Or how a Connecticut
seagull and a famous boy wizard contributed to the cover story of A Fair Prospect, a trilogy inspired by
Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
That grabs my attention, how about you? As Mr. Bennet would say, 'read on' and you will discover the delightful and diverting story of Cassandra Grafton and the aforementioned contribution to her trilogy. Ms. Grafton is generously giving away 2 books and I will tell you more about that at the end of this post! Now without further distraction, please "Read on!"
I am so grateful to you, Janet, for hosting me on More Agreeably Engaged and guiding me through my first ever Blog post! One thing I have learned in the last few months is that there is so much more to publishing than just the creative process of writing, and when you offered me the opportunity to do a post here, I wanted to give your readers something special - the behind the scenes story of how the covers of these books came about - and here it is!
~o0o~
Do
you believe in legend or hearsay about things that bring you luck? If you find
a penny, do you pick it up? Do you salute a magpie if you see one flying by or
search desperately for a four-leaf clover in a patch of grass? (I won’t get
into the ‘black cat crossing your path’ one. An American friend of mine thought
I was being wittily ironic in naming our black cat Lucky until I confessed
that, here in the UK, black cats are considered precisely that).
Well,
I have no luck when it comes to winning things. I’ve played the National
Lottery, entered charity raffles and numerous competitions, and my number just
never comes up. My husband is the same;
we have come to find it rather amusing and console ourselves by reminding each
other that our luck comes in different ways, and the summer of 2001 was an
instance of when it certainly did.
At
the time, we were living in a coastal town in Connecticut. For many local families,
most weekends in summer were spent at the beach, and we were no exception. One
day, I had forgotten to take a book with me, although I did have a small local
newspaper to read. My husband and son were soon off enjoying the water, so I
settled into my beach chair, burrowed my toes into the warm, soft sand and
opened the paper, ready to indulge in some neighbourhood news – until precisely
two seconds later, when a passing seagull deposited its plentiful load on said
paper which I threw hastily to the ground. I knew, however, the old adage that being
pooped on by a bird brings good luck, so I had to hope that something good was
coming my way.
With
the paper disposed of, I turned to the only other reading material we had
brought along – a book that had caught my eye earlier that day in the local
bookstore and had purchased for my son (then 13) to try and encourage him to
read more. I picked up the copy of Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, from where it had been happily discarded
in favour of splashing around in Long Island Sound, without much expectation of
being entertained by it – how wrong can one be?
Little
did I know at the time, but JK Rowling had only released four of the seven
Harry Potter books, all of which I had consumed by the end of the following
week. I was hooked, and like many fans of the books, I was desperate for more.
Failing to find anything on the shelves of the local bookstores, I turned to
the Internet, where I discovered I was one of millions now longing for Book Five.
I
had never heard the term ‘fan fiction’ before then, but in my searches of the
Web, I soon stumbled upon websites and forums where growing communities of Harry
Potter fans were all huddled together, in for the long wait and, in the
meantime, indulging their fantasies as to where the story might go next by
writing their own tales. I was hooked
again!
As
any reader of fan fiction knows, whatever the genre, the quantity may be
overwhelming but the quality can be variable. After a few months, I stumbled
across a small website called The Hidden
Tower. Unlike many of those I had found previously, the community was very
small and the authors posting stories numbered only two, both of whom were
excellent writers. With delight, I had found my new home on the Web! I lurked for a while, then tentatively joined
the small group of members, soon forming a close bond with one of them.
Before
long, Adrea and I began to co-write Harry Potter-inspired short stories
ourselves, and the webmistresses at The
Hidden Tower very generously offered to host them. Fan fiction is, of
course, the path not travelled, the
story not told by the original author, so as well as writing a few stories
about how Harry fell in love with Ginny Weasley (yes, that was our ship!), we
also ventured into comedy, writing a short story about the 14-year-old Harry’s mishaps with a bra he
had accidentally acquired and another (after the aforementioned Book Five had
been published) from the viewpoint of several owls (inspired by Chapter Two of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
– A Peck of Owls).
If
you have stayed with me so far, you can see how the seagull is connected to the
boy wizard – but perhaps not how that leads to Jane Austen.
Well,
something else that Adrea and I discovered along the way was that we shared a
love of Jane Austen and, in particular, Pride
& Prejudice. We became involved in a forum related to both after the
2005 film release where the talented community soon began to pour out its love
for Jane Austen’s story in various art forms: paintings and drawings, sewing
and craft-making, photo collages and videos and, of course, fan fiction.
Inspired, we both began writing again, sometimes together, sometimes on our
own, and eventually I decided to take the plunge and attempt a full-length
story.
“Full
length” began to take on a whole new meaning as the story came into being, as A Fair Prospect (four years in the writing
and half that time again in editing) amounted to a rather onerous 300,000.
I
decided that, if the story was going to be published, it needed to be divided
into three volumes of more manageable size. I also wanted to find a way to
include Adrea in this new adventure. She was, after all, as well as having become
one of my best friends, the person who helped me to finally complete my first writing
projects back in our Harry Potter days (before which I had many years’ worth of
boxes full of incomplete ones) and therefore set the ball rolling for me.
Adrea
and her mom, Diane, are both talented artists, producing beautiful drawings in
pen and ink and watercolour (including the gorgeous The Twelve Days of Christmas, which is a lovely keepsake book if
anyone is into doing their Christmas shopping particularly early this year!).
