The great friend of English historical fiction writers author Debbie Brown, manager of the Facebook page and blog of the English Historical Fiction Authors, has inaugurated a chain of posts by historical fiction authors on her personal blog English Epochs 101 http://englishepochs.blogspot.com/2014/04/meet-my-main-character-by-debra-brown.html . In addition to her own post introducing Evangeline, the protagonist in her novel, she has taged five of us to present the main character of our work in progress or soon to be published novel. I am delighted to be chosen, because my protagonist has never been one to shirk the limelight. Ms. Brown sets out some questions which Daisy insists I answer.
The main character in both my most recently published book (The Other Daughter: Midwife's Secret II) and the one coming in May (1603: The Queen's Revenge) is Daisy Kirkcaldy, and she is also the star of my current work in progress, In the Shadow of the Gallows. Daisy is the fictional posthumous love child of Sir William Kirkcaldy, who held Edinburgh Castle as the last champion of the Queen of Scots. Her mother named her after the blue daisies (called marguerites in French) that the knight had broadcast on Castle Hill. There was a previous lass named Daisy living in the castle during the siege whom the knight had claimed as his. Hence the title of the previous book, The Other Daughter.
There actually was a Marguerite de Kircaldie who was a nun in France, the co-protagonist in my first of the series The Midwife's Secret : The Mystery of the Hidden Princess. But there also was another actual child born of a laundress at the castle to whom Kirkcaldy was writing love poems while awaiting his death, a child about whom nothing else is known. The Daisy in my novels is a construct of my imagination. The other Marguerite was abbess of Saint Pierre les Dames from 1627 to her death in 1639.
There actually was a Marguerite de Kircaldie who was a nun in France, the co-protagonist in my first of the series The Midwife's Secret : The Mystery of the Hidden Princess. But there also was another actual child born of a laundress at the castle to whom Kirkcaldy was writing love poems while awaiting his death, a child about whom nothing else is known. The Daisy in my novels is a construct of my imagination. The other Marguerite was abbess of Saint Pierre les Dames from 1627 to her death in 1639.
When and where is the story set?
Not surprisingly, the forthcoming novel 1603: The Queen's Revenge takes place during the months before Elizabeth Tudor's death and concludes with the departure of James VI to London to assume the throne that so alluded his mother Marie Stuart, Queen of Scots. Much of the story takes place in Scotland but the rising action sends Daisy to France and the Spanish Netherlands for the climax.
What should we know about her?
Daisy never knew her father, who was executed weeks before her birth, but she is fascinated by his history and identifies with him and with the two formidable women of her youth, Princess Jean Stewart, Countess of Argyll, and Mistress Janet Fockart, a successful entrepreneur and money lender. Although she is the child of an executed traitor, because of her mother's great beauty and sweet nature, Daisy matures in relative comfort as the step-daughter of William Cockie, a Scottish goldsmith favored by the Stuart court. In her frequent visits to Holyrood Palace, Daisy hooks up with another bastard of a famous father, William Hepburn, son of the Queen of Scot's flamboyant final husband Lord James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Their wild adventures and surprising romance is the subject of the novel The Other Daughter. In the beginning chapters of 1603, Daisy is a well-established wadwife and importer, still living at the Cockie house with her infant son Peter. Her swashbuckling husband Will Hepburn has been lost at sea.
4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Daisy is unable to move her life forward because she refuses to accept Hepburn's death, and her status makes her vulnerable to the advances of her nephew Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst and open to the romantic overtures of Vice Chancellor William Fowler, her dead mentor Janet Fockart's son. Just when Daisy is about to put her past behind her she receives information from France concerning Hepburn's fate and becomes embroiled in the plot of Hepburn's cousin Wild Frank Stewart, the present Earl of Bothwell, who seeks to replace King James with the mysterious French nun La Belle Ecossaise, to whom Daisy has personal ties. Her impetuous nature will not allow her to sit back and let the men in her life handle the threat , a trait which puts her at odds with the tradtion role of women in the Scottish culture of the day.
What is the personal goal of the character?
What is the personal goal of the character?
Because of her talents and her business acumen, Daisy can easily settle into a comfortable life as the wife of a member of Edinburgh's rising merchant class or even a baron or an earl, but instead, she struggles to maintain her own identity, even when it places her in conflict with the great loves of her life, interferes with her responsibilities to wee Peter, and throws her into volatile international intrigues placing her and those she loves in personal danger.
5) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The title is fairly settled as 1603: The Queen's Revenge. It is the third book in the Midwife's Secret series. You can read the first section below. It will be followed late in the year by the next of Daisy's adventures, In The Shadow of the Gallows, in which Daisy's wee Peter becomes a pawn of those who know of the Gunpowder Plot and seek to exploit it for reasons other than religion.
