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Shadows of the Night
 By TellTale by Lydia Joyce The idea for SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT came from the thought that not every “society marriage” should be condemned as pointless in romance merely because it was undertaken for less-than-romantically-admirable reasons. Romance very often idolizes the heroine who will settle for no less than true love in a marriage, and it discards the social marriage with scorn for its sheer conventionality. There is an unspoken rule that the heroine who does not risk enough for love–however stupidly–does not, in fact, deserve it. There is a place for heroines who look for neither love nor marriage or who are distracted from a conventional relationship by a passionate one, but there is no room for a heroine who enters willingly into a tepid marriage to find happiness with that husband. If she is to be a true heroine, the first husand must die, and the heroine must be awakened by the ardent attentions of her true hero so that she realizes, first, that she really loves this guy better and, second, what good sex really is–not necessarily in that order. There is plenty of room for coercive marriages between antagonists in romance and for arranged marriages between strangers that ignite into passion, but for those who go willingly into socially unspectacular marriages, there is no mercy in Romancedom. I wasn’t going to buy that. If I have a woman who really is heroine material–who is just waiting for the touch of the right man to awaken the depths within her apparently conventional soul–why must she suffer through a dull marriage for five or ten years to give her first husband time to die so the real hero can sweep her off her feet? And if this heroine really does have some true depth to her, why is its revelation entirely dependent upon the sexual vagaries of some jaded rake?
Her assertion of independence from the stereotyped Victorian wife is as violent as the feelings within her, and this reaction, turned against Colin, is the only thing that could have shaken him from his own state of mental torpor. The discovery of controlled pain in turn opens the door to true pleasures for Colin for the first time, and his discovery, though through a different medium, mirrors Fern. Colin and Fern must have more: more sensation, more sensuality, more intimacy, more emotion, more independence and interdependence–more of everything. This demands a negotiation of their relationship that cannot take place in front of prying eyes, and so Colin whisks Fern off to an isolated estate. There, they can explore their new world of pleasure, pain, and power in seclusion. But they are not entirely alone, for the ancient, crumbling manor is haunted by the secrets of Colin’s present and his past, any of which can destroy their fragile, nascent love–and their lives. Colin’s character took longer for me to discover than Fern’s. While Fern suspected and feared the parts of herself that were less than socially acceptable before her marriage, but Colin did not–could not–already have this kind of perspective. First, there are simple, story-related reasons. You can’t have your two main characters as echoes as one another; they must have distinct character arcs. Second, though, Colin’s social position was too powerful to allow him to have those kinds of impulses without giving him the ability to act on them. Fern had very good reasons for not breaking with the very narrow stereotypes of the ideal Victorian wife. If Colin had felt similarly about his own role before his marriage, though, he would have had the freedom to do a great deal about it–and if he had not, it would reflect very poorly on his character, and there would be very little reason for his marriage to cause him to act on impulses he’s been ignoring for years. Therefore, Colin had to really be exactly who he appeared at first. Unlike Fern, he had to have a true awakening, a rousing from a mental somnolence. And Fern had to be a vehicle for this awakening. I really enjoyed choosing the settings for this book. Brighton is rather difficult to make Gothic–it’s a beach resort, after all! But elements of its crowdedness did work surprisingly well, as well as the sheer architectural oddity of the Brighton Pavilion. The choice of the Devon bog wasn’t as much of a shoo-in as it might have been. My first thought was to find the most heavily forested area remaining in England–an island of William the Conqueror’s New Forest or something similar. But that simply didn’t work very well for the story, and after a while, I began thinking of the setting of the Hound of the Baskervilles. That worked much better. I even decided to have a butterfly-obsessed character in explicit homage to the villian of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book, which was a great deal of fun to write. The expected thing would be to have chase through the bog in which the hero would get mired barely escapes, but instead, I decided to use the bog to make the manor house more contained and claustrophobic. The parallel historical “secret” and current story originally had a very different shape–there was originally no historical secret at all. The creation of the mystery was at the request of my editor, who wanted more external plot than I had originally intended to write. Like all the mysteries in my novels, it is not the point of the story. It is, at most, a McGuffin or something for the current emotional story arc to play off of. This is why it takes up so little space in the story–it’s scarcely important to it. In my next story, I’ve gotten away with no secondary story, which I really do prefer when I’m allowed to write it! Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Shadows of the Night! 24 Responses to “Shadows of the Night” |
