A few of my Villains

 

 An adventure story needs a few motivated villains.

But what constitutes villainy? 

In a Regency Era Tale of adventure and intrigue, villains of various types must feature, to thwart the efforts of the well-meaning characters and twist events to their own evil ends.

Whether through misfortune, cravings for power and wealth, or fanatical political ideals, each villain has a particular reason for their mindset and actions. Some start out as perfectly legitimate positions. 

     

However, being dedicated to a Cause often means being blind to any other point of view. Thus the angry, stubborn fanatic behaves in a way that defines him or her as a villain. Torture, mutilation and murder are sometimes part of the job.

    

       

  

Another type of villainy comes from selfishness and pure greed. 

Lord Percival loves money and has several villainous ways of adding to his wealth.

Good-looking, sharp-dressed, suave and arrogant, he attracts impressionable young men into his hard-living circle. They tend to lose large sums of money to him. Among others, he has ruined our heroine’s brother and wants Sarah as payment of the debt.

And of course in a Regency tale worth its salt there have to be Rakes. 

So in The Rake's Challenge, among other villains there are four Rakes on the prowl. Two are brothers, young and enjoying life. One is [ahem] the Prince Regent and then there is Sir Bilton Kelly, whose job is to find pretty young ladies to entertain the Prince.                                                      

There is also the diamond-loving Sophia, the discarded mistress, determined to win her lover back. She really knows how to play dirty to achieve her aims. 

  

THE RAKE'S ROMANCE COLLECTION: 

Four passionate Regency romances. Four unforgettable love stories. One irresistible collection.

Step into the glittering ballrooms and shadowed corners of Regency England, where reputation is everything — and love is never simple.

Escape away into the many corners of the world with these delightful romances, from first love tested by duty and war, to scandalous passions that defy society’s rigid rules, these richly romantic novels follow courageous heroines and compelling heroes as they navigate desire, honour, and the risks of giving their heart away.  

                

                                                                                              

                                     

                              

The Tulip Festival

 Tulip Time in Istanbul

The arrival of Spring is greeted each year by a Tulip Festival. Great banks of brightly coloured tulips fill the flowerbeds in  public spaces and the major parks of Istanbul. 

Gulhane Park, formerly the royal garden to Topkapi Palace, has a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere. The banks of  flowers make a delightful carpet of varied types and colours under the mighty ancient trees and flowering shrubs. 

Beyond the park there are glimpses of water: the Bosphorus busy with huge ships plying to and from the Black Sea; and the Golden Horn with ferries skimming across from north to south or up to Fener and Balat and then Eyup, the last stop, where you can take a cable car up to Pierre Loti's cafe. 

Part of Gulhane Park

Emirgan Park  Situated at Sariyer on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait, this park was formerly a private estate. The site is hilly, with many cypress trees, a small lake and a waterfall. There are splendid views of the Bosphorus and the hills across the water on the Asian side of Istanbul. 

In Spring, along with trees in blossom, the extensive flowerbeds provide a stunning display of tulips of every variety and colour.

Tulip Festival in Emirgan Park  [picure courtesy of Wikipedia]


The former wooden palace has long since disappeared but there are still three royal style pavilions- one pink, one yellow and one white.

The Yellow Pavilion in Emirgan Park [picure courtesy of Wikipedia]

The Bosphorus Strait in the background

My least favourite of my own stories

Even the Author has favourites among her own stories. 

 All the characters who appear in my Regency Tales are real people to me, especially as they tend to embody memories, attitudes or events from my own life.

Each story is a pleasure to create but at some point the characters take over and develop the plot according to their own wishes. The setting also imposes certain conditions. I'm fond of all my fictional families but some of their stories please me more than others.

                                                                In All Honour

My least favourite is my second story, In All Honour ......but only because I wrote it in a hurry .......and most of the characters are sick, injured or poisoned.  One other reason is that the villain turns out to be a really vile fellow. He gets worse as the story goes on.

The tale - unsurprisingly - takes place in Bath. 

The Pump Rooms, Bath [Image courtesy of Colin Smith via Wikipedia]

Greg Thatcham the hero, starts off with his arm in a sling due to a bullet wound sustained in the Battle of Salamanca. Coming home because his older brother has died in a riding accident, Greg finds his father Sir Thomas, in very low spirits, so the two of them go to take the cure in Bath.

Richard, the youngest brother arrives in Bath with dispatches from the Ministry. In no time, he gets poisoned and poor Sir Thomas is frantic.

