Silk and Secrets: Into the Great Unknown

by Mary Jo

Two weeks ago, drowning in deadline madness, I blogged about Silk and Shadows, a backlist book that was first of my Silk Trilogy, and which is now available in an edition.  I told you some of the story-behind-the-story, and threatened to do more such posts in the future.

That threat is being fulfilled very quickly!  I’m still slogging through Lost Lords #5, though I think I’ve found a plot thread that will take me to the grand finale.  And I still enjoy talking about some of the elements that went into spinning a particular tale.  Hence, here’s some of the background of Silk and Secrets, book II of my Silk Trilogy. (This is the new Kim Killion e-book cover.)

The inspiration for the story came when I was researching the background of the exotic hero of the first book of the trilogy.  Here’s an excerpt from the Author’s Note in Silk and Secrets which briefly describes what I found:

During the nineteenth century the expanding empires of Britain and Russia confronted each other across the broad wastelands of Central Asia, constantly skirmishing and scheming for advantage in a conflict that came to be called the Great Game. The British spread northwest from India while the Russians moved south, eventually annexing the independent Central Asian khanates of Khiva, Bokhara, and Kokand into what came to be called Soviet Central Asia.
    The Great Game produced many true stories of high adventure. Silk and Secrets was inspired by a real rescue mission that took place in 1844, after the Amir of Bokhara had imprisoned two British army officers, Colonel Charles Stoddart and Lieutenant Arthur Conolly. The British government believed that both men had been executed, but reports were confused and contradictory and a group of army officers decided that something more should be done for their fellows.
    An eccentric Anglican clergyman, Dr. Joseph Wolff, volunteered to go to Turkestan to ask for the release of Stoddart and Conolly. As a former missionary to the Middle East and Central Asia, Wolff was uniquely qualified for the journey, so the concerned officers raised money to pay his expenses."

Dr. Joseph Wolff, who made the real rescue mission to Bokhara, was a fabulous character.  Son of a German rabbi, he became a fervent Anglican and was known as the Eccentric Missionary because of his travels through the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. 

Wolff made the very dangerous trip to Bokhara only to find that the British officers had indeed been executed, and claimed that the only reason he wasn’t executed himself was because the Amir of Bokhara (a crazed and brutal ruler) burst into uncontrollable laughter when Dr. Wolff presented himself to the Amir in his full canonical dress.  He made it safely back to England—barely—and wrote a bestselling memoir of his heroic, if unsuccessful, journey. (The picture of the central fortress above is a Creative Commons photo by Stanislav Kozlovskiy)

Lord Ross Carlisle, my hero for Silk and Secrets, is in that same adventurous mode, and also has more than a dash of Sir Richard Burton, the famous Orientalist, traveler, and writer.  Like Burton, Ross is a scholar, traveler, and writer, but he has another reason for traveling: to forget the wife he’d married too young, and whose abandonment left him with a hole in his heart that has never healed.  (On one of those journeys, he found Peregrine, hero of Silk and Shadows.)

If Ross resembles Burton, his wife, Juliet Cameron, is more like Lady Hester Stanhope.   The daughter of a diplomat, Juliet had grown up living the exotic life Ross yearned for, so when they met, it was love at first sight.  She had her reasons for leaving him, and knows she can never go back.  Here’s the prologue, which shows her state of mind:

"Night was falling rapidly, and a slim crescent moon hung low in the cloudless indigo sky.  In the village the muezzin called the faithful to prayers, and the haunting notes twined with the tantalizing aroma of baking bread and the more acrid scent of smoke.  It was a homey, peaceful scene such as the woman had observed countless times before, yet as she paused by the window, she experienced a curious moment of dislocation, an inability to accept the strange fate that had led her to this alien land.
    Usually she kept herself so busy that there was no time to think of the past, but now a wave of piercing sorrow swept through her.  She missed the wild green hills of her childhood, and though she had made new friends and would soon dine with a surrogate family that she loved, she missed her own blood kin and the friends who were now forever lost to her.
     Most of all, she missed the man who had been more than a friend.  She wondered if he ever thought of her, and if he did, whether it was with hatred, anger, or cool indifference.  For his sake, she hoped it was indifference.
     It would be easier if she felt nothing, yet she could not regret the pain that was still, even after so many years, a silent undercurrent to her daily life.  Pain was the last vestige of love and she was not yet willing to forget love; she doubted that she ever would be.
     Her life could, and should, have been so different.  She had had so much, more than most women ever dreamed of.  If only she had been wiser, or at least less impulsive.  If only she had not succumbed to despair.  If only…
     Realizing that her mind was sliding into a familiar, futile litany of regrets, she took a deep breath and forced herself to think of the responsibilities that gave her life meaning.  The first lesson of survival that she had learned was that nothing could change the past.
     For just a moment she touched the pendant that hung suspended around her neck, under her robe.  Then she turned her back on the empty window and the darkening sky.  She had made her bed and now she must lie in it.
     Alone."

Ross travels not only to learn and test himself against dangerous challenges, but also with the deep, never acknowledged hope that someday he might discover his long lost wife and at the least, learn why she left him. 

