depicted in ‘The Clearwater Inheritance.’
Lord Clearwater is Archer to his friends and the 19th Viscount Clearwater of Riverside and Larkspur to everyone else. He was the second son of the 18th viscount, Mathias Riddington and Lady Emily Hapsburg-Bran. He was educated at Millfield prep school from 1868 to 1872 when he was sent to Dartmouth to begin his naval education and training.
In 1877, he became a lieutenant on The Britannia, where he served under his brother, Crispin, during conflicts on the Black Sea. Archer was honourably discharged from the Navy in 1886 following a near-fatal injury inflicted by his own brother.
When Crispin was declared incurably insane, the 18th viscount reluctantly gave into Lady Emily’s wishes and arranged for Archer to succeed the title on his death. Mathias, Lord Clearwater died suddenly from heart failure in 1888, and the title passed to Archer. The inheritance, however, did not.
You have unusual Christian names. Can you explain them, and do you have any nicknames?
I suppose my forenames might be considered unusual, but they are perfectly explainable. My father, you see, was a devotee of the Hundred Years War and the Battle of Agincourt in particular. It was something to do with his sense of hating everything and everyone that was not British. My elder brother was named Crispin because Agincourt was fought on St Crispin’s day, and I was Christened Archer because it was the archers, they say, who won the battle for the British. Camoys, my second name, comes from Baron Thomas Camoys, who led the left flank of the soldiers on that day. I am lucky I was not named after the commander of the archers; otherwise, I would have Erpingham as my second name. Why he could not have just called me Thomas and had done… But there we are. My father never liked me.
As for pet names, my elder brother had various unsavoury words for me, which I shall not repeat here. My mother and some of my close friends call me Archie, which I quite like. My Horse Master, Mr Kolisnychenko, calls me ‘Geroy.’ Apparently, in his village in Ukraine, that was the word they used for someone noble. The Geroys, in his mythology, were fierce warriors and very noble men. Mr Kolisnychenko has such names for everyone, including my friend Tom whom he calls ‘Bolshoidick.’ Bolshoi, of course, means ‘big’, so I rather got off lightly.
The Illustrated Times from the day Archer was born, Saturday, March 26th, 1859. The illustration shows “The Prince of Wales’ balcony on the Corso, Rome, during the carnival.”
Where and when were you born?
I was born on the 26th of March 1859 in Clearwater House, Riverside, in London. What is now the London Borough of Riverside (south and north) was originally family land, my family being Riddington. We… I still own much property and land within what is now the borough and I keep my London house there. *
My mother kept a copy of The Illustrated London News from the day of my birth. You would rather think she had more pressing matters that day, but she was something of a collector. It was a Saturday, and the news was about the threat of war in Europe. Not much has changed.
*The area is now what we know as Knightsbridge, Belgravia, South Kensington and Chelsea. Ed.
How would you describe your childhood?
My first recollection is of being put in a tub of cold water by a large lady in black. This, I later discovered, was our nanny, and it was she who brought me up until the age of eight. My father was often away, managing to be at Larkspur when the family was in London, and in London when my mother took me to Larkspur. At the edge of eight, I was sent to a preparatory school in Kent and only saw my parents on rare occasions. I saw my brother, Crispin, more often, and there were some happy times between us. That changed as he grew older until, when I was twenty-seven, he was incarcerated because he was, by then, a lunatic. I suppose his tendencies had manifested themselves in our childhood, but had gone unnoticed. Because he was also my father’s favourite, they went unpunished. Where I was often birched for things Crispin had done, Crispin was allowed to get away with murder. He very nearly murdered me when he attacked me during a land skirmish when we were both fighting for the Odessians by the Black Sea.
My point here is, my upbringing was traditional; boarding school, elocution lessons, Latin, the classics, a little music, but only because my grandfather encouraged it, and the usual rounds of what the Honourable Master Archer was supposed to do. However, Crispin was the eldest and the heir, while I was just the spare and never meant to take the title. Whereas Crispin’s education leant towards country pursuits, estate management, and so on, I am very pleased to say mine was more towards academia and the arts. My father, of course, put a stop to that with the military academy, and I attended Dartmouth and Greenwich naval training college from the age of thirteen to seventeen when I received my first commission.
Life as the second son of a man with a title is not as pleasant as you might think. When my mother arrived to collect me for my first year at prep school, I didn’t know who she was.
Any particular childhood memories that stand out?
Apart from constant bullying by my deranged brother, whippings from my father, fierce nannies and cold dormitories, you mean?
