Meet My Main Character Blog Hop

I’ve been asked by E. M. Powell, author of the award-winning novel, The Fifth Night to take part in a blog hop, entitled Meet My Main Character. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, it’s a sort of blogger’s chain letter in which writers describe the main character of their current work in progress by answering a series of questions. At the end of my post, I shall introduce the next two writers tagged who will post about their main characters sometime during the next week.

And now for the questions:

1. What is the name of your character? Is he fictional or an actual historical figure?

• ·         My man character is Marc Garneau, a French Huguenot living in London, England at the beginning of the 18^th century. The new book is a sequel to The Silk Weaver’s Daughter the story of how Marc’s wife and her family fled from France during King Louis XIV’s persecution of Protestants. While not the main character in the first book, Marc did have a significant role. .
• ·         The entire Garneau family is fictitious although I have based their story loosely on what I unearthed about my own Huguenot ancestors

2. When and where is the story set?

·         The year is 1702 and Marc and his family undertake a trip to Europe to try to regain the fortune he left in France when he escaped the Sun King’s wrath. Their travels take them from London to Amsterdam, the Rhine River area of Germany, and to Munich in Bavaria.

3.  What should we know about him?

·         I think the main thing we should know is that in his youth, he was an adventurer and a great favorite of beautiful women. Now he has settled down with the love of his life and the question arises, can he live up to the moral code of his wife’s Huguenot family?

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his life right now?

·         There are several conflicts but the main one is that he faces bankruptcy in England and will go to debtor’s prison unless he can retrieve his money from France. Not an easy thing to do, since King Louis considers him a traitor.

5.  Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

·         As far as the title goes, I’m currently torn between “Night of the Gypsies” or “The Summer Gypsies.” It is based on an event that occurs during their journey and changes the entire course of all their lives.

6.  When can we expect the book to be published?

·         I’m hoping the novel will be available on Amazon by the beginning of July.

The following picture of Orlando Bloom is about as close to looking like Marc Garneau as I imagine him to be. Think Orlando Bloom only with blue sparkling  eyes. 

Thanks goes out to  Elaine Powell for this opportunity to introduce my new novel and I will keep you up
 to date on how it’s progressing during the next few months. 

Meanwhile, I have tagged the following two authors who will post the information about their 
main characters sometime next week.

Nick Smith

 

Nick is a twenty-eight year old Northumbrian in exile, currently living on a small rock in the Channel Sea where he teaches science. He has a love for all things of a nautical and historical nature .He is the author of gritty swashbuckling adventures Rogues Nest and the soon to be released Gentlemen of Fortune – a realistic look at buccaneers and pirates at the start of the 1700s.

Debra Brown: 

Debra  is the author of historical fiction novels, The Companion of Lady Holmeshire, a Jane Austen style romance published by World Castle Publications, and For the Skylark, a psychological drama with clean romance to be released in 2013. She is also the Co-Editor of 

Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

New Mystery from Great Mother and Son Writing Team

In the flat, low-lying, marshy Fen region of Cambridgeshire, two men are murdered; one at Ely Cathedral, the other in the small village of Wriston. Unable to come up with any conclusions, the local police turn the case over the Scotland Yard. Enter our old friend, Inspector Ian Rutledge still battling his traumatic memories from the front lines of WWI, which often manifest themselves in conversations with the phantom-like psychological voice of Hamish--his dead comrade killed in the war.

 “Hunting Shadows” is the third novel I’ve read by the writing “team” of Charles Todd. Although I liked the other two, this is by far the best in both plotting and setting. It has loads of tension and the end of every chapter compels the reader to keep turning pages.

This low-lying, sometimes foggy area of eastern England lends itself beautifully to the suspense surrounding the death of these two men and the attempted murder of a third. There are not many clues and some of them seem pretty far-fetched.  There are a great many characters introduced in the course of his investigation and most of them are very well drawn and quite likeable. Even the one suspect that the inspector narrows in on has a great deal of charm and as you read along, you find yourself routing for the fellow.

The interviews of the villagers by the inspector and the clues given make for a fascinating escape  and the reader feels compelled to stay the course even if it means sitting up until the wee hours of the night. Definitely a page-turner and worthy of five stars. 

"Derek Harper  via Wikimedia Commons" A Fenland near Purl's Bridge -_geograph.org.uk_-_

Back from a fairly long break and ready to review some books. This one was recently sent to me by Amazon and is now available on the website.

Decompression - 3 stars

Sven Fiedler, a young lawyer has fled the turmoil of a legal career in modern Germany for the simpler lifestyle of a deep-sea diving instructor tucked away on Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. His girlfriend Antje lives with him to take of the business and catering end of the concern.

I wanted to like this story. The locale is beautiful in its own harsh way and the characters seemed comfortable yet interesting. However, when a beautiful actress and her writer boyfriend show up for exclusive and intensive diving instructions, Sven’s life suddenly becomes exceedingly complicated and the tone of the novel becomes ugly. The diving instructor is besotted by the beauty and sexuality of his young student, and it isn’t long before both Antje and the writer begin to be suspicious of their relationship.

While the novel is well written, there is a great deal of strong sexual language and some gratuitous sex scenes. Some of the scenes are written from the point of view of both Sven and the young actress and soon it becomes difficult to know which of the two characters is telling the truth. As the tension builds, it isn’t long before the reader becomes aware that something tragic will soon take place.

The plot is certainly gripping, but because of the language and the storyline I can only give it three stars. But that is my strictly personal opinion.


By Norbert Nagel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
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