Hi Guys,
Last year the Victorian thread was really useful in helping us find eachother and served as a place for us to ask questions of people who have probably come across something similar in their research, so let's resurrect it! Introduce your novel, and chat away about the Victorian age to your heart's content!
I'm doing a voyage novel-- a young Moroccan man is confused about his identity and afraid of all the responsibilities his wealthy socially-climbing family put onto him. As his life constricts around him, he arranges to get the heck out and on his crazy trip to England, he is robbed and while destitute, meets an albino noble who was disowned for his homosexuality. Together they take to the streets at night and protect each other as best as they can while the ripper fells the prostitutes around them. They realise that the friendship they have is very real, and they push one another to bigger and better things while trying to avoid the poverty and death that surrounds them.
Don't let that fool you though-- it's more of a black comedy.
It's also a prequel to last year's NaNovel. I realised a few months ago that while I loved it, I was writing about the two least interesting characters and this year is a chance for me to delve into the past of my two favorites.
----------
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
15,457 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 19 08
Hello! My story is primarily historical fiction, but there is fantasy thrown in with the aspect of time travel.
My story is set early in the Victorian era, in America. 1859 Yorktown, Virginia, to be exact. A modern woman finds herself transported through time to this small town. The townspeople take her in, as they feel it is their christian duty, but her modern beliefs and behaviors do not endear her to the local population. As she passed from one unwilling towns-person to the next, she befriends one young woman who doesn't live in the town proper. When the townspeople realize this, they convince her new friend's brother to take his turn and shelter her. Her first impression of this man is less than favorable, but she decides that she cannot remain in town and agrees to the arrangement. When she leaves to stay at his home, the whole town breathes a sigh of relief, and the story shifts to the remote setting two miles away.
That is just the beginning of my story. Things get more interesting as the main character discovers an underground railroad, slave-catchers, and the dangerous battle zone between them. She learns what had brought her to 1859 in the first place, and travels back to the 21st century. Almost as though she had skipped to the end of the book, she discovers the fates of those she had come to care for, and searches anew for a way back in time.
----------~Andi~
2009 ~*~ Historical Fiction ~*~ When the Time Comes ~*~ First Year -- We'll see!
5,310 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 19 32
I'm doing a Victorian era novel as well- mine is set in and around London in 1875 and early 1876. It's an Alice in Wonderland fanfiction, focusing on Alice's debut into Society, in the vein of Jane Austen's novels (the well-off and marriage concerns, mostly). I found a really good resource in the book "Inside the Victorian Home" by Judith Flanders. I got it used for a pretty good price from Amazon. I also picked up "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" by Daniel Pool- it has a great glossary, though the information can sometimes be a little less time specific than one might like.
----------NaNo 09: Down the Rabbit Hole
fantastical & historical fan-fiction
50,522 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 10 18
Love this concept! And the Judith Flanders book is fantastic, isn't it? I can't recommend that book enough to people.
50,522 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 10 21
Currently I'm planning to bring the characters of NaNo 2007 back out to play for another adventure. My cast--a beguiling Scottish diamond thief, his girlfriend (a Modern Woman who wants desperately to be a mineralogist), and a young pickpocket with a penchant for outlandish disguises--were last seen trying to steal the Tiffany Diamond at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. This year I'm planning to send them to Europe for more tomfoolery. Either Tuscany or (at the moment) Bavaria. Still pondering that one...
46,551 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 15 00
:D Historical Fiction Fantasy here!
My story is mainly about a girl (yet to find out her name >.>) who can go to a world based in the Victorian era through a mirror, and lives there with other people with the same type of mirrors. They have to keep out of suspicion (they are also in middle or high class, can someone help me decide? I want them to host and attend balls and dinners that are fancy) and my FMC has to deal with school and regular-world drama during the day and Victorian drama and balls at night (as the times are reversed.)
So it's a mix of our time and Victorian times, plus if I really want to add something that *isn't quite Victorian* I can.
----------My .03, cause that's how I roll!