Yes, actually, and it was something that happened when I was about thirteen and preparing to be shipped off to the military academy. I was at Larkspur, it was summer, and involved my, then, one and only friend, Tom Payne, who was then a hall boy. When my father was absent, my mother encouraged me to go below stairs. This was for two reasons. I firmly believe she wanted me to understand the servants’ lives so I would appreciate how lucky I was. I also think she knew I was a lonely child who craved to be loved, but she was unable to provide that love. As a result, I was able to spend much time with Tom, and we got ourselves into all manner of scrapes, much to the annoyance of Mr Tripp, my father’s butler, and to the amusement of the housekeeper, Mrs Baker.
One summer afternoon, there was some function or other taking place in the Hall and Tom and I escaped the clutches of Nanny and Tripp and set off on an adventure on the moors. (Larkspur Hall is on Bodmin Moor.) I can’t remember how it came about, but we ended up near what we called the Frog Pond, rolling down a hill and ending up on top of each other, me pressing down on him. I shan’t say more for fear of embarrassing Tom, who is now the Larkspur Steward, but I will drop a clue and say that was my first kiss. The joy and consequent confusion of that afternoon are offset by the horror and fear of an incident that had happened a few years earlier. Again, I had extracted Tom from below stairs (we were nine and eleven then) and persuaded him to slide down the marble bannisters on the grand staircase. It’s a horseshoe, you see, so we had one bannister each and would race from top to bottom. On this day, Mr Tripp caught us, and Tom fell. He could have died, but luckily, he only broke his arm. I was more scared that I’d hurt my friend than I was at the whipping I knew would come when Tripp told Father.
With good, there is always bad.
Thomas Payne, Archer’s lifelong friend, later his butler and estate steward. Through his life, Tom has gone from being the son of a dairy farmer to a hall boy, footman, butler, steward and gentleman. There has been something between Tom and Archer since book one of the mysteries, ‘Deviant Desire’, and we’re never too sure if they have or haven’t… you know. Then, there is that thing that happened in Paris in ‘Negative Exposure’ which can only set us wondering…
What do you measure success in? (Money, career, husband/wife, children, happiness, etc.)
I measure my success by the happiness and well-being of others. In other words, by the success of my charities and businesses. I don’t mean that to sound overly grand; as far as I am concerned, I do not do enough to help those who cannot help themselves, but I do what I can. Sometimes that’s in the Lords, lobbying parliament members to amend bills favouring the poor. Sometimes, and for me, principally, it is in the administration of my charities: A women’s refuge, St Mary’s Hospital, a relief fund for the out of work, and one for sailors unable to work because of injury while in service. Now, I also have the Cheap Street Mission for young men who, rather than prostitute themselves, want to better themselves. We give them the chance to start again. My secretary and lover, Silas Hawkins and I set it up following the Ripper incidents in 1888. Silas still oversees it from a distance, but it is now run by a young man who, like Silas, was a renter, thereby proving that my ‘system’ works.
As we speak, I am in the process of establishing what we must call an ‘Academy.’ It’s called that so we can secure funding and permission, my legal man tells me, but learning is only part of what we will do. The ‘House’ as I call it, is on the Larkspur estate and will be a place where young men (and one day, women, I hope), will be able to come to develop their talents in… Well, in anything. My aim is to find a man to be the overseer, bring in mentors for the young men as and when required, and have a place where they can simply be and develop themselves. These young men will be from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those we help at Cheap Street. Mainly, I hope, they will be men who have fallen foul of the hideous Labouchere amendment. Men who have been deemed criminals because of their ‘unspeakable acts’, their ‘deviant desire’ to love other men, or who have in some other way fallen foul of laws that forbid men from loving men. I believe the German doctor of the mind, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, coined the word ‘Homosexual’, but that sounds far too clinical for me. I refer to such men as ‘members of the crew’, mainly for their own protection.
So, to finally answer your question, I measure my success in the happiness of others. After all, there is no greater gift than to bestow joy.
You can start the adventure with ‘Deviant Desire’ and follow the lives of Archer, Silas (pictured with him on the cover), Tom and the rest of the Clearwater Crew right through 10 Clearwater Mysteries (and the prequel, ‘Banyak & Fecks’), and on into the seven Larkspur Mysteries. Who knows, soon, there may be another series featuring these popular characters.
As soon as I realised I was to write a series, I began what writers call a ‘bible.’ This, in my case, is a leather-bound notebook in which I record basic details of characters and places, various notes, maps and other information which I can refer to later. Doing this helps avoid errors further on in the series, so, for example, a character’s eyes don’t change their colour, or he isn’t suddenly a year older than he should be.
Some characters have more notes than others. Archer’s entry, for example, covers two pages, and some of the notes make little sense. However, over time, I will add these notes to the Clearwater Companion and include everything I have in my bible per character, and some other snippets that might be of interest. Most of the dates and ages in these notes relate to 1888, particularly for the characters of Archer, Silas, Thomas, Fecker and James.
