Review – Jane Austen At Home, by Lucy Worsley

 Amazon UK and Amazon US

I can say with some confidence that, after reading this book, you will never read Jane Austen’s works in quite the same way again. I also wonder if, like me, your mental picture of Jane Austen is a blend of the famous ‘portrait’ by her sister Cassandra and Anne Hathaway’s memorable portrayal in TV’s (historically inaccurate) ‘Becoming Jane’?  If so, you must read this brilliant new work by Lucy Worsley.

Lucy’s lively style and relish in fascinating details shines new light on the real Jane Austen. Most of what I thought I knew was right – but lacking the vital context provided as we study the reality of Jane’s home life. In the modern vernacular, we would say she was ‘just about managing’ for most of her time, although Lucy helps us understand what was considered normal in Georgian society – and what was not.

Jane’s sister destroyed many of her letters deemed ‘personal’ and those which survive have been described as ‘mundane.’ Lucy Worsley disagrees and finds delight in the trivia. She says, ‘...her personality is there, bold as brass, bursting with life, buoyant or recalcitrant as each day required. These letters are a treasure trove hiding in plain sight.’ I was also fascinated to realise Jane knew her letters could be read aloud, often over breakfast, so used a code known to her sister to ensure discretion.

To return to what Jane might have looked like, Lucy suggests she was around five feet seven, with a twenty-four inch waist (the alarming consequence of wearing tight stays as a girl). She rebukes biographers who describe her as a ‘plump, dumpy woman’ based on Cassandra’s portrait rather than the evidence.  Similarly, the romantic image of a lonely writer fits poorly with the known facts.

I was intrigued by the glimpses of the author’s own formative years. By wonderful coincidence Lucy attended the Abbey school in Reading where Jane Austen was sent as a border at the age of thirteen. (She also stayed at the same house as Jane Austen by the sea in Lyme Regis.)  As we approach the two hundredth anniversary of Jane Austen’s death on the 18^th of July, I highly recommend this new book, which establishes Lucy Worsley as one of my favourite authors.

Tony Riches

(A review copy of this book was kindly provided by the publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, at my request)

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About the Author 

Dr Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the charity which looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, and other historic places. Her first paid employment after studying history at Oxford was at a minor stately home called Milton Manor, near Abingdon, where she fed the llamas. After that she became an Inspector of Ancient Monuments at English Heritage, doing historical research at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire: this led to her first book, 'Cavalier', about a dissolute Royalist duke. Her work as a curator at Kensington Palace led to 'Courtiers', which was followed by 'If Walls Could Talk', 'A Very British Murder', and her first historical novel for young readers, 'Eliza Rose', which is set at the Tudor court. For mre information visit Lucy's website www.lucyworsley.com and find her on Twitter @Lucy_Worsley,  

Book Launch Guest Post ~ Child Taken, by Darren Young

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

One hot summer's day, two-year-old Jessica Preston disappears from the beach. The police are convinced she drowned, but Sandra Preston won't give up hope that her daughter is still alive. How can she? Twenty years later, another child goes missing, and Sandra is approached by a young journalist who raises questions about what really happened to Jessica Preston all those years ago. But when the journalist discovers someone with an explosive secret, it threatens not only to reveal what's been covered up for so long, but puts both their lives in danger.

Although I enjoyed writing, I never thought I’d write a book or anything like that. My idea of utilising words for a living had all but ended when I gave up hope of being a journalist and got the ‘safe’ job at the bank my mum always wanted me to get.

But listening to a radio interview one sunny midweek afternoon as I drove along the A43 changed my attitude somewhat. On the talk show, GP Taylor was talking about his life changing decision to begin writing at the age of forty. I was thirty-nine and three quarter years old and my head had been turned.

The interview wouldn’t leave my brain. Was I capable of such a bold move? I liked writing a lot, but a book? I wasn’t sure I had the time, energy or competence but the more I dismissed it, the more I felt challenged and compelled to at least try.

A few months later, during another car journey, another bit of radio (this times a news bulletin) caught my attention and my idea for Child Taken was in place. I knew by the end of the journey what I wanted to do – from first page to last – and how I’d do it. It just needed to be written.

I set out with only three main objectives. To have short chapters as I’d read a book like that and loved it, to make the story as positive as possible and to not resort to killing characters for no reason. Then I had to work out how to get my idea and objectives into something that people might want to actually read.

