Unfortunately, Within the Fetterlock is not yet available in downloadable format, though I still hope it will be, one day.
This has not stopped one 'enterprising' company offering it as such. Either they are sending out a pirate version (which I doubt) or they are just trying to harvest card details.
Beware, folks!
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Friday, 18 May 2012
The Adventures of Alianore Audley
Bewrite, who publish The Adventures of Alianore Audley have decided to stop printing books. All books, not just mine. This means that if you want a print copy you had better move swiftly while they are still to be had. You may already be too late, depending on what (if any) stocks are held.
The good news is that it will still be available in e-format, for Kindle, etc.
I now have the copyright back for the print version, and theoretically, if I can find a publisher interested in doing a print-only version, a new version might emerge at some point. Any offers gratefully received. (I've always thought an illustrated version would be fun, just need a cartoonist.)
You have this news almost as soon as I had.
The good news is that it will still be available in e-format, for Kindle, etc.
I now have the copyright back for the print version, and theoretically, if I can find a publisher interested in doing a print-only version, a new version might emerge at some point. Any offers gratefully received. (I've always thought an illustrated version would be fun, just need a cartoonist.)
You have this news almost as soon as I had.
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Where I am up to?
This is as much for me, Dear Reader, as for you, if not more so, to try to write down, somewhere, exactly where I am up to at this moment with a view to eventually making progress. The first watchword is - no promises! I am not going to promise to do anything, ever again. Not in the literary world, anyway.
I am pleased to say the Black Dog has buggered off completely for the time being, and what is delaying me is 'other business'. You see I do have other interests and, dare I say it, family responsibilities. But if I really wanted to write, I expect I could squeeze some effort in somewhere. The truth is I don't - yet. This is a strange state of affairs for me, who started to write stories when I was about 15 and spent many, many years fruitlessly hammering keyboards. But there you are.
Blogging - I am trying to do at least one blog post a month, but not necessarily here. Please don't hold your breath, especially not for anything to happen over at The Yorkist Age.
Projects
Alianore II - sort of in hand. Some progress made but I am not really in the right mood for comedy just now. I have reasonable hope of finishing this at some point, in fact to the extent that I am giving anything priority, Alianore is getting it.
This New Spring of Time - a decent chunk has been written. A very young Edward of York has met Philippa Mohun for the first time and they are already up to mischief. However, the political stuff is dead complex and untangling it and making it palatable to a sane reader of fiction is hard work. It might get finished but it could be some time. One problem is that although I have a lot of sympathy for Richard II, the truth is that as a young man he was a thoroughly annoying git. (Weren't we all?) His enemies though were unmitigated villains, and I struggle to find anything nice at all to say about Gloucester and Arundel. Possibly their mothers and Jesus loved them, but I can't imagine that anyone else did. (Warwick wasn't quite so bad.) This offends my sense of balance. I have never liked white hat/black hat stories. If I'm honest, the person I admire most in this specific era is Edmund of Langley. He may have been a fool, but at least he didn't set out to murder people who were in his way.
Richard III - I have lost count of the versions I have attempted and discarded. Probably adds up in total to about three short novels, some bits of which I had the gall to publish in The Open Fetterlock. Bottom line is, I am not really satisfied with any of it. I have a vision in my head that I can't match on paper, or even in computer bytes. Frustrating, I know. Might end up as two novels, one about the Talbot sisters, one from the POV of Francis Lovel. I am saying this because the elements concerned are the bits saved from the skip that I am most happy about.
Other Stuff - I am trying to not get involved in anything else. There are other stories I want to tell, and I do from time to time make the odd note about them or do a small piece of research, but the plain truth is I probably won't live long enough.
Not a pretty picture is it? I am tempted to give up, but I'm too damned stubborn.
I am pleased to say the Black Dog has buggered off completely for the time being, and what is delaying me is 'other business'. You see I do have other interests and, dare I say it, family responsibilities. But if I really wanted to write, I expect I could squeeze some effort in somewhere. The truth is I don't - yet. This is a strange state of affairs for me, who started to write stories when I was about 15 and spent many, many years fruitlessly hammering keyboards. But there you are.
Blogging - I am trying to do at least one blog post a month, but not necessarily here. Please don't hold your breath, especially not for anything to happen over at The Yorkist Age.
Projects
Alianore II - sort of in hand. Some progress made but I am not really in the right mood for comedy just now. I have reasonable hope of finishing this at some point, in fact to the extent that I am giving anything priority, Alianore is getting it.
This New Spring of Time - a decent chunk has been written. A very young Edward of York has met Philippa Mohun for the first time and they are already up to mischief. However, the political stuff is dead complex and untangling it and making it palatable to a sane reader of fiction is hard work. It might get finished but it could be some time. One problem is that although I have a lot of sympathy for Richard II, the truth is that as a young man he was a thoroughly annoying git. (Weren't we all?) His enemies though were unmitigated villains, and I struggle to find anything nice at all to say about Gloucester and Arundel. Possibly their mothers and Jesus loved them, but I can't imagine that anyone else did. (Warwick wasn't quite so bad.) This offends my sense of balance. I have never liked white hat/black hat stories. If I'm honest, the person I admire most in this specific era is Edmund of Langley. He may have been a fool, but at least he didn't set out to murder people who were in his way.
