Guest Susanna Fraser: Castles, Old and New

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome fellow Regency author Susanna Fraser and her latest novel, A Marriage of Inconvenience. For all you Regency fans who like to overdose on history, enjoy Susanna's discussion about castles.

Susanna will give away an e-copy of A Marriage of Inconvenience to one lucky commenter. Leave your email address. See below for details, and check back here for the winner.

And the winner Susanna selected is minki-moira! minki-moira, please contact Susanna at susannamfraser@gmail.com to let her know which format (PDF, ePub, or Kindle) you want.

Unlike my first book, The Sergeant’s Lady, [http://www.susannafraser.com/books/the-sergeants-lady/] which is a road romance, my new release, A Marriage of Inconvenience, [http://www.susannafraser.com/books/a-marriage-of-inconvenience/] takes place almost entirely at two houses in rural Gloucestershire. I spent a lot of time inventing mansions that suited my characters and tried to make the places almost characters in themselves.

The first house, Almont Castle, belongs to a marquess of ancient lineage. He’s a minor secondary character, but the heroine is at his house as a wedding guest when she meets the hero. Lord Almont and his house represent the kind of world my heroine has grown up in as a poor relation–one of old money, old pedigrees, and old ways. So it was only natural to give him a very old house. I decided his family had been there all the way back in Norman times, and that they still live in the castle they started building in the 12th century. They have added onto it, of course, so it has most of the “modern” conveniences and furnishings someone living in 1809 would expect. But it looks ancient, it’s surrounded by a moat (now used as a pond for carp for the castle dining room), and the marquess opens the original keep, lit by torchlight, for balls.

The second house, Orchard Park, belongs to the hero, James Wright-Gordon, Viscount Selsley. James is new money. He is only the second viscount of his name, having inherited his title and his fortune from his father, a nabob who made his money in India. While some men in James’s position might feel anxious about their newly acquired status and try to act even more proper and proud than those who have had titles and fortunes for generations, that’s not my hero. It’s not that James minds being wealthy and powerful or that he acts egalitarian in a modern sense, but he sees himself as the beneficiary of a lucky accident of birth. So in his serious moods he works hard to live up to his father’s reputation and to use what he has inherited wisely and well. But in his frequent less serious moods, he is amused by the pretensions and obsessions with status of those around him. And his house reflects that.

Orchard Park is a castle, but a whimsical castle. It was never intended for defense, so it has no moat, and its windows are many and wide to take full advantage of the often-scanty English sun. Lucy, the heroine, loves it on sight–before she’s even seen the hero. For her it represents freedom, openness, and playfulness–all things she’s had very little of in her restricted life as a penniless, unwanted relation of an old, proud family. James and Lucy don’t have much in common with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, but like Elizabeth, Lucy can say that her love for her future husband began to grow when she first saw his beautiful grounds.

My main research source for my characters’ houses was Life in the English Country House, by Mark Girouard. I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone writing a book set in rural England any time between 1400 and 1900, or indeed to anyone interested in architecture, interior design, or how home comforts have grown and evolved over the centuries. I didn’t use a specific castle as the model for Almont Castle, instead taking the descriptions of medieval castles and imagining how a family still living in such a place 400 years later might have used and updated their space. (Though something like a non-ruined version of Beverston Castle would do nicely, if you’re looking for a mental image as you read my book.)

Orchard Park, however, is based on Luscombe Castle in Devon, which was designed by architect John Nash in association with landscape designer Humphry Repton. At the time it was built in 1800, it was the height of fashion--asymmetrical, playfully Gothic, and at home in a natural, irregular landscape. My Orchard Park looks almost exactly like Luscombe--in fact, I assume the first Viscount Selsley would’ve hired Nash and Repton himself--except that it’s larger and built of the lovely golden limestone you often see in southwest England (think Bath).

Your turn! Readers, what houses stand out in your mind from books you’ve read? Mr. Rochester’s Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre? (Now there’s a symbolic name if ever I saw one!) Laura Ingalls Wilder’s succession of little houses? Green Gables? Writers, what role do characters’ houses play in your books? One commenter wins a copy of A Marriage of Inconvenience in their choice of PDF, ePub, or Kindle format.

About the Author
Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.

Along the way she read her hometown library's entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen and discovered in Patrick O'Brian's and Bernard Cornwell's novels another side of the opening decades of the nineteenth century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still gives her heroines great hair.

Susanna grew up in rural Alabama. After high school she left home for the University of Pennsylvania and has been a city girl ever since. She worked in England for a year after college, using her days off to explore history, from ancient stone circles to Jane Austen's Bath.
Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, sings alto in a local choir and watches cooking competition shows. Please stop by and visit her at www.susannafraser.com, get to know her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorsusannafraser and follow her on Twitter at @susannafraser.

A Marriage of Inconvenience by Susanna Fraser
Lucy Jones is a nobody. As an orphan she was reluctantly taken in by her wealthy relatives, the Arringtons, on the condition that she be silent and obedient, always. When her lifelong infatuation with her cousin Sebastian is rewarded by a proposal of marriage, she's happy and grateful, even though the family finds excuses to keep the engagement a secret.

James Wright-Gordon has always had the benefits of money and a high station in society, but he is no snob. He's very close to his sister, Anna, who quickly falls for the dashing Sebastian when the families are brought together at a wedding party. Meanwhile, James is struck by Lucy's quiet intelligence, and drawn to her despite their different circumstances in life.

Lucy suspects that Sebastian has fallen for Anna, but before she can set him free, a terrible secret is revealed that shakes both families. Will James come to her rescue—or abandon her to poverty?

Guest Susanna Fraser: The History I Left Out

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome fellow Regency author Susanna Fraser and her debut novel, The Sergeant's Lady. For all you Regency fans who like to overdose on history, read about the fascinating subjects Susanna had to leave out.

Susanna is giving away a $10 gift certificate to one lucky commenter. See below for details, and check back here for the winner. The winner is Beth Trissel. Beth, please email Susanna at susannamfraser AT gmail DOT com and let her know whether you'd prefer Amazon, B&N, or Books on Board for your gift.

Welcome, Susanna!

It’s a truism among historical authors that you only show about ten percent of your research. The other 90% is useful to the writer, since it gives you a fuller understanding of your characters and their world. But if it doesn’t directly impact the story, it doesn’t belong on the page. You’d just be showing off--”Look at ME! I did LOTS of research!”--and boring even the history geeks among your readers, because they’ve picked up your novel for a story, not a lesson.

So today instead of talking about fun facts that made it into The Sergeant’s Lady, I’m going to tell you about two big events I left out and why.

Badajoz
In early 1812, the British army’s key objective was to seize and hold the fortress cities of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, enabling them to secure their communication and supply lines and push further into Spain. Ciudad Rodrigo fell in January, completely offscreen from my story’s perspective. The army then marched on Badajoz and spent most of March laying siege to and bombarding the city in preparation for their attack.

The storming of the city on the night of April 6 did make it into The Sergeant’s Lady. As a sergeant in the Light Division, my hero would’ve been in the midst of the worst of the battle, so I put him there and had him wounded--both a likely outcome, as the division lost some 40% of its fighting strength, and one necessary for the resolution of my overall plot.

What I had to leave out was the aftermath of the battle. Once the British finally made it into the city, the soldiers went on a 72-hour rampage of rape and pillage, an atrocity made even worse because the Spanish civilians who were their victims were ostensibly allies. While it wasn’t the first or the last time an army went wild after a siege, it was an unusually bad case and is a serious black mark on the British army’s otherwise solid record during the Napoleonic Wars.

And I had no reason to put it in my story. My character was too severely wounded to be there heroically trying to stop it, or even to know about it till well after the fact. Mind you, I wanted to put it there. It felt like sugar-coating the British record to leave it out. Also, I wouldn’t want any fellow history geeks reading my novel to think I didn’t know what happened! But neither of those reasons was enough. It had nothing to do with my character’s arc, so it didn’t belong in my story.

Spencer Perceval’s Assassination
Only once has a British prime minister being assassinated. Spencer Perceval was shot and killed on May 11, 1812 by a lone and probably mentally unstable assassin with a personal grievance against the government. This event had no impact on my story whatsoever. However tragic it was for the Perceval family and whatever upheaval it created for the British government, I didn’t want to write about it.

Unfortunately, I needed to have some characters in England discussing current events--such as Badajoz, which, given the pace at which information traveled at the time, would’ve been news in England in May. I wanted to date the scene around May 15 or 20, when I felt like letters from the characters’ connections with the army in Spain would’ve had plenty of time to arrive. However, when I looked up what was happening around then and was reminded of Perceval’s death, I knew I couldn’t use those dates. My characters are politically involved enough that a prime minister’s assassination would’ve trumped everything else...for them, but not for me as an author with a different story to tell.

So I moved my scene to May 10 and neatly avoided the issue. I felt like I was stretching credibility a little to have my characters get letters from Spain so quickly--but not so much as I would’ve if I’d had the wife of politically active peer not even MENTION the prime minister’s death when a character recovering from a dangerous illness asks her if anything important happened while she was almost dying.

What history do you most want to see left out or included in your romance? One randomly chosen commenter wins a $10 gift certificate to your choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Books on Board.

The Sergeant’s Lady Blurb:
Highborn Anna Arrington has been "following the drum," obeying the wishes of her cold, controlling cavalry officer husband. When he dies, all she wants is to leave life with Wellington's army in Spain behind her and go home to her family's castle in Scotland.

Sergeant Will Atkins ran away from home to join the army in a fit of boyish enthusiasm. He is a natural born soldier, popular with officers and men alike, uncommonly brave and chivalrous, and educated and well-read despite his common birth.

As Anna journeys home with a convoy of wounded soldiers, she forms an unlikely friendship with Will. When the convoy is ambushed and their fellow soldiers captured, they become fugitives—together. The attraction between them is strong—but even if they can escape the threat of death at the hands of the French, is love strong enough to bridge the gap between a viscount's daughter and an innkeeper's son?

Excerpt here.

Susanna Fraser bio:
Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.

Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still gives her heroines great hair.

Susanna grew up in rural Alabama. After high school she left home for the University of Pennsylvania and has been a city girl ever since. She worked in England for a year after college, using her days off to explore history from ancient stone circles to Jane Austen’s Bath.

Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, sings alto in a local choir and watches cooking competition shows. Please stop by and visit her at http://authorsusannafraser.blogspot.com/, get to know her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorsusannafraser and follow her on Twitter at @susannafraser.