My inspiration for characters in the Cavaliers – Part 1 – Augustine Piso

24 Saturday May 2014

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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creating characters, george clooney, gladiator, inspiration for characters, russell crowe, the cavaliers, vampires, Writing

I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be fun to have a little blog mini-series (much like the one I did a while back on why I like vampire novels) taking one of my characters each day and explaining what combination of literary characters, historical characters, celebrities and people I know came together to inspire each of them.

Obviously, these post are going to be of most interest to people who’ve read some or all of The Cavaliers Series, but I’m hoping that they’ll also be of interest to my fellow authors and anyone interested in the craft of writing. Plot is my biggest fascination, but characters come a close second, and personally, I think the question of how authors create their characters is an intriguing one.

I’m starting off today with Augustine Piso, and then I’ll continue with Lord George Stewart, and Adelaide Piso (nee French) over the next couple of days. I’ll see how it goes beyond that, but I’m willing to take requests.

And finally, what this series really needs is drawings of the characters. There’s barely anything book related that would make me happier at this moment in time, but I have zero drawing ability. Can anyone draw or knows anyone who can draw or knows of a service where people will draw authors pictures of their characters? If so, please tell.

AUGUSTINE PISO

Age: Born in 99 BC, turned in 54 BC. Appears to be in his mid-forties.

Place of birth: Etruria (just outside of modern-day Florence)

Maker: “The Maker”

Offspring: turned Adelaide French. Is proud of the fact that he hasn’t personally created any other vampires, though all of the Cavaliers regard him as a father figure of a sort.

Current Role: Chairman of Meridian and Lamb, a major investment bank. Head of the Cavaliers. Various shadow roles in Government and the media.

Special powers and talents: enhanced versions of all the usual vampire talents, both physical and mental. In addition, able to break other vampires’ mind control, exercise some degree of mesmerism over his fellow vampires, and, most usefully, can’t be killed without using all three of the Piso Treasures and following certain specific procedures.

BACKGROUND AND INSPIRATION

There’s a certain type of character that I always secretly rather enjoy. It’s the character who is pretty much unbeatable. Who, when another character challenges them to a fight or to a battle of wits, you just shake your head in disbelief and wonder that they are playing at. Sometimes, they are heroes. Other times, anti-heroes, or full-blown villains. The most famous example is probably James Bond, but others that you might have heard of, off the top of my head, include Jack Bauer from 24 and (in slightly different ways) all of Captain Carrot, Commander Vimes and Lord Vetinari from the Discworld books. In short, it’s someone you really don’t want to end up in a fight with.

When I started Oxford Blood, this was basically what I wanted Augustine Piso to be. The uber-vampire. Physically, mentally and psychically stronger than everyone else, with the addition of centuries of cunning. I wanted him to be the absolute, unquestioned ruler of the Cavaliers, and to be unchallengable. In both Oxford Blood and Screaming Spires, he faces an attack, and more or less shrugs it off. Whether he’s facing Archie, a scheming young vampire who thinks he’s found his one weak-spot, or the centuries old power of the Visigoth Twins, he deals with the situation calmly and efficiently.

Oxford Blood: You played your little game well,” Gus continued. “Playing on my emotions and using the fact that no vampire can break another’s spell. You just made one tiny mistake – assuming that I’m the same as all the other vampires. I’m more powerful than you can imagine. I can break your mind control as easily as you can break a human’s neck. It’s not just that I have centuries on any of you – I was made by the first vampire, who was more demon than human. And in the end I killed and drained him, and all of the others he’d made.”

Screaming Spires: “Don’t you dare touch my daughter,” Augustine said commandingly from outside the window. “I may not be able to come in right now, but after this I’ll destroy you both.”

Apart from this seemingly unassailable power, Augustine’s key defining feature is his age. Most of the Cavaliers, regardless of their centuries, appear to be in their twenties. Augustine, despite the fact that he could presumably make people see whatever he wanted them to see, defaults to looking in his late forties or early fifties. The first time he appears in the books, he’s described as, “good looking, in a George Clooney sort of way.” In essence, he seems older and more rugged than most of the vampires he commands, but no less sexy for that.

I don’t usually go in for rugged (slightly effeminate pretty boys all the way for me) but everyone needs a bit of variety in their lives. As the line above suggests, George Clooney was one major visual inspiration for Augustine, and his general air of suave sophistication also suits the character. The other side of his character – the harder, fight to defend your family at all costs side – was inspired by Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiator (one of my all time favourite films, even if I prefer the evil emperor to the honourable protagonist), who shares a certain degree of historical background with Augustine.

The final inspirations for Augustine were, bizarrely, some combination of Rupert Murdoch and Peter Mandelson. Augustine doesn’t just have physical strength, he pulls all of the strings behind the scenes. He controls newspapers, dominates elections, has all of the establishment bent to his will. He is an exaggerated version, but I’m fascinated by the political power that some people wield today.

Tom didn’t know exactly how many of the major newspapers Augustine actually owned. Even the most determined auditors couldn’t penetrate his network of holding companies. The Cavaliers’ ability to feed the papers stories about their politicians, the fact they could pay serious bribes, and the number of members working as editors meant that there wasn’t much notable difference between those that were directly in his control and the ones that were nominally independent. They all printed whatever he wanted. And if all else failed, there was always mesmerism.

“Get me the Home Secretary on the phone,” Augustine barked at Rupert.

The Piso were a real Roman family, but I borrowed their name and not much else. Augustine’s first name, bizarrely, comes from my Grandfather. He was one of ten children in a sprawling, northern, Catholic (hence the ten kids!) family. They were miners and steel workers, but their religion demanded that they be named after saints. Most people in the same situation satisfied themselves with James and David. For some reason, my great-grandparents really went to town. As well as Augustine, the family included Leonardo and Rosaline. Although the tenth child (and I swear this is true) was called Brian – I’m not sure whether they were Monty Python fans ( I think it would have been too early), or had just ran out of steam by then.

The funny thing is that, until he died, I never knew my granddad had such an exotic name. Everyone referred to him as Austin, and I love the contrast between such a staid, English-sounding diminutive and the fifth-century, Italian saint’s name sitting behind it. Incidentally, my Grandma was called Beatrice, like Dante’s true love, and insisted on being called Beattie. It must have been love at first name exchange.

In the prologue of Oxford Blood, Augustine appears as the leader of the Cavaliers, obviously a vampire, obviously terrifyingly powerful, and referred to by his full name. In the first chapter, Harriet refers to her absent stepfather. He’s rich and somewhat mysterious, but she has no idea he’s a vampire. In the original draft, Harriet’s name for him was Austin, and I loved the contrasting names and the way it created an ambiguity around whether or not Austin and Augustine were the same person.

This borrowing of the two versions of my Grandfather’s name freaked my family out a little too much, so I eventually changed his nickname to Gus, the other obvious way to shorten the name. This had all the same fun elements, but for me, also brought a new connotation into play. By that point, I’d started working for the Civil Service, and at the time, the head of the Civil Service was called Gus O’Donnell, or, as officials tended to refer to him, referencing both his initials and his status as probably the most important person in British Government after the Queen and the Prime Minister: GOD.

So for most of the first two books, that was Augustine (Gus) Piso – named after a strange combination of my granddad, my ultimate boss, and an obscure Roman family. Inspired by one celebrity rugged hunk and one celebrity smooth “grey-fox.” A character that I always enjoyed writing about, but who was ultimately something of an archetype – the unassailable leader. In my plans, he was never going to be defeated (or the whole archetype would be undermined) but he was not going to get a romantic happy ending. Because fundamentally, Augustine was a character I admired, and who was essential to the plot, but who I didn’t really care about.

And then I made a mistake. All of the books have prologues from a different point-of-view and on a different timescale to the rest of the story. And I thought it would be fun to have a prologue about Augustine as a slightly more fallible (though still pretty badass) human meeting his arch-enemy Fea for the first time and, ultimately, becoming a vampire. A quick 1000 – 2000 word affair to give a bit of background and get Ivory Terrors off to a rousing start.

By the time I’d managed to stop writing Augustine’s story, it was about 15 000 words long, and I was utterly in love with his character. It was far too long to use as a prologue, but I divided the story up and spread it through the book. It’s one of my favourite parts of Ivory Terrors. Actually, one of the Augustine scenes, where he is turned and forced to kill his wife, is one of the bits of my writing I’m the proudest of and most satisfied by. Almost everything that happens in “The Tale of Augustine Piso” from him being turned by a vampire who had never been human, to him killing his wife, to him creating the Treasures and sacrificing a child to destroy his maker, had been referred to in earlier books. But somehow, writing them as actual scenes, happening then and there and from his point of view, give them so much more emotional resonance. Compare:

Oxford Blood: “You remind me of the first person I ever killed. Outside of the battlefield at least. She was my wife. I was made to drain her in order to complete my transformation, and I couldn’t forgive myself for centuries. Perhaps letting you go will be some kind of recompense.”

Ivory Terrors:

Augustine pressed his lips together until they burned. He wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it. At worst, he’d die. At best, they’d bring him another sacrifice. But he would not hurt Antonia.

His body spasmed.

“Your muscles are dying,” the Maker said calmly. “You’re suffocating from the inside out. I really would drink now, if I were you.”