Richard III - I have lost count of the versions I have attempted and discarded. Probably adds up in total to about three short novels, some bits of which I had the gall to publish in The Open Fetterlock. Bottom line is, I am not really satisfied with any of it. I have a vision in my head that I can't match on paper, or even in computer bytes. Frustrating, I know. Might end up as two novels, one about the Talbot sisters, one from the POV of Francis Lovel. I am saying this because the elements concerned are the bits saved from the skip that I am most happy about.
Other Stuff - I am trying to not get involved in anything else. There are other stories I want to tell, and I do from time to time make the odd note about them or do a small piece of research, but the plain truth is I probably won't live long enough.
Not a pretty picture is it? I am tempted to give up, but I'm too damned stubborn.
Friday, 17 February 2012
New Link Added
Link to the website of Barbara Gaskell Denvil, who is an excellent writer of 15th Century novels.
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Latest News
Not much, but just to remind anyone interested that my Alianore Audley short will appear in the next edition of the Ricardian Bulletin, the journal of the Richard III Society. Probably just about time to join if you want a copy.
Also I have set up a temporary website at https://sites.google.com/site/brianwainwrightnovels/
Nothing much to look at, and I hope eventually to replace it with something better, but for now it's better than nowt. I have listed my future projects on it so you can all set up books on which, if any, will be the first to appear...
Also I have set up a temporary website at https://sites.google.com/site/brianwainwrightnovels/
Nothing much to look at, and I hope eventually to replace it with something better, but for now it's better than nowt. I have listed my future projects on it so you can all set up books on which, if any, will be the first to appear...
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Maybe it's just me...
OK, I am not going to name the book or the author. The only slight clue I'll give is it was set in the early 19th Century among the upper classes and it wasn't written by Jane Austen.
Yet again, a complete lack of understanding of titles and forms of address stood out. However, I'll pass lightly over this as I don't want to seem more obsessive than I am in reality, and I know that for a lot of people this just flies over their head anyway and doesn't spoil their enjoyment.
This week's moan is about inappropriate (for the time) social attitudes. For starters we have a gentlemen (a lord actually, although naturally he's too cool to use his title) on first name terms with his valet. Hmm, yeah, right...
But then all the main characters are so incredibly Left wing and PC that it screamed at me. I almost expected them to stand up after dinner (just before the ladies withdrew) and sing the Internationale. I mean, come on, this is early 19th Century England! There were not many Left wing PC types among the peerage and landed gentry at this time. Even reformers (Radicals) were in a distinct minority. Surely it's the art of the typical that convinces? If there'd been one, just one, fat-bellied Tory repressive among them I could have lived with it. But there wasn't even a hint of the typical social attitudes of the day.
When we talk about accuracy, it isn't just a matter of getting the belt buckles right, or what they had for dinner, or the correct name for the Bishop of Bath and Wells in September 1693. Surely, surely there has to be some attempt to reflect how the people of the times actually thought and behaved in relation to one another? And this is where it's hard - because by and large they did not think like us. Indeed, many of them did and said (by our standards) shameful things. But it's no use pretending that by some amazing chance the characters we choose to write about were all 21st Century people of correct opinions who happened to be born a few centuries earlier. Because they weren't.
Yet again, a complete lack of understanding of titles and forms of address stood out. However, I'll pass lightly over this as I don't want to seem more obsessive than I am in reality, and I know that for a lot of people this just flies over their head anyway and doesn't spoil their enjoyment.
This week's moan is about inappropriate (for the time) social attitudes. For starters we have a gentlemen (a lord actually, although naturally he's too cool to use his title) on first name terms with his valet. Hmm, yeah, right...
But then all the main characters are so incredibly Left wing and PC that it screamed at me. I almost expected them to stand up after dinner (just before the ladies withdrew) and sing the Internationale. I mean, come on, this is early 19th Century England! There were not many Left wing PC types among the peerage and landed gentry at this time. Even reformers (Radicals) were in a distinct minority. Surely it's the art of the typical that convinces? If there'd been one, just one, fat-bellied Tory repressive among them I could have lived with it. But there wasn't even a hint of the typical social attitudes of the day.
When we talk about accuracy, it isn't just a matter of getting the belt buckles right, or what they had for dinner, or the correct name for the Bishop of Bath and Wells in September 1693. Surely, surely there has to be some attempt to reflect how the people of the times actually thought and behaved in relation to one another? And this is where it's hard - because by and large they did not think like us. Indeed, many of them did and said (by our standards) shameful things. But it's no use pretending that by some amazing chance the characters we choose to write about were all 21st Century people of correct opinions who happened to be born a few centuries earlier. Because they weren't.
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