Day Out

Recently, I wrote about The Coach and Horses in Rickmansworth. A friend, who is a novelist, wants to see it so we are meeting there  this morning. Afterwards, we might visit the local museum and then have lunch. We also intend visiting the charity shops. One of them has a huge selection of out of print books from which I might find one or more to add to my non fiction collection of history books.

Extract from Far Beyond Rubies

"Gervaise drew closer to the pavilion with the intention of announcing his presence.

Feet pattered within. A young woman peered through an open window. Her pale oval face looked troubled, and her coal black hair was slightly disordered.

For a moment Gervaise could not speak. The sight of her drew him back to India. Her form changed to one he knew intimately – yet not in this lifetime. He recognised the mark of a crescent moon on her right cheekbone, and sensed the love they once shared. A tremor ran through him. Never before had he thought the Hindu belief in reincarnation was worthy of serious consideration. Yet, in spite of the teachings of the Anglican church, what if -"

Far Beyond Rubies

 

Far Beyond Rubies

Chapter One

1706

 “Bastards, Juliana! You and your sister are bastards.”

Aghast, Juliana stared at William, her older half-brother, although, not for a moment did she believe his shocking allegation. 

It hurt her to confront William without their father at her side. At the beginning of April, she and Father were as comfortable as ever in his London house. Now, a month later, upon her return to her childhood home, Riverside House, set amongst the rolling landscape of Hertfordshire, his body already lay entombed in the family crypt next to her mother’s remains. Would there ever be a day when she did not mourn him? A day when she did not weep over his loss?

 

Far Beyond Rubies is available as a paper back and an e-book from:

 

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/2

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

And elsewhere

 

 

 

Competition. Win a paperback copy of Far Beyond Rubies.

Today to celebrate the publication of the paperback of Far Beyond Rubies I am offering the first and last entrants a copy of the novel.

To enter answer the following questions, the answers to which are at www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com

Q. In which year is Far Beyond Rubies set?

Q. To which country is Gervaise drawn when he first sees Juliana?

Q. What do Gervaise and Juliana want to prove?

Q. What are the titles of Rosemary Morris's other published novels?

Send the answers to: rosemarymorris@hotmail.co.uk  and include your name. Subject. Competition. Far Beyond Rubies

Competition ends on Saturday, 2nd November.

Prize Winners announced on Sunday, 3rd November

The prize winners will be notified by e-mail

Digital Camera

A novelist's life is always busy and never dull. There's never time to do everything. I would like to lock myself away in an attic, press a magic button to have food and drink supplied, and write all the hours of the day and most of the night. Ahem. Back to reality. I've decided that I really must learn how to use a digital camera and upload photos. It can't be that hard. So I went to town today and bought a digital camera. (I also treated myself to a pair of very pretty amber earrings.)

Under the Weather

I woke in agony on Saturday night and thought I was having a heart attack, but realised the pain was too low down. I spent a very uncomfortable weekend on a liquid diet including yoghurt drinks - yoghurt's so good for the stomach - and am still too wobbly to do much although I am sticking to a light diet. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and, hopefully, I can catch up and do all the things I should have done over the weekend. Illness is such a waste of time!

Poetry and School

Proud grandmother today. It was the parents teachers meeting at my grandson's school. He had been asked to read one of his poems to the entire school at assembly. One of the lines read: The lead in a child's pencil is the road to imagination. He is doing really well in all subjects but he received the award for being the best reader and speller in Year Four.

Indian Costume Jewellery

I bought a beautiful matching set comprising a necklace, earrings and a ring as well as eight bangles to wear at a special event at the Festival of Romance, where I shall wear a sari. The fancy dress is appropriate for the theme of my novel Far Beyond Rubies.

Fancy Dress for Festival of Romance

The hero of my novel, Far Beyond Rubies, set in England in 1706, has strong links with India, so I shall wear a sari for a special event at the Festival of Romance.

Today, my daughter and I are off to Southall to buy some appropriate artificial jewellery to wear with it - great fun!

Flash Fiction

Yesterday evening Watford Writers, the writers group which I have joined, invited members to write a 250-300 word flash fiction on the subject of Dreams. Although I did not have time to enter, the variety of interpretations of the subject was interesting. A new writer, who has enrolled on a writing course won. My favourite was about a little boy with high hopes of finding treasure with his metal detector.

Weather and Writing Fiction

Yesterday a flash of lightning visible through the venetian blinds in my bedroom woke me. A clap of thunder sounded. It was so loud that it frightened my 12 year old grandson so much that he fell out of bed. It also startled me. Torrential rain followed the thunderstorm. Later the sun shone. I thought my newly planted winter cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli would have been flattened, but no, amazingly they were still upright. By then the day was mild so I worked in the front garden. Later, the sky darkened and more torrential rain fell.

The contrasts in the weather throughout the day would make an excellent backdrop for a day in a novel but not in the clichéd style of: "It was a dark and windy night..."

Far Beyond Rubies

Far Beyond Rubies by Rosemary Morris

 

Set in 1706 in England during Queen Anne Stuart’s reign, Far Beyond Rubies begins when William, Baron Kemp, Juliana’s half-brother, claims she and her young sister, Henrietta, are bastards. Spirited Juliana is determined to prove the allegation is false, and that she is the rightful heiress to Riverside, a great estate.

On his way to deliver a letter to William, Gervaise Seymour sees Juliana for the first time in the grounds of her family home. The sight of her draws him back to India. When “her form changed to one he knew intimately—but not in this lifetime,” Gervaise knows he would do everything in his power to protect her.

