Ambivalence

Just so you know, I got that ream of paper for Christmas and used half of it printing out the first draft of Lady Flora's Rescue, fomerly My Savage Viscount which just sounded too cheesy. The count came out to 106,000 words, but this will change in the rewrite. On advice I received three conferences ago, I abandoned my light, funny unsold contemporaries for historicals. My first effort, an 1920's novel entitled Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball, is still one of my favorites, but I had to learn the hard way that even if it did final in a contest, The Twenties do not sell. So, on to developing a series based on the eccentric Duke and Duchess of Bellevue and their large family in Regency England. These came out as amusing romps rather than true Regencies. Then, another suggestion: Go back to the 18th century and tell the story of the Duchess and Duke and their meeting. Hey, that's a whole lot of new research, but I've done it.

So what have I sold? None of the historicals, but two of the light contemporaries I wrote five years ago and could not sell because no one wanted funny and light. I guess the economy had to tank for folks to yearn for a little laughter. GOALS FOR A SINNER will be out April 23rd and its sequel in the fall, I believe. You can read an excerpt on my web site: www.lynnshurr.com. And now for the ambivalence. Shall I abandon the historical series and simply go back to my contemporaries which are much easier to write. I mean I don't have to figure out how long it takes to get a letter from Georgia to England in 1815 by sea or research the early Abolitionist movement, though I do enjoy that part of writing historicals. I had plans for at least three more of the Duke and Duchess series, but that might be a waste of time. In publishing, you never really know what to do next.

Research

As a former reference librarian, I love to do research. I confess to having spent half a day searching for the origins of the chocolate sprinkles to put on ice cream. I thought I'd failed, and got diverted into the history of the lollipop. Then, lo and behold! The same man invented the sprinkles. All this time spent so I could allow a character to ask for sprinkles on his ice cream in my 1920's novel, QUEEN OF THE MARDI GRAS BALL. This was an easy detail to work into the novel. Many other marvelous tidbits had to be set aside least the book start sounding like a non-fiction account of life in the Twenties.

How much historical detail to add? What to leave out? Usually, I try to work signs of the times into the conversation. People took picnic baskets and went out to watch the levee protecting St. Bernard Parish being blown up to save New Orleans. Surely, people would have talked or written letters about this event. On the other hand, it is not necessary to describe the making of bathtub gin, no matter how fascinating, to say someone is drinking it in a scene. I wish I had a formula to offer like fifty percent fact, fifty percent fiction, but I don't. I still haven't figured this out for myself. Just yesterday, I learned how a wigwam is built, step-by-step. Will I use this? Probably not. But it is just so tempting.