"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." ~Arnold H. Glasow
0 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 04 01
I'm also writing historical fantasy (though this is not my NaNo project for this year, but something I've been working on for a longer time), set in the mid 1800's in London. The story is basically about the power struggle between a government organisation of 'hunters' and the various supernatural creatures that inhabit the city. Most prevalent are the vampires, who do not sparkle in sunlight and are extremely vicious. A sort of trip back to the original, blood-thirsty Victorian vampires from the old Gothic stories. It also includes old witches, musty curiosity shops, filthy waterfront pubs, ballrooms, narrow ill-lit alleyways and all the other Victorian London cliches you can think of. :p
The aim of the project is to keep the historical details as accurate as possible, despite the presence of fantasy elements in the story. Books that I've found very useful are the Flanders book, which was already mentioned, "Victorian London" by Lisa Picard and "Life in Victorian London" by Batsford. For everyone with JSTOR access: JSTOR has loads and loads of intersting journals about the Victorian Era.
32,453 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 13 15
Yay, Victorian thread! My era is late Victorian - an 1890's urban romance in Philadelphia (USA).
~~Dapana
----------~~Ida Wells-Barnett, a woman for all seasons - and, of course, a writer
40,032 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 23
I'm also going to write the Victorian era as I already did in 2007 and 2008 (It's simply the time I know best, because my work for uni (I'm doing my PhD on a Victorian artist) provides me with lots of inspiration and spares me some noveling research). This time my story takes place in 1889 and is mostly set in Venice (because I recently travelled there and fell in love with the city).
----------There will be dark family secrets, narrow canals, decadent artists and probably some slight supernatural elements, I'm currently still in the midst of research and plotting (only got the definite idea yesterday morning), but I'm already really looking forward to writing the whole thing.
2006 "Vae Victis"
2007 "Das Lächeln der Persephone"
2008 "Redclyffe"
2009 "Dionysus"
13,353 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2009 - 14 25
Woooo Victorian!!!! My novel is about a young woman, newly returned from university and collecting her things from home. Her mother (not a particularly pleasant woman) has put her things away in the attack, mixed with everything else. As the girl goes through the jumble to find her possessions, she finds old family heirlooms, mainly pictures, journals, clothing, the like. While parts of the novel take place in the 1780's, others take place in 1969 America. I'm pretty excited, especially reading about all of your novels as well!
----------110,443 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 05 55
I'm working on two Victorian novels. One is for my own amusement, and the other is for NaNo. I really cannot wait to start on it, though!
----------NaNoWriMo '09: The London Investigation Team: The Puppet Master
Original, non-NaNo: The London Investigation Team: Jack the Ripper
Updates: http://cherished-souls.tumblr.com/
49,137 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 06 10
Mine has a prologue and epilogue set in 1873 Kent, and the rest is set in 1868 (London and ... Wiltshire?). It starts with an unexpected visitor dredging up memories that Alice thought she'd buried, and she decides to face the past by writing about it - telling the story of the strange events of four and a half years before....
It has a lot of the things you'd expect in a Gothic novel - an isolated heroine, a spooky manor house with a mysterious owner, a sinister servant - and a few you wouldn't. In the absence of a decent title I'm referring to it as "Jane Eyre meets Bram Stoker without the vampires." I'm somewhat nervous because I don't feel at home in the Victorian era like I do in the Georgian or Regency, but hopefully some more research will fix that.
----------Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.
-- Erma Bombeck
1,462 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 10 47
Wow, there are a lot of really interesting novels for NaNo this year. I can't wait to see how they all turn out. My own novel is set in 1880s London and would best be defined as a historical novel with romantic elements.
ColdRevolution -- I have those two books as well. I know exactly what you mean about the Dickens/Austen novel but it's been very helpful for very general items. The Flanders book still requires my attention.
Research Question: Does anyone know of a really good source for men's clothing descriptions and/or pictures for 1870s London? My own novel is not that detailed but I have a friend who is experiencing difficulty in her research.
Happy Writing!
33,127 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2009 - 12 00
My novel will be about the woman who truly designed bloomers and who grew up near where I live. She was raised in a wealthy household that was on the Underground Railroad and at the center of all the important social movements of the day. Started this one last year for NaNoWriMo, but got seriously derailed with a severe bout of bronchitis in the first week. Will be needing some help with motivation if anyone would like to buddy up.
----------DyannN
58,677 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2009 - 12 57
I'm encouraged to find other people doing Victorian (especially the ones with fantasy aspects to it as well) set novels! :) (Although, now I feel like my plot isn't all *that* original. But anyways).