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What I wanted to show was how the conventionality of a heroine’s marriage–Fern’s marriage–could itself become a kund of psychological catalyst. Because of the very banal nature of the marriage to Colin, Fern realizes that banality is intolerable to her and that she must have more.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I read about this book at Dear Author and was intrigued by the description of a scene in which the hero gets turned on when the heroine slaps him. I don’t know if I like the idea of a male who is submissive, or a female, for that matter, but I would be interested to see how this plays out. I love sexy historicals and have a special fondness for stories about husband and wives who discover passion within their relationship.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I love historicals. So Shadows of the Night is right up my ally. I would love to read it. I have read about this book somewhere else, but not sure where it was. It caught my interest then. I am really curious about this book.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Wow! You certainly have intrigued me with the psychological depth you have described about your story, Sounds really fascinating.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
NO submissives! I can’t stand submissives. He gets off on pain, but he is an alpha still, quite definitely! :-)
March 9th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
This seems like an interesting departure from the majority of historical fare, but I have to confess that my reactions was very similar to Jill’s regarding the slap. I am not sure how I feel about the pain as a turn on side, but as long as this is not about a dominant female / submissive male couple, I am curious to find out how the story turns out.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
What a fascinating and unique story. I would enjoy reading this historical greatly. I have read another of your delightful novels and think that they are special and beautiful. Thanks for this peek inside your writing and ideas.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
My! What a marvelous in-depth pschological study you did of the main characters! Quite impressive! The intensity of the story line tenaciously pulls you in and doesn’t let go! Your blog synopsis won me over! APPLAUD! I absolutely love it! Way to go Lydia! Thank you again for sharing with all of us your new book!
March 9th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
i like the sound of the book
March 9th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Lydia, thank you for the post today! The premise sounds pretty unique, and this definitely doesn’t sound like just-another-romance! It sounds like much of the story takes place after Colin and Fern are already married and getting to know each other–I’m very curious to read more!
March 9th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
No submissives? Now I’m REALLY interested. Thanks for the clarification! My reservations weren’t about the pain, but the roles. I actually wrote a scene once (my one foray into historicals, as yet unpublished) in which the hero enjoyed having the heroine slap him. So yeah, I liked that part.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Hi Lydia,
Thanks for sharing about the book! I love the premise of this book! I’ve read some about it and I’m definitely intrigued, and I also read the excerpt Jill mentioned - I didn’t think he was a submissive - more what you said (like this one scene in the Tudors b/t Princess Margaret and Charles Brandon … and I have no idea why I thought of that :-P). I’ve read some books where the characters entered into a marriage of convenience - and stuck with it, and then it becomes more - loved it. I’m looking forward to reading your book!
March 10th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Hi Lydia,
I enjoyed “Voices of the Night” and have been eagerly awaiting your new book.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:19 am
What a great post. I enjoy hearing how authors develop characters. Shadows of the Night sounds great.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I have noticed that lack of historical romances that use a less than satisfactory marriage as it’s basis but that would make sense since a woman generally had to marry so it would make sense that a romance could develop when no one ever expected it to.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
This is my kind of book!
March 10th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I too love historicals and this sounds like an extremely original idea. I like a change of pace and too often the same theme is used over and over. And I love the cover too!
March 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
What a novel idea. It will be interesting to see how you handle the pain angle. I know some guys get really turned on being bitten and scratched. :shock: I’ve enjoyed your previous books so I’m looking forward to reading this one too.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Your books have transported me to another realm. Voices of the Night was wonderful. I can hardly wait to read your new release. Congrats. Your historicals are memorable and unique.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I’ll pick someone on Friday!
>My reservations weren’t about the pain, but the roles.
Yeah. Submissive men are NOT hot. *g* Submissive women? Boring. And Dom-type dominance is just…I don’t know. Silly to me, I guess. So it’s S/M-flavored but not D/s! And no getting into potentially dangerous and/or disfiguring sorts of things, which are also not hot at all to me!
I’m trying veryveryvery hard to NOT repeat myself with what I do. If you think it’s boring to read the same thing over and over again–just imagine WRITING it! Making my heroes unique is the hardest since, really, the Gothic hero has so little latitude, and so many readers do like being able to turn to an author for a reliable hero-type. But I’ve gotta stay sane here, and it won’t happen if I’m writing the same thing all the time.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Interesting post! I would love to chance to win a copy of Shadows of the Night. I love the cover.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I love Historicals and your books Lydia. This sounds like another great read that I have to have!! Thanks for insight and informative posts, very interesting.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
The random number generator says that limecello is the winner! Limecello, please email me at reyesuela (at) yahoo (dot) com with your address!
March 13th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
*applause* Congrats, limecello, you lucky one you!
March 15th, 2008 at 9:19 am
congrats limecello