I had my setting – next I needed characters to populate the Tower and of course what all authors call a hook. I had this vague idea of what I wanted my story to be about – I knew I wanted to centre it around a tavern (I will do a separate post about the history of the taverns) and I already had a name for my tavern family. In one of the Tower’s official publications The Tower of London by Edward Impey and Geoffrey Parnell, there is a nineteenth-century watercolour of the Stone Kitchen tavern which was housed in a building between the Byward and the Bell Tower (no longer standing) and it is has a sign which states it is run by John Lund. Therefore, I had the idea of a series of books based on the Lund family stretching hundreds of years (if you read my About Me page you’ll read where I got this notion from) but where to begin this epic tale?
I’m a 16th/17th century historian so it would have been very easy to jump on the Tudor bandwagon but is the world ready for another Boleyn story? Possibly but I didn’t want to write it (yet). So, I thought let’s take it all the way back to the start but I didn’t feel the writing love for the 12th century with Stephen and Matilda constantly swapping the throne. As I procrastinated and wondered if I would ever get this book off the blank page my eyes spied my now research bible waving at me from my bookshelf telling me to open it. The Tower of London Prisoner Book by Brian A. Harrison seemed to fan out its pages until there she was in 1233 – Isabella of England, daughter of King John and sister to Henry III. She was supposedly kept in the Tower prior to her wedding to Frederick of Sicily in 1235. My mind started thinking why was she kept there for so long and what could she get up to?
Immediately I wanted her to be my antagonist but who would be the protagonist? More vague scribblings about a witch who haunted the Tower and a stranger called Will who would need to seek sanctuary within the walls for another unknown reason. The Lund family were sitting patiently ready to enter page left.
At this fateful moment, I took a writing course with Curtis Brown Creative on Historical Fiction – after all I had never written a book before and I thought doing some courses might help and they most certainly did! I presented my idea on our group forum thinking look at me with my Tower of London, my witch, her raven and a real Princess! Then I was challenged by Patrick Larismont who quite rightly asked ‘who is this witch and why is she suddenly bothered?’ – he had a valid point because I literally had no idea. The CBC group pushed me to find a motive for this mysterious woman who would have to play a huge part in my series of books spanning a vast period of time – she couldn’t just be bored.
The Prisoner Book waved again – it is very friendly – and I opened it up again and up popped Maude (women are obviously very keen to get their stories told). The entry read ‘Maud or Matilda Fitzwalter – for repulsing King John’s romantic advances, placed in the North East turret of the White Tower in an effort to weaken her resolve. Refusing to yield, she was poisoned by an egg sent in to her by the king. In seeking revenge, her father led the barons’ uprising in 1215 that resulted in the king signing the Magna Carta.’ Poisoned by an egg by King John? What an absolute gift she is and what better motive for revenge? And giving her a fictional son, Will, gave her even more desire for vengeance beyond the grave. Her death fitted perfectly and the story finally started to take shape. Jane and Emma Lund readied the alehouse (the tavern starts out as an alehouse in Book One); Erin ruffled her feathers and Will entered the Tower.
It is so important to get feedback from as many different people as you can throughout the writing process which is why courses such as CBCs ones can be worth the outlay financially. Without that wonderful forum how long would it have taken to find Maude and did I mention that I also made a new fabulous friend, Jules Sullivan, from it too. She is writing a fascinating book on Leonardo di Vinci and we ruminate over our troublesome characters over a nice glass or two of wine.
The Prisoner Book has waved at me several times since and given up more names, more characters in search of a minstrel willing to sing their tales – whether or not they expected it to be me I couldn’t possibly say. Early on the Prisoner Book also provided me with all the names I have used for the Constables of the Tower although not always using the given dates of their service – Thomas de Blundeville for example served 1225-26 before his uncle Hubert de Burgh 1231-32 but for plot purposes he serves after his uncle’s imprisonment in 1232.
I have one final character to add here (there are others which will be discovered in good time) and this one came late to the party. After I had written my magnus opus (!), I sent it to off to a freelance editor for a Developmental Edit which is a read through of the entire manuscript focusing on plot, pacing, structure, characters, setting and other such helpful stuff. Now these are extremely important and a writer should always try to get one done before they think of sending it off to an agent/publisher or before self-publishing. This is different to a copy edit which concentrates on spelling, grammar etc. Anyway, from the report I received back, the one major development was regarding Maude – as a dead person she had no-one to interact with, to argue with, to defend her actions to and as a reader we had no idea how she had managed to stay as a ghost/witch. This time the Prisoner Book was silent but I started to think about the Medieval concept of religion with its ideas in heaven, hell and purgatory and the role the devil played in Medieval fears and beliefs. The Devil made his appearance, looking uncannily like Cillian Murphy, shuffling his tarot pack (the Devil not Cillian) and the book was complete…well at least I think it is for now…
Now the characters are in search of readers.
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