 Although Juliana and Gervaise are attracted to each other, they have not been formally introduced and assume they will never meet again. However, when Juliana flees from home, and is on her way to London, she encounters quixotic Gervaise at an inn. Circumstances force Juliana to accept his kind help. After Juliana’s life becomes irrevocably tangled with his, she discovers all is not as it seems. Yet, she cannot believe ill of him for, despite his exotic background, he behaves with scrupulous propriety, while trying to help her find evidence to prove she and her sister are legitimate

 

Available now as an e-book from https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/2, amazon.co.uk,amazon.com and elsewhere.

 

Available as a paperback on 30th October, 2013  from MuseItUp publishing.

 

Writing and Gardening

After I blogged and checked my e-mails yesterday, I completed my goal, which was to write 2,000 words of my new novel, Monday's Child. (The heroine is the younger sister of the main character in Sunday's Child published  by MuseItUp Publishing.) I had finished Chapter Nine so I e-mailed it to a friend, another historical novelist, for her opinion.

I could sit happily at the laptop or computer writing all day, but that would result in all sorts of aches and pains. So, on most days I work for four hours in the morning and four hours in the late afternoon or early evening. The time is flexible, but I try to write and deal with writerly matters for two four hour sessions every day.

Yesterday was a mellow autumn day, so I worked in the garden. I tidied up the narrow flower bed on the right of the path leading to the front door and planted frilly rose-pink and peach coloured tulip bulbs in bare patches. I did some more weeding, replanted some broad bean seeds which recent rain had brought to the surface, and then planted out some purple sprouting broccoli. It's late in the year to plant it, but I bought a tray of plug plants in a sale at a garden centre for a pound. If they don't thrive I won't have lost much.

All in all an enjoyable morning.

Far Beyond Rubies

Four of my novels are available as online publications (e-books) but I am now pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my novel Far Beyond Rubies as a paperback.

It can be pre-ordered through the following link.

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/now-available-in-ebook/far-beyond-rubies-652-detail

School Assembly & New Novel

This morning I attended assembly at my 9 year-old grandson's school to watch his class perform a play about Moses. Every child had a line or more to say, and they obviously enjoyed the production. Afterwards I returned home and caught up with the housework and laundry. First thing tomorrow morning I hope to write another 2,000 words of my new Regency Novel, the sequel to Sunday's Child.

' Zoe & The Ancient Egyptians ' 16/10/2013 18:00:38

My 8 year-old granddaughter, Zoe, is studying the ancient Egyptians at school. When her parents went with her eldest brother to watch her younger brother perform in Macbeth at Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth, I looked after her. She had taken books from the library, copied pictures onto the computer and added several pages of text. "Would I like to see her project?" she asked, and smiled enchantingly. My dainty, curly haired granddaughter then spared me no details of mummification. I have and extremely weak stomach. At the end of her gruesome presentation with extra verbal comments she said: "I'm hungry, grandma, time to have dinner." Dinner! My stomach heaved. Food! Would I ever be able to eat again. I deserve a medal for grandmotherly love.

Kenya

Unlike Elspeth Huxley, whose book Flame Trees of Thika I posted about yesterday, while I lived in Kenya from 1962 to 1982 I never felt entirely at ease. However, I do have some outstanding memories.

On a visit to the Nairobi National Park in 1968, a lion,  ahead of our car, plodded along the red dirt track. On either side stretched grassland interspersed with thorn trees, weird sculptures beneath a jacaranda-blue sky from which blazed a brazen sun. Not once did the king of beasts look back at our car. Totally at ease he ignored the herds of deer, wildebeest zebras and deer, and the giraffes and ostriches took no notice of him. At a leisurely pace he reached his destination, a flat-topped rock overlooking the grassland on which his  harem and his cubs had settled.

As my husband drove away I hoped the lions would enjoy long lives protected from hunters.

Memory of Kenya

Unlike Elspeth Huxley, whose book The Flame Trees of Thika, which I wrote about yesterday, I do not return to Kenya frequently. I was never entirely at ease during the 22 years I lived there and prefer living in England.  However I do have some wonderful memories.

On one occasion, when we visited the Nairobi National Park a lion sauntered in front of our car along the narrow, road which was not tarmacked. On either side of the road, the rich red of African soil, was scrubland interspersed here and there with thorn trees like weird sculptures.

Not once did the lion look back, not a breeze ruffled his splendid mane and the sun beating down from a Madonna-blue sky disturbed us but not the king of all he surveyed. Belly full, he ignored the giraffes, z

Flame Trees of Thika

I lived in Kenya from 1961 to 1982. During my years there I visited Thika. When I first went to Kenya I had not heard of Elspeth Huxley's non-fiction book, The Flame Trees of Thika, Memories of an African Childhood, first published in 1959.

I can't remember when I first read the autobiography, but I do recall finding it very interesting, although Elspeth Huxley's experiences in Kenya were so far removed from mine.

The other day, after I met my friend at The Coach and Horses in Rickmansworth I was delighted to find a secondhand copy of the book in a charity shop.

I've finished reading it with a sense of nostalgia for the beauty of the country.
The Flame Trees of Thika is a fascinating account of Elspeth Huxley's life and that of the first settlers in and around Thika, amongst whom were her parents, Robin and Tilly.

The author breathes life into her descriptions of the African tribesmen and women, their way of life, their beliefs and their attitudes.

I shall search for two of her other books, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, !"A Journey through East Africa",and White Man's Country, "Lord Delamere and the making of Kenya," as well as her novel, Red Strangers, a story of Kenya. 

Rosehipa Jelly

Wet and windy today, so I put the rosehips collected earlier in the year to good use. I boiled 1 kilo of organic rosehips in 1pint of water  and 2 kilos of organic Bramley cooking apples from my garden in the same amount of water. The rosehips and the applies are now in separate jelly bags, to drain the juice from the pulp. Tomorrow, I shall add the finished jelly to my store cupboard.