[By the way: I have started building a Companion page for this website. It will be an index of all the ‘Clearwater Companion’ posts that I have and will put up over the next year or so. As soon as there is enough in the index, I’ll make the page public.]
Bible Notebook
This is it in the image:
These are some of my notes from my leather-bound Clearwater bible, my main depository of notes that keep me on track as the series grows. Apart from the locations section, I put these notes in the order they appear in my books, so they jump around a little, but I later, for the companion, I will arrange them under the series book number and title. Where a character has a whole page or two for their own notes, I will put them in a separate section.
Locations
Throughout the two series, I have used real and imaginary locations, or real locations to which I have given imaginary names. My original idea was to set Deviant Desire in a parallel London, so as not to upset Ripperologists. However, later, I realised that there was nothing wrong with using real places, as long as my descriptions were as accurate as I could make them. In the location sections, I make notes about whether the places are real or not, and mention those where the name is changed.
The city London
Greychurch The area/borough of Whitechapel
Limedock The area bordering the river, Limehouse
The Crown and Anchor Archer’s nearest pub in North Riverside
Riverside North and South (Kensington and Chelsea)
Cleaver St Cleveland Street
Five Dials Seven Dials near Covent Garden
The Grapevine restaurant The Ivy, near Seven Dials
Prince’s Bridge The Albert Bridge
St Matthew’s Park Hyde Park
Clearwater House, Bucks Avenue, London, W.
A very rough plan of the ground floor of Clearwater House. You should be able to enlarge it. Ps, I am not an architect!
Clearwater House borders St Matthew’s Park, and although made up, would have been to the west of Knightsbridge underground station, somewhere around what’s now Prince’s Gate. I named the street Bucks Avenue after the location of what’s commonly thought to be the first Jack the Ripper murder. On August 31st 1888, Mary Ann Nichols was found dead in Bucks Row, Whitechapel. Bucks Row is now called Durward Street.
Places In Greychurch
Saddle Square
The Ten Bells Real pup in Spitalfields
The Lamb and Compass Pub in Limedock
Cheap Lane Invented
Leather Lane An ally leading to The Ten Bells
City Street, main road Whitechapel Road
Tanner’s Yard Invented
The rope house (Molly’s) is in Tanner’s Yard
Taking the rope, or sleeping upright while hanging over a taut rope, cost 2d per night in 1888. It is thought that this is where the term ‘hangover’ came from because a night trying to sleep in a crowded room while hanging your upper body over a rope left you feeling pretty rough the next day.
You could also ‘take a coffin’ and rent an undertaker’s coffin for 4d per night. Some casual wards of workhouses and other hostels also had ‘coffins’, rough beds that resembled wooden coffins.
Other streets and places:
East Street with Cutpurse Lane off it
Cheap Street Market
Iron Bridge, at Limedock
Lane End Hospital (Mile End Hospital)
St Mary’s Hospital, Lady Clearwater’s project
Lessening Lane, Limedock
Christ Church, near the Ten Bells (real)
Bible Notes Random
It’s the nature of my book that I jot ideas and notes as I go through, so there will be some random notes that are not in chronological order. I might go back and add a character note to their page when they have one, but otherwise, I find whole pages dedicated to random jottings.
Continuing my theme of publishing never-before-seen sections of the Clearwater and Larkspur mysteries, here is the original draft of Chapter 42 of The Larkspur Legacy. If you’ve read the book, you will know when this section was meant to go; if you haven’t, it comes after a storm and before the climax.
Realising the book was running at over 175,000 words, I had to make cuts, and this scene, although fun to imagine, didn’t serve much of a purpose. There’s a fair amount of internal thought/exposition in it which I later took out and placed in pieces elsewhere, and the adventure could quite easily happen off-stage. In other words, it wasn’t necessary and was something of a filler, so it had to go.
As with the other cuts and unused parts of my novels I present here, this is a first draft and hasn’t been proofread. Let’s call it An Earl, a Cart, and a Midnight Journey…
Archer was woken from a fitful sleep by someone shaking his arm. Opening bleary eyes, it took him a moment to remember where he was and the name of the pink-cheeked, blond man crouching at his side.
‘It is dark, Sir,’ Clem said. ‘We can leave as soon as you be ready. It be a fair way, so the sooner we’re on the road, the better it be.’
‘I am at your command, Mr Carter. Give me five minutes.’
‘I’ve loaded the cart with some straw and some blankets,’ Clem said, standing and stretching his back. ‘You be best with your coat. It be dried by the fire now. If ye be hungry, there be bread and such beneath the canvas.’
‘Canvas? Are we to sail to Bodmin?’
‘Would it were that easy,’ Clem said, and took a rain cape from a peg. ‘Mr Hawkins said plain there were a chance of you being followed or watched, and them as might be doing it weren’t a be trusted. I made arrangements to get you there without being seen, but it ain’t a be pleasant. Only other way be to risk the night train and the chance of a cab at the other end, but that won’t be safe enough. Be quick now, Sir, we’ve many miles a cover tonight.’