My novel is Historical Fantasy Fiction, which includes time travel. The main character, from the modern world, gets zapped back in time and meets up with others who share his occupation- called Endmakers. (An Endmaker is basically someone who writes up convincing ends to author's unfinished works that are sent in and then assigned out to whichever Endmaker is believed to be able to do the best job). They meet up with popular authors of the day, and stop a banned Endmaker from wreaking havoc on the novels that are currently having their ends written. I figure my story will be set sometime in 1840s, or roughly there, as it has to correspond with the years that Charles Dickens' work came out. (Specifically Little Dorrit, which was published between 1855 and 1857.) I hope to have focus quite a bit on the poor of London, as I find that always fascinating. Unfortunately...I'm one of the type that feels that everything has to be as historically accurate as possible, and since right now I don't know if I know enough to get it like that, I sometimes think it'd be better to do it not at all. (ie, perfectionist...) It will be an interesting challenge, I think.
33,488 / 50,000
Okt 11, 2009 - 14 56
I'm going with a Victorian piece this time around. Although I've done some research into a few important areas to my story, I'm just going for the bulk of the work, and will then work on any inconsistencies afterward.
My story is going to be set in the 1880s, in the English countryside, whether that be Dorest/Wiltshire or Yorkshire, I'm not sure. Probably Dorset/Wiltshire, since that's where I grew up! Or maybe a mix - there's room for that! Basically, I am going for a romance across the classes, between the laundry maid and the son of the family. The course of true love never did run smooth, and it's going to be an extremely bumpy ride for our couple. There will be plenty of life-changing angst, anger and emotional heartache before it comes to any conclusion!!
I know while I was studying Costume at drama school, we always used John Peacock as a reference for costumes. He has loads of books, from all eras, that have pictures and details about styles, cuts, fabrics, and all that kind of thing. They should be available from your local library, or online if necessary!
46,551 / 50,000
Okt 12, 2009 - 14 22
Question
With my characters coming from different worlds, I'm wondering- not all of them can be the same family (body feature differences, plus age, etc) so how would I relate these people? How frequent was it in the mid 1800's, upper middle class, for there to be "cousins" living in the same house? And how odd would it be for the house to be run by a "Widow" ?
----------My .03, cause that's how I roll!
"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." ~Arnold H. Glasow
1,065 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 10 23
ColdRevolution -- I have those two books as well. I know exactly what you mean about the Dickens/Austen novel but it's been very helpful for very general items. The Flanders book still requires my attention.
Research Question: Does anyone know of a really good source for men's clothing descriptions and/or pictures for 1870s London? My own novel is not that detailed but I have a friend who is experiencing difficulty in her research.
Happy Writing!
Tell her to get to Barnes and Noble to the theatre section and look for the books on costume design, especially one called Who Wore What When. It's invaluable!
I am so at home writing in the Victorian parameters because I have done SO much research, but I'm still trying to decide what I'm actually going to write about for NaNo. I have a few ideas, from Victorian to Jazz Age, but I may as well bash my head against a tabletop for all my indecision. lol
----------blog
Hi, I'm Alyssa.
57,052 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 15 28
Hi. I'm Phyllis and my Nano '08 novel was a romance set in Victorian England (and two thumbs up for the Flanders work!!!) in 1881. I wrote another set in Kent with some shared characters in the Spring and now I am springing off from some of those people and sending two to America, one is a professor and the other is the respectable widow of a man who lived fast and died young. basically, I am using my old research and now piling on more about Victorian America and small town Midwest.
----------2007 (winner) - untitled contemporary romance (never finished)
2008 (winner) - Victorian English romance novel (finished, still editing)
1,462 / 50,000
Okt 15, 2009 - 14 32
I know while I was studying Costume at drama school, we always used John Peacock as a reference for costumes. He has loads of books, from all eras, that have pictures and details about styles, cuts, fabrics, and all that kind of thing. They should be available from your local library, or online if necessary!
Sometimes I have moments of research idiocy and this is one of them. How have I NEVER thought of drama/theater as it relates to costume research? I always looked in the fashion section of bookstores but never the drama/theater. Thanks for the suggestion both SparkleGirlSparkle and tomorrowdarling!
