ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #GuestPost by AnneMarie Brear, Author of The Promise of Tomorrow @annemariebrear @rararesources
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Promise of Tomorrow by AnneMarie Brear. I have a fab guest post by AnneMarie to share with you today, all about where her ideas come from. My thanks to Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Resources for the place on the tour.
Charlotte Brookes flees her lecherous guardian, McBride, taking her younger sister with her. After a year on the road, they stumble into a Yorkshire village. There, they are taken in by the Wheelers, owners of the village shop. This new life is strange for Charlotte, but preferable to living with McBride or surviving on the roads.
Harry Belmont is an important man in the village, but he’s missing something in his life. His budding friendship with Charlotte gives him hope she will feel more for him one day, and he will have the woman he needs.
However, when McBride finds out where Charlotte lives, his threats begin, and Harry takes it upon himself to keep Charlotte safe. Only, World War I erupts and Harry enlists.
Left to face a world of new responsibilities, and Harry’s difficult sister, Charlotte must run the gauntlet of family disputes, McBride’s constant harassment and the possibility of the man she loves being killed.Can Charlotte find the happiness that always seems under threat, and will Harry return home to her?
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By AnneMarie Brear
Inspiration strikes me at random times and I can be surprised by what sparks me into thinking of a character or storyline. My ideas come from a variety of things. Sometimes it can be as simple as a picture or an old painting, or a scene in a period movie. Many times I’ve been watching a period movie or TV show and suddenly I’ll see something in the background that has me thinking – I usually forgot to watch the show as my mind takes off in another direction.
Often it can be something I’ve read in research books when I’m researching for another book. If I see something that grabs my interest that isn’t related to what I’m actually searching for, then I’ll take notes and come back to it later with the hope that it might start another story in my head – it usually does!
A snippet of a story in a magazine or newspaper or online can get me thinking what if? Writing historical novels interests me as I can put my characters into situations which in modern times wouldn’t work. I can have characters which go through such hard times, where the prospect of ending up in the work house, etc, drives them on to improve their lives, to take chances. A character that has lost everything cannot sit back and allow others to sort it out, they have to stand up and work hard to find happiness.
Sometimes, when I’m in the car and drive past an old house or travel through an ancient village I wonder what happened there a hundred years ago. When I see a manor house set in gardens with big trees and lawns, or an old farm in the countryside I will wonder what family lived there, or set my own imaginary family in that place and ideas will grow from that.
I have read a lot of historical personal diaries, which give details of how people lived back in the Victorian or Edwardian times, which are my eras of interest. From diary entries a germ of an idea might send me on a path of finding out other information and a story can grow from that.
Also I enjoy watching documentaries. They are very helpful in getting an idea of what those times were like, especially when they have access to areas I can’t get to, or information I can’t obtain.
Then of course there is the internet, which has opened up a whole world of new opportunities for historical authors. I love opening up Google Earth and getting a bird’s eye view of villages and stately homes. To be able to see the layout of the land, the way villages and towns are placed in relation to each other or the way the mountain and coastline impact on how people could get about their daily lives. To us today to travel from one town to another we can travel by car, train, even plane, but back in Victorian times they had to rely on horse and carriage, basic train lines and by walking.
The many restrictions to the population back then gives writers more scope to make the drama and plots more intensive. Woman didn’t have the freedom back then as they do now. Overcrowding in cities created slums were death and disease were rife. On the other end of the scale, the wealthy lived in magnificent houses, grand estates with servants to cater for their every need. Not until World War I did that start to change and that in itself give us a whole new dimension of ideas and story lines to write about.
How did people cope with everyday life without the modern inventions we take for granted today? It fascinates me, and I hope I do justice in my stories in recapturing those eras.
Oh yes, that fascinates me too. Thank you so much, AnneMarie.
Australian born AnneMarie Brear writes historical novels and modern romances and sometimes the odd short story, too. Her passions, apart from writing, are travelling, reading, researching historical eras and looking for inspiration for her next book.
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