Archer gathered what few things he had, and when they were both ready, Clem extinguished the lanterns bar one and led the way outside. The wind had dropped, but the night air remained cold, and was penetrated by an overriding smell of damp grass. There were few stars between the mottled clouds, themselves fading to black as the last of the dusk withered behind hills, and to the south, there were only a few lights from passing ships.
‘You best be in the back, Sir,’ Clem said, lifting his lantern to show Archer where he was to travel.
It was a cart drawn by two horses that were merely shapes in the gloom. Archer regarded the rough boards, the crates and boxes, and the canvas, secured at the sides but open at the back.
‘It’ll cover you, but you’ll have a be laying down.’
‘I see.’
It was not the way the earl was accustomed to travelling, and for the first time on his journey, he silently cursed Lady Marshall for setting him the challenge. Being at sea had, at first, revived his passion for being aboard ship, but later, once boredom and the storm set in, his enthusiasm had waned. Now, clambering into the back of a delivery man’s cart and taking up a position he was to keep for several hours, he wondered why the old ladies couldn’t have come up with something less tiresome.
‘Just bang the backboard if ye needs anything,’ Clem said. ‘I’ll tie this lose so it won’t blow about, and you can undo it if ye must. I got a change the horses outside Truro and agin at Lanivet, but everything be in order fur that.’
‘How long?’
‘Will have to see what the livery gives us, but I be reckoning on six or seven hours, Sir. I’ll take them as fast as I can, but don’t want a draw no attention. Mr Hawkins wrote there be someone watching Larkspur, so we’ll not be coming up the drive when we get there.’
‘Oh?’
‘You’ll see, Sir. Right, head down. Get back to sleep if ye can.’
Surprisingly, Archer could. He’d dozed during the afternoon, warmed by the fire until his insides no longer felt like ice, but after three days weathering the storm, his body was more tired than he realised.
Waking when the cart stopped, he had no idea where they were until he heard Clem’s voice on the other side of the canvas.
‘They’s not as sturdy as this team. They be the best you got, Denzel?’
‘Aye, me ’ansome, that’s the best I can be giving ye.’
‘I seen more meat on dead dog. Ah, well if this be it, then this be it.’
The cart dropped, and Archer became squashed against the backboard, until, grunting and swearing, Clem and his livery man lifted the stocks, and another pair of horses shuffled into place with their brasses clanking.
‘Be off, then, I will,’ Clem said at length. ‘I’ll have them back in a day or so.’
‘Aye.’
The journey began again, and when Archer judged they were away from the stable, he kicked the crates away, and resumed his position. There was no chance of sleep after that. Not only were the new horses slow, but they were also cumbersome, and he could tell Clem was having difficulty keeping them straight. It would have been much easier to take a train, or even ride home, but Silas’ warning had been clear. At least, it had been clear to Archer. To anyone else, the prose printed in the Egyptian newspaper would read as nonsense.
Vanished be the one who once wore ‘Amore Salvat’ like a dream, the message said. It was a reference to the ring Simon Harrington had given Archer when they were lovers, and the same as the one he had gifted Silas. For what’s left behind may not here come with thee. A hidden legacy was what his mother had left behind, and thus, the ship could not land with Archer aboard. The part about dust to dust meant that Archer could pretend to be lost at sea if that was necessary, and Silas would tell the others it was a pretence. But know this: the crew has oiled the wheels, and those wheels are turning. Silas had put in place a plan, and everyone knew, including Clem, now singing to himself as though happy to be driving through the night in December.
The rest of the strange publication suggested Silas intended to put a stop to Kingsclere before Archer returned, and that was the part that concerned him most. There was no way of telling what Kingsclere would do to steal the treasure, and as that was not yet found, there was no way of knowing how desperate or frustrated the earl had become. With madmen like Tripp and who knew who else working against them, Silas might put himself in danger without thinking of the consequences.
‘No might about it,’ Archer said, his mind now turning to what he would find when he was home.
The crew would have reached Larkspur by the early evening, and Mario Ricci would now be back aboard the Legacy with Captain Kent. There was work to do, and he would be with Bertie Tucker again, for a short while at least. What happened when the ship was ready to sail, and Kent had decided what to do with her, was an unknown, but the Legacy probably wouldn’t put to sea again until after winter.
Silas, meanwhile, would be waiting at Larkspur, ready to bring Archer up to date on events. Where was Jimmy? He and Andino had had plenty of time to get to Athens and back, and what of Tom?
There was much to contemplate, and by doing so, he hoped he might again induce sleep. It was creeping towards him some hours later when the cart turned and stopped.
