Monday, September 24, 2012

To carry on or not...? Guest Charlie Cochrane plus Giveaway!


 Writing series is great.  You build up a regular readership, each new book gives an impetus to the whole run of stories, and you can do some neat promo things like writing "missing scenes" or little freebies which reward stalwart fans and provide a way to draw in new readers.

But...

You run some risks with a long sequence of books. Will people, even the most ardent fans, lose interest, or feel that the series has "jumped the shark"? How can you maintain interest with a constant(ish) cast of characters? In the case of romantic mysteries, how many tropes can you work through and still make the story a fresh and interesting category romance? At least the mystery element is easier to contend with. There's always a new murder to solve and a novel twist to be brought out, so detective series have traditionally had good staying power.

One of the things I've done with the Cambridge Fellows series is to take some major risks. In book eight I had three (count 'em!) popular secondary characters die, so in book 9 some of the other minor players have grown into the old ones' roles. This gives a new slant to the "helpers of the heroes" bit and makes this book different to all the preceding ones (which is what you want of any book in a sequence). The death of favourite characters also adds a new dimension to the emotional aspects of the books. (I've still not got over the death of Barrett Bonden in the Aubrey/Maturin series.)

I've also tried to use the series to discover what goes on after the “Happy Ever After” moment. Boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back...and then what? There's still plenty to explore, even in a relationship that goes on for years. The arrival of an old flame (or a wannabe flame), forced separation, illness, stress, past events coming back to haunt us - these, and others, are things which even the most enduring relationship may have to face. I've included at least one of these hiccups in each of the Cambridge books, giving the lads an emotional problem to solve alongside the mystery - an emotional problem which often mirrors in some way the murder or puzzle they're attempting to solve. (And it's been a lesson to me to discover that the brilliant, original plot twists I've come up with in terms of the romance are in fact long standing tropes which have already been used since time immemorial. It was ever thus...)

There is one definite advantage, however, of writing gay romance in an Edwardian or just post WWI setting; you don't have to go far to find tension and new threats. Homosexuality was illegal and what we'd call homophobic feeling had been stirred up by the Oscar Wilde trial at the end of the nineteenth century and the terrible Pemberton-Billing case during the war. (Gay and lesbian traitors purportedly around every corner.) My two lovers/detectives, Orlando and Jonty can fairly easily hide their relationship in plain sight, within the confines of a Cambridge college, so long as they're discrete. But outside those walls they have to keep their true nature hidden and are always going to be potential victims of blackmail.

Talking of which, I've found that having a Moriarty type baddy (Owens, from a rival college) has also been a good way of keeping up originality. There's always some new dastardliness for him to get up to!

Lessons for Survivors

Cambridge, September 1919

Orlando Coppersmith should be happy. WWI is almost a year in the past, he’s back at St. Bride’s College in Cambridge, he has his lover and best friend Jonty Stewart back at his side and—to top it all—he’s about to be made Forsterian Professor of Applied Mathematics.

With his inaugural lecture to give and a plagiarism case to adjudicate on, Orlando’s hands are full, so can he and Jonty afford to take on an investigative commission surrounding a suspected murder? Especially one which must be solved within a month so that a clergyman can claim what he says is his rightful inheritance?

The answer looks like being a resounding “no” when the lecture proves almost impossible to write, the plagiarism case gets turned back on him and Jonty (spiced with a hint of blackmail), and the case surrounding Peter Biggar’s death proves to have too many leads and too little evidence.

Orlando begins to doubt their ability to solve cases any more, and his mood isn’t improved when there seems to be no way of outsmarting the blackmailer. Will this be the first failure for Coppersmith and Stewart? And how will they maintain their reputations—professional, private and as amateur detectives?

Enjoy an excerpt from Lessons for Survivors:

“Stand still.”

“I am standing still.”

“You aren’t. You’re jiggling about like a cat after a pigeon.” Jonty Stewart made a final adjustment to Orlando Coppersmith’s tie, then stood back to admire his efforts. “I think that’s passable.”

“You should wear your glasses; then you wouldn’t have to go back so far. You can’t use that old excuse about your arms getting shorter so you have to hold the paper further away.” Orlando turned to the mirror, the better to appreciate the perfectly tied knot. “Faultless. Thank you.”

The hallway of Forsythia Cottage benefited from the full glare of the morning sun through the windows and fanlight, enough for even the vainest of creatures to check every inch of their appearance in the mirror before they sauntered out onto the Madingley Road. Still, what would the inhabitants of Cambridge say to see either Jonty or Orlando less than immaculate, especially on a day such as this?