1,462 / 50,000
Okt 15, 2009 - 14 34
I am so at home writing in the Victorian parameters because I have done SO much research, but I'm still trying to decide what I'm actually going to write about for NaNo. I have a few ideas, from Victorian to Jazz Age, but I may as well bash my head against a tabletop for all my indecision. lol
I read a lot of novels set in the 1800s so it's always exciting to see something a little later like in the Jazz Age but obviously that's just me. Let us know what you ultimately decide upon.
35,800 / 50,000
Okt 17, 2009 - 07 36
Yay!! I love this thread!!
I am yet another author doing a Victorian/time-travel novel. I'm not completely new to the time period, as I write a lot of Sherlock Holmes fanfiction (and I've read all the stories), but I am extremely grateful for the resource recommendations. Thanks! *hugs*
My plot, in brief, is this: A girl from our time travels back to 1890's England, but as soon as she arrives she is knocked unconscious, and when she wakes up she has completely forgotten everything. She is taken in by a wealthy family from that time, and when she is awkward with their social customs, they merely assure her that she will remember everything, including proper behavior, in time. So she's convinced that she's always lived in Victorian England, and settles into life there. However, by chance she runs across a famous historical person as a baby, and suddenly she knows what is going to happen to him. She doesn't know how she knows -- all she knows is that she is certain what will happen. But she still doesn't remember that she's from the future. That's why I'm calling it Seer.
Forgive me, that wasn't so brief, but I just wanted to share. ;)
----------NaNo 08: Tears for the Silent Lands - winner with 68,559 words!!
NaNo 09: Seer - if my Holmes fanfiction doesn't abscond with my muse, I shall be very happy.
65,673 / 50,000
Okt 17, 2009 - 15 09
Yay for all the time traveling novels!
In my story an astronaut volunteers for what is basically a suicide mission to try and prove time travel. If she succeeds she is 'supposed' to go back to roughly the 1980s. When she crash lands off the coast of europe she makes it to shore only to stumble onto a murder. She passes out and wakes up in jail, where she learns that the scientists that estimated her arrival time were about one hundred years off. It's 1883 and with her oddly colored hair and eyes no one listens to her yelling about ballistics until the doctor that they bring in to treat her tells her he will talk to someone. She is beyond shocked when a man claiming to be Sherlock Holmes comes to her defense and gets her off the hook for murder. She is a curiosity to Holmes who finds her knowledge fascinating. She stays with him and Dr. Watson at Baker Street and gets dragged into finding out who really murdered the man she was accused of killing.
I tried writing it in 2004's nano but the result was terrible and went so far from what I wanted it to be that I scrapped the entire thing and I'm hoping that this one turns out better.
----------"Yes, I live in my own little world, but I get lost sometimes because there's no such thing as maps; and people don't like me very much so I get bad directions!"
35,800 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 06 10
jilladelario, I LOVE your plot!!! :D *is slightly jealous, and wishes she could have Holmes and Watson in her novel*
*thinks they might be sneaky and end up in her novel anyway*
----------NaNo 08: Tears for the Silent Lands - winner with 68,559 words!!
NaNo 09: Seer - if my Holmes fanfiction doesn't abscond with my muse, I shall be very happy.
0 / 50,000
Okt 21, 2009 - 17 16
Hello there~ ^^
While I must be honest and say I'm much to lazy to explain my plot right now, I do have a few questions which I'm hoping can be answered...
1. Is 153,562 acres an appropriate amount of land for a Marquess to be managing in 1848?
I'm pretty confused on this, honestly... I recently browsed through the amounts of acreage in different shires and then pulled a number out based on that along with just how much power I wanted my Marquess to have. I couldn't find the average amount of acreage for a shire in the Victorian era. I did find the general amount for a township, though, but I've got a strong feeling shires are not the same as townships. =__=;;
...Did they even refer to them as shires in the Victorian era?
[-fails-]
2. Stemming another question from the first, did the Marquess truly own their Marquessate/Marquessates, or were they just responsible for it/them?
I don't think I need to elaborate any more there.
3. Was there a kind of poison that could be used (in presumably low doses) that would keep a person bedridden and highly sickly (nausea, fever, migraines, convulsions, muscular weakness, hot/cold flashes, paleness and gauntness, that kind of stuff) but not necessarily kill them, and in the case it did kill them, do so very slowly (as in months)?
