I’m so jealous of people who can just sit down and write. Back in the day, when I wrote books and reports for business, I could churn out words faster than most, but not a lot of imagination was required. Writing fiction, I find much harder work.
These blog posts fall somewhere between the two. They’re not as mechanical as much business prose but, although I am sometimes reminded that people will judge me on the quality of my writing, I’m not as worried about style as I am in my novels. Even so, they take a little while to write, especially if they have any historical information in them because I’ve learned that over the years that is always best to check details rather than rely on memory.
At the moment, I’m working on the next James Burke book, provisionally, if unimaginatively, called Burke and the War of 1812. I’m finding it more than usually challenging. Whilst by now I know enough about the Napoleonic wars not to have to keep checking every detail, the War of 1812 is new territory to me.
Not that long ago, I had no idea what the War of 1812 was. If that’s you too, it was a silly little scrap between Britain and the young United States of America notable, in this country at least, for the British burning down the White House. Most people in Britain tend to overlook it because there were other things going on in Europe at the time: Napoleon invading Russia for one.
Because it was quite a small war, there were few great strategic clashes of armies. Instead there was a fight here, a clash there, a naval engagement somewhere else. Pulling it all together into something that can be made a coherent adventure for one person has proved a challenge. In fact, it has proved impossible, so for much of the time James Burke and his trusty sidekick William Brown are operating independently from each other. This brings its own problems in writing as keeping track of them and having them meet up at crucial moments is not that straightforward. Which is why this week’s post is a short cri de coeur about the struggles of a historical novelist before I dive back into a world of Shawnee warriors, heroic colonials and (sorry American readers) dreadful Yankees.
At the current rate of progress, Burke and the War of 1812 should see the light of day early in 2025.
Featured photo: The Battle of Queenston Heights, 13 October 1812. Library and Archives Canada, 2895485
Tales of Empire is free on Kindle until Saturday 5 October. If you’re reading this after that, you will have to fork out a whole 99p. Here’s why you should grab a copy.
Tales of Empire is a book of four short stories showcasing the work of four very different but uniformly excellent historical fiction writers. (Well, three excellent writers plus me.)
The authors were asked to submit a story set anywhere from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the end of the century. Although they all write conventional historical fiction with no revisionist agenda, all four stories ended up challenging some of the more traditional approaches to Empire.
These are the authors and what they write about.
Antoine Vanner is the author of the Dawlish Chronicles, a series of novels (and the odd short story) about the adventures of Nicholas Dawlish who joins the Royal Navy in the second-half of the 19th century as the Navy is moving from wooden sailing vessels to the modern world of ironclad steamers. The stories show Dawlish developing from a very young man to a seasoned mariner, his own progress mirrored in the development of the ships that he sails in. Vanner is fascinated by the technology of naval warfare and his stories are full of solidly researched detail, but they are adventure stories too with Dawlish caught up in espionage and fighting alongside regular army forces as well as engaging in the sea battles that you would expect of a naval series.
Antoine’s contribution to this collection is a story about the Royal Navy’s attempt to suppress the slave trade and how difficult this could turn out to be in practice.
Jacqueline Reiter is a professional historian whose biography of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, The Late Lord, is the definitive work on his life. The Late Lord is a joy to read and Reiter’s affection for, and understanding of, her subject shines through. A fictional account of a real episode in Pitt’s life is her contribution to this collection.
Penny Hampson writes mysteries set during the Regency. A Gentleman’s Promise is the first book in her Regency Gentlemen Series. She also enjoys writing contemporary mysteries with a hint of the paranormal, because where do ghosts come from but the past?
Her story looks at how social and technological change during the Regency led us from the world of the 18th century to the country we live in today.
Tom Williams (that’s me) writes the James Burke stories about a James Bond figure during the wars with France. The Burke stories have an enthusiastic following but the books he is most proud off are the John Williamson Papers which deal with more serious issues at the height of the Age of Empire. The first, The White Rajah is about the real-life James Brooke who became the absolute ruler of a chunk of Borneo in the mid-19th century. The novel looks at how his idealistic approach to government collided with the realities of the day. The short story is about a fictional tiger hunt that shows the kind of person he was and the effect his style of rule had on those around him. It was written after The White Rajah but it could well have been a chapter in that book. I hope it will encourage you to read the novel.
