The cover that wasn't

In discussions about self publishing, a widely held view seems to be that the cover of the book is of paramount importance. Self-publishers, it's said, should be prepared to spend money on professionally designed covers for their books.

It's true that the covers of some self published books do look amateurish. But then mainstream publishers don't always get it right either. How often does one see a cover on which the heroine has the wrong hair colour, or is wearing a dress that  is quite wrong for the date at which the book is set?

For various reasons I didn't go for a professional cover for Inheritance of Secrets, but designed my own. Having made the decision to publish on Kindle, I had limited time in which to do it, and finding a cover artist and conveying what I wanted would have taken too long.

Also, I was approaching this as a learning process and thought it would be useful to start at a point from which I could tweak or change everything to see what worked best.

I wanted to feature a young woman on the cover, to represent my central character. I went looking on the internet and found a picture that was just what I wanted. The woman in the picture is prettier than my heroine, but everything else is just right.

Then I discovered that it's a portrait of Emma Hamilton by George Romney. I thought potential readers might recognise it as Emma and be misled into thinking the book was about her. With regret, I abandoned it.

I chose instead an image I had of a suitable house. Not as good as a person, but the house is important to the story. I wanted to establish that it is not a mansion. 

I think the picture I used establishes the mood and setting of the story quite well. But I still wish I could have used Emma.  

Finding Characters

'How to' books for aspiring writers often deal with the question of devising and developing characters. Some recommend cutting photographs of people out of magazines to use as starting points.

As a writer of historical fiction, I'm always on the look out for unusual occupations carried on by women. Not every woman in the past was a domestic servant or a governess or a Regency Miss.


Miss Dale, in the previous post, was a photographer's assistant in 1911. What did that entail? Did she stage the settings for studio portraits? Did she help to develop and print the photographs? Did she acquire some knowledge of chemistry as a result?







Was she a photographer herself? Did she go out on her bicycle at weekends, photographing local landmarks and beauty spots? What story could be told abut her?




A recent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery included a portrait of Esther Inglis, a calligrapher and illustrator, born in 1571. Esther's parents were French Huguenot refugees.





She lived in Scotland and England and seems to have had contact with many prominent English and Scots people of the time, including the Earl of Essex and Robert Cecil.  Is there a story of plots and conspiracies to be found there?



Characters can be found everywhere, if one looks for them.

The painter of light

Today, 16 April, is the official opening of the Turner Contemporary Gallery.


It is suggested that English artists were especially successful in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries because advances in the manufacture of paper  enabled watercolourists in particular to produce more finely detailed work.

Turner’s techniques were advanced, but his subject matter reflected the times he lived in. His landscapes and seascapes illustrated the natural world that inspired the poets of the time.

He showed how Wolverhampton looked before the Industrial Revolution took hold.

And in his two best known works he showed new technology and contrasted it with the past.

The Fighting Temeraire (1839), shows a steam tug towing the old sailing ship HMS Temeraire to be broken up.

Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) shows a train on the Great Western Railway crossing a bridge.

Both Turner's representation and railways themselves were disliked by many. In the same year Wordsworth was campaigning fiercely against the proposed Kendal and Windermere Railway. He wrote a sonnet to the Morning Post opposing the idea: 

Is then no nook of English ground secure 
From rash assault? 

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) is now considered one of the greatest English artists. In his lifetime however his work was not always appreciated because of his impressionistic representation of light and colour.