In nearly every other part of my life, I am what was once described to me as a ‘big chunker’; quite happy with very high level of detail and not one for having to know precise information. The worst person imaginable when it comes to proof reading, in other words.

But with writing, it turned out that I was the polar opposite.

I was lucky that I knew the whole story in my head but I couldn’t do anything else until I’d done a chapter by chapter break down of how I’d tell it.  Then I began to build up each chapter, from a simple one liner into a thousand words and carried on until I’d got a first draft of Child Taken just over nine months later.

After that, I did a second draft; then a third and a fourth. Each time I made sweeping improvements although the story itself didn’t change at all. However, the way I told it certainly did. I also sought advice and feedback from a variety of sources. I was like a rabbit in the headlights in this new world but I talked to people who knew it well and more importantly, knew what readers and publishers wanted.

More drafts, each time less dramatic, followed plus a cull when I got rid of a couple of thousand words that I liked but the story didn’t need. In the end, by drafts ten and eleven, I was changing the odd word or sentence here and there; fine tuning and listening to the publishers and their appointed experts wherever I could and acting on it.

I was a naïve, idealistic novice to begin with and in many ways, I still am. I’ve had to learn on the job, pick up any advice and tips whilst learning from mistakes. I’ve been lucky to because I surrounded myself with the right people and as I’ve always maintained, what I’ve actually done is written a – fingers crossed - very good Word document.

It is my friends at Red Door Publishing that have turned it into a book.

Darren Young

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About the Author 

Darren Young was born and grew up (sort of) in the West Midlands but now lives in Nottingham with his wife and their two children. His background is in financial services and in particular, customer service, where he has a master’s degree and has been a consultant on the subject, helping organisations improve their customers’ experience, since 2004. He began writing in 2014 after hearing a radio interview. Child Taken is his debut novel and he’s currently working on his next book. Away from writing, he enjoys a game (good or bad) of tennis and any decent film although he has also been known to disappear without trace for a few days at a time with a TV box set. Find out more at Darren's website and find him on Facebook and Twitter @darrenyoungbook.

Book Launch Spotlight: Heloise, by Mandy Hager

New on Amazon UK, Amazon US

and Amazon AU

What happens when the 12th century's most famous French lovers are caught in the crossfire of factions, religious reform and zealotry?

Heloise has an exceptional mind. In her determination to pursue learning rather than marriage or life as a cloistered nun, her path inevitably crosses with Peter Abelard, the celebrity philosopher, theologian and master at Paris' famed Cathedral School.

When two such brilliant minds meet and engage, sparks are likely to fly. And when those two minds belong to a charismatic man and a determined young woman, those sparks are likely to ignite. But theirs is an impossible love.

At a time when the Gregorian Reforms are starting to bite and celibacy among the clergy and church officials is being rigorously imposed, these two embark on an affair that will see their lives forever changed.

Based on meticulous up-to-date research and the pair's own writings, this novel recreates the times, offers a plausible interpretation of the known facts and a vivid imagining of the gaps in this legendary story. So, too, it shines a light on a changing world whose attitudes and politics are not so very different from our own.

"Brilliant, gripping, thought-provoking, insightful of the times and its dilemmas and wonderful in allowing the reader to get into the heads and hearts of people with a very different world-view." 

~ Author Martin Lake

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About the Author

Mandy Hager is a multi-award winning writer of fiction for young adults. She is a trained teacher, with an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts (Whitireia) and an MA in Creative Writing for Victoria University. She also writes adult fiction, short stories, non-fiction, educational resources, blogs and articles, and currently tutors the Novel Course for Whitireia’s Creative Writing Programme. Find out mroe at her website mandyhager.com and find Mandy on Twitter @MandyHager.

Editing your writing with the PerfectIt intelligent proofreading add-in #AuthorToolboxBlogHop

I can’t be alone in wondering why the spell checker in Microsoft Word has hardly improved in the last ten years.  The solution is to use professional editing services, although you need to ensure your manuscript has as few avoidable errors as possible before you send it for editing.

For my last two novels I’ve been using a third-party add-in to help spot typos and ensure consistency. PerfectIt is easy to use and install and can be run at any time as an extension to the spelling checks.