So there you go: four writers presenting their talents in the hope that you might read more of their work. And free. I do hope you pick up a copy. Here’s a link: mybook.to/TalesofEmpire
Everyone seems to be talking about social media these days, largely because of the controversies about Twitter.
Social media are important to writers like me because they provide an important way to tell people about our books. This blog is a form of social media and I’ve been writing it pretty well once a week for very many years. It used to be hosted on Google’s Blogger and you can find an archive going back to 2011 at thewhiterajah.blogspot.com. It can be frustrating because the number of people reading it varies a lot, not just only depending on what I’m writing about but on the vagaries of Google’s algorithms which sometimes point people to small blogs like mine and then switch to focussing on larger sites. I’m not sure that it actually sells many books, but I quite enjoy writing it so, although I am always threatening to cut down on the amount I post, I’m still here. (Either that or you’re imagining reading this, which is a sort of spooky idea.)
If I write the blog to encourage you to read the books, I then have to encourage you to read the blog. I used to do this mainly through Facebook and I have an author page there at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTomWilliams. I still post there but Facebook is a rotten way to reach people these days. I think its time has passed.
Twitter and its like
After Facebook, of course, came Twitter. I used to hate Twitter but gradually grew to love it. Then came Elon Musk…
Twitter is now problematic. It’s lively and I’ve met some lovely people there, but you have to wade through an awful lot of extreme right-wing nutjobs and cryptocurrency sellers to find them. I’ve got over 2,000 followers there which, even if a lot of them are fembots, is too many to just ignore but I am looking at other possibilities. The problem is that refugees from Twitter have scattered all over the place so there’s no single obvious alternative.
Threadsseems fun. There are interesting conversations and I enjoy visits there while reading my feed on Twitter often leaves me feeling quite depressed. I don’t get a lot of interaction, probably largely because I have only 27 followers. That’s the problem with starting again from scratch and it takes a long time to build things up.
Blueskyseems quieter than Threads and I get even less interaction despite my 74 followers.
Is any of this worth the effort?
The thing is, social media take a lot of time. If you want to build a following you have to post regularly and respond to posts from others. Even if it’s enjoyable, it takes time away from life and, specifically, writing. That’s why I don’t do Instagram and make only occasional weak efforts on TikTok. I have cut down on Twitter a lot lately as, thanks to Mr Musk, it seems likely to die. A lot of the time saved has now been lost to Bluesky and Threads, mainly double (or triple) posting but also responding to stuff (easier on Threads because it has genuinely fun stuff on it and I learn things).
In the end, I have to ask myself if any of it is worth it: using Twitter (or whatever) to drive traffic to my blog to try to drive readers to my books. I do think that cutting off social media depresses book sales but do you know what boosts sales? Writing more books, that’s what. Perhaps I should concentrate on that.
Social media is such a minefield at the moment. What do you think?
It got so hot in London that we have headed off to the hills and are spending a few days in mid-Wales. I’ve posted photos before, but they never really catch it, so I took a couple of short videos and tried to put them on TikTok. I’m not sure they are an improvement to be honest and on the WiFi available here they are painfully slow to upload. Still, the first one is available at Tom Williams (@tomwilliams4777) | TikTok so let me know what you make of it. EDIT: I’ve got the second one up too: https://www.tiktok.com/@tomwilliams4777/video/7398266204302986529
It’s the part of the country that features in Monsters in the Mist so if you want to know what it’s like you could do worse than read that. It’s very different from my historical novels, featuring vampires, secret underground lairs and lots of descriptions of wet days in Wales. It’s the third of my Galbraith & Pole Urban Fantasy series, though you don’t have to have read the first two to enjoy it. It’s just £3.99 on Kindle.
Anyway, that’s what I’m doing right now. I hope you are enjoying our brief, belated summer.
Another week gone and we finally have summer! Dancing outdoors yesterday and again on Sunday. Best enjoy it while it’s here.