Still he tried to resist, and still Fea held his head in place. He was slipping out of consciousness, and he could take it no more. Against his will, his fangs extended and pierced Antonia’s neck. The second he got the first taste of her blood, he lost all control, all sense of who he was. Nothing existed for him except the blood. He drank in a dark, conscienceless frenzy, until there was nothing more to drink. Only then did Fea release his head.

“Welcome to your new life,” she whispered. “You’re truly one of us now.”

“Antonia, wake up. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it.”

Desperately, he bit down on his wrist and let the blood trickle into her mouth.

“It’s far too late for that,” the Maker said.

Augustine jumped to his feet. His hands gripped Fea’s throat almost before he was aware of having moved.

***

Augustine was meant to end up alone, to make the point that just because a pair were together in a past life, it doesn’t mean they are destined to be together in this one. But somehow, after we’d been through so much together, and after I’d really come to appreciate just how much he’d loved his wife and how his whole life had centred on avenging her and waiting for her return, I just couldn’t do it to him. It’s rather surprising when you consider how I treat some of the other characters at the end of Ivory Terrors (including my absolute favourite character, of which more tomorrow), but I guess I deliberately made a character who would always win. As it happens, in a battle of wills, he’ll even win out against the author.

Wahey, first of May. Ivory Terrors released today

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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book release, ivory terrors, the cavaliers, vampires

Fifteen years ago, I picked up a copy of the Vampire Diaries from my school library and instantly fell in love with an entire genre.
Ten years ago, I sketched out a basic plot for a vampire novel of my own, based around a girl whose mother is a vampire and trying to set her up with an eligible monster. And then University happened, and was wonderful, and the plan got no further.

Four years ago, I spent Easter at my parents’ house, and whiled away a few hours reading a copy of Dead until Dark which my aunt had lent me. It was the first vampire book I’d read in ages, and it rekindled my teenage fascination. I dug out my old notebook from my teenage bookcase, stood in the kitchen and told my Mum I was finally going to write my book. On the train back to London from Sheffield, I wrote like a woman possessed. I’d barely written anything by hand since school, but with no laptop to hand, I filled page after page of my notebook with a combination of notes and a rudimentary first chapter (of which more below).

Those ideas, of course, turned into Oxford Blood, and ultimately, into the whole Cavaliers Series. And today, Ivory Terrors, the third and final book, has finally been published.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivory-Terrors-The-Cavaliers-Three-ebook/dp/B00K1JR2WY

http://www.amazon.com/Ivory-Terrors-The-Cavaliers-Three-ebook/dp/B00K1JR2WY

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/425826

I always planned it as a trilogy, but I’m not sure that I truly believed, either that day on the train or on many occasions since, that I’d ever have it all completed and available for sale. Frankly, I feel pretty bloody proud of my self.

There’s been lots of other things going on in my life in the four years since I started Oxford Blood – a graduate job, a promotion, an engagement, house moves, friends weddings – but writing the Cavaliers has nonetheless been such a huge part of my life that this really feels like the end of an era. Or at least it will, once May’s over and I’ve finished with the blog tour – for the next couple of weeks, I’m undoubtedly going to continue to have Ivory Terrors very much on the brain. And I mean it to genuinely be an end. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s authors who drag their series out far beyond their originally intended end. I’m half considering writing some historical short stories based around various members of the Cavaliers during various time periods, but its not my next project and it’s not even officially on my to do list. It’ll be strange without these characters clamouring for attention in my mind.

It’d be a lie to say I’ve loved ever moment of writing and publishing my trilogy. There have been days where I’ve struggled to make a plotpoint work or had to force myself to cut a scene I loved or had to do lots of fiddly editing and proofing and formatting. But most of the time, it’s been amazing. I’ve loved bringing characters to life. I’ve loved playing with history and with vampire lore. I’ve loved getting some of my memories of Oxford down on paper, and building on them to create dramatic scenes. I’ve loved taking a tricky scene or bit of plot, and suddenly managing to make it work, and above all, I’ve loved reading back over something I’ve written, and thinking actually, that’s not too bad. And in some ways, that’s the best thing of all. Popular wisdom claims that you should write the book you want to read, and I’ve written three of them. If no one else had ever read The Cavaliers Series, I’d still have been happy that I’d created something that I truly loved.

And yet, it gets better. Because my books are for sale, and people I’ve never met have bought them, and in many cases, enjoyed them and reviewed them and contacted me. And this fact still sometimes blows my mind. PEOPLE I’VE NEVER MET ARE READING SOMETHING I’VE WRITTEN.

What has astonished me even more are the people who have helped me out by beta-reading or featuring me on their blog or in any number of other ways, big and small. Today, for example, Ivory Terrors is featured on the following blogs, which are well worth a look:

http://chippyreader.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/ivory-terrors (including my first review of Book Three)
http://pinkfluffyhearts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/promotional-event-ivory-terrors.html (including an extract)
http://ashlynnelaynne.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/release-blitz-for-georgiana-derwents.html
http://archiestandwoodsreviewsandwritings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/release-day-ivory-terrors-by-georgina.html

The people who’ve beta-read deserve particular credit. It’s astonishing the extent to which you can think your book is finished and perfected, only for a fresh pair of eyes to point out plot issues that seem obvious as soon as they’ve been mentioned. Three people beta-read Book Three, and there were two things that all three of them commented on, that I’d never considered but ended up changing. They’ve really contributed to making my books the best they can be. And more fundamentally, through both the beta-reading process and through reviews both good and bad, I feel I’ve become a better writer over the course of writing the series. I hope I’ll be even prouder of my next book, which I can start from scratch with all of that accumulated knowledge.

I’ll leave it there for now, before this becomes too rambly and emotional, but if we’ve ever had any contact with regards to my books, then thank you. I really hope that if you’re a fan of the series, you’ll buy Ivory Terrors today. If you haven’t read the earlier books, I hope you’ll give Oxford Blood (the first one) a go. And if you read one or all of the books, please leave me a review and let me know what you think.

Finally, if you’ve read this post, please comment and say hello on what’s a really quite special day for me.

Cheesiness over. You’ll hopefully be seeing a lot of me over the next few days, now the hard part’s over. And at the weekend, if I get a)time and b)the nerve, I’ll post the quite hilarious original notes for Oxford Blood that I mention above.

The Cavaliers Playlist

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by georgianaderwent in Books, Music

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adele, maroon five, Music, soundtrack, the cavaliers, vampire weekend, vampires

I’m feeling extremely excited tonight. Ivory Terrors is finally released tomorrow, and that’s the Cavaliers Series completed and four years of work come to an end. Earlier, I did some last checks and double-checks and bits of formatting, but now, I’ve uploaded the book to Amazon and Smashwords and that, substantially, is that.

Tomorrow, I intend to get emotional on here. I need to do some looking back and some looking forward, and offer some thanks. But for tonight, I’m keeping things fun, with a post I’ve been meaning to write for ages.

Books will always be my first cultural love, but music comes a close second. I’ve often said that when it comes to books, for me, while brilliant prose is always a bonus, the plot is by far the most important element. I take a rather similar view with music. I love a great tune, but it’s the lyrics that make a song for me. My favourite books often remind me of my favourite songs, and vice versa. And having spent so long thinking about The Cavaliers, it’s unsurprising that there are a number of songs that I always associate with the series.

I love finding playlists for my favourite books, and I’ve been meaning to put together one for the Cavaliers almost since Oxford Blood was published. The main think that finally made me get round to it (apart from feeling a bit demob happy after the final Ivory Terrors edit) was receiving an email from someone who’d read Oxford Blood, and alongside some other lovely comments, mentioned that, “During the early scenes of Harriet with Tom, before they were actually an item, before she knew what he was. The way they connected without understanding why, I heard Rihanna’s “Stay” playing in my head. Not just the lyrics but also the angst of how she sings them definitely reminds me of Harriet during those parts.”

I hadn’t consciously heard the song beforehand (though I’ve obviously listened to it since) but it made me so happy to think that someone was connecting with something I’d written in just the way I’ve connected with all the books I love. Anyway, here’s my list. You can listen to all of these songs via my Spotify playlist:

1)Moves Like Jagger (Maroon Five) and Break Your Heart (Taio Cruz)

If you fall for me
I’m not easy to please
I might tear you apart
Told you from the start,
Baby from the start.
I’m only gonna break, break your, break, break your heart.

I associate both of these songs with the Cavaliers in general. The charming “no girl can resist them” side, and the flip side, where “no girl can keep them.” I think both songs apply very well to pretty much all the members, but they particularly rmeind me of George.

I don’t need to try to control you
Look into my eyes and I’ll own you
With them moves like Jagger
I’ve got the moves like Jagger

2) A Lady of a Certain Age (Divine Comedy)

Back in the day you had been part of the smart set
You’d holidayed with kings, dined out with starlets
From London to New York, Cap Ferrat to Capri
In perfume by Chanel and clothes by Givenchy

This is a song about how it doesn’t matter how rich and beautiful you are, one day, you’re going to get old. Adelaide French begs to differ. The opening verse sums up her lifestyle, and the (in the song, self-deluding) chorus seems eerily appropriate for a woman who looks like her daughter’s slightly older sister:

“You wouldn’t think that I was fifty three”
And he’d say,”no, you couldn’t be!