Sarah and her friend from schooldays Lizzie, manage to stay in better health but Lizzie must look after her Uncle Charlie, suffering from gout. Uncle Charlie [General Gardiner] thinks he's looking after her. 

Sarah and Lizzie make friends with youthful debutante Lavinia Keating and her brother John, who falls for Sarah, but in vain. That makes him another invalid if we count heartsick as a malady. 

Throughout the tale Greg suffers accidents, from being pushed under a fast-moving carriage to having the wheel on his curricle damaged. 

Everyone is under some kind of threat from the Nasty Villain Lord Percival. In addition to his dark deeds he means to have Sarah by hook or by crook. He nearly manages it and against all the rules of the independent heroine, Sarah does have to be rescued. Even an independent heroine could not survive a leap from the second floor of a house in The Circus onto stone paving.

Happily, all the invalids recover by the end of the tale.

It makes me proud that some readers consider Greg to be a worthy book boyfriend.

Also there has been praise for the setting as readers enjoy the different aspects of life in Bath.

The magic of Silk

 

SILK, originally spun only in China, 

was gradually traded as far west as Persia, before Medieval rulers managed to acquire silkworms and mulberry trees to set up their own silk industries - in Lebanon, in the Byzantine Empire and much later in Europe. 

The trading routes from China to the Mediterranean and into Europe soon became known as the Silk Roads as silk was the main product. 

Valued for its lustre and texture, silk rapidly became a symbol of luxury, wealth, power and social status. It was a major industry, bringing in much wealth.

The city of Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. It was the centre of silk production and trade from early medieval times. 

    In 1490, Sultan Bayazit ordered the construction of a caravansaray, called the Koza Han, in Bursa.

The vaulted corridor around the courtyard of the Koza Han

[photo courtesy of Wikipedia]

This caravansaray provided lodging for merchants and their animals and goods, as well as workshops for the weavers and offices for business. In the 16th Century the commercial agent of the Medicis of Florence had his office in the Koza Han

Nowadays there are 300 small shops in the corridors of the han, plus this little mosque and a cafe.

In an absolute Ali Baba's cave of beautiful treasures in the Koza Han I bought this silk scarf. It's one and a half metres wide but the silk is so fine the scarf slides easily through my wedding ring. 

       

And then there are the Huguenot Silk weavers of the Cevennes - but that's for another post.

Remembrance Sunday

 

Armistice Day

Writing advice from C S Lewis

 C.S. Lewis responding to a letter from an American schoolgirl asking him for some writing advice. [1]

Which points do you consider most useful?

For me it's numbers 3 and 5

[1] credit to creator of the clip - although it has been shared many times.

'Know your characters,' they said....

Advice to New Writers : "Before starting to write your novel 

you must know all about

 your main characters " 

That advice seemed very helpful. 

Back in the day when I was a beginner at novel writing, I diligently wrote a profile for my two main characters, mentioning all the items suggested in the advice.

pet hates, favourite activities, any strengths, flaws, relationship with family, and so on - and on. 

Well, that novel was written long ago but although it earned praise from editors and critiquers, it was never accepted for publication. Other stories fared better but one day I came back to this tale, my first and most precious to me. 

Now a seasoned writer and editor myself, it was easy to see ways to improve and polish the story.

I dug out the folder of notes and information for the tale. And in amongst all the plans, pictures, buildings etc, were the notes for the main characters. 

The heroine's notes ran to eighteen A4 pages, all handwritten. It was almost a mini-novel in itself. And like all research, very little of that went into the actual novel.

                                           

 The hero had sixteen pages of notes about his life, etc. 

     

Maybe I know more about these two than about members of my own family.

Now I smile at my earnest innocence. But it brought them to life for me, and their hair-raising adventures make a thrilling read, even if the story remains unpublished.

A Summer Holiday at the Seaside

              It's summer -  so time for sea air 

- and where else but Brighton, especially when the Prince Regent is in residence at his Summer Pavilion. 

Little does he know that his fondness for sweet cakes could be the end of him. 

Among the visitors is Anna, rushing from one near-disaster to another, and Lord Giles Maltravers, the ton's most dangerous Rake, who by mischance has to act as her chaperon. 

An amusing frothy tale with cricket, races, concerts and fashion - and more besides.

                                                   The Rake's Challenge    

Sea bathing on the ladies' beach - but note the men with telescopes.

The Steyne, Brighton.
Donaldsons shop and library at left, the Pavilion in the background .
The Prince Regent on horseback [white trousers].

A PERFECT GENTLEMAN?

