Alison Stuart - Writer
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Moments in History...

Welcome to Alison's archive blog page.
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The long and winding road...

10/11/2017

 
I am not sure if I am writing this as a testament to my own dogged, and often blind, stubborness ... or to inspire a fellow writer out there who is despairing of ever climbing the slippery pole of publication.  (And before I begin I warn you this is a longish post!)

In my last post I wrote about my experience at the HNS Conference and the RWA conference in America and how I had felt that, in some ways, the sessions had been directed at me and my self awareness that something in my writing life had to change.

I could not have predicted how fast that change occurred!
PictureBack where it all began... The scribblings of a 15 year old
​But first the journey... 

It has been years... years and years and years, since I dislocated that shoulder skiing and decided to write a story that had been bugging me since I was a teenager. (That story is now the award winning BY THE SWORD, if you haven't read it).

Amazingly that little story got a bit of notice, it finalled or was long listed in contests, it even got me an agent. I was on the road to publishing success - or so I thought.  The agent did nothing for me, the contests only brought more rejections. It was 14 years (yes, really!) before that story found a publisher and even then it was a small US epublisher in a time before epublishing was even really a thing (they hadn't invented ebook readers!). 

Unsurprisingly the story went nowhere and in 2010 I got the rights back and, risking the wrath of the conventionally published world (VANITY... ALL IS VANITY), I self published it with a little known company called Smashwords.  There were no such services as cover designers  or formatters, but it was out in the world. You can trace the evolution of the book by its covers... see below

And all the time I kept writing - the stories I liked to read - while juggling family and career (and I did have a professional career in the law).

I had another ill judged relationship with a US epublisher that ended acrimoniously so those two books GATHER THE BONES (which had huge contest success) and SECRETS IN TIME, joined the two already self published. I was the accidental indie author. 

OK, I thought... I shall write to market and wrote my first (and only) regency romance and to cut a long story short, it did the usual rounds of contest success but submission failure until it was picked up by the wonderful Kate Cuthbert at Escape Publishing (Harlequin Australia). Not only did Kate publish LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR but she encouraged me to turn my two English Civil War books, BY THE SWORD and THE KING'S MAN, into a trilogy with the addition of EXILE'S RETURN.


Meanwhile... a wise woman once asked me what I liked to read and when I 'fessed up that I mostly read mystery she encouraged me to turn my hand to writing mystery. Easier said than done... but I had an idea up my sleeve from the years we lived in Singapore and over the 2011 NaNoWriMo, I wrote the bones of the first Harriet Gordon story. But writing mystery is VERY different from writing romance so Harriet has had many, many incarnations. More about Harriet later... 
​

The evolution of a book... 

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2007
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2010
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2012
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2013
​Fast forward to July 2017.
With 8 published novels (4 indie and 4 with Escape) I felt I had stagnated. I could go on doing the same thing (and I acknowledge the support of my loyal band of readers!)  but I was losing heart. I either had to take this writing game seriously or get out. So I took a huge leap of faith. With the support of my long suffering spouse I walked away from the day job, leaving behing 30+ years of being a lawyer/company secretary.


And then something extraordinary happened... as if the great god Karma had rolled out of bed and decided it was time I was due a bit of good fortune. I was asked by a senior editor at Harlequin MIRA (Aus) to put in  a proposal for an Australian set historical romance series. (How I arrived at the idea for an Australian series is a whole other story). I managed to get the synopses for 2 books I hadn't written (remember I am a PANTSER!) and sample chapters to the editor before I left for the USA.

The purpose of my trip to the USA was to attend the Historical Novel Society conference in Portland and the RWAm conference in Orlando (with 5 weeks of filling in time - my husband's words not mine!). Karma continued to dog my path.
1. In Portland I had the opportunity to pitch my Singapore stories to the agent of my dreams. I've done hundreds of pitches which have always come to nought so all I could do was cross my toes and fingers and hope for the best.
2. In Orlando it was as if every session I attended was addressing me. Wonderful, experienced writers talked about how a writer needs to reinvent themselves over the course of the career. Reinventing... yes, that was what I was proposing to do.

On my return from America, the long awaited email from Harlequin arrived, accepting my proposal and offering me a print contract for my 2 "Maiden's Creek" books and as if that wasn't enough, within a few weeks of me submitting to her, the US agent I had pitched Harriet to, rang me offering to take me on and work with me to find my Singapore stories an American publisher. Much champagne has been drunk at the Stuart house! 

