Duck, Duck, Goose

March 2009 - I’m having difficulty keeping Augusta’s suitors straight. I need to know what they look like. I spend a few hours on the Internet looking at men dressed in Regency garb. I search under Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, and PBS.

Most of these men I’ve never seen before but others are familiar: Colin Firth, James Mcavoy, and even Sir Laurence Olivier. Don’t they look handsome in their cravats and tailored jackets? I’ve matched each character with an image. Now when I work on my book it’s like watching a period movie before my very eyes.

The Sagging Middle

February 2009 - There’s too much going on for the middle to sag. Here we are introduced to the Citrus Parlor at Faraday Hall. Charlotte plays a larger role in this book than I expected. It turns out that Muriel isn’t going to be ignored--even though she’s now 13. She’s had a birthday since the beginning of the book.

Interesting new characters, some, I believe, will be reoccurring throughout the series. And—Augusta has told me there is a younger brother . . . Frederick. Where did he come from?

Does this mean there are SIX books in this series?

From Miss Quinn's Quandary Comes . . .

January 2009 – A character I’ve wanted to bring forward has emerged.

Lord and Lady Rushton (uncle and aunt to the Sir Randall and Larissa all characters from Miss Quinn’s Quandary host a small party where Lord William Felgate meets Lady Augusta.

I don’t know what is in store for Wills but I am glad he is to appear in this book.

The First Chapters

January 2009 - The bad news: there are many characters added to the cast. The good news: I know what’s happening. I know who Augusta marries.

I’ve so many characters I need ways to distinguishing them. I’m writing their names in a notebook and keeping track of when they first appear. I’m thinking that it’s going to prove helpful down the road.

Family members are added. The family trees leaf and new branches grow. It’s exciting. I can see the far reaching possibilities of reoccurring and related characters spanning over several books.

Now there’s a concern regarding the ages of my main characters. I’m making charts like crazy… dates of births, marriages, and deaths. I’m thinking the timeframe for the first book may be 1801, a bit before the Regency period. . . Georgian.

My Ambitious Plan Continues

December 2008 - It took a little over a week to work out what would happen in the first three books. I still had the “how” to work out. The struggle with titles continued. I tried using the sister’s names: Augusta’s Anguish, Charlotte’s Charade, and Muriel’s Muddles.

No. No. No.

I kept the Gentlemen’s titles which kept me on track because it gave me some sense of those men. While I worked on Augusta’s book, learning about the people, the family members, the neighbors, the townspeople, it occurred to me that the premise of my idea, about limiting Augusta’s London Season exposure, came from Aunt Penny. She had grown up in a family of legendary beauties.

They were the Darling sisters: Mary, Sarah, and Penelope. Mary, the eldest, had married a baron , Sarah, the most beautiful sister, a duke, and Penny, the dutiful daughter had an arranged marriage. Her husband, who was much older than she, passed away a year or so after they wed—about the time her sister Sarah died. Penny then removed to Faraday Hall and helped raise her nieces.

I wonder . . . now that I’m marrying off the three sisters. What happens to Penny? Then it occurs to me . . . I have a duke whose daughters have gone off to marry, what happens to him?

I’m thinking this might be a FIVE book series?

Character Names

November 2008 - The name Muriel seemed to fit for the youngest sister. I like it. Moo. She was 12 years old. I wanted her young for the first book. By the time I reached her book, the third one, she’d be 17 or 18. Which, by the way, should have been Augusta’s age during the first book. If Muriel was 12 and August 18, it put Charlotte somewhere in between. I think I stuck her somewhere in the middle 15 or 16. I could narrow their ages down later when I knew more about them and the book.

I sat at the table every morning of my vacation with a mug of coffee in hand and worked out the plot of the first book. A young woman attending her first Season. How many ballroom scenes would I have to write? What would happen? How would her Season be any different than that of any other girl’s?

What if she didn’t attend as she should? What if it was known she’d have a target on her? Fortune hunters and social climbers would be seeking her out—or gentlemen who waited for just the right lady to come along. What if “someone” had had a similar experience and knew most of the pitfalls a young, beautiful, wealthy heiress to expect?

What type of a gentleman would win her heart?

Titles

Still November 2008 - I thought that each book Gentlemen of Worth series would have a Gentleman title. Gentleman of Standing, Gentleman of Determination, Gentleman of Circumstance. Then I realized there were too many Gentlemen and it would confuse everyone, including me.

It would work for a working title because I didn’t know what the books were going to be about. I didn’t even know who the characters were . . . I didn’t even know the names of all the main characters.

So it was time I began, or tried to. I need to learn about these people. Besides marrying off each daughter what are the books about? What makes each story unique?

Not until I placed the three girls in the Breakfast Parlor and allowed them to move and speak for themselves did I become acquainted with them. Book 1, Chapter 1, scene 1 resulted. Augusta, the eldest, scolded her youngest sister Moo, short for Muriel.