The Stanforth Secrets

Hi, here's Jo, blatantly promoting my book of the month -- The Stanforth Secrets -- but with, I hope, interesting stuff.

My first published book was Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed. (Still available.)

For my second, I decided to use my home area as a setting.

I was born and raised in Morecambe, Lancashire, but that's a Victorian sea-side town. Back in the early 19th century it was a fishing village called Poulton, and nearby Heysham was a bit larger and a great deal more historical. (That's pronounced Hee-sham, by the way, and Morecambe is Morcum.)

There's an excellent historical account here, going back to pre-historic times. As a child I was only aware of the Anglo-Saxon heritage, in particular the hog-back stone -- a Norse burial stone, which used to be outside the very old church, available for climbing on. And yes, I confess, I did.

(You know, when I look at this picture again, it looks a lot like a penis to me.... )

The stone has now been moved into a more protected environment, but not everything can be. I liked this description from the above site about a New Stone Age burial site.

"The ancient race used the Long Barrows :- one is in the allotments just to the North of Heysham School, and stretches like a whale with its nose to the Pole Star right up to Crimewell Lane opposite Mount Zion House. The only way to get to it lies through the garden behind the fish shop."

More ancient remains.

There are also graves carved out of the rock. Even as a child that seemed a really hard way to form a grave, but they have the clear shape of a human body. This photo, from this site also shows the area's beauty.

In addition, you can see the ruins of Saint Patrick's chapel. Yes, one of Heysham's claims to fame is that St. Patrick established a mission there and built a church about 444 AD.

Let's return to that hog-back stone.

One version says it marked the burial place of  Thorold the Viking, killed in the Battle of Brunanberh in 937 AD. The important bit for The Stanforth Secrets, however, is that it was discovered and dug up in 1800, so it was still hot news in 1811, when my book is set. In fact, it weaves into the murder and mayhem that lie beneath the secrets there.

I think it was my editor's idea for this book to be a romantic suspense. Of course at that stage of my career I was a little engine who could. I think I did a reasonable job, but the process convinced me that my writing style and who-dunnit didn't mesh, especially with a setting involving servants. Not only did I have to figure out where the various family members were at suspicious moment, but where all the servants were too!

Let's look at covers.

The original edition was a hardcover from Walker Books, who were then using very plain dust jackets. That was preferable to this odd rendition on the Avon paperback. Yes, the rough character details are more or less right, but Chloe looks like a Japanese teenager suddenly overcome by a poisoned daisy!

The new one is much better even if she's going to catch a nasty cold going outside like that.

I hope you enjoy -- or have enjoyed -- the twists and turns as well as the romance. Forbidden love. Perhaps "survivor guilt." Passions that must be restrained, in part because of the decencies of the time, but also because back then I wouldn't have been allowed to let them get too heated.

Unlike in Chalice of Roses, out last month.

Or Tempting Fortune, out next month in the UK. Brothel scene in that one.

And The Secret Duke, out in April.

By the way, I've just put up an excerpt. At the end, there's a period portrait which to me might be Ithorne in his more ducal mode. Sober, thoughtful, book in hand.

Oh, talking of character pictures, I found this one that I thought could be Chloe considering the predicament she finds herself in. You'll see that it's not wildly different to the woman on the cover except that her hair is up.

 So, what do you think of the character pictures?

Do you like to know that a setting has particular importance for an author, or doesn't that matter to you?

Anyone got spring yet? That's the scene from my kitchen window here in Whitby!

I'll give a copy of The Stanforth Secrets to one lucky comment-maker here.

Cheers,

Jo

Comments

[Kim]

Thank you, Jo, for the back-story to the Stanforth Secrets. Yes, the stone looks like a penis … but man has been obsessed with the symbol of fertility since the dawn of time.

I prefer that an author has a connection to the story's setting. I believe the author can convey a certain confidence about the house, moor, or coastline in the story. I like to read authors’ websites before I read a book. I am particularly pleased when I read about an author’s fact-finding trip to the Scottish castles or the Cornish coastline. For example, I had become a fan of Andrea DaRif’s The Tiger’s Mistress and The Kiss of Spice. Her website took me to her alter ego, Andrea Pickens, who was writing a new trilogy, “Merlin’s Maids.” I spotted a reference to Bovey Castle, deep in the heart of Dartmoor in Devon, as a setting for the first book, The Spy Wore Silk. My grandmother lived in Devon and treated me to picnics on Dartmoor, so I felt a connection to Andrea. And I am excited for her new alter ego, Cara Elliott, who has also done her homework for To Sin with a Scoundrel!

