The Wild Blog in the West

I feel as though I've been living in a cave.  Sarah Waters has been publishing neo-Victorian and early/mid 20th century novels since 1998, yet I learned about her only a year ago.  More is the pity, because her writing style is so compulsively readable, at least going by her third novel,  Fingersmith  (2002). As with Crimson Petal and the White  and The Seance , I read with one eye toward seeing (1) what aspects of the Victorian Era were incorporated, (2) what "modern" elements were added, (3) what worked and did not work, (4) how well Fingersmith  conformed to expectations of "what would sell," and (5) whether it was a good story. Starting with No. 2, one common aspect of Sarah Waters's novels is that their protagonists are lesbians.  Not all, but at least the first three, including  Fingersmith .  Waters was working toward a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London, with a thesis focused on "lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to...

As I stated in my The Crimson Petal and the White review , I will be reviewing neo-Victorian novels that were written within the past 10 to 15 years.  I am interested in learning: (1) what aspects of the Victorian Era they incorporate; (2) what "modern" elements they bring; (3) what works and does not work; (4) how well they conform to expectations of "what will sell"; and (5) whether it's a good story. John Harwood's The Seance  (2008) was never a big best seller like The Crimson Petal and the White , but it was well received.  It is quiet in all of the ways that  Crimson is flashy, never trying to be about a big idea or a shocking premise.  Yet it still manages to be bittersweet and effective. The Seance is characterized as a "horror" novel, but I never read it as such.  Instead, I saw it as a novel interested in the supernatural, and in certain fads of that time period.  It uses that angle to explore the hopes and fears of the main charac...

Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817.  Most of her work was published between 1811 and 1818.  Yet she is repeatedly lumped together with authors from a much later time, such as George Eliot (1819-1880), Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), and Anthony Trollope (1815-1882).  Together, they and many others are referred to as "Victorian authors," even though Queen Victoria didn't come to the throne until 1837. The reason seems to be because these authors, and more, frequently set their works in the English countryside, where towns were small, life was slow, and old landed wealth reigned supreme.  Of course Victorian authors covered much more than that, as anyone who has read Charles Dickens would know.  And while the countryside did, in many ways, seem suspended in time throughout the 19th century (something I comment on in a Downton Abbey  post ), it still experienced fundamental changes.  Changes that were beginning during Austen's lifetime, but ...

Turns out that knowing your market is pretty important.  One reason is because when you write a query letter, it is often ideal to suggest that your book resembles Book X, which was written in the past 10 to 15 years and sold bazillions of copies.  I did some Google searches, but the neo-Victorian market was surprisingly sparse -- most well-known books like The French Lieutenant's Woman  had been written decades ago. So I went onto Victorian listserv and asked for some examples of popular recent Victorian novels.  One of the examples mentioned was Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White  (2002).  Since that seems to be the most popular recent example, that is where I will start. My purpose in reviewing books like Crimson is this: (1) to note what aspects of the Victorian Era they incorporate; (2) to see what "modern" elements they bring; (3) to see what works and what does not work; (4) to see how well it conforms to expectations of "what wil...

The last two segments of my novel are here and here . All three segments are in sequential order, but not back-to-back.  Given how long it will likely be before my novel is published, I'm afraid that if I release it chapter-by-chapter, the whole friggin' novel will be on the Internet before it sees print.  So my goal is to release samplers here and there that hopefully generate interest.   If you have feedback, you know the drill.  Also, for some reason, the formatting came out double-spaced this time, despite my efforts to make it like the other segments.  Enjoy!    ********************** Arthur rushed outside toward the commotion.  It came from a side street, but was spilling onto the high street, slowing traffic.  Arthur hoped that he was wrong, that it was something else.  Maybe some Strand workers had got into a brawl.  As he grew closer, he heard jeers.  “Where do you think you’re going, murderer?...

The last chapter is here . For those in mourning that Downton Abbey 's fourth series won't air until January 2014 in the U.S. (stupid PBS), get your country house fix here.  I'll confess that this isn't a full chapter -- the full chapter would take up an entire page.  But between this and my last chapter, it should give you a flavor of what my novel is about.  Again, legitimate feedback is welcome, either in the comments below or by clicking on the About Me link and hitting Email . ********************** Mount Edgecumbe House, taken by  Philip Halling Bella’s room.  Upon seeing it for the first time since her death, Elizabeth had the strong impulse to flee.  But she promised to come sort through her possessions, and here she was. Except for the drawn curtains, the room looked just as it had when she was alive.  Her water basin was filled.  Brushes sat on her dressing table at varying angles, where her maid had last laid them down....

Just a note: I will be going out of town for a few days, so I probably won't have the next Earth's Children   critique up until Sunday at the earliest.  Until then, I thought perhaps there might be some out there * sound of crickets * who would be interested in reading a chapter of my own novel.  I recently learned that the publishing person I sent it to has not read it yet, which is frustrating but not surprising, since people in that industry are so busy.  Hopefully she will get to it soon, and in the meantime, I would love any feedback on what I've posted -- real feedback, not spam feedback, please.  You can either post below or click on the About Me: Wild Blogger  link and hit Email . As I mentioned before, the novel is set in 1860s Britain, and is very much in the "country house" genre.  However, I think there is more to it than massive skirts and horse-drawn carriages. ********************** Mount Edgecumbe House, taken by Philip Halling...