“It’s as well you had me here to help, or else you’d have disgraced yourself and St. Bride’s with it.” Jonty smiled, picking at his friend’s jacket. If there were any specks on it, Orlando knew that they were far too small for Jonty to see without his glasses. “I’m so proud of you. Professor Coppersmith. It will have a lovely ring to it.”

Orlando nodded enthusiastically, sending a dark curl springing rebelliously up, a curl that needed to be immediately flattened, although even the Brilliantine employed recognised it was fighting a losing battle. His hair might be distinctly salt and pepper, but he was still handsome, lean but not angular, nor running to fat like some of his contemporaries. He’d turned forty when the Great War still had a year to run so there was a while yet before he hit the half century. Jonty was a year closer to that milestone and was never allowed to forget it. “I won’t believe it until I see the first letter addressed to me by that title.”

“Conceit, thy name is Coppersmith.” Jonty nudged his friend aside and attended to his own tie. Silver threads lay among his own ruddy gold hair, now, and the blue eyes were framed with fine lines. He knew he could still turn a few heads and young women told him he was handsome. If the young women concerned were his nieces…well, that didn’t invalidate their opinions.

Orlando snorted. “Conceit? That’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.” He slicked back his hair again, frowning.

“You seem unusually pensive, even for the new Forsterian Professor of Mathematics.” Jonty stopped his grooming, turned and drew his hand down Orlando’s face, remapping familiar territory. Coppersmith and Stewart. Stewart and Coppersmith. They went together like Holmes and Watson, Hero and Leander, or strawberries and cream. Colleagues, friends, lovers and amateur detectives, they were partners in every aspect of their lives, and neither of them entirely sure whether the detection or the intimacy was the most dangerous part.

“I was just thinking how sad it is that neither your parents nor my grandmother are here today.” Orlando fiddled with his tie pin, only to have his hand slapped away and the offending object straightened once more.

“Leave that alone. I’d only just got it right.” Jonty put a hat into Orlando’s hands—not the one he was going to wear today, but one he could twist nervously to his heart’s content, with no damage done. “Perhaps it’s as well they’re not here for your inaugural lecture. They might have had to put on a magnificent act to cover their boredom. Computable numbers? Hardly the stuff of gripping entertainment.” Jonty smiled, trying to keep his lover’s spirits up. He knew how deeply Orlando still felt the horrible series of losses he’d suffered during the years of the Great War.

So many people he’d been close to, now gone; it had left a gap in his life that Jonty knew even he couldn’t entirely fill. Not that, Orlando swore, he loved Jonty any the less, nor, as Orlando frequently said, was there any less of him to love. The reports of the college veterans’ rugby matches still referred to him as a little ball of muscle and Orlando said he was beautiful beyond the power of words or numbers—even imaginary ones—to describe. Both of which were nice, if perhaps unbiased, compliments. “Thank you for your vote of confidence.” Orlando ruffled his lover’s hair, grinning smugly as Jonty scurried back to the mirror to begin priddying again.

“My pleasure. I’m looking forward to the lecture, of course. I’ve a list of keywords which I’ll tick off as they come. If I get them all, I’ll win five quid off Dr. Panesar.”

“Does he have a list as well? Does everyone?” When they’d first met, Orlando would have been thrown into a panic at such a statement. Now he was older, wiser and alive to Jonty’s attempts to make game of him. “And do I get a cut of the proceeds? I’d write my lecture specifically to help out the highest bidder.”

“That’s the spirit. I’ll start the bidding.” Jonty leaned forward and kissed Orlando, as tenderly as when they’d first been courting. “That’s the deposit. You can guess what constitutes the rest of the payment.” He was pleased when Orlando, visibly happier, returned the kiss; he couldn’t let Orlando succumb to melancholy now. The man might start blubbing through his inauguration.


As  Charlie Cochrane couldn't be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—she writes. Her favourite genre is gay fiction, predominantly historical romances/mysteries. She lives near Romsey but has yet to use that as a setting for her stories, choosing to write about Cambridge, Bath, London and the Channel Islands, all of which are places she knows and loves well. Her ideal day would be a morning walking along a beach, an afternoon spent watching rugby, and a church service in the evening, with her husband and daughters tagging along, naturally.

Charlie's Cambridge Fellows Series, set in Edwardian England, was instrumental in her being named Author of the Year 2009 by the review site Speak Its Name.

She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People and International Thriller Writers Inc, with titles published by Carina, Samhain, MLR, Noble Romance and Cheyenne.