3) Love Lust (King Charles) and Love Blood (King Charles)

Well I’ve got love in my blood, and I’ve got you on my brain.
I haven’t got enough blood, I cannot love you enough.
If you’ve got love in your blood, if it is bolder than death
Oh let it spill, let it spill, over the heart you love best.

I mentioned this way back in one of my first ever blog posts on here. I don’t think it’s meant to be about vampires, but the combination of obsessive love and darkness (not to mention all the blood references!) work perfectly.

Love Blood (a different song by the same musician) also has the slightly discomfiting refrain, “Never let a woman go even when you know she can always be replaced. She can always be replaced.” Firstly, it was utterly bizarre to see King Charles in concert and listen to the whole audience (me included) cheerfully singing along to that chorus. Secondly, all I can ever think of when I hear it is what Harriet always refers to as, “George’s little fan club,” the girls he keeps half-mesmerised so he can call on them whenever they need a snack.

4) Pretty much anything by Vampire Weekend – if pushed, I’ll go with Taxi Cab

They may be American, but few bands better sum up the atmosphere of Oxford than these guys. I don’t think I’d ever have got Oxford Blood finished without their first album on repeat. This one is less about any specific lyrics, and more about the general preppy mood they conjure up. And then there’s this wonderful quotation from the lead singer about their three albums. You’ve got to like one of your favourite bands referencing one of your favourite books, and I can’t imagine many other musicians saying this,, which reminds me why I tend to love trilogies, and which applies to my novels to some degree:

“It reminded me of Brideshead Revisited,” said Mr. Koenig, who writes the band’s lyrics. “The naïve joyous school days in the beginning. Then the expansion of the world, travel, seeing other places, learning a little bit more about how people live. And then the end is a little bit of growing up, starting to think more seriously about your life and your faith. If people could look at our three albums as a bildungsroman, I’d be O.K. with that.”

That said, I do love the following verse, which reminds me of one of my favourite scenes in the whole trilogy (albeit one I sometimes wish I’d managed to put a slightly better spin on) when Harriet goes to the Cavaliers Dinner with George, shortly after he bit her on the Steele Walk:

In the shadow of your first attack
I was questioning and looking back
You said, “Baby, we don’t speak of that”
Like a real aristocrat

And of course, there’s always Oxford Comma’s rather apt, “I’ve seen those English Dramas too. They’re cruel.”

5) Atlas (Julia Johnson/Gray)

I struggle to put into words just what it is about this song that reminds me of the books. It’s much less easy to relate the lyrics to the plot, but there’s something about it that really catches the same part of my imagination. If Vampire Weekend was the soundtrack to writing book one, her album and King Charles’ got me through Screaming Spires. In particular, it’s these lines, which always make me think of Harriet’s progression through the series. I came so close to emailing the author and asking if I could quote them in the final part of Ivory Terrors:

They say take what you want and pay for it, so I do

They say learn from your mistakes and I learned from you

6) Set Fire to the Rain (Adele)

This is a relatively new addition to the list. It’s a great song about intense, destructive relationships. I’ve suggested before that I steer well clear of this sort of emotional torture in both real life and contemporary fiction, but somehow, for me, everything is better with vampires. The song works well for the whole series, but I’m also going to be ridiculously specific and suggest that you put it on in the background for Chapter Eighteen and a certain section of Chapter Nineteen of Ivory Terrors, because it’s just perfect for it.

But my knees were far too weak
To stand in your arms
Without falling to your feet

But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew
All the things you’d say, they were never true, never true
And the games you’d play, you would always win, always win

I’ll stop there, otherwise I could easily carry on all night. I’m very tempted to do another of these at some point, or maybe even a chapter by chapter run through of one of the books. I hope you’ve found some new songs through this, and don’t forget to grab a copy of Ivory Terrors tomorrow.

Does anyone else have any songs they associate with the books?

Ivory Terrors – sneak preview of Chapter One

05 Saturday Apr 2014

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ivory terrors, Oxford, pre-release chapter, the cavaliers, vampires

So a few days ago, I announced that Ivory Terrors is now finished and will be published on the 1st May. As a little celebration, I’ve posted the first chapter (not including the prolgoue, which I’ll explain more about in a few days time) below. Enjoy!

Chapter One

“Where are we actually going? I think I’ve proved I’m on your side, whatever side that is. You must be able to trust me now.”

“Richard will explain everything when we arrive. Until then, it’s not my place to tell you.”

“I still can’t believe you’re the inside man. I’d have guessed almost anyone else. I suppose you can be a little bit renegade at times, but you’ve always seemed so dedicated to the Cavalier cause.”

Harriet listened groggily to the voices around her. George’s aristocratic drawl and her mother’s clipped voice were unmistakable, though she struggled to understand what the latter had to do with George’s kidnap attempt. The other voice reminded her of her uncle’s broad Yorkshire tones, but that would make no sense at all.

She tried to force herself into full wakefulness, but couldn’t quite make her eyes open.

“She’s waking up,” her mother said, sounding genuinely alarmed. “Put her back under.”

George sighed theatrically. “Is that really necessary? Couldn’t we just let her come to and explain things?”

“Explain what? I don’t have a clue what we’re doing, never mind being able to explain it to my daughter. Let’s get to safety, and then we can talk.”

Harriet managed to open her eyes for a split second, long enough to tell that she lay in a narrow bed, with George leaning over her. She tried to speak, but George put his finger to her lip then touched his forehead to hers. A blast of mesmerism radiated through her and she blacked out again.

***

“How long do you think it will be until Augustine realises we’re gone?” In the time that Harriet had been asleep, her mother’s tone had become more panicky.

“From the alarms at the Party, I think he realised before we even made it to Richard’s jet. But don’t worry about that. Another hour and we’ll be at his stronghold, and even Augustine can’t reach us there.” Despite his reassuring words, George sounded faintly hysterical.

Harriet tried to think logically about the situation. She’d been mesmerised into attending the Summer Party against her will. Nick had been turned and had tried to drain her, but she’d turned his mesmerism back on him. Then Rupert had forced her to wake Nick up by threatening Catherine and Katie, at which point, he’d killed Julia.

Beyond that, things got hazier. George had lured her into the woods, and offered her revenge on both the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. She’d thought she could resist him, but when he kissed her, she’d let her guard down, and then he’d mentally knocked her out.

She had no idea what George was planning or where he was taking her. She should have known better than to trust him even for a moment. But why was her mother involved? And who was the third person? She’d never heard a vampire speak like him before.

“Can’t you wake her up?” the stranger asked. “I’ve waited for twenty years to speak to my daughter. I can’t say I like you treating her like this.”

Even with her eyes closed, she could sense George leaning over her again. “She’s almost woken up naturally. It’s a little alarming. She’s becoming more and more resistant to mind control. Frankly it’s exhausting to keep her under.”

“One more blast,” her mother said. “That should last until we arrive. And darling, you’ll be able to speak to her soon. Think how much nicer it will be to have that moment on a balcony over a river, safe and plotting, rather than on this old jet, panicking and fleeing.”

Harriet understood the individual words, but the context barely made sense. His daughter? Augustine had claimed to be her father, but in her view, she only had one dad, and he’d been dead for years. Yet in her head, he always spoke like the stranger.

Once more she tried to force her eyes open, desperate to see whether the stranger looked like the man pictured in her locket.

“I’m sorry,” George whispered, touching his forehead to hers. “Just one more time, I promise.”

***

“What do you know about this?” Augustine said.

On the surface, the leader of the Cavaliers seemed to be as poised as ever, but Tom could sense the interior breakdown taking place under his calm facade.

Rupert sprawled in a chair, pinned there not by ropes but by the sheer force of Augustine’s will.

“Nothing. Of course I knew nothing, my Lord,” Rupert said, speaking too fast, too loud. “I’m one of your most loyal servants. And I’m the last person George would confide in.”

Augustine paused for a moment before replying. “You have a point, I suppose. But Adelaide was always close to you. Think carefully. Did she say anything that suggested she was planning to flee?”

“No my Lord, I swear. Whenever I spoke to her, she seemed more in love with you than ever. I refuse to believe she can have gone willingly. George must have taken her too.”

Augustine took a step back, and allowed Rupert to stand. “I’ve locked down the clearing,” he announced. “So don’t anyone think about trying to leave. My wife is gone, my stepdaughter is gone, my prisoner is gone, and one of my most powerful lieutenants has disappeared. I will get to the bottom of this.”

Caroline’s turn in the chair came next. One moment, she was clinging to Ben for dear life. The next minute, she sat in the hot seat. Vampires could only be mesmerised by their makers, but in this, as in so many things, the rules clearly didn’t apply to Augustine.

Caroline, usually always so self-assured, started to cry before Augustine even began his interrogation.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said immediately. “Harriet hasn’t spoken to me in weeks. I’ve had the odd telephone call with Adelaide, when she felt I needed extra support, but not the sort of conversation where she would confide in me. And as for George…”

“As for George, you seem to have been spending rather a lot of time with him,” Augustine said. “Enough time that I thought you’d have been top of his confessional list.”

