Welcoming Rachel Brimble with A Very Modern Marriage

Today author Rachel Brimble is popping in to tell us about her latest Victorian saga.

Welcome once again to Write Minds, Rachel. First of all, tell us what inspired you to write A Very Modern Marriage?

This book is the final instalment in the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy so it was inspiration for the whole series rather than this particular book. I read The Five by Hallie Rubenhold which explores the lives of Jack the Ripper’s victims and (although it might sound gruesome reading) it evoked such deep empathy in me. I was completely immersed in how very different these women’s lives were and the circumstances that led to each of them ending up in Whitechapel.

I just had to write a series about three prostitutes in Victorian Bath who come together in the name of survival and, of course, give them the happy ever after they deserve!

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

As a writer of historical fiction, research is obviously hugely important. So much so, that it is often difficult to know when to stop researching and start writing! For the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy, my research mainly focused around the lives of Victorian prostitutes as well as the taverns, gentlemen’s clubs and shops of Victorian London and Bath.

I tend to concentrate on the relationships in my books more than anything else so I would say that the research is used to add colour, flavour and realism to the setting and the adventures my characters become involved in. I tend to read a LOT of fiction and non-fiction of the period as well as visiting our local history centre for pictures and letters etc from the time.

As for the time spent…I’d say probably around a month or so.

Is this book a one-off, or is it part of a series?

A Very Modern Marriage is the final book in the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy and tells Octavia’s story. The series revolves around three women, Louisa, Nancy (whose stories are told in A Widow’s Vow & Trouble For The Leading Lady) and Octavia who live and work together in a brothel in the Victorian city of Bath.

The books are a combination of drama, intrigue and romance with a whole cast of characters, both main and secondary, who interact and add to the fun of what is my favourite series to date!

What do you find the most difficult part of writing process?

Definitely plotting! I am a plotter at heart and could never write a book by ‘the seat of my pants’, BUT that does not mean it makes my writing process any easier. I agonise over characters’ goals, motivations and conflicts, worry that my initial idea won’t stretch to 90,000 words…it never ends!

I am currently writing my 30^th novel, by the way…

That’s incredible, Rachel! Finally if you could tell your younger self anything what would it be?

Relax! I still tell myself that now and I’m 47, haha! I am slowly learning to not overthink things or anticipate what ‘might’ happen. I recently signed up for a self-awareness course and it has helped so much with my anxiety and tendency to jump ahead rather than living in the moment.

I already feel happier, more relaxed and enjoying each day for what it is 😊

That’s great to hear, Rachel. Thank you for taking the time to come and visit us once again, and the best of luck with A Very Modern Marriage.

A Very Modern Marriage

He needs a wife…
Manchester industrialist William Rose was a poor lad from the slums who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but in order to achieve his greatest ambitions he must become the epitome of Victorian respectability: a family man.

She has a plan…
But the only woman who’s caught his eye is sophisticated beauty Octavia Marshall, one of the notorious ladies of Carson Street. Though she was once born to great wealth and privilege, she’s hardly respectable, but she’s determined to invest her hard-earned fortune in Mr Rose’s mills and forge a new life as an entirely proper businesswoman.

They strike a deal that promises them both what they desire the most, but William’s a fool if he thinks Octavia will be a conventional married woman, and she’s very much mistaken if she thinks the lives they once led won’t follow them wherever they go.

In the third instalment of Rachel Brimble’s exciting Victorian saga series, The Ladies of Carson Street will open the doors on a thoroughly modern marriage – and William is about to get a lot more than he bargained for…

BUY HERE

About Rachel

Rachel lives in a small town near Bath, England. She is the author of over 25 published novels including the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy, the Shop Girl series (Aria Fiction) and the Templeton Cove Stories (Harlequin). In January 2022, she signed a contract with the Wild Rose Press for the first book in a brand new series set in past British Royal courts.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association as well as the Historical Novel Society and has thousands of social media followers all over the world.

