Somewhere along the line of being made very ill with the blood pressure pills I was given, Enalapril, whose side effects look like an M.E. relapse, I pretty much lost 2017.
So this was a time following my husband's illness, when an M.E. relapse might be expected to happen that I spent with a permanent fluey cold, hacking cough, swollen neck and throat, and sleeping 16 hours a day.
You may begin to understand why my writing productivity has been poor.
However, when I came off the damned drug and it cleared from my system, I wrote the first draught of 'Heiress in Hiding', the sixth Brandon Scandal, in less than a fortnight. I think it was eleven days, which isn't bad going by anyone's standards. It's now published.
I've also just released 'The Redemption of Chauvelin' which is a Scarlet Pimpernel sequel. I've been waiting to publish that for a while, but under British law, Baroness Orczy wasn't out of copyright until January this year. So I have been editing that, and having it edited and so on as well.
I'll shortly also be releasing 'The Ace of Schemes', a sequel to 'The Valiant Viscount' [previously called 'The Pugilist Peer'] which was about the only thing I managed to write during that whole annus horribilis.
I've been working through the next Felicia and Robin, and need to go through to see what my Editor has said with regards to that. I am also writing a Jane and Caleb book, in which they must solve three mysteries simultaneously, which have connections to each other, after the fashion of the Chinese detective story - I am a fan of Robert Van Gulik, who is the master, and I, the detective story padawan, sit at his feet. It's good fun actually but a bit slower and I reduced my cast list to 33. I'm on chapter 9 and one chapter a day is about all I can manage, though I have just got over the Australian flu, so that might account for it as well.
I haven't forgotten a sequel to the revamped Cousin Prudence, or the Charity School stories and will be working on them.
Future plans
there are 4 more Charity School stories I want to write, and I'll be going with the suggestion made to me of drawing in the character Stoat from 'Unwilling Viscount' who raised requests to see more of him.
I am thinking of doing series of Brandon Scandals set in other times/places, like the American branch founded by Henry Brandon in 1620 or so; also the children of those I have already covered, and maybe series set in late Victorian times and 1920s. It has a certain soap opera quality to it which demands spinoffs
I have two other series outlined, the Seven Stepsisters series and the Diaries of a Chaperone for Hire series, both set in the Long Regency.
I have one short story which will hopefully be joined by others; it involves a Regency maiden lady detective.
I've also been playing with some noir cyberpunk.
I have not abandoned Bess and the Dragons, in which Kit Marlowe's daughter goes to a school to learn about the dragons hatching from the eggs Walter Raleigh found instead of El Dorado.
I will probably write more Regency and Georgian short stories and eventually put together another anthology to go with Belles and Bucks.
The Bailiff's Baroness will be another in the Georgian Gambles series, following Ace of Schemes, and will be the third of 4 planned for that series. That one plunges us forward into the French Revolution.
The muse being a fickle jade plans are made to be overturned, but these are my intentions to date.
A rummage through random aspects of the past that interest me and may be of use or interest to other readers and writers of period fiction. Please note that the stories featured and my artwork for the covers are copyright; and have the courtesy to ask permission if you wish to use anything that is mine, and duly acknowledge it if you do.