“Well he didn’t tell me he planned to abandon me and run off with Harriet,” Caroline said, still sobbing. “It’s not exactly the best sort of pillow talk. Everyone always said not to trust him, but I thought that I was different. I’m a vampire after all. I’m not one of his interchangeable human girls. But once again, he seems to have chosen her.”

“We don’t know what he’s chosen,” Augustine snapped. “I don’t think this is an elopement. Young lovers don’t generally invite the mother-in-law along.”

With a shrug, he released Caroline and she fell into Ben’s arms. Ben’s willingness to support Caroline after her weeks of absence made Tom smile even through his pain. In his experience, a crisis tended to reunite a couple like nothing else could.

“Tom Flyte, I need to speak to you next.”

The wood, with all its torches and fairy-lights, blurred for a moment, and then Tom found himself in the chair. Augustine’s powers never failed to astonish him.

“Do you know anything about this?” Far from tiring him, each interrogation seemed to increase the force of Augustine’s power.

“How can you even suggest that I have anything to do with this?” Tom said. “I would never be that disloyal. And how can you think for a moment that I would support any plan that involved Harriet running away with George? He’s a total psychopath. He doesn’t care about her, he doesn’t care about anyone. Let me help. I swear that I’m on your side. I love Harriet. I want to save her from this.”

Augustine gave him an appraising look. “I believe you. Perhaps you alone understand some of my pain. Tell me – do you think my Adelaide has gone freely?”

Tom looked him in the eye. “No more than my Harriet. I blame George for all of this.”

Augustine nodded. “I’m letting down the defences. You can all leave, and I’d suggest you do so quickly, before the sun comes up. Rupert, Tristan, Tom, you’re coming back to London with me. We have plans to make.”

***

Katie dragged her shaking body out of bed. She wanted to sleep for a hundred years, but she had to get up and face the day. She resisted the temptation to run out onto the street, screaming about what she’d seen. The brain that had always plotted for the most prestigious internships and eligible men knew that that would be counterproductive. Go to the police with her hair wild, her make-up undone and her breath smelling of alcohol, and her story would sound like the ramblings of a madwoman. But have a shower, brush her teeth, put on her best interview suit and a subtle string of pearls, and maybe someone would listen.

She forced herself through the old familiar routine of washing and preening, trying to get her story straight in a head that just wanted to break down. She wouldn’t use the term vampires, she wouldn’t. No one would buy that.

She tried to think of the most rational way to put it. She’d been at a party. Some of the guests had bitten some of the others. Some of them had died. She’d been bitten herself, but she’d survived. Julia Jenkinson had died. Sofia Calvinos. She wasn’t sure of the other names.

She downed a strong black coffee that did nothing to quell the tremors that had overtaken her, and then strode out of the door before she could change her mind. In the quad, she hesitated. It would be better if she had someone who could collaborate her story, but who could she ask? Caroline had stood there watching it all. Harriet had all but ordered Julia’s death. And her darling William, the nicest man she’d ever met, had plunged his teeth into her neck. No. She had to do this alone.

The twenty minute walk to the police station seemed to take hours. Aside from the mental trauma, the blood loss had left her physically weak. Once she’d dealt with the police, she might just have to visit the hospital.

When she finally made it, the young desk sergeant gave her a friendly welcome. Between her pretty face, her imposing voice and her obvious wealth, Katie generally expected people to treat her with that sort of respect, but today, his politeness hugely relieved her.

“How can I help you?” he asked.

“I’ve been attacked. At least four people have been murdered. Probably more.”

The sergeant’s mouth fell open. He’d clearly been expecting her to report a stolen purse.

“I think you’d better come through to the back and sit down.”

Katie nodded and followed him in silence, still debating how to make her story sound sane. Someone fixed her a cup of tea, and then the man from the desk left. He returned a few minutes later with his superior in tow.

“So you say you want to report four murders?” the senior officer asked, staring at her through narrowed eyes as though she were the criminal.

“Have you ever heard of the Cavaliers? They’re a dining society. One of them is or was my boyfriend. I went to their party. For a while, it was lots of fun, but then they started their initiation ceremony. I don’t quite know how to explain this, but basically, they bit people. They bit the boys they’d chosen first, but they were okay. All the girls seemed totally out of it. At times, so was I, but for some reason I kept snapping back to consciousness. Then when the boys woke up, they bit us. And most of the girls there died.”

The two police officers looked at each other. “I think I’d better get the Chief Constable,” the more senior one said. “Stay here with her.”

Katie desperately tried to engage the young sergeant in conversation, but he wouldn’t look at her. After a few minutes, the other officer returned, accompanied by a severe middle-aged man, who waved the other two out.

“Tell me,” he said, when he and Katie were alone. “What do you think happened last night?”

“I suppose they were crazy,” she said awkwardly. “I’d heard weird stories about the Cavaliers, but I put it all down to bravado. Turns out they really are psychopaths.”

The Chief Inspector laughed. “No need to be so coy, my dear. Tell me what you really think happened. Say the word you’ve been so carefully avoiding.”

His calm acceptance blindsided her, but she forced herself to continue. “Fine. They’re vampires. The Cavaliers are a society of murderous vampires. Now what are you going to do about it?”

The Chief Inspector smiled, but his eyes remained blank. “I’m not going to do anything about it. I’ll leave that to the special team at Scotland Yard. Unfortunately they won’t be available until nightfall, and until then, I’m going to have to take you to the cells.”

***

Josh stared at the news website, barely able to comprehend the words his eyes were seeing.

“A 21-year old girl died today in tragic circumstances.”

The words swam on the page. His eyes couldn’t focus on anything but the picture of Julia the BBC had selected to accompany the news story. He recognised it as one that he’d taken the previous summer at the ball. They must have copied it from Facebook. She looked beautiful and fragile in equal measure.

He wanted to close the page and pretend that none of this was happening. Instead, he clicked on the video news story.

“Julia Jenkinson, a popular student at Oxford University, was the victim of a stabbing, after stepping in to save a child from an attempted kidnapping. A forty year old man is helping the police with their inquiries.”

The presenter’s solemn words drifted over him. He reached into the top drawer of his desk and drew out a letter. When he’d found it in his pigeonhole a few days earlier, he’d considered it as a cry for help from a girl who seriously needed the support he so desperately wanted to give her. Now, it seemed all too prescient.

“I’m writing this in a brief moment of clarity. I don’t believe I’ll survive the Cavaliers’ party. If I die, don’t believe their lies about my suicide or accident. The society will have killed me, just like Stephanie and Alice and so many other girls.”

He forced his attention back to the screen. A striking middle-aged woman with red hair, easily identifiable as Julia’s mother even without the caption underneath, tried her best to answer an interviewer’s questions through her tears.

“I can’t believe this has happened,” she sobbed, echoing Josh’s thoughts exactly. “My beautiful, clever daughter.”

“It must at least be a comfort to you that she died saving someone else,” the newscaster said.

Julia’s mother nodded. “It helps a little. That sums my darling girl up. Always helping others.”

The camera diplomatically panned away.

“Harriet told me the truth, and the more I see of them, the more I believe the unbelievable – they are vampires. If I don’t make it back from the party, go to her. Make her explain. Make her help. Avenge me.”

“I’m so grateful to her,” an equally tearful woman said, cuddling a small boy to her. “She saved my little boy from God knows what. I’ll bring him up to remember her. I hope the man who did this rots in prison.”

Josh looked back and forth between the letter and the computer screen, unsure what to believe. The news report sounded a thousand times more likely than a gang of vampires. And yet, what were the chances of Julia predicting that she’d be murdered on a certain night and then dying in an unrelated incident? Besides, her strange behaviour over the last few weeks took some explaining.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so distant, scathing even. Rupert does something to my mind, I can tell. Most of the time, he’s all I can think about. I feel as though I love him more than I thought possible, and I utterly detest you. But then there are nights like tonight, when I haven’t seen him for a few days and he’s out of town, when my real feelings come back. I want to come to you tonight, but I don’t dare. So I’m sending this letter before I change my mind.”

The news report went on and on, almost as if someone wanted to ensure no one had any questions in their mind about how Julia had died.

Rupert appeared on the screen and Josh looked away. At best, Rupert had stolen Julia from him, at worst he’d done something terrible to her mind and probably been responsible for her death. He’d never wanted to hit someone so badly. Rupert looked artfully distressed, his stupid posh face arranged into a tragic frown. His stuck-up voice stumbled over some words as though he could barely control his distress.

Josh had hoped that the filming was live, so he could see Rupert standing in the morning’s bright sunlight, and put aside the ridiculous idea of him being a vampire. There was no such luck. The news crew had clearly filmed his segment last night, soon after Julia’s death.

“It was terrible,” he said to the obviously enthralled female interviewer. “We hadn’t spent many weeks together, but I really loved Julia. I thought we’d have years to get to know each other better. All I can think of are the things I should have said to her and whether I could have done anything to save her from that madman. ” He wiped away a tear. “I’m sorry. I can’t go on.”

Josh had seen enough. He slammed down the lid of his laptop before he put a fist through it. He read the last line of the letter for the hundredth time.

“Please believe that I still love you. I’m sorry I’ve put myself in so much danger and I’m sorry I made you help. You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. If they kill me, don’t let it be in vain.”