His fictional rescue mission to the heart of Central Asia begins in the British embassy in Constantinople when he meets with his mother-in-law.  Juliet’s mother is trying to persuade the British ambassador to send someone to Bokhara to learn the fate of her son, Major Ian Cameron, an imprisoned Indian army officer. 

Even though Ross is on the verge of returning to England to take up his responsibilities, he lets her twist his arm because he’s also fond of Ian.  If Ian is dead, as seems likely, perhaps Ross can at least bring his bones back to Scotland. 

This being a romance, on the journey he does find his long lost Juliet.  She insists on accompanying him, partly because she’s also concerned about her brother, and more because she figures her presence gives Ross a better chance of survival. (She’s right.)

As they face deserts, danger, and desire, Ross and Juliet peel away the layers of pain, guilt, and regret to arrive at the core truth: that they still love each other desperately.  But is there enough redemption and reconciliation in the world for them to build a new life together?

I love reconciliation stories because the intensity of the emotions heightens the power of the romantic payoff.  I tend to do at least one reconciliation story per series, and in the case of my contemporary Circle of Friends series, I did two. 

Not everyone shares that taste, of course.  What about you?  Do you like stories where characters come together with a great clash of history and baggage?  Or do you prefer the hero and the heroine to start their relationship with blank slates?

Mary Jo, already plotting her reconciliation story for the Lost Lords series

 PS: If you have time, I recommend clicking on some of the links about the real people.  They were amazing characters!

Comments

[Margot]

I like reconciliation stories. With books where the hero and heroine meet at the beginning, especially if it takes place over a short span of time, emotions often aren't as intense, since a lot of the story is about their meeting, but with stories where they already know each other, you can get right to the emotions.

(Or something like that. I don't think I really explain it very well.)

[Mary Jo Putney]

Margot--

I think you explained it very well, Margot. As you say, starting as strangers means a lot of the book is exploration, which is fun and takes time. But if the characters have A Past, they can go right to the conflict. Which is usually a biggie, since it already drove them apart once. It makes for a meaty relationship.

[Isobel Carr]

I adore second chance/reunion stories!!! I’m working on one right now. It’s so much fun to deal with them when they’re all angsty and hurt at the beginning…*grin*

[Mary Jo Putney]

**It’s so much fun to deal with them when they’re all angsty and hurt at the beginning**

Isobel--clearly we're sister souls. *G*

[Isobel Carr]

I'm overjoyed to be in your company at any time!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Isobel--next conference we're both at, mocha lattes and gossip! And tortured chareacters, of course. *g*

[LouisaCornell]

I tend to agree with Isobel. Stories have so many more possibilities when you are dealing with the emotional baggage the hero and heroine bring to the start of the journey. What's a trip without loads of luggage??

[Mary Jo Putney]

**What's a trip without loads of luggage??
**

LOL!!! Well put, Louisa. *g* Perfect, uncomplicated people tend to be rather uninteresting.

[Connie Fischer]

Mary Jo, I just love all of your novels. They are so well written and the covers are beautiful. Congratulations on all of your successes!

[Hannah Lee]

I love everything you write, Mary Jo, so even if I don't enjoy reconciliation stories-- which I do-- you'd convince me otherwise.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Connie--thanks for the good words! Though I can't take credit for the covers of the new books. I get partial credit for the e-books since I work with Kim Killion--but she does the heavy lifting. *G*

[Mary Jo Putney]

Hannah--

You're the sort of reader every writer loves. (It can't hurt that you're a writer yourself!) I always appreciate a reader who will try one ofmy stories even if it isn't usually her cup of tea. In this case, of course, we share similar tastes.

[Anne Gracie]

I have to say I love your "silk" series. For me they were an inspiration — I wanted to write stories that didn't just take place in London or Bath, but encompassed the wider, wilder world.

Everyone told me it wasn't possible, that publishers wouldn't want books set in foreign climes, and for a while I believed them. But then I read Veils of Silk and it blew me away... and from then on, whenever anyone said it can't be done, I'd just point to MJP. *g*

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anne, I'm so glad I inspired you, since I love your out of England books. *G* I did the Silk books for an editor I'd been with for years, so she was willing to cut me some slack. Plus, she was probably the only editor in NYC who'd been to Bokhara herself, and she thought the idea was cool. *G*

[Artemisia]

Everybody comes with baggage. What happens in kindergarten - and sometimes earlier - follows you all your life. Our baggage shapes the way we walk. It is the life experience that makes us who we are.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Very true, Artemesia. I think it was Oscar Wilde (or maybe Mark Twain) who said that experience is the name we give to our mistakes. *G* And we often learn more from our mistakes than from when we got things right.

[Susan]

Silk and Secrets was my favorite of this series. I even Googled Bokhara and the near east deserts. I love it when a book makes me do that.

[Mary Jo Putney]

**I even Googled Bokhara and the near east deserts. I love it when a book makes me do that.**

And I love that we can easily look up such information! If we watch a movie with some history in it, I'll often check online as soon at it's done to see which parts are real and which fictional.