In particular, I find PerfectIt good at highlighting the following, which are often overlooked by the Word spelling check:

• Common typing mistakes (such as 'manger' instead of 'manager')
• Words spelled in more than one way (such as 'adviser' and 'advisor')
• Inconsistent capitalisation of headings, titles and proper nouns
• Finding missing quote marks in dialogue
• Highlighting phrases that are used inconsistently
• Checking for words and phrases that appear with and without a hyphen
• Improving consistent use of compounds, numbers, fractions and directions
• Removing spaces before punctuation

Once installed, PerfectIt appears as a new tab in the Word menu. You can set up you style preferences and save them for different types of documents. All you have to do then is launch the add-in and follow the instructions.

You can try PerfecIt for free before you buy it - and the licence is for life, so there are no problems if you change your PC or laptop. Visit http://www.intelligentediting.com/download/download/

PerfectIt is not a substitute for a professional editor but will help your editor spend their time on things that really matter, rather than sorting out avoidable typos. 

Tony Riches

Do you have some great editing tips you would like to share? Please feel free to comment

The #AuthorToolboxBlogHop is a monthly event on the topic of resources and learning for authors. Feel free to hop around to the various blogs and see what you learn! The rules and sign-up form are below the list of hop participants. All authors at all stages of their careers are welcome to join in.

Book Launch Spotlight ~ That Darkest Place (Riverbend Book 3) by Marcia Meara

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

In Book 3 of her popular Riverbend series, Marcia Meara, author of Wake-Robin Ridge, A Boy Named Rabbit,and Harbinger, takes another look at the lives of the Painter brothers—Jackson, Forrest, and Hunter. While Hunter is home again and on the mend, the same isn’t true for his oldest brother. Jackson’s battle has just begun.

“There are dark places in every heart, in every head. Some you turn away from. Some you light a candle within. But there is one place so black, it consumes all light. It will pull you in and swallow you whole. You don't leave your brother stranded in that darkest place."
~Hunter Painter~

The new year is a chance for new beginnings—usually hopeful, positive ones. But when Jackson Painter plows his car into a tree shortly after midnight on January 1, his new beginnings are tragic. His brothers, Forrest and Hunter, take up a grim bedside vigil at the hospital, waiting for Jackson to regain consciousness and anxious over how he’ll take the news that he’s lost a leg and his fiancée is dead. After all, the accident was all his fault.

As the shocking truth emerges, one thing becomes obvious—Jackson will need unconditional love and support from both of his brothers if he is to survive.

Just as he begins the long road to recovery, danger, in the form of a sinister, unsigned note, plunges him back into bleak despair. Scrawled in blood red letters, the accusation—and the threat—is clear. “MURDERER!”

Will the long, harrowing ordeal that lies ahead draw the Painter brothers closer together, or drive them apart forever?

Suspenseful and often heartbreaking, this small-town tale is a testimonial to the redemptive power of love and paints a story filled with humor, romance, and fierce family loyalty.

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About the Author

Marcia Meara is a native Floridian, and lives in Sanford, just north of Orlando, with her husband of 30+ years, two large cats, and two small dachshunds. When not working on her books and blogs, she spends her time gardening, and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard. At the age of five, Marcia declared she wanted to be an author, and is ecstatic that a mere 64 years later, she finally wrote "Wake-Robin Ridge," her first novel. Making up for lost time, she has published five more novels over the last four years - find out more at her website The Write Stuff: http://marciamearawrites.com/ and follow Marcia on Facebook and Twitter @marciameara.

Guest Post by Jennifer Macaire, author of The Road To Alexander (The Time For Alexander Series Book 1)

 

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Ashley is a time-travel journalist who has fought to prove herself in a world that that believes her road in life was paved by her parents' fortune. After winning a prestigious award, she is selected to travel through time and interview a historical figure. Choosing her childhood hero, Alexander the Great, she voyages back in time for less than a day to interview a man whose legend has survived to the present day. He mistakes her for Persephone, goddess of the dead, and kidnaps her. Stranded in the past, cold and aloof Ashley has to learn

to befriend, to trust...and to love. 

Writing hot when you have a cold.

Sometimes I don't feel so hot. I don't feel like writing a love scene. But there's a book to finish. The hero and heroine are in place, (picture a book as a movie set) and the producer (the author) yells "Roll 'em!"... and the scene starts to unfold.

So, here I am, sitting at my desk, a flannel blanket over my shoulders, a steaming hot tea by the keyboard, and I'm stuffed with aspirin and sucking a sore throat pill.

I'm writing: "They touch, he slides his hands along her cheeks, grasps her jaw, turns her face to his. She resists, and then their eyes meet. Her cool resistance vanishes in the heat of his gaze. He leans over. Their lips touch..."