Since he’d first heard the news, Josh had been too shocked to cry, but now the tears fell freely. He wanted to crawl into bed and never get back up, but that would be the ultimate betrayal. He’d do what Julia had wanted. He’d speak to Harriet, make her tell him the truth, and then get revenge.

Ivory Terrors update

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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book three, ivory terrors, the cavaliers, vampires, Writing

Good news! After a year and a half of frenzied planning, writing, editing, and proofing, I’ve finally finished Ivory Terrors, the third and final instalment of the Cavaliers Series.

It’s 135 000 words long – nearly twice the length of Oxford Blood. And at it’s longest, it was closer to 160 000. I’ve had to do some really quite brutal cutting to make it readable.

Never again will I attack my favourite authors for what I’ve always regarded as cardinal sins – taking ages to produce a sequel or writing a self-indulgently long volume. Because my goodness, it’s tempting. Knowing I will never write another full Cavaliers book (although one thing I’m considering as a future project is a book of historical short stories about different members in different time periods), I wanted to get in all the backstories, all the revelations, and wrap everything up nicely. And I hope that when you read it, you’ll agree that I’ve succeeded.

I was always absolutely clear that the Cavaliers Series was meant to be a trilogy, and one thing I hate above all others is when authors drag series out beyond their intended duration. There may have been some twists along the route, but nearly everything that happens at the end of Ivory Terrors was meant to happen from the start of Oxford Blood – the reviews that wondered why Stephanie couldn’t be mesmerised in the prologue might finally get their answer.

In particular, I’ve really gone to town on Augustine. It started out as a prologue about his turning, and ended up at something like 20 000 words giving most of his life story, across a variety of centuries. As a history graduate, I’ve always tried to infuse the series with a historical flavour, but this is the first time I’ve gone full historical, and I hugely enjoyed it. It was also fun to take a character who has always been a bit of a cipher – almighty leader of the vampires – and imbue him with a personality and a past.

Anyway, I’m now planning to publish the book on May 1st – as readers might remember, May Day is hugely important in Oxford, so it seemed fitting. I’m in the process of setting up a blog tour and some advance reviews – if you have a blog, have read the earlier book, and would like to get involved, please drop me a line.

Finally, thanks to the surprisingly large number of people who’ve emailed me over the last few months to ask when Ivory Terrors would be ready. You’ve simultaneously made me feel horribly guilty that it’s going to be about five months later than originally promised, and yet so utterly happy that there are people who want to read my books that you’ve really inspired me to get it finished.

Now I’ve finally finished, I’m hoping to be able to dedicate more time to my sadly neglected blog. So keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks for soundtracks, a mini-series on the inspiration for my characters, and some Ivory Terrors extracts. And now, despite the fact that its Tuesday and I have work in the morning, I’m off for a Harriet-style glass of midweek champagne.

Blurb below. Put May 1st in your literary diary, and treat yourself to a copy of the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written.

A Tale of the Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal…

No one ever claimed that third year at Oxford University is easy, but Harriet French has more to worry about than just her final exams.

Richard, an ancient vampire with no love for Cavaliers or Roundheads, has dragged Harriet to his French fortress as part of his quest for revenge and power. Can Harriet support Richard’s plot to kill Augustine? He may have the country in his thrall, but he’s still family. She has no such qualms about killing the Roundhead leader Fea and her twin henchmen, but is she willing to sacrifice herself to do it?

And then there’s George, once the archetypal Cavalier, who now seems to have betrayed both Harriet and the society. It’s hard to be sure about anyone’s true loyalties and harder still to know the right thing to do.

Ivory Terrors concludes the story told in Oxford Blood and Screaming Spires of Harriet French’s time at Oxford and her involvement with an elite vampire society.

The new Dracula TV series – an utterly unfaithful adaptation but a wonderful piece of vampire fiction

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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book adaptations, dracula, television, vampires

The most casual of readers of my blog or my books would probably realise that I rather enjoy vampire stories. Those who’ve followed my blog with slightly more attention and regularity may appreciate two things: I have something of a soft-spot for Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel (it’s much better than a modern reader might expect – seriously, read it), and I have a very low tolerance for bad adaptations of novels.

One thing I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned before, however, is that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is my absolute favourite actor, and has been for about fifteen years. I developed the most ridiculous teenage crush on him when he played Steerpike in the late 1990s BBC adaptation of Gormenghast (possibly the best TV show ever – do look for it on Youtube), and loved claiming he was my favourite actor when teenage friends preferred Leonardo di Caprio and had no idea who he was. Because I’m awkward like that. His wonderfully overblown and oversexed portrayal of Henry VIII in The Tudors only confirmed my love.

This was literally my desktop background for about two years

And then I saw the trailer. A new TV adaptation of Dracula, with Mr Rhys Meyers playing the eponymous uber-vampire. I was instantly torn. I was either going to love this, or I was going to hate it. And in the interests of preserving my delicate emotions, I simply ignored the fact that it existed for several months. Because clearly, it was going to be bad, and clearly, that was going to drive me insane.

And then for some reason, last weekend, I cracked, turned to Sky Go and downloaded the first episode. I settled down to watch it with my fiancé, who, all too aware of my literary purist pretensions, fixed me a large brandy and threatened to tie my hands behind my back to stop me smashing the television screen. For the first thirty minutes, I grit my teeth and bitched about everything. And then gradually, I found myself enthralled. And over the last seven days, I’ve watched the entire ten hour series, in what equals out to more television than I usually watch in a month – let’s face it, I’m fundamentally a book person.

So let’s get one thing straight – I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys vampire fiction.

And let’s get something else straight – this may be the least faithful adaptation of any book that I’ve ever come across. The connections with the original Dracala novel equate more or less in totality to: there are characters with the same names as the characters in the book; Dracula is a vampire who originated in medieval eastern Europe, it’s set in the Victorian period.

Other than that, put your pre-conceptions aside. Jonathan’s a social climbing journalist. Mina’s an ambitious medical student. Lucy’s a lesbian with an obsessive crush on Mina. There’s an evil secret society called the Order of the Dragon. Dracula is masquerading as an American businessman and has invented a new type of electricity. Renfield is a Black American lawyer who is consciously and faithfully serving Dracula. And perhaps most bizarre of all, Van Helsing (traditional enemy of vampires) has awoken Dracula from his centuries of sleep and they are working together to destroy their mutual enemies. By the end of the first episode, I had absolutely no clue what was going on. And yet somehow, I didn’t care.

I still think that Dracula is an amazing novel, and I still think that it would be brilliant if one day, someone decided to make a genuinely faithful adaptation of it. But let’s face it – over the years, there have been endless versions of . On that basis, I feel as though Dracula (along with a select group of characters including Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein’s Monster) have become public property. And therefore, unlike with something like the Vampire Diaries, where there’s probably going to only be one adaptation, and if its rubbish, that will affect people’s view of the books, each version can stand on its own merits.

I actually prefer this sort of “adaptation”, which is clearly only loosely based on the books and does something new with the characters and basic plot, than a nominally faithful version that takes massive liberties. This may have been nothing like the original, but it was a brilliant piece of vampire fiction, romantic and bloodthirty in equal measure. Dracula is posing as a rich American called Alexander Grayson, and if you’re of a purist disposition, you may be best to forget this is meant to be based on Dracula at all, and think of it as “Alexander the Vampire.”

In the world of vampire fiction, there’s something of a spectrum, with horror stories in which vampires are soulless monsters with no personality, rather akin to zombies, at one end, and the Twilight-esque pretty boy, “vegetarian” vampires who might as well be human at the other. Some people’s preference may veer to one end or the other of this spectrum, and they may find this version of Dracula either too violent or too soppy.

Anyone who had read The Cavaliers knows what I like – vampires who are sexy and capable of real feelings for humans, but who also need human blood to live and are capable of absolute ruthlessness. And this series absolutely struck the right balance for me. JRM’s Dracula is absurdly sexy in certain scenes and bloody terrifying in others, as he seeks his revenge on the society that wronged him through a combination of scheming, violence and seduction.

He’s also distracted by the reincarnation of his brutally murdered first wife. It’s a plotline that seems to be a wonderful bit of Word of Dante from the 1992 film and one that is rather overplayed in modern vampire mythology. Indeed, I tried to deconstruct the plot a bit in Screaming Spires: “My Mother isn’t your soulmate. She cheated on you in a past life.” Nonetheless, the reincarnation romance is beautifully handled here, and despite an initial groan when I realised where the plot was growing, the unrequited romance and longing ended up being my favourite part.

Throughout, this series tetters on a precipice between Serious Drama and hammy overacting. In my view, despite a few first episode wobbles, it generally stays on the right side of the line, and the characters become more and more nuanced and better acted as the series progresses. If you have any doubts, try to make it as far as Episode Five. Watch Dracula’s waltz with Mina and the other characters’ reactions to it, and then his oddly tender scene with an injured Renfield, and tell me that the actors aren’t almost universally giving brilliant performances. Though if you get that far and aren’t sold, best give up – for me, those two scenes encapsulate everything that’s best about this series. They’ve also inspired me to sign myself and my fiancé up for waltzing lessons before our first dance at the wedding – but that’s a different story.

A few other things to note. Firstly, there is a middle-aged amoral female vampire hunter who is simply brilliant. She’s one of the few totally original characters and I loved her.