‘I hope you know what time it is,’ a disgruntled voice said.
‘Aye, be coming on three. You’ll get your money.’
‘But I won’t get me sleep, will I?’
‘You know what me grandfader use a say, Mr Nance?’
‘No, and I don’t care to, neither.’
‘He used to say you can sleep when you be dead. Now, help me get this tack off, and I hope you got a better team than these two scragabouts. Taken hours here from Denzel’s.’
‘That ain’t surprising. What you want a be using him fur?’
The discussion about horses, liveries and midnight journeys continued as the harnesses clattered, the cart tipped, Archer suffered laying in a silent heap while Clem went off and, by the sound of it, relieved himself. The smell of wet canvas started to get the better of him, and he was on the verge of giving himself away with a sneeze, when the cart tipped back, and the men tethered the next team. The noise gave him a cover, but it still wasn’t a quiet a sneeze as he would have liked.
‘What were that?’
‘One of your nags letting air,’ Clem said. ‘I be back wi’e, in a few days, like I said.’
‘Aye, and make sure it ain’t three o’clock in the fucking morning, Carter. Be on yer way, and don’t give them too much feed. These two blow chronic.’
‘Wouldn’t expect nothing better, Mr Nance. God be with’e.’
The trundling, clattering and repetitive clomping began again, and Archer tried to think of things other than what he might find at home.
It proved an impossible task. Andrej should now be with Lucy, but there had been no news of her condition. There was a wedding coming up, assuming the poor woman had recovered from whatever ailment she suffered, and there would be a child in the house, assuming it had survived. As Mr Tanner had confirmed his translation while abord the Legacy, there should be three new leads on the chalkboard, but still the fourth clue to understand, unless Silas or Tom had had any luck. Silas might not be there. Jimmy might have taken on Kingsclere hand-to-hand and been…
Sleep overcame him, and when he woke, he was grateful for it, because his thoughts had been straying to the worst, but once more awake, he directed them to the point of his godmother’s quest.
‘To give you the grand tour you never took,’ someone had said, and it might have been Tom.
‘Because she and your mother liked puzzles and knew you do too,’ had been another suggestion, but there was a deeper reason, and it had something to do with Lady Marshall’s original letter.
To distract himself from the numbing in his legs and the pain in his back, the stink of canvas and flatulent horses, he though back and strained his memory.
The letter had called it his mother’s ‘hidden treasure’, but his godmother had not told him what it was, even though she could have done so in five words.
‘A stash of Romanian gold,’ he mused counting the words on his fingers. ‘The crown jewels of Hungary.’ Unlikely. ‘Complete ownership of Rasnov Castle.’ What would he want with that, and why keep it a secret?
No, it had to be something darker than that, and, being transported in darkness like a tea chest had not put him in the mood for dark thoughts. They could stay at the back of his mind, but they were hammering to be released.
There was too much to think about, too many unknowns, and pondering them would do him no good.
Without a lamp, he was unable to see the time, and not wanting to annoy Clem, he daren’t ask, but he wasn’t even sure what day it was, let alone how far they were from Larkspur.
‘Well, this is a fine kettle of fish,’ he whispered, because talking kept him amused. ‘The Earl of Clearwater discovered packed in with crates, being delivered to his home in style… There is a good reason.’
There was. His safety, and it was not only at the front of Silas’ mind when he wrote his coded prose, but also in the minds of the academy men and his friends. Even cherishing what his crew of young, loyal men, and Mrs Norwood, had done for him was not enough to keep the dark thoughts from escaping their metaphorical cage.
Hard though it was to imagine one of Kingsclere’s men lying in wait for him at the Hall, it was easier to imagine Adelaide. Discovering Archer ‘lost at sea’ or in some other way not aboard the ship that was no longer his, the inspector would have flown into a rage of frustration. Hopefully, Andrej had taken the advice and blustered as Archer had shown him how, and Kent had stood his ground. Even if not, Adelaide would still be after Archer’s blood. What little news had made it to the Egyptian papers had suggested as much, and the inspector’s desire for arrest had been compounded, no doubt, by Kingsclere’s determination to destroy Archer’s good name.
That was another dark thought to be shoved in the cage at the edge of his mind. The bars were bulging, and the lock in danger of cracking when the sound of the cartwheels changed, the horses slowed, and he heard Clem call them to a halt, before he said, ‘What you doing here?’
‘Morning, Mr Carter,’ was the reply, and it was a voice Archer recognised. ‘We thought it better if I showed him the way. Besides, Trevik has to get to his fields.’
‘Aye. Been some damage. You be lucky you missed the worst of it.’
‘I didn’t. I be fair freezing, Trevik. Be there a chance of cocoa from your mother’s stove.’