And I sneeze.

I picture the woman kissing the man and then sneezing.
The moment is gone.
I start over. This time I get as far as his lips trailing down her neck. Then he breathes in her scent, and all I can smell is my camphor rub. I try to imagine something more romantic than camphor. Jasmine – the old standby. She smells of jasmine - a delicate, sweet scent. He sighs and buries his face in her neck, her hair tickles his skin.

I sneeze again.

Damn it. I take a swig of hot tea. Blow my nose. Glare at the keyboard. The hero is getting annoyed. The heroine is yawning, about to fall asleep. I realize I've been sitting here staring at the keyboard for a long time. My tea is cold. I sigh and start over.

Cool hands sliding over hot skin. (I have a fever!) Sweat pearling on brows. (That too, is easy to imagine.) But my fever is making me loopy. I keep imagining the hero putting cool hands on the heroine's burning forehead. I can only write it once though, not seven times in a row. Besides, she's supposed to be feverish with desire, not with the flu.

I sigh, sneeze, and start again.

By now my eyes are watering so hard I can hardly see my screen and I've finished a whole box of tissues.
I realize I will not be able to finish my love scene.
I must get rid of my cold in order to write hot.
Sometimes, you just have to wait.

As the saying goes, "Waiting is half the pleasure."  My hands fly over the keyboard.

The heroine pushed the hero away. "Not tonight, darling," she said. "But don't worry. The wait will definitely be worth it.

Jennifer Macaire

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About the Author

Jennifer Macaire lives in France with her husband and three children. She lived in the Virgin Islands and used to work as a model. She met her husband at the polo club where he was playing. All that is true, but she mostly likes to make up stories.  She has published over twenty novels. Her short stories have been published by Three Rivers Press, Nothing But Red, The Bear Deluxe, and The Vestal Review, among others. One of her short stories was nominated for the Push Cart Prize (Honey on Your Skin) and is now being made into a film. Find out more at her website  and her blog, where she writes about her life in France https://jennifermacaire.wordpress.com/.  You can also follow Jennifer on Twitter @jennifermacaire.

Visiting Charles Brandon’s Tomb in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle

I’d always wanted to visit St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. When researching for my current work in progress, (about Henry VII’s daughter Mary Tudor), I realised Charles Brandon’s tomb is there so I decided to visit and take a look at it.

St George’s Chapel is within the grounds of Windsor Castle and was founded by King Edward III. Many successive royals have made their own ‘improvements’ and the chapel was seriously damaged by looters during the English Civil War.

There is a real sense of being at the heart of English History as you enter, as it is the spiritual home of the Order of the Garter and burial place of many kings. I spotted the portcullis badge of Margaret Beaufort everywhere, as well as the Dragon and Greyhound of King Henry VII.

The chapel is also full of surprises. I found I was looking at the tomb of King Edward IV, buried with ‘Elizabeth Widvile’.  The tomb had been ‘lost’ then rediscovered during restoration work in 1789, which explains its modern appearance. (When the tomb was found many ‘relics’ were taken, including locks of Edward's hair – and liquid from the bottom of the coffin!)

I was listening to the audio tour as I entered the quire and was amazed when I was asked to look up to the left of the altar. That morning I’d been writing about Catherine of Aragon watching Henry VIII’s jousting from an ornate wooden gallery. There above me was another - the wooden gallery from where Queen Catherine would sit to watch services in the chapel, as well preserved as if she was expected to arrive at any moment.

Henry VIII’s tomb occupies the middle of the quire and is surprising both for its simplicity and the company we’ve chosen for him to keep in eternity – as well as Jane Seymour, Henry is buried with the beheaded body of King Charles Ist and a stillborn son of Queen Anne. (If you’d like to know what Henry’s tomb was supposed to be like, there is a useful post here.)

Having failed to find the tomb of Charles Brandon, I sked a guide and discovered it in the south transit, half covered by a wooden bench seat and under a life-sized portrait of King Edward III adjacent to the tomb of King Henry VI.  Interestingly, it refers to Mary Tudor as ‘Married Mary daughter of Henry VII, Widow of Louis XII King of France.

And what about Mary Tudor’s tomb? She died in Suffolk on 25 June 1533 and Charles Brandon paid for a fine tomb Bury St Edmunds Abbey. When the abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, her remains were taken to St. Mary’s Church, also in Bury St Edmunds, and placed under a modest slab – another long trip from Wales!

Tony Riches