6) When can we expect the book to be published? 1603 is presently in its final edit. The cover is ready to go. With a few modifications and the addition of some reading aids it should be ready in trade paperback in early May and on Kindle before June 1, 2014.
5) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The title is fairly settled as 1603: The Queen's Revenge. It is the third book in the Midwife's Secret series. You can read the first section below. It will be followed late in the year by the next of Daisy's adventures, In The Shadow of the Gallows, in which Daisy's wee Peter becomes a pawn of those who know of the Gunpowder Plot and seek to exploit it for reasons other than religion.
6) When can we expect the book to be published? 1603 is presently in its final edit. The cover is ready to go. With a few modifications and the addition of some reading aids it should be ready in trade paperback in early May and on Kindle before June 1, 2014.
Thanks for visiting the post. I have tagged five authors to follow me: they will post an introduction of their main characters on the twelfth, hopefully. Helena Schrader will be posting on the 12th at her page: http://schradershistoricalfiction.blogspot.com/ I have also received a reply from Katherine Pym, who will be posting on or after the 12th. I am still waiting for any other RSVPs. I will be editing this post accordingly. In the meantime, here's a taste of 1603.
Sample from: 1603: The Queen's Revenge - Chapter One.
Daisy Kirkcaldy sat in the sumptuous parlor of the
Cockie Mansion in Canongate where she had lived for most of her life. She was sipping a warm cup of light ale. If she
had been by herself, she would have been enjoying a few fingers worth of the golden brown
elixir from the stills along the river Spey.
Scottish whisky had surpassed hard ale as the
drink of choice in the better public houses. It was also the preferred offering served to clients who visited Daisy Kirkcaldy’s drawing room. Her frequent foreign guests had taken to calling it Scotch.
Unfortunately, her present visitor would have
considered a Highland single malt inelegant and sinful. According to the stories
she had been told, even Knox had not been quite as rigid as the woman perched on the edge of her settee.
She was entertaining her cousin Elizabeth Melville
who was touted as Scotland’s first published female poet by a Calvinist
readership which refused to acknowledge
Lady Mary Maitland’s lesbian love
poem XLIX. Mary Maitland had
surreptitiously hidden her poem amongst the less controversial works in her poet laureate father Sir Richard Maitland’s Quattro or it never would have been published. The only hint she
was its author was her scribbling in the margin notes. Her family’s efforts to
suppress it came too late.
Daisy’s cousin Elizabeth’s verses suffered no need of censorship by the kirk. Her latest
poetry would be quoted from the pulpit
at Saint Giles by Parson Craig, and Elizabeth would treat it as her personal passport into heaven. That did not mean Daisy would bother reading it.
Dame Elizabeth
Melville was Daisy’s second cousin on
her father’s side --the oldest daughter of the man Daisy called Uncle Melville.
He was the youngest brother of the grandmother long dead before Daisy was born,
the redoubtable Janet Melville, Lady
Grange, who had been the last hostess to
entertain King James V, when he stopped at Halyards on his way to his hunting lodge in
Falkland where he went to die.
Most of what Daisy knew of her family history she
had heard from Uncle Melville. She loved
the old man fiercely but she could not
say as much for his daughter. Even when
they were children, Elizabeth had treated Daisy with distain because of
her bastardy, as if it had been her
personal choice. Her unannounced visit that
afternoon was as surprising as a visitation from the dying Elizabeth of England would have
been. It also was far less welcome. Daisy had twice met the English queen and had
been more at ease in the presence of
Gloriana than she was under Elizabeth Melville’s appraising stare.
“I must say, Marguerite, considering all of your
handicaps, you have made out rather well for yourself.”
Daisy, who rarely answered to the French version
of her Christian name, recognized her cousin’s comment as a mean-spirited
reference to the circumstances of her birth, made even more exasperting because
it had been disguised as a compliment coming from a woman who did not know her
well enough to call her by the name used by her friends. It only irritated
Daisy all the more. She had been in the
middle of a project when Elizabeth arrived and was anxious to get back to it.
For that reason, she did
not bother responding to Elizabeth’s slight. The sooner the woman said her piece, the
sooner Daisy would be rid of her. She had a good idea of why Elizabeth had come knocking at her door.
“But Cousin
Elizabeth, I am not all that exceptional. There are many widow women in this
part of Scotland who have learned tae fend for themselves.”