Website www.charliecochrane.co.uk
E-mail  Cochrane.charlie2@googlemail.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/charliecochrane


Charlie has offered a great giveaway for you! Winner's choice of either a print copy of one of her books or a "seductive Dr Coppersmith" t-shirt! Comment to enter. Through Thursday.

30 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks so much for visiting today! Your Cambridge Fellows series is brilliant and I'm thrilled to have you here.

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  2. Yikes. I hadn't heard of Pemberton Billing, but he was a piece of work, wasn't he? Nice to know he was an equal opportunities bigot, with his proposed "Women's parliament" devoted to "domestic matters"...

    I don't know about everyone else, but personally I'm delighted to see the Cambridge Fellows series continue.
    Of course, now I want to see you writing crackfic, with Orlando LITERALLY jumping a shark... *g*

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    1. Pemberton Billing seems to stand for all I find repulsive and reprehensible.

      Thanks for the kind words in re the boys. Feel free to write crackfic. *g*

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  3. Sounds like a wonderful story. I don't mind series as long as each book is a bit different. I think series are fun to read as to see what the author can come up with in the next book.
    Sue B
    katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. I'm a great fan of series myself, for exactly that reason.

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  4. I'm still waiting for my copy of "Lessons for Survivors" and thus refuse to read the excerpt for fear of craving over the rest of the story! :) The chap on the book cover intrigues me too; the coloring is more to Orlando, but his expression is closer to Jonty! Or is it just me... ;D

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    1. I think maybe Jonty and Orlando are growing to look more and more alike? ;)

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  5. I love to read series books but until now haven't written a series. I sold the first book in my Oyster Bay mystery series and am half through the second book. Why did I wait so long? I didn't want to get stale! I enjoyed reading your blog and the ideas you had to keep the series fresh. Thanks for the imput!

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    1. My pleasure, Carlene. I didn't intend to write a series - I just found the lads kept nagging me.

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  6. I could never get tired of the Cambridge Fellows series :)

    rapidess LJ

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  7. Should that be a seductive Professor Coppersmith T-shirt? Or is this a relic from younger days? :)

    I love the series and was so glad to see a new story - and a most excellent story it was too. I waltzed around book nine for a while because the blurb said Orlando was all alone at Cambridge and I wasn't sure I was brave enough to read that. I would have been even less brave if I'd remembered the flu epidemic...

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    1. Very much a relic. We don't want too wrinkly a picture!

      Thanks for the support, toots!

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    2. Just done a draw (helped by random.org) and Mara, you won! Wnat to contact me off list about what you want as a prize (the t-shirt or anything I have in stock from my back list).

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  8. I adore Jonty and Orlando. I first became aware of them through the cover of All Lessons Learned. The chap on the cover of that is so handsome and I thought he looked like one of my fictional characters.
    Long may J&O endure bless em. ��

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    1. He is a lovely chap, and very much along the lines of the beard-grown, scar-hiding Jonty.

      Here's a health to the boys! (I do have an idea for the next book, which takes them back to the more innocent days of 1909...)

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  9. I just finished "Lessons for Survivors" last week -- I behaved myself and didn't peek over the copy editor's shoulder, even though I was at her house while she was editing. Lovely, satisfying story as always, and I thoroughly approve of their latest car!

    I'm sending my first novel around even now, and I only hope I do as well as Charlie has.

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    1. Hear hear to the last bit. Only you want to do even betterm lovey.

      I'm glad you resisted looking - it was so much better post edit!

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  10. I didn't realize Lessons for Survivors was out yet - will be adding it to my shopping list. Congratulations on the release!

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    1. Thanks, Maria. It sort of sneaked out in July - I clearly didn't shout loud enough!

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  11. What a fantastic post! Thanks for your thoughts on series :D

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  12. I'm a great fan of mystery series. There's always a new twist to come across.

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    1. Oh yes. And I always squee when I discover a new one (like the Christopher Fowler books).

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  13. Great post! Thanks for sharing with us!!! Love Jonty and Orlando!!
    Ashley A
    ash_app@hotmail.com

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    1. Thanks, Ashley. Always a pleasure to chat about the lads...

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  14. As a self-confessed addict to this series I had to stop by to give testimony that this book is great. I love the way that Jonty and Orlando's relationship has evolved. I started reading the series because I'm a fan of murder mystery but then I fell in love with the lads and I was lost! The talented Ms. Cochrane has created characters so real that once you know them you can't leave them.
    I'm anxiously waiting for the next book. Hurry up please!!!

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    1. Aw, you are such a star. The next book is on my to-do list. Have to get a Christmas short finished then it will come to the top of the pile!

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  15. Congratulations, Mara! Charlie, thanks again for being such a wonderful guest. I've loved having you visit!

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