A laugh was followed by. ‘Always fur you, Carter. Get unloaded, and I’ll take ye inside. Art can do the rest. You brought your delivery, have’e?’
Archer was starting to think he’d been forgotten, but the canvas was whipped away revealing a sky glittering with a million stars, and, when he struggled to sit up and looked over the edge, Clem, Trevik Pascoe and his second footman, Art, were gawping at him by lanternlight.
‘Good morning, gentlemen,’ he said, trying to summon a sense of normality. ‘I assume I am at Far Farm.’
‘Aye, here you be, My Lord,’ Pascoe said. ‘And glad we are a see ye. I’ve hot water on if you be in need.’
‘Let me help you, Your Lordship.’
Art, to his credit, said nothing about Archer’s scraggy appearance, his crumpled overcoat, straggly beard and smell, as he helped him from the back of the cart, but he did suggest Mr Holt was already up and about and would have a hot bath ready.
‘That is kind of you,’ Archer said, his feet stinging when they hit the ground and his legs weak from lack of blood. ‘I assume we are to walk?’
‘After you’ve had a cup of tea,’ the young footman replied.
‘Aye, Sir, come inside and be warm a while. It’s a fair clamber through them tunnels to your cellar.’
‘Ah yes,’ Archer said, remembering how Pascoe used to take them to visit Art in secret. ‘You really are following in your ancestors’ footsteps, Mr Carter. Smuggling me into my own home.’
‘Best be safe, Sir,’ Pascoe said. ‘There’s been a stranger on the moor many nights, and Art says he means you harm. Quick. Inside now.’
‘I’ll have you home before dawn, Sir,’ Art said, taking Archer’s arm to guide him. ‘There’s lot to tell you.’
This week, I wanted to let you know that I will be taking a break until 15th April. Why? Well, there are two reasons.
It’s important for writers to take breaks
I don’t think I’ve had a break from writing for the past four years. Even when I have been away, I have had a book in my head, a notebook with me, and I’ve been planning and plotting while travelling. Then, on my return, I’ve dived straight back into the story. However, next week, I am going away for a week, and I have no story in my head. I’ve just finished the Clearwater and Larkspur series of 18 novels, and am about to move on to something new.
What?
That’s the question and the reason for the break. I know I want to write something set in the same time period, late 19th century England, but if I launch straight in, there’s a danger I will write the same characters as I wrote for the previous series but under different names. There’s also the possibility I will repeat my story themes, and I want to come up with new mysteries, characters, and a new series. Some things will be the same (a mix of fact/fiction, bromance/romance, fun, adventure and nasty villains), while others will change, and if I start now, the chances are what I write will be too similar.
Similar is good, because people obviously like the characters, time, plots and mysteries I have been writing (I had five of my books in Amazon’s top 100 list for LGBT Historical Mystery this week), so something similar is what’s called for. However, too similar and everyone will say, ‘It’s just the same thing.’ Hence, a two-week break.
But…
Having said that, I do have an idea or two and will no doubt think about them while I am away, but the pressure will be to work on newness, and not simply come up with a plot. I must start with a character or two, the MC and the IC, and get them firmly fixed in my mind before I start on detail. I have already started researching and gathering some notes and ideas, because there’s no point not writing down ideas, but I’ve not yet started on Chapter One. These images represent today’s musings…
LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01
By the way, MC stands for Main Character, and IC for Impact Character. As we had Lord Clearwater as the MC in the Clearwater series, so we had Silas Hawkins as the IC, the one who makes an impact on the MC’s life, aims and actions. As the series progressed, we had other MCs and ICs, such as James Wright in ‘Twisted Tracks’ and Thomas (as the IC). In the Larkspur series, we had Dalston Blaze as the MC of ‘Guardians of the Poor’, and Clearwater as the IC (who was also the protagonist, because your MC doesn’t have to be the protagonist). Later, we had Chester Cadman as the MC in ‘Seeing Through Shadows’ and Frank Andino as the IC, and so it goes on.
Where to?
No doubt you are wondering what his new series idea is and where it is going to. Well, you’re not alone, because so am I. You may also be wondering where I am travelling to, and the answer is simple and exciting. I am taking one of my godsons to Prague for a few days. He’s been learning piano and music with me (as it’s not taught in our island school), and I can’t think of a better place than Prague for music and culture – not on my budget, at least.
So, we have a classical lunchtime concert lined up for one day (at the Lobkowicz Palace), a performance of ‘The Magic Flute’ at one of the opera houses, and a boat cruise/dinner with varied live music another evening. Those are the highlights, but along the way, I am aiming to view various other cultural sights he won’t see on our island, and probably not in Greece. I’m thinking of cathedrals, the museum of music, the astronomical clock, the Klementinum, other museums, and simply just the lifestyle and architecture. So, an exciting, if exhausting, time is planned. We’ll only be there for four nights/three days, but there’s a two-day journey to get there from here, and a three-night journey to get back. All part of the experience.
We arrive back during ‘Great Week’, the week leading up to Easter Sunday, so as soon as we step off the boat, we will be into dynamite, celebrations and festivities that come with a Greek Easter on Symi. I’ll blog about all this and the new series idea as soon as I get back.
So, that’s why I’m not going to be around for two weeks, and who knows what story ideas I will come back with. Keep reading!
Proofing a book and making it ready for publication.
The Larkspur Legacy, the last in the Larkspur Mystery series, is now being layed out and when that’s done, it will be ready for publication next weekend. Meanwhile, I thought I’d have a look at the blurb and talk a little about the proofreading stage. As you can see from the title, I’m never sure whether I should write proofreader or proof-reader, or even proof reader. And that’s why I have one. More about that in a moment, first the blurb.
The Larkspur Legacy full blurb reads like this:
The Larkspur Legacy
The Larkspur Mysteries
Book Seven
Jackson Marsh
‘Lord Clearwater, the Larkspur Academy has forged a bond among its men that will last long after they have left us and made their own way in the world. You are to be commended for the enterprise, but you should not be surprised by it.’
Barbary Fleet, December 1891
Henry Hope lies in a coma, and Lord Clearwater’s hunt for his mother’s secret treasure is on hold. But when a new clue comes to light, Clearwater and the academy men resume their greatest adventure. It is also to be their most dangerous.
With murderous enemies behind, the unknown ahead, and a warrant out for Clearwater’s arrest, no-one is safe. Loyalties and friendships are tested as the men face harrowing confrontations, a war of attrition in the national newspapers, storms, gunfights and death.
Will love and friendship be enough to secure the lives and futures of Lord Clearwater and his crew? Can they solve the riddles in time, and will anyone ever know the meaning of the seemingly unlockable riddle? Behind four points ’neath gifted crook, the light awaits for those who look…
The Larkspur Legacy follows on directly from ‘Starting with Secrets’ and is the culmination of both the Clearwater and Larkspur mystery series. It is not necessary to have read the Clearwater Mysteries, but to get the best from this ‘end of season finale,’ you’re advised to read both, the Larkspur Mysteries in particular, and to read them in order.
With themes of friendship, bromance, male love and revenge, the story combines historical fact with fiction. As with all of Jackson Marsh’s mysteries, the novel contains humour, love and action, while offering the reader the chance to solve the clues with the cast of disparate, well-drawn characters.
“This is a book that could have been written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dan Brown.”
That is what you will see on Amazon when the book is published.
For me, the important things to remember when writing a blurb are:
It is not a synopsis
It is selling the book
Use power words
Keep it brief
Entice the reader
Other authors and advisors have other advice, but those are my rules to myself.
I start by writing what I want the browsing reader to know, and I don’t care how I write that draft. Then, I go through it knocking out as much as I can that’s not necessary to convey the backbone of the story, and then I go through it again using power words.
I try to keep blurbs down to 150 words or less, and only three paragraphs.
1) The premise of the story: Henry Hope lies in a coma, and Lord Clearwater’s hunt for his mother’s secret treasure is on hold, when…
2) The ‘thing to draw the reader in’: But when a new clue comes to light….
3) The great question or hook: Will love and friendship be enough…?
As for power words, I mean words and phrases like:
Greatest adventure, most dangerous, murderous enemies, the unknown, harrowing confrontations, war of attrition, storms, gunfights, death…
I also prepare the blurb before I send my MS to my proof-reader, because it makes sense for a third party to check it as much as they check the MS.
I’m lucky to have found Ann Attwood, and she has been my proof reader on every Jackson Marsh book and a couple of my later James Collins titles. It’s important to have a good working relationship with your proofer (who is not necessarily also your editor, in fact, I believe they should be two different people, but that’s up to you).
I invited Ann over to tell us a little bit more about herself and how she got into proofreading.
I started proofreading in my twenties (a long time ago!), mainly doing technical documents, but I have always read a lot.
I read Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind when I was around 16. My mum had the hardback edition, which was really heavy to carry around, and, of course, I read all Jane Austen’s books, and Georgette Heyer’s. As you can see, I am a big romantic fiction fan.
I worked in banking (sorry) until I had my family, but reading kept me sane. After they all started at school I was working in a preschool, but had to give up when I damaged my back. I needed something to do.
It wasn’t a big leap to get into reading ARC editions, but many had so many mistakes from lack of editing, I think, so I began sending corrections to the authors.
It wasn’t long before I was asked if I would proofread or edit professionally, so I set up a Facebook page (now Meta), and it snowballed from there.
