Working on the next one

Being a writer is about writing. And keeping on writing. And keeping on...

So I have my second erotic novel submitted (it's been rejected by one publisher and is now with another), and am working on the third, at the same time as working on a historic 'straight' novel (by which you'll gather I don't mean heterosexual. It's got ancient Greeks in it, anyway).

It's a bit different for me as I'm writing in first person for the first time. Alys has already had five husbands - some good, some bad - and is looking for number six. Her father wants to run her life - but she has other ideas, and abetted by her friendly and tolerant priest Father Peter, she decided a pilgrimage to Santiago would do her good.

On the way, she finds a number of rather lovely men... and a sweet young squire for whom she develops a certain affection. But no husband... as yet.

What I love about Alys is that she's very, very smart. She notices little things like the quality of the stitching on a man's clothes. She notices everything going on. But she can't help bragging about it a bit. Getting adjusted to her voice took me a while and I'm still not always sure I've got it.

And she does have the most marvellously generous spirit. Her maternal feelings for the young squire are a case in point - though he can show her a thing or two. (He's imported some spices from the East which can make even the most dreadful cooking edible... what did you think I meant?)

So she's coming along nicely. 10,000 words nicely to be precise, so she's about a quarter of the way to Santiago, and enjoying herself all the way.

Ah, but is she authentically medieval? you might ask.

Two answers to that I think. First, does it really matter? (Heresy I know to some.) This is a merry romp, it's not intended to be completely realistic. Actually, it's quite realistic because I've put in enough hours as a medieval re-enactor, not to mention on Chaucer*, Gower and Lydgate, to get quite a lot of it right.

But secondly, I'm quite sure that many women in the Middle Ages did break out of the narrow constraints their society put on them. Margery Kempe for instance decided to become a celibate and dress in white, told her husband in no uncertain terms he wasn't having any more of that, and went off to visit Rome and Jerusalem. Other women no doubt welcomed the onset of menopause as a great opportunity for consequence-free sex - possibly not with their husbands.

We usually only hear about this from the mouths of men, of course, usually telling us just how wicked these women were. Sometimes from legislators or judges.

'Reclaiming' Alys has been fun. And continues to be fun. I wish I had her healthy, robust approach to life!




* Those of you who know your Chaucer may recognise Alys.
"Why should men elles in their bookes set,
That man shall yield unto his wife her debt?
Now wherewith should he make his payement,
If he us'd not his silly instrument?"

My first erotic novel is out! It's been a long time in the coming (so to speak) - I first heard the shaggy dog story that was the kernel for the plot twenty years ago, from my dearly beloved tutor at Cambridge, a man with a dirty mind and a keen eye for style. I hope I've inherited both. He'd be thrilled to know that the whole final scene revolves around the desperate search for a manuscript - he was never happier than when he'd found some marginal annotation that other scholars had missed, or when he'd found, in tiny neat letters on the flyleaf of an old text, the signature of a poet.

Anyway, here's the link to The Diligence de Lyon. It's been fun writing it.

And I really liked what the chaps at Liquid Silver came up with for the cover. Superb!