Now the HARD work begins, and you will find me very quiet for a long time. The first Maiden's Creek book won't hit the shelves until the middle of 2019 (and the second in 2020). And then there are the Harriet stories. Book 1 is done but it is a series so Book 2 needs to be worked on in the hope it finds a home. 
​
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Welcome to Maiden's Creek...
​The point of this article is not to skite... I have worked hard but I KNOW  that nothing in this business is certain. 

My point is that it has taken 25 years but if I have never been more certain of anything in my life, it is this... I have always wanted to be a writer, a teller of stories and nothing has deterred me from that dream. There have been dark moments, times when my life outside writing threatened to overwhelm me, but not once did I lose sight of my dream.

​It's still got to happen but the first time I see my book in an airport bookshop (or ANY bookshop) will be  a red letter day, the validation that dreams can come true..
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On Jetlag and Conferences... #RWA17

8/5/2017

 
I have just returned from a 6 week jaunt around the entire continent of North America and I have to say I am crippled with jet lag. I am now intimately acquainted with 4.00am, 5.00am and 6.00am... and on Thursday hit the wall with what I can only describe as 'jetlag' vertigo. Ah, the joys of modern travel!

As I last wrote, my journey began with the Historical Novel Society Conference in Portland... it ended with the Romance Writers of America Conference in Orlando, Florida (26-29 July). As my travelling companion said... the rest was just filling in time!
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I am an infrequent attendee at the RWAm conference (my last being Anaheim in 2012) and it is interesting to look at the programme and reflect on how the industry has changed in a few short years.

My observation is that this year there was nothing on blogging or, indeed, the nuts and bolts, how to of indie publishing. In fact Indie Publishing now warranted a whole stream of its own (how that worm has turned!). The shift seemed to be toward marketing and promotion - something all authors, traditionally published or otherwise, now need to do. 

In terms of 'What Next?' for the industry, it seems that the emphasis is on writing series, rather than single, stand alone stories. 
For me, personally, the conference was timely. With my retirement from regular employment at the end of March, I have had to do a great deal of soul searching about where I want to take this new full time writing career. With 8 full length novels now 'on the shelves', I can either going on doing the same thing (and expect a different result!) or look at taking my writing in a slightly different direction. 

So with that being my mindset, I attended several sessions that spoke to me, articulating precisely the questions that had been going around in my mind, namely: Can I reinvent myself and yet still remain true to the sort of story that I like to write. Thank you, Suzanne Brockmann, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jayne-Anne Krantz and Virginia Kantro. Your sessions have convinced me that ... yes, I can! (This decision entailed a great deal of 'thinking' by the pool with a Margerita in hand...)  

And as if a cry went out to the universe, the answer was waiting in my Inbox on my return. At the risk of doing a thing I loathe...'vaguebooking'... I will have to leave it at that but watch this space for some exciting news in the near future!
 
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Thinking by the pool... assisted by ducks!

Finding my tribe - the Historical Novel Society Conference Portland, Oregon 22-24 June 2017

6/30/2017

 
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I knew from the moment I got into a lift with Eleanor of Acquitaine that I had found my people...

My experience of writers conferences is mostly confined to (wonderful and energising) romance writers conferences but there you are among a wide variety of genres and sub genres, my recent time with the HNS gave me 3 glorious days with just lovers of historical fiction... people who didn't mind if you bowled up to them and asked what period of history they were passionate about.

Back to Eleanor of Acquitaine... and Aphra Behn and... an amazing assortment of historical personages who turned out for the Welcome Cocktail party and costume contest. I hurriedly scribbled 'Lady Jersey, queen of the Ton' on my label and I was set.

Over the three days I learned about how to load historic weapons, wrangle writing books set in different periods, the present state of historical fiction (not encouraging... female protagonist, not Tudor, not straight historical biography but preferably a real person), writing historical mysteries and other workshops and panels... although I have to confess to not getting to as many as I would have liked owing to other commitments and an unexpected (and unwelcome lurgy!).

My own presentation on Cavaliers and Roundheads was on the Friday afternoon. A small (and hopefully appreciative) audience, despite my diminishing voice and a power point clicker with a mind of its own. **I will be putting my paper up on my website once I am home.**

Other treats included hearing Geraldine Brooks talking about her road to historical fiction and David Ebershoff talking about the writing of the Danish Girl. The delightful Kate Forsyth entertain us with the fairy tale of Tam Linn at the final dinner. Even Lady Jersey got her moment as she launched the post dinner 'Masquerade Ball'. Unfortunately she had by this stage succumbed to jet lag + flu so retired early.