Daisy knew her widowhood was not the handicap to
which Elizabeth had alluded but she had no intention of inviting the woman to elaborate. She was pleased when
her crisp response shut her cousin’s
maw. She had no intenton of apologizing for her mother’s common origins and her own bastardy or sharing a bed with Will Hepburn before they
married. She had suffered through that
diatribe before. And that was not the
sum of it. More than one of her business acquaintances in Canongate had run to
her to tattle tales of her supercilious
cousin’s slights, but rarely had they
been so prettily packaged. Obviously Elizabeth was attempting to soften her up
before coming the point and had no idea of how insulting she had been.
Daisy was prepared to overlook the stiff-necked
woman’s disapproval because she, not Elizabeth, held the upper hand. The only reason why the Elizabeth Melvilles
of Scotland came calling on Canongate’s notorious wadwife was to borrow money.
Daisy refilled the cups.
“You should have a charwoman to do that,”
Elizabeth remarked.
“When I am
unable tae pour ale intae a drinking vessel, Elizabeth, I’ll stop entertaining my relatives and take tae my bed.”
The awkward silence which followed suited Daisy
just fine. She wished her cousin would
get to the point of her visit and leave her to her endeavors in the gallery
where her half-brother Gilbert Cockie ran his shop.
“I have written a new poem,” Elizabeth proclaimed
as if she were announcing the recovery of the Stone of Destiny from the English
or the Second Coming of Christ. Daisy
had no interest whatsoever in religious poetry, and did not bother to feign
astonishment.
She spared the courtesy of a nod and reached for a slice
of Irish cheddar.
Then she
sat back and nibbled, waiting for the pitch she knew was coming.
“Mister Charteris wishes to publish it.”
“How lovely, Elizabeth,” Daisy said sweetly.
“He also plans to have it translated into English,
and a proper translator does not work for a petty fee. Naturally, he would like
me to help bear the costs of printing. ”
“Naturally.”
Now the pig was out of the poke and Daisy saw no
reason to chase it around the parlor.
“And ye are here because ye would like me tae
underwrite yer project-- How much do ya wish to borrow?”
Elizabeth choked on her biscuit and it took her a few seconds to recover.
“I was thinking more in terms of a sponsorship,
Marguerite.”
Daisy produced her most credible sigh.
“I think the word which alludes you, Elizabeth, is
gift, ” she managed to say without
sounding too put out.
Now she understood why Uncle Melville had exited with such alacrity. Elizabeth had wanted the money but she had no
intention of repaying it. .
“If I were tae do so, every poet in Scotland woulds
be knockin’ at ma door. But since we are
cousins of the second degree, I’ll be waivin’ the usual collateral, and lowerin’ the rate to
seven percent a’ whate’er you choose tae borrow, all out ‘a the love I hold in
ma heart for Uncle Melville.”
For him, not
ye, ye offensive twit.
She hoped Elizabeth could read her mind.
Daisy wondered how long it would take Cousin
Elizabeth to close her mouth. When she finally spoke, she was obviously
taken aback, but not enough to refuse the offer. All of the other moneylenders were charging
their parents and their children ten percent.
“It is
called Ane Godlie Dream. I am dedicating it to Mister Knox. Shall I have Mister Charteris set aside a
copy?”
Daisy thanked her politely. Any poem dedicated to John Knox would be
unlikely to hold her interest, but there was no sense provoking Elizabeth.
She could put it on display when her brother Gilbert’s Presbyterian
friends came to meetings in the gallery.
She bit her
tongue to keep it from wagging on the topic of
the Reformer least it prompt her
overly pious kinswoman to spiel a sermon
on the seven deadly sins. Elizabeth had them memorized.
She had personified each with examples drawn from
Edinburgh’s new merchant class. She insisted Greed had been modeled on the late wadwife Janet Fockart, but Daisy
suspected Elizabeth had used her
own bastard cousin as her model. God’s
Elbow, but she was anxious to see her cousin’s skirts rustling out the door so
she could get back to work.
“Faither says the Episcopalians will hate it,” Elizabeth
continued, as if it would enhance her poem’s value.
“Mayhap ye should exercise discretion and forego
dedicating it tae Knox. In spite of the
behavior of his disciples, he is quite
dead and unless he resurrects he will never know the difference. Besides, if
what I am hearing is true, this is not a good time tae be offending those who
follow the Episcopal model. If the rumors which reach my ears serve me, we may
all be reading from the English prayer book soon.”
Thankfully Daisy’s reference to Knox and religion
were enough to get Elizabeth back on her feet and headed for the door. When she
had cleared the stoop, Daisy quickly closed the door and latched it. She emptied
her mug of ale into a flower vase and filled it up with
whisky from the Meldrum stills. She carried the cup with her and headed
to the gallery to finished
carving the wax for Queen Anna’s last brooch. The memory of her cousin’s
retreating rump improved her mood.
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