Breadcrumbs, Maps and a Very Complicated Shackleford Family...

I have to admit, I’m getting rather excited now because Beatrix is well and truly on its way to being finished! 🥳

There’s still plenty to do, of course (there always is!), but I’m finally at that lovely stage where I can see the end of the story approaching.

And this book has been a little different for me.

For the first time, I’ve written a proper overarching story arc with a mystery running through it, and I have to say, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself!

I’ve always loved writing the Shackleford stories as individual episodes, but I’ve also had this idea in the back of my mind that all those little pieces of the family’s history could eventually fit together somehow.

So, with Beatrix, I’ve started leaving little breadcrumbs.

Some are fairly obvious.

Others are considerably sneakier. 😉

And some, I suspect, will have readers wondering what on earth I’m going on about until much later in the story!

The idea is to tie together some of the things that have happened in the earlier Shackleford stories, whilst gradually leaving clues that will eventually lead towards the modern-day Shackleford family.

It’s rather like putting together a very complicated jigsaw puzzle… except I’m the one who has to remember where I’ve put all the pieces!

And believe me, there are quite a few pieces. 😂

Living in Paignton has definitely helped!

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed while writing Beatrix is researching the local history.

Because I live here in Paignton, I know the area reasonably well as it is today, but trying to imagine what it would have looked like in 1890 is a completely different matter.

There are roads, houses and buildings everywhere now that simply weren’t there then.

And, of course, there are places that existed in 1890 which have long since disappeared.

That’s where my old Ordnance Survey maps have become invaluable.

I have two maps to work with — one from 1863 (shown bove) and another from 1906 — and because Beatrix is set in 1890, I’ve been having to do a bit of geographical detective work in between the two.

Basically, I’m trying to work out what was probably there in 1890 by looking at what was there before and what had appeared afterwards.

It’s been fascinating.

I find myself looking at the maps and thinking:

Right… so that road wasn’t there yet.

Or:

That building hadn’t been built.

Or even:

If my character wants to get from A to B, how on earth are they going to get there?

Because I can’t just have someone jump in the car and nip across town in five minutes! 😂

There are no modern roads to rely on, no sat-nav and certainly no Google Maps.

I have to think about how people would actually have travelled, what the landscape looked like, and what they would have seen around them.

And that’s where the fun really starts.

Trying to get inside the period

I want the story to feel authentic.

Not in a “I’ve spent three years writing a PhD thesis about Victorian drainage systems” sort of way (I’m not sure even I could manage that!), but enough that the reader can hopefully immerse themselves in the world of 1890 without suddenly being dragged back into the twenty-first century.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at old photographs and information about Torbay, and I’ve also found the Undiscovered Torbay Facebook group incredibly useful.

There are some wonderful old photographs and discussions on there, and seeing how the area looked years ago really helps me picture where my characters are and what they might have seen.

Sometimes a photograph can tell you far more than a written description.

You can suddenly see the buildings, the clothes, the roads, the people and the landscape, and it makes the whole thing feel much more real.

And that’s exactly what I want when I’m writing.

I want to be able to close my eyes and imagine myself standing there with my characters.

Although, knowing my luck, I’d probably be standing in the wrong place and have someone shouting at me for blocking the road! 😂

And then there’s the mystery…

The other thing that has made Beatrix particularly exciting to write is knowing that some of the things I’m putting into the story now are going to become important later.

That’s something I’ve never really attempted on this scale before.

I’ve always known the Shacklefords have a history.

After all, that’s rather the point of the family!

But now I’m deliberately looking back at previous stories and asking myself:

Can I use that?

Does that little detail fit somewhere else?

Could this character have known about that?

And, most importantly…

Can I leave a tiny breadcrumb here without making it so obvious that everyone immediately works out what I’m doing? 😉

It’s a balancing act.

I want the clues to be there, but I don’t want to wave a giant flag at the reader saying:

LOOK! THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Because that would rather spoil the fun.

Instead, I’m hoping readers will pick up on little things as they go along and perhaps, eventually, have that lovely moment of:

Ahhhh… so THAT’S why she mentioned that!

I absolutely love that feeling when I’m reading someone else’s books, so I’m having great fun trying to create it in my own.

Nearly there…

So, I’m now well on my way to finishing Beatrix.

There will still be the dreaded editing and rewriting to come (and anyone who writes will know that finishing the first draft is absolutely NOT the same thing as finishing the book!).

There’ll be plenty of checking, tweaking, changing things I thought were brilliant at two o’clock in the morning but which look decidedly less brilliant the following afternoon…

And, of course, I’ll need to make sure all those breadcrumbs actually lead somewhere!

But I’m excited.

More excited than nervous, which is a lovely feeling.

Beatrix has taken me somewhere new with the Shacklefords, and I’ve really enjoyed bringing together the past, the mystery and the beginnings of the connection with the modern-day family.

And researching the history of my own little corner of Devon has made it even more special.

Who knew that old maps could be so addictive?

Well… apparently me. 😂

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Victorian map to stare at and a Shackleford mystery to untangle.

Wish me luck!

Much love,Bev xx