And the highlight? A thoroughly alcohol soaked journey through the history of booze, led by the immensely knowledgeable Isobel Carr. From mead to martini and quite a few interesting excursions in between, including a tot of absinthe (no hallucinations were reported).

I have to extend a HUGE shout and thank you to the organising team for the conference. I have organised no less than 3 romance writer conferences in the past and I know exactly how much work goes into it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience, your smiles and your tireless hard work over the weekend. I hope one day to return and reconnect with my new found tribe!

Introducing - The English Civil War #HNS17

5/6/2017

 
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In June I will be giving a paper at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Portland, Oregon. (Click HERE for more details!).

I am titling the paper, THE OTHER CIVIL WAR. Why? If you go to Amazon and type English Civil War fiction into the search engine, you get page after page of books set in the American Civil War. This provokes a heavy sigh from this writer...

So come June, it is my chance to redress the historical balance and try to explain the entire history of the English Civil War in 40 minutes. I can but try, so as an introduction I will attempt the entire English Civil War in one short blog post! 

The English Civil Wars marked a watershed in English history. It is the only time in its history that England became a republic for a brief period of 11 years from 1649-1660.

The complex politics that gave rise to this situation had their roots back in Tudor times. When Elizabeth I died childless, James VI of Scotland, son of “Mary Queen of Scots” became James I of England. He had two sons, the older, Henry died while young leaving the younger son, Charles, a shy young man with a pronounced stammer, to succeed him as King Charles I of England. The character of Charles I has been much debated and discussed but I think one can say that like a lot of insecure men, he had a strong stubborn streak and a heavy dependence on his advisors, at least two of whom were to die horribly; the Duke of Buckingham by assassination and Earl of Stafford on the block. He further raised the ire of the protestant population of England by marrying a Catholic, Henrietta Maria, sister to the King of France.

Charles had above all, a belief in the divine right of the king to rule, and when he found himself thwarted by his Parliament, he dissolved Parliament and ruled alone, imposing taxes on an increasingly unwilling and unhappy population. Forced to recall Parliament in the early 1640s (to fund a war against Scotland), he found himself increasingly at loggerheads with the country’s elected representatives and in early 1642 he and his family fled London.

In August 1642 he raised the royal standard at Nottingham (where it was promptly blown down in a gale - some would say a portentous gale!) and England found itself plunged into a long and bitter civil war.

The first part of the civil wars lasted from 1642 until 1646 and ended with the defeat and imprisonment of the King. At the King’s instigation a second civil war flared in 1648 and the King’s refusal to negotiate with his captors led eventually and tragically to his execution in January 1649.

In 1650 his exiled son, Charles II landed in Scotland and tried unsuccessfully to regain his throne by force. The Battle of Worcester in September 1651 resulted in his defeat and after a six week adventure, Charles II managed to make good his escape to France but many of his supporters were captured, killed or transported to the West Indies where they were used as slave labour on the plantations.

The void left by the execution of the King was filled by the appointment of Oliver Cromwell, the victorious commander of the Parliament’s forces, as Lord Protector. The clichéd view of Cromwell’s reign is of a dark, cheerless time when puritans banned music, dancing and Christmas celebrations and the “Major-Generals” imposed a martial rule over England. This is not entirely just. Religious toleration, for example, enjoyed a much freer time under Cromwell then at any time in the previous reigns.


Cromwell died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son, Richard. “Tumbledown Dick” was not the man his father had been and in 1660 at the behest of the Army, Charles II returned to the throne of England and England’s brief experiment with republicanism was over.

See you in Portland...
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Cover Reveal:  THE GUARDIANS OF THE CROWN ('Box Set')

3/16/2017

 
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There is no moment more exciting for an author than a cover reveal!

And while I have loved all 3 of my GUARDIANS OF THE CROWN covers individually, my publisher has decided to bundle them all together under this stunning cover!

Release day is 25 May but the Guardians of the Crown set is currently up for PRE ORDER on Amazon and Kobo for the price of US$4.99... pretty much the price of one book sold individually.

So here they are all together... my 3 gorgeous boys - Jonathan, Kit and Daniel... just waiting for you to pick them up (or in this case... download them).
PRE ORDER NOW
And just as a reminder about the series - it is set in England between the years 1650 and 1660... ​
Amazon Aus
Amazon UK
KOBO
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