Cutting back on blogging and social media has meant more time for enjoying summer. I’ve been dancing indoors and out and was able to skate from Hyde Park to Greenwich last weekend. I even got to meet a friend for a visit to the British Museum on Wednesday. OK, spending the afternoon in windowless rooms was not a particularly summery thing to but we went to see the mummies in the Egyptian galleries for the first time in years. They’re still amazing!
Skaters at Greenwich. (Yes, I’m in there somewhere.)
I’ve also been able to spend more time reading for pleasure – hence the book reviews that I’ve posted here for the last couple of weeks. I hope you’ve enjoyed them and that it may have persuaded some of you to take a look at the books I reviewed. (Click book covers to link to reviews.)
Cutting back on blogging may have reduced my sales a bit but at least it has given me more time to do some writing of my own. I’m still working my way through a first draft of the next James Burke story, which sees him in North America during the War of 1812. It’s a whole New World for me (see what I did there?) and I’m finding it quite hard work. I’m having fun reading myself into the place and period, though.
I hope you’re not missing my posts too much. You shouldn’t be – there’s a whole summer out there for you to enjoy. And I’m still here. If there’s anything you’d like me to write about, or if you have something of your own you would like to share on this blog, get in touch.
There was no blog post last week as I was away in Cambridge so I’m sticking with the idea of short posts with pictures and a bit more about daily life. It means that I get fewer views on my blog but people who do read it seem to like it.
Most of the colleges are closed to the public at this time of year, although we did visit Kings and the chapel there is every bit as amazing as people say.
Although the fan vaulting is what makes the building unique, the amazing 16th century stained glass (which somehow survived Cromwell’s Commissioners) is also special. Those tall windows with their elaborate pictures reminded me of the Sainte Chapelle chapel which I saw on my recent trip following Burke’s adventures in Paris. In fact, King’s College chapel was very influenced by the French royal chapel.
Christ tempted by Satan in one of the windows.
With the colleges closed, we spent a lot of our time in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Founded in 1816, the collection has a lot of Georgian and early 19th century material which is particularly interesting to me, partly because of the stories I’ve written set in this period and partly because of the amount of time I’m spending in Marble Hill House these days. Near the entrance of the Fitzwilliam is this statue of George II who paid for much of Marble Hill.
George II wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and I think the statue catches that.
There’s a lot of 18th-century embroidered upholstery in the museum which, again, caught my eye because of the embroidery in Marble Hill House. You can see an example of embroidered upholstery in the photo below.
I’m interested in who did this embroidering. It seems that they were made by Georgian women with too much time on their hands. They couldn’t be seen doing anything as vulgar as a job, so they really did have a lot of time to fill. You could buy pre-drawn embroidery patterns to stitch, just as you can now, or you could draw your own.
Modern Embroidery Kit
There’s a lot of embroidered upholstery in the Fitzwilliam, which had me wondering if some, at least, were stitched by women for whom it wasn’t a hobby, but a job. I looked for any indication of the people who have produced this work but, presumably because they were mere women, none of them seem to have been credited with their creations.
Henrietta Howard, whose home Marble Hill was, was a great collector of chinoiserie, wildly fashionable in the 18th century. There’s a lot of it in the Fitzwilliam.
Perhaps Lady Suffolk’s enthusiasm for fine china was a reaction against the English earthenware that she must have grown up with. There’s a lot of that in the Fitzwilliam too.
One final exhibit very tenuously linked to Henrietta and then I’ll shut up.
This sculpture is supposed to represent a woman epitomising Reason. (It’s next to a much racier lady representing Love.) Notice the hand touching the face. It’s supposed to imply scholarly or poetic thoughts.
Art historians would have you believe this trope was established in the 17th century, well before this painting of Henrietta Howard was commissioned by Alexander Pope.
My wife, who is not an art historian but likes to check these ‘well-known facts’, looked at over 2,000 portraits in the National Portrait Gallery and found that this ‘hand-to-face’ pose was very rare in the 17th century. It seems to have taken off with Pope who not only commissioned this portrait of Henrietta but had multiple portraits made of himself, many of them in this ‘scholarly’ pose. By 1832, when the sculpture was made, this was a recognised bit of symbolism but it seems likely that Henrietta was the first woman to be shown like this.
So all the way to Cambridge, just to be reminded of our local stately home. It was a fun and interesting trip anyway. I hope you like the pictures.
