What is the working title of your book?
A Dangerous Destiny: The first Luke Ballard mystery
Where did the idea come from for your book?
I wanted to marry my love for history with crime and just a bit of magic. Luke Ballard is an apothecary in the Outer Green of Hampton Court Palace. He is also an elemancer – a magician who uses the elements to perform magic for the good of mankind. Elemancers are helped by special dogs called greysprings, with the sight sense of greyhounds and the scent abilities of springer spaniels, or, as they were called in the 16th century, springing spaniels. In my Tudor universe, Anne Boleyn is still alive with her son now on the throne and she is also an elemancer, which encompasses the rumours that Anne was a witch but puts a new slant on them. The first tenet of elemancy is the balance and order of the universe, so to keep the balance, the enemies of elemancers are sunderers, who latch on to the desires and ambitions of men and use that energy to create strife. Sunderers also have dogs, called umbrans.
What genre does your book fall under?
I wish I knew. The shortest description is “crime fantasy set in an alternate Tudor universe.”
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Normally, it takes a few weeks of thinking round the theme and doing the research, but once I get down to it, the writing takes about 4 months.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I will say that I love the Hugh Corbett books by Paul Doherty for their evocation of the setting of the early 14th century, their historical accuracy and the diligent and logical way Hugh investigates each case, but there is no fantasy in them. I also enjoy James Oswald’s Inspector Maclean books because of the whiff of the paranormal, which is never permitted to get in the way of the investigation. I can’t compare the Luke Ballard books to anything I’ve read because of the marriage of genres.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve always thought Anne Boleyn had a rough ride. My oft-uttered wish is that I could go back in time to tell Henry VIII that it is the man’s chromosomes that decide the sex of the baby. So I desperately wanted Anne Boleyn not to have been executed. The first thought for the series was the phrase “Henry’s black-eyed boy” which popped into my head sometime in 2007. From there I built a setting around the Tudor Hampton Court Palace. I decided that the child Anne miscarried in 1534 would, in my new universe, have been a son, called Henry after his father. The first book in the series, “A Duty of Evil” was written in 2009 and the second “A Taste for Treason” in 2011. At this point, I had them accepted by an agent who has worked her socks off trying to find an editor to take them. Since then, I have written and published 2 non-fiction books and a book of short stories. Then I thought that it would be interesting to discover the story of how Luke came to be an elemancer in the first place and that is the subject of “A Dangerous Destiny”. So, really, it is a prequel to the other books.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I do my best to pull in true historical events that took place in the years in which the stories are set melding them with elemancy as part of the plot by "adjusting" current investigation techniques and making them part of the magic. However, nothing is easy for Luke. Not only does he struggle against those in the court who will stop at nothing to achieve their ambitions and squash anyone who gets in the way, he is also waging constant war against sunderers. His magic helps clarify things, but it doesn’t solve the mystery.
Which five writers will take over from you next week and tell us about their Next Big Thing?
Thanks to Robert, Alan, Harry, Betsy and James for carrying on the “chain”.
Robert DeMers • http://www.robertgdemersbooks.com/blogs.html
Alan Petersen • http://fictiveuniverse.com/
Harry "Hammer" Wigder • http://www.actionagainstviolence.com
Betsy A. Riley • http://brws.com/wordpress
James M. Copeland • http://www.jamesmcopelandbooks.com
Luke Ballard, Detective, Apothecary and Elemancer keeping the Tudors safe at Hampton Court Palace
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Shadows in the Light
I've just uploaded a new e-book of short stories:
Want an enjoyable way to fill a few spare minutes. Shadows in the Light. 15 Short Stories Each story takes as long to read as drinking your morning tea or coffee.
I think shorts are widely seen as the poor relation of novels, but, in my view and certainly in my experience, fitting in characterisation, plot, setting and a complete story arc in so few words is quite an achievement.
The other advantage of course, is that you can read a complete story on the bus or train, during your morning coffee or afternoon tea or while waiting in the doctor's or dentist's surgery.
In this collection, you will find Rosemary who cannot forget her first love, Anna, trying to escape from a controlling bullying employer, Will, caught between two women, one of whom he loves with all his heart and the other who won't let him go. Then there is the unknown protagonist who will go to any lengths necessary to achieve vengeance, the spider-hating girl who has a shock when she searches the basement and Silas, whose assumptions lead to tragedy.
So for those of you who don't normally read shorts, take a leap of faith and try these. You never know, you might enjoy them.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Where did Luke originate?
When I wrote the first Luke Ballard novel, "Duty of Evil", I began in the middle of Luke's story. In researching the third novel, which has its origins in the Lincolnshire Uprising of October 1536, I began to explore Luke's background.
More recently, I've felt an overwhelming urge to give readers a chance to know him, too. So I am now working on a number of short stories. The first one will tell how Luke came to the knowledge that he was an elemancer and the effect that knowledge had on his character and disposition. Naturally, it will also be a mystery for him to solve.
Of course, this blogpost title has more than one interpretation. In the books and stories, Luke was born into a family who lived and worked on the Heneage estate at Hainton near Louth in Lincolnshire, England. The Heneage family had high connections at the court of Henry VIII. Thomas Heneage was attacked by the mob as he tried to suppress the abbey at Louth - one of the sparks which fired the Lincolnshire Uprising. He is often confused for Sir Thomas Heneage, who was Vice Chamberlain to Elizabeth I and who was our Thomas's nephew.
As readers of this blog will know, I have close connections to the Heneage estate. My father began his working life there in 1932 and I was born about 100 yards from the estate gates. The connection between the Lincolnshire Uprising, which not only began in the immediate vicinity of the estate, but which involved a member of the family and the link to my own family proved to be too much of a temptation.
Thus my fictional Luke, a child of the estate, came to court with an equally fictional Heneage son. Their friendship of many years was riven by a bitter quarrel over a woman and Luke was cast out to earn his living. He was lucky to find the apothecary in the Outer Green of Hampton Court Palace who took him on as an apprentice. And for the rest, you will have to wait until I've written the stories... Watch this space.
More recently, I've felt an overwhelming urge to give readers a chance to know him, too. So I am now working on a number of short stories. The first one will tell how Luke came to the knowledge that he was an elemancer and the effect that knowledge had on his character and disposition. Naturally, it will also be a mystery for him to solve.
Of course, this blogpost title has more than one interpretation. In the books and stories, Luke was born into a family who lived and worked on the Heneage estate at Hainton near Louth in Lincolnshire, England. The Heneage family had high connections at the court of Henry VIII. Thomas Heneage was attacked by the mob as he tried to suppress the abbey at Louth - one of the sparks which fired the Lincolnshire Uprising. He is often confused for Sir Thomas Heneage, who was Vice Chamberlain to Elizabeth I and who was our Thomas's nephew.
As readers of this blog will know, I have close connections to the Heneage estate. My father began his working life there in 1932 and I was born about 100 yards from the estate gates. The connection between the Lincolnshire Uprising, which not only began in the immediate vicinity of the estate, but which involved a member of the family and the link to my own family proved to be too much of a temptation.
Thus my fictional Luke, a child of the estate, came to court with an equally fictional Heneage son. Their friendship of many years was riven by a bitter quarrel over a woman and Luke was cast out to earn his living. He was lucky to find the apothecary in the Outer Green of Hampton Court Palace who took him on as an apprentice. And for the rest, you will have to wait until I've written the stories... Watch this space.
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