Secondly, for those who like that sort of thing, the sets and costumes are jawdroppingly beautiful. I want ever one of Lucy Westerna’s outfits, and I want them now.

These would all look so damn good on me. Especially the bottom middle one.

Thirdly, while the title character didn’t entirely seduce me at first (I prefer Rhys Meyers as a total pretty boy rather than the muscled and moustachioed character we get here), after an episode or two, I was utterly beguiled. He gives real depth to Dracula, keeping you rooting for him and feeling sorry for him while never letting you forget that he’s not adverse to killing innocent people. Besides, I’m only human, and the abs and chest muscles in all the gratuitous “bed n bath” scenes are undoubtedly impressive! And in case you’re wondering, several of the ladies are just as attractive and show themselves off just as much!

Critical reactions to the show seem to have been muted at best, scathing at worst. Some complain that it’s a bit slow burning, others that it’s rather overblown. Honestly, I think it’s subtle rather than slowburning and luscious and dramatic rather than overblown. I primed myself to hate this, but I actually cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a TV show more.

It’s not a faithful adaptation of Dracula, it may end up being too horrifying for paranormal romance fans and too romantic for horror fans, and it treads a fine line between drama and melodrama. So it’s clearly not for everyone, but if you enjoy vampire fiction at all (and if you don’t, what are you doing on my blog?) I’d urge you to give this a go. You might be pleasantly surprised, you might be utterly sucked in.

Have you watched it? What did you think? Please tell me I’m not alone in enjoying this.

Flawed heroines, villainous love interests, and a rather good review of Oxford Blood

09 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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Tags

Oxford Blood, review, vampires

Yesterday I got a rather interesting review. I find that the majority of reviews I get come from people that I’ve pro-actively approached, so it’s always a pleasant surprise to get a good one one from someone who has just randomly read the book and then decided to talk about it on their blog. https://davidjhiggins.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/oxford-blood-by-georgiana-derwent/

What I really liked about this review however it that it seemed to get a point about the book that many either miss or outright misinterpret:

“I recommend it to readers who enjoy new interpretations of the vampire myth, especially those seeking a counterpoint to the more usual humane vampire societies“

“Harriet is a strong character: at times shallow and ambitious enough to work with the Cavaliers if it might advance her interests; yet also loyal to her mortal friends, and ready to act against the Cavaliers on some issues. This makes her increasing attraction to blood-drinking tyrants more believable than that of the usual heroines of vampire romance.”

“Horrified by their hungers but drawn to their power she struggles to balance humanity with ambition.”

I’ve had several reviews over the months that complain that most of the characters in the book are unlikeable, as though I set out to make them nice and failed, when to a large degree that was a deliberate choice. I wanted the Cavaliers to be at worst villains and at best seriously flawed anti-heroes – I can’t stand soppy vampires who are basically just long-living super-attractive humans. And while Harriet is meant to be a bit more sympathetic, she’s certainly not meant to be a role model or free of personality flaws, and she definitely makes some rather dubious decisions.

Ultimately, of course, an author’s view only counts for so much, and readers are welcome to their own perspectives on the characters, but I thought it would be interesting to share mine.

In short, my vampires are power-obsessed, blood-thirsty, and generally don’t care much about humans other than as a source of blood, sex, or influence. And yes, I emphatically include George and Tom in that. I see them as having genuine feelings for Harriet, but that doesn’t magically make them good people. Plenty of real-life sadistic dictators have a wife and children that they appear to truly love, but while it reveals a spark of humanity under their darkness, it doesn’t redeem them.

In particular, I think readers tend to struggle with Tom in this context. There’s very much a culture of good vampire/bad vampire love triangles in paranormal romance, and as Tom is the slightly less bad one, people tend to assume that he is meant to be the good one and then attack him for some of the ruthless things he does as though they are out of character. Let me make this clear once and for all: Tom drinks human blood regularly by mesmerising people. He has lots of casual relationships. He’s fully involved in the Cavaliers schemes to turn some students, kill others, and control the country. He is meant to love Harriet. He is meant to have some human and redeeming qualities, but he is not meant to be a nice guy. The following exchange between George and Harriet in Screaming Spires sums it up:

“He saved me from you that first night when you’d just have used and abused me out on the Walk.”

Harriet shuddered at the memory of that evening, a memory she usually managed to suppress.

George looked pained. “Do you really think he hasn’t done exactly the same thing to other women? He saved you because he was acting under orders from your mother. The slightest twist of roles and it could have been me saving you from him. I heard about the first time you met. What do you think he was taking you to an old hidden library for if not to have a taste of you?”

Harriet’s angry reply died on her tongue. She’d almost forgotten about that, the way Tom had charmed her on her very first day in Oxford, led her from a party to a darkened room and been utterly seductive until he’d seen her necklace and guessed who she was. When she thought about it at all, she considered it as a charming prelude to their relationship, proof that he’d liked her from the very beginning. But George’s words made a horrible sense. Of course Tom had been planning to mesmerise and bite her. That was what vampires did, and it was far too easy to think that Tom was different.

Oh, and George? The scene they are reflecting on there where he takes Harriet out into the woods and forcibly bites her? That is not meant to be okay. And the fact that she then goes out with him is not meant to be a sensible decision. I would be the first to admit that if I were writing Oxford Blood from scratch today, I’d probably handle that plot arc slightly differently, as it does push credibility. But some people’s capacity for self-delusion and bad decisions should not be underestimated. And sadly, when someone is sufficiently attractive and charming, some people will forgive them far too much. I used to do pro bono work for a legal domestic violence charity, and it never ceased to amaze me what kind of treatment some people would put up with once they thought that someone loved them and they loved them back.

Incidentally, I would never write a realistic scene featuring two humans and abuse that gave even the slightest implication that it was okay for the abuser to go on to be regarded as a quasi-romantic hero – though far too many authors do. Personally, I find that the paranormal element (and to some degree, fantasy, far-futuristic and far-historical approaches) give just enough distance from similar real life scenarios to make this palatable – but I appreciate that this is an argument that people either buy or they don’t.

Funnily enough, much more than the vampires, Harriet comes in for a lot of abuse, often in otherwise really, really positive reviews. Now, I like Harriet. I like the fact that she’s ambitious. I like the fact that she’s rarely fazed by anything, and I like the fact that Oxford is an alien environment for her but that she faces it head on. She’s not meant to be a deliberately dislikeable person. But she isn’t meant to be a role model or someone who always does the right thing. She’s shallow at times, and her ambition sometimes tips over into obsession. When she likes someone (men especially) she tends to be blind to their faults, and conversely, when she gets off on the wrong foot with someone, she tends to overemphasise their faults. And sometimes, she makes incredibly silly choices – but so do most people at some point in their life.

It’s easy to assume that the author’s view is always aligned with their main character, but when I have Josh say, “Did you spend the night with the rich blond wanker or the dark haired posh twat?” or Caroline, “He stabbed you with a knife. I’m already uncomfortable that we didn’t go to the police – why would you go on a date with him?” their views are no more or less representative of mine than when Harriet opines on the wonders of the Cavaliers.

Most of the series is from Harriet’s point of view. It should not therefore be assumed that her view of the world is shared by everyone, or that her opinion of people is the right one. Katie is a case in point. Because she was initially a rival for Tom’s affections, and because she’s posh and self-possessed, Harriet thinks of her as stuck-up and something of an enemy. In-fact, baring one vicious insult when Harriet has pretty clearly stolen her boyfriend while they were out on a date there’s little to suggest that she’s anything but a reasonably pleasant person. As the series goes on, Harriet grows to realise this.

More fundamentally (and this one contains huge spoilers for the end of Oxford Blood, so read with caution) Archie basically has the good of the university and the country at heart when he tries to kill George and stop the Summer Party from taking place. He has to kill one human to do so, but killing one to save fifteen could be regarded as a ruthless but ultimately pragmatic trade-off. He is the one vampire who feels bad about killing someone to be turned, the one who tries to avoid drinking human blood, and the one who dislikes Cavalier control of the country. In a different book, told form his POV, he could almost have been the hero. But because the one person he has to kill is our heroine, he feels like the villain.

Looking ahead, I’m interested more generally in the question of whether a reader has to like the main character to enjoy the book. I’ve started vaguely planning my next novel for when Ivory Terrors, and therefore the whole Cavaliers Series, is finally finished, and I intend it to feature a full-blown anti-heroine whose actions, while starting off broadly understandable, start to verge on the evil. I am however rather concerned that people will miss the point, assume that her approach to life is meant to be unquestioningly supported and decide that my moral compass is distinctly skewed. Still, I think I’ll take my chances, and I think the lesson I’ve learnt from the Cavaliers is to really spell this sort of thing out, and not underestimate people’s ability to assume that genre conventions are in play.

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Top Ten Tuesday – Words or phrases that make me pick up a book

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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books, class, cornwall, medici, Oxford, reading, sheffield, time, top ten tuesday, vampires

It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly feature hosted by the blog, The Broke and the Bookish – http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.co.uk/

Each week they ask people to write a top ten list of something on a literary theme. This week, it’s one of the most intriguing ones I’ve come across so far – Word and Phrases that make you pick up a book.