It seemed the logical thing to ask them if they would be able to produce something
for the covers, and I was delighted when they agreed. The added benefit was
that Adrea had followed the story as it was written and, therefore, settling on
a key scene between us for each cover was fairly straightforward, heavily
influenced by its location.
In Disappointed Hopes, the first proposal
takes place in the grounds of Rosings Park in Kent in inclement weather. You
see, I had never forgotten the outdoor proposal in the 2005 film, at the end of
which Darcy is seen walking away as the rain continues to pour. I just couldn’t
accept that he would leave Elizabeth there, soaking wet and alone, so I began
to think about “what if he came back to
take her home? What might happen, and what might be the on-going effects of this?”
Having
visited Groombridge Place, also in Kent, in recent years (a private manor house
with traditional gardens that are open to the public), I knew exactly where I
wanted that scene to be set.
Groombridge
has extensive formal gardens which were planted and laid out in the form of
‘outdoor rooms’ in the 17th century by Philip Packer, who had
inherited the property, and his diarist and horticulturist friend, John Evelyn.
One of these ‘rooms’ is called The Secret Garden (said to be Philip Packer’s
favourite of them all, where he allegedly passed away peacefully whilst reading
a book – one has to wonder which book, but as his demise was said to be
peaceful, one can assume it wasn’t the story or the tome itself that was the
cause!)
The
secluded Secret Garden is a shady hideaway, and the photo shows the sheltered
path that leads to it. From that photo came the artwork for the background, and
then the figures were drawn in pen and ink and added. This was passed to the
talented Rebecca Young, who offers a cover design service, and resulted in the
finished product.
When
it came to the second volume, Darcy’s
Dilemma, I recalled a colour plate that I had come across whilst doing some
research. I had been writing a scene set in Vauxhall Gardens in London and
found a plate that had been engraved for the New Universal Magazine in 1752,
depicting a view of the Grand Walk.
Vauxhall
Gardens were pleasure grounds in London where people would go to promenade, see
and be seen, partake of refreshment and enjoy musical concerts and so on. They
were in use for two centuries, the height of their popularity being the mid-17th
century, and one of the main attractions was that it was a place where young
men and women could meet freely without many of the constraints that normally
attend the often delicate process of socialising in a public domain. The Grand
Walk was particularly popular for strolling.
Adrea
and Diane again produced a delightful interpretation of this, which Rebecca
turned it into a lovely cover for the second volume.
As
for Volume III, Desperate Measures –
well, it’s coming soon, and here’s a sneak peak of the gorgeous artwork!
So,
Mr Seagull, thank you for bringing me good fortune. Without you, I might never
have found my dear friend Adrea, might never have finished a story and
certainly would never have been in possession of such beautiful and original book
covers!
~o0o~
Volume
II, Darcy’s Dilemma, is available in
the Kindle store and at Smashwords.com (all other eBook formats). It will be
available in paperback and at Nook, Kobo etc during the next week.
Volume I has been available since March, and below is the description of the newly released Volume II.
Thrown
together by circumstance in London, and with his friend, Bingley, in hot
pursuit of the eldest Miss Bennet, Darcy finds his best endeavours to relieve
Elizabeth of his unwelcome presence come to naught. As the encounters continue,
they seem to be developing a better appreciation of each other, but is there
any future for them in the face of their previous misunderstandings, and what
of Harington, the man who is deemed a fair prospect for Elizabeth’s hand?
As
further evidence arises of a bond existing between the couple, Darcy faces a
dilemma: should he remain in Town, or should he make himself scarce? Which
decision will lead to the least heartache: to never lay eyes upon Elizabeth
again or to watch the woman he loves being courted and wed by another?
Personal links for Cassandra Grafton
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Included below, at Ms. Grafton's request, is a bit more about the talented artists for her covers of A Fair Prospect, the three volumes.
Diane and Adrea are mother & daughter artists with very different styles. They have always found that blending their artistic concentrations is their best form of communications. The Twelve Days of Christmas was done as a 'conversation' in which one drawing leads to the next - one artist leading lines off the page which the other had to follow and blend with their page.
The Twelve Days of Christmas is available on Amazon
Ms. Grafton, it has been a privilege to have you as my guest today. Thank you for taking the time to share your story. I enjoyed it and I feel sure the readers have too. I loved the pictures that were the basis for each of your covers. Having your covers designed around places you have visited and loved (and by good friends) makes them all the more unique and gives them sentimental value too. I like that.
I offer a very special 'thank you' to Cassandra Grafton for her generous giveaway of two books, winner's choice of A Fair Prospect: Disappointed Hopes, (Volume I) or A Fair Prospect: Darcy's Dilemma, (Volume II) This giveaway is international. Winners, you may choose your title and whether you want it in a paperback or an ebook. To be entered please leave a comment below. Be sure to include your email address in the comment. To prevent unwanted spam, put your email address with an (at) instead of @. Winner will be chosen in a random drawing. Giveaway ends at midnight, April 20. Good luck.
When I started to look for artwork for When They Fall in Love, I
wanted something to reflect the story’s setting: Florence, Italy. I spent hours
at WikiCommons looking for royalty-free artwork, and I finally decided on
Claude Lorrain’s Pastoral with Shepherds
for the front cover and his Repudiation
of Hagar for the back cover. I didn’t have to do much with the front cover,
other than fluff up the big tree on the left, but for the back cover, I had to
get rid of the temple and the people as the scene had obviously not taken place
in Renaissance Italy. After cropping the picture and working with the
transparency, voila! I had my cover. Here’s a summary of what the novel is
about:
