This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
I don't write many older characters. I suppose age - as with most things - is relative in fiction. When I began writing The Watcher's Heir (my will-be-finished-one-day high fantasy epic), I was still at school and my hero began the story aged 25, an age I could not imagine ever reaching but an age I thought would still be considered young by many. If I ever manage to finish and edit that story, I'll be extending his - and a few others' - age!
Having grown older, I've realised the advantages and the benefits of age. Of course, it's a bit of a disappointment that I'm never asked for ID in the shop anymore, or that people assume I'm my younger sisters' mother(!). But, on the whole, the pros have far outweighed the cons. The biggest con in terms of writing, is that it's difficult not to put an old head on young shoulders. Looking through books - both my own and those written by other people - it is clear just how easy it is to slip into the "old mentor" trope. Don't get me wrong, I love the sagely figure, but they are occasionally a bit of a catch-all for saving the day! In a fantasy setting you can just about get away with it, but in non-speculative fiction it is far trickier to justify.
So today, I'd like to introduce you to a sample of my characters who have a few more years behind them:
- Josiah Tenterchilt (Day's Dying Glory) - Major in the British Army, also habitual gambler and alcoholic. Never one to exhibit anything less than what he believes is befitting of an army officer, Major Tenterchilt's entire world is torn apart when his wife dies. While the book is primarily his three daughters' story, he is nonetheless the character whose plotline underpins the entire book. He also crops up in Beneath Black Clouds and White as a younger man, but he was first imagined for this (my first) book.
- Mother Eloise (The Year We Lived) - Abbess of Saint Anne's. Having been raised amongst the wealth of a noble family in Burgundy, the move to a rural convent in Yorkshire plucked Eloise far from the hopes and dreams of her youth. She is devoted to God, but cannot resist the opportunity to play courtly games with the convent's guests. Ultimately, it is her cunning skill with words which are pivotal to the plot, but she has a far greater legacy to fulfil shortly before the book's conclusion.
- Mr Gow (Caledon) - A farmer in Tongue. In his own words: "Nothing happens by chance to the Clan of Caledon". Mr Gow is a bridge between the clan's sixth and seventh incarnation. He knows enough through stories to point the new clan towards clues, but cannot help them towards their new goal. All the same, as the series progresses he is able to share his limited knowledge with Clansman William, guiding him towards a better understanding of his place within both the group and the country.
- Jonathan Peters (Beneath Black Clouds and White) - Surgeon in the British Army. While Captain Peters is the mentor to the book's hero, Fotherby, he is far from a save-the-day type character. He is embittered, disinterested, and scathing. But, for all that, he sees his successor in Fotherby and, in his own way, paves the way for the younger man to take over more than just the surgeon's tent.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, because today marks my 40th birthday, when life supposedly begins, and I'm feeling a little bit old. I started off by writing a very different blog, all about me and my hopes and aims for my next 40 years, but I thought my characters had a better story to tell. If you feel so inclined, please make my birthday extra-special and pick up one of my books - that way I get to feel accomplished and you get a new adventure. Everyone's a winner!
Happy Reading!
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