Places

1. Oxford – Yes, I happen to have written a series of books set in Oxford, but this isn’t even a fix. Long before and long after I wrote Oxford Blood, I’ve been attracted to books set at England’s premier university (I don’t want to hear it, Cambridge fans). Partly, it’s that combination of recognition and nostalgia. Knowing exactly what a road a character is walking down looks like or what beers they serve in a pub a character visits really helps you identify with them, and a book that captures the Oxford experience well brings back wonderful memories of some of the best years of my life.

Above and beyond my personal preferences however, I think Oxford is objectively a great place to set a book, or indeed, a TV series. Firstly, it’s an utterly beautiful town, and everyone loves a picturesque setting. But most importantly, it’s a place where hundreds of people who are some combination of rich, clever, young, ambitious, good-looking and eccentric come together and live in close proximity under large amounts of stress, creating the perfect recipe for drama.

Examples: Brideshead Revisited (basically invented the “isn’t Oxford lovely” genre, even though only a small proportion of the book features posh boys at university whilst the rest is really fairly depressing). Career Girls (Only the first few chapters of this are actually set at Oxford, but those few chapters give the best representation of Oxford Union politics and student journalist I’ve ever come across)

2)Sheffield/Yorkshire – Before there was Oxford, there was Sheffield. And on the whole, novels about the two couldn’t be more different. One evokes images of floppy haired youths frolicking on manicured lawns, the other, surely men downing a pint before going down t’pit or t’factory. If I see a book about Sheffield, I pick it up with a sinking heart, because I know that it’s probably going to be grim, but for the same reasons around recognition as above, I’ll usually read it anyway.

There actually aren’t that many books about Sheffield specifically (if anyone has any recommendations, let me know) but when I expand out into Yorkshire more generally, it suddenly becomes quite a wide genre. I guess all the novelists live in Leeds. And once you’re further out, whilst there’s usually still a touch of grinding poverty, you also get fantastic moorland scenery.

Examples: The Northern Clemency (set in Sheffield and a rare example of looking at middle class northerners); A Woman of Substance (servant girl from the Yorkshire Moors founds her own company and becomes billionairess. I inherently approve); Wuthering Heights (the classic tale of being a bit northern).

3) St Mawes/Cornwall – I have far less claim on this area than on the other two, but my family always used to holiday in St Mawes, and that area in particular, and the whole of Cornwall more generally, has always managed to exert a hold over my imagination. Cornwall is beautiful, in a wild, windswept way, and to me, it always has this sense of otherness about it. I like it’s odd mythology and it’s saints that aren’t recognised by any established churches. I think it’s pretty much the best place in the UK to set an adventure story.

Examples: Over Sea, Under Stone; The King’s General

Time periods and historical people

4) The Medici/Renaissance Florence – there’s something about the Medici family (the Renaissance rulers of Florence) that has always caught my interest. Lorenzo the Magnificent always seems to me to be one of the few examples in history of something approaching a benevolent dictator. A novel set in Renaissance Florence (especially one featuring the Medici family) is always going to feature beautiful buildings, political scheming, brutality, philosophy and stunning art. What’s not to like?

5) Historical Women – I’m the sort of person who sees history in terms of characters, and there’s no archetype I like better than the women who defies the narrow box she’s been put into by society to gain power. Stories featuring genuinely strong modern women are quite interesting too, but it’s the historical ones that really get me. I wrote my thesis on an eighteenth/early-nineteenth century political player called Jane Osbaldeston, and one day I’d love to write a fictionalised, sexed up account of her life.

Themes

6) Vampires – there’s not a lot to say that I haven’t said at length on this blog previously (see this link for at an-length discussion of my thoughts on the genre). Nowadays, there are far too many vampire books that don’t really do it for me at all, but there’s still something about the genre that intrigues my enough to at least check out anything vampire related, even if I then hastily cast it aside.

7)Mythology – As a kid, I was obsessed with mythology, mainly Greek, but any ancient myths were fair game. In my teens, I dabbled with paganism, and although I abandoned that long ago, I still find the concept fascinating. My areas of interest change all the time. At the moment, it’s mainly the Celtic side of things that really gets to me. If it’s well researched, mythology, either as the main focus or as a side plot, can totally make a book for me, but few things annoy me as much as authors throwing mythological names into the mix seemingly based on a few minutes on Wikipedia.

Examples: The Dark is Rising (Celtic loveliness), The Forbidden Game/The Secret Circle (One of the things that made me first admire LJ Smith’s books over and above all the other YA paranormal writers was her brilliant grasp of, respectively, Norse and Greek mythology in these books)

8. Class – There’s something about class in all it’s complexity that I find oddly compelling. Sometimes, a simple story of rich, titled folk is enough, but what I usually crave is a tale of worlds colliding, of someone struggling to fit in or pretending to be something they are not. This can be fun in a historical context, but I actually prefer this sort of thing in a contemporary, or at least twentieth century, setting, where I can really appreciate the nuances.

Examples- Snobs/Past Imperfect Prep (The writer of Downton Abbey is the absolute master of this genre. Snobs is the perfect read for anyone who likes those “girls meets earl” type novels – a relatively realistic take on marrying into the aristocracy, and Past Imperfect tells the story of five debutantes in the 1960s and how they are faring in the modern world.

9. Unconventional narratives – a bit of a pretentious one this, but anything that’s told from multiple perspectives or jumps back and forth in times or is told through newspaper articles etc etc tends to make me want to give it a go. It’s usually then about a fifty/fifty chance between me loving it or hating it, but I always admire the author for giving it a go.

Examples: The Blind Assassin, Cloud Atlas, What a Carve Up

10. Time – I couldn’t think of a better way to express this one. I sort of mean any book in which time plays a major part, whether it’s telling the tale of a town over hundreds of years, following the entire life of one person, featuring time travel or just lots of flashbacks. For some reason, these sorts of ideas make me feel fascinated and intrigued in roughly equal measure.

Examples: Sarum (tells the story of the area around Stonehenge over 10 000 years, featuring a cast of thousands); The Time Travellers Wife (obviously); The Spoils of Time (runs from the 1900s to the 1960s, and it just kills me to watch the main character grow old)

Oxford Blood – The Review of Reviews

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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descriptions, drinking, history, Oxford Blood, reviews, university, vampires

There are lots of things I love about being an author, but one of the best is getting reviews of my books. Being human, I obviously prefer good ones, but either way, I love the feeling of knowing that someone has read something I’ve written, engaged with it and formed an opinion. It’s fascinating to see the books I’ve written through someone else’s eyes.

Between Amazon, Goodreads and various blogs, I’ve now had somewhere in the region of 40 reviews of Oxford Blood. I’ve had at least one of every star rating from 1 – 5, and readers have made all kinds of different points. Reading through some of them again however, I was struck by the way there are similar points (good and bad) that come up again and again, across the whole spectrum of reviews. Based on these, I did a minor overhaul of Oxford Blood a few months ago, and I took account of some of the recurring points when finalising Screaming Spires. When I’m finally done with the Cavaliers and ready to start a new series/standalone novel, I suspect these reviews will give me lots of food for thought in developing things that it’s too late to change mid-series.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to summarise what the average reviewer seems to have to say about Oxford Blood.

Cover

Pretty much everyone seems to like the cover in the sense of thinking it looks professionally and is aesthetically pleasing (I can’t take much credit for this beyond having the taste to pick a good designer!). There have however been several comments that it makes the book look too much like a historical novel and that either this would have put them off had someone not recommended the book to them.

Premise

Reassuringly, there seems to be near universal support for the basic idea of “Oxford University dining society whose members are secretly vampires that are controlling the country.” I suppose that’s sort of self-selecting – I guess if you didn’t like the premise, you’d never have started the book – maybe there are lots of people reading the blurb and thinking it sounds ridiculous, but I think that probably isn’t the case. I flatter myself that it’s quite an unusual premise and that anyone who likes vampires at all would be mildly intrigued. Sadly, some reviews go on to say that they thought the premise was brilliant but the execution let it down. Many others however think it was played well.

Main character

There are some reviewers who really liked the main character, Harriet, but even in otherwise very positive reviews, she seems to come in for a fair amount of abuse. These criticisms seem to fall into three categories – that she’s a bit shallow and obsessed with clothes and men, that she needs fleshing out a bit more, and perhaps most interestingly, that she seems to show very little emotion or sense of self-preservation. Several reviewers suggest that they found her a bit shallow or one-dimensional early on in the book but that she grew on them as the story progressed.

Pretty dresses aren’t shallow, pretty dresses are fun

I arguably do describe Harriet’s outfits with unnecessary regularity, but they say “write the book you want to read,” and I personally like reading descriptions of glamorous clothes. On the emotions thing, I was very keen not to have a heroine who’s bursting into tears every five minutes, but perhaps I tilted a bit too far the other way. Honestly though, my first few weeks at Oxford were so surreal that I don’t think I’d have found discovering the existence of vampires to be much more of a shock to the system than any other aspect.

I was originally going to write Oxford Blood in the first person, and wrote the first two chapters this way before changing my mind. I think third person makes for a better book overall, but I think Harriet might have come across rather more sympathetically if she’d been allowed to tell her own story. I might put up one of these first person chapters up at some point to see what people think!

