What's in a Name

Still November 2008 - I realized the Duke could not have raised his daughters on his own. Yes, they had nannies and governesses, a houseful of servants but they needed more . . . another family member, female perhaps, to guide them to young adulthood. The middle daughter Charlotte called out to her . . . Aunt Penny.

Penny . . . Penelope Parker. Mrs. Penelope Parker, their mother’s sister. Younger sister, just as Whatshername was the younger sister of Augusta and Charlotte. And I knew that Mrs. Parker, Aunt Penny, was a young widow.

Then I wondered if the Duchess and Aunt Penny, two sisters, might have been three, mimicking my three young heroines.

I still needed a family name for them . . . something meaningful. I would have three stories set during three different time periods with all three sisters looking for a worthy gentleman.

Playing around with that idea I decided upon the idea that each daughter searches for a Gentleman of Worth.

Position in Life is Everything - Part 2

The Duke and Duchess of Faraday were invented, loving parents in a loving family. It was a marriage the daughters would want to emulate.

I wanted to use the family name of Darling. The Darling sisters? I liked the sound of it but decided it was too cute. The idea was discarded. I still struggled with a family surname. But a title had come to me.

Come to think of it, the whole family felt too happy, and a happy family does not make for conflict. I decided one of the parents had to go. That is when the Duke of Faraday became a widower.

Position in Life is Everything

November 2008: Armed with my coffee, pens, and many notebooks, I got to work. I wanted three sisters, cause two isn’t enough, and three is a good number is a perfect number for a trilogy. My current problem: I had no clues to the identity of the youngest sister.

I figured it would come to me.

The girls had to have parents, and I did so much want to call Augusta, Lady Augusta, and Charlotte, Lady Charlotte, and Whatshername, Lady Whatshername. Thus their father must have been an earl, marquess, or duke.

One of the difficulties I wanted for young ladies was to be that they were very sought after which meant not only did they need to be very wealthy, very beautiful, and very well connected. Thus we have daughters of a duke.

Before the Beginning . . . a bit of history

It all started in February 2008. I wanted to come up with a concept, a world, I could create that would provide me with enough ideas for several books, with stories that connected through an entire series.

I spent the spring of 2008 working on various stages of three Regency novels: An Agreeable Arrangement, His Lordship’s Chaperone, and Lady Eugenia’s Holiday. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking about starting a series.

In October I had visited my family in San Luis Obispo. The new additions to the family were twins: Augusta and Charlotte, which their parents had shortened to Gusta and Char-Char.

Those names sparked my imagination. I didn’t know who those characters were. I didn’t know how to distinguish them. Were they blonde, brunette, have long straight or short curly hair?

By the time November, and my two week vacation, rolled around I was ready to come up with a plan