To sign up for her newsletter (a guaranteed giveaway every month!), click HERE

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

In Honour of Rosemary Goodacre

Francesca and Elaine, along with other friends of author Rosemary Goodacre, are running a competition in her name and the proceeds will be going to her favourite charity Spade Work. Meanwhile, we take a trip down memory lane…

With the Rosemary Goodacre Memorial Short Story Competition well on its way, we thought we’d share some photographs of her with us and our fellow friends running the competition: Elaine Everest, Natalie Kleinman, Ann West and Catherine Burrows. They also include our judge Vivien Brown and a lot of Rosemary’s other writing friends from over the years.

There are details of the competition at the end of the post.

Sarah Stephenson, Rosemary and Elaine Roberts at a Romantic Novelists Association Winter Party in 2016

At a daytime writing workshop in 2012. Francesca’s daughter is on Rosemary’s left with Catherine Burrows on her right.

This photo was taken in Oxford prior to the Romantic Novelist’s Association’s Joan Hessayon Award evening in 2018. Rosemary is on the left, then Francesca, Elaine R, Sarah, Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman. We had a lovely time and lots of wine was drunk by all.

Fun and larks at the Write Place creative writing class Christmas party in 2012.

The Romantic Novel Awards in 2016 with Natalie, Sarah, Elaine E, Rosemary and Elaine R.

Caerleon Writers’ Holiday 2013: Rosemary, Angela Johnson, Elaine E, Ann West, Natalie and Linda Barrett.

This was taken at the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards evening in 2015. A lovely evening with Rosemary, Vivien Brown, Francesca and Elaine.

The Romantic Novel Awards 2014: Rosemary, Sarah, Elaine R, Natalie, Elaine E, Catherine, Vivien, Francesca and Karen Aldous.

Having a good chat in our kitchen at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference in 2019.

Rosemary and Elaine R having a glass of wine, which seems to be a theme in most of our photos!

Rosemary with Elaine E and Francesca at the Romantic Novelist’s Association Conference in Telford 2016. Have you noticed the wine? Who says romantic novelists don’t know how to have a good time.

Dinner at the RNA’s Conference in 2019: Vivien, Rosemary, Sarah, Catherine, Elaine E

RNA Winter Party 2014: Elaine R and Rosemary

In 2018 Rosemary, Viv, Elaine E and Natalie were travelling First Class to Leeds for the RNA conference.

Rosemary and Natalie travelling back from the conference in Leeds. We were all so much quieter coming back and shattered.

This was the gang attending an interesting talk by Tracy Chevalier in London.

IT’S BEEN LOVELY, IF SAD, SHARING GOOD TIMES WITH A GOOD FRIEND WITH OUR READERS

THE ROSEMARY GOODACRE MEMORIAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION

To commemorate the life of saga author Rosemary Goodacre her friends are organising a short story competition with all profits going to her favourite charity Spadework.  

JUDGE: Vivien Brown

About the competition:

1500 words maximum
Theme: Friendship
Each entry costs £7.50

Prizes:

1st £150.00
2nd £100.00
3rd £50.00 

Entries open 1st November 2021
Entries close midnight 31st March 2022

FOR MORE DETAILS OF THE COMPETITION RULES, AND INFORMATION ABOUT SPADEWORK, HEAD OVER TO THE COMPETITION PAGE

Cover Reveal Day for Trouble in the Valleys

Today is cover reveal day for the latest novel in Francesca’s Wartime in the Valleys series

Today I’m delighted to present the cover and blurb for the latest in the Valleys series, Trouble in the Valleys.

Can Polly finally escape her haunting past?

Spring 1919: WW1 might be over, but the inhabitants of Dorcalon in the Welsh Valleys still feel the pain of the war that took so many of their men.

Polly Smith is trying to survive her own battle at home. Since her abusive husband, Gus, was finally jailed, Polly has been raising her two-year-old son, Herby alone.

But being a single mother isn’t easy, and Polly finds it harder still as Gus’s criminal activities leave her with a bad reputation. Lonely and struggling for money, Polly retreats as she becomes the subject of cruel gossip.

A job offer throws her a lifeline, and as she grows closer to soldier, Henry Austin, it seems that Polly might finally be changing her life – until dark secrets from her past emerge, threatening her new happiness. Can Polly clear her name? Or will the mistakes of the past ruin her future?