Love interests and relationships

Most reviewers who liked the book at all seem to have either quite liked or really loved the romance story. I was a bit worried about going down the well-trodden love triangle route, but I guess that ultimately, things become clichés because they work.

There’s some suggestion that there’s a bit too much love at first sight going on with Tom and Harriet. It’s definitely a problem that afflicts a lot of paranormal fiction, and I think if I was starting the book from scratch, I might have allowed them to get to know each other more gradually.

That said, I think I basically do believe in love or at least very strong attraction at first sight. It’s definitely something that’s happened to me, and the interesting thing is talking to someone who you’ve felt an instant connection too and gradually realising that you genuinely do have lots of things in common and get on really well. I think the problem with the way it’s used in many books is that it’s never explained why the characters are so in lurve apart from the fact that they are both extremely physically attractive. I’ve tried to counteract that (especially since re-editing Oxford Blood) by making clear Harriet and Tom’s shared taste in music, books, politics etc.

Still, one of my favourite lines in the book is Caroline’s , “When you say he’s your soulmate, I think what you actually mean is that he’s utterly gorgeous and you’d really like to get him naked. Let’s not get too melodramatic here.”

I don’t really like the current trend for picking sides in romantic situations (as with so many things in life, I blame Twilight), but where reviewers have expressed a preference, there definitely seems to be a trend towards “Team George.” My starting point was that instead of the common good vampire/bad vampire dynamic, I wanted both vampires to be basically as bad as each other, (drinking human blood, seducing people constantly etc) but reviewers definitely seem to be thinking in terms of the bad boy/safe bet dichotomy.

I’ve tried to spell this out a bit in Screaming Spires:

“I suppose you’re right. But I met him first, and I felt something immediately. And he saved me from you that first night when you’d just have used and abused me out on the Walk.”

Harriet shuddered at the memory of that evening, a memory she usually managed to suppress.

Mothers and Daughters

Most reviewers quite like the Adelaide storyline, appreciating the rather unusual approach of the heroine finding out that her mother was a vampire, and enjoying the parallels between Harriet’s story and Adelaide’s experiences twenty something years previously.

One comment that has come up repeatedly, however, is that people have trouble with the way Harriet is so forgiving and unquestioning of the mother who walked out on her when she was a baby. It’s a fair point, but my own mother works in a children’s home, and it’s scary how willing people often are to forgive and want to forge relationships with parents who’ve properly abused or neglected them. I think that for better or worse, there is something in human nature that makes people want to love their parents and want to make them love them back, and Harriet is just manifesting this.

Also, whilst I don’t think Adelaide is ever mesmerising Harriet as such (apart from the one scene where it’s made explicit)she naturally exudes an aura that makes people love and admire her and want to do what she says, and her daughter is far from immune.

World building, vampires and history

One or two people have issues with it, but most reviewers praise the world-building. The details of the vampires generally get positive comments, as do the historical references. Some people wanted more of both real life history and the history and lore of The Cavaliers. I’d deliberately held myself back a bit in this regard, but I relaxed for Screaming Spires and will be throwing lots of this sort of thing into Ivory Terrors. Be careful what you wish for…

Don’t encourage me to delve too deeply into Civil War politics. You won’t like me when I’m historical

Plot and Pacing

Comments on the plot inevitably run the full gamut from love to hate. One recurring theme is that the book gets better as it goes on, with many people suggesting the opening feels a bit rushed. Interestingly, in my very first draft, there were about four chapters before Harriet goes to Oxford (including a party at Adelaide’s London house, where Harriet meets Tom for the first time), but I was persuaded to cut them by an agent. On balance, I think this was the right decision, but I was possibly slightly too brutal in my approach.

There have also been some suggestions that either the different strands of the book don’t sit together entirely neatly and/or that the vampire murder plot feels a bit underplayed compared to the romance. Book Two and especially Book Three become a lot more plot heavy, which I think is quite a positive development.

Descriptions

Most reviewers thought Oxford was described very well, many of them saying it had wanted to make them visit the town. Beyond that, references to my descriptive prowess or otherwise manage only to prove that you can’t please everyone. Depending on who you believe, there’s too much description, not enough or it’s just right. Goldilocks would have been proud.

From looking at some of the more thoughtful reviews and talking to my Book Two beta readers, I think the issue is that some things (clothes, the town) are very thoroughly described, while other things (rooms, people’s non-clothes based appearance, what people are doing during a conversation) are under-described. I tried to even this out a bit in the re-edit and to really keep this need for balance in mind for Screaming Spires.

University life

One comment that’s come up a lot in reviews and that completely caught me by surprise is a suggestion that the characters drink and party too much, both absolutely, and in relation to the amount of work they do.

I’d say that the drinking is a pretty realistic portrayal of my time at university, and I was far from being the worst in that respect. Most of these comments were from American reviewers, and I suspect that the issue comes from the fact that with the higher legal drinking age, for all the frat parties and fake IDs you see on film about US university life, they probably just don’t drink as regularly because it’s much harder.

My fiancé clearing out the bottle stash on his last day in Oxford

My fiancé clearing out half of his bottle stash on his last day in Oxford

Regarding the work, you can rest assured that Harriet’s studying hard. The problem is that arts subjects at Oxford have very little structured learning. You have one or two tutorials a week and inbetween, you have to read lots of books and write a 2000 word essay or two. So it’s a lot of work, but not in the obvious “now it’s time for my class, now it’s time for my lecture” kind of way.

I thought (probably correctly) that lots of scenes of Harriet reading in her room would get very dull, very fast. I was also slightly concerned that given half the chance, I’d end up filling half the book with historical analysis, so deliberately held back. The first draft of Screaming Spires was full of tutorial scenes, but I lost my nerve and cut most of them.

Book Two

Interestingly, even quite bad reviews often end with “but I do want to read the next book to see what happens.” Good reviews tend to be very excited about the sequel. So I suppose that shows I’m doing something right. There haven’t yet been enough reviews of Screaming Spires to draw meaningful conclusions, but several reviewers have commented that they enjoyed it more than the first book.

You can see a good selection of the reviews here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16097723-oxford-blood It’s always good to have more though, so if you’ve read Oxford Blood and never reviewed it, please do.

If you’ve read the book, would you say this is a fair summary? And if you write, have you found any useful comments in reviews that have influenced your future writing?

Aside

This weekend – Oxford Blood is free, Screaming Spires is released and my blog tour is on

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by georgianaderwent in Uncategorized

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blog tour, fmb author promotions, free ebook, new release, Oxford Blood, screaming spires, vampires

I try to keep the time I spend talking directly about my novels to a minimum on here. I love The Cavaliers Series, but I tend to feel that there’s really only so much I can write about them without starting to bore veterans or confuse newcomers. On the whole, I’d much rather talk about class, Oxford, and vampires (the posh, the privileged and the paranormal, see what I did there!).

Today however, I’m going to indulge myself, because I’ve got three interconnected Cavaliers related things happening over the next few days:

1)On Friday 12th April, Screaming Spires (The Cavaliers: Book Two) is finally being released. I’m beyond excited. It’s had some good reviews already from people who were sent an ARC and I can’t wait for more people to read it and let me know what they think. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17522801-screaming-spires

2)To celebrate the release of Book Two, Oxford Blood (The Cavaliers: Book One) is free at Amazon from 11th April – 15th April. I’ve had a few half-hearted giveaways in the past, but this time, I’m going all out with a five day giveaway and lots of promotion and hoping for lots and lots of downloads. If you’ve not read it yet, now’s your chance. http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Blood-The-Cavaliers-ebook/dp/B009SQ1LPK

3) When Oxford Blood was released last autumn, I just pressed “publish” and that was it. This time around I’m relishing the thought of taking part in a blog tour, organised by the lovely people at FMB Author Promotions. If you like my writing, do check out some of the stops on the tour. I promise it won’t just be posts saying that my book’s been published – amongst other things, I’m doing some guest posts in character as people from the book (requests gladly received – I’m leaning towards Adelaide and George at the moment); some video blogs (I’d better invest in a new dress!) and some interviews. In other words, I’m barely going to be able to step away from my computer for the next fortnight. You can see the full schedule here:

For my posts etc – http://www.fmbpromotions.com/2013/04/book-tour-screaming-spires-cavaliers-2.html
For reviews (of both books) by blog writers – http://www.fmbpromotions.com/2013/03/book-review-tour-oxford-blood-and.html

I’d love as many people as possible to get involved: download Oxford Blood if you haven’t read it before, treat yourself to Screaming Spires if you have, check out the blog tour either way and encourage any friend who love paranormal romance/urban fantasy to do these things too.

The Posh, the Privileged and the Paranormal

Tag Archives: vampires

My inspiration for characters in the Cavaliers – Part 1 – Augustine Piso

Wahey, first of May. Ivory Terrors released today

The Cavaliers Playlist

Ivory Terrors – sneak preview of Chapter One

Ivory Terrors update

The new Dracula TV series – an utterly unfaithful adaptation but a wonderful piece of vampire fiction

Flawed heroines, villainous love interests, and a rather good review of Oxford Blood

Top Ten Tuesday – Words or phrases that make me pick up a book

Oxford Blood – The Review of Reviews

This weekend – Oxford Blood is free, Screaming Spires is released and my blog tour is on