Fictional Inhabitants Of A Bygone Era

Working away yesterday on Conventions, at one point it struck me again how you may outline and pre-plan a novel to the smallest degree, but that’s nowhere near the same thing as actually writing it. I find some of my (in my opinion) “best” stuff comes via improvisation and even accidentally…. while I’m actually writing. Such is how real life itself, too, often unfolds for us, of course.

Paper printed version of the planned “Conventions” front cover. [Photo by me, 2016.]

I thought it might be fun relatedly this morning to share some “quick hit” samples that may give a “feel” of fictional characters within the tale and their time. They “co-exist” amongst what were real historical people. Among the fictional, first and foremost, and perhaps unsurprisingly, is the New York-born twenty-something around whom the tale unfolds:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And he’s just the start.

There’s the (initially 17 year old) daughter of an English baronet:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

There’s also her five years’ older brother, who will eventually be the 4th Baronet:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And we get to know the strong-willed (initially 19 year old) daughter of a local French minor aristocrat:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

Another is an English gentleman, sharing at one point an opinion of a favo(u)rite part of his country:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

There is an older Parisian man, who – with his wife – still clings privately to the France of pre-1789, before the Revolution:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And the Revolution created huge numbers of refugees who fled abroad:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

We also bump into a Jacobin Irishman who is fired by the Revolution and its possibilities if it could be spread beyond France:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And there’s a French local mayor, warning that some of the villagers are becoming “restless”:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

A Portuguese man, reveals what he has heard:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And a harried American young clerk at the U.S. Paris legation tries to explain:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

There’s also a French ship captain, who’s originally from Bordeaux:

Excerpt from “Conventions.” Click to expand.

And others….

And Bordeaux is where we are also headed on Saturday. We’re flying there for a week. I hope I’ll be able to share some posts while there.

For now, back to writing more of “1787-1795.” 🙂