Trouble in the Valleys is out on 5th May and ready to pre-order now:

Amazon

Kobo

Apple

WH Smiths

Waterstones

Come and find me here:

Francesca’s Facebook Author Page

Francesca on Twitter

Francesca on Instagram

‘Very Adorable Darlings’ in the First World War

Francesca’s latest Wartime in the Valleys novel, Hope in the Valleys, features Elizabeth Meredith who becomes a VAD nurse on the French war front in the Great War. But what did that entail?

Apparently one nickname for the VAD nurses, working voluntarily in hospitals during the First World War, was ‘Very Adorable Darlings’, obviously using the initials to convey how the soldiers considered them. Although it’s nice to know they were appreciated, I can’t help thinking this undervalues their contribution to the war effort.

So who were the VADs? For a start, it stands for Voluntary Aid Detachment, an organisation created in 1909 with the support of the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance Brigade, due to a fear that there would be a shortage of nurses to aid the military should there be a war. During the Great War (and Second World War) they were used in both hospitals in the UK and abroad where the soldiers were fighting. These ‘nurses’ were not trained like official nurses, but had taken first aid courses.

It wasn’t uncommon for them to be resented by the qualified nurses who thought it unfair that they should be called ‘nurses’ when they hadn’t done the same training. It didn’t help that the VADs were usually middleclass women, compared to the mainly working-class nurses. Usually they were given the dirtiest and most tedious jobs, like scrubbing, dealing with soiled dressings, emptying bedpans and cleaning up bodily fluids. And also the disposal of limbs. Some did work with nurses who valued their contribution and who trusted them with more complicated jobs.

Some of the books I’ve used to research VADs in the Great War

Those who, like Elizabeth, ended up near the war front in France, must have felt like they’d entered hell. Everything about it would have been harder than working in a hospital back home, where conditions would have been cleaner, not mud encrusted and covered with the detritus of explosions. The hospitals in Britain would largely have been dealing with soldiers who’d already been patched up in some way. It’s hard to imagine what horrors the nurses and VADs abroad encountered when men, often great numbers of them, descended upon a hospital at the front. There are reports of limbs blown off or hanging loose, gaping, festering wounds and skin and bone blown apart by gunshot. And then there were the severe mental health problems labelled at that time as ‘shell shock’, that we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.

The percentage of deaths on the front would have been way higher than anything they’d have encountered at a hospital back in Blighty. Many of the men would have been very young, not even considered adults, some probably small for their age as the underfed working classes often were back then. The VADs would have been reminded of their own fighting brothers, cousins, maybe uncles and fathers and many of their own sweethearts, knowing they faced the possibility of the same fate.

And by the way, the VAD nurses were not paid. The clue is in the word ‘Voluntary’. That’s right, they did it for nothing. Yes, they were mainly middle class and could afford to, but that shouldn’t be a cause to belittle their efforts. Having read many accounts of what they experienced, I can only admire them for their sterling work and dedication under horrific conditions.

A VAD in a ward I’m guessing was back in Britain, as the hospitals on the front tended to be makeshift huts and tents.

Hope in the Valleys

It’s August 1917 and WW1 continues to take a toll. The villagers of Dorcalon, a mining village in the Rhymney Valley, try to keep hope alive; but every day brings fresh tragedy as more of their sons and fathers are killed on foreign battlefields.

Elizabeth Meredith, daughter of mine manager Herbert, enjoys a privileged position in the village, but she longs to break free of society’s expectations.

Falling in love with miner, Gwilym Owen, brings more joy to her life than she’s ever known… until she’s forced to choose between her love and her disapproving family. Seeking an escape, Elizabeth signs up as a VAD nurse and is swiftly sent to help the troops in France, even as her heart breaks at leaving Gwilym behind.

Separated by society and the Great War, can Elizabeth and Gwilym find their way back together again? Or will their love become another casualty of war?

Hope in the Valleys is published by Hera Books and is available here:

All Amazon

Kobo: United Kingdom Canada Australia New Zealand United States

Apple

Waterstones

WH Smiths