The End

Popping my head up out of my writing hole *blink, blink* to wave hello *waves* and confirm I am yet of this world. When I am not lost in a world of my own creation, which is exactly where I have been the last few months. .

Since October I have spent a lot of time in Georgian Britain. 1798 and Scotland, to be exact, and I could not have had more fun.

The Georgian era was a period of extravagance and paucity, male domination and wigs, war, political posturing, love, jealousy, heart-break, infidelity, and family shenanigans and secrets. So the only thing that really sets it apart from present day is the lack of electricity, running water, Smart phones and automobiles. Other than that, it's still a Kardashian world wrapped up with a historical bow minus gender reassignment; blood-letting being more the medicinal norm of the day.

That is not to say that people back then did not experience identity issues, or engage in physical, or sexual interests outside expected parameters (heterosexuality); they just did not admit openly to it under fear of persecution. Sodomy was a hanging offense, and yet despite the very real threat to their lives should they be found out, men of that era still established locations to congregate for the sole purpose of initiating assignations, meeting places known as Molly Houses.

A Molly House did not make it into my novel, the majority of which is set at my hero's fictional family estate in Scotland: Camberleigh Castle. There is reference, however, to a very real madhouse, Greatford Hall, a private insane asylum to which my heroine narrowly escapes involuntary admission.

The story was a delight to write, and I am only mildly saddened that I typed THE END yesterday at 7:35 PM, just fifteen minutes before I had to be at yoga class. Mildly saddened, because I know the real work has only just begun, and despite having typed THE END, I will revisit this story and its characters many times during revision and final edits before it ever totters off to Beta Readers and eventually, one day, an agent or editor's Inbox.

Oddly enough, this novel originated as a blog post for an annual Internet writing challenge held in April known as Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Tentatively titled A Darling for a Duke, the story grew from a seed of a scene I wrote for day B. Read it here.

That is the nature of writing. One never knows where she/he will find her inspiration. I wrote that initial scene back in 2013 and forgot about it until October 2015 when I was ready to return to the novel-writing trenches after a lengthy hiatus and I was reviewing the variety of partial scenes I'd written at various times over the years that never made it beyond a couple of pages, looking for something that resonated. Bollocks and Beginnings resonated, and...the rest is history, or more accurately in this case, Historical Romance.

So, if you have ever wondered where writers get their ideas, from experience, I can attest that ideas are...everywhere. It is what happens after the idea that counts: action. One simply has to sit down and work from Bollocks and Beginnings, to The End.

Deborah

There is a time for departure, even when there is no certain place to go. ~Tennessee Williams


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