To be honest, it’s so long since I started working with James and his Jackson persona, I can’t remember how we met. Probably a recommendation, which is how I’ve gained most of my authors (there are about 40 or 50 on my books. Some send regularly a book a month, others may send one or two a year)
James is easy to work with, and his books are extremely good. I enjoy following the plots and untangling the mysteries to see if I reach the same conclusion. The stories are extremely well thought out, and he has obviously done a lot of research. All that is left for me to do is fix his typos and enjoy myself immersed in a brilliant adventure, ensuring there are no continuity issues (which there usually aren’t).
This last book, the finale in the series, is his longest and best yet (IMHO). All the loose ends are tied up, but no spoilers here.
As well as editing and proofreading for my indie authors (genres include romantic, historical, paranormal, sci-fi, crime, and murder mysteries), I proofread for the online edition of a financial magazine, and edit for the marketing arm of a PSP software provider.
Ann Attwood
Thank you Ann, you sound like a very busy person and I very much appreciate being one of your clients.
So back to checking through the manuscript, your proofer should be able to identify everything from obvious typos to the subtle differences between words, and that’s what Ann does. Although I use a spell check, and a couple of plug-in grammar and spelling checkers in Word, there’s nothing to beat a 3rd party pair of eyes, and an experienced grammarian proof reader. We’re not just talking spelling and typos, but punctuation and consistency of story.There are so many words in the English language that are important to get right, and some of the ones I need a third eye on are these:
Discrete Discreet
Blonde Blond
Practise Practice
And some of my most common typos are character’s names, believe it or not. Often your eye and brain see what they expect to see, not what’s actually written, so I am always missing mix-ups like:
Dalson Dalston
Joseph Joshep
Marshall Marhsall
I’ve also put in some accidental typos that have been quite funny (as long as they get taken out). Mind you, nothing is as funny as some of the typos you see left in published classics.
In the Larkspur Legacy, there is one section where one of the characters is reading from an actual copy of Baedeker’s travel guide from 1890, and I couldn’t help quoting it verbatim. Reading from the book, the character says:
‘The façade, towards the boulevard… They must mean this road… Roman circular style… Three stories…” Spelt wrong. “Cottage of the pensioner who keeps the key…”’
The Baedeker travel companions, were very popular in the later 19th century and well respected, but not always so well proofed, it seems. Mind you, I can’t say anything, I am always coming up with new and creative typos: ‘Joe’s not stupid, Sir, he’s dead.’ Instead of deaf, for example. Mostly, I’m able to take them out before they go to Ann, but I also have a checklist of my most common. Form/From, Filed/filled, griped/gripped etc. I have trouble with double-letter words, as you can see, and that’s why you should always hire a professional proofreader, or a proof reader, or, assuming he/she is a compound adjective, a proof-reader.
Proof-reader might not be a compound adjective, actually. I don’t know. Which is why I call in the professionals.
The Larkspur Legacy is due for release next Saturday, 26th March. In the meantime, to celebrate the completion of The Clearwater and Larkspur Mysteries, I am offering Deviant Desire as a FREE download on Amazon until 22nd March. Maybe you had it on KindleUnlimited before but now you can download for keeps, or maybe send to a friend to get them hooked too!
I am also part of a BookFunnel promo running for the week, over 50 fellow MM author are showcasing their first in series, so if you are looking for a new binge read have a browse. I need clicks on this link to build my BookFunnel reputation so please CLICK HERE
The work in progress news this week. I have the proofed MS back, and am reading through it for the last time; still a few days to go with that.
Meanwhile, I have sent the back cover text to Andjela so she can make up the full cover, and I have estimated the page count to be around 500, including the author’s notes, front and back matter, map and an illustration. I expect to have the covers finalised in a week or so, and we are still on track for release on March 26th.
My next job, after my final read, is to set up the Amazon page and get the ISBN number, so I can add that to the front matter before sending everything off to be formatted.
Meanwhile, Neil read the full draft and had a comment to make. I’ll put it here to whet your appetite.
As with all the Larkspur books, The Larkspur Legacy catches the reader in a tale of mystery and mayhem, and twists and turns that will not disappoint. This last story is a book that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dan Brown could have written together.
Jackson Marsh is a gifted author who keeps his readers on the edge of their seats. There will be tears, and your blood will be thumping in your chest as the excitement unfolds.
My proof-reader wrote,
This one’s going to be a hard one to surpass!
What you make of it will be revealed in time, but there’s not long to go now. If you’ve not started on the Larkspur Series, then now’s a good time to begin the adventure with ‘Guardians of the Poor.’
As I’ve mentioned before, things that happen in this novel have their roots in previous books, and in ‘Legacy’, the skies are darkening with the wings of chickens coming home to roost, as an old friend of mine used to say. (If only chickens could fly; I think he was being ironic.)
Upwards and onwards, and less than three weeks to wait.
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