I'm hoping this one won't be too difficult since the Victorian era was rather notorious for poisoning. I know arsenic was a very common poison, but looking it over I'm pretty certain that's not what I'm looking for. I'm just really looking for one that is enough to make a person pretty sick but, with careful (and continuous) dosages, wouldn't actually kill.
4. In general relation to the last question, would a doctor be able to identify the constant sickness resulting from the poison as a case of poisoning?
I'm afraid the answer to this one would probably be yes, which is rather a kick in the face for me. [-sighs-]
But I'm curious about what you'd think about it. Perhaps with all of the various other sicknesses going around, a poisoning case that seemed like a bad cold would be harder to identify as just that - a poisoning case. But maybe I'm just being optimistic; after all, if a doctor could tell pretty easily that'd create a headache for me. XD
5. Oh, and back to the Marquess-stuff, did Marquesses get third-penny like the Earls did for the taxes and fines collected on their Marquessate/Marquessates, or did they get a bit more? ...Did the tax/fine collecting and third-penny matter even apply anymore for Marquesses by the Victorian era?
Hrm... I think that's all for now.
Key words: for now. XD
By the way, as mentioned in the first question the year is 1848. The place is England.
33,488 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 07 27
Lucentael, I know you have ruled out arsenic, but it could be very good for what you want. Here are some quotes from The Horrible Histories Series: The Vile Victorians
"1. Poison was easy to buy. Arsenic mixed with soap was sold in chemists' shops as a killer of bed-bugs. Wash away the soap and you would be left with pure arsenic.
2. Arsenic poisoning gave the victim sickness and diarrhoea - so did gastric (stomach) fever. Busy doctors couldn't tell the difference.
4. Death was very common in the Victorian times. In the 1880s a quarter of all people died in their first year, a half were dead by the time they were 20 and three quarters were dead by 40. Mary Ann was thought to be 'unlucky' to lose so many during her stay in West Auckland (County Durham), but nobody thought it was unbelievable."
These are in reference to a court case about Mary Ann Cotton. She basically moved around the North East of England, changing her name, marrying and murdering people with arsenic! She also went by the names of: Mrs Robson, Mrs Ward, Mrs Robinson and Mrs Cotton
There were probably quite a few other remedies and items that were sold with what we would call poisons by modern-day standards. Mercury and lead were probably in quite a few food substances and they are lethal too. We know that now, don't think they did back then!
32,074 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 13 19
Hi there! I'm glad I found this thread. :)
This year, my story is called A Murder in Nook Farm. I work at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT, and Nook Farm was his neighborhood. :) He had lots of famous and wealthy friends there, and one night... someone was murdered! My protagonist is his housekeeper, Katy Leary. She's going to try to figure out who did it!
----------An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency.
- Mark Twain in Eruption
45,146 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 20 49
Another Victorian writer here :)
This one is set in London, late 1888. I''ve been a fan of the era for a long time and have a long-running RPG set in this time period so I have a lot of historical research to pull out of my head, as well as quite a few London newspapers from various months in 1888. I swear I was born in the wrong era .
----------~Peach.ST in Montana
0 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 22 48
I am writing a historical fiction that begins to take place in the year 1895. It was a really, really crazy time in the world, and human rights and eugenics were all over the table. Steam-energy was just becoming the most viable form of mobile power and the world's fashion had just taken a turn from classical to modern.
In all of it, a young woman's father is abducted late one night. When she goes to find him, she discovers a crazed scientist and becomes involved in his plot to overthrow Europe's leaders and destroy the brand new modern society emerging from the Belle Epoch.
This will be the first of an ongoing series, that I will finish as graphic novels.
I am excited for all of these great concepts. I love the Victorian era. :)
Cheers!
-----------M
15,000 / 50,000
Okt 23, 2009 - 05 55
Every year I start writing a Historical Victorian lit novel but get stuck 1/2 way through. Does this happen to anyone else? If any one if looking for writting buddies, let me know!
----------"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at stars" -Osacar Wilde.
www.mandymaria.blogspot.com
15,000 / 50,000
Okt 23, 2009 - 07 41
OOOOH! My story takes place in Philadelphia too, although its more of an adventure with minor romantic elements!
----------"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at stars" -Osacar Wilde.
www.mandymaria.blogspot.com