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#HistFicThursdays - The Dream Collector: Sabrine and Vincent van Gogh - R. W. Meek - Book Excerpt

     Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am delighted to be sharing a book excerpt from  R. W. Meek 's fabulous new book! I'm once again teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to share a sample of the  The Dream Collector: Sabrine and Vincent van Gogh ! First of all, let's meet the book... Sabrine, hospitalized for five years at the infamous Salpêtrière Asylum for Women, gains her release due to intervention of her sister Julie Forette and a young Sigmund Freud. The reunited sisters are introduced to the dazzling art milieu of 1886 Paris, and soon become close friends to the leading Impressionists. Sabrine attracts a cult following as a poetess, the enigmatic "Haiku Princess." Seemingly cured by Freud of her Grand Hysteria, Sabrine soon enters into a tumultuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. Julie and Sigmund Freud, alarmed by the eerie parallels between the emotionally volatile couple and their self-destructive impulses, begin an urgent search to discover the
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#HistFicThursdays - Things to Inspire - Maps

 For NaNoWriMo last year, I wrote a book called The Stonemason's Crown. This was in part inspired by a discovery I made whilst poring over a map. It was not an old map, but a map of old things using LiDAR technology. For Christmas, my sister got me a copy of that map, printed on metal and zoomed in on the very spot where my story was set.

Maps give an amazing insight. Not only do they point out landmarks which are sometimes long gone and forgotten, they also show how people reacted with - and believed in - the world where they lived. Where would our imaginations be without etched sea serpents, or "Here Be Dragons" on the edges of these documents? Time was I would only read books which had a map in them. I've got a little bit more accepting now, but I still get a real buzz as a reader to find a beautiful map tucked into the opening pages of a book.

My dad loves maps. Consequently, I have always found them fascinating. He has quite a collection, some which are hundreds of years old, including a (somewhat sooted up!) 17th Century map of part of the country which is in need of a deep clean before anything can be properly made out. But what a great spark for the imagination, wondering who would have had it made and for what purpose. It is the human side of the past which speaks to historical fiction writers and readers, and there are dozens of stories to every point on every map.

Because much of what I write is now set in the real world, I have to admit to largely overlooking the need for maps, but maybe it is time to hand-draw one and see if I can include it in one of my books. Perhaps, if The Stonemason's Crown is ever published, there will be one in there...

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