I would like your readers to know that your website was invaluable to me as I prepared to host historical authors, including Mary Jo Putney, for a military spouses’ tea party at Fort Meade. We decided to reenact the ‘50s when our mothers dressed to the nines for afternoon tea. My own research into tea parties took me to several references to the Duchess of Bedford, Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria. Her Grace was simply hungry between lunch and dinner. Thus, the tradition of light snacks with intimate friends was born. I wanted to educate the military spouses to the British titles in honor of the Duchess. An Internet search took me to your website with a wonderful article about British titles. To this day, I refer inquiring minds (particularly from the Beau Monde) to your website, which offers a wealth of information from your personal research and travels!

[Jo Beverley]

Hi Kim, I remember that event. Or rather, communicating with you about it. Such fun!

Jo

[theo]

How do we know the stone wasn't an homage to the person buried beneath? After all, there's no one to ask ;)

I appreciate an author who, if she/he doesn't have first hand knowledge of an area, does their research enough that by the time they're done, the only way they'd know it better is if they were born there. There are times when I get so caught up in the story that after it's over, I try to find the places on a map because they were so real to me.

And spring? I don't think so. This is what I woke to this morning. Yesterday, there was green grass out there. (password is CellarDweller)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c27/nightsmusic/Misc%20Pics/Winterpics2010001.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c27/nightsmusic/Misc%20Pics/Winterpics2010002.jpg

[Phyllis]

I've read so many of your books - mostly out of order (though I have been hitting the library and bookstores lately, trying to get the Georgian ones IN order). I hadn't stumbled across this one yet, but it looks intriguing :)

[Louis]

Well, that stone could be either.
I've always liked the comments that you have in your books.

[Patricia Rice]

Love your pictures, Jo! And envy the heck out of your ability to research at will whereas I have to dig through dusty tomes and internet sites, or else book planes, trains, and hotels.

Let's all shout, No More Snow! Except Sherrie, who has sunny sixty. We can send our snow there.

[Jo Beverley]

I'm sure someone would like the snowy weather we've been having in England.

Australia, perhaps. I just heard about some horrendous temps there.

Jo

[Kim]

Jo,

I’ve been thinking about the hog-back stone for most of the day (nothing naughty, but rather academic). Hubby and were intrigued by the burial and standing stones scattered across Bodmin Moor (in Cornwall) two summers ago:

http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/folklore-and-legend/standing.htm

Here in Hawaii, we have the Naha Stone, called the Excalibur of the Islands:

Many years before the birth of Kamehameha the Great, a powerful kahuna (priest) prophesied that the man who moved the 7,000 pound Naha Stone would be the greatest king of Hawaii. Kamehameha, a boy of about fourteen years, moved this massive rock, then he lifted it and turned it over. As the prophet had foretold, Kamehameha I became Hawaii’s greatest king.

The stone remains on display in front of the Hilo library:

http://www.hawaiilifeofluxury.com/naha-stone/

[Chelsea B.]

I like the picture, and I think setting absolutely matters! Nope, not Spring here. Which is buckets full of unfortunate. I love the covers to you're books! :-)

[Sue]

Setting truly does matter, I think you should have at least been to a place before using it as a setting. So many basic errors are made like having a "porch" in the North American style rather than the English covered entrance or homes with a "basement". I would probably make the same mistakes writing about a US locale I had never visited.
Jo: The Stanforth Secrets was the second book of yours that I read (Devilish was the first); it was the only book of yours in our library at the time. I loved it and thought the mystery element was well done. I hate book covers with people in them, they never have the correct period dress (unless they are an old portrait) and the women always look like prostitutes in polyester! However, having said that I do like the UK Tempting Fortune cover - how are the Mallorens being received at home?
My relatives in Lancashire are also sick of the snow. Here in Ontario it is mild and sunny - gotta love climate change!

[Anne]

I agree with Sue - I hate book covers with people on them. I want to imagine the characters for myself and not have those (usually) tawdry images suggested for me! I laughed at "prostitutes in polyester." :-)

I love to know that an author has a special knowledge of or connection to a setting.

I just finished reading "Faery Magic." So much fun!

As far as this thing you call "Spring?" It sounds familiar but I'm not sure what you are talking about.

[Patricia Barraclough]

How lucky that you live in an area with such wonderful ancient sites. It would be fantastic to be able to go back in time to discover the truth about them. The mystery of them does lend itself to flights of fancy and story lines.
I like character pictures with scenery that is accurate to the story. I've seen some covers where the character description and the picture to not match up at all. There have also been landscapes shown that have nothing to do with the story.
Spring is trying. The peepers started singing this past weekend. We had a couple of days in the 50's and 60's and now it is in the 30's and will probably snow the next couple of days.

