HIDDEN TREASURES
Kathleen Buckley
GENRE: Sweet Historical Romance
BLURB:
Allan Everard, an earl's illegitimate son, is dismissed from his employment at his father’s death but inherits a former coaching inn. Needing to make a new life in London, he begins by leasing the inn to a charity.
Unexpectedly orphaned, Rosabel Stanbury and her younger sister are made wards of a distant, unknown cousin. Fearing his secretive ways and his intentions for them, Rosabel and Oriana flee to London where they are taken in by a women’s charity.
Drawn into Rosabel's problems, with his inn under surveillance by criminals, Allan has only a handful of unlikely allies, including an elderly general, a burglar, and an old lady who knows criminal slang. A traditional romance.
Excerpt:
“Sir, we came to London to live with our grandfather, but he is ill, and we couldn’t see him, and our uncle’s wife didn’t believe we are his grandchildren, and now we have no place to go.”
Rosabel wished whoever he was might be able to aid them, knowing she dare not trust him, not after their encounter with the woman at the inn. He was probably a rakehell. Gentlemen did not otherwise concern themselves with females of the servant class, as they must appear to be, clad in their dusty, countrified clothing.
Blinking away her last tears, she was tempted to revise her opinion. His plain black suit, slight body, and untidy hair suggested quite another sort of man. His eyes twinkled when she met his gaze. “May I introduce myself, ma’am? Wilfred Simmons, curate, St. Giles-without-Cripplegate. If you and your sister have nowhere to stay, your situation is serious. London is a hard place even for men if they have no work and no money. A female without resources risks danger to both body and soul. Please let me assist you.”
She bit her lip. Mr. Simmons appeared to be respectable. He had a gentleman’s voice and was no more than four-and-twenty, she guessed. Beside her, Ory sniffed dolefully.
“You are wise not to be too trusting. I have friends who will vouch for me inside.” He smiled at her expression. “Ma’am, no one has ever been abducted from St. George’s Church, Hanover Square.”
Interview with Kathleen Buckley
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
Yes. The book’s narrator, investigating a puzzling incident he encountered during WWI, collects accounts from a number of those present or with knowledge of the event. But he presents them in the order he obtained them so the story is non-linear. I wish I could think of a plot in which I could do something similar. For the curious, the book was W.F. Morris’s Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? published in 1929.
How do you select the names of your characters?
As I write historical fiction set in 18th century England, I sometimes consult online lists of either common or unusual English names. If I need a name for a titled character (for example, the Duke of X), I usually choose the name of a town or area which is not well known. In By Sword and Fan, a minor character was the Earl of Annan, which is a town and area in Scotland. Sometimes I just plain make up a name that sounds right.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
I do! In Hidden Treasures, an inscription on a window pane in the inn, “Paso por aquí de camino a Hampton Court 1554 Don Diego Anascote” is a reference to a character in my first novel, An Unsuitable Duchess. I borrowed part of the inscription from one dating to 1605 on El Morro National Monument here in New Mexico.
What was your hardest scene to write?
Answering this question is like having to pick one chocolate from a big box of the most delicious, premium confections you can imagine. There is always at least one scene that’s a little challenging but the worst I can recall was in BY SWORD AND FAN. The section involved the pursuit of abductors by the children’s governess. As originally conceived, they would make for the nearest small harbor, following the road along the River Coquet to get away by ship. I researched the route exhaustively on old maps, Google Images, and topographic maps to be able to describe the terrain and scenery. As the crow flies, the distance was about 20 miles. Unfortunately, the Coquet is a twisty little river. Still, it seemed doable. Then we arrived at the town at the Coquet’s mouth, and I discovered that I had no idea how Margaret was to continue her pursuit by water. Neither confronting at least two probably armed men nor hiring a ship to pursue theirs seemed believable. Progress stalled for a couple of weeks until I took another look at a large scale map of Northumberland, and discovered that from the point of the kidnapping to Scotland was only a few miles by a (comparatively) good road, the old Roman road called Dere Street. So I researched that by Google Satellite Images and found that there was even a place just before the border where a traveling coach might be delayed. Bingo! Readers of Regency romances are aware that the Scottish laws governing marriage differed from England’s, hence all those elopements to Gretna Green. Guardianship law was different, too, which mattered in BY SWORD AND FAN’s plot.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Each of my novels is intended to stand on its own but sometimes a character in one makes an appearance in another. It’s a saving of time as I don’t have to invent a completely new character if I need the specialized knowledge or talents of an information broker, a shipping magnate, a money lender, or a solicitor (who argues cases in the Court of Chancery). I think this makes the “universe” of my 1740s England more concrete.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
Mark Twain began The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with the warning "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished..." I don’t set out with goals or intentions, except to entertain, and I believe I succeed with the latter. If something in my books makes the reader stop and think, I’m delighted.