 Joachim de Montailhac

In Spring 1818, 27 year-old Joachim is delighted that this year, for the first time he is in sole charge of running the family estate. This is a great challenge. As the youngest of five children, he has always had to fight for his dignity. So with this new responsibility he is determined to do as well, if not better than his two brothers.

Flocon, Joachim's faithful old lurcher

Athletic, handsome and always a gentleman, he is devoted to his parents, plays the violin like a dream, rides and shoots well, goes fishing with his father and is very much a hands-on worker.

Attempting to equal his brothers, he made a few bad mistakes growing up. Ten years after one episode he still feels guilty at the effect his actions had on family and close friends. It doesn't help that the other person involved in that scandalous episode has no shame and continues to torment him over it.

Just when he needs to give his full attention to running the estate, his problems multiply.

A big disappointment is the arrival of his mother's guests. Having two young ladies to stay was meant to be a pleasure but very quickly Joachim considers them to be the visitors from Hell. Being gentlemanly becomes a struggle, especially when he is so busy.

A Merens horse

  

The estate consists of the family chateau and a vast stretch of lands in the foothills of the Pyrenees. As well as livestock - horses, cattle and sheep - there is an iron mine on the estate, worked by tough, independent minded peasants, as proud as they are poor. Joachim is determined to improve their lives but so far they resist any change.

The iron Mine

New gallery at the Mine

Desperate to find more iron ore, the miners hastily dig a new tunnel. A week of heavy rain causes the roof to collapse, and four men die, others are badly injured. Joachim does all he can to help in the aftermath. 

To complicate his life, his tormenter from ten years ago is stalking him again.

And worse still, he becomes the victim of a kidnap and is badly injured.

When will his luck turn? 

Even when life calms down, something occurs that stirs his resentful temper - for even a gentleman has some character faults and Joachim has reached overload.

How will it all end....?  

BREAKING FREE by Beth Elliott

(c) Beth Elliott

TREES

 The SWWJ recently ran a competition for a 500 word story

 with the title 'TREES'.

I submitted a bit of whimsy about the fair maid Solveig saved from marriage to Gunnar King of the Trolls by a friendly Birch tree Spirit.

My entry was the runner up [out of 31 stories entered]

That was pleasing enough, but the real reward is the judge's comments. 

'This had shades of 'Lord of the Rings' and I liked it for its originality and beautiful prose, which completely pulled me into the magical world of fjords, trolls and a birch spirit.'

What about the two troubled sisters?

 'Here they are, mother, Miss Hartford and Miss Sophia Hartford.' 

says Joachim as he presents the visitors to his mother [and he thinks 'I really wish they weren't here.'] 

Actually, Nell and Sophie really don't want to be there either, but having been cast out of their home in Paris they have nowhere else to go. 

Why are the sisters troubled?

They lost their brother, Captain Alex Hartford from his wounds at the battle of Waterloo. Not long after that their mother died. 

Their father, Colonel Robert Hartford thinks only of his own advancement. An aide to the Duke of Wellington, he is organising the disbanding of the Army of Occupation in Paris in 1818.[1]

In June 1817 he remarries in hopes of having another son. 

Very soon Nell sinks into a depressed state and Sophie becomes so wild, their new stepmother casts them out.

Pedestrian curricle [vélocipède] race in Paris 1817
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Life in Paris is full of variety, fashion, entertainments and endless dances with crowds of English, Austrian and Russian soldiers. Exactly what Sophie enjoys.

Bal Bullier, an open air dance setting at Montparnasse, established in 1787. [Picture courtesy of Les Montparnos Blog]

Going from Paris to the Pyrenees is a huge shock. What ? Life in a country chateau surrounded by lakes and mountains? No dances and no soldiers to admire her? Bor-ing!

Sophie creates havoc before she has been there 24 hours, driving Joachim into such a rage he's certain flames are coming out of his ears. After ten days he realises that Nell has not smiled once since arriving. It seems life is going to be difficult for all concerned. 

Joachim's comrade Bertrand remarks: 'My friend, I don’t envy you being saddled with that pair for months. I couldn’t put up with either of them for a week, even.’

Can life with the slightly exotic Montailhac family help the sisters make a fresh start? 

Can Joachim find anything to like in either of them? 

            His wise mother uses kindness to bring about change. 

[c] Beth Elliott

[1] The Army of Occupation by the four Allies - England, Austria, Prussia and Russia - under the Duke of Wellington, guaranteed peace in France for three years, and was disbanded at the end of 1818.