[Ranurgis]

Hi, Jo, I thought I'd weigh in with my thoughts on depicted characters. I guess a lot of the time, due to long experience with the incongruity of the picture of a character and how I imagine them from reading, I'm usually not very attentive to what the covers depict. In one case the "most gorgeous" guy in a team of SEALs looked as if he had the mumps. The author distributed Smiley faces to cover the awful face.

I read the Avon book, but didn't even notice what the heroine really looked like. (Mind you, that was many years ago.) It may also be a result of my usually not wearing glasses when I read. It seems reading print is generally easier than than "dissecting" pictures.

I'm trying to remember what the woman with the high hair on the TEMPTING FORTUNE cover reminds me of. Somehow I associate it with something quite funny, even silly--maybe it was the kind of hairdo that characters in a Cirque du Soleil production sported. I do love that actual portrait that you picked as Chloe.

I also like your pick as a picture of the duke. Without a head, he looks even more secret and mysterious.(grin) Can't wait to get the book.

BTW, I can't help being proud that London, ON has three gold-medal winners: Christine Nesbitt in the 1000 m long-track race and last night, the young pair of ice-dance skaters, Tessa Virtue (20) and Scott Moir (22). Ilderton is a big little skating town just 10 miles from here. As a little souvenir, I must get today's paper.

And ah yes, I agree about the picture.

[Ranurgis]

Now I remember why I liked the duke picture--the luxurious brown velvet. A little darker than this is my favorite color and it's very hard to get.

[Jenny]

Hello Jo. I don't mind if the cover has a picture of the characters so long as it matches the descriptions in the books, to some extent at least. It annoys me to read that the heroine is tall with black hair and the picture has someone with blond hair. Especially if the description is in the first few pages. The other thing that is annoying is the current trend to cut off half their heads on the cover. I would rather not have a character on the cover if that is what the publisher wishes to do.
As far as the setting goes, so long as it reads as authentic it is fine. It is sometimes difficult to place oneself in the 19th century from a 21st century point of view and in a different country as well.
And no, it is still summer here in Tasmania, and a lovely summer it has been. We have seen the heavy snow and bad weather all you in the northern hemisphere have been suffering. It must have made everyday living difficult.

[NinaP]

Hey Jo! Great post. Loved the pics and links, especially the excerpt from "The Secret Duke." Captain Rose is an intriguing man. (read yummy :-) )

If you have a few seconds, I have a question for you. How would you, being British (or should I say English?), pronounce the words "Folkestone, Sandgate, and Shepway"? I'm thinking of using these locations in my next book and want to work in the proper pronunciation since my heroine is a 21st century American in a Regency era world. Many thanks for your time. :-) Nina

[Jo Beverley]

"If you have a few seconds, I have a question for you. How would you, being British (or should I say English?), pronounce the words "Folkestone, Sandgate, and Shepway"?"

These are straightforward, Nina, unlike Worcestershire, Towcester, and a few others.We English tend to swallow the ends of place names as in all those shires.

Lancashire is Lancasha. Yorkshire is Yorksha. So Folkestone is Folkstun.I assume Sandgate and Shepway are pronounced as they look.

One can never be sure until one meets a native, though! Staithes near here is more like Stiths. The Steyne in Brighton is the Steen.

Oh, and Towcester is Toaster.

Jo :)

[NinaP]

Thanks Jo! :-) And I loved Chalice of Roses. Your opening scene was positively breathtaking.

[Maria Martin]

That portrait above looks a lot like a John Constable portrait of his fiance, Maria Bicknell (who after many years of being engaged became his wife, as I recall - must be a good story there! I think her family was waiting for him to 'make good'). It was done around 1816 I think. If I'm right then I have a good memory - it's been about 25 years since I studied it in my Art History class. Yikes!

[peg s.]

I don't mind characters on the cover, as long as they match the description in the book. Love your books, Jo. I have 24 now, and am always looking for more. One of my pet peeves is when the description on the back of the book doesn't match the actual story!

[ElaineK]

I appreciate having a sense of the setting rather than a generic "anyplace." The new cover for The Stanforth Secrets is an improvement. I happen to have the hardcovers of Lord Wraybourne and Emily and the Dark Angel and those covers are pretty darn bland.

[Leah Cline]

I must confess, I prefer the
period portrait to the other
actual woman. I have just realized, how much the cover
contributes to the timeperiod
of the story for me.

[kay wilkinson]

My mum loves your books and I'd earn tons of brownie points if I was lucky enough to receive one of your books on her behalf. Looks like a fabulous read. Thanks Kay :O)