What inspired you to write Hidden Treasures?
Many Regency and Georgian romances tend to take place in ballrooms and drawing rooms with titled or at least genteel characters. In previous books I’ve tried to give readers a slightly more realistic view of the period. In Hidden Treasures, I’ve tried to show what life was like for the 18th century’s poorest class was like. There is, however, a “happily ever after”.
Can you tell us a little bit about the next books in your Georgian world or what you have planned for the future?
I’ve just finished a mystery set in 1740 in two magistrates investigate a murder (because there were no police at the time) called A Murder of Convenience. I anticipate it will be out in about nine months. The next one will be another mystery dealing with a disappearance and inheritance law. No title as yet; I’m only about 2,000 words into it.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Hidden Treasures?
Rosabel Stanbury, 20, and her sister, Oriana, 14, are suddenly orphaned and find themselves the wards of a distant cousin they’ve never heard of. Rosabel is a sensible young woman who has kept house for her father for years. She finds the heir’s behavior so suspicious that she decides she and Oriana must flee to London. There, instead of being able to take refuge with their grandfather, they are left on their own with only a shilling or two, at risk of starvation or infamy. They are lucky to find refuge in a shelter for destitute women. Allan Everard, the illegitimate son of an earl, trained to be a steward but dismissed on the death of his natural father has been left the gift of a defunct coaching inn. Leasing it to the women’s charity brings him into contact with Rosabel and the problem of overturning the guardianship. Finding he is accepted by the odd assortment of the charity’s supporters and Rosabel gives him the confidence to solve the problem of the guardianship.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
For me, the research is always the fun part. I studied a 1746 map of London to find the right places to put my invented charity, coffee house, attorney’s office and the routes the characters take to get to them. Finding out where the coach from Salisbury ended in London, what the hackney fares were in London, what an old coaching inn looked like, and how the Court of Chancery handled guardianship cases. I know the last one doesn’t sound very amusing but blame it on my having been a paralegal for many years.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Kathleen Buckley writes traditional historical romance (i.e. no explicit sex). There are fewer ballrooms and aristocratic courting rituals in her books and more problems than does-he-love-me/does-he-not. Sometimes there’s humor. Kathleen wanted to write from the time she learned to read and pursued this passion through a Master’s Degree in English, followed by the kind of jobs one might expect: light bookkeeping, security officer, paralegal. She did sell two stories to the late Robert Bloch, author of Psycho. And no, he wasn’t late at the time.
After moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, she wrote her first historical romance, striving for Georgette Heyer’s style, followed by nine more.
In Kathleen’s gentle romances, the characters tend to slide into love rather than fall in lust. Their stories are often set against the background of family relationships, crime, and legal issues, probably because of her work in a law firm.
When she’s not writing or reading, she enjoys cooking dishes from eighteenth century cookbooks. Those dishes and more appear in her stories. Udder and root vegetables, anyone?
Kathleen Buckley’s current work in progress is her first historical mystery, tentatively titled A Murder of Convenience.
Connect with Kathleen Buckley
Linktree ~ Website ~ Instagram ~ Amazon
12 comments:
Thank you so much for featuring Kathleen Buckley and HIDDEN TREASURES.
I'm happy to be here today and to answer questions if anyone has one.
I like the excerpt. Sounds good.
Thank you, Marcy. It was fun writing it.
looks like a book I'd read
I hope you will. It's my current favorite.
This looks really good. Thanks for sharing.
Michael, thank you.
Lovely cover
It is, isn't it? I'll pass that on. The art department loves compliments.
How do you balance plot driven elements with character driven elements in your storytelling?
I was going to say, "That's a hard question" and then I realized that although I decide how the story begins and ends, the characters decide what happens in between. Soon after I begin writing, I have a pretty clear notion of the characters' personalities, and what they would do or not do. The only times I've had writers' block have been when I tried to make them do something that was inconsistent with their personalities. Sometimes you have to let the Wookie win.
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